Principle Characters: Our Heroes!

The Dread Captain, Thorn.

Captain Thorn was swept into this world covered in the blood of her mother. She was a dark screaming mass that took her first life before her first suckle. Born upon the tide of blood she was swept into the life of a sailor, a slave, aboard the swift and deadly ships of the drow. Of their blood, but not, her life was one spent in the quiet contemplation of how to break the spines of those who percieved themselves as greater then her. It would not take long for her to put her contemplations into actions, and so it was, that she took the mantle as Thorn.

First Mate, Plopilibop.

Plopilibop's name, a crude joke by the Kuo-Toa, and her fellow slaves means: "Feces hitting the water." Never one to shy from a challenge, she took that name, and made it her own, confident that one day she'd have her vengeance. For many years, the anger bubbled and seethed while she hunted rats and did work upon the Lopillilliiipip's narrow crawlspaces caked with mud, blood, and brine. She escaped, diving overboard when the ship was beset by deep frogs, and soon she found herself wandering into the pathetic little settlement known as Sanctuary.

The Wily Lieutenant, Lothor.

Smarter then a dragon and wielding a dark reaper, this watch Lt. has personally executed ten men. He is the cruelest most vile sort of man that loves to make friends betray friends with honeyed words! A most dangerous sort, he rules the Canal Wards with an iron fist.

The Less Than Noble Knight, Brannigan Law

Law was born to a mother that taught him wrong as right and right as wrong. She was also a whore, but he loved her, loved her enough to strangle her in her sleep. He set out to do good in the world, and save many people, by killing them. He was very successful until his dark reign was ended by the great Plopilibop.

Chapter One: Plopilibop's Mission of Vengeance

Plopilibop dove into the waters of the dark lake, stirred to a froth by a hundred deep frogs, and their powerful deep frog leader. The frogs croaked, and ribbited, and sundered the Kuo-Toa where ever they could. Yet, the Kuo-Toa of the Lopillilliiipip had dealt with drow, slavers, pirates and worse monsters that plied the dark lake, they were not about to fall to some ill mannered and giant frog king. With a cry of despair at the fresh onslaught of the Kuo-Toa, the frog king Beelzebufo, began to flee from his home waters. The Kuo-Toa took from these frogs their treasures, weighed anchor, and set out once more to deliver their slaves to the forges of Mutulakt.

Yet one intrepid halfling did not sail with them. Plopilibop had escaped their clutches, hid beneath a massive weed, and lived to swim to the nearby shores. For days she wandered, dazed, confused, and muttering dark oaths in forgotten languages or perhaps just speaking nonsense. She stumbled and tumbled through mines, and through hidden passages, until finally arriving at the pathetic little town of "Sanctuary." It was here, after a fresh meal, that she weighed her options carefully and decided what she must do. She must find out the Lopillilliiipip and end it forever. Sink it beneath the waters. Yet, she would let them all know whom was responsible! Plopilibop, the ratter, the plop of feces in the water, it would be she who would destroy the powerful vessel that had been her dark prison for well above twelve years. Vengeance, she muttered to herself, would be hers.

Yet Plopilibop was wise enough to know one thing about herself, she knew that she was very small. The rule of the world is that people do so seldom listen to small things. This rule saved her time and time again. Yet in her dark mission she was not looking for salvation nor anonymity, she was looking for blood and infamy. She needed to find a voice that the people would listen to, a Captain to steer her mission unto fruition.

So it was that she entered into the service of the Dread Captain Thorn. The terms of her employment were easy, for Captain Thorn had many enemies and understood the importance of dreary retribution. Togeather they would find their enemies and end them, wherever they hid, land or sea. First Mate Plopilibop would gather a crew for their expedition amongst the former slaves of Sanctuary, Captain Thorn would work to secure a ship, or locate one that could be found through force. A pact is a pact, and Plopilibop began the long and mostly fruitless task of scouring the pathetic settlement of Sanctuary for worthy companions. Worthy companions that would be written into the Annals of her vengeance, and thus into history itself.

Chapter Nine: The Dark Reaper Comes

Now all that the crew did, in all those sunless days, never once escaped the notice of the most cunning of the city's watchman, Lt. Agrael Lothor. A most deadly sort, he had earned the title, "Dark Reaper" for his silent killing of three halfling pickpockets which had plagued the stability of Sanctuary by flaunting the laws. He came for them, and he killed them, with a giant scythe that people whisper is called Judgement. This kidnapping finally forced him to turn his attention away from the easy butchery of small fruit throwing children, and make him tackle the case of the Dread Crew.

So he set out into the darkness, and he came for them, with his scythe and his black eyes. With his face covered in metal rings, each representing a criminal he'd personally executed without flinching. The man was a killer, the worst sort of killer, a killer who killed halflings. He fould Plopilibop at a rather awkward time, for she'd just beaten down another killer, the crazed cyricist Brannigan Law. Just as she was figuring out what to do with Law, Lt. Lothor came to enforce the law. It was a very good thing that Plopilibop is the fastest scimitar in the underdark, though, she'd yet to prove that for another few days.

With sickening speed Plopilibop parried the massive scythe, dispelled all of the Dark Reaper's magic, and then delivered three terrible blows to the Lt in the space of a heartbeat. Bam! Bam! Bam! The cunning Lt. Lothor was down. That's when he started babbling about never giving up, and hunting her down no matter what, and all that. It was clear that he was insane, perhaps the blows to the head, and the blood loss had made him crazy. Yet he'd not stop blathering about his perfect city or his strange and powerful master! Well, the Captain arrived, and Law was executed, and Lothor was sent back to the city naked looking quite a bit less scary then before. Would he stick to his word and come for them again? Did it even matter? Plopilibop certainly proved her deadliness. Who would the city send next? Whispers spoke of one man, Von Ashe, who would bring the crew to justice.