1648: Stranded in a Foreign World IC

[Metastachydium]

Qamar ducks down with a startled yelp as the strange device slashes through the sails. She's on the verge of tears; she would love to be a real green dragon right now, to fly away or just plunge into the water and sink deeper and deeper and out of sight. She doesn't want to be here. Presently, this ship is a trap – even she can tell as much. The vessel of the lion-pirates is bigger and faster and it has that weapon… Do we… Do we really have to stay on deck? she asks Samuel and Darius. She knows she doesn't want to. It doesn't feel safe, and it's not like she can help the Turks like Prudence.

[Bonecrusher Doc]

Darius

"Let's stay together!"

Darius half-closes his eyes, acknowledges Mayaheine, and casts Shield of Faith on himself first, then asks Qamar's permission to do the same for her. A little bit of protection can provide a calming sense of confidence.

[Metastachydium]

Qamar is glad to accept any sort of protection. She gives Darius's hand a grateful little squeeze as the spell envelops her.

[JbeJ275]

All

Your ship has now drawn close to the side of the channel in it's attempt to get away, but this seems only to have hemmed it in as the galley draws yet closer, now around 180ft away. As it draws closer those of you on the top deck can see that there are perhaps thirty to forty armed men clustered around the top of the enermy galley, while eighteen otttoman soldiers have assembled either crouching behind the panelling at the side of the ship or assembling below decks. As they muster to prepare a defense, their weapons are handed out to regular sailors, and you have the oppurtunity to accept sets for yourselves if you so desire. Between men coming up from manning the oars and the sail being taken down it seems the men on this ship have given up thier attempts to run and now mean to fight.

Prudences song is a great aid to preventing panic and allows the Turkish marines to maintain their discipline in the face of it's first true test as a crackling roar comes up from the other ship with many small plumes of smoke and a number of small projectiles smash though the panelling of the ship and the sails above your heads. One such shot breaks through the panelling and into the shoulder of one of the marines, throwing him backwards as he cries out in pain and begins bleeding from the shoulder. Another cathches a marine in the side, but seems only to have skimmed the skin before passing through and the man keeps his feet. Ontor leads the Turks in returning a ragged volley, the same plumes of smoke and speeding missiles leaving their weapons and despite thier smaller numbers, a mixture of Prudence's Song, the more agressive positions of these marines and whatever diety controls luck in this world smiles on your crew as one of the marines working att the cannon is thrown back with an impact in the chest, and three more are struck hard enough to send them to either the floor or the back of the formation. This doesn't seem to have discouraged them though and they continue drawing closer, several of them men manning the contraption that had previously shot the chains at the sails above you, but this time the missile seems to be a cloth bag that bulges as if it's filled with tiny stones. Meanwhile the marines on your side seem to be desperately tending to their weapons, jamming in small items in a dessperate race against those on the other ship.

Spoiler: OOC

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DC 8 Reflex save for those remaining on deck and you can add any deflection bonus to your AC that you might have. On a fail take (1d10+1)[6] damage. You have three rounds before the ships draw close enough to board, which is also about when everyone will be done reloading. Use them well.

[Thundercracker]

Something impacted Samuel and he felt a burst of pain in his arm.
“Agh,” he said as he ducked down behind the lip of the edge of the ship.

“The puffs of smoke, they’re weapons!” Samuel thought.

“Get down,” Sam gasped. He started to reach for his belt, then looked around, he didn’t want anyone to see the magic.

He peeked over the edge of the ship again and loosed a bolt at the sailors manning the contraption, then reloaded.

Spoiler

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attack: (1d20+2)[8]
Damage: (1d8)[1]

[Bonecrusher Doc]

Darius reluctantly accepts that this is his fight now. Though the history between the Turks and the Venetians is unknown to him, this naval encounter is forcing him to choose a side if he wants any say in whether he and his friends live or die. With his armor on, he doesn't have good chances of swimming for the shore. And whatever that projectile device is, it looks menacing. Time to put his longbow skills to good use--he takes aim at one of the men preparing the device.

