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The captain easily avoids the fireball that Vic summons to do her bidding, but the marines blanch at the sight of Chumtooth and his warning. Seeing Faengrim's toothy smile and Satinder's carefree dispatching of one of her own men, the marines drops their weapons and surrender. The captain, seeing her men surrendering, immediately does so herself.
From the brig, you can hear the screams of the pirates as they begin to feel the heat of the fires.
Chumtooth turns to Victoriana and addresses her and Dantes (wherever he disappeared to). "Do you have any water magic that can reach that ship? Stop the flames if you can. Some of the survivors may join us."
He looks to Satinder and Faengrim. "Bind them," he says, pointing to the marines. "If they resist, kill them."
He approaches the Captain and places the shackles of compliance on her wrists. "You will do as I command," he says to her firmly.
"I could do a little, maybe, if I can get over there. But with that damage, the ship's sinkin' regardless of the fires, and I can't untie all those prisoners myself."
Chumtooth assesses the condition of the brig, trying to determine if there is enough time for a rescue attempt, or if the ship would be engulfed by the time a rescue team could be launched.
If he determines there is still time, he turns to the captured marines and says, "you will take one of the small boats to that ship and stop the fire. if you try to flee, my crew will shoot arrows until you are all dead. If you stop the fire, you're will still live. If you fail, you will die in the fire with those you have trapped inside."
"We only need one or two prisoners, captain, and those could be lashed to the mast to make room for any castaways you let aboard."
From nearby, the invisible Dantes says "Alas, I have no such magic at my command. I will seek out arcane means to suppress fire in the future, however."
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If a rescue were to be launched immediately, some lives could likely be saved, though there would be some loss of life. The marines move to follow Chumtooth's orders, saving as many men as they can before the brig completely succumbs. In all, eight pirates were spared. The remainder were lost to the flames. Mercifully, some perished of suffocation before the fires consumed them. Others were not so fortunate.
The enemy captain remains impassive, having no illusions regarding her fate. She holds her head high and maintains her bearing.
"Speak what you are thinking," Chumtooth commands the Chelish captain, utilizing the power of the shackles to loosen her tongue.
"I will not kill you, but you may wish to die soon," Chumtooth replies.
He turns to the marines and demands, "whose fate do you wish to share? Your captain's, that of the slaves you Chelish love to trade, or do you wish to join my crew? Answer now!"
Satinder quite visibly cleans her blade at the vest of the captain, meanwhile grinning like a madwoman.
When Chumtooth explains the options to the pirates, she stands next to him, seeming eager to slice some more throats.
When Dantes becomes visible, and Satinder can him straight in the eye, she walks up to him and Vic.
”If you can make men bigger, become invisible and summon fires, you should quickly figure out to douse flames. You could think less of causing damage, and more of keeping our ship afloat?”
Dantes gives her a wry smile, and says "Well, I didn't choose the life at sea, it chose me. But yes, I will work on alternatives to be of more aid."
Dantes regards the sailors, genuinely puzzled. They would rather die than even feint compliance long enough to escape, or turn the tables on us? He shakes his head, unable to conceive of that level of... stupidity? Foolishness?
He looks to Chumtooth to deliver his verdict on their fate.
"As you wish," Chumtooth replies.
He approaches the Chelish captain and takes her face in his hands. He places his lips against hers in a sudden, deep kiss. He bites down hard, and tears her tongue from her mouth. He chews the bloody meat with slow relish and swallows, allowing the blood to run down his chin. He then raises each of her hands, biting off the ring and smallest fingers from each hand and spitting them onto the deck. He moves down the line, administering the same punishment to each of the marines.
When he has finished, he says to his officers. "Strip them naked, tie them each to a large piece of plank facing the sky, so they float on their backs. Leave their lower arms free to move. Give them each a full skin of water, then put them in the sea one at a time, in different directions." he removes the shackles of complaince and hangs them back on his belt.
He turns to the rescued pirates. "Which fate do you choose?" he asks them.
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The captain struggles uselessly against Chumtooth's grip, but eventually succumbs to her fate. The marines, to their credit, accept their punishment without flinching. They are then stripped naked and set adrift, as instructed.
The rescued pirates , without exception, agree to join your crew to replace the few losses you had in taking the ship.
"Vic, can this ship be salvaged as prize, or is the damage too great? Satinder, Faengrim, take men and search the ship for plunder. Dantes, find the captain's writing book, and maps. If the ship cannot be saved, we will take what we can and burn it. If it can be saved, we will decide whether to sell it or keep it."
Dantes stands on the deck with a ledger, taking notes on the loot and any materials expended to bring the other vessel back to seaworthy.
When the flow of goods back and forth is mostly done and the carpenters are setting in to their work, Dantes will find a place to sit with the captain's logbook and read it. He'll start with the most recent entries, going back a couple of weeks, for anything that might affect us immediately. Then he'll flip to the start of the book and go through it carefully. He'll watch for any type of coded entry mixed in with the regular logs.
