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The fight swings in the opposite direction and you all manage to drop a couple of them. The timely arrival of Cyclone has swung the battle to your advantage.
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Ninja 1 seeing the fight turning away from them, tosses another smoke bomb into the middle of the road before running off.
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Ninja 3 and Ninja 6 coordinate to attack Variel.
Ninja 3 attack on Variel with flanking
Damage
Ninja 6 attack on Variel with flanking MISS
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Ninja 5 fortitude save vs choking bomb STAGGERED for rds.
He moves away quietly, moving off into the smoke.
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The fight is swinging the pirates way although the danger was still not over yet. The new cloud appeared obscuring Variel's sight once again from his allies. Taking matters into his own hands, Variel dodges to the side slightly as a sword passes through the space his head occupied just a split second before. Using the near miss as an opportunity Variel recalls to mind a spell. Casting the recently recalled spell Variel's weapon crackles with electricity once again. Variel stabs with his dagger at assassin 3 using e presence of Cyclone to ensure his attack.
Swift action to get back shocking grasp
Spell combat to cast shocking grasp concentration
Flank attack
Damage 5 regular, 10 nonlethal cold, 18 electricity
Miss chance 1-20
Crit confirm Flank attack
Damage
Second attack with dagger on other assassin
attack
Damage 5 damage, 7 nonlethal cold and fatigued
Miss chance 1-20
Variel's sword slices through the ninja, arcs of electricity shooting through his body. He falls to the ground twitching slightly from leftover electricity, lightly smoking.
What does the cloud do to my summons? Can i take a 5' to move a little and then get out the cloud the next round to get my summon out? Jsut not sure what happens with LoS in this situation?
Round 5
Holding her breath as much as possible, Rain attempts to move out of the noxious fumes. She looks around her, trying to determine possible threats and positions of her allies.
Rain with cutlass held before her moves stealthily forward (using the cover of smoke) to .
If Seijiro is good to go with a 15 save then he will move to H9 and ready an action to attack vs any foe that comes within reach. Take the rest of the round to survey the situation.
Yay questioning prisoners!
All of the sudden, behind Ninja 6 appears a many tentacled beastie, a Fiendish Squid. Out of it's natural element and very unhappy, it latches onto the only thing in front of it
OK then, a Giant Spider appears on the edge of the roof, and launches a Web at the Ninja
Ninja can attempt a DC 14 Escape artist or Str check on its turn to get out as a standard action.
, forgot to roll it.
Dhaavan concentrates and casts a quick cantrip,
at which point Jack darts from the smoke cloud with his talons enchanted with the necromantic touch.
dodging into range wiht the ninja...
and alights, gently, to deliver Dhaavan's spell
[edit]that should work?
Seeing the clouds of smoke seem to be having an unusual effect on the humans,Cyclone drops in hovering just 20 feet off the ground. The buffeting wings clearing the smoke from the area, but loose debris and dust kick up limiting vision.
As Cyclone lives up to his name, the smoke begins to clear while clouds of debris are kicked up as well, blocking sight but no longer choking you. At the same time the winds blow out torches and lanterns along the walls plunging the street into darkness.
Seijiro creates dancing lights, sending one of them up to the roof to assist Variel's low light vision and two hovering and bouncing about in the street so the rest of them could see as well.
"That filth - he is entangled by your web, yes?" he calls out, hoping that either the Spider or Jack can answer him about the ninja.
He will add to Variel -
"Oye - Nightstorm - you alright up there? Is everyone okay?" he calls out, knowing he himself was hurt, but guessing others such as Seijiro may be worse off, and probably Nighstorm as well.
At the least, Horatio is confident that Variel would have seen the ninja crouched under the weight of the spider with his elven eyes, because even when the torches blew out, there was still enough ambient lighting from his magical short sword for Variel to be able to see with his elven eyes.
Still - with one formal action to go - he will reach to Camm and place his hand on the man's next arrow - and cast "light" on that arrow as well, trusting Camm can fire the arrow to give them more light, if needed.
Escape Artist vs DC SUCCESS
Ninja 6 manages to extricate himself from the web and steps off the edge falling 65' into the water below.
Acrobatics to reduce falling damage FAIL
Anyone that looks over sees him fall to the water and land with a huge splash. He goes under for a moment before surfacing facedown a different shade of red emanating and mingling with the red of the water.
Seijiro keeps the bobbing lights hovering about the street area and one around the roof for Variel to see by. He sighs deeply and put his weapon away as he realizes all the foes seem to be completely gone.
