House Boromar

Rourke saw the Gnoll spellcaster materialize in front of him.

"Dimension door...?" He thought incredulously.

"These aren't your run off the mill thugs, and this one might be more dangerous than the rest."

Rourke went through the options in his mind. If he attacked now, he would
lose the cloak of magical energy that kept him invisible - his biggest advantage. And yet, if he chose to summon another creature, he stands to even the odds for they were outnumbered at the moment. However, there would be no telling what counter measure the Gnoll spellcaster had up its sleeve.

Each of his crew mates had their hands full with gnolls. Devlin's maneuver
though risky lowered the number of attackers -- but they were still at a disadvantage and Gian was struggling to free himself from some entangling substance.

Rouke suddenly felt a warm sensation in his pocket as the gold and turquoise winged idol from Xendrik in his pocket awoke.

"Take the spellcaster...take its power...take it's life." A voice spoke from the deepest recesses of the Warmage's subconscious.

If the warmage had been visible, one would witness his mouth go slack and eyes glaze over as another presence took hold of him.

A ripple in the air like heat distortion formed where Rourke stood. The ripple quickly coalesced into Rourke's form as two rays of crimson fire flew from his hands.

Rourke came to his senses and realized he had just fired off a spell that made him visible. Time seemed to slow as Rourke witnessed the two rays of crimson energy leap from his outstretched hand and reach toward its target.

"$#!T - I have to make this count." with that thought, Rourke realized in that moment that one of the rays were off its mark. His mind told him to adjust his wrist slamming the bolt toward its target. Rourke felt the connection of magical energy between him and his foe and "pulled" transferring a bundle of the Gnoll spellcaster's arcane energy into himself.

* * *

Both fiery bolts fly true towards its target but abruptly fades as it hits some sort of barrier that for a few seconds flare into translucency revealing a ten foot globe centered on the gnoll spellcaster.

Ashtaka, lets out a laughs, the sound sounding like that of a hyena, she turns around and faces the now visible warmage.

* * *

From the deck, previously and prone, Yeth managed to crawl and find a hiding place until she can make sense of what is happening. From where she is hiding she manages to see Dargo hit and remove one of the humans out of the fight.

The gnoll warrior is then startled when a red haired human appears on the deck not far from her and casts a spell at Ashtaka. She shot one of arrows at the red haired but did not do so until after the human was able to release his spell at Ashtaka. She did manage to hit the human at his back and manages to likewise entangle him with one of her special arrows.

[Click on the photo to get a better view of round 2] The pirates are simply common scum used by the Bomu clan as shock troops and physical labor but that doesn’t mean they are incapable in combat. Armed with Bomu provided equipment, they might even be more than a match. Cornered in a fight, they might turn out to be deadly.

The simple board and take mission that were promised by the Bomu have not gone according to plan. The crew of the ship fought back and has already cost them most of their group. The remaining gnolls in the employ of the Bomu clan to were beginning to feel cornered.

* * *

The ship suddenly turned from under Dargo. It was only luck that allowed him to mentally command the soarsled on time before the ship crashed into him. He gave a low growl as he saw two of the humans fall, chances are they weren’t able to maneuver on time and collided with the ship. Typical. He cleared the bulk of the ship and finally appeared in time to see one of the crew members cast a spell on another of the human causing the latter’s soarsled to fall.

While distracted, Dargo pulled out one of the arrows provided by the Bomu clan and aimed. The human has just turned to head to the helm and was surprised to see Dargo just appear from the ship’s aft railing. Dargo’s arrow squarely hits the human causing some sort of compound to encase the target effectively entangling him in place.

* * *

First it was bats made of sand, now it’s just two females. Zzatht was beginning to think things are beginning to look good. One of the reasons he joined the Bomu clan was that he always wanted a fight. The dilemma for him now is to choose whom to attack first between the two females in front of him – a young human armed with a dagger and an elf who seemed to have cast the spell on his companion.

