"That looks ominous", Charles comments, gesturing towards the ship graveyard.
Then, when he hears the strange noise from below-decks, his face goes white.
"Ah, hell - they are trying to scuttle the ship!"
Hearing Charles' warning, Aishe quickly rushes belowdecks, boarding pike in-hand.
Charles looks glumly at the sea.
"We may have to go down below to sort them out..."
Aishe returns to the others and says, "Well, I, for one, am not okay with them sinking our ship. I suggest we take care of them." She retrieves one of the water breathing potions, just in case, then jumps into the water, boarding pike in hand.
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The others look at Aishe quizzically as she comes rushing back to the deck of the ship, grabs a potion and dives into the water.
Aishe resurfaces from her dive boarding pike in hand as she soon sees movement within the water. She looks into the clear water and sees that there are three Sahuagin each riding hammerhead sharks towards her.
Viviana
Jack
Aishe
Charles
Somia
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Sahuagin w/ sharks
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Aishe begins singing, trying to force herself to show courage, regardless of the odds she faces.
Casting divine Favor Jack prepares to shoot as soon as the sharks surface the water.
Viviana will swim next to Aishe, and use the Total Defence action.
With a sigh, Charles leaps over the side, ready to engage the interlopers.
Somia peers over the side, seeing the Shark Riders she attempts to lull one of the Sahuagin to sleep.
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Viviana dives into the waters next to Aishe as she stays defensive while trying to stay afloat.
Jack asks for divine favor once again from Besmara as Charles follows Viviana's lead and crashes into the water below.
Somia rushes to the rear of the vessel as she lulls the Sahuagin to sleep.
The remaining Sahuagin rush Aishe and Viviana.
The first Sahuagin's shark doesn't seem to listen to him much as it rushes the interlopers but the second shark darts in biting at Aishe.
The Sahuagins stab their tridents at both Aishe and Viviana. The trident's both find their marks and blood begins to mark the clear waters.
Viviana (-7 HP)
Jack
Aishe (-4 HP)
Charles
Somia
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Sahuagin w/ sharks (E-slumber 4 rounds)
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Unless my AC is 13 before Total Defence, there is no way that attack hit me, since it should be 17+4=21 AC.
Viviana lashes out at the Sahuagin that just attacked her.
EDIT
Forgot Exploit weakness
If successful, then gain a +2 Dodge bonus to AC against a Sahuagin that is still alive.
Somia will head back over to the other side and attempt to lull another Sahuagin to sleep.
Aishe keeps herself afloat and punches at the sahuagin nearest her with her cestus.
Charles rages, causing his form to Blur, and hacks away at the shark in front of him!
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Viviana grabs the spear of the Sahuagin that attempted to skewer here as she breaks the creatures neck in one swift stroke.
As the Sahuagin approaches Aishe stabs at it with her boarding pike but it easily darts out of the way on it's shark. Seeing that she missed Aishe loosens her grip on the pike as she punches at the gilley goblinoid but once again misses.
Charles roars with fury as his form begins to move at a rapid rate causing him to blur to the naked eye. Charles cleaves his way through the sahuagin in a swift but brutal stroke.
The Sharks begin to flee as their riders fall from their backs.
Seeing the sharks retreat Jack orders a net to be thrown down to the others, so that they can enter the boat again.
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Jack and the others get back on the boat as the crew sends down a skiv.
Sandara comes over and slaps Viviana on the back. Bit angry at them now are ya? And ole Aishe here just dived headfirst into an area of sharks! Besmara herself would be proud of ye.
Though it seems the Sahuagin are also here
The sun is beginning to set as you send the crew to prepare dinner and reminisce on the clues from the map.
"While there's still some light, I think we should make our way onto the island. We need to be somewhere on the island by dawn, and there's no telling how long it'll take us to get there."
Charles shakes his head.
"I think that poem was implying that we need to be on the waters of the cove at dawn. If we are actually on the island, we may miss what we are supposed to spot at sun-up."
"Maybe there is a mirror or something, so that the sun is reflected..