He shakes his head at the sight of the dead foe in the water. "He'd rather die than be captured. To be expected. He'd never tell us anything useful about who sent them even if we HAD caught him. They are fiercely loyal to whoever hires them."
"Dammit all to the Nine!" Dhaavan snarles as he banishes his summonid spider with an angry wave of his hand. "Well, I guess we search the corpses and see if we can get any sign of who sent 'em. Could have been Aspes or that monkey's cronies. Jiro, you got garb like that, you know what that might 'ave been about?"
"Camm, think ya can get Cyclone ta grab the corpse out the water afore it sinks?"
Jack quickly flits to the sorcerer, and wriggles into his shirt, balling up and turning into a tattoo, hiiding from his master's wrathful mood at loosing the chance to acquire a prisoner.
Where I come from, they are called ninja. They are assassins for hire, usually working for noble houses. They could be from the Aspes consortium, or perhaps someone else who thought our reputations were worthy of challenge. Most odd though to find them here in the west
He starts searching bodies of any in the street, if any.
Hoartio will move quickly – and do the following:
1. He will search the bodies of the ninja near him (if any) – stripping it of any magical goods and gear – and pretty much any gear whatsoever, tossing it into a bundle for Seijiro’s handy haversack.
2. He will cast “Cure Light Wounds” on himself – and prepare for anyone else who may need it.
3. He will pick up his pistol and stuff it into his holster, currently holding his sword for light.
4. During all of this – he will make the following statements as he is moving:
”It’s very likely they were Apses – we only told everyone in sundry that we hit their ship and we’re currently reselling their gear in town. They maybe put two and two together and just wanted us to pay for our actions… so it could simply be an independent action to enact vengeance.”
He spits once.
”But I don’t believe it was an independent action of vengeance – it was too well planned and coordinated. They knew exactly what to hit us with, and what gear to carry, and which gear would be best against certain members of our crew.”
”That reminds me…”
”Dhaavan – the basterd who hit my weapon had a magic wand; he tumbled in the drink to the south. Can you get Jack to cast the spell "Detect Magic" over there so we can see where the wand is under the water and go get it? It’s likely valuable.”
He turns his eyes back to Camm.
”If Cyclone hadn’t shown up when he did; we’d all be dead – they would have finished off Nighstorm on the roof; greased the ground where we were standing with that wand, and just hit us again and again at range.”
”So not only did you help save our necks – but your mate there turned the tide,” he adds, with nod to Cyclone.
”But maybe we shouldn’t talk about this any more here, eh?”
”I think it would be better if we went back to our ship and got on board behind a deckwatch, some closed doors, and some extra protection.”
”If they knew where to find us in the street – it’s a safe bet they not only know our ship, but they at least know the rooms you had in what tavern. If you go back there now – you may wake up with your throat cut. And anyhow, I want to make sure the ship hasn’t been messed with…”
He turns a quick glance at Seijiro –
”Nay, lad... It ain’t taht odd to find them here – in fact, it’s damn right likely, if you think about it.”
”We just hit a ship with an Apses agent on it – who had a package that he kept, and we let live. But that bloody bugger was from the east, sure as sunrise, and he had just left port from Bloodcove, which is where we are now.”
”There’s a good chance these guys and that guy are all working with the same crew. After we resold them their own gear, not to mention letting that monkey-whore live - there’s good reason to think they’ve at least spying on us, and know who we are, and what we’re up too – and what skills we have, and what our strengths and weaknesses are.”
”Well – what do you all say? Should we finish searching these scum and then take the gear we find back to the ship? It’s been less than a minute since they attacked – we can leg it fast, in a pinch. But I don’t want to be out in the streets longer than needed.”
He gives a last look at the group – awaiting their answer, and makes a quick comment.
”They say Dead men tell no tales – aye; but that’s just because “they” never met a good cleric. We fetch a corpse back with us to a cleric, we can get answers, if you want to try it… I’m game either way.”
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Seeing the last assassin take his own life before being captured, Variel forcibly sheaths his dagger. Grabbing first one body and then the next he throws them over the side of the building into the street so the others an search the bodies for clues. He hears Dhaavan ask Camm to have cyclone get the body in the water so he dismisses that body. As Variel walks over to his cutlass he calls out to Flynn, Not too bad up here. Might need some help once I get down. They got a couple of good shots in. What I want to know is who these bastards are and who sent them.
Variel stood talking as he reaches his cutlass. With a wrench he frees the blade and sheaths it.
