Vilus has a few calculating thoughts and then something clicks in his head, unfortunately the things that click are doubts over what he has achieved with the fishing harpoons, he looks over to Joren, a little embarrassed and calls out, "change of plan, when the ship gets close enough I'm gonna hit it with this one, if I'm right moss will grow over the ship and we can use it for tinder! Throw yours whenever, you might have better range!" And with his fumble in theoretics clarified, Vilus once again summons upon his purple eldritch energy and hurls two more out, targeting Marigold's cannoneers.
Malachi strikes the cannoneer running up with the cannonball, and the man folds around the impact of the purple magic right in his gut. He crumples to the side, and the cannonball rolls from his dead hands. AR4 runs over to grab it before it can roll away, even as another cannoneer topples over the railing, nearly taking the bore-sweep rod with him.
Malachi peeks his head back up above decks and looks at Marigold’s ship getting closer to their front. “Uh, Marion, they just gave Marigold a long, glowing staff of some type. Whatever you are going to do, it should probably be soon.” Seeing the chaos among the archers and cannoneers on the far ship, Malachi focuses instead on Marigold and sends a spike of energy into Marigold’s mind, trying to distract her from whatever she is planning.
Marigold's expression hardens as she feels the pressures on her mind, and Malachi can tell she has shrugged off the magic. Then, AR3 struggling to stand, and seemingly on the verge of collapse, takes a deep breathe, musters up as much focus as possible, and releases another arrow, this time with unerring accuracy. The first arrow descends upon Ashley. The angle is perfect. It arcs perfectly to get in over the railing she is using as cover, and punches straight through her mage armour. He breathes deep once more and prepares to loose a second, when Ashley retaliates with magic. At the last second, fate seems to twist, as do his fingers. The arrow is released too early, plunging into the water harmlessly!
Seeing Marigold with this new object in hand, Samir, like the others, quickly shifts his focus to trying to deal with whatever machinations might be afoot there. Hefting his bowgun, he cranks the slide with a ratcheting noise and setting a new bolt into the modified weapon. Taking careful aim, he lets loose a shot and hopes that the shifting deck of the ship doesn't throw off his aim.
Attacking with his modified bowgun, 13 to hit, 7 damage + the modified weapon
Samir feels the explosion rip through the weapon in his hand. Too powerful. In his hasty tinkering, he hadn't been able to dampen the recoil. But Samir grits his teeth and, rather than let the shock send his aim off course, he braces to take the full brunt of it. He feels the force jarring his bones, straining his tendons, all the way from his fingers up through his elbow, shoulder, and up into his neck. The slide flies off the top of the weapon, and a small screw pops out, but the important thing is the bolt. It flies out from the modified weapon with a BANG! It's trajectory is too fast to follow, but a split second later Marigold's right shoulder jerks back in a spray of blood.
(Samir takes 2 damage to bring his Attack roll to 15, dealing 11 points of damage to Marigold)
In pain, Marigold motions to AR1 who comes running. He takes the weapon from her hand, lifts it back behind his head, takes a big step forward in a javelin-throwing stance, and yells out a word difficult to make out over the distance. In his hand, it begins to glow a hot white. Then he throws.
It becomes a streak of lightning, leaping the distance between the ships nearly instantaneously, lancing just past the cannon, narrowly missing the mast, and crashing into the deck beside Captain Chemain at the helm.
(Joren and Samir need to make a DC 13 Dex Saving throw or take 12 lightning damage. Half as much on a save. Chemain and one Cannoneer will also make the save)
“Lightning, Marion, Lightning!” Malachi watches as Joren and Samir try to scramble away from the bolt that strikes the deck and shouts a warning below, trying unsuccessfully to keep the fear from his voice. “They are throwing bolts of lightning at us now.”
Bloodied and burned from arrows and lightning, Joren sees that the archers at the stern rail of Marigold's ship are finally within sixty feet of him. His slow, bloody smile is a gruesome sight as his mouth bleeds and his hair stands on end from the lightning bolt. He draws his Dunamis Blade once more.
"Are you knowing what my last act was in the Battle of Dragontail Narrows one day before being exiled for daring to strike Khirian royalty in a duel?" Joren's drawl is casually laconic as he answers his own question matter-of-factly. "Beheading two enemy archers who were taking potshots."
