"Pleased to be of service, sir," he rumbles. "We should be in O'Mara territory now, or at least as near as makes no difference. Iff'n I could impose though, I'd like you off and away from Spray as soon as possible, lest the Elves hear of me. I'm a tradesman, not a soldier, and I'd just as soon stay that way."

"No imposition, that. Let's head out," Niktar says to the men and steps off the gangplank, trying to blend into the dock crowd as best as he can. A short distance from the Spray he stops and looks at the others, looking around for Loki until he spots the excitable navigator. "All right then. We can find more information by splitting up or we can head right along the route he showed us," Niktar says to them quietly. "Suggestions?"

Hunot shakes on his somewhat spray-soaked traveling cloak and slings his bolter bag over his shoulder. His bolter he puts down at his side and covers it over with his cloak. He walks tentatively down the plank to join the others, pausing only to nod farewell at the captain. "A few options. We should probably hire someone who knows the city. If we get the right one, they won't come cheap. We could go into elvish friendly territory and try and get attacked. We could send someone out ahead as a decoy and jump whoever attacks them." He pauses, and adds with a weary sigh, "Though if I was them, I'd just keep moving. The way they were tearing around on those horses makes me think they aren't going to stick around to be found. And there's no way to really track what comes and goes in places like this." He hitches up his bolter bag. "Whatever we do, we should do it soon. _They_ aren't likely to be sitting around wondering what to do. Better to do the wrong thing and run into them then sit and never find them."

Loki, is off in his own little world. "Hurray! Back on land at last. Well, almost. It's solid wood and it's attached to land, and that's good enough for me." Loki leaps happily onto the dock, oblivious to the ominous groaning of the gangplank as his not-inconsiderable weight and that of his even-less-inconsiderable backpack make the crossing. "I do get nervous around all that water. Gosh, look at this place! It's huge! We're on the dock level now, right? I wonder where the library is. Probably up on top somewhere. It'd never do to put it down here. Far too damp." Loki has yet to grasp that not everyone in the world shares his fascination with dusty and decrepit tomes of ancient, useless knowledge. The concept of a city without a library never crossed his mind. "So which way are we headed, Fearless Leader? Hey, look at that! They've got a cargo of Scardian pickled cactus thorns! I haven't had those in years!" Loki wanders off, as is his wont in such a distraction-heavy environment, to attempt to bargain with the pickled cacti dealers.

Mr. Nikes, being attuned to earth as well as water, never has a problem with "land legs" or "sea legs" or, for that matter, "flame legs" or "wind legs." However, Edward is currently weaving as he walks and vomiting small fireballs, one of which scorches a nearby rat. This is good enough for Edward, who wanders over and begins to munch. The further upchuck of flames only serves to flambe the feast further, which is quite all right with Edward.

Salamanders lead a good life. This opinion is not shared by the cactus dealer. "Yeh you! Take your little flame-barfin rodent away from my stall!" he barks at Mr. Nikes, and refuses to deal with either him or Loki, so long as Edward is in evidence.

Mr. Nikes sticks close to Loki. It's always good to have a big guy backing you up, when you're a mage. Especially an obvious mage. Some people take it as a challenge. Besides, he doesn't much mind Loki's endless chatter. He whistles, and Edward weaves his way over and sticks close.

Since Mr. Nikes is nearby, Loki assumes that he is interested in the Scardian pickled cactus thorns and proceeds to explain, at length and in excruciatingly unnecessary detail, the process by which the thorns are pickled and the reason such a practice came about. Let's just leave it that the Scardians have some very odd notions about the proper use of certain fluids. There's a reason this particular delicacy is so rare outside of Scarda. Mr. Nikes can consider himself lucky if HE isn't belching fireballs afterwards.

Loki gestures broadly, nearly upsetting a precariously stacked pile of barrels nearby. "Not to worry," he says, mouth full of cactus, "I've got ten maps of Havna, and I've been studying them all the way here. Of course, they were ten very *different* maps, but I think I've pieced together enough. If we want to get to the Elven sector, then we should head up the plank to Umbrage Street, cross the bridge at the pile of raw sewage, turn right at the man selling crabcakes and jellied sea urchins, and then take the next two lefts and climb the ladder near the Honeybee Inn. That'll get us to a large street where we can start heading in the right direction. Then we make three lefts, two ups, five rights, one down, and two more lefts, and we'll be there. Well, partway. Practically there. Unless something burned down. Or fell apart. Or the crabcake man went out of business, which would be a darn shame, since his sea urchins were some of the best around." Loki pauses to consider for a moment. "Perhaps we'd be better off if we just start asking around. The elves aren't exactly inconspicuous. Surely there's someone on the streets who can point us in the right direction for a coin or two. You get more flies with honey than with vinegar, my gram always said. 'Course, the nearest shop that has honey is five streets away. As the crow flies. It shouldn't take more than two hours to get there, if we walk fast." Loki pours the remainder of his cactus into his mouth and gazes about, chewing meditatively.

Hunot blinks at the verbiage emerging from Loki. "I agree with parts of what he said. The parts about finding a guide and throwing a bit of money around sound good. The other parts sound confused."

"Here here," pipes up Samas, His hand resting lightly on a nearby post to counteract the slight sway in his legs. "A guide sounds good to me. This place looks a warren of rat-runs... " His nose wrinkles he sniffs the civilization scented air. "...smells like just the place elves could hide their stench." He looked across at Loki as he drinks in the lifeblood of the city shaking his head slightly. "We should be away from here at any rate. No point incriminating our ride. I say we head for whatever passes as a centre here."

What passes for a center is farther inland, and is called Havna. It's about as central as they get. The docks are also central, but it's more of a peripheral centrality. The docks under the city are even more central, but it's a much shadier sort of central.

Niktar blinks at Loki, as he has yet to get used to the speaking style. "I had hoped you were paying attention to the other map that the captain of the Spray showed us, it's newer. Ah well. I think I remember the route to our ship mostly." He looks at the others, continuing to speak quietly in the hubbub of the dock. "It will take at least half the day to provision her. Let's spread out some but travel the same route. Ask around, try to find sympathetic folk who might know if Orren did come this way, how long they're stopping, whether they're still here, that sort of thing. Also if anyone knows of Nathi soldiers, find where we might contact them." He nods at the others. "Try to be somewhat inconspicuous, though asking questions always brings some attention."

If there is not disagreement or questions, Niktar heads off to lead the way along the route the captain showed him.

After about half an hour of walking, they finally come through the press of dock-workers, tourists, yelling dock-children, and riff-raff, to the first of the huge staircases and ladders that lead from the finger-docks to the city proper. These are just under the lip of the actual city, which towers above, inducing vertigo in all but the strongest of constitutions.

It is at the moment impossible to see what is in the city above these ladders, but enough can be seen of the docks under the city. Like an overgrown maze, the docks continue, losing all semblance of organization amidst the huge pillars and masses of rigging. The ceiling here is about tall enough for a small sailboat on average, though the major waterways have higher ceilings in most places. Docking alcoves are scattered every which way off the major docks, and most of these have large bay doors above them, complete with blocks, tackles, winches, and even the occasional wench, though not in the brightly-lit areas.

If anyone looks around for people who would seem helpful, they will see a crowd of surly kids hanging around at a distance, watching them, a group of large bouncer-types in what look like some sort of official uniform, several women of dubious character, and any number of dock-workers. At the moment, they are all human.

Hunot, Niktar, and Raddukk notice something...

Niktar scowls slightly about halfway through the walk to the end of the dock and where the staircases upwards begin as he realizes that the group has not separated much. Stepping into his sailor's walk, he ambles slower then, letting the others pass him and grinning at the merchants. He checks out some of the dockside wares, what may be there, and leers his best at a few of the women of dubious character.

Seeing as how the rest of them does not in fact pass him up, Niktar sighs and says "Go on up, wait for me at the first inn you see."

Samas's eyes flick to the knot of kids. "Niktar, if anyone will have spotted the elves then they will have. Perhaps a little donation will loosen their tongues. Besides it is probably best to get on the good side of the locals."

"I had expected you all to talk to the locals already, instead of staying so close that we're an obvious group." Niktar says with a shrug, in a voice low enough to be heard by Samas. "I'm going to talk to the girl who is following us. Talk to whomever you wish. That will draw attention away from me." He then fades off into the crowd.

A somewhat ill-at-ease Hunot moves out of the crowd as much as possible and keeps an eye on Niktar's back. He graces the children milling about with a look of distaste.

Follow Niktar and Hunot...

Follow Samas...

Follow Loki, Galdwan, and Mr. Nikes...

Once everyone is gathered at a fairly discreet table, Niktar says, "Found us a guide. This is Kiri. Kiri this is Hunot, Loki, Mr. Nikes, Samas, Raddukk."

The guide in question is a young Nathi woman, probably about 18 years old, with shoulder-length straight black hair, and a 'dont give me no crap' look about her face. She is neither especially tall nor especially short, is wearing knee-length brown trousers and a dark green shirt. Kiri nods expressionlessly at each as they are introduced.

Samuel Nikes relates his information to the group around him, in a low voice. "The spirits of the waters are telling me that we would be wise to seek our enemies north by east of this point. That being said, it isn't always the best move to trust the spirits of the sea. They can be fickle creatures, but they are by far the easiest to ask."

He slips a piece of meat to his drowsy familiar.

Galdwan cocks an eyebrow at Nikes. "The water spirits? You would trust the water spirits? It is fire you want friend, fire. Powerful, twisting, dancing, beautiful fire. Anyways," this is to all, now, "I'm interested in this 'Big Bob' that I have heard many referring to. It seems that he could find what we are looking for."

Loki, as always, is thoroughly enthusiastic. "Wow, Kiri. That's an unusual name. It sounds vaguely Scrziski, but their society was destroyed in the Great War of Vague Innuendo several thousand years ago. So you're a guide? How long have you been one? Do you guide people everywhere, or just to one or two places? I'd think that specialization would pay off, after all, everyone's specializing these days. You can't even find a plain old ordinary doctor anymore, they're all specialists..."

Kiri watches Loki with a wide-eyed and incredulous expression. In an aside to Niktar, she murmurs "Is he always like this?"

"...Ear specialists, eye specialists, left pinky toenail specialists. It's what people expect, I suppose. But then that means that if you did offer generic guide services to everywhere instead of extremely accurate guide services to one or two places in particular that you'd be able to cash in on a market that's been running somewhat dry and become really successful. Are you a Finder, too, like that Big Bob guy? Is that like being a guide or different? I'd think from the name that it's more about looking for objects than places, which is what I gather a guide does. Are you thirsty? Only it's kind of hot around here and I'd think that wandering around in the streets guiding people all over the place would get a little dry. I haven't actually had any of the drinks around here because I'm trying not to spend too much money because it's all the money I have but if you'd like to try a drink I could lend you some, unless you have your own money which you'd rather spend. I'd still be willing to lend you some, you understand, but if you don't want to that's okay too and I'd really rather make sure I have enough to buy some food for myself because I really can't keep sponging off of Raddukk, who's been really nice and giving me some trailbread and rations when we were camping, but I'm a lot bigger than he is and he wasn't even planning to feed another small person let alone me, so I need to get my own supply."

Kiri blinks, very slowly, twice. "I'm fine, thanks," she replies. "I just happen to know my way around, and I took an interest in your obviously military party," she says quietly. "Niktar and your quiet suspicious man here with the bolter under his cloak were the only ones to notice me watching you. I talked to Niktar, and because we have matching interests and goals, I will be accompanying you until your young lady is rescued."

