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Wulfgar recalled the times in his youth where he would have lunged at the Kraken in the hopes of defeating it. But now his body had aged ans withered, he resigned himself to offering the spell casters what little assistance he could.

"Bring it down before it capsizes the ship!" he yelled as he slashed away at the tentacles advancing on the mages.

Borin chased back after his bow as the Kraken continued his assault on the ship. The Kraken wrapped his tentacles around the ship attempting to bring it under the water. Borin spotted his bow slowly slipping towards the edge of the ship. Borin raced after it and grabbed his bow right as it fell over the edge.

Borin readied hismelf for another shot. This time the arrow being removed from his quiver had a hazy olive colored cloud swirling around the arrow. Borin aimed his shot at the tentacle dragging the ship down. He pulled back on the bow and released the arrow. The arrow found the soft under belly of the tentacle and dug deep into the flesh. The area around the arrow began to fade to a garyish color. The skin began to crack and break apart from itself. The entrance wound grew larger and larger as the poison from the arrow began to do its work. The poison eventually spread to a large enought area that the flesh of the tentacle decayed away releasing the monsters grip of the ship.

"If we freeze the beast it will be much easier to stop" Borin heard Vaker yell. Broin grabbed three arrows at once and readied them on his bow. The azure colored arrows left the bow as Borin aimed for water near the belly of the beast. The arrows struck the water and instantly beagn freezing the water where the beasts body was portruding from it. The mosnter wirthed about as it tried to loosen the ice's grip around him. Borin grabbed another three arrows and aagin pierced the water around the Kraken. The ice thickened as it beagn to hold the beast in place.

Vaker saw that Stryder began to shoot arrows into the water and looked how the water freezed immediately, "team spirit ... good!" he thought. So he started to launch frozen orbs to the water that surrounded the Kraken.

Gradually the Kraken began to have slower movements, while a prision of ice formed aroun it.

"GREAT! Keep those arrows coming Stryder, we have it!" Vaker said, while casting his spells

While Borin's attention was on the Kraken, one of the slavers had snuck up on Borin. The slaver hit the side of Borin's head with a club. Borin began to fall to the ground as the slaver pulled out his sword. Right as the slaver was about to stab Borin through, Borin remembered the daggers he took from the supplies crate. He pulled them out of his bracers as he held them in his hands, sparks began flying from the blade. Borin thrust the dagger upwards into the mans thigh. Although the daggers pentetration was not fatal the lightening that shot form the daggers to the man's heart was. The man convulsed violently as the lightening coasred through his body. The slaver eventually fell to the ground as his body continued to shake.

Standing back up on his hind legs, Jerfuth let out one more powerful roar, his mouth dripping with blood from the slavers throat that he had been devouring.

"ARCHERS AND SPELLCASTERS, FOCUS YOUR EFFORTS ON THAT KRAKEN, BRING IT DOWN, WARRIORS, PROTECT THEM!!" one of the captives yelled.

"Bring it down before it capsizes the ship!" another man yelled, directing the rest of the group.

Jerfuth's brown fur started to fade as his armor and staff began to reappear as well as his eyes turning back to their natural hazel color. Jerfuth became completely human again as he looked around, analyzing the battle at hand. The mages and archer were freezing the water around the Kraken disabling its escape. A bruteful man stood fending off the fearless tentacles from the mages the best he could. While others fended off slavers and tentacles together. The slavers numbers dwindled down to merely none and the Kraken quickly became the biggest threat that the former slaves had to deal with.

"I'll protect the archer!" Jerfuth yelled to the others, running over to the archers side, who had just finished a tussle with a slaver, in his favor, "Do not worry, I'll stop any more slavers and the Kraken from getting to you. Unload a volley into that Kraken," Jerfuth told him.

Once more the hair covering Jerfuth's body began to grow, but this time orange and black stripes streaked down his body. His eyes turned to black slits, his teeth turned to fangs and his ears became long and pointy. He put his hands down onto the deck as they transformed into paws with lethally sharp claws. His armor and weapon disappeared into his fur again as he completely shifted into the form of a tiger as a tentacle made its approach.

Jerfuth pounced onto the incoming tentacle clawing and biting it with a unknown source of vigor. He tentacle fell limp with Jerfuth still attached, but still came crashing down on the ship's deck, spliting the wood. With his feline agility, Jerfuth managed to jump away barely before being smashed by the massive tentacle. Jerfuth growled ferociously warning anyone or anything that would try to attack the archer or him would surely end in its death.

The kraken was slowly becoming less and less of a threat. Now rooted into place, and missing several tentacles, it could do little to harm the ship. What remained of the slavers still fended off tentacles with tridents and swords, completely ignoring the slaves to deal with the more imposing threat.

