Follow Sarkin and Reekik...

Follow Raddukk...

Follow Hunot...

He heads over to the speaking tube, on the way saying to those down below, "When we get this sorted out, would it be possible to work on getting some shields on this thing, and maybe figuring out how to shield the Power leak so that they don't know what's coming? Just some thoughts that will make this ship far more effective."

He then speaks into the tube. "Ilena, the gun is full up. I can come up there and help out or stay down here if we'll need to recharge soon - they can charge without me as well if need be, it's just faster with four. What are things looking like?"

Ilena responds into the tube, "I don't imagine they will give us a chance to fire twice, Nik. Keep as many people on the engines as possible, keep a few on the gun to keep it charged. Extra people who feel up for a fight can come up on deck and get ready. Maybe help with spell defense. We'll hit them in under a minute."

She then addresses the congregation of mages. "If the shield will take a little bit of time to set up, better start working on it now. I have a feeling they will turn on us before they get to open water." To Gornash she adds, "Mr. Nikes and Mr. Loki have an idea for a temporary shield in case the Silfarien turns to fire as this vessel lacks them. Unless you have other duties, your help would be appreciated." To the group again, "If we can get a functional shield with two of you while a third keeps the Elven mages too bothered to cast, all the better."

"Madam," declares Gornash, "It shall be done." He bows, and enters into conference with Nikes and Loki.

Loki, who has been idly cataloging the Heffalump mercs' weapons for future reference, suddenly frowns and does a quick recount. He excuses himself from the magical theory discussion and wanders over to Ilena. If she is engaged with the leader, he will politely request a quiet aside. He does his best to speak softly.

"I may be mistaken, but weren't there twelve men who came over from the Heffalump? I see their leader, and Gornash the blood mage, but only nine other men on deck. I'll go check out the engine room, shall I? I think Mr. Nikes and Galdwan can manage without me for a while. I'm not a magician, only a theorist. I do hope they keep adequate records of the spell they use, however. It would be an invaluable addition to some of my research. It's so rare to see a new spell being composed."

Loki steps back and salutes smartly, saying, in a quite audible voice: "Yes, ma'am. I'm glad to see you think an inventory of our armament is a good idea as well. After all, with all these extra hands, we may well be able to board them after all. I'll get started right away!" He then heads towards the engine room, looking as much like a stockboy as possible. Once there, he begins to poke around for the missing merc, although no one on deck will see that part.

Ilena curses quietly and nods at his suggestion.

Loki ducks his head into the engine room, startling anyone who completely botched their Awareness checks to notice a nearly-seven-foot tall hugely overmuscled man tromping down hastily constructed wooden stairs. "Hey, guys, you might want to know that we've had some more visitors, some mercenary looking guys from a boat called the Heffalump which helped us out earlier and now has sent a strike force that we can use if we want to try and board the Silfarien, which it looks like Ilena is planning on doing even though we're kind of at a disadvantage in that regard because we're so low in the water due to the shape of the ship, but we're in a bit better shape overall since Mister Nikes and I have worked out how to give us at least a little bit of shielding, so we won't go down in one shot from their ship's gun, but anyway the reason I'm down here is that we had twelve guys come over from the Heffalump and Niktar or Ilena I forget which wouldn't let them in the engine room because we don't entirely trust them yet and now there are only nine guys on deck plus their leader and the mage who I think is a blood mage and who scared Edward the Salamander, which means that one guy is missing which means that he must be down here somewhere so I'm going to go find him and make sure he's not doing anything terrible or sabotaging us or anything and if he is I will hit him very hard until he stops. Okay bye now." Loki continues on to check the rest of the boat.

Loki leaves the Engine room off the starboard side, and checks the current deck, Pen out and ready.

This deck consists of a u-shaped corridor that goes around behind the Engine room, which is centered in this deck, and below the helm. There is an office and five small cabins on this deck. Loki doesn't find anyone that shouldn't be there. the ladders down to the holds are right next to the doors in from the middle decks, one on each side of the ship.

Finding nothing, Loki returns to the starboard side, and takes the ladder down to the holds. This is on the side that the battle took place earlier.

The holds are big, long, and what with the bottom half of the BFG hanging from the ceiling, hard to see from this side to the port side. There's a sort of walkway from the bow to the stern, though it's hemmed in on either side by various crates, barrels, casks, coils of rope, and, surprisingly, a large crate of Nathi bones, all neatly boxed and labeled with names. Near the stern and under the engine room is the massive drive column, which goes down to the submersed pontoon.

It looks like this walkway is raised off the actual keel of the ship, and that there is room for more storage down in the bilges. Loki heads aft, and comes to the back of the ship, As you approach the drive shaft, it opens out, so that you can see the corridor and walkway on the port side of the ship. It's very dark, by the way, so it's difficult to see the details of this room. The floor here is solid planking too, not like the walkway, where you could tell there was more room underneath.

With the lantern Loki took from the top of the ladder, he peers around. He is directly under the engine room now. This area is fairly clear, runs the width of the ship, and contains more storage, though it looks like there is more engineering-type equipment. The actual steering column is at the rear of the room, and probably five feet across, with three access panels running floor to ceiling.

Upon looking at the engine column, he's got a pretty good idea how it works. He couldn't repair it, but he could provide running commentary as someone else did. It actually looks like it's been repaired recently.

