Cueta surveys the woodline. If the shark-teeth have scouts to our west, they may have seen us approach. They know we have boats, and they know went west from the cave.
As the storm gains in force, she makes her decision. Running to the boat with the halflings, the dwarves, and the northman, she peeks under and says, "I'm sure we're safe in the storm, but someone should keep watch just in case the shark-teeth have placed spies to look for boats. I'll go until Sundown."
Running to the treeline, Cueta finds a large tree with sizable amounts of undergrowth, and places her back to the tree, her body facing east, towards where she suspects the shark-teeth camp is located, figuring that any ambush is more likely to come from that direction. Taking her rope, she ties a slipknot around the tree and another around her waist. Then she sits in the storm, wet and miserable, her bill stuck in the ground next to her, clutching her bow with an arrow nocked, and waits for enemies she hopes don't appear.
+ whatever modifiers from tree/groundcover and storm.
minus whatever modifiers from storm.
Vallen raises a bushy brow at Cueta as she informs them of her plan, saying nothing in hopes by the time he has to keep watch the rain will have stopped.
The day passes uneventfully in Newspring. The storm hits the village around noon and lasts until evening, stripping a few people of their sailcloth tents and making everyone wet and cold, but causing little serious harm.
It strikes along the coast a few hours earlier, and much stronger. The boats flirt with the idea of lifting up in the stronger gusts of wind, but do not. Cueta finds an excellent hiding place, but is nearly blinded by the wind and rain. Still, she is well able to see the waves rolling over the beach the group had camped on the night before, and the black sky lit up by lightning more times she can count
It's late in the afternoon by the time the wind dies down to a light gale. The lightning has moved past, but the rain is still pouring down, turning the ground spongey and soft. There are maybe two hours left before dark, enough time to bring the boats back down to the beach maybe, if the rain isn't a deterrent. A soaked Cueta is biting down on her glove to stop her teeth chattering when she sees movement to the east.
Five of the shark-toothed savages, creeping through the woods towards the boats. They wear hide shirts and carry javelins and axes.
As the rain begins to lighten, Vallen is inspecting his day's work on the oar from inside the boat, quite pleased how it turned out. "Ah, these are good, proper oars now. Now that I've brushed up on my woodworking, it's time for the prow! Tell me Walton, what would you like? Women are always in style for prows, I've heard. A plump dwarven lass maybe?" Vallen gives a toothy grin to the halfling, much less melancholy after his artwork is finished.
Oh. Balls. Cueta rises quickly, taking her nocked arrow and letting it fly towards the nearest enemy. As soon as the arrow leaves the bow, she starts yelling, "Sharkteeth! sharkteeth! sharkteeth! Out of the boats! Over here, berkers!"
Vallen perks up as he hears Cueta begin to shout, grabbing his weapons and lifting up the boat with the help of the others "What was she saying? Sharks?!"
The priest barrels outside with the others, frantically grasping his crossbow and loading a bolt into it once he's upright. His heart pounding, he looks into the forest, swallowing.
Kal'Tos grabs his shield and warhammer from where they were lying beside him.
"use our numbers to our advantage"
He takes up a position to protect the more ranged specialized members of the party.
The sharkteeth seem momentarily paralyzed as Cueta's arrow thumps into a tree near them.
The two dwarves arm themselves and climb out from under the boats.
Stay here. Ben tells Walton. He gives his brother one of his daggers. stay hidden. I'll be back soon.
Ben scrabbles out from under the boat and draws his rapier. He ducks into the underbrush and moves a quietly as he can away from the boats circling to try to get behind where he thinks the enemy is.
Cueta draws another arrow and fires her bow at the leading sharktooth, then slips the slipknot off her waist and steps out of the rope, all the while yelling, "Hey berkers, over here you bastards, come meet your death!
Surprise Round
Dropping his work, Gair burst from under the boat with axe in hand at Ceuta's cry. Taking in the party of shark-teeth he calls to those crawling out from the second boat, "Take their flank, we'll hem them in!"
The shark-teeth howl in their alien tongue as another arrow flies past them and people start emerging from under the boats, and move towards the party, each throwing a javelin at the hapless archer and drawing a second axe. One, with a more hideous shirt and more brightly painted scars that the others, comes out ahead of the rest
Three of the spears find their mark, bloodying Cueta badly. (18pts)
Thayer, Bern and Kyle burst out from under their boat, roaring and waving their axes. Jaysin actually dashes over your boat, racing to stand between Cueta and the enemy. Manari crawls out from under the boat with her bow, and Sai climbs out, letting loose a stream of foul language that, if only they understood, would surely have terrified the creatures into flight. Walton, for once, doesn't seem inclined to dispute his brother's instructions.
