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"I know where you're coming from Indrana, but I think attacking a port filled with violent humans and a shape changing dwarf certainly didn't show intelligence! Ha! Cassius quipped as he dragged himself out of the water.
"That was quite the transformation Diabolito! Seeing something like that is different then hearing it's possible."
Looking over the body of the fallen Naga, Cassius has no qualms about ensuring that it's body is used for something useful. His rough life has made him a special sort of pragmatic. Turning to the assembled crew members they'd just been bowling with "So, anyone know of a good tanner or skinner? Should be able to make use of this creature, if only for a nice pair of boots and chippings for a chum bucket."
Indrana moves slowly up to Cassius as she speaks, "True Cassius, but I have seen many times when you humans have shown no real intelligence either," she leans against Casius and nuzzles his neck, licking it gently and with a hint of her teeth on his skin as she continues, "does that mean that you should be on the menu as well?"
Amos brings the man up on Bullet and makes sure he's taken care of before rubbing his mount down. He doesn't usually talk and mutter as most horses like. In fact, the process is completely silent save for the sounds of patting and brushing.
Amos spends much of the rest of the day in the Commons relaxing and sharing tales with the patrons.
Seeming rather aggravated, Indrana gives Cassius' neck a hard nip with her sharp teeth, she doesn't draw blood, but only barely. She seems to be purring now as she speaks, "Battle always seems to get me worked up." She stretches up slightly, pressing her chest against Cassius to whisper in his ear,
"Long's ye stay on our side, Whiskers," Aramis grins, jostling Diabolito playfully. "Gotta keep them chompers pointed a' tha other guys."
With that, she finds a good spot to sit and clean out her musket, looking up every now and then to raise an eyebrow at the conversation between Cassius and Indrana.
A five-hundred gold discount was quite a welcome reward, though the undine is just pleased everyone is alright after the attack. Wringing out the water from her dark hair, Maera asks a nearby dockworker. "Does this sort of thing happen often?" She figured the harbor was safe from pirate attacks... you don't bite the hand that fed you (or fixed your ships) after all, but with such a small population here they were still at risk from attacks from other sources.
When Cassius and Indrana retreat together, Maera smirks but doesn't comment on it. Let them have their fun, so long as it doesn't cause problems on their ship.
The dockworker shakes his head. "We know that there are naga and other creatures in the waters, but maybe since it's so damned hot...with no rain...the creature came here hunting," he says as he scratches his head.
A day passes with little issue, except the heat. Cassius is told that a message arrived from his expert, stating that his trip was running long and he would be back in two more days.
Day 5
Off in the distance, it appears that there is a huge flock of birds flying towards the town. A few of the dockworkers have already noticed and are climbing down from higher posts, dropping down, and running towards The Commons.
In the commons, Amos sees the commotion and muses, Hmm. Do people here always run from the birds?
Her curiosity aroused by the commotion, Indrana rouses from her catnap and looks around to see what the problem is.
Having no clue that anything is wrong, she lays back to resume her light doze in the sun.
Day 4
Diabolito grins and laughs, the first time really feeling confident in his newly growing abilities and able to accept the praise.
"There's a reason I showed this ability off earlier. If I hadnt, I'd have been in real danger of being shot or stabbed by the scurvy lot of us." the dwarf accepts his bit of razzing with dishing a bit of his own, all in good nature.
Seeing the gun wielding Captain. "Aye, those won't be pointed in the wrong direction. We all know what happens when this bunch gets crossed. Boom" the dwarf stated as he tries to mimic the black powder weapon.
"'Sides, lass. Gotta have somethin' to keep up with my Cap'ns."
Day 5
Diabolito looks to try and determine what sort of birds they are, already on edge from a strange and dangerous day before.
"Looks like a flock of birds...anyone got one of those fancy viewing glasses?" the dwarf quips, wishing he had better eyes.
Maera was engrossed in the ship enhancements since Rickety's generous reward might allow them something better, and she almost missed the commotion.
"I had that spyglass that I took from the island, but Conch said it was worth quite a bit of gold," she answers ruefully. "I didn't feel any tremors... 'course, if it was a quake far out to sea, I wouldn't be runnin' under cover. I'd run for high ground."
"Wake up, Furball. Somethin's 'appenin'." Aramis gives Indrana a light nudge with the stock of her musket as she strides past, heading outside to see the commotion.
