It was an hour before midnight as Psycho crept silently through the pitch-black dining hall. The group had stayed in the room for another hour, eating and talking before fatigue had overcome Draya and Leah, and Jace had told them all to get a good night’s sleep. Psycho had taken a power nap and was ready to go. He felt someone else in the group didn’t need a whole night’s sleep either. The elf had paid attention to who had retired to which room and silently opened the door he wanted.
The accommodations were extravagant for a prison, and the spacious room he entered held two large beds, each with a sleeping occupant. Psycho moved to the head of the one with black hair spilling over the pillow. “Wake up,” he whispered. “I need you to get . . .” his voice choked off as a hand shot out from under the sheets and clamped on his neck. The ranger couldn’t move or breathe for a few seconds and waited for the dangerous woman to wake up and see who he was.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Esther said, releasing her Grapple and sitting back from the elf, tossing the sheets off her. Of course, she slept naked. She smiled at him. “Were you cold? Do you need me to keep you warm tonight?"
“Right, Legs, that’s what I woke you for,” Psycho said dryly. “If I wanted heat, I’d snuggle with the dragon in the other bed, not someone who’s spent the last few years as a cold-blooded vampire.” He put on a serious face. “I need you to help me get our equipment back. If we are going to fight a god and his demon sidekick tomorrow, I don’t want to do it with lizard weapons.”
Esther nodded, suddenly all business and clothing appeared on her body. She had bathed before bed and then found an outfit she liked in the room that she had stored in her inventory and set as one of her preset outfits. She wore a dark blue sleeveless top under a studded leather corset with a knee-length gray skirt and black boots.
Psycho wore a similar color combination with long pants and short sleeves. He offered her a hand, and she sprung out of bed. She hit the ground like a cat, silent and smooth. Draya lay sleeping in the other bed, and they both knew she needed her rest to be effective tomorrow. Without a word, they crept out of the room and closed the door silently behind them.
The food and dishes had been cleared, leaving the pair not even a knife to take with them. They would need to find a way to escape using their skills and spells alone. Psycho outlined his plan to Esther, and she nodded.
The exit to the dining room was locked, but there was a slight crack under the door. If Psycho lay on his stomach, he could just see the booted heel of one of the guards on the other side. It would be easy for Esther to cast a web under the door and then her acid spell, but they wanted to escape undetected. Leaving bodies behind would ruin their plan for tomorrow morning. Instead, Psycho cast his invisibility spell at the troglodyte he saw.
When the boot disappeared, the elf scampered to his feet, and he and Esther hid in the shadows. They waited a few seconds and heard hushed chatter on the other side. Psycho couldn’t guarantee the result of the confusion he had just caused, but he hoped the dumb troglodytes would blame the powerful prisoners they had for the unexpected invisibility. Maybe they were up and about causing mischief.
After a few more seconds, they were rewarded by the sound of a key in the door and the portal slowly opening. The invisible guard was deemed the safest to open the door, and two more covered him from behind with their tridents pointed into the room. Since Psycho had cast the spell, he could see the invisible guard and shared the knowledge with his party member. There wasn’t much room left between his body and the open doorway, but Esther managed to slip through, still hidden in the shadows.
When the guards saw nothing, the two in the back urged their friend to take a few steps inside to be sure. This finally gave the much larger ranger a chance to sneak out. The stealthy pair easily avoided the final two guards, and Esther pick-pocketed a set of keys from one of them. By the time the invisibility spell ended and the guards decided they wouldn’t solve that mystery, Psycho and Esther were long gone.
They needed the stolen keys to open a few doors, and within a minute, they were outside. The lack of light pollution from the primitive plantation meant the night sky was ablaze with stars, a half-moon hanging high in the sky. It was more than enough light for the elf and vampire to navigate their way through the plots of fruits and vegetables toward the coastline. No guards could be seen, but they stayed in the shadows anyway.
Troglodytes did stand at the dock, preventing Potiphar’s men from invading the island at night, but they didn’t have the eyesight to pick out the silent hunters. The boards on the pier did squeak under their feet, but no more than they did naturally from the waves that washed against the pylons below. It looked like the troglodytes were sleeping on their feet anyway.
Potiphar’s ship was tied off to the pier, floating twenty feet away, the line pulled taut by the receding tide. A side hatch to the lower level was open, and it looked like the lizard guards from the hold had deboarded sometime earlier. Psycho guessed they weren’t permanent crew members and rotated with each voyage. After meeting Joe, the elf wouldn’t be surprised that the extra guards were there to ensure the “slaves” weren’t mistreated on their voyage over. The troglodytes hadn’t protested much when Esther had been taken above, though, and Psycho’s blood boiled as he remembered her treatment.
