"Yeah and that floor in the armory looked funny too. Didn't have a chance to investigate it before the crew almost found me. We definitely have to get in there without the Captain thinking we're going to steal from him. But he looks pissed off right now. We have to wait to speak to him or go behind his back."
Ugun turned to Morti, "C'mon, we need to talk to the coxswain. She may be able to convince the captain."
He smiled, "Besides, I think she likes me."
----------
It didn't take long to find her. Ugun straightened his posture, cleared his throat, and said, "Ma'am, there's something which I think you should know. We think that what's been happening aboard the ship is no accident. Can you talk to the captain about this? Is there something not quite the same in this trip? Any strange cargo?"
He smiled, "Any weird passengers besides my dwarf friends?"
--------
Eli wasn't convinced the coxswain would do anything other than rat them out to an enraged captain. But Ugun was already in motion, so she didn't object. "It looked like someone tampered with that gorilla's cage! I think someone might have tried to sabatoge this whole trip!"
Aid another Dipomacy
Coxswain is summoned by the Captain to the rowing banks where she sees the damage to the wall and the dead creature. For an hour, the ship is stalled on the river, as the crew dump the creature overboard and repairs are made to the wall as best as possible.
During this time, you catch Coxswain alone for a moment and relay your concerns. She thinks long and hard before answering, "Sabotage? Perhaps...I must admit suspicious things unlike anything I've seen before are occurring in a short span of days. I will speak to the Captain tonight and let him commence an investigation." She looks at the two dwarves, "Okay enough slacking off! You've had a sufficient break of one hour. Back to work!"
Eventually, the events of the day fade into the routine of your normal activities. Elisen notices that the cook is summoned to the Captain's quarters and when he returns, he has a couple of bruises on his face, which he tries to hide.
Another day, another bunch of fish caught in the expert hands of Ugun.
At one point he started wondering how much more fishing would be needed. It seemed like they had caught enough for a crew twice this size.
He joked with the coxswain as she sauntered by, "So how much more fish do you want? Are we feeding someone's pet shark or something?"
--------------
"Aye Coxswain!--Nothin' would please me more'n pullin' an oar in peace fer th' rest o' th' day!" Morti replies with a wink, returning to his bench.
Intelligence check
Eli had yet another good day in the kitchen. Ugun 's catch gave everyone plenty of tasty salmon. If she kept being this good a cook, the crew might never let her go.
Satisfied, for the moment, that things were as handled as they could be, Barundar went with Morti back down into the ship to help row.
The wall from which the Girallon broke through is covered temporarily by some crates and since it leads to the armory, Captain Bloodtusk posts a guard in the room for precautions.
Ugun catches many fish, starting to impress Coxswain, while the two dwarves are fatigued after hours of rowing. Elisen is rather adept at cooking.
During dinner, as usual, the party is served last and start to dig into the delicious food after the meal has started. Falric is about to take a bite, when his keen senses and knowledge of alchemy ring alarm bells in his head that the smell of the food is off and he faintly detects the smell of an often used tranquilizer! He tries to warn the party, but many of them are already feasting, although he does manage to swipe the bowl from Barundar before the dwarf can eat his first bite. The party looks in shock, as suddenly Captain Bloodtusk and the crew collapse to the floor! Only Coxswain, Gashnakh, and Oorog are standing up!
Coxswain looks at the conscious passengers and pulls out her sword, "What manner of treachery is this?!"
Elisen Perception:
Party Perception:
Barundar:
Elisen:
Falric:
Morti:
Ugun:
Order of eating:
Barundar:
Elisen:
Falric:
Morti:
Ugun:
Fort saves:
Coxswain:
Crew:
Crew:
Crew:
Crew:
Crew:
Crew:
Crew:
Crew:
Crew:
Fort save
The half-orc spits out the foul feast, "Yes, what is this? it's not Elisen, I can vouch for her."
He looks at the sailors and asks the coxswain, "Who's missing? Look around, who's not here?"
Falric is quite angry that someone tried to poison them and draws his scimitar. "Coxswain, the treachery is from within your crew, not us! The cook, Gashnakh, is surprisingly not unconscious and no one else had access to the food and like Ugun said, Elisen is not responsible for this...I will stake my life on it!"
"Unggg, remin' me t' stretch between fightin' and rowin'," Morti groans as he tucks into his food in search of relief.
Coxswain is looking between Elisen and the cook and her anger is mounting. The cook looks horrified and points at Elisen. "It must have been her! You know I am a loyal member of the crew and all this trouble started when they came on board!"
