Claire pulls herself away from the stairs when the others make a breakthrough, finding their equipment.  She spares little time to rifle through the looted possessions in the hold, as the task of donning heavy armor is always a difficult and time-consuming one.  When she's finished, however, she feels much more like herself - particularly when her hand wraps around the handle of her heavy glaive.  She smiles and gives it a twirl, before looking up at the noise of the heavy footsteps coming from above.

"There's no point in trying to hide myself," she whispers to the others.  "It's not as if I can obscure this suit of armor under a few rags, when I was dressed in what was practically a burlap sack before this, and my hair stands out like a calling card in this place.  Besides -- if they want my glaive, they're going to have to take it from my lifeless hands this time around."

Eyes flashing, Claire swiftly makes her way back to the foot of the stairs, making no attempt whatsoever to hide.  Instead, she stands ready with her glaive, waiting to stick the first slaver foolish enough to come within her rather long reach with a grim look on her face.

(Ready action: attack first hostile slaver within 10 feet of Claire.)

A small flame flicks in Vaclav hand for a second and in the light the head of the owl turns around to the armored woman. The voice still comes from Vaclav's form on the floor though, quiet and calm. "You distract him for a second and Chernobog here will do the same for you. He and I have a little trick up our sleeves." 

(Holding shocking grasp to be cast through Chernobog using the owl's flyby feature {no opportunity attack against it})

Tightening the last buckle on his leathers, Salazar looks around for his daggers.  "Ah!  There you are!" he says once he finds the ornate dagger he carried for his protection.  Fat lot of good that did...  He flips the dagger and winces as he misses the hilt and it falls to the floor bouncing.  "Okay.  I'll leave the juggling to Pockets."  

Salazar hears the noise of the descending drummer.  "What was that? Oh... you're all..  Right."  He sees everyone ready for battle, and then moves over and tries to hide behind a doorway so the drummer won't be able to see him immediately.  His back and torso starts itching inexplicably, causing the already twitchy Salazar to become noticeably squirmy.  "I may be able to get him to leave us alone, but I'm ready for a fight if we must," he whispers.

You position yourselves into locations of advantage and prepare yourselves for whatever it is that comes down the stairs.  The creek of planking squeaks above you as the heavy, rhythmic footsteps close on the staircase leading to the deck above.  Torchlight spills down into the hold where you are hidden or stood and in the glare of bright light a shadow is cast into the hold.  A big, fat, bald shadow.  Bayo.

The tall, rotund Ibini quickly descends, lit torch in one hand, heavy leather drumstick in the other.  You've seen him wield those drum sticks, he is powerful and controlled with them, and something tells you he would know how to use them in melee.  But he is not expecting what he sees in front of him.   His eyes focus on Claire, stood defiantly in front of him, fully armoured and twirling her glaive with expert skill.

Chernobog takes off from his perch and flutters around Bayo before circling back to land on the boxes. As he does his claws crackle with electricity and he quickly plants them on the top of Bayo's head as he flies by. shocking grasp

Attack: 21  Damage: 5

Peeking out from his door frame, Salazar says to apparently no one, "Well, let's see if you're just my imagination."

He then focuses as an ethereal red outlined black chains launch out from his arm in the direction of the fat man.  Attack: 18 Damage: 1

As the stout figure appears, Claire feels a sense of relief - the anticipation before a battle is always the worst part, in her opinion.  The actual messy reality of fighting gives one little time to react, or reflect - and Claire likes it best that way.  Training and muscle memory overtake doubt and second-guessing, and she makes a practiced lunge forward, easily closing the wide gap between herself and Bayo with her glaive’s length.

“Filthy slaver,“ she hisses between clenched teeth as she strikes, focused and intent.  When she‘s done, she steps back, just out of reach of the man on the stairs so as not to block the way for the others‘ attacks (like maybe 15 ft away from Bayo).

Polearm Master: Reaction - Opportunity Attack:
Attack: 9
Damage: 11

Attack: 13
Damage: 7

Polearm Master: Bonus Action:
Attack: 19
Damage: 5

Nos Heliwr will slip his rapier between the fat mans ribs with a hiss of satisfaction.