Once it is free, Variel calls down again. His temper is up and the blood is still coursing through his body. Standing up,straight on top of the roof he doesn't care who of the locals hear him. I want those bodies kept as well so we can hang them from the bow of our ship while we are still in port. I want to make an example of them to show to others what it means to mess with us. That sit alright with all of you or do we have any problems with that? In the morning I will be going around letting the townsfolk know what happened and they can see for themselves that no one should mess with us.
Once the roof is clear, Variel will climb down carefully. Once down he sees how everyone else has fared making sure they ate fit to go before finally leaving the area.
As you all begin to search the bodies several things become clear. It appears they were all kitted out exactly the same. They are all human of Minkaian descent and nondescript enough as to be near forgettable.
3 potions of Cure Light Wounds
3 MW Wakizashis
29 MW Shuriken
2 tanglefoot bags
3 suits of MW Studded Leather
3 Shinobi Shozoku Suits
3 Blowguns with 3 doses of Drow Sleep Poison (not 3 each. 3 total or 1 each)
Jiro is closest to her and she addresses him, "They all have the same markings here on their necks. Can you make them out, Jiro?"
She hears Variel call down from the roof and Flynn's words also. She stands quietly, beside the dead ninjas and her comrades.
Once Variel makes his way down from the roof, she will turn to him and speak, "I have a little healing magic. If either you or Jiro require it, please let me know."
"And Var, I have no problem with what you mean to do with their bodies. If you believe the demonstration is required, then I shall abide by your decision."
"Ah yes, I see the markings. It is Minkaian sort of, but not a real Minkaian word, it phonetically reads 'Shanxia'." He looks pointedly at Variel as he continues...
"This fight went far too easily. Ninja are usually more focused and skilled than this. It is almost more as if they were testing us, rather than actually trying to kill us... and they seemed to be only after one person really, not all of us as a group. I don't think this was Aspis Consortium, and I doubt it was retaliation for our acts of piracy."
He turns to Rain and shakes his head slightly. "I'm uninjured, they didn't seem interested in me at all for some reason... perhaps because I am Minkaian as well, or maybe just my good fortune. I'm not complaining."
He turns to address Variel again. "I have no issue with whatever you plan to do with their bodies. It's of no concern to me really, but I doubt it will act as any deterrent to a future attack. I think it was just a test, and they probably WILL try again someday regardless. Someone determined enough to send ninja on such a mission, won't give up easily."
Hoartio’s eyes narrow at the mention of Shanxia, and they flick quickly to Variel on the roof.
Gathering the pile of loot together he passes it over to Seijiro for the Handy Haversack.
Looking at the poison, he pauses.
”I know a bit about poison – Jiro-san – you ever hear of Drow having much dealing with Minkai folk?” he muses almost to himself.
”I know Drow got problems with elves in general,” he adds, glancing between Variel and Rain ”and now we got pretty heavy circumstantial evidence that maybe Drow are connected to the hit.”
His mind ranges over the combat a bit.
”You know – when it comes down to it – we were all paralyzed, stunned, or pretty much incapacitated – none of us was really chopped bad; though we may have been – excepting for Nightstorm.”
”If I was running that bloody raid, I would have entangled Variel – stepped back and pinched him with ranged weapons; and slaughtered the rest of us with these there throwing stars… hell, we couldn’t hit worth a damn from range anyway. But they didn’t do that, did they?” he adds, looking around at the group.
He shrugs.
’But that’s all the talking on this matter I’ll do here, I reckon.”
”Our ship might be in trouble and we keep up this conversation in public, we maybe get more trouble soon, too.”
He glances at Variel.
”I’m all for taking the heads, aye – besides, it comes to mind that Minkai folk cremate their dead, on account of all the wetlands there, and anyhow – I never saw, er – I never heard of a Minkai graveyard.”
”I figure if we take the head, that’ll shame ‘em enough – but I was hoping for answers on where they came from.”
Horatio pauses, seeing the tattoo on their skin.
Taking out a knife, he quickly cuts the piece of skin off the corpse which holds the tattoo, to analyze it later for further clues.
Horatio turns to Camm.
”Like I said, mate – I’d rather talk more on the ship. You did us a favor, and are up your hips in our own muck, more’s the pity. But anyhow, my thanks to you again,” he adds, a little embarrassed that – for no fault of his own – Camm is now mixed up in their trouble, had endured bloodshed and assault, and was at the least instrumental in helping his comrades survive – but no one had thanked him.
”I want to be back aboard ship, I never planned on being in this berg after nightfall anyhow. But before I go, I’m going to go try to find that bloody wand,” he adds with a growl.