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Lizzie glances down at the kneeling man.
"You're being sensible. Stay put, while we deal with that @sswipe that is to pass for a first mate."
She points her morningstar at him.
"Striking at non combatants, you're low. You've lost your chance of forgiveness from me."
"At him!", and the wolfdog hurries the duo towards the first mate.
Working as a team, Lizzie and her wolfdog lay into the mate. The wolfdog went for an ankle and bit down hard, while Lizzie's Morningstar descended with terrible force. Her weapon flashed with the fury of the gods and left the man's left arm a smoking ruin. Despite this he laughed madly, "Is that all you've got? Is it?!"
Limping heavily and trailing smoke, The Captain dragged himself round the corner and downed the contents of another silver hip flask.
The mate tried to kick Lizzie's hound off his foot and when that failed he tried to brain it with his flail but it was an awkward strike and he missed.
<--- MISS
Filbert Springbit
Zarine
Coursairs
Lizzie "beads" Tamar'
Captain & First Mate
Momijii <----- WE ARE HERE
Zandomir
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa
Spoiler:Filbert Springbit Derring do
Zarine Derring do
Coursairs Barkskin
Lizzie "beads" Tamar' Derring do
Captain & First Mate Blur (26 rounds)
Momijii Derring do
Zandomir Derring do
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa Derring do, False Life (2996 rounds)
Filbert Springbit Derring do
Zarine Derring do
Coursairs Barkskin
Lizzie "beads" Tamar' Derring do
Captain & First Mate Blur (25 rounds)
Momijii Derring do
Zandomir Derring do
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa Derring do, False Life (2995 rounds)
Momijii, Zandomir, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, Filbert Springbit and Zarine are up.
Is that all you've got? Is it?!"
"I'm raring to go, you madman."
The wolfdog growls at him too.
With the captain unseen and the lone corsair cowering on the far deck, Filbert takes aim at the mate. "Hold him still Lizzie"
Gathering in aether unto himself, Filbert literally electrifies the air surrounding him and Momijii.
Filbert accepts 1 further point of burn 4/6
+ 11 = 39
Though she despised having to flee from the fighting Momijii knew that she has no choice. She was berating herself for failing to save the two men from their fate at the hands of the slave master, why she went for the captain she would never know, and she couldn't even remember how she got her targets confused in the first place. While she had a potion she could take to let her rejoin the fight Momijii decided that, given the way it was going, it was best to hold onto it for now.
Having lost her line of sight, Zarine jumps over to the other ship and runs to find the captain to finish him off.
Zandomir follows Zarine's example and moves to get in position to strike the captain. The slavers can't be allowed to get away. Both for justice's sake and for Skywin's.
Momijii wisely stayed put while Zandomir and Zarine moved into position to hopefully end the captain.
Heinrich starts performing calculus in his head while Filbert reaching for all the power he could muster flung a giant cracking ball of electrical doom at the mate. His muscles spasm and as he screams the stench of his body frying fills the air, yet somehow he clings to life.
Zarine chases the captain who looks distinctly unwell despite having downed several healing potions. As she draws close he suddenly lunges at her, driving the point of his sword deep into her belly, before retreating round the corner.
<--- HIT
"After i'm done with you, the captain's next."
Lizzie and her mount continue the assault.
Lizzie's hound goes for the ankle once more and it bites deep and hard, making the man yelp, but not for long! Lizzie's Morningstar descends upon his head to deliver Saranrae's wrath. His head deforms and gore leaks out of ruin of his eyes, ears and nose. He falls with a resounding thud, eliciting a ragged cheer from the bound men below deck!
Filbert Springbit
Zarine
Lizzie "beads" Tamar'
Captain & First Mate
Momijii <----- WE ARE HERE
Zandomir
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa
Spoiler:Filbert Springbit Derring do
Zarine Derring do
Lizzie "beads" Tamar' Derring do
Captain & First Mate Blur (25 rounds)
Momijii Derring do
Zandomir Derring do
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa Derring do, False Life (2995 rounds)
Filbert Springbit Derring do
Zarine Derring do
Lizzie "beads" Tamar' Derring do
Captain & First Mate Blur (24 rounds)
Momijii Derring do
Zandomir Derring do
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa Derring do, False Life (2994 rounds)
Just the captain left now, time to finish this! Momijii, Zandomir, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, Filbert Springbit, Zarine and Lizzie "beads" Tamar' are up.
