Hoat grips a rope, foot on a side rail, and grins at the thought of the upcoming battle.

Paul holds up three flasks of lamp oil & begins stuffing rags into the top to make impromptu firebombs.

"OK - who has a good throwing arm? Ideally if you can make these break against the main-mast lower, we'll be setting sails afire. If not, make sure it at least hits the sails - it won't break on them, but it will fall on deck."

Paul hands out two of the oilbombs to comrades who think they can hit the other ship's sails.

OOC: Spend three full-round actions to setup oilbombs.
A wooden spar extends from the mast of sailing ships (the sails hang from the spar). Try to hit the lowest spar with splash weapons, because the splash damage will set the sail on fire both above it and below it. Sails are flammable and losing them will stop the other ship dead in the water.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:47, Thu 06 July 2006.

Having handed out his bombs, Paul decides to do one last check on his equipment, heading below decks. Coming up a minute later, Paul calls out "Captain! I found something interesting below - a few of these scrolls had slipped down behind a cabinet. They would be... indispensable in running down a faster ship. Shall I set their sails (and a few crew members) alight before we attack?"

OOC: I just found scrolls of fireball, web and darkness. Even with the minimum caster level, darkness should be an excellent way to confuse them.
What's our most accurate, long range bow-type weapon?

Zorlax snarls and glances at the scrolls. Had I time, I could have scribed several of these. Now we must take our chances. Are you able to handle such magics? The mage seems miffed at not having access to such powerful items and will act accordingly.

OOC: One scroll of each spell? As for ranged weapon, I'd say a crossbow is our most powerful ranged weapon, non magical anyways.

"You are probably better at using these than I am - when the time is right, use this scroll of darkness on a crossbow bolt and we'll fire it into their mast - they can have fun looking for it while we board.
Before that, let's put this fireball to good use. I don't think they need to have their sails that much, do they?"

Paul hands Zorlax the scrolls of fireball & Darkness, but holds onto the web scroll, wanting the practice.

OOC: Paul is quite happy to hand over the scrolls to someone who knows how to use them properly, and hands Zorlax the scrolls of fireball and darkness.

"Wouldn't a fire ball be better suited to blasting a large hole into thier side so they'll start taking on water, taking out thier masts or perhaps of blasting those on the deck to a crisp before we board?"

A hole in there side, I don't think it will manage so well. Sails it can do, but roasting those on deck may be a better way to go - what say you, Zorlax?

OOC: Fireball would possibly burn through the side of the boat, but it wouldnt effect it below the waterline, so it would take on water fairly slowly, and we wouldn't be able to either loot the boat or steal it if we sink it, would we?

"Oh, just a thought."


OOC: Yes we couldn't loot or steal the boat if we sunk it, but we just got back from raiding a temple and have lost some men. Our priority would be to get back to base, split the treasure and gather up some more men so we can do some more pilaging. Honestly if we can destroy thier mast and escape I really think that's what we should do. After all, unless backed into a corner, Pirates only fight when they know or atleast think they can win. An unknown vessel that starts attacking us without provocation and seems to be better equiped isn't something we'd fight unless we had to. ACtaully that reminds me, what flag do we have up? if our jolly roger or whatever isn't flying maybe we can get out of this with a bluff?

We don't quite know that they are attacking us yet. I personally think that the second we *do* know this, we should fly the plague flag (indicating that we have a horrible disease on board).

Zorlax listens to the other discussing the fireball spell. He thinks for a few moments then says I think the fireball should go to the poop deck. Take out their steering and maybe even the captain. The sails we can take out with the alchemist's fire. They should go up like tinder. I'd hate to waste the "blast" part of the spell and simply by trying to get the full potential out of the flames. I think we should base our decision to fight or flee on the effectiveness of the fireball.

"Albatross...a bad omen if the stories are to be believed." Blackmane comments as the bird flies nearby.

"I thought seeing them was good, but killing them bad. I mean aren't they supposed to lead you to shore or something like that?"

"They used to, but some prat killed one and since then, they've only been a bad  sign. Besides, the shore is over there." Blackmane points to an island off to the west.

"Well, yeah I can see the island over there. I was just wondering, since I've always heard that they were a good sign. Anyway If it's a bad sign, why not just kill it?"

"If you want to waste ammunition on it, that's fine with me, though I think you're jus' bein' overly superstitious."

"I'm not the one who was commenting on it being a bad sign."

"I for one always found circling carrion birds to be a worse omen than albatrosses" Lilly remarks with a sly grin on her lips, she peers her eyes at the ship in the distance.

"So who are these chaps, and what are they doing all the way out here"

((OOC: Take it as we are not in the main shipping lanes due to our recently lifted anchorage of the coast of Chult))

Zorlax studies to ship for a few minutes and then looks to the captain for instructions. He will ready his fireball spell.

Sitting in the crow's nest Aurlin removes his rapier from it's sheath. He ran his slender finger down the length of the blade drawing a thin line of blood. He smiled at the sharpness of the blade then placed it back into it's sheath. he then removed his bow and checked the draw. His heart was beginning to race as it seemed to when in these situations lately. He couldn't help but smile even wider as the impending battle loomed. While the crew below scurried about he kept a watchful eye on the approaching ship.

"Bastard bird landed on that ship! Went straight for it, it did! Was a spy! Men! I want you battle-ready sharpish, we've got a fight on our hands!"
This message was last edited by the player at 15:38, Tue 25 July 2006.

Hearing the Captain shouting Aurlin draws forth a few arrows and places them next to him within easy reach.

Zorlax begins casting his spell. He waits for the perfect moment before completeing the spell and sending the fireball at their sails and mainmast.

"Beshaba's blasted bitchiness. You know what, the next temple we raid should be one of hers." Flik comments as he checks his scrolls, dons his armor, grabs his Halberd and otherwise prepares for the fight.

OOC: Well I posted this before but here it is again. Flik will cast sheild of faith (on himself), bless, bears endurance (on himself), and Aid on himself. When the enemy is four turns away from closing with us.[Private to DM N1NJ4C0W: shield of faith raises my AC to 19, with bless and aid I get a +2 to all my attack rolls and 6 temporay hit points, bears endurance raises my con by 4 so I get 6 more hit points; making my final hp total 28.]

This cloudless day the Desert Rose keeps sailing on under full sail to catch every scrap of wind it can towards the unknown ship off the port bow.

The crew hands make preparations for the coming boarding action as fast as they can; concealing grappling hooks, rope, boarding pikes, and other weapons from sight until the last moment.

"Everyone to your stations! Now!  Prepare to board that merchie.  They obviously want to get our attention, boys.  It would be a shame to disappoint them."

OOC: The enemy ship is 200-100 ft. away at this point.  The captain will want everyone to hold action until the very end for surprise in order to grapple with the other ship.    Everyone start thinking about which part of the ship they will be attack and keep in mind that it will be close quarters combat.

For those that look you do notice several people in the bow of the other ship; waving their arms frantically as if to get your attention.

Suprise? Zorlax just fireballed them...