"It is certainly more visible. It is good that whomever is using the device that detected the rite last light will not have to exert themselves to know we are coming. I am sure they will appreciate your consideration."
Chaney tries to find a comfortable and stable seat.
He fails.
"So captain what is your plan?"
Svog will swim to a gun-port un try to squeeze in there.
"What did the device do? My plan was simply to adjust the need for a boat to a lack thereof. And the plan, I thought, was to wait for any sort of signal from the..." She was watching the ship as she trailed off. "Is Mister Blue supposed to land on the ship? Or is that signal enough for us? Something must be going on..." she trailed off.
Let's see a Defy Danger: Dexterity to squeeze through the gun port, Svog. I'm not choosing strength because the door to the gun port isn't that heavy.
When everyone is aboard the elemental, the massive creature kneels so that only the very top of its head and the backs of his shoulders where you are all seated is visible above the surface of the water. The fact that his entire face is underwater doesn't appear to concern him.
Svog will go in quietly, looking around before someone notices him.
*smiles* The gun ports wouldn't make very much sense underwater, now would they?
You shift back into an elf as you easily wriggle past the impressive iron cannon. You're inside - from what you can guess, you're on the second-lowest deck of the ship. From this vantage you see a row of 6 cannons on each side of the ship, port and starboard. From one floor above you, you can hear the stomping of feet and the pounding of mugs, and the rough voices of sailors singing songs. The smell of alcohol is strong in the air, enough to make your teeth lengthen ever so slightly.
Nobody else is with you on this deck. Nearby is a pile of cannonballs, and you notice something strange about them - they're hollow, and they each have a hole in one side of them...
Svog looks around, hoping to find with what they are filling those cannonballs, he has a bad feeling about this...
"What did the device do? My plan was simply to adjust the need for a boat to a lack thereof. And the plan, I thought, was to wait for any sort of signal from the..." She was watching the ship as she trailed off. "Is Mister Blue supposed to land on the ship? Or is that signal enough for us? Something must be going on..." she trailed off.
"I lack exact information on the device, however they noticed the rite within minutes of it's completion, And there was a magic device in the crows' nest. The purpose of the nest is to look, so it is not unreasonable to assume that the magic in the place built for looking was involved. Regardless of how they did it the opposition has evidenced the ability to discern subtle working at a significant distance and behind stone walls.
Your grossly overpowered jolly boat here was called from a much closer position and in direct line of sight. We may have well sent an engraved invitation.""Messers Blue and Grey are operating on their own initiative. Infiltration of the target does however align strongly with our overall goal."
Mazatl simply continued to smile to Chaney. She wouldn't be ordering the elemental around at all... So if it's endurance were to be tested... a few cannonball wouldn't be enough to stop it, unlike a 'jolly boat'.
Svog Kos: You see nothing around you that could be poured into the cannonballs. The answer must lie somewhere else on the ship...
Those of you on the elemental glide smoothly away from the pier on top of the elemental's head. The ride is shockingly smooth - none of you can see from your current vantage point, but roots are continually growing from the creature's knees and thighs and rooting him to the ground even as he walks, so the transition of movement from one leg to the other goes more smoothly than normal. You move between some of the other boats in the dark waters of the harbor, trying to stay out of direct line of sight to the ship. Your path is taking you rather close to one of the other foreigner ships in the harbor, the Smiler. What do you do?
You're standing in the central hallway running down the length of the ship down the middle. On either side of you are cannons facing closed gunports, with piles of cannonballs near each one. On either end of the hallway, fore and aft, you see divided staircases that lead up and downdecks.
Aifric doesn't like Mazatl and Chaney fighting. He's not quite sure what the fight is about, but Mazatl is talking to Chaney in the same tone she uses when she calls Aifric a monkey, and Chaney is using complicated sentences that are hard for Aifric to follow. It almost takes Aifric's mind off the fact that he's on an unpredictable magic thingie that grew up out of the water. Almost. To get his mind completely off that fact, he focuses his attention on the Smiler.
But looking directly at the ship while gliding across the water makes Aifric feel a bit sick at his stomach, so he winds up just looking down at his feet, imagining his combat moves. After a few minutes, he is completely engrossed in rehearsing them.
Shift; pivot; spear strike; shield block. Protect the fulcrum. Defeat the bad guys. Spear strike; reverse pivot; shield bash; feint; as soon as the bad guy commits to the feint, use the spear to sweep his legs. Stab him in the face while he's down! Protect the fulcrum.
