Stand by to repel boarders!

 

As the small squadron of ships reached the end of their voyage, the companions gathered at the starboard side of the quarterdeck to catch a first glimpse of their destination as it slipped into view over the horizon. The island was small and rocky, it consisted of a single sizable mountain surrounded by white sandy beaches spotted with palm trees. A sheer craggy headland was the only other feature of note. 

Their ship, the Lady Jezebel was barely recognizable. Tello had been at work altering her appearance, disguising her to avoid being recognized and branded a pirate vessel.  The  Artificer had cunningly rigged a fake stern-castle and forecastle, high and easily seen, easily removable, but quite convincing from a distance. She flew a red flag instead of her normal Annwyn Jack, and her distinctive sails, bearing the emblem of the Annwyn Empire, were replaced and stowed out of sight. Finally, a garish gilt squid figurehead (also fake and removable) drew attention to her bow. Tello hadn't had much time, and he still doubted the disguise would hold up under close scrutiny, but it would do at range, and he was proud of his work.

Merus shaded her keen eyes with her hand and called out her observations to the rest of the group as they drew nearer . 

"Small village on the foothills of the south slope of the mountain. Mostly thatched huts but some earthen walls around the village center and some kind of fortified hall further up the mountains. Also some ruins on that headland, look like what's left of a tower, very old. No real ships of any kind visible, only some outrigger canoes drawn up on the beach. No sign of cannon" 

"Pretty much as Diamond Jack expected" replied Whisperleaf.  "He is friendly with the natives evidentially and has paid them to not interfere or warn the target."

"No sign of any Galleon as of yet" continued Merus. "Though that's not surprising, she isn't expected for a day or two at least. I see The Fortune and The Traveller rounding the headland and slipping into their position hidden behind it."

 
"Our hiding place is a bit trickier” remarked Ricmo. "If we lay in close shore we will be well concealed but the wind will not be in our favor when we set forth. It'll be tricky sailing to make our way out and cut off our quarry without drifting into the eye of the wind."

"Be much easier if we could just anchor in the channel and wait" agreed Dakhir. "But then they would see us."

"Not necessarily" interjected Freddy. "There is a song I know that might help...."

"This is marvelous" remarked Tello excitedly. "The harmonics of the music are setting up a resonance with the motion of the waves, exciting the liquid of the seawater and thus creating a fog. How amazing! I'm sure I could build a device that would replicate this. I'll need bellows. Many bellows."

Freddy looked confused and turned to Dakhir questionaly, without missing a chord of the haunting melody through which he called forth the illusion.

"We all have our ways of making sense of the world" Dakhir answered the unasked question. "Who's to say who is right and wrong. Regardless, it's damned impressive Fred".

Freddy winked

After a bit, the illusion became self sustaining and Freddy took a rest. It WAS impressive, a massive fog bank concealed the Lady Jezebel from all eyes, at least northerly ones. 

"Now we wait" said Ricmo with a satisfied smirk. "And when Diamond Jack sees the Galleon come into view, he'll use those sending stones Tello made him to tell us, and we spring the trap."

It was a good plan. Unfortunately it didn't take into account the actions of an old enemy.  

--------------------------------------

If it hadn't been for the dolphins they well might have perished. Whisperleaf had struck up a friendship with a pod of the creatures, who had accompanied the Lady Jezebel all the way from Skull River Bay. The constant stream of fish he fed them probably had something to do with cementing their affection, but this night the animals certainly repaid the investment.

"What is that incessant whistling?" asked Ozrealine. It was late at night, past two bells of the middle watch, and given the ship was lying at anchor, only a skeleton crew was on deck. Most of the crew were fast asleep, but the party, still a bit rattled from the nightime assassination attempt back at Skull River Bay, had decided to stand a full watch themselves. Thus, fully half of the party were awake when the dolphins started raising their din. 

"This is unusual behavior" remarked Tello. "Though I am no expert in such creatures. Perhaps someone should awaken their pet that he might inquire of the reason?"

"Their pet?" asked Dakhir. "Oh. Whisperleaf. Huh didn't think of it that way." Tello smiled faintly, as he started to unlimber and assemble the small cannon he carried with him everywhere."

A few minutes later, a sleepy Whisperleaf was whistling and shrieking over the side of the ship.

"It's somewhat hard to translate, they're pretty excited but something about "Big Tentacles is driving them here, Big Tentacles is making them attack"

"Big Tentacles again is it?" murmured Ricmo.

"I'm really getting tired of that squid" agreed Whisperleaf.

"But who are 'them'"? asked Dakhir. "Who is attacking?"