Lizzie makes a sharp swipe downwards to whip off the worst of the blood from her weapon, then points at the captain with it.
"Forward, the last one ahead."
*Growl*, and the wolfdog heads towards the thuggish captain.
Almost dead, Zarine moves below decks to start freeing the slaves, hoping they can help in the battle if her team proves unable to finish the job.
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Since blur,
Zandomir is distressed as Zarine takes a nasty blow. Steeling himself for a final confrontation, Zandomir jumps onto the other boat and goes to confront the captain.
Zandomir races towards the other boat which to his alarm starts to drift away from the Stellen Starling now the rowers have stopped rowing.
Back on the Starling Heinrich pulls a book out and starts deciphering more Aklo script.
Filbert moves closer, hoping to get an angle on the enemy captain.
Zarine lets herself into a cabin inside of which are a few hammocks, boxes with personal effects, and two large chests. Two large trap doors in the floor are open, and the smell of unwashed flesh wafts upward. She glances through to the the sodden, filthy hold below where 14 rowers sit on filthy benches. Each man is restrained by leg manacles all linked by a long chain which winds its way through the benches like a shoelace.
Lizzie's hound lunges at the Captain and bites down on his leg. Lizzie swings her morning star at him, but in a feat of remarkable agility the man manages to duck under her swing.
Ignoring Lizzie, the man takes advantage of the hound biting his leg, by shuffling sideways which forced the hound to come after him. He then thrust his sword into it's exposed flank. A nasty smile crosses his face as he idly wonders, "Whose gonna die first mutt? You or me?!"
<--- HIT
Filbert Springbit
Zarine
Lizzie "beads" Tamar'
Captain
Momijii <----- WE ARE HERE
Zandomir
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa
Spoiler:Filbert Springbit Derring do
Zarine Derring do
Lizzie "beads" Tamar' Derring do
Captain Blur (24 rounds)
Momijii Derring do
Zandomir Derring do
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa Derring do, False Life (2994 rounds)
Filbert Springbit Derring do
Zarine Derring do
Lizzie "beads" Tamar' Derring do
Captain Blur (23 rounds)
Momijii Derring do
Zandomir Derring do
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa Derring do, False Life (2993 rounds)
Momijii, Zandomir, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, Filbert Springbit, Zarine and Lizzie "beads" Tamar' are up.
Zarine continues to work on the locks, asking the men to row to stay near her ship so they can get them to safety.
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Zandomir takes another step to the side to come into clear view of the captain. He lets Desna's holy energy fill his bow once again before unleashing a pair of electrified arrows toward the slaver.
<--- HIT
<--- MISS
Zandomirs rounds the corner and sends a couple of arrows towards the Captain. The first takes him in the throat and he clutches feebly at it, the other however misses due the blurriness of his form.
The wolfdog growls strongly at the man after taking the hit.
"Have fun being judged, you fiend!"
<--- HIT
The wolfdog bites the man in the and tears at the wound. The man suddenly screams at one canine punctured his femoral artery sending blood spurting everywhere. He'd been badly wounded and loosing blood and before your eyes his blood pressure cratered, hie eyes rolled up into his skull and he fell overboard with a huge SPLASH!
From below a moment of utter silence and disbelief before the cheering started as Zarine managed to pick the lock holding the long chain in place.
With the fighting done, Skwyin comes out and commands her crew to come out and maneuver The Starling along side. She hops aboard and kicks several of the gaudy masks on the forecastle before heading below decks to see what the score was.
Spotting the slaves she exclaims, "By the gods the stench! Uh how could that animal force people to live like this?! Well we can't leave them here, if the Razmiri get wind of this they'll kill the lot of em, and the elves will do the same because they're not people in their eyes. We're going to have to take em aboard the starling, which will be real cosy until we can find somewhere safe for them. Oh and we're going to have to scuttle this ridiculous barge!"
After the big splash, Lizzie gets off her mount companion, inspecting his injuries.
"You took a hard knocking there, didn't you."
She rubs it over the head and hugs her friend.
"Glad you're still up."
As Skywin and Zarine inspect the lower decks, Lizzie walks over to the surrendered mercenary.
