Sassarra will lean out of the window and fire lightning down at one of the invaders coming in.
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Skrelznit leans out the window and casts a spell, and an angry thundercloud appears on any invader who looks to be in charge, or a random one if no one stands out.
Looseal finds a stone and drops it on a random invader.
Isaella (22)
Skrelznit (16)
Sassarra (16)
Zaaka (10)
Huek (8)
Round 0:
Skrelznit and Looseal ran death on those below. As Zaaka run down to the 3rd floor (party is on 4th floor).
A large orb of water appears along with a woman out of thin air.
aqueous orb
Round 1 Start:
The woman puts out her hand. Five small balls of magic fly out of our hand.
Magic missile
[/b]
Two balls hit Sassarra and Huek. Only one hits Skrelznit.
She waves her hand, making the ball of water roll over Sassarra, Huek, and Skrelznit.
Take nonlethal damage.
And make 2nd Reflex save (same DC):
If fail 2nd save, you are Engulfed (pinned and you follow inside the ball).
[/dice]
[spoiler=If Engulfed at start of your turn:]
Take 2d6 Nonlethal at start of your turn.
You can make a Reflex save on your turn to escape into a square adjacent to the orb.
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Skrelznit ain't got time to identify spells, man.
He deftly dodges out of the way.
Facing a stronger enemy, he leaves the thundercloud to continue zapping a corpse, and turns his attention to Isaella.
He takes on the aspect of a bull and roars into the fray.
Rawwwrrr-k-k-k!
He sends a mental cry for help to Looseal, who wings swiftly toward the open window.
Huek dodges the spell like it's his job. Which technically, it is.
"Looks like she's packing aqueous orbs and magic missiles. Try to stay out of the way of the orb. Can't do much about the missiles though, I suppose."
He chugs his dex mutagen.
As the orb rolls over Sassarra, the winds surrounding her whip it into froth and she passes through it without a care.
"I was born in Abendengo. Your puddle doesn't faze me, Bit--." The last word is obscured by the lightning flying from her mouth.
Zaaka hurls himself down the stairs to find the intruders.
Isaella (22)
Skrelznit (16)
Sassarra (16)
Zaaka (10)
Huek (8)
Round 1:
Skrelznit cuts into Isaella, but fails to dig deep.
Isaella also takes Sassarra's blast.
Round 1 end:
Sassarra takes 7 Damage from Isaella's Magic.
Huek takes 5 Damage from Isaella's Magic.
Skrelznit takes 2 Damage from Isaella's Magic.
Isaella takes 10 Damage from Skrelznit's sword.
Isaella takes 10 Damage from Sassarra's electric blast.
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Round 2 start:
Isaella smiles and wispers one word. "Bite"
vs Flatfoot.
Lethal +1 nonlethal.
You are poisoned.
Takes CON Damage.
A tiny snake appears biting into Skrelznit's lag. While the wound is small it feels much worse to Skrelznit.
Isaella then lashes back at Skrelznit with her rapier, but Skrelznit proves to fast for her.
Isaella waves her hand and the water orb tries to roll over Sassarra, and Huek.
Take nonlethal damage.
And make 2nd Reflex save (same DC):
If fail 2nd save, you are Engulfed (pinned and you follow inside the ball).
Take 2d6 Nonlethal at start of your turn.
You can make a Reflex save on your turn to escape into a square adjacent to the orb.
It is close, but she avoids the churning water. As she flings the water off of her arm, she channels her lightning through it to the b*&+@.
Zaaka leaps upon the intruder! "Die, fleshy bastard!"
As they hit with a crunch and a spurting of blood, Zaaka lets go and rolls to his feet.
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Skrelznit shakes off the poison. The blood of dragons is strong.
Yowch-k-k-k! You gots sharp friends-k-k-k!
He stabs at her.
But I gots sharp friends too-k-k-k! And here she is-k-k-k!
Looseal wings swiftly into the room, landing on the stairs.
The tight confines are too constricting for her, and she is only able to land on the stairs near the action.
Skrelznit mutters under his breath, We gots to work on your entrances-k-k-k.
Looseal hops into position to attack.
Dodging deftly out of the way again, Huek pulls out an extract of Reduce Person and chugs it, shrinking rapidly as he does so.
Round 2:
Sassarra's lightning hits Isaella hard.
A short silents falls over the 1st floor as a kobold (Zaaka) crushes and impales one of the invaders. Standing up over the body, dripping blood from his spikes, Zaaka reminds some of the tales claiming that Kobold's are related to dragons.
