Assisting Eliza's Revenge

I tried hard not to look down at the water below as I crossed the plank bridging the Southern Stream and the Eliza’s Revenge and focused instead on the flurry of activity aboard the ship. Two swashbucklers dropped a chest large enough to hold a halfling onto the deck and began passing out crossbows to the crew. The jack tars added the ranged weapons to their already impressive personal arrays of cutlasses, rapiers, and daggers. With a shout from the captain, the privateers pulled the plank aboard. “Remember the sequence for all clear!” he shouted as Raccan pulled away.

“All right, you hapless dogs! Furl the sails and arm up! We’ll show these devils that the Revenge has teeth.” The captain lashed the wheel and jumped down to where the five of us had gathered, followed by two more swashbucklers with better jackets and blades than the rest of the crew. Bowing elegantly, he introduced himself formally. “I am Captain Jonathan Plate of the Eliza’s Revenge and allied to the remainder of the House of the Crimson Rapier. This is my mate, Yadkov and my bosun, Tollain.” “I am Kyri, and these are Garn, Kalena, Tavia, and Markas. We belong to the Order of the Rampant Dragon and have sailed from Aurincia in Perinor.” The captain acknowledged everyone with a nod of his head. “I dinna want ta say this in fron’ o’ the crew, but this is gonna be a tough fight. Vertinian naval ships are usually captained by a half-devil Cambion. I hope you kids have a trick or two up your sleeves.” I bowed to the halfling. “I am a cleric by profession, Captain Plate. If there is an opportunity, I can swing across to the other ship and clear the deck with a couple of prayers that are exceptionally effective against undead. But we would need to take out a few of the tiefling officers first, as they would surely burn me down before I had a chance to attack.” The captain mulled over the idea, stroking the sideburns on his cheek. “Daring, lass-and reckless too-but better than nothing. We’ll keep it as a backup.”

The sleek Vertinian ship closed the gap quickly. The skeleton crew congregated at the railings, menacing the crew with rusty cutlasses and dark bows. The halfling jack tars rallied back, returning catcalls and insults as they loaded bolts into their cross bows. “Wait for the signal, boys. I don’t want ta see any bolts bein’ fired ‘fore I gives the word.” Plate told the crew. Markas cast a sacred circle under the blessing of the Raven Queen. The glowing runes spread across the deck, fortifying the armor of anyone within the thirty foot circle. Kyri loosened two arrows while the ship was still at long range for the rest of us, but the unfamiliar rolling of the ship caused the arrows to dive below the sea. When the trim ship came into range the captain released the crew. With a battle cry of “For Eliza and the Crimson Rapier!” the swashbucklers fired as one. Half of the skeleton crew fell to their crossbolts. Garn tossed a hand axe at one of the two mail wearing skeletons and a bolt from my cross bow turned the creature to a pile of bones. The remaining undead crew returned fire and two of the halflings fell screaming to the ocean’s embrace. Kalena flung a glowing green orb at the other skeleton in chain. It exploded on impact and the minions on either side crumbled to dust.

As the two ships moved closer, three tiefling officers came into range. The one in the middle wore robes of white with fancy red and gold embroidery, obviously denoting his rank as first mate. To his right he was flanked by a tiefling covered in the trappings of a necromancer and a junior officer in green stood at his left. A feathered arrow thudded into the mate’s shoulder. “You will pay for that, elf.” He sneered. “Not if we have a say” said Captain Plate as he fired a second crossbow bolt into the tiefling. The air between the ships was peppered with bolts. The remaining skeleton crew on deck shattered under the impact. Skilled shots from Yadkov and Tollain tore through the mate’s throat.

Uttering demonic curses, the two officers unleashed dark spells across the open decks. One enveloped Kalena and she shrieked, jumping about as if the deck were on fire below her feet. The other spell settled around me, but I saw the snakes that wriggled up through the planking for the illusion they were. Kalena formed a cloud of daggers around the necromancer’s head in retaliation, but it teleported out of the way before much damage could be done.

