Joren's mind is still a little muzzy from the intensity of the previous day followed by such a comfortable morning thus far.
He thinks aloud as he rows. "Is Talmouth having any artillery? Mangonels or cannons that the guard could keep hidden, but ready with ammunition, then reveal just as the chase begins, firing past the cultists' ship if it is fleeing or trying some different maneuver? Taking care not to hit us, of course. Even if not hitting the cultists' vessel, it may be serving as a distraction to help us close the distance."
As they row, Marion answers Joren. "There is artillery atop the cliff, but Marigold was well familiar with the defenses, and is stationed just out of reach. We have, however..."she gestures up to the ship now looming over them. "... loaded several cannons on board."
The rowboats thunk against the side of the ship, and rope ladders are lowered down. Everyone is able to ascend the ladders and stand upon the wide deck of the ship. 5 cannons have indeed been loaded on. One facing off the bow, two to port, and two to starboard. A crate loaded with cannonballs sits beside each one. Men and women dressed in city watch regalia stand about, most looking nervous, several struggling to find their sea legs. A man with thick, scarred arms mans the helm, and gives a nod to Marion before looking up questioningly at a young woman up in the Crow's nest.
"That Captain Chemain," Marion says as the man looks back down. He clears his throat and then his deep basso voice hollers out, "We have all gathered now. Some of you are new to my fine ship. Members of the guard, and as I understand it, the very heroes who opened up Tensmith's gates so we could get back to doing what we do best!" A couple of cheers go up from members of the crew. "Each and every member of my crew was given the opportunity to stay ashore for this mission, but to a man they refused. It's been a hard winter thanks to the imposter, Andra, and we've a score to settle with his cult. We are going to have to row hard and we'll have to row fast! Once we get in range, we will fire upon them to try to take out rowers. Once there is a clear shot, we aim for the mast with grapeshot. If they get out of the bay and into open waters, we'll never catch them, so this is our one shot. Are we ready?!"
In one way, Joren is far out of his element as a soldier, what with there not being much naval warfare in the Dalmodh Plains. And yet...
If he is being honest, he is not entirely comfortable with the safety and structural integrity of multiple cannons being hastily mounted on a retrofitted river transport craft crewed by a gaggle of volunteer guardsmen-turned-sailors, to be rowed vigorously into the sea. However, despite his troubles with authority back home, he respects the chain of command enough that he has no plans to raise his concerns publicly as Captain Chemain is rallying his troops.
Instead, he listens and looks around him, trying to get a feel for how much actual military/naval experience Captain Chemain and the crew have, and how likely it is that are experts on the snags and tides of the river's mouth and shallows near Talmouth. He whispers his concerns to his companions.
Vilus is not comfortable on boats, there's no way out, no secret escape route, just the group and this army with wood separating themselves from the open waters. Such vulnerability makes him feel trapped. He listens to Joren's concerns and agrees, though the Goliath has no expertise on the subject and so offers no comment.
Instead Vilus finds his way below deck and asks any quartermaster, or someone who looks like they might have some authority, if there would happen to be any hand held harpoons on board that the group could use fir grappling hook purposes. His thinking that if this is the only shot the group will get, he wants a back up plan to make sure it doesn't slip through their fingers.
If he is able to get his hands on one or two harpoons he presents them to the group.
Ashley can see that others in her group are uncomfortable and then Joren voices his concerns to confirm it. Great she thinks. This whole thing is making her fret like she hasn't before and yet, the excitement of being on open water is more exciting than she can say. She just saw the ocean for the first time a couple days ago and here she was on it! And chasing down Marigold... her head was swimming with it all.
Casting mage armor upon herself she goes to check out the cannons and keeps her flames away from all the ammo.
Observing Captain Chemain, Joren doesn't figure him for a military man, though he certainly wields his authority efficiently and effectively. The crew operates as one. Joren picks out snippets of conversation that lead him to the conclusion that the river boats typically come right out into the bay, loop around the cliffs below the upper portions of the city, and unload their wares in the main harbour. And that portion of the trip is considered the easiest, since there is no river current to fight, and a lot more water to maneuver in.
Vilus manages to find the quartermaster who shrugs and offers up a couple of fishing harpoons to him. It would take a pretty good throw to work as a grappling hook. Unless they could be modified.