Loki continues up the port-side walkway, checking in nooks, crannies, and other niches for anyone that may be hiding. The portside corridor is about the same as the starboard, though the supplies are much more along the lines of food and other such. There is a little more space to look down below on this side, but he doesn't see anything. When he gets to the bow, It smells like the ship's galley is directly above him, and there is a stairway up to it. There is also a stairway down to the right, which goes to the keel of the ship. there is another stairway going up to the starboard corridor on the other side.

He takes the stair down to the keel. Footing is much less certain here, and Loki has to watch his footing on the curved hull, as well as stepping over the ribs. In fact, he stumbles, almost falls, and catches himself on a rope that seems put there for that purpose. In the mean time the shadows fly all over as the lantern is waved about, so anything could be hiding in there.

There is a bit of water directly on the keel, but it can't be more than a foot deep. Most of the storage here is lashed to the scaffolding just under the walkways. There's also a walkway of sorts running the length of the ship. It's easier to see the whole width of the ship down here, but it's still a job to peer past all the accumulated crap.

A rat scuttles over Loki's foot, which Loki ignores. He moves along to the stern, on the portside walkway, checking for intruders. He's about halfway, seeing nothing, when the space between Loki's shoulder blades tightens reflexively, just as he hears a *snick* behind him. It's very much as though someone just slid a crossbow bolt into "ready". It is very very quiet, so quiet that it can only mean that someone's trying to be very very quiet.

Loki waits a moment, then drops to his left, putting a large crate between himself and his perceived attacker. With the lantern, he drops off the walkway with a slight splash, and crouches behind the crate, about a foot below on the rounded bottom of the ship. He thinks this crate is the one the guy might be behind, though there are bundles tied to the ceiling that hang down in varying amounts, which might also hide him.

He thinks he can hear breathing, but can't get a direction on it. It might be within 90 degrees of the crossbow noise. There's also a splash about 2/3 of the way down towards the stern from here, a splash, a stumble, and that's it. Silence returns, the sort of silence that indicates an embarrassed crouch, and hoping nobody heard that.

"You must be the tenth mercenary. I'm Loki. I used to be the navigator but now I'm sort of without a real job to do and I noticed you weren't on deck so I decided to come look for you and now I appear to have found you so if you'd like we could sit down and have a chat about things."

Again there is silence...or maaaybe a hint of breathing, and a soft splish, as though someone's circling the crate.

Loki drops the lantern and lunges around the crate, Pen angled to deflect a counterstrike. As he charges around, there's a "sproing" and a crossbow bolt sticks Loki through the left shoulder. He crashes into this fellow, and both of them fall into about a foot and a half of water over the very keel. The fellow gives a half shout, which turns into a gurgle.

Loki, on top and bigger, throws the crossbow away from him, then grabs the man in a headlock and lifts him to a standing position, while receiving a backwards kick in the groin for his troubles. At that, Loki grabs him by the legs, and dunks him headfirst into the water several times, the unfortunate's head bonking into the planking. There are splashings from Loki's left, which is to the stern.

As soon as the sound gets close enough, Loki takes the be-dunked fellow and flings him at the sound, then retrieves the lantern and Pen. His shoulder really hurts. The flung man misses the second, landing in the water with a strangled "unk." Loki sees what could be a third man, on the opposite walkway. This one is crouching and watching, nothing more.

Loki moves to stab the second man in the hamstring, since the low-hanging ceiling would make an overhand shot unlikely. The low ceiling under the BFG also makes it hard to judge, and he dances aside. However, the dagger thrown back at Loki also misses.

The second man is now on the other side of the BFG from Loki with another dagger. The wet and soggy former crossbowman is also limping towards Loki with one of those shields in front of him.

Realizing that he's holding the lantern behind him, Loki instead holds the light in front, and stabs again for the shoulder of the second man, shouting "If you surrender now I will see that no harm comes to you."

"How appropriate," replies the second, dodging. "I was just about to say the same to you."

Loki pauses, keeping his guard up. "Who are you to arrest me? I am under the command of the legitimate owners of this vessel, who are currently occupying it. "You are trespassers at best."

"Ah, but this hold is under the command of my associates, and occupancy is nine tenths of the law."

The wet one limps still closer, and is now next to a second crate that is almost directly sternwards of Loki.

Loki frowns. "But the right-of-occupancy laws are only in effect while on land. Subsection D quite clearly states that a ship is a separate yet whole entity, and cannot be further subdivided without coming under the heading of the Laws Concerning Nautical Areas and Bakeries, which of course were never completed." around about 'subdivided' Loki takes another stab at him, which is dodges again, since Loki stumbles in the water.

Keeping an eye on him, Loki spins around to attack the first man, who, unprepared for the attack, takes a solid blow on the shield and staggers back a step. Loki's next attack pushes him back another step, but fails to knock him down, which is what Loki had wanted to do in the first place.

There's a slight lurch, and the ship seems to slow down slightly.

Loki diverts his attention back to the legalistic one, crashing into him and knocking him sprawling. It looks like he could be back up quickly, but he isn't yet.

With that accomplished, Loki attacks the first one again. with the uncertain footing, both of them stumble, trip, and slosh. Loki managed to knock his shield aside. Loki punches him in the jaw, and he goes down again.

