The Hero- Electric Feel

The last time we saw our heroes, pirate captain Kennit and his crew marooned out at sea met a mysterious fate at the hands of the Witch Doctor and the Predator. The Marksman continues to recover from his injuries and contemplates the inevitable confrontation between the Predator, a much more experienced and powerful member of the Order. The fellowship is now faced with an electrifying monster of the sea…

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The giant electric eel towers over the deck as the crew stares in horror at the beast before them.

“WELL DON’T JUST STARE AT IT YOU LILLY LIVERED TURDS,” screams Captain Crimson, “LOAD THE FORWARD CANNON, MAN THE DECK GUNS!”

The crew scatters to man their battle stations as the eel attacks. It strikes like a viper, grabbing a crew-man, carrying him off the ship and into the water. Electricity arcs off the eel’s body, hitting another crewman, and arcing to a deck gun. The gunner’s back arches and every muscle in his body goes rigid and then he falls to the deck. Dr. Wolf and the Scribe run to the fallen, dragging them below deck while those remaining scan the surrounding sea, looking for signs of the sea monster’s return. 

“I see him,” barks Captain Crimson, turning the captain’s wheel to bring the ship alongside the massive eel. “Steady men, steady,” growls Crimson. 

The Eel shoots out of the water, arcing over the deck. The creature had to be several hundred yards long, as the body continued to cross over the deck though the body was long gone.  Electricity once again finds several victims who were either wearing or touching something metal. Dr. Wolf, now transformed into the Wolf, runs on all-fours, climbs up one of the masts, and leaps onto the tail-end of the eel, biting and clawing. Unfortunately, the Wolf is not as clever as Dr. Wolf, and the Wolf was met with a hundred volts of electricity. The Wolf is thrown back down to the ship, smashing into the mast, and landing on the deck in a smoldering heap of singed hair.

Captain Crimson shakes himself out of his stupor, shocked by the gargantuan eel. He wheels the ship back towards the heading and shouts for more power to the engine room. The eel has thick skin, and much like smaller eels, has a layer of scales underneath its skin. 

The eel once again appears at the prow of the ship, selecting its next victim, as a lone arrow flies from the deck and finds the eel’s eye, exploding on impact. The sea monster howls, falling backward into the water. Crimson looks around and sees a shadow slinking between across the deck. The Marksman has joined the fray.

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The Hero sees the arrow fly through the air striking and then exploding the eye of the eel, and howls a howl of triumph as the massive eel falls back into the water. The Hero gives a quick nod to the Marksman, but the victorious feeling rising in the Hero’s chest is squashed by a rumbling deep below the deck of the Wave. 

The eel erupts from the ocean, curling around the Wave, knocking over the main mast and creating a tunnel of electric current. Crew-members ran for cover as a bevy of electricity arcs all around. The Gunslinger is hit and falls to the ground. He tries to stand, but stumbles around . The electricity has shorted out his bionic eye. Captain Crimson is laid out on the poop deck, convulsing from a burst of electricity. 

The eel finishes its orbit around the ship, now circling the boat like a wild dog, ready to close in for the kill. The Hero looks around, desperate for anything that might turn the tide of the encounter. Crimson is picking himself up but looks worse for wear. Gunslinger is on his knees smacking himself in the temple, trying to get his eye to function once more. Several of the other heroes stand, warily watching the water. The Marksman watches while loading an explosive arrow loaded onto the ramp. That’s when an idea burned brightly in the Hero’s mind.

The Hero calls for the Distiller and Barkeep to retrieve the keg of bourbon that the Distiller had been working on.

“It’s a little busy to be hitting the drink isn’t it,” screams the Distiller over the wind, water, and waves.

“Just do it,” replies the Hero.

The Distiller shrugs to the Barkeep, and the pair scramble down into the hold. The eel re-emerges at the prow of the ship once more, glowering menacingly at those still moving around on deck. The Distiller and Barkeep barge through the door to the hold, team carrying a large keg onto the main deck.

“Now what?” bellows the Barkeep.

“Tie it to the foresail mast,” yells the Hero, “Gunslinger, throw some lead up there!”

The Gunslinger, still shaken, nods and opens fire with both six-shooters aimed at the eel. 

The Distiller and Barkeep have the barrel tied off straight-away as the Hero jumps on top of the large barrel.

“Pull me up now!” yells the Hero to the Barkeep. The Barkeep begins reeling the rope through the pulley, dragging the Hero and the keg of rum skyward. As the Hero reaches his intended height, he draws his sword and a flintlock pistol. Standing on the bourbon keg, he levels the pistol at the eel and pulls the trigger. 

The bullet doesn’t do anything to the eel but draw its insidious gaze to the Hero. The eel swims to starboard, then lunges through the air, mouth open wide, prepared to devour the Hero whole. Time seems to slow for the Hero. He notices all the little things he hadn’t before. He sees the belt buckle wedged between the eel’s needle-like teeth. He sees the blood vessels contracting in the eel’s eyes. 

Right before the eel gets to the Hero, the Hero takes his drawn sword and cuts the rope, shooting up into the air right as the eel passes underneath him. The eel instead only catches the bourbon barrel in his mouth.The Marksman, privy to the Hero’s plot, fires the explosive arrow at the barrel, hitting the barrel, exploding the barrel and igniting the bourbon in the eel’s mouth. The flammable fumes permeate the eel’s nasal passages, sending fire blowing out the eel’s wounded eye and through its nostrils.

The eel takes off, rolling over the top of the water like a wounded snake, head alight, defeated at last.