Surprise Round
The boat, filled to near overflowing with people who are eager to leave its confines, is barely to the shore when they all start leaping into the water at the edge of the rocky strand at one of the few places that looks like a boat is able to put to shore. Giocco grabs a rope and loops it around an outcropping of rock.
"I don't know what they were," he says in response to Heinrich questions.
"Just they wasn't what I was trying to summon all I wanted was a big bug, you know? The practice woulda done me good but I don't know what went wrong."
As the boy speaks Mariah's attention is caught by a glow at the top of the lighthouse. The boy wasn't
entirely accurate in his statement that the light was out. There is a light but it is a dim, sickly green and certainly not the bright golden light that one would expect.
Ashleigh's attention is likewise drawn by an oddity. There is some sort of humanoid figure at the base of the lighthouse. Its body is broken and lies dead but a long smear indicates that it might have still been alive after it fell and was trying to crawl for help or... to the sea? As she looks closer she sees that the body is partially covered by patches of kelp.
Because their attention is diverted by those things Mariah and Ashleigh don't see what the other three see:
As Giocco picks his way over rocks and past a kelp-choked pool to tie up the boat a pale, green-skinned creature rises up from the pool. Its torso is humanoid but a pale, chalky green in color that darkens as it descends to a mass of leafy kelp, strands of which spread around it in the pool. Its arms are thick stems of kelp and it appears to be preparing to lash out at the unaware boy.
[sblock=Combat]
Note: this is a surprise round. Mariah & Ashleigh cannot act (you can still post for them if you want; just not combat actions). The others can take a single standard action. Garnet goes before the kelp creature. Heinrich and Pari (and Tagaiwi) can act after the kelp creature's action. As soon as I get Garnet's action I'll post the kelp creature's action. As long as you can act in a round you don't have to post in initiative order but actions will be resolved in initiative order. Hopefully this will enable combats to move along a little quicker than normal in pbp. Because of the small area everyone is within 20 feet of the creature but some movement will be required for any of you to engage it in melee.
Combatants posted in init order
Code:
[U]Character AC HP InHand/Condition[/U]
Garnet 21 12 none/none
Kelpfolk ? ? none/none
Ashleigh 16 9 none/none
Heinrich 12 6 none/none
Mariah 20 8 none/none
Pari 17 22 none/none
Tagaiwi 14 17 ----/none
[/sblock]