Duty Session 240: Still Coast Pirates

Goldenblade begins, "So, I've brought everyone here for a couple reasons. One, I've got a thing I've worked out and I want to test it out." She holds up a small cylinder, about the size of her forearm, with a breathing mask on the front. "It's an oxygen bottle, and it'll allow me to swim much better, regardless of the sea state or anything else. And then again, the pirates are causing problems for supplies between contenents, and the more we can end, the better."

The edge of the shoreline is dotted with the remains of what must have once been a Bandit Camp. There are strewn remains of tents, posts sticking up from the ground, shattered barrels and littered glass everywhere. The area seems to have been abandoned quickly, leaving behind whatever wasn't able to be torn down and carried with.

This is where the Hunters Guild has set up a series of boats, waiting for Adventurers to take up the call to action against the Pirate faction of this particular group of Bandits. The longboats wait against the docks, lightly bumping against the supports as the waves carry them.

Kauchemar rolls a shoulder. "Oh, I'm not worried about the water. The tides and I, we have formed quite a bond in recent times." The nightmare's tail swishes a few times as she considers. "They're pirates. They could sail almost anywhere else to disrupt trade and such, and that's going to be a pain in the tail when certain people move forward with establishing their new territory." Oh who could she ever be talking about? In the end the reason doesn't matter, she's here to kick some scurvy keisters.

Trade to and from the Isle of Beginnings is crucial to keeping the flow of supplies up and down the Aincrad Tower flowing smoothly. As a member of the Divine Dragons, Prophylaxis is obliged to make sure that any piracy occuring on the open seas is put down swiftly and without delay.

Which is why the continued operation of the Still Coast Pirates on the trade lines is particularly infuriating. No matter what they do, the damn corsairs still inevitably pop up to plunder the sea lanes. The only recourse is obviously to keep hammering them firmly into the dirt!

Sand.

Whatever.

Prophylaxis is here, in the boat, to explode pirates. That's ultimately the only thing that really matters!!

    When Wake appears, she does so in her usual manner, simply stepping out of the scenery. Today, The Right Clothes are a pair of form-clinging leggings that appear to be.. something like leather. They are a midnight blue shade, and with it is a top that clings no less tightly. It's cropped and appears something like a wet suit. Maybe she is planning to go surfing afterwards.

    Regardless of the outfit, the Baroness slips into her trademark curtsey. "Hello, my friends," she calls out, her voice warm. "So it's pirates, today. How wonderful! I have a hate of pirates in this world and the one outside it. It should be fun to bring them to justice." Which is to say, convert them to loot.

"How did a bunch of bandits get ships and wind up as pirates anyway?" Syx asks, seeming to be really curious about how they actually managed to get that much put together, "I thought they were, you know, bandits, and would always be bandits." He shrugs a little bit, "But hey I'm just here to be your brute squad."

Goldenblade smiles to Wake, and nods about bringing pirates to justice. "Mind you, in a world like this one, justice is at the end of a sword. We're not required to take prisoners. It'd be too hard to guard a ship full of murderers and walk all the way back to a town, and who'd want to waste time locking them up. The judicial system here's not as advanced as back home, so..."

She offers a nod of greeting to Prophylaxis, "Good to have you along," she says. She'll never complain about having a healer in the party. Kauchemar gets a serious nod talking about how frustrating they are to all the players' projects. She smirks at Syx, and says, "They probably ambushed a merchant and stole his ship."

| The day is clear and the waters calm as the Adventurers set sail into the nearby sea. There is no sign of the pirate ship at first, but they do have information on where it was most recently spotted. The only difficulty will be traversing the weaving waterways in the area without getting turned around and lost. There is a small sail which can be raised to quicken their journey, if someone could control the air currents enough to cast them in the right direction.

Kauchemar looks up for a moment as they debark, frowns slightly. She holds up a hand and makes a few whispy waving gestures.... and nothing happens. ".. How odd. There seems to be no winds strong enough for me to manifest an elemental from and give us a boost." She shrugs, and sits back down to retrieve her instrument. "~ Don't rock the boat, don't rock the boat baby... Don't rock the boat, don't tip the boat over... ~"

    While Wake is not truly a cartographer, recent experiences have provided more than a crash course in the use of maps and the studying of charts. With an exertion of effort she applies this to the situation at hand. It seems to be enough, provided someone can address the matter of propulsion.

