Dingus didn't see any sailors beyond the base and ship. There did appear to be a good number of sailors though- maybe fifty or so split between the ship and base.
Belinna frowns. "We're already at a skeleton crew, Jim. With the officers off ship, that leaves eleven including myself. We can do some basic sailing, but we're not going to be very maneuverable or be able to do much fighting. If we can take them in port, maybe, but I'm not thinking we're going to take them if they get underway."
"We really need more crew."
The Taldan ponders a moment. "Success breeds success, they say, and if we take the base down we might be able to recruit from among Drava's crew. Or...Corliss! Does Besmara's favor extend to telling whether someone's lying? Because I've got an idea. It'll maybe mean a little less bloodshed on the front end--sorry, Kaul--but if we can kill the officers how about offering quarter to the swabbies who swear honestly to serve aboard Fortune?"
Kaul shrugs his no-neck;
"Hur. Some killin's better than none killins."
The axehead of Lopper bobs into view like a glovepuppet and nods in agreement, eliciting a chuckle from the bosun;
"Lopps 'grees... Officers get red an' dead. Swabs get a choice"
The Taldan ponders a moment. "...Corliss! Does Besmara's favor extend to telling whether someone's lying? Because I've got an idea."
Belinna nods considering Jim's plan. "So you four will sneak in and take out the officers? It seems risky but I can't come up with anything better. Do you want us to sail in before or after you attack? We'd need a signal either way. You could use the sending scroll."
"Aye, that's what I was thinking. After; I don't want to put Fortune in harm's way unless things really go into the sh1tter. Won't be easy--" He grins. "--but the fun ones never are."
Belinna points out a saddle at the north end of the island that ascends about 200 feet above sea level between the steep volcanic stone peaks that range from 600 to over a 1,000 feet in altitude. "That looks to be the easiest pass to the interior. Lola and Onzu will row you over. We can wait here until you call us in."
It is at sunset that the crew reach the shore and clamber off the boat, maintaining a grip on the rough rock that that rises at over a fifty degree angle. Lola gives a low growl to "give them hell" while the mute Onzu presents a gap tooth smile and shakes his fist in agreement. Grabbing the oars of the jolly boat, they row back to the ship leaving the officers to ascend the rock. It isn't too difficult to reach the pass which offers a level spot about 30 feet wide and 50 feet long before it drops down the opposite side. A smelly, steaming pool of undetermined depth is in the center of the gap. The birds on the peaks above grow quiet as they settle for the night.
Kaul grins menacingly at the encouragement, tapping Lopper with his claw.
Upon reaching the pass, the brute bosun defers to Ding, who'll no-doubt have some magical method of conveyance for the raiding party...
The base is about a mile south. The crew can see a couple routes. Hiking down to the shore here isn't difficult though going south will require navigating around a very narrow section of beach along a cliff. Keeping to the high path require some clambering below the peaks and then a descent that doesn't look much steeper than what the crew just navigated. Either way might be slightly trickier for anyone other than Kaul with the moon not providing any light worth mentioning.
Kaul nods his no-neck in a forward direction;
"Hur. Want Ol' Kauly to reckonnoyter ahead?"
The thug's axehead bobs into view, equally eager...
"Aye, mate. Good hunting! Give a shout if you need a hand, hey?"
I can sneak down close with you... then make you invisible for a few minutes (7?)
Kaul vaguely recalls his last solo scouting foray and how well it went...
He mugs a grin of bravado at the snake-hipped sorcerer;
"Hur. That'll work mate... more the merrier... High Road?"
Kaul quickly leads the way up the slope of rough black rock. The slope is steep enough that he has to use his hands to climb at several points. Dingus is quite a bit slower, hampered by having to hold a lantern with one hand which provides a narrow beam of light directly ahead of him. After about 200 feet of altitude, the slope ends in a broad terrace that skirts the north side of the highest peaks of the island.
Kaul surveys the area while he waits for Dingus and sees a number of fumaroles and boiling pools ahead as the terrace narrows about a quarter mile to the southwest.
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Jim stands relatively calmly below, waiting for screams or a report.
Dingus eventually makes it up and Kaul leads the way forward. The cliff drops more precipitously on the right and the sound of surf echoes distantly from below. Moving inland a bit, the air grows heavy with condensation and a sulfur stink. Through the thickening fog, a heavy bubbling can be heard ahead.
