With your water casks filled, and your crew refreshed, the crew comes together and sails the newly minted Chimera out of dock towards your destiny.
You can see Captain Pegsworthy negotiating with Rickety now, to get his own ship squibbed.
With nary a plan, or a care for the world, you sail off into the sea.
After three days at sea, during which time, I'm sure you've been drilling the crew at their duties, and becoming a more effective team overall, several of you have watch and are up shortly before 8 bells, near the end of the late-night watch and the beginning of the morning watch (around 4AM).
Ethron notices three scaly humanoids with long, fish-like tails sneaking onto the deck from over the side. Their arms and legs end in webbed claws, and their piscine heads feature toothy maws.
Surprise Round
Two of the creatures immediately attack two of your new sailors, slaying them quickly, while the third moves towards the party.
Ethron gets an action, after which it will be back to the creatures, and then the whole party can act.
"NO!" Ethron draws his bow and, in a rage of vengence, takes aim at the nearest scale-thing. "All hands to battle stations! We've been boarded!"
Gahhhh, I totally misspoke, that should have been a new piece of info for every 5 by which you beat the DC!
Saves: they do not have a weak, or a strong save
Hp: less than you
Attacks: Claws and a bite, or by weapon. These have no weapons.
AC 12 does miss.
Round 2
Chaenath is up, then it will be the creatures, and then the party again.
Chanenath makes a motion of her hands and casts a spell of Web at the enemies while her otter hides under her cloak. Aiming it so people can engage them in melee if they wish.
Fail
Fail
Fail
All three of the creatures are caught in the web and must attempt to break free.
Fail
Fail
Fail
None of them break free!
The three creatures are all right at the edge of the web, and can be either meleed, or range attacked.
The party is up!
Ethron doesn't see Chaenath wasting beer as he's too busy with Doc celebrating!
All of a sudden, he gets a chill down his back. "I sense a disturbance in the liquor...Like the sound of a bottle fine booze opening in triumph, but not being drunk..."
Alessandra loves being at sea, on their very own ship; she spends the three days getting the new crew up and running. She'd not admit it, but she's come to care deeply about her new friends, and regards the rest of the crew with a sort of familial affection, mixed with the odd snarl - just to keep 'em honest. Yes, she's capricious, but she's also first mate, so they just have to put up with it... Besides, her heart's in the right place.
So she is, naturally, livid when three monsters board her ship and kill her crew. "Hey!!! You BASTARDS!!! These people are MINE!!!"
She aims at them carefully, and fires.
Alessandra's two shots both hit, and one of the creatures drops, only to hang limply in the webbing.
Rogar's fire strikes true, dropping yet another creature, and also burning away the webs, and scorching the adjacent creature, and parts of the deck.
Fail
Success
Sahuagin - 6
"BURN YOU UGLY SACKS OF PUS!!"
Ethron's rage is only fueled when he sees the creatures burning. They're burning on his ship!
His rage makes him fumble his bow. He never fumbles his bow!
The remaining creature roars and charges Rogar, fearing his fire most of all.
The party is up.
Ethron fires again, still angry that two of the newest recruits didn't make it to their next port. His bow moves to the last creature, taking aim and firing.
Alessandra chuckles, not unkindly, at Ethron's difficulties with his bow.
"You're arching your back, you need to keep it straight - otherwise it will throw off your aim; and your beer belly will get in the way of the bowstring," she pokes fun at him. "Also, don't sight down the shaft of the arrow: the hand holding the bow is what points at the target. Your arrow will follow that. Here, like this..."
Keeping her back absolutely straight, she draws the bowstring and nocked arrow back to her ear; she makes a point of wiggling one of her fingers from the hand holding her bow, drawing the inquisitor's attention, before pointing it at the last remaining enemy, and firing. Swiftly, she repeats the action. The two arrows thud into the target, less than a finger's width apart.
With a toss of her coarse, black hair, the half-orc girl grins as her target slumps, dead, at Rogar's feet. "Any time you want a lesson, let me know, hey?"
Ethron's arrow strikes true into the creature, followed shortly by a shot from Alessandra, and the last creature drops to the deck.
Combat over
The sea. Dangerous Chaenath says, looking at the bloody deck of their ship. How can we stay safe?
In response to Chaenath's question, Ethron starts shouting orders.
"Get that fire out! Throw the creatures overboard! Full speed ahead!"
