[Moonhaven] Lost Cause; New Hope

[bluntaxe]

The Lovely Lass is a fine ship. Certainly not new, but old enough to have its weathered balconies and battle scars. Sanem, Gabe and Doran had all awakened early this morning, the captain indicated your long journey would finally be reaching its end in the early hours. The deckhands at first were scrambling about the deck securing items and preparing to dock, but before long all was silent. Every eye was firmly set peering through the fog. "Where's that damned lighthouse!" cried the man in the crow’s nest. Even with the sun trying to rise, visibility was negligible at best. “Something’s not right ‘ere” the captain begins slowly. “All stop, get those sails down! We’re gonna haf’ ta wait out this ‘ere fog”.
Too late. Everyone crashes to their knees as the ship strikes something beneath the ocean’s surface. “Man overboard!!” “We’re taking on water!”

Bharash dispatches the goblin minions blocking his path and quickly rushes up the rest of the stairs chasing down the goblin that appeared to be in charge of whatever was going on. Reaching the top he looks about quickly, trying to take in the unfamiliar building’s cluttered roof. Rushing to one side he sees the cliff-side road leading to the entrance being overrun with zombies. His heart drops as he sees his former companions being surrounded. Valiantly they drop enemy after enemy but it is a lost cause, they are only delaying the inevitable. Perrin yells up to Bharash – “Go, we’ll hold them off here.” Honoring his wishes, Bharash turns back and looks around further, now noticing a rope hooked to the opposite end of the tower. Rushing across he looks down and sees a crude boat/raft vaguely in the distance, being used by a number of goblins. The zombies are bashing down the door now and Bharash knows his time is limited. Thinking quickly he grabs the rope and moves it to the western side of the wall, making his way to a small rowboat he recalled seeing on his way up.

Harknail’s living tomb. Little has changed; yesterday was the same as the day before and the day before that. When did a day end and another begin? This would all change today. Something stirred Harknail’s ancient and buried friends from their resting place, something unholy. Harknail had no problem laying them back to their resting place, but what had gone wrong that the gods would allow such a thing? After once again burying them and giving a prayer change would come again to Harknail’s confined world. The sound of something crashing and the rock wall begins to crack. Before he knows it, it bursts with salt water gushing to fill the room. Not needing to breathe, Harknail doesn’t panic but instead wonders, “How did an ocean get there?” as he is pushed to the far the wall by the pressure.

[harknail]

Strong as he was, Harknail couldn't fight the force of an ocean. And the everburning torch that had been providing him with light all these years didn't seem to handle being submerged all that well either.

But soon the situation stabilized. The room now was now full of water. And so was Harknail, the water seeping in to fill the hollow spaces in the metal and stone construct. With a prayer to Kord that the entrance of the ocean meant that there was now a way out, Harknail activated a sunrod and placed it in the slot he used to hold light sources. Surveying the far wall he tried to find a way out. The everburning torch that had served him so long he left as a marker for the recently disturbed graves of his friends.

OOC: The everburning torch is not on his equipment list, it's just a background element.

[Rojito]

Sanem rushes to the side, useing elven eyes to help locate the overboard sailor.

[similar]

Bharash is moved my the selflessness of those below, who he barely knew, as they made every effort to allow him to continue and hunt down the scorpion garbed shaman.

"You've fought well brave ones. I will remember you all."

With that said Bharash is well aware that time is of the essence if he hopes to keep up with the boatload of goblins.

Descending down the rope as quickly as possible Bharash gets to the rowboat and after quickly scanning around to see where the raft of goblins is he rows over there.

[Ogremind]

Swimming is Athletics, right?

Doran secures his meager belongings, and sees if he can help deploy whatever passes as a rowboat on this ship.
Doran has seen ships plenty before in harbor, close up even, but this is his first trip on one.
Figures.

[bluntaxe]

Harknail, looks about and finds the hole. With all of his might he is unable to swim, but instead walks along the bottom approaching the exit. Lifting himself up through the whole he finds surprised and scared men bailing water. "Who are you! Did you do this?" As they all pull sabers and knives from their belts.

Sanem's elven eyes pierce through the fog and very ocean to see a sailor floating about unconscious below the ocean's surface.

Bharash begins rowing looking to keep up with the goblin raft. As they play about with the stolen mirror, it shows its power. Piercing through the fog a beam of elegant light shines giving a clear view across the ocean. A clear to view to a sinking ship. It was hard to hear over his own haste, but Bharash could now clearly hear the shouts of the passengers.

Doran looks about for a rowboat. He remembers the one that brought him to the ship. The only one in fact, used to ferry passengers. Certainly not big enough for the entire crew.

{DM NOTE: In the future if you know you want to use a skill, go ahead and roll it in your post}

[harknail]

Long ago having weapons drawn would have caused Harknail to do the same. But now Harknail could understand that they were frightened rather than hostile, even though their speech was strange to his ancient ears. So instead he showed his open hands and answered, "Harknail be my name. Nay, I've not done this. But I be grateful to thee for freeing me from my prison. How can I help thee in return?"

[Ogremind]

Doran sees an image of the crew scrambling onto the rowboat and sinking that, too. He sees four options for avoiding that. One, if there is enough time and land is close enough, start taking people across to land in trips. Two, if there is not enough time, try to rope some empty barrels together for the unlucky ones to float on. Three, well, better some passengers survive than none of them--every man for himself. Of course, Doran's favorite is number four--find enough boats for everyone, and take them.

Are we being illuminated by some magical item in a boat full of goblins? If so, number four is looking better and better. I say we gather those with ranged combat and go get ourselves a new boat.

