History of Castle Mardon - 15C
Friday, February 19, 2010 (12:18:19)

Posted by TerishD

History of Mardon Castle
Chapter Fifteen
Part 3

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“Sir Renwyn,” the master of the vessel asked after berating some of his crew, “can you say that you have hurt that pirate ship?”

Terniff saw her husband turn from where he worked at helping to aim a ballista to look at the captain. He then turned to look out over the rail. Clouds had covered the sky, and neither ship had unnecessary lights. The pirate vessel glowed with enough unholy radiance to make it easily discernable in the surrounding darkness. Terniff had to allow that what lamps were being used for various purposes marked their position to the opposing captain. She appreciated being able to watch the face of her husband, although wondered what he would say.

“I haven’t heard any splintering of wood, but I have heard screams as our projectiles hit the opposing deck.”

“How can you kill them when they should have died centuries ago?”


Good question.


History of Mardon Castle
Chapter Fifteen
Part 3

The greenish flames from where the oily strike from the ghost ship had struck the deck scared the sailors. Their attempts to smother the blaze had not been effective, but the pieces of canvas simply passed through the inferno without disrupting the fire. Terniff watched as they stood huddled together with wide eyes displaying wonder of how the flames could char the wood of the boat while not being affected in return.

Other sailors joining those that had tried to put out the fire began to spread an aura of fear in not being able to prevent the destruction of the vessel. Terniff saw concern in the eyes of the captain, then in the gaze of her own husband. She quickly pointed at the catapult as a signal for him to return grief to the undead pirate. Her hand then moved to point to a barrel of water. A nearby soldier did not hesitate to push over the barrel, and as the liquid rushed over the deck the fire was quenched. While sailors no longer had expressions of fear, she was glad to hear the captain yell for them to get back to work.

“Sir Renwyn,” the master of the vessel asked after berating some of his crew, “can you say that you have hurt that pirate ship?”

Terniff saw her husband turn from where he worked at helping to aim a ballista to look at the captain. He then turned to look out over the rail. Clouds had covered the sky, and neither ship had unnecessary lights. The pirate vessel glowed with enough unholy radiance to make it easily discernable in the surrounding darkness. Terniff had to allow that what lamps were being used for various purposes marked their position to the opposing captain. She appreciated being able to watch the face of her husband, although wondered what he would say.

“I haven’t heard any splintering of wood, but I have heard screams as our projectiles hit the opposing deck.”

“How can you kill them when they should have died centuries ago?”

“Maybe we aren’t killing them, but I am hoping that we are removing them from this battle. It could play in our favor if we force the pirate captain to become short-handed.”

The captain dropped his voice to a conversational tone as he asked, “Have you tried aiming for the sails, especially with a mass of flaming material?”

Terniff saw her husband turn as he spoke to the soldiers around him without bothering to answer the captain’s question. “You heard the man, aim for the sails.”

A large rock hit the deck killing a man and cracking some boards. She rushed to the projectile while calling over some soldiers. Again the ghostly presence did not allow itself to be affected by her, other soldiers, or their devices. Thinking that the real pirate ship was resting in the water, Terniff had the barrel of water dropped into the lake to be refilled. One soldier mentioned that there was another barrel of fresh water on deck, but she told him that it might be needed – and indeed it was as another flaming oily mass hit the deck. Once the first barrel had been filled, she poured water on some ropes and found that it could now affect the ghostly rock. Being able to lift the rock, she told her husband to clear the basket of the catapult.

Terniff moved to stand by her husband and watch with him as the ghostly projectile flew back to the pirate vessel. Cheers sounded when a distant crash could be heard, although Terniff heard the voices hush as they looked around for another such missile. She finally felt fear when she heard her husband make a comment.

“I really have no ideas.”

Terniff had no suggestions. She had spoken to Tasbirn about taking this assignment. She had worked with her husband to assure tactics, then worked with the soldiers to put the plans into operation. To suddenly see all the plans be proven worthless did not help her attitude.

The sound of a great splash caused Terniff and most sailors to turn to the distant sight of the pirate ship. It still did not appear hurt, but the ghostly sailors had their hands lifted as if to keep the spray from something large hitting the water bother their eyes. She had her eyes lift as something large moved through the clouds. She recognized the deep long sound, but did not immediately identify it until a voice sounded from the middle of the deck.

“That rock should have hurt it. What trick did you guys use?”

Terniff quickly spoke in return, “Norvichy? Where did you get that rock?”

The magical voice replied, “I had my roc get the rock up in the mountains.”

“Use a rock from the lake.”

Terniff turned her heads with most of those on the vessel as they heard the movement of a very large creature. The wind from huge wings could be felt. Terniff heard those in the riggings mention that they could momentarily see stars as the great bird descended through the clouds.

Not being able to see the movement of the roc, Terniff turned her attention back towards the pirate ship. Its crew also seemed fascinated by the movement of the great bird, as their heads did not look back. Ghost crewmen moved their ballista to a position where they could fire upon something other than the opposing vessel. Captain Norlurg shouted commands as a great wind suddenly erupted that was strong enough to effect the movement of his ship. The gusts from the roc regaining height also disrupted the ghosts. Terniff was glad to see that they were not able to aim and launch a projectile at the great bird, and she cheered with those around her when a spray of ghostly splinters verified that a loud crash did indeed signal damage to the pirate ship.

Once again the magical voice of the one directing the roc spoke from the middle of the deck. “I cannot be certain how many times I can get my mount to do this. I believe this landing and taking back off tires it.”

