The sounds of the screams below and Kaul's growing bloodiness leads Dibbs to abandon his ensconcement above and seek to make his way first to Kaul's side.
Stymied by the sharker's shield, Kaul is undeterred and hacks at the fish-man with renewed vigour;
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As he becomes aware of the sneaking shark behind him, the brute spins with a roar, pivoting with a wild chop;
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"Bezzzzzzzzzzz-mara sends her regards!" Corliss yells with a big goofy grin as he calls down his first lightning strike, targeting the sea devil about 20 feet to Kaul's west.
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Kaul redoubles his efforts and Lopper comes down hard on the sahuagin splitting the shield and the scaly invader behind it. The half-orc then spins on the sneaky stabber, but misses the sly sneak. Dibbets drops and rolls to the deck, ready to offer Kaul some indifference, but the sahuagin creeper is in the way.
A bolt of lightning suddenly appears out of the night sky to strike amidst the sahuagin. One barely ducks away from the main impact though it suffers burns.
Jim attempts to spit as many of the rabid rodents as possible.
The Freeporters at the officers' quarter hatch mob a remaining sea devil killing it and clearing the area around the main mast. More sailors appear and move forward to reinforce their mates struggling against the sahuagin near the foremast. The snipers in the sails wound another sharkbrother below. This only serves to increase the frenzied behavior of the sea devils as they slash and bite at their oversea foes. Unnatural darkness comes over the side forward of the starboard beam swallowing the light of the spells from the yardarms and concealing several of the sea devils.
Panicked sailors pour from the hatch where Jim disappeared.
Kaul turns his full baleful attention to the sneaky sharker behind him.
In the midst of his own frenzy Kaul rains chopping hacks down upon the creature;
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The slyhuagin backstabber dodges once again, but Kaul's supernatural speed is too fast for a second such feat and the keen axe severs its connection to the mortal world.
Corliss continues to joyously rain down lightning bolts on the sahuagin raiders on deck. When he sees that Kaul's starting to look a bit mauled, the healer in him feels a bit guilty about not being closer to the action.
Round 5:
The Taldan keeps his composure despite the furry creatures covering him.
With the way forward clear, if somewhat blood soaked, Dibbets stumps over to smack Kaul. Corliss conjures another lightning bolt from clearest night and scores a direct hit on the visible sahuagin closest Kaul. The crew of the Black Dragon swarm forward over the sea devils, but the treacherous creatures retreat into the darkness foiling the assault. The sailors circle, but are halted by the foul gurgling voice from within the inky blot on deck. Those listening closely might recognize the name Dajobas in the unholy prayer. Then frenzied blades and fangs lunge from the darkness to assault the closest sailors leaving two injured and one dead. The sailors back away nervously.
Captain Drake holds up a hand to belay his crew. "Careful, mates. Cursed sea devil tricks. Do you have a way to brighten this up?" he asks the spellcasters present.
As darkness decends o'er the eyes of his shipmates, Kaul leers a grin as he watches the sharker's plain as day.
The brute changes tact and lumbers toward one of the other most fishmen
"Let's see if Ol' Kauly can't catch us a fishy to fillet lads!"
Mindful that'll he take a barb, the thug grabs at shark man with his crimson claw - attempting to wrench him out;
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"Sampling your own wares? Eh, Whitecoat?" Think I want a bit of backup.... The Taldan does not close, but instead retreats up to the main deck. "Hoy! Whitecoat's below! Dibbets, come with and we'll put paid to him!"
Dibbs cries out "Eh... feck... roight... which way then..." blinking his eyes in the darkness and attempting to waddle his way Jim-ward.
Corliss looses another bolt into the darkness, aiming for a spot where shuagin claws and teeth emerged previously to ravage the Black Dragon's sailors.
Kaul grabs a sea devil in his claw and pulls it out into the light. Cackling, Dingus blasts it with a round of sidewinder missiles injuring the scaly menace. Corliss sends a bolt into the darkness and then begins shinnying down the mast. Jim appears at the forward hatch calling for Dibbets who slowly hobbles across the deck. Even with magical speed, the one-legged halfling leaves Jim to wait impatiently at the hatch.
Vengeful sailors finish off the sahuagin that Kaul pulled out from the dark with a flurry of hacking cutlasses. One gets too close to the darkness however, and falls a moment later to blade and teeth. Two more sailors fall to lunging cutlass slashes from the dark and the captain orders all sailors to stay back as he joins Kaul against the hidden sea devils.
Kaul leers and chuckles as the sailor's dice and hack the sahuagin into a lump of shark meat.
"Hur... That's the way lads! Tear it apart!"
The belligerent thug scowls at his next target and shifts forward and reaches in once again with his rust-coloured claw;
"Com'ere fishy-fish-fish.. Crew got somethin' fer ye!."
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"Dinnae get quiet Jimmer, which ways me goan?" hobbling with his magically enhanced crippled gait.
"Down two decks! He's gone ratman on us--turned loose the ship's rats on the crew 'fore I could take down the lot." Dibbets will notice that the Taldan has more than a few small bites taken out of his hide.
Kaul moves into the darkness, grabs another armored sahuagin with the claw and hurls it out of the shade. Dibbets makes it into the galley and finds Jim looking a bit nibbled. Several of the crew that remain in the galley suffer scores of rat bites as well.
Taking it slow and steady, Corliss completes his descent from the rigging and prepares to get himself dirty and likely more than a little bloody.
