"Who are you calling human?" Anabel says mirthfully, her green eyes sparkling. She spins around her foes, scarves whirling in a deadly dance.
Alistair takes a step back away from the frog that hit him. not really feeling the bast after that last hit.
he hits a few of what appear to be buttons on a wrist strap, and Alistair vanishes from sight.
Caledon approaches the ship from behind a pink-haired gnome. There are two 200-pound frogmen near the tiny person, though one seems rather perplexed my the man who turned invisible.
Just ahead of the gnome, a man wearing a shield an a woman wearing scarves (and little else) are battling another pair of frogmen.
On deck, a woman is riding what appears to be a giant hand—with nail polish! If it wasn't raining frogs, the wizard might think his eyes deceive him.
The Elegant Edge is engaging the same toadie as Henrietta the hand-rider. Once these ladies take down their foe, they will have a clear path to the Frog Prince's guards—who stand stoically in defense positions while the Prince chants and gazed deeply into the green clouds above...
The Elegant Edge was unfamiliar with the anatomy of the toadies but they fought enough like any other combatant that she was relatively sure they could be thrown off balance just as easily. With that in mind she turned on her heel, twisting her body to one side, leaving a silken trail behind her as she moved from right to left, acting as though she was about to strike the toadie before her with the sheath in her left hand.
The graceful move was intended to be a distract rather than a true attack, the blow came as she continued her twirl, coming back around and sweeping her blade low across the legs. Her attack was little more than a hasty addendum to the end of her graceful and distracting dance, but even if it missed she knew that the feint would more than likely leave the opponent vulnerable for Henrietta and her...handy partner to finish what she started.
"Let us end this swiftly, after all, the prince is the real prize. Though I do suppose I use the term prize loosely." She remarked upon taking a second glance at the chanting royalty.
As Caledon Whitetree approached the docks he sent his familiar, a falcon named Hunter, scouting ahead.
Hunter circles above the pandemonium, careful not to get close enough to catch a stray spell or arrow. Through their emphatic link he sends his master a sense of curiosity, confusion and mild danger.
When he sees how precariously close the pair of boggards are to the pink haired gnome, Caledon reaches into his spell pouch and begins short rhyming chant in the elven tongue. From the pouch he takes a small pad of butter wrapped in wax paper and holds it in his palm. When the chant ends, the butter vanishes.
CASTER/SPELL - Not quite sure what kind of caster the Prince is, or if the magic is from the staff adorned with Frog legs, but being a summoning expert, Cal knows Rain of Frogs is a type of summoning spell. (From Unchained Summoner list, Lv.3.) He also notices that the Prince is concentrating on the cloud to keep the spell active.
BOGGARDS - Boggards are big, slow frogmen from the swamp. But these particular boggards know how to sail and run a criminal enterprise. At least the Prince does, as does the King's spouse. This makes them smarter than the average boggard... unless of course humans, elves, and other civilized humanoid races simply underestimated boggards the way people once dismissed orcs as feeble-minded brutes.
Flying by the portholes, however, the bird's sharp predatory eyes see signs of life. There are eight women with scaly green skin. All are young, beautifully feminine in a serpentine way, and in various states of dress ranging from completely nude to fully clothed with many layers of silk accessories. Aside from their states of dress, allare equal and all share one accessory: chains.
They are chained to each other and to the wall. They are sitting in a circle, cross-legged, hands joined together, eyes shut. They seem peaceful, despite their predicament. There are no wounds on their flesh nor tears in their clothing.
Henrietta and Hank lunge forward once more, trying to clear the way for, as Edge said, the true prize.
But the gangplank shifts beneath them and they both miss their attacks.
The two Toadies flail all four limbs and tumble over the side of the gangplank! While the fall isn't much, the Toadie nearest Sabrina was just pulling his impaled leg off of a sharp, broken board. The sudden greasiness underfoot causes more skin and muscle to tear as he is "unimpaled!"
Both Toadies are prone. One is injured, though it would take quite a blow for him to stay down.
"Croah GWAR?!?!"
The Prince looks up in surprise as his own spell pours poisonous frogs on himself!
The Prince doubles over. One Bully grabs his arm to aid him. The other does the same, but is struck by a ball of fire!