Chumtooth looks to his officers for their opinions. "Do we keep the ship as prize, or strip it and let it sink?"
Sink it. The repairs would prove costly and time consuming.
"Of course, a ship would fetch a nice prize, but will hamstring us until we get to the shipyard to sell it. Maybe a dwarf who is good with numbers could make a calculation?"
She looks at Dantes, and smiles, now that the fightin is over.
"If we do decide to leave it, I reckon we don't sink her but mark our name on it, and leave it adrift. Let the other pirates and their navy know it was *US* that destroyed it!"
"We just took two prizes, no? I'm not sure we've got the crew for three ships. Maybe scrap that one for lumber and then scuttle it."
"The brig is no prize to any but the dead," Chumtooth replies. "This ship can still be sailed, but we must make many repairs. This would take many days, and leave us prey for others. Is there cause to risk attack to save this ship, or do we take all we can, and let it sink?"
He looks to the officers for a final consensus.
"I say we take all we can from it, spear-throwing machines, food, weapons, and all else we can use on our ship. Let the rest of it sink or burn. What say the rest of you?"
"I say loot and scuttle. To costly and dangerous to repair her."
Reluctantly, Dantes agrees with the others. "Given that we are lacking established crew to take it as well, taking what we can is probably best."
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The ship is quickly stripped of anything useful (sadly, the ballistas are bolted to the deck and the mechanism that permits them to turn freely cannot be disassembled easily) and left to sink. You garner a point of plunder from her hold.
You continue your voyage and return to the business at hand. In the next few days, you take a few small vessels, but none with an appreciable amount of goods. On the evening of the fifth day, you come upon a small fishing vessel.
A fishing trawler rides low in the water, heeling several degrees to port. It is obviously taking on water. The sails flap loosely from the yards and a fishing net drags in the water over the starboard side.
"Look for sails in all directions!" Chumtooth commands.
"Bring us to the ship, have boarders ready!"
"Captain! That trawler could use some help, I think. And perhaps we can exact a sharp price for our aid... Besides, whatever did that to them, may be a worthy target for us!"
"Use pikes to bring it close and to push the net away from us," Chumtooth commands.
"Ready lines and a plank for boarding. Weapons and eyes sharp."
"Could be a shark-people ambush," Vic cautions, drawing her shield.
"I hope so. I didn't get enough blood on my blade." Faengrim grins his sharky grin.
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As you draw near, Chumtooth and Dantes both spot the shape of a dinghy deep underwater and sinking fast. As you begin to pull the vessel into contact with yours in preparation for boarding, Satinder notices signs of a recent battle that has been hastily cleaned up.
(+6 in bright sunlight) (low-light vision)
(+2 w/familiar) (darkvision)
(low-light vision)
(low-light vision)
"A small boat is there, under the water, sinking," Chumtooth says, pointing to the sinking dinghy. He shoulders his harpoon, holding its line in his
off-hand, and hurls it at the boat with as much force as he can manage; attempting to bury the barb in one of its planks.
Satinder peers over the water, and starts looking at the vessel more closely.
"There has been a fight here, cap'n! Someone has done his best to clean up the scars and other signs, but must have been interupted.. Or bad at its job." she hastily says.
AS Victoriana shares her knowledge about the shark people ambush, Satindeer gets a cold shiver across her back.
"No..." she whispers, more to herself than anyone other, as she grabs hold of her weapons until her knuckles turn white.
"Board the ship. Look for the log and anything we can take. Keep watch for ships and for creatures under the water," Chumtooth commands.
"Aye, Captain." Faengrim's ability to breath water made him a prime candidate for this assignment. He jumped to the other ship and quickly went to find booty allowing others to locate the ship's log.
Satinder looked for the first chance to jump aboard the tinier vessel.
She keeps her eyes on everything though, not trusting this situation one bit.
When we are close enough, Dantes bends over the railing and casts detect magic on the smaller vessel. Otherwise, he stays close to Chumtooth in case of trouble.
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Dantes detects no magic from the vessel.
Faengrim and Satinder board the vessel, with Faegrim heading straight to the hold and Satinder having a careful look around. Satinder is hardly surprised when she hears Faengrim call for assistance from below, his voice sounding urgent. She moves quickly to her compatriot, only to find him facing off against four sahuaghin!
Those of you topside hear Faengrim call out, but you do not know what is going on.
INITIATIVE
Dantes
Sahuagin
Victoriana
Chumtooth
Satinder
Faengrim
Hearing Faengrim cry out, Chumtooth draws his morningstar and crosses to the other ship. He moves towards the hatch leading belowdecks.
"Yup. Shark-people ambush," Vic groans, as she draws her shield and crosses over to the other boat.
Dantes casts invisibility on himself, and then follows after Chumtooth.