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Variel would be at the stern overlooking the rest of the ship.
When Jack comes back to report Variel nods with Jiro, You are right but it still will bear looking into. Who knows the fool's gold may actually hide the real gold near it. what better way to hide it then out in the open where no one would suspect it. We will have to check it out but perhaps wait till first light to see if it illuminates the location as well. No sense climbing to those caves once now if we have to climb to another spot tomorrow morning.
You mean the entrance of the cove or entrance of the cave, Cap'n? Dhaavan asks. Cause I'd say we aught be the ones to go to the cave, but I can get a crew of gunners on the shore...
not sure we want to split forces, but Aye, definitely want to make sure none of the fish are trying to come at us from the bottom, and with my dead predicessor's armor, Adular can swim under like a fish and then hop back up and stroll on the water back to shore or ship, heh the Mate agrees.
Adular, at some point I may ask you to dive underwater and sweep the bottom of the boat to make sure nothing is coming up from below. Once we have established our position then we can worry about checking out that glitter if Jack or Horus don't spy anything first
"Let me know when," Adular says and taps his vest, "I seem well equipped for it now."
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Adular, how about you take a quick peek now and let us know what you see. It will be a good time for you to try out your new vest. Once you have finished the sweep then we can discuss if we want to make the climb still today or wait till tomorrow. We have around 6 or 7 hours of daylight left but with these cliffs the darkness will be arriving quicker than usual.
He considers her words thoughtfully.
”Aye, I suppose if granted me the powers of the Deadshot Vest, which allows me to conserve grit for the first range penalty in a shot – very handy with a pistol, mind you; that might be a handy power to have, too,” he muses thoughtfully.
”But as for gaining a bonus to strength when I’m in the rear using ranged weapons? Well, that power remains to be seen…”
”Finally, concerning sight in general – doesn’t having an eyepatch kind of, well, penalize your ranged attacks, on account of only having one eye?” he adds a bit skeptically.
While he waits politely for an answer, his mind ranges over her last comment.
A pirate with the name of “Willy” isn’t what I’d call ‘Stupid’ at all… Granted, it’s a bit gooney perhaps, but then; that’s to be expected…
”My thanks, Dhaavan-lad,” he says, sincerely pleased.
”Of course, it’s likely I won’t be going underwater for a while, seeing that we’ll likely be walking around searching for buried treasure; but then again – you never know,” he says with a nod.
”Meantime, Piper was still looking to set up a little tavern on your island. If you have any plans or details you’d be interested in contributing, I’ll have her work it in to the sketches, if you’d like,” he adds amicably.
Adular grins, "And done, Captain," He plunges into the waves to check on things now
"Flynn, what do you think?"
He glances at her.
”Oh, I don’t know. But it reminds me of a trick I saw near the desert with a young man named Ahzeez, I believe that was his name… Anyhow, he’d hold a golden mirror up and catch the light, and it’d shine where the mirror was directed,” he adds, suddenly thinking of one his professors searching for some unique Unknown Element and constantly calling out – Ahzeez – more light! during the search.
”Anyhow, based on the clues we have so far, I’d wager that if the sun came up and struck that cave at the right angle, it’d probably shine a light on where the treasure is buried, maybe… At least, I saw a similar trick with a friend of mine from university. He was looking for a place to dig for treasure and he had to wait until the rising sun got to a certain point and then it shone brightly to illuminate where to dig… now that was an archaeologist… name of Jones, I think,” he adds somewhat dryly.
After it's pointed out to him, he clearly sees the gold inside the skull with little trouble and thinks it looks like a cheap golden tooth, but that suddenly makes him grin.
”I’d wager the thing to do is wait for the “dawnflower” to bloom, and that gold thing looks like a tooth, a gold tooth – but it’s in a skull. And weren’t we looking for a stone that looks like the Death Lady’s Tooth, or something?” he adds, with a little yawn.
”I don’t now – these things are quite like like that riddle before, but they all do seem kind of familiar somehow…” he adds as his hands tap the handle of the whip on his belt and he glances around thoughtfully.
Seijiro watches Adular jump in and watches with great interest, since this is all new to him, the vest and its abilities. He tosses a couple of coins into the water when Adular submerges, while beseeching Hei Feng to keep the cleric safe.
All of a sudden, vines whip down out of the air and snatch several of your crew 30 feet into the air! The vines force themselves into ears, noses, and mouths, wherever they can find an opening and blood pours from the openings.
Dhaavan, Seijiro, Jaundiced Jape, and Shivikah, are all 30 feet in the air over the ship. Way up in the canopy of vines, 80 feet in the air, you spot a thicker mass of vines that now has what looks like a sharp beak in the middle, snapping open and closed in preparation for it's meal.
Trying to elaborate further and make it more clear Variel continues. I would actually prefer to catch the ship outside of the Cove or inside of it. What worries me is if there is no ship there. While we are trying to liberate the treasure that ship could arrive and attack our ship. I trust our crew to handle themselves but who is to say they won't be outnumbered 5 to 1.
My other concern is the location of the treasure. If Sahuagin are guarding it the treasure is most likely underwater. Last I looked not all of us are that adept at surviving underwater let alone attacking something underwater. These thoughts are what has me concerned and I am hoping that by talking out loud we can try to develop a plan of action.
Horatio nods at that.
”That’s fine. I’m all for plans of action – I’m just thinking it’s a huge jump to guess all of that, but either way – you’re probably right in your guesses.”
”So then thing to do is plan tactics, of course.”
”You’re talking going underwater to get out treasure; well, I didn’t think it was underwater, but if it is, it is. And if there are Sahuagin involved then we’ll have to fight them, too, I guess.”