Looking at the cannons, Ashley sees each one is manned by a team of two city guards. From their movements and inspections, it seems running artillery drills must be a regular part of their training. She watches as one pair goes about preparing a cannon. The first guard uses a long rod with a wet sponge on the end to clean out the inside of the barrel, followed by a rod with a dry cloth. Then the second guard puts a pouch of gunpowder into the mouth of the barrel, which the first man rams into place. Then a wooden sabot goes in, followed by a cannonball. The first man rams each one home. Then the cannon is wheeled forward into position. The second guard opens up a vent on the back and pricks a whole in the gunpowder pouch. The other teams finish up their preparations all about the same time.
The boat gives a lurch as the anchor is drawn up. Soft drumbeats start to come from below deck, and the oars on either side start to move in unison. The boat moves forward
Samir remains mostly quiet as the groups boards the vessel and listens to the captain. His eyes roam the ship briefly, and finds it easily as well made and serviceable as those from his own home. Once they have begun moving, he separates from the others and finds himself a quiet spot where he won't be in the way. With methodical efficiency and care he pulls several items out in front of him and begins working to modify several things into the physical manifestation of an idea. His bolt thrower. Sturdy ammunition. A mining charge. It is entirely plausible that the bolt thrower itself will be completely useless for firing simple crossbow bolts once he is done, but the sacrifice would be worth it if he can manage to cobble together a way to deliver the highly explosive charge from a distance. Preferably to the other ship's hull.
If opportunity permits, Joren finds Samir where he has sequestered himself and asks leave to borrow the talisman that flashes blue, red and yellow. If Samir agrees, Joren accepts and holds it unobtrusively with his off hand, knowing it will glow red near him.
Joren then makes the rounds, greeting and speaking quiet and simple words of comradery and encouragement to each and every one of the guardsmen on the vessel, both above and below decks, including Captain Chemain. He keeps an eye on the talisman to check for any traces of yellow.
His echo remains not far from the center of the boat, always within 30' of Joren. When done, the half-dwarf returns the talisman to the artificer.
As Malachi responds Vilus' face softens a little, he leaves the door and approaches Malachi putting a large hand softly on the half elf's shoulder. Vilus leans in and whispers "the blue lady was sorry for what is in store for you, said that with our help you could escape your mother's fate... I dont want to prod and poke but if we knew more we could maybe help more. We don't want to lose you, for whatever reason Mal"
Back at the shop: Malachi places his hand on Vilus’ arm and responds to his whisper with one of his own. “Me either Vilus, but I am not sure there is much to know.” Mal follows the others silently, lost in his own thoughts and memories as they approach the ship.
Once aboard, he wraps himself in mage armor and moves to the bow of the ship, leaning against the railing and looking ahead for Marigold’s ship as he flips his copper coin over his fingers as Joren and Vilus make themselves busy around the ship. Determined to make himself useful, he moves back to helpSamir prepare in any way he can before asking Marion more about her plan. “You mentioned something about preventing Marigold from reaching out to Razmus. What do you have in mind, and how can we help?”
Vilus approaches Samir and asks to borrow the book of god tongue runes, if Samir hands it over Vilus will flip through the book apparently able to read more of it these days as he looks for a particular inscription.
(Investigation 11, passive 15)
If he finds something useful he starts carving a rune into the hook of the harpoons using one if his more expendable daggers, he wonders if his little experiment will bear fruit or if the runes themselves need to be inscribed onto living things to work properly.
Happy to see that at least the gunpower is in good order, Ashley heads to the bow of the boat and looks out across the harbour, wondering how long it was going to take them to catch up. Her nervous energy was palpable, so many thoughts racing through her head. She touches her forehead and wonders if that crown marking is still there...
Touching her forehead, Ashley doesn't feel anything. Then, a moment later she feels a familiar warmth spread across her brow as if called by her thoughts. A nearby by guard jumps at the sight of the fire suddenly wreathing her head, and moves to guard his gunpowder charges.
Marion beckons Marion to follow her. She heads down into the hold which has been emptied out. There, she pulls out a sack filled with candles and hands it to Malachi. "If you want, I would appreciate a bit of help getting set up. Could light those and place them around the circle I am about to draw?" She grabs chalk from a pouch at her hip and begins drawing a ritual circle on the ground, with geometric shapes around the perimeter for holding the candles. "I will need to stay down here to keep the ritual going while the fighting goes on above, but the Blue Lady has instructed me on what to do."
