Retrieving the mask of Haj Umr from his pack, Judoc puts it on to get a better view of the ship. The Templar student had never set out to accumulate magical items, and he finds it amusing that several of the items he has acquired have a necromantic feel to them. if Judoc is not careful, people will start to talk about his unusual accessories.

Concentrating, Judoc draws on the mask's power and draws additional mana to zoom in on the approaching ship.

OOC: Judoc will draw on the mask's 2 points and use his own FP for a level 2 version of Hawk Vision. If allowed, he will take an Aim maneuver to zoom in on the other ship.

Judoc pulls the mask from his things and activates the item, pressing it to his face.  Almost as soon as the mask is in place over his eyes, his breath catches in his throat as he is awestruck by the sudden detail he is able to discern.

What was once a small speck of white upon the horizon now stands clear in his view.  It's a sailing rig clear enough, with two masts and two levels of sails on each of them.  In front, the ship has additional sails, hanging between the forward mast and an outcropping at the front.

A long row of windows along the side make it clear there is at least one level below deck, though there is likely more based on how much of the ship clears the water and in the back the rails of the vessel climb even higher.

It is there on the back where Judoc's gaze remains for several moments, for atop the perch at the back, Judoc sees something which appears a giant crossbow...

Up at the top of the rigging, Judoc sees just the briefest flash of green.  Some flag which dons the top of the mast which Judoc does not recognize immediately.

But just then, the Watchman hit the backside of a swell, lurching in the water and sending sea spray up and over the side and spoiling Judoc's view.

~Why must we take this cursed man-fish?  Aiah laments, thrusting her beak back into her wing and attacking the fresh assault of saltwater with gusto.

OOC:  If you want to try and identify the flag, you can roll vs. either heraldry or seamanship, though both rolls will be penalized at least for range.  General picture of the ship you see below, though don't read into it too much, as this ship has no cannon and you can't see near the fidelity that the picture shows.

Initially, Judoc had been interested in how Hawk Vision could aid in making his fireballs more accurate. The sudden increased clarity reveals an even more powerful use of the spell. What was once a tiny speck on the horizon now is much closer. The other ship is larger, with two masts and at least one lower deck. Judoc wishes he had been able to find a ship like this rather than the pitiful boat he was consigned to.

”That’s a huge crossbow,” he says aloud. ”And what’s that flag? Is it green?” He wonders how long it takes to load it. Was it used as a whaling ship? Judoc has read of whalers with massive harpoons. Perhaps this is one such vessel.

~This is one of the worst ways we could have travelled,~ he sends to Aiah. ~I can’t wait to be done with this. I wish we could have just flown back, but flying tires me out faster than it does you.~

Judoc stares back at the vessel, racking his brain for anywhere he may have seen the green colored flag... though at this range, even with his enhanced vision, it's quite difficult to even see the flag, let alone identify it.  In the end, he gives up the effort as a bad job, able to determine with certainty the green and gold colors, but little else about the ensign.

"Crossbow?"  Tibbets spits, turning his head over his shoulder towards Judoc and greeting his warning with a sneer of distain.  "What are you, stupid?"  Though why the word should be embarrassing to Judoc is not immediately clear, for Tibbets turns his head back towards his crewman rather than explain anything further.

"Orgon!  Set course for the inlet off the port bow!  Trisso, let out everything we've got!  Reve!  Keep your eyes on that ship and let me know when she starts drifting to stern!  And you!..."  Tibbets turns towards the men at the oars, who even yet continue to row with rhythmic beats upon the water.  "Row!  Row like your lives depend on it!  There's only one reason for a ship to have a ballista, and it's to break other ships apart where they float!  That ship's pirates men, mark my words!  And if we want to live, we need to outrun them.  For pirates don't take prisoners!"

OOC:  No success in the seamanship roll.  Let me know if there's any action you want to take, or if you just want to see where things go from here.

Bristling, Judoc glares at Tibbets. What an insufferable cur! There is nothing worse than the arrogance of one who thinks he knows more than anyone else.

Turning back to the sea, Judoc looks with interest at the other vessel. A ballista. Judoc is familiar with the term, having encountered it in a treatise on siege warfare, but he has never seen one in person. The mage has not yet encountered pirates, but he has heard tales of their marauding. Does the empire do nothing to keep pirates in check? Are there no coast guard vessels to harry pirates?

He idly considers flying out and bombarding the pirate ship from above. A few Explosive Fireballs or a Rain of Fire spell should sort them out.

"I could fly over there, you know. Burn their sails to ash. They wouldn't be able to catch us if they have no sails."

OOC: Judoc will continue to watch the ship, but he will not renew the Hawk Vision spell. Right now, he's considering fighting a one-man war against the pirates, but something tells me it won't be quite as easy as that.

"Well then why don't you make yourself useful for once and do it?  Tibbets spits indifferently as he raises his head to check the progress of the sails.  "Or haven't you had enough of standing around and doing nothing?"

