Chapter 6 - Part 3

To say the sailors on deck were surprised when Equilibrium followed Delegado out into the sunlight was an understatement. They began to jabber and point, but Belliose ordered them back at post. Delegado had the barrels placed by the mast and covered with a wet tarp. He had three arrows with a fire enchantment that would make a fine combination with the barrels. Beyond that he also possessed two human bane arrows, nine arrows with special tips to take advantage of creatures with chemical weaknesses, and a second full quiver of ordinary arrows of Brelish manufacture that Belliose had given him when she was initially distributing weapons. That gave him a total of thirty-four arrows.

“Hey,” he said to one of the half-elves in the rigging. “Come here.” The half-elf clambered down, and Delegado began to take out vials from his belt and pouches. He produced two acid vials, three alchemist’s fire flasks, two alchemist’s frost flasks, and a thunderstone. He also had a tanglefoot bag, but he kept that for himself. “Take this up to Dennis,” he told the half-elf, putting the roughly two hundred gold pieces’ worth of alchemical gear into his game bag. “The Talenta people are good with slinging things. Tell him to not spare these, if we live through this I can buy more.” The half-elf nodded, then took the bag and scooted back up the rigging. The half-orc turned back to the psiforged. “When they get close enough, I’m going to order you to toss these barrels over there, one after the other. You’ll hold them in mid-air over the boat.” The psiforged nodded.

A long two minutes passed. Dennis called down twice to say that another scroll was being read, and that after each scroll the lead ship with the captain in robes shot forward. The good news was that the second ship was falling behind, apparently having run out of magic. That bad news was that the third ship was now on the distant horizon.

“How far back now?” Belliose asked.

“Maybe a thousand feet!” came back the reply from the halfling.

“Fire the ballista at their rigging!” Belliose ordered her crew. The half-elf at the ballista aimed the massive crossbow-device.

“No!” Delegado yelled.

“Countermand!” Belliose said. The sailor let go of the trigger. “Why?” she yelled at Delegado. She had her rapier out, and the fire elemental within was writhing.

“It’s not within optimum range!” Delegado yelled. “We have to disable their rigging in order to escape, and we may not get a second shot! Wait for seven hundred and fifty feet!”

“I don’t have a bloody yardstick up here!” Dennis yelled down.

“Give it your best guess!” Belliose yelled back.

“We’d do better with a shot at four hundred feet!” the half-elf waiting to reload the ballista pointed out, his voice close to breaking.

“Yeah but I suspect that wizard has something ready at four or five hundred feet,” Delegado said. “I saw a Dragon Below cult leader unleash a blast of freezing cold at that distance from a hilltop once.”

“Alright then,” Belliose said. “Dennis, call down your best guess the seven hundred and fifty foot mark! Burwa, when he does, you fire for the top of their rigging.”
Another minute passed.

“Scroll in use!” Dennis called down.

They saw a surge of magical wind come up, pushing at the Riedran sails. The ship was small in the distance, but Delegado fancied he could see armed men at the rails. Another two minutes passed. The half-orc had a magical fire arrow on the string of his bow. He wondered idly where Feather was.

“Another scroll in use, and their men are preparing grappling lines!” Dennis said. The enemy ship surged forward.

“You keep those grappling lines off this ship,” Delegado ordered Equilibrium.

“I will try,” the warforged promised.

“Seven hundred and fifty feet, mark!” Dennis yelled. The ballista fired, and a longspear hurled towards the Riedrans. It fell short, bouncing off the lower hull with little appreciable damage. “It missed!” the halfling yelled. The two half-elves were already reloading and drawing the heavy cable back.

“Come on!” Delegado said, fingering his bow. He could attempt a shot now, but the odds of hitting were ridiculous. At this range even a longbow was unreliable.

“Another scroll!” Dennis called down. Riedran taunts came across the water.

Belliose began to play her flute as the half-elves at the back worked the cable the rest of the way down and reset the firing mechanism. Delegado felt the flute music enter him, making him feel more confident, more certain, less scared. The enemy ship surged forward again, but the sailors seemed less nervous while their captain played her music.

“Six hundred feet!” Dennis called down. “Hey, the wizard is casting without a scroll!”

“Take cover!” Delegado yelled, crouching.

To their credit, the two half-elves at the back kept moving. Burwa fired the ballista, and his companion was readying another longspear. The fired shot sailed through the air.

