Jargg looked up from over the railing, "blast" he muttered. "Well if they want to board us, they will have to try through my spear, no matter how sick I may be". Jargg wiped his mouth and beard, then took up a tactical spot not far from where Lamont stood far enough that they could clear the pirates within an arms length of each other. Cannonballs started flying over his head "well that'll sure tick the pirates off" he said aloud. No sooner had the words reached his mouth then the first pirate jumped, the pirate bore straight for Jargg, who stuck out his spear, the wait of the pirate brought the two crashing to the deck. Jargg scrambled from under the dead seafarer. "That wasn't a show of greatest skill but it will do" he said then braced himself for the oncoming attack.

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OOC: I'm sorry guys, I'll be staying with over with family till tomorrow and they don't have internet access. I'll reply on my return. Until then, battle on!
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Faced with the likelihood of intense hand-to hand combat on the deck, Endil pulled a classic trick and climbed the ship's mast. Perched atop one of the spars, he pulled his bow and fitted an arrow.
Just then a cannon on the deck of the pirate vessel went off. A chain shot came rushing towards Endil. He ducked and lost his balance but managed to catch hold of the rigging as the chain shot whistled overhead, taking out the Ethereal's flag and the top of its mast.
Endil killed both the mortals that were re-loading the enemy cannon, and then looked around for some more suitable targets. At any rate the pirates would pay dearly for trying to take this ship.

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Hey guys - had a few virus troubles I had to take care of.
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"Ahoy!" stammered Gualbert as a shot shattered the Ethereal's mast. Turning, Gualbert saw the pirates mounting the ship's railing. "Where is the captain?" he said, he positioned his leg to trip one overly-enthusiastic buccaneer. Half not expecting an answer, Gualbert went to hamstringing the poor fellow, and taking up the barbarian shield he had come by in the “Battle of Greenwater,” Gualbert let on the nearest enemy. With a flash of his sword, the unwary brigand was a weapon, not to mention a couple of fingers, shorter. Gualbert frowned, “War… what is it good for?”

OOC: Sorry for my absense...

BIC: Azu began yelling commands to his men. They were fast, efficient, and obeyed without question.

"Myrmidons, to the deck! Spears of Poseidon, formation kraken! First ranks, take to the masts! Second ranks, fall in with the Myrmidons!"

All at once, a half dozen men poured out from the lower decks, wearing jet black armor with helmets that had the face of an ant on them. They weilded short swords with a small circular buckler. Obviously, they were the Myrmidons. The second rank were the men who had previously been manning the ship. There were nine of them. They unsheathed their scabbards and stood on the main deck. On the opposite side of the ship, five men carrying something on their back dove into the water as another seven began climbing up ropes to the upper masts, packs on their backs, accompanied by a bow and set of arrows. The total fighting force of the ship was twenty six, plus a first mate and captain making twenty eight.

Azu looked to Gaulbert. "You seem to be the commander of the men you were with. Fight on the main deck and keep the enemy off of my ship. Venture on to theirs if you want, but when you hear the signal, you have about two seconds to get onto ours or you'll be fish food."


OOC: Play it out as you wish, everybody. The men on the ship, spare the first mate, Spear of Poseidon, and Azu, are at your disposal. Just take a note of their numbers (six myrmidons, nine second ranks, seven first ranks).

I may or may not have mentioned this. All of Azu's crew have military experience of some sort. It's a requirement for being part of the crew, and the crew was in fact started when their country pulled out of a war while they were still behind enemy lines. They sent no rescue team, because some polititian wanted Azu dead. Instead, Azu survived with his crew, changed names, changed ships various times, and now live the life as mercenaries. Azu is a brilliant tactician, which you'll see as this battle progresses.

Ouur'mm took the time when the soldiers were holding off the pirates as a chance to disassemble his pole weapon. After securely stowing it, he makes it to the rear of the ship to look over the side of the enemy's vessel. He checks the distance and while walking to the far side of the ship, pulls out both of his broken sword handles. His feet extend into a running position just before he bolts off and leaps onto the side of the enemy ship. Using the handles to slow his fall, he jabs one in deeper to hold himself just above the water line. He climbs over to the side to position himself under the cannon's doorcovers to shield him from arrows and begins burning through the side of the ship with his cutting torch.