She pulls out a napkin and a pencil. Sketching rapidly, she makes a rough map of the Havna dock area. "Friend of mine saw Elves come in yesterday and dock their frigate with the Del'Marcos." She points at one of the Fingers (the docks extending out from under Havna and into the harbor) north of them. One of them, a human, had a girl with him, chained up something fierce. I assume that's your Sir Orren you're all after? My friend lost them as they went deeper into the Del'Marcos docks, but I think northeast is probably as good a place as any to start looking."

"Oh, Mr. Loki? Big Bob the Finder is a Reaves. He's not much liked around here. You might not need to worry, but people who talk about him too loud tend to get pulped."

Samas walks over and joins the others, pulling a vacant chair along to sit down in. Given his Nathi heritage he was sure that stealth wasn't that important at the moment. Nodding to Niktar and the others, he adds, "Nothing much to add to what you already know. If they only arrived yesterday we have a chance of catching them. The kids I spoke to said that some elves came in last week. It may be that they have someone waiting for them."

"Actually, ma'am." Hunot begins laconically but turning short. "Don't recall you mentioning exactly why you want to join us. I recall you signing up for privates wages, but most people I know don't consider soldiering a career in which you're going to make any money. Plus you're willing to wait until the end to take it, meaning if we get you killed we won't have to pay. Not smart, girl, and you say you're smart." "So is it personal or are you going to stab us in the back when we're not looking and take our cash?" He follows the last comment with a shrug. "Nothing personal, you understand. We all do have to make our livings." As he is speaking, Hunot's left hand disappears into his cloak for a dagger in case things turn a little ugly. He won't pull it out unless obvious trouble starts.

Kiri folds her hands on top of the table and stares at Hunot. Quietly and evenly she says back at him, "Mister Suspicious, you are a credit to your unit, but you are wrong. Nobody treats girls like that, not even if they're big nasty soldiers with enough might to make all the right they want. I don't particularly care about the money, nor do I care where I finally end up, but that man will not have his way with her, not if I can do something about it."

"Ah." Hunot says, his left hand reappearing from the cloak. "Just had to ask. Nothing personal."

Niktar adds to her answer to Hunot's question, "She saw Ferica with Orren and company, tied up." He continues after Samas speaks. "They've taken her off the boat. There is a chance we may catch them today before their ship is provisioned, or perhaps Samas is right that someone waits for them, though elves arriving a week ago may be unrelated. I suggest we head toward their ship discreetly, perhaps through ways which are not used by most. We can try to pick up their trail in that part of town." Niktar looks at Kiri and asks, "unless you know a better way to find where they've gone?"

Kiri shrugs. "I know some routes, and I can call in a favor to learn another couple. I haven't been there myself, since the Reaves aren't too hot on Nathi sneaking around. It'll take the rest of the afternoon, of course."

She looks at her napkin-map for a moment. "Or you could see if the O'Mara know anything. I don't know any O'Mara 'contacts' as such, but I know where you could find them. They'll want a piece of the action, of course."

Hunot shrugs. "We'll get them to talk, I'm sure. Probably should head out soon before the trail gets too cold or too expensive for people to remember."

Mr. Nikes leans back and observes his comrades. He whispers:

"What's that, Edward? A trap, you say? Not possible. Because, you know, I'm sure this young lady would certainly realize that, should she lead us into obvious ambush, my creditors would protect me. After all, what good is the soul of a dead man? Still, she may not. So, I think, 'twould be wisest if we were to take this one with more caution than usual."

Mr. Nikes at this point, retrieves his notebook and starts boning up on incantations and spell components.

Kiri glances briefly at Nikes, raises an eyebrow at Edward, then asks "What do you want me to do?" Her gaze sweeps across Niktar and Hunot, since they seem to know what they're doing.

"We want you, young friend," begins Galdwan with a deal more haughtiness than may otherwise be necessary, "to find the elves. We were assuming you were competent when you were assigned the task. If this is not the case, and I hope that it is, then we can easily enough dispose of you and find someone else to do it. Perhaps this 'Big Bob' can do it, if you cannot. If you need my magic, then I am ready; if you need Mr. Nikes magic, then T'gnarh help us all. If you want to cover your trail, slit a few throats. Do whatever it takes to find them, as long as it harms none of our persons. Tell us what you need, find our elves, and be quick about it." Galdwan quiets and sips at his ale.

Niktar growls, "Kiri is hired as a *guide*, Galdwan." He slaps his hand heavily on the table and leans forward, his voice low and angry. "She has offered her *civilian* services and you will kindly NOT mention people who will get us killed in these parts." He glowers at Galdwan. So does Kiri, but Kiri glowers more politely. Galdwan feels an incredible urge to cross his legs.

Loki is a bit disconcerted. "Well, I shouldn't think that we need to slit throats, I mean, after all, we're really on more of a rescue mission and it's not so much about death and so forth, is it? I mean, except for the noted case of Galbadash the Unwanted, very few rescue missions involve a great deal of throat-slitting. Naturally, of course, if we happen to find the Elves ourselves we wouldn't hesitate to administer Justice, as it were, being emissaries of the Law in a vague sort of sense and being, I believe, covered under subparagraph 14B of Chapter 15 of the tenth volume of the Codex of Laws Concerning Vendettas, Vengeance, and Lynchings, but it would be *proper* death and dismemberment, none of this lurking in shadows nonsense. Really, it's not right for a woman to walk about streets alone with all these throats being slit and dangerous magic and so on. Someone could get hurt. One of us really ought to go along, just in case anything at all went wrong, serve as a sort protective, er, preventive, sort of, er, guard, maybe?" At no point in this discourse does Loki give any indication that he is anything but earnestly forthright, and his chivalrous desire to offer his services as a bodyguard for Kiri should be easily seen for what it is by anyone with the sense God gave lichen. Loki is more transparent than a ghost on Slim-Fast.

"Now," says Niktar, "I believe it best we split into two groups. One will contact the O'Mara and the other group will head to find the Elves and Ferica. The former should have fewer people. Hunot, I want you in charge of the group heading into Elf territory. Kiri, you go with them, but tell me how to contact the O'Mara before you go. Loki, I want you with me, since you seem to remember everything. Galdwan, you too since we may need your talents. Everyone else with Hunot and Kiri."

Loki is crestfallen but compliant. Far be it from him to interrupt chain of command, whatever his personal preferences might be. Kiri nevertheless gives Loki a fond smile.

"Fine." Hunot looks a bit annoyed but begins gathering his things. "All right, girl, let's find some elves." He leans over and whispers something about fifteen seconds in length into her ear before straightening up. Those nearby hear Hunot say: "I'm very, very fast. And very, very good. Lead us into an ambush and you'll be the first one down."

Kiri nods.

Galdwan stands, stretches, and speaks. "If we are to make up for the time lost hiring an ineffective tool, then we must hurry. Tell us, Kiri, how we may make these contacts."

Two of the tougher individuals over at the bar nod to one another and slip out into the corridor.

Niktar just stares at Galdwan. "And did *you* see her following us? Clearly someone had to talk to her, and if it resulted in something we can benefit from, all the better. So you will stop insulting the young lady. Especially if you are going to turn around and ask for her help."

Galdwan hastens to explain himself. "The first problem is that someone saw her following us. Not good, on her part. Second, no insult came from me. A hammer, used to hit a nail, is an ineffective tool when used to cut something. Even if it has, written on the handle, instructions for ripping with your hands what you had planned to cut, it is still an ineffective tool. Especially when you are under extreme time constraints and need to cut this thing quickly, and the instructions take time to read. Now, due to the need to hurry, I'm afraid our young lady will need to reveal the information we need, and quickly. You are stalling this. I will insult the young lady no more, for your sake. But the information will be ours. Kiri, Tell me what I need to know, and do it quickly."

Kiri stares blankly at Galdwan for a moment before addressing Niktar in a lower tone of voice.

"Two levels up is a pawnshop run by a man named Matthew Sikes. He knows me, and knows the O'Mara. I've pulled him out of trouble once, so he owes me a favor." She scribbles a note on a napkin and hands it to Niktar. "Give this to him, and he should be able to fix you up with someone who has the power to do something. He's the most discreet way I know, but if you don't care who knows, you can just ask any harbor guard, and they'll get you to the same place eventually. They talk more than a drunken sailor, so I suggest Matt first."

When she finishes, Galdwan bids Hunot and crew good hunting, and leaves with Niktar and Loki.

Niktar, just before the groups split, whispers to Hunot, "You watch her... but give her the chance to prove herself."

Hunot slings his bolter under his cloak again and leaves the inn with Kiri, trailed by Raddukk, Nikes, and Samas.

Follow Niktar, Loki, and Galdwan...

"Our route takes us up a levels, a bit north, and then through a couple side-passages," says Kiri to the assembled group once they are a block or so away from the Inn. "We'll be moving out of O'Mara ground, briefly through Reaves and a bit of Calabrese, then into Del'Marcos."

"I have to talk to my friend Marcus in the Calabrese area, which is why we need to detour there," continues Kiri, pointing at her napkin map. "Let's go, and watch out for people following us."

The route takes them along a wide dim corridor, which is clogged with people and carts going both ways. Periodically, other equally large corridors split off in every which direction. Wherever there is wall, someone has set up house or business behind it, and the mass of doors, grimy windows, and signs proclaiming all sorts of offers seem to fade into one another in the squalor. The impression of squalor is not at all helped by the incessant smell of salt, body odor, fish, and refuse.

Smaller corridors, some barely large enough for a child to slip through, crisscross the area as well, ladders and corridors leading up and down to who knows where. In these alcoves and crossways lurk characters promising almost any pleasure or form of death one might imagine. Some of them promise both. Some of the crossways are even empty. All of them are un-lit, providing plenty of gloom in which to lurk.

After a few minutes of this, Kiri motions them into a narrow alley. "A couple feet down here, there'll be a left, and then a ladder up..."

This is indeed what they find, though the ladder at the end of the corridor snaps off the wall as Raddukk, taking up the rear, ascends. This is no serious inconvenience, though it takes an extra few minutes to get Raddukk up to the top.

At the top, they find themselves in an area that isn't really a room, and isn't really a corridor. It seems to be composed of the empty space between the backs of warehouses as they expanded towards one another and roofed over the rest. This area is totally dark, and varies between five and fifteen feet wide, threading its way through and around many right-angle turns, only Hunot and Nikes able to keep their sense of direction. Kiri holds the Power, and the red glow from her eyes enables them to see at least a little.

Off to one side comes a scream. "Nonononono! Ohmigod no! I didn't do it, I didn't..." and someone falls into the path, flailing wildly. Abruptly, the body stops, twitches twice, and is still, a bottle falling out of still hands and spilling into the wood floor.

Kiri leans down, checks the unfortunate's pulse, shakes her head, and moves on. Five feet later, Samas trips over another body.

After an eternity in the dark, Kiri pulls open a hatch in the floor, from which spills a low flickering light. It looks like the hatch goes to a square metal shaft three feet to the edge, running under the floor.

"We're in Reaves territory now," she whispers. "That's a warehouse down there, we'll come down onto a catwalk on the wall. It should be empty, but you never know. Careful. I'll go first, unless one of you wants to. It's only a few feet."

Hunot ponders for a moment. "You can go first. I'll be right behind." he says to Kiri. "Kiri in front of me. Then Samas, Nikes and finally Raddukk. Spaced at 3 foot intervals. If we stop, don't push."

Kiri nods, lowers herself into the shaft, and crawls forward a little.

Samas nods acknowledging Hunot's order. Checking that his blade is secured properly he drops down behind Kiri. by way of conversation he chirps up, whispering to her back. "Here, are there any simple identifiers that will mark the territories. Just in case we get seperated?"

"These territories change weekly," she replies in a whisper. Mostly you have to go by rumor and the color of the uniforms."

