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"Alright, then. Keep yer bows ready, but keep those fires out 'til we're in range. Don't wanna put in any pressure or nuthin' but if ye fail to set th' Dominator sails on fire, we're buggered. " Rogar sets himself behind the wheel, preparing to guide them past the enemy. A quick prayer to Besmara, and a swig of rum is all the help he can get for the task.
"Crew! Be ready, we be needin' full sails once we're passed the enemy! "
So now THAT is an excellent roll! You manage to bring the Chimera up quietly to within easy reach of the Dominator.
So you've got some stealthy boarders ready right?
Let's get their actions and some rolls from them?
Are they swimming? Swinging? etc. Pick the right score and let's roll it up, and also stealth checks for the boarders.
When they approach closely enough to the enemy ship, Alessandra fires off two flaming arrows, aiming for where they'll do most damage to the sails.
Both arrows land exactly where she wanted them to, and start burning.
Doc want to fire the sails too?
Their sails weren't up, but Alessandra's arrows each strike one of the large bundles of sail on the masts, which set to burning and catch the pitch covered rigging on fire too.
Ethron's arrow goes nowhere near Alessandra's shots. Must be all the training with the falcata throwing his aim off.
Sending nameless mooks to do the hard stuff?
Shall we press on to the story and assume your fire barrage is enough to delay them, while you get away?
I don't want us to get stuck at this encounter, but stealing by the Chelish ship will make for great stories in bars.
Alessandra looks wistfully at the Chelish ship as they leave it far behind. "Wouldn't mind one like that, one day. Be Queen of the Seas, with a boat like that."
She frowns. It would be tough to take on something like that in the ship they currently have. The teenager looks around at the others, voicing the only obvious conclusion: "We're gonna need a bigger boat."
Ethron chuckles as he hears Alessandra's lament. "Queen Alessandra. Eh, not a bad ring to it." He hands Alessandra's ration of rum, taking his own in his silver flagon from when he was saved on the island that feels like an eternity ago.
"I think Captain Malevor would have something to say about that, considering no Queen worth her salt would be caught dead not being the captain of her own ship."
He watches the sails of the Chelish ship flicker in the low light of the night. He grins. "Gods I hope our colors were flying. How embarrassing it would be for us to have forgotten to fly our flag!"
Ethron raises his flagon to Alessandra. "To freedom. And to our new lives as true pirates." He laughs hardily.
The Chimera sets to sea, leaving the Dominator in her wake.
Two days after your near escape from the Dominator you are out on deck in the deepest of the night.
A ship suddenly comes into view, sailing across the setting sun. The glaring light behind it makes the details of the ship difficult to make out, but its lines suggest a whaler riding low in the water. As the last light of day disappears below the horizon, the distant ship also drops from sight in the gloom of twilight.
The very next night:
A thick bank of fog has rolled in with the evening, reducing visibility to only a few yards and navigation to guesswork. From the gloom comes the dull clanking of a rusted ship’s bell somewhere nearby, echoing eerily in the fog. Suddenly, the hulk of a ship looms in the fog off the port bow. Its hull is rotten and stained black with age and rot. Before the mists swallow the ship once more, the ship’s name can momentarily be seen on its worm-eaten bow — Deathknell.
Knowledge(local) check please:
The next night...
With the coming of evening, a nor’easter off the Eye sweeps across the Fever Sea, bringing a front of high winds and a purplish-black sky. Even before nightfall, the hurricane lamps must be lit to pierce the gloom. As the ship rides up and down with the swells and sporadic rain lashes the deck, the strained clanking of a bell can be heard once again coming over the water. A red ship’s lantern shines in the darkness as the dark bulk of a derelict whaler looms out of the night.
The Death Knell. The Ghost Ship. It will drag is down to hell on the third night. OOoooOOOOoooOOOO. Chaenath makes ghost noises as she twirls around the deck when the name of the other ship is sighted.
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"Sheet! It's the f'ckin' ghost ship Deathknell! It's comin' t' get us all! Where's me booze? Sure as 'ell I'm not gonna meet 'em sober! " Only having just relieved himself moment ago prevents Rogar soiling his breeches. The sight of the infamous ghost ship is a worrisome sight indeed.
"Any on ye know how t' fight ghosts n' skeletons?"
Alessandra strings her bow. "No, but I've got a pretty good idea..."
Crush bones. Slice Flesh. Holy Water. Magic. Chaenath informs the rest. Also Channeling Positive Energy. Maybe a nice sea shanty?