[TheUdjat]

Gabe helps Doran in trying to find flotation devices and a means of saving them all--or most of them--should the ship continue to sink. He also tries to locate the captain or boatswain, to ascertain whether the ship is likely to recover from its impact or whether it is definitely going to sink. All the while he secures his personal belongings, hoping dearly that he will not be forced to swim, as it has never been his strong suit.

"Sanem!" he calls out, at some point, knowing that the elf's senses tend to be better than his own. "Do you see what made us crash? Is it land, or just a rock?"

It would be better if it were the land and the lighthouse not working than an errant rock. The closer the better.

[bluntaxe]

Sept 2, 2008 8:23:08 GMT -5 Ogremind said:

Are we being illuminated by some magical item in a boat full of goblins? If so, number four is looking better and better. I say we gather those with ranged combat and go get ourselves a new boat.

You are illuminated for a few brief moments as if a full moon were shining on you from shore. You do get the briefest of images from the shore so you know a good swimmer could probably make it, or a bad swimmer floating on something. The distance is too great for you to realize goblins are shining this on you, however it does look like a couple of rowboats are near the shore (including the light source). Their are few empty ration and water barrels about the ship that could be used to float in.

That which you crashed on appears to be a large jutting rock formation covered in seaweed.

[similar]

Bharash continues rowing. Trying to close with the goblin raft.

[How far away is the goblin raft from Bharash? Are the still moving away from him? Who is fastest? Can he descern weither the shaman is still with them?]

[Ogremind]

Doran--"I saw some boats over by shore. Someone help me go convince them to help us...one way or another." Perhaps someone with a good diplomacy score (Doran's is -1)? Doran gets the boat ready.

Do we have a lantern or something by which we can find our way back to the ship?

[TheUdjat]

Gabe signals Sanem. "We three will be the best for it, I think. The crew is more skilled at saving a sinking ship than we will ever be." Still, the tiefling hopes to get a report from the captain--or someone--before heading off for a distant ship. He'd prefer to communicate by signal, even, but the fog wasn't going to make that possible.

Hearing sounds from below, Gabe pauses. It didn't seem like the usual oh-my-gods-bail-out-the-water kind of panic. "What's all that ruckus?"

SPOILER: Click to show

[If it comes to leaving the ship, Gabe would like to keep the party together. The sailors are likely to be better swimmers than any of them and well versed in staying alive in the case of a shipwreck. And it's not like it's stormy weather or anything.

Hoping to bring Harknail into things smoothly, as well.]

[bluntaxe]

The shipmates are all confused by the look and appears of the newcomer below deck. One finally comes out with it. "Get in the pail line and help us bail some water!" Some other men appear to be trying to patch up the hole Harknail just crawled through.

Bharash attempts to row after the the goblin raft, but their numbers appear to be their advantage and you are quickly losing sight of them through the fog (especially now that the mirror is hidden away). They certainly have the goblin shaman on board, as well as the mirror.

Doran quickly finds a spare lantern hanging about the deck.

Gabe gathers the attention of the captain. "I see ye be lookin ta go ashore for help. I wouldn't mind a going down with my ship, but I'm not sure if were even getting off ta rock. Waters are calm, and the sun be coming up soon so once yer ashore ya shuldn't have a problem finding us again."

"Captain, Captain! Their be a monster man b'low deck. Not a race I never done seen b'for!"

[Ogremind]

So we aren't in any immediate danger of sinking? We're hung up on a rock?

Anyway, the lantern if for the ship, so that a row boat can locate in the night and fog. Though it would be a good idea to have light on the rowboat, too.

Lets get to shore and see about the other boats. Maybe we should do something about that light house while we're at it.

[harknail]

Down below decks Harknail got into the pail line and started passing full pails up and empty ones down. At this point he didn't know if these sailers were friend or foe, but either way he owed them a great favor.

[harknail]

Sept 2, 2008 19:08:52 GMT -5 Ogremind said:

So we aren't in any immediate danger of sinking? We're hung up on a rock?

Anyway, the lantern if for the ship, so that a row boat can locate in the night and fog. Though it would be a good idea to have light on the rowboat, too.

OOC: The rock is only on one side of the ship, if it takes on too much water it could row off and sink down.

As for lights, Sun Rods are standard adventurers equipment, they are much brighter than any lantern or torch.

[TheUdjat]

When he is told that the situation is less dire than he might have thought, Gabe relaxes a bit. His inexperience at sea surely shows, given his frantic reaction. He chides himself a bit. "Then we'll certainly get ashore and get you some help. We'll take a sailor so someone can bring the boat back, should you need it. I'm sure we'll find some other transport once on land."

Then Gabe hears word about a monster below. With an alarmed look aimed at Doran and Sanem, he starts belowdecks. "Monsters are our specialty. Let's see what we've got."

[bluntaxe]

Sept 2, 2008 19:41:02 GMT -5 TheUdjat said:

"Monsters are our specialty. Let's see what we've got."

Rushing downstairs, you find men lined up sending large pails of water up and overboard. Making your way through, you find the 'monster'. He appears struggling to keep his balance in the rocking boat as he helps the other men with the pails of water. How he ever managed to get aboard is a mystery as all you can tell from his looks is an oddly shaped and crafted suit of plate mail. The form fitting helmet does allude to a monstrous creature beneath. However monster is how some refer to Tieflings or even the Dragonborn. What sort of creature this might be?

[harknail]

OOC: The icon is what Harknail looks like with shield and sword attached (neither is attached at the moment). For a more detailed picture, look on page 32 of either Dragon Issue 364 or the Warforged extract from that issue. That's the picture I based Harknail's equipment on.