A week had passed since Julian Kestrel's escape from the port town of
Scymel and subsequent capture of a pirate ship. With only the occasional
call to face the few pirates ignorant enough to attack the 'Aqua
Terror', or monsters hungry enough to ignore the cannons, (and these
calls most likely only a courtesy, as the crew invariably had the
enemies all beaten to near death when our heroes arrived) the group had
settled itself in against the only real foes left them - boredom 
and nausea.

Julian, pragmatic and energetic, set out to learn as much as possible
about actually captaining a ship. Well, as much as could be safely
learned without looking overly stupid or non-heroic to his 'advisor'
Aquila and first mate Cochran. This mostly consisted of helping
crewmembers with menial tasks, and asking small questions when few were
in earshot.

Hans endeared himself to the crew through drunken games of chance and
shows of epic strength. His popularity quickly became evident through
the epidemic of sailors wandering around making comments such as "Ahoy
ve zcurvy dogs. Ve be zailink ze high zeas".

Arica was the least busy, Aquila had far more interest in Julian than 
she liked, so she spent much of her time hanging around him, watching
him work. She was annoyed when he announced to her his intent to
practice swordsmanship in secret with the former captain, but
unwillingly saw reason when it was pointed out that their 'secret
conferences' would hold more credit if she was left out. These sessions
left her restless, so she frequently spent time watching the sea and
sky, idly daydreaming of the past and future.

Darrow spent his time unpleasantly ill. Arica attempted to heal him, and
apologized at her lack of success. Hans ribbed his friend 

good-naturedly. Julian questioned him once as to why he didn't just whip
himself up an alchemical cure, however he avoided Darrow after the
retort that stained his tunic neon pink for 3 days.

Unlike the others who fell into routine quite happily, Aquila was
growing more and more impatient, her passengers seemed as aimless as all
the previous heroes she had known and loathed. In the week since they
had boarded, they had sat around. Julian puttered about; his companions
gamed, puked, or stared aimlessly out at sea. As evening drew near on
the 7th day, she decided it was time for a confrontation, time to set
the records straight!

================================================
Saving 
the World Again
Chapter 7: Watery Obstructions and Royal Pains

Started by Thomas Wilde
This Chapter 
by Freedom Colberg
================================================

Julian was surprised when Aquila showed up promptly for their nightly
sparring match. It wasn't that she disliked them, but rather that she
usually seemed to have the more pressing business of running her ship.
This frequently caused her to arrive anywhere between 20 minutes and 2
hours late. Julian had grown used to using this time to stretch,
warm-up, and generally practice his swordsmanship further. He was more
surprised when she drew her cutlass without any small talk and advanced
upon him.

Her first swing was wild and fast, a cut right for his torso. "So,
Julian, you have managed to convince me to help you on your pressing
quest to save the world. You have convinced me to loan you the use of
my ship, an entirely unprecedented event and one which may cause me
strife in the future."

Julian barely managing to bring his guard up against her rapid strokes
was sincerely thankful for her tutelage. If she had taught him nothing
else, he had learned enough to fend off her blows when she had become
annoyed at his lack of skill.

"You have no magic sword, your wife has no great skill as a healer,
your magician friend has done nothing else than decorate my guest
quarters." She cut again, high, drawing blood from Julian's shoulder.
"Why am I to believe you are who you say you are? You seem no better
than any other wannabe hero I have seen, far worse than some."

"I told you," Julian countered, "we gave our magical artifacts back.
And who was to know Darrow was susceptible to seasickness, we never
traveled overseas in our previous quest."

"Ah yes," Aquila paused her attacks as she sardonically savored each
word, "Your previous quest, against the demon wizard Brandomere.
Such epic work, and what, pray remind me is your current quest?"

"I told you, we must find a way to stop the druid Damane."

"Of course, the druid Damane... and how will you go about doing 
this?"

Julian almost lost a finger as he nearly missed a parry. "I can't
believe I never told you, I've been so busy with trying to learn how to
sail I totally forgot. We need to sail to Kossos to see the Grand Druid
and seek guidance from him. If he will give us any that is, these
druids seem an apathetic group."

Aquila dropped her weapon in shock. "Kossos?! KOSSOS???!! We started out
a day from the best route to Kossos, with favorable winds we could have
been halfway there by tomorrow, TOMMOROW! Now we have to sail against
the current, the winds this season blow against us as well. It could
take weeks, unless..."

"Unless?" Julian queried.

==========

The Kingdom of Mercant wasn't always small. Merely 11 years ago it
covered twice as much territory. It's largest city, now it's *only*
city, was a bustling center for trade drawing in goods from as far off
as northern Tarbis.