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Corliss drops to a deck covered in blood as the battle continues. Kaul tosses fresh fish to the vengeful sailors. The routine is ennacted again and the hapless sea devil is first blasted by Dingus and then chummed by a scrum of sailors.
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As fell chants emit from the darkness Kaul gives a moment of pause, then the hacking of shark meat draws him back into the moment;
"Hur... Ye got to do better than that biters! Ol' Kauly hears worse voices in 'ere!"
The scarred brute grins and shifts to a better vantage then lashes out with his fell hatchet at the wounded sharker beside him;
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Kaul steps out of the darkness bleeding badly, but leering widely as another dead sahuagin falls to the deck beside him.
Corliss finishes his descent and hustles forward into the the heart of the scrum. He yells for all disengaged sailors to start hacking and stabbing nearby sahuagin corpses. Catching some puzzled looks, he barks, "I know what ye're doin' so snap to it!"
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Corliss moves forward and shouts for the crew to chum the fallen sea devils. The crew gladly makes sure that all the fallen sea spawned are dead. The inky cloud of darkness suddenly moves across the deck and over the starboard rail with a couple distinct splashes. No standing sahuagin raiders remain aboard as the defeated attackers retreat back to the sea.
Below decks, Jim receives Dibbets' disinterested ministrations and the pair move past the injured crew to clear the dangerous vermin from the hold. Stepping down the stairs though, they find not a creature stirring not even a rat.
Hacked and bloodied, Kaul holds fire and bellows to his companions below deck;
"Sharkers re-pelled lads! What Ol' Kauly down below for more murderations an' the likes?"
Corliss mutters a quick prayer to Besmara and then channels positive energy, hoping to heal and/or stabilize Kaul and the other wounded sailors on deck.
Seeing how wounded Kaul still appears to be, the Besmaran priest tells the half-orc to give him a moment and he'll heal the killing machine further.
"Cover me, mate." Jim advances warily into the hold, looking for tracks from the last place he saw the alchemical wererat.
Tracks, however, are thin on the ground.
Corliss channels a burst of healing energy to rouse any fallen crew who haven't already begun their journey to the Spire. Four sailors are found to have been killed by the sea devils. It was worse for the foe though as eight scaly corpses lie hacked to death on the deck.
Down in the hold, Jim searches around for any sign of where Whitecoat went. It would be somewhat beyond his ability however to track a rat over the boards and to its lair in the well stocked holds. What he does find is a pile of burned and bitten corpses near the far hatch adding seven more sailors to the death toll.
"Summat ain't feckin roight... bastards likely nei gone but as tae where he is?" shrugging his shoulders "Best we make fer wary nights and wakeful days frae here out?... ye chipper an able or in needs o' a tap?"
"Mostly good. Let's get Kaul down here, put his nose to work, and figure out where that rat went to ground."
When Jim and Dibbets return topside to report, Captain Drake shakes his head sorrowfully. "Eleven lost. That is a dear price. Too many. I'll not see the dead left in this shark infested bay, better to leave this cursed island behind and quick. Get the dead stacked some place out of the way and see if we can catch a land breeze away from here. "
He turns to the four freebooters. "I won't be sleeping well with a dangerous stowaway aboard. See if you can find him. Either way, I'll be doubling the watch until we spy Freeport again"
Kaul nods toward Dibbs;
"Always needin' patchin' up mate..."
At Jim's request he leers a grin;
"Hur... Ol' Kauly knows how to sniff out a ratty-rat-rat! Knows... Nose... Gettit...Hur-hur-hur..."
The brute emits a hacksaw chuckle as he heads below decks...
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The stink of rats in the gold is heavy, but Jail quickly detects a trade of the alchemical and follows it down to the lowest and darkest recesses of the ship near the water and run casks.
Before Kaul heads belowdecks, a rather grim Corliss approaches him and casts a cure serious wounds spell upon the battler. Then he follows at a distance after casting light on the tip of his silver light mace.
"Be this wily white gnome a wererat...or just yer average two-legged variety rat?" Corliss asks quietly.
"He's an alchemist of some skill--you'll see evidence of his handiwork below. We've crossed paths with him before. This time, it doesn't smell quite so bad as the first, hey? He'd a lair in the sewers below Freeport. He's got some way of turning folks into wererats, I think."
Dibbets-
Keelhaul Kaul-
Madman Jim-
Corliss-
foe-
Corliss moves along relatively quietly, his glowing silver mace lighting the way. He smiles a crooked smile, thinking, Wererat. Where rat?, blissfully unaware he's about to discover THERE RAT!!
The brute thug lumbers down, bereft of most of his wounds.
As they begin to search for the rat, Kaul snorts and his beady eyes narrow;
"Hur... Here ratty-rat-rat... Lopps has a piece o' cheese fer ye..."
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As he fails to pick up anything the scarred half-orc bellows;
"Ere! Ding! Yer snakey likes a rat or two... Maybes he can find the rodent's hidin' place!?"
Kaul yells for Dingus only to realize the skinny sorcerer stayed up top.
Blade out, Jim advances, trying to keep some distance between himself and the others. "This boy's a mad bomber, so don't clump up."
Jim offers some good advice, but it comes a moment too late as Dibbet's shouts a warning and points at the pale form that suddenly jumps up hurling a bomb straight at Kaul. It explodes, unfurling a cloud of malodorous yellow gas that immediately sets all within to gagging!