Round 2
Seeing Ceuta bristled with spears, Gair pushes forward to stand next to Jaysin, prepared to meet the shark-teeth charge.
He shouts to his companions from his own boat, "Stand firm! We'll meet them here!"
Round 2
Vallen is preparing to shakily fire a bolt at the oncoming natives when he watches three javelins fly through the air, sticking Cueta. Gasping, the priest shouts "Cueta! Hang on!" Quickly moving over to his comrade, he lays a free hand on her and shouts a prayer to Torag.
"Forge-father, please mend this ones flesh so she may strike back at those who have harmed her!"
Round 2
Cueta waits for the inevitable melee with the savages, silently thankful to the priest, Jaysin and the northman for her life. As they approach, she yells, "Kill the one closest to Gair, boys!"
Yes.
Kal'Tos steps up to join the battle line. Readying an attack against the first man-shark-pig to get within reach.
for
Ben slips through the underbrush closing in on the rear of the attackers watching carefully for other enemies that might be hanging back. He slids his rapier back into its scabbard as he goes.
The enemy advances, stopping 10' away from Gair and Jaysin.
The Vudrani adopts a strange posture, one hand held out towards the sharkteeth, the other raised overhead. Thayer, Bern and Kyle rush up, standing beside Gair and Jaysin, facing the foe, weapons at the ready.
As the two lines face each other, there is a snap and a hiss from behind you, and one of the sharkteeth grunts in pain as Manari's arrow sinks deep in his side.
Kyle, Bern, Gair, Jaysin, Kal'Tos, Edmund
with Ceuta behind Gair and Vallen behind Jaysin
The enemy 10 feet away, with Ben along their line, but 20' out.
Manari has cut to the right to get a shot.
Round 3
As soon as Cueta's bleeding has stopped the dwarf takes off towards Manari's position, slapping Cueta on the shoulder in encouragement as he moves by her. As Manari's arrow pierces the Sharkteeth's body he has made it behind Edmund. The dwarf stops and extends the palm of his free hand, shouting "Edmund, lean left!". Exhaling slowly, an acidic glob of holy wrath spews forth at the rightmost enemy, sizzling past Edmund.
Round 3
When the savages pull up short of a melee, Cueta pulls her bill from the ground, yelling "Kill the leader. They may scatter!"
Round 3
Gair needs no further encouragement. Roaring wordlessly, Gair surges forward from the line and sweeps his axe down on their leader.
Kal'Tos moves forward and hacks inward at the same man-shark.
for dmg
Ben slips his sling from its pouch loads a sharpsstone. he rises and whips the sharpstone at the nearest enemy then ducks back into the underbrush again.
+
Vallen calls upon Torag and flings a glob of sizzlng acid, striking the wounded sharktooth square in the face, making him fall, screaming to the ground, clawing at his eyes. Gair rushes the leader of the enemy and delivers a vicious slash across the creatures chest, feeling the blade scraping over ribs. Kal'Tos hesitates for a critical moment, just missing the leader as he twists away from Gair's strike.
Leader down 12hps
#3 down 5hps
The leader attacks Gair and lands a hit with one axe, the second swinging wildly past. The other two warriors facing Gair each miss once and hit once.
The one remaining warriot on the leader's left flank attacks Kal'Tos, his first strike cleaving deep, while the second bounces uselessly off the dwarf's armor.
Bern rushes in and swings wildly, missing his man, but managing to hold onto his axe. Kyle, unfortunately, swung his sword in a two-handed swing so powerful that the wet hilt slipped out of his hands. Jaysin ran up and faked with his hand, then kicked the leader of the sharkteeth in the side of the knee.
Edmund hopped over the fallen enemy, letting a swing of an axe bounce
harmlessly off his mail, and then swung his falcata backhanded, drawing blood from his man.
Manari whispered and waved her hands, drawing the leader's eye for a moment, but having no apparent effect.
Players are up.
Round 4
Bearing the brunt of the shark-teeth attack, Gair staggers momentarily as multiple wounds open up on his chest but the kellid warrior recovers quickly. Shouldering the nearest shark-tooth back he brings his axe crashing down on their leader with a savage cry.
