As Roary walks into the lower deck, Gryne spies a pair of half-orcs looking to ambush the unsuspecting barbarian. Gryne cries out a warning and fires off a small bolt of lightning at one of the orcs, making its hair stand on end and filling the compartment with the smell of ozone. Astarton uses his comedic prowess to inspire his companions with his antics, giving a mocking salute to the overdone performances of his colleagues.
The orc closest to Roary lashes out with his bare firsts, his hands a blur of motion...
The half-orc lands two solid hits to the barbarian with his bare fists, an hook with his left hand followed by a staggering uppercut with his right. He gives Roary a shiner that even impresses Astarton, who has collected his fair share of them in his days.
In response to the assault, Roary begins to fall into his barbarian rage and takes a swing at the orc who just pummeled him...
...and barely missing, the orc deftly stepping to the side to avoid the deadly chop of the greatsword.
Twigg waggles his fingers at the half-orc and fires a beam of blindingly bright light into his eyes...
The spell connects and the orc stands there dumbfounded, unable to act!
Seeing its companion in trouble, the orc that was blasted by Gryne's lightning arc takes a step forward towards the barbarian in an attempt to flank his foe...
The orc connects solidly with Roary, driving his fist into the barbarian's solar plexus and causing him to gasp for air!
Makena leaps off of the steps and puts her back to the wall of the lower hold. She draws her bowstring and takes aim, releasing the arrow with a loud TWANG as the bow misfires due to an early release, the arrow coming up short of her mark.
Gryne leans over and invokes his wand, casting healing magic on Roary and easing some of the suffering he has taken at the hands of the orcish pugilists.
The first half-orc stands in a daze, drool running down its chin as it tries to regain its composure, only to stare down the blade of the barbarian's attack as he cleaves the orc from collarbone to pelvis. Bright red blood splatters across Gryne and Makena as they witness the gory spectacle.
Twigg fires up another spell, wiggling his tiny fingers at the remaining half-orc and taunting him incessantly...
...and it too falls to the gnomish magic, dazed out of his mind and standing there with a slack jawed look on his face.
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Astarton pulls his ornate curveblade out of the ceiling to hit the dazed half orc, but as he pulls it out, he smashes his own nose with the handle. Not seeing too well (and he might have hit his head a little on the way down the stairs) he attempts to skewer the offending pugilist. The good thing was, with a performance this bad, he still was pretty funny to watch.
Makena fires off a shot, deadly accurate this time, piercing the orc on his left side and skewering his lung. A fit of wheezing comes over him as he tries to dodge Astarton's off-balance attack, falling to the side as the sword comes loose and bonks the bard in the nose. Astarton recovers, amazingly enough, and puts the sword in line with the orc and slices, cleanly severing bone and muscle. With a thud the orc falls to the ground lifeless.
Roary winds up another massive swing only to find himself out of targets to assault, the bard having stolen his glory. Gryne fires off some additional healing from his wand for the barbarian and brings the fight to an end.
You are left in the lower hold with two corpses and about twelve humans, bound and gagged in the far corner.
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"It almost isn't fair...well almost, but what do I know? I'm 3 feet tall! that isn't fair. I suppose I am a creature of magic, that does tend to even up the playing field... Oh! Good teamwork fellows! We should work together more often!"
Twigg dances over to Roary attempting to mimick Astarton's movement. "We are a good team! I neutralize them and you decapitate them!"
He holds his hand up to celebrate with the large man that is literally double his size.
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Astarton cleans his blade and looks behind him at the bound and gagged survivors. He walked pompously over to them and began untying them with Gryne. While he was doing so, he whispered quietly to some of them. "When you tell this tale to others, remember that the half-elf did get one of the killshots. You don't need to tell them about the other bits. By the way, are any of you Cestis?"
Twigg scans through the room with his magic and finds two potions of cure light wounds on the orc bodies along with a belt pouch containing 50 gold pieces, a key ring, and a wayfinder.
