CHAPTER 29

THE SHIP

As I walked down the dock I glanced around, noting a pile of barrels near the ship I decided to stash Reona behind them.  It was puzzling to me why the ships decks were empty but it was to my advantage.  Climbing up the plank I stood quietly and listened, tuning out all the ambient noise, I could soon here several  of the sailors speaking, they were below the deck in the main hold.

Walking over to the opening I glanced down and saw that 7 crew were standing in a circle around a woman, her hands were bound and she was naked.  I knew where this was going to end and I had seen enough to know that I had to stop it.  Jumping down into the hold I landed silently, none of the men had noticed me, they were giving all of their attention to one of the sailor’s as he grabbed the breast of the woman. 

I stood there for a moment and then shouted, “What the fuck do you think you are doing?”  As the men turned towards me I metamorphed sitaying as an Elf but I extended my dragon claws from both hands and elbows.  As the first man jumped towards me I punched him and as the claws exited his back I slowly lifted him above my head.

This must have been a Kodak moment as all the men froze for a minute, taking advantage of this lapse I threw the man at the two closest sailors.  They all went down and I charged forward, unfortunately, one of the other sailors had a saber and unsheathing it he swung at me.  As he did I slid forward and grasped his arm and then spinning around I continued to thrust his arm forward which helped to bury the saber into the closest sailor as it also dislocated his arm.

Letting him go I jumped towards the last two sailors standing, one managed to get a hit on me with a solid punch to the head.  As I went backward I kicked out and got him right in the stones, judging by his scream it was a solid kick.  The other sailor continued to advance and I knew I was at a huge disadvantage, I was flat on my back and could not block his kicks to my legs.

After receiving two or three solid kicks I managed to grab his foot and twisted, as I felt the bones break in his leg as I swung my left leg up and kicked him in the hip with also broke.  He fell to the floor screaming and I turned to face the last of the sailors.  He had pulled a knife and was holding it to the girl’s throat, whom I now recognized as the guard Tasia.

“You’re not so tough now are you?”  The sailor was red in the face and I could smell the grog on his breath, his words were slurred and I knew he had been drinking heavily.  He spoke again and said, “You and me we are going to be getting off the ship with missy here and then we are going to find the city watch, it will be a pity that you had to kill the girl when she had almost escaped, but once I tell and show the guards this hold they will know what a monster you are.”

I nodded, his plan was good and could work, all he had to do was kill Tasia and make sure he was close enough to the city watch to yell at them and they would come running.  The other sailor would agree that I had attacked them and would no doubt put the blame for everything on me.   Suddenly the man burped and then drew a ragged breath of air in.

I watched as he burped again and then as he went to take a deep breath I cast a small Dragon fire right in his mouth.   The alcoholic fumes ignited and once the fires hit his lungs they seemed to explode as he tried to scream.  I grabbed the knife as he dropped it and spinning it in my hand twice I plunged it into his left eye and left it there as he dropped.  I turned and saw that the first two I had knocked down were now standing and had started to circle me.

I turned to face the closest one and watched as he flipped his knife from hand to hand.  I tried to look him in the eyes but this one had seen combat and kept his eyes on my hands.  I could perceive an overwhelming desire to kill me along with a rank stench of fear.  I could also feel the other one creeping towards my back, probably thinking if he could grab me he would immobilize me from defending myself.

That seemed like a good idea so I pretended not to notice him as he crept closer until he wrapped his arms around me in a bear hug.  He was a large strong man and held his grip tight while screaming, “Cut his throat, cut his fucking throat.”  The knife-wielding sailor grinned and began to walk towards me.

“I am going to cut you up, and leave you begging for your life and then I will say no.” He was almost within reach as he said this but he felt safe as my arms were bound by the other sailor.

I extended my elbow claws and quickly pushed my arms back while twisting slightly.  Both of the claws pierced the sailor and with a gurgle of blood and air he sagged of me and fell to the floor.  I had punctured both lungs, and he would not last long.

The sailor about to attack me looked down at his friend blowing bloody bubbles out of his mouth and then looked at me.  “What the fuck are you?”  He screamed as hie darted towards me with the knife slashing towards my throat.

The temptation to use a corny one-liner was strong but I managed to resist.  His movements seemed to slow down as I focused on the knife coming at me.  I reached up and grabbed it by the blade and pulled it from his grasp.  My strength was now so far above my level it surprised even me.  As I spun around him he continued to go forward, his momentum was too much for him to stop and he then tripped on his dying friend.

