Airk and Seline hurried down the Sea Unicorn’s hallway towards where they’d heard the screams. They’d been closest to the staircases leading below deck when the cries began, and it was easy for them to run back downstairs. The Sea Unicorn’s armory was located at the rear of the ship near the rudder, and the companions realized that the sailors must have been attacked when they went to get their weapons.

“We ought to make a colorful entrance,” Seline said as Airk hurried ahead of her. He wasn’t wearing his heavy plate armor, knowing the dangers of doing so at sea, but he carried his shield and his morning star. He glanced back and nodded, understanding what she meant by that.

Airk and Seline weren’t sure what to expect as they approached the armory, and they were shocked at the two gruesome creatures they saw in the hallway outside.

One looked like a hideous cross between a hobgoblin and a fish. It had the build and face of a hobgoblin, but its body was covered in slimy green scales, and it had webbed feet and hands. The other looked like nothing so much as a demonic-looking fish that somehow grew arms and legs and learned to walk upright. It too was covered in scales, but they were a deep greenish black on its back, leading to a lighter green on its belly. The creature’s fins were pure black, which contrasted all the more with its gleaming white, razor-sharp teeth. Both creatures carried short stabbing spears which were already splattered with the blood of the two dead sailors at their feet.

Bloody Roger was known for his sadism towards his victims, but what many people didn’t know about was his skill at inducing murderous undersea races like koalinth and sahuagin to help him. In exchange for helping Bloody Roger plunder ships, they often received a share of gold and gems, as well as all the victim corpses they could carry for food.

The koalinth lunged at Airk, who easily deflected the monster’s spear thrust and slammed his morning star into its ribs. The creature cried out in pain, falling to its knees before Airk crushed its skull. The sahuagin made it past him, hissing as it thrust its own spear at Seline, but she quickly cast a spell before it could reach her. Four silvery-blue magical bolts flew from her fingers at the creature, and two of them struck it head on, killing it instantly. The other two flew past it to hit another sahuagin emerging from the armory, dropping it to its knees before Airk finished it off.

The companions heard a flurry of footsteps coming from behind them. They found several sailors coming to join them, accompanied by Ma’non’go, who carried a large trident in his hands. The sailors cried out in dismay at seeing their dead comrades on the hallway floor, and cursed at the sight of the bodies of the sahuagin and koalinth. Their curses turned to cheers as Ma’non’go and Airk charged into the armory, followed quickly by Seline.

The armory contained a gruesome sight. Two more sailors lay dead, while four were fighting for their lives against another group of sahuagin and koalinth. Worse, there was a large hole torn in the back of the ship, through which several more sahuagin and koalinth were entering.

Ma’non’go and Airk each moved to one side as Seline chanted quickly. She held a pinch of multicolored grains of sand in her hand, which were quickly consumed by the magic and replaced with a wave of rainbow-hued light. Seline cast the wave of light at the koalinth and sahuagin coming into the armory through the hole in the ship. The creatures howled as the light struck them head on, knocking most of them senseless. One of the koalinth avoided the blast, but Ma’non’go quickly skewered it on his trident before joining Airk in killing the other monsters stunned by Seline’s spell.

The sailors who’d accompanied the companions into the armory ran to grab weapons off the racks on the walls. They turned to help their fellows fight the remaining monsters, and the creatures were quickly slain. The mate who’d accompanied the sailors sent some of them to take weapons back to the crew on deck, while he and the rest of the men turned to help the companions against the next group of koalinth and sahuagin coming in through the hole in the ship.

Ma’non’go ripped one sahuagin’s chest open with his trident, and slashed the arm of the next one behind it. Airk slammed a third sahuagin in the leg with his morning star, leaving the creature hobbled, before he struck a fourth one in the face. From behind them, Seline cast another flurry of magical bolts, finishing off the sahuagin her friends had already injured.