Though his attention for Judoc is short lived, for he spots a moment of weakness as one of the men misses a beat with his oar for exhaustion and Tibbets is upon him like a hawk upon a rodent.

"Do you not wish to live!?"  Tibbets fumes, spittle flying from his lips as he presses his face within an inch of the slave's.

"Do you think the pirates will be merciful because you are tired?  I assure you they will not!  Row with your kin, or else I'll be done with the dead weight and throw you into the sea!  Perhaps then you'll see what mercy the pirates will grant!"

"No change captain!"  Reve shouts from the top of the mast.  "Constant bearing, and she looks like she's bearing down!"

"Damnit!"  Tibbets responds, turning his head from the slave and retreating back towards the side where he cups his own hands, glancing at the sail on the horizon, which Judoc admits, seems to have gotten a little bigger.

"She's changed course!"  Tibbets rages.  "They've seen us!  Make for the inlet with all haste men!  We have to get into shallower waters where they can't chase us!"

If Judoc weren't beholden to Tibbets for giving him passage, the mage would be tempted to just let the pirates capture the ship. As it stands, however, Tibbets' fate is tied up in Judoc's own, at least for now. Is it true that pirates leave no prisoners? Why? The young wizard realizes there is much he does not know about this world.

~I'm going to need your help, pretty bird. I'm going to fly to that other boat and burn it,"~ Judoc sends to Aiah. He makes sure he has his powerstone ring. Then, Judoc takes up his staff. "Accipter fuga," he murmurs, and lifts off for the other ship.

OOC: Judoc will take along his staff and powerstone. He will leave the mask, circlet, and amulet in his pack.

Annoyed by Tibbet's nonchalant and ungrateful response, Judoc never the less weighs his options and finds that dealing with the pirate ship is still probably in his best interests.

~Be my guest.  Aiah responds to the thought, allowing the transfer of magical power through her body, though after the moment, she alights down from Judoc's shoulder and onto the wood planks near the prow.

~I'll let you do it on your own.  Aiah continues, shoving her beak into a wing again and ruffling her feathers.  ~With all this salt and spray that's hit us I doubt I'd be able to fly fast or far if you lost hold of me!

The spell is draining, one of the most fatiguing that Judoc has in his arsenal, though the feel of magical flight is second to none.  Judoc leaves the deck of the boat in a blast, rocketing himself up to the height of the mast before he points himself towards the other ship and starts making real progress, his body accelerating to speeds that only Aiah could match and only from a high dive.

"Gods!..."  Reve shouts from the masthead as Judoc departs, though the wind whips at his ears so badly as he speeds away that he cannot hear anything else the sailor may have mentioned.

Judoc heads straight for the ship, tweaking his trajectory slowly as he continues.  Ahead, the double masts grow over the horizon, showing Judoc his first real view of the vessel.  Men swarm over the deck, a dozen or more, some tending sails, though most of them simply lined up at the nearest rail and unmoving.  It becomes clear to Judoc too, that the Balista at the back of the ship is not the only weapon, though it is clearly the largest and the one with the highest perch.  The large balista is perhaps the size of two men or slightly larger, but there are other, smaller crossbows shapes lined up along the rails, four on each side that Judoc counts, each one about the size of a man.

At the last moment, Judoc swerves to put himself in the lead of the ship, giving himself both the best shot at the massive sails as well as minimizing his vulnerability to the crossbows.  To his annoyance, Judoc finds that he must spend more of his precious fatigue to upkeep his flight spell...  He would have to spend the rest of his mana carefully, for despite his ample stores, he would have to leave enough to make the return trip, which would no doubt drain him further.

Holding steady just at the edges of his range, Judoc casts another spell.  This one for a fireball, not much bigger than a walnut though it is crackling with energy.  Judoc concentrates and hurls the thing forward, hearing cries from the ship ahead as it crashes forward through the waves towards the wizard.  As the fireball closes, the ship begins to turn, slowly exposing the port side as it turns away from Judoc.

Judoc curses as he watches his missile err just inches wide, just barely missing the largest sail altogether.  Another fireball springs to his hand, though this time Judoc takes his time, concentrating longer to make sure he cannot miss.

Up on the prow, Judoc spots a shorter man...  or goblin rather, who's shoulders barely break the top of the rail.  The goblin stares at Judoc, his hands held forward in concentration.  He wears a green tabard, emblazoned with gold, which exactly resemble the flag at the top of the mainmast - a golden dragon set upon a green field.

Judoc does not hesitate, but hurls his weapon ahead and this time he knows his fireball will hit.  He watches as it closes... though at the last minute, something like a waterspout bursts from the sea, intercepting the missile and snuffing it out into a blast of steam!

As the side of the ship comes into view, Judoc sees the bulk of the sailors standing at the rail, manning the four weapons at the side, all of which are now pointed at him!

OOC:  A lot to go through in this post.  I tried to go by your intentions to the best of my ability, but obviously you're didn't get everything you hoped for.

