Howard had been on the passenger vessel “Ophelia’s Gift” for the past four months. He was on his way to the port city of Relmr on the southeast tip of Highmarch. During this trip they would stop every few weeks at a port city. When the ship docked in the cities, they would take a few days to allow the crew to rest. The captain used this opportunity to gather new supplies and passengers. Their last stop was the city of Loen. The largest city on the coast of Jetty Bay. This was usually the last stop for any vessel before crossing The Spine to Highmarch. The Spine is a series of four large islands between Highmarch and Middlin. The two continents in the west.
It had been two weeks since they set sail from Loen to Relmr and Howard was starting to get restless. He had made some acquaintances with the crew and passengers along the way. Talking with them, playing dice and card games helped pass the time, but it wasn’t enough. He needed some kind of action to get his blood flowing again. He was looking forward to getting to land for a chance to encounter something on the trip to Brinn College. The captain told the crew and passengers that they should be there in about two more weeks. This added to his anticipation.
Even though it was mid-summer the weather was cold this far north. Howard was sitting in his room with a blanket over his legs as he read a book in the late afternoon. The book helped him relax and get his mind off of the anticipation of getting to land. Suddenly the boat lurched to one side. He threw the blanket off himself, sprang to his feet and ran to the window. Howard had to pull himself up to gaze out the porthole, but it was too small to see anything. He couldn’t get a good angle.
The boat was turning to the port side at a steep angle, causing the room to list to the starboard side. Various items started falling off the table tops and shelves. He looked over the mess in the room with disgust. He began looking for his leathers and cloak now buried in the junk scattered on his floor. He kicked debris out of his way and found everything he was looking for. He started to gear up, it was difficult with the floor at this angle. He stumbled around as he put everything on, taking him far longer than normal. After he finished, he walked out the door to go topside, leaving the room a mess.
As he ascended the last set of stairs he saw that the deck was a flurry of movement. The sailors were moving from line to line adjusting the sails to catch as much wind as possible. Howard ran to the starboard side railing and looked out over the ocean. What was the commotion about? There was nothing to see. He ran to the other side of the boat but had the same results. What was causing this commotion? He looked up at the wheelhouse and saw the captain manning the helm, yelling out orders. Howard turned and made his way to the stairs to get some answers.
As he approached the steps one of the sailors got in his way and held up a hand.
“Sorry Howard. We are not allowing anyone up to the helm right now,” the sailor said.
“What is going on?” Howard asked.
“We have an emergency situation here. For your safety it would be best if you join the rest of the guests below deck,” the sailor told Howard.
“Jimmy, don’t give me that rehearsed speech. What is the issue? I may be able to help,” Howard rebuffed the sailor as he showed him some of the gems hidden under his cloak.
Jimmy’s face washed with relief then he asked Harold, “You’re a gem user?”
“Yes, wielder, caster, forger,” Howard replied, “What can I help with?”
Jimmy leaned into Howard. He lowered his voice to avoid being overheard, “We spotted a pirate ship a few minutes ago and the captain is trying to outrun them, but I doubt we will be able to. We are carrying too much weight and there isn’t a port we can get to in time, they are going to catch up to us soon.”
“Where is it at?” Howard asked.
“On our Aft,” Jimmy said.
“Does the captain have rear facing windows in his cabin?” Howard questioned.
“Yes, he does. Why?” Jimmy replied.
“Open that door and get me in that room. I can shadow jump to their boat when it is in range, but I need a line of sight, and I don’t want them to see it coming. The rear window should give me the line of site I need and the room will allow me to hide from their lookouts,” Howard explained.
“Okay. Follow me,” Jimmy took him over to the door of the captain’s chamber under the helm. He unlocked the door to the cabin, allowing Howard to enter.
“I got it from here. Keep the passengers calm and safe. I will handle the pirates,” Howard said in a dark tone, full of conviction.
Jimmy gulped, “Yes sir,” and closed the door.
Howard moved to the back of the cabin and opened one of the rear windows. He was able to see that the boat was about 600 yards from the Ophelia’s Gift and gaining. It should be close enough for the jump, but he was going to give it a few more minutes before he used the ability. He wanted to be sure the pirate ship was in range before he shadow jumped.
Howard gave it another five minutes and then took a few steps back from the window. The shadow of the room should be enough to hide him from their sight. He sidestepped into the darkness and disappeared from the cabin.