As he fell I threw the knife and watched it as it entered the back of his head, in the occipital area.  He dropped dead before he hit the ground and I began to look at the other sailors, all were dead except the one I had immobilized with a broken leg and hip.  Compound fractures I thought as he kept screaming and clutching at the shards of bone that were visible having punctured his skin.

I walked over and spoke, “You and I are going to have a little talk my friend, so I will start, where is the rest of Reona’s guard?”

“Fuck you,” was the answer.  

That was the wrong answer, and to be honest I actually thought about stabbing him in the bottom of both feet with my claws.  I stopped suddenly and turned away, I did not want my thoughts to be revealed.  Here I was acting like one of the Gods, killing, maiming and about to torture someone just to find some information.

My stomach tightened and I felt both anger and shame.  What the hell is happening to me I thought.  This must be due to the fact that I had 4 ascended energies now joined to my spirit, and also because I was using my Dragon abilities more.  Dragons can be both powerful and cruel.  It seems Ingame that all beings become callous as they grow in power I thought.  I will have to keep an I on myself, don’t want to go all Jekyll and Hide here. 

I glanced down at the sailor, the shock had set in and he was bleeding profusely, I turned and looked over at Tasia and seeing that she was sitting down on the floor, I walked over to her and quickly had her free.  I tried to talk to her but it was apparent that she could not respond.

I glanced around and found some rope and went back to the sailor and tied him tightly.  Then I found some sailcloth and wrapped all the dead sailors in the cloth then made my way to the deck dragging the bodies.   I appreciated my strength more and more as I did that, it would have been impossible for a normal player unless he was high level and had maxed out strength.

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Once back on deck I jumped to the dock and collected Reona and brought her back to her cabin, then went to the hold and brought up Tasia and put her with Reona.  Taking my time, I began to search the ship.  It was in the small forehold the I discovered the bodies of the rest of the guards.  They had all had their throats slit.

I gathered more sailcloth and laid each body to rest on the cloth, bundling it up I made my way back to the deck and place the bundle besides the other one.  Going down to where I had slept I was surprised to discover my gear was still there.  Bringing it all up to the deck I lit a smoke and thought for a few minutes.  The watch had not approached the ship yet for which I was grateful, I thought that killing the Capitan and his men would have been enough to have someone call them.

The Docks were a rough place and I guessed that most people minded their own business down here.  I still had to find a way to dispose of the bodies, and then when Reona was lucid find out what had happened and what we would do next.

There was also the problem that she had identified me as Tor.  That could be a game changer, the only thing I had was when I talked to her my Perception would enable me to see if she was lying or telling the truth. 

The plan had been to enter the city and greet the local nobility then procure mounts to travel to the Dwarven Kingdom.  As I sat and thought about this it occurred to me that it could still work, I would have to make a simple story of escaping the sailors and defeating them but that is where the problem is.  There would be questions of how a low level like myself could defeat everyone on the ship and rescue the girls.

As I racked my brains I decided to do a little looting and making my way to the officer's cabins I started with the Capitan’s quarters.  The door was locked but not for long, my skill with picks was increasing.  Upon entering I noticed several things, one the Capitan was a messy guy, dirty clothing was strewn about and the bed was unmade.  The second thing I noticed was both the ships logbook and the Capitan’s journal, both were chained shut.  The third thing was two chests, one large and one small both were locked shut.

Grinning slightly, I decided to open the large chest first, it took a while, the lock was complex and well crafted.  Eventually, I heard the click and the lid swung open.  I glanced down into the chest and observed it was broken into three compartments, the first held gold coins, lot of them, the second held jewels some large some small but again there were lots of them.  The third held maps, a dozen encased in their protective tubing.  The maps were a worth more to me than the gold and jewels.  They are hard to come by and cost a small fortune.  The Capitan probably had been collecting them for years.  They would open up whole new vistas for me, I would scan them into my PIM as soon as I was done searching the Capitan’s quarters.

Turning my attention to the small chest I began to work at picking the lock, it was delicate and I took my time, finally, after a long 20 minutes, it clicked open.  Standing back, I opened it and saw that it was contoured to hold vials, there were 50 of them held in place with straps against a soft velvet background.

I scanned several of them and saw that they were all high level and rare, they would fetch a large profit at the Auction house or would be a worthy addition to any Houses treasury.  I grabbed the whole thing and put it in my bag, then systematically began to open each map I had found and scan it into my PIM.  Finishing took a while but when it was done I could call up almost all the world's coastlines and in some cases large tracts of land far from the coast.