Spoiler

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Attack - (1d20+7)[16]
Damage - (1d8)[3]
Please add bonuses from Prudence's song as appropriate.

[Toliudar]

Prudence

Prudence looked around wildly, seeking a way out of this insanity. She could envision a dozen ways for her magic to help turn the tide in favour of the Ottomans. Fog banks, malfuncti0oning machines. Even a giant version of their pierced god coming down to admonish them. But all of those seemed likely to end up with her branded as a witch. Possibly literally, given these people's taste for blood.

She also waved off an offer of a sword. Better to leave her status as prisoner or defender of this ship as open as possible until the results of this battle were more obvious. If need be, there was always the slender dagger in her boot.

Instead, Prudence managed a key change into the third verse and looked over towards where Qamar had been, hoping that the resourceful if shy young girl had found a way to keep herself safe in this madness.

Prudence's hand snaked inside her shoulder bag, grasping her metal wand inside. She untapped its magic and felt the invisible ripples of force surround her.

A blast above showered her with debris, and Prudence did her best to duck. She shifted to keep as much mast as possible between her and the approaching lions.

And she sang on.

Spoiler: OOC

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Prudence maintains her bardic music throughout this.

Reflex save: (1d20+6)[24]

She grabs but not pull out her wand of mage armour and uses it (thank you, Melodic Casting). Aside from that, the bardic music is pretty much taking up her standard actions. She'll use move actions to maintain cover from the Venetian ship as possible.

[Metastachydium]

Qamar instinctively drops down on the deck; even then, she is surprised to remain unscathed. All the noise and the smoke freaks her out. So this is what the hollow sticks the business end of which she faced not long enough ago are meant to do. She feels a strong urge to just curl up into a ball and, perhaps, turn invisible. She wishes the Turks haven't given up on running away. She knows she'd really want to do so.
And that's before she realizes Samuel's been hit. She shudders. What if Samuel was wrong? It really looks like they might actually die here. Her breathing grows heavy at the thought. Seeing the young nobleman shrug off the injury and return fire comes as a great relief, but it fails to calm her down. She reaches for her wand once again and pulls it out, tapping herself with it. She's too afraid to be cautious. The best she can do now is to try and survive. And try she will.

Spoiler: OOC

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Okay, so there isn't much that Qamar can do until the Venetians get a little closer. For now, she just drops prone and uses one charge of her Mage Armour wand (leaving one more for today), raising her AC to 17.

[JbeJ275]

All

The ship draws closer through the waves, now about 120ft away. Samuels bolt veers wide, his shot thrown off by his new wound, while Daruis’ strikes true and wounds one of the men attending to the larger contraption but doesn’t disable him, letting him continue tending to the weapon with only a minor delay.

Both the Turks and Venetians seem to still be tending to their weapons, slotting in small amounts of powder as they work to keep their balance on the rolling sea. On the other ship you see men bring up ropes with grappling hooks to the front of the ship, soon followed a heavy wooden boarding ramp.

[Thundercracker]

Samuel Arvandor

Samuel tried to assess the situation, did the Turks stand a chance against the stronger Venetian force?
He leaned over the top of the barrier again and is aim alternated between the contraption and the individual shooters, then settled on the ones manning the contraption, then he dropped back down again and reloaded.

Spoiler

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attack: (1d20+5)[8]
Damage: (1d8+1)[4]

[Bonecrusher Doc]

Darius follows Samuel's lead. Best if they are united, one way or another. He aims again at the man he hit with his first arrow.

Spoiler

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I believe we get a +1 morale bonus to attack and damage from Prudence's Inspire Courage? Including that here.

Attack - (1d20+8)[11]
Damage - (1d8+1)[4]

[Thundercracker]

Darius follows Samuel's lead. Best if they are united, one way or another. He aims again at the man he hit with his first arrow.