The second attacker, the legalistic one, is getting back up, and running towards the stern. Loki tries to follow, and trips on one of the ship's ribs. He sprawls headlong in the muck, drops Pen, and the lantern goes out. He hears it tinkle. As Loki struggles to his feet, he hears assorted getting-up-and-the-hell-away-from-Loki noises from Dunkboy. He sees darkness, and a few stars floating past his vision.

As Loki retrieves Pen and the shattered lantern, he sees a faint red glow from where the engine column would be in the stern.

Singing the "where's the torch" song under his breath, Loki looks for something to light the lantern with again. There's a FOOF, and the lamp is lit in a burst of flame that leaves Loki very little hair on his right arm.

"...muttermutterUseHisBloodyHeadForATorchmuttermutter..."

Thus muttering, Loki squelches towards the stern and the red glow again. The glow resolves into an open maintenance panel like there was above, and he can see three glowing rods within it, plus a fourth vertical rod that isn't glowing. As he approaches, another one sputters and dies. A couple shadows squelch off to the left and right when Loki is about 20 feet away.

...and the ship slows some more.

Peering into the gloom, Loki figures that the red glow is the drive shaft. The glow is power being conducted down to the pontoon, which drives the ship. All four rods are vertical, and the glow provides enough light to see some of the shadows.

Loki darts up and hits the shadow on the left very hard with Pen, screaming "HALT INTRUDERS" With a wet and sodden squelch, Dunk finds that he has more pressing matters than whether his crossbow works...such as where his kidneys are. and why his legs are three feet away.

...a dagger whines past Loki's ear and ricochets off the hull, followed by a muffled "bugger!" from the other side of the ship.

Loki charges across the room at the voice, and trips over the leg that the third man had stuck out from beside the drive column. Both he and Legalboy sprint over Loki towards the bow.

Loki stands up, as the last glowing rod flickers and goes dark. Loki sighs, and looks into the open access panel. It turns out that the crystal rods are surrounded with other traceries, nodules, metal rods, and suchlike. It's hard to tell what's supposed to be there and what isn't. All the rods look whole though. The ship slows constantly now.

Loki resumes pursuit, screaming his fool head off "INTRUDERS! SABOTEURS!"

Raddukk enters...

Raddukk, Sarkin, and Hunot all burst out of the engine room, and down the ladder to the holds. his is on the side that the battle took place earlier, and right by the door out onto the middle decks.

The holds are big, long, and what with the bottom half of the BFG hanging from the ceiling, hard to see from this side to the port side. There's a sort of walkway from the bow to the stern, though it's hemmed in on either side by various crates, barrels, casks, coils of rope, and, surprisingly, a large crate of Nathi bones, all neatly boxed and labeled with names. Near the stern and under the engine room is the massive drive column, which goes down to the submersed pontoon.

It looks like this walkway is raised off the actual keel of the ship, and that there is room for more storage down in the bilges. Aftwards is a ladder down to the bilges, and the back of the ship. Here, it opens out, so that one can see the corridor and walkway on the port side of the ship. The vertical engine column takes up a great deal of that room.

Loki's screaming is more or less directly below you, and heading towards the bow.

Sarkin, figuring that Hunot and Raddukk will help Loki deal with whatever he might be imagining, heads aft to check out the problem with the engines that caused him to come below in the first place. After hearing Loki yelling about saboteurs, he rather prudently draws his cutlass and plunges into the engine room with a wary eye on all sides.

"Raddukk, go find Loki." Hunot says, handing him a dagger (if necessary.)"I'm going upstairs to have a quick chat with the captains and let them know." Assuming Raddukk's agreement, Hunot dashes back into the engine room, grabs his bolter and climbs back on to the deck.

"OK." says Raddukk, "I'll try to find out what he's bellowing about." He accepts the dagger figuring its short size will be useful in these cramped quarters. He cautiously moves n the direction of Loki's voice, glancing side to side as he does so.

Raddukk meets Loki at the end of the upper starboard walkway, as Loki ascends the stairs from the bilge level. He looks really bad, being covered with mucky water, with a snapped-off crossbow bolt sticking in his left shoulder. After a moment or two of confusion, Raddukk is able to gather that there were two, no, three saboteurs down there, and that they're loose in the bows of the ship.

It is seconds after they resolve to go search them out that six humans, including the two that Loki had seen earlier, descend in a swarm down from the galley at them. From behind, they hear "Reekik! Go tell them to start the engines!" shouted by Sarkin, who is in the stern, and can barely be seen.

Follow them into the galley...

Sarkin and Reekik...

Raddukk, Sarkin, and Hunot all burst out of the engine room, and down the ladder to the holds. his is on the side that the battle took place earlier, and right by the door out onto the middle decks.

The holds are big, long, and what with the bottom half of the BFG hanging from the ceiling, hard to see from this side to the port side. There's a sort of walkway from the bow to the stern, though it's hemmed in on either side by various crates, barrels, casks, coils of rope, and, surprisingly, a large crate of Nathi bones, all neatly boxed and labeled with names. Near the stern and under the engine room is the massive drive column, which goes down to the submersed pontoon.

It looks like this walkway is raised off the actual keel of the ship, and that there is room for more storage down in the bilges. Aftwards is a ladder down to the bilges, and the back of the ship. Here, it opens out, so that one can see the corridor and walkway on the port side of the ship. The vertical engine column takes up a great deal of that room.

Loki's screaming is more or less directly below you, and heading towards the bow.