    The Baroness stares off ahead, measuring as best she can the distances and angles spread out before the party. "I won't fool anyone. I am no navigator, but I believe if we steer perhaps 30 degrees starboard and go on we'll be on the right path."

"Pirates, bandits, the only difference is that one found a boat somewhere," Prophylaxis says with a shrug. At Wake's appearance, the Doctor dips his head and tips his hat in greeting. "I'm a little short on supplies today, I'm afraid. Much of my resources are tied up in a few research projects I've been working on. But I'll use what I've got to keep you all afloat."

Mysterious! Though for now, it seems that keeping everyone afloat is a more literal task than not. At least the waters are smooth and glassy today. Which means it's a perfect time to kick back, relax, and let the wind carry them where it will...!

It /is/ just a little bit hot, though. Prophylaxis' magic puts a quick stop to that, bringing temperatures back down to 'comfortable' instead of 'sweltering in the light of the hot sun.'

Syx isn't very good at swimming, or really much of anything it seems, "Damnit Jim, I'm a fighter not a sailor!" He calls out, holding on for dear life as the others seem to be the ones doing msot of the work at the moment. Once they get to the ship and he can cut loose, that'll be a different story!

Goldenblade gets to rowing, to support Prophylaxis stirring the breeze, and with Wake navigating, the party makes good progress, Syx on lookout and Kauchemar singing to us. Goldenblade flags before too long, but takes a hit off her oxygen bottle and her fatigue melts away and she continues on the course Wake set for us. Goldenblade hits the bottle more than a few times, which keeps her rowing until the anchored pirate ship is in sight, and she warns Kauchemar to quit playing, allowing us to close with them unaware of our presence.

Sounds like a party is going on, on the pirate ship, so Goldenblade will quiet her strokes and drift slowly up to the ship, arriving with barely a bump to announce them. A gathering of drunken Pirates seems to be taking up the vast majority of the deck, swaying from side to side or sitting atop barrels of ill-gotten mead. A small Kobald seems to be running back and forth, delivering tankards to the pirates as he tries to keep up with their gluttonous appetites for intoxicating beverages.

Kauchemar makes her way onto the deck with an agile leap once they're close enough, and takes stock of the situation. Probably gets a few weird looks from the surly drunks wondering if she's a figment of their stupor or not. Unphased, she holds a hand up to the rest of the group. "Give me a moment, I got this..." Then returns her hands to her instrument as she starts to strum up a jaunty tune for a classic shanty entirely appropriate to the situation.

o/~ What will we do with a drunken sailor? What will we do with a drunken sailor? What will we do with a drunken sailor? Early in the morning!
Way hay and up she rises. Way hay and up she rises. Way hay and up she rises, early in the morning! o/~

Without a consern Kauchemar strides across the deck as she plays, the combination of bardic music and dark magics rippling from the strings and within her voice compelling the drunkards to simply sway along with the tune and move out of the way, going back to their carousing along with the melody. Others clearly oogling the equine musician as she sashays past with her ostentatious movements.

o/~ Stick him in a scupper with a hosepipe bottom. Stick him in a scupper with a hosepipe bottom. Stick him in a scupper with a hosepipe bottom, early in the morning!
Way hay and up she rises. Way hay and up she rises. Way hay and up she rises, early in the morning! o/~

Several drunk pirates move out of her way, grabbing one of their comrades and hoisting him away to do what the song suggests, clearing a path as they disappear into the ship's depths to find the afforementioned scupper. Or just toss him in the bilge and call it close enough.

o/~ That's what we do with a drunken sailor! That's what we do with a drunken sailor! That's what we do with a drunken sailor, early in the morning!
Way hay and up she rises. Way hay and up she rises. Way hay and up she rises, early in the morning! o/~

Technically speaking, Prophylaxis was just making the journey as comfortable as possible for his fellow sailors, and ensuring nobody fell overboard due to heat stroke.

But then! There's a familiar sound. The pirates are partying again. Prophylaxis strokes his chin and wonders for a moment how they're going to convince them all to stand aside /this/ time.

