Week 34
TL;DR - A long awaited return, and the start of a big battle
Zer0 finally awakens from a long rest period to find out that the party has been up to their usual tricks - Sorrel arrested and jailed for several years, a time shard stolen, a dragon transforming into a dracolich. Jaxzon became a champion of fisticuffs, in turn regaining his access to smite. Iliqua found a Black Book of Nagash, and started reading it.
A new character had also joined the party - Shebrum aka Sheb, or Shebbers, a Tortle rogue.
A good day of travel, with a lot of reading, fishing and maintenance done. Zer0 finds his way up to the deck of the ship, is introduced to Shebrum and caught up on past events.
Sheb catches an iridescent fish, tries to figure out what it means, and gets nothing. Jaxzon gives Zer0 500 gold as his share from previous raids, bringing his tally up to a more respectable level.
Zer0 spends some time remembering how to do various things like walking and swinging a sword, as well as some equipment maintenance. Iliqua also hands him a ring of protection.
Jaxzon scans the horizon looking for anything interesting, sometimes seeing other ships, but nothing otherwise. Iliqua continues reading more language books, gaining extra knowledge in Abyssal.
Later that night, Shebrum continues with his sleight of hand training, giving Iliqua a task to steal a spoon from Jaxzon.
Iliqua casts invisibilty on himself to help in the task, but Jaxzon wakes anyway and asks the classic “Who’s there?” question. Iliqua waits for a short period before continuing, managing to pick the lock and open the door - Jaxzon leaps out of bed and looks around, noticing his door is open. He closes his door again and locks it, then returns to bed.
Iliqua again waits for Jaxzon to settle down again, adjusts his stealthing technique getting a better result. He has a look around the room, searching for the target item. An attempt to open a desk drawer makes enough noise to wake Jaxzon a third time, using his divine sense to figure out what is going on. Iliqua grabs the spoon and tries to leave, forgetting that the door was locked. He throws the spoon at Jaxzon, tries to pick the lock and fails. Jaxzon graciously opens the door and lets him leave.
Iliqua returns to Shebrum to explain the failure and get some tips for the future.
Zer0 wanders about the boat, introducing himself to the crew and the captain - Rohendel, a dark elf. A former admiral of a floating city, he disagreed with the tenets of the city, released a few prisoners and left, exiled from all dark elf areas.
The next day dawns with a call to man shipboard weapons and prepare for potential battle. A large ship can be seen nearby, flying a flag of the Half Father. A loud voice is heard, wanting to find the killer of Knuckles and Kneecaps.
Jaxzon finally remembers that Kneecaps was his former captain. Iliqua steps in to try and diffuse the situation, but Jaxzon puts his foot in his mouth again. The big ship turns side on, fires grappling hooks and draws the two ships together.
Shebrum asks for the name of the enemy captain - Captain Knadgers. Battle is commenced!
Initiative: Pirates (21), Druid (19), Zer0 (16), Shebrum (14), FM (14), CK (12), Rohendel (7), Iliqua (6), Jaxzon (5)
– ROUND ONE –
A few pirates board the ship and make several attacks against the party.
The druid comes up from below, scans the deck, then immediately jumps overboard, shifting into a giant octopus.
Zer0 takes a couple of swings at the pirate attacking Rohendel, hitting both times and almost taking him out.
Shebrum attacks the pirate who attacked him, hitting twice but also not quite killing the pirate. He then casts Mage Hand to help in the future.
The enemy first mate looks at the giant octopus/druid, then attempts to cast Sleet Storm - Iliqua ruins her party with a counterspell. She briefly talks to someone behind her, then glares at Iliqua.
Captain Knadgers dunks a big barrel of oil over Jaxzon, with some splashing on Iliqua and a couple of the pirates, then sets the oil on fire.
Rohendel also attacks the same pirate at Zer0, missing twice with a rapier and boomstick.
Iliqua moves out of the oil fire and asks the first mate where her loyalties lie. She responds in a way that disappoints Iliqua. He casts Booming Blade against a nearby pirate (that attacked Shebrum), hitting and killing him, then commanding URA to extinguish the fire on Iliqua.
Jaxzon attempts to throw his glass axe to the other ship, with the aim to release the elemental that resides within. Ripping through CK’s shoulder and the elemental is released, causing some alarm. Jaxzon yells out that his brother killed CK’s brother, with Iliqua joining in the taunting, then moves out of the oil fire. He calls up his Spiritual Weapon, attacking a nearby pirate. He commands his lion to put the fires on him out, getting a big lick.
– ROUND TWO –
The party ship fires two ballistae shots, the first misses, but the second hits, doing minor hull damage. The enemy ship fires their ballistae against the glass elemental, hitting twice and doing a large amount of damage, but not killing it.
More pirates appear on the enemy ship, firing crossbows - a hit on Jaxzon’s lion, a miss against Jaxzon, a miss against Shebrum, a final miss against Zer0. A pirate tries attacking Jaxzon in melee, but missing twice. Another pirate attempts to hit Jaxzon twice, missing both.
Another pirate attacks Zer0, hitting once. Another attacks Rohendel, missing badly, losing their rapier overboard.
The druid attacks several pirates, pulling two overboard, missing a third, accidentally grabbing Shebrum.
Zer0 lays waste to a nearby pirate, hitting twice and killing him, gaining another level of power for his greatsword. He then starts climbing a rope to gain access to the enemy ship.
Shebrum moves his mage hand onto the enemy boat, and asks the druid to yeet him after it.
The first mate casts another spell, attempting to charm the party. The party resists, but Rohendel succumbs and is out of the fight for now.
CK looks to Zer0, asking what he is, then runs at him. A series of attacks misses badly, the last attack hitting a pirate, knocking him to the party boat.
Rohendel tries to break the charm, but fails.
Iliqua activates Bladesong and moves to the front of the ship, and casts Ice Knife at a pirate on the enemy ship. It hits, and explodes - the first mate and a nearby pirate both fail to escape. The first mate absorbs a lot of the damage.
Jaxzon attacks his pirate with his Spiritual Weapon, but misses, then moves up to the enemy ship near the first mate, who he attacks with his axe. The first attack hits, empowered with a divine smite. Most of the damage is absorbed by way of a racial feat. A second attack misses wildly, causing his to drop his axe.
He commands his elemental to attack nearby pirates, missing once and hitting a second. His lion attacks and hits a pirate, killing him.
– ROUND THREE –
A ballista shot does significant damage to the enemy ship, a second one only does minor damage. Enemy ballista shots again fire on the elemental, two of them hitting.
Pirates move to the elemental, Zer0 and Jaxzon. Several attacks against Zer0 miss, with one hit. Several other pirates attack the elemental, most missing, with the ones that hit chipping away due to damage resistance.
A last set of pirates attack Jaxzon, with only one hitting him and some friendly fire taking place.
The druid yeets Shebrum onto the enemy ship, getting his held attacks on Knadgers. A response from the captain connects solidly to Shebrum’s crown jewels, and a failed constitution check paralyzes him.
To be continued…