Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="nonamazing" data-source="post: 1937839" data-attributes="member: 12118">The skirmish winds to a close...A crack of thunder echoes off in the distance, warning of an oncoming storm.  The sudden fog that had so badly obscured your vision of the sea is vanishing fast, driven back by the waves of heat coming off of the black ship.  The sky is rapidly darkening--heavy black clouds are converging in your direction."That rain won't arrive in time to save us from the fire," mutters Gravan as he notices the flames beginning to chew their way across the boards connecting the two ships.  But before the anxious former pirate can finish his sentance, Karthak has acted.  The noble half-elf recites a brief arcane formula designed to call upon the opposition of heat and cold to create a strong wind.  His arms undulate sinuously as he directs the wind at the burning ship.  Instead of extinguishing the blaze, however, Karthak's gust of wind only serves to add fuel to the conflagration.  As the fire roars even louder, the smaller ship tilts back in the force of the wind, but does not fully keel over.  Gravan shouts in alarm as he realizes the source of the problem.  "Those boarding planks have metal hooks in them--we're tethered to their ship!  Your air magic may be keeping the fire at bay for now, but if we don't do something, both of our ships are going down!"  The captain begins to make his way toward the other side of the ship, moving carefully to avoid stumbling into the Warforged combatant's melee range.Mong, shouting defiance, steps over Voddlegrok's semi-concious body and lines up a shot at Deadweight's back.  Combining her own advanced archery training with Karthak's magical enhancement, Mong quickly notches and releases three arrows, each of which find their mark despite the somewhat disadvantaged angle of fire.  In the blink of an eye, the metal terror has three fletched arrows sprouting from the back of its neck.Deadweight snaps his head back and the arrow shafts break off, leaving the sharp heads buried in its neck.  As part of the same fluid motion, Deadweight brings its arm straight out and then rapidly to the side, the jagged edge of its axe-hand gouging Toshanharath across the forehead.  The tall warrior cries out in pain as he steps back and to the side, wiping his sleeve across his face to keep the blood out of his eyes.  Barandurr notices Toshanarath's wound and shouts to try and draw away the Warforged's attention.  Hoping to give his companion a good opening for a counterstrike, the priest swings low at the construct's knees, forcing it to turn to the right to bring its shield to bear.The nimble Kalashatar smiles as he spies a weak spot in Deadweight's defense.  His crystal sword comes down on the construct's neck, the force of the blow driving the arrowheads further in, like a wedge.  His first strike having nearly decapitated the invader, Tosharhanath takes advantage of the unnatural speed and fluidity granted by Karthak's magic to bring his blade around in a circular arc, twisting to the side in mid-air to strike the mithral-plated warrior with the flat of his blade.  Unfortunately, Karthak's second blow is somewhat clumsy and is deflected by Deadweight's cunningly armored body.Tosharanath readies himself for another attack and Barandurr raises his hammer to the sky with a ferocious warcry.  The two keep a careful eye on the Warforged, understandly wary of any further attacks it might be preparing to make.  A few seconds pass, and Deadweight remains completely motionless.  The entire ship stares on, anticipating the giant's next attack, but it simply stands there, its eyes still unnervingly glowing green.Gravan reaches the boarding planks, keeping a cautious eye on the enemy soldiers still standing nearby.  He draws a small dagger from his belt and uses it to start prying away the plank closest to him.  Norderil, recognizing the danger the fire represents, moves to the other boarding plank and begins prying it loose as well.  Soon the Whale's Carcass is freed from the burning remains of the rival ship, which begins to slowly drift away.Deadweight remains unmoving until Barandurr finally reaches out and taps it on the chest.  It falls backward and strikes the deck with a powerful crash, causing wood to splinter and groan.  "I think you've broken it," quips Gravan, grinning.***"Okay, men, let's get these prisoners tied up and belowdecks. And be quick about it--that storm's going to hit us any minute and we need to get ready for it!"  As his crew members scrabble to carry out his orders, Gravan calls you over.  "Well, that was exciting, now wasn't it?  Heh."  In the background, you can see two of Gravan's crew ineptly trying to fish the wounded enemy soldier out of the ocean.  "But on a more serious note, I want to thank you all for standing in the defense of my ship.  I don't believe I've ever seen fighting quite like that--and an impressive display of magical power as well, sir Karthak!  Remind me not to ever give you cause to cast that fire magic at my ship!"One of the crew members, an elderly human woman named Lucky, trundles over to the captain and tugs politely at his sleeve.  "We gots th' one man out of th' water, cap'n, but there ain'ts no sign of th' bit--er, th' woman.""Hmm.  Well, we'll never find her at this point, and she's not going to last long out there anyway, I'd wager.  Tend to the prisioners as best you can, and start preparations for the storm."  With a curt "Aye" and a nod, the crewmate sets about carrying out Gravan's orders.Gravan turns back to you.  "Well, what about this fellow?", he says, nudging the inert construct's body.  "Is it dead?  And what do we do now?  Do any of you have any idea what that attack was about?"The combat proceeded as follows:  Karthak's gust of wind increased the potency of the fire but managed to hold it back.  Mong fired three arrows at the Warforged from point blank range, but suffered a slight (-2) circumstance penalty due to an ood angle of fire (two shots from Rapid Strike + one from haste; rolls 9, 12, 14 +8=17, 20, 22 vs 17).  She dealt a total of 27 damage (roll 3d8: 12 +15=27).  Deadweight attack Toshanharath with its axe and hit (roll: 14 +8= 22), dealing 9 points of damage.  Barandurr used the aid another action to give Toshanharath a +2 bonus to his attacks (roll: 10 +5=15 vs 10), combined with the flanking bonus, this gave Toshanharath a total of +4.  Toshanharath's first attack was a hit (roll: 6 +12=18 vs 17) but his second one was not quite as lucky (roll: 4 +8=12 vs 17).  He dealt 19 points of damage (roll 5d6: 15 +4=19), reducing Deadweight to -6 and rendering it inert.  Norderil worked with Gravan in order to cast off the boarding planks, preventing the fire from spreading to the ship.  Please noted that I shifted initiative order slightly for dramatic purposes.Now that the furious battle has ended and a terrible storm approaches, what do you do?</blockquote>

Verification