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"Retake the Island" - Concluded!
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<blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 2866171" data-attributes="member: 8530"><p><strong>Chapter Twenty-four, “Escape Attempt“, August 7th, 1018, 7:45 P.M</strong></p><p></p><p>Narg has rolled up the mage’s head into a blanket, saying that he’s going to take it with him, which the others find to be a bit morbid. Aradyn points out to Narg that the mage was the one who had attacked Vallessa during the City battle, which makes him doubly pleased.</p><p></p><p>A quick survey of the situation determines that all fourteen hostages are freed and four enemies from the tavern are captured (the cleric, assassin and two hobgoblins). They also determine that around a half-dozen enemy hobgoblins and bugbears, which had been guarding outside of the exterior doors to the inn, have run away. The group concludes that it is therefore not safe to linger here much longer. Blip and Immy offer to take a group to safety in the bags of holding. The eight tavern workers, five crewmembers, and the five prisoners are selected for the first trip. They fly off on the broom and fly, their destination being Crystull’s cabin, ten miles to the west. They depart just as the rain storm begins and the last light of day disappears. </p><p></p><p>The others use the time to load up the Jeep with the magic stripped from the dead enemies as well as supplies from the bar. Jerry wanders through the bar, shaking his head, and comments “Well, at least you didn’t set fire to it, like you did yesterday to Timothy’s church.” Narg answers “That’s because we consider your bar to be a more holy place.” </p><p></p><p>Mojo and Serita prepare to head off in the Jeep. Freyland agrees to go with them, as his magical axe will be needed to cut down saplings that have grown on the trail to Crystull’s cabin during the six years since she left the island. Once they have driven out of sight of the tavern, Mojo asks Serita to hand him a bottle from one of the cases of whisky that they loaded. She becomes angry that they had packed it, feeling that it was not a necessary supply, and also says he shouldn’t drink and drive. </p><p></p><p>“Who are you, my mother?” he answers. Freyland tells him to wait until they reach their destination, adding “It’s raining. I’m getting wet! If I can make that sacrifice, you can wait an hour to have a drink.” Every time they stop for Freyland to cut down a small tree blocking their path Serita complains about the killing of an innocent tree, making Freyland and Mojo question why they brought a druid with them.</p><p></p><p>Back at the tavern, Jaime cooks up a fine meal for the rest, who maintain a tight watch for any returning enemies. Blip and Immy soon return, with Blip telling Jaime “Good news. Your husband and all of your children are safe, and waiting for you at Crystull’s house.” “Good, I’ll stay here,” she answers. “Don’t you want to be with them?” asks Blip. She answers “Not really, as long as I know they’re safe. Personally, I’m now enjoying the peace and quiet.” Looking out the kitchen doorway, into the tavern full of bugbear and hobgoblin bodies, Timothy comments “I don’t think that the term ‘peace’ really applies to this situation.” The others manage to persuade her that their present location is not safe, and the rest of the adventurers climb into the bags of holding for the trip to Crystull’s house, arriving there by 10:00 P.M.</p><p></p><p>Even through Crystull lived in a rather large cabin, the party conclude that it is a bit small for a total of now seventy-five people, and decide that the ten prisoners can be moved outside. The twenty ship’s crew members also move outside, with tarps from the inn brought in on the Jeep being set up for them to guard the prisoners from. A rotation is also set up for party members to supplement the crew in guarding these enemies. The prisoners are stripped of all possessions, including their clothing.</p><p></p><p>The group surveys all of the magic items obtained, inquiring about being able to tell if any items are cursed. Timothy says “I have an aura” to which Mojo quips “I been meaning to talk to you about that.” Timothy goes on to say, that he can detect evil-aligned items, which none of these appear to be, but that the aura will not detect cursed items. The group decides that the bracers from the high-level mages should be identified first. Fiona determines that the bracers from the mage leader at the Church are armor class two. Fiona and Kharole then head off to rest. Jerry begins to interview everyone present about who they fought and when, taking many notes.