DiabloFans

"Are you crazy?? I thought that guy was going to kill me!!" Vaker was upset about Drangar killing the guard and thought that it didn't look like a very good plan, but at least they were already free of the chains and thing started to look brighter for them...

He hurried to take the brasers off, and with the memory of the recent pain he tried to make a fire again, this time there was no pain so he dared to make a brighter light for everyone...

"there we go, now we can see our faces" Vaker observed the party.

"wow, some of this guys look strange, and quite powerful" he thought.

"I wander who would want to have so powerful salves?" he asked to nobody...

Just as the guard was about to stab Borin, he heard the man who was sitting next to him shout out "CONGELO!". A bright crystal flew from his hand and into the chest of his assailant.

Borin stood back up and once again ensured that his hood covered his face.

"Thank you" Borin held out his hand and shook the hand of the man who saved him. Seddrick smiled back at him.

Soon after, Borin saw Vaker form a small ball of fire which finally illuminated the room. Borin watched as all of the other men began to look around at one another. Borin felt a bit nervous without his mask on. He was unsure if anyone would recognize him for who he actually was. Borin pulled his hood that much further over his face to help protect his identity.

"I need to get my mask back." Borin thought to himself, worried about some of these other captives and what they might do if they knew who he was, especially the other mages.

Like I was saying, where do you think they have stored all of our weapons and armor?" Asked Borin to anyone willing to listen.

"I am afraid without my bow I am not much help but if we can locate our gear, I am sure I can aid in our liberation." Borin admitted not having much skill in fighting hand to hand.

Finally the keys were passed to Jerfuth, allowing him to unlock his cage and crawl out. He found himself at the end of a battle between and man and a guard, the guard overpowering the man. Luckily, another man, apparently a mage, froze him where he fought allowing the other man to escape certain death. Jerfuth looked around the now brighter room, examing the other people that had been taking slavs with him. Some men looking strong and muscular, while some looked powerful with spells and magics.

Like I was saying, where do you think they have stored all of our weapons and armor?" the room filled with talk again, "I am afraid without my bow I am not much help but if we can locate our gear, I am sure I can aid in our liberation."

"I will stay a bit behind, i cannot use my magic without my staff" spoke another man from across the room.

"Do not worry. I'm a expert at shapeshifting. I am in no need of weapons, just people to kill," Jerfuth told the group boldly.

Lastly Donsro gladly unlocked his chains and relieved his throbbing wrists.

"So we're all unocked, perfect. I's sure the gaurds are going to notice their missing friend in a short time, so my vote is we snatch back our stuff and get the Hell outta here."

Donsro walked over to the main entrance and looked up the stairs.

"We can do this the hard way or the hard way, pick your posion."

"They didn't took anything from me, there wasn't too much to take anyway, so I can stay behind while you get your stuff..."

Vaker gathered courage, his eyes sparkled with fire as he filled his hands with fireballs... "this is going to be fun" he thought and couldn't hold a little laugh...

Dagon watched as his brother skewered the guard on his own blade, glad to see he picked up on the plan. Dragnar snatched the keys, and began unlocking each of the prisoners.

Dagon waited until the keys circled around, and unlocked his shackles, glad to be free of them. Even more glad, for the chance to have a say in whether he became a slave now.

He jumped as one of his companions yelled an incantation, and killed another of the guards sneaking up on his brother. He clapped this man on the back, "Good job friend, I'll be glad to have you on our side." he chuckled as he looked down at the corpse of the guard, eyes running over the solid shard of ice embedded in his chest.

"Like I was saying, where do you think they have stored all of our weapons and armor?" said the man calling himself Stryder, Dagon merely shook his head at him.

"Seems we've got to figure that out on our own, I did see one of the guards take several packedges to the hold when we were first captured though, no doubt our confiscated gear is laying around here somewhere." he said to the group, hoping that the slavers had kept their gear around to sell at port. He grabbed one of the glowing bracers, and used it to search around the blackened hold.

He opened crate after crate, searching for his blade and armor. Sure enough, after several minutes of searching, he came across several bundles of arms. He gestured at the rest of the captives that he had found thier arms, and lifted the bundles as silently as possible, making several trips to reduce the noise.

"Well, this seems to be ours. Even if it isn't, we'll have to make due." he said to the prisoners, as he rummaged around in the second of 4 bundles. He found a longsword, and feeling the hilt, found the pommel gem his father had inserted into it. Well, this is it he thought to himself as he strapped on his sword, and armor.

"Yup this is it alright" said Donsro staring at his old blade.

"Not like I needed it" Donsro chuckled.

"Hey if you need, I can go scope some things out upstairs while you guys get organized down here. It won't take long to get a little info."

Donsro glanced upstairs again.

