There remains little Joren can do beyond support others on the ship. At sixty feet range, he plans to attack using his echo, but that still seems like ages away. Unless perhaps Marigold's vessel is slowed if some of the rowers succumb to Malachi's dark, whispering magic.
He could of course try his heavy crossbow, but he has never been much good with the thing, and would likely only get one clumsy shot off anyway.
Instead, Joren continues to call out encouragement to the cannoneers, helping them position it and brace against recoil. He suggests not being picky about the exact target, since there are many useful choices. Mast, hull, opposing cannon. (Recommends firing with advantage without choosing target).
His echo continues to lead Chemain's ship, 30' ahead.
Frustrated at their current situation, Ashley stands up and loads her crossbow. She's not near as proficient with this, but those archers are getting on her nerves. As she lets the bolt fly, she realizes it is missing her mark as it goes wide. (attack: 8)
"JOREN!" Vilus calls out and throws the man an odd harpoon, vilus himself holding another in his hand, "we send these over at the same time, as soon as they're within range, got it?"
As Joren catches the harpoon he feels his arm tense up and watches his muscles bulge with power and strength, a by product of a rune on the haft hastily scrawled by Vilus himself.
Turning back toward Marigold's ship, Vilus throws two more warbling balls of purple energy attempting once again to blow a hole in the wood near the water line (17 to hit, 10 force damage. 13 to hit, 9 force damage)
Vilus' shots once again glance off the tough hull, but the cannon fares better. A few second after the shot fires out, the cannonball elicits a loud crunch from the enemy's flaming mast and takes a sizable chunk out of the side of it. Screams and splinters rise from below deck as the ship rows through Malachi's spell. Wooden planks on the deck sag and crack as the otherworldly magic eats away at them. As the cannoneers and archers pass through, patches of skin begin to slough off of their arms and faces. The entire crew around one of the starboard cannons falls down writhing and melting.
Frost forms on AR4s breath as he restrings his bow. The skin on his fingertips peels off when he shifts his grip on the bow. Then he draws back and fires a single arrow which arcs over the sea and plunges toward Malachi.
Malachi lies on the deck, a grim look on his face as he begins to hear the screams from Marigold’s ship. He is so focused on the ship to their front he doesn’t see the lone arrow arc through the air. He gasps as it buries itself in his side, and with his vision fading to black he feels a slithering sensation in his mind as he is suddenly fortified as sailors on the other ship start to fall. He struggles to keep focus on his spell and quickly targets the archer that fired the last arrow and summons a skeletal hand that latches onto the man, draining it’s life energy. “A little help, please”he croaks to the others.
The archer attempts futilely to claw the hand from his face while the one next to him sets down his bow and turns to the cannon helping the cannoneers get the barrel into postition for their next shot.
"Mal!" Abandoning whatever other plans might be in his head, Samir dashes over to his downed friend, all but falling to the deck himself as he scrambles to a stop. His hand dives into his bag, producing a cylindrical steel object with what looks like a single gear around it's center. With a twist of the ring, a point extends out of one end with a metallic snap. "My friend, you really should be more careful. We've an apocalypse to prevent, don't you know?" With the tension and quaver in his voice belying the levity of his words, Samir pokes the needle into the side of Malachi's neck. The device emits a low hiss and injects a strangely warming liquid directly into the other man's body.
Casting Cure Wounds at second level for 12 points of healing. All out of second level slots now!
Another volley of arrows come in from the archers on the far ship, doggedly raining down arrows even as their skin freezes and peels in the abysmal energy radiating from the Hunger passing through them. They have to move forward, nearly leaning over the railing to keep their heads out of the inky void. Two of the arrows streak towards Joren with deadly speed while the other two fall harmlessly around the cannon crew. (20 and 22 to hit Joren. 12 and 8 damage respectively)
From behind, there is a sound of muffled thunder. From deep below the water there is a deep orange glow, and the water on the surface boils. Then the sea smooths over once more. It seems the cultist finally expired.
Joren barely grunts as the two arrows brutally puncture exposed areas on his shoulder joint and side, getting past his splint armor. He breaks off the ends and pulls the arrows through to get them out of his body in small sprays of blood. Better me than Malachi while he is having that spell up.
He breathes in the salt air and stretches to force his blood to flow once more (Bonus Action: Second Wind - 8 hp healing).
Looking for something effective to do from 80', he spots a found handaxe in his pack. Not his own, which were lost for good in the chamber of the gloazen queen, but rather an ornate one had found during his recent travels through Cambria. May as well be trying, he thinks.