Joren does his sweep, doing his best to hide the talisman from view as he traverses the decks of the ship. Below deck, more and more blue starts to light it up as he nears Marion and Malachi preparing a ritual. On the rowing deck, only the residual glow from himself and his comrades on other parts of the ship can be seen. On the upper deck, things are the same. No sign of yellow. The mouth of the river is approaching now, and the cliffs are giving way to more and more of the bay. In a minute or so, the other ship will be visible, and then the ship will need to close as much distance as possible before Marigold and her crew notice. Wait... Joren is walking by the mast when he wonders if he caught just a flicker of something on the talisman. He backs up again, and the glow is unmistakable. But that shouldn't be right, unless... He looks up directly into the rigging, where a topman is climbing along the rigging. The man looks down, meeting Joren's eyes. Then they flicker to what Joren is holding his hand.
Joren, give me a slight of hand if you want to discretely get it out of view. (14 or higher to beat his perception)
Realizing that she inadvertently called forth her flames, she does what she can to settle the fire that wreathes her head and definitely keeps a now wide berth of the cannons and gunpowder.
She notices what Joren is doing and is thinking he is being overcautious. She is just about to head below to make sure everything is going well when she sees his body language and knows something might be up. She pauses against the rail and watches him, waiting to see what is going to happen next.
Samir almost absent mindedly accedes to the requests of the others, never taking much of his attention away from the various parts and pieces in front of him. At one point he directs Malachi into dropping a tiny bit of a fizzy chemical agent onto the metal containment of the mining charge, where it happy bubbled for a few seconds before dissipating. Malachi was gone soon after that, for some strange reason. Eventually, the artificer hefts his now modified weapon, turning it this way and that to check the places where he has undid one thing to redo another thing, removed one piece to replace it with something entirely different. Everything seemed secure, for the moment. The modifications should allow the weapon to operate in an entirely different level now, if only briefly. Cobbled together as it was, there was little doubt that it would only last for a few uses. Perhaps later he could see about redoing the design with more time and better materials. Something that could well and truly enable your average farmer to better fend off wild beasts and monsters.
Packing away the remains of his work into the seemingly endless satchel on his hip (it wasn't, but it could certainly hold a lot of little things), Samir heads back to the deck to retrieve a bit of that explosive powder. It would be the perfect thing to top things off.
After searching the book Vilus finds himself on the deck, trying as hard as he can to scratch a specific rune onto both of the harpoons. The dagger proves difficult to use for runecarving, the roll of the boat doesn't help, and Vilus finds himself distracted by the coming and goings of Joren. After a while Vilus merely runs out of time, marigolds ship comes into view and he gives up on the idea, stowing the rune book away with his book of shadows. He wonders whether his time would have been better used meditating and connecting with the watcher, but he stops himself dwelling on what he could have done and focusses more on what comes next.
He ties a rope through the loop of each of the harpoon shafts. "Where needs assistance?" He calls out to the Captain
Glad to be busy to keep his mind occupied, Malachi helps Samir until he is called to follow Marion down below as she begins to prepare for the ritual. Taking the bundle of candles, he lights them one by one with a snap of his fingers and places them around the outline of the circle Marion is drawing on the floor. As the mouth of the river begins to come into view, Malachi hears the calls of the sailors on the deck above and quickly finishes helping Marion before heading up on the main deck, hoping to catch sight of Marigold’s ship in the distance.
If Joren thinks the topman climbing the rigging has noticed, he immediately summons his echo 30' up, moves it alongside the topman, and attacks non-lethally, while shouting to everyone that there is a cultist in the rigging and pointing. He probably does so even if he does not think the topman has noticed.
Hearing the commotion not far away coming from Joren, Vilus puts away his failed attempts at the harpoons and jogs on over, preparing a couple of eldritch blasts to send after the guy that Joren's echo is attacking.
Two eldritch blasts go sailing upward toward the guy on the rigging, the first catching him in the shoulder (12 to hit, 6 force damage) and threatening to destabilise the guy entirely, where as the second warbling ball of energy goes wide (8 to hit) and splashes down somewhere unseen.
