The Undying Dragons - Campaign Thread

Marrin keeps focused on the hobgoblins, just in case,

"Best you run off and check with William what do next, like good little toadies."

She will target one next to nearest Ula's floating weapon.

Vicious mockery (Wisdom save of 14): 1

She'll stay prone and call to Bigge,

"Bigge, I know you are busy at the moment, but are there crossbows or other ranged weaponry onboard somewhere?"

No sooner does Ethel suggest they take Captain Percival alive, than does his eviscerated corpse splash down beside her.  She sighs underwater.

Oh well. 

She grabs the corpse and pulls it below the surface and then rifles through its pockets, looking for anything they could use; coins, compasses, etc.

Investigation:  24 [if you rule it should be Perception instead, subtract 4 from that number]

She then begins to undress the corpse and change into its clothes underwater.  If possible, she will also try to move to keep up with the ship.

Jan's eldritch energy crackles across the distance between the ships and catches Jeras in the chest. He bellows in pain but doesn't go down.

The hobgoblin hears Marrin's words and cringes like someone with a bad headache. Unfortunately Ula's spiritual hammer must have anticipated there was going to be more of a reaction as it just whiffs right past the hobgoblin and smacks the pier.

Bigge, concentrates on running back and forth between rigging and the wheel and shouting orders at Hammerdasher. 

"The captain liked hand crossbows. There might be some in his cabin," Bigge shouts back. "But I need help here. One of you needs to take the wheel and steer when I tell you."

Beneath the water, Ethel doesn't find much; 16 copper and a longsword are all that count as valuable. It would take a couple of rounds to undress the captain, and another couple to swap out clothes. In that time the ship will keep moving away and it might then become impossible for her to catch back up.

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Avaria's up.

"Those bastards took my lucky crossbow, never used a hand crossbow, always seemed too fiddly and dainty. Heavy were always too much for me too, but I've got my eye on that extra big one mounted on the deck, I'd love to pin Will and Gill together against a wall with that. How hard is the wheel to turn?", words spill out of Jan-usus.

Avaria eyes the long pole that she left laying on the deck, wonders how far she could throw it and maybe hit a hobgoblin...  but she shakes her head as she hears Bigge talking.

As the rage starts to subside again, she runs over to the wheel.  "Alright Captain, I'm ready." she addresses to Bigge.

(Athletics and Agility rolls from Avaria please)

As the ship pulls away, Ethel abandons Captain Percival and his captain's clothes to the sea.  Unless the sword is unique in some way - such that it could be used to say 'see, we have the sword of Captain Percival' - she will let that sink as well.  After completing her search she will spend the rest of her turn swimming underwater to catch up with the boat.

Athletics  16

Acrobatics  16

Bigge only pays half attention to Jan-Drusus, only he looks more closely.

"Who are you?" Bigge asks. "Aren't you the guard captain?"

He casts a quick look over at Avaria, Ula, then Marrin, an eyebrow raised.

But he doesn't wait around for answers. Once Avaria takes the helm, he jumps down to the deck, directs Hammerdasher to another set of ropes and then ties off another sail.

You wouldn't even notice the wind if you didn't see it catching in the sails. 

Avaria may not be a sailor but she seems to instinctively know what Bigge means with each order.

Ethel just barely gets back to the ship and grabs hold of the same rigging the ex-captain used to climb before the Rose Marie pulls away from her. She has the pouch with copper coins, but the longsword drifts to the bottom of the bay with the dead captain, there not being anything particularly impressive about it.

A couple of arrows come from the hobgoblins but they don't seem as interested anymore now that their leader is gone and the Hargroves have gone off. Though for anyone looking back at the docks, they can see Gillian returning to the empty berth, yelling at the four hobgoblins standing there.

Further down, another ship appears to be making ready to sail. No one can tell who's on board, but it's down at the end where William Hargrove was, though he's no longer anywhere in sight.

The aft of the other sailing ship, the one suspected of having Godrick on board is just disappearing through the cliffs surrounding the entrance to the harbour.

Jeras and his two fellow sailors are still watching the Rose Marie and you can see they've managed to get a hold of some light crossbows but they look to be waiting until you're a little closer.