Stepping to the prow of Chemain's ship, just offset from the cannon so he is not blocking it, he sends his echo, already thirty feet ahead and halfway between the ships, thirty feet further into melee range of the archers at the stern rail, attacking twice, and then again a third time (Unleash Incarnation).
Dunamis Blade: first attack from echo's position on Archer 4, with advantage due to Faerie Fire: To Hit: 20 (dirty) Damage: 15 magical slashing
Dunamis Blade: second attack from echo's position on Archer 3 (assuming Archer 4 is down), with advantage due to Faerie Fire: To Hit: 16 Damage: 14 magical slashing
(Unleash Incarnation) Dunamis Blade: third attack from echo's position on Archer 1 (assuming 3 and 4 are down), straight roll: To Hit: 20 (dirty) Damage: 11 magical slashing
Assuming Archers 3 and 4 are down but Archer 1 still lives, Joren's echo stands and bows formally nodding at Archer 1 from just off the stern of Marigold's ship, as if to say I'll be seeing you again soon, friend, before vanishing into the fog of war as Joren uses his Bonus Action to manifest his echo anew, fifteen feet ahead of himself, past the prow of Chemain's ship. He then steps back from the prow of Chemain's ship, taking up his previous position.
At this distance, the quick movements of the echo appear almost as flickers of grey light as first one archer, then another, fall to the deck, liberated of their heads. The final strike takes the hamstring of the last archer's left leg, and he drops to one knee. Marigold's expression is one of fury, and something else...
Ashley stands up and peers over at the other boat that they are slowly gaining on. She sees Marigold and wonders what her expression holds. "Nice shooting Tex!" she yells out to Joren as she sees that most of the archers have now been disposed of.
Pleased to see that the fire she has donned upon Marigold is still there (10fire damage), she reaches her hands above her head as she lowers them slowly she points to Marigold. The sound of dolorous bells fill the air around the cultist and she must make a WIS save of 15 or take 6necrotic damage. Ashley then returns to her crouch behind the railing.
Vilus watches as the lightning spear flies through the group and embeds itself in the ship near captain Chemain, all he can think as he looks down at the wobbly runes on his own homemade magic fishing harpoons is, Shiny new toy!
Running over to Chemain, Vilus grabs up the lightning spear and gets himself back to the front of the ship, he takes a moment and his purple energy flares down his arms pouring into the spear.
But there's some resistance. The weapon bucks and kicks in his hand as sparks of the wrong colour travel up and down its length, and then there is a moment of stillness. Vilus can feel magic within, but it doesn't feel quite like he was hoping.
Then the javelin speaks. "Ello there! Finkin' of givin' me a throw then? By all means, go ahead an' absolutely wing 'er. I swear ye've never seen a proper javelin until you've seen me in action. I will soar through the air, straight an' true, bringin' with me ALL THE FURY O' THE FATHER O' STORMS!! And on that, my good sir, ye 'ave my word!"
Vilus' jaw drops and then quickly widens to a smirk, "hang on there spear I'll be right with you" and sheathing the new talking spear Vilus pulls out his homemade harpoon and launches it toward Marigold. (7 to hit, 5 piercing damage and activation of 'wild moss'? ) Virus watches what happens to the place where the moss harpoon landed before turning his attention back to the new lightning spear, "what... Hm... What's your name?"
The harpoon arcs through the air, but falls short of its target. It instead embeds itself in the side of the hull. From where it struck, moss begins to sprout from the slick wood around it, spreading out into a 5-foot patch of spongy vegetation.
The javelin still in Vilus' hands pipes up, "M'names Gav! Short for Gavelin. And boy I tell you, that little fishin' 'hook ya just tossed over there blows. 'Tis a shame, but I suppose not every weapon can deserve a nickname like 'Hullbreaker.' That's one o' mine by the way. Yes indeed, I've single-handedly sunk over 3 score ships 'afore the first cannon were even fired."
Marigold, clutching her head as the bells ring out, turns to run back below deck, flame from her arm trailing behind her. Chemain's ship continues to close in on the limping vessel, now only 30 feet away. "Prepare the portside cannons!" Chemain shouts. "We're going to pull up beside them and start to board!"
As Captain Chemain gives the order to pull alongside the wounded ship to prepare boarding actions, Malachi mentally dismisses the sphere of darkness surrounding Marigold’s ship. “Getting a little too close for comfort, we wouldn’t want to be caught in that.” (drops concentration on Hunger of Hadar)
He focuses on the remaining archer and summons a spectral hand clutching at the archer’s arm. He glances over at Vilus curiously, eyebrows raised as he appears to talk to his javelin.