Firstly, I'm not sure if you planned on taking Aiah or not, but it's simply not possible given that her wings are filthy from all the sea spray and it just doesn't make any sense that she would be able to hold on to you with you flying at 80mph/40yps.  If you want me to go back and edit you taking an additional FP from her energy reserve I will, though taking all of it will put her at 0 FP which would be dangerous at sea.

Secondly (and probably most importantly) you were far enough from the ship that you had to renew your hawk flight spell before you got into position.  I had you drain the 3 mana from your powerstone to give you a few more options later on.  This would make it clear to you that you would need to renew again to get back to the Watchman if that is your plan in the long run.

I had you stop at max range for your fireball (50 yards) ahead of the ship and aim for one round, which gave you pretty good odds of hitting (given the massive size of the sail), though you just missed.  I figured it wasn't worth your only hero point to correct.

Your second attack was a hit, but was intercepted by a burst of water that came from the sea.

You are now at just over 30 yards (-8 to hit) off the port bow of the ship with four large crossbows trained in your direction.  Let's do about only about 5 seconds worth of action this time.

Hawk Flight 10/60


The Ship's Flag

When Judoc sees the small goblin on the ship’s deck, the mage immediately thinks of Grobbik, his fellow student and a proficient Water College practitioner. Sure enough, a water spout intercepts Judoc’s second fireball, frustrating the young mage’s attempt to burn the ship’s sails. Judoc growls in frustration.

That these pirates have a mage among their number makes them even more dangerous. And that emblem - a gold dragon on a green field. Didn’t pirates normally fly a black flag with a skull? Judoc realizes his plan has probably been foiled here. He had considered casting Rain of Fire and now regrets not attempting it.

Let’s see if you can do that again, Goblin. Summoning more mana from around him, Judoc shapes another fireball to hurl at the closest sail.

OOC: Try one more Explosive Fireball. Draw on Judoc’s Powerstone. Then fly back to the Watchman and report what he’s seen: the smaller crossbows, the goblin mage, and the flag. Then collapse in a heap and try to rest.

Judoc attempts one more time, summoning an explosive fireball to the end of his staff before hurling it again at the ship.

This time, when the mage on the ship casts his own water spell, the plume of water shooting up from the surface is misplaced, and misses Judoc's missile to the side...  Though it appears Judoc's own aim is off as well, and he misses his target, the largest sail of the foremast, both high and to the side.  However, Judoc is elated to see that despite his miss, his ball careens into the highest sail on the mizzenmast, exploding almost instantly into a roiling flame.

But Judoc does not have long to celebrate his victory, for nearly in sequence he sees four massive bolts launched and tracking straight in his direction.  Judoc begins to maneuver himself backwards, though he simply is not quick enough.  One of the bolts (he realizes it's nearly the size of a spear as it comes in close) almost skewers him, forcing him to cast a spell of evasion at the last second that diverts the missile just barely off course.

Judoc watches for a few last seconds, gritting his teeth as he realizes the geyser that had attempted to block his fireball has not fallen back to the sea, but instead is now been redirected as a sheet of water towards the flaming sail, crashing into the damaged canvas and mingling blackened smoke with pure white steam.

There is simply nothing for it.  Judoc flees, not for fear of his life, but rather because he simply knows that he doesn't have enough energy to continue the fight.  He makes it back to the ship and collapses on the brow, having just enough energy to tell the added details of what he has learned.

While Tibbets does not seem impressed, he never the less has his hands full and doesn't any overt comments apart from a few grumbles.

Time passes.  Judoc meditates to the best of his ability as the brow crashes over the swells, occasionally spraying him with brine.

The coast approaches, though the other ship continues to close as well.  But eventually, it becomes clear that the Watchman will hit the coast before being set upon by her adversaries.

"Take in the sails!"  Tibbets shouts, glancing over his shoulder again to see the the pirate brig, now looming large at about a half mile away.  "We'll coast in with the oars!  Set course for that sandbar there!"  Tibbets points to a small gap in the rocky coast where a shallow bank is mingled with a sandy shore.

The strip is narrow, and situated at the bottom of a cliff, such that it becomes a bit of a question as to where they will go once their boat is ashore.  Never the less, Tibbets guides his crew to the bank, and Judoc can feel himself lifted as the bow presses up upon the beach.

"Up and heave her onto the shore!"  Tibbets shouts, unchaining the rowers from their oar stations as the other three crew continue about the odds and ends of caring for the ship.

Judoc too alights upon the beach, watching as the ship out at range turns to make her way parallel to the shoreline.

OOC:  It is 1200 on the 7th of August.  You have recovered some fatigue, which is noted on your character sheet, though obviously Aiah and your powerstone will take more time.  You have the option for the moment of doing anything you deem helpful to the situation.  Essentially, you have time, but there isn't anything clear at the moment that has to be done.

Still smarting in his failure to disable the pirate vessel, Judoc aids the crew as much as he can once he disembarks. He briefly considers using Apportation to help with the boat. However, he decides to save his energy in case he will need to fight off the pirate crew at some point. A pity he has not yet learned Shape Water. Judoc would dearly love to use the goblin wizard's water against the caster.

