Myrran Wars

The member 'Mycrodeeth' has done the following action : Roll dice

'd20' : 15

(Okay, that works.)

As Kern stabs the halberdier, he falls lifeless to the floor, blood spurting from his neck. The bowman, surprised at how quickly Kern recovers his ax, raises his bow to block Kern's strike, but falls quickly under Kern's slash, which cuts down bow and bowman alike.

However, with the defeat of the first trio, the other Beastmen aboard the ship take notice of Kern's efficient assault, and a large group begins to circle Kern, moving away from their stations. They wield a variety of weapons, and wait for him to make the first move. The situation looks dire.

Meanwhile, back on the Ruby Night the Elemental howls with rage and tries to lash out, but fails as the outer edges of the winds that comprise its physical form begin to twist and spin as the banishment spell works. As thunder rumbles, the winds of the elemental spin faster and faster and concentrate in the in the center of the ship.

The Beastmen of the Ruby Night crouch down, and grab hold of the gunnels of the ship to prevent being sucked in to the vortex. The ship to ship combat temporarily stops as both crews are preoccupied with their respective crises.

Just then, explosions ring out as the crew of the Evergreen Fens opens fire on the pirate airship. Though their guns aren't as powerful or as plentiful as those of the Ruby Night, they are sufficient to the rock the ship, momentarily placing the Beastmen who are circling Kern, off balance.

Kern uses this moment to start to climb up a mast of the ship. He reaches a good foot hold and starts to turn his axe back into a gun. He pulls out a canister and begins to load up a shards of wood from the mast he is on. He fires the scatter shot of wooden splinters into the Beastmen below. He searches over their heads for their leader.

[Sorry, busy IRL with tons of vacations and can't do too much posting now.]

(Don't really need the explanation, just letting Doom know why nothing is going on here...)

Shi'nrae, caught off-guard by the elemental's last attack, seizes the nearest object anchored to the deck (in this case a mast) and hangs on for dear life.

(Oh, and I didn't mean that to sound so harsh either; I just know we all have things that keep us from the forum, so don't worry about it; I just have to let the other players (In this case just Doom) know what's going on.)

As if in answer to an invitation, as Kern scans the crowd for a leader, she appears like clockwork from the captains cabin; an old witch of a Beastman (sorry, the race name doesn't change, even though she's female) , her muzzle graying with age. She is draped in a dark blue shawl festooned with a few sapphires for decoration. Her back is hunched, and she leans heavily on a crooked staff with a pulsating blue crystal at the top. She studies Kern up on the mast with squinted eyes. And then she speaks in a growling voice.

"You fools think you can be our overlords? Once our cities were the great ones, bustling with trade and overflowing with prosperity. We had all of you others on the brink of extinction. And for all our years of enslavement, we'll do it again! Never forget that!" She roars at Kern and the assembled Beastmen in general, "For Rakkarn!"

The Beastmen, previously startled by the Evergreen Fens' assault, now pick up the cry, and begin to climb over one another in a frenzied attempt to reach Kern. Once again, Kern seems to be in great jeopardy, but the Witch (or perhaps Shaman?) stands openly exposed, with arms upraised, apparently gathering magical power to rejuvenate herself and launch her next attack.

Meanwhile on the Ruby Night , the elemental has become a veritable tornado in the center of the ship. Just as it is about to overwhelm Shi'nrae and the rest of the crew, with final ear-splitting crash of thunder and blinding lightning strike, which leaves a smoldering patch in the center of the ship, the Elemental is at last gone.

At first, the situation looks grim, as Alekssander has been thrown overboard and the crew is recovering from the shock of the elemental's assault only slowly. Just then, however, wing beats are heard, and Alekssander appears over the railing, wings flapping majestically.

"Nicely done, Shi'nrae, although it certainly took you long enough to do it." A Beastman holds desperately on to each of Alekssander's arms. As he sets them down, he yells to the rest of the crew. "Back to your stations! All of you! We have a battle to win!" With just these few words of encouragement, the crew goes back on the attack.

Kern takes aim and fires at the Shaman. A splinter of wood flies with high velocity, right at the shamans head.

The member 'Doomwing' has done the following action : Roll dice

'd20' : 15

Shi'nrae, noticing the increased concentration of magical power, turned and saw the Shaman. Deciding that whatever the enemy spellcaster was doing could not possibly be good, she gathered what magical energy she could use quickly. "Plak'la zotreth!" A flurry of golden sparks shot towards the Shaman.

The splinters of wood from Kern's rifle slam head on into the shaman's face, and she is hurled backward on to the deck of her ship. The beastmen hiss, growl, and roar with fury and then resume their frenzied charge toward Kern up in the rigging.

Just then, Shi'nrae's shower of sparks reaches the ship. Although they miss the Shaman, as she has been knocked prone, they slam into the beastmen trying to reach Kern, and their reaction is immediate as their coats sizzle with small flames.

As the pungent smell of burnt hair and flesh enter the air, the Shaman begins to rise from where she fell to the deck. She casts a glare at Kern with now-sightless eyes, and the look is striking, as blood runs like water from her shattered eyes. "Get. Off. My. Ship!" she roars, and with a gesture of her staff she sends him flying through the air. By luck, he lands on the bow of the Evergreen Fens, as she could not see to hurl him simply out into thin air.

Sniffing the air, and appearing to observe the battle as much by intuition as by any physical sense, the Shaman observes that the tide of the battle has turned against her. Yelling to her crew she orders, "All of you, to your stations. We have nothing more to gain from this fight, but we will fight again another day!" As the beastmen straggle to positions to turn the ship about and retreat from the fight, she casts a minor spell to put out the last of the flames from Shi'nrae's Sparks, and sooth the burns of her crew.