This was all, of course, before the mad necromancer Cheval Normont.
Cheval himself was relatively harmless as megalomaniacal would-be
overlords go. He was stopped early in his career, merely 5 weeks after
he announced his intent to overthrow the kingdoms and crown himself
Grand High Poobah. All he himself had accomplished of any note was
raising an Impressive ancient sunken castle from the seas east of
Mercant.

Unfortunately, as the citizens of Mercant see it, Cheval was struck
down at just the wrong time. He was in the process of magically
evolving into a higher, more powerful form, and rather than wait for
him to finish his transformation, deliver his prepared speech, and
strike down any would be foes; some fool hero shot him. The heroes'
name was lost, as was the castle, and a large portion of Mercant's
coast.

The resulting tidal waves and flooding threatened to drive all but
Mercant's most loyal or greedy citizens to neighboring kingdoms.
Fortunately, or not, the current king had a plan. He sunk all of
Mercant's then still vast treasury into constructing a great floodgate
in the sea. After a record two months, it was completed. This lowered
the water level to such a degree that the floods stopped. This also
surrounded the coastline with unnavigable shoals, deadly reefs, and
discouraged traders from stopping in at the once great City of Bazaar.

The king died shortly after from a stress-related stroke. His only son,
one Edward Gallant XIV, stopped his wandering around the countryside
incognito and returned home to assume the throne. He proved to be a
brilliant leader and businessman, and saved his land from bankruptcy.
It was simple really; he just capitalized on a need, an untapped market
per se. The need for heroes to get where they were going quickly. They
would come to him, ask for the floodgate to be opened, and he would
offer to help them if they helped him. (The ocean level has long since
steadied to the point where the gate was no longer needed). He would
find some trivial quest, send them off to Bazaar to fetch whatever his
whim decided upon. They would end up spending a large portion of their
gold for transport, more for lodging, would probably buy supplies and
weaponry, and whatever he asked for tended to be outrageously priced
as well. Thus the economy was saved and trade began to flourish once
more.

==========

The party was gathered in Aquila's quarters around a large map laden
table that was doubtlessly used to plan many daring raids. Julian and
Arica were seated next to each other, Aquila across from them. Darrow
slumped in a large comfortable chair. Hans prowled aimlessly while One
Eyed Jim mimicked him from his perch.

"So all we have to do is stop in at the capital, ask the local king to
kindly open this floodgate for us, and we can be on our way?" Julian
wasn't sure if he was being sarcastic or not.

"Well yes, if you ignore the fact this is a pirate ship. Last I heard I
was wanted in 5 kingdoms and a duchy."

"I am thinkink", Hans paused glancing expectantly at Darrow, when the
response was merely a moan, he continued, "I am thinkink dat ve zhould
just zail to de gate and zmash zit down vith our cannons."

"Hans..." Julian started, but was interrupted by Aquila.

"We hardly have enough ammunition left to dent the gate. What we had
left after Scymel was spent in our ship to ship battles."

"Vell, vhat about explosives? Ve could have Darrow here vhip up un bomb
vith de remainink gunpowder."

Aquila shifted uneasily, Darrow moaned, "Hans..." Julian started, but
was interrupted by Arica.

"Hans, if we did that we'd risk an underwater battle again. Who knows
what kinds of guardians might be set up there."

Hans was sullenly silent.

"That settles that, we need to get to Kososs as soon as we can manage,
so it seems we will be calling in on royalty. I guess we will have to
do some shopping first so Arica and I can make the proper appearance,
I presume you will manage well without us until we return?"

Arica added, "We will pay you well so you won't set sail without us".

Aquila spit. "You insult me, I have let you use my ship, I would not
dishonor myself by abandoning your quest. Besides, I'm going with you."

To Arica's dismay, Julian exclaimed, "Great! We can always use another
able person to accompany us on our quest."

"Of course, you realize my crew won't trust you alone with me without
a hostage."

Julian stammered. Arica beamed, "Well I guess you can't come along with
us, Darrow needs to get ashore, and poor Hans would be lost without us,
we can't leave either of them to the mercy of your crew."

"Vait. Dis crew, dey art beink pirates, und pirates art beink big
patrons ov barz, right? Den I am thinkink dat stayink vith dem iz not
zo bad after all."

Darrow surprised the group by pulling himself upright and speaking,
"Hans, you are brave, yes? And you would never dream of backing down
from a challenge yes?"

"Ja." Hans replied, looking confused.

"I myself am taken with illness and need time to recover. It would seem
most pragmatic to allow myself, who am currently of little use to the
group to remain behind. You, strong of arm, bold of heart should
accompany our friends in case they need you."

"I zuppose", Hans muttered.

"It's decided then, Aquila you can come with us, Darrow will 
remain."

==========

The Aqua Terror docked late the next morning at the castle town of
Mercant. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits as anticipation filled
the air. Even Darrow seemed 3 shades brighter in mood, although this
was probably largely due to the thought of a few days of bar hopping
without Hans to get him ran out of town. Aquila gave a few whispered
instructions to Cochran then joined the trio of would be heroes.