Emboldened by the companions’ skill, the remaining sailors charged in to join them. One of the sailors fell to a koalinth’s spear, but his fellows avenged him by slaying four of the monsters themselves.

Revafour smiled as he considered which of the arrows to use. His new longbow and arrows were of traditional Flan make, purchased in Greyhawk from the independent Flan who sometimes visited the Free City to trade. To his mind, no other humans could match the Flan at bowmaking or fletching, and the elves were the only nonhuman race who could match them. He hadn’t used a bow in years, not since his early training as a Tenha warrior, but it all came back to him the moment he grasped it. To Revafour, the bow wasn’t just a weapon. It represented his Flan heritage, a heritage disparaged by too many Oeridians and Suel and sadly forgotten even by many of the Flan themselves.

Revafour couldn’t restore that knowledge to his fellow Flan, but he could show everyone around him just how deadly a Tenha archer could be. Some of the Tiger Shark’s crew were readying a deadly pair of ballistae, and others were preparing crossbows. Revafour knew that gave him and Weimar a range advantage with their bows as the Tiger Shark closed in, and they didn’t plan to waste the opportunity.

Revafour and Weimar let fly as the Tiger Shark’s crew were aiming their ballistae. Two of the pirates on one of the ballistae fell as Revafour’s arrows tore into them, and Weimar repeated the feat on the other. The pirates manning the ballistae fell back as Revafour and Weimar continued to shoot at them, and they couldn’t get back to their positions before the Sea Unicorn fired its own ballistae. The Sea Unicorn’s oversized arrows flew true, tearing through the bowstrings of the Tiger Shark’s weapons and rendering them useless.

The Tiger Shark was close enough now that its crew could fire their crossbows, but their shots were swiftly answered by the Sea Unicorn’s own archers as several of its crew came on deck with crossbows. Revafour and Weimar fired more quickly and accurately than any of the sailors, dropping several more pirates as the Sea Unicorn’s ballistae fired again into their ranks. The ranks of the Tiger Shark’s crew were thinned as they came up alongside the Sea Unicorn, but they were not deterred. Shouting angrily, the Tiger Shark’s pirates slammed nailed planks down between their ship and the Sea Unicorn, binding the two vessels together before they swarmed across to attack.

Revafour replaced his bow in its sheath on his back, and drew the huge two-handed broadsword he wielded in melee combat. He wasn’t wearing the heavy plate armor he typically wore, since it wasn’t safe aboard a ship. He did wear his cherished cloak, decorated in an Oeridian-style red and brown plaid but beaded in the traditional Flan fashion. Raising his sword, he smiled eagerly as the first few pirates approached.

One foolish pirate ran ahead of his friends, swinging a rusty cutlass as he screamed obscenities at Revafour. The Flan warrior easily dodged the pirate’s clumsy strike and retaliated with a titanic swing that nearly cut the pirate in two, causing him to fall in a torrent of blood. Two more came at Revafour, brothers by the looks of them, swinging matching battle axes. Revafour easily parried one brother’s attack before striking back, severing the other brother’s weapon arm before he could strike. As the man fell to his knees, screaming in agony, Revafour swung his sword the other way, decapitating the first brother as he stood there in shock.

Revafour turned to confront another pirate coming at him from behind, but the man suddenly stopped in place, screaming in pain. He fell face down, dead on the spot, and Revafour saw Amyalla behind him, a bloody dagger in her hand. The halfling grinned and winked at him, and Revafour returned her smile.

Finishing off the man whose arm he’d severed, Revafour turned to attack another group of pirates.

Weimar grunted as the large, tattooed pirate in front of him slammed his spiked club into Weimar’s shield. Fortunately, Weimar’s shield was made of bronzewood, a wood nearly as strong as steel itself. Weimar pretended to stagger from the blow, leading the pirate to raise his club for a second strike.

The pirate suddenly cried out as Weimar chopped deep into his abdomen, and he dropped his club. He fell to his knees, and was defenseless as Weimar took his head off with the next blow. Three more pirates attacked Weimar, one after the other, and they all met similar fates. Glancing around him, Weimar looked to see if any of his friends needed his help.