"This is going to be interesting..." Ethron draws his falcata, getting ready for whatever may come for him and his allies.
"If your weapon is magical, it'll only be able to do half as much damage as usual if they're incorporeal. Force magic will do full damage, so Magic Missile would work better than something else."
Ethron looks over the deck. "Sandara, keep your holy symbol handy. Good energy will work better than anything else."
Captain Malevor decides that the best course of action would be to put on all sail and try and run before the ghost ship. The crew's mood made it clear that they were comfortable with that idea as well. They swiftly climbed the masts and got the sails on. With the extra speed, and Rogar's expert hand at the tiller, the Chimera manages to put a considerable amount of distance between you and the ghost ship. Gradually you lose sight of the Death Knell and a few sailors cheer, but the respite is short lived.
Not thirty seconds after you lost sight of the ship astern, your forward lookout cries out, "she's dead ahead of us skipper!"
Rogar brings the ship about, putting the ghost ship astern, and the whole scene plays out again. You lose them, only to have them appear ahead of you again.
"There will be no running it seems," says the Captain. "Beat to quarters! We've the fight of our lives ahead of us."
As the two ships come together, and your weapons come in range, you begin firing at one another. The Death Knell has a massive ballista on her bow, presumably for hunting whales, as she's a whaler after all.
Boarding lines are thrown out, and you can see the undead crew of your foe, as the ships slam together, six creatures come aboard to face you.
Captain Jeremiah Pilk took the whaler Belle Dame to sea from the port of Magnimar in 4631 ar. The Belle Dame could take a whale in far waters, skin it, render its blubber in the tryworks, and store its meat, all without seeing land for weeks at a time. Such was Captain Pilk’s success that he became known as “Whalebone” among Magnimarian seafarers after the rumor that all he left of his prey were the picked-clean bones, and his ship became known simply as the Bell for Pilk’s habit of sounding the ship’s bell with a furor every time he caught sight of a whale’s spout.
Whalebone Pilk’s success proved to be his own undoing on his last voyage. For 2 weeks, pickings were frustratingly slim on the Steaming Sea, until a pod of bowhead whales was finally sighted off the shoulder of Hermea, heading south. Pilk nearly beat his knuckles bloody that night striking the ship’s bell, but the pod always stayed elusively ahead of the Belle Dame. For days, the pursuit led ever south and west into the Arcadian Ocean—almost as if the whales were luring the ship onward. Home fell farther behind, and supplies dwindled, until some of the starving crew decided to mutiny. Pilk had the ringleader tied to the mast and ordered the mate to give him lashes for as long as Pilk rang the ship’s bell. The mate’s arm grew tired before Pilk’s did, but by then the mutinous sailor was dead from the beating. To keep the rest in line, Pilk had the mutineer skinned and rendered in a try-pot and his cleaned skull nailed to the mainmast as a warning.
The ship continued on until the 23rd day, when
a dense fog rolled in. An indistinct shape loomed
large in the water ahead and the mate ordered the helmsman to steer hard to port to avoid collision,
but Pilk countermanded the order and began ringing the bell, ordering the men to the harpoons. When the huge bull bowhead came out of the fog, it rammed the ship, breaching the hull. Pilk cursed the whales and cursed his men and continued to ring the ship’s bell as the foundering ship slowly slipped beneath the waves with all hands aboard, 2,000 miles from home.
Alessandra studies the two closest zombies carefully, before loosing a volley of arrows at them. "Ugly @#%&£s, aren't they?"
Both of Alessandra's shots hit, but neither does as much damage as she would have expected (DR 5/something). The two shots together drop one of the zombies.
5 zombies left!
Fire 10
5/slashing
Yes, standard undead traits.
Ethron is ready for these things, but not ready for the sight he sees. "Ugly is as ugly does!."
Ethron' stance changes again as he rushes the nearest walking corpse.
@Ethron - 22 hit points is their norm.
Ethron hits the next one and does full damage.
Z1 - 7
Z2 -
Z3 -
Z4 -
Z5 -
Z6 - handled
Sandara will channel positive energy.
Hahaha, they all saved!
Z1 - 11
Z2 - 4
Z3 - 4
Z4 - 4
Z5 - 4
Z6 - handled
Chaenath tosses a holy water at the zombie Ethron attacked.
Chaenath hits Z1
Errr, well, of course splash damage, but I can't seem to find how much anywhere, or the reflex save, etc.
