Skull & shackles (Inactive)

Game Master DBH

Kung grasps his captain about the shoulder. With his limited mental capacity, even this half-orc seems to understand that Marnir intends some kind of magical means of escape, so lets his rage fall; the rhythmic tapping of his pegleg stops, leaving an empty silence as he waits for the coming spell.

You all still have airwalk going. do you aim for a mid air arrival, or aim for the water?

Asking because you aren't the only one with Dimension door. :)

I think we're aiming for a water landing, we're probably more comfortable in the water than the horrors harrassing us.

It's also harder to be invisible when you splash down

I think we're aiming for a water landing, we're probably more comfortable in the water than the horrors harrassing us.

Honestly, though this isn't something Kung has the capacity to suggest in-character, appearing under the surface could be strategic. Kung has the equipment to immediately be able to breathe water.

Yeah, and Niobe and Callidora have natural advantages underwater as well. I can put some magic on Marnir as my first action if we appear underwater, too.

As the magic shifts you away you hear a woman snap an order "Gilbrok. Take us after them now!"

You appear a few feet over the water of the harbor.

What are you doing now?

Yes, the Sea serpent is well fed at the moment, so it won't be bothering you. :)

Niobe shifts into her merform and dives thankfully into the water.

"Cap'n? Do you need water breathing?" she calls out to Marnir.

Callidora does the same, immediately trading her legs for her tail as the plunges beneath the welcoming surface of the waves.

Kung flips the goggles of his helm over his eyes, barks the helm's command word, and follows the women into the deep.

Just waiting for Marnir's action and then your doom arrives! :)

"Something to help me keep up with you underwater would do," Marnir responds to Niobe as he pulls a wax-coated sponge from one of the pockets on his sash and pops it in his mouth. He chews through the coating and the unpleasantly salty potion runs down his throat. He coughs as he feels his breathing change.

I'll consume one of my potion sponges of water breathing but a touch of the sea or similar would be great.

"Got it!" says the mermaid as she casts touch of the sea on Marnir to help him swim more comfortably and competently.

You are all now under the water, swimming in the complete darkness of the night.

Those with darkvision notice the arrival of six people shortly after you dive. they are all flying and searching the area. They will soon notice your ship.

New map up top. Night swimming. Red dots are the enemy. You can't make out much detail while you're underwater.

You are 60' away from them. They Dimension doored further than you and are coming back towards the fort.

What are you doing now?

Marnir gives Niobe a thumbs up by way of thanks before heading beneath the surface with the others the scant moonlight disappearing quickly as they dive into the darkness. He relies on following closely behind Kung to navigate through the water. "We need to get back to the Drake as quickly as we can," he says.

GM - how far back to the ship?

Kung nods at Marnir, and begins swimming towards the ship, but he begins by diving at a 45° angle downward, to increase their depth and improve the chance of not being seen underwater.

From where you currently are it is 500' to your ship. If you look at the Gannet island map Harrigan's fortress is at D, your ship is moored at the red X just around the headland out of sight. With no lights lit Etc. This is why they haven't spotted it yet.

Sorry, I forgot to place you on the Gannet island map insert. You are the yellow X. Nothing to do with your gallant retreat. :)

So I think the plan is to start by swimming towards the ship, deep enough underwater that we can't be seen. Obviously the actions of the searchers above will affect that, so let us know when we notice something that might throw us off that plan?

Callie swims over to Kung, and quicky touches him on the shoulder as she chants a spell in aquan.

Cast Blood Scent

You greatly magnify the target’s ability to smell the presence of blood. The target is considered to have the scent universal monster ability, but only for purposes of detecting and pinpointing injured creatures (below full hit points). Creatures below half their full hit points or suffering bleed damage are considered strong scents for this ability.

Orcs and any creature under the effects of rage gain a +2 morale bonus on attack and damage rolls against creatures they can smell with this spell, or a +4 morale bonus if the target’s blood counts as a strong scent.

After several minutes the group above you begin flying towards your ship. They are not moving over walking pace, so must be using Air walk rather than Fly.

They are not going to give up :). What are you doing now?

