Arc 7 Post 4: Motley Malice
Motley Malice
10th of Lamashan 4707 A.R. (Absalom Reckoning)
The Hydra's Fang launches her ship's boats called launches by some incomprehensible twist of Taldan grammar which makes you morally certain it can't be that related to the Old Tongue, your ancestors would have been more sensible about words even as Mina fades from sight alongside Cob who gives a worrying giggle as he does so. For your part it's enough to pull the shadow close and over it a veil against unwelcome eyes. The first boat is filled with a motley assortment of eight, the second has only six though the fellow at the front must be the leader from the distance he maintains from the others as well as the cut of his doublet. True you might not be an expert of Chelish fashion, but after almost a month in Augustana you can tell fine weave from rough and expensive blue die from common 'earthy' colors. His hair though windswept had certainly seen its share of combs, though judging from how many times he scratches at it you guess the beard is a new development.
"If those are Chelish Marines, I'm a crab's own sister," Captain Mel says from your left, none too softly, though you doubt she could be heard over the sound of waves and wind.
You give an ambivalent nod in answer, turning back to her, to Gorok, his fellow iruxi and... Where had the mage gone? In the time it had taken you to mark the captain, Gavhaul had entirely vanished among the sailors, though unless he has some spell to conjure clothes or wear illusion he has to be one of the 'sailors' in oiled cloaks.
"Darsielle Du Moire, Senior Captain of Her Infernal Majesty's Navy, lower your arms and prepare for inspection and we won't have any trouble," the man in blue says as he reaches for the rope with easy skill and a smile just as easy. "You will I hope forgive the disheveled company, such is the nature of men doing the scut-work that keeps the empire's backside polished."
Mel laughs and despite yourself you relax fractionally, recalling the guards in Old Town asking for their cut. It would not come out of your purse so what do you care what it might cost Gavhaul. Yet you cannot help but notice Gavhaul himself does not step forward. Is he planning to let the captain do the talking? He did not seem that trusting a fellow do you.
The answer does not come in words, but a wave of shifting somehow colorless light that bursts in an arc from an upraised hand to strike a point some fifteen feet above the deck of the ship and there reveal a pair of misshapen fiends inheriting from each frog, bat, and horned goat. The worst features paired with flood red eyes and teeth at once too sharp and too long for their mouths.
Bluff vs Sense Motive: Du Moire 23 vs Mel 14 ; Akorian 22; Gavhaul 30
Gavhaul Dispel Check: 23, 19 (Success; Success)
For a moment confusion reigns as none of the sailors know what the things are, Mina unseen and you not knowing what they are besides unwholesome looking, then Du Moire simplifies matters by drawing his sword and shouting: "Lay down your arms or I'll gut you with the wizard!"
"I'll hang your guts from my mast!" Mel shouts, jumping forward with an oddly shaped axe to hew the rope she had ordered cast down a moment ago, but it's too late. The foe was on the deck and with a twist of his rapier tries to send her weapon flying, though he misjudges the swing.
Seeing their captain's peril the Chelish soldiers in the boat hurl hooks of their own over the side and with a clatter of iron biting into wood, cutlasses in the other hand, coming from both boats and some cutlasses that do not need hands at all. A thing of splintered planks and jagged weapons, its abdomen an broken barrel held with rusted hoops scrambles along the side of the boat, a poor approximation of a spider, though no less deadly for it.
Aboard the enemy ship sailors scramble to load stones and bolts in engines, sure to wreak havoc on the deck of the Fruitful Endeavor, though luckily they seem to have been caught wrong-footed an ambush too soon unveiled.
In swirling chaos the battle is joined, Gorok and his iruxi charge, two of them fall without a blow on them, but axe and spear soon press the foeman against the side of the ship, first blood claimed taken with a squeal from Du Moire.
Iruxi 2 and 3 Prone
Darsielle Du Moire takes 14 Damage -> Now at 28/42
"Wizard! Wizard in the other boat!" Cob shouts over the din as the small fiends cackle at the chaos, the sound promising ruin. Though Gorok is not daunted you can feel your warning magic stripped from both him, the captain, and a handful of the closest friendly sailors.
Gorok is under the effects of Bane
What do you do?
[] Strike at Du Moire, if you can kill or capture him it might drive off the rest or force them to negotiate
[] You're not sure what that spider thing is but it needs to die
[] Try to trap the enemy soldiers climbing onto the hooked ropes to the ropes slowing the Endeavor's crew to cut them loose
[] Deal with that wizard Cob's shouting about... if you can find her.
[] Write in
OOC: Say what you will about PF, I do not think there is any other game where a spider construct made of old barrels, planks, and nails with weapons on the end is a standard enemy.
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), that is a cutlass spider .
