Chapter 3 Pirates
“Bring her about 5 degrees northeast, on the rudders, one-quarter power to the wheel, Piter!” Captain Grimbor ordered. “ Bring the wings in a touch, Bullie! Slowly as we pass that wedge-shaped rock then crank the speed up to full, Piter. We’ll let the tide carry us a bit out and ride with the wind, then crank it up to full plus a half! And, Piter, make sure Shilo has the steam pressure up or we won’t shoot through those fingers cleanly. I don’t want to scratch the Turtle only a few days from Darkshore, we’ll be the laughing stock of the clan! You hear me!”
“Aye Captain sir.” Piter replied but he was grinning. He could imagine Shilo the first engineer going nuts in the boiler room below. The Turtle wasn’t graceful but with her wide low draft she could skip across reefs most human boats would break upon with their deep hulls and huge keels. The Turtle skirted though the fingers and slipped between the cliff and huge exposed boulders.
The morning was slightly grey and misty a fog was blowing up through the valleys and around the Dragon Head bluff with the stiff on shore breeze. The Turtle’s wings actually worked better in situations like this. Since her sails were rigid vertical wings they could be angled just right to use the wind, but they won’t catch too much wind and become hard to control. Also rigid wings could be controlled with a crank of their mast shafts and not require crew to pull the sail cloth and heavy wooden yard arms manually with pulleys and rope.
The captain weaved what looked like a crazy path through unseen obstacles a few feet beneath. But he could sense where the rocks were with his keen dwarven stone sense. He also understood his ship so thoroughly that he could in his mind’s eye actually see the Turtles twin hulls from under the water just passing over the reef tops. He could do this all by feeling sometimes with his eyes actually closed. It was scary occasionally but the crew of the Turtle trusted him implicitly with their lives. Back and forth she shifted and slid between the maze of rocks. “Almost through.” Grimbor whispered to himself.
“Sir a ship starboard a little behind she is catching full wind to overtake us I fear, Captain.” Kimbri shouted down from his pilot’s seat in the crow’s nest.”And another directly forward, across our bow! Looks like she’s been hiding in the mist for awhile I see dew drops on her lines, she is hidden now but I can see the outline shimmering in the mist with the eyeglass of true-sight!”
“Bloody pirates!” Grimbor shouted. “All hands, Piter!”
“All hands, grab em if you got em, we got pirates!” Piter issued the commands without panic, the Turtle has handled pirates before, many times. “Shilo! Pirates! Arm the guns! Starboard side and forward!” He shouted to her through the brass call tube. She’ll know what to do. “Oh and get Simor, that old wizard, up from the galley, now he can earn his pay.”
Shilo heard the orders and cranked up the pressure. “Lucas arm the guns, two bolts, fire pots, set for…” She paused and looked through her periscope which was a series of first surface mirrors held at various angles in a metal shaft, with a prism at one end and magnifiers in the eye goggles. “400 yards! 45 degree angle, 2 points past the bow!”
“Marrin more coal, get help from Timble, if you need it we need more steam to make two accurate shots.” Lucas yelled to Marrin.
“Simor, top side pirates!” Lucas shouted through the noise into the tube that led to the galley.
“ Aye sir.” The young engineer Marrin replied.”More coal.” She dumped four heaping shovel fulls into the firey mouth of the furnace. She loved doing that and seeing the immediate color become bright orange red. She also turned up the bellows to increase the pressure just a bit more.
Simor spat out his leg of lamb roast, grabbed his sword Firestorm, his precious book of grudges, and went up to the deck. He gritted his teeth and looked out to sea. He was surrounded in swirling grey mists, huge clouds were forming above as a storm was obviously brewing. No wonder it was so rough in the galley while he was eating. He saw the two ships closing in on them, a classic move. One would block their bow and the other would come up beside them a try grapple hooks and ropes. He heard the pressure as the boiler twanged and tinged unnaturally. The gun turret on top of the Turtles bridge was turning slowly as the great metal gears clicked the deadly steam cannon into place. By the angle of the barrels he realized his task would be to control the ship off the starboard bow. He drew his breath and proceeded to open the book of grudges.