The Prince looks like he's about to vomit! The unsinged Bully rushes him inside the ship's cabin!
Captain Andoran and Anabel soften their Toadies. They try to hit back!
As for the one nearest the door aboard the ship, he manages to deflect several blows. He lashes out at The Edge!
—and hits hard!
The Bully storms out toward Henrietta, trying to look threatening as much as one can with smoke rising from his cap.
He swings—
—and his huge, scary, spiky maul slips from his fingers and flies overboard, splashing into the sea several feet from the dock!
And so our heroes press on vs. remaining enemies on deck (or on dock)—
1 Toadie unscathed
2 Toadies injured
1 Toadie unscathed and prone
1 Toadie injured and prone
1 Bully slightly singed and disarmed
1 Bully inside ship
Prince inside, injured, and no longer able to maintain his spell...
Yet, it's still raining splats and frogs.
Anabel once more lashes out with her scarf at the injured toadie.
The Elegant Edge attempts to block the incoming strike but ultimately her attempts fall short and she takes a direct hit that causes her to stagger, lowering her guard on her left as she favors the injured side.
"My punishment for being so careless." She said smoothly, realizing she may have underestimated her opponent. It was a mistake she didn't intend to make a second time. Gathering her strength she stood tall, taking a fencing stance once more. For a second time she attempted to feint her opponent, flicking her wrist and sweeping her blade low as if attempting to strike the legs before straightening out and instead attempting to deliver a stab straight into the gullet of the beast.
Frogs are cowards. All the skykin know this. Frogs are vendictive. This too is known.
The frogman is not fleeing into the ocean. It is obvious then, he must be plotting evil upon the chained ones below. This is important.
Humans and elves and gnomes are very clever, but too often miss what is important. This is known.
The tad poles are distracting Caledon and his friends from what is important. They need to be shown.
Through his empathic link Hunter sends a sense of urgency - and a need to pay attention!.
Then with piercing scream of fury and defiance he enters an attack dive, aimed at the open doorway through which the prince and his guardfrogs passed.
Before the butter had vanished from his palm, Caledon's freehand had already been dipping back into his pouch for more arcane material. These boggards were going to rue the day they crossed paths with Caledon Whitetree.
Then the force of emotion through Hunter's empathic sending had his feet moving even before the wizard's mind made sense of his own actions.
His eyes snapped to the sky as the falcon began his dive. "No! Don't!" He screamed.
The fool bird was going to get himself killed!
His wits starting to return, the wizard realizes that Hunter must have seen something important to prompt what was practically a suicide run at the prince and his bodyguards.
"The Prince! Stop the Prince!"
Sabs frowns at her human companions and replied to Anabel in her usual blur of words, ”You! You are human!” Her frown now turned upside down and talking to no one in particular though one would be reasonable to think Sabs was still talking to Anabel, ”Why do humans always insist they are not human? And furthermore why are they always getting hurt, don’t you know that it breaks my heart when you get hurt?!” Sabs once again glows with a light that resembles the Sun which flares out over the battlefield gently falling on her injured companions and missing the injured frogs.
Hank loved squishing these frogs in his grip. They just got weird slime all over, it was delightful. He pushed forward and tried to grab another.
While he wrestled with the toadie, his daughter stabbed out with her lance at the bullie, screaming furiously.
Anabel's eyes sparkle with mirth as she looks back at Sabrina. She points to the long ears on the sides of her head. "Elf, not human!" she insists cheerfully before turning back to the frog-men.
He also knows that there is very likely a second room within: a captain's quarters. The portholes are not covered with glass. The holes would be an uncomfortably tight squeeze for Hunter. A smaller bird or swarm of insects could fly in.
..
Also, this isn't part of the check, but I'll tell you now that Cal will have a better understanding of the girls' predicament through Hunter.
Anabel takes down her opponent! The Edge and the Hand slash and crush, taking down another Toadie! Henrietta really clobbers the Bully. He doesn't look like he can take another blow like that.
Sabrina sends a ripple of light from her body. Columns of light travel up the bodies of our heroes, but pulsate around the frogmen. The wounded feel a tickle where there once was pain...!