...And then Kauchemar launches into a bawdy sea shanty and distracts the lot of them. Prophylaxis heaves a great big ol' shrug and takes advantage of their momentary confusion... by slipping a great big bottle of sleeping poison into the grog.

Yeah. That'll do it.

    "What a strange situation," Wake murmurs as she catches the sound of drunken pirate song. "I'd say we need to be extremely stealthy, but I think we could get by other ways." She follows Kauchemar's lead, but with far less panache.

    The Baroness attempts to assist, putting in a word with the poor kobold. But honestly, with Kauchemar's performance going on, the Kobold just doesn't listen to her, utterly focused on the song. So focused, that it spills the drinks and has to return to get more from the now-tainted source.

Now if there's one thing Syx DOES know, it's drinking. He might not be a sailor, but he sure knows how booze works. So without any hesitation, once he's on deck, he grabs a mug of ale and starts to cheer and sing along with the pirates as he slowly makes his way towards the back.

"Drink up, me hearties! Yo ho!"

The five of them sneak aboard, coming up in a spot that's blind to the drunken pirates on deck. Proph surreptitously spikes the punch, and when a doctor spikes your punch, it's damned well spiked hard. After the first round of spiked drinks, we could come through with tubas and kettle drums and they wouldn't notice. Or care. Goldenblade slips aboard quietly, and she importunes the kobold who had no time for Wake; he seems little more than a cabin slave, and slipping him some coin, Goldenblade receiving directions to a door that will lead them below decks. One they can use without being seen by the pirates. Kauchemar turns on the music and charm, and is accepted without second-thought as a member of this merry band of rogues, none of whom question her right to be there as they enjoy her song, ignoring Wake who slips through in Kauchemar's ... wake. Syx likewise schmoozes with the pirates for long enough to quaff a mug, but then slips away. A few call for more music as Kauchemar ducks down belowdecks after the others.

The Adventurers find themselves down belowdecks in an alcove with a few steps leading further downward towards a set of locked double doors. This must be the way further into the ship. They are out of sight for the moment, but if they can't find a way inside, it is certain that someone will notice them sooner, rather than later.

Kauchemar bows a few times as she backs through the passage to descend into the lower decks, leaving the drunken and musically swayed pirates to their deckside soiree. "And that, my friends, is how you invade a party with style~" She stands from the last bow, gives her hair a dramatic flip to the side, and turns to walk on--

*fffp*

-- and faceplant first into the locked door. With a braying whine she stumbles back a step, holding up a hand. "Now we know it's locked..." And staggers back a few more steps to slump against the wall to get her senses back in order.

    While Wake usually is the one to pick locks, it's been made very clear that the party does not wish to pass this test. Quests are so weird sometimes! However, free from any need to worry about strictly following a plan, the Baroness can just blow off steam.

    And does she ever..

    WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAMWHAMWHAMWHAM!

    Someone known for stealth shouldn't take such delight in making this much noise. The Baroness positively unloads on the helpless door. Sure, it doesn't work, but you can't blame her for working off whatever frustration a Baroness experiences. The door definitely looks the worse for wear, though, and the crew is simply incapable of noticing pretty much anything at this point.

    "Sorry.. just felt like hitting something!" Wake grins at her friends and shrugs, "Plus I was curious if I could just break through."

Victory for ultra-hard sleeping drugs. Prophylaxis nods approvingly as the entire deck crew is summarily knocked for an absolute loop. "Good, good. That's one problem taken care of." Now for... The bane of all adventurers everywhere...!

A locked door.

The doctor frowns at the lock and gives it a useless little whack with his staff. The lock does not budge. "Well, I've got nothing. Unless you want me to try blasting through the ultraviolent way."

"I got this." Syx says, as he moves up to the door. He takes a few moments to pop his neck, and then crack his knuckles, and then he takes a few steps back from the door, and then runs forward, slamming his foot out as he reaches the door.

His foot punches right through the wood, but the door itself stays firmly in place, which is the position that the patrol will find him in as he tries to get his foot out of the door.

The lock is much too complicated and time is short. Too short, even with Wake and Syx contributing to beating it down. There wasn't really time for the complicated process of lockpicking, was Goldenblade's analysis. "That'll burn down the ship around us," she says to Prophyaxis. Pirates show up, but they seem more interested in capturing us than killing us, and Goldenblade whispers across the party chimlink to go along with it, just for the moment. Weapons are siezed, our hands are bound, and we're all tossed in the brig.