He quickly rushes to grab a bucket and put out the flames.
When all is said and done, he collects himself and proceeds to prepare the two slain sailors for a burial at sea. This involves a copious amount of alcohol.
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"It's th' bloody sea, lass. It's s'posed t' be dangerous. If ye wanna feel better 'bout it, say yer prayers t' Besmara, and stay drunk." Rogar says in response to Chaenath's question. The dwarf obviously follows his own advise, and even now takes a sip from one of the rum bottles he carries around.
"But th' real question is: How can we be more dangerous than anythin' else who sails these waters or swims beneath?"
Alessandra shrugs. "You're never safe anywhere. Best you can do is be more dangerous than anything else. Like Doc said."
She nods at Ethron. "You and Sandara are the priests - bury 'em as you like." She's resigned to the fact that two of her close companions need alcohol from time to time - she's indulged a bit herself lately, but prefers to be alert.
Chaenath nods, and watches as Ethron leads the sailors in burying the two dead crewmen at sea.
After cleaning up the ship, and giving proper burial to the dead, the crew mutters a bit about bad luck, and creatures from the deep. An extra ration of rum quiets them down a bit, and the day and the night passes uneventfully.
The next day, Sandara announces that the weather is great, and she thinks today will bring great things.
Shortly after 10 in the morning, the watch aloft yells, "ship off the starboard bow, she looks to be carrying the colors of the Aspis Consortium."
Malevor wastes no time in ordering the crew into the rigging, and you put on full sails and set to chase. The Chimera responds quite nimbly, and charges after the opponent. As you grow closer, the chase starts to fire bolts at you from her stern.
Several of your own men take to shooting bows as the ships close. When the Aspis captain realizes your ship is the faster, he brings his ship about, which you now see is a lugger, with a reinforced bow. She puts on all speed, can comes to ram you. The ships slam together, as you turn to avoid the full force of the blow.
The grapples come out, and the ships are tied together. As the ships closed, you could clearly see her name as the Kurstav.
The crews fall against one another, and the blood flows. You all meet the Captain of the Kurstav along with 4 marines.
Malevor
Alessandra
Doc
Ethron
Chaenath
Marines
Captain
The party is up!
Alessandra grins savagely, baring her tusks, as the two crews fall together. "Chimera! Chimera! Death and gold - your death, our gold!"
She fires shots at the marines, hoping to isolate the captain
Chaenath aims at the middle of the enemy crowd and hits them with a spell of Glitterdust.
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"Delighted t' meet ya, cap'n!" Rogar acknowledges the enemy captain with a mocking bow. "Ye know how it goes - surrender 'n hand over all yer valuables. Then ye might just as well live t' see another day." But seeing his companions already engaged in battle makes it pointless to wait for an answer. They'd never surrender without a fight anyway. And thus, the dwarf grabs the ingredients from his belt, forms them into his trademark bomb, and tosses the result at the captain.
Astra's first shot just misses the Marine she was firing at, but her second shot strikes true.
Fail
Fail
Save
Doc throws the tanglefoot at the Captain and hits.
Success
Fail
Fail
Captain - 10
M1 - 10, blind
M2 - blind
M3 -
M4 - 6, entangled
Malevor waits for the ranged barrage to end and then goes to personally take down the Captain.
Malevor strikes the Captain hard, but the man doesn't fall.
I'll skip Ethron for now, he can dive in when he can.
The Captain returns the favor, and swings at Malevor:
Hit!
The two blind Marines fumble around with no idea where to attack.
The non blind Marine also attacks Malevor.
Miss!
The entangled Marine moves and attacks Malodor.
Miss!
Will Saves for the two blind Marines to become non blind.
Fail
Success
The group is up!
Captain - 27
M1 - 10, blind
M2 -
M3 -
M4 - 6
Chaenath points at the captain. Maybe these stooges can come work for us if their captain allows it Chaenath giggles and points at him to hit him with a Hex targeting his ability to protect himself.
"Maybe the Captain, the others seem rather inept Chaenath!"
Malevor says as he continues his assault on the Captain.
He also readies himself to defend against the next reasonably accurate attack.
With Malevor engaged in taking down the captain, Alessandra concentrates her fire on taking out the remaining sailors around him.
Fail
Malevor swings at the Captain and hits, dropping him to the ground.
