Ufuka and Katigar shimmy up the anchor chain and gain the deck. They crouch in the shadows, waiting for the rest of the party.
At Kellan's hail, the pair of sentries move to the ship's railing and look down upon the party.
Up close, you can see that they have the look of scruffy sea dogs. One gives you a squint of suspicion, "Message for Sollar you say? He didn't say to expect anyone." He turns to his partner and shrugs, "Maybe the buyer is early? Go get the boss." The second thug turns to leave.
Bhru nudges, Kellan..
'May be want to keep em here lad...'
Renac gives his best smile and nods, “Ah the buyer that would be me, now please somebody help me and my colleagues onto the bought. It’s been a hell of a time simply getting out here this time of night. Since you’re staying why don’t you help us out hmm?”
Damn! Renac I really hope you have something other than what they're selling to purchase, the boat maybe? Hopefully the ladies are aboard and take these fools out before they go below decks.
"Listen friend, let us up to deliver the urgent note ourselves, or come down and get it so you have something to show Master Vark. Either way toss us the ladder, there's a foamy pint and plump bosom waiting for me ashore and I'd rather not keep either waiting." The obligatory wink is tossed upwards this time.
Ukufa looks to Katigar then jerks her head forward, before moving slowly and cautiously across the upper deck... drawing her Chakram as she goes...
... then begins to descend the stairs, keeping in the dim light...
Katigar nods silently to Ukufa and trails behind...
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The pair shift towards suspicion at Renac's proclamation and shake their heads at Kellan. "Don't think we're going to be letting anyone onboard without the boss' say so. Go get him right quick and maybe some of the other lads too."
A stumble and scrape from the darkness draw their attention and hands dart down towards cutlasses.
Combat Order
19 Katigar
18 Ufuka
14 Kellan
13 Renac
11 Baddies
4 Bhru
Katigar lets out a quiet and frustrated groan before stepping past Ukufa and out of the shadows.
She lifts her hand, waving daintily at the two men, and raises an eyebrow in mock allure remembering the group's suggestion to bring whores and wishing she made for something more convincing.
"No need for those, gentlemen....heard you were looking for a good time and found myself.... looking for one too...." she walks briskly toward the pair, the attempt at seduction on her face morphing into a murderous smirk.
Bringing her raised hand further up to grab the haft of her axe, she draws it off her back and narrows her focus to the man closest to her. She sees his eyes widen in understanding as she raises her weapon above her head...
Hearing Katigar break stealth Kellan draws his crossbow and fires at the guard furthest from the Stealth team.
"Sod it! Here we go!"
“I always hated lying, oh well so be it.”
Renac pulls a small bow from behind his armor’s cape. He knocks an arrow and lets it loose at the guard Kellan shot.
But the shot flies comically high missing the boat in its entirety.
Katigar's massive axe swings true, and a spray of blood splashes the planks as the man goes sprawling.
Kellan's arrow catches the other wharf rat off guard, and it sinks deep. The man clutches at the shaft protruding from his chest and staggers a step back, but does not fall.
There is a mummer of shock from the crew of the water taxi at the sudden explosion of violence.
Moving in the bloody wake of the half-euroz, Ukufa steps across the decking of the Nixie before silently loosing her chakram at the wounded guard:
The man's sudden stagger catches Ukufa off guard and her chakram flies wide.
The scurvy dog scuttles towards the bow, leaking blood and bellowing an alarm. "They killed pete!"
Bhru mutters to the surprised crew,
'As ye said lads, you don' see anything tonight. Just humble taxi drivers. Now take us back to the anchor chain.'
"Ahh, here we are. After you fellas, this was never my favored academy activity." Kellan gestures upwards to his brawny companions before loading his crossbow.
Kellan loads his crossbow and casts Guidance on himself as he's filled with trepidation over the slippery anchor chain climb.
With the alarm raised, and the element of surprise fading, Ukufa leaves the wounded guard to be dispatched and moves to the side of the ship.
Grabbing a rope ladder, she unfurls it o'er the side, hoping those in the boat below will take the cue...
As Ukufa throws the ladder over the edge, Katigar removes her axe from the neck of her foe. She moves toward the guard desperately trying to scramble away, takes one of her daggers from off her hip, and throws it cleaning between his shoulders...
