A Paid Trip to Spellhold [D&D 4e]

[Velmont]

"Yeah, we can overwhelm him, but we won't be able to free the slave. It will be at night, their is no storm, the sound will carry easily. We will have the crew on our back quite fast enough, the captain too, and the slaves would be still chained and unarmed. I think we will be able to handle the dwarf and the captain all of us while the slaves take care of the remaining of the crew, but for that, we need to free the slave before anyone notice us." replies Cliff.

"Taran, Sandy and Lochlan will handle the ballista while Asterion, Chizz and I will free the slaves. Once we will have the advantage of number and they won't have the ballista, we will be able to easily handle them."

 

[Durlak]

"Sounds like a good plan, we should scatter and wait until the crew goes to sleep now. If someone found us all together they might get the wrong impression "

 

[Pyrex]

Lochlan nods. "Sounds like we have a plan then."

 

[On Puget Sound]

I will be computerless until Sunday.

 

[Velmont]

"Perfect, now we wait. I'll stay with Asterion and work in the forge here. You, go help the crew and do as usual. When time will come, you'll four gather on the deck. not necessity to be in group but at least everyone knows the time have come. Chizz will climb down here and we will move. The people on the deck a few minutes before acting, to make sure we have time to start to free the slave, at that should take more time."

 

[Voda Vosa]

Plans in place, and the logistic discussed, the group returns to their faked duties. All except the druid who morphs into a small mice, and uses the spare time to sneak into the closed room, from a rathole.
Taran enters the roon and discovers...
[sblock=Only Taran, no peeking]
[sblock=Hey! I said only Taran!]
[sblock=Insistent little bugger are you?]
[sblock=Go no further!]
[sblock=You shall not pass!!]
[sblock=Ah well, but it will spoil the surprise...]
... a room filled with a fine layer of dust, covering everything. It's hard to make out the colors and materials of things due to it. The druid spots a large round and big "thing" he thinks might be an armor. With a gentle blow he produces a cloud of dust, and must refrain from coughing as to not alert the pirates of his business. What is revealed is a huge armor, of black and blue colors, apparently untouched by the passing of time. Taran has to be no expert to identify the fine craftmanship of the piece.
It is made for a large creature, perhaps the minotaur Asterion could donne it. There is also a huge forge hammer there, covered in dust.
Over a bookshelf Taran finds something more peculiar... a journal. Time has taken its toll on it however, and attempting to move it thouht the rathole might well destroy it completely. The druid takes a quick glance at it and discovers it belonged to Boulder, the former blacksmith of the ship.
The tome is extense and it might take a long while to study it throughout.
There are also many other things, small statues with no meaning to Taran. There is one figurine of a minotaur, and of some people. He recognizes captain Kumar among the figurines crafted in wood.
There is also a big chest, but it's locked, and any attempt to bash the lock would call the attention of the crew.

Having inspected all the room, Taran returns to mice shape and to his companions with the news.
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Taran returns to t he forge. The complete group is there, they found an excuse to quit their tasks and come to hear what the druid had discovered.

 

[Durlak]

Hello fellows, I've discovered some things in the locked room. First, there's a big armor, big enough for Asterion to wear. And a matching hammer. That's means huge and very heavy. There is a old rattled journal that belonged to the former blacksmith, it's old but probably has some useful information in it. Finally there's a locked chest which I could not open due to my lack of skill in that area, but I'm sure our dexterous friend. So maybe it's worth opening the door before we attack.

 

[DistractingFlare]

"I'm intrigued by this," Asterion replies, "but perhaps it should wait until after the battle. We have much to prepare. I'd like plenty of time to study that journal later."

 

[Velmont]

"We could try to open the door once the slave are free. We will probably have to wait for them to arms themselves, which would give Chizz a quick try to pick the lock." tells Cliff. "Also, I think it would be fine to see Asterion having them when we attack Kumar. I guess they are the tools of war of your old master, which have been killed by Kumar. Seeing the ghost of his past coming back to him would shake him and his crew."

 

[Voda Vosa]

Mutiny begans…
Night falls over the ship. The clouds gather around the moon casting strange shadows over the deck. Lochan Sandy and Taran await to act impatiently. They keep a low profile and handle routine tasks. The sea has the smell of blood on it…
Meantime, under the deck, Cliff and Asterion move out of the forge. The towering minotaur carries a big sack full of weapons and some basic armors. As the get next to the stairs, Chizz jumps to join them silently, his frame contorting gracefully under the moonlight. Cliff moves, blade in hand, into the rower’s room. There is a pirate there, he turns to the sound of the opening door, and comprehension draws on his face, but too late. The shifter impales his heart, and the man cackles inaudibly, before falling to the floor, contorting violently before expiring.
The slaves are awaken by this, and begin to whisper and moan. The slave in charge shush them, and Chizz can make use of his craft, releasing all the chains. The slaves look with unease at Asterion, but when the massive minotaur starts giving them weapons and armors, they look him with trust.
In aout half an hour the slaves are free and ready. They start to march up…
Taran, Sandy and Lochan are assembled around the ballista already, trying to draw the least attention possible. They know the time to act is now, and when the nimble Halfling is about to take care of the machinery, they found they could actually use it against the pirates!
“Hey what are you three doin’ over there?” cries out a voice from behind. A pirate has spotted them. Simultaneously, Cliff, Chizz Asterion and the armed slaves burst into the deck! The pirates go to arms and shouting soon begins at the hand of the dwarf, who stands in the middle of the deck. The captain, if he heard the screams, is still on his room.
[sblock= Battle]
[sblock= Important Battle Information, please read]
Any nearby PC can command slaves, I’ll do the rolling of the slaves, so just spell out the commands you wish them to perform.

2 more armed slaves will appear each round from the stairs until number 20 slave has appeared.

2 more pirates will appear each round from the stairs until number 12 pirate has appeared.

The big square In the middle is the main post.

Going up the stairs is difficult terrain so each stairs square takes 2 normal move squares.

Characters standing on the edge of high deck gain a +2 to ranged attacks vs characters on lower deck, and gain concealment vs ranged attacks from low deck attackers.

Standing anywere but the edge of the high deck grants superior conealment from attackers from the other deck. This is true for characters on the lower and on the higher deck. (So the dwarf gets sup. Concealment vs Sandy and Taran, and they too have concealment vs him. Lochlan has +2 attack vs the dwarf, and concealment vs his ranged attacks, whereas the dwarf gets no bonus against Lochlan’s attacks.)

I8 is the entrance to the captain’s cabin. It’s currently closed.

To disable the ballista permantly would take a minor action from the three characters around it. Firing it would take a move action from each of them. The ballista has a ranged attack of +10 vs Ref for 2d8 points of dmg. It has an inherent -4 to attack (plus the cover) people in the lower deck, but can target normally people on the higher deck and the stairs.

The borders of the ship can be used like a “trap”. If someone pushes a character to a square of water, the pushed character falls to the freezing waters and takes 10 dmg each round it remains in it. Characters can use the Rope stairs to climb up, but it would require a successful swim check (DC 15 for each move action used to reach the square adjacent) and a successful climb check (DC 10) to climb up. Minor NPC will instantly die, but bosses will use those rules to climb up again.
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The characters get to act first, then the bad guys since they had it all planned. However this is not a surprise round. I’ll get a list of participating characters on the fight later on.
The map is here, use it, move your tokens around, etc. Battle over the Ship MAP
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