Mr. Nikes checks to make sure his arms are free and his blood canisters close at hand. He then sticks Edward in his breast pocket and continues on as directed.

"Let us hope there are no bodies upon it," Raddukk says. He waits as Kiri enters the crawlway, and then follows slowly taking up the rear, looking about for any sings of movement.

Everyone makes it into the shaft, and except for Samas, in the order Hunot directed. The crawl is not long, though five people in a 3x3 shaft tends to magnify perceptions, especially with no light.

After what seems like longer than it is, a dim light becomes visible in front of Kiri. Samas and Hunot can see a closed grate at the end of the shaft, and a wide open space out in front, with the suggestion of boxes below. Kiri whispers back, "The warehouse is just ahead. There's a light on, but I don't see any guards. Let me open this grate, here."

She opens the gate without a sound; indeed, without any apparent movement at all. Soundlessly, she slips out onto the catwalk and crouches down, so that her head is at the level of the shaft.

"It looks clear," she whispers. "The catwalk goes around the whole perimeter of the warehouse, but the stairs down are on the far side. After that, we slip out a side door, and out into the streets. It's not too far now, and our route should have thrown anyone off the trail."

She glances over her shoulder, and moves out of the way so that those in the shaft can get out.

The catwalk is made of five planks laid lengthwise along the wall, and is about four feet wide. The warehouse itself is large and dim, about a hundred feet wide and broad. From their vantage point at about first-story rooftop height, they can see stacks upon stacks of crates, with a maze of paths weaving among them. Off to the far right, just below the stairway down, is a large wooden hatch in the floor, with a huge winch assembly mounted into the ceiling above it. Though the hatch is closed, the smell and sounds of the docks is much stronger.

Kiri waits till all have left the shaft, then points down by the hatch and the door out. Barely visible in the flickering torchlight is the faint glow of a pipe, surrounded by the outline of a figure leaning against the wall. The figure is leaning on a spear, in the classic "I can control my bladder and guard this all day, if I have to" pose so common to professional security.

"I don't think he's seen us yet," she whispers. "He wasn't there when I checked before."

Raddukk checks on the out of order Samas, just in case something has gone wrong with him. He then scans the area, lest the pipe smoking guard not be the only guard.

Hunot says "I'll handle this as quietly as possible. Stay here." He pauses for a few moments to allow him to survey the warehouse to assure there are no other surprises, and heads around the catwalk into the semi-darkness.

Neither Raddukk nor Hunot see anything that indicates that there's anyone other than the one guard, so Raddukk silently wishes Hunot luck, and waits patiently for his return.

Pulsing a quiet acknowledgement to Hunot, Samas unlimbers the bolter from his side. As his brother in arms disappears into the darkness he sights down the crystal at the guard, just in case.

Like a shadow of a cat, Hunot wafts around the catwalk, and is halfway across the far wall when the pipe-smoking guard abruptly looks up, directly at him.

Hunot freezes, and several tense moments pass before the guard shakes his head, and re-lights his pipe. As the tension sloughs out of the air, Hunot moves again.

The stairway down to the ground level gives him no trouble at all, seeing as how the guard chooses that moment to knock the clogged pipe against the wall.

Hunot crosses the open space from the stairs, past the closed door, to the guard, who has time for a strangled "Erk" before the knife is at his throat reminds him that sudden discretion would be the better part of living to have grandchildren. The guard drops his pipe, and stands very still.

"Er. What c'n I do for you, sir?" he ventures hopefully.

After a few moments, the guard lays politely facedown on the floor, and Hunot waves the rest of the group forward.

Picking up the pace, Samas jogs around the catwalk to join Hunot, all the while scanning the warehouse in case anyone else appears. Kiri is right behind him.

Raddukk waits for the others to move, then follows along swiftly, enjoying the comfort of the darkness of the area. Nikes follows Raddukk.

Samas checks the other side of the door in case there are further unwelcome presences. The other side of the door opens onto a fairly wide dark corridor. The sounds of harbor and the smell of salt brine waft in through the open door, but they are unaccompanied by anything else, human or otherwise.

"Let's go, then," whispers Kiri. She edges out the door, and is presumably followed by the rest of the party.

The corridor outside is at least a hundred feet long, and appears to just be a front for various warehouses. It terminates in a ramp downward to the right, and a ramp upwards to the left. Kiri turns left, moving quickly.

A ways down, Kiri pulls a dagger, opens what looks like a closet, sees nobody inside, sighs with relief, and replaces her dagger. It's a very nice dagger, by the way, black-handled with gold wire on the hilt.

"This ladder goes up two levels into Calabrese territory," she whispers, gesturing into the absolute darkness. "With any luck, we'll find my friend Marcus soon."

Her eyes glow red with the Power, and she leads the way about ten feet into the closet, where, sure enough, there is a ladder. With a glance backwards, she starts up, her eyes no longer glowing as she mutters something about "why I never wear a skirt..."

As she starts up, the sound of shouting drifts downward, echoing through the shaft. Kiri pauses for a moment where she is, ten feet up.

Raddukk had been thinking about Kiri's rather nice dagger, when she paused. The remark about a skirt was totally lost on him. Hearing the shouts, he concentrates on the sounds, trying to discern what the commotion is about, not his group he hopes. He says softly, "Give them a few moments, they might pass. Otherwise, is there another way to go? Or must we now deal with a larger group?"

Kiri shrugs. "They aren't Nathi," she whispers back, unsurprisingly.

"Can you make out what they're saying.?" Samas looks around the passage for some place that they can conceal themselves, in case the newcomers decide to come down the passage. There are several doors in the main passageway, but other than the warehouse they just came out of, they could lead anywhere.

Samas does see the guard from the warehouse poke his head out the door. The guard gives an "eep!", and takes off down the corridor away from them at a dead run.

Mr. Nikes checks once again, making sure his hands are free and that his vials are readily accessible.

Kiri, who has seen none of this, whispers again, "This ladder comes out within an urchin's reach of Marcus's place. He's our only link to the Elves now, and I don't want to lose him or his information."

She starts climbing the ladder again, then hisses back "Back me up, will you?"

Hunot shrugs. "I'll be last. Just get up there before we have company." He pulls out his bolter from underneath his cloak and settles back against the wall.

"So be it," says Raddukk. "I will follow the lady." To Kiri he says, "Climb up and take a quick poke out. See if there is any cover." He gives Kiri a five rung head start, taking this time to put his dagger in his mouth. He is prepared to follow her out if the opportunity is there.

Samas continues up, the rough wood of the ladder providing ample grip. Looking up at Kiri and the others he mental prepares himself for whatever may be in the alley. "psst Kiri, what does this guy look like, we don't want to cut him up by accident now do we."

"Tall, dark, handsome, the whole bit," hisses Kiri back.

The shouting above continues as the group ascends, growing more frantic with the decreasing distance. Those who are skilled at such things can make out maybe three or four voices, including one who is particularly skilled in Elvish profanity.

Kiri reaches the top of the ladder after a few stories worth of climbing. The ladder ends at a small landing of sorts, which is capable of holding two people at the most. Kiri climbs onto the landing, followed by Raddukk. She crouches down and pushes on a small panel, which swings outward a crack, outlining a doorway about three feet tall and wide.

From a ways beyond the doorway, someone shouts, in a native accent, "For the last time, I don't know where they are!"

"That was Marcus," says Kiri fearfully. Peering through the crack, she whispers, "There's two or three...Elves, I think, fighting someone, and moving awfully fast. I'd need help to take one of them. Ask Hunot what he wants me to do."

Hunot pauses in his climb, ponders a moment, then hisses "Attack." He then begins climbing at a much faster rate, shooing anyone still on the ladder into the fray.

To this point, Raddukk had been almost lulled to sleep. At the sound of the word 'attack' his sense go on full alert. "Yes, seems we have little choice. It we are to speak with this Marcus we must free him first." Raddukk readies his bow. "If someone were to kick open that door, I might get in a flight or two before we rush them."

"I'll kick, you shoot, I'll jump out," says Kiri, pulling her dagger. "Ready?"

She kicks open the panel, revealing a corridor that's about seven feet wide, seven or eight feet tall, with a patchwork look to the walls that suggests that this is merely the space between buildings or rooms, and not a planned street as such. The panel appears to be on a dead-end, and the corridor continues at least seventy feet straight out before dodging around an outcropping structure and becoming lost to sight.

The walls of the corridor are uneven enough that it is difficult to tell which unevennesses contain doors and which do not. The one obvious door is betrayed by the Elf standing across from it with a pistol crossbow.

The Elf spins on his heel to face the door as Kiri kicks the panel open. Kiri throws herself prone into the hall to give Raddukk a shot, then rolls to the left.

The Elf fires his crossbow bolt into the shaft, narrowly missing Raddukk's ear, but disrupting his shot enough that Raddukk also misses.

Mr. Nikes genuflects with his armband, and blood starts running down his arm. He begins chanting. After a moment, he casts his arm forward, and a fist-sized ball of flames shoots from his hand.

The fireball strikes the Elf in the shoulder, prompting a loud elvish oath, but the arm still appears functional. The Elf shouts "Ai, Ai! Nef perhaudhrim! into the room, then ducks partially into the room he was guarding.

Mr. Nikes' further casting efforts are cut short as Samas, shooed from behind by an impatient Hunot, bursts past him, forcing Nikes, Raddukk, and Samas out into the hallway. Hunot comes up fast behind, unlimbering his bolter and charging the crystal.

"Min adan, canad perhaudh!" calls the hidden Elf, ducking out of the way as Raddukk's second arrow thuds into the doorpost inches from his head. The Elf returns fire into the mass of emerging Nathi, grazing Raddukk's shoulder and narrowly missing Hunot's head. The noise within the room ceases, then is replaced by the atonal sounds of chanting.

---------------------|  E|-------------------|
                                        K    |
                                           N RH
                                           S |
        /____________________________________|

Hunot yells: "Raddukk, Nikes, get on the other side of the hallway [note, the "left" in later, Hunotian discussions] and watch the right side of the hallway. Samas, cover me on the right. Is your bolter charged yet?" He then moves to the right hand side of the hallway and crouches, charging his bolter, keeping an eye on the left hand side of the hallway. Once there, he hisses to all, "We're going to cover each other and head down the hallway. Try and capture these elves alive. We don't know what Kiri's friend looks like, so shoot to wound if possible."

There is a soft "pif", and the chanting from within the room ceases. Almost immediately it starts up again.

Raddukk quickly follows Hunot's instructions. First, he fires a cover arrow at the partially hidden elf, using this to allow himself the chance to cross the hallway. Kiri darts forward almost to the doorway, and flattens herself against the wall. Samas also takes up position behind Raddukk.

The Elf ducks the arrow easily, and slides another bolt into his crossbow

Once there, crouching now on the other left side of the hallway, Raddukk takes careful aim at the doorway and at any elf which should appear. Figuring there are plenty of elves to be captured, for now he shoots to kill. "A fight's a fight," he mutters to himself.

Raddukk and the Elf trade shots. Raddukk catches the Elf in the doorway hard in the shoulder, knocking him back into the room, where he crawls out of the way, cursing. The Elf's bolt grazes Raddukk across the leg with his, pinning him to the wall by his trousers.

Nikes does his best to follow directions, preparing a small windstorm in his hand to stop further projectiles coming their direction but waiting until he sees some to loose it. He takes his place behind Hunot and opposite Samas.