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, it is now late in the evening on board the ship Silver Moon. Hans saw the lanterns from within the Captain’s cabin come on. At around 10:00 P.M. these lights were extinguished. Approximately an hour later, Kimball informed the bugbears guarding Hans’s trio to “get them below and send up the replacements.” The bugbears then did as they were told. </p><p></p><p>The trio traveled down to the crew deck, standing as a group by the bottom of the ladder, as Jacob’s trio got ready to head topside. Jacob reminded Stokkes that he had agreed to cast cures on them. Humphry received the first cure, followed by Jacob, then lastly Bink. Bink then grabbed at the magical mace on Stokkes belt, causing Stokkes to jump back and signaling the others to attack. </p><p></p><p>By this point Humphry and the bugbear guarding him were already on the ladder up. Humphry dived off of the ladder, knocking the bugbear behind Reginon to the floor. Reginon rushed forward, hitting the next bugbear on the ladder and knocking him off of it.</p><p></p><p>Hans charged at Stokkes, catching him by surprise. Jacob rushed over to attack the bugbear behind Sammy, grabbing the axe in the monster’s hand. Sammy dived across the table into the bugbear behind Jacob. The bugbear guard eating stood up, and charged after Hans.</p><p></p><p>Reginon spends a few rounds trying to fight his opponent, but the first level fighter is soon overpowered and falls. Sammy has much better luck, managing to steal his opponent’s weapon and use it against him. He then has to contend with two opponents, as the bugbear who defeated Reginon charges him as well, but Sammy is able to keep them both at bay with sweeping blows.</p><p></p><p>Hans manages to push Stokkes into the rear hallway, to position the cleric between him and the two bugbears coming to Stokkes assistance. Bink continues to fight his bugbear guard without much success, eventually retreating under a table (the comment from the group being that it took longer than usual for a crewmember to be under the table, although it is usually as a result of alcohol rather than opponents). Sammy strikes a fatal blow into one bugbear, but is also struck during the same round by the other bugbear.</p><p></p><p>Jacob and Humphry have more difficulty with their foes, Jacob managing to push the axe blade into the bugbear, but never able to get the monster to release his grip on the weapon. Humphry gets hit, and has to retreat under the table to escape his foe, who turns to fight Jacob.</p><p></p><p>Hans manages to get the magical mace away from Stokkes, and then strikes its owner with it. He then has to contend with a bugbear as the now wounded cleric retreats. The bugbear hits Hans for all but one of his hit points, so Hans then decides to make for a hasty retreat, heading for the aft storage compartment, which has a ladder down to the bilge deck. Bink continues to evade his opponent, decided to head up the rear ladder to the deck above. As he opens the door at the top of the ladder, his bugbear opponent grabs his leg.</p><p></p><p>Humphry assists Jacob by tripping one of the bugbears, allowing Jacob to grab that monster’s sword, and use it on the other opponent. Humphry dives onto the fallen monster, and jabs his thumbs into the creature's eyes. The group concludes that Humphry must have had older sisters, as he fights dirty. The bugbear stands up to get away from the annoying man.</p><p></p><p>Hans gets into the storage room, and it takes all of his strength to hold back the door from the two bugbears on the other side after him. The player for Hans inquires about simultaneously opening the trap door down with his foot, while still holding the door. The DM stays that it would be a real stretch, but he will allow it on a Dexterity roll of a one. The player then rolls the one, so Hans is then able to jump through this now open door into the bilge water below.