Nos Heliwr, following Claire and Vaclav up onto the deck, whispers, "I'll take the foc'sle guard, if ye 'ear any noise take out those two quick like," he says, jerking a thumb toward the quarter deck guards.  With that he fades into the shadows and slips off after the foc'sle watch, garotte in hand.

Attack (w/Sneak Attack)   Attack: 11 Damage: 12

Keeping the garotte tight, Nos Heliwr will jerk, hard, the thin wire slicing windpipe and carotid arteries like a hot knife through butter; wrestling the soon to be corpse to the deck as quietly as possible.

Blast, forgot Stealth   17

OCC And, drum roll please, Nos Heliwr 'tiptoes through the tulips', to paraphrase Tiny Tim.

Nos Heliwr slides silently as a Ghostwalker up the ladder in the moonlight and up onto the forecastle.  The guard is humming a tuneless melody to himself, staring off into space and has no idea the former assassin is right behind him.   The shadow slips a hand around the guard's throat and pulls tight.  The guard lets out a hardly-audible gurgle but just manages to get a couple of fingers under the cheese wire before his throat is fully slit.   Blood pours down his fingers and onto the deck.

Claire jumps a little as Nos appears out of nowhere.  "Ugh, he's too quiet," she grumbles, before nodding and making her way to the back of the ship.   She takes a deep breath, looking up at the ladder, before opting for speed rather than subtlety.  Running full tilt up the stairs, she stabs at one of the guards with her glaive.

Attack: 13 Damage: 12
Bonus Attack: 15 Damage: 6

Claire rushes up the steps to the quarterdeck, faster than one would imagine possible for one clad from head to toe in chainmail.  But not very subtly.  She closes with the first guard who turns in place as she rushes in.  Though he heard her coming, he's not fast enough to stop the glaive that slashes down in the moonlight and opens him up from shoulder to opposite hip.  He collapses to the deck instantly dead.  With a spin and a further step Claire closes the short distance to the second guard and whips the glaive expertly horizontally, cracking him across the ribs.  She hears the sounds of a few of them breaking and the air rushes out of his lungs but he's still standing, just.

Chernobog swoops out of the night sky and slashes a claw crackling with electricity across the guards face. shocking grasp

Attack: 14 Damage: 2

With a whip-saw jerk of the garotte Nos Heliwr tries to finish the silent struggle quickly.

Attack: 24 Damage: 12

In swoops the owl, to the aid of Nos Heliwr on the forecastle.  Once again, incongruously, it's not the claws which seem to hurt the guard but instead he is jolted with a powerful discharge of electricity.  Nos Heliwr, in close proximity and with a garrotte around the guard's neck, feels a tingle ripple through his body too, though it's harmless.  Somehow, incredibly, the guard is still conscious, though his eyes are bulging and his cropped blond hair is smoking.

Salazar emerges on deck and nearly weeps at the night sky.  He hasn't seen the stars in far too long, and he had thought he never would again.  He quickly snaps back to reality as he watches the chaos emerge around him.  He feels the scratching ache as the tattoo wriggles down his right arm and lashes out through his right wrist and twists toward the guard Claire is attacking.  The ethereal chain launches.

Attack: 15 Damage: 4

(Just for reference, the chain is a reflavored Eldritch Blast)

Nos Heliwr will set his knee into the guards back and with a twist, wrench the garotte mightily.

Attack: 10 Damage: 7

"Die ye bleedin' pig," he hisses in exasperation.  He is not one to accept anything less than flawless execution in these sorts of endeavors.

OCC Dang! The guys head should have come off, how many ht pts can a neck have anyway?

Terrible eldritch chains lash out from Salazar's outstretched arm, flying across the main deck and up on to the quarterdeck.  They smash into the second guard, sending him staggering back, but he's a resilient one and somehow still standing.  Blood is dripping from the contusions where he's been struck by glaive and mystical chain.  He turns and looks desperately towards the back of the quarterdeck where you see a large iron bell, hanging from a rope off the bulkhead.   If he could reach that he could raise the alarm and rouse the whole ship...

Surprise round over!  You have two guards left, one at each end of the ship, and both are heavily injured.  Nos Heliwr is still trying to garrotte the front guard and Claire is toe to toe with the rear one; who looks like he's going to try and reach the alarm bell.