Howard appeared on the port side of the pirate ship, hanging onto the side of the deck at one of the drain holes. He pulled himself up to look through the hole and found a shadow a few feet away. Howard slid through the shaded area he arrived from and came out at the one on the deck. He used his racial ability, Gather Shadows, to obscure himself. Howard waited for an opportunity to start his assault.
As he waited in the shadow of a crate on the deck he observed the pirates moving around and got a rough head count. There seemed to be about fifteen of them, give or take a few. They looked to be settling into their positions as they kept the ship lined up with the Ophelia’s Gift. It only took a few minutes for the right opportunity to present itself.
The opportunity came as one of the pirates ran past him to man the sails. Howard reached out of the shadow with his left hand and caught the man by the ankle, tripping him to the deck. The man’s face slammed into the wood of the deck as Howard dragged him back into the shadow. As the pirate became engulphed in the darkness, Howard used his baton to smash the man in the lower back. The man screamed as his spine shattered.
The next instant Howard shadow stepped to a patch of darkness behind a female pirate. He drew his blade and reached around to place a deep cut across her forehead above the eyebrow. The blood streamed down and started to blind her. Howard stepped back through the same shadow. He appeared in the shade of the mast, in front of another pirate. He used the blade to slice through the man’s abdomen, causing his intestines to spill out onto the deck.
Howard shadow jumped back to a spot without any pirates and watched the scene unfold. The man with the broken back was crawling out of the shadow screaming in pain, asking for someone to help him. The woman wiped her eyes with her hands, clearing the blood for a moment. She looked down at her hands and started walking aimlessly in confusion. The third man was on his knees trying to pick up his insides, but they kept slipping through his bloody fingers.
The remaining crew members looked around at the horror unfolding before their eyes. It was as if a starter pistol went off and the deck turned into pure chaos. The pirates drew their weapons and began running around the deck to find the source of the danger. In their haste, two of the pirates crashed into each other close to the side of the boat. Howard saw the two get entangled in front of him and acted immediately.
He used their moment of confusion to cast a quick spell as his cat’s eye gem blinked under his cloak. The spell allowed his mind to make a mental picture of a shadow from the stern cabin of the ship. Howard pulled out his rope and jumped at the two from his crouched position. The two purple gems flared from under his cloak as he pushed off the ground, empowering his jump. He slammed into the two men with so much force that it knocked the wind out of them. His empowered jump took the two men up and over the railing of the ship for about twenty feet. By the time they had reached the apex of the jump Howard had bound the two men together with his rope. When the three started to descend, Howard activated the weapon as the brown gem lit up. Howard cut the rope and let the two men drop as the rope pulled them toward the ocean floor. The two pirates hit the water and plunged through it as if they were made of stone. As Howard started to drop, he fell into the shadow of the ship and jumped to the location in his mind’s eye.
He held his position in the shadow of a supply crate and waited. The panic on the deck increased now that five of their number were hurt, dead or dying. A few of the pirates, in mindless terror, jumped off the boat into the cold water to avoid the massacre on the deck. Then Howard heard a woman’s voice shout at the remaining pirates from the other end of the ship.
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“Morons! They have a gem user!”
The remaining pirates stood still after the captain spoke. Their courage returning since the captain was a gem user as well, she could handle this other gem user.
She continued, “Pair up and search the vessel. I want this dog brought to heal.”
Howard smiled as he cast another spell, the two clear and one purple gem lighting up.
“It will do you no good,” Howard’s voice felt more than sounded like it came from everywhere at the same time.
His voice had a physical pressure to it that caused their hair to whip around and their skin to hurt. The pressure made it feel as if one of the gods was impressing their will on them through their voice alone. Howards magically reinforced words, once again, shook the morale of the remaining pirates. They started looking in every direction at once for the source of the phantom voice.
“You will all die here, but I have a deal for you,” Howard paused, “If you abandon this ship, you will be allowed to live. I will drop the dinghy for you so you can rescue yourselves.”
The pressure from Howard’s spell subsided allowing the pirates to think again. Some of the men took the deal that Howard offered and jumped from the ship into the icy water. By the time they finished there were four pirates and the captain remaining on the ship. Howard stepped out of the shadow and started walking ominously toward the captain. A clear gem in a ring on his middle finger shimmered as Howard put his will through it and his image blurred. The captain yelled a command to the four remaining pirates and they charged. Howard grinned with excitement as he rushed to meet the four men.