"Unclear" said Whisperleaf. "I'm getting ‘shoal-people’ and ‘shallow-dwellers’, no idea who that is."

"Does it matter?" asked Ricmo. "Beat to quarters! Load the cannons!"

And thus for the price of a few fish and some kindness the Lady Jezebel was not caught unawares when the  horde of creatures broke the water.

"What the fuck ARE those" asked Dakhir as the first wave of slimy bug eyed monstrosities clambered their way up the sides of the ship, hand over cold, web fingered, hand. The smallest of the monsters were eight feet tall and the largest two behemoths near the rear of the ship were huge, twelve feet at least.

The Sturg inwardly sighed. The ability, for Dakhir especially, but the companions in general, to get distracted by unnecessary questions continually puzzled him. Why are they here, who are they, what plane of existence are the from, why do they hate me and want me dead, questions questions. 

He agreed with Ricmo, did it matter? Why overthink it? He spoke a word to the Sword of Andronicus and transformed it into a massive two handed blade (judging it more practical in such a  fight), slinging his shield behind his back, and then got work, slicing into one of the the creatures as it attempted to clamber onto the ship.

"At 'em boys" yelled Ricmo to his crew, drawing and firing a pistol with each hand. "A double ration of grog to the man that makes the first kill!" echoed Ozraeline. An  answering cheer from the crew, and the battle was on.

 

The fight was close quarters and bloody, no opportunity to bring the ships cannons or swivelguns to bear, not much room to maneuver. The hardest blow fell on the stern of the ship, where the Masriq Buccaneers were stationed. Two of the massive twelve foot tall troll like creatures were attacking the stern, in addition to several of the smaller monsters, using the stern anchor chains to quickly pull themselves on deck. In addition, the fog-illusion that Freddy had raised was interfering with musketry.

"Drop the fog Fred, we can't see" asked Dakhir. Freddy nodded, strummed a chord on his guitar and the fog vanished.

"More come!" warned Merus from the fighting top where she had lept, as a second wave of attackers broke the water. "Merfolk armed with tridents!"

As one of the huge sea trolls pulled himself on to the deck, the Buccaneers wavered. They were deadly with their long heavy muskets, and equally skilled with their curved scimitars, but they were not heavily armored and had already suffered grievous casualties from sea monsters earlier in their voyages.

"Hold fast boys" yelled Ricmo, leaping into the press of the melee. "Sturg, Dakhir some help here?" The Strurg nodded and moved to engage a Sea Troll. Even his large mass was dwarfed by his opponent but without the slightest hesitation he stepped forward and began trading blows with the monster. Several of the Buccaneers sheltered behind his mighty frame, reloading their muskets, the group steadied, rallied and began to chant a battle song. 

Dakhir lithly climbed into the mizzenmast’s fighting top and rained bolts of eldritch energy down on the enemies, further encouraging the Buccaneers with his sorcery. 

In the quarterdeck of the ship, things were going considerably better. The Exiles with their long spears and shields lived and trained for close quarters combat, and clustered around their queen and her huge champion in a well practiced formation. The amazons presented a bristling hedgehog of pain to the boarders

Their wall of spears never wavered, also the assault here was not buttressed with any of the huge trolls and so it failed to gain much purchase. Sea creatures fell back, screaming in pain as the spears bit deep into their slimy hides.

The waist of the ship where the heavy deck guns lay was where most of the  heroes had been gathered, along with the Jack Tars. Tello had managed to assemble his arcane cannon and it was laying down a withering fire on the invaders. Radiant Lightbringer charged into the thick of battle backed by a group of Jack Tars armed with boarding axes, rammers, and cutlasses. Whisperleaf  wielded staff and spell, and from the outskirts of the battle Freddy sang songs of empowerment to aid his friends. Here, the boarders were also contained, for the moment. 

The bow of the ship was suffering. Lightly manned by only a handful of Jack Tars, the Deep Ones had gotten a firm hold on the deck and were pushing the Jack's back. Incredibly tough as their magical bodies were, they were not invulnerable, one Jack had already fallen. In addition, the merfolk were heavily clustered here, their long tridents were able to reach the deck from the sea, inflicting grievous wounds on the defenders.

The Jack's were veterans of countless such skirmishes and were not breaking, but were in danger of being overwhelmed. 

Merus noticed their plight from her perch on the fighting top of the foremast, and turned her bow downward. The shooting was a bit awkward but Merus was a master, and Freddy's magic flowed through her, amplifying her already impressive rate of fire. A withering stream of arrows started turning the tide

Still the battle was far from over. Dakhir took a moment  to analyze the tactical situation. He knew a spell, a very powerful spell, that promised to decisively turn the tide. Dangerous though, the incantation could just as easily kill friend as foe. 