Sarkin, figuring that Hunot and Raddukk will help Loki deal with whatever he might be imagining, heads aft to check out the problem with the engines that caused him to come below in the first place. After hearing Loki yelling about saboteurs, he rather prudently draws his cutlass and plunges into the engine room with a wary eye on all sides.

The room with the engine column looks untouched. All the access panels are closed, and all the equipment is right where it should be. Looking in one of the access panels shows the four vertical crystal rods, all surrounded by other tracery, metal wires, and other such things, all glowing as befits a properly functioning engine.

Sarkin throws himself down the ladder to the bilge level, and sees Loki running towards the bow. It's really dark down here, and Sarkin accidentally steps on someone's torso. Looking down, he sees that the person's legs are elsewhere. It's one of the mercenaries from abovedecks, with one of those shields with the strange emblem. The decks are slick with his blood.

Grabbing the power, Sarkin looks around. It looks like there was a heck of a fight down here. One of the access panels down here is open, and all four vertical rods are completely dark.

Looking at the rods and the surrounding structure, there is nothing wrong or broken with them, at least on the first glance. Looking again, about an arm's reach up through this panel, there's a strange crystal ring with six nodules in between the four rods. It is glowing brightly, and so are the rods above it. It looks like it was put there by someone who knew what he was doing too, since nothing else is damaged.

Trying to repair it, Sarkin realizes that there is no way to tell what will happen if he tries to remove it while it has so much power going into it, especially since it's doing something with the power, but Sarkin can't feel the discharge.

Sarkin runs up to the engine room, and bursts in, yelling, "Everyone, stop the engine! There's something blocking the power rods, and we can't fix them while it's running. Reekik, you're the only other person here who knows this ship; come down with me and let's try and fix it. I guess Loki was right about the saboteurs."

Reekik blinks. "Someone take the gun." As soon as Samas, with a heavy sigh, moves over to maintain the charge, Reekik grabs her crystal working kit and sprints off towards the bowels of the ship, cursing softly. Sarkin runs after Reekik.

Once he gets there, he shows her what the problem is. Looking at the rods and the surrounding structure, there is nothing wrong or broken with them, at least on the first glance. Looking again, about an arm's reach up through this panel, there's a strange crystal ring with six nodules in between the four rods. It is glowing brightly, and so are the rods above it. It looks like it was put there by someone who knew what he was doing too, since nothing else is damaged....it's doing something with the power, but Sarkin [and Reekik] can't feel the discharge."

The glow stops, as in the engine room Kiri releases Power. The ring still keeps glowing, though not as much.

Reekik starts by carefully poking it with something non-conductive to see if it is dangerous in anyway, or whatever is standard procedure in dismantling governors from engines. It looks like someone stuck this in to the engine and scampered off. It looks like it might be a focus being used by someone else. The best he can do at the moment is to keep it from growing any further.

Both Reekik and Sarkin get out their eyepieces. Sarkin's fits in his eye, while Reekik's has a headband. On examination, the looks like it might still be live, and slowly growing onto the engine rods.

Sarkin reaches up with the appropriate tool, and tries to coax the crystal ring to withdraw back into itself. He feels like he's being resisted by someone or something. So far, his efforts are only successful in stopping it from continuing its growth.

"This thing's still live... and someone's manipulating it. He's good, too. But there's two of us here, and we know how this thing was built. He's not going to be able to fight both of us at once, if we move quickly."

Given that Sarkin is her superior officer and knows more about these things than Reekik, she goes with the old adage "When he tells you to jump your only question is how high."

"Yessir."

Reekik adds her expertise to the matter, and slowly, the crystal ring contracts back upon itself, becoming well and truly separate. Sarkin reaches up and easily tugs it out of the engine column.

He then sits down with the ring and begins to study it furiously. He guesses from his study of it that whoever is powering it is within a mile, no more, and that he'd recognize the touch if he felt it again.

I think we've got it. I'm going to hold on to this to look at it later. Reekik, do a last sweep and make sure we got it all; I'll go up and tell the others to start the engines again."

Sarkin waits for Reekik to do her sweep, then the two of them go up to the platform level of the holds. As they get ready to ascend to the engine-room level, they see a mass of men swarm Loki and Raddukk in the bows.

"Reekik, go tell them to start the engines" shouts Sarkin, already running towards the fray.

Raddukk, Sarkin, and Hunot all burst out of the engine room, and down the ladder to the holds. his is on the side that the battle took place earlier, and right by the door out onto the middle decks.

The holds are big, long, and what with the bottom half of the BFG hanging from the ceiling, hard to see from this side to the port side. There's a sort of walkway from the bow to the stern, though it's hemmed in on either side by various crates, barrels, casks, coils of rope, and, surprisingly, a large crate of Nathi bones, all neatly boxed and labeled with names. Near the stern and under the engine room is the massive drive column, which goes down to the submersed pontoon.

It looks like this walkway is raised off the actual keel of the ship, and that there is room for more storage down in the bilges. Aftwards is a ladder down to the bilges, and the back of the ship. Here, it opens out, so that one can see the corridor and walkway on the port side of the ship. The vertical engine column takes up a great deal of that room.

Loki's screaming is more or less directly below you, and heading towards the bow.