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"Did 'ye say they be resistin' fire? Oy, hells! Better put this 'oly water t' use, then!"
Shocked to hear his normal offence would have a very limited effect, Rogar tosses a vial of blessed water instead. Luckily all the practice with bombs has made him arm pretty good at throwing other stuff as well.
Ok, so Chaenath’s splash also strikes Z2-Z4
Doc’s strike nails Z1 which crumbles to the deck. Z2-Z4 take 6 points of splash damage.
Z2 and Z3 both attack Ethron with their rusty cutlasses.
Hit (because Ethron charged)
Miss
Z4 moves up on Doc and attacks
Miss
Z5 moves up on Alessandra and attacks
Crit threat
Doesn't confirm
Ok, Z2-Z4 are still up, and they are adjacent to the targets the hit this round. Only Z2 and Z3 are adjacent to one another.
Z1 - handled
Z2 - 11
Z3 - 11
Z4 - 11
Z5 - 4
Z6 – handled
Last one of the water blessed by me. Chaenath sings out and throws it at Z2
Z2 gets hit and Z3 takes the splash damage.
Z1 - handled
Z2 - 16
Z3 - 12
Z4 - 11
Z5 - 4
Z6 – handled
Orcish is a deeply satisfying language to swear in; Alessandra's vocabulary gets a full workout as the undead thing's rusty cutlass leaves a gash across her forehead.
In reply, the girl steps back out of immediate danger and fires a volley of arrows at her opponent. At this range, she can't possibly miss.
Both arrows hit, and the second one blows right through the zombie which falls to the deck.
Z1 - handled
Z2 - 16
Z3 - 12
Z4 - 11
Z5 - handled
Z6 – handled
The girl grins, savagely, ferally, as her target falls. "I'm death on two legs! Who's next up, you @#&&#%#@ers?!"
Ok, this isn't quite useful yet, but it will be for the remainder of the encounter, so go ahead and make your rolls and start digesting this.
This is the backstory for the Deathknell
Captain Jeremiah Pilk took the whaler Belle Dame to sea from the port of Magnimar in 4631 ar. The Belle Dame could take a whale in far waters, skin it, render its blubber in the tryworks, and store its meat, all without seeing land for weeks at a time. Such was Captain Pilk’s success that he became known as “Whalebone” among Magnimarian seafarers after the rumor that all he left of his prey were the picked-clean bones, and his ship became known simply as the Bell for Pilk’s habit of sounding the ship’s bell with a furor every time he caught sight of a whale’s spout.
Whalebone Pilk’s success proved to be his own undoing on his last voyage. For 2 weeks, pickings were frustratingly slim on the Steaming Sea, until a pod of bowhead whales was finally sighted off the shoulder of Hermea, heading south. Pilk nearly beat his knuckles bloody that night striking the ship’s bell, but the pod always stayed elusively ahead of the Belle Dame. For days, the pursuit led ever south and west into the Arcadian Ocean—almost as if the whales were luring the ship onward. Home fell farther behind, and supplies dwindled, until some of the starving crew decided to mutiny. Pilk had the ringleader tied to the mast and ordered the mate to give him lashes for as long as Pilk rang the ship’s bell. The mate’s arm grew tired before Pilk’s did, but by then the mutinous sailor was dead from the beating. To keep the rest in line, Pilk had the mutineer skinned and rendered in a try-pot and his cleaned skull nailed to the mainmast as a warning.
The ship continued on until the 23rd day, when a dense fog rolled in. An indistinct shape loomed large in the water ahead and the mate ordered the helmsman to steer hard to port to avoid collision, but Pilk countermanded the order and began ringing the bell, ordering the men to the harpoons. When the huge bull bowhead came out of the fog, it rammed the ship, breaching the hull. Pilk cursed the whales and cursed his men and continued to ring the ship’s bell as the foundering ship slowly slipped beneath the waves with all hands aboard, 2,000 miles from home.
Color me scatterbrained! I forgot I had given it already.
No, don't roll again. Hopefully some others can make a roll.
Doesn't look like Ethron has local, but Doc and Alessandra do.
Alessandra briefly pauses in cavorting triumphantly about the deck to put her brain into gear. "Oh yeah. I remember the story 'bout this ship..."
Ethron grimaces in pain as his flesh is torn by the undead foes. "Now I"m angry!" He regains his footing from his charge, ready to defend himself as well. He swings at the zombie that cut him.