Vilus reaches his mind out and telepathically screams at the guy "GET DOWN HERE NOW OR GRAVITY WILL BE BRINGING YOUR CORPSE DOWN!"
Samir is just stepping out on deck when he hears Joren's bellow. His eyes widening, he rushes towards the soldier, his gaze turning upwards towards the revealed cultist in the rigging. "Blasted cultists..." He scowls upwards at the infiltrator and lifts one hand, a swirl of visible magic blossoming around it as a runic symbol begins glowing on his glove. Holding the magic for his spell with a combination of will and irritation, he raises his voice loud enough to be heard by the man overhead.
"You there in the rigging! Make your way down, this very instant, or I swear by every god that I will yank you from the ropes myself so hard your grandchildren will feel it!"
Scowl intensifying, he gestures at the man theateningly, his glowing hand ready to yank.
Holding the Gust spell. If the cultist does anything other than starting to climb down the rigging to towards the deck, he will have to make a DC 16 Strength save or be pushed 5 feet from his current position away from Samir.
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Joren's mind is still a little muzzy from the intensity of the previous day followed by such a comfortable morning thus far.
He thinks aloud as he rows. "Is Talmouth having any artillery? Mangonels or cannons that the guard could keep hidden, but ready with ammunition, then reveal just as the chase begins, firing past the cultists' ship if it is fleeing or trying some different maneuver? Taking care not to hit us, of course. Even if not hitting the cultists' vessel, it may be serving as a distraction to help us close the distance."
Tanis(Ranger1): Shiverquill's Tempest City | Xarian(Fighter2): NioNSwiper's Tyranny of Dragons
Dyson/Eleo(TwilightCleric4): Vos' Beyond the Veil | Soren(ShepherdDruid5): Bartjeebus' Ravenloft | Ophelia(WildMagicSorcerer4): Ashen_Age's Risen from the Sands
Joren(EchoKnightFighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Sabetha(MercyMonk3): Bedlymn's Murder Court | Seri(NatureCleric3/DivineSoulSorcerer1): Bartjeebus' Greyhawk
As they row, Marion answers Joren. "There is artillery atop the cliff, but Marigold was well familiar with the defenses, and is stationed just out of reach. We have, however..." she gestures up to the ship now looming over them. "... loaded several cannons on board."
The rowboats thunk against the side of the ship, and rope ladders are lowered down. Everyone is able to ascend the ladders and stand upon the wide deck of the ship. 5 cannons have indeed been loaded on. One facing off the bow, two to port, and two to starboard. A crate loaded with cannonballs sits beside each one. Men and women dressed in city watch regalia stand about, most looking nervous, several struggling to find their sea legs. A man with thick, scarred arms mans the helm, and gives a nod to Marion before looking up questioningly at a young woman up in the Crow's nest.
"That Captain Chemain," Marion says as the man looks back down. He clears his throat and then his deep basso voice hollers out, "We have all gathered now. Some of you are new to my fine ship. Members of the guard, and as I understand it, the very heroes who opened up Tensmith's gates so we could get back to doing what we do best!" A couple of cheers go up from members of the crew. "Each and every member of my crew was given the opportunity to stay ashore for this mission, but to a man they refused. It's been a hard winter thanks to the imposter, Andra, and we've a score to settle with his cult. We are going to have to row hard and we'll have to row fast! Once we get in range, we will fire upon them to try to take out rowers. Once there is a clear shot, we aim for the mast with grapeshot. If they get out of the bay and into open waters, we'll never catch them, so this is our one shot. Are we ready?!"
A loud cheer goes up from everyone on deck.
In one way, Joren is far out of his element as a soldier, what with there not being much naval warfare in the Dalmodh Plains. And yet...
If he is being honest, he is not entirely comfortable with the safety and structural integrity of multiple cannons being hastily mounted on a retrofitted river transport craft crewed by a gaggle of volunteer guardsmen-turned-sailors, to be rowed vigorously into the sea. However, despite his troubles with authority back home, he respects the chain of command enough that he has no plans to raise his concerns publicly as Captain Chemain is rallying his troops.
Instead, he listens and looks around him, trying to get a feel for how much actual military/naval experience Captain Chemain and the crew have, and how likely it is that are experts on the snags and tides of the river's mouth and shallows near Talmouth. He whispers his concerns to his companions.