He moves his echo 30' ahead, 60' ahead of Chemain's ship and within 20' of Marigold's ship.
Action: Joren makes two attacks, both on the most injured surviving cannoneer on the rear cannon of Marigold's ship.
First attack with his Heavy Crossbow from his own position: To hit: 15 Damage: 5 piercing
Second attack, throwing the mystery [item]handaxe[item], from his echo's position over the water, 20' from Marigold's ship. To hit: 8 (Natural 1)
The unfamiliar, ornate weapon fumbles awkwardly in his hands from his echo's position 60' ahead of Chemain's ship as he tries to throw it. Joren curses, vowing to stick to his Dunamis Blade (and perhaps Vilus' harpoon) from now on.
Ashley stares at the archers. The bastards that are taking shots at them. She reloads her crossbow and now that they are within range, fires off a bolt at AR4. She is semi aware that Samir is assisting Malachi.
Attack: 16, Damage: 6
It is then that she turns and notices the arrows that Joren is removing from his body. "Are you, are you ok?"
As she waits for Joren to respond, she crouches behind the railing once again.
One of the cannoneers takes joren's bold to the gut. He clasps both hands around the shaft, trying to pull it out, but slowly sinks to his knees. He slaps a bloody hand atop the cannon to try to hold himself up, but it falls limp, leaving a trail of red down the side of the barrel. The man slumps forward, desiccated face pressing up against the railing.
But something about the weight of the ax in Joren's hand feels off. At first he thinks it was just balanced poorly, designed for beauty rather than function. But when he throws it, the strangest thing happens. It arcs from his echoes position and starts falling... at a slightly sideways diagonal. It strikes the rail next to his target, bouncing off it and onto the deck, where it slowly starts sliding towards the side of the ship. As if its gravity pulled in a different direction than everything else. It catches on the starboard rail rather than go overboard.
One of the archers takes Ashley's crossbow bolt to the knee. He grits his teeth and focuses on keeping his stance firm, but he looks to be doing poorly.
Vilus observes the damage he isn't doing to the hull, and then hears Malachi taking damage from arrows again. Damnit this isn't working, he thinks and Joren catches his eye motioning over to the archers across Marigold's deck, "fine but remember that harpoon! As soon as we are in range" he grunts back to Joren.
Vilus gathers the required energies up in his hand like he is guarding a basketball, and then releases two blasts out at the archers on the deck, moving from one to another should the first go down.
(26 to hit crit, 5 force dam. 16 to hit, 6 force dam.)
Both blasts hit the most injured of the archers, leaving him struggling to stay on his feet as he coughs up blood. The Hunger continues to pass through the ship, and several oars jerk and go still. The ship quickly begins to lose momentum, and the distance closes quicker than before (20 ft per round) A shot fires out of the cannon, but it was fired blindly simply kicks up spray before the prow. AR4 fires off two more arrows from the depths of the hunger, though it is unclear what his target was. Both arrows thud into the deck harmlessly.
Malachi grimaces as Samir’s needle pricks his skin, but immediately feels the warm rush of healing energy. As more arrows thud on the deck around him, he focuses on the remaining archers and tries to move his skeletal hand to attack another archer. But either the rocking boat or darkness enveloping the other ship distracted him and he missed and the spell faded away. Instead, he takes Joren’s advice and moves below decks to stay out of the line of fire and check on Marion. “Uh, Marion. Whatever you plan on doing with Marigold, get ready. We are closing in on their ship. What can I do to help?”
Malachi looks down into the hold to see Marion sitting crosslegged in the center of the candles and chalk lines laid out for the ritual. She scrunches her brow in concentration and doesn't open her eyes, but says, "If you could, give me notice if it looks like anyone on their ship is about to do big magic like Andra did when he and Vilus were swallowed up. A little warning will help make sure I can be mentally prepared."
Two more arrows fly out of the darkness, this time with far better aim.
(Attack on Vilus, 24 to hit, 10 piercing)
(Attack on Ashley, 17 to hit, misses with cover and mage armour)
Samir watched for a second as Malachi scrambled below decks, before moving forward towards the bow of this ship. Judging the distance with a careful eye, he pulls out another of his small gadgets, a clockwork of some kind resembling a sort of malformed top. After winding the top portion like a spring, he stands straight and throws it as hard as he can towards the enemy vessel, a sidearm throw giving it a natural spin and helping it cut through the air. As it crashes down on the enemy's deck, the wound mechanism is released and the upper part of the device begins whirling about with a high pitched buzz, spraying some kind of phosphorescent, glittery liquid around itself and causing anything the liquid landed on to glimmer and glow with a faintly greenish hue that made them stand out against the background. Samir dropped back to the deck, trying to make himself as small of a target as possible.