Sarkin, figuring that Hunot and Raddukk will help Loki deal with whatever he might be imagining, heads aft to check out the problem with the engines that caused him to come below in the first place. After hearing Loki yelling about saboteurs, he rather prudently draws his cutlass and plunges into the engine room with a wary eye on all sides.

The room with the engine column looks untouched. All the access panels are closed, and all the equipment is right where it should be. Looking in one of the access panels shows the four vertical crystal rods, all surrounded by other tracery, metal wires, and other such things, all glowing as befits a properly functioning engine.

Sarkin throws himself down the ladder to the bilge level, and sees Loki running towards the bow. It's really dark down here, and Sarkin accidentally steps on someone's torso. Looking down, he sees that the person's legs are elsewhere. It's one of the mercenaries from abovedecks, with one of those shields with the strange emblem. The decks are slick with his blood.

Grabbing the power, Sarkin looks around. It looks like there was a heck of a fight down here. One of the access panels down here is open, and all four vertical rods are completely dark.

Looking at the rods and the surrounding structure, there is nothing wrong or broken with them, at least on the first glance. Looking again, about an arm's reach up through this panel, there's a strange crystal ring with six nodules in between the four rods. It is glowing brightly, and so are the rods above it. It looks like it was put there by someone who knew what he was doing too, since nothing else is damaged.

Trying to repair it, Sarkin realizes that there is no way to tell what will happen if he tries to remove it while it has so much power going into it, especially since it's doing something with the power, but Sarkin can't feel the discharge.

Sarkin runs up to the engine room, and bursts in, yelling, "Everyone, stop the engine! There's something blocking the power rods, and we can't fix them while it's running. Reekik, you're the only other person here who knows this ship; come down with me and let's try and fix it. I guess Loki was right about the saboteurs."

Reekik blinks. "Someone take the gun." As soon as Samas, with a heavy sigh, moves over to maintain the charge, Reekik grabs her crystal working kit and sprints off towards the bowels of the ship, cursing softly. Sarkin runs after Reekik.

Once he gets there, he shows her what the problem is. Looking at the rods and the surrounding structure, there is nothing wrong or broken with them, at least on the first glance. Looking again, about an arm's reach up through this panel, there's a strange crystal ring with six nodules in between the four rods. It is glowing brightly, and so are the rods above it. It looks like it was put there by someone who knew what he was doing too, since nothing else is damaged....it's doing something with the power, but Sarkin [and Reekik] can't feel the discharge."

The glow stops, as in the engine room Kiri releases Power. The ring still keeps glowing, though not as much.

Reekik starts by carefully poking it with something non-conductive to see if it is dangerous in anyway, or whatever is standard procedure in dismantling governors from engines. It looks like someone stuck this in to the engine and scampered off. It looks like it might be a focus being used by someone else. The best he can do at the moment is to keep it from growing any further.

Both Reekik and Sarkin get out their eyepieces. Sarkin's fits in his eye, while Reekik's has a headband. On examination, the looks like it might still be live, and slowly growing onto the engine rods.

Sarkin reaches up with the appropriate tool, and tries to coax the crystal ring to withdraw back into itself. He feels like he's being resisted by someone or something. So far, his efforts are only successful in stopping it from continuing its growth.

"This thing's still live... and someone's manipulating it. He's good, too. But there's two of us here, and we know how this thing was built. He's not going to be able to fight both of us at once, if we move quickly."

Given that Sarkin is her superior officer and knows more about these things than Reekik, she goes with the old adage "When he tells you to jump your only question is how high."

"Yessir."

Reekik adds her expertise to the matter, and slowly, the crystal ring contracts back upon itself, becoming well and truly separate. Sarkin reaches up and easily tugs it out of the engine column.

He then sits down with the ring and begins to study it furiously. He guesses from his study of it that whoever is powering it is within a mile, no more, and that he'd recognize the touch if he felt it again.

I think we've got it. I'm going to hold on to this to look at it later. Reekik, do a last sweep and make sure we got it all; I'll go up and tell the others to start the engines again."

Sarkin waits for Reekik to do her sweep, then the two of them go up to the platform level of the holds. As they get ready to ascend to the engine-room level, they see a mass of men swarm Loki and Raddukk in the bows.

"Reekik, go tell them to start the engines" shouts Sarkin, already running towards the fray.

Follow him to the galley...

Hunot... Raddukk, Sarkin, and Hunot all burst out of the engine room, and down the ladder to the holds. his is on the side that the battle took place earlier, and right by the door out onto the middle decks.

The holds are big, long, and what with the bottom half of the BFG hanging from the ceiling, hard to see from this side to the port side. There's a sort of walkway from the bow to the stern, though it's hemmed in on either side by various crates, barrels, casks, coils of rope, and, surprisingly, a large crate of Nathi bones, all neatly boxed and labeled with names. Near the stern and under the engine room is the massive drive column, which goes down to the submersed pontoon.

It looks like this walkway is raised off the actual keel of the ship, and that there is room for more storage down in the bilges. Aftwards is a ladder down to the bilges, and the back of the ship. Here, it opens out, so that one can see the corridor and walkway on the port side of the ship. The vertical engine column takes up a great deal of that room.

Loki's screaming is more or less directly below you, and heading towards the bow.

Sarkin, figuring that Hunot and Raddukk will help Loki deal with whatever he might be imagining, heads aft to check out the problem with the engines that caused him to come below in the first place. After hearing Loki yelling about saboteurs, he rather prudently draws his cutlass and plunges into the engine room with a wary eye on all sides.