The ranger jumped out on the line, securing the ship, his body swinging below it, his feet just above the water. He flexed his powerful arms, swung his ankles up, and began hand over hand toward the vessel. Esther, with her superior athleticism, simply ran across the tightrope, her balance not wavering in the slightest.
“Show off,” he muttered. He doubled his pace and swung onto the deck only seconds after Esther. He was about to tell her to be careful when he saw she had someone in her arms. The human was in a choke hold, with Esther whispering in his ear. He whispered back, and then she snapped his neck. Psycho shivered at the sight, watching as she lowered him silently to the deck.
She turned to him and offered a crossbow and knife she had picked. She noticed his look of disdain. “We are going to kill them all, right?” she asked, wiping blood from her mouth with the back of her hand.
Psycho nodded. They were slavers and had abused Esther, and who knew how many other men and women. He just hadn’t been ready for the brutality of the vampire’s actions. Somehow, when he killed people with his bow from 200 feet, it seemed more civilized.
“He said our equipment has been divided among the crew, but Potiphar and Lilith took most of it.”
“You trust him?”
Esther nodded. “I had him enthralled. He couldn’t lie to me.” She pointed to the crew quarters where the captain and first officer slept. Several lights flickered on in the ship, and they both understood not everyone was sleeping yet.
“Then we do as we discussed and split up,” Psycho said. “We need to take out as many as we can as quickly and silently as possible. Once the alarm is sounded, they will have the upper hand if we haven’t found our equipment.”
Esther nodded and slinked off into the darkness toward the ship's main structure, where most of the crew would be. Even though he knew they deserved it, Psycho had a problem with killing people in their sleep. Esther didn’t.
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The ranger stowed the knife Esther had given him on his right hip and held the crossbow in his left as he moved along the ship's curve toward the prow. Empty cages sat on the deck, jumbled with wooden crates, barrels, and piles of other materials, making it hard for him to see everything. They probably needed to clean the hold before putting the cages back, as Esther and Leah likely weren’t the only ones who were seasick.
The next guard stood at the ship’s forepeak. Psycho had to wait until he stopped leaning against the railing, or he would flip over into the water when he died. The splash would make too much noise. He wasn’t as proficient with the crossbow, but his range ability and Death Shot feat worked the same. As soon as the man shifted his weight, he was dead. The ranger was on top of him in a second, loading another bolt to his weapon and ensuring no one else saw the kill. He searched the body and found a two-handed cutlass very similar to his missing katana.
He turned the corner and went down the ship's starboard side, finding the guard opposite the one Esther had killed. He was pacing, and a bolt took him in the head, dropping him soundlessly on a coiled pile of ropes. Psycho stood over him a few moments later and looked toward the back of the ship. Esther would clear that out; he didn’t want to get in her way. He turned back to the front and looked up at the top of the foremast where the crow’s nest sat. He saw motion up there but didn’t trust the cheap crossbow to make an accurate shot through the rigging. The man had partial cover, and killing him up close would be better.
Psycho climbed a few steps up on top of the forecastle and hesitated when he heard a splash in the water. He spun toward it and saw a tentacle rising over the side of the boat and swatting toward him. He dropped the crossbow, pulled his new sword, and hacked at the animated limb. Four feet of it sliced cleanly off and flopped on the deck for a few seconds as the rest retreated into the water. Psycho looked at the horrifying appendage for too long, and more tentacles attacked him from the opposite side. He turned, sliced, and defeated one of them, but the other batted him from his perch, and he fell toward the center of the ship, crashing into the empty cages, disturbing the silence of the night.
Psycho landed awkwardly after striking the corners of several metal cells, his body aching all over and missing his dragon armor. On either side, the sea monster sent more tentacles to search him out, the vibrations of the tumbled cages confusing it. The ranger swiped at a few that got close, driving them away and telling the rest where he was. There were too many of them, and soon, they had secured his legs on from either side, and they pulled apart, threatening to rip him in half. Psycho had to change his grip on the sword to one hand to swipe down strong on his left side, but another tentacle secured his elbow before he attacked and wrenched it against a cage, forcing him to drop the weapon.
The arms pulled him in three directions at once, almost to the point of breaking, and then stopped. The ranger was Helpless, held tight against the outside of a metal cage, the outer lock pressing uncomfortably into his lower back. His eyes watered from the pain, and he made out a blurry image walking toward him. Once he blinked the tears away, Psycho saw Lilith in a skimpy green nightgown sauntering toward him, barefoot on the wooden deck.
“My, my,” she said. “Look what my pet has caught.”
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Esther was the Fallen Angel of Death as she moved through the ship. Another guard paced before the crew cabins but didn’t have a chance as the vampire attacked from the shadows and snapped his neck before he could call out.
The quarters were rooms with eight bunks each. The first she checked had two empty beds, probably guards who were out patrolling. The rest were filled with sleeping and snoring men. The game considered them prone and unconscious, thus they didn’t get a saving chance against Esther’s web that filled the room with thick strands of magic, rendering them Helpless for the spell's duration. The rogue dropped an area acid spell in the room next and closed the door.
