The Fifth Voyage of the Shadowcaster (part two)
The second part of the battle was just as hard fought as the first, but there was less to it.
We made it to the Shadowcaster in our longboat, giving wide berth to the enemy fleet. The only reason we had reached it in time was that they had no sails. A few fresh reinforcements remained abourd our vessel, and Pyre was finally ready to take to battle.
The dragon kept the enemy mage at bay. The mage had cast a flight spell and bore a wand of fireball. After chasing the mage from the skies, Verloth made a single run against one of the enemy ships. Though he did great damage, he suffered enough arrow wounds that he was unwilling to enter the fray again willingly.
Afterwards, our ship clashed with theirs. We had intended to board their vessel, and some number of our company did just that, but they also boarded the Shadowcaster, so carnage raged across both decks, though the stern of our vessel was somewhat safe since no men willingly would charge Verloth's nest there.
In the last few moments of the battle, someone set off a silence spell on the enemy vessel, but I'm not certain who that was. Was it Eoman's companion, the priest? The last thing I saw was an enemy warrior breeching our deck, with a blazing greatsword and murder in his eyes. Eoman stepped up to him and struck him with a magic blade. I think I saw him begin to fall before I was charged be several sailors and the world faded from my care...
...When I awoke, Eoman, Sparrow, and Pyre were just finishing a tense negotiation of surrender by the enemy. My ears were ringing and it was difficult to retain my focus on the situation, but the terms were that that they be allowed to leave with a single ship (one of the three in their fleet had been sunk by a water elemental conjured by Alia.)
We kept one of the enemy sailing ships, all the magic of their fallen, and the loot and cargo that they had stashed in their fortress. We gave our allies one quarter of the loot, all of the weapons and armor they could recover from the fallen, and a promise of an additional fifty bows and thousand arrows on our next voyage.
We stopped over in Nox for a few weeks while we recuperated, and set sail for Tam once more.
On our next voyage, we plan to face The Boar again, and I hope that we may also visit the Shining Shrine before leaving this accursed island behind for a while.
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