Renac ascended the ladder after slinging his bow across him. [b] “Come on you old dwarf. We’re missing the fight.” Dashing up the ladder onto the larger ship.
Ukufa tosses a Jacob's ladder over the side of the ship while Katigar hones in on the remaining guard with murderous intent. Another swing of her massive axe silences the man's cries of alarm.
Quickly, the remaining members of the party scale up the side of the ship, joining the rest of the team on the deck.
A voice calls up through the hatch grating, "Billy?" And is met with only silence. A string of curses follows. "It's a raid boys! Time to earn your pay. Squint, you stay here. Burn it all." You heard the sounds of mobilization as unseen adversaries move to engage.
Bhru puffs as he makes it up the ladder,
'Did 'e jus' say 'burn it?'
Grim faced Ukufa confirms the dwarves question as she moves to collect her Chakram;
"He did."
The lithe Jasdian pauses at the grating, eyeing the others nearby;
"Can we lift?"
Eyeing the heavy grate Kellan knows he won't be of much assistance, he moves to the rail he just climbed so as to be out of the way and still visible to their ferrymen.
"He must be talking figuratively no?" Kellan shrugs and as he walks to the near rail of the deck he turns to Ukufa: "Brute force isn't really my department, I'll cover the stairs."
Bhru turns at Ukufa's suggestion,
'Hmm, good idea. Lend me a hand then.'
Bhru bends, ensuring to lift from the legs and not that back...
Seeing the tiny dwarf's feeble attempt to lift the grate Katigar scoffs,
'Can't ever do things without a hand?'
Ukufa also attempts to lend her sinew to the effort;
Peering down through the hatch, you can see that the main cargo hold is full of wooden cages of all sizes containing brightly colored birds and other unusual critters. You can see one individual with a torch trying, somewhat unsuccessfully, to set the cages ablaze and a number of small fires burn feebly in places. The presence of smoke and flame is creating a panic amongst the animals, as they struggle against their imprisonment.
With a shout, men start spilling out of the companion way and onto the deck, right into Kellan's sights.
Kellan let's fly with his bolt as the crew bursts from the stairwell, but it buries itself in the wood over the doorway.
Seeing that the party is in for a fight Kellan casts Bless hoping to put his party at the advantage.
Out of the corner of his eye Kellan sees their ride leaving and makes a great show of reloading his crossbow in sight of the taxi crew and yells, "Hold up, we'll be right with ya!"
Turning at the twang of the crossbow Bhru lurches forward in a headlong rush toward the last man arriving up the companion way. The bellow of war rings across the placid waters,
'For the IRON MOUNTAIN!'
As Bhru feels contact with his target he violently shifts and thrusts his armored spikes into the gut of the man,
Renac seeing enemies start to show up looks to the two women. “Someone needs to stop him down there.” pointing into the hold.
He then pivots and takes off striding toward the lead enemy drawing the ornate falchion as he does. “Stand and await deliverance you poor sod.”
He steps to him and with practiced moves delivers a heavy hip to shoulder cut with the blade.
Katigar follows Bhru and Renac into battle. As bodies begin to drop she sets her sights on whatever target still stands. Once again taking her axe off her back, she swings it low and hard toward the gut of her foe...
Ukufa balefully watches as her companions rush to the melee, curling a lip in disdain at their lack of discipline;
"Fsst. Like flies to dung."
Eying the hold below, the ranger weighs up dropping to a cage, then climbing down from there, or landing directly on the decking below...
Bhru rushes in slamming the man and shoving him backwards. Off balance, he almost manages to avoid the swing of a spiked gauntlet that follows, but Kellan's magics guide the dwarf to his target. Blood sprays and another body tumbles. Renac wades into the fray targeting another scallyway with a mighty blow, and sends another man to meet his maker. Katigar's footing shifts on the blood slicked decking and her swing fails to connect.
Ukufa gauges the distance and drops...
... but she fails to note the clutter of heavy rope and canvas causing her to slip upon landing, pain shooting through her ankle.
Sloppy. Like my companions above.
Grimacing through the pain, the Jasdian hunter draws her recovered Chakram and readies it for a throw as she creeps forward...
Ukufa drops inelegantly into the hold, but what she lacks in grace she makes up for with deadly accuracy, as her chakram catches the torch wielding thug in the temple. The torch drops from his hand, as he collapses to the deck.
