Chapter 1: First Meeting

An Unexpected Meeting in the Sea Gorge of Sind



Evading the Rajahadraja's guards through tunnels under the city of Jahore, Tasya and her party carefully but speedily make their way to the end of a treacherous sewer tunnel that drops into a vast gorge. The gorge is a massive sea passage decorated with ancient carved arches and pillars, much older than the city itself.

Tasya agilely uses her legs to secure herself while she hangs her body out a bit from the sewer pipe to peer into the vast space. When she does, she sees a lone ship sailing through the gorge. The ship sails away from a dark sea tunnel through the gorge toward the daylight of Jahore's harbor.

On the ship is the most peculiar crew: a Rakasta captain, a Sindhi monk, a goblin, and a group of newly freed human prisoners of slavers who were until recently transported on the very ship they now themselves sail. One tattooed human woman has the look of a barbarian from distant lands. This unlikely crew recently navigated through the massive network of sea tunnels, avoiding bashing in to tunnel walls during the harsh incoming tide.

...

"Hold tight little one." Tasya says to her small sprite companion on her shoulder. She wraps a foot around one of the two outer ropes of the ladder, like she would do on the circus high wire and shouts, "HO THERE UNKNOWN VESSEL!"

With the air of a sailor, or possibly a pirate, Admiral, the former pirate captain of the Whisker and current pira...err...sea captain of this 'commandeered' slaver's vessel, calls up to Tasya. "Ahoy there!"

"Could you assist us?!" Taysa calls back. "We've reached the end of our rope and terrible men are after us!"

"I’ll see what I can do!" shouts back Admiral. The racasta begins calling for his crew to lower the sails and slow down the ship. He looks over his shoulder at the goblin Skeev. "What’s caught your eye, Skeev?"

...

"Heard a splash and caught a glimpse of large a fin and flash of metal disappear into the water." replies Skeev to Admiral's inquiry.

"Ominous!" declares Admiral. "Better stay away from the water." He begins hastily rummaging through a nearby crate and waves Skeev over to help. "Help me find some spare rope so we can get that girl down from there."

Skeev responds to Admiral's command and pulls himself away from his inquisitive stance, looks around urgently, and then points to coiled rope at Admiral's feet.

"I might be able to jump onto the mast and sails." Tasya calls out. "But, my companion tied to me is not trained in such agile feats." She adds and glances back up to the end of the pipe and the rope that is tied about her leading into it.

Admiral stops digging through the crate and glances down in surprise when Skeev points out the rope right in front of him. "Oh! Right! Thanks!" With a grunt of effort, he lifts up the coil of rope and loops it over his shoulder like a bandolier. He quickly scrambles up the nearest mast, using his claws to grip onto the wood and propel himself upward. When he reaches the top, he hooks his legs around the topmost spar to keep from falling and begins securing one end of the rope to the masthead. He shouts across to Tasya, "How about rope? Could they climb across a rope, do you think?"

"Perhaps." Tasya replies. "We do have this ladder. Its secured to iron rods at the mouth of the pipe. Between the rope and the ladder, we should be able to get everyone safely onboard."

"I reckon so!" agrees Admiral, optimistically. Once the rope is secure, he flicks his wrist and a battered old scimitar materializes in his hand. The blade is chipped and corroded, but there is a pretty blue-and-red gem set into the pommel. Holding the free end of the rope in one hand and the sword in the other, he grins, winks conspiratorially, and then… vanishes.

In the very same instant, he appears beside Mischa in the mouth of the pipe, still holding onto the rope.

Mischa holds onto her rope harness and tries to peer into the gorge to see who Tasya is communicating with. At the top of the mast, when Admiral's old scimitar materializes and the blue-and-red gem becomes visible, her eyes go wide. Tasya notices Mischa's reaction.