Casting Fairie Fire, which should be able to hit everyone but AR1 (and the cannon too for that matter). DC 16 Dex save.
Right before being swallowed up by the darkness, AR1 and AR2 nock two more arrows each. Then they vanish within the void. Only one arrow emerges from the gloom, not making it 3 feet before it sticks into the railing of Marigold's ship. AR1 can be seen backing up up out of the Hunger, which is now almost entirely past the ship, but half of his stolen face is peeling off. AR2, however, does not emerge again. And when the Hunger passes on, only a shattered skeleton remains where he'd been standing. A tentacle emerges from the depths, snaking through the eye holes of the skull, and carrying it back into the darkness with a slurp. The two other archers and the cannon crew swat at the harmless flames coating their clothes, but marigold maintains her composure. A robed man, looking just like Jon Shep runs up behind her as she holds out a hand, and he places a long glowing object in her hands.
(Joren still has Vilus' strange harpoon, and while he has no idea what it does, he is trusting the inscrutable goliath on this one. So if Vilus has signaled Joren that it is time to throw the harpoon at the hull of Marigold's ship, or at any other target, then Joren's turn might be different).
Joren uses his battlefield voice, canting it so it carries so as to be audible within 30-40', including below decks where Marion is, but not much further.
"Robed cultist looking like Jon Shep is handing Marigold an elongated glowing object just now. Not knowing if this is the 'big magic' we are waiting for from her, Marion? Three of four archers remaining, quite wounded, but Marigold is still looking confident, if I am hazarding a guess."
Not looking forward to being on the receiving end of whatever the glowing object is, and wishing he had not spent his echo by sending it out of range just now, Joren attempts to keep himself busy. He re-summons his echo and sends it thirty feet ahead (Bonus Action).
He goes back to helping Chemain's cannoneers however needed to steady, position, load and aim their cannon as quickly and efficiently as possible.
"Let's see if this helps alter her composure." Ashley reaches up and focusing on the fire eating away at the mast, the fire crown upon her forehead glows as she moves the fire from the mast and encompasses the cult leader in fire.
There remains little Joren can do beyond support others on the ship. At sixty feet range, he plans to attack using his echo, but that still seems like ages away. Unless perhaps Marigold's vessel is slowed if some of the rowers succumb to Malachi's dark, whispering magic.
He could of course try his heavy crossbow, but he has never been much good with the thing, and would likely only get one clumsy shot off anyway.
Instead, Joren continues to call out encouragement to the cannoneers, helping them position it and brace against recoil. He suggests not being picky about the exact target, since there are many useful choices. Mast, hull, opposing cannon. (Recommends firing with advantage without choosing target).
His echo continues to lead Chemain's ship, 30' ahead.
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
Frustrated at their current situation, Ashley stands up and loads her crossbow. She's not near as proficient with this, but those archers are getting on her nerves. As she lets the bolt fly, she realizes it is missing her mark as it goes wide. (attack: 8)
She then crouches behind the railing again.
"JOREN!" Vilus calls out and throws the man an odd harpoon, vilus himself holding another in his hand, "we send these over at the same time, as soon as they're within range, got it?"
As Joren catches the harpoon he feels his arm tense up and watches his muscles bulge with power and strength, a by product of a rune on the haft hastily scrawled by Vilus himself.
Turning back toward Marigold's ship, Vilus throws two more warbling balls of purple energy attempting once again to blow a hole in the wood near the water line (17 to hit, 10 force damage. 13 to hit, 9 force damage)
Vilus' shots once again glance off the tough hull, but the cannon fares better. A few second after the shot fires out, the cannonball elicits a loud crunch from the enemy's flaming mast and takes a sizable chunk out of the side of it. Screams and splinters rise from below deck as the ship rows through Malachi's spell. Wooden planks on the deck sag and crack as the otherworldly magic eats away at them. As the cannoneers and archers pass through, patches of skin begin to slough off of their arms and faces. The entire crew around one of the starboard cannons falls down writhing and melting.
Frost forms on AR4s breath as he restrings his bow. The skin on his fingertips peels off when he shifts his grip on the bow. Then he draws back and fires a single arrow which arcs over the sea and plunges toward Malachi.
(Attack 17, Damage 7)
Malachi lies on the deck, a grim look on his face as he begins to hear the screams from Marigold’s ship. He is so focused on the ship to their front he doesn’t see the lone arrow arc through the air. He gasps as it buries itself in his side, and with his vision fading to black he feels a slithering sensation in his mind as he is suddenly fortified as sailors on the other ship start to fall. He struggles to keep focus on his spell and quickly targets the archer that fired the last arrow and summons a skeletal hand that latches onto the man, draining it’s life energy. “A little help, please” he croaks to the others.
