[IC D&D 5E] The Shattered Skies

[Anubis Dread]

Rapelling down a speeding airship sounded exciting to say the least, but Grognar couldn't help but feel a bit uneasy. The boarding sounded simple enough, though he was a bit uncomfortable with letting so many other folks try it. It was easy for him, but he didn't want people to fall of and hurt themselves because of a few hundred gold pieces. What really bothered him was what was going on on board the ship.

Sightings of strange creatures, followed by an empty out of control ship? It stunk of the supernatural. And as much as Grognar would quite happily go toe to toe with a wild beast, or stand in the face of a natural disaster, the supernatural was another matter. What could a man like him do again ghosts? Or specters, or curses, or other such things? He was a bit of a superstitious man, but if folks were going to be in trouble if he didn't get on this ship... well he didn't have much of a choice, ghosts or no ghosts.

Seems the haggling girl needed some help getting down... well it would be rude for him to butt in. The dragonborn looked be a tough customer too, and taking over another man's burden without him asking was the biggest sign of disrespect there was. Still it did seem a good chance to introduce themselves.

"Sorry for not sayin' so before, but the name is Grognar 'iggins. Come from the Eastern Frontier. Some folks 'ave 'eard of me, others not, but it's not polite to just assume. Nice to meet you folks, 'ere's hopin' for the fun kind of trouble."

[Galen]

Four thousand, no, wait, two thousand, divided by ... where was I ... there are four, no five of us ..., yes that makes ... oh, right, we're doing introductions now. I'm Lany. The half-elf girl said simply, before returning to counting gold pieces in her mind.

[Razorstorm]

Ghara looked Scarlette up and down, sizing her up, quite literally. He nodded cautiously. "Yes, I think that should be just fine. You hold on tight, I'll get you down safely." He offered his hand to each of the others in turn, politely. "I'm Sergeant Ghara. Well... just Ghara now, I suppose. I'm supposed to be on my way home from several years of service." He grimaced a bit, "I guess one more mission can't hurt." He sighed heavily.

Before they leave:
Back in his quarters, Ghara kneeled in front of the footlocker he had brought with him. He unlocked it, and unloaded the clothing and sundries on the top. He sat for a moment, looking at what was in the bottom. He sighed heavily, scratching his chin. He really hadn't planned on putting any of this on again. He brought it home with him so he could hang it on his mantle and get old and fat. But here he was, riding off like a big damn hero again. Meline would kill him if she knew... He'd seen a lot of big damn heroes in his day, and most of them had died. He reached into the footlocker and pulled out its contents. A shield with white heraldry on a blue field, and a folded matching tabard. He set those to the side. Next out was set of heavily worn, but well cared-for chain mail. He slipped that over his head, buckling down the straps. Next the greaves, strapped over his legs. He unfolded the tabard and pulled it over his head. Next from the bottom came his sword in it's scabbard on the belt. He buckled it across his hips, making sure everything was settled properly, securing the tabard around the waist. He drew the sword out, and briefly inspected the edge, the many knicks from several battles had been filed down. It wasn't pretty, but it was serviceable. He nodded and slid the blade back into its scabbard. Finally, he reached down into the foot locker, and pulled out the last item. His helmet, dinged from saving his life several times, went down over his head. He picked up his shield, and cracked his neck. He hadn't thought he was ever going to put this gear on again, but here he was. He was ready.

[Steel Mirror]

As the group conversed, the Manticore closed in on her target. It wasn't long before all the assembled volunteers (there were a dozen in total) could feel the trembling of the deck beneath their feet, the buckling as the ship hit crosswinds and gusts while travelling at a speed she wasn't meant to maintain. "Easy, folks," Lorilla cautioned the group. "She can take it. Trust me, I take care of her myself."

Only a few minutes later, Lorilla herself spotted the Vulturnus in the distance. At first all that the others could see was what looked like a cloud in the distance, hovering above the savannah dead ahead of the Manticore. It looked a bit like any other cloud, except that it was a little darker in color, and kind of a strange shape. Also, it was moving pretty fast, and against the wind. "We heard she was leaking," Lorilla muttered. "But that looks like she's practically dumping her entire haul. Unless..." She looked through her spyglass again, then cursed. "Fallen stars, that's the last thing we needed. A feeding frenzy."