"Morti!!" Barundar says aloud as the dwarf collapses to the ground, but before he can run to his side, Falric's accusation comes to his ears and he takes up his dorn dergar, a scowl on his lips as he turns to Gash, ill intent in his eyes. "Why would she poison one o' her ain people, ye snake?! By Torag's beard, Morti be'er nae bae hurt er thair wilnae bae ony port o' call ye can get tae that will hide ye from mae! What ha' ye done?!?" he yells, looking as if he's ready to attack despite the danger of using his weapon on a sailing vessel.
"I did no such thing! I need this vessel to get my friends and I on up river. Why would I sabatoge it? The Captain knows where my group is heading...all I want is to get there in peace!"
Ugun turns to Morti to try and determine what happened to him, "Morti, what's wrong? You are not OK..."
----------
As Falric sounds the alarm and slaps away Barundar's bowl, Morti looks up quizzically, fish stew drizzling down his beard -- "Whass wrong, Falric? Th' stew's mighty delizzhhhh..." trailing off as his eyes roll back and he faceplants into the table.
Ugun can tell that Morti is unconscious but breathing so he is quite alive.
Gashnakh tries to plead his case to Coxswain that it was Elisen who is the culprit, but when he sees the threatening Barundar approaching, he screams in terror and runs out of the galley to the top deck with Coxswain and the party in pursuit! When the cook reaches the top deck, he thinks about jumping in the water to escape but remembers the crocodiles and reconsiders. He drops to his knees, "Yes, it was me. I poisoned the Captain and the crew. I am not worthy!" Coxswain rushes over and grabs him by the throat, "Why?! Why would you ever do such a thing?!" The cook has no answers. Coxswain punches him and knocks the cook unconscious and runs below deck to the Captain to see if he is alright.
As the party is about to follow, suddenly, Barundar screams in pain as an arrow penetrates his back! As you all look back, about 30' away, a human female figure, with a boa constrictor wrapped around her shoulders, appears from invisibility holding a bow in her hands, "I am Melira and now you will all die for killing my lover, Skreed Gorewillow!"
Round 1: Melira's turn!
The constrictor slithers off Melira's shoulders, directed at Ugun! The snake bites the witch on the leg and then slithers up his arm, grappling him and wrapping around his body, crushing his torso briefly!
Meanwhile, Melira's face looks angry and demented, as she expertly draws 2 arrows and shoots them without hesitation into the dwarf! "I hate you, hate you all!" Two of her arrows bounce off the dwarf's armor but one does connect, drawing blood!
Ugun tried to move away from the snake to no avail. Trying to remove the heavy coils from his body, the witch inhaled to fill his lungs up with air and hopefully survive long enough for someone to help him.
He looked at the snake, "Now's time for a little nap, don't you think?"
---------
HP 17/30
AC 12, touch 12, flat-footed 10
10 +2(DEX)
Conditions:n/a
Melee (greataxe): +2 = +2 (base)
Melee Damage (greataxe): 1d12, x3
Melee (MW dagger): +3 = +2 (base) +1(MW)
Melee Damage (knife): 1d4, 19-20, x2
Spells used:n/a
"Skreed, the alchemist? You were his lover? You got problems lady!" Falric pulls out and drinks his mutagen as his action in Round 1. His skin turns scaly like a lizard.
It took Eli a few seconds to realize what was happening. When she got her bearings, she cast Hideous Laughter at the archer. "Have you heard the one about..."
DC 19 Will to resist.
The first arrow catches Barundar completely by surprise, and though he is able to dodge the second, the third catches him all over again. Thankfully, the armor he appropriated from Uskroth deflected some of that force, but some still got through.
"My turn now, ye wench!!" Barundar yelled, rushing forward across the ship, his dorn dergar swinging powerfully through the air!
Morti groans in his sleep, suffering drug-induced dreams of furry four-armed crocodiles chasing him through the ship.
Melira's scowl of vengeance fades away, as she starts to laugh uncontrollably and falls prone to the floor, holding her laughter in pain! This only aids the charging dwarf, who finds it so much easier to strike the prone ranger, inflicting a serious wound across her ribs. But she is sturdy and still lives.
Round 2:
Melira tries to resist Elisen's enchantment magic to no avail and continues laughing through her tears of fury
"Wow, Eli, I didn't think that joke was that funny. Remind me never to cross you!" Falric winks at the arcanist and he moves to the ranger and readies an action to flank with the dwarf and slashes her with his scimitar.
The snake's thick coils fell from around the half-orc.
Ugun smiled as he hefted his greataxe and prepared to cut off its head.
"Now you sleep in hell!"
Ugun brought down the axe with such force that the blade embedded itself into the boat's floor. The snake now had its severed head a couple of feet from its body.
--------
Falric cuts the downed ranger, but she still lives.
Eli waits for Barundar to try and dispose of the enemy before using an additional spell.
As the snake is finished off, Barundar scowls over the laughing figure and swings the heavy ball of his weapon in a vertical arc, aiming to crush her once and for all!