Another Elf appears at the doorway, hands aglow, and in mid-gesture. Hunot raises his bolter as if to fire, but is blocked by Kiri, who swings out at the Elf with her dagger. She misses, but she sends a surge of the Power into the air about her, powerful enough that Hunot and Samas's bolters glow red as they pick up the field. The Elf winces as his spell is disrupted, and swipes Kiri backhand across her face, knocking her a good three feet into the center of the corridor. She lays there stunned for a moment.

[Note to other Nathi: You can do this too. Just drop a strong pulse of Power into the air, and if it's strong enough, it'll interfere with magic being done in the area. Of course, anyone who can sense this within half a mile will know where you are.]

Samas fires his bolter at the Elf in the doorway, causing fairly instant death of a missing chest.

From within the room comes the sound of a mighty rushing wind. Moments later, an incredibly strong gust bursts into the hallway, right into the carefully assembled party. Hunot, Raddukk, and Samas are knocked down immediately. Mr. Nikes unleashes his saved windstorm against the Elven wind, and is able to stop the wind from buffeting him, though the rest of the party is buffeted about and abused as the two windstorms compete with one another right about on top of Hunot and Raddukk.

The meagre light in the corridor dims markedly, so that only the Nathi holding Power at the moment can see clearly.

Two Elves emerge from the doorway, one almost on top of Kiri. Both of them have drawn swords, and the air about them shimmers slightly. Kiri of course rolls away from them, much faster than one might expect.

  /------------------|  E|-------------------|
 /                    E           H    N     |
/
                       K                     |
        /________________________R___S_______|

"Loose the winds, Edward!" shouts Nikes as he pours more into his own spell, trying to turn the tide against the enemy. He and whichever Elf is casting lock wills, the chanting growing louder on either side.

"Crud." Hunot crawls to the nearest wall and keeps ahold of his bolter and continues charging it.

Samas swings around, laying prone on the floor to avoid most of the whirlwind that buffets the corridor. Charging the bolter he looks for any shot that might catch an elf.

Kiri rolls to a sitting position. Her eyes flare as she tries to disrupt the spells. Her efforts are not enough to end the spells, but the whirlwind moves off Raddukk and Hunot, and closer to the two Elves.

Raddukk growls in dismay, and yanks at his pant leg, the fabric ripping as he pulls himself free. Still crouched he continues to try to identify a target and shoot. The whirlwind makes this a difficult prospect at best.

Kiri finally makes it to her feet, and, moving suddenly faster, skirts around the back of the closest Elf. The Elf spins to meet her, sword blurring in its path. It is not clear how she ducks the blow, but somehow she does.

Seeing his opening, Hunot fires his bolter at the Elf's exposed back. The red flash throws the corridor into sharp relief as the bolt passes through the whirlwind and strikes the Elf square in the back. Instead of removing a chunk of the Elf's back, the bolt sizzles around a blue glow that was suddenly surrounding him.

Nevertheless, the Elf staggers in mid-spin, sending his sword deep into the wall beyond the door as he falls to his knees.

Samas fires his bolter through the whirlwind, striking the second Elf. The impact staggers the Elf, who is protected by the same sort of shield as the first one. He drags his compatriot back through the door, and they are lost to sight.

Nikes's whirlwind follows the Elves into the door, where it dissipates. The chanting from within the room crescendos, then subsides as the lights in the corridor and doorway fade to black.

Status:
Elves: One down, two wounded, don't know how many are left.
Hunot: Knocked down, buffeted, bruised
Raddukk: Bleeding slightly from the leg, ripped trousers, knocked down, buffeted, hurt.
Samas: Knocked down, buffeted, bruised
Mr. Nikes: Unhurt, but tired from the whirlwind.
Kiri: bruised cheek, but unhurt.

"Can we get some light, here?" Hunot yells over the noise of the gusts inside. "And stop this stupid wind!" he adds as an afterthought to no one in particular.

Mr. Nikes wheezes for a bit. "Give me fifteen minutes before I have to do that again, please," he rasps. Edward flicks his tongue in concern.

Hunot drags himself towards the wall and puts his bolter down out of the way. He reaches into his cloak and produces two soul stealing daggers. "Bastards want to use magic, I can use magic." He pauses. "I hate magic."

Raddukk draws his sword and moves cautiously up to the doorway near Kiri. Hunot moves up too, all three holding the power. All three notice thousands of lines of magical force crisscrossing the doorway, showing up to their power-enhanced senses like a spiderweb in the morning dew.

Hunot puts out a hand to stop anyone from going in. "Need to lay down a pulse here" he says sotto voce. Then, louder, more into the room, "Hey you elvish sons of whores, care to surrender? It'll be a clean death."

There is no reply, just the soft chanting, and maybe a strangled "urk", on the edge of hearing.

Hunot eloquently curses Elvish bravery. As he does so, the barrier drops, though the chanting continues.

His eyes fade to black as Hunot drops the power. Quietly, he slinks through the doorway.

Immediately, the air is rent by a blue lightning bolt that crashes through the room, smashing through where Hunot's chest was an eyeblink ago, and opening up a rather large hole in the left-hand wall.

Rolling to a crouch, he throws a soul-taker dagger at where the elf was who cast the lightning. There is a soft "piff" and a louder "thunk" as the chanting abruptly stops.

|           |  This is how the room is perceived from the brief glimpse
|     H    *|  afforded by the flash.
|__  _______|
  RK  SN

There is no sound now, the silence matching the darkness in its intensity.

Raddukk stays crouched outside the door, using what is left of the wall as a protection of sorts. Of Kiri he asks, "See anyone in there? Anyone who vaguely resembles our quary?" His bow is drawn and ready, should a target be sighted.

"Not without using the power and making myself a target," she whispers back.

Inside, Hunot carefully and quietly moves towards the far wall. The silent moments tick on, measured by seemingly too-loud heartbeats.

"HRRAAAGH!" The silence is broken as an elf who had crouched hidden in the darkness brings his sword down over his head in a mighty blow. Hunot has no time to do anything but seize the power and hope, before the sword smashes into his back, the metal blade clanging off metal shoulderblades. Hunot is knocked solidly to the floor, his vision erupting in a shower of sparks.

"Hey!" screams Kiri, as she jumps into the room to distract the Elf, her eyes blazing, throwing the room into dull red relief and revealing the positions of the two Elves remaining in the room.

The light is all that Raddukk needs. His arrow takes Hunot's attacker in the eye, who falls backwards with a crash. The second Elf scoops up the soul-taker Hunot had thrown, and crashes through a closed door in the far right corner of the room. Samas fires his bolter, missing the Elf by a handsbreadth as he falls through the wreckage of the door. Someone screams behind the door, the same voice that had been so loudly protesting innocence earlier.

From the other side of the door comes a loud crash

The lights slowly return to their prior level of almost bright enough to see by.

Hunot falls himself back towards the wall, biting back pain. "After him!" he gestures with his uninjured arm at the back of the retreating elf. "Watch for ambushes" he adds as an afterthought before sitting down with an audible cry. Ripping his brown cloak into shreds he begins to try to apply some kind of bandage his shoulder.

Raddukk approaches the broken door with an arrow nocked. He sees a last Elf, guarding his comrade's escape through a hole in the wall. Raddukk and the Elf exchange arrows. The Elf, firing a pistol crossbow, grazes Raddukk's shoulder, while Raddukk's arrow catches him in the belly.

The Elf staggers back, clutching the shaft. He trips over something, and falls flat on his back.

The others cautiously follow through the remains of the door, and find a bedroom on the other side. It's been thoroughly trashed: furniture upended, drawers spilled out, bedding slashed, and a man-sized hole, through which the other Elves have presumably escaped. They find amidst the wreckage a man matching Kiri's description of Marcus. He is suffering cuts on almost every exposed surface, and his chest is a mass of red. Further inspection finds him to be dead of a stab to the heart, though the wound is still bubbling.

Hunot's cut is not only on his shoulder, but all the way across his back, and to the bone in most places. With Kiri's help, he is able to get it tight enough that he is in no danger of getting any worse, at least until someone with more healing ability can see to him. Hunot and Kiri have not yet seen the far room.

Raddukk doubts anything can be done for Marcus, least not by him. He calls to the other two. "I am afraid we have found who we were looking for. Though I doubt he will be of any help now. He's dead." With little hope for any positive results, he searches Marcus' body on the infinitesimal chance the elves might have left something useful behind.

Mr. Nikes makes a show of searching and inspecting the body as well... incidentally filling up his drained canister with blood and getting a goodly supply all over his hands, as well.

They find a little money, a small book with names and addresses (including Kiri, though the address is covered in blood), and a penknife.

"The death of a thousand cuts. They were torturing him, Edward. It was either torture or experimentation, and I don't know what they'd be testing. But what information did he have that they wanted? Well, what information did he have that we wanted? Maybe they didn't want us to have information? But then they would have just killed him outright..."

Kiri helps Hunot through the shattered door. Seeing Marcus's body, she stops cold. She draws in a long breath.

"Dammit," she whispers. She helps Hunot to sit wherever he wants, then crosses over to kneel by Marcus's body.

"He was a good man," she whispers harshly. "He didn't deserve this." Gently, she closes his eyes, and folds his hands over his chest.

Mr. Nikes glances over at Kiri with a raised eyebrow. "What we need now," he concludes, "is information."

She nods, blinks back a single tear, then scowls. "If there wasn't any information on his person, then the Elves took it.

He looks over to the wounded elf. "Somebody lock this boy up for a while."

"There's no time," Kiri replies, her voice rock hard. "We can use it as a threat though." She glances at Hunot, who makes absolutely no indication that she's getting anywhere near his soul-taker dagger. "Hunot, will you see what you can get out of him? I would, but I'd kill him too quickly."

Raddukk stands guard, unemotional, while Hunot does what ever it takes to pry information out of the elf.

Hunot's interrogation of the Elf goes surprisingly easily. The Elf, looking like he'd be about 19 years old if he were a human, takes one look at the soul-taker dagger and starts to babble, in accents heavily laden with Elfish.

"Aaa! Don't put me in that! I haven't even started the Ferma yet! I'll talk, my soul's not worth that and neither is the war! We heard you were coming here from someone at the inn and we got here first. We didn't count on meeting you here though. Orren's got the girl and plans to leave as soon as the Silfarien is resupplied, please don't put that dagger any closer, sir, I'm talking, I'm being good! They're in Reaves docks, fifteen rows in, twenty-second berth..."

The Elf's hand darts suddenly towards the arrow still in his belly. Hunot catches it by the wrist, knocking the arrow to the side. The wound tears, spilling more blood, and the Elf doubles over onto his side, wracked in spasms of pain.

Those with the appropriate skills can tell that the Elf is trying to hide something, and not doing so well at all.

Raddukk turns to Kiri, "Reaves Dock? You know where that is, I trust?"

She nods. "I can find it, though that's really deep in."

Then back to Hunot, Raddukk declares "Administer a bit more pain. Me thinks he could offer us more help. Unless, of course, someone can enthrall him." Raddukk wishes he, himself, was more proficient in magic so that he could do the honors. "Of course, we could just as soon slit this elf's throat and be done with him. Time does seem of be of the essence." He lets these words hang in the air like the dampness.

The Elf seems more profoundly relieved at this last suggestion than anything.

Responding to Kiri's statement, Raddukk says, "Deep in? Why am I not surprised. Would we have any chance of survival, or is it time for us to consider an alternative?" He sidelongs the elf to mark his reaction to this seeming admission of defeat.

"We're already deep in," she replies, eying the Elf. "We were deep in as soon as the Apotheosis docked. "If we can get more from this elf, I'll finally be feeling some hope of success. You all look like you can handle yourselves if you manage to set up an ambush in a reasonably well-lit area."

"OK, then let’s get all we can out of him!" spits Raddukk. "Any magical means of persuasion? Or shall I just lop off his foot?" He draws his sword.