I looked around the room and decided to see if I could find anything else, the first thing was to deal with the dirty clothing, sighing to myself I began to clean the cabin, I threw all the clothing into the small wood burning stove and burnt it all to ashes.  Then I stripped the bed and burnt the bedding, it had some stains on it and I really did not want to guess what they were from.

I finally looked around and saw that there was a small closet located against the back wall which was also the back of the ship. The wall had two windows built in and looking out I could see the lights of the town wrapping around the harbor.  I opened the closet and was surprised to find it empty, but something about the interior size was off. 

I studied the wood it was made out from and noticed it was all a light golden color and had been polished to a fine finish at some point.  It was showing signs of wear and tear but was still a nice piece.  The one thing that caught my attention was a knot in the wood about halfway up on the back of the closet.  It was slightly off color and while at first glance seemed to be a part of the wood I was struck by the fact that the cabinet had been made with the finest woods available and none of the other pieces had knots in them. 

I pressed the knot and suddenly the bottom of the closet floor lifted and I was able to grasp the edge and pull it up.  Jackpot I thought as I stared into the small hole, it was filled with scrolls of correspondence.  Taking the scrolls, I went and sat down at the table and began to read, it turns out the Capitan was a smuggler and worse.

As I read I realized that the Capitan was not a nice man at all, in fact, he deserved to die perhaps several times over.  The last scroll was the one that really had my interest, it was about this trip, and while it did not answer all the questions I had it showed that forces were at play in this game world.  I reread the scroll and as I did so I tried to find any hidden meaning or clues.

Capitan Draik once again we call upon your services, this time the fee will be tripled as the risks are greater.  You will soon receive a passenger who will be escorted by several guards and accompanied by one Elf.  The passenger is Lady Reona the Viceroy of the city and the new ambassador to the Dwarven King.

She must not be allowed to continue her journey, I would suggest both her and her guards would enjoy this trip by sea, by being at the bottom of the sea.  As for her companion little is known of him, his level is low and he is new to the city.  Still, it is best not to take any chances, after all, he was sent with the Viceroy for a reason.

If he should meet an unfortunate accident at sea along with the rest it would be acceptable.  Be cautious, and when you arrive your payment will be sent to you at twelve bells.  If there are any problems inform the messenger and we will proceed from there.  It goes without saying you must avoid the city for a while.  Until we have won this war; we won’t meet but your services will be remembered.  BH

I thought about what I had read, it was politics and dirty politics at that, someone had known that both Reona and I would be traveling, and had made plans that our journey would not go as planned.  The initials at the end of the note had caught my attention also, BH Banhammer the dwarf I had given the book of science too.  He was the leader of the Hammerytes and I knew that he had been making war machines and shipping them to the Dwarven Kingdom.

It would seem that I was caught up between a civil war that I had no understanding about, and while I was happy to not get involved, it seemed I had no choice.  I had to admit to myself that I was also a little pissed that Banhammer was making war machines and not things to help people.  I would not make the mistake of trusting someone with anything important again, not until they had proven themselves to me.

I could hear the bells tolling it was now ten bells and I could expect a guest at 12.  I had spent a lot of time on the ship the evening had flown by but now I had to prepare for my guest.  Sighing I checked on the girls they were both sleeping but when I pulled open an eyelid the pupil was dilated, the drug was still active in their systems.

Leaving them I jumped to the dock and went to where I had seen a small ship tied up.  After making sure it was empty I grabbed both of the sailcloth’s and dragged the bodies to the small ship, loading them onto the deck I grabbed the ropes holding the ship to the dock and loosened them, then walking to the end of the dock I pulled the ship and when it was finally at the end I gave it a mighty shove and sent it out into the harbor.

I then cast Dragon fire repeatedly on the ship till the whole thing was blazing, and with the wind pushing the burning hulk out to sea, I felt safe in the fact that the bodies had been disposed of.  As I stood there I spoke out loud, “You guards deserved better than this, an unknown cremation at sea.  I will remember you and when the time comes I will celebrate you who you were and how you lived.  You will not be forgotten.”

As I spoke a swelling of ascendant power broke over me and suddenly I smelled a sweet garden amidst a sun touched land.  I could see the guards sitting up and getting off the ground as they looked around with smiles, then the picture faded and I was once again watching a small ship with an out of control fire burning as it was being blown out of the harbor by the wind.

Turning I made my way back to the ship, I had a guest to welcome and the Capitan’s journal and the ships log to read.