Back on the Ruby Night, Alekssander turns to his own crew. "They appear to be retreating." he says, surprise evident in his voice.

"Do we let them go?" Shi'nrae asked.

Kern gets up laughing. "Cowards… look at them run." He reaches into his shirt and pulls out a flask of ale. He takes a sip and puts it back. He leans against the stock of his rifle. "Let them run… they have been crippled enough." He chuckles and starts to walk to below deck.

(Thank you for taking a side, Ian!)

"I can follow Kern's suggestion; we could probably face them in a fight now, but the Evergreen Fens still has no power, so we'd be marooning them. Also, I'm worried; that caster we fought was nowhere even near powerful enough to cast that teleportation spell that brought them here.(btw Google Spellcheck doesn't accept teleportation or teleport as words.) Let's take some time to patch ourselves up and get to Silvervale, before we do more. I do wish we knew something about our attackers though..."

Alekssander breaks off thoughtfully, before resuming cheerfully.

"Well then, what sounds best to you, comrades? A drink below-decks and some time to discuss this battle, a meeting with the Master of the Evergreen Fens, or some time patching the ships? I leave the choice to you."

"We should repair the damage to the ship." Shi'nrae suggested.

Kern takes another swig. "I'm for the drinking myself, but We should repair the ships as Shi'nrae suggests." He pauses. "Besides, I need to pick up some rounds from Silvervale. Other than that there is little I can do but fire random shrapnel back at attackers."

"Very well," Alekssander says," since you both seem to like the idea of patching the ships, we can attend to that. Shi'nrae, if you could check below decks, that would be great. And Kern? Since you seem to be the best mechanician, could you go and tend to the Evergreen Fens and get their engine working? I can work on the outsides of the ships. As soon as we're done, we can meet back here, and maybe get a drink. Some of Kern's signature Ale is starting to sound quite good..."

(I could just resolve these with die roles, but I think I'll try to make these into RP challenges for you guys.)

Shi'nrae nodded and went below to check on the status of the ship. Deciding that having a look around for herself would be the best way to go about doing this, she started walking around the interior of the ship, starting with the outermost areas. Logic dictated these would be the most apparent indicators of damage.

"Alright then." Kern says with a slight grin. He heads over to the engine and inspects the damage.

(Excellent! We can proceed!)

Alekssander flies over the side of the ship, and begins lifiting pieces of the hull from the ground and nailing them together, for the interim. The beastmen likewise lower themselves on ropes and inspect the damage. They also reload the cannons and re-lash the guns, generally doing everything non-magical that they can.

When Shi'nrae gets below decks, she finds large holes in the sides of the ship that seem to be well taken care of by the mundane work of the beastmen slaves. Progressing further, she enters the engine room and fines the engine in a desperate state. To her horror she notes that the elemental cage is badly damaged, and flame sparks dance all around the room. The entire place appears to be a fire trap, but Shi'nrae must act quickly if she is to prevent the engine from blowing and the ship from burning down in flames.

Meanwhile on the Evergreen Fens, Kern arrives to a less dire, but no less desperate situation; the engine here was completely destroyed; the elemental, if there was one, is gone, and the parts and pieces of the engine are strewn about the room. No less important, there is a clear indication of where all the damage came from; a gaping hole in the middle of the floor. Kern will not only have to rebuild the engine, but find or create a power source, while working with/over a giant hole.

Both Kern and Shi'nrae can call upon the services of any body else on the ships; everything else is non-essential compared to these tasks. Who knows when another bandit or air pirate might appear?

(A note to my friends; I created these situations with next to no thought to your abilities or lack thereof. If they you think they prove too challenging for your characters, I can help you out a little, but creativity will pay big dividends here; I look forward to seeing how you deal with them. Good Luck!)

Kern swears. He looks at the giant hole and starts to laugh. "Alright then you bugger. Let's see if there is anything I can do." He calls for some wood to be brought in to repair the gaping hole in the floor so he can work. Kern walks to the railing of the ship and calls out to Alekssander. "You keep any spare Engines on these ships? Because this one is gone."

Some beastmen who accompanied Kern scuttle off and return shortly with some scavenged wood. It's not the best quality, but it should do, they report. Meanwhile Alekssander leaves what he's doing an flaps over to Kern.

"What!??? The entire thing is gone?" When the shock wears off, and sees the engine room for himself, he rubs his chin thoughtfully and replies, "Well, no we don't have a spare engine, but we might have an elemental jewel that can be used in a pinch if you can work around it."

He flies back to his quarters and returns with a ruby that seems to glow with an inner light. "Remember," Alekssander instructs, "It's not as strong as a real full elemental, but it should give you some power to work with.

(Breaking my own rule here because the things you're characters are doing right now are so divergent.)

Kern takes the jewel. "I'll see what I can do." He heads off to the engine room and gathers up parts and starts to build a mini-engine.

Shi'nrae quickly went into action, murmuring a modified version of her ice spell (from earlier) to extinguish the sparks already smoldering around the room. She pulled a random beastman away from whatever he was doing (she didn't particularly care at the moment) and told him, "Find Alekssander and tell him we have an emergency in the engine room, right now!" Given her lack of expertise in dealing with harnessed elementals, she didn't want to do anything terribly drastic without his direction. What she did want to do was keep that elemental contained, and with that thought she immediately launched into a binding spell.

Shi'nrae continued her binding spell, noting that the elemental seemed to be more subdued.