Dagon still fought off attacks to the mage he was protecting, who was currently launching freezing orbs into the water surrounding the kraken. There was a thick layer of ice surrounding it now, keeping both the ship, and the kraken, rooted in combat.

"Bring it down before it capsizes the ship!" he heard a booming voice yell, and looking over, saw a muscled old man fending off attacks to one of the mages.

Dagon looked down at the water surrounding the Kraken once more, and judging its thickness, vaulted over the side of the boat and onto the ice. The ice held firm, and easily suppoerted his weight.

Heh.. lucky he thought to himself, wondering what he would have done had the ice collapsed from underneath him. Wasting no time, he rushed the kraken and drove his blade deep into its left eye, spraying a blue ichor across the ice, and onto himself. The beast let loose a cry like none he had ever heard as he withdrew his blade with a twist, further damaging the eye.

He brought his blade back down in an overhead chop, seeking to several a tentacle at the base. It cleaved through the flesh like it was butter, and the tentacle rolled off the ice and floated off to the side.

Driving his blade back down into the side of the kraken's head, he yelled at the other slaves. "ACT QUICKLY, WE NEED TO BRING IT DOWN!!"

Borin watched as the bear on the deck transformed back into a human.

"I'll protect the archer!" Borin heard the man say soon followed by "Do not worry, I'll stop any more slavers and the Kraken from getting to you. Unload a volley into that Kraken,"

Borin watched as the man then turned into a giant tiger. He leaped and mauled another tentacle that was coming for Borin.

"Thank you." Borin said as he patted the tiger on his head.

"ACT QUICKLY, WE NEED TO BRING IT DOWN!!" Borin heard Dagon yell across the boat.

Borin went to grab another arrow from its quiver but felt nothing left. He unholstered his quiver to take a look. All Borin saw was the bottom of the quiver.

"Now what?" Borin thought to himself. He scouted the ship for any materials that he could use. Just as another tentacle hit the deck of the ship, Borin saw the shards of wood splinters flying into the air. Borin raced around the area and collected as many as he could.

"These will have to do" Borin thought as he readied piece after piece onto his bow. Firing the splinters one-by-one the archer unleashed a barrage of attacks onto the Kraken. The first splinter wavered through the air. Fire engulfed the splinter as it shot towards the Kraken. The next splinter, imbued with the same frost that held the beast made its mark as well. Lightening and poison imbued shards of wood also each made their mark into other tentacles. The beast lashed about as his remaining tentacles all succumbed to each of the splinters effects. One burned while the other shattered into ice. One remained attached by was fried by the lightening coursing through it, the last fell to decay as the poison spread its evil through the tentacle.

"All that is left is the Kraken's head. Strike it deep in its head." Borin yelled out to the rest of the group.

Dagon was thrown backwards against the boat by the force of the explosion, and was peppered by guts, ice, and flesh. Need to get back on the boat before this ice collapses... he thought to himself, looking for a way up.

He did not see any, so he sheathed his sword, withdrew his dagger with his right hand, and began scaling the side of the boat, driving the spikes on his single gauntlet into the wood, then supporting his weight with the dagger as he worked his way up the wooden planks.

In a minute, he had vaulted back over the side of the boat, and onto the deck. Looking about, he saw slavers swimming away from the boat, some in the water, some in escape boats. Several remained, and still seemed to be ready to put up a fight.

Dagon took a minute to catch his breath as the battle raged on around him, and rushed the first of the slavers. He lowered his left arm, and threw him off his feet, shattering several of the slaver's ribs as the force behind his metal clad arm dispered into his body. He quickly drew his longsword, and stabbed it downwards through his chest.

With a howl, he ripped the sword out the his chest, and out of the wooden plank. He swirled it in a wide arc to deter any attacks, and followed through with a slice across the next slavers neck, decapitating him.

The remaining slavers fled the boat, knowing that their few numbers were too small to take on the obviously underestimated slaves.

"WE'VE WON THE BOAT!!" Dagon howled, sword raised in the air.

Well, guess we won't have to use those escape boats after all, he thought to himself as he grinned.



End of Chapter One

Over the next few days, the slaves plotted out their course to the nearest island, the island of Torusk. Several large towns existed on the Island, and they thought that this would be a suitable place to start their lives anew. Most saw this as a chance to start over, and all accepted that at the very least, they needed to choose an island to resupply on, if they were going to have any hopes of making it back to their homes.

Yet, the slaves still wished to know of why they were captured. Hours of searching turned up nothing but a cryptic note, and a bag of gold. It talked about funds being transferred to the account of what the slaves assumed was the captain, for providing suitable sacrifices. They knew not what they were going to be sacrificed for, only that a town called Sulvus was behind their enslavement.