</p><p></p><p>Jacob is struck into unconsciousness, dropping his sword, which Humphry immediately grabs. The bugbear attempts to lift the table to get at him, only to get the sword thrust up into him, fatally striking a delicate location. The bugbear that defeated Jacob then charges at the table, with Humphry scampering across the floor to get away from him. </p><p></p><p>Hans swims through the bilge water to the aft bilge doors on this deck, opening a door, as the two bugbears slosh through the water after him. Hans manages to barely squeeze through the doors, which are too small for the bugbears to follow through. He climbs onto the dinghy being towed behind the ship, and begins to untie it. The bugbears yell out at him, and he makes an obscene gesture at them. The bugbears head back up to the deck above.</p><p></p><p>Stokkes comes to assist the bugbear holding Bink, and Bink realizes that he cannot escape the grip of the bugbear that grabbed him. Instead, he dives off of the ladder and to Stokkes, which provides enough of a distraction for Humphry to rush over to the ladder in the front of the room.</p><p>Humphry successfully climbs up, with both the bugbear that was after him and the one who was still fighting Sammy charging up after him. Sammy rushes over to assist Bink.</p><p></p><p>Sammy and Bink both fight Stokkes, until Bink is struck by a bugbear and falls. Sammy then gets a thrust into Stokkes that drops him, although not fatally. Sammy trades blows for a few rounds with the remaining bugbear standing in the room, He spots the two who had pursued Hans returning, at which point he decides to head up the rear ladder to the deck above. </p><p></p><p>Humphry reaches the deck above, and moves around the mast to the ladder on the opposite side, which leads to the hold. He climbs up to the top of the ladder, finding the door to the hold locked. He remains up here, partially shielded by the mast, as the two bugbears chasing after him reach this deck. They do not see him, and head down the hallway to the rear of the ship, assuming he ran that direction. This is unfortunate for Sammy, as he climbs onto this deck just as these bugbears are approaching him. Now with five bugbears after him, Sammy runs for the stairs to the deck above.</p><p></p><p>Humphry uses the sword to pry open the hold door, and climbs in. He tries to remove the ropes on the first pegasus, finding them unmovable. He then starts try to free the pig and pond dragon from their cage. Since this is in an area of silence, he fails to hear the druid Spring move up behind him. Spring grabs Humphry, who slashes out with the longsword, hitting the druid. Spring moves back, Humphry going after him, and out of the area of Silence. </p><p></p><p>Spring asks, “What are doing?” Humphry answers “I got lost.” Spring demands “No, tell me the truth, what are you trying to do?” Humphry then answers “Trying to free the animals.” He is shocked when Spring answers “Good, then I’ll help you.”</p><p></p><p>Sammy reaches the weapon’s rack at the top of the staircase, noting that the magical weapons are all missing, but that it still contains a few non-magical swords and around a dozen pole arms. He starts to grab the weapons and hurl them down the staircase. A few strike the ascending bugbears, and the other weapons manage to create obstacles on the staircase. Once the rack is emptied, Sammy rushes onward, having bought a few more rounds of freedom.</p><p></p><p>Spring states a command word releasing the bonds on the pegasi. He also casts a spell and speaks directly to Timothy’s pegasus. Humphry points to the rainbow colored wyvern, and says “what about him?” Spring answers “That’s a dangerous monster.” Humphry responds “Maynard? A monster, hell no, he’s domesticated.” “Fine,” answers Spring, and he casts a spell to communicate with Maynard. He then releases the ropes on the wyvern. </p><p></p><p>At that point, the side door to the ship’s hold is kicked open by Sammy. Sammy yells to Humphry “Bugbears after me” and then charges at Spring with the sword. Humphry yells for him to stop, and Spring tells Sammy “Go help your friend, I’ll deal with the bugbears.” </p><p></p><p>Spring steps out into the hallway, and tells the bugbears that the one who ran in the hold is stopped, but that the other has double backed to below deck, and to go find him. The bugbears do as instructed. Spring reenters the hold, and heads towards the opposite door. Humphry asks about opening the cages, to which Spring answers “Leave them shut. The wyvern can carry the cages, and the animals inside won’t fall out. We don’t have much time, be ready to get the animals out when the hatch opens" He exits the room and heads up to the top deck.