Even as he pulls the trigger, Samir can feel the hitch in his modified weapon and he knows that something is wrong. The blowback from the shot slams back into his shoulder, sending shooting agony through him as it is nearly dislocated. Somehow, he manages to hold his aim, however, and the shot flies true to slam into Marigold. An instant later, the bowgun clatters to the deck with a trail of smoke leaking upwards from the fractured body. The half-orc grits his teeth, his land hand clamping onto his injured shoulder as he drops to one knee. A position that leaves him vulnerable, it would turn out, as the electrically charged javelin streaks across from the enemy vessel. Desperately, Samir drags on his failing magical reserves and erects a field of flickering light around himself, close enough to almost be a second skin. Arcs of lightning dance across the barrier, some sneaking through the imperfection of its crafting to lick over his skin, burning and singeing.
Samir's breath whoops into his lungs as the lightning passes and he pushes to his feet. A single arcane rune glimmers weakly on the back of his hand, the only moderate magic left to him in that moment, and one that is less than useless at their current distance. He is not, however, out of tricks. The artificer's uninjured hand struggles awkwardly into his satchel, rooting about for a second before coming up with a familiar disc-shaped object. With a backhanded throw, he let's the disc sail over the open waters. It hits the deck and skips once, whisting slightly in the air before it lodges itself at the base of a crate just beyond enemy ship's cannon. A crate that the enemy cannon crew had been pulling from throughout the battle. A crate full of powder charges. With a hiss, the disc lets off a pressurized, sustained tongue of bluish flame as Samir ducks down to the deck with an arm over his head.
"Watch out!"
Casting Create Bonfire on that crate of hopefully oh so volatile materials.
The last remaining looks panicked as he looks about at his fallen comrades. Not through any sense of loss, but because of the dangers of having a recently dead cultist aboard one's ship. He starts moving to shove the nearest body off the back of the ship, but something catches at his arm. He looks down to see the skeletal hand from Malachi. In that moment of hesitation, Samir's contraption lands, and the cultist's last thought gets no chance to conclude. The back of the ship erupts in a tight cluster of explosions. The back deck is ripped apart, as is the nearby cannon, and the corpses of the cannoneers are flung from the ship. It takes a few seconds for smoke and rubble to clear from the air, and when the do, they reveal a splintered crater reaching almost down to the water line, opening up the back of the ship. No life can be seen amongst the debris of what looks to have been a storeroom scant moments prior.
Joren grins at Ashley's praise, then leans to speak urgently and privately to Chemain, wanting to urge caution without undermining his command.
"Captain. Asking permission to provide relevant tactical data. Last time we were cornering one of these cultist leaders, Andra, he used a device to summon his evil god and transport him away, taking a whale-sized rent in reality with him, including all of Vilus here except leaving his leg behind. The cultists are loving their booby traps. With the archers being cleared, consider holding some of your force in reserve, not putting all of them at risk aboard Marigold's vessel. Whatever she is doing below decks, it is going to be nasty. Consider keeping distance and sending a strike force."
(Badly bloodied and burned though he is, Joren's face leaves no doubt that he is going to put himself in the vanguard of any would-be strike force).
To Marion below decks aboard Chemain's ship, Joren yells: "Marigold back below decks and seemingly desperate. Her big play is coming, Marion."
Having seen Vilus hurl his strange harpoon, Joren holds the Dunamis Blade in one hand and hurls the harpoon with the other, attacking from his echo's position (within 15' of Marigold's ship), aiming more to pierce and stick into the Faerie Fired hull as Vilus had than to damage it.
Then, moving his echo 30' further to one of the cannoneers on the side of Marigold's ship that will face towards Chemain's ship (starboard), Joren attacks once more from his echo's position with his Dunamis Blade, a backhanded upward cut across the cannoneer's ribs.
"Seeing you on the other side," Joren drawls to his friends and vanishes, swapping with his echo. On Marigold's ship now, Joren heads for the trapdoor.
Action: Attack with Vilus' harpoon from echo's position, then from echo's position with Dunamis Blade on a starboard-side cannoneer.
Harpoon (from Vilus) from echo's position to hit the hull of Marigold's ship: 21 Harpoon (from Vilus) damage to the hull of Marigold's ship: 8 (piercing?)
