"I can take the final watch. My eyes are only so good during the night."
Essa sits quietly looking over the edge of the boat as night rolls in. The floating head was disturbing, and she pondered the life of the man to whom it belonged, and how possible somewhere was a wife missing him. Either that or he ate her..
Roguk rolls around in some rope haplessly entangling himself, before Essa frees him, and then he pesters the helmsman, grabbing at the wheel as a toy, before Essa takes him away for sleeping distracting him with an apple.
Tane nods along, only half paying attention as he was caught in a mental replay of his previous heroism. "I'll take first watch with Se-"
He realizes she said she would catch some sleep. He clears his throat twice and corrects, "with see, the uh," Tane looks around at his surroundings stuttering over towards the water. "The sea. Yep. Just Me and the Sea." He nods and turns away from the group to cover his reddening face.
About 1 hour after dark, when the lights of Tamran are just visible in the distance, something happens. Thick cloud cover blankets the night’s faint moonlight, which makes spotting anything difficult.
Lenna squints, and suddenly screams:
"Boat ahead! And approaching! Watch out! Someone get the cap'tain!"
Three crossbow bolts flys through the air, but only one hits Lenna, causing minor damage
Lenna mutters a spell.
In front her her, a circle shines briefly before disappearing.
Malya scrambles up hearing the call and grabs her wand.
"EVERYONE UP!" She calls out as she looks at them and then shakes anyone awake that doesn't get up.
As Mayla tries to rise up everyone under the deck, Lenna's opponents readies their crossbows again, while Ewen tries to hide among the various crates on the deck, expecting Lenna's magic to go out with a big explosion.
Upstairs, another round of croosbow bolts is fired
One bolt gets deeply imbedded into Lenna left thigh
Selene bolts up from her sound slumber and reaches for her things. As she moves topside she begins donning her chain mail as best she can and keeps to cover a step or two below topside.
Ouch.
Badly wounded, Lenna imitates Ewen, and tries to hide herself among the crates. She reaches for a small vial in one of her pockets.
I had only one of those!...
As everyone finish to prepares themselves underdeck, the men from the other boat climb on the Black Mist. One of them readies a wicked looking sword, the two other have kept their crossbows
We take possession of this boat! Show yourselves, you two
Selene tries to take as much advantage of their staying their attack and the darkness to finish preparing for the skirmish and steals a look at what the men look like as far as armor and secondary weapons they might have on them.
If things escalate again Selene will abandon her armor and cast fear on one of the crossbowmen.
Selene sees that the pirates wear leather armor and large, metallic shields, and carries longswords and crossbows.
Meanwhile, Tane struggles, with the help of Essa, to put his own armor on as quickly as possible
After helping Tane, Essa ignores her own armor, and instead grabs her giant club, casting shillelagh, and tugs on Roguk as they move with the others to the deck.
The three thugs waits a few seconds for an answer. As none comes
Wanna play a little hide and seek, uh? Beware, cause we'll kill ya if we have to find ya. Now, if you show yourselves, and agree to jump into the lake right now, you might have a chance to reach the ground..That is, if you know how to swim. It would be a great occasion to learn quickly, at least.
Cruel and coarse laughs follows, and the lake pirates start searching the Black Mist
Mayla would move towards the stairs following Selene up as she prepared her magics. The sounds of people up above filled her ears.
Lenna chose to stay silent, not knowing whether their opponents had seen them... Yet. She smirked: the battle was becoming more balanced.
If I could distract them for just a few seconds...
Tane nods thanks to Essa and makes his way towards the sounds. He somehow finds the ability to not break and crash into anything as he follows the sounds upstairs and attempts to put himself in a position to surprise or flank one of the attackers.
The pirates seem oblivious to anyone downstairs
As soon as Selene's armor is hastily donned she speaks the words to channel the otherworldly power through her and casts fear on one of the crossbowmen and reveals herself in doing so.
The crossbowman stands his ground, but he's visibly afraid of Selene
Essa will take advantage of the surprise and charge the men. A tall naked woman with a huge flaming club screaming at them, with a large ape in tow should hopefully give them pause.
"Raaaarrgh!"
"Roguk, smash!"
Mayla comes up behind Selene and casting over her shoulder shoots a magic missile at the closest still standing.
The flower shaped missile pegging their target.
Essa massive flaming club pierces the darkness, and hits the man square in the chest, sending him down on the deck.