</p><p></p><p>Once on the top deck, Spring tells the half-elf fighter Kimball “There is an escape attempt on the crew deck below. Take these three bugbear and get below to stop it now!” He gestures towards the prisoners, adding “I’ll watch them and wake up the others. Hurry!” Kimball and the three bugbears rush below deck. </p><p></p><p>Spring approaches Silver Moon crewmembers Trent, Spike and Stephen, and says “We don’t have much time if you want to help get the animals off the ship. Go open the hatch. If any of my allies stop you, the story is that you three caught me off guard and pushed me overboard.” Spring then dives off of the ship and into the ocean. Once out of sight, he transforms into a duck, and discreetly flies back up to a spot behind the front mast, where he transforms back into his human form still unseen by the Silver Moon crewmembers. By this point, the three crew have thrown open the hatch cover. </p><p></p><p>Spring pulls out a wand, and uses it on Stephen, dropping him unconscious. Maynard flies upward, out of the ship's hold, grasping onto the two cages with his claws. A second beam from the wand drops Spike and a third drops Trent. The pegasi begin to fly upward, with Humphry and Sammy on the backs of two of them. Spring uses the wand again, with Humphry falling off the mount and onto the deck. Sammy saves from the wand; forcing Spring to pull out a magical sling and sling bullet, which successfully knocks Sammy from the pegasi and dropping him twenty feet onto the top deck into a state of unconsciousness.</p><p></p><p>A short while later, Humphry, Spike, Stephen and Trent awaken, Spring having cast a dispel magic on them to negate the effects of the wand. They are again tied and gagged, and alone with Spring in a cabin on the ship. He tells them “I agreed to help free the animals, not the people. All nine of the creatures are safely gone. I would advise you not to speak of my temporary cooperation with you to my allies, as mine is the only voice arguing against executing at least some of you for the attempted escape and the killing of two of the bugbears.” He then adds that, by stopping them from leaving atop the mounts he has probably also saved their lives, as they had no prior experience with riding a pegasus, as well as the lack of saddles and barding on the creatures, so there was no way that they would have been able to stay on the creatures through the heavy wind and rains, and would have most-likely fallen into the ocean and drowned. </p><p></p><p>Spring goes to the door, and lets in four bugbear who untie them, and lead the four back up to the top deck. An angry Kimball supervises them, as they resume sailing the ship through the rather heavy storm.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Silver Moon, post: 2866171, member: 8530"] [B]Chapter Twenty-four, “Escape Attempt“, August 7th, 1018, 7:45 P.M[/B] Narg has rolled up the mage’s head into a blanket, saying that he’s going to take it with him, which the others find to be a bit morbid. Aradyn points out to Narg that the mage was the one who had attacked Vallessa during the City battle, which makes him doubly pleased. A quick survey of the situation determines that all fourteen hostages are freed and four enemies from the tavern are captured (the cleric, assassin and two hobgoblins). They also determine that around a half-dozen enemy hobgoblins and bugbears, which had been guarding outside of the exterior doors to the inn, have run away. The group concludes that it is therefore not safe to linger here much longer. Blip and Immy offer to take a group to safety in the bags of holding. The eight tavern workers, five crewmembers, and the five prisoners are selected for the first trip. They fly off on the broom and fly, their destination being Crystull’s cabin, ten miles to the west. They depart just as the rain storm begins and the last light of day disappears. The others use the time to load up the Jeep with the magic stripped from the dead enemies as well as supplies from the bar. Jerry wanders through the bar, shaking his head, and comments “Well, at least you didn’t set fire to it, like you did yesterday to Timothy’s church.” Narg answers “That’s because we consider your bar to be a more holy place.” Mojo and Serita prepare to head off in the Jeep. Freyland agrees to go with them, as his magical axe will be needed to cut down saplings that have grown on the trail to Crystull’s cabin during the six years since she left the island. Once they have driven out of sight of the tavern, Mojo asks Serita to hand him a bottle from one of the cases of whisky that they loaded. She becomes angry that they had packed it, feeling that it