"Keep going, we need to get back to the Drake before it gets spotted," Marnir says, his speech distorting through the water. He increases his tempo to try to get to the ship faster than their pursuers.

Seeing as we all have swim speeds now we can take the Run action to increase our speed to 120ft/round. That might get us there in time to get the Drake ready.

While swimming, Kung fishes out a potion sponge with lesser restoration in it, chews through the opening and sucks up the liquid, feeling the vigor return to his limbs.

Kung entered the water with 8 rounds of fatigue left; this should cure that so that Kung can swim-run.

Callidora assumes her altered mantamaid form, slicing through the water with alarming speed.

With the cloak of the Manta Ray my swim speed is 60. Run action makes it 300ft per round, that should get me there first. I can surface on the far side of the ship, drink a potion of spiderclimb, and run up the side to prepare the crew to repel an attack from the air.

I'm not going to wrack my brain doing the maths. :)

You speed through the waters at pace. Niobe & Callidora are used to this of course and take the lead. Giving advice to help the clumsy surfacers do better.

You arrive and hurriedly board your ship, at the moment even those with Darkvision can't see any signs of your enemies.

What are you doing now?

"We need some way to take them out of the air," says Niobe. "Ideas? Ship's weapons? I can cast black tentacles but I think it needs to be anchored to a surface."

Marnir hauls himself over the gunwale and onto the deck. "Aye, get the weapons readied," he agrees, hoping they won't need them. "Hands aloft, rig for full sail!" he calls, his voice carrying clearly through the still, dark night. "We'll have company soon and I want to be on the move before they get here."

"Kung, ready the crew with whatever missile weapons we've got. Niobe and Cally, get ready to blast our guests out of the sky. I'll need your help with tricking the sea beast again as well," he says before leaping up the stairs to the quarterdeck to begin plotting a course away from Gannet Island and into the open ocean.

Following his captain's commands, the dripping half-orc begins getting the crew to their battle stations, focusing on the ballistae over the catapults, being easier to target individuals with.

Does Marnir's See Invisibility allow him to see them?

Not yet. How long does it last? It would take minutes to swim to your ship.

Your crew bustles in the familiar routine. A well honed blade after so long together.

Still no sign yet as the sails are raising and the anchor cranks upwards. What are you doing?

see invisibility lasts for two hours at this level.

Marnir begins to ready the Drake to head back towards the open sea, away from whichever of Harrigan's minions are still pursuing them. "Eyes open! Look out for attackers from the air!" he calls as he helps the crew set the sails while looking out into the dark for any sign of their attackers.

Perception: 1d20 + 22 ⇒ (1) + 22 = 23

Your first indication of danger comes when the ship suddenly drops 20' or so as the water around it suddenly develops a deep pit!

The water walls your ship in on every side and your weapons are now taken out of play by that action.

You would have to remount the weapons to fire straight up to use them.

Marnir sees figures flying closer out of the darkness above the ship.

There are seven figures in the gloom. You may now take an action.

These are some tenacious a%&*+&+~s.

Marnir clings to the Drake's wheel as the ship lurches downwards as though dropping off the top of an enormous wave. He looks up to see flying figures approaching from the darkness and points up towards them while shouting "Prepare to repel boarders! Break out the crossbows!"

Preparing himself for the upcoming fight Marnir uses his magic to cause a number of copies of himself appear to confuse and confound their attackers.

I guess we're making our stand here. I'll cast mirror image on myself for 1d4 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6 images.

My Spellcraft is +18 so I autosucceed

Callidora's lip curls in a little sneer as she recognizes the spell affecting the ship. While she could easily reverse it and had every intention of doing so, she needed to stop the incoming enemies first. As Marnir points in the direction of the incoming fliers, she seawitch begins a powerful incantation, summoning up hurricane-force winds to blast the enemies back.

"Oh they'll be repelled alright Cap'n!"

Cast Control Winds (Blast Version : A blast simply causes the winds to blow in one direction across the entire area from one side to the other. covering a 480ft span blasting straight back. Area of wind is 40ft high (so 20ft above them and 20 below)
I'm level 12 so Hurricane force winds (75+ mph) destroy wooden buildings, uproot large trees, and cause most ships to founder.