Joren Insight: 14
Tanis(Ranger1): Shiverquill's Tempest City | Xarian(Fighter2): NioNSwiper's Tyranny of Dragons
Dyson/Eleo(TwilightCleric4): Vos' Beyond the Veil | Soren(ShepherdDruid5): Bartjeebus' Ravenloft | Ophelia(WildMagicSorcerer4): Ashen_Age's Risen from the Sands
Joren(EchoKnightFighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Sabetha(MercyMonk3): Bedlymn's Murder Court | Seri(NatureCleric3/DivineSoulSorcerer1): Bartjeebus' Greyhawk
Vilus is not comfortable on boats, there's no way out, no secret escape route, just the group and this army with wood separating themselves from the open waters. Such vulnerability makes him feel trapped. He listens to Joren's concerns and agrees, though the Goliath has no expertise on the subject and so offers no comment.
Instead Vilus finds his way below deck and asks any quartermaster, or someone who looks like they might have some authority, if there would happen to be any hand held harpoons on board that the group could use fir grappling hook purposes. His thinking that if this is the only shot the group will get, he wants a back up plan to make sure it doesn't slip through their fingers.
If he is able to get his hands on one or two harpoons he presents them to the group.
Ashley can see that others in her group are uncomfortable and then Joren voices his concerns to confirm it. Great she thinks. This whole thing is making her fret like she hasn't before and yet, the excitement of being on open water is more exciting than she can say. She just saw the ocean for the first time a couple days ago and here she was on it! And chasing down Marigold... her head was swimming with it all.
Casting mage armor upon herself she goes to check out the cannons and keeps her flames away from all the ammo.
Observing Captain Chemain, Joren doesn't figure him for a military man, though he certainly wields his authority efficiently and effectively. The crew operates as one. Joren picks out snippets of conversation that lead him to the conclusion that the river boats typically come right out into the bay, loop around the cliffs below the upper portions of the city, and unload their wares in the main harbour. And that portion of the trip is considered the easiest, since there is no river current to fight, and a lot more water to maneuver in.
Vilus manages to find the quartermaster who shrugs and offers up a couple of fishing harpoons to him. It would take a pretty good throw to work as a grappling hook. Unless they could be modified.
Looking at the cannons, Ashley sees each one is manned by a team of two city guards. From their movements and inspections, it seems running artillery drills must be a regular part of their training. She watches as one pair goes about preparing a cannon. The first guard uses a long rod with a wet sponge on the end to clean out the inside of the barrel, followed by a rod with a dry cloth. Then the second guard puts a pouch of gunpowder into the mouth of the barrel, which the first man rams into place. Then a wooden sabot goes in, followed by a cannonball. The first man rams each one home. Then the cannon is wheeled forward into position. The second guard opens up a vent on the back and pricks a whole in the gunpowder pouch. The other teams finish up their preparations all about the same time.
The boat gives a lurch as the anchor is drawn up. Soft drumbeats start to come from below deck, and the oars on either side start to move in unison. The boat moves forward
Samir remains mostly quiet as the groups boards the vessel and listens to the captain. His eyes roam the ship briefly, and finds it easily as well made and serviceable as those from his own home. Once they have begun moving, he separates from the others and finds himself a quiet spot where he won't be in the way. With methodical efficiency and care he pulls several items out in front of him and begins working to modify several things into the physical manifestation of an idea. His bolt thrower. Sturdy ammunition. A mining charge. It is entirely plausible that the bolt thrower itself will be completely useless for firing simple crossbow bolts once he is done, but the sacrifice would be worth it if he can manage to cobble together a way to deliver the highly explosive charge from a distance. Preferably to the other ship's hull.
If opportunity permits, Joren finds Samir where he has sequestered himself and asks leave to borrow the talisman that flashes blue, red and yellow. If Samir agrees, Joren accepts and holds it unobtrusively with his off hand, knowing it will glow red near him.
Joren then makes the rounds, greeting and speaking quiet and simple words of comradery and encouragement to each and every one of the guardsmen on the vessel, both above and below decks, including Captain Chemain. He keeps an eye on the talisman to check for any traces of yellow.