Pretty soon everyone could see what she was talking about with their own eyes. The Vulturnus was an old cargo ship that looked like she had seen service in a dozen hard jobs before being pressed into action as what she currently was, a tanker for ferrying aether from the leviathan hunters back to buyers along the Shatterlands' major trade routes. Nobody could be seen aboard, either on top of the ship where the lookout and signal flags were located, or in any of the portholes in the main deck below. If the Manticore was straining to pile on the speed, the Vulturnus was ripping herself apart to do the same. Steam jetted from one of the overworked engines as they approached, and one of the sails (used to supplement the engines at more reasonable speeds) broke away from the ship and whipped off into the wind. Across the side of the ship's main deck, below the envelope which was keeping her aloft, something was leaking out and into the air, some kind of black smoke or gas which trickled out in gobs. What had looked like a cloud from a distance was, now that they were close enough to make out more detail, a teeming mass of little moving shapes that seemed to be clustered around those black gobs, and around the Vulturnus herself.

Image credit: psychepool - link

"See those things moving around in the sky? Those are flits, little animals that live in the sky and feed on clouds. You get swarms of them around hunters when they are harvesting leviathan corpses, sometimes. They can't resist the meal. It looks like they are feeding on the raw aether leaking from the Vulturnus' storage tanks. They are harmless, though I would keep my mouth shut if we lower you through a swarm of them."

"What you have to watch out for is those." She gestured at a few more solid shapes, which were flying above the the swarm in a loose formation. Even as she pointed, one of them broke formation and dove straight into the swarm, snapping in all directions with its large, toothy beak. Ghara recognized the animals immediately from his days being shuttled around the world by airship in the military, and Scarlette was pretty sure she knew what she was looking at, too. People often called them Snapkites, but they were also known as- "Pteranodons. The flits eat the aether, the pteranodons eat the flits. Those bastards are ornery and territorial, and they don't like people bothering them in their skies. And we're going to have to dangle you lot right past them to land you on the Vulturnus."

The Manticore put on one last burst of speed, which took her above the other ship and slightly in front. The distance between the two grew and shrank as they were both buffeted by unpredictable wind currents, and the pteranodons squawked in annoyance as the huge intruder pushed them aside. Lorilla flung open the cargo hatch, filling the room with whipping winds and stinging cold and making her yell at the top of her lungs to make her next words heard. "IF ANYONE WANTS TO BACK OUT, NOW WOULD BE YOUR LAST CHANCE!"

Spoiler

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Last chance to make plans! In your next post, describe how you are situated (for example, Ghara will be carrying Scarlette so that she is free to focus on possible enemies or other complications), and then GERONIMO!

[Galen]

Lany gulped as she looked down, and checked that the parachute pack was secure on her back and the crossbow was loaded. It's just a climb down a rope, not like you haven't done second-story-work before. Yes, I did, but not when I'm about to be eaten. Then, she has an idea.

Miss Scarlet? Can you distract the pterano-things with one of your made up monsters like you did back then? I ... I can help. I think I figured out how you do this. Her voice trailing, lowering her eyes before the wizard, Lany manages to stop herself just in time before adding "sorry". Because that would have been too embarrassing.

[Lemunde]

Scarlette shot a brief smile in Lany's direction. No sense in intimidating the girl.

"Unfortunately I don't think it would be very effective. Any kind of illusion I conjured out there would most certainly be dispelled by the flits. I could potentially conjure some kind of sound that would distract them, but it is so saturated with other sounds out there; the wind, the flits, the engines, possibly the snapkites themselves. I doubt it would even be heard.

"I was considering using some of my ranged spells to eliminate some of them before we debarked, but I'm afraid that would only provoke them to attack the Manticore. It would be wise for me to reserve those attacks for anything attempting to directly harm us during the climb down."

Scarlette turned to the rest of the group.

"It would also be wise for us to have a plan of action once we reach the deck. The most effective approach would be to try to make for either the helm or the engine. Both directions will have their own dangers and obstacles to overcome but we should decide on a general direction to take before we proceed."

To Lorilla she asked, "Do you think there is any way we could potentially disable the ship from here?"

[Steel Mirror]

The gnome looked thoughtful. "We don't have any weapons bigger than a crossbow aboard, and I don't think they would have much chance hurting the engines. If you have magic you could try, but the Vulturnus is looking pretty unstable. Fire or lightning in the wrong spot, and the engine could blow, and if the engine went it could ignite the aether, and if she's still got full tanks then the aether in storage could go up..." She paled a bit as she trailed off. "Let's say that I wouldn't recommend disabling her with magical brute force, and leave it at that."