One of the pirates loosed a crossbow bolt at him but it passed through his blurred image without harm. Howard increased his pace to a run as he engaged his four assailants. As he rushed in Howard readied his baton in his right hand and his blade in his left. The first pirate swung his sword at his head, but he dropped to his knees and slid under the attack. He sprung to his feet and used his right hand to smash the baton into the crossbow pirate’s head. The purple gem glowed on the handle as the blow landed, there was a loud bang as the baton struck, caving in the man’s skull.
The pirate on Howard’s right pierced him in the flank while he made his attack against the first pirate. The armor took most of the damage, leaving Howard with nothing more than a minor scratch. The man behind him slashed him across his back, cutting through the cloak and hitting his armor. The armor soaked most of the damage, but far less than the piercing attack from his right. The last pirate raised his arms and swung his club at Howard’s left shoulder, using both hands. Howard saw the attack coming and spun out of the way using his dodge pool causing the attack to miss. The spin carried Howard around the pirate with the rapier and he used his blade to hamstring him. He then pushed the man with the rapier towards the man with the club, they collided and sprawled to the floor. Howard slowly turned to face the man that sliced his back and ruined his cloak.
Howard looked at the last pirate with murder in his eyes and a devil’s smile, “My turn.”
He rushed the man and deflected the incoming attack of the scimitar with his baton. The man was strong enough to keep his arm from recoiling against Howard’s deflection, but it wasn’t enough. Howard kept the tension on the blade as he used his knife to slice the tendon of the man’s bicep on his sword arm. The pirate’s arm went limp as he lost control of his arm, his muscle no longer attached at the elbow. Howard turned to the two he pushed into each other, their bodies a tangled heap on the deck. He leaped at the man with the club with controlled aggression and smashed his baton into his knee. The purple gem on the baton glowed as the strike hit, blowing the man’s kneecap out in a mess of blood and bone. The pirate dropped his club, grabbing his leg where the knee should have been and fell to the deck, writhing in pain.
Howard looked at the four pirates around him, one dead and the other three out of the fight. He adjusted his position and stood in the middle of the downed men as he turned his gaze toward the captain.
“You should have trained them better if you expected them to soften me up,” he taunted the captain.
The captain scoffed at Howard and drew her weapons, a scimitar in her right and a dirk in her left. She leaped off the helm and landed on the deck in a crouched position with her weapons held at her sides. A white gem flared as she landed creating a wall of wind that buffeted Howard, but he held his position. Howard didn’t move, letting the wind wall from her attack hit him, the damage was minimal and he could shrug it off. The captain was obviously a gem user and she used the time her wind wall made to stand and get into a fighting stance.
Timothy, amused by her landing, laughed through Howard before saying.
“Was that a superhero landing?” He looked to the sky, “What a tool!”
The captain paused for a moment, confused at Timothy's words. Howard noticed the look of confusion on her face and charged, seizing the opportunity.
The two clashed, each blocking one another's attacks with their off-hand weapons. Howard went to kick her, but she sidestepped and the attack missed, leaving him prone. He knew he could rely on his larger health and dodge pools to soak the damage from a few of her attacks. She took advantage of his mistake and stepped around Howard to get to his right side. She sliced down Howard's right, but the blur enchantment from his ring was still in effect. Her attack did not strike true and left him with only a minor cut, nothing that he wouldn’t be able to fight through.
Howard spun to his left and flashed his dagger out but she countered it with her dirk in her left hand. What the captain was not able to counter was the baton in his other hand, he brought the baton above his head. He struck her upper arm, and with a bang, the baton discharged its force bonus, shattering the bones in her left arm. The pain from the broken bones caused her to drop the dirk in her left hand as she recoiled from Howard.
“Surrender,” Howard demanded of the captain.
She spat at him.
Howard, disgusted with the captain, wiped the spittle off his face with the finger of his left hand.
“So be it.”
Howard dove at her and blocked the scimitar with the baton as he drove his knee into her solar plexus, she gasped for air. He swung the baton into her right arm, breaking that one as well, causing the scimitar to drop from her hand. Howard grinned at her as he sheathed his knife and looked at the baton, she stared at him with fear in her eyes.
“This is gonna hurt,” he threatened as he continued to look at the baton before smashing her knee.
He spent time breaking some of her other bones before Timothy was finally able to take control. Howard's brutality appalled Timothy and he forced Howard to end the captain's life. Timothy continued to struggle for control over Howard. He wanted to have Howard end the lives of the remaining pirates before he got a chance to torture them. He finished off the last pirate standing near the stern, the female pirate with the cut above her brow.