The ghastly ship finally came alongside Eliza’s Revenge, but the captain of the vessel had yet to be sighted. Markas jumped on board the Vertinian vessel and attacked the chainmailed skeleton standing within range of Kalena. A third volley from the jack tars pinned the junior officer to the decking. Yadkov and Tollain executed a skilled pair of blows against the soldier but it was a flourish from Plate’s rapier that stole its lifeforce. Garn ran onto the deck to attack the necromancer but attacked something behind the mast instead. “He’s here! The captain is behind the mast!” He yelled right before showering the fiends with an icy breath to slow their movements. I vaulted over the railings and ran to the opposite side of the mast from where Garn attacked. Sure enough, there stood the Cambion in all his hooved glory. Immediately I pulled a column of daunting white light from the sky above. He hissed in pain but leapt toward me with lightning speed. Despite the solid blow I landed with the butt of my quarterstaff, the half-devil pirouetted around me and charged into the middle of the square created by Markas, Kalena, Captain Plate, and his officers. The wicked grin pasted on his face was the only prelude to the devastating whirlwind attack that followed. Kalena shifted back from the firey greatsword thrust in her face and pinned the fiend in place with an icy ray. Two arrows from Kyri pierced his throat to end his miserable existence. With a yelp, the necromancer fled through the door to the sterncastle.

The halfling privateers swarmed the deck singing. “We beat ‘um! We beat ‘um! We beat back the Navy.” The captain was unimpressed by their celebration. “Hush up you lot! Those were just the ones on deck. There may be more below. Yadkov, take three and start searchin’ the captain’s cabin. Tollin, take the rest and start goin’ through the forecastle.” The crew jumped to follow his orders. Satisfied, he followed Markas through the door the tiefling had fled through.

The rooms of the sterncastle were hideously decorated with symbols devoted to Asmodeus and a stylized black octopus, which Captain Plate informed me, was the symbol for House Kraken. Official symbols of the former Vertinian royal family were also abound. From beneath a closed hatch we could hear a strange, low humming. Climbing down the hatch we found ourselves in a small room with two wooden doors leading into the middle hold. Markas and Garn braced themselves against the doorways while the rest of us readied ourselves for what stood on the other side. “One. Two. THREE!” shouted Markas and the pair pulled open the doors.

Two skeleton soldiers flanked the necromancer who had fled from the deck. Behind the trio stood a swirling portal. Glowing red smoke poured from the hole and bright vermillion flames licked at the hull without charring. However, none of us took much notice of the necromancer or the portal to hell. Instead our immediate attention was taken up by two hulking zombies hunched in front of the open doorways. The one in front of Markas’s door was the reanimate corpse of a two-headed, half-giant. Grayish lumps of fatty skin rolled over his corded muscles as he raised a club that looked more like a small tree. The aberration- and that was the only word for it had been crafted from the combined corpses of an ogre, a bear, and some type of giant insectoid- hissed a warning and drew back a clawed arm. “Oh, I bet someone’s happy,” remarked Kalena dryly. “Oh I’m always happy. We’re always fighting undead.” I replied sarcastically. Effective, yes. But certainly not happy. I thought. The hulking creature in front of Markas battered the paladin with a tree-trunk sized club. Garn’s monster was slower on the follow through and the warlord was able to slam the door shut. The doorway splintered but held for the moment. “Can you fry them with that wind of yours?” Kalena asked, panic creeping into her voice. “Not unless you want bits of healer instead of a whole one. I can do this, though.” I said, calling down a pillar of white light around the two-headed monster before murmering a healing prayer for Markas. A sudden roll of the deck drove Kyri’s arrows into the doorframe, but Captain Plate took advantage of the zombie giant’s weakened defenses to stab it thought the kneecap. The wound gushed yellow pus onto the deck. Markas took another smashing blow to the ribs from the creature’s club as the other door exploded in a cloud of splinters. Blinded by the flying wood, Garn missed his counterattack.

I called another healing prayer as I stepped around the injured paladin who was stoicly protecting the rest of us from the devastating attacks of the monstrosity in the hold. Healing light washed over Markas as I connected with the zombie’s other leg. It fell to the deck with a meaty thud. Fortified, Markas moved into the hold to attack the second hulking undead with a prayer that caused the creature to shudder with pain. A green arrow squelched into the shoulder of the umberhulk’s twin abomination. Knowing he was outmaneuvered, the necromancer dove through the portal. “Kill ‘em good, boys.” He hissed over his shoulder.