Hunot visably grimaces as he finishes bandaging his shoulder. He stands up a bit uncertainly, steadies himself, and then faces the prisoner.

"Look, I'm wounded, I'm tired, and I'm not in mood to discover anything. I'm going to tell you this once, and once only." He gives the elf a look of malevolence mixed with fatigue. "Tell us what else you're not saying and I'll kill you. Right now. You'll go back to all the other little souls and never meet me again."

He steadies himself on the wall with his good hand. "Lie, and I'll drop the container with your soul in the middle of the ocean." "Choose now. And don't lie, my friend there has a way of sniffing out lies. And like I said before, I'm too tired to play games." Hunot pulls out a dagger with his good hand and eyes it carefully.

Raddukk nods in agreement with Hunot, sanding behind him with his sword menacing about. "I get his foot, remember," he says matter-of-factly.

Wetting himself, the Elf gapes for a moment, then starts to talk, clearly, but wearily. "We heard you were coming to get information, so we came to kill the informant before you got here. We failed. They're resupplying the Silfarien, in that Reaves dock like I told you, and Orren wants to leave for Menelkar" (this is the city on the easternmost point of the southwest continent, in the river delta.) "as soon as it's resupplied. Orren plans to take the girl home to Talisar, one of our inland human fiefdoms, and show her off like a trophy. We also have one of your ships we're taking with us, named The Cracker, or something."

Kiri nods at that last. "Word among the Dust is that it's called the Kraken. It was captured a week and a half ago."

The Elf winces, as his clothes become ever more bloodsoaked. "And the Reaves have an ambush for your friends if they ever get near, but I don't know where it is. Have I said enough now? Will you kill me finally?"

Hunot spares a glance at Mr. Nikes. He nods and looks back at elf. "As soon as you tell us all of it. Where's the ambush?" Raddukk nods in agreement, his sword still in hand.

"I don't know," says the Elf desperately. "I wasn't there for that part. You have to go through a warehouse to get to the dock, and it's probably there." He rattles off another vague-sounding address.

Kiri nods. "I know where that is," she says, to the Elf's wide-eyed look of reappraisal.

Raddukk acknowledges Kiri’s response, saying, "Then let’s finish this one and get a move on."

Hunot nods in agreement. "Finish him quickly." He gingerly probes his shoulder and resets the bandage a bit.

Raddukk looks at the elf, "You are going to get your wish." With a swift and steady thrust he runs his sword thru the elf's chest aiming for his heart. Once done, he removes his sword, and wipes it clean on the now dead foe's pants. "Let us be out of here. Time is, as always, of the essense."

He waits for Kiri to give some indication of direction, then falls in behind her. She scowls at the Elf's corpse, then leads them all briskly out through the hole in the wall.

Muttering "Follow the blood," she does indeed lead them following the path of the bloody footprints left by the fleeing Elves. At first, the path takes them through a disused corridor, but soon branches and splits. Kiri pauses at the first split, then chooses the left-hand turn, away from the bloody footprints.

After the second intersection in what looks like to be a network of access paths, she breaks into a jog, falling back only when she realizes that Hunot and Raddukk are having trouble keeping up due to their wounds. She mutters under her breath, but keeps to a more reasonable pace.

After a few ladders, they finally all come out onto a quite well-travelled street that smells strongly of salt water, fish, and sweat. "Just a block or so down here, then we're down to the docks, and it gets hairy," she informs them in an undertone, as they shoulder past a train of prams driven by a loud and foul-mouthed stevedore.

"Y'all git outa ta way," he growls, and spits on Raddukk's feet as he passes.

Kiri ducks into an alley and pulls everyone in before anything nasty can happen. The stevedore guffaws and moves on. "Damnathi need a gurl ta pr'tect them..."

Ignoring him, Kiri says "There's a shortcut not too far along here, it'll put us right over the dock. The kid who told me about it got dunked though, so we have to be careful." She leads them through the high, very narrow, and above all, dark, alley, and stops at the space between two warehouses. It is more a hole than a passage, but Kiri mothions them in, saying "It's a ladder, but you should be able to all make it- Oh my."

The bottom of the ladder she reffered to is little more than a pile of matchwood. Some twenty feet up, the ladder is serviceable, but what is visible of the ladder after the first fifty feet is shredded, mangled, and mostly in a shattered pile at the bottom.

"Isn't this Mr. Loki's stick?" says Kiri, crouching down and reaching out to another peice of smashed timber. As she does so, a deep rumbling groan issues from under the pile of ladder bits.

Raddukk makes a quick mental calculation. Loki[big guy] + weak ladder=big fall. He begins moving pieces of wood, hoping to find the big guy. "Wanna bet he's under here somewhere?" As he rummages he also ruminates, "Once I satisfy my curiosity, I hope he, or make you Kiri, have an alternate route. Cause I do not think we will be climbing that ladder any time soon. Oh, and someone keep an eye on above. Rather not have arrows rained down on me."

Kiri helps out, as Raddukk is still wounded. "I know another way, yeah. I was just hoping...this is a lot more direct, though it's a better place for an ambush."

After a couple moments of moving wood, she finds a hand. "That's not Mr. Loki..." she says, puzzled but relieved. "I think..."

More wood is moved, revealing a huge ugly, misshapen face, its nose a flattened red ruin.

"...though I'd bet that's Mr. Loki's footprint on that nose," muses Kiri.

Raddukk is glad that Loki is not the one who's been injured. "Well then, maybe we'll bump into mr loki soon enough. Let's try your alternate way, as I doubt anyone of us can fly." Since he assumes any threats will come from above, he readies his bow.

As an after thought, Raddukk picks up The Big Stick. "Someone want to carry this? I `m sure Loki would like it back?"

And then he wonders, "Say, Nikes old boy, you human mage type you, don't suppose you could do anything about these wounds of Hunot's and mine? Hate to die in these streets for no good reason"

"Not right now." Hunot begins. "Nikes, can you fly or otherwise get up there? We need to join our unit before they are ambushed." He sighs and fidgets with his shoulder. "If nothing else, we can throw someone up there and then have them drop a rope." "But let's do something. Standing around here at the bottom of the ladder is just going to get us killed."

Mr. Nikes favors Raddukk with a condescending smile, while he prepares a vial by shaking it vigorously. "I'm afraid that I can't do much to help you, unless you happen to be composed of earth or fire. I could, possibly, make a makeshift stone cast for a broken bone, but I don't know how to set them by feel. ask the dark mage, he seems to know how to handle the battleground up close and personal."

To Hunot, as he begins to draw a large, rough circle with blood, "Flight, on the other hand, is the simplest of all invocations of the most ethereal element. I need not even request a service of the spirits. I can take all of us up, if you stand within the circle. Be forewarned, however: I shall be guiding, and hidden currents may deflect our paths slightly. I shall foresee these in time to prepare myself, but they will be unexpected lurches and bumps to you, and may make you feel slightly queasy."

As he casts the spell, the circle of blood begins to spin, drawing tendrils outward from the bodies under the wood. The visible face in the wreckage contorts as if in pain, but alive or dead it is impossible to tell.

Mr. Nikes motions everybody into the circle and begins steadily blowing upward, tipping the last drop of blood from the vial into the flow of breath. Instead of falling into his pursed lips, it hovers and begins to rise. Cape flapping dramatically, so does Mr. Nikes. The others follow behind at ten-foot intervals, and they begin to accelerate; the blood circle on the ground disappears as the price is paid. First Mr. Nikes, then Hunot, Raddukk, Kiri, and finally Samas.

"Oh," says Mr. Nikes perhaps a half-second after they would have needed to hear it, "and don't look down."

Edward grumbles from his perch on Mr. Nikes shoulder, as he is once again cast into the midst of an element not his own.

From above, the unmistakable crack of a lightning-gun echoes down the shaft, followed by a scream of "Kill them! Kill them all!" More screams follow, these almost of an animal quality. Nobody recognizes any of the voices. Another lightning crack, close enough to see the diffused flash down the shaft, a slamming and splintering door above them, and then silence.

The shaft narrows as they rise, so that two-thirds up, were the spell to fail, it would be possible to chimney-climb the rest of the way, assuming they were able to stop falling.

The spell does not fail, and the shaft finally ends on a dark and narrow landing. Mr. Nikes's touchdown would have been a marvel of grace, were it not for everyone else trying to land in 1-second intervals behind him. Body crashes into body, and Edward chirrups in irritation.

After a tense moment where Samas teeters on the edge for a moment, everyone is secured, safe and unharmed, on the landing. The landing is just barely wide enough for two small people to stand abreast, about seven feet tall, and perhaps ten feet deep. It ends on a small door, the top half of which has been shattered, possibly by an axe or a mace. A slight red glow is visible through the hole, though nobody can see details at the moment.

"Reekik!" exclaims someone beyond the door, whose voice nobody knows. "You're alive! I'm sorry I couldn't take you with us when Lugzan and I escaped."

"Those are Nathi out there," mutters Kiri to anyone who might be listening.

"That chirp sounds oddly familiar," says someone outside the door, in a tone of befuddled innocence that only Loki can achieve.

Mr. Nikes sits down for a moment, ignoring all else that goes on, in an attempt to catch his breath.

A Nathi that nobody recognizes peers through the hole in the demolished door. Covered with blood, his face is gaunt, and his black hair is braided behind him. In another world, he might be a football player.

"Stop and identify yourself!" Hunot barks.

Raddukk had been clutching Loki's staff. For the moment he puts it down and gets his bow ready, should this Nathi not answer, or should he not have a good answer.

"Who the hell are you?" returns the Nathi on the other side of the door.

Behind the Nathi's face, Niktar's haggard and annoyed visage may now be seen. Niktar breaths a sigh of relief. "Hunot, it's Niktar, Loki, Galdwan and this is Sarkin." To someone else, Niktar says, "Awright. Let's get this woman unbound and see who else we lost." Back to Hunot, "Nice to see you fellows again."Loki, Galdwan and this is Sarkin. Nice to see you fellows again."

Raddukk lowers his bow, holding it in only his left hand. He retrieves the remains of Loki's stick, and walks over, opens the remains of the door, and hands it to him. "Think this belongs to you. Figured you'd like to have it back." After a moment's pause he says to all these others, "hope your part of the mission went better than ours. All we have to show for it is a dead elf. Oh, well, we forgot to bring him along. Dead weight you know."

As the door is opened, those within can see Niktar, Galdwan, Loki, and the Nathi who had first looked in, whom Niktar had introduced as Sarkin. All of them look much the worse for the wear, particularly Sarkin, who is covered in blood.

The room beyond is about the size of an average living-room. On the right wall is a single door, splattered with the remains of a man's brains. The man is slumped on the floor underneath. To the left is a set of double doors. Against the double doors lies a Nathi woman bound hand and foot, with the remains of a hood around her neck. Scattered about her are the bones of at least three Nathi, the truncated sections of two men, and the severely burned body of a third. The floor is slick with blood, and the air reeks of death, both Nathi and human.

Loki beams happily. "We're all together again. Wonderful! Now we can really get on with things. How did you all fare? Did you find out anything important? Everyone made it all right, didn't they?" Loki glances around for Kiri. "Mr. Nikes! And Edward! I didn't think you'd make it back, after all your talk about being a civilian. Easy on the bow, there, Raddukk. Thanks for my Stick, though I don't think it'll be much good anymore. I'll have to make another soon. When we get the time. Which isn't likely to be soon."

Kiri blinks at the sudden onslaught of enthusiasm, but smiles at Loki anyway. She edges her way past Hunot and Raddukk, and stops short at the sight of the massive amount of carnage in the room. "You're all okay?" she ventures. "I thought I felt someone die..." she looks around and sees all her former comrades alive and generally well. Then she sees the scattered Nathi bones near the double door, and lets out a long tight sigh. "Oh no..."