Sidenote: I can't even imagine what the concentration check to pull off a spell would be in that. hehehe

Kung grabs the gunwale when the ship suddenly drops, easily keeping his feet under him. He whips his bow off his back and fires a single shot at one of the figures in the gloom and wind above.

Niobe casts call lightning and prepares for a target to enter range.

Ok. That has bought you some time.

You can just make out screams and curses over the rising howl of the winds answering Callidora's call. The enemies are driven away and scattered over the area.

They are scattered, and will not be in the air. But they will keep coming. You seem to have taken something from Harrigan that they will do anything to retrieve?

You have some more rounds to prepare to repel boarders. what are you doing?

Niobe places a death ward on Marnir and says, "Does anyone know anything about these creatures? Do they use lightning or fire or anything like that?"

Knowledge Nature: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (16) + 14 = 30
Knowledge Planes: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (19) + 11 = 30
Knowledge Religion: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (16) + 13 = 29
Knowledge Arcana: 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (14) + 20 = 34

[dice=Knowledge Nature]1d20+14

[dice=Knowledge Planes]1d20+11
[dice=Knowledge Religion]1d20+13
[dice=Knowledge Arcana]1d20+20

Now that's how you roll dice; I hope everyone paid attention. Let's do it more like that in the future. Kung approves.

Kung continues to help the pirate crew reorient weapons to fire into the sky.

They are humans from what you saw. A high ranking Cleric of Norgorber and her acolytes. You also read in the journal of his former first mate that Harrigan had a witch working for him. The last you saw before they ran into Callidora's blow job looked to be a Tengu.

Cleric 1.
Acolytes 4.
Witch 1.
Tengu 1. Only 6 opponents, but they all are high level and rather motivated. :)

Marnir nods his thanks at Niobe for the protective spell before turning towards the walls of water keeping them penned in. He weaves a disrupting spell to try to get them free, shouting "Hold onto your hats!" as he releases the energy

Assuming Cally reported that the spell cast was control water then it'll make the check for my dispel magic that much easier.

Dispel check vs control water: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (2) + 12 = 14

Never mind, I doubt that'll work either way.

It does not work. You still have some rounds before they work around the winds. What actions are you taking?

Marnir looks downcast as his spell fails to even touch the waters surrounding the Drake. "They're going to be here soon, what else do we have that can bring them down before they get here?" Marnir asks the others. "If not, I could do with some healing," he says with a hopeful smile.

Pulling out his magic rod from the pouch on his hip Marnir uses it to channel a spell, prolonging the magical energy that rushes out into himself and the others.

I'll cast an extended haste on us all using my metamagic rod. I'm down nearly half my HP, so if someone has something that could top me up before the fight starts I'd be grateful.

While he continues to help the crew adjust the ballistae fittings to fire upwards, Kung can't stop looking at the vertical wall of water off the Drake's bow. "We have magic like what make this box. Niobe? Cally? You do like that sometime. Why not make tunnel?" he asks, pointing at the high wall in front of them.

As Marnir's attempt to counter the water sputters out, Callidora focuses her own magic, reproducing the same spell that created the wall, but with a different effect."Working on it!"

Cast Control Water
Ignore the wall but create an opening we can shunt through, away from them, keeping the wall and area of wind behind us.

That will work.

Callidora draws on her deep knowledge of the ocean and a path leading out of the hole appears. With a sluggish lurch your ship begins to move again.Leaving the deep hole and howling winds behind you.

random rounds: 1d6 ⇒ 1

Not much more time to do things, and Marnir is whimpering for some love.

What are you doing now? One round until they emerge.

As the ship makes it's way through the opening, Callidora rests a hand on Marnir's shoulder, casting a spell to seal some of his wounds.

Cure Moderate Wounds: 2d8 + 10 ⇒ (2, 5) + 10 = 17

Let me know what everyone is doing. The action starts next round. :)

"Thanks Cally," Marnir says as the Drake begins to make headway out of the depression. "Put your backs into it!" he roars down onto the deck as the crew try to make maximum sail to get the ship moving as fast as possible.

"They're going to be on us soon," he adds, directing his magic into Kung to make a difference when it's needed most.

I'll cast grand destiny on Kung.