Chaney rests his eyes on the Smiler
"What an odd name for a ship."
Should those cannonballs be filled with Banes, this will be bad...
Svog, taking a mental note of everything he sees, will continue walking to the downdecks maybe there is where the cargo really is...
Chaney, you may ask me 3 questions from Discern Realities and I will answer truthfully, also take +1 when acting on the answers:
What is about to happen?
What should I be on the lookout for?
What here is useful or valuable to me?
Who’s really in control here?
What here is not what it appears to be?
However, you have never heard of a ship called the Smiler before.
Aifric, as you glance out across the water toward the ships, you feel a faint sense of dread. Something is making the hair on the back of your neck stand on end and goosebumps break out on your arms.
Svog Kos: You hear the stomping of many boots and the singing of sailors on the decks above you as you move toward the stairs heading down. Right as you're about to reach the stairs though, you hear someone coming up from below! What do you do?
Oh noes! hide! hide! hide!
Svog runs back quietly and hides, of couse with an eye open and a sharp ear to see who is going up...
Not needed quite yet. There's a lot of noise coming from upstairs and nobody's on alert for any intruders in this area. You successfully duck behind a wooden post in one of the cannon stalls and watch as a sailor climbs the stairs, carrying an enormous wheel of cheese in both arms. The awkwardness of his load makes him waddle somewhat as he walks, and he pays you no notice as he turns around and climbs up to the higher level on the staircase. You hear cheers and laughter when he reaches the level just above yours and his cheese is received; he shouts, "Cheddar from our gracious hosts, the city of Magna Gracia!"
What do you do?
The monk climbs to his feet once more, looking almost as he did when he was alive - with a few major differences, like his throat being torn out and old dried blood covering all of his clothes in the front of him. His eyes glow with the characteristic very faint necromantic blue that all of your minions share.
Mazatl, thinks for a moment as they're passing the Smiler.
'Is it normal for a nation engaging in peace talks, and seeking to recruit, to send multiple ships into another nation's harbor... and then not dock, but rather wait out at sea?'
Chaney, you may ask me 3 questions from Discern Realities and I will answer truthfully, also take +1 when acting on the answers:...
We will cautiously move to the lower decks. My first objective is to connect with the others.
Mazatl, you remember a lot of excitement happening near the main gates, and you also recall a pair of fisherman's wives gossiping inside your flower shop not long after the arrival of Ultimus' retinue.
"Jarman says getting out to fish takes longer now, with those big ships just floating at anchor in the harbor. Why don't they just dock, I wonder?"
"Chilly reception at the Main Pier, I heard," the other wife mutters to her. "The Governor has his mansion, but the Dockmaster, he's almost a king in everything nautical. I heard they was sniping at each other with words for nearly an hour before the ships fell back and weighed anchor in the harbor."
You don't remember much beyond that, and the gossip of fisherman's wives is never to be considered top-quality information. But it could provide some explanation for their presence out here in the open water.
Chaney: Your instincts are gradually growing more and more paranoid the closer you get to the Smiler. Though there are no crewmen to be seen, you don't trust their absence. The nearly-silent splashing of the waves on the side of Mazatl's elemental is the only sound to be heard, yet it feels watchful.
With how sharply you are paying attention to your senses, you notice that the gait of your elemental mount has changed somewhat. The water must have grown suddenly deeper. The ride will be somewhat less safe from here on out.
I'll answer your third question by saying that you finally spy someone on the Smiler. A sailor dressed all in black moves a window aside slightly, glaring out into the night - you see that you are as yet unnoticed, but that could change at any moment.
Feustus, you can move around on the poopdeck fairly freely but to get belowdecks you'll need to sneak past the sailor on the main deck looking out to sea.
Roll Defy Danger: Dexterity for you to stealth, and your zombie can be stealthy using your INT score. Don't ask how that works, it's necromancy.
You're creeping over to the stairs leading downward when your zombie lets out a moan of hunger for the living. You manage to duck into the stairwell, but the sailor whirls around and sees undead Ryuko. "What the f-" he shouts, jumping back and bumping against the rail of the ship. "A zombie!" he draws a short blade as your zombie slavers in his direction, unable to attack him without his master's command but hungering for his flesh.
There's a lot of noise coming from the dinner downstairs, what do you do?
A sailor dressed all in black moves a window aside slightly, glaring out into the night - you see that you are as yet unnoticed, but that could change at any moment.
