The invisible stalkers are now golden glittering stalkers, and they are blinded.
Besmara sees it coming and closes her eyes just in time. Then she turns on one of the stalker.
Estelle smiles as Lito's spell takes hold, "Aye we see ye now."
Estelle Charges over to the Stalker Besmara is not stabby stab stabbing.
Noonan rages against the invisible stalker Estelle is fighting
Rage 2/18
Estelle and Besmara add some scratches to the stalker, but Noonan shows how it is done. But these won't go down easy.
GET OUT OF HERE STALKER!
The stalkers continue to beat at Besmara. But with them being blinded, only one hits. Besmara doesn't look good.
Save the Captain!!!
Lito keeps up the commands coordinating the attack and walks to the opisite side of one of the creatures attacking Besmara drawing his rapier as he does so.
Besmara retreats away from the monsters.
Lito stabs one of the stalkers.
Noonan keeps trying to see if the stalkers have invisible livers.
Rage 3/18
Noonan finds out that these monster's health is limited. The forst one goes down under the mighty strike, and Noonan turns on the second one. Which draws quite some blood.
The remaining stalker stands in front of the steering wheel, ready to leash out at everyone trying to take control of the ship.
Estelle continues to attack the Stalker she hit before.
OK we need to get control of the ship again if we are going to win the race! Get rid of that creature!
Lito puts his words into action as he stops up opsite of Estelle and attacks the second Stalker.
Creature must make a Fort 14 save or take -1 to hit and damage next round
Besmara throws a volley of daggers at the creature, but she is lucky, that she doesn't pierce her own crew with that.
Trytton, having spent the last while with water and lightning swirling around him lets loose a blast.
The stalker is not easy to hit, but with a little stabbing and kicking here and there, and the large blast coming from Trytton, the threat is ended. The ship has left it's course and no longer has wind in the sails. To beat Harrigan and the Wormwood to the finishing line is no longer realistic.
"This is... " Besmara starts, then runs to the rails and shouts at Trytton "Sink that bastards ship!"
"I am pretty spent, it takes me a while to gather the power to do that now..." Trytton says as he stretches. He doesn't wait though and dives overboard to try catch up to the Wormwood.
Flips hits the deck from below after finishing his patch job, "What do ye need us ta do now cap'n?" Flips yells over the wind.
The Wormwood is two miles ahead with two miles to go. With the wind blowing from the side it moves at some 60ft.
"What now? We need to get this leaking scumbucket into some dock to get it fixed - so it's worth to be called a ship again." Besmara fumes.
Noonan goes around to help fix the ship.Who needs to be on council? We be free on the sea!
SQWAK! Free as birds! Pluck's crew is the best.
Lets just get the Kracken to port. I hate to say it but Captain Harrigan beat us today. If we attack him now, the Master of Gales will take his side, and we are in no shape to challenge him.
But if we have the ship, we can always pay him back tomorrow.
Tonight let's get things fixed, and celebrate with the crew that we survived.
We can start plotting how to sink him tomorrow.
Lito is Lord of The Rock! Better base there.
"Meh." Besmara replies. "Set course and get us to the master of Gales.
The Kraken comes in a distant second. Taking a turn, Besmara moors the ship along the Master of Gales Ship. "Hey Chief, that scumbag Harrigan had his ship mage Pepper Longfarthing send two summoned invisible stalkers on our ship to get us off course on the last stretch."
"I'd had him sunk for that, were it not for you watching over the rules. So what are you going to do about that cheating sonnovab+**!?"
The Wormwood makes it over the finishing line first unchallenged.
"What am I going to do with the word of one pirate captain standing against that of another?" the Master of Gales replies, as Besmara complains.
The Master of the Gales proclaims Captain Harrigan the winner of the Regatta. Harrigan’s victory is short-lived, however, as less than an hour later, the Pharasma’s Price sails out of the Eye and limps to the finish. On board the ship is one of the crew of the Barnacled B&~@*, which was lost just past Pinnacle Atoll. The survivor, Zarena Visk, tells a harrowing tale of how the Wormwood maliciously rammed and sunk the B@%$#, losing all hands other than Zarena. It was only sheer luck that the Price saw Zarena in the storm-tossed waters and picked her up. Even more damning, Zarena has solid proof of her story—a piece of the Wormwood’s dragon figurehead that broke off during the attack, to which Zarena clung to stay afloat. With this proof and Zarena’s testimony, the Master of the Gales disqualifies Harrigan.