Alessandra's first shot strikes true into M1, who never saw it coming (he's blind), and he drops to the deck.
Her second shot misses.
Captain - 37
M1 - 10, blind
M2 -
M3 -
M4 - 6
Ethron takes his time to walk across one of the boarding blanks, rapier drawn. He looks to the remaining marines, his glare colder than ice as he approaches.
"This is your last chance for us to end this and you to keep your lives. Surrender now and we might spare you." He gives his rapier a twirl for flair.
That Marine is properly intimidated.
Next? Doc?
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"As th' lad with the tankard says, best ye surrender now! Yer captain's got a steel poisonin' in 'is belly, and yer quite alone now. Ye'r food for the fishies, if ye don't but them swords down now!" Being a fair pirate, Rogar gives them the opportunity to surrender. This is the way of the seas, after all. And a fine way to get new crew for the ship. But the dwarf is no fool, either - should the remaining marines try anything funny, they are going to get a bomb in their face.
[ooc]Let's see here, Doc has a 6 CHA, but we'll give him a swing at intimidating the other Marines and go from there...[/dice]
So, ummm, Doc is successful.
I'm a big fan of roleplay and moving the story along, so let's say that the Marines give in now, after their Captain has fallen, etc.
Your crew has subdued the crew of the other ship.
So you have big stack of prisoners, most of whom couldn't care less about the captain, or the Aspis Consortium but there are a few agents of the Consortium, who swear vengeance, or offer bribes and tales of ransom on their heads if released.
"Vengeance and ransoms on our heads, eh? Guess you can't be let go." Ethron looks to a pair of crewmen. "Take 'em to the brig."
Looking over the new ship, Ethron convenes with his crewmates. "What do you guys think, should we take it over? Rename it like the Chimera?"
Alessandra nods, clearly a bit distracted. "Fine, but where's the plunder?!" As for the threats of this Aspis Consortium, she doesn't care - threats on her life were a daily thing back in the streets she grew up, and she's still here. She's confident she can take whatever's thrown at her.
Ethron tosses a thumb at the cargo hold. "Help yourself. I'm gonna tend to the wounded. I'll be in the infirmary if anyone needs me."
Ethron heads down to help tend to the wounded. And by tend to the wounded he means get them drunk so they feel less pain, but he does know some medical skills.
My apologies, ok let's see, the Kurstov was carrying 2 points of plunder (predominantly armor and weapons).
She had 24 sailors and 4 Marines, of which 19 and 3 survived the fight. You can medical them up a bit, if desired. You've also lost some of your own.
The ship's Captain had:
elixir of swimming, potion of cure moderate wounds, +1 chain shirt, heavy crossbow with 10 bolts, masterwork rapier, 30gp.
As for the Aspis Consortium. I'd say you'd all know it exists. Roll a Knowledge (local) check, and then check the article I posted, and determine how much you'd know about them. Base it on say, how much you know about Greenpeace. We all know they exist. Some like them, some don't. I don't think any of you claimed to be members of the Pathfinder Society right? If there is someone whose PC is a Pathfinder, then they might know more about Aspis, and definitely be predisposed against it. The Captain was a mere bronze agent, and the other crewmembers have no real loyalty to the Consortium.
Merchants and profiteeers! Maybe if we hold them upside and shake them more gold will come out?
Chaenath hems and haws for a bit Now we have two ships what do we do with them?
Ethron looks at that rapier. "Nice piece. Balanced, sharp, and gold and silver inlay on the handle and wrist guard. I like the tassel on the end. This is a truly made weapon." He promptly switches it with his own. "Much obliged."
"I've heard of them before. They sell weapons and armor to both sides of a war, usually one they started."
Ethron kneels in front of the bound captain. "Where was this shipment headed? And trust me, you don't want to lie to me." He draws his blade and places the tip on the Captain's neck, his former weapon threatening to take his life.
" Been looking for better armour ever since Plugg took mine and forced me to use these paper thin rags."
The Captain of the Kurstav is Aspar Tharkidor. In response to your questions, he spits out some blood before replying, "about now, she is headed wherever you lot have in mind to sail her, although my destination had been Sargava. I was to meet a man there as my contact and sell him my cargo, other than that, I don't know any more."
Let's go get some more coins out of them. I think I know where to go.
Alright, I'll get you head towards a port, and you'll encounter a ship on the way there as well, so stand by for the possibility of combat.