By this time four of the privateers had joined us in the small room beyond the hold. Laughing, all but one ducked into the shadows. The three behind Garn’s door fired crossbows at the vile creation and the bolts slurched into its stomach. The halfling who had remained visible taunted the skeletons on the opposite end of the hold and fired wildly. Distracted, they didn’t notice as Captain Plate slipped through the doorway to slice into the zombie with a devastating flourish of his rapier. The skeletons shifted to the left and took careful aim at the dragonborn in the doorway. With a gasp, Garn fell to the floor, bolts protruding from his neck and chest. Screaming with rage, Kalena brought down the looming beast with a blast of energy.

To our surprise the first hulking zombie stood and picked his club from the floor. I felt a few gazes turning toward me as if expecting an answer but I ignored them. I lashed a quick lance of faith across its greyed flesh and knelt beside Garn. Pulling out the arrows, I placed my hands over the wounds and uttered a third healing prayer. The wounds stopped oozing and closed neatly. Inside the hold, I could just catch a glimpse of the captain as he spun on his booted heel and drove the point of his rapier deep into the monster’s chest. A few more bolts from the halflings pierced its rotting flesh and the living corpse slid to the floor, not to rise again. An arrow from the skeletons pierced one of the halflings in the chest. It was a lucky shot, killing him before he hit the floor. Garn stood and braced himself for the second aberration to rise again.

It stood moments later but this time the party was not taken by surprise. Markas battered it into full view of the doorway and an arrow from Kyri’s vicious bow sliced neatly through the creature’s eye, burying itself in what was left of its brain. Garn stabbed the bloody carcass out of spite. Jumping up, I dodged around the mountainous bodies of the fallen zombies and stopped beyond the two skeleton soldiers. I released the pent-up power my glowing holy symbol and the skeletons flew back. The force was enough to cause one to crumble. They other sailed past Markas and into a cloud of daggers Kalena had created earlier. A final blow from Markas’s flail turned the skeleton to dust.

The hold clear, we turned our attention to the portal. “I know that I don’t have the skill to close a portal of this nature and strength,” remarked Markas. Kalena and I nodded our heads in agreement. “Well, then, as much as I would like to keep such a fine ship for meself, our only choice is to scuttle her,” settled Captain Plate. We left a couple of jack tars to watch the portal and began preparations while we searched the rest of the ship.

In the captain’s cabin we found letters of mark signed by the Doge of House Kraken. They were quite nasty, allowing the Captain Volant and the crew of The Damnation to take out any vessel suspected of piracy and take any treasure found on board. There was, of course, no requirement to return the treasure to the original owners. We also found maps of both the Vertinian coastline and mainland and 3,500 in gold coins and jewels. In the necromancer’s chambers we found a book containing rituals for summon water and animate dead. Up on deck, we discovered that the first mate’s robes were crafted from Flameburst cloth while Captain Volant wore Curseforged chainmail. Both could be appropriated for Kalena and myself.

When we offered to split the treasure with the crew of Eliza’s Revenge, the halflings insisted that we load everything on board the Southern Stream. “Without your help The Damnation would have killed us for certain.” “There must be something we can do for you. After all, we both would have gone down had we not joined forces.” Kyri remarked diplomatically. “We would be grateful if you could chart us a map to Perinor. Even if Tiamat comes back like you say she will, it would still be five years of freedom. We’ll go collect our families and sail out straightaway. We wouldn’t say no to an escort either.” “Unfortunately, we on a mission we can’t be turned from, even to help such fine folks as yourselves. We are looking to find House Wyvern. There is a prophecy which said the heir will be instrumental in defeating Tiamat.” “Well now, I don’t know much about House Wyvern. Continentals they were, somewhere in the northwest. All we see out here are occasional ship carrying supplies between the lands of Asmodeus, Bane, Torag and others. And then we rob them. I’m afraid that’s all I know.” Kyri bowed to the captain. “Sir, you have been more than helpful. Now, lets finish getting you the directions to Perinor.”