There, the group is left in the dark. That is, until a squeaky voice speaks up. "Adventurers?" He asks. Then there is a flicker of candle light before a rat-like Were Fang appears, holding a dagger possibly a bit too close to their faces. "I get you out, you help me escape. Yes?"

Without waiting for an answer, the Were Fang begins to untie their bonds, looking nervous and frantic. The room they find themselves in is dark, but there has to be some way to escape. Perhaps a weakness in the walls, or maybe some way of forcing the door...

Kauchemar was so nice to knock herself for a loop for the pirates to take advantage of... I mean get her easily tied up and hauled down into the slammer. Get your mind off the poopdeck. They're pirates, not viking raiders. They more likely want to keep her to perform again later because other than music it is very hard to pass the time out at sea.

Fortunately that will not come to pass, as they have some unexpected help. "Hey, look. We found a pi-rat." Wait, he's not one of the pirates? Oh well, she wouldn't waste the pun oppritunity anyways. Once she's free of the ropes she hauls herselves to her hooves. Good thing she's got all the feathering around her wrists so the ropes didn't dig into her skin too much. "Is this the brig? Looks like the brig. I wonder what dark and condemned souls are stuck down here..." She shifts to her summoner subclass, making a few arcane gestures as a ritual circle appears before her. It twirls a few times before locking still, and a poof of blue and purple smoke bursts up from it!

To reveal one lone shackled and half-rotted zombine. Kauchemar makes a face. "That's it? That's... it? No broken prisoners? No tortured mutineers?" She gestures at the zombie with her hands in frustration. "These guys are TERRIBLE pirates! How am I suppose to work with this lack of proper suffering and dispair?!"

    "I've been captured by much more hygenic pirates," Wake points out. As soon as they are left, she notes, "This reminds me of an old dungeon. I found a way to solo it by pulling a jailor mob through three floors and then getting captured just in time to avoid a fatal boss attack. Nobody ever figured out how I managed it. I guess those old secrets don't matter much now, do they?"

    Once her bonds are cut, Wake nods to the were-rat. "Thank you, good friend!"

    Hearing Kauchemar's distress, Wake laughs gently. "Apologies, dear, these pirates are simply incapable of grasping the value of proper staging and drama! Speaking of which.. it's time to try some more redecorating!"

    And this time, Wake puts her strength against the door's. Again! But she's not beating the ever-loving hell out of it. Instead, she's just using raw strength to push it to the very limits of its materials at just the right angle to maximize the strain on its hinges.

They wouldn't just straight up take all their loot forever and for good, would they? WOULD THEY? They better not. Prophylaxis is carrying some pretty damn vital gear, and to have it all shanghai'd by a bunch of scurrilous scallywags is about the worst thing that could happen.

He has half the mind to just FIREBALL his way out of the ship rather than giving the pirate patrol the time of day but, with a shrug, decides against it. He might have a decent chance of survivng, but maybe not the others.

And so into the brig he goes... Until a rat-faced pirate appears out of the dark.

"Hm," he says with a huff and... Reaches into a secret pocket sewn into the inner folds of his pants. He pulls a sealed, leather-bound flask from within and uncorks the top before pouring the contents atop the steel bars. The liquid begins to boil and sizzle, before the doctor delivers a swift kick and knocks himself an escape hole. "I wouldn't say no if you can bring us to where our gear has been taken. I'd really rather not explain how I lost all of my equipment to the team back at the tower if I can help it."

"Why would one of them want our help?" Syx wonders, as he is pretty much just allowing the binds to hold him for the sake of the event, because he flexes and snaps the ropes after the pirate starts to help them out.

He then turns and hmms a little bit, scratching his chin as he taps a wall here, or there, and then nods, "This'll work this time." He says, certain it'll work, as he pulls back with his right hand and slams his fist into the wall, toppling it over, "See? This is why I don't use equipment."

