I left Rondo's cave hideout before he woke up. I didn't want him to get murdered for what I planned on doing (despite not liking the guy its not exactly his fault I was going to do something risky). With food, water, and some sleep in me I felt a lot better, and with feeling better came the stupidity that entails. My first problem was the ship sitting in port. While true it was the only way off the island currently (outside of building some crappy raft and just hoping for the best), it was also preventing any other ship from arriving and its not like I could get the rigging to get it out of port anyway (I'm a terrible sailor, even today I spend anytime on the ocean below decks trying not to throw up). My only hope was that the ship had the black powder they were using to fire those big cannons out in the open (black powder weaponrys adoption has been a boon for fire magic users, though to be honest this also lead to us being targeted first by any one with half a brain ever).
I was surprised no one was waiting for me outside the cave. Rondo had chosen to hide out on the far side of the island. It was kind of secluded but I swore I remembered my father mentioning how at one time it had been a den of thieves, so he clearly knew about it, but for some reason decided to give Rondo a pass. I could only assume that my father just didn't care about the shorty and was content with letting him live his life out in that cave, the final survivor of his madness. It was still dark out and I made good time through the somewhat dense foliage. I noticed no small animals as I went, so they were either all in hiding or they'd been eaten (which I guess begs the question how long were they actually going to remain on the island). Once in the village proper, I managed to get to the ship with no issue whatsoever (didn't even see a ghost). On board I could see that things had gone poorly for the pirates/privateers that had dared bring that weird object to my father. Blood was splattered everywhere, pieces of bodies still laid on the deck from when they had been hacked off. I made my way below decks and found the cannons and their powder, which had coveniently been left out for me (how nice of them).
I went one deck lower to see if there was anything else explosive and had to catch a scream in my throat. Eggs, untold numbers of them were down below. I surmised that clearly they were intending on leaving sometime soon (perhaps my little roast had got them moving). It just made me all the more strong in my belief the ship had to explode. I got a barrel of the blackpowder and started to leave a trail of powder back out of the ship (because I'm crazy I'm not going to explode black powder while I'm standing right next to it, and just setting a fire on the ship might not actually destroy it before the spider people got there). I was just about to the gangplank when I bumped into the spiderman creature from before. I dropped the barrel and spun around with fire in my hands, I tried to toss a couple bursts of flame, but they just passed harmlessly over the creature. It grabbed me by the throat and hurled me down the gangplank. I landed with a crash.
"Foolish Trezlan, your magic can not harm me." He stood at the top of the gangplank, I could see the barrel of blackpowder I'd been pouring right next to his feet, I didn't have time for a witty retort (like "Yeah but I'm taller") I just ignited the barrel and sent the spider person into the next world screaming. The explosion blew through the top part of the ship and so my trail of black powder was for nothing as that ignited the below decks and exploded the ship in a wave of fire, wood, and fried eggs (the smell alone will haunt me for years).
I made sure to run back into the jungle before the rest of the creatures/ghosts could find me. I'd struck my first blow against my father, and had to plot out my next move. I was kind of kicking myself afterward for not stealing more black powder, especially after the spider creature had some kind of immunity to my fire (thats the problem with magic unlike say actual black powder or bullets, someone strong enough can dissipate your spells). I had to plot out my next move carefully, and not just haphazardly like blowing up a ship with some fire and hoping for the best. Obviously this meant I had to find someone else to make my plans.
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