”But I figure that one tactic that couldn’t hurt against oncoming ships as well as those Sahuagin is one I saw work pretty well – via tactics.”
”Basically someone coated the water with oils. If the water is dark it’ll be hard to spot anyhow. Then, when a ship came near to attack and pirate the first vessel, they lit up the waters and the ship was trapped and burned.”
”Same trick could work on Sahuagin if they surface to attack; and I’d wager that they don’t like fire,” he adds.
”If this cove has a narrow entrance to it, we just open some oil casks in the entrance and sail in. When and if an enemy ship comes up after us they’re not going to be able to turn inside a channel without wind. Besides, it’s not likely that fire like that could really destroy the ship – on the plus side, though, the smoke rising off the burning water could choke them pretty bad.”
”Anyhow, it’s just a thought,” he adds casually.
”But if you’re sure that we need to fight Sahuagin then I want to know the best way to fight them,” he adds sincerely.
”Anyone got any suggestions on that?” he asks the others.
Horatio gasps in surprise at what just happened.
Quickly, he tries to ascertain the threat...
Meanwhile, seeing his friends in trouble, we warns Piper to get below, and tells Amen-set to get to cover quickly.
Horatio looks up.
"No time for shenanigans, get down from there," he calls out irately, realizing that it's very likely that the three lads are up there fooling around with a Prestidigitation spell for flourish - as there's nothing natural that could have actually grabbed them...
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know nature
Seeing the vines suddenly animate and grab 4 of the crew Variel curses himself for not being prepared. He tried to plan ahead and issue the correct orders to everyone but blast it just as Adular dove off the ship this thing had to attack. Apparently there was a creature that was called up from the depths after all. Jiro, Dhaavan no! We will get you down.
Looking at Flynn or better yet Amen-set, Can you fire that ballista at the vines to sever them?
Everyone should have three.
"Canopy Creeper! It drains its victim's strength. It is able to control any vines it touches -- up to four vines at a time!" Rain shouted out to the others, looking at the four held in the air.
Not SHennanigans , thing's got a damned BEAK!!! Kill It!
If he can, Dhaavan will reach for his nearest allies shouting Take my hand! Now!
Dhaavna then readies an action and will spend a Hero-point to cast the 4th level spell Dimension Door
Seijiro activates his ability to go incorporeal and drops hopefully to the deck of the ship, tumbling to get there if that will help, landing on his feet...
Np rain post when you can. No rush.
If Jiro can get to Dhaavan he can have a much easier ride down. Haven't cast yet ;}
No it is directly above the ship you can't angle it that high
No it is directly above the ship you can't angle it that high
No it's above the middle. I never said it was above the bow. The ballista do not have the angle
Adular vanishes from sight as he calls on the trickster nature of his goddess.
If I can sneak to the damn body of the blasted thing, maybe I do lay a curse on it.
No it's above the middle. I never said it was above the bow. The ballista do not have the angle
Remember Adular its 80 feet in the air so you'd need to fly
Heading to bed. Have a great night!
Disgusted by the lack of action, Horatio calls out to the Men.
"Get the bows out, now; I want a everyone to the rear of the ship, go, go, go, go!"
"If you can't find a bow or a ranged weapon then get below out of the reach of those damn vines!" he adds fiercely.
"Sandara, you're a caster - can you summon up an Wind Elemental to fly up there and harass it?" he calls out at her.
Lifting his musket he decides it's time to go to work. As the creature is 80 feet above him, he raises his musket and fires at it (using one Grit Point)...
After he fires, he dives under the opening for the forward cabin where Dhaavan normally sleeps (failing that, he runs 30 feet away from the creature.
Crouching behind the wheel and commanding Neko to teleport out or hide, Rain began casting a spell and hoped it would reach one of the lower vines (30 feet in the air) and cause enough damage that it would release the sailor it was holding.
A packed ball of snow and ice appeared in her hand and Rain hurled it upward, toward one of the closest vine limbs. After the attack, Rain moved away from the secured Wheel, to a less visible/open place to wait (down the stairs?).
If Jiro can get to Dhaavan he can have a much easier ride down. Haven't cast yet ;}
Crouching lower behind the wheel and commanding Neko to teleport out or hide, Rain began casting a spell and hoped it would reach one of the lower vines (30 feet in the air) and cause enough damage that it would release the sailor it was holding.
A packed ball of snow and ice appeared in her hand and Rain hurled it upward, toward one of the closest vine limbs.
[dice=Casting Defensively with Combat Casting (DC 17)]1d20+9
[dice=Ranged Touch Attack with Snow Ball, 30 ft range]1d20+7
[dice=If hits, cold damage]3d6
Dhaavan reaches out and catches Jape's arm in his, Well, here goes nothing... This is gonna get hot He then wills a tear into the very fabric of reality and he and jape are ripped through it.
It only takes an instant, and in a burst of ash, smoke and the stench of sulpher, Dhaavan and Jape appeat safely to the deck, just under the canopy. Get a bow, or something, Dhaavan orders, panting with the exertion
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Variel sees Jiro escape on his own while Dhaavan gets himself and Jape free. Hopefully Rain was able to injure the vine holding Shivika. With everyone hopefully free Variel draws his bow and takes aim at the beak above. Focusing some of his power into his bow he fires an arrow, it burning as it goes.
Imbue weapon with +1 and flaming
Ranged attack for
Horatio manages to plug a bullet into the center mass of the thing, though as soon as you do you see the wound begin to slowly close. Rain's ball of ice and snow nails the vine holding Shivikah, shattering the vine, who falls 30 feet to the deck of the ship. She does not seem to be moving.
Variels flaming arrow impacts the creature but does not seem to penetrate the creatures tough hide.
Seijiro reaches the deck without incident.