Hunot spares a glance at the room and then sits down against a wall. He sighs for a moment, checks his shoulder then closes his eyes.

The Nathi woman tied up against the double doors speaks:

"Sarkin, sir, I'm glad to see you're alive too, but I don't think we have much time. This was meant to delay you until the elves left harbor with the Apotheosis and the Sil...something or other in Elvish." She pauses a moment. "I think they had a prisoner they were leading on to one of the frigates."

The one Niktar introduced as Sarkin unties her as she talks to him, in lowered tones. He suddenly looks sharply at her and mutters back, "[mumblemumble...No, that's horrible! Where is she? We've got to get her back!" His voice rises near the end of this statement, then he lowers his voice again and continues talking to her.

Sarkin and the as-yet unnamed woman continue to speak very quietly. Fortunately, Loki hears them, and provides commentary. His face lights up with the now-familiar and much-feared gleam of realization. "An interesting facet of the tendency to refer to ships and other such objects as 'she' and 'her' is that the pronouns were originally applied to almost everything, although many languages subsequently left them behind. A notable exception is the language of a small island far to the south, where all people are 'it' and objects have genders, although saltshakers and wooden tables are exempt from this rule." Loki smiles quietly to himself and finishes cleaning Pen.

Niktar scowls at Sarkin and Reekik. "If you two are done whispering sweet nothings in each other's ears, I suggest we DO something. First, Galdwan if you have it in you Hunot and Raddukk look like they could use a little help. While we do that we can do a quick catch-up on what's happened. Second, I want to find out what's behind these doors and who else we lost. Reekik, were the others held near here? Third, we head out and try to catch up with Orren and the Apotheosis. You say the Kraken was repaired. Do you think if we could get to it we could take it over and use it or should we try to commandeer something else in this, forgive me Kiri, gods-forsaken city?"

"By the way. That's Hunot, Raddukk, and you've probably guessed, Nikes and his salamander. And Kiri." He points to each one in turn and then says to those who just arrived pointing at the new ones in his own group. "Sarkin and Reekik of the Kraken."

He waits for Reekik's answers before explaining what happened to his group.

Niktar goes over to Kiri and puts a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Not just these, either." Anyone looking at his face notices a moment of intense ... grief? pain? cross his face before he forces it back down. Those who know him better, ie, the original companions, will recognize this as the same pain as when he talks about his former ship's destruction.

"Not just these?" Kiri scowls. "They killed Marcus, and then these?"

Reekik shrugs in Sarkin's direction, "Its your decision sir." She gives Niktar a bit of a befuddled look, "I was in a cell by myself, I didn't see much. I think the others are dead though."

Sarkin stands up straighter and looks at Niktar. "The Kraken is now in the hands of the enemy; I don't think we can let them hold on to it." He sighs, pain evident on his face. "My crew is dead to me twice now, yet I have no time to mourn them. We need to get the Kraken before its secret is revealed."

Niktar nods at Sarkin. "We can try." He looks at the ragged bunch. "So we met with the contact, and set up a meeting. Either his bunch was waylaid by Bob the Finder - by the way did you notice if he was actually a splattered mess at the bottom there? or he double crossed us. In any case the Reaves have definitely switched sides and were the ones to take over the Kraken, and unfortunately the Apotheosis apparently. The O'Mara ... well we promised something to them but I think we're not in a position to follow through with it at the moment, and neither should we if they double crossed us. In any case, there are another 10 Nathi dead somewhere. I'm betting it's through one of these doors. Likely this one." He points to the single door. "So what happened on your side?" He asks Hunot et al.

"Got ambushed." Hunot says without opening his eyes.

Sarkin, meanwhile, goes and actually opens that single door...and finds that it is locked. Perturbed that the door that he was hoping to easily open has turned out to be not-so-easy, he thinks about picking the lock and then, annoyed, decides instead to shoulder-rush the door. He rebounds off the door, which, were it possessed of a tongue, would have stuck it out at him.

Tired from their ordeal, dirty and wounded, Raddukk stands silently throughout, waiting till the doors get opened. He does his best to rest for these few moments.

While all this portallic activity is going on, Galdwan snaps out of the daze he was in and makes use of the dead, bleeding bodies. First, he tends to Hunot's shoulder, which had been cut down to the bone and encrusted with blood. The wound closes to an ugly red line. It is still quite painful, but won't break open under casual activity. Raddukk's wounds are much the same, and Galdwan is able to bring him up to full health, though the scars remain. Loki will always have that puckered scar on his bottom, but is fine after Galdwan's minstrations.

When the spellcasting is done, there is substantially less blood on the floor and in the room. Galdwan takes a moment's rest against one of the less bloody sections of wall, and wakes up next time someone makes a loud noise.

Niktar walks over to the door, bolter at the ready. "Stand back." He then shoots the lock open with his bolter, and easily blows the lock apart into several jagged pieces, enabling the single door to be opened. Galdwan jerks awake, flails, and takes a moment to regain a normal heartbeat.

Outside the single door is a low dark corridor, wide enough for a decent-sized pram, with shallow wheel ruts in the floor.

At some point in this attempt to destroy the door, Reekik speaks up, "Sir, the harbor is that way," and points towards the double doors where she was tied up intially.

"Yes," Sarkin says, "but where are our dead?" He peers out the broken door, ascertains that his dead are not out there, and then heads to the double doors. Opening them, he turns to Reekik and says, "Lead the way."

The double doors open inward onto a platform about ten feet across, ramping down to the left to the docks three stories below. The ceiling of this particular docking area is flush with the ceiling of the room, and eerily lit by torches attached to the various berths below. This area is almost like a cavern, with the suggestion of walls dimly perceived on the edge of vision. The platform and ramp are scattered with Nathi bones and bits of uniform, all the way down.

The ramp, what those in the room can see of it, extends down to a very large floating dock, stable enough to almost be called a floor. Other, smaller and longer docks, jut out from the main dock, and are variously tethered to supports, other docks, poles, whatever came in handy at the time.

Directly in front of the doorway where everyone is standing, and about a hundred meters along one of the finger-docks, are berthed three ships. Two of them are Elven-style frigates, one of which still flies the colors of the Nathi, and is presumably the Apotheosis. The second frigate, berthed in front, flies a sickle of stars, the emblem of one of the Elven armadas. Both frigates are churning, like they are about ready to set out. The flurry of activity among the dock hands seems to indicate that as well.

On the other side of the dock from the Apotheosis is another, curiously-shaped ship. Long and low, it flies no colors, bears no sail, and from above, seems to be built around a giant tube, running from the very prow almost to the stern. The decks fore and aft cover the tube, but amidships, it is open to the air. The ship rides low in the water, and is painted and shaped to vaguely remind the viewer of a great predatory fish. The figures they can see around this ship are more like guards than stevedores.

Reekik points at the third ship and says "There it is. I hope they haven't started working on the gun yet."

Loki gazes in awe at the sight before him. An entirely new ship design to learn about...ah, the wondrous probabilities. "I hope that very large tube isn't the gun you mean. Something that size could be quite painful to anyone on the receiving end. So, shall we attempt a stealthy infiltration like the ill-fated attempt by the great plains chieftain Bloodhawk to subjugate the great cities, which ended in a bloodbath which coated the surrounding fields to such an extent that even today the wheat and grains grown there are somewhat tinged with pink, or do we want to go for the head-on straightforward charge such as that led by the famed general Kustarr against the primitive tribes that plagued his country. I believe they eventually located his left hand and one of his toes, which they gave decent burial to." Loki holds Pen ready but not drawn, gazing cheerfully around at the surrounding group as if he'd just suggested a pot-luck dinner to raise money for the local library. He accepts the reappearance of the other party and the addition of a new member as he accepts all things; with a slightly puzzled but cheerful smile and never an indication of turmoil.

Raddukk thanks Galdwan for his minstrations back in the room. Feeling much better now, and better scarred than behind bars, he enjoys listening to Loki's dissertation and history lesson. "You make our choices seem both so inviting." He smiles. "Is there a third option that you are holding back, for the lessons of the first two suggest neither be repeated. But, then that is the lesson of history, isn't it, that those who do not learn from the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them?" He takes a deep breath of the sea air. "I do hope we are not so doomed."

Reekik attempts to estimate the number of guards around the Kraken. She sees about ten to fifteen dock hands bustling about the departing two frigates, and perhaps five visible guards about the Kraken. The weapons she (and the rest of you) can see are spears, though at this distance it's hard to see clearly. "Perhaps we should get closer to the ships. Maybe we will get a better idea of how to retake her.

"Ah, reconnaissance," launches Loki. "An excellent idea. Forewarned is forearmed, as General Tacticus always said. Not that it helped his underlieutenant Francisco during the Battle of Ravensfeast. Still, a bit of knowledge of the enemy is always helpful. Who wants to go poking around down there? Quickly, since they're just about to leave from what we can see. Also, Reekik, any information you can give us in the next ten seconds would be very helpful." Loki gazes pensively at the bustling crew of the Kraken. "I wonder if they've spotted us yet? They must know we were coming."

Niktar surveys the group again. "Whoever looks the most like they might belong as a dockworker and isn't Nathi would best be the one to go out and survey, in case they are seen. I don't suppose human magic allows one to turn invisible?"

Nikes listens in to all the conversations with the same air of careful contemplation and decision that precedes all his decisions; which is to say, he's grinning broadly, if still panting a bit heavily. "My friends, I fear you are missing the crux of the problem. Force is unthinkable, stealth is unimaginable, bribery unacceptable, and surprise unreachable. So long as the enemy's attention is focused upon us, our position is untenable. Thus, I propose... a distraction. "Do you realize that the answer lies around us? What is it that this fair city is composed of? Wood! And do you know the most fundamental property of wood?" Here Nikes leans in and lowers his voice. "It BURNS."

"An excellent idea," Sarkin says. "Now the question is, where shall we begin this fire, for greatest effect?"

Loki frowns. "Well, we don't want to hurt anyone we don't have to. The dock workers probably know almost nothing. I certainly wouldn't want to be cooked alive for doing my job like I was told, even if I have almost been so several times thus far, but that's irrelevant right now." Slight gasp of surprise from those who notice that Loki actually admitted something was irrelevant. "But we also need it close enough to the ship to be noticed quickly and have steps taken to curb it. The best choice would be to have several fires start up simultaneously in various areas, but that would make them immediately suspect sabotage, a not unreasonable conclusion in this particular instance. Mr. Nikes, how fast can your fire spread once it starts? We'd need it to become serious quickly, but not so quickly that magic tampering is suspected. Perhaps among the detritus of the docks, on the far side of the ship. I can't decide if it would be better to have them all trapped on one dock putting out a fire or to get them out of the area entirely by placing the fire farther inwards, closer to where we are now."

"Um," says Kiri. "This whole city is made out of wood..."

"Which means that they probably have a pretty good handle on fires, one would hope," Sarkin says, "and will be even more concerned about a dock fire than the average city, thus adding to its verisimilitude as a distraction. This is sounding like a better plan at every moment."

Niktar blinks at the conversation incredulously. "Are you stark raving MAD?" he asks. "Kiri doesn't sound thrilled with the prospect - and she would know how good the fire fighting ability is here. Do we want to be as bad as the Elves and kill many innocents? A quick way to lose what few allies there might be in this city.

"That aside, I forsee it only hurting our cause. The place we would likely start a fire would be near by. They will first and foremost move the Apotheosis AND the Kraken out into the harbor, and then what do we do? All the crew will be moving about on the ship, and there will be no way to get aboard.

