The rickety, old scaffolding sways and shudders under the sudden pounding of running feet. The unmoored ship crashes into the cliff face and lets up a great gout of flame. The walkway at the impact site gives out a tearing groan, before collapsing upon the flaming hulk with a crash. The remain walkway swaps like a palm in a hurricane, threatening to throw you into the sea below.
If you end up in the water, take a look at the SWIM RULES To see if you end up starting to drown.
With the collapse of the walkway, Spinnaker Jon desperately leapt to the rigging of the ship grabbed a loose rope (cuts it if needed) and uses acrobatic reposition to swing out to the beach (or other safe position).
Kellan is knocked off his feet but desperately scrabbles his way to a stable beam still clinging to the cliffs edge.
The rumble sends Bhru clanking down the cliff,
Failing to grab hold of any purchase he lands with a massive splash..
Remarkably, it seems his breast plate has captured an air pocket, allowing him to swim rather gracefully toward shore. (should probably just sink the bottom and walk to shore realistically :D )
Phineas and Lloyd scramble to traverse the collapsing walkway.
Losing their footing, they desperately grab hold of a stable beam.
The rest of the party watch in horror as the steel encased dwarf tumbles from the walkway, cartwheeling in air to land with a splash in the surf below.
Somehow, he manages to breach the surface once again.
The team quickly tosses a line to the floundering dwarf, and between them manage to pull the soggy fighter from the drink.
You take a moment to catch your breath, before making your way to the end of what remains of the walkway. It descends slowly down to a fifty-foot-wide beach that separates the burning waters of Kraken's Cove from the cliffs to the north. A ten-foot-wide cave opens at the base of the cliff to the northwest, while to the northeast several planks provide a crude bridge across a tide pool to a second, smaller cave entrance.
Swaths of blood and ragged body parts are strewn everywhere, testifying to a terrible and recent battle upon the sands here. Broken crates and bamboo cages litter the area, with blood and bits of bone sprayed across bolts of silk, and cracked barrels of ambergris seeping into the coarse, rocky sand. A number of mangled corpses, each stripped nearly clean of flesh, and bones cracked open, lie scattered along the beach. The casualties are staggering, with a quick count putting the dead at nearly twenty.
Jon stepped warily forward, hand crossbow out and sweeping back and forth along with his eyes for threats.
"Besmara's t%!$! What in the name of the Pirate King happened here?" He exclaimed.
He carefully went over the scene as best he could, searching for wallets, papers, watches, anything with identifying inscriptions.
"Lets not give Vanthus any designs on a crown eh Jon... Are there really this many macabre menageries in Sasserine to support continual transport of such deadly beasts?" Kellan says eyeing the cages and eaten(?) bodies. He remains wary of their previous run ins with broken cages and examines one as he continues.
"A score dead and we number but five, some advance scouting, of a stealthy nature seems back in order." The obvious avoidance of any eye contact with the group is far more telling than any of his winks.
Bhru waits while Kellan moves forward quietly.
Ukufa moves toward one of the mangled corpses, attempting to discern what or perhaps whom make feasts of their remains...
Phineas takes in the grisly scene, seeing more horror than glory. After a moment, it occurs to him to check on their Scribe hireling:
“By the bleedi—
Master Scribeman! How fares thee in these trying, troublesome times?”
“And might your senses shed any light on this abhorrence, Lloyd?”
The beach is a chaotic mess, but the remains look like they were torn apart by wild beasts. It is impossible to determine the flow of the battle, but you can tell that whatever the cause, the fighting erupted seemingly everywhere at once.
While poking about, you catching sight of something approaching through the smoke. It may have once been a man, but now its grey skin, strangely flopping arms and legs, and vacant-eyed vestigial head hanging from its neck, make the creature anything but. Yet perhaps worst of all is the creature's mouth, a cavernous wound in its twisted face filled with a twisting landscape of teeth, a mouth designed for one thing only-the tearing of flesh from the bone. In your horror, you see that is is not alone, as another of the creatures lumbers in the first's wake.
Combat
20 Phineas
17 Baddies
12 Jon
12 Kellan
10 Bhru
8 Ukufa
Phineas shudders at the sight of the approaching creatures. He and Lloyd move ahead only slightly, priming themselves for a charge. Phineas draws his lance and shouts to the foul things:
“Have you noble fellows an interest in diplomacy? Before things get messy, that is.”
The creature in the lead charges with unnatural speed, closing the distance to strike a Bhru, while the other speeds along in its wake.
The creature's gore-slimed sword is deflected harmlessly aside by the dwarf's sturdy armour.
Spinnaker Jon shifts to a Total Defense stance (AC now 23), and swings wide around the oncoming creatures, drawing rapier and maine-gauche as he does, to end up behind the last monster.
Kellan takes a couple steps forward before drawing and shooting at the trailing attacker.
Returning the favor Bhru slams into the putrid thingy,
then drives in his shiny new armor spikes,
Bhru continues his momentum,
Phineas and Lloyd charge Bhru’s attacker.
Bhru gives the vicious creature a shove back, sending it reeling, but little else. This does allow a clean line for a charge from Phineas, who runs the creature through. It collapses in a heap, the sand drinking deeply of its life's blood.