"Doesn't look like they'll be coming down for a little while, mabey I can find a way to buy us some time."

Jerfuth stepped forward to the cases that held the gear of the former slaves as others rummage through it looking for their gear. Jerfuth moved a couple pieces of armor to the side until he saw his primal tiger armor. Removing the armor piece by piece, Jerfuth put it on, over top his other leather armor and under cloth armor. He then saw his staff with its unique claw headpiece. He lifted the staff from the case and put it on his back as he removed his two pouches, putting them on as well. He quickly checked the bags to make sure that their contents was still inside, much to his pleasure, it was. He took out a small section of a branch with red berries and pointy leaves from his left pouch before crumbling it in his palm. Jerfuth put his fist into his palm grinding the subtance down to a mixture before rubbing it on his head where the bump was.

"Ahh," ame a sigh of relief, "That's much better."

"Doesn't look like they'll be coming down for a little while, mabey I can find a way to buy us some time," one of the other people spoke, peering up the stairs.

"If you need assistance with any scouting, I would be more than happier to help," Jerfuth said to the man.

Vaker saw the others and realised that the only one that still seemd like a slave was him, his fire began to dimish as he started to feel unconfortable with such mighty warriors...
"Curse my luck" he thought as a cold started to grow up in his chest, the cold expanded through his arms and reached the hands... he saw a faint white glow in his fingers and scared... "what was that?" he asked to anyone who wanted to answer, "It felt cold, very cold..."

He heard Donsro saying "Doesn't look like they'll be coming down for a little while, mabey I can find a way to buy us some time," and remembered that it wasn't the right moment to talk about strange experiences, he turn himself back on fire "I would like to burn some slavers!"

Dagon shook his head at the other prisoners.

"We can't rush into this, we're on a boat, in the middle of the sea, full of armed slavers. A full of escape is bound to fail, we need to scout out the next floor of the ship. That being said, is anyone willing or capable of doing this?"

No sooner did he finish speaking, a bloodied, mangled corpse was thrown down the stairway. He heard screams coming from above decks, and the ship suddenly jerked to the left, sending the group sprawling to the ground.

"What the hell was that?!" Dagon yelled, looking around in panic, and suddenly cursing himself for alerting the rest of the slavers.

As if in response, a scream from above deck echoed down into the cargo hold.

"KRAKEN!!! EVERYONE ON DECK!!"

Heh.... guess they've got bigger problems than a few escaped slaves he thought to himself, wondering if this sea monster would be the perfect distraction to make it off the boat.

"New plan, we rush the upstairs, take the remaining slavers by storm, and make it to an escape boat." he said, looking around frantically at the rest of the group.

Borin watched as Dagon began sifting through crate after crate. Eventually, Dagon found the crates that contained their gear. Borin patiently held back from the crowd eagerly grabbing their weapons and armor. After the crowd had cleared, Borin walked up to the crates Nd began looking for his valuable possesions. Borin had found what he was looking for. He pulled his golden mask from the crate. Borin turned away from the rest of the group as he lowered his hood. He slid the mask over his face.

"Much better" Borin thought to himself feeling much more comfortable around the group of strangers he found himself in. Borin dug back into the crates looking for his other gear. He reached down to the bottom of the crate where he finally saw his illustrious bow and quiver. Borin holstered his weapons onto his back. He then found his chest plate made of light chainmail and the rest of his leather armor. Borin took one last look into the crates for anything else useful. He found two daggers that he could keep in his bracers. Thinking back on his last skirmish, Borin thought it would be a good idea to have a back up plan for those close situations.

"Well that's much better" Borin said to the rest of the group.

Borin then heard the slavers screaming about a kraken. Dagon soon followed with their plan of escape.

"That seems like out best bet. We should move now." Borin suggested to the group.

"Unless we are close to land, burning things would be a rather foolish idea." Wulfgar said. "Unless you are a very capable swimmer."

Wulfgar who was now after being freed able to scratch his itching shoulder.

"Your thirst for vengeance is welcomed, but your means to your end leaves much to be desired. You would be better off to carve a blood path of mayhem, and relish in the slaughter."

"New plan, we rush the upstairs, take the remaining slavers by storm, and make it to an escape boat." and with that said, Borin jumped over the mangled body at the bottom of the stairs and headed to he deck of the boat.

Borin saw the slavers with their spears and hooks fighting off the massive tentacles slamming down onto the ship. A tentacle came flying down towards Borin. Borin barely jumped out of the way just in time to have the tentacle slam down and crack the wood where Borin was once standing. Borin stood back up to gather himself. Just then one of the slavers noticed him and yelled out "The Slaves, they are escaping.".

