Chapter 22: Battle of Spike Island

Written by Skarth Diem to Dronaet Klingstone

The town had become a hive of activity. It was now common to walk through town and see lizardfolk strolling through the streets or to walk along the coast and see merfolk lazing on the rocks or to look out to sea and observe a group of locartha riding their giant sea-eels crest above the waves for a moment before looping over and diving once more into the depths.

My colleagues and I found ourselves busy throughout these few days in making preparations for the attack, leaving little time for anything else.

The day before we were set to embark, we all met again with the Council. The plans for the assault were coming together and they wanted to brief us on our intended role.

The combined force of allies had prepared for us two magical potions each. The first was a potion that would allow us to become invisible to normal sight, provided we didn’t cast spells or attack something. The second was a potion that would allow us to take gaseous form. While in this form we would be able to travel almost undetected, but we would be unable to talk, or use our equipment or anything like that. However, being like a small cloud or a wisp of smoke would allow us to seep past those big solid doors that barred entry into the upper level. These two different types of potions were obviously very powerful, and I was impressed that our various allies had been able to produce enough for all of our group to have one of each.

Then Illiander Fireborn ran us through the plan. We would travel down with the main Saltmarsh force which was to be under the command of Illiander. We would initially be joined by Welgar Brinehanded, the main Priest of Procan in the town, and Wrack’s adopted father. Welgar would work with the main contingent, calling on the Powers of Procan to keep the causeway free of water so that the forces could cross easily, then working as the leader of the magical contingent who would support the troops in the battle for the upper level.

The intention was for us to go ahead of the main force. We were to clear the entrance chamber and then open the stone doors. Illiander would send a small group of scouts ahead to hold the entrance chamber in case a sahuagin patrol came along. Their main role was to prevent the doors from being closed again before the main force arrived. Once we opened the doors, they would give us two minutes. During that time we were to infiltrate down into the lower level so that we could find and attack our main objective, the sahuagin baron.

After two minutes, the main force would cross the causeway as loudly as they could, with trumpets blaring and magic firing off. This would clearly raise the alarm and put all the sahuagin on alert so we hoped to be in position by that time. The dramatic attack above would hopefully draw the sahuagin out through the lower entrances into the open water. Our underwater allies would then be able to attack them. Others of our allies would then enter through those opened doorways and tackle any sahuagin who remained inside the structure.

During the evening, our seagoing allies slipped away and started moving down the coast so that they would be in position. Then just before dawn, the Saltmarsh and Korvosan troops boarded the flotilla of ships that were tied up to our docks. I was pleased to see many of our better-trained warriors holding the good quality weapons that we had ‘liberated’ from the sahuagin. I enjoyed the thought that the sahuagin were not only denied the use of the weapons but that the weapons would be used against them.

We boarded the Spirit of Procan, along with Illiander and Welgar and a contingent of marines. Captain Duthrem stood beside the gangplank as everyone boarded and pointed out where he wanted the different groups to station themselves, where they would be out of the way of the sailors. Once we were all aboard and the gangplank was stowed, Captain Duthrem yelled orders to the sailors and the ship moved away from the dock and started to make its way out of the port. The other ships had waited for us and once we began to pull out of the port, they moved out behind us. Five ships were forming our flotilla and we made a majestic sight as the sails filled with air and we made our way down along the coast.

Out to sea, a storm was brewing in the distance. Welgar Brinehanded stood up on the foredeck near the bow of the ship, his long white hair whipping out in the wind. The distant storm seemed to call out to him and acknowledge his presence. The storm came closer to us and then veered off to the north, the extra wind pushing us even faster through the swell.

The journey along the coast took many hours. During this time, we all prepared for the coming battle in our own way. I sat quietly on the deck beside the mast and breathed in the salt-laden sea air. Far above, I saw some gulls flapping north, and then later a single albatross hung in the air barely moving its wings as it rode the air currents.

About an hour before we were due to arrive, Welgar and Wrack stood beside the main mast while the sailors and the troops on board gathered around them. Welgar then ran a service of praise for Procan and asked for his aid in the coming battle. The people joined in the chants and songs and gave unison responses when Welgar called for them. I stood quietly at the back and watched. I had questions about what was happening but decided to save them for another day. The service ended and Illiander stepped up and made a short speech about the coming battle. When he was finished, the gathering dispersed and everyone returned to their places. Now the deck was quiet and the sense of anticipation began to build.

Eventually, our flotilla approached the headland that protected the mouth of the Javann river. All five ships quietly slipped into the cove on the nearside of the headland. They furled their sails and dropped anchor without any of the usual shouting. Captain Duthrem waved and pointed at the waiting sailors who then sprang to complete their individual tasks.

