Archie's Ghosts of Saltmarsh

Arvastan moves forward quickly, pulling out his shortsword to stab at the dwarf. "Don't rightly think you should be callin' yourself a master pirate," he muses as he stabs. "Don't see you out on a ship. Seems to me you're down here hidin' underground." 

Attack: 12 Damage: 7

Sneak Attack damage, if applicable from the stealth roll: 1

Gib's wild eldritch blast hits Sanbalet square in the chest and the dwarf wizard stumbles backwards, upsetting his table and spilling a glass of red wine. He looks to the wine, and then stares at Gib angrily. "Interesting, that such a creature as pathetic as yourself wields the same arcane magic as the great Sanbalet. What is the source of your power, hmm? I shall enjoy dissecting you to find out."

While he says this, Arvastan, you see an opportunity to strike at him. Unfortunately, Sanbalet waves his hand and creates a magical barrier that shields him from your trident and your strike flies off harmlessly.

"Ah ah ah," he says wagging a finger at the sea elf.

Looking at Hugh standing over the lifeless body of his bodyguard, Sanbalet identifies him as the greatest threat and fires a ray of frost at the barbarian.

Attack: 17 Damage: 4

The is absolutely biting, Hugh, and you find your joits begin to lock up as you take the full brunt of the coldness.

(Your movement speed is reduced by 10 ft. Orange Initiative -- Dimma and Tul -- are up.).

Dimma moves up towards him, swinging her warhammer in a wide arc to smash it in the dwarf's midsection.

12 for 5 bludgeoning.

Tul moves quickly to engage Sanbalet. She swings her nunchuka, aiming a blow to his head.

"You are out numbered and it is only a matter of time before you are defeated," Tul says. "Please surrender. There has been enough death today."

And before waiting for a response, she swings her free arm forward, throwing a flat palm into the dwarf mage's face.

Action: Nunchuka attack: Attack: 18 Damage: 4 

Bonus Action: Unarmed Martial Arts Strike: Attack: 23 Damage: 6 

As the party descends around the dwarven wizard, he for the first time realizes he's in a bit of trouble -- Dimma's hammer blow strikes him in the midsection and Sanbalet doubles over with a "Hurk!" gasping for breath. Tul, moving in a blur of activity, hits Sanbalet square in the nose with her nunchuka, then hits him again in the nose. Blood streams freely from his nose and as he stumbles back from you all, he laughs sinisterly at all of you.

"Surrender? Oh, you poor pitiful fools. You are in the midst of a much bigger web than even you know. And Sanbalet is simply one spider amongst many. It is perhaps merciful that Sanbalet allows you to die now!"

(Top of the order. He's looking pretty hurt.)

"Oh, I don't like you," Arvastan comments, stabbing Sanbalet with his trident. 

Attack: 18 Damage: Unable to parse dice roll.

Gibson, who is crouching behind the dead bodyguard's chair in a huddled lump of blood-spattered fear, suddenly stops trembling and stands up straight, facing the dwarf (Is he a little taller than before? It's hard to tell...). His black eyes are wide and staring intensely, unblinking, with red irises flashing in the light of the room. His arms go from hanging limply at his sides to spread out at 45 degrees with fingers splayed and palms facing forward. His mouth falls into a wide-open "O" as a deep and booming voice reverberates through the room, clearly not emanating from Gibson's maw.

"Unseemly pretender... Desecrator of ancient power beyond mortal reckoning... My vessel wields magics unfathomable by charlatans such as yourself... for it is my will. Kneel before the Messenger of the Void; the Harbinger of Ultimate Destruction; the Herald of Cumian, devourer of reality, and accept the blessing of oblivion!"

Gibson has cast minor illusion in an attempt to distract Sanbalet.

As the battered wizard sways about, unsteady on his feet, Arvastan's trident pierces his shoulder and he curses, spitting out a mouthful of blood. He looks in terrible shape and as he pushes himself off of the sea elf's trident, he comes face-to-face with Gib's illusion.

(Gib make an Intimidation roll)

(He looks really bad, like a stiff wind could knock him over at this point.)

Intimidation: 11

(Any chance of advantage due to the otherworldly special effects? A guy's gotta try...)

EDIT: Oops! That should've been +6, not +5...

DM Screen

The wizard drops to his knees and stares at Gib's illusion in amazement. "This....this is incredible. Sanbalet has not seen such power."

(While he is distracted, next attack will have advantage. Hugh, if you hit him, he's probably going to die.)

Tul sees the blood dripping from Hugh's axe and the crazed look in his eyes and wonders if he can restrain himself enough not to kill Sanbalet, at least not until they can get answers out of him.

Dimma notices Tul watching Hugh intently and turns her gaze to the human as well. She doesn't know Hugh's intent and she wants to present a united front against the wizard, so she won't tell him what to do. She keeps her eyes set on Hugh as well, hoping that their combined looks can give him enough pause not to slaughter the dwarf here and now.

 Hugh stops for a moment, and the rage coursing through his veins diminishes for almost a second. He looks around at these people watching him expectantly and then Hugh’s gaze returns to the wizard. Should he stop? Those Pirates never did! With a grunt and a growl, Hugh rushes forward letting the rage take over once again, and  brings his axe down, smashing into the wizards distracted head.

Attack: 21 Damage: 17

Tul watches Hugh succumb to the anger inside him and watches the axe rise and fall, finishing the wizard. What is done is done. But she suddenly realizes that she is not the only one struggling to control what ripples under the surface. 

She moves around so Hugh can see her coming. She approaches him and places an open hand on his shoulder, wishing him calm.

Sanbalet's head is cleaved off very cleanly, as Hugh's axeblade strikes the wizard right where the neck meets the shoulders, and the head rolls a few meters, finally stoppings at the feet of Arvastan, the dwarf's head frozen forever in a look of awe.

You all wait a moment, then another -- but no one seems to be coming. You are alone with the bodies of Sanbalet and his bodyguard, and what ever secrets the vain little wizard was holding in his chambers.

"Oh, for crying out... We just talked about this with the other guy!" All pretense has dissolved from Gibson's face as he gestures toward the door, indicating the cook. His arms drop in resignation. "Well, at least a head's easier to carry than a whole body. I suppose we can just plop it down in front of Primewater to see if there's any recognition in his eyes." He shrugs and unceremoniously picks the head up by one ear. "Shall we? There's still a sack of gold with my name on it waiting back at the Council Hall." 

(Forgot to mention this before, but as you spent some time trying to find the secret door in the wine cellar...)

Dimma -- right around this time, your Detect Magic spell fails and the glimmers of magic that you saw in the room and next door have both faded.

Tul turns from Hugh and looks over at Gib.

"We still do not know what is going on here. When I heard them talking before, they seemed to know that we had been hired, and that the lord may be involved in this. I do not think we were meant to succeed. They said something about weapons for Lizardfolk as well."

"I will not ask you to stay," she says to Gib. "But I do not believe we should leave yet."

She then starts searching through the room to see if the wizard had notes or anything else that might hint at what is going on.

(Perception: 18 )

Gibson shrugs, tosses the head in a corner with a splat, and looks for a bag to gather wine bottles back into.

Hugh’s chest heaves as he stands there gripping his blood stained axe. He grunts as he takes deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself and twitches at the touch of Tul’s hand. Eventually Hugh is able to calm down after around 30 seconds and looks to the rest of the party. “So what’s the plan now,” he asks quietly.