Skull & shackles (Inactive)

Game Master DBH

"So, we're making our own little doss here?"

Marnir is grateful that Bikendi does as he says and disappears from their new home leaving Maddie unharmed. Cataloging the vast treasures left behind takes some time and Marnir arranges for the majority of it to be transferred over to the Drake for safe-keeping.

"Sounds like you're ready to become our chief designer," he says jovially to Niobe, pleased that her magic is going to avoid the need to employ hordes of carpenters and stonemasons to get the fort ready to receive the Free Captains.

"Not a doss, a palace! he laughs at Maddie's statement. "We've got to get this place shining and sparkling to host the Free Captains."

"Kung can lift lots of heavy things!" he adds, with enthusiasm.

But he's no engineer; he won't be designing any of the changes!

Jane smiles. “I can supervise and make sure Kung is doing it right.“

"If none of us are training building designers, perhaps we can hire someone who is?"

So what is your plan of action? Even with Niobe using her magic there is still a lot needed, furniture, cutlery and plates etc. Are you staying and building, or sailing to get the items you need?

”We probably do need someone who knows how buildings work. And we need a lot of fancy stuff - cutlery, glasses, furniture, that sort of thing. Maybe we should head back to Port Peril to do some shopping?” Marnir proposes.

"I bet some pirates in port are awash in tablewear and cutlery from plunder that they will trade for gold and jewels," suggests Niobe.

"I can stay here and conjure elemental so to help with cleaning and moving things."

"And I can get myself and 3 other people to someplace where we can purchase the things we need. I can make a round trip a day, and it shouldn't be a problem, although such magic is not always precise, it's usually pretty good."

Kung looks concerned when Niobe suggests staying behind while the rest take the Drake to Port Peril. "But, you so good at winds, and we not be gone long. Kung think you should come."

Don't split the party!

Unfortunately, if we're going to teleport, we have to split the party.

"If we're going, we all go," Marnir says firmly. "I'm not leaving anyone here to be attacked, eaten, or otherwise harmed while the rest of us are away on the Drake."

Course of action please. Teleporting or sailing? Given the quantity of what you'll be buying, and the fact that you'll need to employ staff I'd suggest sailing would work best.

Sailing back all together, unless anyone has a strong opinion otherwise.

I'm fine. Just offering faster travel in case time is a factor.

After so long on the island it feels good to be back on the Unbound Drake. Sails billowing with a following wind as you make good speed towards Port peril.

After three days sailing you are skirting several large islands when the lookout sends up his call. "Sails to the south and east Captain! At least five ships, looks like there's a scrap going on?"

What are you doing now?

Marnir looks up to where the lookout is pointing before turning back and shouting up at the man in the nest. "Who's fighting who? Any ships we know?"

He leans over the quarterdeck rail and shouts down to Kung on the deck. "All hands to action stations please master-at-arms!"

Kung rings the bell, glad to call hands to battle. "Look up lively," he calls, mangling the common phrase as per usual. "Fun on the horizon!"

"Cap'n, shall I scout ahead underwater and get a look at what's going on?" asks Niobe. "If anyone decides to take a shot at me I can always dive and come back."

Maddie casts an Extended Heroism on herself just in case it is needed and then asks "Anyone recognize the colors of any of the dogs in this fight? I can't really make them out from here."

"Aye, take a look if you can," Marnir says to Niobe, "but get back here if anything looks at you funny."

Maddie's question is the same as the one floating round Marnir's own mind - who do these ships belong to, and why are they fighting?

hearing the call for action from above, Jane comes out of her hiding hole.

She passes a potion to Kung Drink up, it will make you stronger.

Bears Endurance

Niobe nods to the captain and with nary a hesitation pivots, runs to the railing, and leaps over, her legs fusing and sparkling scales covering them as she goes, falling into the water and swimming away at speed in her natural form. She keeps below the surface, easily making good time as she heads toward the conflict to see what she can discover of the forces involved.

As Niobe draws closer closer she sees that it is a running battle between three Chelaxian warships, two pirate chasers and a large Man-o-war, and their opponents two pirate vessels. Both of whom are working to keep the smaller Chelaxian ships between then and the Man-o-war's heavy weapons.

One of the pirates Niobe recognises, it's the Salty Flagon, captained by Pierce Jerrell. Whom the party met in Port Peril before the regatta.

The other is an unknown, but seems to be be sailing smartly and bears the figure head of hand holding dice.