In a dark cell, the party looks for ways out of their predicament. Proph gets us out of our cell with his ... special formula. Goldenblade brigs up her construction interface, which wasn't taken, and immediately identified a wall that is breachable with our current resources (almost nothing). Syx, and Wake provide the raw muscle required to rip out a loose plank, and proceed to physically destroy a wall that will lead us out. With the carrying on topside, they're unlikely to hear.

"This way out," says the werefang rat. "Remain quiet!" He motions the party into a small room, where he continues to act as lookout. "Check chests," he says to Prophylaxis. "Your things should be in them, somewhere." He waggles a hand at them. "Hurry, hurry. They will come soon. Do not want them to find us unprepared."

Chests, chests. So many chests. Prophylaxis stares at the collection of chests. Some large, some small, some even belonging to dead men. Almost all of them are full of useless junk... And only a handful contain their belongings.

Fortunately, Prophylaxis knows (vaguely) what he's looking for. The magus gestures with his fingers and conjures a gentle breeze into the room, centered around the chests. It's hard to say exactly what he's doing... Until soon a haunting, but muffled sound begins to fill the air. Prophylaxis nods and goes to its source, pulls open the chest in question and...

Retrieves his staff, its ornaments still resonating softly with the wind. "That's my gear, at least," he says to the others. "Take your time. Worst case, I blow us a way out of here."

Kauchemar turns her head to look at all the crates and chests and other random plunder. "Well, at least they got this part of pirating down pat." Followed by an annoyed snort. "It'll take too long..." Instead she lifts to fingers to her mouth and blows a shrill whistle between them. There's a thunk and a thump as one of the crates shakes, rocks, and eventually manages to topple itself off the stack to hit the deck and smash. A familiar sword and shield fly out of the splintered boards, which the Nightmare catches.

"What, you think I was going to waste what little time we have searching through everything? Tis a shame not everyone can have spirit weapons that come to their call. Summoner perk." Okay, yes, she is rubbing that part in a little. Why waste all that effort and work when she can call her minions to her though, right?

    Wake struggles to find her gear. Which is odd, as searching is usually a non-issue for her. "Thankfully I left the most important thing.." And then she widens her eyes for a moment and starts really searching. It takes her some time, and near the end she's more throwing things around the searching.

    "There it is!"

    Wake takes hold of a small pouch and opens it. With a sigh, she examines the Witherless Rose that lies inside for a moment before putting it away once more. "I forgot I had it on me. I had meant to leave it in the outpost, but I wasn't sure. I will have to be far more careful."

    As for her other things? Well, she got most of them. For the most part, they weren't much. Clearly this old quest reward was the most important to her for whatever reason.

Syx doesn't really use equipment, save for his vest which he winds up losing halfway through every fight anyway, and pants. So unless the pirates stripped him naked, he's good to go.

Of course he doesn't know what the others are looking for so he's mostly just rooting through random boxes to try to find anything good.

Goldenblade begins searching through the chests for her swords. It took her quite a lot of effort to make them, she's not going to leave without them. The others do the same, though Proph, more keen than the rest, is first to find his gear. He clearly wanted it more. Kauchemar's gear magically returns, and Goldenblade hmphs jealously. That would be waaay convenient. With Proph and Kauchemar helping to find the rest of the party's gear, and collecting a few bits and pieces of extra loot for their trouble, the party moves toward a steep and narrow stairway headed topside. Sailors call it a ladder, and it's not much more than that.

"Hrm... need distraction," the rattish Were Fang chitters. He looks to the Adventurers, "Make a big boom, then run?" He asks, ducking his head, his ears twitching as he runs his hands over his whiskers in a nervous gesture.

This staff was a custom job. Of course Prophylaxis wanted it back. He'd have to explain to Kita that a bunch of pirates of all things managed to take it from him, and that's an awkward situation he really does not want to deal with!!

But, the rest of the party soon joins him in fully equippedness, and in the meantime the good doctor has stuffed his inventory half-full with valuable-looking loot. "All good?" He asks, then nods. "Good. Let's get going."

A distraction. They need to climb up, then... they need a distraction, because the party pirates have apparently shaken off the sleeping potion. That'll be a problem if they want to slip out undetected.

But they don't need to, do they?

"Alright. If you say so. Get ready to run then, Mister Rat." Prophylaxis raises his staff. Its headpiece takes on an ominous crimson glow. "O' ill omened star. O' nimbus of apocalyptic promise. O' disaster of fire and light-- hear me! I turn the silver key and throw open the gate! Come forth and castigate all those who are foolish enough to stand before the power you and I possess!"

