Following the sharp rap to the back of his head, Vark blearily blurts out, “Wah?” Seeing stars, the man shakes his head vigorously as if to clear it. Looking directly at Anders, he says, “The watch? Your mother told me better lies last night!”
EDITED (Again) ACTION: Eldin moves around to the north side of the fallen Tyndal, and swings at Vark with his quarterstaff.
"You should have given up Vark," he says sadly.
"Give up?," Vark returns, incredulously. "I'm winning!"
As Eldin surreptitiously attempts to skirt Vark’s hound, Bark manages to deposit his jaws squarely into Eldin’s backside, shreding a hefty mass of flesh .
As Eldin steps into Vark, heavy staff swinging, Vark anticipates the attack and quickly jabs him first . With a look of astonishment, Eldin slumps to the deck, blood hemorrhaging from his chest and buttocks.
"Do you see, murderers?!?," Vark screams triumphantly. "I'm unbeatable!"
Bark assails the supine Tyndal relentlessly, iron jaws closing around the man’s shoulder . The audible snap of Tyndal’s scapula causes even Vark to momentarily cringe in sympathy .
Vark kneels and presses his blade to Eldin's throat. "That's enough lads.," he says quietly, though you all (excepting Terin) hear him in the anxiety of the moment. “I’ll be leaving now, and taking me dog with me.” “The scow's yours; job’s ruined now anyhow. Maybe we’ll settle up another time.” “Do we have a deal, or do I cut down this one?”
During the frenzied combat, multicolored parrots and macaws burst forth from both hatches, seeking daylight, covering any possible noise from below. Unable to secure a similar escape route, terror stricken monkeys leap upon their would-be liberator from all sides !
Anders is up.
“I’ll be leaving now, and taking me dog with me.” “The scow's yours; job’s ruined now anyhow. Maybe we’ll settle up another time.” “Do we have a deal, or do I cut down this one?”
Anders gives Vark a steely-eyed look.
"Yours is a questionable victory at best, considering most of your comrades seem to be having problems retaining bodily fluids at the moment. If there's a dinghy on board, then take your mutt and go. Otherwise, I hope you both can swim. Either way, if we ever see you again, you better have a lot of friends with you."
"I should have hired you lot instead of these worthless louts." Vark says. "Bark, come!," He commands. Vark pulls two potions from his belt, quaffing one quickly, while flipping the other towards Tyndal. "Spoils of victory," you hear him say as he smoothly steps backwards off the ship and into the sea below with a small splash . Bark follows quickly after, barking excitedly as he dog paddles after his receding master.
Eldin moans quietly as he bleeds out onto the main deck. He'll need help, and quickly to survive.
No monkey swatting, they are just terrified animals trying to escape a bad situation. I pity them and try not to get in their way. Seeing nothing immediately through the smoke I will return to topside to enlist more help from my companions. While on deck I see the state of one of my companions and will move to try to stabilize him.
I need to patch him up, but the I couldn't find the source of the flame in the hold! Someone with sharper eyes than mine needs to find the source and extinguish it before the ship burns!
"Next time I won't take it so easy on you" Tyndal says while he is secretly glad the dog is gone.
He begins filling buckets on the deck, getting ready to start a chain to put out the fire, grumbling about dogs the whole time.
The vial’s contents smell abhorrent, and it tastes of fish scales and sea foam. After drinking it, your skin feels very oily .
Eldin regains consciousness (thanks to Terin's intervention).
Nah, use it, Eldin is healed to full.
I need to patch him up, but the I couldn't find the source of the flame in the hold! Someone with sharper eyes than mine needs to find the source and extinguish it before the ship burns!
"I'll drop down and have a look. But I don't think I'll be able to put the fire out on my own. Who's gonna give me a hand?" Harven glances around at his companions, then begins to head below decks.
"Feh. I should have killed the rat bastard when I had the chance," snarls Seann, jabbing his spear savagely into the decking. He then seems to compose himself, and starts after Harven.
