White Lightining

Episode 6, Part 1: With Friends like you...

Ten Years earlier...

Young Jagger Rhodes laid flat on his back on the deck of the Brigantine class ship he, his sister and his two closest friends had hijacked form a crew of spineless so-called plunderers. He and the crew had been spending some time in a small port town called Ashling Cove. They had pissed off the imperial guardsmen in a large city two days horse ride from here called Vasaperara. A bar fight led to a duel, a duel led to a dead drunken idiot and two wounded guards. They had spent the last few days laying low in what they thought was a sleepy ort town. The situation got interesting when a group of pirates attacked the town on a plundering raid.

Jagger and his team of trouble making miscreants decided to put a stop to it and slayed the pirates taking the ship for themselves. Onlookers almost felt bad for the pirates because they were not equipped to handle the quartet, because these four weren't your typical twenty somethings. Jagger and Jillian had been orphans and were taken in by a group called the Night Blade they were a group of fighters and assassins. For 13 years they were trained to infiltrate, fight and kill efficiently with many types of weapons and techniques. Jagger was a master of the single blade style of dueling and Jillian had frightening prowess using forward curved blades called Kukri. The Night Blades met a tragic end when three years ago white clad masked assailants came and wiped them all out, Jagger and Jillian barely made it out with their lives. In their travels they met Godric, a nobleman's son who was on the run for being a deserter from the imperial army, and his close friend Madison a sorceress who was also a recent graduate from the Arcane Academy. The four of them had robbed highway men, had rid areas of bandits and monsters (for a hefty fee of course) and stolen from corrupt Baron's. These four were young, deadly, and incredibly skilled vagabonds living form one place to the next.

"One, two... three!" Jagger heard his sisters voice say and soon after there was a splash in the water off the side of the ship.

"You know, its not very manly to let your sister do all the physical labor." Godric said in Jagger's direction. Jagger sat up on his elbows and looked over at Jillian and Godric, they had just tossed the last dead Pirate over board and were dusting off their hands approaching him.

"I killed the majority of the bastards, I felt like your two could use the exercise." Jagger said with a broad grin. "Besides I don't see you two giving Maddie a hard time about not helping. Hell she could have thrown a few over with just her mind."

"Shes not up here because she down below deck scanning the ship for magic, but regardless at least she's contributing!" Godric said kicking Jagger left foot. Godric was tall, he had Jagger by at least a head, and he towered over the women. His fire red hair was cropped short and his eyes were icy blue. He had a broad chest with thick rope like muscles on his arms. Godric was strong, freakishly strong even for a man of his stature. With his strength he wasn't without skill, he used and odd double bladed sword that to wield you had to fuse sword play with staff fighting. Jagger had seen Godric wade through a whole team of heavily armed and armored guards, and all they could do was fall by the ferocity of his attacks.

"Look brother, I do all the hard work by killin 'em, all you gotta do is clean 'em up. The way I see it, you got the easy gig." Jagger said smiling and finally getting up to his feet.

"You're a real peace of work, you know that?" Godric said shaking his head. Before Jagger could say another quippy come back, Madison's voice came booming into all three of their heads by way of telepathic message.

"Captain's quarters, now I got something." All three of them looked at each other quizzically and proceeded

This ships Captain's quarters weren't too big but they were decently furnished. The most interesting and attention grabbing aspect of the room was the shelf of old books and tomes, as well as a desk with a series of maps, protractors and sextons. Madison was standing over the desk overlooking the maps.