Once the anchors were set, the action on the decks turned to untying and lowering the small rowboats that were tied on the decks of each ship. Spirit of Procan had an extra boat added to the deck, beyond the one which we were used to. Despite the number of small boats, it was going to take some time to get all of the troops to the shore. Then they would take the same path over the headland that we had used three days before.

Our group went ashore with the first boats and quickly gathered in a huddle with Illiander. He told us that there was no point waiting for the rest of the troops to be ready, we may as well head out now. He promised that the scouts and the main force would be in position by the time they were needed. He wished us all luck and we set off to follow the path up and over the headland, then down to the flat area where the causeway from the island met the road that snaked inland beside the river.

We paused at the edge of the treeline and looked across to the island. We could see that the stone doors in the entranceway were shut. There was no movement around the outside of the doors. Once more, I noticed the complete absence of seabirds around the island. Apart from the regular slap of waves against the rocky shore, the island seemed still and lifeless. The tide was at about the middle of its range and the causeway was under several feet of water. Later on, Welgar Brinehanded intended to call on the power of Procan to clear the water off the causeway to allow the main force to cross to the island, but we had no such advantage.

We decided that since we needed to use the potion of gaseous form anyway to get through the doors, we might as well use them now so that we could cross to the island without doing anything that would attract attention. We weren’t going to be able to speak while in that form so we agreed on a plan before we started. We could remember that there had been a moderately small room just behind the doors, and then a short passageway that could be blocked by a portcullis through to a bigger room, where the capstan for the portcullis was. Our priority was to capture this second room so that we could secure the portcullis and then move back into the first room and open the doors. Jenny explained that she could call the sleet storm in the second room which would make it hard for the sahuagin to move about freely. We agreed to hold back in the passageway and let Jenny begin the attack. The eruption of the sleet storm would be the signal for the rest of us to go into action.

We stood in a circle and each drank our potion. It took a moment for the potion to take effect, but then I felt myself dissolving into smoke and the world around me became dim and ethereal. I willed myself to start moving forward and I became aware that I was drifting down to the shore and out across the water. The world moved around me in a very weird, almost dreamlike, fashion. There was no sense of touch, no sounds, no smells. I floated forward across the surface of the water and came to the island, the stone pavements before the doors feeling no different beneath me than the surface of the water.

The stone doors were well made but they were not airtight. There was a small gap between the two doors, and I slipped easily through the gap and into the room beyond.

Looking around, I could see five sahuagin warriors standing around in the first room. Over to the side of the room, I saw the gong, which I had forgotten about. I think maybe the others had forgotten about it too because none of them had said anything about it when we were planning. I worried that if we attacked the second room, the sahuagin in here would sound the gong and we would lose our chance to infiltrate down into the lower levels before the whole base turned into a boiling hive of activity.

I glanced through the short passageway into the second room. The portcullis was up and I could see that there were quite a few more sahuagin in there. I decided to trust Jenny and the others to take control of the second room and decided to do what I could to protect the gong in the entrance room. I drifted over to occupy the space in front of the gong and waited for Jenny to act.

A moment later, I heard the howl of wind and the sound of hail beating on stone as an ice storm broke out in the second room. I immediately focused my mind on ending the effects of the potion. The cloud that was me condensed and coalesced and I found myself once more standing in one piece in front of the gong. Riellian appeared next to me at about the same instant and I realised that she had made the same decision as me. That meant Wrack and Kelshann had moved into the other room with Jenny.

The sahuagin in the entrance room had been completely surprised by the outbreak of the storm inside the second room and then the sudden appearance of Riellian and me beside the gong. I had decided to save the power of my magic for the later battle against the baron and whatever companions he had, so as I became solid I drew the scimitar from my belt and slashed at the sahuagin who was standing directly in front of me. Its head was turned towards the passageway where the noise of the storm was coming from. My scimitar, glowing softly with moonlight, spun through the air and scored a dark line across the sahuagin’s back. Beside me, out of the corner of my eye, I could see Riellian’s blades flash in the dim light as she also launched into an attack.

The sahuagin I had cut turned to face me, hissing with anger. It spun the spear in its hands and jabbed at me, which I managed to knock away with my shield, before slashing at it again with my scimitar. The two of us exchanged blows several times and I quickly realised that this was not one of their lesser warriors and that I had a serious fight on my hands. I called on my star form and my archer joined the fray as I slashed and blocked, blocked and slashed.

Beside me, Riellian had cut down a sahuagin warrior and moved on to another. That one looked like one of the champions, based on its size and colouring and the ease with which it handled its weapons. Beyond them, I saw a glint of light as a javelin of ice speared out of the passageway where Jenny was lurking and slammed into the side of the champion.

I was starting to think I was getting the upper hand against the sahuagin I was facing when suddenly a second one appeared. Now I was fending off two of them and everything became much harder. I swung my scimitar and missed, and then missed again. At the same time, they scored hits on me that got past my shield. My armour absorbed most of the impact, but my muscles were starting to ache and I was feeling sore and bruised from absorbing the blows.