“Fharlanghn …” Eldin moans, “not yet …. Not that journey…” Suddenly his eyes snap open and he looks up at Terin. “Thankyou my friend,” he says, quickly comprehending the situation and noting the used scroll crumpling from the druid’s hand. He rubs at his torn pants reflectively. “I should leave the fighting to the professionals. Here,” he digs into his pack and hands two scrolls over to Terin, “to replace the ones you used on me. It’s good if we both have some of these, and I have a couple more.”
“Tyndal, are you alright? Do you require any healing? If not, lets see about putting that fire out. Everyone, look for buckets, pails, pots, there should be some around – if not, there are a couple of bailing buckets down in the low tide. Tie them to ropes and lower them down into the harbour, perhaps waited with something so that they sink and draw up water. We’ll use that to combat the fire and save Lavinia’s ship.”
Your journey wasn't to end yet, Traveler. I will head below with Harven and Sean, those 2 with some smoke and flame maddened animals won't be a pretty sight.
Anders will help fill buckets and get in line for the topside part of the bucket brigade.
Anders will help fill buckets and get in line for the topside part of the bucket brigade.
As will Eldin.
With Tyndal’s shoulder repaired , and the rest of the party involved in the bucket brigade, things move quickly and the remaining fires are contained. Any fowl released from the cages have long since flown away from the vessel, and a steady march of bedraggled and sopping wet monkeys scale the rigging of the ship, occasionally reaching down to groom random party members by way of thanks.
The first one to reenter the hold, Harven observes that the damage appears mostly superficial, with the majority of the fire having consumed the cargo and not the Nixie. The ship will require a lot of cleanup, but putting her right shouldn’t involve much beyond a good scrub-down and a new coat of varnish inside.
The hold smells much better than it did the first time Terin entered, mostly of dampness and stale smoke. Those animals not released during the mayhem appear lifeless; it is obvious the pirates had little regard for them, so the reason the animals were in the cargo hold at all is not immediately obvious. You can hear odd shuffling and creaking noises from inside the hold, but aren’t sure as to the direction.
Once those down in the hold report that the fire is out, Eldin cautiously lights a lantern, and, keeping the flame away from the inquisitive monkeys scampering through the rigging, descends into the damp, smoky hold.
“I have heard of an underground business in smuggled animals,” he says, sadly shaking his head at the apparently lifeless beasts in the cages. “I suppose that’s what Vark had planned here. Hmmm, does anyone else hear that noise?” Eldin strains his hearing to try to determine the direction and origin of the sounds.
You are able to pinpoint the source of the noise, and as you turn towards it, your lantern illuminates a bizarre tableau: A charred but unmistakably feminine hand holds a (now doused) torch, the opposite end of which projects from the mouth of a similarly scorched lizard-like creature. Interestingly enough, the arm attached to the hand does not appear burnt.
As you watch, the hand and arm lurch upwards several times, causing the overturned cages about the body to raise and creak slightly, before splashing back down (the hold has roughly an inch of water in the bottom from your firefighting efforts).
“Er… gentlemen…” Eldin begins tentatively, backing away and pointing towards the hand … the moving hand. He strains his eyes against the darkness and the dancing shadows, trying to figure out exactly what he is seeing. Could the lizard thing still be alive? Is there something else moving back there? Where is the rest of the woman?
Looking up from scratching his newly found monkey, Tyndal says, "Move back priest, if anyone is going to get hurt, it might as well be me."
Tyndal hefts his shield and draws his longsword, moving into a position to protect the priest should the lizard-thing attack. He looks around the corner carefully.
Puuurrrr.
move silent=13, hide=7
As you descend the ladder into the hold once again, you discover the ominous groan of the cage doors has only become louder. Something is undeniably attempting to lift itself from under the piled cargo.
The blackened lizard lies unmoving, except for when the spasming of the torch bearing hand and arm lift it slightly. As you peer around the chaotically strewn cages, you cannot make out any of the woman’s body, though you do spot a second hand, palm upward, separated from the body (assuming there is one under there).
There appear to be teeth marks of some sort on the wrist, and the palm displays signs of charring in a circular pattern. As you stand there attempting to discern exactly what it is you are witnessing, what you assume to be the woman’s body lurches several times, with each attempt accompanied by screeching metal and rasping wood, and ending ultimately with a soft splash that pushes small ripples back to where you stand.
