Canopy Creeper...Almost obituary!

[Veleska]

So we set into the cove at mid day....figured out the riddle and waited ( with watches) for dawn the next day. Some time mid evening the officers ( NPCs) were awakened by the yelling of the crew...things like the gaurdian and were all gonna die. Everyone on deck and the bell started its alarm. All the officers rushed up on deck to the view of random crew members being pulled off the boat by vines that seemed to come from everywhere and no where. We sent a lit crossbow bolt into the canopy and realized that the thing hanging 100' above us had a beak and was stealing and munching crew members. Our Magis ID'ed it and let us know a little about it. Our general officers composition would be very little use but still...you have to try right?! SO we engaged...of course our socerer and Sandara were the first of the PC's to get grappled by this plant monster. It killed sandara in 2 bites and saped our sorc slowly. Then pulled our magis in who actuallly GOt a decent cold damaging hit with her magic infused short sword. Our capitiain ( scanning the beastiarys the player was) summoned a SMALL demon because it was the hardest hitting thing he could find. Funnily enough the damn thing did the first damage ( other that the Magis) but I think annoyed it more than anything else. The sorc continued trying to cast and finally just started trying to get away. Cutting at the vines...but when you hack with a dagger thats 1d4-1 you don't get anywhere fast. The plant then munched our magis and drained our sorc into unconscienceness. Our Capt'n and his Idilon continued fighting it nicking off damage a little at a time. Finally our player ( the Magis's player watching the TPK become a real thing quickly...was like What the hell are the other 85 freaking crew members doing? Why aren't they helping? The entire table starts kicking themselvs ( including our GM). Our GM give the Party a GM boon and "allows" one of our NPC's who happened to be on auto fol;low ( actual player was MIA) to rally the crew to use the 18 freaking Balistas on our deck to help take this thing out. In a few rounds the canopy creature is deafeted with a average damage of 234 coming from 54d8 and 18 balistas. We laughed at our player stupidity and even GM stupidity for about the next half hour. I dought now that we will ever forget the ships offensive uses,,,but then again now that we won't it will probably never come up again. Happy hunting.

[Subparhiggins]

My own party was TPKed by this same encounter because our GM had us take a smaller boat, not the actual ship, into the cove. The GM hadn't read ahead to understand that you're supposed to fight this thing with the crew and the entire ship. So all four of us died. After the fact, he realized his error, but refused to do anything about it. Its a tough encounter.

[Bodzilla]

I'm the guy running the Campaign that OP is in. They were straight up getting their asses kicked until somebody off-handedly mentioned their 18 freaking Ballista. It was a rough night.

[deathbydice]

well, it's a windless and very narrow bay... who is going to SAIL his ship into that ? After all : no wind = no propulsion = out of luck

A launch (under oars ) is actually more feasible - and obviously was not considered the logical choice in the design. Hence it likely becomes a deathtrap.

[hashimashadoo]

My crew lost 9 nameless sailors and also almost lost the ranger's animal companion. However, of more pressing concern were the sahuagin who successfully breached the hull.

A boulder was summoned to plug the hole and sailors were furiously working the bilge pumps while copious mending spells were applied to the broken hull.