His echo remains not far from the center of the boat, always within 30' of Joren. When done, the half-dwarf returns the talisman to the artificer.
Tanis(Ranger1): Shiverquill's Tempest City | Xarian(Fighter2): NioNSwiper's Tyranny of Dragons
Dyson/Eleo(TwilightCleric4): Vos' Beyond the Veil | Soren(ShepherdDruid5): Bartjeebus' Ravenloft | Ophelia(WildMagicSorcerer4): Ashen_Age's Risen from the Sands
Joren(EchoKnightFighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Sabetha(MercyMonk3): Bedlymn's Murder Court | Seri(NatureCleric3/DivineSoulSorcerer1): Bartjeebus' Greyhawk
Back at the shop: Malachi places his hand on Vilus’ arm and responds to his whisper with one of his own. “Me either Vilus, but I am not sure there is much to know.” Mal follows the others silently, lost in his own thoughts and memories as they approach the ship.
Once aboard, he wraps himself in mage armor and moves to the bow of the ship, leaning against the railing and looking ahead for Marigold’s ship as he flips his copper coin over his fingers as Joren and Vilus make themselves busy around the ship. Determined to make himself useful, he moves back to helpSamir prepare in any way he can before asking Marion more about her plan. “You mentioned something about preventing Marigold from reaching out to Razmus. What do you have in mind, and how can we help?”
Vilus approaches Samir and asks to borrow the book of god tongue runes, if Samir hands it over Vilus will flip through the book apparently able to read more of it these days as he looks for a particular inscription.
(Investigation 11, passive 15)
If he finds something useful he starts carving a rune into the hook of the harpoons using one if his more expendable daggers, he wonders if his little experiment will bear fruit or if the runes themselves need to be inscribed onto living things to work properly.
Happy to see that at least the gunpower is in good order, Ashley heads to the bow of the boat and looks out across the harbour, wondering how long it was going to take them to catch up. Her nervous energy was palpable, so many thoughts racing through her head. She touches her forehead and wonders if that crown marking is still there...
Touching her forehead, Ashley doesn't feel anything. Then, a moment later she feels a familiar warmth spread across her brow as if called by her thoughts. A nearby by guard jumps at the sight of the fire suddenly wreathing her head, and moves to guard his gunpowder charges.
Marion beckons Marion to follow her. She heads down into the hold which has been emptied out. There, she pulls out a sack filled with candles and hands it to Malachi. "If you want, I would appreciate a bit of help getting set up. Could light those and place them around the circle I am about to draw?" She grabs chalk from a pouch at her hip and begins drawing a ritual circle on the ground, with geometric shapes around the perimeter for holding the candles. "I will need to stay down here to keep the ritual going while the fighting goes on above, but the Blue Lady has instructed me on what to do."
Joren does his sweep, doing his best to hide the talisman from view as he traverses the decks of the ship. Below deck, more and more blue starts to light it up as he nears Marion and Malachi preparing a ritual. On the rowing deck, only the residual glow from himself and his comrades on other parts of the ship can be seen. On the upper deck, things are the same. No sign of yellow. The mouth of the river is approaching now, and the cliffs are giving way to more and more of the bay. In a minute or so, the other ship will be visible, and then the ship will need to close as much distance as possible before Marigold and her crew notice. Wait... Joren is walking by the mast when he wonders if he caught just a flicker of something on the talisman. He backs up again, and the glow is unmistakable. But that shouldn't be right, unless... He looks up directly into the rigging, where a topman is climbing along the rigging. The man looks down, meeting Joren's eyes. Then they flicker to what Joren is holding his hand.
Joren, give me a slight of hand if you want to discretely get it out of view. (14 or higher to beat his perception)
(Good call on the talisman!)
Realizing that she inadvertently called forth her flames, she does what she can to settle the fire that wreathes her head and definitely keeps a now wide berth of the cannons and gunpowder.
She notices what Joren is doing and is thinking he is being overcautious. She is just about to head below to make sure everything is going well when she sees his body language and knows something might be up. She pauses against the rail and watches him, waiting to see what is going to happen next.
