Fight to the Death

by Jarl!!!!
The Flames stood in a line on top of an embankment, the ruins now free of the Horror behind them. After the previous night's fighting and the victory over the monstrous jellyfish like Horror and its bone construct, Cyrellion was accepted as a Flame and they were once more up to five. Overlooking the bay, and taking turns looking through the Crystal they spot the fleet of various mercenaries, airships and the ominous silhouette of Rasmussen's might ship - all hunting them. Raan, the ghost spirit they had managed to convert to their cause, was rallying a group of fifty or so spirits the Flames had liberated from their bond with Ferros.

Still covered in gore, cuts and wounds, and quite a few baubles and jewellery - we knew that our fighting in this damned swamp was not over. Not by a long shot. Our mission here, what we have accomplished so far against the odds stacked against us - unravelling an eons old legend in the process - is surely the stuff of legendary bards tales. Our mission here though requires one more component, the seeing crystal on the deck of Rasmussen's ship. With Wolf possibly weeks away from picking us up, we made plans and looked at our options. A lot of discussion ensued and slowly a plan was made. We decided we should forge ahead and get the crystal, luring Rasmussen to a place we can ambush his ship and using our spirit legion to our advantage. The plan was to light up the temple, luring Rasmussen's men into the temple and dispatching them with traps and brute force. Once that is finished we would move out of the temple and give the command to Raan to attack the ship. Things didn't go as expected.

We build traps, Elessar casts bone-circles in strategic spots in the temple, Ivor summons a bridge over the pool. We prepare for battle and nod silently to each other as the dial is turned and the dome opens. The light ray from the pool focuses along the mirrors and juts out into the night, whip-lashing in the night sky. We wait to see if the fish takes the bait and within the hour Rasmussen's ship floats above us. We hold our weapons tighter as we hear the shouts above, and lock the entrance door and dome trapping them in with us.

Minutes pass, Rasmussen's men have spotted us and advance with caution, we took our positions in the pool room below. The shouting increased, Elessar's bone circles ghosts were taking their toll on the air sailors. After quite a wait - a group of ten men emerge from the tunnel mouth and to our great surprise Rasmussen is with them, ready for battle with a huge sword on his back - flamboyant and proud as usual. Combat ensued, violent and with no quarter. The fight ebbed and flowed, we were outnumbered but we immediately hit at Rasmussen; inflicting heavy damage with ranged spells and arrows. Some of his men also went onto Ivor's summoned bridge and ended fighting for their lives when he dispelled it, a bone ghost fighting the struggling men as they desperately swam back to the edge of the pool, only to meet their end at Ivor's flaming hammer.

After our initial success things started to go against us, their numbers wearing us down even as the group fought against our spells, arrows and blows. Just as soon as we thought we could possibly survive, five more men climb down into the fray - now we where outnumbered three to one and Rasmussen was using all his sword skills against our fighters. Ahmok received heavy blows from enemies on all sides, but it was our archer that took the worst as he was mobbed to the ground. To our horror a well placed stab from one of the air sailors goes through 'leather armor and out the other side. He slumps on the sword then on the ground, lifeless. Seeing this Elessar courageously leaped in to protect the body, just as Rasmussen bites the dust from an onslaught of spells from Elessar and myself and blows from Ahmok. His men immediately give him a healing potion just as we keep laying more hurt on them. One by one Rasmussen's men perish and after a well placed flame strike on Rasmussen, I finally burn the pirate lord to a dead charred pile. His men keep fighting, desperately, but we regroup and Cyrellion revives from the dead with an application of one of the Last Chance salves - he immediately lays back vengeance with his bow. Just as we are dispatching the last couple of enemies, the hairs in the back of my neck rise as an eldricht wave of void energy wafts from Elessar's outstretched hands, a bad time to fail in spellcasting given the Horror taint surrounding us. I hold my breath expecting the worst, and as soon as the last enemy falls, the glow from the pool decreases ominously. The black souls of the fallen air sailors rise out from their lifeless bodies as we stare and give a glance at each other to prepare for more.