Madiya groans as the clanging of the bell wakes her up. Grabbing her crossbow, she gets up and stumbles up the stairs, saying in an annoyed tone which is rapidly becoming permanent, "What is trouble now?"
Buhayra tries to charge her blast, but is dealt a heavy blow, and loses the blast.
As the group arrives, Conchobar drops his bow and draws his sword cane. Instead of attacking, though, he begins to sing.
THe rahadoumi sailor, meanwhile, hurls a throwing axe at one of the sahuagin.
The sahuagin, now semi-surrounded, move to expand their held territory. Meanwhile, the one hurt by Buhayra and the sailor yells and froths at the mouth, fighting with even greater ferocity.
As the tine's of the sahuagin's trident tears into his flesh, Kehlysch retreats back towards his comrades, looking for support .
He then reaches out, allowing his arm to stretch and strike at the creature as his hand coats itself in corrosive, bubbling liquid .
"Ya uln y-ftaghu fm'latgh uaaah!"
"Ow, ow ow. This is not cool. I am supposed to stand behind Sven."
Finding her blasts do not reliably fire while under direct threat, Buhayra settles for lifting her new found morningstar and giving it a try.
"There is a gap in their line. Shift through man!"
Buhayra attempts to convince Conchobar to take a 5' step Northeast to hopefully open up some space so that she can escape from this corner over the next few rounds.
Barely making it to the creature, Sven swung his hammer. Wearing naught but his underwear, the Ulfen waxed into combat nonetheless.
[RETCON!]
"Ow, ow ow. This is not cool. I am supposed to stand behind Sven."
Finding her blasts do not reliably fire while under direct threat, Buhayra instead manifests an strange knife of cold energy in her hand.
Kinetic Blade Melee! Buhayra takes 1 point burn +1 magic, +1 singing: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (14) + 8 = 22 Hey, that might actually hit something!
Kinetic Blade Damage damage! -1 str, +1 magic, +1 singing: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3 I want my kinetic blast back.
"There is a gap in their line. Shift through man!"
Buhayra attempts to convince Conchobar to take a 5' step Northeast to hopefully open up some space so that she can escape from this corner over the next few rounds.
[/RETCON!]
As the sea beast tries to stab her, Tamesis nimbly jumps back, avoiding the blow. She narrows her eyes and grabs an arrow, "Big mistake, fishface."
She takes a second to cast, enchanting her bow before taking her first shot.
Tamesis and Kehlysch's attacks both go wide. Very wide. Thankfully, Sven and Buhayra are able to pick up the slack. Sven's mighty hammer flattens one of the creatures before it can react, and Buhayra's icy blade fells the one previously injured.
Seeing the attackers, Madiya skids to a stop, and tries to fire her crossbow...momentarily forgetting that she doesn't keep it loaded overnight. With a grumble and a mental note to be better prepared, she fumbles around for a bolt, loads it in, and then fires.
Madiya's shot richochet's off of the sahuagin's tough skin, causing no apparent damage. Baolus finally reaches the deck, and moves into a flanking position with Buhayra, but isn't able to get an attack off.
Conchobar does his best to tumble through the threatened area, to get himself clear of the melee. He barely makes it, but stands back, continuing to sing for the officers' benefit.
The other pirate, meanwhile, throws another axe at the sahuagin menacing his captain.
The sahuagin struck by the axe screams and rounds on Buhayra, moving to block her escape, even as the flanked fishman reverses his fortune with a sly step, bringing him to flank Baolus.
Having dealt with one foe, the near-naked Ulfin ran to the next. Frozen blood adorned his hammer as the next creature met the same fate.
Finally among the others, Baolus sees that Buhayra is fighting an enemy in melee... something that will not end well.
"I'm here for ye, Blue... sorry for the delay!"
He then steps towards the enemy fighting her and first tries to disarm it using his free hand before attacking with his grappling hook.
Frustrated by her miss, Madiya reloads quickly, takes a deep breath, aims more carefully, and fires again, this time hitting a weak spot.
Kehlysch moves around the ladder towards the sahuagin fighting Baolus.
"Ya uln y-ftaghu fm'latgh uaaah!" he cries out as he extends his acid coated hand towards the back of the creature currently engaged with the rogue.
Sven moves up, and once more obliterates a shark man.