"It is done. The zealot and the oppressor are off to be judged, as are your former fellow mercenaries."
"So, what will you do from here on? Clearly returning to port is not an option. If you're looking for a new start, perhaps the captain has need of some reliable hands."
Filbert moves up next to Momijii and offer his healing. "I can heal you but you'll be tired afterwards."
Filbert indicates for Momijii to kneel down, then he lays his small hands on on each of her shoulders and begins to concentrate, as the charge around him grows the hair stands straight out from his head.
healed
Afterwards Filbert will call out to the others, "Do we have seriously wounded to attend to?"
Zarine comes up to get some healing, cleans up all of the slaves with prestidigitation and and then she searches the ship carefully, with detect magic up, to make sure they don't leave anything valuable behind.
Zandomir lets Desna's holy energy fade from his bow before immediately going to check on Zarine. He looks at her wounds with worried eyes.
While she's casting prestidigitation on the former slaves, Zan does what he can to heal both her wounds and theirs.
To Zarine, Zan says, "Please tell me if you need more healing. Who knows whether or not those Razmiran bastards will send more fanatics to attack us? We can't be too careful."
Zandomir scratches one of his pointed ears when Skywin casually indicates the elves of Kyonin see others as less than people. He says, "Uh, are you sure about that, Skywin? All of them see humans as less than people? Maybe we could see if they could provide safe transport somewhere else if they don't want them to stay in Kyonin. I could try talking to them if we're going to be passing by one of their towns or spot them near the river. I'm at least half a person, if nothing else."
Momijii accepted the help that Filbert gave her, the small man was always good like that, and she breathed a little easier afterwards. "Thank you my friend."
The discussion began to move to what to do about the slaves and the barge and Momijii was quite glad they would be taking them aboard. She went to help free them and was close enough for Zandomir's efforts to heal her as well wich helped bring her back to a more manageable level. She was still not in the best of shape but Momijii wasn't going to complain about it.
Momijii began to move through the slaves, shattering the any chains holding them with her fists as a means of releasing her anger at her failure to save the two crewmen.
Skywin initially blushes but then a frown forms on her normally cheerful face and with hands on her hips she tells Zandomir how it is, "They'd kill you too if I was to let you land on the southern shore. Perhaps you've visited Iadara? It's different there, but here on the border with Razmiran they shoot first and speak with deal later. In their own way the Kyonin elves are zealots and as bad as their northern neighbors. Only good thing is if we stick to the river they'll leave us alone."
The mercenary replies to Lizzie, "Uh I have no idea what I'll do now. Try and find who I am, I suppose. I know for one thing I'm not a follower of Razmir! I feel real bad for the rowers, the captain had a habit of beating the slowest rower and the loudest one until they bled. Worst thing is if the slowest rower was the loudest he'd kill them and gloat about it. None of the men liked that, but he had that brute of a mate watching what we said and did. Last man to try and help the rowers ended up manacled to an oar himself."
The former slaves seem somewhat in awe of Momijii for smashing their manacles off with her bare hands. None of them had ever seen anything of the like before, and perhaps more than a little afraid. Still one of them called Mattias smiled as he told her, "Please accept my thanks, that thing chafed awfully" Indeed his ankles like most of them where swollen and raw.
There are two very heavy metal chests in the cabin above the rowers. Apparently they contain the “donations” bullied from other ships over many months. Unfortunately they're locked although the former salves tell you the captain had the only key.
"Captain, a word if you please."
"This man had surrendered during combat, and had not feigned it by picking back up arms to flank me with the taskmaster of a 1st mate.
I get the impression he genuinely wants to make a fresh start."
(looks over her shoulder briefly at the man)
"Could you perhaps need an extra set of hands on your ship?"
After finishing up with Momijii and Zarine and the others whom need healing Filbert takes a rope and ties the Tribute Taker astern.
Looking around "Then again if this place would work...." He finishes looking towards the Tribute's anchor
Filbert will use his abilities and the anchor to sink it.
Zarine tells Zandomir thank you and that she does need more healing, but that it can wait for later. She feels much, much better than she did before.
As she searches, she finds a permanent jump spell on the boat and a couple of metal chests:
Zarine unlocks the metal chests
She also examines the copper plate containing the spell to see if it can be removed and transferred to a different ship, or if it that will destroy the enchantment.