Skrelznit lands his blow on Isaella. A little clumsy, Looseal moves in.
Huek shrinks down.
The viper bits at Skrelznit again. But Skrelznit shows himself to be to fast.
Isaella, hurting from the party's attacks, lashes out at Skrelznit with her rapier, but Skrelznit proves to fast for her as well.
Isaella waves her hand and the water orb tries to roll over Sassarra, and Huek. The snake is in Skrelznit square, so not trying to roll over Skrelznit.
Take nonlethal damage.
And make 2nd Reflex save (same DC):
If fail 2nd save, you are Engulfed (pinned and you follow inside the ball).
Take 2d6 Nonlethal at start of your turn.
You can make a Reflex save (same DC) on your turn to escape into a square adjacent to the orb.
Round 2 end:
Skrelznit took 11 Lethal and 1 nonlethal from Isaella's viper.
Isaella took 23 lightning damage from Sassarra.
Isaella took 9 damage from Skrelznit.
A poor fool got crushed and impaled by Zaaka.
Round 3 start:
Sassarra's storm power continues to resist this lesser maelstrom as she continues to shock the spellcaster.
Zaaka rushes outside to find more invaders to kill. "Come at me, squishy hyoomans!"
Zaaka rampages, striking out at the nearest enemy hyooman with all of his pointy bits! If he breaks one, he'll go on to the next.
"Mmmm! Tastes like piggies!
Round 3:
Skrelznit tries to ignore the annoying viper, on the theory that if Isaella can be taken down it might disappear.
Skrelznit blade cuts into Isaella. Isaella's skin turns paler as more of her blood leaks out.
Looseal takes a cue from her master and tries to bite.
Isaella sways out of the way of Looseals beak.
Sassarra's storm power continues to resist this lesser maelstrom as she continues to shock the spellcaster.
Isaella lets out a loud and final scream, as a bolt of Sassarra's raw power drops her like so many others.
Using Zaaka's 'entrance' as a distraction, the guards start pushing back the intruders.
Zaaka rampages, striking out at the nearest enemy hyooman with all of his pointy bits! If he breaks one, he'll go on to the next.
"Mmmm! Tastes like piggies!
Not to be left out, Zaaka quickly kills two of the intruders and terrifies a 3rd; who is quickly dispatched with the rest.
Without their leaders; the intruders are killed off quickly.
End of battle
After the battle guards head out to check for many more intruders. On the longboat used to get to the island they find six potions of water breathing. They hand them over to the party.
On the back of the intruder's leader is a tattoo of a map.
The tattoo is a map to a lost treasure in Mancatcher Cove.
"Ugly tattoo!"
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Skrelznit offers a brief prayer for Besmara's blessings and thank her for a successful battle.
Cap'n-k-k-k! This is a map to a lost treasure in Mancatcher Cove-k-k-k. I likes that name-k-k-k. I hopes we catch lots of mans so we can...wait, what was I talking about-k-k-k?
Skrelznit ponders for a moment, sure that he's momentarily forgotten something important about Mancatcher Cove.
No matter, it will come to me-k-k-k.
He sets immediately to removing and preserving the map.
Free Captain Cyrus Wolfe was less of a man, then a demon. hundreds lived in fear of him and his ship. Ships would flee at rumors of his coming: those who did not flee found their ships aflame, and themselves ransomed.
The Hurricane Crown, the symbol of the king of all Shackle Free Captains, was offered to him; but it was laughed off.
His last, and biggest, haul was a treasure ship fleet. tales say they he divided up his treasure into 7 parts; most locations lost to time. However, one name, the location of the most valuable portion, is still told of -- Mancatcher Cove.
It is said that he found a uncharted island, with deep jungles and harsh cliffs, then on the island found a cove so deep that it descended to Hell it self. He hid his treasure there and, calling on his sorcerous powers, summoned a guardian from the very heart of Hell to crush any who dared lay anchor in the cove.
Five of Captain Wolfe's treasure troves have been looted; but not Mancatcher Cove. While copies of the map of Mancatcher has found its way into others hands, not have returned from the Cove.
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Skrelznit knows his place in the hierarchy, and briefs Captain Sassarra on what he remembers about the map.
He's savvy enough to know that, even if he could abscond with the map, his chances of success are much greater with the crew's help than by himself.
Still, he only tells the Captain. He's not stupid.
"Very interesting. Do you think we can go for it?"