She didn’t feel sorry for them. They would wake when the first blast of acid hit them, but in their Helpless state, they wouldn’t be able to cry out. She doubted any of them would survive more than three rounds. It was a cruel way to die, but she recognized two of them from her days in the cage. One of them had fired arrows at her, while the other had promised to rape her if she ever fell asleep.
She didn’t feel sorry for them.
But she didn’t have to watch either.
Two more rooms filled with men met the same fate, and she would have to find another living guard soon to refresh her mana. After a few more minutes of silently roaming the narrow halls, she didn’t find anyone, but she also didn’t find any more bunks. The last door in the corridor opened to a storage room. She saw a few items resembling Rock and Leah’s equipment and stowed those in her inventory. Leah’s wands or her party’s more valuable pieces weren't there.
Back in the hall, stairs led up, and Esther crept in the darkness, careful of any creaks in the old wood. Once she reached the upper level, light leaked under a door a dozen feet before her. The room was toward the back of the ship, and, according to the crewmember she had interrogated, this would be the captain’s quarters.
Esther hurried the last few steps until she stood silently before the door. He must still be awake. She leaned her ear against the door to get an idea of what might be happening inside, but a tremendous crash sounded from the front of the ship, and she pulled back from the door. The hallway didn’t offer a view of the rest of the ship, and she would have to climb another set of stairs to the quarter deck. That would put the captain at her back. Certainly, he had heard the noise as the commotion continued to shatter the stillness of the night.
If Potiphar had been preparing for bed, he would be unarmed, and the longer she waited to investigate the noise, the less of an advantage she would have. Without a plan, she opened the door and stepped inside.
The captain was in his nightshirt, rising and turning from the desk beside his bed where he had been writing. His twin swords lay on a trunk beside him. At the sight of the woman, he reached for his weapons, but Esther was faster. Or, she would have been, but two steps in, her feet became tangled in something she hadn’t detected. Looking down, the woman saw seaweed vines climbing her legs, growing magically from the wooden floor and wrapping around her waist. Out of habit, she reached for her swords to hack at them, but they weren’t there. Still, she had impressive Athletic ability and wrestled with the vines before they completely covered her.
Esther saw Captain Potiphar lose his sense of urgency once she had sprung the trap but still bore a look of concern that she wasn’t more ensnared. She took that moment of confusion to look around the large room. Two wooden clothing stands stood in the corners on either side of her, with several ornate and colorful jackets on display. A piano sat along the far wall, and next to it was a mammoth table that looked perfect for spreading out a large map. It currently held a pile of familiar equipment.
“Oh,” he said, drawing her attention back to him. “Were you looking for those? I must admit I’ve never seen anything like them before. I don’t know if they are my style, but I know of a pirate band that will pay a king’s ransom for them.”
“You could use the money,” she said. “If you need to tie up your female callers like this when they enter your room at night to sleep with them, you need to pay for better prostitutes.”
Potiphar leaped at her with a single weapon. She could tell the attack wasn’t meant to kill, as he probably wanted to toy with her longer. Thus, Esther was able to Dodge it despite her Grappled condition. The captain stepped back. Though he probably didn’t think in game terminology like Jace had taught Esther, she guessed he had thought she should be at least Securely Grappled and incapable of Dodging.
“Well, aren’t you full of surprises,” he said. “Guards!” he called in a firm voice. “Restrain her!”
Esther laughed. “I don’t think they are coming,” she said. “They are all dead . . .” her voice trailed off as she watched the wooden clothing stands come to life. The arms articulated and curled toward the central posts as if stuffing the jackets, coats, and shirts into invisible pockets. Soon, all the clothing was stored in their magical inventories, and the pair ambled over to her on their wide tripod legs like mutant stick bugs.
Once again, Esther wrestled against the Grappling attacks, and if there had only been one of them, she might have been successful. The wooden golems moved effortlessly through the live patch of seaweed and used their multiple limbs to hold her fast.
“Push her against that table, and don’t let her move.”
The magical constructs obeyed, but Esther moved plenty, struggling every step of the way and refusing to give up. She constantly failed her attempts to escape but never critically and was never rendered Helpless. The animated furniture wasn’t gentle and slammed her face-first onto the table, her feet still on the floor. The wooden posts stood on either side of her, forcing her hands flat on the polished oak. She struggled to lift her head and saw her pile of equipment only inches away from her fingertips.
“Yes, struggle,” Potiphar said, approaching her from behind and staring at her shapely legs with the back of her skirt pulled high. “I like it better when they scream anyway. Though If I’m guessing right, you’ll be begging for more.”
“Bastard!” Esther replied as she desperately reached for her scale armor just out of reach.