Vallen says a quick prayer to Torag as the shark-man falls to the ground screaming. As Kal'tos and Gair take heavy wounds the dwarf grits his teeth, but he is awed to see the capable warriors bounce back with incredible resilience.
Inspired, he steps to northeast side to shoot around his fellow cleric. "Kal'tos, incoming!" Another glowing burst of acid flies from the dwarf's hand at the closest savage (#3).
Kal'Tos turns around using his momentum to smash his hammer at the other shark-tooth attacking him.
for dmg
Cueta steps up into the front line, yelling at the closest sharktooth while trying to slash the next one over with her bill. "Here ya go, sharky, nice big target right here!"
Ben stands up long enough to fire a sharpstone at the nearest enemy that is still on his feet. He ducks back down into the under brush and moves a few feet to the right circling to the rear of the enemy.
+=8
Cueta moves up and swings her bill to no effect and Kal'Tos likewise misses his foe. Vallen's target ducks his attack and grins at him fiercely, only to take Ben's sharpstone in the teeth, knocking him onto his back where he clutches at his throat before dying.
Gair answers his enemy's fierce roar with an overhand axe blow that shatters the creatures shoulder and nearly bisects him.
Seeing Gair as the biggest threat, the two remaining shark-teeth concentrate their attacks on him. Only one succeeds in striking, for 4 points of damage.
Bern seems determined to outshine his father, and lops the head off the first of them, sending it bouncing into the trees and out of sight. Jaysin and Kyle both harry the last remaining foe, trying to grapple it unarmed, and Kyle takes a nasty slash from the axe for his trouble. Edmund comes in low from behind and grabs the creature around the legs, standing up and dropping it on the ground, still holding his falcata in his free hand.
Round 5
Weakening visibly from his injuries, Gair still manages the energy to grab hold of the remaining shark-tooth trying to wrestle the prone opponent into submission.
He grunts to the others, "Grab some rope, we need one alive.", his teeth stained with blood making him look nearly as savage as the cannibals they face,
Round 5
Vallen cringes as his shot misses and the sharktooth gives him a horrific grin. The dwarf is quite surprised as he witnesses a rock come flying out of nowhere and smash the creature's teeth in. Confused and looking around for just a moment, the priest is once again stunned to see Gair nearly cut the Sharktooth leader in half while his son simultaneously beheads a different savage. Incredible. Torag blessed me with my meticulous hands and mind, them the strength of a giant... maybe two giants.
Unsure of what to do at this point, the priest looks to the Sharktooth flailing and screaming on the ground, its face covered in acid. Taking pity on the creature, Vallen moves up five feet towards it. Swallowing hard he loads a bolt into his crossbow while muttering "Be at peace now, go to your gods." before lining up a shot to put a bolt directly in its head.
Figuring the others have the grappled enemy well in hand, Cueta staggers past each sharktooth down the line, stopping at the one furthest from her, as the others are obviously deceased or grappled. Pointing to the tree she tied her slipknot around, "There's a rope around that tree!"
Dropping to her knees in front the wounded sharktooth, she looks with alarm as Vallen grimly loads his crossbow. "Wait! There's time enough for that later. For now we need this one!"
Round 5 cont.
The priest jerks his head to the side as Cueta calls out to him, a confused expression plastered on his face. "You need it? Alive? Droskar's festering navel, its face is covered in acid!"
Scowling at the creature in thought, he raises a hand over it and conjures water, spraying it directly into the creature's face.
Kal'Tos attempts to help Vallen stabilize the dying creature.
Ben moves another ten feet from his last position but slips on the wet ground and falls heavily in a bush with a loud crackling of breaking branches. I hope they didn't hear that he thinks. He drops his sling and flicks his wrist shooting the dagger concealed up his sleeve into his hand.
Seeing the rest of his party down and screaming, and himself face down in the arms of a pissed off Kellid, the last shark-face drops his axes and ceases to struggle, instead snarls at you in something that sounds distinctly like language.
The fight is, for the moment, over. The acid-burned creature finally goes limp, and a noise like a halfling crashing through the bushes turns out to be precisely that.
Cueta pulls the arrow from the acid-burned creature and attempts to apply pressure to staunch the creature's bleeding.
Vallen bites his lip as the acid-burned sharkman goes limp. He scratches his beard before seeing cueta pull the arrow out of his side. "Gah, Cueta, now he's going to start bleeding everywhere!" The priest checks to see if the creature is even still alive or not, shooting a glance over at the bushes to see Ben come tumbling out of them.