The party set off into town, and after a few conversations with the
citizens they not only had directions to a tailor of repute, but a
large portion of the history of the country as well. 30 minutes later,
they found themselves at an impasse. The tailor was next door to the
local branch of the Hero's Guild.

"Well we could always go to the local SinBasInc outlet" Aquila said,
"I have an charge account there and get a discount as well."

"Would they carry anything that we could wear to court?" Julian
inquired.

"Or anything a bit more feminine than your get-up?" Arica added.

"Of course, as long as you don't mind paying for custom tailoring.
You two would look good in black."

"Black..? I don't know about that, I mean someone might get us
confused with the wrong team. It's ok for someone like Darrow, but
I've always been more of a forest green type person myself. I simply
don't know how I'd feel about my self image if I suddenly went and
changed my wardrobe color."

"I like white with pink trim myself. Oh don't look at me like that, I
find it brings out my eyes. Anyhow, nobody would believe I was a healer
if I didn't wear 
white."

"Abzolutely NOT!" Hans said.

"I don't see what's wrong with black," Aquila commented. "It goes well
with anything and help hides the bloodstains."

"No barbarian hero has worn black in 50 years, vhy zit is blasphemy to
even think ov it! Have you not heard ov 'Gustav ze Black'? He is the
shame ov my people."

"Well we could always mug a passing merchant for his clothes if you'd
rather." Aquila quipped.

However this met with cold blank stares. 

Thus the party made their way to the castle without a change of clothes.

==========

Castle Gallant was an impressive affair. In the tradition of the
grandest castles of the richest kingdoms, it had 4 guard towers, each a
full 4 floors tall. A basement dungeon with 6 cells, complete with
monster guardians. A barracks, a dining hall, an entry hall, a
drawbridge, a kitchen, a throne room, and *separate* quarters for the
King, Queen, and their daughter Princess Catherine.

"Where do all the servants sleep?" Arica pondered.

"Oh we aren't going to start this again are we dear?" Julian asked as
they approached the throne room.

"Well one wonders, I mean we've wandered the entire castle while
looking for someone who could tell us something more useful than
'Princess Catherine is spoiled' or 'It is dangerous in the dungeons
below the castle', yet we haven't seen a single servants quarters.
Also the barracks only had 4 beds, yes I counted easily 4 times as
many guards. Where do they sleep as well?"

"Maybe they live in town, and go home at the end of the day?"

"I don't think so, we wandered town for a while looking for the tailor,
and we found more inns than residences. It seems the only towns we've
ever been to where there are actual houses are small villages like our
own. Don't these people ever sleep?"

The conversation was cut short by a polite cough as a herald stepped
forward to take their names and business. Shortly after he announced
"Lord Kestrel and Lady Llewellyn, here on matters pertaining to the
Great Floodgate."

King Edward was a tall man, strong of build, sharply chiseled features,
but what one noticed about him was his eyes. His eyes were sharp and
bright, taking in every detail around him. Edward's eyes slowly covered
the party, noting their expensive yet tattered clothing, their
experienced faces, their developed bodies, finally he spoke.

"Ah, you must be traveling heroes on a quest of great importance. No,
no," he silenced the group with a wave of his hands, "Say no more, your
appearance speaks volumes more than mere words could ever hope. I can
see that you don't have time to waste in explanations, so I will make
this short. I would love nothing more than to open the gate for you,
and normally would do such without a second thought, but alas... my
wife, Queen Emily is taken ill. You ask yourselves what this has to do
with opening the gate? It is quite simple. My people would think poorly
of me if I let heroes pass who would not help us when in such dire
need." Edward paused briefly, making sure that the assembled group was
getting this all, he hated to waste a good speech. "My alchemists tell
me that the only thing that can save her is the rare spice, ginger. I
have had my sages do research, and they tell me this spice can be
obtained within this very kingdom, from the City of Bazaar. Wonderful
I thought, for Bazaar is but 2 days west of here, but my most loyal
knight Sir Crespins informed me that the road between here and there is
infested with goblins, nay not even any goblins, but the fearsome blues!
My guard has its hands full keeping them from overrunning the city, and
I can't spare a party large enough to ensure safe passage. Surely
however, heroes as bold as you can slip past them and return with the
spice, saving my beloved Queen. If you can perform this small task for
me, I can undoubtedly open the gate for you and give you a hero's send
off as well. What say you, will you do it?"

Julian knew exactly what to do, he bowed deeply and replied, "Of course
we will help you, who would we be to dream of saving the world if we 
could not even save your fair queen." Without delay, he turned and left
the throne room.

==========

Mewly had watched its companions board the ship from the shoreline.
When it became apparent that the evil pirates had captured them, it knew
there was no choice, it must rescue them, surely they would come to love
it then.