__________________
"The good warrior knows when to fight, and when to withdraw."
- Sun Tzu

I'll smith anything up to 93 smithing if you have the material for me to make it with
My Story, Horrors of Myron County
RV's Drawing archive topic, post yours or comment on others

“First among equals, really Captain” Gualbert said as he locked swords with another pirate. Skillfully, Gualbert twisted ‘round and kicked the man stumbling back into another one of his comrades. Thrilled with this victory, Gualbert was about to try and board the adjoining ship when he realized he was without armor. “Ah!” cried Gualbert, “I will stay back here and let these warriors in the black do the violent bit for me.” Then taking his medicine bag, Gualbert began tending the wounded, knowing his party would do as they saw fit.

Gregory had awoken at the sound of cannon fire, and instinctively donning on his armor, ran upstairs. Catching an aggressor off guard, Gregory wheeled round, his great sword glittering in the awful sun rising, and then falling with a terrible crash. Gregory’s determined swing striking its mark true. Then it was clear to those who saw: in his youth Gregory's presence must have be awesome and terrible to behold. Though now in age it was even more so, as his old hands were invigorated by a new and nobler cause.

Wolem at the first alarm had nobly decided to remove the explosives, and himself, to the safest place possible, the very bottom of the hold.

Nothing like a cannon ball setting off a No Touchy to send us to Moon. Besides I could get hurt.

And so Wolem slipped unobserved to the bottom of the vessel. There he put the explosives in a safe location and settled down to wait. However, this proved a difficult task for our noble adventurer. In the first place the hold was wet, rocking and slightly leaky. Secondly the sounds of combat could be heard overhead. It was terrible to Wolem to not be able to see the battle, Wolem being like all felines immensely inquisitive. So after taking the necessity precautions, putting poison on his claws, drinking water, stretching etc... Wolem quietly went up and looked through the key hole in the door that lead from the deck to the hold.

All the companions and sailors were fighting with skill and valor. However, Wolem attention was occupied by three huge pirates who were cut from the main group and retreating towards the hold. Wolem had turned around and was heading back down when the pirates burst in. In truth it was a very logical place for them to go. They could only be attacked by one crew member at a time and with their axes and boarding pikes they could hold all at bay for a long time. What they hadn’t counted on was Wolem.

The first Pirate rushed in and stepped on the retreating Balam’s tail. Wolem let out an unearthly shriek and threw himself on the pirates. The next threw minutes were a grizzly blur of feline fury, fur, curses in the Common tongue and Balam, shrieks, blood, and poisoned metal claws. In fact the pirates didn’t have chance. Attacked by sailors in front and Wolem everywhere they were simply out matched. If Gregory was terrible fighting for a noble cause Wolem was death itself in his feline rage. At the end of the fight Wolem lay amid the dead pirates nursing his wounded tail.

*%&)!@~# Pirates @*$#%$#%&. They’ll pay!

Wolem then set out onto deck slashing at the ankles of unfortunate pirates.

__________________
Happy Easter! Christ is Risen!

"We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love."~Jonathan Swift

Ouur'mm finished burning his way into the ship. He kicks the middle of the panel to bash in an entrance and finds himself in the upper hold of the ship. The majority of the attacking pirates had moved on top for the boarding party so he is able to move mostly unopposed through the ship. When he makes it to the central staircases, he takes his sword end of his weapon and smashes the steps to make it impossible for the powder boys to arm the cannons. He charges past the supply lines to the cannons to each stair well and continues smashing the staircases. By the last staircase, the enemy pirates caught on to what was occuring below deck.

A group of several men started their way rapidly down each of the stairwells meeting up on the same level and closing in on Ouur'mm's location. Dashing quickly toward his escape hole, a line of men fire a wave of crossbow bolts slamming into his armor. With a broken stairway closeby he dives down into the lower hold grabbing some timbers along the way. Moments later he's followed by several lamps off in the distance. He lights a two of the timbers with his cutting torch enought to brighly illuminate his face and the barrels containing the spare powder cartrages. The barrels appear to be at least an inch thick unfinished coating... I would need to be nearly out of the ship to avoid this hopefully ... the wood is not too dry he mutters to himself. He turns around and begins running back to the rear of the ship tossing the flaming boards into the barrels starting them on fire in several locations.