At the current rate the Unbound Drake will arrive in a few minutes at the rear of the Chelaxians, as the fight is moving to the south with the pirates maneuvers.

What are you doing now?

Sorry for the gap, my computer decided it didn't like me anymore and packed a sad. It seems to be working again after some loving blows with heavy objects.

Easily making good time, Niobe takes in the scene, then prudently returns to the Drake to dutifully report what she's seen.

"The pirates are outmatched by the man-o-war," she says. "We could earn some repute and bloody the nose of Cheliax at the same time if we chose to assist."

"Well, let's go set some cheliaxians on fire." says Maddie, who then turns to the Captain and says "With your leave, of course."

”You know I don’t need much persuasion to take down a ship or two full of devil-lovers,” Marnir replies. ”Helm, four points to port. Let’s take down their big guy from its other side and let our friends keep dancing with the little ones. Kung, let’s run out there weapons. Everyone get ready, it’s going to get bloody.”

"If you'd like, we can leave the ship here and I can start ferrying people around."

The Unbound Drake is by now a veteran ship and crew, the men and woman rush to their posts, weapons ready for action. The ships weapons are primed and readied and you sweep down on the large Man-o-war.

To your amazement there is no sign of you having been seen as you come into range, all eyes on the large ship seem to be on the dance taking place ahead of her.

What are you doing now? Bombard and board, hammer away for a bit?

Kung anticipates Marnir's command, and has his people arming and readying the catapults and ballistae so that they can take a chunk out of that ship before they even board.

Of course, feel free to overrule him. He isn't too smart; he's not always going to guess right. Do we need to capture another ship?

I can't speak for the rest of you, but if Marnir lets us off the chain, I'm going to fly next to one of the ships, peek through one of the cannon windows, and cast wall of fire, facing inward. Then, I'm going to fly. Fast.

I believe Jane can also go and do something similar. Either by swimming or transforming into a fey.

I do want to get any of our melee folks into melee before I do so, however. Everyone should be able to be like Mayhem.

Just waiting on Marnir to give the course of action, he's gone quiet though?

Sorry, insanely busy weekend.

"I want them softened up before we board. Chelaxian marines are no joke, I don't want us facing any more than we need to. Rest assured though, everyone will get a chance to get their blows in," Marnir says with a wicked grin.

"Kung, you're in charge of the weapons. Make us of them as you see fit. Everyone else, I think it's time for some magic," he adds.

Im happy for people to enact their own magical plans, you're more aware of what you can do than I am.

"Here, before we get all split up, I'll give you all Heroism again. Can you cast Barkskin on me again Niobe?"

I will cast a normal Heroism on Jane, Niobe and Kung, and an extended one on myself, along with Overland Flight, Mage Armor, and Force Sword. Swinging her blade of force to test the balance, she sheathes it then nods and says "I'm ready to go Cap'n."

At your current rate of speed you will be on the Man-o-war in 10 rounds. You can open fire with your ships weapons at 6 rounds away. Your targets at this angle are the stern, the rudder, the helm, and the sails

Everyone give me a list of their actions as the 10 rounds tick down.

Let's assume that I cast those seven spells over the first seven rounds.

Maddie will fly over to one of the Cheliaxian ships that she can see (and that her ship was not firing at) and flew at roughly sea level, doing her best to maneuver next to one of the portholes being used by the cannons and then peak into the space around the cannon to see the area beyond. If needs be, she will wait until they go to reload, then she will drop a Wall of Fire in the area just on the other side of the wall, with the heat radiating towards the interior of the ship.

Satisfied that the enemy ship had been dealt with once the fire hit the powder, Maddie moved to the next ship and, coming up from behind, landed rather stealthily next to the helmsman and simply say "Boo!"

Stealth: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8

Sorry we lost Wed. The only time I could get on the site was down. Now it's on a real slow down as the playtest downloads are choking it. I've been working on a big update but it will have to go up tomorrow.

Maddie, bad idea, none of them use cannon, and with the distance you have to cover to reach the other ships it would take you far too long, you'd miss the big fight on the Man-o-war.

Kung directs the crew to load up half of weapons with some of Jane's Alchemist's Fire ammunition, and the other half with her Liquid Ice. (1 catapult, 3 ballista of each)

He directs the crew to target their port side with fire, and their starboard side with ice. "Ice and Fire, Fire and Ice! It be beautiful!"

Each deals 4d6 of fire/ice damage within 5' of impact, and requires a DC 20 Reflex to avoid catching fire or a DC 20 Fortitude save to avoid becoming entangled. More details of each are on the Drake's stats sheet in the google drive.