Spoiler: a better explanation of the task ahead

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I just realized that I forgot to give you guys an OOC description of what you are about to do! I blame the fact that it was late last night when I posted.

The Vulturnus is below you guys, as I said. If you look at the picture that I linked in my previous post, you'll see that the top of the ship is mostly the big envelope/balloon part of the ship, which holds processed aether which keeps it aloft. Basically it works like hydrogen in a zeppelin, though not as volatile. You can use fire or electricity magic near aether without worrying about it exploding, but dropping a fireball right into a vat of the stuff is not recommended.

On the back quarter of the ship, you can see a wooden deck. That is the platform, which you are aiming for. It's basically a top access hatch, which the crew would normally use for observation, or to get up on top of the crow's nest (at the top of the mast that you can see there), or to signal other ships. Right now, like the rest of the ship, it looks completely abandoned, but you should be able to open a hatch once you are down there and climb into the ship herself.

Landing on the platform itself instead of the envelope will be difficult, with the wind blowing and the ships moving and so on. Every round that you spend on the ropes, you will be rolling an athletics check to control your descent, though other skills or ability checks may be applicable if you can give me a good description for what you are doing to make them relevant. You also get an action each round, which you can use to defend yourself from any aerial threat harassing you, take evasive measures to make yourself harder to hit, or whatever else you can think of. We won't be using a tactical map for the descent, because I don't think it would help much, so I'll do my best to narrate it and have it all make sense. We will still be using initiative and stuff though, which I will roll once everyone is out of the ship.

Any questions?

[Anubis Dread]

Grognar had never seen so many animals up in the sky like this! He'd seen birds and had spied a wyvern from a distance once, but the Eastern Frontier wasn't well known for it's exotic wild life. This though was an adventure! They had to jump from one ship to a ship that was crashing, and make sure they didn't bother the little lizard birdies that were eating the cloud cockroaches. He was good with animals, he would be fine.

Strapping on a parachute just in case, the half-orc attached his line as he pondered their course of action. "I think it would be best to go to the engine room first. If we disable the engines, or make them slower, we will get more time before it crashes into all the people in the city, yeah? If we go to the steerin' wheel first and it doesn't work we'll waste a lot of time, while we can at least buy more of it if we go to the engines first. Agree? Yes, it is decided," he nodded.

His blood practically racing through his body, Grognar looked down from their position before grinning. "I will go first, and calm down the beasties that would attack us if they did not like us, yeah?" the half-orc proclaimed, before promptly jumping out the deck and swinging down his rope.

Spoiler

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Athletics: (1d20+4)[11]

[Razorstorm]

Ghara nods at Grognar. "Good luck." As the half-orc leaps off, he double checks the straps of his parachute, and looks at Scarlette, "You ready? Let's strap you to me as well." He does so. Once she is ready, "Alright, let's go." He looks out over the edge, and muttered, "Oh gods, Meline is going to kill me." He shakes his head one last time, and lowers himself and Scarlette over the edge, rappelling with practiced skill.

[Razorstorm]

Spoiler: Athletics

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Sorry, forgot the Athletics roll. (1d20+6)[11]

[Galen]

Lany follows, carrying a short prayer to all the gods she never believed in anyway. She has never been particularly strong, but will try to rappel quickly, hoping her natural agility will bring her down before her arms tire.

Spoiler

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Will just try for a quick descent, so I can use Acrobatics instead of Athletics.
Acrobatics (1d20+3)[6]
If athletics is required, replace +3 with -1

A hard-boiled egg drops from the folds of her clothing, tumbling down, narrowly missing Grognar. Sorry ...

[Galen]

Spoiler

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OMG I'm going to die already. Spending my inspiration to reroll. (1d20+3)[15]

[Lemunde]

Scarlette nods to Ghara indicating that she's as ready as she'll ever be. As they passed over the threshold into open sky she immediately took aim at the nearest snapkite that took an interest in them. Dangling awkwardly over Ghara's shoulder, she held on tight with one arm and with the other she pointed a finger as if she were firing a hand crossbow and spoke a word of power.

"Dzist!"

Spoiler

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Ray of Frost: A frigid beam of blue-white light streaks toward a creature within range. Make a ranged spell attack against the target. On a hit, it takes 1d8 cold damage, and its speed is reduced by 10 feet until the start of your next turn. Range 60 feet x2.