Spoiler

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I believe we get a +1 morale bonus to attack and damage from Prudence's Inspire Courage? Including that here.

[roll0]
[roll1]

Samuel Arvandor

"I can bring up a swarm of bats when they come closer. I don't think anyone would be able to know or suspect someone was summoning them," Samuel said in their native tongue, "that will cause some havoc on their side, but do we want to really try to drive them off with everything we have?"

"I think yes, we can't risk being sold into slavery, or having our belongings taken, or being summarily executed," Samuel added.

It was clear he was asking for advice; there would only be a small window to act before the marines on both sides were embroiled in a melee and a swarm wouldn't be able to distinguish between friend or foe.

[Metastachydium]

Qamar crawls closer to the side of the ship and sticks her head over the parapet to peek at the lion-pirate ship to see how close they got, but she's quick to duck down and press herself against the deck again. Just… Just do it. Please. she replies to Samuel. She is ever more certain fleeing as an option is not exactly available anymore, but not yet sure she is ready to fight just yet. Not that she could do much from this far away.

[Bonecrusher Doc]

Darius nods, his jaw set. "It's time to use every tool we've got."

[Toliudar]

Prudence

Nodding her understanding of the situation, Prudence continues her song. She interrupts the cadence briefly at the end of the chorus, lightly touching a piece of coiled copper wire in her bag. She glances at her three colleagues across the deck. Her words are whispered, but heard as if murmured in their ears.

"I'm going to stay here, at the mast, so that my voice reaches everyone. If you whisper, I'll hear."

She does her best to pick up the rhythm of the song again.

Spoiler: OOC

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While maintaining Inspire Courage, she casts Message to link her with Darius, Samuel and Qamar.

[JbeJ275]

All

This time your arrowfire is less succesful, with botth shots being ducked under by canny venetian marines, though the need to keep thier heads down against your constant pinning fire and tend to things on deck slows them enough that the turks are done reloading moments earlier and succeed in sending off an impressive volley before the Venetians can return fire. At closer range, and with the continued benefit of Prudence's song one in every five or six venetians is hurled back by Turkish fire before they can properly take aim. Their morale holds though, and smoke flies up from the opposite deck as they return a volley. A couple of these missiles fly inches above Daruis' head, while more splinter the deck by Prudence's feet, sending up splinters but leaving her uninjured. Some among the Turkish crew are less fortunate though three men die outright, these bullets rendering heads and torsos into meaty pulp, while four more stagger back having been grazed by bullets, or having them land in less vital areas.

All the while the other ship draws still closer, now but 60ft away and rapidly drawing closer, with those manning the enemy cannon seemingly waiting for the last moment to ensure a significantly devestating shot. Prudence's music aids in preventing panic, as men frop these weapons of thiers to pick up ones you're more familiar with, readying themselves for close in fighting and seeking whatever cover they can against the incoming blast.

Spoiler: OOC

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So far you've been fortunate in regards to the attacks targetting you, but we'll have to see if that continues. Feel free to take your actions now or ready them for when the enemy craft draws closer still if your options are short ranged.

[Thundercracker]

Samuel Arvandor


The damage inflicted by those weapons is truly horrific and Sam counts himself lucky he didn’t catch a direct hit. He’s scared out of his mind; he doesn’t think any amount of healing magic would save him if he takes a shot in the face.

He is now close enough to the cannon gunners he can summon a swarm of bats close enough to them that they’ll swoop in and attack. He peeks over the edge of the ship, just enough to get a clear view, then drops back behind cover.

Spoiler

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summon swarm of bats so the nearest enemies are the cannon operators. The bats get a standard the round they are summoned and will use it to move up to 40’ to the nearest creatures. When the Venetian’s start their turn, it’s (1d6)[6] damage, bleeding 1, and DC 11 fort save or nauseated for one round (which will negate the cannon attack hopefully).

