Round 3 (restated).
As Tragershen takes in the chaos around him, he chooses to bolster his defenses further until the best use of his magic presents itself. He slips a little further away from the rest of the awaken crew, wondering to himself how many they need to make sure survive to continue sailing.
Move away from the main melee on the deck and cast Mage Armor on himself.
Carnadine moves to a new water elemental and hums to himself a little tune about mowing a meadow. He motions to fluid creature toward the deck while casually exuding his intimidating presence. Then, he attempts to destroy it with a greatsword slash.
Back on the move as soon the second elemental falls prey to his blade and bursts back into spray of normal water, Cassus lines up another target and sends his blade out aiming for another kill.
Round 5.
Tragershen sneers when the crossbow bolts sail past him. "Let's see if this improves their aim." he says to no one in particular.
Tragershen casts glitterdust on the leader and his entourage. DC 17 Will saves to prevent blindness, plus they're, well, glittery.
Marvin keeps moving to the edge of the deck, lashing out at any elemental nearby.
The battle on deck turns in the sailors favour as 3 more are destroyed by your combined efforts. Only two elementals remain and one manages to send one of the sailors to the deck crumpled and dying.
Tragershen covers 3 of the creatures in glitter, only the leader resisting the effects and finishes his spell causing another small water elemental to rise behind Tragershen. Then he casts another spell.
The remaining creature not blinded on the port side shoots at Tragershen at the same time the elemental tries to push you overboard. The elemental mistakenly hits your one of your images which fizzles out. The crossbow bolt is too low and hits the side of the boat instead.
Carnadine moves to a new water elemental and hums to himself a little tune about mowing a meadow. He motions to fluid creature toward the deck while casually exuding his intimidating presence. Then, he attempts to destroy it with a greatsword slash.
Spotting that Tragershen is now in a precarious position with a new elemental creature appearing and attempting to push him over the side of the ship and into the sea, Cassus darts across the deck in order to aid him, deliberately provoking the elementals attention to himself and darting out some attacks of his own "You will fall like the rest of your kind little creature".
*
Knowledge (planes to identify the caster and its guards .
Knowledge (planes) for elemental identification .
Spellcraft Summon Monster II .
Spellcraft Sanctuary .
"Tritons! You interfere in the affairs of land creatures. Begone, for me shall show no mercy!"
AoO on elemental adjacent to Tragershen.
To hit
Damage
Marvin shrugs, draws his crossbow, and holds an attack until he sees the spell-triton cast a spell.
Cassus' advance from behind the elemental isn't unnoticed and the elemental turns around to defend itself reaching out to pummel him. Unfortunately it plays directly into Cassus' counter and two quick strikes is all it takes to kill the elemental. The rest of the elementals are similarly dispatched by the combined work of Carnadine, Kargeld and several remaining crew. Aware of the invisible threat of the crossbows out on the water the various crates on board are used as cover.
Seeing all their summoned creatures vanquished gives the creatures pause and the leader calls out. "This is not the last you have seen of us. I will return. We shall take away your number each time until you return south and give up your evil ways." The night returns to silence as the Tritons duck beneath the waves and are quickly lost sight of.
Kargeld comes out from between crates once he is sure they are gone. "What were those things? Any of them come close enough to get a look at 'em? We need a plan in case they come back again with more. I lost 3 good men!" He moves over to the one that is dying on deck and prepares to throw him overboard to 'save weight'.
When his allies are close enough to hear as well, Tragershen will say "Tritons, Captain. Meddlesome do-gooders from the elemental plane of water. The creatures on the deck were elementals that they summoned. We should have a respite from them for a while; they can only call on the small elementals once a day, from the lore I have studied. If they attack at night, we'll need some way to illuminate them if we are to effectively target them."
"Post better watches," Marvin suggests. "Arm everyone with crossbows; if we can actually pick off the summoners, we'll be in a better place."
As the captain goes to kick the dying man overboard, Carnadine asks, "if you're so worried about crew size, why don't you heal him, instead of feeding him to the fish?"
Expecting no reply, Carnadine addresses his companions, "I agree. And one of us should stand watch at all times."
"He's dead. Do I look like a miracle worker to you?"
Carnadine shrugs. "You look a little bit like a miracle worker, yeah." He says with a grin.
Kargeld looks at Carnadine strangely as if he hadn't expected his question to be answered. "If ya say so." Then he tosses the body over and gets back to work. Setting another watch, giving the wounded rest to recover and doing a check over the whole vessel for anything amiss.
