We had partied at the House of Flourranus.We danced, sang, and drank all night long. As I woke I thought I was draped across my hammock. As I opened my eyes slowly I knew there was no way I was in my cabin. The light was just way too bright. When my eyes focused I was looking down at the street below the ship. I could see the farmers bringing in their crops to sell at the market forty feet below. I was draped over the beam protruding from the front of the ship.How the hell did I get out here?

I slowly climbed back over the railing on to the deck. When I made it to my feet I saw the Stilicho was having a meeting with the other men from his home land. They all stopped and stared at me with their moths hanging open. I turned a stumble into a graceful bowing turn. As I did so I tipped the brim of my hat and said “Captain.” The five of them just looked at me with a confused look and I slipped down to the lower decks. I opened the door to my cabin to find an overly happy Thom watching the dragon. He started to talk to me about something. I thanked him and sent him on his way. I was just about to get in to my hammock when I realized that Dremnin was not in his bed.

I could not remember what had become of Dremnin. I went and woke Kor and asked him if Dremnin had returned to the ship with me last night.He said yes but with a bit of a funny smile. I looked about the ship but could not find him.I went to Veranda’s room and knocked. There was no answer.Maybe she was missing too. I slid the door opened and stuck my head in. I started to ask Veranda if she had seen Dremnin. I then saw that Veranda and Dremnin were naked on the floor. They were intertwined in the embrace of lovers. Dremnin’s cloak was all that covered them. I closed the door and knowing that he was safe I went to bed.

Kor woke me at nine bells. I need to get things done as Stilicho had put us on a short time at port. Urgral was already up and gone so I left the dragon sleeping in my blankets. I went up to the galley and saw Vridich working on something with Hanna. They had a pile of books and papers all over the table.Sulinn was gone but she had left some fruits with bread and butter for us late risers. I grabbed some bread and water and headed up on deck. Kor was waiting for me dressed in his armor and looking the part of a body guard. It was at that point that I realized I had left my hammer down in my room. I decided to head out without it. I was here in the city and going to train at my niall, I was not going to need it, I had Kor if anything happened.

We stopped by the tailors’ guild on the way to the Nial. I went to the man at the desk and asked for the master tailor and I had an important order and wanted to start with someone in charge. The man told me that he was the one in charge and that he could help me with whatever I needed. I told him that I was looking for four tabards and I gave him the drawing that I had made .He looked down at it and told me that it was not going to be a problem. I told him that I was going to need them in three days. He said that it was possible but would cost me extra. We settled on a price of 700 silver. Kor and I got measured.Thom’s would be made from Kor’s sizes as they were close to the same. I would have to send mika over after she moved on to the boat.

I spent the next several hours with my trainer at the Nial. We did light work sparing and going over different moves. When we were done he told me to bring my hammer the next day for his inspection. I went and collected my new trainee. She was packed and waiting. You could see the eagerness on her face. She was wearing her leather armor and her short sword. She had a back pack filled with her stuff and a bed roll. Looking at her reminded me of the day that I left the nial on my first time. I was so full of piss and vinegar. I thought I knew everything.

I snapped out of my nostalgia and I asked her “Do you, Mika, swear to serve me, to do as you are told, and follow orders in any battles that we may fight?” “Yes” She replied. “Do you swear to serve as a member of the crew of the Dashing Stag, to learn how to work as an air sailor, and to defend the Dashing Stag?” “Yes”, she said again. “Finally do you swear to keep any secrets that you may learn about me, The Unchained, or the mission or quests of the boat.” “I will.” She said with a smile. I looked at her. “Good, I will provide you with training, lodging, food, and one percent of any war spoil I collect.”

We started to head for the front door. When a T-skrang ran up to me and said, “Are you Ardor Zomay Skram?” “Yes, I am.” I said. “If you would please come with me sir, we have some paper we need you to take care of.” He said with a smile. “Paper work for what?” I asked. “There is a matter of an inheritance.” He stated.“Who died?” Blurted out of my mouth. It was your great aunt Alue Kray Zamor.

We had been walking and he showed me in to a room with a large table. He explained that she had dies without any decedents and that as the oldest living grandson of Han Kray Zomay I was the rightful recipient. I signed the papers and he brought in an old rowers bench that seemed to have seen better days. It took some effort for him to lift it off of the cart and on to the table. He handed me a key to the lock on the chest.I looked down at the lock. I looked up to ask him a question and he was just closing the door on his way out of the room. I put the key in the lock and opened the lock easily. I lifted the lid it was full of gold coins and jewels. I dropped the lid.My mind was racing. I looked again. I ran my fingers through the coins. It was true it was full of coins. I was loaded!

I looked at the old chest.It was old and week.I found it hard to believe that it was still holding up under the weight of the treasure.There was no way that it was going to hold up under the weight during the trip.

I closed the lid and went to the door.I opened it and found the house T’Skrang sitting at a desk in the next room.I told him that I was going to need a few things.I was going to need a two wheel cart and someone to pull it.I was going to need several large cloth bags, and another chest that was well built, and I was going to need a runner to go to the Dashing Stag.Within a couple of minutes he returned he had a bunch of bags, a chest, and a tall thin T’skrang with him.I sent the runner to the Stag with a message that I need six armed men as an armed escort.I took the bags and started scooping the contents of the chest in to the bags and placing the bags in the new chest.

Shortly after we finished Dremnin came in to the room with five crewmen. They all had the look on their faces like they were ready to kill whoever was bothering me. I pulled Dremnin over to the side and told him that I was loaded. That I had inherited a large amount of gold and that I needed help getting it back to the boat. I gave each of the crewmen a gold and told them that I needed to get this cargo back to the boat safely. They all said fine and we grabbed both chests and head out to the carts. Dremnin took point.I had Kor and Mika next to the cart 3 men in front and 3 men behind.