Dunamis Blade from echo's position to hit starboard-side cannoneer on Marigold's ship: 18 Dunamis Blade damage on starboard-side cannoneer: 11 magical slashing
Bonus Action: Swap places with his echo, 45' away (echo will vanish at the end of Joren's turn).
Movement: Moved echo to attack, and slightly away to not take AoO if he can. Then 15' for swap, another 15' moving to the trapdoor on Marigold's ship.
Seeing the hole that occurs after Samir's attack makes Ashley smile with satisfaction. She does notice that Marigold seems to have gone below deck and they needed to find a way to get after her. As she contemplates this, Joren actually switches places with his echo and heads for the trap door! She gapes at him as he does this, wondering how they were going to help.. the same cannot happen to him that happened to Vilus!
She stands up tall and gazes over at the deck of Marigold's ship. Spotting one of the cannoneers, she shouts out to him"Protect that man running to the trapdoor, fight alongside him!"
Joren's harpoon strikes right next to Vilus', though Joren knows the throw won't be powerful enough to do any meaningful damage. Except... the tip of the harpoon sinks deep into the mossy surface and plunges through with a little resistance, leaving a ragged hole of decomposing wood as the rest of the shaft disappears inside the hull. The magical moss must have really softened up the wood.
Joren's Dunamis blade then strikes down a surprised cannoneer, looking much the worse for wear from Ashley and Malachi's powerful magics. The blade slices through the man's stomach and then cracks his sternum on its ascent. The others turn to Joren, drawing scimitars from their belts but at Ashley's shout, one of them goes slack jawed for a second before shaking his head clear. Joren can see what looks like a candle flame deep within the man's pupils. He turns his back to Joren, arms spread defensively.
Chemain's ship starts to overtake the slower vessel, coming up on its port side. Both of Chemain's starboard cannons fire. The first one destroys one of the enemy cannons, and the second one creates a crater in the center of the burning mast.
"Careful!" Chemain shouts. "We've got a man over there!"
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Vilus has a few calculating thoughts and then something clicks in his head, unfortunately the things that click are doubts over what he has achieved with the fishing harpoons, he looks over to Joren, a little embarrassed and calls out, "change of plan, when the ship gets close enough I'm gonna hit it with this one, if I'm right moss will grow over the ship and we can use it for tinder! Throw yours whenever, you might have better range!" And with his fumble in theoretics clarified, Vilus once again summons upon his purple eldritch energy and hurls two more out, targeting Marigold's cannoneers.
(12 to hit, 10 force dam. 19 to hit, 8 force)
Malachi strikes the cannoneer running up with the cannonball, and the man folds around the impact of the purple magic right in his gut. He crumples to the side, and the cannonball rolls from his dead hands. AR4 runs over to grab it before it can roll away, even as another cannoneer topples over the railing, nearly taking the bore-sweep rod with him.
Malachi peeks his head back up above decks and looks at Marigold’s ship getting closer to their front. “Uh, Marion, they just gave Marigold a long, glowing staff of some type. Whatever you are going to do, it should probably be soon.” Seeing the chaos among the archers and cannoneers on the far ship, Malachi focuses instead on Marigold and sends a spike of energy into Marigold’s mind, trying to distract her from whatever she is planning.
Marigold's expression hardens as she feels the pressures on her mind, and Malachi can tell she has shrugged off the magic. Then, AR3 struggling to stand, and seemingly on the verge of collapse, takes a deep breathe, musters up as much focus as possible, and releases another arrow, this time with unerring accuracy. The first arrow descends upon Ashley. The angle is perfect. It arcs perfectly to get in over the railing she is using as cover, and punches straight through her mage armour. He breathes deep once more and prepares to loose a second, when Ashley retaliates with magic. At the last second, fate seems to twist, as do his fingers. The arrow is released too early, plunging into the water harmlessly!
(Nat 20: 9 piercing damage to Ashley)
Seeing Marigold with this new object in hand, Samir, like the others, quickly shifts his focus to trying to deal with whatever machinations might be afoot there. Hefting his bowgun, he cranks the slide with a ratcheting noise and setting a new bolt into the modified weapon. Taking careful aim, he lets loose a shot and hopes that the shifting deck of the ship doesn't throw off his aim.
