Anody casts Invisibility on Ayla.
Ayla moves quietly even though invisible to free the ship.
Sho will ready himself for the pirates to charge the ship. When he sees them readying for a rush he will drink his potion, bring his AC up to 24.
Criek will drink a shield extract, and ready an action to bomb the next pirate who pops up from cover.
Ayla, invisible, slips down the gangplank to the dock. She moves to the mechanism, and as instructed, pulls the release lever. There is a pair of loud 'clunks' as the locking mechanism lets the chain hawsers go.
The captain hisses draw the hawsers. Lively now!
With a loud rattle, the chains are pulled into the ship, and it starts to drift clear.
Warrior. Get up the gangplank unless you want to be left behind
Yells of consternation can be head at the barricade, along with a few arrows. None hit.
Ratty, curse your scurvy hide, smoke bomb the dock. Hands aloft, and rig the sails the captain yells. Ratty throws two bombs onto the dock, and thick smoke blocks the view of the barricade. Sailors quickly climb the masts to set the rigging. He turns to the party.
You have my thanks. My ship be departing now. If ye wish to stay, disembark now, otherwise stand to defend the ship. And if ye be staying, get your friend back on board. We'll be pulling the gangplank soon
Actions?
Sharae looks at the captain and then back to her friends… Sho and the Professor, in particular, seem set upon relieving the fort – and so, wishing the Captain ‘Desna’s Fortune’, she rushes down the gangplank and into the smoke enveloping the dockway…
Our 600 gold and we'll be on our way Captain Anody grins.
Criek wrinkles his snout at Ratty in exasperation, "Oh, wonderful. Well, wish us luck, and best to you!" he calls, as he scurries after his companions.
oh 600 gold. Hmm. pats his pockets.
here you go
He opens a pouch, checks it, removing a few gems, then hands it over.
600. In gems. Best of luck to ye
As the ship pulls away the captain says to ratty there go some real heroes. Idiots! ratty just shakes his head.
The party quickly heads onto the dock. the gangplank goes up, and the vessel moves away.
At this point Mel asks Isn't that the ship we need to use to go the the scrapyard?
She hefts her crossbow
Oh well, we are committed now
The dock is thirty feet wide and about sixty feet long. You are 45 feet away from the barricade, but your view of it is blocked by the billowing smoke cloud between you and it.
You can hear some yelling on the far side of the smoke
Sho thinks "Sharky, hmmm, must be the ogre. If we can kill him before we take the others its might be easier."
Sho will attempt to sneak towards where the deep voice is coming from, moving a total of 20 feet forwards.
The party watches as Sho, the impetuous vanishes into the smoke.
Criek catches only snippets of the conversation at the barricade? "Leaving? Well then, let's let them, shouldn't we? Maybe they don't even know we're here in the smoke?" he offers to the hazy forms of his companions nearest him.
Seeing Sho slip off towards the barricade, though, and not wanting to let their new companion get too far out of sight, Criek tries to quietly follow...
...though forgets he's dragging his entire pack with him and bumps into some crates on the dock, making some amount of clatter.
Wondering whether this is going to turn out to be a really bad idea, Sharae follows after Criek and Sho… she tries to get Sho’s attention, ”They’re leaving my friend… let them slink back to whatever hole they came from – there’s no need to make this our fight!!!”
Their voices grow distant.
Sho will hold back and not pursue them. They will be easy enough to deal with later if we have to. For now the priority is the bandits attacking the tower.
Anody wipes his brow with relief. Well let's see what the fort is all about. Bit low on magic but it seems like this shaman is quite formidable
Sticking your heads out of the smoke reveals the pirates heading back to where the boats were. (currently 180 feet away)
You can hear a loud crashing noise inside the burning fort, along with grawling cheers.
A goblin looks at you with shock from ten feet away. Looks like it was looting boxes around the barricade.
you have surprised it. Actions?
Criek fires on the goblin with his bow, but is as surprised by the goblin as it is of them, and his arrow goes wild.
Responding instinctively, Sharae flings one of her starknives towards the lone goblin...
If the goblin is still standing after everyone else moves Anody readies an Act so that after Sho, Ayla, and Mel, go he will cast Daze at the goblin to keep it from moving.
The goblin drops like a stone.
"Discretion is the better part of valour Professor... If you can make Criek invisible, he can scout for us... and, if he sees the way is clear, than we rush to the fort", Sharae thinks for a moment, "How do we convince the fort to let us in?"
Based on that crashing noise we might not need an invitation Sharae. Time is of the essence!
"Yes, we'd best get in there -- I'll try to report back their positions, and see if there's any high ground for bombing."
He opens the bag Ratty gave him, quickly handing out the antitoxins -- "Here, this is for the poison on their arrows, and this one will increase someone's speed," offering up Ratty's expeditious retreat elixir before pulling his own and drinking it. "I suppose we should get moving?" he turns to Anody.
Criek glances around the courtyard, taking a quick count before hurrying back to his friends.
"There are 3 goblins just inside the gate, and 5 more scattered around the courtyard, looting. I see 12 orcs behind cover with bows, waiting for the undead ogre to bash in the inner door. The only defender I saw was dead, the goblins picking his corpse. If we're to make a difference, we'd best hurry."
Oh dear. I don't have very much magic left. But I think I can cause a distraction
Criek will additionally report back the presence of the orcish sorceror / shaman type, and the few minutes left for the breach of the door.
Oh dear, Maybe if we can take care of the mage the others will scatter?