((Everyone seems to have forgotten Insane's characters.))<br/><br/><div align="center"><em>Giselle Do'Urden, Kyle's home</em></div><br/>Giselle gives her thanks and shrugs as Kyle tries to explain away his mother's comment.  She was a little afraid she might have scared the poor girl with her stories of her father's birth place in all honesty, and said as much.  "It's alright Kyle.  I'm just afraid I might have taken ten years off of her life with that little story of mine, summed up as it were.  I am glad she didn't ask for details, because then I really would have felt bad if I did scare her to death with the gory details of my family's intricate and expansive past.  As for her romantic nudges, you'd be surprised how often those come up back home so I'm used to it in a way.  You don't have to apologize for her or feel bad about it Kyle, truly you don't, but I appreciate it all the same."  When asked about the map, Giselle sighs but sadly shakes her head.<br/><br/>"Unfortunately no, there isn't one in my pack for this place.  Even here, across the sea Drow are hated with a passion for the same reasons as they are on Faerun.  Very few have heard of my father or me and my brothers, and so I usually don't get a chance to get close to a town or a city of any kind thanks to that little fact.  I can change my appearance if I so wished, but I choose not to because my deeds will always speak volumes far more than simple words, and thus I'd rather earn the same trust as my Dad did before me.  Hiding behind a false face will just make any accomplishments I might make lesser in my eyes, and those that discover the truth of the matter as well, and so it's a choice of principle really, but I do suffer for it since...my road has been lonely for some time since coming here."  Her voice grew wistful, and she looked down at the cup of coffee between her calloused hands though they were soft at the same time.  Her eyes became distant for a moment, remembering a few dark days when she first arrived in this place a few months back.  Pushing the memories away, she came back and offered a weak smile.  "Anyway, what did you have in mind until the meeting tonight?  I am curious what is available here besides the few things we saw last night and all.  I would suggest bringing Tiagar brother's sword though just in case either way, though I do remember you saying something about an armory last night.  I might not agree with the idea of weapons that spit out bullets like your people's, but it might not be a bad idea to check and make sure nothing snuck into the place."  Kobolds, grey-bearded dwarves or duerger as they were more commonly called, and other creatures that preferred the dark and the damp would find such a place much to their liking if her hunch was right and it was a fortified underground fortress of some kind.<br/><br/>------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br/><br/><div align="center"><em>Seth and David Do'Urden, aboard the Sea Sprite</em></div><br/>Seth was summoning a powerful but ultimately stable wind to speed their passage along the Sea of Swords, heading due west and into the rising sun.  David was with the crew, helping to keep her steady and on course with his powerful muscles pulling upon the cords to raise and adjust the sails when the captain called for it to be done.  No one had seen the legendary ship move so quickly before, not since Wulfgar had did the same that David was doing now.  One Do'Urden was deterrent enough to most pirates that had heard of their passing through Luskan, but two was just suicidal to even consider trying to attack the best pirate hunting crew to ever sail the wild seas.  Between the two of them, in that first six hours alone, they had covered more ground than any five ships could have hoped to make between two continents.  It would be a matter of three days if they kept up this frantic pace and nothing happened to slow them down.  Of course only a fool would try to continue as they were, and thus the trip would take five days no accidents pending.<br/><br/>For now they talked, swapped stories with the crew, (mainly David did,) and worked with the crew of the Sea Sprite without a problem ever occurring with the crew.  Still, the sea was treacherous, and not all pirates were so easily deterred, and whether from ignorance or false bravado, the Sea Sprite was set upon by three ships as they passed into the wide open sea, Faerun far behind them.  Cannons had been becoming more common, but thankfully they were a rare sight indeed.  Someone must have forgotten that because the first thing the hunters did was steer themselves about on either side of the Sea Sprite and two cannons were aimed on her starboard side moments later.  If not for Seth's quick thinking, they would have been obliterated then and there as he put a blue energy field, not around the Sea Sprite, but around the cannons themselves that prevented them from firing when they were lit, and the ship violently went up in flames and shrapnel.  Not a survivor made it out of the pirate's vessel, but they weren't out of the woods yet.  "By the bloody gods Seth, did you have to blow them up?"  David called to his brother who grimaced but didn't change his stance on the matter, preparing counter measures against the grapplers that tied their lines up in the sails and ropes that supported them.<br/><br/>A violent gust aimed at the ones trying to swing aboard made them fall to their dooms since most people, pirate or otherwise, didn't know how to swim.  David had a much more direct approach as boards were nailed down across the gap that separated the two remaining enemy ships on the pirates' end, and he led the party that would defend the Sea Sprite, his mighty war hammer swatting aside three men at once before he swung the other way without pause and with grace that belied his heritage, a song to his god Tempus on his lips.  Seth took the other side, leading from the back as was a mage's spot, seeing an opponent of the arcane arts on the deck of this particular enemy vessel.  Breaking him was easy for the experienced youth as he cast down lightning and fire upon the deck, surrounding the enemy sorcerer in a pyramid of the same two elements before it collapsed and exploded outward a moment later, taking a fair sized chunk of the ship and its crew along with it.  The men of the Sea Sprite held the line, easily pushing back the fools as David led the charge on deck, taking hits but feeling none of them.  With a mighty roar upon seeing a frost giant climb out of the lower decks, a frost giant of all things, David threw Aegis-Fang head over handle and completely shattered the giant's skull wide open upon impact.  Thinking the mighty barbarian unarmed, the pirates pressed onward, but David was ready as he latched his right fist onto the nearest man's face and tossed him like a ragdoll, toppling several of his compatriots at the same time as he did a complete spin before tossing him aside with perfect aim.  A moment later, David's weapon appeared in his capable hands, and it was that image of the armed barbarian that broke the spirit of this group's hopes of sinking the mighty Sea Sprite as David grinned from ear to ear.<br/><br/>Life boats were cast off almost immediately, and anyone that was left behind were left to swim or die by the blades of the Sea Sprite's crew if they didn't surrender outright.  Very few losses were reported on their side, and the crew rejoiced as they scuttled the two remaining ships after freeing the slaves the pirates had rounded up.  Watching the ships sink as they moved on to their destination, David and Seth hugged as cheers were given to the two Do'Urden children for their bravery in the fight.  The rest of the trip though, was still up for grabs, but at that moment, everyone slept easily.