The archer attempts futilely to claw the hand from his face while the one next to him sets down his bow and turns to the cannon helping the cannoneers get the barrel into postition for their next shot.
"Mal!" Abandoning whatever other plans might be in his head, Samir dashes over to his downed friend, all but falling to the deck himself as he scrambles to a stop. His hand dives into his bag, producing a cylindrical steel object with what looks like a single gear around it's center. With a twist of the ring, a point extends out of one end with a metallic snap. "My friend, you really should be more careful. We've an apocalypse to prevent, don't you know?" With the tension and quaver in his voice belying the levity of his words, Samir pokes the needle into the side of Malachi's neck. The device emits a low hiss and injects a strangely warming liquid directly into the other man's body.
Casting Cure Wounds at second level for 12 points of healing. All out of second level slots now!
Another volley of arrows come in from the archers on the far ship, doggedly raining down arrows even as their skin freezes and peels in the abysmal energy radiating from the Hunger passing through them. They have to move forward, nearly leaning over the railing to keep their heads out of the inky void. Two of the arrows streak towards Joren with deadly speed while the other two fall harmlessly around the cannon crew. (20 and 22 to hit Joren. 12 and 8 damage respectively)
From behind, there is a sound of muffled thunder. From deep below the water there is a deep orange glow, and the water on the surface boils. Then the sea smooths over once more. It seems the cultist finally expired.
Joren barely grunts as the two arrows brutally puncture exposed areas on his shoulder joint and side, getting past his splint armor. He breaks off the ends and pulls the arrows through to get them out of his body in small sprays of blood. Better me than Malachi while he is having that spell up.
He breathes in the salt air and stretches to force his blood to flow once more (Bonus Action: Second Wind - 8 hp healing).
Looking for something effective to do from 80', he spots a found handaxe in his pack. Not his own, which were lost for good in the chamber of the gloazen queen, but rather an ornate one had found during his recent travels through Cambria. May as well be trying, he thinks.
He moves his echo 30' ahead, 60' ahead of Chemain's ship and within 20' of Marigold's ship.
Action: Joren makes two attacks, both on the most injured surviving cannoneer on the rear cannon of Marigold's ship.
First attack with his Heavy Crossbow from his own position:
To hit: 15
Damage: 5 piercing
Second attack, throwing the mystery [item]handaxe[item], from his echo's position over the water, 20' from Marigold's ship.
To hit: 8 (Natural 1)
The unfamiliar, ornate weapon fumbles awkwardly in his hands from his echo's position 60' ahead of Chemain's ship as he tries to throw it. Joren curses, vowing to stick to his Dunamis Blade (and perhaps Vilus' harpoon) from now on.
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
Ashley stares at the archers. The bastards that are taking shots at them. She reloads her crossbow and now that they are within range, fires off a bolt at AR4. She is semi aware that Samir is assisting Malachi.
Attack: 16, Damage: 6
It is then that she turns and notices the arrows that Joren is removing from his body. "Are you, are you ok?"
As she waits for Joren to respond, she crouches behind the railing once again.
One of the cannoneers takes joren's bold to the gut. He clasps both hands around the shaft, trying to pull it out, but slowly sinks to his knees. He slaps a bloody hand atop the cannon to try to hold himself up, but it falls limp, leaving a trail of red down the side of the barrel. The man slumps forward, desiccated face pressing up against the railing.
But something about the weight of the ax in Joren's hand feels off. At first he thinks it was just balanced poorly, designed for beauty rather than function. But when he throws it, the strangest thing happens. It arcs from his echoes position and starts falling... at a slightly sideways diagonal. It strikes the rail next to his target, bouncing off it and onto the deck, where it slowly starts sliding towards the side of the ship. As if its gravity pulled in a different direction than everything else. It catches on the starboard rail rather than go overboard.
One of the archers takes Ashley's crossbow bolt to the knee. He grits his teeth and focuses on keeping his stance firm, but he looks to be doing poorly.
Vilus observes the damage he isn't doing to the hull, and then hears Malachi taking damage from arrows again. Damnit this isn't working, he thinks and Joren catches his eye motioning over to the archers across Marigold's deck, "fine but remember that harpoon! As soon as we are in range" he grunts back to Joren.
Vilus gathers the required energies up in his hand like he is guarding a basketball, and then releases two blasts out at the archers on the deck, moving from one to another should the first go down.