"No, I think stealth is a better way to deal with this."

Raddukk, having had ample time to contemplate the possibilities, says, "The idea if a distraction is excellent, and fire certainly would be easily created here. But at such a cost it would seem. Even a warrior such as myself is not fond of the slaughter and suffering of innocents. And, from what Kiri has just pointed out, it is doubtful that we could control a fire once we started one. So, do we need a real fire, or is it not possible to make them think there is a fire? And the only place we really need that is on the ship we want to retake. What if our combined magics created the illusion of fire on board the ship? Many of those aboard might flee, while only a few night be brave enough to battle the blaze. We cold enter the scene as the volunteer fire department so to speak, and just happen to remove the ship from this harbor 'for the good of the town.' Who knows how far we might get before anyone catches on."

The Apotheosis and other frigate are now in motion, moving away from the dock and starting to pick up speed, though they still have a great deal of labyrinthine dock to traverse.

"An illusory fire would give all the benefits of a real fire without doing any serious damage." Sarkin looks at Galdwan and Mr. Nikes. "Are either of you skilled illusionists?"

"Better do it quick," says Niktar as he watches the ships pull away.

"...If we don't come up with an idea Very Soon Now," Sarkin says, looking around at his other companions, "frontal assault will be our only remaining option. It's sounding more appealing at every moment."

Reekik speaks up. "I think we have some split priorities here, I am loath to see them capture one of our ships, but we will probably only have a chance to liberate one ship as our attempt will alert our enemies. The Elves however seemed to think it was important to delay you until the Apotheosis left. On the other hand the Kraken probably has more military secrets."

After this somewhat long for her speech Reekik goes back to estimating various armaments and velocities of the various ships. Both frigates are free of the docks now, and pulling out into the major outbound lanes.

Nikes redies himself for elocution. Edward clicks twice and sits back on his haunches, awaiting the show. "Galdwan, you had best handle the mental aspects of heat and flame; I do not have the sway over minds to make such without actual damage to the ship. This, however, I can do."

Nikes, in a position to see the ship without being seen, and away from any immediate passersby, pours a small amount of blood into both hands and begins a deep chant. The blood in one hand begins to smoke, as is its wont; he begins to gesture with the other hand towards the ship and then brings both cupped hands together in a ball. The smoke begins to billow in noticeable wisps from between his thumbs, and he continues to chant. Edward flicks his tongue into the smoke and chirrups happily.

Meanwhile, smoke suddenly begins to billow from the Kraken's stern, in exact replica of the smoke curling between Nikes' fingers. It is indeed quite realistic, except for the fact that it is no warmer than Mr. Nikes' breath, blown upon his hands. It is a plume visible for many hundreds of feet from the ship, and quite noticeable from the ship itself. The cry of alarm is raised, and those guards who are nearest the ship send up a frantic cry for buckets.

"Go, friends! Your distraction! Galdwan, if you would..."

Nikes is speaking in gasps, and he gasps as he continues to maintain the spell... perhaps not for long.

Loki raises Pen above his head. "That's our cue! Onwards, Citizens' Volunteer Fire Brigade! Maybe if we pretend to be helpful citizens we can get in closer before we start being shot at." Suiting actions to words, he sheaths Pen and looks around for anything bucketlike. Seeing only the skulls of dead Nathi, which wouldn't make good buckets anyway, Loki slows to a jog after a few feet, gazes confusedly around at the empty space that should contain his companions, shrugs, and keeps on going.

"Right behind you, big guy," says Raddukk as he follows Loki and Loki's example. Seeing neither buckets, nor hoses, nor fire engines, nor Dalmatians, or any such thing, Raddukk contents himself to yell, "Fire! Fire! Your damn ship is on fire!!!!!" as loud as he can. "Somebody get buckets. Help! Help!" and follows Loki's charge.

After a few moment's indecision, Sarkin figures that he might as well go for broke, and also runs after the Kraken. His plan, as unrealistic as it might seem to some, is to get to the Kraken itself and rid it of all invaders. At least, behind Loki and Raddukk as he is, he's not alone.

Hunot drops his cloak with an oath about procrastinators, revealing a figure clad in somewhat dirty Nathi livery with a ripped shoulder festooned with knives on most limbs. Ripping hastily through his pack he retrieves a worn crossbow and a handfull of bolts with quiver. The former he hangs on his back and the latter he hangs on his belt. He graces the remainder of the remaining group standing about with an exasperated look. With that he takes off after Sarkin at a trot, keep an eye out for watchfull elves, cradling his bolter carefully.

Niktar keeps his cloak about him, and motions for the others remaining to follow him. "Good job, Nikes. Galdwan stay and help him. Catch up when it seems right. Reekik, use Hunot's cloak to conceal yourself." He winds his way down the ramp (hopefully with Samas and Reekik) and sneaks off to the side, looking for a good way to get onboard the Kraken while attention is drawn elsewhere.

Reekik covers herself with Hunot's cloak and lags slightly behind Niktar. Besides it being tattered and smelling like an armpit, she does locate a couple rather nice daggers in there as well.

Galdwan unstoppers his bottle and starts the fire illusion (Illusion/Fire), angered that he didn't start a real fire before someone could stop him. Not wanting to be left behind, he tries to keep up with the others as well as he can while casting. Samas remains with Galdwan, crouching, charging his bolter and searching for a target.

With Nikes at the top of the ramp, Galdwan halfway down, and everyone else at the bottom, Galdwan's illusion finally catches. A huge crackling ball of flame erupts from the Kraken's smoking stern, and rapidly spreads across the docks in close vicinity to the ship. Pandemonium reigns for a few brief moments. the two frigates neither pause nor turn, but continue pulling away from the docks.

Loki, conscious of the fact that he's serving as the distraction end of this "distract and sneak in" maneuver, does his best to draw as much attention to himself as possible. He clears his throat. "FIRE! FIRE! EVERYBODY OUT OF THE WAY! CLEAR THE AREA! WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST! GRAB A BUCKET AND RUN FOR YOUR LIFE, IT'S THE END OF THE BLOODY WORLD!" Loki accentuates his production by waving his arms and endeavoring to cause as much general havoc as possible when he actually gets close to the ship. He "accidentally" knocks things over, shoves people off the docks, quite accidentally catches an innocent dockworker in the groin with the end of The Big Stick, and makes it to the side of the Kraken alongside Sarkin by the time people realize that the huge crackling fire...isn't burning them.

Sarkin and Loki together dash out onto the dock itself, clamber up two mooring posts, and leap onto the Kraken itself. They land just shy of what passes for the aftcastle, and tumble to the deck below, seven feet below. There they will stay for a moment and catch their breath, as they are between the rise of the central tube on their right and the six-foot wall of the ship on their left, and nobody is attacking them at the moment. (Pester me sometime, I might even get diagrams for you.)

As they land, a figure on the aftcastle of the Apotheosis, which is behind the other frigate, stands up and throws his arms wide. The smoke and illusory fire dies immediately. Nikes doubles over coughing, and Galdwan suddenly imagines that he is incredibly warm. Both are treated to sudden headaches as their severed spells rebound back into them. On the platform below, the confused guards regroup, and charge at Niktar, Reekik, Raddukk, Kiri, and Hunot from all sides.

Hunot fires his bolter from the hip, catching a brute of a man with a huge noched sword, who falls, sans abdomen. Niktar shoots another in the face, at the same time as the mage on the Apotheosis throws a ball of crackling lightning through the air at them. Her voice oddly distorted, Kiri screams "Pulse!", and drops such a powerful pulse of Power that all crystal within ten feet of her glows slightly. Fortunately, the pulse also disrupts the ball of lightning, which fizzles out inches from Niktar's face. Raddukk fires a mighty shot with his longbow that skewers two attackers, who crash into him, bearing him to the ground in the midst of his fellows.

Two more guards rush Raddukk with drawn swords. It looks like it is over for Raddukk, but then Samas's precision bolter-shot from above turns one man's head and shoulder into a fine mist. The other attacker rears back, and falls over backwards.

Another figure stands up next to the first on the Apotheosis's aftcastle, and begins to make gestures. Hunot fires a snap-shot at him with his crossbow. He misses, but the mage ducks, and whatever devilry he was preparing fizzles.

The five on the platform (Kiri, Raddukk, Niktar, Hunot, and Reekik) are about thirty feet from the dock, and another twenty from being able to board the Kraken. Nikes is two stories up, at the top of the ramp. Galdwan and Samas are halfway down. Loki and Sarkin are amidships on the Kraken, which is still moored to the dock.

The Apotheosis and the other ship, upon which the farsighted among the party can read the name "Silfarien," are now at least fifty feet away from the dock and continuing their slow escape. At least five people are visible on the stern of the Kraken, most of them with knives and cutlasses.

Four guards lay dead around the group on the platform from the Kraken, and three more with spears and knives are rushing them from the party's right. Five more are slipping out of the shadows twenty feet behind and to the left, all with crossbows trained on the five Nathi on the platform.

"An illusory fire would give all the benefits of a real fire without doing any serious damage." Sarkin looks at Galdwan and Mr. Nikes. "Are either of you skilled illusionists?"

"Better do it quick," says Niktar as he watches the ships pull away.

"...If we don't come up with an idea Very Soon Now," Sarkin says, looking around at his other companions, "frontal assault will be our only remaining option. It's sounding more appealing at every moment."

Reekik speaks up. "I think we have some split priorities here, I am loath to see them capture one of our ships, but we will probably only have a chance to liberate one ship as our attempt will alert our enemies. The Elves however seemed to think it was important to delay you until the Apotheosis left. On the other hand the Kraken probably has more military secrets."

After this somewhat long for her speech Reekik goes back to estimating various armaments and velocities of the various ships. Both frigates are free of the docks now, and pulling out into the major outbound lanes.

Mikes readies himself for elocution. Edward clicks twice and sits back on his haunches, awaiting the show. "Galdwan, you had best handle the mental aspects of heat and flame; I do not have the sway over minds to make such without actual damage to the ship. This, however, I can do."

Nikes, in a position to see the ship without being seen, and away from any immediate passersby, pours a small amount of blood into both hands and begins a deep chant. The blood in one hand begins to smoke, as is its wont; he begins to gesture with the other hand towards the ship and then brings both cupped hands together in a ball. The smoke begins to billow in noticeable wisps from between his thumbs, and he continues to chant. Edward flicks his tongue into the smoke and chirrups happily.

Meanwhile, smoke suddenly begins to billow from the Kraken's stern, in exact replica of the smoke curling between Nikes' fingers. It is indeed quite realistic, except for the fact that it is no warmer than Mr. Nikes' breath, blown upon his hands. It is a plume visible for many hundreds of feet from the ship, and quite noticeable from the ship itself. The cry of alarm is raised, and those guards who are nearest the ship send up a frantic cry for buckets.

"Go, friends! Your distraction! Galdwan, if you would..."

Nikes is speaking in gasps, and he gasps as he continues to maintain the spell... perhaps not for long.

Loki raises Pen above his head. "That's our cue! Onwards, Citizens' Volunteer Fire Brigade! Maybe if we pretend to be helpful citizens we can get in closer before we start being shot at." Suiting actions to words, he sheaths Pen and looks around for anything bucketlike. Seeing only the skulls of dead Nathi, which wouldn't make good buckets anyway, Loki slows to a jog after a few feet, gazes confusedly around at the empty space that should contain his companions, shrugs, and keeps on going.

"Right behind you, big guy," says Raddukk as he follows Loki and Loki's example. Seeing neither buckets, nor hoses, nor fire engines, nor Dalmatians, or any such thing, Raddukk contents himself to yell, "Fire! Fire! Your damn ship is on fire!!!!!" as loud as he can. "Somebody get buckets. Help! Help!" and follows Loki's charge.