Catapults have a range of 150', ballista 120'

Also, I never kept that sheep up, and I know we've done a few upgrades since it was created. I'll review our history and figure out what stats updates need to be made, but it'll likely take a couple of days until I can get to it.

Okay, nm then. How are they fighting each other though? Boarding actions?

Marnir spends a few moments preparing himself and his master-at-arms with spells while he pilots the Drake towards the scrap.

Casting heroism, mirror image (for 1d4 + 3 ⇒ (1) + 3 = 4 images), and see invisibility on myself.
Kung gets a blur and a grand destiny.

As the Drake gets nearer Marnir chants a short phrase in his native tongue, calling for mental strength and hardiness for him and his shipmates, before touching each of them in turn.

Just after we start opening fire, I'll use Spell Kenning to cast communal protection from evil which gives everyone 2 minutes of the effects of protection from evil.

@Maddie. Yes it is mostly boarding actions. Firstly ships are worth a lot of gold, Second cannons are very expensive, and are very rare, so siege weapons light enough to use aboard ships don't do enough damage to sink ships. They're used to cripple the other ship to stop it moving, and to clear away defenders. Thirdly the ship to ship combat rules suck and are not being used. :)

The Unbound Drake starts the now familiar dance, her weapons hammer the Man-o-war mercilessly as you come up on her. Marines die in their squads and flames and ice rain down on them.

With a crash the Drake comes alongside the Thrune's Hammer and your crew pours over the railings with a blood hungry roar, slashing into the other crew like wolves on sheep.

You see the this ship clearly had some purpose here in the Shackles, knots of resistance are formed around figures decked in the regalia of Asmodean faithful.

Using the Man-o-war map up top. You have marines guarding two Arcane casters on the stern and bow. Also guarding two Inquisitors flanking a Asmodean cleric who looks to be in charge, with his bodyguard behind him.

You have a surprise round as they are still reacting to being rammed and boarded. Then we go to initiative.

Maddie will target the nearest Asmodean and cast Admonishing Ray.

Attack Rolls vs. FF Touch AC?: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (20) + 10 = 301d20 + 10 ⇒ (10) + 10 = 201d20 + 10 ⇒ (4) + 10 = 14
Damage Rolls: 4d6 + 4 ⇒ (2, 3, 3, 4) + 4 = 164d6 + 4 ⇒ (3, 6, 5, 5) + 4 = 234d6 + 4 ⇒ (3, 4, 3, 6) + 4 = 20

Confirmation: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (15) + 10 = 25
Crit Damage: 4d6 + 4 ⇒ (5, 5, 2, 6) + 4 = 22

All of that is non-lethal force damage.

Jane pulls out one of her new favorite potions and drinks it. Turning into a more stunning version of herself, she pulls out an insturment that no one knows if she even knows how to play and wonderfully starts to play.

Surprise Round, she drinks a potion of Fey Form, transforming into a Muse. First round, she casts Good Hope giving everyone a +2 morale bonus on saving throws, attack rolls, ability checks, skill checks, and weapon damage rolls.

Jane - good hope only adds +2 damage over and above the heroism that everyone already has cast on them. If that was your plan you could alert us beforehand so that Maddie and I aren't wasting spells, or you could cast a buff that provides a different bonus type.

As the two ships crash together Marnir leaps down to the deck, axe already in hand. He sends out a wave of magic, strengthening his friends and his crew, before pointing his axe at the Chelish marines assembling just scant feet away and crying "DRAKES! ATTACK!"

Standard Action to cast haste on everyone, Swift Action to use Battle Cry to give everyone a +1 morale bonus on attack rolls and a +4 morale bonus on saving throws against fear for 1 minute (yet another morale bonus, I know, but you get an additional +2 vs fear). If you fail a saving throw against a fear effect, you can choose to end the battle cry’s effect on her to reroll the failed save.

Still need an action from Kung?

Kung steps up to the boarding plank and his pegleg begins its tapping rhythm as the half-orc finds a way to both center himself and let his violent will free.

Niobe moves to the far side of the enemy ship, away from the party, and then starts singing a haunting song.

My goal is to get into a position where I can cast nixie's lure and try to get the man-o'-war's troops into the water, while still far enough away to not drag the party.

Sorry Marnir, I was trying to save some time with my posts, since they are erratic right now. GM, remove my actions for round 1, since we are still in the surprise round.