August 23, 2008

Khrait Swarm
by Xaaxacus

It was a late Sunday night, and the White Rose decided to send out a small fleet of ships to hunt serpents and collect fae magic for the clan's use. Three of our most experienced captains each left docks with their own personal Man O'War, and set sail for hazardous waters in a loose battle formation. Shortly after the ships came under attack by the ocean's vicious serpents, I joined the crew of the Rambling Rose, under Captain Bardok. Our first few serpents went smoothly, and before long, we'd acquired a large store of fae in the ship's hull.

The clan decided to take the ships in different directions, and each of them spent the next hour killing the beasts that were attracted to the vessels. Other than a few dangerous splits, the night was going perfectly. I ran around the Rambling Rose killing termites and firesticks as Bardok called out firing orders to the deckhands, loosing deadly volleys of fire and lightning into the serpents' heads as they drew close. When our stockpile of fae neared the amount that would attract Khrait Scoutships, we called out to Greyloc, who was captaining the Khrait Express, and arranged to meet somewhere between our locations.

The two mighty ships reunited in what could be called a serpent graveyard - almost half of the ocean around us was covered by the bodies of our fallen prey. Together, the ships finished off a final, gigantic ruby serpent, and then we knew that our easy adventure was about to get a lot rougher. We rushed to finish off the baby serpents that had been created by its death as the sky split open and the weather went out of control. Four enemy Sitharons dropped into the water nearby just as we killed the last one. We had to work together to stay alive while enduring the endless, focused attacks of the smaller ships.

The captains' naval expertise soon won the battle for us though; ship after ship sank, and we seemed to be holding up fairly well against the assault. When the last Khrait crew sunk beneath the seas, we realized something that we had overlooked during the frantic battle: the fae that we received from sinking our enemies had pushed the Khrait Express over the limit that it could safely hold. We'd barely had time to begin repairing the damage to our ships when the ominous signs of a Khrait attack returned, and yet another fleet of fae-hungry monsters opened fire on us.

To make matters worse, the third ship in our armada, the White Wind, had Khrait of its own! It had drifted too far away from us while dealing with them to be of any help to us now. We reassigned some of our deckhands to repair duties and ran around dousing fires, trying to hold things together while fighting back as well as we could. The Khrait soon proved no match for our combined firepower, and the DM announced our second victory of the night almost in unison with the White Wind's triumph over its foes. All in all, the night's journey yielded over five million fae and three chests filled to the brim with gold - an ample reward for our trouble!