The battle had been instructive. As surprising as his sudden attack must have been, Judoc realizes he should not underestimate his opponents. Judoc had assumed that the pirates would have not been able to mount a counterattack. However, both the goblin and the crossbows had been potential counters to Judoc's offensive.

However, just because Judoc had been bested in the initial skirmish does not mean that he will be ineffective should they clash with the pirates again. The raiders are now forewarned that a mage is among The Watchman's crew. Judoc no longer possesses the advantage of surprise, but his presence will make the pirates more cautious.

Judoc allows himself a tiny grin at his fireball barrage of the pirate ship. Judoc had overcome Thresher on the arena sands. Then, the young mage had overcome one man. Just now, he had nearly dispatched an entire ship of pirates singlehandedly. Well, with Aiah's help, of course. If it hadn't been for that goblin mage and the pirates' crossbow arsenal, Judoc would have burned their sails and set them adrift at sea.

OOC: Judoc will help as he can in securing the ship. He will also make sure he has his possessions.

It seems curious to Judoc but Tibbets's confidence seems to rebound, as if the whole situation is solved, now that the Watchman is aground.  The man returns to his normal, jovial shittiness, lampooning his crew for their slow actions and congratulating only himself for saving the vessel and all the lives aboard it.

As if an accomplice to this telling of the story, the ship stays in the distance, sailing up and down the cove several times, though maintaining its distance (Judoc is certain that his attack was the main purpose of that added benefit) before turning up the coast and sailing out of sight.

"Idiots!"  Tibbets barks, smiling as the ship works its way behind the Eastern shoreline.  "Think they'll bait us out and scoop us up?  There is no way I'm leaving until the morning!  Let them patrol all night if they wish!"

Judoc grits his teeth slightly at the further delay, though in truth, he's not keen on taking in another fight with the ship either, especially given that he nearly exhausted himself in the earlier battle, and that without having done much damage at all to their adversary...  Though at least next time he would be more prepared...

The afternoon wears on, and Tibbets directs the crew to the small tasks that make up setting their camp each night and Judoc assists as best he can.  Though the beach is small and completely isolated from the cliffs above, there is enough driftwood along the shore to collect for a fire.  They have food and water, though Reve manages to spear a few small crabs to add to the pot.  The boat is tended to and what can be seen of the bottom is cleaned and patched to keep it sailing as quickly as possible when they depart the next morning.

It still wrinkles Judoc's nerves, though by now he has become accustomed to the routine of the slaves getting only a few minutes of freedom to relieve themselves, stretch their limbs, and eat before they are chained back in their seats.  Not for the first time it strikes Judoc that all four of these men appear to be Arabic...  nominally, it's illegal to enslave a Christian...  though Judoc has seen more than one poor criminal in Azer who had been excommunicated to remove that particular burden.  Still, it seems odd to him now that they are traveling so far east...  so far away from any of the muslim lands.

Afternoon gives way to evening, and the tides flee away from the shoreline, revealing several more yards of beach and putting the Watchman completely on dry land.  There is enough time and daylight for a little bit of exploring and a few of the men go off to see if they can find anything of use in the tiny inlet.  Orgon reports a massive crack in the cliff at the end of the cove, one large enough to fit through a man so long as he crouched, though he opts not to explore the cave far, being that he didn't have a light beyond the setting sun to see by.

Evening gives way to night.  The skies redden and go dark, spattered only with a few brushstrokes of clouds that blot out the stars as they roll by.  The ship is not seen again despite the constant watch.

Eventually, the group turns in for the night as the tides turn back towards the shore, thinking that their ordeal is over.

"GODS!"

The cry awakens Judoc who had just managed to fall asleep beset by the heat and humidity of the night, not to mention the various bugs.  He spins up to a stand, sand flying off his weeks old stubble and hair as he searches which way to look.

"The devil himself is coming!"  Trisso shouts, thrusting his finger out towards the water.

There really isn't any need.  As soon as Judoc had opened his bleary eyes he can see what caused the stir...  Two towers of flame that climb up from the waters of the sea like dragon's breath... infernos that don't seem to have any source at all... that seem to be traveling straight towards them...

"It's headed for the Watchman!"  Tibbets screams.  "Set up a barricade!  Get anything in the way.  That's our only way out of here!"

OOC:  It's 0300 on the 8th of August.  The twin blazes appear to about 100 yards out and you really aren't sure what they are apart from a bright red and yellow spot floating on the sea.  The flames are definitely coming towards you however, and quickly based on the apparent arc of the flames and black smoke as it rises up into the night.

Roll vs. HT-5.  If you fail, you suffer 1 FP per point you fail by for a bad night's sleep and early rise.

Judoc is dead tired. The events of the previous day and the ongoing threat of the still-roving pirate ship have done nothing for his peace of mind. The mage has hardly slept at all on the sandy shore. He awakens with bleary eyes and a parched throat.