He looked to cliffs and back to the boats catching a glimpse of the reefs they were crossing over. He thought at that moment by their approach, they must be humans and think we will get stuck on the rocks. So they had no real knowledge of dwarven crafts. He estimated the depth of their keel and realized a simple dwarven ploy might do the trick. But the book of grudges stayed open.
“Grimbor, unhook the paddle wheel from the gear shaft, but maintain the pressure and oil the gears well so when we click it back, it all goes smoothly! Quickly, with alacrity!” The magesmith commanded the captain. Grimbor smiled for he understood what the old wizard was planning.
“Boys, shields and axes ready and get low! Out of site.” Grimbor commanded. “You three frantically run around looking over the gunwales keep your weapons low make em look like tools! Quickly! And Kimbri hold your position; load your long bore!” Kimbri nodded and attached his eye glass of true-sight to his rifle and sighted it in twisting the tiny oiled gears on the scope.
“I think we got her men! Them Dwarves are stuck on the rocks, just like I told you!” Joshua yelled to his crew. Mikail’s fishing boat was perfect, she was fast, wide and had a tall single mast to move easily. The plan was to get close and to swing across the water to the listing dwarvish ship more easily.
“She is not moving sir, and some dwarves are running all crazy looking over the side to see what’s holding them and to guess how much damage they received from scrapping across the reef.” One of the crewman yelled. Mikail was smiling widely his time had come, this was his day. Joshua looked back towards Mikail content with the way the morning was going. “Get your grapples, sabers and crossbows. We wait until the Prowler is ready across their bow. The Turtle ain’t going anywhere.
The crew of the Prowler watched the scene unfolding. The Turtle was stuck on the reef, and Mikail’s ship was moving into range but off the reef not the best situation since they didn’t want to wreck on the reef either this was a tight moment.
“What do we do sir!” the helmsman cried. The captain of the Prowler was a rough half orc named Cro Brag, who claimed blood kinship to the mighty Roric, The Illustrated. He was a nasty captain, like Roric, and his crew was just as ruthless and ready to strike the dwarves when they were helpless even without the help of his brother Joshua. “We go! Bring us strait up through that narrow path. We will hit them head on! Get your cutters and choppers ready!”
“Their coming in sir.” Shilo called to the captain. “ The boiler is holding pressure and is perfect for two shots. Should I fire sir?”
“Hold, until I give the order.” Grimbor affirmed. “Simor what do you think?” He asked calmly.
Simor was reading from the book of grudges. He just kept reading then he looked up at the ship off their starboard side just a few hundred yards away, long range for normal crossbows. Simor then smiled at the captain, and closed the book of grudges. “It is done.”
“Fire!” Grimbor shouted down the tube to Shilo.
All Joshua heard was two powerfully deep thumping explosions in quick succession and steam belched from the two barrels atop the Turtle’s bridge. He looked towards the Prowler and saw two giant quarrels the size of whale harpoons penetrate her sides just above water level and a bright burst of white sparkling fire. Then the crack of the explosion was heard and the Prowler was listing aimlessly taking on water from her bow. The Prowler was split bow to stern. Her crew was bailing out and he thought he could see his brother leap from the sinking ship and swim toward the reef through rough waves.
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Joshua snapped out of his thoughts and yelled to the helmsman to stop heading towards the reef.
“I am not doing it sir, something is carrying us to the reefs!”
Joshua and Mikail leapt to the side frantically peering into the water to see what is pulling them so powerfully toward the deadly reef. The very current itself seemed to be alive going against the natural flow of the surrounding water carrying the Fishing ship to her doom. She crashed into the reef, tearing open her deep hull smashing her keel. “That dwarf mage has cursed the very current itself!” Mikail cried.
“Leap across to the Turtle it’s our only hope for survival we need to take their ship!” Joshua howled to his surprised crew. “Come on Mikail, leave her she’s a wreck now!”
