"There's a block of ice sticking out of the hull making the ship list to the side. I'll stay here rather then slip and fall into the sea." Lex looks back up at the charging crab. He's too far away now, damn that dead fishman who stopped him last round. He instead sends a chaos bolt at one of the thugs (3) harrying the octopus.
Burton climbs up the docks with the help of the guard, and before standing up produces a small piece of leather from an old shoe that was tucked away in his current right shoe. His cold cough is both genuine -- he's freezing, especially having just emerged from the ice cold water -- and a way to disguise his eldritch muttering as Burton conjures up a magical protection from attacks.
"We're being slaughtered," he agrees with Py'Cott and Lex. "We need protection, and allies."
Not giving himself time to doubt the best direction, Burton follows Py'Cott towards the ship, conjuring his rapier back into his grasp with the flick of a wrist.
OOC:
Action: Cast the Mage Armour spell, increasing my AC to 16. Spell slots left: 1/2
Move: To the ship.
Bonus Action: Summon bonded weapon (rapier).
(287) Burton AC13/16/21 HP 4/28 HD 3/3 PP 13 SS 1/2 2W 1/1 AS 1/1
Note: When taking damage, as a Reaction Burton casts either Shield or Absorb Elements (depending on the type of damage taken).
Jathlin directs the spiritual weapon to attack the sahuagin directly in front of it. He turns to face the creature following him out of the water just in time to see it take Razum's dart to the eye. With no visible enemies near by Jathlin turns his attention to the others on the dock. Seeing Burton injured and bleeding the pirate speaks a quick prayer to Valkur. At the completion of the prayer healing energy suffuses Burton closing some of his wounds. Jathlin then meets up with the others heading towards the ship.
Relentless, Thorbin continues to attack. He screams in anger as his first attack misses, but continues the onslaught.
OOC:
move: as required to strike enemies, trying to remain at 10ft reach whenever possible. If all above deck are dead and he still has an action, he’ll attack enemies down the hatch if his weapon has enough reach, and he’ll jump down if it doesn’t
Doc Halfhand finds himself in the water, not breathing and struggling to get afloat. The pain of the water in his lungs is nothing to pain he feels from having his tentacles torn off by the attackers.
It is a pain he has felt before, an imagined phantom pain residing two or three feet beyond where he currently perceives his limbs to be. He's not breathing, though, and the painis welcome.
With an effort of will, he regrows the octopus limbs, and lashes at one of his attackers.
The mixed group on the dock collectively decided to return to the ship, and as they went, making their way across the slippery, weather-beaten boards, careful not to fall in again, they tried to help Doc Halfhand, who was in the water. Lex, who had stayed behind by the lift, sent a bolt of force into the largest fish-man who was thrusting a spear into the druid-turned-octopus (15 damage).
Py'Cott picked up a spear from a fallen foe and threw it into the same fish-man. This was followed by much of the group doing the same, until finally, the guard who had been mauled by the orca limped his way over to the fire-barrel, took a pike from the junior guard there (Ludz) and thrust it into the fish-man from behind, ending its thrashing.
Doc Halfhand, now fully an octopus again, wrapped his tentacles around another fish-man who had been surrounding him, and tore the thing apart. One remained, but it flailed uselessly among the octopus' writhing tentacles, unable to grab or scratch at him with its clawed, webbed hands.
On the other side of the dock, in the water, Valrin finally surfaced, letting out a huge gasp and coughing up cold seawater.
On the cliff
Glancing up the cliff, eyes squinting to the wind and sleet (a weather pattern that was unfamiliar to the deep gnome), Lex watched the crab and rider finally crest the ledge. He could hear the sound of the battle over the wind: men's cries of pain as the crab's claws caught them in a crushing grip. Though he could not see, he knew that the guards outnumbered the formidable creature and rider, and if they were at all competent (and he'd heard from the warden that they usually were), they would be fighting back with all they had.
He was right: the two closest guards had thrown aside their crossbows and drawn their swords as it crested the ledge. Now, though caught in its pincers, they fought back, hacking at the crab. One of them stabbed it in the eye, taking off the stalk. The other got a weaker blow in before the rider thrust his trident into him, yet still he fought on.
