Crew of The Reaver's Word (Q'rath Set)

Eclipse

"Ay, that was a sorry sight, my Queen Laitraxa. Even my self-interested heart couldn't be swayed to leave behind a creature as grand as yourself which had succumbed somehow to the wiles of that scraggly coven of fiends.

"I haven't thought about that sorry lot since our return to civilization, but hmmmm... how is it that their slaver operations work, after all?"

(OOC: History check about slaver operations 13)

Perception -

Slaver operations - 

Eclipse

"In essence, the Iron Empire is a slave magnet, drawing bits of ore, slaves, toward it with invisible force, slavers. Hmmmm...now that I think of it, this will be the lyric of my next song. It'll be called..."Compass," and east and west are equivalent to right and wrong. No, too blasted easy..." he pauses for a moment before continuing in a more bookish manner.

"In this part of the world there aren't exactly well-known standardized slavery conventions, seeing as slavery is illegal in Can Tinodeus. Slavery isn't illegal in the Iron Empire, to the east of us, and anything goes in the unaligned space in between. What that means is that what slaving does go on is all oriented toward capturing people to be moved east, quickly and quietly. The orcs, or more rarely, goblins, sometimes snatch people from the edge of Can Tinodean land, or the lawless between, and sell them in the Empire."

"Well. Perhaps we can save some folk from their eastbound fates. Slavery should be an end for no one." A wisp of flame and smoke blows out of Laitraxa's nostrils, she's obviously heated about the subject.

The pitter-patter of rain begins to fall on the deck as the ship begins to head out over the northern plains again. It grows as you press on. Over the next day you find yourself under heavy rain, slowing your progress, but you're still roughly where you intended to be. Occasional flocks of one animal or another being tended to by orcs or worgs can be seen below. The spiked huts built onto wagons the orcs call broodhaulers dot the landscape. Normally there would be others about, but it seems the weather is keeping them in. The bad weather is useful. Overcast skies means no one sees the shadow of the ship approaching, and rain means people tend not to look up.

The captain's had time to heal. The crew can begin the attack from here, so long as they come together with a plan. 

Looking over the edge of the ship, Jenaer calls back to his crewmates. “It seems we have arrived. We are certain these are the slavers then? I’m assuming we do not want to risk killing the enslaved, shall we approach by foot instead if raining down hell as ww did last time?”

Perception checks for the group:

Laitraxa 3

Eclipse 22

Jenaer 10

Tyrod 5

Everyone but Jenaer hears the air part above them a second before the other corsair comes screaming out of the clouds at an insane angle, it's side-sales folded back in a committed dive. Paired ballista are aimed at the Reaver's Word. Laitraxa, Eclipse, and Tyrod, you've got a split second to take an action before initiative is rolled.

Laitraxa roars, "Sky-hunters!" and scrambles up the rigging as far as she can, the ropes straining as her serpentine form hangs off, wings tightly folded.

She tries to gauge the distance... to see if a clever application of sleep gas could turn the tide.

OOC: Is the ship, specifically, the ship's wheel/helmsman closing to within 90 feet? If so, attempt to cast sleep. If not, climb climb climb.

The ship's wheel is passing within range, but there's no one at the wheel. The steep angle they've dived at seems to have sent people aboard tumbling. Either they're idiots for trying such an aggressive move, or something else is going on.

Laitraxa pauses a mere moment, wondering if the Reaver's Word had simply interrupted these people mid-crash. She swiftly climbs as far up the rigging as she can, and kicks off the top -- unfurling her crimson and green wings in a spinning movement as she attempts to get the maximum amount of altitude before whatever happens, happens. Her wings outstretched, she starts to fly in an arc around the Reaver's Word, attempting to figure out what the potentially hostile ship is doing. She does not fly directly at the ship yet.

Move (up the rigging), action: dash (up the rigging and jump off the ship) to glide as high above as she can. Also, DM, how high are we from the terrain below?

Close to 1,000 feet up.

Eclipse yells "HOLD ON TIGHT!" and makes an evasive maneuver, bringing the Reaver's Word out of the other ship's ballista path, and coming alongside to get a good look at the crew (Perception: 12)

(OOC: Not sure which skill this is, but here is a piloting roll with no bonuses: 1)

Well, that's a 20, so...

The Reaver's Word turns into the direction of the oncoming ship, it's sails catching the air displaced by the attacker. The Word buffets violently to one side, thrown back. It's not normally possible to make a ship dodge a short-range attack, but the bolts pass through the space the Word occupied a moment ago.

Eclipse smiles brutally, showing all his pointy teeth. His eyes bulge in anger while his grey-blue fur whips in the wind like a churning sea. He forces the wheel into motion once more, shouting "I'm bringing her around close, to broadside the flockers! Who's on our ballista?" 

Squinting against the rain, he shoots a glance up to Laitraxa, eagerly anticipating her next move.

Piloting: 17

I'm looking to preserve momentum in this fight, so Tyrod, your action is held. Feel free to take it at any point in this round. 

As the Reaver's Word pulls round the other ship dives below it, throwing open it's side sails and sending a bone-shaking shiver through the Word as the attacking ship's drophopper digs into the underside. Coming up from beneath the Word the other ship rotates, letting the crews see each other, if indirectly. Ships never get this close at speed,especially at differing elevations. The other ship is taking a lot of risks right now.

Pirate1 19 (A purple-haired pixie woman holding on to the front railing) 

Jaener 18

Pirate2 17 (An androgynous Ruxalfier holding to the rigging on the starboard side to keep up right) 

Eclipse 16

Pirate3 16 (A slender yellow lizard woman with her tail wrapped around the mastpipe for support) 

Latraxia 16

Pirate4 9 (A plump albioni man holding the front railing, next to the pixie)

Tyrod 7

(OOC: sorry about taking so long to post. How close is the other air ship, within 30 feet?)

Tyrod walks over the railing and takes out a small box and some tools. He does something with them and silently says something you can't quite hear.  A spectral hand appears in front of him and races off towards the ship. (OOC: casts mage hand and sends it over to the helm on the other boat to try and stop it from flailing about. If a roll is needed: 6)

The closest railing is about 30 ft, but mage hand exerts about ten pounds of force, which isn't anything near enough to steady a 30 ton vessel in motion, so I'm assuming you mean the wheel at the helm. That's closer to 40ft away. Even jerking the rigging in a meaningful way would take more than 10 pounds of force.

ECLIPSE @16