"Captain, do you have any sunrods on board? If your men are going to hit the tritons with crossbows, we need to illuminate them. If we can rig a sunrod or two to float, we can toss them out there."
"Hmm no. We have plenty of torches. None of these sunrods."
Cinching the belts on his backpack back up after he has finishes rifling through the bag, Cassus stows it securely away again and joins the others. "I regret say that I do not have any sunrods, or any other such items we might have used either and I do not have any spells that I could use to create a light at any range off the ship."
Shrugging in resignated acceptance he leans up against the ships railing and continues "Perhaps one of you can do something there. Irregardless we will have to defeat the creatures either way. Captain if you can recommend a half dozen of your sharpest shots, I will take command of them if we are ambushed in order to take out the Tritons. The rest will be needed fight off the elementals or anything else that have to attack us on deck."
"Irregardless isn't a word," Marvin replies, with a hint of hostility. "But I can cast Light on an arrow or a floating piece of wood, and suspect that the other spellcasters here can as well."
Carnadine makes a watch list for the Nessian Knot. He takes the 6 hour shift in the blackest of the night and plans to sleep at sunrise. The three others can watch during the daytime.
The next day the Frosthamar sails further north and things start to get slightly cooler. The day is uneventful and plans for the night are made.
"I expect them to come and this time we will be ready. Your light will make the battlefield even. Half my men will use their bows and the other half will take care of the water creatures. I will lead in the defense." Then he looks at Cassus, "You will coordinate the archers."
He then speaks to Marvin and Tragershen, "Your magic will be the most use. Illuminate them and do whatever wizardy things you can to make sure my men can kill them."
Carnadine smiled at being left out of the captain's plan. He double-checked the sling and bullets in his belt pouches. In addition, he slipped on the gauntlets of his half-plate armor, in case he had a close encounter with another elemental.
Having slept during the day, he was fully ready for the night.
1st level spells (DC 16) 4+1: Mage Armor, Magic Missile (x4).
2nd level spells (DC 17) 2+1: Flaming Sphere, Glitterdust, Mirror Image.
As the sun went down and the anchor was dropped everyone moved into their position. Crates moved to block off the elementals from getting to the archers except past two gaps filled with soldiers. 6 of the sailors crouch in the middle of the ship or sit on smaller boxes and crates out of sight, waiting with bows and arrows nearby. Tragershen and Marvin wait with them, having been able rig some special arrows that can be shot into the water and float with cork or rags around the point .
On the port side Carnadine and three of the sailors with their shortswords ready sit and wait while Kargeld and another three block the starboard side.
Several hours go by and the darkness sets in. The sound of the water lapping against the side of the boat is all that can be heard. The torches illuminate the empty water. So far no sign of the Tritons.
Having slept during the day, Carnadine comfortably waits for the tritons.
Knowing that it may be days before the tritons try again, Tragershen will make himself as comfortable as possible and rest, relying on the others to alert him if the tritons are spotted.
Marvin leans up against a wall and rests on the job; he's not going to slack off entirely, but he's got no interest in hurting his eyes scouring the water when a triton ambush just makes the next job easier anyway.
Crouching down in the middle of the ships deck alongside the bow carrying sailor's placed under his command, Cassus settles himself down into a more comfortable position to wait out the night. Patience is a necessary virtue, and this doesn't seem too much different than the many long watches completed during in his time serving on the northern border.
At the darkest hour, around the same time they attacked the previous night some of you hear a slight splash and signal the rest to look out. Carnadine can see the leader and two others surface just out of the torches range.
Seeing the triton leader, Carnadine devilishly smiles and concentrates to check whether Asmodeus would be particularly pleased with his death. Then, he calls for the blessing of Asmodeus.
"Prepare to repel boarders." The lord of darkness says to his three sailors. He readies his loaded sling and makes fists in his gauntleted hands.
Round 1. Tragershen casts dancing lights so that the four are spread as widely as possible, and then sends the formation of globes out in the direction of the splashing.
They can be at the edges of a 10' radius, making them 20' apart. So it is as much as a 60' radius of torchlight, though not a perfect circle.
As word that the tritons have returned for a second ambush attack quickly passes along the crew situated along the deck, Cassus casts a spell to invoke Asmodeus' favour for the fight ahead and then turns his attention to the sailors under his command with a smirking grin "Time for payback boys, ready weapons and take up firing positions."