Kaul snorts in the sulphurous stench, taking a moment to reminisce o'er Dibbs at his flatulant prime.
Mugging a grin he presses on...
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Over the bubbling in the fog ahead comes a high-pitched shriek like a tea kettle and a boiling rain falls on Kaul and Dingus. More whistles and shrieks are heard as five ghostly figures swarm around the two sailors. They look really similar to the little flying devils at the Gold Goblin Gambling Hall in Riddleport but bigger, ghostly, and with no poison stingers. Instead, their bodies fade into the mist below the waist.
Keelhaul Kaul-
Dingus-
foe-
Three of the boiling bullies dive at Kaul, slashing and spitting but only one claw slash breaks skin. Two more take on Dingus - one clawing at him while the other blows out a gust of scalding steam.
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"Help! Help! We have split the party"! As he opens his mouth to yell for help, he is interrupted by a bout of projectile vomiting.
FORT Save (+2 if vs. Poison)
REF Save (-2 For sickened I assume)
Jim continues to listen for unpleasantness.
Kaul lets Lopper have a word with the offending fog fiend.
for
The sharp edge cuts deeply into the misty mobster leaving a gaping hole with water spouting out. It shrieks as it flutters irregularly.
"Garn! It be quiet...too quiet," Corliss grumbles to Jim and the captain.
"Where's my umbrella?!" Dingus shouts. He then sends a trio of glowing snake hissiles , exploding the creature Kaul wounded in a spray of hot water. "We need the others!" he yells and retreats back through the foggy night.
The remaining spirits don't pursue but turn on Kaul slahing with burning claws. Kaul bats them away but one gets close enough to leave a particularly deep slash.
Belaying Lopper for once, the brute bosun meets claw with claw and swings at the little scratcher with the crimson claw;
Kaul doesn't pause to consider the last time he ended up too far ahead of his mates and surrounded by foes. He returns the favor to the boiling creature that slashed him with a punch, gravely injuring it. It flits just out of reach and calls a heavy cloud of steam above Kaul that sends a scalding deluge over him again while the three others surround and slash at the burned sailor.
Slashed and steamed like a blodd pudding Kaul staggers, with a blistered grimace.
He weakly chops at one of the little steamers with his ax;
Covered in oozing burn blisters, Kaul painfully swings and misses.
The steam imps encircle Kaul, slashing from all direction and he suffers several scratches.
Corliss hears something from the direction that Kaul and Dingus went. A whistle? No, just a bird.
"Damned quiet be gittin' to me. I'd almost welcome the sinister song o' a siren to this blasted nothin'ness...preferably a gorgeous sea witch with an ample bosom...." The priest's thoughts turn briefly to the fair Lady Heidmarch.
Jim grins a little, shaking his head. "These days, I'm afraid if I looked overlong at a gorgeous sea witch I'd find myself on the wrong side of the Cap'n."
Punctured and poached, Kaul reels and bats a claw weakly at the little boilers;
Corliss returns Jim's grin. "Belinna be a fine lookin' woman...an' a damned fine cap'n, too," the priest says. "Not sure one could find better iff'n one sailed all these seas."
'Cept, mebbe, the fair Lady Heidmarch....
"Garn--I wish we hadn't let Kaulie an' Dingus explore ahead alone. This blasted fog makes one imagine the worst lurkin' just off the bow an' makes the call o' a gull sound like the shriek o' a wyvern."
Corliss hears the weird whistling cry grow nearer and then something circles in the fog overhead before dropping to the edge of the pool nearby. I look sort of like an eagle but with a featherless green-scaled head. It hops toward Corliss, gives a hiss, and then launches itself in the direction Kaul and Dingus took.
**************
One of the steaming imps hovers above the melee and calls another boiling rain down on the group. The other three seem reinvigorated and slash at Kaul from all directions,
Dingus pops back out of the fog near the scrum. "What are you doing, Kaul!" he hisses. "We're supposed to be spying on the base not making all this noise fighting these things!" He sends another volley of snake bolts at the most injured one.
The most injured creature explodes in a spray of steaming mist, leaving three.
"You're making me waste my spells!" Dingus fumes.
"Garn, I think that be a call fer help...Dingus style!" Corliss comments to Jim, drawing his rapier before following the strange beastie.
Jim shrugs and follows, rapier in hand.
Kaul grimaces as he boils inside and out. The bosun ignores the hissing Sorcerer and swings for one of the little steamers;