I’d decided not to use my magic in this first encounter and now I started to think that was a mistake. I was mentally prepared for summoning sharks but that would not work here. Perhaps I could summon something else. I dodged and parried and slashed and frantically ran through options in my mind. I wondered if I could summon a pack of dogs in the same way I’d been intending to summon sharks. It was hard to think clearly in the midst of the sword fight and I tried to run through what I would need to do in those brief moments between one lunge and the next.

I was just about to hunker down behind my shield and sing the song that would summon a pack of dogs to my aid when Riellian suddenly turned and struck down the sahuagin I’d originally been fighting. It was bleeding from several cuts I’d inflicted and perhaps, because it was focused on me, it lost track of Riellian. She sliced into its exposed flank and it cried out in pain before staggering back and collapsing. Riellian then turned back to the champion and resumed her contest with it.

Now suddenly I only had one sahuagin to contend with and I closed my mouth and stopped myself from expending all of that power to summon a pack of dogs that was no longer needed. But I was feeling weakened after such a long fight and I did not think I could continue with just the scimitar and shield for much longer. I tried to lash out at it with my thorn-covered vine, but in the heat of combat, I couldn’t complete my song of thorns correctly and I had to duck behind my shield again to avoid a spear thrusting straight at my face. It scraped along the side of my jaw and I could taste blood dripping into the side of my mouth.

I sang the song of lightning and sent a bolt of my magic at my opponent but it ducked to the side and my power spent itself uselessly on the stone wall of the room. Then Riellian spun and managed to strike into the flank of my opponent and scored a killing blow, before turning back once more to resume her battle with the champion.

Beyond my falling opponent, I could see Jenny fending off another sahuagin in the entrance to the passage leading to the second room. Beyond her, I could hear the sounds of conflict in the other room, though I had no idea of what was happening in there beyond that.

Now that I no longer had an attacker in my face, I was able to steady and the archer constellation on my chest loosed an arrow of starlight that streaked across the short space between us and struck into the flank of the champion that was intent on attacking Riellian. I saw my arrow of starlight sink home and the champion staggered and its arms dropped slightly, leaving an opening for Riellian who struck the fatal blow that sent the champion crashing to the floor.

I glanced around in time to see Jenny reach out and put her hand on the chest of the sahuagin facing her. Lightning seemed to arc from her hand into the sahuagin. It stiffened and then toppled sideways and fell to the ground.

That was the last of the sahuagin in the front room. Riellian was looking very ragged and I quickly pulled out my wooden bowl and poured a potion for her to drink. She gratefully swallowed it and then took off at a run to aid our colleagues in the second room. I stood there for a second, my legs trembling. I shook my head and cursed myself. My indecision and hesitation had made that battle a whole lot harder for me than it should have been. It had been stupid to go into it intending to not use magic and I’d paid the price. I took a deep breath and poured a potion for myself, letting the soothing flow of starlight-infused water wash away the worst of my hurts. Then I followed in Riellian’s footsteps.

By the time I got there, the battle for the second room was over.

I found out later that Jenny’s sleet storm had had its intended effect. It completely confounded the sahuagin and made it difficult for them to mount a cohesive attack against Kelshann and Wrack. The sleet storm had initially pounded down on the sahuagin in the second room and then left the stone floor covered with a slick layer of ice. The sahuagin had floundered on the ice and fallen time and time again. Kelshann, with her clawed toes and thick hide, was born and bred on such a surface and had no trouble striding back and forth over the ice, taking on each sahuagin she came across with her teeth and claws, before moving on to the next.

Wrack had found the going much more difficult. His first move was to jam a dagger into the capstan to prevent anyone from triggering the mechanism to drop the portcullis. Then he’d stood with his back to the capstan and let the sahuagin come to him, but he’d been slipping on the ice as often as they did and at one point both he and a sahuagin were lying prone on the ice and jabbing at each other with trident and spear. Despite the trouble he had, Wrack was able to dispatch a number of the sahuagin who came at him.

By the time Riellian had entered the room, there were only four sahuagin left. Jenny had followed Riellian and waved a hand which resulted in the ice dissolving into a thin mist that quickly evaporated into nothing. Finally able to move freely, Wrack had taken two strides to one of the remaining sahuagin and pounded it into the ground with his battleaxe. Jenny then raised a hand and from her pointing finger, a lightning bolt lanced out and speared through two of the sahuagin, they had both immediately jerked and flailed as the power tore through them and then collapsed in a boneless heap. Riellian now whipped her bow off her back and sent an arrow into the chest of the last standing sahuagin. The sahuagin had been in the process of turning to attack Kelshann. It stopped and stared down at the arrow protruding from its chest with a surprised expression on its face. Then Riellian sent a second arrow after the first. This arrow was so well aimed, that it struck the back end of the previous arrow and split it open before diving into the wound the first arrow had opened in the thick sahuagin hide. The sahuagin gasped and clawed at its chest frantically as it sank to the floor. It rolled and groaned for a moment before it lay still.