Initiative!

Claire:  18
Nos Heliwr: 11
Salazar: 10
Vaclav: 11
Ralfi: 17
Guards:  5

The guards will act on the same Initiative.   Looks like you all beat the guards - so feel free to act in any order. 

Nos Heliwr has already rolled his follow up attack back on post #148

Before the guard on the forecastle can even reach the weapon in the scabbard at his side, Nos Heliwr's garrotte finally does its terrible business.  The lithe man drags the now dead body into the deep shadows under the nearby ballista and hides it out of sight.  Shaking his head in mild annoyance at a less than perfect kill, the assassin looks up to see how the rest of his new crew are getting on dealing with the other guards.

Claire nearly lets out a cry of surprise as the warped chains rush past her - but quickly refocuses when they lash out against the guard she's fighting.  Focus, she drills herself, whirling her glaive around.  The guard's desperate look tells her all she needs to know, and she places herself physically between him and the bell.  "Oh no you don't," she growls, lunging forward.

Attack: 18 Damage: 8
Bonus Attack: 19 Damage: 7

Reacting quickly as her martial training enables, Claire gives no quarter.  As the guard turns to try and get to the bell she cuts him down and he falls face down on the decking, arm stretching for the bell he would never reach.

The sounds of combat die away.  But all is not quiet on the ship.  From the cabins immediately below the quarterdeck where Claire has just fought two guards comes the unmistakable grousing of the most feared man on the ship.  "What's going on out there, you lubbers?!?!?"  Scraggs has just been dragged from his sleep by the combat on the decking above his bed, and is clearly not happy.   And from the doorway which leads into the cabins beneath the forecastle a light has just come on.

This combat is over but a new one is clearly not far away.  Any chance of surprise in the coming fight is gone as the combatants are aware of each other, but you have a "round or two" to prepare before anyone arrives.  

What do you do?

Vaclav moves to the side to try and get a view where the sea is being Scraggs, that way he can use his preferred spell without risking lighting the ship on fire. 

 Ralfi blesses Claire and then moves off in the other direction to the forecastle.  Climbing the ladder quickly he passes Nos Heliwr, who's just dumped something into the shadows by the port rail.  He reaches the ballista and is pleased to find there is a rack of spears lined up next to it.  A quick examination reveals that it would probably swivel all the way around to point across the main deck below.

Ballista

If Ralfi wants to fire the ballista, when combat starts, he can do so.  Each round it will take an Action to load it (so, alone, he can only fire it once every two rounds).  If he gets help from another PC, they can use their Action to load it.  You have time to load the ballista before combat starts if desired.

Once combat starts, to shoot, make a simple Dexterity check, without proficiency (unless you have a background, or can explain why you'd have proficiency in these weapons for some reason).  If two of you are manning the ballista then you can add your proficiency (+2) to the to hit roll.   Damage is 2d8+Dex mod.  The ballista will critical on a natural 19-20 on the to hit roll.

Vaclav moves off to the starboard rail, at 90 degrees to the aft cabin door.  It puts him relatively close to the door, but means whoever comes through that portal will have nothing but the deep blue ocean behind them, so the risk of collateral damage to the ship is minimized.  

Vaclav, if that's too risky a position I've put you in, you have time to reconsider and adjust.

Nos Heliwr will help Ralfi with loading the ballista, then he will ready his hand xbow, hopefully all these pointy things soon to be flying around with come as a nasty surprise to whomever ventures on deck.

Surprised by Ralfi's blessing, Claire glances at the sparkling pollen in confusion, before she feels the gentle surge flooding her body - a warmth, almost as gentle as the glow that is now slightly fading.  She nods in thanks, before turning her attention to the noise from the door.  "Scraggs," she says, teeth clenched.  "We've got a score to settle with him."  Seeing Vaclav preparing himself to ambush the large man, she steps next to him, careful to keep clear of where he seems to be directing his hands.  With the reach of her glaive, she figures that she'll manage to catch Scragg's attention should he turn his attention towards them, and keep the magician from being directly attacked in the case that whatever his plan for the slaver is should fail.

Salazar clambers up to the ballista, "Of course I will help!  Looks like Pockets has already helped you with one, but I've got the next one."  He then mutters under his breath, "Besides, I have something I want to try on the bastard first."