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Description

Chapter 7 – Boner



    The morning was calm, the sea was still, and the cool weather of late was a welcomed reprieve from the scorching heat of the Symballan Sea. Here, on the bottom of the crater left by the Shadow asteroid impact, the winds of the Western Erg that used to blow down from the north never quite made it. The stagnation of the area around the southern shores of the Symballan Sea meant heat and an unnatural amount of humidity for the region. Then again, that could change any time. Chaos and unpredictability were as much a fabric of the region as the girls living in this mansion.

    Raptor Cove was complete. They’d spent the better part of a year after their long voyage to the Isle of Khanshir spending two dragon hordes worth of treasure. That had purchased the land around the cove, rebuilt an old pirates’ camp with a dock and a full Symballan styled mansion, and supplied enough extra to completely refit and resupply the SGS Bone Voyage. They’d recovered the corsair from the bottom of a cove on the north shore of Khanshir and sailed it back to Al’Nazir, but only through extensive use of magic to keep it afloat. Now, completely rebuilt to their specifications, it was as much a luxury home to them as a mode of transportation across the unpredictable Symballan Sea.

    Hallow was its captain. Of that there was no doubt. The reason for that was simple enough. She was the Witch who had animated its long dead crew and gave them sentience enough to sail the ship under her direction. She had even adopted a new appearance and style based on the position. She was now called Madame Bones, and thus the satirical name for the ship, the Bone Voyage. The oft overused pun about it operating with just a skeleton crew also came into play.

    The others who lived at Raptor Cove now were known as the Red Team of the Night Raptors. They were perhaps a bit darker, a bit meaner, a little more likely to chase wealth and fame than honor and righteousness. Of the older Raptors members, there were only two on this team; Merideth Blackthistle, aka Hallow, a Sylvisan Elven Black Witch who served an unspecified dark God yet didn’t exude the aura of corruption and evil of most Black Witches; and Holly Wainwright, an ex-soldier of the Kingdom of Carellon and former bodyguard for Lady Brianna Grayson. All the others were new. Two were brand new and as yet untested.

    Avalon Archangel was a younger sister of Princess Elysia Archangel, First Lady of Syvasgaard. Avalon was part of an extended family of the daughters of Voltan Archangel, King of the Al-Karak Elam, the Winged Folk of Cloud City. Like many of her half-sisters, Avalon wasn’t entirely Winged Folk. She’d given up her shapeshifting abilities to be stuck half way between winged folk and draconian. Her mutant form was all she had, yet it was still quite pleasing to the eye. She had been trained as a Kar’Thane Warrior under the tutelage of Ashani Naturu, last of the Kar’Thane Masters.

    Roísín Donovan was Rowan Donovan’s daughter by a certain Elder Fey. As such, she was Caitlyn O’Bannon’s cousin and Fallon Shanahan’s niece. Her years growing up in the faerie realm had aged her more than she would have on Arrallon. It had also instilled in her dangerous magics, the powers of an Eldritch Warlock. It had been Roísín’s curiosity, chaos, and investigation into her mother’s old journals that had led the Night Raptors to Khanshir in the first place.

    Donovan Kevvalor was an atypical Carellonian warrior. The stories of the great Drow Weaponsmaster, Kheldar Honglathor, and his adoption of the worship of the Drow War God Treallar had put him on the path to becoming a Weaponsmaster himself. After working as a smith in Rose Starfall’s forge for several years to pay his way through Kar’Dhaer, he’d managed to join up with the Raptors about the same time as Roísín.

    Next came the Hermaphrodite, Serphaus of Hypatia. She had been raised amongst the Sisters of the Pearl, yet her special attachment to magic had allowed her to become one of the few Mystics of the church. She was rescued by the Raptors from being sacrificed to a diabolic Black Dragon in the mountains of Maeceyea. They were there to investigate rumors of “The Diabolist”, and Seraphus was engaged in smuggling Viridian slaves north to safety and freedom. When the Raptors were finished in the east, she had returned with them to Syvasgaard and then joined the Red Team to head off to the Symballan Sea.

    The last two were brand new recruits, Toruhk of Gol and Faelina Arra’kith.

    Toruhk was a Gollite barbarian, who through misadventure and conspiracy had fallen into slavery as a gladiator in Viridia. When the Raptors raided Virdus, attacked the coliseum to free a member of the Tallivian Guard, and nearly destroyed several blocks of the capitol, Toruhk was set free. He made his way across the border into the Khang Empire with other escapees, to one of the properties owned by the Night Raptors, and thus entered their service.

    Faelina was basically recruited from the local Symballan populace to fill a gap in their ranks,… no thief. Faye Kit, as she preferred to be called, was a Fellnari with a mutant ability to camouflage herself. Idolizing a famous cousin of hers, she’d followed the path of the assassin. Being a natural born magician, she enhanced her thieving skills with illusion as an Arcane Rogue. To the Raptors, her skills had yet to be tested.

    Together they formed a strike team that was ready to assault any pirate ship threat to the coast, track down any rumors of lost treasure, or sally forth into the unknown dangers that lurked in the dimensional rifts and planar anomalies of the Symballan Sea. They all accepted Hallow and Holly’s leadership, despite some basic philosophical and moral differences. Hallow’s magic was extremely powerful. Holly’s combat abilities and military strategy were exceptionally keen. And their opposite natures effectively kept both in check.

    Hallow was most unusual in many respects. As a Black Witch, she should exude evil, be marked with the sign of her masters, or cause rot and decay wherever she went. She had no such aura of corruption. Her memory was spotty at best, having died at the end of the War with the Wolf Hordes. Her sisters within the Coven of Fenris had sacrificed her to secure their own escape,… and yet, here she was. She scarcely remembered crawling out of her own grave. Everything before that was hazy. And though she was clearly not undead,… some had their doubts that she was actually alive.

    Whatever her background or history or reason for being alive again, she wasn’t actually evil. She seemed to walk a narrow path of morality, simply doing what was necessary when it was. She held no illusions regarding the sanctity of life or the need to use nonlethal attacks when dealing with evil men. In short, she had no compunction against killing and never lost a minute of sleep fretting over those she had killed. On the other hand, she certainly never went out of her way to be mean or cruel to anyone, even her enemies. Most of the Raptors would describe her as a practical girl.

    Holly, on the other hand, was a soldier of Carellon, a sentinel trained from an early age to protect her charge, whoever that might be, to stand the walls and let no enemy pass, to uphold the righteous laws of the Kingdom and honor its noble heritage. She was of common piety, respectful of the church but clearly not fanatical. She was honored for her service to the Baron of Darthym, and to his younger sister, the Lady Brianna Grayson. But Lady Grayson was now Lady Steward, wife of Darius Steward the Demonhunter. Her services to Her Ladyship were no longer required. So, now her discipline, code of honor and strict ways were applied to leading (or rather attempting to lead) a band of rebellious, chaotic, unruly adventurers.

    And so, Hallow’s practicality was often the moderating influence on Holly’s zeal for military order and strict adherence to the law. And Holly’s moral code mollified Hallow’s occasional morally dubious decisions. Between them, they kept the team, if not on the straight and narrow, at least out of jail.

*****

Description

Chapter 7 – Boner



    The morning was calm, the sea was still, and the cool weather of late was a welcomed reprieve from the scorching heat of the Symballan Sea. Here, on the bottom of the crater left by the Shadow asteroid impact, the winds of the Western Erg that used to blow down from the north never quite made it. The stagnation of the area around the southern shores of the Symballan Sea meant heat and an unnatural amount of humidity for the region. Then again, that could change any time. Chaos and unpredictability were as much a fabric of the region as the girls living in this mansion.

    Raptor Cove was complete. They’d spent the better part of a year after their long voyage to the Isle of Khanshir spending two dragon hordes worth of treasure. That had purchased the land around the cove, rebuilt an old pirates’ camp with a dock and a full Symballan styled mansion, and supplied enough extra to completely refit and resupply the SGS Bone Voyage. They’d recovered the corsair from the bottom of a cove on the north shore of Khanshir and sailed it back to Al’Nazir, but only through extensive use of magic to keep it afloat. Now, completely rebuilt to their specifications, it was as much a luxury home to them as a mode of transportation across the unpredictable Symballan Sea.

    Hallow was its captain. Of that there was no doubt. The reason for that was simple enough. She was the Witch who had animated its long dead crew and gave them sentience enough to sail the ship under her direction. She had even adopted a new appearance and style based on the position. She was now called Madame Bones, and thus the satirical name for the ship, the Bone Voyage. The oft overused pun about it operating with just a skeleton crew also came into play.

    The others who lived at Raptor Cove now were known as the Red Team of the Night Raptors. They were perhaps a bit darker, a bit meaner, a little more likely to chase wealth and fame than honor and righteousness. Of the older Raptors members, there were only two on this team; Merideth Blackthistle, aka Hallow, a Sylvisan Elven Black Witch who served an unspecified dark God yet didn’t exude the aura of corruption and evil of most Black Witches; and Holly Wainwright, an ex-soldier of the Kingdom of Carellon and former bodyguard for Lady Brianna Grayson. All the others were new. Two were brand new and as yet untested.

    Avalon Archangel was a younger sister of Princess Elysia Archangel, First Lady of Syvasgaard. Avalon was part of an extended family of the daughters of Voltan Archangel, King of the Al-Karak Elam, the Winged Folk of Cloud City. Like many of her half-sisters, Avalon wasn’t entirely Winged Folk. She’d given up her shapeshifting abilities to be stuck half way between winged folk and draconian. Her mutant form was all she had, yet it was still quite pleasing to the eye. She had been trained as a Kar’Thane Warrior under the tutelage of Ashani Naturu, last of the Kar’Thane Masters.