Ouur'mm reaches his initial hole wider burned out than he came in and dashes quickly to it leaping out quickly onto the side of the group's own ship and stumbling into one of the lower cannon ports. He grabs the shirt of one of the cannoneers and groans to him, ".... to the helm, tell them to move our ship away from the enemy vessel now, pull hard away... estimated time 4 minutes..." With the damage to his arms he would be no further use to the others for heavy combat. Moving more to the rear and other side of the ship, he took the time now to pull open parts of his right armor and begin repairs.

__________________
"The good warrior knows when to fight, and when to withdraw."
- Sun Tzu

I'll smith anything up to 93 smithing if you have the material for me to make it with
My Story, Horrors of Myron County
RV's Drawing archive topic, post yours or comment on others

Jargg had recently hurled his spear into the back of a pirate that was about to land a killing blow on a crewman. He now twirled around his short swords up and down the deck slicing through pirates wherever he could hit them. His helmet had been knocked off by a shortly stunning sword blow which gave him a small cut, but that was about the only injury he currently had.

A wave crashed into the ship, sending Jargg to his knees and sliding him across the deck, he threw out his arms to try and catch himself, but cut the foot of a pirate clean off. Recovering from the wave, Jargg pulled himself upright "maybe my inadequacy at sea might be helpful, the boat rocked again, and Jargg fell to the floor. "I can't wait till this is over" he shouted to no one in particular as he jumped up and gave a clean cut to a pirate about to land a blow on him.

Endil had an idea. He took out his knife and cut a piece out if the sail. Than he climbed over to the crow’s nest and retrieved the small lantern he had seen sitting there. He poured most of the oil in the lantern over the piece of sailcloth then tore it into three pieces. He pulled out three arrows and tied a piece of cloth around each. Then he lit the lamp and ignited one of the arrows. He turned and launched a flaming arrow into a half –reloaded cannon aboard the pirate ship. Then he felt the shock of something slamming into the mast and shattering it. He deliberately jumped into the air. If you fall out of a crow’s nest there is no particular reason you should land on the deck and Endil didn’t. Instead he made a great splash on the side of the ship away from the battle.

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Lamont hated being the liability of the battle... All he could do was throw one blade and impale the torso of the few pirates that his allies didn't manage to slay first. One finally slipped past Gregory's blade that Lamont hurled his blade at, but his throw was low and connected with the man's groin. He bent over and yelled in pain...

"Sorry!" Lamont yelled as he retracted his blade, prepared to throw it again to end the man's suffering. Gregory came down with his blade first onto the man's neck. Well, that was one man down... But Lamont was worried about the numbers he had seen jump from the pirate's ship to the Ethereal. Lamont was worried and voiced the thought aloud, only to have Azu backstep to dodge a pirate's scimitar and say, "So you noticed too, eh? Problem is, I can't tell if they're hangin' over the side..." Azu countered the pirate's blow and ended his life. "or if they're waitin' for somethin'."

Just then the Ethereal started to tip sideways, away from the pirate's ship... Lamont and Azu looked at each other, then over the side of the ship that it was tilting toward. To both of their dismay, a group of pirates was slowly climbing upward, halfway up the Ethereal's side, and more were coming. Lamont turned back to the battle and yelled to the stationary myrmidons, "They're coming over the side of the ship! You guys, get your spears over here and keep them from boarding!" Lamont turned back around, hoping his allies would keep enemies behind him at bay while he waited for whatever few pirates climbed over the side to meet his blade. At least these would be close enough to slash instead of stab.

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Goten is dead!

Ouur'mm continued removing the bolts from his arms to clear out the joints so he could move more freely. He realigned the mechanisms in his arms and patched them back up. It wasn't a total fix, but better than before. His attention was then caught by an attacker approaching the cannonport from the side of the ship. Ouur'mm crawled to the cannon nearby and braced it with his foot. It was, unfortunately not loaded from the look of it. Instead of firing it, he waited until the attacker tried entering and slamed it forward with his leg. The cannon rolls forward rapidly and bashes the attacker out of the cannon port and into the sea.

Back in the hold of the enemy ship men were furiously attempting to put out the fires started in the powder room. Buckets are poured over them dousing most of the fires. The last splash over a burning barrel and the men sigh in relief. Moments later, a splash of sparks spits out the bottom of one of the barrels signaling it smoldered through. A tremendous explosion blasts through the ship's hull. At which point Ouur'mm makes his way to the upper deck. He exits near the rear of the ship and says aloud, "It is now a battle for survival. The Ethereal is the only ship leaving the sea today. Many of the crew will be eliminated by that explosion hopefully. Prevent them from boarding. Close all cannon ports... make the top the battlefield. Their approach is limited, we have the upper hand." He finishes and pieces back together his pole weapon and prepares to battle.