Malya spell hits another pirate, but the damage seems minimal
Hoping to sneak behind and catch them by surprise, Tane moves up with his longsword and slashes it towards his foe.
Tane attacks wounds the pirate, who wasn't very ready to defend himself
What? Wait... Come, guy, I'll cut you down...
Mayla would use the wand in her hand as a focus as she summons her Lotus Shield. The shimmering flower that appears everyone settling over their arm like a shield.
Tane sounds incredulous as he responds to the thought of being cut down. "Me? Cut ME down? Do you know who I am!? I'm -" Tane stutters as he tries to thing of a good phrase to describe himself to his would be assasins. "-I'm, uh. Oh forget it, just - GO AWAY and leave my friends alone!"
He slashes with his blade once more in the hopes his enemy falls.
Once again, Tane swordmanship is too much to handle for his opponent. The man gets down on the deck, blood pouring from his belly.
You feel Malya's magic protecting you
Essa swings her club mightily, laying into another pirate with a crazed look in her eyes as the flames from her club play across the deck and over her face and the combat.
- WAAPOW!
Roguk will assist, monkey rage in full swing as he leaps on a pirate with teeth and claws.
The poor, last pirates takes a wild, powerful shot which lift him from his feet. He crumbles down, his spine at an impossible angle, and whispers something before Roguk jumps on him and put an end to his agony.
Tane is proud of his skillful blow but looks over just in time to see Essa obliterate her opponnent. Tane visibly winces at the gruesome sight of what is left of the man's scorched face. "Oof. That's, uh, well done Essa. Please do not let me piss you off."
Tane attempts to hear what is spoken but can't figure it out. He figure's it was likely Why couldn't it have been that other guy!
Lenna comes out of hiding, stares eyes wide open at the slaughter on deck, and begins to slowly applaud.
"Less than ten seconds guys!" she jokes. "You're going for a record?"
She checks the two almost-in-one-piece pirates's pulses, wondering if they were still alive:
"These poor fellows picked up the wrong boat... And now we've got another one for free."
And that means... LOOT!
Tane points to Essa, his eyes shooting sideways to look at her. He whispers, "He made Essa really mad."
You find a few things on the dead (or agonizing) pirates, aside their weapons and armor: 6 vials with a brownish liquid inside, a little hot to touch and 3 other vials with a silvery liquid
The Captain getson the deck, only to find out that the fight is already finished.
What? Hu... You're stronger than you look...Thank you again! But now please go quick on the pirate 's boat, loot it if you can, and put a few holes in her bottom!
The dwarf blushes suddenly
Sorry, ain't the way to speak around young ladies...But we need to sink that boat, or others privateers could claim her, and use her for their nefarious acts!
Essa calms down after the fight is over, the wildness leaving her eyes. "Sorry..being attacked brought back memories of the Crypt and what we went through there. Also, it made me mad, that they pirates would prey on us. " She looks down at the crushed form of the pirate. "I guess we should clean up or figure out what to do with them." Essa turns to drag the pirate bodies to the side, forgetting she is still naked. Roguk plays with a limp pirate arm, grunting inqusitively.
Pointing at Essa he squints as if finally recognizing in the darkness she was in her birthday suit. He grumbles and quickly averts his gaze, looking away. "Oh geez, Essa, for the love of Erastil! NOT AGAIN. Why do you always need to be walking around with your clothes on!"
Selene joins the other topside and feigns a smile and comprehension waiting for her curse to subside.
Why do you always need to be walking around with your clothes on!"
Lenna winks, and pats Walren on the shoulder:
"See, Wally? The ladies have seen worse. As for ya, I cannot tell... And I thought that you would look away, ya charmer!"
The halfling then rushes towards the boat, screaming:
"I'LL GO FIRST!!!!"
She must really like exploring boats...
Or maybe it's just the treasure.
The pirate's boat is smaller, and in poor condition
Taking a few minutes to check the boat, Lenna finds a small lockbox in the cabin. It's closed, of course.
"That ship they have is in terrible condition. We should scuttle.. that's a thing right? ...the ship and give it back to nature where it will do the world a lot more good than these robbers did us." Selene says moving to inspect the fallen attackers to see if they are still alive or not. If they are still alive Selene lingers on the thought of letting them die before her conscience gets the better of her and she tries stabilize them.