Lightning-fast, Slickjaw rips his remaining dagger across the face of the man who had taken one of his knives.
To-Hit:
Damage:
Slickjaw misses, and the injured man tries to snatch the other dagger for his own, and succeeds!
While the other man slashes wildly at him, and misses completely.
Slickjaw ninjas away (withdraw) and up the stairs.
Slickjaw heads up the stairs and tries to leave, but through the door he's stopped by Scourge.
He gives a nasty smile to Slickjaw.
"What do you think you're doing? Leaving your post? Get back to work."
"Hmm."
Slickjaw leaps back into the room and punches the injured one in the balls.
CMB: (-1 size, +2 str)
Slickjaw leaps into the room, and punches at the injured one, but misses.
Worse, his impulsive move gives him an opening to retaliate!
Then the two slash at him in tandem, but Slickjaw's nimble moves carry him safely through, as Scourge look on and laughs loudly.
Slickjaw hits the injured man in the gut.
Attack:
Damage:
Again, Slickjaw leaves himself open, and the three unload on him, but all miss again!
Cyrdic cocks his head a bit at Conchobar's statement, and is about to ask what he means when he looks at Owlbear. Surely he can't mean if we board a ship, they'd have to give us some means of defending ourselves. We're lightly crewed enough as is, and Harrigan wouldn't just throw away people just to try to get loot. He's smarter than that. No, the only reason it's good I always have a weapon is because we're normally not allowed to have them. Which means something's up. Probably best to not say anything though, if he's talking around the situation like that it's probably because he doesn't want Owlbear yelling about it at mess tonight. Nodding a bit at Conchobar, he instead asks "Hey-anyone hear yelling from belowdecks? And where's Scourge? He's usually come by at least once by now. Not that I'm complaining."
Again, Slickjaw leaves himself open, and the three unload on him, but all miss again!
1d20+4
1d20+4
1d20+4
Slickjaw attempts to snatch a dagger.
CMB:
"HELP! THESE PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO KILL ME JUST BECAUSE I'M GREEN!"
Almost as soon as Cyrdic mentions it, Slickjaw's voice comes screeching out from belowdecks.
"HELP! THESE PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO KILL ME JUST BECAUSE I'M GREEN!"
Cyrdic gets up and starts running towards Slickjaw.
Meanwhile, back at the bilges...
The two pirates move in again, slashing their weapons, but despite all the openings left to them, they still fail to connect!
Disarm:
Attack (with knife):
Damage:
Attack (with knife):
Damage:
Attack (with knife):
Damage:
Assume all attacks are against whoever is in the worst condition.
The injured man swipes ate Slickjaw one last time, before the goblin snatches the knife from him. The vicious goblin gives one final slash
across the injured man's throat, and he sputters and goes down.
The second man rears back his arm to attack, but Scourge moves forward.
"'Ey, what's going on here?" he says in the least convincing voice he can muster.
He feigns shock.
"'Oy! What happened! He's dead, and here you are holding a bloody knife!"
He grins nastily again.
"Ye're comin' with me ye murderer. You know what happens to murderers on this ship. To the sweat box with ye, to await ye're punishment!"
He grabs onto Slickjaw's arm and starts pulling him along.
"GET YOUR HAND OUT OF MY PANTS, YOU DISGUSTING PERVERT! HELP, HELP, SCOURGE IS TRYING TO RAPE ME! AGH! LET GO!"
Just before Cyrdic is about to round the corner where he thinks Slickjaw is, he hears the goblin scream "GET YOUR HAND OUT OF MY PANTS, YOU DISGUSTING PERVERT! HELP, HELP, SCOURGE IS TRYING TO RAPE ME!" Suddenly, Cyrdic remembers that he has very important work to do elsewhere on the ship, and he turns around and hauls it out of there, muttering "NopenopenopenopeSOMUCHNOPE" to himself, shuddering as he tries to get the mental image out of his head.
Lightning-fast, Slickjaw whips out a flask of alchemist's fire.
Voice a hiss, Slickjaw whispers "Hands off, Scourge. Hands off right now."
"Or what? Ye'll burn the ship down and yerself with it?" he scoffs.
"Yes."
"Oh really?" he says, and nods his head.
The other pirate you were fighting jumps forward from behind you and tries to grab the thing, struggling with you but ultimately failing.
Scourge gives him a scathing look.
"Regardless, I don't think ye got the balls for it. And even if ye do, then what? I'd kill ye on the spot, and the rest o' the crew would help, and I'd be willin' to bet we could put out a puny fire like what could come from one a' them vials anyway."