__________________
"The good warrior knows when to fight, and when to withdraw."
- Sun Tzu

I'll smith anything up to 93 smithing if you have the material for me to make it with
My Story, Horrors of Myron County
RV's Drawing archive topic, post yours or comment on others

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Hmm... was hoping Knux would post. Thanks for keeping it up guys.
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Gualbert shouted in triumph with the rest of the crew as the pirate ship was splintered by the explosion. It was nigh dark, and Gualbert fancied he felt something cool and wet touch the back out neck. “Ah, only rain” said Gualbert, as he reached out a hand into the salty air. He looked up, and noticed the darkening sky was swirling, flowing and ebbing in beautiful patterns. The last thing Gualbert could remember was the eerie quiet before the first torrent of rain crashed into Ethereal and knocked him into the mast.

Azu fell silent when the blast went off. "Only one...?" Cutting three pirates down along the way, Azu took to the side of the ship nearest to the explosion and looked over the edge of the deck. Two bodies floated behind the enmy ship. Both were dressed in the uniform of Spear of Poseidon. The solid wood railing broke and splintered under teh impact of Azu's fist before he called out to the water near the pirate's ship, "Spears, finish your work and get back here! NOW!"

The calamity of battle continued on for moment before a horn blew once. A second time it blew, this time twice. And then a third with three strong and subsequent sounds. The bow of the pirate ship caved in an explosion, followed by two other explosions on either side of it.

Azu sighed then looked over at the metal man with the ancient sounding name. I will tear him apart, piece by piece, bolt by bolt. That inhuman sad excuse for technology will not make it off my ship still functional.

"Helmsman, steer clear of the enemy ship. All ranks, back to the Ethereal!" Even with the gaining storm, Azu's commands carried over it's winds.

ooc: I was under the impression that we were defending our ship rather
than attacking the pirate ship. So then none of our people would have
been on theirs.

Ouur'mm noticed the men fleeing from the enemy ship and remarked aloud, "Why are we boarded on the enemy ship. Would not it have been wiser to defend our own? Without a swift end to this battle... Greater loss may have been taken. From the condition of their ship structure internaly, I would guess it was not our wealth they were seeking... but rather the Ethereal itself to serve as their new ship... Nnnnng I must complete my repairs now it should not be long." He moves toward the bow of the ship finding a suitable area. After removing the damaged panels from his arm he takes his welder and manages to seal back up the internal mechanism to normal. After the panels close themselves on his bare structure, he begins melting the wire into the holes made by the crossbow bolts.

*edit ok i musta misread something so I'll just edit that to be just general talking

__________________
"The good warrior knows when to fight, and when to withdraw."
- Sun Tzu

I'll smith anything up to 93 smithing if you have the material for me to make it with
My Story, Horrors of Myron County
RV's Drawing archive topic, post yours or comment on others

OOC: The Spears of Poseidon had explosives on their back. They were going to plant them on the outside of the hull, which is why Azu gave the order to simply defend, until they could sink the enemy ship. Because you set one off on your own, the two of five who were setting bombs on the back of the ship were killed. You didn't specify where the explosion was, bow or rear of the ship, so I chose the rear. Azu isn't pleased because you went onto the enemy ship, which was exactly what he wanted everybody not to do if they could help it. Now two of his men are dead. ^_^ I actually hadn't planned on it, but this really is a juicy twist. !

Endil quickly climbed back aboard the ship.

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OOC: Epic. Very very very epic. ^_^

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OOC: Arg, proof read all you want, we are imperfect creatures! …Forgive my mistakes fellows.
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Gregory stood bewildered as he heard the muffled explosions, being only able to see a few feet ahead of himself because of the heavy rain. Then battered by another wave of falling water, Gregory retreated to a mast near-by, holding it tightly. He said nothing, as if in a dream, only hearing Azu’s muted shouts. A moment later he noticed a dark figure beside him, it was Gualbert’s crumpled body. Hesitantly, Gregory stooped down to see if Gualbert was dead, and finding him still breathing sat him beside himself, trying as he could to hold on for dear life. Quietly he whispered, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…”