[Bonecrusher Doc]

Darius decides shooting more arrows isn't going to save anyone. He jumps behind the mast next to Prudence for cover and reaches around with one hand to cast a LIGHT spell onto the side of the mast facing the attacking ship. He's not sure how making the mast glow like a torch will affect the mariners on either boat, but almost any reaction is going to be better than what seems to be about to happen.

[Metastachydium]

Qamar keeps her head down as another round of shots is fired from both sides, shaking violently. This is bad. Really, really bad. She looks up, somewhat hesitantly, to try and get a better grasp on what's going on when she sees Darius's spell take effect. She winces as the mast lights up. She glances over to Samuel's bats and then at Prudence.
She has some difficulty thinking clearly, but Darius's words keep ringing in her ears. It's time to use every tool we've got. Might this be the time for bad ideas? She does have those. All the time. And she really wants to live and to see Samuel and Darius and Prudence live. Her breathing grows laborious as she tries to mull over her options; ultimately, however, she clenches her teeth, sticks her head out from behind the side of the ship to see where she's supposed to be heading and ducking down, begins to crawl towards where the boarding ramp should hit their vessel, ready for whatever that's to come.

Spoiler: OOC

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Qamar has the (negative) WIS modifier required to do something quite as dumb as this, so she'll do as I described and gets ready to cast Invisibility on the ramp once it hits the Turkish ship.

[Toliudar]

Prudence

Continuing the droning battle chant, Prudence nods at Darius as he joins her at the mast, and watches with concern as Samuel and Qamar make their way to the railing where the Venetian ship would soon be. At least they were all more or less in the same area. So far.

Seeing Samuel pop up to bring a swarm of bats to the deck of the attacking ship, Prudence shrugs. If they were going to be accused of witchcraft, they might as well be alive for that conversation to happen.

Looking for a place of vulnerability in the attack, Prudence's eyes settle on the boarding ramp. She murmured to her colleagues.

"I think I can make it difficult for the the attackers to get across the ramp. Do any of you have a way to blast a hole at their waterline? It probably won't sink them, but it might slow them down enough for this ship to get away."

And then the droning song continues.

Spoiler

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Prudence continues Inspire Courage, and holds a standard action to cast Grease on the section of deck leading to the perhaps-soon-to-be-invisible boarding ramp.

[JbeJ275]

All

The sudden flow of magic to the once mundane battlefield quickly serves to introduce chaos to the battlefield, putting the venetian marines onto the back foot. At the same moment the first venetians throw grppling hooks over the ships panelling they are met with a tide of biting fangs and leathery flapping wings which pours over the men around the cannon. It's difficult to see what occurs therin but you see the outlines of bodies hitting the floor and it seems like too few of your foes have kept their head to operate the cannon.

This doesn't stop the momentum of the ship though, and though off put by what happened the venetians seem ready to continue their attack, pushing the boarding ramp forward to crash into your deck and making to charge across it, then ttempting to halt their advane when the ramp they're approaching winks out of existance, and the mast ahead begins to glow brightly without any sign of fire. The boarding party attempts to halt and while most suceed three cannot hold their momentum on the greased surface, and lose their balance. One collides with the side of the boarding ramp and bounces off, producing a loud splash in the waters below, the other two both spill forward with the ramp, one landing in a prone pile, the other keeping his feet. He turns around in suprise and seeing Prudence there, advances on her with blade in hand.

The other marines are split between panic and bravado, the sudden magic unerving some but others keeping their previous agression alive, however the greased deck and the invisible ramp slows there progress significantly, only six of the twenty odd men either gathering the nerve to crawl down the ramp or leaping from their deck to yours without the ramp now the ships are so close, another marine tries to follow these six only to come in too low and be left clinging to the side of the ship.

Of the eight venetians currently in fighting shape on your ship two crowd around the exposed Prudence while the other six lunge for varoius ottoman marines, many of them already wounded by earlier gunfire, a hull half of them strike for great effect, not killing any of the Turks but sending three fo them bleeding to the floor in heaps, the remaining twelve Turkish marines form a line to deny them further room on deck but the line also limits how many of them can fight back, this does little to limit their effectiveness though as they form a wall of bayonets, killing three outright with stabs at the heart while another two and sent down by more superficial blows.