"Raddukk, go find Loki." Hunot says, handing him a dagger. "I'm going upstairs to have a quick chat with the captains and let them know." Assuming Raddukk's agreement, Hunot dashes back into the engine room, grabs his bolter and climbs back on to the deck.

He comes out onto the aft starboard side of the middle decks, face to face with a Nathi holding a glowing sword at his face. Mr. Nikes lies groaning nearby, and Roksan is rolling around grappling with another Nathi in the congealing blood from the fight with the Elves.

Back abovedecks...

...the galley... "Those two," Loki gestures at the relevant humans, "Those are the saboteurs! I hope you have your bow, Raddukk." Loki moves to engage, shouting: "Who are you people and what do you want?" Loki manages to land a solid blow on the lead human, adding two halves of body to the already cramped space.

"Aaargh!" yells the second-to-lead human, backpedaling furiously. the four behind him, including the two Loki had encountered earlier, backpedal slightly less furiously, and Loki is able to bisect the second-to-lead as well.

The Kraken lurches, and begins to move forward again.

'Do I have my bow' Raddukk thinks with a glad sigh. How he loves to hear those words. those words are so much more pleasureable than, 'go to the engine room, Raddukk.'

"Of course I have my bow," he offers as he proceeds to get it off his back, readies it, gets an angle for some shots and begins 'engaging in missile harrying these ner-do wells who have tries to usurp the ship. His first arrow whines past Loki's ear and takes a third in the eye. He is unable to fire any more, as Sarkin pushes past Loki and tackles the fourth, one that Loki had met before. With a burst of power comes a lot of screaming, and the two remaining humans run for their lives.

Against her better judgement Reekik runs back down the holds behind Raddukk and company, grabbing a hooked polearm as she passes it. She catches up to them as Loki surges forward in pursuit, followed shortly thereafter by Sarkin, in full charring frenzy.

One of the remaining two stumbles on the stairs up to the galley. Loki doesn't even notice making the kill. The remaining human throws himself behind a counter in the galley, in a shower of pots, pans, and that little wobbly thing that has been in every kitchen I've seen, but I have no idea what it is. Maybe it's used for coring strawberries.

There is the slamming of the galley door, and suddenly there is in the room the Nathi who led the boarding party. His eyes are glowing, and he's whirling a glowing sword around him in a figure eight.

Loki pauses, and after a moment's headlong rush, so does Sarkin. Raddukk and Reekik follow behind. Loki grasps his wounded shoulder, which still has a crossbow bolt sticking in it, and winces, then glowers at the Nathi.

A burst of flame coalesces around the Nathi, then dissipates as the glowing sword slices through the spell.

Loki shouts a long and incomprehensible battle-cry in the language of the Ulf people, who have virtually no knowledge of warfare or weapons but whose language is so agglutinative and consonant-heavy that they have the largest collection of battlecries and insults known to man. "Brzavk nikkaruk'k'kittarxidgkrugh! Skreeeeee!" Ideally, the blow should land at the fifth "e" of "skree" so as to provide a hearty "thunk" to balance and harmonize the whole, but Loki has only read of these things and never found the opportunity to practive them, so his timing may be off.

Hopefully Loki's valiant compatriots will leap to his aid and support, yes?

"Yes!" shouts Raddukk, one of Loki's valiant companions. He leaps to the aid of Loki, using his bow first and then his sword.

Loki, being possessed of superior strength and greatswordedness, does so, sword meeting glowing sword at precisely the fifth "e". With a sort of "crackschlingggg", Pen slides along the length of the glowing sword, and for a moment, it looks like the Nathi has parried.

However, due to the extreme force behind the blow, even though Pen is knocked out of Loki's hands as a spark travels down the greatsword's blade from the impact, the Nathi loses his sword too. Both Pen and crystal sword (no longer glowing) clatter to a halt up against the sternward wall of the galley.

Loki's hands are somewhat stunned, though probably not burned. The Nathi looks nothing else as he does desperate and cornered.

Sarkin dives for the swords, now in full battle frenzy. This is simultaneous with the Nathi leaping at the swords with similar intentions, and Raddukk coming THIS CLOSE -->| |<-- to stapling the Nathi to the wall with another arrow.

Neither Sarkin nor the other Nathi are particularly graceful in their dives. In fact, they both narrowly avoid knocking each other out with the requisite coconut-like sound of two skulls impacting.

After some preliminary scuffling, Sarkin ends up on the bottom, both he and the Nathi feeding power into one another in a do-or-die effort to turn the other into a sizzling mass.

Smoke rising from him, Sarkin screams, as the Nathi on top of him is the stronger, at least for the moment. Loki moves in, aiming a double-fisted blow at the Nathi, who rolls to avoid the blow. He is not fast enough, and has his left shoulder driven into Sarkin's gut.

Flailing desperately, the Nathi finally reaches his sword, and, lighting it up, rolls over to the wall, holding the sword protectively out in front of him. He is breathing heavily, and bleeding from the mouth.

Sarkin kicks Loki his sword, then stands back and catches his breath, charging himself up again in an attempt to (a) heal himself and (b) ready himself for Mr. Cornered Rat's next attack...