However, in spite of his fatigue, he is on his feet in an instant due to his excellent reflexes. He takes in the situation at once. ”Not the devil. Magic.” He grits his teeth and digs deep, attempting to push through his weariness to summon what reserves he can to meet the oncoming fiery threat. Try to defeat Judoc with fire? The unmitigated gall.

He swiftly reviews his options. He could make the boat fireproof, but in his weakened state, he knows he does not have the energy to protect the whole boat.

No. He decides to attempt to take control of the situation.

OOC: Wait. When the columns of fire get closer, use Shape Fire to attempt to control them.

Despite his exhaustion, Judoc hurries down to the waterline, brushing sand off his face with the back of his arm.  He knows this is the goblin mage... despite the fact that the flames on the water seemed out of style for a wizard that was trained for water.

As Judoc waits for his moment, Tibbets, Reve, Orgon, and Trisso all fly across the beach, carrying stones, driftwood, and debris, anything large enough to be part of a barrier between the fire and the Watchman.  Judoc watches, the incoming tide lapping up against his shins and rushing in the small spaces between his feet and his sandals.

Slowly, Judoc becomes aware that this is no magical fire...

Instead, the flames climb up from small boats, probably no more than six feet in length.  Unmanned, they never the less steer unerringly straight and inhumanly fast straight for the Watchman.  With the wind in his face, Judoc can suddenly smell the musty stench of burning oil and naphtha.  The new information causes Judoc to begin second guessing his plan to shift the direction of the flames...

Sploosh!  Orgon hurls down a chest-sized stone just next to Judoc, the end of the barrier which is too pitifully small to be of much use.

"Get a grapnel line!"  Tibbets shrieks, his voice breaking into utter hysterics.  "Pull them to the sides, keep them from hitting the Watchman!"

Somewhere behind him, Judoc can hear the other crewhands rusling through the equipment that's been stacked on the beach.

~What in the blazes!  Aiah thinks as she flitters down, her mind groggy with sleep as she flitters on to Judoc's shoulder.  ~What have you done this time?

OOC:  Brutal HT roll, I hadn't meant to severely restrict your options, but this will make things interesting too.  Looking over the Shape Fire spell, it mentions that you can't shape natural flames to places where it can't burn.  I'd say moving it from the small boats to anywhere (considering everything else around it is sea water) probably fits that description.

The boats are about 20 yards away now, each of them supporting at 10 foot column of flame.  Though they don't have sails, they seem to be moving the full speed of a sailing vessel with the wind at its back.  The boats are about 6 feet long and also about 4 yards apart, so if you wanted to cast an area effect spell over both of them, you would need to make it at least area 3 to get them both in the radius.  I'm assuming your plan changes slightly based on the ruling for Shape Fire.  Feel free to make a roll against another spell as you see fit.

Not fire magic, then. Judoc wonders at what steers the rapidly-approaching boats. Another spell from the Water college? A pity that Judoc had spent little time studying water spells. Or perhaps something from Movement? Or Air?

Judoc grimaces at Aiah's sleepy reproach. ~Not me. The goblin mage. Or the pirates.~

Tibbets' actions seem to indicate that he has experienced an attack like this before. Boats bearing down with fire billowing upward create an entirely new picture for Judoc, but perhaps this is a common pirate tactic.

Should Judoc try to extinguish the fires? Or move the boats?

He concentrates, raising his staff before him.

"I've got it!"  Trisso shouts, sprinting to the waterline where he hurls the grapnel at one of the rapidly approaching ships.

Clunk!  The iron hook hits the wood of the boat on the left and grips on as Trisso pulls back on the line.

"Run with it!"  Tibbets shouts, grabbing hold of the rope himself with both hands and sprinting wildly down the beach.  Trisso too runs with the line, and Orgon and Reve rush up also to pull the vessel off course like an inhuman game of tug-of-war.

The grapnel holds, and slowly the nose of the boat begins to turn away from the Watchman...  Though the damn thing still seems to be coming too fast... and too sideways to believe it's propulsion is natural...

Not sure if there is enough time for him to attempt a spell on both targets, Judoc focuses his efforts on the boat on the right.  He holds out his staff, concentrating.  He doubts he will get more than one shot.

The mana surges through his body, causing his knees to buckle slightly as he struggles to stay upright.  But Judoc's spell is successful!  With tremendous effort he halts the boat, not much more than a handful of yards ahead of him.  But even as his spell is complete, Judoc feels the fight of the ship...  it is being pushed unnaturally, fighting against his spell.  Gritting his teeth in concentration, Judoc simply lifts the craft out of the water and he feels a reprieve from the resistance.

To his left, the other burning vessel hits the impromptu barricade nearly sideways, scraping to a halt before it begins a sluggish movement up the shore, toted by the four men and their rope.

At his feet, Judoc feels the water climb, pushing up onto the beach with force.  It isn't a wave...  for the waters of the small inlet are calm, but seems more like the waters of the Mare Medium are fleeing up and onto the sands, rushing upwards and towards the Watchman.