Attacking with his modified bowgun, 13 to hit, 7 damage + the modified weapon
Samir feels the explosion rip through the weapon in his hand. Too powerful. In his hasty tinkering, he hadn't been able to dampen the recoil. But Samir grits his teeth and, rather than let the shock send his aim off course, he braces to take the full brunt of it. He feels the force jarring his bones, straining his tendons, all the way from his fingers up through his elbow, shoulder, and up into his neck. The slide flies off the top of the weapon, and a small screw pops out, but the important thing is the bolt. It flies out from the modified weapon with a BANG! It's trajectory is too fast to follow, but a split second later Marigold's right shoulder jerks back in a spray of blood.
(Samir takes 2 damage to bring his Attack roll to 15, dealing 11 points of damage to Marigold)
In pain, Marigold motions to AR1 who comes running. He takes the weapon from her hand, lifts it back behind his head, takes a big step forward in a javelin-throwing stance, and yells out a word difficult to make out over the distance. In his hand, it begins to glow a hot white. Then he throws.
It becomes a streak of lightning, leaping the distance between the ships nearly instantaneously, lancing just past the cannon, narrowly missing the mast, and crashing into the deck beside Captain Chemain at the helm.
(Joren and Samir need to make a DC 13 Dex Saving throw or take 12 lightning damage. Half as much on a save. Chemain and one Cannoneer will also make the save)
(Joren, Samir)
“Lightning, Marion, Lightning!” Malachi watches as Joren and Samir try to scramble away from the bolt that strikes the deck and shouts a warning below, trying unsuccessfully to keep the fear from his voice. “They are throwing bolts of lightning at us now.”
Bloodied and burned from arrows and lightning, Joren sees that the archers at the stern rail of Marigold's ship are finally within sixty feet of him. His slow, bloody smile is a gruesome sight as his mouth bleeds and his hair stands on end from the lightning bolt. He draws his Dunamis Blade once more.
"Are you knowing what my last act was in the Battle of Dragontail Narrows one day before being exiled for daring to strike Khirian royalty in a duel?" Joren's drawl is casually laconic as he answers his own question matter-of-factly. "Beheading two enemy archers who were taking potshots."
Stepping to the prow of Chemain's ship, just offset from the cannon so he is not blocking it, he sends his echo, already thirty feet ahead and halfway between the ships, thirty feet further into melee range of the archers at the stern rail, attacking twice, and then again a third time (Unleash Incarnation).
Dunamis Blade: first attack from echo's position on Archer 4, with advantage due to Faerie Fire:
To Hit: 20 (dirty)
Damage: 15 magical slashing
Dunamis Blade: second attack from echo's position on Archer 3 (assuming Archer 4 is down), with advantage due to Faerie Fire:
To Hit: 16
Damage: 14 magical slashing
(Unleash Incarnation) Dunamis Blade: third attack from echo's position on Archer 1 (assuming 3 and 4 are down), straight roll:
To Hit: 20 (dirty)
Damage: 11 magical slashing
Assuming Archers 3 and 4 are down but Archer 1 still lives, Joren's echo stands and bows formally nodding at Archer 1 from just off the stern of Marigold's ship, as if to say I'll be seeing you again soon, friend, before vanishing into the fog of war as Joren uses his Bonus Action to manifest his echo anew, fifteen feet ahead of himself, past the prow of Chemain's ship. He then steps back from the prow of Chemain's ship, taking up his previous position.
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
At this distance, the quick movements of the echo appear almost as flickers of grey light as first one archer, then another, fall to the deck, liberated of their heads. The final strike takes the hamstring of the last archer's left leg, and he drops to one knee. Marigold's expression is one of fury, and something else...
Ashley stands up and peers over at the other boat that they are slowly gaining on. She sees Marigold and wonders what her expression holds. "Nice shooting Tex!" she yells out to Joren as she sees that most of the archers have now been disposed of.
Pleased to see that the fire she has donned upon Marigold is still there (10 fire damage), she reaches her hands above her head as she lowers them slowly she points to Marigold. The sound of dolorous bells fill the air around the cultist and she must make a WIS save of 15 or take 6 necrotic damage. Ashley then returns to her crouch behind the railing.
Vilus watches as the lightning spear flies through the group and embeds itself in the ship near captain Chemain, all he can think as he looks down at the wobbly runes on his own homemade magic fishing harpoons is, Shiny new toy!