To Delegado, time froze for just a moment. He saw a bright ball of intense red light shoot out from the lead ship, passing by the flying longspear so quickly that it made the bolt of wood seem to stand still. Then time moved again, and the ball of red light became an intent, angry ball of fire.

Delegado saw the magical fireball hit, and detonate within the great ring of the water elemental. The explosion was bright and deafening, and the elemental let out a burbling scream of pain. Burwa and his companion did not have time to scream. The explosion came and went, leaving two man-sized chunks of seared meat lying next to a burning pile of material that had been the ballista.

“No!” Belliose screamed.

The fired longspear fell just under the rigging, towards the man in robes, but the ship did not stop coming. The Small Potatoes slowed and shuddered as the water elemental retreated back into the Khyber dragonshard.

“I can’t get the elemental to come out!” Meddin cried. “It’s too hurt and scared!”

“Prepare for ship-to-ship combat!” Belliose called. She then resumed playing her flute, trying to keep the confidence-boosting magic going.

“Dennis, status on the wizard!” Delegado yelled.

“He had some force shield in front of him, it totally blocked the ballista shot!” the halfling called down.

“My mind-power screen works like that,” the psiforged said, crouching by the half-orc.

“Does it go all around or just in front?” Delegado said, readying his arrow still.

“Just in front, I suspect that if you aimed just right you could get an arrow to fall down on him.”

“Tricky under good circumstances,” the half-orc said. “Impossible at this range. I need him to get closer, within three hundred feet preferably.”

“We’re certainly slowing down enough,” Equilibrium noted.

“Without our elemental it’s our sails against theirs,” one of the humans said, overhearing the conversation. “And they have sailors trimming and adjusting, we don’t.”

“Five hundred feet and another spell!” Dennis called out.

“Drop from the rigging!” Delegado ordered the two above him with crossbows.

They did not jump down fast enough, but it didn’t matter. The second fireball was not aimed at the mast. It shot above a yardarm and slammed into the forecastle, destroying the helm. Meddin was tossed up in the air, flames all over his clothing, his hair and eyebrows blasted off. The First Mate landed on the lower deck with a harsh thump, and did not move. Delegado could see cracked, red skin.

“We’re gonna die!” screamed the half-elven sailor directly behind Delegado. He jumped down from the rigging and ran to the side of the ship, trying to jump overboard.

The crystals on Equilibrium’s body glowed, and a small barrel of freshwater flew up off the deck, knocking the panicking half-elf away from the rail. The psiforged then moved the barrel along the ship’s length to Meddin, pouring the water out on the First Mate’s body, putting out the small fires on his clothing.

Delegado walk over to the half-elf, who was now getting to his feet, and slapped him. Hard. “You get back to your post or I’ll put an arrow into you myself,” the half-orc snarled. The half-elf swallowed and nodded.

Belliose kept playing her flute, squinting at the enemy ship.

“Four hundred feet!” Dennis called. “They’ve got six light infantry in studded leather, and five men in chain mail! I see javelins, throwing axes, light crossbows, and crossbow-fired grappling lines!”

Delegado couldn’t wait any longer. He drew in a deep breath and fired off a magical fire arrow. It went high, rising in a great arc.

He held his breath.

The arrow came almost directly straight down into the wizard, clipping the top of the magical shield, but breaking past it. Delegado couldn’t see all the details clearly, but he saw the bright flash of light as the magical fire in the arrow was let loose as it hit.

“The wizard is down!” Dennis yelled. A roar of approval came up from the crew. Delegado ignored it as he ran over to Meddin. The half-orc scrambled to get his last healing potion out, as he watched the First Mate’s breathing slow. “They’re putting him out, and helping him to the back of the ship!” Dennis added. Delegado poured the healing potion onto Meddin’s lips, hoping that the wizard on the pursuing boat stayed down.

The worst of the half-elf’s burns lessened, and some of his cuts and bruises disappeared. Meddin’s breathing became steady, but he did not wake up.

“Don’t you die, Meddin!” Delegado said urgently. “You owe me a drink in Sharn! Don’t you die!”

Belliose stopped playing her flute and put it in her belt. “Cut the sails!”

“What?” one of the human guards asked.

“You heard me!” she said. “Furl them up! Let them close the distance to where we can hurt them! Range is their friend, not ours, so long as that wizard lives!”