Borin reached behind his back to draw and arrow from his quiver. As the arrow left the quiver a blue glow began to emanate from the arrow. The arrow progressively changed as frost began to form on the arrows tip. Borin then un-holstered his bow and held the arrow in place. Within a second, Borin pulled back on the string and released it. The arrow raced towards it target. As soon as the arrow made contact, the yelling slaver became coated in a thick layer of ice.

Borin readied for another shot only to find nobody had heard the warning of the slaver due to their on going battle with the Kraken.

Borin raced back to the top of the stairs and shouted "Hurry everybody!! We need to find a way off of this boat. Most of the slavers are occupied with their own battle. Now is our chance."

Drangar saw his brother rummaging through the packages. He gestured to the others that their weapons had been found. Where is she? Dragnar thought frantically as he pulled another package aside and began searching "Where is she? Where is she?" he kept repeating. Finally Drangar pulled out a long scimitar from one of the crates. "Oh, thank Tyrael they didn't take you." Drangar said as he kissed the blade of his weapon. He continued digging until he found his armor. "Well, I'm set. Whats the plan Dagon?"

Suddenly, Drangar felt the boat jerk violently, sending him hurdling into the wall. "What the hell was that?!" He heard Dangon yell.

"KRAKEN!!! EVERYONE ON DECK!!"

Everybody seemed to be in a frenzied panic when Drangar finally yelled, "EVERYBODY CALM DOWN! Dangon has a plan." Drangar looked to his brother and nodded, his brother began to speak.

"New plan, we rush the upstairs, take the remaining slavers by storm, and make it to an escape boat."

There was suddenly chaos down in the slaves quarters, slavers were rushing down to coral the slaves back into their cells, slaves were trying to escape, and the boat was slowly being torn to pieces. "Finally, some action!" Drangar said as he unsheathed both of his hidden blades and ran towards an enemy slaver on the deck. The slaver suddenly became ice as an arrow whizzed past Drangars head and hit the slaver in the left shoulder. Drangar quickly kicked the frozen foe, breaking him into small icy bits. He ran towards a slaver with his sword unsheathed. The slaver turned around and quickly swung at Drangar, but his blow was deflected by Drangars blades protruding out of his wrists. Quickly as the man struggled to regain his footing Drangar began repeatedly stabbing the man throughout his whole torso then swiftly roundhouse kicked the man in the face, sending the him to the ground.

"MOVE ONWARD MEN! TAKE ADVANTAGE OF WHAT LITTLE TIME WE HAVE."

Vaker run to the deck, he saw a gigantic tentacle pass over his head and dock one second before it hit him, he heard the other slaves in their cells "We can't leave them here!!" he shouted to the others.

The sound of one of the slavers being torn into ice pieces gave him an idea... he ran to the slaves cells and grabed the bars, he tried to concentrate and remember the cold he felt few moments ago...

For his own surprise the bars began to freeze, "TO THE BACK" he said to the slaves, and a when all where at a safe distance hi kicked the bars that shat shattered "well, this is nice" he said to himself..."QUICK NOW! GET OUT AND HELP THE OTHERS!"

He returned to the deck, "MOVE ONWARD MEN! TAKE ADVANTAGE OF WHAT LITTLE TIME WE HAVE." he heard Drangar said, while one of the slavers was about to stick a dagger in his back, "no you wont" he thought and lifted a hand towards the man, he cast a fire bolt that hit the slaver in the neck and burned his head off...

"Yeah!! burn!!" he said in a laugh...

Jerfuth rose from the ground after being tossed about the ship like a rag doll. What the hell? he thought before another man spoke his thoughts.

"What the hell was that?!" he yelled.

"KRAKEN!!! EVERYONE ON DECK!!" the call from a slaver upstairs came down to them.

"EVERYBODY CALM DOWN! Dangon has a plan," another man shouted.

"New plan, we rush the upstairs, take the remaining slavers by storm, and make it to an escape boat."

Jerfuth ran to the bottom of the steps where an archer stood readying an ice tipped arrow. A man pushed past Jerfuth running up the stairs and drawing two hidden blades and fighting slavers. Jerfuth quickly followed suit of the others running up the stairs. He found himself in the middle of the carnage; Kraken tentacles ravaged the boat, splintering the wooden deck while slavers ran around trying to kill the Kraken as well as the slaves.Three slavers surrounded Jerfuth, backing him into a corner with their swords drawn.

"You're going to die little man," one of the slavers taunted.

"Never," Jerfuth simply replied as he put his hands together, channeling the energy from the Earthmother.

Jerfuth's muscles began to bulge as the hair that covered his body began to grow and become a dark brown. His eyes turned to a solid brown color and his ears shift downward. He sloutched over putting his hands on the deck floor as they began to grow into huge paws with protruding claws. Jerfuth's cloths and staff disappeared into the the fur that started to form all over his body as he took complete form of a giant brown bear, standing on his hind legs.