was not a necessary supply, and also says he shouldn’t drink and drive. “Who are you, my mother?” he answers. Freyland tells him to wait until they reach their destination, adding “It’s raining. I’m getting wet! If I can make that sacrifice, you can wait an hour to have a drink.” Every time they stop for Freyland to cut down a small tree blocking their path Serita complains about the killing of an innocent tree, making Freyland and Mojo question why they brought a druid with them. Back at the tavern, Jaime cooks up a fine meal for the rest, who maintain a tight watch for any returning enemies. Blip and Immy soon return, with Blip telling Jaime “Good news. Your husband and all of your children are safe, and waiting for you at Crystull’s house.” “Good, I’ll stay here,” she answers. “Don’t you want to be with them?” asks Blip. She answers “Not really, as long as I know they’re safe. Personally, I’m now enjoying the peace and quiet.” Looking out the kitchen doorway, into the tavern full of bugbear and hobgoblin bodies, Timothy comments “I don’t think that the term ‘peace’ really applies to this situation.” The others manage to persuade her that their present location is not safe, and the rest of the adventurers climb into the bags of holding for the trip to Crystull’s house, arriving there by 10:00 P.M. Even through Crystull lived in a rather large cabin, the party conclude that it is a bit small for a total of now seventy-five people, and decide that the ten prisoners can be moved outside. The twenty ship’s crew members also move outside, with tarps from the inn brought in on the Jeep being set up for them to guard the prisoners from. A rotation is also set up for party members to supplement the crew in guarding these enemies. The prisoners are stripped of all possessions, including their clothing. The group surveys all of the magic items obtained, inquiring about being able to tell if any items are cursed. Timothy says “I have an aura” to which Mojo quips “I been meaning to talk to you about that.” Timothy goes on to say, that he can detect evil-aligned items, which none of these appear to be, but that the aura will not detect cursed items. The group decides that the bracers from the high-level mages should be identified first. Fiona determines that the bracers from the mage leader at the Church are armor class two. Fiona and Kharole then head off to rest. Jerry begins to interview everyone present about who they fought and when, taking many notes. Meanwhile, it is now late in the evening on board the ship Silver Moon. Hans saw the lanterns from within the Captain’s cabin come on. At around 10:00 P.M. these lights were extinguished. Approximately an hour later, Kimball informed the bugbears guarding Hans’s trio to “get them below and send up the replacements.” The bugbears then did as they were told. The trio traveled down to the crew deck, standing as a group by the bottom of the ladder, as Jacob’s trio got ready to head topside. Jacob reminded Stokkes that he had agreed to cast cures on them. Humphry received the first cure, followed by Jacob, then lastly Bink. Bink then grabbed at the magical mace on Stokkes belt, causing Stokkes to jump back and signaling the others to attack. By this point Humphry and the bugbear guarding him were already on the ladder up. Humphry dived off of the ladder, knocking the bugbear behind Reginon to the floor. Reginon rushed forward, hitting the next bugbear on the ladder and knocking him off of it. Hans charged at Stokkes, catching him by surprise. Jacob rushed over to attack the bugbear behind Sammy, grabbing the axe in the monster’s hand. Sammy dived across the table into the bugbear behind Jacob. The bugbear guard eating stood up, and charged after Hans. Reginon spends a few rounds trying to fight his opponent, but the first level fighter is soon overpowered and falls. Sammy has much better luck, managing to steal his opponent’s weapon and use it against him. He then has to contend with two opponents, as the bugbear who defeated Reginon charges him as well, but Sammy is able to keep them both at bay with sweeping blows. Hans manages to push Stokkes into the rear hallway, to position the cleric between him and the two bugbears coming to Stokkes assistance. Bink continues to fight his bugbear guard without much success, eventually retreating under a table (the comment from the group being that it took longer than usual for a crewmember to be under the table, although it is usually as a result of alcohol rather than