"You see? He disqualified him! DISQUALIFIED!" Besmara rubs under Lito's nose. "I could have sunken Harrigan as well, and get away with it."
So can we kill him now?
"I would think that breaking the rules of our most important event warranted more than just a disqualification." Jessica says to the Master of Gales.
"He should be stripped of his title as a free captain. Make it known that he is not welcome in these waters any more."
She knows how much her captain hates the bastard and is angling to have open season declared.
"He won't be doin' that they like Harrigan, he is a cheatin' bastard and we will get him soon enough." Estelle stalks away going back to her ship to help fix it.
"Who gets to be a free captain and who not is not for me to decide. And I've never seen it revoked." the Master of Gales replies.
Besmara talks to Zarena, the only survivor of the sunken Barnacled B&$%~ offering her to come along on the Kraken to find Harrigan and the Wormwood and send them both to the bottom of the sea.
Finally there is a pity party for the crew of the Kraken who 'wins' the regatta, as the only one beating them to the finish line is disqualified.
The master of Gales congratulates Besmara and explains what exactly she won. "It’s called the Island of Empty Eyes, for the queer statues that leer over its shores."
"Uninhabited and fraught with danger, make no doubt, but naught that pirates of your capabilities can’t handle. You’ve landed a seat on the Pirate Council as well, but winning a race don’t make a sailor a captain, nor a freebooter a lord. You’ll need to show the Council you can tame the island and make it your own, if you want to claim your seat. The lords of the Council will come calling in three months to see if you’re worth the honor that’s been bestowed upon you, and they’ll expect to be feted as befits pirate lords of their stature. Provided you look like you know what you’re doing, they’ll take your oath of loyalty and grant you your seat on the Council. If not... well, you wouldn’t be the first winner of the Regatta who failed to live up to expectations."
Besmara turns beet red. She would really like to cut that squid-huggers tongue out. Or other vital parts. "You know what? This s!@@ty pirate council, who has nothing to offer but hoops to jump through and asses to kiss can keep their seat. I'm done here."
She turns on her heel and leaves, orders the crew to set sail and course to the docks of Rickety Squibs to get the ship repaired properly.
Pluck leans down and whispers into Noonan's ear and Noonan nods to the Windmaster
I'll take the island!
And so it came to pass that Pluck gathered a stout group of parrots and their bipedal pets and traveled to the island where they brought it to heel with steel, spell and many peckings. The island was still known as The Island of Empty Eyes, but to the true rulers of The Shackles, the true name was whispered and chattered from tavern to tavern to ship to island. The true name of...
SQWAK!!!!! Pluck's Parrot Paradise!
Besmara has her ship repaired and a bit improved.
The search for Harrigan brings up another ship first: The Dominator. With some skillful sailing they manage to lure the Dominator into waters where the sea is only 100 feet deep. There Trytton creates a large whirl, that sends the Dominator to the ground. All the chelaxian marines are not too good when it comes to swimming, especially with sharks around.
After almost a month of constructions and magic preparations the crew of the Kraken manages to lift the Dominator from the ground again and take it over into the now three ships large fleet. Once again they sail to Rickety for some repairs and a new branding. For this ship these are only the typical kraken-sails and a renaming to Dominatrix. Besmara takes the command of that ship herself and hands the Kraken to Estelle. With Lito commanding the Threser, this is an impressive fleet. With the Dominatrix there are also new ship weapons in the game. Equipped with 20 cannons which can be moved to either starboard or port, it is a deadly fortress once it is in reach.
After another month of cruising around and making a name for them, finally Lito gets the crucial tip, where to find Harrigan and the Wormwood. Using an Island for hiding, the Kraken acts as bait, together with the Threser for a feint. Attacking the Wormwood and then fleeing as the counter attack starts, Harrigan sees too late, that the Dominatrix lies alongside in a cloud of fog.
Firing a few full broadsides, the Wormwood is reduced to splinters. It was a nice sip, but it had too many bad memories to keep it. After making sure, none of the officers of the wormwood get away alive, the crew is fished out of the sea, and the Dragonhead of the ship too, as a trophy.
With the Rock as a base and a mighty fleet, soon everyone is going to know the three captains. And either there will be an invitation into the council, with them offering a feast that is worthy of Besmara and her companions, or Tessa Fairchild should hurry to get rid of Kerdak Bonefist. If not Besmara will kick that one off his throne, and take that seat.
~~ Fin ~~