...
quietly. "Ms. Green, we are not alone."
Chaney nods towards the Smiler
"Mmm.." Mazatl didn't look. She whispered down to the elemental, "Get close to the ship we're passing, please, we need to pass under someone's vision... the open sea will kill us."
Spend 1 Control, Mazatl. Your speed slows down considerably as the elemental attempts to disturb the water as little as possible with its passing. Your party creeps closer to the Smiler, a foot closer with each wave, until you are within arm's reach of the hull. You move alongside the great frigate carefully, and Chaney, you can still track the sailor as he scans the waters. You've moved directly underneath him when you hear, faintly across the water, "Zombie!?" and the sailor appears to hear it too. You hear and see him moving around in his position not 10 feet from you, digging in his bag for something, what do you do?
Aifric's eyes widen as he hears the faint cry coming across the waters. He is trying to fight back the fear that is building within him. His dread hasn't yet transformed into full-blown fear, but it is close. He shifts into his were form, still trying to hold it together. He knows better than to say anything while they're sneaking along. He looks to his companions for some reassurance that they think everything's going to be alright, but their demeanor offers him nothing of the sort. He wonders what he can do about this band of steel that seems to have encircled his body and is now squeezing his chest. He could easily climb aboard this ship. Would it be safer or more dangerous? It's almost getting to the point that anywhere would be better than here. He wills himself not to turn full ape, but for how much longer?
Athena would move closer to the center or their 'boat' when it entered the deeper water, she hated water.
"I guess they found the other.
"We can't let this guard warn the ship of our ally's plight, someone, silence him." Mazatl says in a terse whisper. "Aifric, you've the best chance, I believe you can do it. Show him what a monkey who sets his mind can do."
Svog will wait for the sailor to go up, then he will go downstairs quietly,
Downstairs seems to be the cargo bay...
Svog, you creep down the stairs and blink to let your eyes adjust to the darkness in the cargo hold. At the bottom of a stairs is a wooden wall that blocks off view of the cargo hold. There's a door that appears to be locked flimsily. What do you do?
As soon as Mazatl whispers to him, Aifric leaps without hesitation from the elemental to the slightest of handholds on the Smiley, shifting to bonobo in mid-air so his equipment won't clang.
His leap was faster than his transformation, and the sound of his not-quite-bonobofied shield betrays him as it makes contact with the hull. The figure in black looks down at him and says, "What in the...." just as Aifric grabs his head and shifts back to his were-form, twisting his target's head sharply as he pushes against the hull with his legs.
Chaney sits silently and despairs for humanity.
You would've had a clean ambush on the sailor if you hadn't slipped on that loose board, Aifric. As it is, even with Mazatl's help, you aren't able to get a clean chokehold on the guy's neck. Roll Defy Danger: Strength to see if you can win the brief struggle you have with him.
Once again, Mazatl seeks to aid the poor ape, as he fails at bonobofying his target, giving him a boost, to help him maintain his grip.
You wrestle the sailor around as he struggles mightily against you. You manage to keep one of your large, hairy palms against his mouth so he can't shout for help. The struggle lasts only a few terse seconds, but feels like an eternity to the combatants. Suddenly, a knife flashes in the starlight. The sailor exposes himself in his bloodlust to stab you clean. Take 1d6 damage as he stabs you in your side; but his lunge allows you to get him in a clean chokehold, and he eventually passes out. Your wound is nasty, and you think you're still bleeding a bit, but you did it, and you did it quietly.
Mazatl gazes on nervously as Aifric struggles against the sailor. At first she doesn't want to interfere, but when she sees the flash of the knife she lurches to her feet impulsively. Too impulsively. Suddenly, the very darkness of the waters around you reaches up to grab your ankle and pull you down into the deep water! From below the surface you hear the laughter of the slighted water elemental, which had snuck up easily on you; after all, how could your mount know the difference between the elemental and a stray current? What do you do?
Svog Kos, the door is heavy but you manage to push it open a slight amount. Immediately you're struck by how hot the air on the other side of the door feels. The door itself isn't hot, so you don't think there's a blazing inferno in there, but from the light and heat, there's definitely fire of some kind.
Looking inside by peeking around the door, you see bubbling cauldrons filled with something you can't identify, stoked by burning fires underneath. You suddenly notice that you aren't alone down there! Someone is in the cargo hold with you, you hear their footsteps deeper inside and out of sight range. What do you do?
Edited, DM ninja!!