Attack: 10 Damage: 6

OCC Big target in the dark with surprise, dang we're good?

 Incredibly vines sprout forth from the ladder, the decking and the walls near Bayo.   They move forward, writhing as if seeking victims and enwrap the large frame of the Ibini drum master.

Strength Save (DC 13): 3.

Almost simultaneously an owl swoops on silent wings down from the rafters.  Talons rake across the bald Ibini's unprotected head but incongruously, it's not that which appears to hurt him.  His whole body jolts and he almost drops the flaming band he has in his left hand.  Just as he was trying to recover from this attack, black and unworldly-looking chains streak out from Salazar and where they touch him angry welts appear.

Then Claire steps forward, careful to stay out of the reach of the writhing vines, and slashes at the bald drum master with her glaive.  Even in his surprised state though the drum master is faster than you had imagined and he sways back, resulting in only a deep graze across his midriff, where a slower man would have been cut in half.  But Claire's experience as a polearm fighter allows her to anticipate and react quickly. She follows up with a sweeping blow with the handle of her weapon and catches the tall man on the side of the head with a resounding crack.

Nos Heliwr, striking with the speed of a naja snake from the shadows nearby is disappointed to watch as his rapier strike misses the fat man by half an inch.  It seems that dodging Claire's attack had the fortune of keeping him out of the way of the ex-assassin's blade too.

 Bayo faces you, already completed covered in cuts, welts and burn marks from electrocution.  He is bloodied and bruised and seems utterly unable to take in what he's seeing so far.  And he's pinned down against the ladder he's just climbed down by writhing, squeezing vines.   He looks like he is about to scream at the top of his lungs which will surely raise the alarm...

Lungs? Good target; Nos Heliwr will try again.

Attack: 23 Damage: 14

"Ah! Much better my friend," Nos Heliwr whispers to Bayo.

Before anyone else can react, Nos Heliwr takes full advantage of the entangled Ibini's current predicament.   Where his last strike was perhaps a little rushed, he has now composed himself and his accuracy is as one would expect from a member of the Jade Assassins,.   His razor-sharp rapier slides between the rotund Ibini's ribs and punctures his lungs.   The huge breath the Ibini had taken to shout a warning gurgles out of his mouth along with frothy blood, and as you watch he slumps forward, held somewhat grotesquely in place by the clinging vines. The drum master is dead.

What do you do now?

Claire steps forward with a glint in her eye, determined to silence the man before he can alert the others.  „You will be silent,“ she hisses at him as her glaive plunges down.

Attack: 22
Damage: 13

ba: 25
Damage: 7

Vaclav snaps his fingers and the flame snuffs out before it can catch on the deck. prestidigitation "Well, that's one down." 

The ethereal chain dissipates before it hits the ground, but a tattoo of the same red/black chain continues writhing around his wrist for a moment before it wriggles further up his arm and out of sight.  "Well..  That was... disorienting.  I'm glad that went well.  What's the next step?"

Claire reaches over and drags the body of Bayo down the stairs, grunting a little from the effort - the man's corpse is huge.  "We have to move quickly," she tells the others as she kicks the man's bulk out of the way of the stairs.  "They'll notice he's missing soon."  She looks at the rest of the prisoners, wide-eyed and watching their progress.  "We're going to do this," she tells them firmly, her grip on the glaive tight.  Turning to Nos, she nods at him.  "You look light on your feet.  Stick your head up there and tell us what to expect.  I'll be right behind you if there's trouble," she whispers.

 Nos Heliwr will pull the darkness around himself, as though a cloak, and slowly rise up the midship ladder to the oardeck, just behind the foremast, to see what he can see.

Stealth   8

OCC Well that certainly s!@*s goats #$?!s

And he'll duck back down quick as a cow pie departing its delivery chute.

Re-stealth   13

 With the rapid dispatching of Bayo the hold and indeed the lower deck above you falls quiet.  You can hear the distant sound of breakers on a shore and the creaking of the ship's rigging as it lazily rocks over the gentle swell.  Apart from the mutilated body in front of you, all is peaceful.