Teja and Mimi skewer the sea serpent with a combination of deadly rapier strikes into its soft scaly skin. These serpents seem too young to have developed the harder scaled armor that you saw on the enormous beast below. It falls to the ship's deck full of ragged and mortal wounds.
A cheer goes up from the crew who has huddled safely below decks and to the rear of the ship.
Jack♢
Asketell (22/26; grabbed)
Green serpent
Travis
Red serpent
Mimi
Teja (3rd action left)
Jack♢ crosses the deck and draws his shortsword in a deadly slash that draws blood and a hiss from the serpent. Asketell tries to pummel the creature latched onto him and manages to get a good shot in, but the rest are wild ineffective swings.
Travis extends his god's blessing and everyone but Mimi feels a confident warms flow through them.
Bloodied and bruised, the serpent suddenly releases Asketell. It flairs its spines and slithers between Asketell and Travis, then around Teja. As it goes, the spines rake everyone around it. Then it bites at Teja, but she ducks the beast.
Jack♢ (Reflex Save)
Asketell (22/26; Reflex save)
Travis (Bless; Reflex Save)
Red serpent (-22)
Mimi
Teja (Reflex Save)
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Mimi yanks her rapier out of the dead sea serpent. "Dat veell teach you to mess vith de wrong people."
She looks around and sees that a second serpent is attacking her friend Teja. "Sacré bleu! Dere ees another. Let's see if eet puts up any more of a fight dan dees von."
She then takes off across the deck to close with the sea serpent.
Deciding that the direct approach was best, she says, "No time for de playeeng of games todae mon pote. Tonight, you sleep vith de fishes."
forgoing the fancy swordsmanship, she plunges her blade into the side of the serpent; once, twice.
The serpent doesn't respond to Teja's feint and dodges her swing, but she does manage to block it. Mimi skewers it with flair, and Asketell stomps on the creature's neck, crushing it. It lies twitching on the deck, but soon stops as its blood leaks out from Mimi's rapier stabs.
A cheer goes up from the crew again. They begin to return to the deck, not seeing any more serpents. Captain Vriggdahl laughs. "I knew you would take care of them! I just told my crew to keep their heads down."
She spots the gorget you retrieved from Shoreseeker. "That's it! You found Hlavard!" She turns to the crew. "Back to your stations! We're headed home!"
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Mimi looks on with satisfaction as Asketell finishes off the serpent. "A job vell done I teenk. I suggest dat ve abandon dees 'ulk as quicklee as posseebel before any more of deez serpents appear." Deep down though, Mimi half wishes a couple more would show up to make things interesting.
She carefully wipes the sea serpent juice from her blade and resheathes it after checking for any damage. Mimi then helps the others wrestle Hlavard's corpse onto the Wandering Hearth.
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Once Asketell and Mimi end the serpent's life, Jack♢ starts cleaning serpent blood from his sword, and pulls out a deck of cards. "Poor things didn't have the hands to do tricks with. That'll get ya outplayed."
"Pleasure playin' with you folks," he thanks the rest of the crew for the job well done. He hands each of them a playing card as a memento, autographed with the signature of Jack of Diamonds.
When you all return to Kalsgard, Venture-Captain Torrsen greets you at the docks. He is smiling and laughs when you produce the gorget. "This will greatly please the Grenskuldrs. Thank you. I’ll make sure that you’re all on the list for a very special event coming up soon.”
He opens up a satchel and pulls out several vials. "Here take these. Let’s just say these might come in handy."
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Travis picks himself up off the deck where he landed, dodging the dangerous creature.
"Here, Asketell - I can help heal your wounds. And then I can buy you that drink."
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Upon returning, Travis takes no small pleasure in having impressed the Venture-Captain, although the fact that he did very little personally seems to escape his notice. "Thanks! What are these? And I am always happy to attend a special event. Formal attire?"
"Those are known as lesser winter wolf elixirs. Don't let the name fool you, it doesn't turn you into a wolf. It protects you from severe cold environments like you'll find up here in this part of the world." He lets out a breath, it clouding up in the air immediately.
"As for the event, you'll just have to wait and see. We're still working things out, and I don't want to spoil the surprise. But I'll make sure you're all invited." He gives you a sly smile.