Samir almost absent mindedly accedes to the requests of the others, never taking much of his attention away from the various parts and pieces in front of him. At one point he directs Malachi into dropping a tiny bit of a fizzy chemical agent onto the metal containment of the mining charge, where it happy bubbled for a few seconds before dissipating. Malachi was gone soon after that, for some strange reason. Eventually, the artificer hefts his now modified weapon, turning it this way and that to check the places where he has undid one thing to redo another thing, removed one piece to replace it with something entirely different. Everything seemed secure, for the moment. The modifications should allow the weapon to operate in an entirely different level now, if only briefly. Cobbled together as it was, there was little doubt that it would only last for a few uses. Perhaps later he could see about redoing the design with more time and better materials. Something that could well and truly enable your average farmer to better fend off wild beasts and monsters.
Packing away the remains of his work into the seemingly endless satchel on his hip (it wasn't, but it could certainly hold a lot of little things), Samir heads back to the deck to retrieve a bit of that explosive powder. It would be the perfect thing to top things off.
After searching the book Vilus finds himself on the deck, trying as hard as he can to scratch a specific rune onto both of the harpoons. The dagger proves difficult to use for runecarving, the roll of the boat doesn't help, and Vilus finds himself distracted by the coming and goings of Joren. After a while Vilus merely runs out of time, marigolds ship comes into view and he gives up on the idea, stowing the rune book away with his book of shadows. He wonders whether his time would have been better used meditating and connecting with the watcher, but he stops himself dwelling on what he could have done and focusses more on what comes next.
He ties a rope through the loop of each of the harpoon shafts. "Where needs assistance?" He calls out to the Captain
Glad to be busy to keep his mind occupied, Malachi helps Samir until he is called to follow Marion down below as she begins to prepare for the ritual. Taking the bundle of candles, he lights them one by one with a snap of his fingers and places them around the outline of the circle Marion is drawing on the floor. As the mouth of the river begins to come into view, Malachi hears the calls of the sailors on the deck above and quickly finishes helping Marion before heading up on the main deck, hoping to catch sight of Marigold’s ship in the distance.
Joren's Sleight of Hand: 11
If Joren thinks the topman climbing the rigging has noticed, he immediately summons his echo 30' up, moves it alongside the topman, and attacks non-lethally, while shouting to everyone that there is a cultist in the rigging and pointing. He probably does so even if he does not think the topman has noticed.
Tanis(Ranger1): Shiverquill's Tempest City | Xarian(Fighter2): NioNSwiper's Tyranny of Dragons
Dyson/Eleo(TwilightCleric4): Vos' Beyond the Veil | Soren(ShepherdDruid5): Bartjeebus' Ravenloft | Ophelia(WildMagicSorcerer4): Ashen_Age's Risen from the Sands
Joren(EchoKnightFighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Sabetha(MercyMonk3): Bedlymn's Murder Court | Seri(NatureCleric3/DivineSoulSorcerer1): Bartjeebus' Greyhawk
Hearing the commotion not far away coming from Joren, Vilus puts away his failed attempts at the harpoons and jogs on over, preparing a couple of eldritch blasts to send after the guy that Joren's echo is attacking.
Two eldritch blasts go sailing upward toward the guy on the rigging, the first catching him in the shoulder (12 to hit, 6 force damage) and threatening to destabilise the guy entirely, where as the second warbling ball of energy goes wide (8 to hit) and splashes down somewhere unseen.
Vilus reaches his mind out and telepathically screams at the guy "GET DOWN HERE NOW OR GRAVITY WILL BE BRINGING YOUR CORPSE DOWN!"
Samir is just stepping out on deck when he hears Joren's bellow. His eyes widening, he rushes towards the soldier, his gaze turning upwards towards the revealed cultist in the rigging. "Blasted cultists..." He scowls upwards at the infiltrator and lifts one hand, a swirl of visible magic blossoming around it as a runic symbol begins glowing on his glove. Holding the magic for his spell with a combination of will and irritation, he raises his voice loud enough to be heard by the man overhead.
"You there in the rigging! Make your way down, this very instant, or I swear by every god that I will yank you from the ropes myself so hard your grandchildren will feel it!"
Scowl intensifying, he gestures at the man theateningly, his glowing hand ready to yank.
Holding the Gust spell. If the cultist does anything other than starting to climb down the rigging to towards the deck, he will have to make a DC 16 Strength save or be pushed 5 feet from his current position away from Samir.