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The party is back up - almost out of melee but perhaps Jeras is merely holding an action.

"Nope! I killed him and took his face!", Jan-usus replies cheerfully. 

"It's really Jan... well. Close enough.", she whispers conspiratorially.

"Any of you lot in the hold want to make yourselves useful, we've got a ballista without a crew!", Jan hollers towards the escaped prisoners in the cabin.

She snaps off another blast at Jeras.

"بھاڑ میں جاؤ تم پر"

Attack: 8 Damage: 6 force + 2 bludgeoning

"Heya Bigge, you probably guessed I'm not Tammer. Mostly because she doesn't sound like this or normally wear this."

She gestures to her painfully tight looking dress (presuming Tammer was of bulkier build than Gillian).

"Excuse me a moment, going to get a crossbow."

She'll stand and go into the Captain's cabin.

((Any rolls to find a crossbow in there?))

[I take it the ship is now moving faster than Ethel can swim?]

Ethel will try to climb up the rigging to get aboard the ship.  She isn't the most athletic, so she takes her time, trying to avoid falling back into the water.  

Athletics:  12

Jan-usus shakes her head at Marrin's style choice.

Geffroi comes out of the cabin at Jan's call, as do two of the older human ex-prisoners. The older two move unerringly across the deck. As the move, they absently batten down loose rope, and run up the steps to the forecastle. These two must have been sailors, or pirates, before they ended up in the caves of the Hargroves. Geffroi on the other hand is clearly the academic as he stumbles at the smallest hint of motion on the ship but he does his best. The three move up to the ballista and start to load it.

Marrin enters the captain's cabin and finds a couple of goblins and a couple of the other prisoners huddled for safety.

(Perception DC 15 to find a hand crossbow right away, otherwise she can just spend a couple of rounds searching).

Ethel could perhaps have kept up with the ship as it was still gaining speed but she would not have caught up to it if she had changed course. She can always jump back in the water if she has other things she still wants to accomplish, but her athletics roll will get her back up on deck with an action in hand as well.

Jan's blast whizzes past the other ship, dissipating into the far reaches of the harbour.

Anything from Avaria?

Perception: 9

Marrin gives the room a glance then asks,

"Hello, I wonder if you've seen a crossbow laying around? I need to go out and shoot people trying to stop us and put us back in the caves or execute us. Some help looking to speed that along would be appreciated!"

She says calmly but with a note of annoyance.

Avaria whistles towards the three at the ballista, trying to get their attention.  Once she has one of them, she yells, "Trade me!" and she runs over to the ballista, switching places with one of the sailors.

Once at the ballista, she aims it towards Jeras.

Attack: 12 Damage: 23

Marrin doesn't see any crossbows lying around.

The 'passengers' in the captain's cabin shrink back against the walls. They don't know who this pirate is that's decided to wear this incredibly tight dress. They stay quiet with their heads down.

There's a footlocker, at the end of the large bunk; a chest against one wall; and a large cupboard.

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Avaria lets the harpoon-like bolt fly from the ballista. She may not be a sailor but her affinity for weapons serves her well and the bolt flies straight into Jeras, knocking him up off his feet and impaling him into the mast of the other ship. The life goes quickly out of his eyes, and the other two sailors drop down behind the railings of the ship.

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For the moment that's the end of your enemies immediately trying to kill you. The ship you suspect Godrick is on has disappeared from the harbour, passing through the rocky entrance. The ship the Hargroves have commandeered gets underway and makes for the entrance as well. You're no experts on ship movements, but it's likely both that ship and the Rose Marie will be getting to entrance at close to the same time.

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Back on the dock, the hobgoblins put their bows away, and turn to make sure the fire is out on the dock. They then watch both ships leave. The group starts back towards the entrance to the main tunnel.

Avaria smiles and blood trickles down her chin.  "Good, looks like we're going to get a shot at the Hargroves after all"  And she aims the ballista towards it, looking for a Hargrove to hit.  As she does, she keeps an eye on the ship Jeras was in, in case one of the other two get any hair brained ideas.