"At least the ship is anchored" he thought. "And the swell is relatively calm. It will be tricky targeting, but I can do this." The infernal incantations blistered his lips as he chanted them. His body was wreathed in a glowing green fire. He raised his hand and pointed, and a sickly green glow sprang up from the water, stretching half the length of the ship. He had managed the magic perfectly, the glow ended neatly at the sides of the ship without spilling inside. While it blistered and peeled the paint, no harm was done to the Lady Jezebel or it’s crew. 

You couldn't say that for the attackers caught in it, however. A great howling came from the merfolk as their skin blistered and burned. One of the great sea trolls, already wounded by the defense, was felled by the magic, and sank beneath the waves. 

Whisperleaf screamed over the side in Aquan "Drop your weapons! Surrender! We will protect you! Else we will destroy you.

A merman threw down his trident. Others followed.

And just like that the battle was over.

---------------------------------

"It's getting smarter. The giant squid" remarked Ricmo. "Rather then risking another frontal attack, it forced these poor souls to be it's foot soldiers."

"Apparently so" agreed Whisperleaf. "When given a choice between the Squid destroying their undersea villages or attacking us, well that wasn't much of choice. It almost worked too, if it had caught us unawares, that could have turned out very differently".

"Remind me to give those dolphins some fish" said Dakhir. "Useful allies. Very useful."

"The immediate danger seems to be past, but we've lost our foggy concealment" remarked Freddy. "I am afraid without a good rest I cannot manage that kind of magic again."

"Guess we are back to the original plan then" said Ricmo. "Hug the coast, wait for the signal, then sail as close to the wind as we can manage without falling-off. The Jack's are excellent sailors, I think we can pull it off. For now, we should all get some sleep, reposition at first light".

-------------------------------------------------

Around breakfast the next day, the stone in Ricmo's pocket began speaking. "The quarry is sighted, making two knotts due south. You should set sail in thirty minutes".

"Games afoot gents!" called out Ricmo cheerfully.

It was a simple plan. Diamond Joe's two ships would flush the galleon, chase it southward. Together, the Brigantine and Sloop were a credible threat, especially packed to the gills with rapacious, heavily armed halflings. The merchant, also heavily armed though she might be, would certainly choose to run for it, try to catch the southerly current where it swept past the island. She stood a good chance of losing the pursuers come nightfall and would want to keep her enemy at a distance, postpone a boarding action as long as possible to give her heavier, longer range cannonry more time to work.

Then the Lady Jezebel would swing out and cut the galleon off. This would give the prey little option,  galleons were notoriously terrible at sailing into the wind. She would either have to turn with the wind and run aground on the island, continue and try to get past Lady Jezebel, turn back into the two smaller ships, or surrender.

For once, things mostly worked according to plan. Mostly.

The galleon certainly sailed unaware into the trap.

Diamond Joe's two ships sprang it perfectly. 

As expected the galleon cracked on all sail and made a run for it

The Jack's lived up to their reputation. The trickiest part of the whole operation was the Lady Jezebel leaving her place of concealment and moving into position. If she turned too far into the wind, her sails would luff and she would fall off, lose forward momentum and drift, giving the galleon an opportunity to get past her. If the Lady J sailed too conservatively it might take her too long to cut the galleon off, letting her prey slip by. 

The Jack Tar's had been serving about this ship for hundreds of years though, they knew every inch, ripe, and sail of her. The sailed her at the perfect angle, riding the edge of failure. And even when the wind, which had been blowing steadily for weeks, momentarily shifted a few degrees, they smoothly compensated.

"This is where we want to be" called our Ricmo. "Drop anchor and warp her to present a broadside."

Almost perfect. Except the prize was not behaving as expected.

"She's not striking her colors" pointed out Dakhir. "Going to try to muscle through us I think."

"Brave for a merchant but those galleons are built tough." said Ricmo thoughtfully. "Lets give her a shot across the bow"

"BOOM!" one of the heavy cannons sang out, accompanied a few minutes later by a plume of water near the galleons starboard side. 

The galleon kept coming.

"Give her a broadside of a half dozen, let’s show some teeth" said Ricmo

This time the noise was deafening. 

The galleon kept coming.

"Let me give her one of MY broadsides" said Dakhir with an evil look.

The ball of fire sailed from Dakhir's fingertips, exploding in a spectacular flash of orange flame and brimstone right in the mouth of they enemy ship.

"That did it, she’s striking her colors" grinned Ricmo.

"Well, I guess we are really pirates now" mused Whisperleaf. "I hope it's always this straightforward."

"It won't be" said Tello.