Running over to Chemain, Vilus grabs up the lightning spear and gets himself back to the front of the ship, he takes a moment and his purple energy flares down his arms pouring into the spear.
But there's some resistance. The weapon bucks and kicks in his hand as sparks of the wrong colour travel up and down its length, and then there is a moment of stillness. Vilus can feel magic within, but it doesn't feel quite like he was hoping.
Then the javelin speaks. "Ello there! Finkin' of givin' me a throw then? By all means, go ahead an' absolutely wing 'er. I swear ye've never seen a proper javelin until you've seen me in action. I will soar through the air, straight an' true, bringin' with me ALL THE FURY O' THE FATHER O' STORMS!! And on that, my good sir, ye 'ave my word!"
Vilus' jaw drops and then quickly widens to a smirk, "hang on there spear I'll be right with you" and sheathing the new talking spear Vilus pulls out his homemade harpoon and launches it toward Marigold. (7 to hit, 5 piercing damage and activation of 'wild moss'? ) Virus watches what happens to the place where the moss harpoon landed before turning his attention back to the new lightning spear, "what... Hm... What's your name?"
The harpoon arcs through the air, but falls short of its target. It instead embeds itself in the side of the hull. From where it struck, moss begins to sprout from the slick wood around it, spreading out into a 5-foot patch of spongy vegetation.
The javelin still in Vilus' hands pipes up, "M'names Gav! Short for Gavelin. And boy I tell you, that little fishin' 'hook ya just tossed over there blows. 'Tis a shame, but I suppose not every weapon can deserve a nickname like 'Hullbreaker.' That's one o' mine by the way. Yes indeed, I've single-handedly sunk over 3 score ships 'afore the first cannon were even fired."
Marigold, clutching her head as the bells ring out, turns to run back below deck, flame from her arm trailing behind her. Chemain's ship continues to close in on the limping vessel, now only 30 feet away. "Prepare the portside cannons!" Chemain shouts. "We're going to pull up beside them and start to board!"
"Oh ho boy! I like you already Gavelin!" Vilus chuckles, chaos glinting in his eyes.
As Captain Chemain gives the order to pull alongside the wounded ship to prepare boarding actions, Malachi mentally dismisses the sphere of darkness surrounding Marigold’s ship. “Getting a little too close for comfort, we wouldn’t want to be caught in that.” (drops concentration on Hunger of Hadar)
He focuses on the remaining archer and summons a spectral hand clutching at the archer’s arm. He glances over at Vilus curiously, eyebrows raised as he appears to talk to his javelin.
.
Even as he pulls the trigger, Samir can feel the hitch in his modified weapon and he knows that something is wrong. The blowback from the shot slams back into his shoulder, sending shooting agony through him as it is nearly dislocated. Somehow, he manages to hold his aim, however, and the shot flies true to slam into Marigold. An instant later, the bowgun clatters to the deck with a trail of smoke leaking upwards from the fractured body. The half-orc grits his teeth, his land hand clamping onto his injured shoulder as he drops to one knee. A position that leaves him vulnerable, it would turn out, as the electrically charged javelin streaks across from the enemy vessel. Desperately, Samir drags on his failing magical reserves and erects a field of flickering light around himself, close enough to almost be a second skin. Arcs of lightning dance across the barrier, some sneaking through the imperfection of its crafting to lick over his skin, burning and singeing.
Samir's breath whoops into his lungs as the lightning passes and he pushes to his feet. A single arcane rune glimmers weakly on the back of his hand, the only moderate magic left to him in that moment, and one that is less than useless at their current distance. He is not, however, out of tricks. The artificer's uninjured hand struggles awkwardly into his satchel, rooting about for a second before coming up with a familiar disc-shaped object. With a backhanded throw, he let's the disc sail over the open waters. It hits the deck and skips once, whisting slightly in the air before it lodges itself at the base of a crate just beyond enemy ship's cannon. A crate that the enemy cannon crew had been pulling from throughout the battle. A crate full of powder charges. With a hiss, the disc lets off a pressurized, sustained tongue of bluish flame as Samir ducks down to the deck with an arm over his head.
"Watch out!"
Casting Create Bonfire on that crate of hopefully oh so volatile materials.