"Let's hold off on sailing into the harbor just yet - the water there is obviously deep; our anchor might not reach the bottom. Also, we'd be trapped if some other vessel decided to block the entrance. Come dawn, though, we should make our way in there to catch whatever may happen at sunrise."
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The crew decides to stay within the cove for the evening. 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 the display of shadow art. In the shadowy half light, a group of caves and crevices on the cliff face take on the appearance of a grinning skull. As the morning sun illuminates the shadow that resembles the skulls mouth, a previously unseen glint of gold sparkles brightly n the sunlight, as if the skull has a gold tooth.
Charles nods in satisfaction.
"Right then. Looks like we need to go and investigate that skull's eye sockets..."
Looking for a good place to anchor Jack yells to the crew.
"All hands ready to anchor. Get your bloody asses moving, if you want some shiny gold in the cargo, better get your sorry hands to work!
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The crew begins to run all about the vessel as they drop the sails and begin to turn the wheel into the cove.
The ship begins to move a little bit as it lurches forward slightly, though it doesn't sound right. Something must be wrong.
Sandara approaches Jack and whispers in his ear. The sea goblins must have damaged the rudder. We will have to repair it. Perhaps you should go on ahead while we repair the ship Cap'n.
Jack points to the left one.
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The small group loads up in the rowing boat as Jack takes small even strokes in the water. Aishe keeps a lookout in the waters for anymore unwanted 'visitors'. Jack keeps on eye on the cliff face to where the gold shined ever so briefly so as not to lose it's position.
The group makes it to shore with little trouble as they look upon the section of pyrite set within a crevice. Sticking to the plan of investigating the left cave Jack and the group make easy work of finding enough handholds to reach the cave entrance.
The narrow earthen opening ascends into the cliff above. The cave mouth is a tight fit behind the screening vines and roots, but it looks accessible with little effort. The passage soon widens once everyone is in.
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 a rocky soil, it's prodigious root system blocking any further progress ahead. The fissures and crevices in the bark in the bark of the tree's trunk, just visibly at the roof of the tunnel, vaguely resemble a wrinkled human visage with a craggy crown upon it's brow, while the spread of roots below seems like the hoary growth of an ancient beard.
"I guess that is where we need to dig?"
Charles cautiously moves forward, thoroughly checking the area for traps, before starting to dig.
After all, if I was a feared pirate captain, I would probably have a 'last line of defense' for my loot...
"Charles, wait a minute. Those pirates often safeguarded their treasures with evil traps. Let me check the area first."
[ooc]Taking 20 perception for traps for a 30[/dice]
Then Jack goes carefully in trying to find a clue where the treasure might be!
Feeling uncomfortable that there have been no traps or guardians, excepting the Sahuagin, Somia extends her perception into the ether.
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Somia begins to shift about the chamber as she attempts to sense if there are any undead present. As hard as she tries she is unable to sense any through the rocky soil.
Charles begins to dig laboriously at the point beneath the 'beard'. After he descends 10 feet through the bedrock he hears the spade make a Thunk! sound. He raps it a few more times. Thunk! Thunk! He seems to have struck wooden planks!
"Well, that certainly sounds promising..."
Using a crowbar, Charles attempts to lever up one of the planks to see what lies beneath.
Helping Charles Jack is curious. Finding a great treasure would really be awesome.
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Charles' muscles heave as he begins to lift on one of the boards. Straining Jack hops in the hole with him. Both of them pulling on the board causes it to snap as they tumble back against the dirt walls.
The removal of the wooden planks reveals a sinkhole descending into the rock. It drops thirty feet into the still dark surface of water below. The broken remnants of a wooden platform and stair cling to the wall, but the structures themselves have long since rotted away and dropped into the inscrutable depths.
Somia watches the men work, and peers over their shoulders as the opening is revealed.
"It's never easy, is it?"
Pulling out a rope and piton, Charles hammers the piton into the wall, ties the rope to it, and lets the rope down into the water below.
He then turns to the others, gesturing to the sinkhole.
"Shall we?"
"Umm Charles. Can you... you know breath water? Cause I can´t. Maybe Sandara can cast a spell on us? And IF we go diving, there is an X-bow in the ship´s armory with my name on it!"