"They're runnin - and flyin' - from somethin'," she mutters to the others. "Per'aps somethin' bigger'n they are?"
Rousing herself at her captain's command, Indrana pops awake and gets up immediately, "Yes captain!" As she follows captain Aramis, Indrana casts mage armor on herself.
The group gets first action, so they have a round to prepare or they have enemies that are at 20' above the ground and 120' away...though there are others that they are closer to. There are six that seem to be heading in the direction of party members.
"Ain't birds at all!" Aramis calls, setting her musket into place against her shoulder. "Looks like we got a whole bunch a' wasps! Biggest ones I e'er saw, too!" With a grin, she turns to Amos. "'Ow d'ye feel 'bout some long-distance shootin', eh?" She peers down the sight of her musket, lining up one of the immense wasps, before taking a shot.
"Oh this should be fun, aerial targets!" Indrana moves to stand slightly behind her allies, picks one of the wasps that have been hit but not killed, and sends an arrow of acid flying towards it with a laugh of delight.
Amos is just finishing loading when his captain's report echoes off the walls. The pests are far outside the range of his smaller pistol, so he takes a ready stance and waits for them to come into range.
Once the wasps began moving forward, the bullet would strike one of them and it would barely do any real damage to the creature.
Taking a deep breath, the dwarf reaches his hand beneath his armor, pulling out some strands of mistletoe and holly on a chain about his neck. He begins to chant and suddenly a ball of flame appears in the sky above him. The fire remains there only a moment before racing off towards the vermin.
"Those not fighting: INDOORS NOW! The dwarf yells, as the group prepares for battle.
Remembering her last encounter with nasty bugs, Maera prepares a bardsong to manipulate water, shaping it into a sphere. She'll be ready to lash out with it when they come into range.
Doc sucks down his mutagen as the others prepare for combat.
The wasp is lit on fire by Diabolito's flaming sphere and as it moves forward, the lead wasp meets another bullet from the pistol of Amos.
As all of this happens, an arrow of acid goes flying past the creature, narrowly missing it
The bullet seemed to stop the creatures charge, but it did not slow the other five giant wasps come rushing forward.
Two of the large creatures charge towards Cassius
Both missing horribly
Two of the creatures charge after Amos after his loud gun fired.
And the creatures narrowly miss with their large stingers!
Finally, the last one still able to charge, charges after the other gun-toting villain...Aramis.
And it's stinger drives into the Captain's stomach hard, tearing her flesh and dealing a massive wound to her. [DC 18 Fort Save, please]
Ship's crew is now UP!
Amos dices out of melee and reloads with rapid, practiced motions. With his captain in danger, he ignores the bees attacking him and fires past Cassius in an attempt to clear the captain for shooting.
Seeing that she missed the wasp with her spell, Indrana snarls at it and casts again, this time she points and two small, nearly invisible, missiles shoot from her fingertip and smash into the wasp.
The dwarfs grins as his jaw deforms and reforms into a more shark like maw, as the dwarf uses the magical fire to harry his previous target.
"Look alive, people! Get that bug away the Cap'n!"
Aramis doesn't scream or cry as the stinger plunges into her stomach, ripping through flesh as easily as one of her own bullets. She emits only a choked gasp and fixes the wasp with a bewildered stare, before her face twists in fury.
"Focus fire!" she hollers. "Take 'em down one at a time, an' maybe they'll scatter! They're jus' bugs, after all!" With that, she steps backwards, gritting her teeth at the horrible noise that comes from her stomach as she pulls herself off the stinger, reloads her musket through the red mist that settles before her eyes, and lets the vermin eat bullet.
Maera will attempt to ensure her watersphere assists Cassius in combat by flanking his targets, if possible, and lashes out once with the crack of a whip.
As acid and fire mix to burn the first lead hornet, it crumbles to the ground.
As Cassius tears into one of the hornets that assaulted him, Indrana turns her assault towards that one and drops it, as well.
Aramis, take 1 Dex damage.
The hornet attacking Aramis takes two bullets.
The remaining hornet on Cassius takes a hard whip of water.
The creature sees Cassius kill it's hive mate and assaults him.
But it has little chance of hitting him.