The whole crew of the fishing vessel threw their ropes and grapples some could even leap across to the Turtle with four feet of exposed reef below. Hooks tried to sink into the hard metal sheathed wood of the roof, the Sea Turtles shell, barely finding purchase, some hooks skittered across finding no purchase and sending the pirate into the gap between the two ships. The pirates leapt to the Turtle expecting to find scared dwarves begging for mercy. What they found was a wall of interlocked curved oval shields each with colorful pictures on their hard surfaces. Behind each curved shield was a grim dwarf armed with pole arms, battle axes, and war hammers. Long beards, savage hair, knotted with tight braids, the dwarven seamen looked like a hard lot. A few of the crew were dwarven woman folk hearty, busty, and clenching their axes, hammers, and strange looking multi barreled devices that looked liked pepper box grinders. One younger maiden had fiery red locks and braids flowing freely in the stormy wind. Another was wizened with platinum blonde hair tightly braided. Beautiful and terrifying!
The clash was loud and could be heard on the shore. Men swung their sabers wildly firing crossbows and hitting anything around them. Their sabers bit into tall curved shields. The dwarves fought in unison like a machine cleaving through the waves of pirates. Some dwarves were cut down but crewman pulled them out and filled the gaps.
Two of the pirates got through by leaping over the tops of the shield wall only to be stopped by one dwarf woman pointing her many barreled weapon at him. In a cloud of smoke and thunder he was struck with flaming pellets that penetrated his armor with such force it actually blew him off the deck and over the gunwales, where he disappeared into the blue depths below. She twisted the smoking barrel with a click and it seemed ready to fire again. Three more times she did that and three more pirates met their deaths.
Grimbor was locked in a mighty struggle with Joshua the leader of the pirates. Grimbor held a hammer in one hand and an axe in the other hand. On his belt was another smaller version of the peculiar multi barreled fire tubes. Joshua held a wicked curved saber of orcish design and a main gauche in his off hand. They exchanged blows each deftly blocking the other’s attack. Grimbor dipped forward and quickly leapt to his left while he parried the saber swipe and with his hammer smashed Joshua’s wrist that held the main gauche. It fell limp and Joshua cried in pain. Joshua stepped back and tripped over some rope, just as he was regaining his balance another dwarf shield bashed him and Joshua blew over the side of the Turtle. Instead of falling into the water below he grabbed the rail of the gunwale with his good hand and held himself. But in that moment Grimbor slammed his axe down on the rail and cut Joshua’s hand from his body. The pirate captain fell into the bubbling water below and got sucked down by the strange motion of the current. Grimbor shouted his order to Gear up the wheel! And the Turtle lurched forward and moved out of the treacherous reef. The sudden jerking forced many of the pirates to lose footing giving the sure footed dwarves the tactical advantage.
There were still a lot of the pirates swarming across the deck, but the Turtle’s crew was slowly forcing them off the boat. One of the pirates ran for Simor rage in his eyes; and a strange froth coming out of his mouth. He was a half orc berserker. He charged Simor knocking a crewmate in the skull with one of his thick blades, and jumped at the old mage smith with the two black cleavers aimed at Simor’s shoulders. Simor would be killed with such a ferocious rush. Kimbri fired his long bore and blew the half orc sideways as the great flaming pellets broke through the surface of the pirates hardened breast plate and lodged themselves deeply in his greenish flesh. Each buck shot pellet burned with magnesium intensity, and each could still be seen like tiny white comets with red cloudy tails as the berserker sank below into the darkness of the ocean.
The Sea Turtle moved quickly out of the row of exposed reef she was hiding in as the dwarven crew cut the grapple lines with axes and halberds. She was free and the fishing ship that just a moment ago tasted victory was raked mercilessly across the jagged coral her hull splintered as if a great saw blade had just dug into her keel. The crew of the Turtle cleared her decks and threw the dead pirates into the sea. The dwarves wasted nothing, taking the few coins, useful tools, rope, nets, and other valuable materials and scuttled the fisher so it could never harm another merchant.