In the gap that opens, Ukufa darts in to flank with Jon,
landing a wicked blow, but the creature's flesh resists the blade..
The creature responds in kind with its blade:
and a lunge with its toothy maw:
, but Ukufa manages to dodge aside.
Jon shifted out of Total Defense, and lunged at the flanked creature.
for a possible piercing damage plus precision damage.
Kellan draws his morningstar and wades in on the remaining creature.
Phineas and Lloyd turn their attention to the remaining creature:
Bhru. having missed pathetically tries to get some purchase in the sand and charge,
And tries to bully the baddie.
Jon's lunge takes out the remaining monstrosity, but not as easily as he would have liked, as the creature's flesh proves more resilient than normal.
The the two creatures dispatched, relative quiet descends back on the wreckage strewn beach.
From the beach, two approaches lead to the cave complex, one directly to the north and a smaller opening to the northwest, across a bridge that crosses a tide pool.
Jon knelt down and frisked the creature he helped take down.
He paused and hissed through his teethe.
"Aye, lookee here." He said, pulling at a red bandana embroidered with a horned skull and crossbones. "This here is th' flag o' the Crimson Fleet. They ain't nought ta sneeze at, and could be trouble down the line. Best we look inta th' caves quick as we can." He said, musing aloud.
Looking around, he pointed at the smaller opening to the NW, across the bridge over a tide pool.
"Lets go 'round the back way lads an' lassies; th' big cave be too easy methinks."
Bhru brushes off some sand from his armor, a futile effort.
'Round the back it is...'
Kellan collects his crossbow. "Aye, the back way works.
Phineas spurs Lloyd onward.
“To the back and to glory!”
Ukufa nods at the savvy strategy and moves with the others, daggers drawn and ready...
Leaving the horrors of the beach, you move towards the smaller cave entrance. Two wide wooden planks serve as a bridge across the deep pool of rushing water that separates it from the beach head. As you near it, a small hermit crab scuttles out of the pool, waving its diminutive claws threateningly and attempts to savage your boots.
Spinnaker Jon will just dodge around it, moving as quietly as he could across the bridge and up to the small cave entrance.
Kellan too steps around the fierce crustacean and moves to follow Jon.
Bhru challenges the hermit crab with the point of his boot, brushing it aside before moving along. He tests the weight of the boards before attempting to cross.
Phineas and Lloyd pause at the makeshift bridge before creeping along the planks.
Ukufa too moves quietly past the pool, pausing momentarily as if something more than the dimutive aggressors has caught her eye...
Flicking one away with her knife-tip she knees to scrutinise the water.
"Hold. Look here."
The Jasdian continues to stare at the water, but calls her companions over as she explains in her flat tone;
"Observe the currents in the pool. How they ebb and flow."
"The depths hide a passageway."
Surprised, Jon turned back and took another look.
"Aye... aye lassie, I see it too!" He said, a smile creeping across his face. "Let's see where it goes!"
Stuffing his hat into his belt, he eased himself down into the tidal pool to look for an opening.
Poking about in the pool, Jon quickly finds an underwater passageway that leads off in the same direction as the cave entrances. The entrance is easily large enough to accomodate a swimmer, but the surging of the water would make it a touch tricky to navigate.
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Jon surfaced again and told his companions what he found.
"Aye me lads and lassies, we've struck the motherlode of secret entrances! There's some tricky surge fer lubbers ta navigate; so lemme rig a line fer ye ta hold on ta first." He said.
Being a Water Rat, he will quickly grab his coil of rope from his pack and anchor one point to a handy timber or rock formation, then swim on down through the entranceway, timing his swimming thrusts with the surge of the water and paying the rope out, and once on the other end, anchor it there as well for those following.
Ukufa follows Jon, easily navigating the underwater passage with a strong rope and stronger stoke...
"Lubbers, heh... Aye that I am." Kellan makes to follow once the rope has been secured.
Grumbling Bhru also follows along. Ensuring a firm grip on the rope the dwarf submerges,
Grumbling Bhru also follows along. Ensuring a firm grip on the rope the dwarf submerges,
[dice=Swim]1d20+5-6
Jon easily makes the passage and pops into a cavern pool thick with seaweed and roiling with the surge of the sea. Several narrow fissures in the ceiling seem to lead up and out through the cliff face to the south, allowing light to filter in, and a brisk breeze to whip through the chamber. To the north, a passage leads out of the cavern.
Hunkered over a large pile of raw fish, sea anemones and other aquatic critters, is a malformed monster, with a twisted jaw full of shark's teeth, a hunched back, and wide splayed hands, writhing with additional hook-tipped fingers. The creature eats messily, muttering to itself. In the noise of the wind and surf, you remain unnoticed for the moment.
Spinnaker Jon puts a finger up to his lips to signal quiet as the others come through the tunnel and points to the direction of the monster.
Phineas and Lloyd try and muster the resolve to follow suit and go for another swim:
Spinnaker Jon quietly submerged. Holding his breath underwater, he swam along the cavern's edge around to the right, trying to get into a position he'd be able to flank attack the creature.
Kellan is a bit unnerved swimming with a rope, this is too much so he simply draws his crossbow and tries to remain unnoticed.
“Damnit, Lloyd—remember your training.”