The red glow coalesces into a vermilion sphere. Prophylaxis' eyes flash as he swings his staff down like a hammer. The orb sails down toward the deck... And bursts into an intense globe of flame and heat...!

And... conveniently, sets both deck and pirates on fire.

"Okay," Prophylaxis nods, then turns... and runs! "Let's go, everyone! Hahahaha! Hopefully nothing gets in our way before the whole place sinks into the sea! Nahahahahaha~"

    Wake can't help but find Prophylaxis' approach to be most effective. She races up to the decks and tries her best to avoid trouble. In doing so, she ducks out of the way once, runs into a pirate, and knocks the poor thing into a blazing fire. The enemy has enough time to scream, then bursts into pixels.

    "Can I claim that was intentional?" asks Wake. Yeah.. she didn't think so.

"Run? Oh we can run." Kauchemar scoops up their new 'friend' under an arm. "And I'm sure between the various fire users we have plenty of boom to spare." But where to run to? They're on a ship, out on the water, and the shore just barely within visual range. Which makes her smirk a bit. "Hold on, fellow were fang. This is gonna be a ride." With that she... just leaps off.

"Tidal Gallop~"

Water swirls around the Nightmare's hooves just as she lands on one of the decorative railings that serve no other purpose than to be there for fancy swashbuckling stunts, which is exactly what she does with the aquaphilic maneuver and slide down them. "There's the boats. There's the water! And here we g--" At the last minute her eyes flare, and instead of leaping for the water as intended she jumps off the railing, still water sheathed hooves sliding across the deck until she stops, shield up. "--Goddammit Prophylaxis don't say things like that!"

"Finally someone's not going to yell at me for lighting a fire!" Syx seems actually pretty happy about that. It's a rare occurance.

Of course his fire lighting will most likely be interrupted by the boss fight. Because his luck has not been with him tonight, it would seem!

And yeah, a few moments later Syx comes crashing back down where the lifeboats are. Stealth is very out the window at this point.

Goldenblade leaps out to head for the lifeboats when Prophylaxis ... distracts the pirates. They're distracted putting out fires that might otherwise burn the ship down, which is pretty distracting. Kauchemar's control of the water allows her to slide quite dramatically on the railing past a flaming guard, and while the water douses the fire, he's in no position to stop her by that point. Wake bumps another guard into the fire, and heads for the lifeboats as well, while Syx makes his way for the lifeboats, unable to make more fire to support Prophylaxis. Goldenblade simply steps into the shadows and is gone.

Sadly, the party is unable to make it to the lifeboat before the one pirate ignoring the fires on deck blocks their path.

Stepping up from below looks to be an absolutely massive creature, somewhat resembling a rhino, but more monstrous. "Prisoners... do not escape... the warden."

Wielding a huge metal ball attached to a strangely glowing chain, the monster stomps in their direction, spinning the massive weapon in a wide arc.

As the monsterous rhino-man stomps onto the deck Kauchemar just points at him. "See! That is why you don't say that sort of thing!" And why she has the shield up is apparent as the chain slams against it, making her skid backwards even with deflecting the attack. But as someone that uses a whip and similar long distance attacks at times, she knows how to deal with this. "There's no such thing as out of range for a weapon like that... but it's actually harder to pull in close to himself quickly!"

She sets the rat were fang down, but steps in front of him defensively. "There's a first time for everything, buster," she mocks back to his taunting. The blade of her sword sort of reverse glows, turning gleaming pitch black as she channels dark magic through the Binder within it... which then sweeps forward, sending a surge of supernatural darkness flying at the so-called Warden. The arcane assault won't do much harm of its own, but the enervating nature of her dark artes will make him easier for her allies to deal with.

    This is not a fun fight! Which means of course that Wake enjoys it thoroughly. Oh, certainly she takes damage. What's the fun if there's not a bit of challenge? She's regularly stepping back just in time for the ball to whistle by, or bend, Matrix-like, just under the chain as it whirls by.