Spoiler: Rolling Against PCs for Suspence

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Attack 1 on Prudence: (1d20+2)[22] for (1d8+1)[9]
Attack 2 on Prudence: (1d20+2)[15] for (1d8+1)[8]

Pistol Shot on Samuel (1d20+4)[24] for (2d6)[6]

That's little benefit to Prudence though who finds herself being loomed over by two marines, one stabbing at her with a bade the other bringing down the but of his gun on her exposed form. Or for Samuel, who seems to have caught the attention of the enemy captain, who pulls out a smaller weapon and attempts to fire between the ships and through Samuel's light cover.

[Metastachydium]

Deeply unsettled and made quite a bit nauseous by all the gore around her, Qamar gets back down, too scared to check if her plan is even working. That it appears not to be as good a deterrent as she hoped it would be is not helping her fight off the lingering feeling of uselessness that is steadily descending on her either – a feeling that tightens its grip on her, paralyzing the elf for a heartbeat as she's forced to watch Samuel get hit and Prudence surrounded. She clenches her fists in frustration. There's nothing she can do for Samuel. Prudence, on the other hand, she can help.
Still pale and still trembling, she rolls onto her side and with her eyes fixed on the swordsman assaulting Prudence, she utters a single syllable.

Spoiler: ATTACK!

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Qamar casts Power Word Fatigue on the swordsman. The Venetian should be fatigued for the next (1d4+1)[3] hours/minutes (depending on his hit point total (but honestly, I don't expect that to be over 25, let alone 50)), no save.

[Thundercracker]

Samuel Arvandor

Samuel is thrown to the ground by the force of the bullet tearing into his chest. He coughs up blood as he reflexively reaches for his healing belt.

Spoiler

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heal : (2d8)[9] The bats last for 2 more rounds since he didn’t concentrate on them this round. Sam is now at 10 hp.

Once the wounds start closing, he drags himself back up to a kneeling position at the edge of the ship.

“Protect Prudence,” he gasps.

[Toliudar]

Prudence

As the Venetians struggle to board, Prudence pushes her volume toward it's upper limit, to make sure that her song is audible over the clash and clatter of battle. She does best to keep her blade between herself and her attackers, her back to the mast, but the soldiers' superior skill in battle overcomes the capabilities of her simple protection spell, and one of the blades slips through, biting deep.

Better to be burned eventually than die on a sword's point now, Prudence muses. She glances at Darius next to her and shrugs fatalistically. What a strange time and place to die this would be.

Doing her best to use her performance to distract the soldiers from their ongoing effort to stab her, Prudence weaves a simple spell of healing to staunch her bleeding.

Spoiler: OOC

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The first of the two attacks on her succeeds, and she takes 9 damage.

Continuing her bardsong.

Standard action: Defensively casting (DC 16 check: (1d20+13)[22]) Cure Light Wounds on herself: (1d8+4)[6]
As possible/necessary, Prudence takes a 5' step to be side by side with Darius.

[Bonecrusher Doc]

Darius rises from where he is crouched behind the mast and pivots toward the Venetians attacking Prudence. Now standing next to her, he expertly draws and releases another arrow from his bow in one fluid motion at the closest attacker.

Spoiler

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Attack - (1d20+8)[14]
Damage - (1d8+1)[4]

[JbeJ275]

All

The clash of fighters at the line of bayonets flexes and weaves as both sides push, Prudence's retreat opens up a momentary gap but with Qamar's magic helping to slow the man closest on the venetian side the Turks manage to plug it before the Venetian marines can push through, and the greatest of the damages done to your wounded in the last few seconds are swiftly addressed. Daruis' shot goes wide amid the swirling melee, the clash of steel all too consuming to provide a clear target.