Mewly spent the next day hanging around the outskirts of the army's
camp, trying to decide what the best way to catch up would be. When
some nearby soldiers discussed how a fast vessel would be leaving that
night in pursuit, it knew just what to do.

It was not a difficult task for the small fluffball to sneak aboard the
scout ship 'Dragon Wing'; it simply waited for them to finish filling
some barrels of water, then with a small splash jumped in before they
were sealed shut.

The next few days were boring for Mewly. While it had no need for air,
it missed the light. It might have gone mad if not for its fantasies of
arriving in the nick of time and saving Julian and Arica from some
fearsome peg-legged pirate captain. It had dreamt of doing everything
from tripping the offending villain, to growing to 20 times its normal
size and sinking the pirate ship. (Giant growth was a trick Mewly had
heard of other familiars doing, and sorely hoped that one day it would
gain the knack as well.)

Mewly realized the flaw in its plan when its barrel was finally
opened... by having a hole drilled into it. The hole might have been
large enough for escape through if it hadn't been quickly sealed with
a spigot.

The next day, the barrel was moved. Mewly sat in anticipation, waiting
for someone to unseal it so it could make its escape, but all that
happened was the loading and unloading of cargo. After this it grew
quiet for a long time. Then familiar voices were heard.

"Are you sure this is the right place, Julian? I mean who would want to
meet us at the docks after dark?"

"That's what the note said dear, 'I know something you don't know. It's
about your quest. Meet me tonight by the water and I may tell.'"

"I don't know. It seems suspicious, and the letters on the note, barely
legible, as if someone was trying to disguise their writing."

"You worry too much, two years ago we could hardly read and write
ourselves." Julian lowered his voice to a whisper, "Besides, we have
Aquila and Hans on guard duty, we're perfectly safe."

"Hi!" a shrill singsong voice added as a young girl of maybe 10 faded
into view. "You must be the heroes I heard about. I thought there were
4 of you. I'm Princess Catherine Gallant, and I'm here to help you on
your quest. I'm a sorceress you know!"

"No, no, a thousand times NO!" Aquila shouted as she ran in from the
shadows. "We are not babysitters. It's bad enough you accepted this
little adventure without asking me, there is no way I will journey in
the same party as some child."

"Sounds perfect", Arica replied, "You can go back to your ship, and
we'll take Darrow and Catherine along."

Catherine beamed.

"Wait", Julian interjected, "Other than an invisibility spell, we have
no proof of this girl's skill. She is young, and we are on a journey to
save one member of her family. I doubt we'd be well thought of if we
endangered another."

Catherine frowned. "I know all sorts of ice spells. And I can summon
animal spirits to help us in battle. You'll hardly know I'm there!"

"De girl iz havink un point. Vithout Darrow ve art voefully short on
magik zpells to help us vith our battles."

"Hans, don't you remember the last princess we adventured with, she
was constantly trying to sacrifice herself heroically. Brandomere's
henchmen spent almost as much time kidnapping her as they did with all
their other plots combined. We don't need trouble like that."

"Ja, Julian, you art right. Sorry little girl, zit is better dis vay."
Hans admitted as he ruffled Catherine's hair.

"That's it?! You're going to leave me? But I've been waiting for heroes
to adventure with. Daddy did it when he was younger. And I can get you a
discount on the spice you need. You'll regret it if you leave me behind.
I want to be a hero too!"

The party turned one by one and walked away, Hans last as he looked
apologetically at the little princess. She sat there sobbing to herself
when she heard a voice.

"Are you really a sorceress? I'm a familiar, but my sorcerer isn't here
anymore. I want to be a hero too. We could work together and show them
what real heroes can do. Just let me out of this barrel."

==========


Author's Notes

8/6/01-8/7/01

Well here it is, finally another chapter. Originally I had another bit
to add onto the end here, but I cut it because I didn't want to leave
the next author limited in where to go, and this seemed like a pretty
vague stopping point.

I have set the party limit to 4. This seems to be one of two numbers
used commonly (3 being the other, but we've already surpassed that.)
If someone chooses to ignore this so be it.

This is, of course, the dreaded first impro chapter. Written over the
last two days before deadline, thought about for the 4 days before that.
If you have any constructive criticism or even out and out flames (with
at least some supportive evidence) feel free to send them to
freedom@rio.com.

Assuming that I am not met with utter disgust, I will probably sign up
for another chapter soon, as I still have numerous ideas for the story.

Thanks to zerosum for basic prereading, and letting me use his computer
for spell checking and formatting. Thanks to Thomas Wilde for starting
this story, W4 for letting me sign up before I even had an email
account, and all previous authors for writing damned good chapters to
give me a high goal to shoot for. While I feel I've fallen short of my
goal here, practice makes perfect and all that.

-Freedom