He opted for the elf. Zzatht dropped his bow and pulled out his longsword as he charged the elf. Taken by surprise, Rothaide can only yelp is surprise as the gnoll’s slashes and catches her in the left shoulder.

panting, she barely made it in time to get a hold on the balustrade that lines the corridor leading upstairs. the ship shoves her and the rest of the ship in what seemed to be in every direction. something was pulling on the ship. she figured. she clung anxiously. each quickened step, a struggle to get to the deck and not fall on her face.

when she finally made it to the cargo bay on her way to the deck, she was startled to see two of the pirates standing just a few meters near her and threatening the ship's bookkeeper coreen. her annoyance of this little aggression however took control. she stood her ground. she plainly and calmly declared

"begone! you fiends .." (heavily accented) [cast command: flee].

normally she will only speak in elven. and that she expects everyone to use elven when speaking to her. this has caused for people of other races to have natural dislike towards her. she was very proud of her heritage. but in this case she thought she is forced to make an exception. the pirates didn’t seem to be very bright. and so with the lack of practice of the common tongue. her command came out a little off, shrill, and comical. not as dignified as she would have hoped.

with not a weapon nor armor, and only the palm of her hand facing the creatures, she waved the creatures to flee her presence. her magic moves over to the attackers and tries to take hold of their minds.

the human looks at rothaide and immediately turns back and jumps into the skiff, effectively bringing the swarm with him and leaving the gnoll behind which doesn't look happy being outnumbered

Damn the Boromars! Damn the Sovereign Hosts! I should have known this would happen. Devlin and the others should have listened to me when I told them the Boromars were trouble. But no one would listen to me. Now we're being boarded by filthy and disgusting gnolls. I haven't seen such brutes ever since the war ended.

It's a good thing I'm below the deck, making sure the supplies are secured, when the gnolls made their grand entrance. Let them harass the boys. I just hope they don't break anything in the fight.

I took a peek from one of the windows and saw the a couple of grappling hooks tied to the ship. Apparently these raiders had the Ravenstorm tied to the docking tower.

So what do I do? Hide under the stairs and wait till Devlin and the others beat the gnolls to a pulp? Or help free the ship?

Suddenly the entire ship shook violently and began to tilt to the left. I grabbed the base of the stairs and struggled to maintain my balance. I heard the sounds of wood twisting and snapping.

Those raiders are destroying the ship!

I must find a way to free the Ravenstorm from those grappling hooks! Good thing I carry a spare dagger on my boots. All I need to do is sneak out into the main deck and cut the ropes.

That's the wall of the cargo hold splits open and a gnoll and a human pirate jumps into the hold followed by a swarm of sand bats - probably Rourke's doing. They see me and give me a toothy canine grin as they raise their bows towards me. While all I have is my spare dagger.

Ooh! I’m getting Devlin for this!

Gian already had his hand in one of the numerous pockets of his coat and in the process of deciding how to deal with the pirates when the ship suddenly shook vigorously. With his free hand, he was able to grab hold of the railings of the ship just before the ship started to tilt towards its left side.

Part of his brain was worried of whether gravity might take hold of him and cause him to fall off the ship while at the same time a part of him was already concerned on what the maveuver would do to the already damaged ship.

Darn Devlin! Gian cursed silently as he felt his stomach start to toss within him as the ship continued it’s roll. I think I’m going to be sick!

The ship gave a final shudder as it finally righted itself and allowed Gian to stand up once more. 'should have taken the helm! Crazy Lyrandar pilot!

The artificer quickly looked around to assess the situation as well as the ship’s status when one of the human pirates on a soarsled flies into view from the ship’s underside. The pirate notices the blond human and quickly takes aim with his bow.

Somewhat annoyed by the intrusion, Gian hurriedly intones the words of a spell waves points towards the pirate’s sled. The pitate pulls his bow but fails to lose the arrow as the soarsled loses its capability to float and plummets down towards the city below, taking its rider with it.

Gian glances as the falling pirate once, pushes up his glasses and turns to make his way towards the ship's helm. Now to find Devlin before he really destroys the ship!

Devlin watches as the raiders board his ship. A couple of gnolls are already on the main deck, armed with bows and magical incantations.

"Attention crew of this elemental ship." One of the gnoll shouts in heavily accented common. "You are under attack by the illustrious Bomu clan of warriors! We're here to take your cargo. Cooperate and no one gets hurt."

The Bomu clan? Devlin wonders. Why would the Bomu clan choose to board a vessel so near the docking towers? These pirates are either desperate or they are working for someone. Someone who wants to get a hold of the Boromar merchandise.

Devlin quickly examined the grappling hooks Gian told him. These hooks were holding the Ravenstorm in place. There were four other pirates on soarsleds hovering over the ship.

"Damn raiders!" Devlin muttered as he quickly reaches for the helm. "Coreen should have hired a couple of extra hands."

The war wizard firmly grasped the ship's wheel of wind and water and turned it to the left. "Let's hope the ship doesn't break or Gian will kill me."

The Ravenstorm immediately responded.

It shook briefly and began to tilt to the left side. Devlin continued to hold the wheel as the crew and the raiders fumbled, trying to get their bearings. The skyship continued to tilt to the left, until Devlin lost sight of the pirates riding the soarsleds.