After a few moment's indecision, Sarkin figures that he might as well go for broke, and also runs after the Kraken. His plan, as unrealistic as it might seem to some, is to get to the Kraken itself and rid it of all invaders. At least, behind Loki and Raddukk as he is, he's not alone.

Hunot drops his cloak with an oath about procrastinators, revealing a figure clad in somewhat dirty Nathi livery with a ripped shoulder festooned with knives on most limbs. Ripping hastily through his pack he retrieves a worn crossbow and a handful of bolts with quiver. The former he hangs on his back and the latter he hangs on his belt. He graces the remainder of the remaining group standing about with an exasperated look. With that he takes off after Sarkin at a trot, keep an eye out for watchful elves, cradling his bolter carefully.

Niktar keeps his cloak about him, and motions for the others remaining to follow him. "Good job, Nikes. Galdwan stay and help him. Catch up when it seems right. Reekik, use Hunot's cloak to conceal yourself." He winds his way down the ramp (hopefully with Samas and Reekik) and sneaks off to the side, looking for a good way to get onboard the Kraken while attention is drawn elsewhere.

Reekik covers herself with Hunot's cloak and lags slightly behind Niktar. Besides it being tattered and smelling like an armpit, she does locate a couple rather nice daggers in there as well.

Galdwan unstoppers his bottle and starts the fire illusion (Illusion/Fire), angered that he didn't start a real fire before someone could stop him. Not wanting to be left behind, he tries to keep up with the others as well as he can while casting. Samas remains with Galdwan, crouching, charging his bolter and searching for a target.

With Nikes at the top of the ramp, Galdwan halfway down, and everyone else at the bottom, Galdwan's illusion finally catches. A huge crackling ball of flame erupts from the Kraken's smoking stern, and rapidly spreads across the docks in close vicinity to the ship. Pandemonium reigns for a few brief moments. the two frigates neither pause nor turn, but continue pulling away from the docks.

Loki, conscious of the fact that he's serving as the distraction end of this "distract and sneak in" maneuver, does his best to draw as much attention to himself as possible. He clears his throat. "FIRE! FIRE! EVERYBODY OUT OF THE WAY! CLEAR THE AREA! WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST! GRAB A BUCKET AND RUN FOR YOUR LIFE, IT'S THE END OF THE BLOODY WORLD!" Loki accentuates his production by waving his arms and endeavoring to cause as much general havoc as possible when he actually gets close to the ship. He "accidentally" knocks things over, shoves people off the docks, quite accidentally catches an innocent dockworker in the groin with the end of The Big Stick, and makes it to the side of the Kraken alongside Sarkin by the time people realize that the huge crackling fire...isn't burning them.

Sarkin and Loki together dash out onto the dock itself, clamber up two mooring posts, and leap onto the Kraken itself. They land just shy of what passes for the aftcastle, and tumble to the deck below, seven feet below. There they will stay for a moment and catch their breath, as they are between the rise of the central tube on their right and the six-foot wall of the ship on their left, and nobody is attacking them at the moment. (Pester me sometime, I might even get diagrams for you.)

As they land, a figure on the aftcastle of the Apotheosis, which is behind the other frigate, stands up and throws his arms wide. The smoke and illusory fire dies immediately. Nikes doubles over coughing, and Galdwan suddenly imagines that he is incredibly warm. Both are treated to sudden headaches as their severed spells rebound back into them. On the platform below, the confused guards regroup, and charge at Niktar, Reekik, Raddukk, Kiri, and Hunot from all sides.

Hunot fires his bolter from the hip, catching a brute of a man with a huge notched sword, who falls, sans abdomen. Niktar shoots another in the face, at the same time as the mage on the Apotheosis throws a ball of crackling lightning through the air at them. Her voice oddly distorted, Kiri screams "Pulse!", and drops such a powerful pulse of Power that all crystal within ten feet of her glows slightly. Fortunately, the pulse also disrupts the ball of lightning, which fizzles out inches from Niktar's face. Raddukk fires a mighty shot with his longbow that skewers two attackers, who crash into him, bearing him to the ground in the midst of his fellows.

Two more guards rush Raddukk with drawn swords. It looks like it is over for Raddukk, but then Samas's precision bolter-shot from above turns one man's head and shoulder into a fine mist. The other attacker rears back, and falls over backwards.

Another figure stands up next to the first on the Apotheosis's aftcastle, and begins to make gestures. Hunot fires a snap-shot at him with his crossbow. He misses, but the mage ducks, and whatever devilry he was preparing fizzles.

The five on the platform (Kiri, Raddukk, Niktar, Hunot, and Reekik) are about thirty feet from the dock, and another twenty from being able to board the Kraken. Nikes is two stories up, at the top of the ramp. Galdwan and Samas are halfway down. Loki and Sarkin are amidships on the Kraken, which is still moored to the dock.

The Apotheosis and the other ship, upon which the farsighted among the party can read the name "Silfarien," are now at least fifty feet away from the dock and continuing their slow escape. At least five people are visible on the stern of the Kraken, most of them with knives and cutlasses.

Four guards lay dead around the group on the platform from the Kraken, and three more with spears and knives are rushing them from the party's right. Five more are slipping out of the shadows twenty feet behind and to the left, all with crossbows trained on the five Nathi on the platform.

Onboard the Kraken, Loki tosses Sarkin the remnants of the Big Stick, which in its diminished form is probably easily manageable for a non-Loki person. And Sarkin has demonstrated a high level of strength on his own, so even if it's more like seven-eighths of a Big Stick instead of half, he should be fine with it. Loki and Sarkin both start to climb up the ladder to the aft sections.

Raddukk moves to his right to get a clear shot at those on the rear of the Kraken. He aims for the one on the farthest right, so that a miss should not hit any of his companions. His arrow takes one of the guards through the back, as the guard was more interested in stomping on Sarkin's fingers as the Nathi climbed the ladder out of the center sections of the ship.

Niktar turns to his right, drawing his cutlass as he recharges his bolter. He fires the bolter at extreme close range into one of the guards running toward him, dropping the guard, a rather pleasant-looking young man, like a stone. As the others are on top of them Niktar wields his cutlass, sending Power into it as he hacks another guard down, leaving the smell of burning flesh.

Reekik grabs the cutlass of this downed guard and feeds power into it, grounding the charge into the guard who was about to eviscerate Niktar from the back. This guard screams in pain and drops his weapon. (That's all three of the guards who were charging.)

Kiri pulls out a dagger, and leaps at the nearest crossbowman. He fires at her as she leaps, catching her in the left thigh. She crashes to the ground, and just sorta lies there, clutching her leg.

"Blast... those... elves..." Up on the ramp, Nikes' chest is heaving. It's highly unlikely that anyone can hear his hoarse whisper, but his eyes are blazing. "I'm... gonna... KILL... them..."

Two of the five crossbowmen fire into the fray. One completely misses. The other grazes Hunot across the left deltoid, the broad head of the quarrel scoring deeply into the muscle. The remaining two crossbowmen fire upwards at Samas and Galdwan. They both miss, but keep Samas from making another shot.

Nikes stares at the Apotheosis, slits his eyes, and raises his hand high above his head. He begins a (hoarse) chant, and blood begins to run down his arm from the fresh cut on his wrist. Suddenly, he drops his hand straight down, and the blood boils off.

The water under the Silfarien suddenly isn't there. The bow pitches sharply forward, and is met by three hundred gallons of water rushing up to fill the void. Creaking and straining, the bow pitches up almost vertically and hard to port as the geyser sprays past it, then the ship smacks back down, facing 90 degrees to the left of its original heading.

His spell completed, Mr. Nikes crumples to the floor...and half rolls, half slides, down the ramp in a shower of Nathi bones. He comes to rest ten feet from Galdwan and Samas.

The Apotheosis, furiously cutting speed, rides out the geyser, though the two mages on the aftcastle are no longer anywhere to be seen. Calmly, serenely, the great frigate grounds its nose into the portside stern of the Silfarien, amidst shouts, creaks, and a really nasty grinding noise. The Impact drives the Apotheosis into the docks to the right, with another nasty series of structural noises.

As the waves spread from the geyser's drop, the docks ripple with them, sending several hapless stevedores into the harbor. The Kraken rocks violently, bumping into the padded mooring posts, throwing Loki and Sarkin against the central core, and sending two of the five guards on its stern into the harbor as well. The other three fall over.

The waves gush over the platform, covering it to a depth of three feet. Everyone is knocked off their feet and swept, coughing and spluttering, between ten to fifteen feet backwards. Then, as the waves rebound, they are swept roughly back to their original locations.

Pushed by the Apotheosis almost into the left docks, the Silfarien is now facing directly at the party on the docks.

As those on the platform sort themselves out, the prow emitter crystal on the Silfarien begins to glow blue.

Niktar gets up, and sloshes over to the crossbowmen, taking out the weapons by slicing the wire first and then moves to dispatch the crossbowmen themselves. He gets to three of the crossbows, then the owner of the fourth tackles him to the ground. Grappling at close quarters now, Niktar draws his dagger and proceeds to fight dirty, surging Power into the man and then trying in particular to go for the throat if need be. His opponent screams as his skin chars under Niktar's fingers. Desperately, he brings his knees up into Niktar's midriff, breaks away, and half slips, half runs, away as fast as he can.

Reekik struggles out of Hunot's cloak, and follows Niktar, finishing off the first three guards after Niktar sees to their weapons. With a quick thrust, those three are no longer a threat.

Galdwan starts to chant, then points a fist down at the fifth guard down on the platform. He opens his hand wide open, and the fifth man on the platform screams as the vertebrae in his spine decide they want to be as far from the other vertebrae as possible. The man flops and flails on the sodden planking, then lies still, like a boned fish.

Raddukk, realizing that his bow might be of little use in this close quarter fray, draws his sword, and realizes that there are no opponents left standing on the platform with them.

On the Kraken, Sarkin whirls The Big Stick, keeping guards at bay by virtue of his ferocity, rather than skill. He advances on one particular one, catching the guard in the solar plexus and throwing him breathless into the water.

Beside Sarkin, Loki charges in with Pen. His first stroke disarms (literally - he removed the arm) one guard. Seeing this and realizing what happened on the platform, those remaining mutter something about "not paid enough for this..." and throw themselves over the side of the boat, swimming madly for Somewhere Else.

The Apotheosis extricates itself from the dock, and continues its momentarily unsteady way out into the labyrinth of docks between it and the sea. The Silfarien follows, though more slowly, and backwards, as it cannot turn around at the moment.

On the ramp, Samas and Galdwan suddenly feel their hair stand on end. Galdwan leaps sideways down the ramp, lands on a bone, and tumbles ungracefully down to the bottom. Samas grabs Mr. Nikes and throws himself forward, trusting his hardy frame to absorb the impact of the fifteen-foot drop.

Samas is barely off the ledge when the Silfarien fires. With the sort of crack that drives your ears three feet into your skull, and searing across the vision of anyone looking, the lightning bolt smashes through the ramp and the wall behind where Samas and Nikes had been a heartbeat earlier. Fragments and splinters rain down all over.

Samas lands on his back, with Mr. Nikes on top. He grunts, and then the entire ramp collapses on top of him. Edward leaps out of the pile of debris like an armadillo, with an affronted "Peep! Peep!" The little salamander hops around on all fours, setting little short-lived fires where he lands.

Samas groans, and pulls himself and Mr. Nikes out of the wreckage. He lies there for a moment, winded.

The Silfarien's prow emitter once more begins to glow.

Onboard the Kraken...