They could find no maps of the island on board, and thus chose a suitable shoreline to make landfall on, and set out to find the nearest town.

Dagon was nearly thrown from his feet as the ship stopped moving, planting itself firmly on the sandy shores of Torusk. He stepped out of the cabin he was resting in, and looked out across the land.

He was greeted with sandy beaches, palm trees, and what looked to be marshlands area beyond the tree line. Picked a paradise to land on.. he thought to himself as he strolled across the deck, and released the boarding plank, which came to rest on the shoreline.

"Well, I guess this is our stop, we'll have to find a nearby road that will take us to settlement." he said to the group, hoping they could find a road soon enough. Aimless wandering would do nothing to help them.

"Well, I guess now is as good of time as any for proper introductions." Borin hesitated for a moment before continuing.

"Some of these men have saved my life, more than once. I suppose I can trust them with my real name at least". Borin thought to himself.

"I told you my name is Stryder, but everyone calls me Borin. I live in the Shrival Wilds where I learned my bow skills." Borin made sure not to divulge too much information to lead to his true identity.

"I was walking through a market when a merchant offered me a great deal. I followed him down an alley and was ambushed. That is how I was captured." Borin informed the group.

"Perhaps we should gather ourselves and rest for a bit before heading out." Borin suggested to the group.

Wulfgar kept to himself mostly as they traversed the sea waters, sitting in an almost meditative like state. But would offer advice where he could if approached.

"While the sea breeze is refreshing, I would much rather be in a pit fighting." he thought to himself.

"I told you my name is Stryder, but everyone calls me Borin. I live in the Shrival Wilds where I learned my bow skills." Jerfuth's archer companion during the battle told the group.

"Pleasure to meet you Borin, my name is Seddrik" another man replied.

"Good to formally meet you, Borin. My name is Jerfuth, druid of the Singram Tribe," Jerfuth said making sure he acquaunted himself with this man.

Seddrik displayed some of his magic to the group, while Borin told the group of his capture. Jerfuth did not want to tell his story of his capture for he felt that that part of his life was past and should be left behind. Jerfuth would take the good things from the time on the slave ship, but leave the rest behind.

Dagon leaned up against the mast of the boat, crossing his arms.

Guess this is as good a time as any to get to know these people, who knows how long we'll be traveling together for.

He listened to the story of the man who was previously Stryder, replying just as soon as he was done talking. "Didn't know trees could teach magic." he said, chuckling.

"My brother Dragnar and myself, Dagon ", Dagon paused to point out Dragnar, "were both captured in our home town.... we.. don't know what became of the rest of the inhabitants, but hopefully we can return there as soon as we're resupplied. We've got a ship, after all, might as well make good use of it." he eyed up the ship as he said this, impressed with the attention to detail that went into it. He was quite shocked that slavers possessed such a graceful vessel.


"Anyway... im curious to now something about the others" said the man calling himself Seddrick, Dagon merely nodded at him. He was thinking the same.

Drangar sat at the corner of the ship and stared out at the vast sea. He had always loved the sea. He remembered sitting on the top of the bluffs with his brother staring at what seemed to be an endless landscape of blue. His flash back was suddenly broken by the sound of his brothers voice.

"My brother Dragnar and myself, Dagon ", Dagon paused to point out Dragnar, "were both captured in our home town.... we.. don't know what became of the rest of the inhabitants, but hopefully we can return there as soon as we're resupplied. We've got a ship, after all, might as well make good use of it." Dagon said as he eyed the rest of the crew.

"Damn right. I will not rest untill I find out what became of my family." Drangar said as he looked to his brother. "Well now seems like a good time for introductions. I'm Drangar, this is Lucy," he said as he pointed to his blade, "And I need a fucking drink"

Vaker had kept aside for the time it took to find mainland, he was surprised and confused by what had happened, so he took his mind in practice his new cold skills.

When they reached the shore the occupants of the ship met at the beach, at one point they introduced and began to talk a bit more of themselves, Vaker thought it was a good way to rest and forget the most serious events of recent days.

"And I need a fucking drink" he heared Drangar say.

"strongly agree Drangar! all of us could use something to drink, in the meantime let me talk a little about me. My name is Vaker, and I must confess I have no training in the use of magic, which I did on the boat was instinct and luck" he tod them, he knew that was in front of powerful wizards and warriors, but he felt much more confident in himself now.

"The powers I have are the residue of a powerful weapon that I possessed long ago, but I lost that weapon, a real sadness, I was a powerful and benevolent king when I had it... I was on a mission to recover it when the slavers captured me ... " Vaker trusted this men now, they had protected his life and fought side by side in the boat, he felt no reason to doubt them, including the man that called himself Stryder, and now claimed to be Borin, seemed to have gained his trust.

"Now, where are the drinks?"