The copper plate is screwed down, presumably it could be removed but whether or not that would destroy the enchantment Zarine couldn't say.
Zarine pulls out her Traveler's Any Tool, and fashions it into a screwdriver of the exact sort needed to unscrew the bras plate from the decking, and proceeds to do so, hoping the spell can be salvaged in this manner.
She gets some help from her friends to move the chests full of money over to the other ship.
Zandomir sighs at Skywin's words. The truth is that he doesn't have any experience with the elves of Kyonin. They must be a very different lot than the ones in Varisia.
The warpriest tries to assist with the items Zarine was unable to learn about.
Zan whistles softly at the dice and says, "There are actually worth quite a bit, about seven-hundred gold pieces, I would say."
Regarding the former slaves, Zan says to Skywin, "Are we going to be able to manage with so many all the way to Cassomir? I don't mind doing extra foraging trips, but we need to know if it's something we can realistically accomplish. I don't particularly want to drop them off just anywhere if it can be helped."
Skywin listens to Lizzie and glances at the man who rather sheepishly says, "I'm sorry for my part in this and would like to make amends somehow."
Meanwhile Zarine manages to unscrew the metal plate. She's uncertain if it harmed the enchantment but with it and the chests off the boat there's nothing left of value. Filbert then scuttles the Tribute Taker in spectacular style to much cheereing!
Skywin gives the man an appraising look and replies, "I see. OK well I can't promise anything but I'll introduce you to Keith and see if there's something you can help out with..."
The man seems terribly grateful as Skywin leads him over to talk to the mate.
A bit later she comes back and tells Lizzie, "Lets see how he does over the next couple of weeks, but Keith's got him stacking rope and he'll try him on some minor repairs - a bit of painting and some tarring - nothing major but things that need doing."
When Zandomir discusses taking so many on board Skywin replies, "Aye it's going to be tight. You and the other paying passengers have the largest room, I'd appreciate if let some of the rowers or my crew share it. Tempers are bound to fray with so many, yet we can hardly leave them to their fate all the way out here. I'm hoping we can drop them off at Riverton but it may be friendlier to take them further than that. Of course this means more mouths to feed so we'll have to step up the foraging trips."
I'm happy to share.
Agrippa looks very put upon to be forced into even more cramped quarters, but he doesn't say anything about it.
Agrippa inspects the items in the chest.
Mistress Freeling. I think perhaps we've found the solution to our problem. These coins here could be divvied up amongst the freed rowers, it would aid their trips back home. The remainder could be claimed by you and the crew. We would take the robes and vambraces here.....
Filbert smiles sheepishly as the other cheer when the Tribute Taker is sunk "Just doin' what needed to be done."
Later
"I'll make some room although truth be told I don't take up much anyways."
Lizzie nods at Skywin.
"Thank you captain."
Like Filbert, Lizzie wasn't too worried about the space, likewise being small.
"Of course," Zandomir says to Skywin. "Maybe we can set up some extra cots and hammocks so no one has to sleep on the hard deck."
A little while later Winter appears looking tired, "Wow that was quite the fight, I was getting worried there. Anyway I had a look at all the rowers, most of whom had been treated abominably. They where regularly beaten, some-severely, all are malnourished and several had various waterborne diseases. Fortunately by the grace of Pharasma that's all dealt with. The psychological trauma will take some time however..."
She inquires if any of you need healing and does what she can for Momijii and Zarine. Once you where patched up she asked, "What will you do now? Can't exactly perform that ritual on the boat with this lot in it... Might be best to sneak off after dark if we find one of those lay-lines."
Heinrich, while I agree that we should help the former slaves, perhaps you should consult the group before giving it all away.
Zarine also shows Skywin the metal plate she removed from the other ship and explains what it did over there, asking if she wants to test it on her ship and see if it retains its enchantment.
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"I'm sure he meant well Zarine, but besides that, a boat load of malnourished men sporting lots of gold would likely draw attention to themselves, Attention that would be not be good for our captain, her ship, or us; when the Razmir begin trying to find out where Tribute Taker disappeared to."
Filbert offers from the side.
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Zandomir nods at Winter's sensible advice. "Perhaps we should go ahead and try to get some sleep now. Then we can get up around midnight or so and try traveling to the Dreamlands again, from a more secluded location, of course."