We all stood and regained our breath for a moment before moving into action once more. Riellian moved to the big doors and withdrew the bar before pushing them open. A second later the Saltmarsh scouts slipped into the room and nodded to us quietly before taking up their positions ready to defend the doors if needed.

We gathered in a circle and confirmed that we would now move along the western passageway to get to the other end of this level where the stairs allowed us down into the second level. I sang the song of silence, calling on the shadows cast by moonlight to gather around us and muffle any sounds we might make. We then each uncorked and swallowed our potion to make us disappear from sight. We kept close to each other so that we could reach out and confirm the presence of our colleagues and not get separated. I was behind Kelshann’s sturdy form and I laid a hand softly on her shoulder as we made our way along the passageway. I could feel the muscles rippling under her scaly hide as she stalked along, swinging her head from side to side to sense any danger coming at us. Behind me, I felt the occasional tug on my cloak as Jenny held onto the trailing edge of my cloak.

We walked past the entrance to the large barracks room and saw that quite a few sahuagin were waiting in there. They were lounging around and relaxing but with their weapons near to their hands. They didn’t see us as we crept past due to our potions and they didn’t hear us due to my song of silence, blanketing the sounds of our footsteps.

We had walked this passageway during our scouting mission, so we all knew the way, but we still kept a hand touching the person in front so that we could react if they stopped or moved unexpectedly. It was pitch black for me, so that meant that my colleagues were doubly invisible. But I knew that Wrack and Riellian in front of us could see well enough so I trusted them and followed on with one hand on Kelshann and the other trailing on the wall beside me. Fortunately, the route we’d chosen was free of any wandering sahuagin, so we didn’t encounter any of them as we made our way around to the chamber containing the stairs.

That chamber was occupied. Dim glowing lamps were attached to the walls and I saw several sahuagin leaning against the partially finished walls. The mining tools and the opened shackles abandoned by the slaves had been kicked out of the way and lay in little piles against the walls. The stairs were quite wide and three sahuagin champions stood spread out across the steps. There were spaces between them and I felt Kelshann ahead of me pause and then cautiously begin to slide forward into the space between two of the guards. I let her go and waited a moment before creeping forward myself.

The guards were alert, but they’d probably been on guard for several hours and they shifted and grumbled to themselves from time to time. We were invisible and silent and they did not react to our presence in any way. I crept forward and down the steps. I held my breath as I slid between two of the guards, hoping against hope that they would not suddenly decide to step sideways. The water in the stairwell looked cold and dark. The surface was not still due to the movement of the guards and there was no sign that Kelshann had descended into the water mere seconds before me. I lowered my front foot slowly to the surface, making sure I didn’t splash and then reached down carefully until I stood on the first underwater step. Then I moved forward slowly and carefully, trying to slide into the water and down. My song of silence surely helped as I took one step at a time and lowered myself down.

Finally, only my upturned face was above the water. I took one last careful breath and then lowered myself below the surface. My clothing and armour were now wet and provided enough weight to overcome my natural buoyancy. I took four more steps down and then felt the ground beneath my feet level off. Reaching into my pocket, I carefully drew out one of the potions of water-breathing and raised it to my mouth. I uncorked the bottle and sucked out the contents. It took a moment to take effect, and then a small bubble of air formed around my mouth and nose. I cautiously released some of the air I held in my lungs and took a controlled breath. The air tasted clean and pure. I took a few more cautious breaths before I began to trust the spell and breathe normally.

In the meantime, I moved forward into the darkness of the water, with my hands out, groping into the darkness. Then my hand brushed against Kelshann’s hide, now feeling cold and sleek under the water. I tapped her to let her know I was there, and then used my hands to work along beside her and up against the wall. A moment later I felt someone’s hands bump into me from behind and I reached up to clasp Jenny’s hand and guide her into the wall beside me. When she was in place, I tapped Kelshann three times to let her know we were ready. A moment later I felt Kelshann start to move forward and we were on the move again.

We hadn’t scouted this level, but we’d spent time carefully studying the map that had first been drawn by the lizardfolk and then improved on by the freed slaves who had been used to finish and, in some places, tile the walls.

We wound our way along the preplanned route to the central chamber, thinking we might find the baron there. It was a little slower, moving through the water, but Kelshann in front of me could swim as fast as she could walk and I held onto her belt and let myself get dragged along. Behind me, Jenny was holding my cloak and I was dragging her, so Kelshann was essentially dragging both of us with her powerful swimming strokes.