Before she can extinguish the flames, a pair of the man's compatriots come rushing into the hold.
Above deck more men come up the companion way, swords flashing in the moonlight. One of them growls, "Who the hell are you people? You idiots are ruining everything!"
A pair target Bhru in the front, while a third slides to the side to take a swing a Katigar:
A look from Kellan causes the thugs swing to somehow fail to connect.
Never before has Kellan been in such an out and out melee and he was barely maintaining his composure. Ukufa's disappearance into the hold worried Kellan the most as he could hear additional bodies moving about below decks and he recalled Renac's urgent exclamation from moments earlier.
Moving to his right in an attempt to stay visible to the taxi crew he peered into the hold to see Ukufa engaging with two more thugs and a third crumpled to the side. His initial intention was to put a bolt into one of the thugs engaging the lithe Touv woman but following her initial target selection (and Renac's urgent direction) his focus snapped to the torch smouldering on the wooden deck of the ship that he (himself!) was standing on. Offering a silent prayer to his former deity to keep the ranger safe, not that she appeared to need it, Kellan calls into being his mage hand, grasping the torch and lifting it out of the hold and towards himself. "We're the idiots? Who the blazes lights a ship they're in on fire!"
Renac with a calmness that would make the water jealous moves into range flanking with Bahri, he grimaced as he hefts another swing this time downward at the guard.
But slips on the wet wood and has to catch himself.
Bhru turns his attention, and his anger to the poor soul near the edge of the boat. He lets loose gaining as much momentum as possible,
Following through with his armored shoulder once again,
Ukufa's lip curls in disdain as the two men attempt to bring her down.
She draws one of her many knives, holding it underhanded in a defensive posture while moving backward toward where her first kill lay...
The thug grunts in pain at Bhru's impact, but manages to keep his footing.
Katigar takes stock of the situation happening below deck and notices the stern Touv woman is now outnumbered and possibly injured. She decides to leave her two well-armored travel companions to handle the remaining men on deck.
"Getting a bit crowded up here..." she says as she jumps gracefully through the open grate, clutching the haft of her axe with two hands.
Landing in front of one of the guards, she brings her mighty axe above her head and swings fiercely...
Katigar drops down the hatch with grace, but the target of her attack manages to avoid her mighty blow.
The scallywags continue their attack:
The resistance stiffens, as weapons begin to slip past the party's defenses.
Seeing Katigar even the odds below decks Kellan's worry shifts to his companions above as they both stagger from vicious blows. Terrified of physically entering the melee but unsure of his crossbow shot into close quarters Kellan decides his best contribution will be to keep his hardier friends on their feet longer. Skirting the drop he moves to Renac and calls on his academy training, if not his academy's God, to heal his companion's wounds. Can't make it to the dwarf, Renac better swing true!
Cold beads of sweat run down his back as he nears the deadly clash. Maintaining concentration was never this hard at the academy but the torch remains steadfastly aloft behind him.
Renac takes a slash meant for his head with the two handed blade barely managing to avoid being decapitated. The weapon though cuts across his face leaving a dark gash that knocks him almost to his knees.
In the moment he feels desperate, remembering some of the words of his mentor, he struggles up perseverance and bravery swimming in his head. He’s greeted by healing from Kellan that helps to close the wound across his face a little as his reward, before he continues his fight teeth clenched.
The sound of metal and steel ring in Bhru's ears as his vision narrows. The hazy form of a figure in front of him barely visible.
Bhru paws at his warhammer, trying to find his strength he swings it wildly at the face of the man in front of him,
Grateful of the interposition of Katigar, Ukufa reaches over to pull her Chakram from the dead firebug , then shifts forward , stabbing her knife at the thug directly opposing the half-euroz;
Reeling from the attack, Katigar tries to steady herself. She makes another attempt to bring down the foe in front of her but the warm blood now dripping into her eyes makes it difficult to focus on her target...
Bhru's blow fells another enemy and Renac cuts a deep gouge into his opponent, but the man does not fall. Katigar and Ukufa fail to connect.
The remaining enemy facing Bhru misses his blow, due to mystical interference.
The wounded man takes a look at his fallen men strewn about the deck and with a curse, retreats, jumping over the side of the ship and into the water
The enemies below deck, unaware of the situation above, continue to press their attack: