From: hsexauer@vax.cns.muskingum.edu (Rapunzel)
Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
Subject: [JOI] [Storm] Turning the tide
Message-ID: <1993Apr6.104856.4949@vax.cns.muskingum.edu>
Date: 6 Apr 93 10:48:56 -0400


	The black ship had drawn up alongside the Rhymand and the...figures
aboard it began casting lines to the ship.  There wasn't much else to describe
the things on the other ship.  All the figures were deathly pale and gaunt. 
Some were in varios states of decay and flesh hung in tatters from their bones.
The wraiths (as seemed the best word to use) moved in eerie silence.  The only
sounds were the shouts from the mortals on the Rhymand.  As each line was cast
and tangled on the rail, the mariners hacked at them and severed as many lines 
as they could.  But the number of lines cut was no match for the amount that
flung from the black ship.  Soon enough of the wraiths had made it to the ship
that the sailors were no longer able to cut them away.  The wraiths grappled
with those on the ship.  
	Where each wraith touched it left a burn mark, though the wraiths'
touch was one of arctic cold.  The men fought back the only way they knew
how, with steel.  The blades cut through the wraiths easily, seeming to defeat
them.  But a few seconds after the pieces fell to the deck they either
regenerated into a whole being again or, if the pieces were large enough,
became two new wraiths.  Morale faltered as the number of opponents did not
lessen, but grew.  
	For the members of the company, Segoi was still at the helm with the
helmsman using his titanic strength to steady the wheel.  He could not afford
to leave the wheel or the sea would wrest control of the ship and send it 
crashing into the black ship or capsize it.  Kyar could and did leap from the
poopdeck into the melee below.  Using his scimitar he tried to help the
mariners repulse the onslaught.  Darkin fought like a tigress at Aleric's side.
Together, they worked their way to Kyar and stood shoulder to shoulder
defending themselves against the wraiths' icy grip.  The three were at the edge
of the deck, pressing the wraiths before them against the gunwale.  With a 
sudden shove that cost him near crippling burns to his left hand and forearm, 
Aleric knocked one wraith overboard into the raging sea.  That one sank below
the surface and did not rise again.  Evidently their emaciated forms could not
swim.  
	Raising his voice above the shouts of the mariners, (for the wraiths
fought in the same eerie silence they used on their ship) Aleric shouted, "Push
them overboard! They can't swim!"  Others took up his cry and all now used the
flats of their blades to beat the wraiths to the rail.  Unfortunately, for 
every wraith that fell to the waves, two more seemed to come from the black
ship.  Something needed to be done to remove the ship before the decks could be
cleared of the wraiths.  

ADMIN: Okay you mages in our group, what can you do about that ship?  And
       what are Quaeros and Laurenth up to?  (i.e. are they posessed or
       something?)