"It'll set off the five others I'm carrying. And, if that other one tries anything, I break this one."
Slickjaw hesitates, then, without putting away the alchemist's fire, says "Somebody get Harrigan - he's the captain, I'll follow his judgment on this matter. If he says I die, I'll take the ocean and finally see what's deep, deep down."
"Fine. Just polite to grant a man 'is last request." Scourge says with a huff.
They walk to Harrigan's door and knock.
After a few moments, he appears.
"What is it?"
"This un' went and killed a crew member. He's insisted ye give him a the judgement yerself, Cap'n-"
"YE WASTED ME TIME WITH THIS?" Harrigan roars, and he slugs Scourge in the gut so hard he bends over and almost throws up, gasping for air.
"The penalty fer murder is keelhaulin'. We can't be havin' none o' that shit on our ship, or we'll end up with no crew left. You know that, ye moron, so why'd ye bother me with it?"
Harrigan shifts his gaze to Slickjaw.
"You. I'll give ye one chance to go wit' the man behind ye to the sweatbox to await ye're punishment. Ye've got 6 seconds to leave or I carve ye up right here an' now, savvy?"
Turning back to Scourge, he speaks again.
"And you. Next time ye bother me with somethin' so stupid I'll make sure ye go down with 'em. I figure disturbing MY precious time with trivialities is at least as bad as murder, don't you agree?"
Scourge wheezes pathetically and tries not to compound his failure.
"Good man. Now back to work with ye."
Scourge stumbles off, coughing and wheezing the whole way.
Cyrdic, panting slightly, runs back to where he had been working. "Conchobar...just out of curiosity, if I just heard Scourge saying something about burning...what do we have on this ship that could actually burn a great deal of this ship down? Also, are there any lifeboats or dinghies here? Asking for a friend."
Calmly, slickjaw lays aside his flask of alchemist's fire and heads to the sweatbox.
After a short trip, Slickjaw is tossed into the sweatbox, a cramped metal box left out in the sun on the deck.
He is left in the box for the rest of the day, the cramped spaces and the blistering heat beating down on him.
He gets a little respite after the sun goes down, and the box cools off, and manages to get some sleep.
The blistering heat beats down once again as the deck heats up in the morning and early afternoon sun.
However, late that afternoon some hopeful words ring out from the crow's nest.
"SHIP AHOY!" the lookout yells.
"Raise the sails and make pursuit! Time to earn your keep, boys!"
Cyrdic sat in his cabin, concentrating on summoning his mind blade. Instead of doing it like he always had done, he was trying to see if there was any way to lessen the weight of his blade. Swinging around an enormous spectral greatsword's all well and good, but it might become a liability when we're trying to board that ship. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of concentration, his blade sprung to life...and he was able to comfortably hold it in one hand.
Grinning, he gave it a few practice swings-as always, it felt perfect in his hand. Turning around, he flung it at the wall, where it embedded into the wood with a *thunk*. Dispelling the blade, he concentrated again, effectively bringing the blade back into his hand. Another effort of will formed a second, even lighter blade in his right hand as well. Cyrdic dispelled both blades, beaming at himself. "This...this is going to be awesome."
It takes the Wormwood about 12 hours of pursuit to catch up with the ship, despite the vessel's frantic attempts to get away from the pirates.
In the last hour, as the ship draws near, Harrigan gives an order to Kroop and Lucy.
"Slaughter about 'alf a dozen pigs and throw 'em in the water. Let's see if we can get some nice sharp toothed spectators comin' up, eh?"
Kroop and Lucy comply, slaughtering the pigs, slitting their throats, and immediately tossing them overboard.
Scourge, with a sour twist in his mouth, flags down Cyrdic.
"Cap'n Harrigan says ALL the crew fight, and that includes those in lock-up. Get your little green friend outta the sweatbox and makes sure he's ready to pull his damned weight."
That done, the group is summoned by Krine, who gathers them on the poop deck and gives them their orders.
The ship’s wheel is on the aft deck, just below the sterncastle. Ye’re going to grapple over, kill the guards on the sterncastle, take the wheel and guard the ship's boats. Kill any o' the bastards who tries to get away on one of the boats. Don't move from the wheel until the fighting's done, or I'll have your ass on a platter. As we get close, it's gonna get foggier than hell so just stick to what I told ya."