I attack the dark! LOL
Seriously though, I shift back to my elven form and draw upon the powers of nature with a light few words, that seem to crackle like a campfire, and ignite my hand with a blazing ball of flame.
Terin draws his scimatar and pokes at the pile, aiming towards where I think the movement is coming from. "Stay back, it may just be a monkey trapped under the debris." he says as he starts poking the area.
Sound travels well in the damp environs, and the rustling halts as your boots splash closer to the mound of debris. The thrashing of the arm and hand begin in earnest as Terin prods the pile, redoubling their previous exertion. On one occasion, you can see what appears to be coagulated blood on the end of his blade.
Current Xp Totals:
Eldin: 525
Harven: 525
Terin: 550
Seann: 525
Anders: 525
Tyndal: 500
Originally, they were a little more uneven, but you all did something last battle that impressed me (Terin is a little ahead for not swatting any monkeys). Also, Tyndal, please update your sheet to include a bonus skill of +1 balance.
Originally, they were a little more uneven, but you all did something last battle that impressed me...
Eldin puts his hand to the holy symbol hung around his neck. “If it is indeed undead, then I shall call on the power of the Horizon Walker to send it back to the grave. But no, I think it is something alive back there, something that escaped from one of those larger cages perhaps…”
Anders will call down from the deck.
"What's happening? Have you found another cage of monkeys?"
--------------
Above:
As Anders’ awaits a reply from his anxious companions, he hears a man call out from alongside the ship, “Hello? Is anyone there? Vark?”
--------------
Below:
The thrashing, greater than before (following Terin’s enthusiastic poking of the cargo mound), finally appears to pay off, and several cages roll off the top of the pile, narrowly missing your party (though you are sprinkled a bit by the water as they impact).
With the obstructions cleared away, you are now able to distinguish the figure of an adult woman stretched out before you, atop several broken boxes. One of her arms ends in a ragged stump at the wrist; the other is holding the torch you observed previously. It appears she was wearing jewelry at one time, but the poor quality metal has melted into the skin of her ears and neck. Apart from a recent stab wound to her face, she is otherwise undamaged, including a suspicious lack of bruising from the weight of the fallen cages.
As you are examining the scene, you notice her chest begin to rise and fall erratically. Her mouth and neck muscles do not appear to move in time with the breathing motion, and her open eyes remain motionless, fixated on the ceiling. The hand bearing the torch moves upward ever so slightly.
“… or I could be wrong.” Eldin steps forward a pace (but stays at least fifteen feet away from the corpse, space in the hold allowing) and holds the small wooden disk of his holy symbol aloft.
“I call upon the power of Father Fharlanghn to send any unquiet spirits on their final journey,” he intones, his voice quavering slightly, betraying the unease he feels at this rather creepy situation.
Does anyone have a pole, polearm, or a board that we can use to push the body aside? I believe something is trapped beneath the body. I would just stab through the corpse and into it to kill it but it could be an animal in trouble.
"You mean like this?" Tyndal puts away his sword and shield and unstraps the glaive on his back.
Using the butt of the weapon, he will attempt to move the body aside to reveal what's underneath.
The other polearm-wielder in the party readies his spear to stab any dangerous creature that would use the opportunity to ambush Tyndal. Or anyone else, for that matter.
Terin stands beside Tyndal, ready to slice anything that attacks the group. "Carefully, all this caution may be over an injured lemur or something and I would hate to see innocent life loss as a result of our frayed nerves."
As Tyndal carefully nudges the writhing body with the butt of his glaive, you hear a dreadful tearing noise, and watch in revulsion as the corpses’ stomach expands forebodingly. As the woman’s carcass begins to topple sideways, a blue-black snout emerges, gnawing its way to freedom. For the first time the back of the carcass is exposed, and you can see a gaping hole in the back of her form, from which wriggles the rear half of a three-foot lizard.
The woman’s remains topple into the water, almost trapping the creature beneath it once again. The strange looking creature, having worked so hard to escape its fleshy prison the first time, instinctively fires its defense mechanism.
You hear a sharp crackling noise and feel a prickly wash of static discharge within the confines of the hold, forcing all your hair to stand on end.
First poster please roll party initiative (It’s on baby!).
Lizard Init: 1d20+6 = 22