Marvin draws his crossbow, and casts Light on an arrow.
Tragershen's lights illuminate three of the tritons on the port side. The one in the middle is recognisable as the leader. Neither him nor his allies seem to be doing anything except holding their crossbows. "Return south and cease this evil or face your doom."
Kargeld and his men on his side and Carnadine's all ready their weapons for the expected incoming water elementals. The six with Cassus all fire their bows at the illuminated tritons, one arrow hitting it's mark.
"Leave us in peace!" yells Carnadine and prays for Divine Favor.
Round 2
Tragershen smiles, knowing that the tritons won't just leave them alone.
As a swift action, Tragershen will start his luck. As a standard action, he'll cast mirror image, creating duplicates of himself. Then he'll move to the side of the ship that the tritons are off of.
Marvin shoots his crossbow, trying to stick another one of the tritons with an illuminating arrow, moving if necessary to get a better shot.
Cassus can't help but let out a dismissive snort at the tritons leaders paltry threat. Not bothering to waste words of his own conversing with the creature, he readies his longbow, takes aim, and fires off an arrow at the triton previously injured from the sailors opening volley of shots.
The triton leader enchants himself Cassus and the archers fire again along with Marvin. Marvin's bolt lights up it's path and impales the chest armour of the triton to the leader's right and light emanates out in front of it tinged red from the blood seeping over the bolt. Two of the archers aiming at the leader fire their arrows blatantly wide, strange looks on their faces as if they can't believe they missed by such a large margin.
Down on deck the sailors still hold their weapons ready waiting until finally their expected foes arrive. 3 elementals appear summoned on each side of the boat. Having been ready the sailors and Kargeld attack before the elementals can even move. None of the elementals are killed by this first attack and they strike back but most of their blows are absorbed by the sailors bucklers. One sailor fails to stop the blow and his shield arm is thrown back against a crate and he cries out, arm likely broken, his shield arm now hanging useless and bleeding. Kargeld is hit by a crossbow bolt out of the darkness on his side of the boat. "More tritons over this side!" he calls then cuts down his first elemental of the night as it burst as it's elemental body can no longer hold together from the assault of Kargeld's greataxe.
Carnadine steps back and whirls his sling. Aiming at one of the tritons on his side, he lets his bullet fly.
"Stupid sling bullet," he growls to himself and draws his trusty greatsword.
Tragershen casts a spell, bringing into existence a ball of flame. The ball quickly grows in size and intensity until it is bigger than a dwarf. With a bit of mental will, Tragershen sends it careening into one of the elementals nearby.
Standard action to cast flaming sphere, move action to attack and elemental with it. Free action to maintain luck.
Damage , a reflex DC 17 save from the elemental will completely negate the damage.
Marvin, amused to see sailors failing against the elemnentals, keeps firing at one of the newly-illuminated tritons, as he reloads his crossbow.
Seeing the leader cast some sort of spell, and that two of the sailors were unable to hit him with their own shots, Cassus shifts his attentions to him rather than trying to finish of one of the other wounded tritons.
Tragershen summons a ball of fire and sends it towards an elemental. Where it hits it steam erupts, vapourising away the elementals entire left arm with a very loud hissing. As Cassus aims at the leader his arms lower momentarily, not allowing him to target the triton but he fights it and with great physical and mental effort regains his target and releases the bowstring. The triton luckily ducks to the side at the last moment, surprised that his magic had been resisted. He turns his gaze to Cassus and begins to chant . Marvin hits his target again who reloads his crossbow and fires back, hitting Marvin with a grazing shot .
In the intense melee between elementals and sailors Carnadine steps back to fling a stone at the tritons, many of the sailors land good strikes on the elementals. Kargeld calls out, "Is that all you got!?" Marvin and Cassus can see they have killed the 3 elementals on the starboard side already. The sailors with Carnadine are having a little more difficulty dispatching their enemies, one sailor taking a critical rib crushing blow. "Aaaahhh!" Fortunately this is his first wound and he remains standing for now.
Returning the triton leaders gaze in cold silence, Cassus readies his bow for another shot. Damn spell. Well let's see if you can dodge this one creature. Nocking up an arrow until the fletching comes brushing up against his cheek, Cassus breathes in momentarily to steady his aim before he lets the arrow fly loose.
Marivn enhances his crossbow and sees if he can fire at the Triton currently casting a spell, in the hopes of disrupting it.
Carnadine roars and steps toward an elemental cleaving it twain.