One of the prisoners responds to Roary saying, "Don't believe any of us answer to that name friend, but we greatly appreciate your assistance. If you could be so kind?" and the man motions to the chains binding him and the others to the deck, attached to the manacles around their wrists. "I really don't know who is pulling the strings of these thugs, and these brutes only ever spoke to each other in orcish, which I personally don't speak. I did hear the orcs mention the name "Luscilia" on multiple occasions, but that was all I could make out."
Another prisoner responds to Astarton's question stating that he isn't aware of anyone named Cestis who was captured, but that several others had been hustled in and out while they were chained here.
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Gryne walks over to the Orcs...motioning to Astarton,C'mere friend.
Gryne lifts each Orc's hand to Astarton's face to examine the fists against Astarton's black eye. Perc.
Hmmmmm, I think he is still out there, you best be careful he may look to give you a matching pair.
Gryne lets out a belly full of laughter and slaps Astarton on the back ensuring their friendship.
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"Good plan, we should also clear the rest of the ship for any clues that there might be to their whereabouts once we get these people freed." Astarton gets the keys from Twigg to make the process a little faster. His lock picking skill was nonexistant. It sure would take some time if those weren't the keys.
At the questioning one of the prisoners pipes up, "Sir, you are here for me? My name is Orfeo and I must be freed at once. You see, I am a man of import in this town. My name carries weight. I can only assume you all were sent here to rescue me of course." With that the man holds his hands out and taps his foot, waiting for someone to unlock him from the chains holding him to the floor.
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"I'll hold onto these!" Twigg picks up the potions of cure light wounds. "We definitely could use healing magic with Astarton's ability to get into trouble!"
Twigg turns to Orfeo "Why are you important? You see everyone and everything is important in some manner. You can see the value in everything if you look hard enough, so what makes you important?"
From the top deck you hear a woman shouting, "Where in Asmodeus’s chamber pot are my bloody slaves? Orcs! Front and center! Now!"
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"Yall hear that? There's someone on deck yelling for the orcs to come front and center.. This has got to be the leader, so if we can lets take her alive please.." Looking at the prisoners. "Anyone that can fight is welcome to join us.. If you can't then stay here.." With that Roary heads back over to the trapdoor and starts to ascend..
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Twigg smiles and laughs "Hold on Two Gnomes... Someone up there wants orcs? I can give them orcs! It might be a bit tricky but I think I can pull it off. But if they come I need you guys ready to burst out? Everyone trust me?"
Twigg cast ghost sound of 2 large men walking up the steps.
Twigg will stealth up the stairs and peek out to see what is up there.
Twigg will cast Silent Image of the 2 half orcs climbing out and walking to he edge of the spell's range in front of whoever was yelling for them.
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Astarton watched as the gnome made some decent illusions. He would have to congratulate the little guy later as he was concentrating pretty hard to make it look right. The half elf got ready to spring forth as soon as the illusion was blown, but until then he kept his eyes and ears peeled to gain as much information as they could.
So, tricky little Twigg conjures up an illusion and some accompanying sound to go along with it. The noises go up the stairs and onto the deck, following along the illusion.
At the sight of the orcs the woman yells out, "Get my slaves up here now you worthless half-wits! I'm not paying you to take a stroll on deck in the starlight! Worthless curs! NOW!" These words are followed by a verbal tirade of obscenities that would make even the rowdiest tavern bard blush.
The woman is human, dressed in half plate and holding a heavy flail. She is wearing a dark tabard emblazoned with a strange image and appears to be beside herself with rage. She also is accompanied by a humanoid form standing on the deck. It appears to be a human in ragged clothing with foul looking and blotchy skin.
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Twigg will manipulate the illusion so it appears that the 2 half-orcs are arguing about who is going to go down below deck. One will slap the other and point down.
Twigg will use another ghost sound for the half-orcs to grumble very loudly to each other unintelligently as they pantomime the rest.
Twigg contains a giggle and will whisper to Roary "Whenever you are ready do what you do best" as he steps behind the barbarian so that Roary can charge.