Ghosts Of Saltmarsh

Zmeya runs forward, spinning her staff like a windmill. She dives forward and places one hand on the ground, sweeping the rest of her body around the axis of her arm, attempting to sweep the Hobgoblin off his legs. She follows up with kicking off the Hobgoblin's chest, backflipping off and proceeding to retreat behind the defensive line of Hiramat and Klaus.

Attack: 16 Damage: 10
Attack: 23 Damage: 6

Hiramat swings his longsword at the Hobgoblin, seeing it as the greater threat to his brothers.

Attack Longsword Attack: 7 Damage: 8

19Klaus sees the slash of Hiramat go wide, and he tries to take advantage of the hobgoblin being preoccupied with dodging the mighty blows of the tiefling:

Longsword attack:  14

Damage: 6

Without waiting to see the result, Klaus tries to shove the bandit with his shield mastery:

Athletics: 

FOR THE LOVE OF PETE
Zmeya20, Hiramat12, Hobgoblin(12)(AC18/HP11), Gracy11, Archibald8, Klaus7, Bandit(5)(AC12/HP11), Wilmot3

Zmeya connects with the first hit! Hiramat misses!

FOR THE LOVE OF PETE
Zmeya20, Hiramat12, Hobgoblin(12)(AC18/HP2), Gracy11, Archibald8, Klaus7, Bandit(5)(AC12/HP11), Wilmot3

The hobgoblin attacks Hiramat!
Attack: 6 Damage: 11

FOR THE LOVE OF PETE
Zmeya20, Hiramat12, Hobgoblin(12)(AC18/HP2), Gracy11, Archibald8, Klaus7, Bandit(5)(AC12/HP11), Wilmot3

Klaus misses! Here's the save, if needed: 9

FOR THE LOVE OF PETE
Zmeya20, Hiramat12, Hobgoblin(12)(AC18/HP2), Gracy11, Archibald8, Klaus7, Bandit(5)(AC12/HP11), Wilmot3

Growing desperate to help, Archibald drops the quarterstaff, pulls out his two daggers and runs to the front line.  "LEEROY JENKINS!!!"

His action will be used to attack the wounded Hobgoblin.

Dagger attack:  Attack: 16 Damage: 4

If the attack fells the Hobgolbin he will use his bonus action to attack the bandit with his off hand dagger.   If it doesn't he attacks the Hobgoblin again.

Bonus action dagger: Attack: 13 Damage: 4

FOR THE LOVE OF PETE
Zmeya20, Hiramat12, Hobgoblin(12)(AC18/HP2), Gracy11, Archibald8, Klaus7, Bandit(5)(AC12/HP11), Wilmot3

Archbald murders the hobgoblin and stabs the bandit! Holy smokes!

FOR THE LOVE OF PETE
Zmeya20, Hiramat12, Gracy11, Archibald8, Klaus7, Bandit(5)(AC12/HP8), Wilmot3

Gracy draws and shoots at the bandit, looking to finish the fight with a single arrow.

Attack: 9 Damage: 4

Sneak Attack 2

This part of the cavern appears to be holding smuggled items - from bolts of silk to bottles of brandy.

Coming off his bloodlust, Archibald searches through the items for any clue as to who these people were or their goals. 

Investigation: 9

Difficult to tell, Archie. Perhaps smugglers?

Wilmot gives a now familiar, “Huh, that’s weird,” as he looks over the smuggled items. “So much for a haunted house, huh?”

Gracy looks up as Archie and Wilmot speak, a puzzled look on his own face 'Why of course this is a smuggling operation, I assumed everyone had deduced that by the tidal charts and the scuffed windowsill upstairs.' Turning slowly and looking for any tracks that might have survived the scuffle, he continues 'The only question left is who is running this illicit operation' 

Zmeya shrugs. Smuggling and criminal operations were still up on her learning curve on normal society, and making out of here alive was more concerning than learning the intricacies of regular behavior. "They seem intent on killing anyone who enters. I suggest we kill them before that happens to us, or any other soul who ends up here."

Klaus draws in his breath sharply, "I am only a humble paladin, but I tend to classify places where undead not only threaten doom in bone-chilling voices, but succeed in knocking a mighty monk on her scaly arse and casting spells as 'haunted places'.  The question remains, is there one among these smuggling knaves who is a necromancer, or did the accursed criminals merely take up vagrancy in a place where the undead unwittingly provided some measure of security for the smugglers?"

Wilmot nods, agreeing with paladin. “Yes, the fact that the dead do walk within these walls is troubling.” He pauses thinking for a moment. “And...if they are signaling as you suggest, rogue...that means someone out there answers.” He points toward the sound of the crashing waves.  

'Indeed, it would appear that there are forces at work here that we don't understand.  Perhaps we can keep one of these smugglers alive to question them.'

Drawing a fresh arrow, Gracy gestures towards the sounds of the crashing waves.

'Let's be about it.'

Klaus glances at the faces of his comrades:  "How fare you, my fellows?  It would seem that we are at a crossroads: my powers to heal are spent, but I have suffered naught but a wasp sting in our clashes with our foes.  Wilmot, you are our chief healer.  Would you like to take time to reconnect with your god?  We may not be here but for your capacity to keep us among the living."

Foaming slightly at the mouth from his first actual kill in his entire life, Archibald speaks up "Ya, Ya......(huff huff).   Probably not best to kill all em...(huff, huff)"  His eye twitches slightly.  "How about someone let us know next time which one to try and take alive next time.  Gracy!  You seem pretty used to this kind of thing.   I nominate you for prisoner pointer." 

AREA 30 - THE SEA CAVE

You've reached the end of the caverns. The passage leads into a cave that opens directly to the sea. The tide is out at present, and there is little water in the cave, but there is an obvious high-water mark three feet above the floor. Pulled up onto the sloping cave floor is a small boat, perhaps large enough for eight people, with oars, a step-down mast, and a neatly furled sail. A rope tied to the bow is being held down by a large boulder that serves as an anchor.

Three people are here. Two hobgoblins, and an important looking tall bald man who is currently looking out to sea, as if expecting something.

Hiramat pops open a bottle of the brandy, takes and sniff and a swig, "well, at the very least a shot of this will get you back on your feet!"  He looks around, "seems to me this might be an okay place to spend a short time to heal up before we continue further?"