Searching for Double XP
by Bberke

All through the land a cheer sounded as Medievian's rejoiced. The God of Adventure's booming voice announced that Asmira just cast the double XP spell! The pace of monster slaying throughout the realm increased at an exponential pace. The ground eagerly soaked up the spilled blood. Innocent or corrupt, the blood of beast and man ran alike.

Suabhardus, a fragile neophyte cleric, wanted to be the next to cast the spell, but was downcast after having several of her ships sink. For over a week every ship she had sailed had sunk. Twice due to blacking out while at the helm, once due to the Man O' War Primus sinking her ship while she was asleep at the wheel, and twice from fighting too many fast serpents at a time.

This time she planned too take no chances. She spent hours crashing into the docks and setting her ship ablaze with ship magic to attract monsters that Sea Griffins and Emerald Kah would slay. It was not long before she had the components necessary for the Ship Douse, Summon Wind and Summon Firestorm spell. She repaired the ship and set sail hoping to lure night sirens and firemoths to her ship for the more powerful ship spells, but none came after hours of sailing.

Suabhardus patiently began the process of effective serpenting. First she waited until the weather was perfect. Even with the firestorm spell a rainstorm or lightning storm in the area would cancel out the firestorm, so clear skies were optimal. Finally with her ship the proper distance from the mainland she began to pop serpents. Only when a large serpent that would not split came to the surface did Suabhardus cast the firestorm spell and kill the serpent.

There was one fatal flaw in Suabhardus's technique that ultimately led to her demise. Her deckhands were an average skill of only six. As she fired the killing blow on a last serpent the five second delay after to call to fire gave enough time for a rogue humungous triple-headed violet eel to rise up between the Man O' War and its target. The deckhands, stupider than a robber fly, mechanically fired on the violet serpent. Still, Suabhardus made quick work of the violet serpent and all but one of its babies.

Perhaps it was greed and impatience that actually did Suabhardus in. For as one baby remained, a baby that one volley would kill, the Khrait ships appeared. One Khrait ship appeared immediately next to the Man O' War. The violet baby remained below the surface and Suabhardus had only seconds to take this opportunity to quickly grapple the Khrait ship before it gained speed. On the fourth attempt Suabhardus secured the grapple to the Khrait ship.

The violet baby had yet to surface, so Suabhardus leaped onto the Khrait ship. She was immediately engaged by several of the Khrait crew. She fled barely alive, heading for the treasure chest that only a captain could open. As she went to get the ship secret from the treasure chest she found herself unable to carry any more items and her adrenaline pumped so hard that she didn't even notice her body was on fire from a fireball cast by the Khrait crew. As she failed to loot the chest she burned to death.

Though Suabhardus tried to save her ship after resurrecting, it was impossible. She used the ship douse spell and summon wind spell to minimize damage to her ship and reduce the number effectiveness of the Khrait's volleys, and it worked. She killed the violet baby and began hitting the Khraits with small, but powerful volleys. The amount of water on the ship rose to almost two hundred tons, so Suabhardus ordered enough deckhands to the pumps so all would be manned. However, the deckhands were so stupid half of those already pumping stopped as most of the deckhands milled about in confusion. With only two or three deckhands pumping the ship quickly sank.