The snapping sounds of wood and rope were heard from a distance.

* * *

The Ravenstorm manages to stay together. Under the strain of the tilting ship, two of the four grappling lines become taut and finally snap allowing the Ravenstorm to roll to the left. The sudden maneuver catches most of the pirates off guard.

Two of the humanson soarsleds fail to avoid the airship as it rolls away and gets rammed by the larger vehicle. Both pirates get knock off their sleds and their unconscious bodies drop towards the ground.

The other two pirates on soarsleds manage to avoid the tilting of the ship but effectively lose sight of their targets.

* * *
As the air ship makes its roll, most of everyone on ship is taken by surprise by the sudden movement. On deck, both Gian and Rourke successfully grab unto the railings and riggings on the ship and are able to steady themselves.

Two of the gnolls on the deck are not to lucky, they slide off and fall prone on the deck. Both gnolls lose hold of their bows which falls off the ship. One of the prone gnolls manages to grab hold of the ship’s rigging slowing his drop. The other gnoll is not so lucky and follows its bow off the ship.

The gnoll leader, however, manages to grab on to the ship’s ballista and steadies himself. Angered by the unexpected escape of the ship from their trap, the gnoll makes a run towards the ship’s helm in hopes of taking control of the ship.

On the skiff, from the aft of the Ravenstorm, the gnoll sorcerer commands one of his bodyguards to bring the skiff back and near the airship. He then manages to get out of the sand bat swarm just enough for it to cast a spell causing him to vanish from the skiff and appear on the Ravenstorm's deck, just beside the gnoll leader who has reached the door leading to the ship's helm.

"umph...she's kinda heavy for a girl..." Rourke said. He had instinctively tried to lift Rothaide to her feet.

"Allow me." Gian said as he easily lifted the cleric over his shoulder.

"I suppose we'll have to store err hide her for the moment...?" Gian asked rhetorically.

"She's our cleric! - We'll need..." Rourke protested.

"She unconcious and they're just gnolls on soarsleds." Gian retorted.

"Who are tryng to board a ship of this size? - They're being overly confident." Rourke reasoned out loud.

"Gnolls. Not very smart." Gian said with a grin.

"Oh...right." Rourke conceded.

Rourke had already been fumbling around his pockets.

"Still we can't be too careful." Rourke said as he pulled out an ornately carved bar of wood.

Rourke traced the arcane symbols on the schema and his figure began to dim and fade into transparency before completely disappearing.

"I'll keep incognito ‘til I'm more sure what we're dealing with, if you don't mind." Rourke's voice came from thin air.

"After you..." Rourke directed at Gian.

* * *

Though invisible, Rourke carefully made his way along the ship’s deck. The booming sound from the side of the ship caught his attention. Looking at the port side of the ship, he finds a small skiff floating just below the Ravenstorm and maneuvering towards a large crack at the cargo area.

From the ship’s railing, the warmage can make out the occupants of the skiff – a human and two gnolls. The human and one of the gnolls were likewise armed with long bows. The second gnoll was unarmored and Rourke easily identified spell component pouches on him and the scroll he presumably used.

It is this that Rourke concentrated his attention on. A few moments later, a small swarm of bats made of dust appear on the skiff and immediately attack the spellcaster, as well as the gnoll guard; eliciting surprised shouts from both gnolls.

The commotion causes the other raiders to turn towards the direction of the skiff.

it was all sudden, one moment she was enjoying a sip of tea and now they’ve been boarded. the crew, who were mostly men, immediately assumed to quickly lead her downstairs to the galley, to her secluded room at the bottom of the ship. presumably for her own protection. It was prevalent in maritime societies. men think women were weaker and must be protected. there are definite perks to this kind of arrangement. but the bad side to it is, they also think women cant protect themselves. she didnt mind the machismo. she's used to it.

holding down on her pendant with boldrei's symbol of a lighted hearth inscribed on it she reserved a short moment of prayer.

"gnolls." she told herself. she was gifted with an almost infinite sense of her environment, even places beyond her line of sight. including the deck. she sees the infiltrators board the ship. There was no doubt that she was needed as she sees more of the infernal creatures arrive. she hurried and made it upstairs even before the door relocked themselves with a sound thump.

upstairs. she hid herself behind the opening, the deck in front her. she carefully memorizes the general positions of each subject. she sees many of the infiltrators were carrying projectile weapons. she prepares to cast wall of wind to protect the crew.

"mother boldrei protect us"