Baolus steals a trident, but his attack with a grappling hook fails to land.
Madiya's bolt finds it's mark, and Kel's spell finishes the sahuagin, leaving only 1 standing.
Seeing only one enemy remaining, Tamesis grins and draws back one last arrow. With a few words in daemonic, she infuses the shot with any icy chill and takes careful aim, shooting to end this intrusion.
Tamesis's arrow slams into the sahuagin's chest, and it, too, collapses to the deck.
Conchobar finishes his song, and the ship falls quiet. Some of the crew start to make their way onto the deck, having taken the time to arm themselves.
The sahuagin each carry a trident and a heavy crossbow, but nothing else.
Tamesis lowers her eyes to glare at the fallen fishmen before stepping out onto the deck, "Anyone dead? No? Good. Master Yeralzery, I believe we have some new additions to the armory.
"Master Cogward, I think the night watch has fulfilled their duty, please relieve them and have the morning watch take over. And have some volunteers clean this filth off my deck."
Unless anyone else stops her, she then turns and returns to her quarters, closing the doors behind her. She dismisses the enchantments on her bow and drops it on the table on her way back to the hammock to sleep away what's left of the night.
Sven began lifting and throwing the corpses over the side. ”Go! Return home and let you’re corpses tell the tale of what happens to those who cross us.” Sven was happy. His position as first mate was, in his mind, as much due to his strength as it was his sagas. It was good to remind the crew of this.
Madiya helps Sven with the cleaning up and dumping of the bodies, then patches up any wounds that were suffered during the fight before heading back to bed.
Using her water powers Buhayra sets about helping the others with the cleanup of the deck, specifically rinsing away her blood as well as the ichor of the strange creatures.
After finishing she heads to the officer's quarters and finds a hammock for the remainder of the evening.
Baolus reaches Madyia for the healing she offered before gathering the weapons the sahuagin had with them, asking one of the rahadoumi to help him carry everything.
Before going to bed, though, he reaches Madyia once more, making sure the crew members would not be able to hear him. "Madyia... look, I'm a bit worried... I'm not really superstitious and to be frank not really religious, but I'm worried we are jinxed. We went to that island and were attacked... and then again on Rickety's... and now again on our first night back into the sea..."
Kehlysch accepts Madiya's gift of healing, then helps police the bodies of the sahuagin. Taking a cue from Buhayra, he draws upon his power to clean the blood and flesh from the deck with powerful jets of water.
Wild cousins come to raid the larder. muses the Bulge.
Sahuagin are not kin to gillman. Kehlysch replies in a thought laced with disgust.
Closer than you are ready to accept. the Bulge responds. Why cast their bodies into the sea? Such a waste of good meat.
I'm no cannibal! Kehlysch replies.
Meat is meat. All meat is meat. the Bulge answers, with a vibration in the thought reminiscent of a chuckle.
Kehlysch visibly shudders, but continues his work until the deck is clean.
Some of the crew assist with the cleanup, and Cog assigns the next watch, for which he personally takes the role of officer-on-deck. The rest of the night is uneventful, as are the next days.
On 3rd day, just a few hours before sundown, the lookout calls attention to the east. A column of black smoke, visible to the naked eye, rises into the sky. Since there is no land nearby, it must be coming from a burning ship.
Through the spyglass, 2 ships can be seen, 1 chellish, the other of unknown provenance. The ships are grappled together, and it is clear the chelish are the victors, as it is the unknown ship that is producing the smoke. The chelish ship has it's sails furled, and is no position to chase down another target. The Sunset Challenger can just sail away and avoid a confrontation altogether, or take the opportunity to strike at the chelish navy while they are vulnerable.
You have the option of starting ship combat in an advantageous position, you can choose your heading and bearing. Alternatively, you can automatically grapple and board, giving you a surprise round in shipboard combat.
"Chelish. They would strike us if we were in their position," Kehlysch says. "It will be a hard fight, but one that will certainly bolster our reputations if we take the prize. Of course, it will also make us targets of the Chelish Navy."
Fresh meat. mutters the Bulge.
He looks to the others to see if they volunteer their own opinions.
"A chance to screw over Cheliax AND save a-presumably-pirate crew in the process? What are we waiting for?"