(26 to hit crit, 5 force dam. 16 to hit, 6 force dam.)
Both blasts hit the most injured of the archers, leaving him struggling to stay on his feet as he coughs up blood. The Hunger continues to pass through the ship, and several oars jerk and go still. The ship quickly begins to lose momentum, and the distance closes quicker than before (20 ft per round) A shot fires out of the cannon, but it was fired blindly simply kicks up spray before the prow. AR4 fires off two more arrows from the depths of the hunger, though it is unclear what his target was. Both arrows thud into the deck harmlessly.
Malachi grimaces as Samir’s needle pricks his skin, but immediately feels the warm rush of healing energy. As more arrows thud on the deck around him, he focuses on the remaining archers and tries to move his skeletal hand to attack another archer. But either the rocking boat or darkness enveloping the other ship distracted him and he missed and the spell faded away. Instead, he takes Joren’s advice and moves below decks to stay out of the line of fire and check on Marion. “Uh, Marion. Whatever you plan on doing with Marigold, get ready. We are closing in on their ship. What can I do to help?”
Malachi looks down into the hold to see Marion sitting crosslegged in the center of the candles and chalk lines laid out for the ritual. She scrunches her brow in concentration and doesn't open her eyes, but says, "If you could, give me notice if it looks like anyone on their ship is about to do big magic like Andra did when he and Vilus were swallowed up. A little warning will help make sure I can be mentally prepared."
Two more arrows fly out of the darkness, this time with far better aim.
(Attack on Vilus, 24 to hit, 10 piercing)
(Attack on Ashley, 17 to hit, misses with cover and mage armour)
Samir watched for a second as Malachi scrambled below decks, before moving forward towards the bow of this ship. Judging the distance with a careful eye, he pulls out another of his small gadgets, a clockwork of some kind resembling a sort of malformed top. After winding the top portion like a spring, he stands straight and throws it as hard as he can towards the enemy vessel, a sidearm throw giving it a natural spin and helping it cut through the air. As it crashes down on the enemy's deck, the wound mechanism is released and the upper part of the device begins whirling about with a high pitched buzz, spraying some kind of phosphorescent, glittery liquid around itself and causing anything the liquid landed on to glimmer and glow with a faintly greenish hue that made them stand out against the background. Samir dropped back to the deck, trying to make himself as small of a target as possible.
Casting Fairie Fire, which should be able to hit everyone but AR1 (and the cannon too for that matter). DC 16 Dex save.
Right before being swallowed up by the darkness, AR1 and AR2 nock two more arrows each. Then they vanish within the void. Only one arrow emerges from the gloom, not making it 3 feet before it sticks into the railing of Marigold's ship. AR1 can be seen backing up up out of the Hunger, which is now almost entirely past the ship, but half of his stolen face is peeling off. AR2, however, does not emerge again. And when the Hunger passes on, only a shattered skeleton remains where he'd been standing. A tentacle emerges from the depths, snaking through the eye holes of the skull, and carrying it back into the darkness with a slurp. The two other archers and the cannon crew swat at the harmless flames coating their clothes, but marigold maintains her composure. A robed man, looking just like Jon Shep runs up behind her as she holds out a hand, and he places a long glowing object in her hands.
(Joren still has Vilus' strange harpoon, and while he has no idea what it does, he is trusting the inscrutable goliath on this one. So if Vilus has signaled Joren that it is time to throw the harpoon at the hull of Marigold's ship, or at any other target, then Joren's turn might be different).
Joren uses his battlefield voice, canting it so it carries so as to be audible within 30-40', including below decks where Marion is, but not much further.
"Robed cultist looking like Jon Shep is handing Marigold an elongated glowing object just now. Not knowing if this is the 'big magic' we are waiting for from her, Marion? Three of four archers remaining, quite wounded, but Marigold is still looking confident, if I am hazarding a guess."
Not looking forward to being on the receiving end of whatever the glowing object is, and wishing he had not spent his echo by sending it out of range just now, Joren attempts to keep himself busy. He re-summons his echo and sends it thirty feet ahead (Bonus Action).
He goes back to helping Chemain's cannoneers however needed to steady, position, load and aim their cannon as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Joren's Action: Athletics: 24
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
"Let's see if this helps alter her composure." Ashley reaches up and focusing on the fire eating away at the mast, the fire crown upon her forehead glows as she moves the fire from the mast and encompasses the cult leader in fire.
Fire damage: 5
The flame clings to Marigold's arm and starts to climb up her clothes, seemingly indifferent to her attempts to swat it off.