Xander charged the silver eyed attacker as the small Kabold flew through a series of hand signs while he prepared an Arcane response.

Seeing this, Xander threw himself to the side to avoid a rather nasty beam of crackling red energy. He rolled back to his feet and blinked at the massive half-orc holding a war hammer that had managed to close the distance.

The orc screamed in a blood haze as he brought down the hammer in a crushing blow onto Xander's shoulder.

Xander's cry of pain drew a small flurry of arrows from Mican and Wakueena that managed to drive the half-orc off before Wakueena fell back.

At the same time, four rather nasty humanoids rushed the duo. In response, Mican dropped his bow and drew a rather nasty pair of short blades that Xander knew the young Ranger was more than competent with before the halfling dove into combat as he tried to keep the fighters away from his sister.

Giving his personal bruiser a knee to the gut, Xander danced back from the massive form several paces and brought his cutlass up in a light guard as he prepared for the big man's charge. His guard was broken as the Kabold captain turned and launched a flaming sphere at him, forcing Xander to dive back towards his opponent and receive yet another punishing blow from the barbarian's hammer.

Xander grunted at the impact and the sound of something internal snapping in a manner it was not designed for. Ignoring the desire to simply curl up and die, Xander spun to the left to keep the monster man between him and the spell casting captain. He danced back a couple feet to get some breathing room and smirked as the big man rushed him. As the half-breed moved into range, Xander plunged his blade into the being's unarmored chest before tumbling out of the way and added a trio of extra strikes to the man's back.

Unfortunately, his smirk at the rather impressive damage he had managed to inflict was wiped away at the sound of the dark mutterings behind him reminded him why he had kept the massive half orc between him and the diminutive spell caster.

Fortunately, his reflexes allowed him to escape the rather large ball of fire the captain had rolled his way.

The pained screams of the half orc though, indicated that the injuries Xander inflicted were sufficient to keep the massive barbarian from escaping the attack.

A glance at the goblin saw 'Wild Oats' and 'Feast of the River' finally finish up with their opponents and turn their attention to the still monologuing villain.

Ignoring the downed half-orc, Xander broke into a run at the small threat who responded with a snarl and another bolt of lightning.

As the lightning struck him Xander came to the realization that the ancient religions may have been onto something by having gods smite their foes with bolts of lightning. Several seconds later he came back to his senses, his muscles twitching in protest as he struggled his way to his feet and blearily looked around the clearing.

Isaaq was laying a smackdown on a rather large lizard person and two orcs lying still in the half frozen mud around him gave evidence of already facing the Paladin.

In another section, Wakueena was casting several low level charms on her brother to heal the injuries he had received from his fight with the five pirates that had attacked them while Mican for his part used his short sword on the fallen to make sure that none of them got up again.

The Bruins had finished off the spell caster with extreme prejudice as well as the trio of archers that Xander had failed to notice during his struggle.

In less than a minute the fight was over and Isaaq and Wakueena were busy healing the whole party up while Mican rummaged through the fallen for any valuables.

Their moment of triumph was broken though as the air was filled by a the deep tone of bell tolling in the distance.

A quick look between each of the six quickly wrapped up their tasks before they broke into a run for the far side of the island.

In a matter of minutes, the party cleared a rise and blinked in shock. Below them a small town was spread out along the sheltered cove's waterline. The empty houses and shops sitting idle in stark contrast to the dozen warships making sail out of the cove as a trio of barges loaded with the remnants of the towns produce sidled up beside them in anticipation of the journey to come.

Each of the fifteen vessels proudly flew a black flag with a single crimson feather.

Xander cursed at what he knew was going to be a headache in the near future. He looked at the others for a minute before nodding towards the town and ordered, "Search it, find me something that we can use." Then he slowly began making his way towards the town himself.

Nearly ten minutes later, Mican caught up to him in a rush before pointing back towards the docks, "Captain, we found someone."

The run to the docks were a blur as Xander wondered what he would find. He was not prepared for an orc to be sitting cross-legged on the dock, a silver gleam to his eyes as he smiled at the gathered adventurers.

"Greetings Captain," the orc rumbled as he finally caught sight of Xander. "You speak now to the immortal Captain Jules Ala'Sandra, be in awe of my might and wonder at my powers," the orc said with a grin before twitching for a moment and slumping to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

Staring at the still orc, Xander let out a sigh before looking at the others, "Well that's not ominous at all." he grumbled before he shook his head at the escalation.

"Alright then, Isaaq I want you to contact the church, get them out here with someone a bit more professional than us to take over. Also warn them of the fleet and see if there is a navy or group of privateers around that can deal with them or at least damage them," he said before turning to the siblings. "Wakueena look over the orc and see if you can discover anything of value to pass on when the church gets here. Mican, take one of the fluffy twins and tear into the town. If it's written down, I want to read it. Anything odd or out of the ordinary, I want it on hand when the church arrives. Send the other back to the ship with a message to round the island and drop anchor here," he said and sighed at the twin nods he got from the Halflings before the two moved to achieve their objectives.

Shaking his head at the oddness that he seemed to attract, Xander headed for the largest house in the small town to get some investigating done on his own.

Isaaq = Paladin/StormLord
Xander = Rogue/Swashbuckler
Wakueena = Druid/Bear Shaman
Mican = Ranger