"I've done it!"  Tibbets shouts after a moment of peace, recognizing that the Watchman has not been hit from the attack.  "The wall worked!  Gods, those pirates are relentless!"

OOC:  After thinking on the apportation thing, I think it was definitely doable to push the boat off track, though you were so limited in the time you had, based on how fast the boats were going, that I just had you lift the whole thing out of the water.  As the others managed to pull the other off course as well, it ended up working out for you.

At the moment, you are holding the boat, which is still engulfed in flames, about a foot over the water a dozen feet or so in front of you.  I wasn't sure if you were just going to set it down on the empty beach and let it burn or do something else with it.

Sweat drips down Judoc's face as he holds the small boat up in the air, the fire still billowing. God, he's tired. And that idiot Tibbets is taking all the credit for saving his ship.

But even now, it seems they have more problems coming. "The water is rising!" he calls out. Is this part of the same spell that drove the burning boats toward the Watchman? Or is the goblin casting something else? Judoc finds himself marveling at the other mage's strength and skill.

The Templar student focuses on keeping the boat aloft and attempts to move it to the sand, where he hopes the fire will burn itself out. He could attempt to extinguish the fire with magic, but he is reluctant to channel any more mana unless as a last resort. Already he is close to exhaustion, and they still have the pirates to deal with.

~Aiah, take to the air. What can you see of the pirates?~

OOC: I thought about trying to douse the boat in the water, but that would likely require more energy than Judoc can muster. He will carry the boat to a safe spot on the beach and set it down to allow it to burn itself out.

Judoc heaves the ship from the water with enormous effort, hauling it to the beach several yards away from the Watchman before he lets it crash down to the sands.  The small boat splinters and cracks under its own weight, spilling liquid flames over its sides before it finally comes to a rest, slowly immolating itself into nothingness.

Judoc switches his attention to the ground below him, concerned for a moment about the rising water.  However, when Judoc looks down again whatever surge had come with the boats seems to have passed, leaving only wet sand at Judoc's feet.

Shifting his attention to hopefully the last of his concerns, Judoc sends Aiah to the air, asking her to report on whatever she sees of the pirates.

Down the beach, Tibbets and the others slowly walk back towards the Watchman, having left their rope and grapnel to burn with the other boat, which also sits stranded on the shoreline.

"Keep a keen watch!"  Tibbets says in an undertone, leaning over slightly with his hands on his knees as he tries to swing his head in odd directions as if a hunchback on lookout.  "There's no telling where they will strike next."

"Couldn't have more than that could they?"  Orgon heaves as he walks back up the shoreline.  "How many boats do you think they have to set on fire?  Couldn't be more than that could it?"

~The giant man-fish?  Aiah asks as she swirls above in the darkness.  ~It seems to be well out in the water... an hour man-walk... if you could walk on water I suppose.  Shall I go out to see what they are doing?

OOC:  Sorry for the lag here.  Hopefully I'll be able to keep more consistent for the rest of the week.  Your immediate concerns are settled.  The flaming boats are no longer a danger, the surging water has died out, and there isn't anything else apparent at the moment.  Your estimation based on Aiah's description is that the pirate ship is at least a few miles away.  All of the crew are catching their breath and standing on the shore line.

~No. Please stay near us. Every now and then, fly up to see what you can see.~

Sluggishly, Judoc joins the others as they make their way back to the Watchman. Tired from his spell-casting and the previous night's sleeplessness, he sinks down onto the sands to try to get some rest.

"I don't know how much time they're going to give us. I've asked Aiah to keep watch from above. What do pirates normally do in this kind of situation?"

Judoc wonders why the pirates have not attacked en masse. They seemed intent on destroying their boat. Why not try to capture its cargo instead? Why would the pirates want to strand them on this island? He does have Haj Umr's amulet, but the pirates are too far out to be able to reach them.

OOC: Attempt to rest. Have Aiah check every thirty minutes or so on what the pirates might be doing.

Judoc sinks to the sands, basking in the glow of the burning boat as he ponders aloud what more the pirates have in store.

"Hell if I know."  Orgon responds as he sits down alongside Judoc.  Tibbets continues on his way back up to the Watchman, checking alongside the stern for potential damage from the fire.

"I've never been attacked before."  Orgon continues, wiping beads of sweat from his brow.  "But all the stories I've heard end one of two ways.  Everybody dead and the cargo stole, or else everybody held ransom...  in neither of those cases did pirates ever try and burn up the ship they were trying to rob."

Orgon shakes his head.

"Might have been scared by you I suppose," he offers, leaning back on his hands.  "Or else trying to give you a taste of your own medicine.  I don't think that's in the playbook though."  He gestures with his chin towards the fiery boat a dozen yards away.

"Seems more a weapon of war than one of piracy."

Tibbets moves walking up to the brow of the ship and hopping over the side.

Aiah drops down from the skies, landing on Judoc's shoulder as she nuzzles his head.  ~I will.  Maybe I'll get some sleep first though.  There doesn't seem to be anything about other than a nestful of man-things walking away on the far side of the beach.