Nearly everyone on the cliff turned their attention on the crab and rider, but the junior guard and his two prisoner labourers continued to wind the wheel, and the lift rose past the halfway point.
On the ship
Thorbin vaulted over the rail from the forecastle and thrust his pike into a fish-man in the crowd on the main deck, saving the life of a guard who was surrounded, his only ally, a grizzled crewman, had finally fallen to the fish-men's spears. Spotting a fish-man who was heading for the ladder, Thorbin spun his pike and murdered the thing before it could go below. Standing over the open hatch now, Thorbin could see the progress of the battle below:
The large fish-man on the lower deck turned on the prisoner who had struck him with a make-shift club and thrust a spear through his body. The man had been Thorbin's cabin-mate through the many weeks they were at sea. His name was Tallow, a hardened smuggler from Baldur's Gate, having died as prisoner #298. His death gave Captain Halehearty and a guard the chance to get at the fish-man while he pulled his spear free, but the creature kept on fighting, though badly wounded.
The mate and the guard on the forecastle sent quarrels down into the crowd of fish-men on the main deck, and thinned the hoard by another foe while Jathlin's floating cutlass continued to hack at the fish-men from behind the crowd. The tide was finally turning on board the Gray Seagull.
GM:
Resolutions
(PCs) Burton armed & armoured up DocH did 14 (tentacle) & grabbed ST4 (dead) Jathlin did 5 (sw) to SG2 & healed Burton 6 Lex did 19 (CB force) to ST3
Py'Cott did 9 (spear) to ST3
Razum missed (dart) ST3
Thorbin did 21 (pike) to SG3 & 19 to SD1 (both dead) Valrin dashed (swimming); Exh2
(NPCs - Guards) Ludz helped PG4
JG1 lift wheel (to 100 feet) JG2 missed (xbow) Crab
PG1 did 9 (sword) to ST1
PG2 did 6 (sword) to SG2
PG3 missed (xbow) ST3
PG4 climbed out; Exh2 PG5 did 5 (pike) to Crab
VG1 missed (xbow) SG4
VG2 did 10 (pike) to ST3 (dead) VG3 did 5 (sword) to Crab
VG4 did 15 (sword crit) Crab
VG5 missed (xbow) to CrabRider
VG6 missed (xbow) CrabRider
(NPCs - Ship's Crew) Captain did 8 (sword) to ST1
Mate did 7 (xbow) to SG4 (dead) Cleric missed (flame) to ST1
Bosun rode lift OC1 rode lift OC2 did 2 (sling) to ST1
AC1 pumped water AC2 pumped water VC1 pumped water VC2 died
(NPCs - Prisoners) P177 lift wheel (to 100 feet) P248 lift wheel (to 100 feet) P293 dodged P294 dodged P298 died
(BGs) Crab did 22 (claw crit) to VG3 & 6 (claw) to VG4 both grabbed CrabRider did 15 (trident) to VG3
SG1 did 7 (spear) to VC2 (dead) SG2 missed (spear) PG2
SG3 died SG4 missed (spear) PG2
SD1 died SD4 missed (claw) Doctopus
ST1 did 7 (spear) to PG1 & 10 to P298 (dead) ST2 died ST3 did 10 & 5 (spear) to Doctopus
ST4 died
Unable to make it to the ship himself just yet, Py'Cott stops by the guards on the docks, and glances about for his misplaced snack.
Meanwhile, Red Ghost manages to make it past the gangplank and use the reach of his pike to strike at one of the fishmen still on the deck.
Burton rushes right after the Red Ghost, past a blueish fellow who seems to be on their side coming down from the ship, and he narrowly avoids falling off the small ramp. A flick of his wrist and the dagger he threw into the water moments ago reappears in his free hand, and Burton throws it at a fish man aboard the ship.
In good conscience, Thorbin cannot allow the massacre below to continue. He jumps down the hatch, and goes after the big fishman, trying to impale it on his way down.
OOC:
move: as required to jump down and strike the fishman down the hatch. He'll try to remain at 10ft reach whenever possible.