The two on Amos are both still alive and attack him after a quick adjustment forward.
Catching him off guard, they both land their blows and deal...a lot of damage to him, ripping through him viciously.
Aramis's wasp continues it's assault.
Tearing into her flesh, as well.
Doc takes off running, looking like he is looking for someone.
Crew up!
Sometimes, the act of saving someone is it's own reward. His life hadn't been so bad anyway. Traveling the world, protecting the small folk. Totally worth it. So, even as his own blood runs over his hands, he isn't afraid, and he does not fall. Blood paints the decorative carvings of his pistol crimson as he reloads. If he moves from the spot he will pass out, he knows, so he determines to simply stand and guarantee his new shipmates the precious seconds they need to secure victory.
Indrana looks at the chaos around her and yells out, "We should move into that building there! We can use it for cover and shoot out from the windows!" Sh looks pissed at the wasp that has hurt Amos so badly, "Hey, these are my people! Go find someone else to eat!" With that, she casts another pair of blasts of arcane force, tjis time at the wasp attacking Amos.
"Amos!" Aramis yells furiously. "Don't ye dare be goin' down now!" In her moment of distraction, she wears another blow from the wasp's stinger. With a grunt of pain, ignoring the numbness spreading through her shooting arm, she takes another stumbled step back, fumbling to reload as she does so.
"'Ey, ye big sacks a' ugly!" she hollers at the wasps on her gun-toting crew member. "Ye'd best come an' get me 'fore I blow yer damn 'eads off!" With that, she takes aim at one of them, hoping to draw them closer - after all, she could still shoot.
Wouldn't dream of it, Captain. Amos replies. Just get'em off me and I'll be good to fire!
Though be sounds enthusiastic, the widening blood stains lend an irony to his claims.
The dwarf moves this rolling ball of fire towards the saintly, gun wielding Captain. He bellows out, rushing over to the other gun toting individual, sharp teeth bared.
"Hold on, lad! On me way!" The axe is in hand but his stubby legs make it take longer.
With the wasps proving to have much more mettle than her waterwhip can handle, she shifts her song into a spell. They cannot retreat, there's people inside the Commons that have taken shelter behind them, and based off the blood it seems that Amos could not do so even if he wanted. The solution seemed clear.
"Drown, you overgrown pests," she hisses. Her watersphere suddenly increases to 10ft in diameter, and she pushes it into the swarm of wasps, hoping to engulf one of them, and damage the others in the churning deluge.
As the group seems to converge on one of the two targets that is assaulting Amos, the fire, force, and bullet are enough to roast the giant bug.
Cassius strikes the bug before him, tearing through it's chitin for a brutal blow, though the creature still flies.
Maera's ball of water seems to engulf the creature before Amos, and leaves the creature bound. Completely engulfed in the water, but attempts to thrash it's way free. But fails to do so.
Aramis has one wasp left on her.
And once again the wasp tears into Aramis.
At this point, Cassius has one bug in front of him.
The mindless creature attacks Cassius.
And through the power of it's mindless stinger, it fails to find purchase in the quick Swashbuckler's flesh.
HEROES GO!!!
The third stinger gets Aramis in the hip, and it's this one that draws a yell of pain from her. She squeezes her eyes shut briefly against the blinding pain, ignoring the stars that erupt behind her closed lids, and takes another staggered step back as she reloads with blood-slick fingers.She glances from the wasp before her, to the one trapped in Maera's orb before Amos. "Can't well 'elp 'im if I'm down," she mutters, and makes her choice. "Amos, ye're gonna be fine," she calls over, this time not quite succeeding at keeping the waver out of her voice. "Whiskers, ye take tha' thing down!" Coughing, a horrible wet sound, she spits once on the ground, then braces the stock of her musket against her shoulder. "Eat this, ye pest," she mutters, before the gunfire and smoke cloud her senses once more.
Amos levels his pistol at the bug attacking his captain, but holds fire. If you could kindly move this bug away, Captain, I will give as good as I've taken. He says to Maera
Concerned for her captain, Indrana fires another volley of force at the bug.
Coming upon the nasty bug, the dwarf seeks to take it to bits with teeth, as he races over to the Captain in a full out charge. His teeth and eyes grow a fearsome red, as though sheer elemental power flows through him.
"Whiskers be on the way to save us, lass!"