"RAWWRRR!!!" Jerfuth's thundering roar echoed around the ship calling attention from slavers and slaves alike.

Jerfuth swiped at the first slavers with his massive paw striking him down in a bloody mess. Another slaver was on attack, cutting Jerfuth in his left shoulder, but Jerfuth quickly bulldozed on top of him shredding him with his claws. The last slaver was wise, retreating away from Jerfuth, with no avail as Jerfuth charged at him ramming him into a broken ship's mast. Letting out another booming roar, Jerfuth looked around for more slavers to cut down and they were plentiful.

At that moment, Vaker felt that he was not as vulnerable as he had believed. Turned around, looking for more slavers to turn into ashes, at that time thought he saw a bear in the midst of confusion, he looked again and there he saw a bear tearing a slaver with his claws. "A BEAR!" screamed from surprise, he thought that maybe it needed help, but the bear seemed quite comfortable with the fight and decided not to interrupt.

He looked in other direction and saw that the slave traders were torn between fighting the Kraken and the "slaves", in that instant he saw a slaveer running in his direction, prepared to attack, but the attacker stopped and turned with terror in his face. Vaker turned around to see what was that had scared him and he found himself facing a giant tentacle of the Kraken ready to squash him like an ant. A deep fear took him at that instant and for a moment he knew he was dead ...

When the tentacle bent to attack him, Vaker gathered up all her fear and somehow he turned it into anger, his eyes gleamed with gold, their hands burned and his body became a single flame ... "Now or never" he thought. and with a quick hand movements Vaker sent all his fire on the tentacle, a flaming stream seized the viscous mass and began to break it skin, the blood spurted trying in vain to douse the flames, Then a cry born in hell resounded throughout the ship, while the tentacles of the Kraken writhed in a mixture of pain and fury...

"We'd better hurry" Vaker thought with fright.

No sooner did the words leave his mouth, Borin was rushing upstairs to take the fight to the enemy, followed by his brother, and several of the other prisoners.

He followed suit, and emerged to see a scene of complete chaos. Slavers fending off the kraken, his fellow slaves fighting the slavers, and the kraken indiscriminately devouring anything it could lay its tentacles on.

He looked about the desk, most of the slavers had their attention on the kraken, but several were turning towards the slaves.

He spotted one of the aiming an arrow at Dragnar, and rushed the man as quickly as possible. Drawing his blade and attacking in one motion, he drew his sword from it's sheath and sliced the slaver laterally across his chest. The man howled in pain and dropped his bow, bringing his hand down towards a dagger he carried. Dagon pressed his advantage, slamming the hilt of his sword into the slavers face, which broke his nose with a sickening crunch. As he reered back, Dagon thrust the tip of his longsword into the man's throat, spraying blood out the back.

A massive red tentacle curled around the slaver's corpse, still impaled on his sword, and drew it backwards. The body flew off his sword, and into the gaping maw of the kraken. The tentacle shot back at Dagon, seeking to make a meal out of him as well.

He dogded to the side, and brought a viscious chop down along the width of the tentacle, severing it several feet down from the tip. It sprayed a opaque, blue ichor across the deck, and flopped around for several seconds before going limp.

We're going to lose our lives to that beast if it isn't brought down soon...

"ARCHERS AND SPELLCASTERS, FOCUS YOUR EFFORTS ON THAT KRAKEN, BRING IT DOWN, WARRIORS, PROTECT THEM!!" he yelled across the deck, feeling a sudden rush of adrenaline as his voice boomed across the ship.

Not one to usually take the command of another, Borin could not help but agree with the strategy. Borin took his place a top a large pile of crates. He steadied himself and prepared for the assault.

Borin's first attempt was to fire arrow after arrow in a storm of arrows that rained down onto the the Kraken. Borin's normal arrows did little to even penetrate the skin of the beast.

"Dammit. That beast's hide is thick" Borin yelled out to the rest of the group.

Borin then pulled out another arrow. As the arrow rose from the quiver an amber glow began pulsating. Borin Launched the arrow into the air. The arrow pierced the skin of the beast, lodging itself in the side of the beasts head. A few seconds went by until the arrow violently erupted. The beast let out a horrible cry.

The Kraken swung to more tentacles at Borin as they smacked right into his chest. Borin went flying across the deck of the ship as his bow went flying in the opposite direction.

"The beast is too big and too strong!, We need to immobilize it somehow!"

Vaker focused, tried to create a frozen orb to freeze the sea around the beast. He created the strongest he could and cast it into the sea, but only managed to freeze a small area. He still could not control his new ability enough ...

"I need some help here!" told his companions ... "If we freeze the beast it will be much easier to stop" he said as he kept casting fireballs to the tentacles and the few remaining slavers...