    Roísín Donovan was Rowan Donovan’s daughter by a certain Elder Fey. As such, she was Caitlyn O’Bannon’s cousin and Fallon Shanahan’s niece. Her years growing up in the faerie realm had aged her more than she would have on Arrallon. It had also instilled in her dangerous magics, the powers of an Eldritch Warlock. It had been Roísín’s curiosity, chaos, and investigation into her mother’s old journals that had led the Night Raptors to Khanshir in the first place.

    Donovan Kevvalor was an atypical Carellonian warrior. The stories of the great Drow Weaponsmaster, Kheldar Honglathor, and his adoption of the worship of the Drow War God Treallar had put him on the path to becoming a Weaponsmaster himself. After working as a smith in Rose Starfall’s forge for several years to pay his way through Kar’Dhaer, he’d managed to join up with the Raptors about the same time as Roísín.

    Next came the Hermaphrodite, Serphaus of Hypatia. She had been raised amongst the Sisters of the Pearl, yet her special attachment to magic had allowed her to become one of the few Mystics of the church. She was rescued by the Raptors from being sacrificed to a diabolic Black Dragon in the mountains of Maeceyea. They were there to investigate rumors of “The Diabolist”, and Seraphus was engaged in smuggling Viridian slaves north to safety and freedom. When the Raptors were finished in the east, she had returned with them to Syvasgaard and then joined the Red Team to head off to the Symballan Sea.

    The last two were brand new recruits, Toruhk of Gol and Faelina Arra’kith.

    Toruhk was a Gollite barbarian, who through misadventure and conspiracy had fallen into slavery as a gladiator in Viridia. When the Raptors raided Virdus, attacked the coliseum to free a member of the Tallivian Guard, and nearly destroyed several blocks of the capitol, Toruhk was set free. He made his way across the border into the Khang Empire with other escapees, to one of the properties owned by the Night Raptors, and thus entered their service.

    Faelina was basically recruited from the local Symballan populace to fill a gap in their ranks,… no thief. Faye Kit, as she preferred to be called, was a Fellnari with a mutant ability to camouflage herself. Idolizing a famous cousin of hers, she’d followed the path of the assassin. Being a natural born magician, she enhanced her thieving skills with illusion as an Arcane Rogue. To the Raptors, her skills had yet to be tested.

    Together they formed a strike team that was ready to assault any pirate ship threat to the coast, track down any rumors of lost treasure, or sally forth into the unknown dangers that lurked in the dimensional rifts and planar anomalies of the Symballan Sea. They all accepted Hallow and Holly’s leadership, despite some basic philosophical and moral differences. Hallow’s magic was extremely powerful. Holly’s combat abilities and military strategy were exceptionally keen. And their opposite natures effectively kept both in check.

    Hallow was most unusual in many respects. As a Black Witch, she should exude evil, be marked with the sign of her masters, or cause rot and decay wherever she went. She had no such aura of corruption. Her memory was spotty at best, having died at the end of the War with the Wolf Hordes. Her sisters within the Coven of Fenris had sacrificed her to secure their own escape,… and yet, here she was. She scarcely remembered crawling out of her own grave. Everything before that was hazy. And though she was clearly not undead,… some had their doubts that she was actually alive.

    Whatever her background or history or reason for being alive again, she wasn’t actually evil. She seemed to walk a narrow path of morality, simply doing what was necessary when it was. She held no illusions regarding the sanctity of life or the need to use nonlethal attacks when dealing with evil men. In short, she had no compunction against killing and never lost a minute of sleep fretting over those she had killed. On the other hand, she certainly never went out of her way to be mean or cruel to anyone, even her enemies. Most of the Raptors would describe her as a practical girl.

    Holly, on the other hand, was a soldier of Carellon, a sentinel trained from an early age to protect her charge, whoever that might be, to stand the walls and let no enemy pass, to uphold the righteous laws of the Kingdom and honor its noble heritage. She was of common piety, respectful of the church but clearly not fanatical. She was honored for her service to the Baron of Darthym, and to his younger sister, the Lady Brianna Grayson. But Lady Grayson was now Lady Steward, wife of Darius Steward the Demonhunter. Her services to Her Ladyship were no longer required. So, now her discipline, code of honor and strict ways were applied to leading (or rather attempting to lead) a band of rebellious, chaotic, unruly adventurers.

    And so, Hallow’s practicality was often the moderating influence on Holly’s zeal for military order and strict adherence to the law. And Holly’s moral code mollified Hallow’s occasional morally dubious decisions. Between them, they kept the team, if not on the straight and narrow, at least out of jail.

*****