Loki takes this chance and requests in as many languages as he can (beginning with Common and Nathi and continuing until forcibly interrupted) that the unidentified Nathi surrender or face the consequences. A seriously peeved Sarkin breathing heavily at you, Raddukk with his bow trained at your throat, and Loki looming over you while armed should be enough to make even a fanatic think twice.

As Hunot comes up the stairs behind Reekik with a charged bolter, the Nathi shudders, then recovers some of his poise. Smirking just a little, he clears his throat at length, releasing the power, sheathing his sword and raising his hands. Loki appears to understand this.

Sarkin, mistrusting the smirk, looks around for other potential threats. Other than the groaning from under the pots where the last guy is hiding, there is nothing.

"So much as breath wrong and I'll make your chest vanish." Hunot says, never taking his eyes off the leader. "Get him in ropes or chains or something. Hopefully we can stop this now if we hold the right hostage."

Engaged in what is either conversation or a coughing fit with Loki, the Nathi doesn't even flicker to indicate that he heard Hunot.

the transcription of the conversation...

Since this Nathi has apparently surrendered, but does not seem to understand what is being said to him, Raddukk keeps his bow trained on him till someone can find whatever is needed to truss him up. Any false moves and he will, and does, shoot, to kill.

Loki suddenly stops clearing his throat at the Nathi. "Okay, everyone. This fellow here has surrendered, and I'm going to take him to Niktar, or Ilena, or whoever is in charge of things like this. It looks like..."

Niktar rushes in, sees the others facing the guy. His eyes glow fiercely red from the Power, and he looks More Pissed Than You've Ever Seen.

"...our friends the Reaves have made yet another mess for us, this time with loose lips. I suppose there's some merit in those..."

Niktar stops, a look of deadly intent upon his face, takes aim and shoots the Nathi square in the back.

The Nathi has enough time to glance around, say "Gak." and grab as much Power as he can. The blast throws him into Loki's arms, where he sags, his shirt and skin on his back charred to a crisp in a black sunburst.

"...um," finishes Loki. He looks very confused for a moment or two, and then carefully sets down the Nathi's body. "I think I'm zero for two, now," he comments vaguely. "Someone make sure that guy under the pots is tied up, so we have *someone* left to question more comprehensively." He then kneels down to see exactly how crispy Mister Creepy Sword is, muttering about how he left Gray's Nathi Anatomy up on deck.

The Nathi is still alive, from a blast that would have killed a human. Barely conscious, his breathing comes in labored gasps, and his back oozes both clear and red. He might pull through, or he might not

Hunot discharges the Power he was holding, and shrugs. "Good shot. How's it coming upstairs?"

Sarkin picks up the Nathi's crystal sword. It is a fine blade, like a two-handed sabre, with bonemetal tracery over the hilts and up the blade. There is also some writing in an unfamiliar language on both sides of the blade.

Showing the sword to Loki, he asks, "Can you read this?"

"Huh? Not right now, Sarkin, I'm kind of busy. [under breath] dum de dum connected to the . . . thigh bone . . . dum do de doo." Fiddle fiddle.

Loki does a double take.

"Is that Old Karanathi?" Grab blade from Sarkin. "Here, take care of this guy, won't you? You know medical procedure, right?"

"Yes, I do. Just make sure I get the sword back.!" Sarkin relinquishes the sword and goes to work on keeping the Nathi alive. Eventually, he is stablized, and even almost conscious.

Loki trundles to a corner, whips out a sheaf of paper and a writing implement from somewhere, and commences translating the runes on the blade.

Reekik wanders off, back to the engine room. The Kraken increases speed shortly afterwards. The ship starts to bob and weave. If there were a third dimension to its travel, it would be ducking as well.

After a couple minutes, Loki emerges from his corner. "This sword is quite an amazing artifact. It dates, and this is only a guess, since I have no way of finding out any more specific details since its owner got shot in the back, which seems to happen to an awful lot of my prisoners, to the time of the First Nathi War, most likely made by a crystalworker who was captured early on, since I can't recall any mention of it in Nathi history and a sword this powerful would have to show up somewhere, even if only as an interesting view on crystalworking of the period, which has, by the way, several techniques unique to it which have since fallen into disuse, either because better techniques were developed or because those with the knowledge were slain before their knowledge could disseminate throughout the population. Given the highly individual nature of crystalworking, this rather haphazard early approach to the art has left us with quite a few intriguing and highly unique items. Whether this is one of those or simply a nicely crafted and quite old sword, I can't say, although it obviously has some powerful enchantments on it. Additionally, the writing is old Palandiri script, and the sword is obviously modeled after the heavy two-handed sabers the Paladiri favor. The inscription here reads 'Leithien,' a rather idiomatic phrase which translates roughly to "Release from Bondage." But the really interesting part is this bit on the other side, which is still written in the Palandiri alphabet but the language is actually Old Karanathi, just as I first thought. That side reads 'Ransomblade.'"

"Ransomblade, hm? I'm going to have to look it over later." Sarkin keeps working on Creepy Sword Guy. It looks like he is stablized, and could regain consciousness at any moment. He doesn't look like he'll be in any shape to do anything much for a while though.

Niktar spits at the collapsed Nathi. "Sonofabitch," he mutters under his breath. To the others he says, "we do have one more in a soultaker abovedecks. We'll bring this one and the whimpering pots up when you're done, Sarkin. Any casualties below on our side?" He pauses just long enough for a yes or no and continues on. "No casualties above. Loki, I want you back up top when you're done with that sword, Sarkin when you're done probably better get back downstairs since you know then engines and gun." He pauses in thought for a moment, and then turns and heads back to the door. "Hunot, Raddukk, with me for a moment, if you would."