The last remaining looks panicked as he looks about at his fallen comrades. Not through any sense of loss, but because of the dangers of having a recently dead cultist aboard one's ship. He starts moving to shove the nearest body off the back of the ship, but something catches at his arm. He looks down to see the skeletal hand from Malachi. In that moment of hesitation, Samir's contraption lands, and the cultist's last thought gets no chance to conclude. The back of the ship erupts in a tight cluster of explosions. The back deck is ripped apart, as is the nearby cannon, and the corpses of the cannoneers are flung from the ship. It takes a few seconds for smoke and rubble to clear from the air, and when the do, they reveal a splintered crater reaching almost down to the water line, opening up the back of the ship. No life can be seen amongst the debris of what looks to have been a storeroom scant moments prior.
Joren grins at Ashley's praise, then leans to speak urgently and privately to Chemain, wanting to urge caution without undermining his command.
"Captain. Asking permission to provide relevant tactical data. Last time we were cornering one of these cultist leaders, Andra, he used a device to summon his evil god and transport him away, taking a whale-sized rent in reality with him, including all of Vilus here except leaving his leg behind. The cultists are loving their booby traps. With the archers being cleared, consider holding some of your force in reserve, not putting all of them at risk aboard Marigold's vessel. Whatever she is doing below decks, it is going to be nasty. Consider keeping distance and sending a strike force."
(Badly bloodied and burned though he is, Joren's face leaves no doubt that he is going to put himself in the vanguard of any would-be strike force).
To Marion below decks aboard Chemain's ship, Joren yells: "Marigold back below decks and seemingly desperate. Her big play is coming, Marion."
Having seen Vilus hurl his strange harpoon, Joren holds the Dunamis Blade in one hand and hurls the harpoon with the other, attacking from his echo's position (within 15' of Marigold's ship), aiming more to pierce and stick into the Faerie Fired hull as Vilus had than to damage it.
Then, moving his echo 30' further to one of the cannoneers on the side of Marigold's ship that will face towards Chemain's ship (starboard), Joren attacks once more from his echo's position with his Dunamis Blade, a backhanded upward cut across the cannoneer's ribs.
"Seeing you on the other side," Joren drawls to his friends and vanishes, swapping with his echo. On Marigold's ship now, Joren heads for the trapdoor.
Action: Attack with Vilus' harpoon from echo's position, then from echo's position with Dunamis Blade on a starboard-side cannoneer.
Harpoon (from Vilus) from echo's position to hit the hull of Marigold's ship: 21
Harpoon (from Vilus) damage to the hull of Marigold's ship: 8 (piercing?)
Dunamis Blade from echo's position to hit starboard-side cannoneer on Marigold's ship: 18
Dunamis Blade damage on starboard-side cannoneer: 11 magical slashing
Bonus Action: Swap places with his echo, 45' away (echo will vanish at the end of Joren's turn).
Movement: Moved echo to attack, and slightly away to not take AoO if he can. Then 15' for swap, another 15' moving to the trapdoor on Marigold's ship.
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
Seeing the hole that occurs after Samir's attack makes Ashley smile with satisfaction. She does notice that Marigold seems to have gone below deck and they needed to find a way to get after her. As she contemplates this, Joren actually switches places with his echo and heads for the trap door! She gapes at him as he does this, wondering how they were going to help.. the same cannot happen to him that happened to Vilus!
She stands up tall and gazes over at the deck of Marigold's ship. Spotting one of the cannoneers, she shouts out to him "Protect that man running to the trapdoor, fight alongside him!"
WIS save of 15 or he is charmed
Joren's harpoon strikes right next to Vilus', though Joren knows the throw won't be powerful enough to do any meaningful damage. Except... the tip of the harpoon sinks deep into the mossy surface and plunges through with a little resistance, leaving a ragged hole of decomposing wood as the rest of the shaft disappears inside the hull. The magical moss must have really softened up the wood.
Joren's Dunamis blade then strikes down a surprised cannoneer, looking much the worse for wear from Ashley and Malachi's powerful magics. The blade slices through the man's stomach and then cracks his sternum on its ascent. The others turn to Joren, drawing scimitars from their belts but at Ashley's shout, one of them goes slack jawed for a second before shaking his head clear. Joren can see what looks like a candle flame deep within the man's pupils. He turns his back to Joren, arms spread defensively.
Chemain's ship starts to overtake the slower vessel, coming up on its port side. Both of Chemain's starboard cannons fire. The first one destroys one of the enemy cannons, and the second one creates a crater in the center of the burning mast.
"Careful!" Chemain shouts. "We've got a man over there!"