We were making good time traveling on the main roads. When we saw smoke start rising from the street ahead.We found a wagon was a wagon burning in the middle of the street.Two questers of Flourannus were wailing in panic in front of it. Someone had had the scence to unhook the horses. The questers told Dremnin that it was drink and decorations for a festival at the temple. Dremnin pulled both of them back so that if the kegs exploded the two would not get hurt. I told them that they did not need to worry about the drink and food as I would buy more. I convinced them to come with us and we moved on. We took an alley to get around the burning wagon. We only went a little ways before our way was blocked by a group of bandits. They were a scraggly lot of orcs. They seemed to be led by an obsidiman. Dremin told them to let us pass but they said no. I used my best officer’s voice and commanded them to step aside. The obsidiman said that they wanted what we had in the chest. I told them one more time to get out of our way. No was the answer.I Stepped forward and announced. “I am Ardor Zomay Skram of the Nial Zomay, and remember you wanted this!” I drew the sword I had borrowed from the nial. I stepped back into the middle of the line of men and commanded “Weapons”. The six crewman pulled weapons from their belts and shields from their backs.I told Mika to stay with the cart and watch our backs.Finally I called on my real edge. I told Dremnin to get in the cart and cover us with his bow.We were ready for battle.Let them come.

The Obsidiman came for me with a great roar. He was close to twice my height and his club was about six feet long.I could tell that he was use to fighting heavy warriors that would stand and trade blows with him.His club swung in flat at my hip level. I easily turned and spun out of the way. As I came back around to face him one of Dremnin’s arrows slammed in to his chest. As he was reeling from the pain of the arrow, I slashed with the sword opening a deep cut in his abdomen.Three of the crewman, Kor, Womax and Osrak, ran past me in to the fray.Womax got behind the obsidaman and slashed him with his sword. Then an orc came running along the wall about 8 feet off the ground.I had never seen such a move. He dropped in behind me and slashed with a knife. I felt the blade rattle across my crystal ring mail armor.

I heard that the crewmen that were preforming rear guard had been attacked. The Obsidaman took another swing at me. It was a great overhand swing that could have killed a bull ox. But the attack was slow and easy to side step. efore I could return the attack another arrow landed in his chest. The obsidaman’s eyes rolled back in his head and he fell against the wall and slid to the ground. I spun around and attacked the bud eyed orc that had attacked me from behind. I dug a big slash on his left arm and snapped my tail out to catch him in the guts with the tail mace. He turned and ran up the wall to the roof.

I was going to chase him down and finish him but four orcs appeared on the other roof top with bows. They fired a volley of arrows in to the crowd. I yelled at Hakka to follow me and I leaped up on to the roof to right behind one of the archers.The orc dodged my sword attack but his dodge put him off balance and I cracked him in the knee with the tail mace. His leg buckled and he fell off the roof, twenty feet to the ground landing hard on his side. I moved out to engage a second wall running orc and killed him with a shot to the head from the tail mace. From my vantage on the edge of the high building I realized things were looking grim. Kor was down blood was coming out of his helm. I saw Womax get put down buy this large orc with a club. This left Osrak trapped out in front and surrounded as well as wounded. Stolod had two arrows sticking out of him.Dremnin had three orcs around him trying to get him off the cart, but he was still standing holding his own.

I had to choose to save Osrak or help Dremnin protect my new fortune in gold. I turned and leaped out next to Osrak. The giant orc that had hit Womax was right in front of me.I swung at him with my sword cutting a deep line through his leather armor and into his chest. As he threw his head back to yell from the pain I snapped the tail mace to the side of his head. The teeth rattling thud staggered him. He stumbled to his left fighting to stay conscious. Osrak rammed his sword in to his guts and the ork went down.

I was attacked by all of the enemies around us. A knife caught me in the back. The pain brought a rush anger mixed with a little panic. I need to do something quick or we may not make it out of this fight. The rage in my blood swelled and the dance came over me. I was twirling, spun, ducking, and dodging.Weapons missed me and bounced off my armor, an arrow stuck into the wall next to me. I moved next to Osrack and killed an attacker with a combo of sword and tail mace.

I saw that Dremnin was down but he was still fighting from his back. His axe kept arcing up and chopping at different attackers. The thieves started falling back as I could hear the sounds of a group of running solders coming. The 2 questers of Flourannus came back with a group of dwarves dressed in scale armor.

We found out that the thieves had gotten in to the chest and stolen three of the four bags of money. We were unable to find them.But we could not take too long looking as we had wounded to care for. One of the questers went to get us a healer. We searched the downed bandits and did not find much, a key and a bracelet.

While the healer was treating our guys the questers of Flourannus approached and told Dremin and I that they had never seen anyone fight like we had. They had not had the privilege of watching a tail dancer in action. After thanking them for their kind words, I asked them how much they needed to pay for their losses in the burning of the wagon. They stammered and went on about how I had just lost a fortune to the bandits. Dremnin explained that we were devout followers of Flourannus and that if we could help by paying for the loss it would be our honor. The quester told us that the cost was around 700 silver. I opened the last bag of coins and started to count out the sum. Dremnin said that he would put in half. So we gathered up the coin and gave it to them. With the large sum of silver in their hands they asked us to be the guests of honor for the celebrations .We accepted and they told us that the party would be the next evening. We told them that we would be there. When our guys were back on their feet we started moving. I sent Hakka and Osrak with the questers to make sure that they got back to the temple safely. We returned to the ship.