Evening of the 22nd of Trical, 1331 Avard.

Killik woke those that were sleeping near to midnight. The tomanth had guided the Dellistar almost on top of the Final Sunset, though both ships were nearly becalmed in the dark of night. Rested from their beatings, the party joined Captain Nallya up on deck, where the crew went about their work quietly, whispering to one another to maintain stealth.

They had roughly a mark until Maroth-rise, and the great red and maroon banded disc would silhouette the Final Sunset – and light the Dellistar.

Johannes turned into a giant albatross, and took to the skies – while Meredith took to the sea, swimming the distance to the Final Sunset. Johannes' recon showed that the crew of the Final Sunset knew the Dellistar was behind them, and he counted up the pirates as best he could, before returning. Meredith, for her part, managed to use her arcane acid abilities to melt through the rudder chains, leaving the Final Sunset unable to run or flee in a stable line.

Captain Nallya, with Captain Mirage acting as her first officer, let down every bit of sail she had – and prepared to go into the showdown with the Final Sunset and retrieve the rest of her crew.

Johannes had reported that there were two light ballistae mounted onto the port deck of the Final Sunset. As the Dellistar moved up from behind, and then move to starboard of the Final Sunset, it became clear that the light ballistae had been moved to the other side of the ship as the two vessels came into attack range. Captain Nallya had two light ballistae of her own, both permanently mounted to the bow, one starboard and one to port.

The Dellistar and the Final Sunset exchanged fire with one another until the two ships were close enough for hand weapons. Slings and crossbows and bows came out, and a hail of steel rang out across the calm waters. The Amaran shaman Shintaka revealed himself, and his dark arts managed to knock Captain Nallya down – and kill several of her crew.

Magnol, dominated by Meredith, went overboard after attacking the shaman, and Killik leapt into the water to finish off the bosun wearing such shiny and reflective chain armor.

Captain Mirage took the helm, and rammed the two ships together along their flanks. The battle was quickly engaged, with Hadarai knocking out quite a few of the enemy pirates with a concussive blast of thunder that was startling loud on the quiet waters. Grania was a whirling maelstrom of death, even as Captain Narfom of the Final Sunset entered the fray.

One of the 'corpses' revealed itself to be the 'bosun' of the Cries of Gulls. The shapeshifter took on the face of Dolon's father, and startled the young man long enough to almost kill him. Grania impaled the shapeshifter on both her blades, lifting it up, causing it's gurgling lungs to fill with blood and steel.

The crew of the Dellistar managed to gang up on Captain Narfom, and take him down.

And there was no sign of Killik.

Meredith leapt into the waters, diving down deep, using her merelf half to find him. She found his corpse – the life choked out of him by powerful hands. There was no sign of Bosun Magnol.

The Final Sunset was secured, and the rest of the crews of the Alahandra and the Dellistar were freed. There were many wounded, and many dead, including the one member of the Cries of Gulls' marines that had defected to the Dellistar.

Bosun Magnol was found clinging to one of the anchors, shivering to death in the fridgid waters. He was brought aboard, and secured.

Interrogation of Captain Narfom was ruthless, with both Hadarai and Dolon unleashing their anger on the man. The Candle of Truth helped them bury into the man's lies. Johannes hit upon a solution that offered them all the answers with no more need for bloodshed: he swore upon the Sun God that he would watch over Captain Narfom's son, Krevin, in exchange for all the information Narfom had. Krevin would be about twenty years of age, in Kur Maeth, with a sleeve of tattoos on one side and the looks of Captain Narfom twenty years younger.

The pirate captain knew he was going to die, but figured there was no need to hold back – so he told them everything. And he told Dolon how his father had been hanged for the wrong crime; it was the shapeshifting bosun that had put his father in the position to die.

Another token was broken, on the off-chance that Master Horbe might answer. But the quiet night in the red light of Maroth offered no clues at to what the mage was doing.

Morning of the 23rd of Trical, 1331 Avard.

Each player received 1500 experience points for playing. Hadarai and Dolon now have 16000 experience points each (8th level), and Johannes has 15555 points (8th level). Grania has 15505 experience points (8th level), and Meredith has 11000 points (7th level).

The following notes represent the 'behind the scenes' and 'post op' actions of the players and the Dungeon Master.

We met at my place, again; dinner was Zatarain's red beans and rice, with a Beasley's onion sausage tossed in for good measure. After everyone updated their characters – or got close enough as made little difference in the end – we got down to business and played on 26AUG2009. Our new game times are Wednesday evenings, so that we all have the weekend to go tromping about and getting into trouble. I look forward to Houston trips to the museum! Hopefully this Wednesday evening thing'll work out, and when we call can't make it to play, I picked up Settlers of Catan. (Special thanks to Todd Antill for showing me that game!)

Poor Dolon… I wonder what he'll do.

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Ready to settle Catan. :p