He saw a large melee near the centre of the Sea Unicorn’s deck. A large group of pirates had the upper hand over several desperate members of the Sea Unicorn’s crew, taunting the honest seamen as they cut them down. The pirates might have won the battle, except that several of them suddenly collapsed one after another. Weimar smiled as he saw Amyalla expertly weaving through the melee, her daggers dripping with blood as she cut down the pirates one by one.

A few of the pirates realized what Amyalla was doing, and they immediately turned to attack her. Weimar took a step towards them, but then he paused as he heard the sound of Luna chanting a spell. Three of the pirates advancing on Amyalla were suddenly frozen in place, unable to move a muscle. The fourth pirate charged at the halfling, but Luna stepped between them. She easily blocked the pirate’s spear thrust with her shield before she retaliated, killing him instantly with a blow from her mace.

Weimar nodded in satisfaction as he looked for Revafour. He realized he needn’t have bothered, since he saw the Flan warrior had waded into another melee between the pirates and the Sea Unicorn’s sailors. Revafour wore a determined smile as he cut down one pirate after another, seeming not to notice the sailors’ cheers.

Weimar grinned at the sight, but his smile vanished at the cry of pain he heard behind him. Whirling around, he ran towards where he’d heard the cry, tightening his grip on his axe. Up on the poop deck, he saw Captain Gregor struggling against a broadly built man with a shock of brilliant red hair and a moustache to match. The man was dressed all in crimson, from the lacquer on his chain mail to the buckles on his boots. A manic light gleamed in his eye as he repeatedly slammed his cutlass against Captain Gregor’s, savoring the other captain’s plight. His cutlass was scarlet up to its hilt, and Weimar realized it had probably tasted the blood of several of the Sea Unicorn’s crew already.

“Brave man, are you?” Weimar shouted the red-haired man as he ran up one of the staircases to the poop deck. “Let’s see if your cutlass is as big as your ego!”

“Aren’t you one to talk?” the pirate said with a leer as he disarmed Captain Gregor and kicked him down the poop deck’s other staircase. “Or do you just have a death wish?”

“I suppose you’re Bloody Roger,” Weimar said as he swung his axe at the man’s arm.

“That I am, boy,” Bloody Roger replied with a smirk as he dodged Weimar’s blow and slashed Weimar’s weapon arm. “And you’re soon to be shark bait!” he continued, following up with a series of strikes that forced Weimar back on his heels.

“And how many of your crew have we killed?” Weimar shot back, gritting his teeth at the pain in his arm as he blocked Bloody Roger’s strikes. He finally caught Bloody Roger’s cutlass with his shield, and pushed the pirate’s arm up high. Before Bloody Roger could free his blade, Weimar quickly lashed out, cleaving deep into his hip and down to his thigh. “Have enough left to sail your stinking tub back where it came from?”

“Crew members come and go,” Bloody Roger said with an evil smile as he slashed at Weimar’s head, “but some of the lovelies you’ve got on this ship are only found once in a lifetime. They’ll sell for a fine price...once they’re broken in, of course.”

Weimar’s eyes flashed at that, as he easily blocked Bloody Roger’s cutlass.

“Wrong answer, you son of a bitch,” Weimar said as he cleaved into Bloody Roger’s temple.  The pirate didn’t have time to even scream before his head split nearly in two under Weimar’s axe. Tearing his axe free of Bloody Roger’s suddenly dead body, Weimar kicked the corpse down the poop deck’s staircase. Several of the remaining pirates screamed in horror as they saw their captain’s dead body. Losing all heart for the fight, they threw their weapons to their opponents’ feet, pleading for mercy.

The wounded Captain Gregor, now leaning on his first mate, and the surviving crew of the Sea Unicorn, who’d seen so many of their friends die that day, were not in a merciful mood.