We will spend the day cleaning up and helping secure the tower. That night, we'll have a shackles wedding, and we leave the next day.
Huek stands quietly off to the side, trying to figure out how he can be a bit more helpful in combat next time. He mixes another dexterity mutagen while he does so.
The map tattooed depicts several small islands.
A stylized half sun sits to the right of the islands.
A simple images of a monstrous eye and the face of an aged, bearded king are to the left.
Beneath the map are five lines of crude verse:
From blue bight’s embrace
Spy the Grave Lady’s prize tooth
With the Dawnf lower’s first kiss
Climb the Captain’s wayward orb
To claim old king’s hoard.
You figure out that the archipelago on the map is, and that it is only about 110 miles north as the crow flies; a little longer by boat.
“Grave Lady” is the goddess of death; Pharasma.
“Dawnf lower’s first kiss” refers to the goddess of the sun; Sarenrae.
"Captain’s wayward orb" is talking about the eye Captain Wolfe lost in battle.
"Well, it's obviously talking about Pharasma and Sarenrae - Death and the sun. And everybody knows that Wolfe's wayward orb is his {left/right} eye. Now we just need to set a course." She seems to be floundering in identifying where this is.
The lost eye was the right eye.
Seeing the skin map, Quinn says she knows where the archipelago is.
"ah, Quinn. Beauty, brains, and she knows where she's going." She turns to the rest of the crew, "Set a course based on Quinn's heading."
After days of travel, you pierce the waers of the largest of the islands. The islands are surrounded by nearly sheer rock cliffs with few beaches, and are buried under a shroud of prolific jungle growth.
The Cove forms an almost perfectly round bowl in the side of this jungle-cloaked island. The water in this circular bowl is an almost indigo hue compared to the turquoise of the waters surrounding the island, hinting at the extreme depth of the cove. Cliffs surround the bowl on all sides except the entrance, and a few small beaches have formed where the water meets the rock face. The jungle grows thickly atop these cliffs, the massive trees spreading their branches out and over the cove. From these trees a series of interlaced vines have grown like a loose net canopy 100 feet above the water, giving the cove a cave-like quality in the shadows of predawn or twilight. More vines, creepers, and roots extend down the cliffs, creating a dense maze of twisting tendrils that shroud numerous dark hollows in the rock.
"hmmm... I don't like the look of that cove." She looks through the spyglass. "Let's do this sneaky style. Have the ship pass by and we come up by boat. We can sneak in and up to the eye socket."
Looseal flies over, and only see thick jungles. Some small animals can be seen, but nothing bigger then a spider monkey.
Hopefully, Quinn can come with us. "Dawnflower's first kiss" probably means the sunrise, so we'll come in from the east, looking over the cove.
As the first light of dawn peeks into the darkened cove from the east, the jungle cliffs come alive with patterns of shadow and light in a thousand fanciful, ever-shifting shapes. When the sun is fully up, the cliffs will return to their normal appearance, but for these few moments they are almost magical with this display of shadow art. In the shadowy half light, a group of caves and crevices on the cliff face takes on the appearance of a grinning skull. As the morning sun illuminates the shadow that resembles the skull’s mouth, a previously unseen glint of gold sparkles brightly in the sunlight, as if the skull has a gold tooth.
"So, we need to head in and climb up to his right eye. Simple." Seeing Zaaka's gaze, she calrifies, "It's his right eye, so it's the one on the left."
The travel to the 'skull' is uneventful. Looking closely as the gold Quinn says it is pyrite, but was not natural.
At Sassarra's command the party climbs into the eye socket to the left (right eye).
A narrow earthen opening ascends into the cliff. The cave mouth is a tight fit behind the screening vines and roots, but not for Kobolds.
Past the opening the cave slope upward.
The tunnel climbs to a point just below the island’s surface. Sunlight filters faintly through a rent in the earth above, where a gargantuan tree grows down into the rocky soil, its prodigious root system blocking any further progress ahead.
The fissures and crevices in the bark of the tree’s trunk, just visible at the roof of the tunnel, vaguely resemble a wrinkled human visage with a craggy crown upon its brow, while the spread of roots below seems like the hoary growth of an ancient beard.
Sassarra will examine the roots. does it look like we can cut a passage through them?
The tree roots down reply to Skrelznit.
Sassarra finds a human-like skull, facing down, among the roots; but no opens behind the roots.
"They don't speak dragontongue, silly." he tells Skrelznit. then he starts to clear away the dirt. "Maybe they buried it. Should we dig?"
Yes, they will start digging.