From the other deck the urging of the captain has another three marines make a mad plunge onto the invisible plank, but the six who remain up there are seemingly to overwhelmed by terror to plunge forward. The bats finish their work dropping the chief engineer and while some stay to drain the corpse, more surround three of the men remaining on the deck. they only receive small wounds as the bats seem less maddened now they've fed somewhat and two run downstairs, presumably looking for torches, while the other panic and drops to the deck swatting at the bats.

The captain from the top deck draws his second pistol, this time firing at Prudence, his face a grimace as he sees you show only minor injuries from what looked to be a serious stab wound. He continues to fire with impressive accuracy, and a bullet smashes into your shoulder.

Qamar meanwhile is found vulnerable now, having crept close to the boarding ramp to cast on it and now being cornered by two of the marines out of the line of fighting both of whom make to club her with the heavy stocks of their guns. One of these men is the one who previously attacked Prudence and he strikes with some notable sluggishness. However, this fails to stop either set of blows from pushing through the shield of faith, one splitting your lip and blackening your eye as the other hammers into your gut.

The rest of the line continues its ugly business apace, though Prudence's continued song ensures your side has greater odds of success. While the venetians send two Ottoman marines to the floor, one of whom had already been wounded earlier, they pay a toll of four of their own men, one shoved overboard and another three collapsing to the deck bleeding heavily. With those losses, and the flight of those on the upper decks it seems like the Venetians are starting to lose heart and decisive action might well rout them.

Spoiler: PC relevant rolls

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Bats: (1d6)[1]
(1d20+2)[18]
(1d20+2)[9]
(1d20+2)[17]

Captain Shot: (1d20+4)[23] for (2d6)[8]

Attacks on Qamar:
(1d20+2)[17] for (1d8+1)[4]
(1d20+1)[13] for (1d8)[4]

[Thundercracker]

Samuel Arvandor

All thoughts of subtlety gone, Samuel peered over the edge of the ship again just in time to see the captain injure another one of his people. Bent on revenge, he extended a single hand towards the enemy commander, and unleashed a bolt of blue-black flame towards him.

Spoiler

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Attack: (1d20+4)[6]ranged touch
Mortalbane frightful blast, damage: (4d6)[18], dc 15 will save or shaken

[Bonecrusher Doc]

Darius

Darius gives a flicker of consideration to casting another spell to protect one of his injured colleagues, but decides he is still too close in the thick of the melee to let down his guard that way. He doesn't worry about his lost shot that went wide, and just relies on his many hours of practice as he draws and fires another arrow at the closest target.

[Metastachydium]

Qamar looks up at the two soldiers battering her with a look of sheer panic in her eyes. The stock slamming into her face draws a shrill, pained cry; the second hit, on the other hand, she barely feels: the pulsing of the fresh wounds on her head masks most of the pain. Instead, a strange, throbbing sensation begins to build somewher in her stomach, and an all too familiar one. Alarmed, she begins to gag. She manages to squeeze a few half-muttered words out of herself (It's… I'm… I'm sorry.), but before long a stream of sizzling liquid erupts from her throat, washing over the sluggish marine.

Spoiler: Let's get dangerous!

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The fatigued Venetian takes (4d6)[12] points of acid damage (or half that upon succeeding a DC 16 Ref save).

[Toliudar]

Prudence

Prudence is rocked back by the force of the captain's magic-stick-explosion-thingy striking her shoulder. She was sure that it would hurt quite a lot in a moment, but right now she was just impressed that these people did indeed seem to have their own forms of magic, and they were pretty impressive.

Perhaps it would be best to close up that hole in her chest before the pain reached her head. Again, she worked to avoid the swordsmen around her without quite letting the thread of the song die out, but worked in healing magics for herself along with them.

Spoiler: OOC

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Maintaining bardic music.
Defensively (DC 16 (1d20+13)[28] casting Cure Light Wounds to heal (1d8+4)[8] damage.