Mikail swam ashore, exhausted, alone, and ashamed. He had lost everything.
“Check roll, Piter! Count off!” Grimbor yelled. He wanted to know who they had lost, who was injured, and any other pertinent information.
“We lost two of Stanard’s rangers, sir.” Piter replied somberly.
“Grim tidings, indeed.” Grimbor responded. “We need the marine rangers when we travel the Undersea. We’ll check the crew for relatives to join the Sea Turtle’s rangers, any cousins in the ranger corps would be preferred. Prepare proper rites for the fallen. I will write the families and send word to clan mothers and fathers. Every loss is painful now.” Grimbor added after the fact, mostly mumbling to himself.
“Shilo, how did the Turtle fair?” He asked the first engineer shouting through the brass speaking tube, but she heard him directly for she stood on the command deck looking downward to him.”Up here Capt’n! Turtle’s fine…thought you could use the help up here!” Shilo exclaimed, cleaning her pepper box gun.
“Oh she fared just fine, Capt’n!” Shilo responded proudly. “No worries sir!” Her crew worked smoothly and efficiently. “… with Timple feeding coal and powder, and Lucas handling the basic gearing, oiling, and clutch work there wasn’t much that could really harm the Turtle’s heart. It was shielded with metal plates, riveted, and protected by runes. If anything could get through that level of protection, keeping the Sea Turtle’s heart beating would not be the real problem, not dying would be.” She replied grimly.
The Sea Turtle navigated through the tiny reefs and the few treacherous parts of Dragonhead and the smaller island passages around the point and started her approach towards the home port of Darkshore.
Living on the Rainy coast was not why these dwarves were referred to as Darkshore Dwarves. They were named that because their city, Mountain Citadel was carved out of the very rock of a giant sea cave built into the Dragon Head bluff. Half of the dwarven city opened into the bay of Dragonhead a beautiful forested cove with nice pebbly beaches, soft gray sands, and peaceful grassy hillocks, backed against snow capped mountains.
Mountain citadel’s gracefully carved towers sparkled in the morning sunlight above ground reflecting off the walls of the sea cave; glistening with the creamy white buildings of the Dwarven city, the great twin Light House tower was glowing brightly from the mountain top still slightly shrouded in snow. Bridges spanned across the caves curved ceiling hanging great colorful banners of crimson and gold a hammer and sword over an anchor, with a circle representing the locus of Gimble, the Darkshore device. A beautiful standard and it was displayed everywhere. The piers were filled with the tidy double hulled paddle wheelers the dwarves used to travel the seas of the worlds and the great undersea. A few of the berths were hosting the big battle ships, huge multi cannoned steam monsters sheathed in hard black iron.
But Darkshore is actually the other half of Mountain Citadel, whose sister walls were carved from the crystalline shore of the great black undersea, hundreds of feet below. Mountain Citadel’s halls extended through the very mountain itself. The dwarfs for centuries have been carving and honing the halls, homes, and hearth fires of the dwarven citadel. Her deep streets were lined with storefronts, jewelers and crafters, public houses, markets, and clan offices, all cut from the crystal formations and lit with beautifully crafted gas lanterns.
Still the greatest achievement of the Dwarves of Darkshore was not the Mountain Citadel itself since many clans have wonderfully carved cities like it. No the real treasure was the wondrous device that allowed dwarven ships from the deep undersea within the mountain to travel upward to the sunlit world above, the Great Locks of Darkshore. These five locks were built by the sweat, blood, and tears of the Darkshore dwarves, the Grimtongue clan. They were designed by possibly the greatest mage-smiths the world has ever known. Each lock is filled with water pumped by tremendous steam powered turbines. The chambers fill up with water, the ship floats into the causeway and depending on which pump is working either rises upward to the sunlit world above, or is brought gently downward by gravity fed currents until they float effortlessly away into the great black Undersea. The locks were also designed to prevent the mixing of marine saltwater and the pure fresh crystal clear cavern water of the Great Undersea. Marvelous devices like these are the true treasure of the Grimtonge clan.