Chapter 6 – Part 1

LET THESE WATERS PASS BY

Mid-morning, date unknown, a cold sea believed to be near the Demon Wastes.

Delegado let his sword go, and slid down the rippling, tilted deck. The ball of cold exploded, but he was already outside of the blast radius. He hit the railing, and immediately began groping for his longbow.

The cold flattened out, and frost rose from the impacted wood. Aside from an irregular circle of white, the immediate effect was to stop the rippling. Whatever magic had been trying to trip the half-orc up was gone, and the deck returned to normal.

At the other end of the main deck, the Captain rose to his knees, grabbing his head in pain. He clenched his eyes shut, and the surface of his face rippled. A clambering was heard below-decks, and the ship slowly righted itself with the sound of timbers being returned to their place. Blood sprung from the Captain’s nose and ears, and after the ship righted, he collapsed anew.

While this was happening, Orphan was jumping from mast to mast, avoiding rays of frost from the hobgoblin formed from water and ice. He threw a few shiruken at one point, but again the hobgoblin was protected by summoned water.

“I am the Cold Mage,” sneered the watery being. “Your discs of metal cannot harm me.”

“Only because they are not enchanted,” Orphan responded, running down a yardarm. He jumped into the air. “But my ki empowers my body, vessel and soul within are one!”

The wave of water came up again, but Orphan passed neatly through it, and kicked the Cold Mage so hard that water and icy teeth flew in a burst from the hobgoblin’s mouth. Immediately the chair dropped, and both water-formed goblin and warforged monk dropped into the ocean.

“Devourer spit them back!” snarled Delegado. The half-orc found his longbow and quiver, and he rushed to the side of the ship. Once in the water the hobgoblin started to heal, but Orphan was not giving up. The warforged was attempting a wrestler’s gab, and he quickly worked an artificial arm around the hobgoblin’s throat. The hobgoblin aquatic seemed to have no problem breathing water along with air, but he did have a problem with breathing while his trachea was being crushed.

A swell erupted around and under the pair in the water, hurling them upwards. The warforged monk was thrown off of his opponent and tossed into the rigging. The Cold Mage rose up on his column of water, massaging his neck and snarling at Orphan with murderous intent.

F’test, that thing was a hobgoblin magician once, Delegado thought. Had to be some magic-user that merged himself with elemental forces. But if he was a hobgoblin then, he’s still partially a hobgoblin now. The half-orc sighted his longbow carefully, instinctively aiming for the pain points of his most favored prey. Which means this should really hurt.

The arrow went right through the hobgoblin, sending sprays of water and ice all around, and the Cold Mage roared in pain. The water holding him up collapsed and he fell backwards into the ocean again.

“Del!” the warforged called, dropping down from the rigging to land by his friend. “It is good to see you! But that hobgoblin, he regenerates when in water, and he will attack the ship again!” The warforged cocked his head to the side. “I seem to have a lot of knowledge now, and I feel more at one with myself. This headband’s potential was only fully unlocked when –”

Delegado grabbed his friend in a bear hug. “Shut up, would you genius?” After a bare fraction of a second of surprise, Orphan hugged back. “Okay,” the half-orc told him. “That thing is still a hobgoblin enough that I could put a special hurt into it, got it?”

“Because you know human and goblinoid physiology better than any other, yes?” Iron Orphan asked. “Right.”

“Right, and he’s healing in water so he’ll be back,” Del said. “And I spent my fire arrows on our Captain.” He jerked his head towards the unconscious fiend.

“He saved us?” Orphan asked. “Why? And then why did you fight?”

“Your headband can figure it out later,” Del said. “Right now you need to get Thomas. He wouldn’t come out of his cabin for me, maybe he will for you. That axe of his, daelkyr make from centuries gone. The daelkyr had to stand against goblinoid empires, so they made lots of goblinoid-bane weapons.”

“Yes, he mentioned his weapon was goblin bane,” Oprhan said, tearing off. “I will fetch him!”

“Good,” Delegado said, scanning the waves below. Satisfied that the Cold Mage was not about for the moment, the half-orc turned and trotted over to the fallen fiend. Probing fingers of strength found a pulse, albeit a weak one. “Hmph,” the half-orc muttered around his tusks. “And what do I do with you, eh?”

A rushing sound of water behind the half-orc informed him that he had more immediate problems.