Night 6

For the most part, all was quiet on the Presence tonight. No shots rang out, no threats were made, no ropes were swung from to try to decapitate unsuspecting sailors. All in all, there were no attempted murders on board.

Except for one.

CountArach was having a nightmare. The ship - everything he knew - was in chaos. The Atlantic had been replaced by a sea of fire. The wood on board the ship was rotting, the ropes worn. The sails were ghostly and waving on their own volition. And the crew...

The crew was skeletal. Dressed to a man in hooded cloaks, their cutlasses replaced by scythes. They seemed unaffected by the presence of the rotting wood and the sails and the fire. As a matter of fact, they seemed to thrive in it, for wherever CA ran, he met even more skeletal figures, each skull with a more insane expression than the last.

"Get me out of this nightmare!" he shrieked, and a new sound could be heard from the fire and the scythes. He turned around and saw four horsemen bearing down upon him, the lead rider's weapon out, aiming straight for him.

He bolted awake in a sweat, barely suppressing the urge to scream. Looking around, he saw four figures at his side, all of them with their cutlasses out. He rolled out of bed just in time and ran as fast as he could towards the stairs, opting for as much open space as he could get in order to evade his attackers. He survived, but as always, his pursuers followed.

He put enough distance between himself and them to gain control of his fear, and used the increased endorphins to focus in and fight the Horsemen off. Drawing his own personal sword, CA was ready to fight these savages from another world to the last. He charged at them just as they emerged from below decks, surprising them with his aggression, and it worked. The attackers stumbled backwards, one of them struggling to parry CA's fancy swordwork. CA pressed relentlessly, slashing his target several times, though none of them were truly harming.

Finally, the rest of the Horsemen regrouped, and rushed forward to help assist their comrade. After putting some space between CA and him, the other three took him on at once, slashing furiously as CA adjusted and denied all of them his blood.

At this point in the battle, CountArach had two things going against him: numbers, and momentum. Even though he was a more proficient swordsmen than any single one of the Horsemen - perhaps even two put together - he could not handle three or all four at once, and it was telling. He was slowly being pushed back, even though he was able to hold them off. Soon, he would tire, and then succumb. He could not keep this up for forever.

Sensing this, he quickly changed direction once more, scrambling up the ship's rigging, leaving the Horsemen to only slash at air for a bit before they realized that he had moved. Instead of trying to slash at CA, they instead went for the ropes he was climbing up, but the Count was too nimble, changing ropes just as the Horsemen were undoing his current choices.

Eventually, two of the Horsemen started to climb in pursuit. Since they did not have to worry about the ropes being cut out from under them, they made good time, and pretty soon they were right on CA's heels. CA paused, looked down, and started to slash wildly at his pursuers, causing the duel to continue over a dozen feet in the air. Once again CA was at a positional disadvantage, but once again his proficiency was enough to keep the match a draw, and he kept climbing... headed directly for the Crow's Nest.

The two Horsemen on the rigging looked at each other, alarmed. If the Count gained the Crow's Nest, he could hold that position until the rest of the crew woke up. He would survive the night for sure. They *had* to stop him there, but it wasn't looking good. Whenever they gained on him, a wide slash from CA always created more separation.

CA, meanwhile, wasn't concentrating on anything aside from getting to the Crow's Nest. Therefore, he didn't notice the abrupt end of pursuit from the two Horsemen, the reason being that the two back on the ground were waving them off. He didn't notice the two on the ground wheeling a portable cannon to the ship's edge, aiming it directly at the Nest. He didn't notice that, upon gaining the nest, all four Horsemen now were loading the cannon.

Finally, when he mounted the Nest and looked down in triumph for a fleeting moment, did he notice. And just like that, the triumph was replaced by a look of pure horror. He screamed, but nobody heard, for at the precise moment the cannon fired, connecting with the Crow's Nest in a direct hit, waking up the entire ship in the process.

This sound was followed up a second later by a loud crack of wood. Captain Crazed Rabbit rushed out, groaning in agony. "What have ye done?!" he cried at the Horsemen, who were still admiring their work. "That be the mast, ye great bloomin' morons! Without her, we be dead in the water! DEAD!"

"What have ye done?!" came another voice, although this one far more anguished than Rabbit's. Everybody turned and saw Yaseikhaan standing, looking at the mangled remnants of the Crow's Nest, tears forming. "Ye promised victory! Ye promised justice! I gave up everything to join ye, Count!" he cried. "EVERYTHING! And now it's all over! Ye failed, matey! And now I can't go back! I can never go back!"

Nobody was quite sure as to what khaan was going on about, but everyone could agree that he was getting more and more hysterical.

"Someone take that cutlass away from him-" Crazed Rabbit started, but once again khaan cut him off.

"I'M SO SORRY!!!" he bellowed, and then brought it into his own chest. Everyone gasped and rushed to his aid, but it was too late. khaan had stabbed himself in the heart.

"Well," said Rabbit after some time, "No sense in going back to sleep after that. I'll be needin' a crew to check out the mast; who knows how much longer she can hold up after that. By the way," he finished, "We got another one. scottishranger was a Brit. DisgruntledGoat, Andres, and Jolt were all loyal crewmen, but we are making progress. Let's keep it up today, lads."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is now Day 7. The round will conclude on Thursday, October 15th, at 12:01 US eastern.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attacked: Centurion1 (n1), LittleGrizzly (n1), taka (n2), Andres (n3), Askthepizzaguy (n4), Beskar (n5), SSNeoperestroika (n5)

Murdered: LittleGrizzly (n1), atheotes (n2), gibsonsg91921 (n2), Tratorix (n3), Iskander 3.1 (n3), Beefy187 (n3), scottishranger (n4), DisgruntledGoat (n4), Andres (n4), Diana Abnoba (n5), pevergren (n5), CountArach (n6)

Lynched: woad&fangs (d2), Sigurd (d3), Jolt (d4), ricera10 (d5), Sasaki Kojiro (d6)

Committed suicide: Yaseikhaan (n6)

Removed from play: Xehh II, johnhughthom, YLC

Souls aboard (30):
a completely inoffensive name
A Very Super Market
A1 Unit
Askthepizzaguy
Beskar
Captain Blackadder
Centurion1
Chaotix
Crazed Rabbit
Cultured Drizzt Fan
Death is Yonder
Double A
Joooray
Khazaar
KukriKhan
Lord Winter
Louis VI the Fat
miotas
Psychonaut
Reenk Roink
Seamus Fermanagh
shlin28
slashandburn
spL1tp3r50naL1ty
SSNeoperestroika
Subotan
taka
TinCow
White_eyes:D
Yaropolk

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