As Krine wraps up her speech, a sudden stroke of inspiration strikes Cyrdic. Bending down a bit, he mutters in Goblin to Slickjaw-"Keep your mouth shut here, I'm gonna try something. Just...don't talk." Straightening up, he addresses Krine-"You know, holding the wheel's an awfully important job. I think if we had someone like Fipps or Rosie come along, we might be able to hold it better. What do you say, boss?"
Krine looks at the group.
"Nice try ye lilylivers but I'm sure ye can manage on ye're own just fine."
"You." she points at Cyrdic.
"I can't be sayin' ye performed flawlessly in me training exercises but ye sure seem to be able to find yer ass from yer elbow at least a little better'n yer companions. Yer in charge of this group, lead 'em into battle, yada yada don't f!$% up, okay?"
With that, she turns to supervise the otehr boarding crews, yelling orders and checking weapons.
The Wormwood closes with the merchant vessel, and you're now close enough to read the name of the boat, The Man's Promise.
As the pirate ship gets within 40 yards of The Man's Promise, they start desperately bombarding it with crossbow bolts and even a pair of ballista, but to no avail. The Wormwood closes to within 30 feet of its prey, and Peppery Longfarthing steps out on deck, and starts chanting and waving his hands.
A large bank of fog appears over the ship, engulfing it and the sea for a good distance around it after multiple castings from Longfarthing.
The fog hides most of the sailors on The Man's Promise but the group has eyes on a number of sailors in the sterncastle, if only just. They're hunkered down and firing crossbows at anything that moves, taking advantage of the cover and the thick fog to fire almost unimpeded at the pirates.
Ace starts spamming ray of frost and acid splash in their general direction.
As the ships begin coming closer together, Cyrdic sees the ranged exchange begin. Seeing Ace begin to sling spells in the general direction of the ship, Cyrdic shrugs. Why not? Let's see how good my aim is. Summoning the lightest blade he can muster, he begins throwing it at the ship, only to reform and throw it again.
round 1
round 2
round 3
round 4
Cyrdic and Ace unload on the enemy ship, but to no effect. The mist and cover protect the sailors from harm too well at this distance.
Unfortunately, it also had a worse effect. Attacking revealed them as a threat, and made them targets for crossbowmen on The Man's Promise. However, for once luck goes their way, all of the bolts miss in the mist and confusion.
After nearly 30 seconds of frantic fighting across the gap, the ships collide. Pirates throw grapples and lay down planks as they draw the ship into a death grip.
Ghost-like, Slickjaw sidles adjacent to Cyrdic and hisses in Goblin, "If anyone asks, say I was there but lying low to get the jump on any actual threats. I've got a plan."
Slickjaw chugs a touch of the sea extract (swim speed 30 ft), a str mutagen, and a blend extract, then (after making sure he was carrying the proper gear) swims around to the opposite side of the boat, calmy avoiding a shark on his way - and hiding from a second one.
Silently, he scales the side of the ship.
Climb:
Climb:
When a damn shark attacks.
Slickjaw jumps into the water and swims with the grace of a dolphin to the Man's Promise. A shark appears from under water and bites at Slickjaw, but misses the slippery goblin.
Another shark appears from beneath the waves, and takes a nip at Slickjaw, tearing a large chunk of flesh from his leg, and sending blood into the water.
Slickjaw frantically tries to climb the side of the boat, but fails twice.
More sharks swarm in, attracted by the blood, but they don't attack Slickjaw just yet.
Taking his chance, he jumps up with all his strength, grabbing the side of the boat and pulling himself 15 feet up the side.
Before Cyrdic can reply back to Slickjaw, the goblin pops open three different potions, chugs them all, belches, and then jumps off the ship. Cyrdic blinks. That guy is going to get himself killed...he's absolutely mad, hasn't he ever heard of sharks? There's blood everywhere in the water already! Looking over at his friends, he shrugs a bit. "Alright guys, we've got our orders. Let's go get some booty! And some loot too, while we're at it!" With that, he hurls his hook at the other ship, ready to start over there.
Cyrdic hops onto the ship, hoping that his remaining companions are right behind him. Summoning his soulblade, he shapes it into a wickedly shaped one-handed blade, a cutlass that the Pirate Queen herself would be proud to wield (he hoped). Grimacing at the enemies before him, he brandishes his blade and screams the first thing that comes to his mind in an attempt to shake them up a bit.
"AND I'M ALL OUT OF BUBBLEGUM!"
Wha...what the hell did I just say? What's bubblegum? I really need to start pre-planning these things...