"Who did it?"  Tibbets's head peers over the side of the ship, his brows furrowed in anger.  "Who fucking let the slaves out?  And where did you put them?  And why weren't they helping if they weren't chained down?"

Tibbets waits barely a moment for an answer and when one isn't immediately forthcoming, he boils over, slamming his fist down on the rail.

"Who fucking did it!"

Trisso, Orgon, and Reve stare at each other blankly for several moments before Trisso finally answers.  "We was all helping boss.  Ain't no one have time to unchain the slaves.  We was all trying to save the ship!"

OOC:  No rest just yet.  It's 0305 on the 8th of August.

God's bones, but Judoc's tired. He wants nothing more than to sink into the sands and try to get some rest, as sleepless as his night has been so far.

No doubt the pirates were intimidated by Judoc. Attacking the Watchman with fire was a strange ploy, though. They had seen Judoc use flame in his aborted attack on the pirate ship. The goblin mage should have known Judoc was a powerful fire mage and would have tried some other strategy. Or why not leave the Watchman be and search out less dangerous prey?

"A weapon of war? Maybe these pirates are attached to a naval force. Maybe from Cardiel? I don't know enough about the geography in this area. Are there any pirate havens nearby?"

"But if they're some kind of para-military force, we aren't." The thought was absurd. Who would go to war in a tiny boat like this?

"Aiah says she just saw some men walking away down the other side of the beach. Probably the men you chained up just walked off, Tibbets." ~Man-things? How many? Were they the men that were with us before on the boat?~ Judoc feels less than inclined to help Tibbets track down his runaway slaves. He focuses on how they might defend the boat from the pirates. A wall of fire? More fireballs? The water mage's presence makes things tricky.

When Judoc mentions Cardiel, Orgon quickly shakes his head.

"No chance.  Only one place I know of could make ships like that is Araterre.  Supposed to be part of Megalos, but I think it's so far and disparate that there's any number of small estates that could break off and do their own.  I suppose it's possible it could have been made there and sold southward, but I doubt there's many that could pilot such a big thing...  I know I couldn't."

The conversation though, is interrupted by Tibbets's outburst, and Orgon is quickly up on his feet and pushing up to the side of the ship, peering out to see any signs of where the slaves may have gone.

"WALKED OFF?"  Tibbets blubbers, his face inflating like a balloon as he peers over the rail of the ship.  "WALKED OFF?  They was chained to the deck you moron!  Ain't no way for them to walk off without picking up the ship and taking it with them!"

Tibbets face is alive with rage as he continues to font his bellicose words which spew across the beach all in front of him...  Judoc is more focused however on the quieter words which seem to whisper within his own mind.

~Six man things.  Aiah thinks.  ~I think four of them, yes, were on the boat before...  Though she hesitates before she adds, ~Four of them have long hair... your kind all look the same to me.  One of them is definitely not from this ship though.  He is short and has pointy ears.

"You four had better go"  Tibbets rages.  "And get those damn slaves back here if you ever want to see another port!  Use the damn bird!  For all the good it's done to this point, maybe it'll finally prove it's not a waste of my food and the air it's breathing in!"

You insufferable asshole! Judoc seethes within. His face goes dark, and he glares at the ship owner. "We're all in this together, friend. You need me to get out of this mess, and I need you to get back to the Battle College. So don't be such a goddamned ingrate!" Judoc turns his back to the shipowner and starts walking off down the beach, ignoring Tibbets' further outbursts.

Once the four men and one hawk are out of earshot of Tibbets, Judoc relays to the others what Aiah saw. "Six men, not four. And one sounds like their goblin wizard." ~Aiah, the short man. Was he green? What can you see now?~

"My guess is the pirates attacked our boat, maybe as a distraction, maybe to strand us here. Then two snuck down here, probably invisible, and freed the slaves." Apparently the pirates valued the slaves over the value of whatever Tibbets is carrying in his holds. How much is a slave worth? A pound? 10? 20? Judoc finds that he is not sure. Like many citizens of the Empire, Judoc accepts slavery as the status quo. He has not been around slaves much at all, and he vaguely knows that slavery is the result of conquest or a failure to pay debts.

"I'm going to slow you down. I'm winded from a lack of sleep last night and grabbing that boat with my magic. I can still cast my spells, but I won't be able to cast many. Where did Tibbets get his slaves? Do you think they're more valuable than your cargo?"

OOC: Feel free to truncate any of this, depending on Tibbets' reaction. Judoc will allow his anger to show.

Head down the beach in the direction of the escaped slaves. Tell Orgon and the others what Aiah saw. Let them know that Judoc is weakened from spellcasting and his theory that the slaves were freed by the goblin mage.

"Ingrate!"  Tibbets seethes.  "You lot of incompetent, teat-sucking bastards had better...!"  But Judoc and the others had already made good on the command to get moving, and Tibbet's words, for all his fury, begin to fade into the sounds of the wind and the waves breaking on the beach.