She nods in agreement to Fishuts' advice, "I like it. Sneak up and catch them with their pants down. Take them out before they can react."
"I can certainly put the sun at our stern, Captain," Kehlysch replies, making ready to turn the wheel to the new heading.
Hunting for meat. mutters the Bulge again.
Madiya nods at Baolus's concerns. "I think weird too. But island people say animal attack are normal, and old ship had lots of attack too." Grinning and flashing her holy symbol, she adds: "Hei Feng keep us safe with his tengu, no worry."
==============================================
As the Chelish ship comes into sight and Tammy makes the decision to fight, Madiya eagerly preps her weapons - and the ship's ballistae. Time to finally put her practice to good use.
Buhayra comes up on deck and runs to the shipboard side, preparing for an encounter with the Chelish Navy.
"If the other ship isn't grateful enough maybe we just take booty from both ships."
”And by grateful you mean giving us everything of value?” Sven laughed.
As the ship approaches her target, Tamesis takes cover behind the railing of the sterncastle. In the last dozen seconds before the ships grapple, she casts upon herself and her weapon.
Sven went about preparing the boarding party. He stood on the side of the ship, ready to lead the attack on the enemy ship once it was grappled.
Not wishing to let Sven get all the fun, Baolus stands besides his friend. In one hand he carried his grappling hook while in the other there was an empty bottle of chilly sauce he bough back on Rickety's.
As the Sunset Challenger draws up, grappling hooks are thrown, and the ships are brought together. On the deck of the chellish ship, 9 marines turn to face the oncoming pirates!
Kehlysch moves towards the port side of the Sunset Challenger, next to Tamesis, and unleashes a gout of acid at one of the marines in the front rank .
The ships came together, and Sven charged in with a warcry. Looking for the biggest, strongest looking enemy, he raised his hammer and grinned. Best to make an example out of their leader or their champion. Show the rest of them what would happen if they fought back.
”Surrender or die!” He roared. As good a battle cry as any.
Buhayra gathers elemental energy from around her and pushes it into a cold blast that streaks across the bow of both ships heading towards one of the Chellish Marines towards the back.
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Kehlysch and Buhayra both connect with their respective elemental attacks, though neither is enough to bring down the bulky marines. Sven, on the other hand, lays into the marine so hard that his body disintegrates, splattering the deck in gore that shares it's consistency with chunky salsa...
Popping up over her cover, Tamesis takes aim at one of the marines in the back, to clean up the reinforcements as Sven and (hopefully) Baolus tackle the front lines.
As the melee begins, Madiya scans their Chelish opposition for officers, or at least anyone who looks particularly important before letting loose with the ballista, a sharp grin on her face. Without pausing to see if the bolt hits, she barks out some commands to the crewmembers helping her, taking them through the loading process.
Following Sven, Baolus throws the broken bottle of chilly on the man behind the one Sven reduced to puree .
Tamesis's arrow catches the marine in center mass, and he drops to the deck. Madiya and Baolus, though, do not fare so well, as the marines' heavy armor turns aside their attacks.
The surviving marines turn and form a defensive line. Those in front lash out at Sven and Baolus with cutlasses, while those on the back line use boarding pikes to attack.
Sven parried the first blow, but then felt the sting of a cutlas. He glared at the attacker before swinging his icy hammer around. ”Always the same! Got to drop a few bodies before the fools decide that they’d rather live. So be it!”
Kehlysch makes his way to the railing, just to the left of the boarding plank. He unleashes another blast of acid at the marine in the front rank, to Sven's left.
Buhayra moves a step closer to be within 30' of the starboard-forward most marine and continues her assault on him.
"Hold that line as long as you can gentlemen. Fall back to me if you get too beat up though!"
The marine catches Sven's blow on his buckler and directs the force aside, taking no damage. Kehlysch hits the same marine again with a gout of acid. The man still stands, but looks to be on his last legs. Buhayra, similarly, follows up on her initial target. His frostbitten corpse falls to the deck.
Taking a breath, Tamesis pulls up and starts firing in sequence, continuing to try to pick off the back line first, leaving Sven to his fun on the front line.
"Roger that, Blue!"
Fighting heavily armored foes, Baolus focuses on disarming those in front of him.
Madiya tries again, shooting at one of the marines in the back of the pack.