opponents). Sammy strikes a fatal blow into one bugbear, but is also struck during the same round by the other bugbear. Jacob and Humphry have more difficulty with their foes, Jacob managing to push the axe blade into the bugbear, but never able to get the monster to release his grip on the weapon. Humphry gets hit, and has to retreat under the table to escape his foe, who turns to fight Jacob. Hans manages to get the magical mace away from Stokkes, and then strikes its owner with it. He then has to contend with a bugbear as the now wounded cleric retreats. The bugbear hits Hans for all but one of his hit points, so Hans then decides to make for a hasty retreat, heading for the aft storage compartment, which has a ladder down to the bilge deck. Bink continues to evade his opponent, decided to head up the rear ladder to the deck above. As he opens the door at the top of the ladder, his bugbear opponent grabs his leg. Humphry assists Jacob by tripping one of the bugbears, allowing Jacob to grab that monster’s sword, and use it on the other opponent. Humphry dives onto the fallen monster, and jabs his thumbs into the creature's eyes. The group concludes that Humphry must have had older sisters, as he fights dirty. The bugbear stands up to get away from the annoying man. Hans gets into the storage room, and it takes all of his strength to hold back the door from the two bugbears on the other side after him. The player for Hans inquires about simultaneously opening the trap door down with his foot, while still holding the door. The DM stays that it would be a real stretch, but he will allow it on a Dexterity roll of a one. The player then rolls the one, so Hans is then able to jump through this now open door into the bilge water below. Jacob is struck into unconsciousness, dropping his sword, which Humphry immediately grabs. The bugbear attempts to lift the table to get at him, only to get the sword thrust up into him, fatally striking a delicate location. The bugbear that defeated Jacob then charges at the table, with Humphry scampering across the floor to get away from him. Hans swims through the bilge water to the aft bilge doors on this deck, opening a door, as the two bugbears slosh through the water after him. Hans manages to barely squeeze through the doors, which are too small for the bugbears to follow through. He climbs onto the dinghy being towed behind the ship, and begins to untie it. The bugbears yell out at him, and he makes an obscene gesture at them. The bugbears head back up to the deck above. Stokkes comes to assist the bugbear holding Bink, and Bink realizes that he cannot escape the grip of the bugbear that grabbed him. Instead, he dives off of the ladder and to Stokkes, which provides enough of a distraction for Humphry to rush over to the ladder in the front of the room. Humphry successfully climbs up, with both the bugbear that was after him and the one who was still fighting Sammy charging up after him. Sammy rushes over to assist Bink. Sammy and Bink both fight Stokkes, until Bink is struck by a bugbear and falls. Sammy then gets a thrust into Stokkes that drops him, although not fatally. Sammy trades blows for a few rounds with the remaining bugbear standing in the room, He spots the two who had pursued Hans returning, at which point he decides to head up the rear ladder to the deck above. Humphry reaches the deck above, and moves around the mast to the ladder on the opposite side, which leads to the hold. He climbs up to the top of the ladder, finding the door to the hold locked. He remains up here, partially shielded by the mast, as the two bugbears chasing after him reach this deck. They do not see him, and head down the hallway to the rear of the ship, assuming he ran that direction. This is unfortunate for Sammy, as he climbs onto this deck just as these bugbears are approaching him. Now with five bugbears after him, Sammy runs for the stairs to the deck above. Humphry uses the sword to pry open the hold door, and climbs in. He tries to remove the ropes on the first pegasus, finding them unmovable. He then starts try to free the pig and pond dragon from their cage. Since this is in an area of silence, he fails to hear the druid Spring move up behind him. Spring grabs Humphry, who slashes out with the longsword, hitting the druid. Spring moves back, Humphry going after him, and out of the area of Silence. Spring asks, “What are doing?” Humphry answers “I got lost.” Spring demands “No, tell me the truth, what are you trying to