-Posted with Wayfinder
Eli tags the archer with a magic missile.
Damage
Barundar swings but the twisting and turning ranger avoids the blow, but the energy missiles slam into her.
Ugun starts cackling himself as he cast his bad luck hex on the laughing woman.
"You should have picked better lovers..."
--------------
"Stand still ye wench!" he calls, swinging his dorn dergar at her again.
Falric continues to stab the prone Melira while flanking with Barundar.
The halfling and the dwarf finally end the prone, laughing, and cursed ranger's miserable life finally!
An hour later, the Captain, the crew, and Morti regain consciousness. Melira's corpse is thrown overboard, after being stripped of its possessions. The Captain has the ship searched from top to bottom. With Falric's guidance, he finds out the woman was hiding under the armory the whole time.
Her possessions are:
Captain Bloodtusk gathers the party, "Guess you were all right about something fishy going on? It appears there was a saboteur on board the whole time. She must have snuck on invisibly with her wand, from the events you described. It seems she knew you and wanted revenge upon you all for something or other. I don't really care. My apologies that I doubted you and thank you for discovering and ending the threat. You have earned my respect and friendship. It also appears Gashnakh was under the vixen's spell. He is himself again but he will be watched closely just in case. Now back to your duties."
Captain Bloodtusk gathers the party, "Guess you were all right about something fishy going on? It appears there was a saboteur on board the whole time. She must have snuck on invisibly with her wand, from the events you described. It seems she knew you and wanted revenge upon you all for something or other. I don't really care. My apologies that I doubted you and thank you for discovering and ending the threat. You have earned my respect and friendship. It also appears Gashnakh was under the vixen's spell. He is himself again but he will be watched closely just in case. Now back to your duties."
Ugun nodded the whole time that the captain explained what was going on and silently accepted the apology. But he was not happy.
After the captain left, he turned to his companions, "Back to our duties? Back to our duties? Does he realize that we just saved his butt big time here?"
He shook his head, "I guess that's we are going to get. I wonder the coxswain will see me... er, will see us in a more favorable light."
tag?
He then inspected the saboteur's fine chain shirt. "This light, very light. I think I can use this. Will it afford good protection?
You guys mind if I keep this?"
tag?
-------------
On waking, Morti's mood brightens considerably on hearing that the party was correct, and there had been a saboteur aboard.
"Another o' Skreed's crew down, eh? Means we're on th' right track, neh? An' we were able t' dispatch her with nae lasting harm t' the crew, e'en th' happier! ...o' course, when ah say, 'we', ah mean t' say ah had a vury import'nt role in sleepin through i'tall!"
"Aye, I'm glad tae ha' another one 'o that bunch in th' ground, meself. Nice tae fin' oot we were nae crazy, at least. Back tae work though, eh? Nae rest fer the weary..."
Falric happily takes the two wands offered by Eli. "Hopefully, with the saboteur dealt with, now we'll have a smooth ride to the swamp."
The trip down the Kestrel River continues smoothly and the crew is much more friendly after being informed of your heroics against Melira and her pet snake. You ease into your roles on the keelboat (Elisen is promoted to chef until Gashnakh earns the crew's trust again) and even Coxswain eases up her scolding of you.
The next day, during mid-afternoon, the dwarves are down beneath rowing, while Falric and Ugun are above deck, and Elisen is moving about preparing the day's meal.
Eisen Perception:
Falric Perception:
Ugun Perception:
Falric is guiding the boat through the waters, listening for hazards in the stream, when his keen senses alert him to danger, as his eyes spot two shadows on the surface of the ship! He looks up quickly and sees two medium-sized sleek dragon-like creatures with graceful wings and wide fins flying 50' above the ship, intelligently using the blinding sun to hide their approach!
When the halfling looks up and before he can shout a warning, the two drakes dive down, one aiming at Falric and one at Ugun!
Surprise round:
Falric shouts a warning to Elisen, "We got trouble, girl!" and goes full defense as a standard action.
Round 1:
The drakes full-attack Falric and Ugun, respectively! The attacks miss the agile halfling, who dodges the attacks with ease. Ugun is not as lucky, as the creature's jaws bite down hard on his leg!
Suddenly, another drake, much larger than the rest appears overhead and flies down and grapples one of the warhorses in the stables and flies off with it downstream!
On the rowing deck below, Morti is oblivious to the chaos aboveboard. "Gotta hand it t' y'all," he grumbles cheerfully to the crew as he hauls on his own oar. This rowin' sure is work. Ne'er woulda known what goes inta pullin' a boat upstream if I hadn't seen it wi' me own eyes--an' me own achin' shoulders."[/b]
Eli casts magic missile on the beast attack Ugun, seeing it attacking without any pause.
Damage
Falric draws his scimitar and strikes the drake, while perfecting his elusive maneuvers.