Renwyn spoke in response, “Norvichy, can you direct us to a place where we can easily get some rocks?”

“I don’t know. I got wet as my roc dove to get the rock that was just used.”

Captain Norlurg shouted, “I know a place!” before screaming commands to his steersman.

Renwyn shouted his own command. “Buy us time, Norvichy!”

It was a tense period as a number of strategies went to work. While the wind from the movement of the great bird could be felt, the lack of lights in the sky prevented any from knowing exactly where it came from or went. Terniff found herself agreeing with the captain that a creature as big as a roc should be easily spotted, but had to also admit that the sentry had a point when he challenged the statement by pointing out that the sky around them was so dark that one could not see their hand even if in front of their face. With a command to keep trying, she wondered about the captain being able to direct the movement of his ship. Looking at the stoic stance of the steersman, Terniff could only believe that the man obeyed the earlier command to simply trust the captain. She looked to Renwyn as he worked with the soldiers to think up ways of hurting the ghosts. Terniff tried to stay out of everyone’s way while ever watching for some way to relieve some of the stress that she could sense in the men around her.

A movement of soldiers had her realize that the pirate vessel was not giving chase. As Renwyn directed the military in preparing to secure some rocks from the beneath the water of the lake, Terniff looked to the pirate ship. She felt some relief in seeing that the ghosts also had their attention diverted to attempting to locate and target the great aerial creature. Only a couple more rocks crashed into the pirate vessel, but each strike resulted in damage to the ship and screams from the ghostly crew. The actions of the undead to react to the attacks did not show them to have confidence in the very darkness they had chosen to work in. While Terniff allowed that some of their confusion was simply due to being unfamiliar with the type of attack, she also suspected that the mage that rode the great animal used magic to frustrate any attempts to launch attacks upon his mount. As the size of the ghost ship diminished, she looked to her husband hoping that he could effectively use the time that Norvichy had given him.

Terniff looked to the darkness around her wondering about their true location as the soldiers stated various reasons for their refusal to go down into the black water. She heard Renwyn praise a sailor that agreed to do the work even as he tried to make the required duty sound really simply to perform. Terniff had to move to her husband as she heard the tone of his voice change from a positive cadence. She approached to see the sailor that had volunteered frozen in position next to the railing. Having years of experience of being around men, she patted her husband’s cheek while telling him to let her handle the situation. Seeing his eyes cock to hers in a statement that he doubted she would be effective, Terniff grinned as she stepped up the sailor and kissed him. Fear still showed in the man’s face, but he tried to smile at her before jumping over the railing of the ship. There was concern by the sailors working the crank to pull the stones up that they would also see the dead in the net. All cheered when the living diver came up stating that he was much too cold to go back down, and Terniff smiled when another man said that he would make the next dive only if he could also get a kiss.

When Renwyn stated that he had enough stones to deliver more harm to the pirate vessel, Terniff felt some of the tension ease among the crew even as the ship moved back towards the enemy. The ghosts did raise the alarm in seeing the living come back into position. Even though a sailor did die in an attack from the enemy ship, Renwyn had those manning the catapult wait until the perfect moment for releasing their own strike.

The first volley of lake rocks launched tore into the sails of the pirate ship. Those at the ballista released their missiles to hopefully keep the ghostly crew in fear while the catapult was reloaded. Another sailor died as he was covered by a flaming mixture of ghostly oil, but none showed any fear as they quickly poured water to keep the fire from causing further damage. Terniff heard her husband respond to the captain’s request to know where he planned to direct the next volley of rocks.

“This should tear a hole in her hull, Captain.”

“That is what I wanted to hear.” The master of the vessel yelled to the steersman to hold the ship steady, then said, “Fire at will, Sir Renwyn.”

Terniff watched as the next flight of stones crossed the distance to the enemy vessel. The sailors that gathered the rocks could not pick up ones as large as the roc. While the weights that the great bird released had harmed the enemy ship, Terniff did not feel like cheering when the smaller masses seemed to do as much damage upon their strike. She watched with suspicion of viewing an illusion even as the ghostly crew diving into the water tried to state that the pirate vessel indeed was now sinking. Only the words from the pirate captain that came across the water convinced her that the attack had been successful.

“As long as my curse holds, you have not defeated me.”

The voice of Norvichy did not come from a mystical source nearby, but from across the water where Terniff could only believe that he allowed his great bird to rest. “Yes, but we know how to defeat your presence here. We will be fishing in this lake. Plus, we will learn how to defeat your curse, and Mardon will return to truly being great.”

The crew cheered as the cloud cover broke at the end of the words. While Terniff did not mind sharing a jubilant kiss with her husband, she broke from the embrace to yell words of thanks to another. The words from Norvichy again came from across the water.

“Ah, it was fun. Definitely something to tell my children about. When I have them. Once I get my bird back in the air, I am going to allow it to feed then take it to Tasbirn. Meet me there.”

Terniff replied, “No, as I need to take my husband to meet my family.”

She heard the distant mage laugh before he said, “Oh, so this was simply attempting to provide your husband with some fun before facing real danger.”

Renwyn’s strong voice now sounded from behind her. “Just wait, Norvichy. When you choose a lady, you will one day have to face her family.”

“You know, I was thinking about letting this roc go after this business is finished. It is too much trouble to control and eats way too much food. It might however give me the confidence I need to face any future in-laws.”


With information there is now a feeling of pressure to work harder.