February 6, 2011

Ship Quit
by Ludi

An eerie stillness hung over the Dartflinger Faetastic. The evening air was thick with fog and only the occasional creaking of the deck as the ship heaved to and fro on the waves pierced the nighttime silence. The boat was drifting aimlessly through the Medievian seas west of Derah, with the helm spinning wildly, as no captain was anywhere to be found.

"Have you seen the Cap'n?" asked Owxinto Nenyselm, with just a trace of a nervous tremor in his voice.

"Nay, 'tis been more than 30 hours now since we've been without him in these dangerous waters," replied Siundris Wakelin.

"Well I'm hoping the good Cap'n, or at least one of his mates, returns soon. I have a bad feeling that this voyage is about to take a dangerous turn for the worse," mused Owxinto.

Meanwhile, at that very instant, a message was broadcast to the Knights Templar Clan, the owners of the boat, that their wayward ship Faetastic was adrift on the high seas for over 30 hours with no souls on board, save for the deckhands. When Ludi heard that message he knew that something had to be done to save the otherwise doomed boat.

He quickly conjured a Gate, and left the catacombs, depositing his eggs quickly in the War Room. As he raced to the rescue of the Faetastic, he could only imagine what awaited him on board. Once he arrived, he quickly swore himself in as Captain, took the helm and began to steer the boat back towards the safety of the Derah Docks. Because of the far distance from the docks, the risk was fairly high and he began to scour the decks for serpent meat with which to chum the large sea beasts whose charges would keep the mob factions at bay. Just as he collected enough meat to return to the poopdeck to chum up his prey, he heard the fateful cries of the deckhands. "TERMITES!" cried Quaeis Hanian from belowdecks.

At this risk, there was a real danger of this mob faction sinking the boat. "Why didn't I receive a safer mob faction, like the impotent Kraken or Aquoderm?" Ludi wondered in vain. Apparently the DM was intent on punishing the boat and crew for their 30 hours of negligence to their duty.

With no one else available to come to the ship's aid, Ludi raced below decks, and found the termite queen spawning her offspring next to Larboard Gun 13. Worker termites swarmed the decks as he engaged the Queen in bloody combat, but he was quickly blinded and forced to retreat to the adjacent crew's quarters to recover from his wounds. Now he could hear guards being spawned and knew that he had to act quickly. Ludi rushed back to the Termite Queen and was quickly able to finish her off, despite the best efforts of her guards and workers.

Time for mop up duty. The remaining termites were blasted with wave after wave of drenching acid until at least the ship was free from danger and the deckhands summoned the courage to get back to work. Having finally secured the ship, it was time to return to the docks. Without sufficient meat on board to even chum up serpents to prevent further attack from the DM, the only option was to summon a sea-dragon to quickly return The Faetastic to the safety of Derah's waters.

After the ship was safely docked, repaired, and the fae had been unloaded, Owxinto turned to Siundris and said, "I hope that next time the cap'n doesn't leave us like that again on the high seas."

Owxinto replied, "I have no interest in when his memory fails him or not, as long as he doesn't forget to pay our wages!"

-Ludi