Howard stripped them of any valuables and began tossing the bodies overboard. Timothy relinquished his control over Howard. Now that he was free to act on his own, Howard walked toward the helm, but Timothy stopped him once again. Howard was going to let the men and women that abandon the ship earlier, drown in the frigid waters below. He directed Howard over to the dinghy, making him set it in the water for the pirates that abandoned ship. With the dinghy free of the ship, Timothy gave control back to Howard, allowing him to act unimpeded. Timothy's struggle left him mentally exhausted.
Howard went to the helm and gave the “All clear” signal to the captain of the Ophelia’s Gift. The captain's second, seaman Jimmy, saw this and informed the captain to slow the ship to pick up Howard. Howard used this time to collect all the items from the pirates and set them in a pile near the center mast. He then went below deck to see if he could find any treasure that the pirates might have hidden away.
Howard found a locked door in the back of the cargo hold after searching for a few minutes. He cast a familiar spell, the black gem lit up as a liquid metal formed in his hands and coalesced into a set of lockpicks. Howard sat on his haunches and inspected the lock before going to work with the lockpicks. Inside was a fortune to the common man. The lock clicked and he opened the door to reveal a fortune in gold and silver coins, he put it all in his shadow storage. Once he completed clearing out the room of its valuables Howard returned to the deck to wait.
When he arrived topside the captain had the Ophelia’s Gift almost even with the pirate ship. The crew started tossing lines over to Howard. He caught the ropes as they flew through the air and quickly tied them to the cleats, allowing the crew to pull the boats together. They placed a gangplank between the two ships so they could go from one to the other with ease.
As the captain walked onto the ship Howard greeted him, “Captain Pritchard, welcome to the new addition to your fleet.”
“I don’t have a fleet,” Captain Pritchard said.
“You do now!” Howard said as he panned his hand around at the boat.
The captain looked taken aback, “I…I can’t accept this,” his speech stumbled.
“Why not?” Howard asked.
“I didn’t earn it. You did,” Captain Pritchard panned a sorrowful gaze over the ship before adding, ”And the atrocities that were committed by the people on this vessel…” his voice faded out.
“So what? Take this boat and turn it into something good,” Howard said, “You deserve this. You did so much for so many people during the war, saved thousands of refugees. Think of what you can do with two boats.”
He paused for a moment before giving in and accepting Howard’s gift, “umm, thank you. I will,” he straightened up, regaining his composure, and turned toward the other ship, “Seaman Byrne! Come here.”
Jimmy ran across the gangplank to Captain Pritchard and stood at attention, “Yes sir!”
“Jimmy, I am hereby promoting you to captain and placing you in charge of this vessel. Gather whichever half of the crew you want and take command of Howard’s Legacy,” the captain said as he gave a quick look at Howard and nodded.
Howard gave the captain a gracious smile and nodded back.
The captain turned back to Jimmy, “Don’t stand there, move!” he commanded. Jimmy startled out of his shock at the promotion and ran back to the Ophelia’s gift, gathering his crew.
He turned back to Howard, “Thank you.”
Howard tipped his hand to captain Pritchard, “You got it,” he paused a moment before turning to walk back to the Ophelia’s Gift.
“Hey!” the captain said, “What about all of that stuff?” He was referring to the pile of goods in the center of the deck near the mast.
“Their yours,” Howard answered over his shoulder.
Captain Pritchard was dumbstruck. Most of the items were mundane and should fetch a decent price, but there were gem items as well. Those items were worth a fortune.
“Hey Howard, are you sure? There are gem items here,” captain Pritchard asked Howard in an effort to confirm he understood what he was passing up.
“Yes! I am maxed out on the gems I can carry, and I don’t want to deal with the feedback. They are all yours,” Howard replied over his shoulder as he crossed the gangplank to the Ophelia’s Gift.
Howard retired to his cabin and worked on his armor for a while, making any necessary repairs. When repairs were completed he lay down in his bed to get some much-needed sleep, it came easy.
The next few weeks went by uneventful as the two ships made their way through The Spine. The crews of both ships moved with practiced ease as they pulled into port and got ready to dock the ships. When the crew finished securing the boat to the dock Howard looked out of the window to find a shadow. He found one without any people nearby and shadow jumped to it, leaving without saying goodbye.