"The drinks are in town, which is where we should be headed off to." said Dagon, honestly wishing they had all the time in the world to just sit here on the beach.

Fucking paradise around here...

"I figure if we walk far enough through this forest, there should be a road on the other side." he said to the others, pointing to the woods past the shoreline.

He lowered the anchor, making sure it was secure in the sand before walking off into the woods, hoping his companions were close behind. He drew his dagger and began hacking away vines and tree limbs as he walked through the forest, keeping an eye out for any beasts that may attack them, or beasts that they could eat. Food was beginning to run short, and they needed to resupply.

As if the gods themselves were reading his mind, he saw a dead deer several feet ahead of the path he was currently following. You've got to be shitting me.. he thought to himself, he couldn't believe his luck. The deer even looked fresh, something must have been interrupted after the kill. He bent down, and hefted the deer over his shoulders.

In seconds, he was thrown up into the air, a rope around his ankle. He was left dangling from a tree. "AAAAAAHHHH, WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!!?" he yelled, looking around for any companions. The only person he could see was a shady figure looming behind several trees.

Guess this is it he thought to himself, silently cursing himself for not foreseeing this trap.

Ja'quar walked around the swamps as quietly as he could, his father had taught him well. He didn't want to scare away any potential pray now, would he. To his dismay most of them were empty, but that wasn't quite a surprise. People started to become afraid of the swamps and stayed away. He had to go, soon. Too bad, Ja'quar thought, I began to like it here.

At that time he heard a sound coming from the beach. He heard a blade cutting through undergrowth, vines and wood to clear a path, but what he felt was different. He felt this as a personal intrusion, each and every time someone was as foolish as this one. Quietly he made his way to the noise.

"AAAAAAHHHH, WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!!?"

The eyes of this man gave way to his hunger. He was transfixed on the deer at the moment he first saw it. Simple, when you know how foolish some animals can be. The man wildly looked around and saw Ja'quar standing in the shadow. Their eyes met, and he approached. He was going to have a little fun with this one.

He walked towards the prey and slowly opened his hands, palms down towards the deer.
"So, do you like this little deer here? Because I don't think it likes you!"
As he said that, he slowly pulled up his hands as if he was pulling up a curtain. At the same moment, the deer stirred and started to rise.

"Now, we are going to have a nice little chat, just you and me. You are going to stay quiet, or I'll let missus zombie deer here gnaw your face of. We agree? We agree!" Jaquar spoke on, not giving the man any time tom interrupt. A sly smile envelopped his lips as he continued, "I'm Ja'quar and you are my prey. I live in swamps and, like many other people, I kill trespassers. I loot their bodies and stuff their corpses in the muck, ready to fight for me if time calls for it. This is how I live, and I like it that way."

"Now give me one good reason, or more if you'd like, not to kill you so I can live."

He then crossed his arms and waited for a response.

"So, do you like this little deer here? Because I don't think it likes you!" said the man as he emerged from the bushes, obviously he was the one who set this trap.

Dagon was rendered speechless as he watched the previously dead deer rise up and lock eyes with him. Dagon merely gulped at the sight, wondering if this was all some trick of the mind.

"Now, we are going to have a nice little chat, just you and me. You are going to stay quiet, or I'll let missus zombie deer here gnaw your face of. We agree? We agree!" an odd smile creeped across his face as he spoke, he was taking pleasure from Dagons fear. "I'm Ja'quar and you are my prey. I live in swamps and, like many other people, I kill trespassers. I loot their bodies and stuff their corpses in the muck, ready to fight for me if time calls for it. This is how I live, and I like it that way."

"Now give me one good reason, or more if you'd like, not to kill you so I can live." said the mysterious swamp dweller.

"Erm.... well, I mean you no harm, if that's a start. I guess it's also worth mentioning that my brother would skin you alive if he found you with my body, my other companions probably wouldn't take the news of my death well either. Since I'm pretty sure you have no ties to authorities, I'll tell you that we're escaped slaves, we just landed on the island and are seeking the nearest town. If you let us pass unharmed, then no harm will come to you. Do we have an agreement?" said Dagon, remaining suprisingly calm in the face of such horror. The thought of his armed companions, especially the barbarian, calmed his nerves.

Borin easily saw down the road to see Dagon dangling in the air with another mysterious man standing next to him.

"Dagon's in trouble" Borin yelled out to the rest of the group as he ran to aid Dagon.

Wulfgar clutched his axe hilt tightly. It's leather had aged as much as he had, it's fine brown coat was now a thick black.

He stood very stoic like, scanning his surroundings, his time spent in the pit fighting arenas had made him weary of when magic wielders conjured huge displays of magical energy.

"Come forward who ever you are!" Wulfgar bellowed. "Show yourself!"