Bedu moves up to take up a position closer to the fight. All the while he keeps up a steady commentary re-fueling the rest with righteous fury and haste (a little).
Erick calls out. "Bedu, try to stabilize the stuck pig on the deck, if you can."
She hears Erick call out a message to Bedu, but her eyes are focused elsewhere. With her her rapier in hand she begins to move forward as she sees two of the smugglers dead ahead with more coming up onto the deck.
"Looks like they are trying to even the odds, eh gentlemen? Let's explain to them what happens to those that steal from Lady Vanderboren, shall we?
Looking to the men ahead she shouts, "Last chance boys. Throw 'em down or we'll take you down. We didn't ask for this fight, but I assure you we will be the ones left standing."
Though, I'm not complaining
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The smuggler with the crossbow fires another shot at Erick.
The bolt lodges itself in Erick Left side
Then, the smuggler discards his crossbow entirely, draws his rapier and walk to the stairs that leads to the quarterdeck clearly afraid that Vanderboren's men can jump on him from multiple directions.
From the door under quarterdeck a female smuggler emerges as well as the apparent leader of the crew.
Finally, The Dwarven Witch makes her way to the deck.
Erick looks at where the cross-bow bolt barely penetrated his armor, and there's a single drop of blood. "Really? That's the best you can do? Pathetic. If you jump overboard right now I won't kill you." He tells the former crossbowman with a gravely voice filled with contempt. Idiot, completely useless, and incompetent.
As the apparent leader walks onto the deck, and Erick fixes his attention on the man. He draws his pistol and points it at the man. "Surrender the ship, Vark. You're already caught in an act of piracy. If you surrender I'll ask the judges for clemency."
As Kutsya climbs over the railing she tries to take in the whole scene: the dead smuggler on the deck, her companions advancing confidently towards the remaining smugglers, a half-orc who matches the description of Vark emerging onto the deck. She moves closer to the action, while trying to keep the mast between herself and the archer on the foredeck.
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Another smuggler emerges from the trapdoor with his sword unsheathed. he remains hanging on the stairs but he doesn't dare to strike, focusing on his guard.
Vark puts a hand on one of his men and push him towards tessa
"Don't stay there like an idiot, bring me their corpses you thumb-sucking maggot!"
The smuggler ungraciously charge Tessa, almost stumbling upon his own feet. Unbalanced by Vark's push, the smuggler hits the mast instead.
Vark is not amused by his performance.
"You are more worthless than a butt-hole on an elbow!" he says spitting on the deck.
Round 3
Gavin slides to forward, careful of the smuggler in front of him, and takes a two-handed, overhead swing at the thug with his flail.
Erick shakes his head. "I see, you are a coward, pushing your men between you and death."
Tessa moves in and lashes out with her rapier, intent on teaching these smugglers a lesson. Unfortunately her eagerness causes her attack to fall way short of her target. She curses under her breath and tries to focus.
Round 3
Bedu fiddles distastefully with the piece of pork rind and then pulls it out to help cast a spell at the two leading sailors. The ground turns lardy and fat, waste bubbles and spits under their feet.
"The fight is Soller Vark, his smuggling days are almost over, I see him lying in a pool of his own blood. The question is who will do the slaying? Oh and I bet he has smelly balls! Aha."
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A layer of Slippery grease covers part of the deck and the stairs that leads to it.
One of the smugglers slips falls flat on his back, the other is not so lucky, he falls from the slippery stairs face first into the floor below.
Soller Vark and the female smuggler launch themselves into the fray.
the girl attacks Gavin, She lunges at him with her rapier.
The blade strikes true and finds a gap between the scales of Gavin's armor. Several inches of blade penetrates the armor and pierces between Gavin's ribs. It's not the heart but the pain and shock leave Gavin gasping for air until the adrenaline rushes through his veins, trying to keep him steady.
While Vark runs towards Erick.
Vark seems to point at Erick's weapon rather than his body.
The eastern blade cuts in Vark's upper arm but with a flourish, Varks removes himself from the blade's bite, strikes Erick's hand with the pommel of his sword and the exotic blade falls from Erick's hands.
Vark smirks, extremely happy with his performance.
"Try a move and the next time you drop on the deck is your head"
The other smuggler on the quarterdeck remains in his position. he seems to want no part in that battle.
Erick rips the 9-ring sword up as Vark attempts to disarm him.
The wise thing to do, Kutsya thought, would be to advance slowly and carefully. But I never was very wise.
Instead, Kutsya charged Vark with a guttural roar. Halfway there, her braids began pinwheeling like a sawblade, and they slammed into the half-orc at full speed.
Round 4
Screaming in pain as the smuggler's rapier finds a chink in Gavin's armor, the young Chel winds his flail back around and up over his head again, trying to bring it down onto the thug.
Erick looks at the half-orc, and at his dropped sword. "Idiot, you disarmed the wrong weapon." He takes a five ft step back, and pulls the trigger of his gun. BOOM!
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Kutsya hairs strikes Vark, Tying his arms, cutting on his flesh like steel wire.
The Smuggler tries to free himself, but the more he struggles the more the dwarf hair sink in his flesh.
"Damn you Dwarf Witch. BURN 'EM MERA!!! BURN 'EM ALL!!!"
From below deck smoke start to rise. Monkeys and parrots and other animals start to shriek from below deck.
In the whole mess you hear a loud crack, then a female scream.
The beast is now free.
The prone smuggler looking how things are taking an ugly turn, crawls away from the fight.
While you hear the terrified screams of the smuggler that fell down the stairs earlier.
Tessa sees the smuggler tries to get away and quickly lashes out with her rapier, critically wounding the smuggler. "Not so fast there! Where exactly do you are going, I don't remember saying you can go anywhere!"