~Green?  Aiah asks when Judoc probes for more information.  ~Can you see color in the dark?  I just see six man-thing shapes moving up the beach, same way you are walking now...  I probably shouldn't even be flying, it's lucky there's no clouds out and the moon's fairly high.

In his mind, Judoc can feel Aiah already swirling down towards the beach below.  ~Get ready to catch me if I fall out of the sky!

"Maybe."  Orgon responds as the four make their way up the beach, bringing Judoc's attention to the other three men around him.  "Coulda made their way ashore with the boats, least until they set them on fire.  Then run to the ship and unchain the slaves?  I guess that makes sense."

When Judoc asks about the slaves and the cargo though, no answer is immediately forthcoming.  The three look at each other, with Reve eventually being the one to answer.

"I'm afraid none of us really know the answer to that."  Reve pauses.  "We got hired out of Hyrnan.  From there, we took the Watchman all the way to the mouth of the Makarem, where we dropped off the last crew..."  He looks between the two other men, his voice slightly hesitant.  "Was just a little camp up north of the river... odd with Bannock being there and so close.  Anyway, I'm not sure Orgon had done much of any sailing before he was hired on.  Me and Trisso done some I know.  We all learned a lot on the short trip, but I can't say I know much more about Tibbets than you."

"That small camp was where we picked up the slaves and the cargo.  I'd say all four of the men were from the south, they speak Arabic whenever they do talk to each other.  As for the cargo, I couldn't tell you.  Was all locked up in trunks when we brought it on, though I can say it was heavy."

Reve pauses again, this time lowering his head down slightly and shaking it.  "I bet the slaves aren't cheap, easier to move for sure... but I'd have a hard time thinking that whatever Tibbets is packing in the hold isn't worth more than four rowers."

Trisso grunts in agreement.  "Knowing that lazy ass Tibbets, he wouldn't be shipping anything this far without getting a hefty profit for it.  But you're right, it'd be hard as hell to take anything out of the hold and move it very far, especially if there are only two of 'em.  Much easier to take the four men...  probably went away with 'em without so much as a peep, sure they think anything is better than being on that boat with all the threats shit-head makes to 'em."

Aiah swoops down from the sky, landing on Judoc's shoulder without incident.  The pace the three men make up the beach from there is slow, though none complain about Judoc holding them back.  Indeed, Reve mentions that none of them wish to take on another mage without Judoc there to bolster their own ranks.

After ten minutes of walking, they can see the end of the beach as it is engulfed by the towering cliffs above.  They cannot, however, see any signs of the six men that may have come this way.

"Up there's where the cave was..."  Orgon offers.  "Just off the water and going into the cliff."

OOC:  It is 0315 on the 8th of August.  Lighting penalty now is at about -6 for a clear night sky and a moderately bright moon.

Some of the stuff above Judoc would already know from his month he'd spent on the boat.  It would be fairly clear to Judoc that the four slaves were all Wazifi and Muslim.  As I imagined it, Judoc would have chartered his ride on the boat probably in Craine, then rode down the river to meet the Watchmen in the small camp that Reve is talking about where he met Tibbets and the others.

Lastly, I'm not sure where I got the impression that hawks and falcons could see at night... though I'm sure I looked it up at one point.  Now that I'm searching again, it seems like those birds don't have very good night eye sight at all.  Sorry to step back on capabilities here, but I suppose you at least get the help you've had up to this point.

Judoc ponders what might be in Tibbets' hold. A horde of gold? Spices? Magic-enchanted weapons? Judoc realizes he has no idea what the Watchman's cargo might be. Why had the pirates freed the slaves during the attack on the boat? How had they known there would be slaves on board? Why had the former crew been dropped off and the cargo taken onboard at a small camp, not in a larger port?

Judoc's mind buzzes with questions. There seems to be more than one mystery here. Tibbets' actions could be perfectly above-board, but Judoc wonders if the man is some sort of smuggler. And if the ship's cargo is valuable, why had the pirates attempted to destroy the boat?

~Stick close to me. Sorry for asking you to fly around up there in the dark.~ Aiah's presence is comforting to Judoc. He finds himself in a strange situation in an unknown place, and he is glad his avian companion has his back.

Judoc leans on his staff and looks off toward where Orgon says the cave was. He pitches his voice low. "We don't know how many of them there are. At least two pirates, and they may have freed the slaves." Judoc never thought he would find himself in the position of hunting slaves. The idea is distasteful, as if being asked to drink a cup of sour milk. "I have a few spells I can use for recon, but using even one might tire me out completely. Let's try to get closer."

OOC: Gotcha. I didn't realize hawks couldn't see at night, either. Can they see at all? Several sites I found said hawks are blind at night, but other sites say they can't see very well, but can see better than humans. Definitely no Night Vision, but I wonder if they have Night Blindness. I tried to find something definitive, but I wasn't able to. It's probably a wash. With no moon, Aiah probably couldn't see at all.

Judoc will lead the crew closer to the cave to see what they can see. Stealth mode.