As various people are beginning to move about, Hunot adds, "Who's the guy under the pots? Friend or foe? Probably want to have him under guard at any rate."

As the trio walk toward the door, he asks "So what was that about the Reaves? How much do we know about what these ... traitors ... were up to?" His mouth twists in distaste as he glances back at the Nathi-crisp.

Raddukk spits on the floor, then clears hiw throat. "I wish I knew. I was stuck in the negine room. When i dared to go up n deck i was summarily dismissed by," and here he paused, cause he had forgotten, or blocked, the name of that newcomer. "er, whoever. someone new. who seemed to be allowing a boarding party. When i tried to talk with these boarders, I got no response." He spat again, and ran a finger carefully along his sword.

"I wonder if we have been had in more ways than one?"

"If you are suggesting that Ilena and Captain Craiddags have double-crossed us, Raddukk, I will not believe that. Ilena may have made an error, but until I know why she allowed them aboard I will not hear such talk." He turns to Raddukk. "I know her, and she would not double cross us."

Eventually, Loki and Sarkin emerge out into the middle decks, Loki carrying the Nathi and Sarkin escorting the one who had hidden under the pots.

The middle decks is a mass of Nathi bone, mangled corpses of both man and Elf, and drying blood. Here and there, a scorch mark testifies to the death of a Nathi. From the looks of things, the Kraken has left the Heffalump far behind, and is now passing out of the harbor into open sea. Ilena is at the helm, and Galdwan is sitting disconsolately a bit behind her, holding a fresh Nathi skeleton.

Back abovedecks...

The transcription of the conversation...

The language is Raga, a species of 6-limbed creatures that inhabit some of the mountain ranges in Tolhoth Amlug. It sounds like a cross between gargling, growling, and emphysema.

"As you wish", the Nathi replies in Raga. "We are opportunists, you see." (literally: "When the sheep are unattended and we are starving, honor be poked with a sharp thing. Rrgash will not get you a meal.") "The captain thought that we could take this ship for its technology. We were wrong." (literally: "Chief said you had an upt that could fly. Chief has eaten of the speckled mushroom.")

Loki answers in the same language: "Hrmph. Being at loose ends does not earn you the right to take what you will from those weaker than you, especially when those weaker than you are not very weak at all." (literally: "No matter how much you want mutton, you shouldn't try to steal from the weak but rich shepherd, for he can afford to hire Randak the Eater of Other Men's Eyeballs to protect him.")

"Eh." (Literally: "Eh")

"At any rate, you are now officially my prisoner, with all the attendant connotations and implications." (literally: "You do what I say, I protect you from insane people. You don't do what I say, I sit on your head until you do.")

"That's a better offer than I am getting from your blaster-boy there." (Literally: Your friend has a bigger stick than I do, but I see he has not used it. Keep talking.")

"Firstly, I wish to know how your captain discovered the nature and whereabouts of this ship, and whether you were paid any sort of incentive bonus to pursue us. In other words, was this in fact truly simple opportunism? It strikes me that a large band of armed fighting men could make much easier money assaulting less fortified travelers on land." (trans: "You got lots of guys with big beating sticks. Why you come after crazy-big floating gun and not beat up little old ladies? Someone tell you we got more treasure than beating sticks or brains? Someone pay you to steal our sheep?")

"It's all over the Reaves territory. We have connections. We figured we'd try to profit." (Literally: "The neighboring tribe was dancing and singing, with stories of rrrrgash. It was fun to take their prize and scamper away.")

"Hrmph. I suppose it is believable enough. The Reaves have caused us enough problems, I must say. Someone ought to do something." (trans: "You have to be really stupid to lie to a man with a stick this big. Good answer, for now. Traitor tribe Reaves will be singing in much higher pitch after our tribe gets done with them. Secondly, I shall see to it that you are securely bound and guarded, butthat no further harm will come to you. Your fate will be decided by those in charge of this expedition in due course. In the meantime, we still have a crisis going on which requires solving, and which predates your little takeover attempt." (trans: "Now we wrap you 'round a pole and keep you there but good. You don't like it, I sit on your head. Chiefs and other chiefs decide which god to sacrifice your entrails to later on. Now we gots to go put out the fire in our hut, which we were doing before you [lit doggie doo on our front step].")

"I don't suppose there is any chance that you'll just question me, rough me up a little, and let me go back to my ship?" (Literally: "I'm very tough and stringy. Teach me to fly?")

"That's not my department. I'm sort of a free agent, but I'm definitely not in command here. I can advise them to let you go, although you and your companions have certainly given me no reason to be kindly disposed to you." Gesture to broken-off bolt still stuck in shoulder. "Still, we shall see what we shall see." (trans: "Not chief. Have a big stick, but no sheep. Chiefs of this tribe give me sheep, listen to me talk. And you have given me pain with your sticks, and tried to sit on my head, which displeases me. But I am impressed by your rrrgash, and will speak for flying lessons to save your entrails.")

"And now I think it's time we went up on deck and had a nice chat with our friends up there." (trans: "Time to go see chiefs. Buy your gods a very good offering quickly.")

Back..."