[b][h2][color=889194]Captain Argus Fellborn[/color][/h2][/b]
This was the end.

After all the years of sailing, plundering, and occasionally contributing to the vampire cause, the tale of the Red Tide was finally drawing to a close.  His weapons were broken, and the hilt of a blessed sword stuck out of his chest, pinning him to a tree trunk like a proclamation.

He could've fled, sacrificed his skeletal minions to get back to the ship and cast off.  There were too many of them to defeat- the Paladins had come anticipating a battle with an entire pirate crew, and after he slipped away the first time, they weren't taking any chances.  There was no shame in fleeing a hopeless battle to fight another day.  After all, pirates that did no appreciate the importance of discretion did not last long.

Perhaps it didn't need to have been the end.  Perhaps could have stayed ahead of them forever if his will to survive at any cost had held out.  Instead, he had opted to conclude his tale of piracy and adventure on his terms, by going down swinging.  After breaking both his halberd and cutlass, after firing every pistol he had, after putting up the fight of his unlife, he found himself immobilized by a very well-executed impalement straight through the heart and all the way into into a tree behind him.

With the last of his strength, he floored the attacking paladin with a right hook, but was unable to muster the might to free himself.  There was no questioning that this was a fatal blow.  As his vampiric vitality faded, Captain Fellborn looked out at the [i]Silent Swordbill[/i] off the coast, its anchor rising out of the water, and gave a pained, faint smile as the pirate accepted his end.

---

Any drowsiness that Argus may have had upon awakening quickly dissipated as he realized his predicament and scrambled up to safety.  As he rose to his feet after pulling himself away from immediate danger, he strained to make sense of what was going on.

He was on a ship or rather, a shipwreck, nestled on a cliff.   Far beneath him was a great graveyard of ships stretching out into the ocean. The decayed wreck creaked as he got up, giving Argus some uncertainty as to how stable it was.  How did he get up here?  For that matter, how did this ship get up here?  Was [i]Silent Swordbill[/i] one of the wrecks resting down there?

It was at this point that he realized that he was not alone here.  A strange woman, dressed in maid's attire and sporting a blindfold over her eye sockets, leaned against a broken desk, directly facing the pirate.  She wasn't anyone he could ever recall seeing before- he'd remember someone like her?  Was she one of the maid-knights that serve Princess Giselle, maybe?  If she was able to see beneath that blindfold, he'd think she was staring at him.

The woman spoke, revealing that she had pulled Argus out of the ocean, which the paladins had opted to make his final resting place.  He let out a light chuckle at the mention of his fate- for the paladins to have taken such efforts to dispose of him rather than tossing his lifeless body in the hole he had just finished digging, he had clearly left an impression on them.  Equally amusing was that it seemed they had evidently interred him with his hat.

Next, the woman told him that it was her mistress, whoever that was, that returned him to the land of the living.  She stated that she had a task for him to complete, and would compensate him accordingly.  Even with her promise of payment, he didn't think he'd have much of a choice.  Just by his efforts of pulling himself to his feet, he was able to tell that his power and strength were a shadow of what they once were.  Of course, even if it wasn't the case, even if he was at his peak, he would not be so foolish to challenged someone that possessed the power to pull him from the abyss (in more ways than one) and restore him to undeath.

Perhaps he was even a little bit grateful for being given another chance, even if they clearly had an agenda.

[color=889194]"I appreciate the second shot at undeath, lass, and I'm not so foolish to decline your offer, but might you enlighten me with some answers?"[/color]  He asked, adjusting his attire.  [color=889194]"What has become of the world since my death?  Are the paladins still hunting us, or were we victorious?  Where may I obtain fresh blood to mend my parched body?"[/color]

[color=889194]"And finally, who is your mistress?  You must know that a one of Ichor's pups, I [i]cannot[/i] go against Her."[/color]  His words were not conveying defiance, but rather weakness.

[@Rune_Alchemist]