When Admiral slyly materializes in the pipe, the blue-and-red gem begins to noticeably swirl. When Tasya looks at it next to her, an image flashes in her mind... As Admiral moves close to Tasya he can feel his scimitar, Reaver, vibrating with energy. He too suddenly has a flash. It's a memory...he almost forgot it...As both Tasya and Admiral snap out of their mental flashes, they both hear some voices from deeper within the sewer pipe. Almost simutaneously there is a scream from the ship below.

Tasya shakes off the weird feelings and the sudden flash of that damn portal again. This is no time for that sort of thing. She quickly glances down toward the ship, as she hears the scream.

It is hard to tell from its tone if the scream came from a man or woman, but when Tasya looks below at the deck of the ship, she sees a human male, crying in agony as he is quickly pulled into the water by rope attached to a harpoon that's lodged deep into the man's chest. The screaming man disappears over the ship's deck along with the rope and harpoon, followed by a splash.

Then from beyond the bend of the sewer pipe Tasya hears--and Admiral as well--an uncontrolled exclamation echo.

"Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh!"

With each frantic articulation the exclamation sounds like it gets closer at a rapid rate as if someone is sliding down the pipe.

Admiral curses colorfully as he glances between the ship below and the tunnel behind him. He finishes tying the rope to one of the iron rods at the mouth of the sewer pipe and then vanishes again, reappearing at the top of the mast. He shouts back to Tasya. "Help your friend across, aye? I have to help my crew!"

From his lofty vantage point up on top of the mast, Admiral scours the water below for any sign of whatever dragged the man overboard, arcane energy crackling in his claws.

As quickly as the rope is tied, Tasya swings out from the ladder and begins to move with her hands across the anchoring rope. She looks back to Mischa and tugs on the rope securing them together, "We need to move..."

Admiral
A silvery mist suddenly forms at top of the mast before it quickly materializing as Admiral.

From his vantage point high up on the mast, Admiral scours the the water below. In the calm water between waves, Admiral can make out the form of something swimming near the boat. It disappears, perhaps swimming under the boat, then becomes visible again--still under water--behind the boat.

The figure moves like a fish, but appears to have the upper limbs of a humanoid. It is large, probably 8 foot long, and holds something metallic as it swims.Tasya
As Tasya swings out from the ladder and begins to move with her hands across the anchoring rope, Petalwing hold's on to her shoulder armor tightly exclaiming, "Woooo! Fun, Fun. Swing, Swing!"

Mischa, attached to Tasya by her rope harness, responds quickly to Tasya's prompt and grabs the anchoring rope, following Tas.

Meanwhile, the frantic voice sliding down the sewer pipe gets closer and louder.Mischa's hand slips and she looses her hold on the rope. She desperately grips on to the rope with her other hand. Tasya can tell she is about to loose the grip of her other hand.

Tasya nimbly swings and assists her friend, grabbing onto Mischa hand tight and pulling her up, before helping them all three onto the ship's deck. As soon as she is on solid wood, she looks back up at the end of the pipe to see who or what is coming after them.

"Oi! Get away from my ship, you overgrown mackerel!" Admiral snarls as he fires an eldritch blast at the figure in the water.

Tasya
Tasya helps her companions make it to the mast head and then down to the deck, climbing quickly under Admiral. As soon as she is on solid ground, she looks up to see what was sliding down the sewer pipe after her and her friends. She sees a Rajahadraja guard fly out from the pipe opening, with a panicked yell, and barely grab onto the rope between the pipe and the mast. He then awkwardly hangs on to it for a moment, securing his grip. "Hurry!" he screams back in the direction of the pipe.

Then he begins to try to shimmy his way across the rope. It looks difficult for him, as he is heavily armored and encumbered with weapons.

Admiral
Admiral's blast hits the creature in the water; It's figure writhes under the water. And then seems to swim deeper out of Admiral's sight. It quickly appears again on the side of the boat, where it surfaces and heaves a large harpoon onto the deck, this time in the direction of Taresh, who had been looking over the rail trying to locate the source of the previous attack.



Admiral hears the loud yell come from the direction of rope.