As Tessa lands the critical strike a broad beaming smile flashes across her face as she is renewed with vigor. She looks over in that direction and boasts, "Ah ha ha! Hey Vark, you are outmatched! I would count your blessings before the tip of my blade begins to dance amongst your insides. Drop to your knees now."
Round 4
When the smoke begins to rise and the scream sound from down below Tessa looks back and asks, "Shall I hop down there and check that out? Do you all have things under control up here?
She looks around and catches sight of Gavin's wound and decides she best stay, her bladework still needed up above.
Gavin was just dealt a vicious wound, I can't leave him behind...
Tessa decides to act and moves up through the grease very carefully, taking a five foot step up next to Gavin to D11. When she gets there she balances herself in the greases and lunges in with a low trusts as she taunts, "Why don't we let a woman show you how to handle a weapon, eh?"
Tessa looks over at Gavin's wound and grimaces. She looks up at his face and asks, "How you holdin' up there Gav-o? That's quite the bleeder he nicked you for!"
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Erick shoot Vark in the shoulder while Kutsya's hair keep biting on his flesh.
Vark's bravado disappears in an instant.
"Ok I Yeld, I YELD! Just keep the banshee away from me!!"
The only smuggler still able to walk, jumps overboard from the quarterdeck.
With a wooden creak you see a big spider-like creature with an oversized Jaw and hooks on his pedipalps squeezing itself out of the stairs that lead on the deck below.
Vark yells "THE RHAGODESSA! THE RHAGODESSA IS FREE. RUN FOR YOUR LIVES YOU FOOLS!!!"
Gavin looks at Tessa askance, as for some reason her words come out garbled, and he can't make out the meaning of what she says. Instead, he steps forward 5 feet and holding his copper cup, asks a brief blessing from his god.
"Cayden Cailean, હું નુકસાન છું. મારા કેફિયત સાંભળો, અને મને આ આગામી લડાઈ માટે મારી સિદ્ધિ પર રહેવા મદદ!"
Much to the young man's surprise, the bleeding stops a bit, and his wound begins to knit shut, but he is still in great pain.
Erick calmly reloads his pistol. "Kutsya? Could you please cut his leg tendons so he can't run or flee, or fight for that matter? If we do all die, I'd like the comfort of knowing he's going to get eaten alive, and I'd rather not have him at my back in fighting condition." Once the pistol is reloaded, he calmly retrieves his sword. "I knew I should have replaced the weapon cord I lost. Lesson for us all." He turns toward the spider looking grim.
Bedu continues to exhort the group to victory. He levels his crossbow at the creature's mouth and waits for another roar.
"There once was a smuggler called Vark
who's pet could bite like a shark.
He sent down a poor mate,
to set fire to a crate,
but headless and dead is her mark!
Tessa raises a brow and snaps her fingers in front of Gavin a few times and asks, "Gavin.. Gavin you aren't making any sense? What about Cayden Cailean? You're babbling?"
Poor lad was hit so hard he has lost it! If he wasn't bleeding already, I'd slap some sense into him.
She turns her head back to Kutsya and Erick and misses as Gavin's wounds heal somewhat. She shouts, "We may have a problem. Gavin took a serious wound over here and he's mumbling incoherently, holding out his copper cup. I don't think we can count on him for assistance."
Tessa quickly survey's the deck and tries to assess what needs to be taken care of first.
It looks like Vark is about to be out of commission, so that's done with. We have the ship on fire and this ... creature.
She shouts out, "By Besmara's blessed breath! What in the hell is a Rhagodessa?! Can anyone help me out here?"
Well, this is just like in the arena! Onward we go!
Tessa sucks in a quick breath and blows it out as she cracks her neck and brings her rapier up, mentally preparing herself. She begins to move forward at a steady pace and says, "I'll work on this thing, someone needs to get on the reasons why we are here before its too late!"
She advances to B15 and pauses. She shouts back one last thing, "Make Vark talk!"
Kutsya stared down at imprisoned smuggler without an ounce of pity in her heart.
"You have one chance." she said to Vark. "Tell me everything you know about that thing or I will feed you to it myself."
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Vark replies with a shaky voice. "It's a Rhagodessa, it's a deadly spider found in the Amedio Jungle. It uses those hooks to grab upon his victims and then they bite. they have pretty powerful mandibles, and once they grab their victims with their hooks they never let go."
As if to demonstrate the story told by Vark, the giant spider shrills and reaches for Tessa. Focused, Tessa waits for the spider to be in range and thrusts her sword in one of the eyes of the beast.
The beast shrills in pain but is unrelenting, one of his barbed pedipalps try to catch the dashing swordswoman.
Between being back onboard a ship and the bards song, Tessa is feeling particularly foolish today.
What is bravery except lucky foolishness?
Instead of dodging when she sees an opening, she presses her attack.
After plunging her blade into the creature on her first attack, she prepares to receive the spiders full retaliation. When the attack comes, she is ready for it. As the creature lashes out she quickly slips forward attempting to land another strike on get foe.
Keep moving Tessa, it can't hit you if you keep moving.
Tessa seems to be holding her own for now, so Erick walks for a few feet, raises his gun again, and fires.
Erick then puts the pistol back in it's holster as the smoke from the firing clears away. "Tessa, try to work around it to the right, I'll take the left, we'll pincer it." He says, taking the broadsword in both hands.
Staring agape at the large creature appearing from the hold of the ship, Gavin thinks, Cayden, I need more help than you have given to take this thing down! and offers up another supplication to the Lucky God, while stepping forward a bit and preparing his courage for a charge.
Bedu moves forward a little when Gavin steps away. Then he keeps up the battle oaths, letting adrenaline wash over the warriors. Then he loads and fires the crossbow again.