do?” Humphry then answers “Trying to free the animals.” He is shocked when Spring answers “Good, then I’ll help you.” Sammy reaches the weapon’s rack at the top of the staircase, noting that the magical weapons are all missing, but that it still contains a few non-magical swords and around a dozen pole arms. He starts to grab the weapons and hurl them down the staircase. A few strike the ascending bugbears, and the other weapons manage to create obstacles on the staircase. Once the rack is emptied, Sammy rushes onward, having bought a few more rounds of freedom. Spring states a command word releasing the bonds on the pegasi. He also casts a spell and speaks directly to Timothy’s pegasus. Humphry points to the rainbow colored wyvern, and says “what about him?” Spring answers “That’s a dangerous monster.” Humphry responds “Maynard? A monster, hell no, he’s domesticated.” “Fine,” answers Spring, and he casts a spell to communicate with Maynard. He then releases the ropes on the wyvern. At that point, the side door to the ship’s hold is kicked open by Sammy. Sammy yells to Humphry “Bugbears after me” and then charges at Spring with the sword. Humphry yells for him to stop, and Spring tells Sammy “Go help your friend, I’ll deal with the bugbears.” Spring steps out into the hallway, and tells the bugbears that the one who ran in the hold is stopped, but that the other has double backed to below deck, and to go find him. The bugbears do as instructed. Spring reenters the hold, and heads towards the opposite door. Humphry asks about opening the cages, to which Spring answers “Leave them shut. The wyvern can carry the cages, and the animals inside won’t fall out. We don’t have much time, be ready to get the animals out when the hatch opens" He exits the room and heads up to the top deck. Once on the top deck, Spring tells the half-elf fighter Kimball “There is an escape attempt on the crew deck below. Take these three bugbear and get below to stop it now!” He gestures towards the prisoners, adding “I’ll watch them and wake up the others. Hurry!” Kimball and the three bugbears rush below deck. Spring approaches Silver Moon crewmembers Trent, Spike and Stephen, and says “We don’t have much time if you want to help get the animals off the ship. Go open the hatch. If any of my allies stop you, the story is that you three caught me off guard and pushed me overboard.” Spring then dives off of the ship and into the ocean. Once out of sight, he transforms into a duck, and discreetly flies back up to a spot behind the front mast, where he transforms back into his human form still unseen by the Silver Moon crewmembers. By this point, the three crew have thrown open the hatch cover. Spring pulls out a wand, and uses it on Stephen, dropping him unconscious. Maynard flies upward, out of the ship's hold, grasping onto the two cages with his claws. A second beam from the wand drops Spike and a third drops Trent. The pegasi begin to fly upward, with Humphry and Sammy on the backs of two of them. Spring uses the wand again, with Humphry falling off the mount and onto the deck. Sammy saves from the wand; forcing Spring to pull out a magical sling and sling bullet, which successfully knocks Sammy from the pegasi and dropping him twenty feet onto the top deck into a state of unconsciousness. A short while later, Humphry, Spike, Stephen and Trent awaken, Spring having cast a dispel magic on them to negate the effects of the wand. They are again tied and gagged, and alone with Spring in a cabin on the ship. He tells them “I agreed to help free the animals, not the people. All nine of the creatures are safely gone. I would advise you not to speak of my temporary cooperation with you to my allies, as mine is the only voice arguing against executing at least some of you for the attempted escape and the killing of two of the bugbears.” He then adds that, by stopping them from leaving atop the mounts he has probably also saved their lives, as they had no prior experience with riding a pegasus, as well as the lack of saddles and barding on the creatures, so there was no way that they would have been able to stay on the creatures through the heavy wind and rains, and would have most-likely fallen into the ocean and drowned. Spring goes to the door, and lets in four bugbear who untie them, and lead the four back up to the top deck. An angry Kimball supervises them, as they resume sailing the ship through the rather heavy storm. [/QUOTE]
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