The paddlewheeler pressed on and came upon an a schooner under attack by catamaran pirates: Two small craft (06 crew, each), and three large craft (11 crew, crew each). The small craft were harriers and used only small-arms fire to draw out their enemies so that the large craft could launch flak shells at the craft as anti-personnel weapons while the small craft sailed away (hopefully in time). The large craft each had an Aldis-lamp with which they could communicate with the tower that lay in the background, beyond yet another mangrove isle.
Shenanigans ensued, with the paddlewheeler gang hopping aboard the schooner, realising that it was listing and sinking, with several small medical emergencies from a prior flak-attack.
Zalder flew over to the big cats and firebombed a couple of them, scoring solid hits, and causing one flak cannon to burn through its decking, effectively anchoring that craft. The third of the big cats was using some sort of bubbler to agitate the water so as to allow the lumbering craft to more easily pivot as it sought to return to its nearby base. Zalder, Cloaked, absconded with the larger-than-a-manhole-cover-sized Air crystal that powered the bubbler, riding off on it like a bodyboard back to the ailing schooner.
A small catamaran was re-owned by Kitsune and Nyqolas (the High Imperial) and a few of the security personnel, and maritime fun was had by all, including shooting pirates pretending to be drowned. :D
--Zalder was busy helping effect repairs by forcing the water out of the ship, allowing the engineers to patch the keel gash.
Nyqolas was contacted by a projection of a rather fetching sorceress, and based upon that brief interaction, he was tele-relocated to her tower (the one nearby). Her overconfidence was her undoing, for although she reflected the Radiance Blood's Psychic Blindness upon Nyqolas, he snapped her neck and leapt overboard to 'land on her' when they hit the water some 30+' below. Here's where the sharks come in. This is where the body of the sorceress became chum. Nyqolas swam to a nearby quay and ran blindly into the swamp for cover, only to be retrieved by Zalder aboard the Air crystal sled.
Other craft were being launched from the pirate cove beyond the tower, and with repairs effected, the two craft frothed away with three new large catamarans in pursuit.