The two toadies in the grease puddle hop onto the deck...
One attacks the wizard. The other attacks the healer!
The only Toadie still standing attacks Anabel—
—and actually manages to hit the nimble elf!
The Bully strikes back at Henrietta—
—with his TONGUE!
He pulls Henrietta, attempting to unseat the jockey!
Even without the Prince daring up with his head in the clouds, poisonous frogs keep falling from the sky!
Several frogs spatter all over the roof of the cabin, but none explode on anyone living.
Starts start to twinkle through the unnatural greenish clouds. The rain of frogs becomes a drizzle of frog legs, teeny yellow eyeballs, and bodiless little worm-like tongues. With only four enemies standing in the way of the innocent slave girls—and the prize, The Frog Prince of Darkness—our heroes press on!
If Hunter wishes, he may strike the guard with his talons.
The Frog Prince casts a spell to stop the falcon—
—and the tentacles crush the poor bird!
The Bully looks ready to finish Hunter off, but the Prince urges his escort onward. The prince is rushed into his quarters. Sounds of vomiting are heard through the door as it is slammed shut and locked. And the girls faces wrinkle in disgust as the room REEKS from the stench seeping under the Prince's door!
...
After you roll for Hunter, there will be more!
The momentary distraction costs Anabel as the toadie strikes her with his weapon. Wincing in pain, she whirls back around and lashes him with her scarf in retaliation.
Below the struggling bird, a nude nagaji slave, sighs with relief as the Prince leaves the room—though her friend, clad only in a pair of knitted stockings, grabs the nude slave by the chin. She attempts to turn her friend's head upward. The chains limit her movement, but the nude complies.
Opposite the nude is a slave dressed in many layers of silk, much like the scarf-dancing elf outside. She takes one of the scarves and gently flings one end toward the struggling falcon.
"Take it, Songbird!"
A topless slave says, "I don't think that kind of bird sings, Silkworm."
"Of course it does not, Patty. But this creature is a sign."
"Of freedom!" says the nude.
"Let's call her Freebird!" says the stockinged.
The topless one says, "She isn't free either."
The bottomless slave says, "She also isn't a she."
"He will be," says Silkworm. "He will be free!"
One by one, the slaves rise up as far as the chains allow. The silk-clad slave again snaps her scarf toward Hunter. The lightweight material almost seems to float within reach of Hunter's talons.
"Take it, Freebird!" says Silkworm.
taking advantage of his defensive camouflage (aka invisible), Alistair moves to get to the head of the frog people, the prince.
moving into the ship.
Alistair is forced to crouch to avoid getting caught by the tentacles himself. The prince manages to escape into his quarters, escorted by his guard. As the door slams shut, Alistair can hear vomiting. As a lock clicks in place, a stench fills the room. It is coming from beyond the Prince's room, and Alistair recognizes this distinction smell. Biff Wellington gave the same odor shortly before he changed.
...
As for the slave girls, they are truly impressed by the falcon's might as Hunter escapes. Silkworm cradles the bird in her arms, if he lets her. If he wishes to fly, she will open her arms for him.
"This one is strong," Silkworm says. "Let us make him stronger."
All of the girls hum. Their sweet singing voices light the room...
...Alistair and Hunter are fully healed by the magic flowing from the slave girls.
At this point, Alistair's vanish spell wears off.
"Greetings," says the slave clad in silk. "I am Silkworm. Is this your brave bird?"
Continuing the academic conversation with Anabel matching her cheerful tone while chaos reigns around them, "Yes that's what I said, human! The ears just point to a subtle morphological variation! It's all quite fascinating the wide variety of phenotypes you humans have!"
Sabs makes a sour face when she realizes her healing has had little effect, and now her subjects were moving away from her too!
Sabs rushes to get on deck and closer to the rest of the party but finds that someone greased the gangplank! And she falls flat on her face. Still she bathes the battlefield with healing light, carefully feeling out the human lifeforces.
There is a Toadie standing just outside the slipzone, but he fails to take advantage of the gnome's clumsiness...
He raises his weapon overhead—
—stabs the boards of the deck between splayed limbs!