    Eventually, something jars Wake's memory a bit. The huge metal ball slams into the ground and she shouts out, "I saw this in a movie!" She races up the chain as the boss struggles to free the weapon. About halfway along the length of it, she leaps and somersaults in the air. She lands on her right foot in a dramatic head stomp on the pirate warden.

    "I have to give you credit," she says with a strained voice. "You throw a hell of a party.. I know I'm getting a kick out of it!" She punctuates that sentence by kicking the warden in the face. A moment later, she's leaping out of range.

"Look," Prophylaxis huffs, "If I didn't summon something to fight us, then we wouldn't have gotten anywhere near as much good loot! Right? Right." He nods firmly, moments before THE WARDEN makes his appearance. The ship is already ablaze and now they have some kind of angry rhino with a giant metal ball chasing them around. Prophylaxis frowns, raises his staff, and...

Hurls a disc of water right at the warden's ball and chain!? Specifically, at the chain part of the ball and chain. Apparently he intends to try to cut through the weapon at its weakest point, but...

Well. It's still a metal chain moving way too quickly to get a good cutting angle on. So this might take a while.

"You know." Syx says, as he pops his neck again, squaring up against the warden, and dodging the chain attack as it comes at him, "I wonder how much you weigh. Like, if I slam you hard enough, will you go all the way through the ship?"

Syx figures there's only one way to really find out for sure, as he rushes in towards the Warden. He throws multiple strikes, aiming powerful blows towards the Warden's midsection, to try to get the big rhino-like creature to bend over and give Syx a perfect position to grab a hold of him.

Once he's in position, he can slam the boss backwards, trying to send him flying all the way down to the sea below the ship...Which means they'll definitely be needing those lifeboats soon if Syx actually succeeds at what he's trying.

So, it may be that prisoners don't escape the Warden, but that doesn't mean they don't beat the stuffing out of him. It's not easy, but with Kauchemar debuffing him like that, Goldenblade's flaming blades cut big chunks out of his health bars with each blow. Wake's acrobatics likewise are much easier with the rhino ... werefang? Whatever it is, he's too slow to prevent getting kicked in the teeth. He does not like this. Nor do the other pirates.

Seeing this monster, which was apparently their trump card, getting pounded by adventurers encourages the crew to give up on the firefighting and start to abandon ship, themselves before the party can turn on them.

It'd be nice if the party could claim the ship as spoils, too, but between the fire, which is unstoppable by now, having engulfed the entire main deck by now, and the rigging as well, and Syx finally pounding the rhino-boss down through several decks until he despawns in an flood of uprushing water, the ship is a total loss. "Get back to our boat," urges Goldenblade, as the lifeboats have mostly been taken by pirates or destroyed by fire. She will lead the way out, jumping into the water by where we boarded, and climb into the boat we took to get here.

Kauchemar tilts her head a bit as she watches Syx enact the final blow. "Leave it to the wrestler to give a new meaning to 'hit the deck'." The rest of the ship is already a burning loss though, so who cares? It's time to evac. "Boat?" Kauchemar remarks as she turns to pick up their new were-rat companion again. "We don't need any stinking boat."

It's true, as she leaps off the deck, and uses that Tidal Gallop move to quite effectively run off across the surface of the water like she was originally going to do the first time.

    Wake follows swiftly. With the ship breaking up and on fire here and there, and well, almost everywhere, there's nothing much else to do! She settles in and takes hold of a paddle, moving away from the ship enough to be safe, but still close enough to enjoy the spectacle of fire on the water. She's never seen a ship sink, come to think of it. Well, except for the occasional leviathan attack.

    After a few minutes, the water is quiet once more. Wake doesn't row away immediately, but instead waits a little longer, rather liking the sudden calm. It's good fortune she does, for at that moment a barrel erupts next to the boat, having broken free from the ship below. Stuck in its lid is one of Wake's blades.

    "Oh.. well I guess that's lucky," she says as he reachess out to reclaim the weapon. "Prophylaxis.. I found all my things, we can escape now!"

Fire! Fire everywhere! Prophylaxis hops down into the lifeboat as the others drop it into the water. Kauchemar might be able to sprint across the sea, but mere mortals are not so lucky. "Keep it rowing," he instructs the others as his staff... bursts into flame again!! "I'mma shoot it some more."

And so he does!

Because, seriously, screw pirates.