The Raker

Aveda, Volhowe, 27th August 1083

Eyeing the docked rakers, the party queried captain Culran, and Skaven Henbar, who it seemed had had a lot of experience aboard ship in the past. Their professional opinion was that the vessel was ready to sail, and so a plan was hatched to make off with it.

The embryonic Qhal Company and Culran's eight crew were gathered close at hand on the quay, as unobtrusively as fourteen heavilly-armed and armoured halfbreeds and eight nervous sailors could be, and the four leaders plus Culran marched down the jetty to the impasive guards at the foot of the gangplank. As officially and convincingly as possible, they explained that they were sent on official Principate business by Count Cordua, and required to see the captain of the vessel. This was a gamble in many ways, of course, for they were still unclear as to whether the rakers were controlled by the Prince or the Guilds. Without any papers, the guard (whose name was, fittingly, Pekka) wasn't letting them aboard, but finally he sent one of his fellows to summon the captain.

This suited Mehmet's plan perfectly. Quietly, he readied the little ivory carving once owned by the sorcerer Khaeru, preparing to cast its' Dominate Human magic once he made physical contact with the captain. A few minutes later, the captain himself, in rather splendid seafarer's clothes, descended the gangplank to face them. Mehmet stitched on a smile and held out his hand. "Good evening, Captain," he said pleasantly.

The captain simply stared at him impatiently, making no move to take the offered hand. "This had better be important," he said sternly. Mehmet, left with no choice (and no paperwork!) went for second-best and unleashed the spell on a ranged basis. The captain blinked and stopped speaking. Heart racing, Mehmet muttered, "You need to deal with this in your cabin," too low for the guard to hear. The captain swallowed, and said, "You'd better come aboard," signalling the guards to allow the visitors to pass.

Once into his cabin, the intruders lost no time. If this spell was similar to the ones they were familiar with, they had around ten minutes before it wore off. He was instructed to brief his crew that the four commanders of the Qhal Company were important representatives of the Principate, and the crew were to take their orders as if they were issued by himself. This seemed unsurprising to the crew, and it seemed likely that this was not the first time this raker had been used for political purposes. Next, he was instructed to dismiss the guards, as they were to be replaced by the ones being brought aboard. Skaven went ashore again, and returned with the remainder of the Company and Culran's crew. Orders were given to cast off and make ready to sail, and the Vorruk, the first mate, got his crew moving and sent one to organize a tug to turn them round.

Worried that the spell was coming to its' end, they hustled the captain back to his cabin and knocked him out, tied him up, and shoved him into his own private toilet (the wardrobe was too small).

Mehmet located a small writing desk, and assembling paper, ink and a pen began to scribe some letters. While he did this, the others spotted a trapdoor, closely fitted into the polished plank floor of the cabin. Lifting it, they disovered a flight of steps going down into darkness through an enclosed companionway. Gilbert took a lantern from the cabin and lit it, and he, Percinious and Skaven descended carefully. The stairs descended far enough that they were close to the keel of the boat by the time they reached a small door.

Opening this, they found themselves in a vast open space, occupying all the ship's hull below the top deckline. In the centre of this was a huge metal spindle, nearly the length of the vessel, enwrapped in four curving strips of similar metal to form a mesh around it. It floated in midair, unsupported, not attached to the boat at either end.

On the deck at the bottom of the stairs was a small structure that (were they to have ever heard of or seen such a thing) they might have called an altar. Set into the top of this was a crystal globe, around the size of a human hand, which glowed slightly. The temptation was irresistable. Gilbert stepped up to it, laid his hand on it and channeled a point of magic into it.

Slowly, the metal structure floating in the hull of the ship began to turn.

*

Completing his two letters, Mehmet looked around and spotted sealing wax and a seal. Grinning, he sealed both with the captain's mark and headed up on deck.

One letter was addressed to Count Cordua, and 'revealed' that Zamyr Silverweave was aligning himself with the Guilds in order to kill the Prince at dawn; the other, to Gromnyr, claimed that Prince Lyrran had hired mercenaries (Silverweave's men) to crush the Council of Guilds, and that the attack on the Guild Hall would begin at dawn. Both letters claimed that the raker had put to sea to locate and sink ships of reinforcements coming to join the Marmarkan mercenaries. While unlikely to seriously upset the applecart in Aveda, he reckoned that the letters would put a crimp in any attempts to mount a serious pursuit on Silverweave's part.