...and even if he had struck her, the wave of healing would have undone the damage. The injured Toadie tries to inhale some of the healing magic as it begins to eminate from the tiny pink-haired person. But the wave of warm light swerved around the Toadie, who ends up sicking and swallowing a chunk of snot. He remains just as wounded and a little more demoralized.
When the frog's blow whistles by Caledon's ear, he reaches into his spell pouch and steps back just out of reach.
With glance down at the gnome he says "Don't worry, I won't leave you."
From the pouch the wizard produces a small bag and candle. These would act as an arcane focus for spell he intended to be a little more dangerous than buttered frog feet.
"Ca thleth so floco si thlon el bend so shencoo si sheapsip. Sa hwul so hweeun so flock. Sheat su sclen, suthceel hwolceat"
AC 14, touch 13, flat-footed 12 (+2 Dex, +1 natural, +1 size)
hp [7] [1d8+3]
Fort +3 [+5], Ref +4, Will +2; SR 5
Celestial – Resist acid, cold, and electricity 5
Melee
2 talons [+3] [1d4+2]
bite[+3] [1d4+2]
Special Attacks smite evil/good
Str [14], Dex 15, Con [16], Int 2, Wis 15, Cha 7
Base Atk +0; CMB [+1]; CMD [13]
Feats Weapon Finesse
Skills Fly +8, Perception +10; Racial Modifiers +8 Perception
Alistair takes pause at the sight before him, numerous thoughts race through his mind. but the mission at hand is also important, well its supposed to be at least.
he gives a smile, I am sorry but, no. though I am with the owner. in any event, I think i should get you girls out of here.
he looks about to see the best way to release them.
From a top view, the chains would form a "wagon-wheel" shape, though he chains do have quite a bit of slack, and this set up has only three of the girls' limbs shackled: both wrists (chained to an adjacent girl) and the left ankle (chained to a girl on the opposite side). The chains do not prevent the girls from moving their limbs... just from leaving the room, or moving three feet away from the ring in the center of the group.
As Alistair looks around for a key to the shackles, Silkworm says to him,
"It's sweet of you to try, but the Prince has the only key on the ship."
Given Alistair's knowledge of how things are built, he knows brute force would work:
* Sunder Chain: hardness 10 / 5 HP / break DC26
* Sunder Wood (where Iron Ring is attached): hardness 5 / 20 HP / break DC23
Capt does his best to keep his end up in the fight.
Alistair scans the chains, and the layout. looking for a common focal point. a single weak spot that can easily be disconnected.
it would make sense for ease of securing the prisoners to have a single point to lock them down.
perhaps a well placed shot at the central lock.
looking for that point he draws his gun to destroy the primary lock.
Alistair is looking for a central lock, but finds none. Only the shackles themselves are locked, and he most certainly knows that shooting something attached to a woman's wrist or ankle will do more harm than good.
However, there is a central point—chains are run through the iron ring in the center of the girls, and the ring is welded to a square plate that is bolted to the floor boards. It looks like the ring/plate is designed for hanging something heavy, and would normally be bolted to a sturdy ceiling.
Alistair fires the shot into the wood. There is a satisfying CRACK! It's not enough for one bullet to weaken the bolt's hold on the plate—it might be quicker to use an adjustable wrench to simply remove the bolts. However, if Alistair wants to keep damaging the floor close to the ring, the girls can leave the room. They will need to walk as a group, but the chains have plenty of slack.
...and as I said already, Alistair can simply get a tool from his Gunsmithing Kit—an adjustable wrench—and remove the plate (with the iron ring welded to it, and chains run through it). It's kind of heavy, but eight healthy slaves can easily handle the weight of all the iron they are wearing.
He can free the girls 1 round before the Black Tentacles spell ends, which basically means the girls will be ready to move out as soon as the tentacles disappear—which effectively guarantees they won't die by the Prince's hand, which gives the party the best possible reward (if you guys also defeat the Prince of course).
the first shot does a lot less than he had hoped, a brief moment of thought then it dawns on him.
rummaging through his pockets, he pulls out a sonic screwdriver, wait I mean a wrench (Wrong character) and he gets to work on the bolts to free the girls.
Have you ladies free in a jiffy he tries to assure them with a smile.