The tug had just turned the raker to face towards the harbour mouth, and was preparing to leave. He hailed it, and, wrapping the two letters into a package with several golden crowns, tossed it down, stressing to the tug's captain how important it was that they arrived. As he did so, the wind ruffled his short black hair, and he absently wondered at this; there was none, before. Then it intensified, and he realized that the tug was rapidly receding from him. He looked up, and saw the sails flap, snap and fill with the wind that hadn't been there before. The ship was moving faster and faster now, already faster than any ship he had ever been on before, as it headed for the harbour mouth at an almost alarming speed. A crewman stood at the wheel, calmly guiding the ship, and none of the crew seemed to be panicking; maybe this was normal? He descended back to the captain's cabin.

*

Some investigation revealed a semi-secret panel in the captain's cabin, containing the ship's papers, a smaller version of the crystal below, and some directions for the operation of the ship. One magic point would double the vessel's speed for an hour. Two would triple it for an hour. The extra crystal was a locking device, allowing the controls to be sealed in whatever state the ship was at the time. Reiterated again and again were the instructions never to use the power in sight of land, never to us it in sight of any vessel that was not subsequently to be sunk or captured.

Culran was shown the device, and told how it worked. Clearly he was unsettled by such a vast piece of sorcerous magic, but he grasped its' workings and agreed to keep it working as they travelled. With some relief he returned to plotting a course for Vermar.

At this point, Gord sneezed like a duck....

Percinious, ever curious about items of power, wanted to try empowering the ship with magic energy through the Maugre Claw, but this was firmly vetoed by the others. Grumbling, he settled down with his expanding library of qhalur books to try and further research the device and its' capabilities.

It occurred to Gilbert that, from what any of them knew about the processes of 'normal' magic, 1 point was far too little power for the effect produced. The bulk of the energy required to make the device produce wind must be coming from somewhere else....

Looking up from his charts, captain Culran reported that, at their current speed, they could be at Vermar in three days; two if triple speed were used. His old ship, the Vanity, would be pressed to do the trip in eight!

At this point some bumps and grunts indicated that the imprisoned captain had awakened. Extracting him from the head, the half-bloods searched him thoroughly, knifed him, packed his pockets with the heaviest items they could find, and heaved him out through one of the large windows in the stern cabin. The splash was lost instantly in the darkness and foaming wake.

50 miles off Vermar, 29th August 1083

Two days later, the lookouts reported a vessel ahead. As they closed, this was identified as a Dormaran ship. The long hours at sea had left everyone bored, and it suddenly occurred to several people at once that a Qhal Company didn't necessarily have to be land-bound. If piracy instead of mercenary soldiering was a possibility, then this ship was pretty much the perfect piece of equipment for the job!

With no further ado, the decks were cleared for combat. The forward ballistæ were spanned and loaded, and Gilbert and Mehmet moved forwards too, planning to use bows to alter the odds before boarding.

As the ships closed, the half-bloods could see the Dormaran sailors running around in panic. The ship seemed to have marines aboard too, though, and these were preparing to fight, without any great prospect of winning.

These prospects were reduced enormously when the ballistae opened up. While not nearly as powerful as the ones used at Palethon, the bolts ripped across the crowded decks, tearing men apart like toys. Limbs and body parts splattered everywhere in showers of blood. Seconds later, Gilbert and Mehmet opened up, feathering another four foes - including the opposing captain - before the ships touched. The gangways crashed down and the Qhal Company charged across onto the smaller ship.

One of the first across was Skaven Henbar, whose Firebladed broadsword cremated the head of a marine in a single stroke. Trying to capitalize on the attention drawn, he yelled frantically for the Dormarans to surrender, but his words were lost in the din.

The defenders' attempt to form a line buckled and collapsed under the first onslaught, and the battle disintegrated into a decreasing number of small and nasty fights. After clearing his path, Mehmet left his colleauges to finish up and ducked down a companionway to search below decks - just in case.