Attack: (1d20+4)[5]
Damage (cold): (1d8)[3]
Critical Damage (cold): (1d8)[6]

[Steel Mirror]

With the half-orc leading the way, the brave volunteers leaped out the back of the ship and into the open air. The bottoms of their stomachs immediately fell out as they saw the ground thousands of feet beneath them, with nothing but a bit of rope to support them and no comforting ground beneath their feet to reassure the brainstem that everything was okay. Even for Ghara, who had been trained for this sort of thing in the military (maybe not exactly this situation, but climbing down ropes at least featured heavily in the first few months of military life), it was a near-pants-darkening experience.

A few of the other volunteers from the ship didn't even make it out the back, having suddenly decided that hundreds of gold pieces don't spend as well when you need to be scraped off the desert, or when flying lizards are tearing you to shreds. All in all, 5 others accompanied the group from the dining hall brawl, including the dwarf they had fought with as well as two members of the Manticore's crew. Everyone twisted around in the biting chill of the wind as they began their descent toward the Vulturnus. For now, everyone seemed to have themselves under control. Lany and Basil, in particular, seemed to be making the descent in good time, carefully controlling themselves as they went while keeping an eye on anything that could cause them trouble.

Scarlette, from her privileged vantage point in Ghara's powerful grasp, saw immediately when the snapkites noticed their presence. Four of them in particular were nearby and looked affronted by their presence- these were slightly larger than many of the others, and had the largest and most colorful crests on their huge heads. They cried out piercingly and folded their wings, diving for the dangling people like fish going for bait on a fishing line. Scarlette managed to get a shot off at one of them, but between the wind tossing her around and the snapkite's natural speed, the blast went wide and it came speeding right for her.

The one she had shot at passed within inches of her, catching her in the backwash of its dive and knocking her around, but otherwise doing no harm. The next one in line had more success against Ghara, who couldn't spare the attention to look up from his task- it drew a painful line down one of his legs with its teeth, the second injury he's suffered that morning.

Nearby, Grognar managed to twist aside as one of them sped past him, denying it the chance to hurt him. He tried to get in an attack as it moved out of striking distance, but the thing was too fast. If he wanted to hit it, he'd have to wait and time an attack for when it passed within reach while trying to hurt him- and that would slow his descent.

The final snapkite targeted one of the passengers that had volunteered for the mission, and he wasn't nearly so lucky as the others. The thing caught him in the throat, cutting of a scream and sending a mist of red into the open air. The man instantly dropped the cutlass that he had gotten from the armory, and went as limp as a doll. He was still tied into the line, so he didn't drop from the sky, but without the ability to control his movement, he quickly went into a spin and dangled at the end of his line. Flits began to cluster around him, attracted by the spray of blood in the air.

As all this was happening, and to make things worse, a heavier patch of flits drifted into the path of the rapelling adventurers. The flits up close looked like a cross between a prawn and a dragonfly, some as large as your thumb, some smaller than a fingernail. They weren't immediately dangerous, but from the way they swarmed and got in the way of seeing, they had the potential to be quite annoying, if they weren't careful.

Spoiler: Combat rolls and Status

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Attack Rolls for snapkites:
Against NPC-on-a-rope:
(1d20+3)[20]
dmg (2d4+1)[8]
crit (2d4)[6]
Against Ghara (has adv):
(1d20+3)[9]
(1d20+3)[19]
dmg (2d4+1)[5]
crit (2d4)[4]
Against Grognar:
(1d20+3)[6]
dmg (2d4+1)[4]
crit (2d4)[4]
Against Scarlette:
(1d20+3)[6]
dmg (2d4+1)[6]
crit (2d4)[3]

And then, the roll which determines random hazards for round 2. Hope for a high number!
(1d20)[16]
This result means a swarm of flits crosses your path. If you fail your athletics roll this round, you accidentally inhale a bunch of the little pests or get them in your eyes, resulting in disadvantage on the next attack roll or ability check you make.

Round 2:
(the X's before names reflect number of skill roll successes)

X Scarlette (21) - active
X Lany (14) - active
X Basil (8) - active
X Grognar (7) - active
Snapkites (7)
X Ghara (6) - waiting

Damage to Baddies:

Snapkite #1: -
Snapkite #2: -
Snapkite #3: -
Snapkite #4: -

[Razorstorm]

Ghara growls as his flesh gets torn by the flying reptiles, but he keeps lowering himself steadily.

Spoiler: OOC

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Athletics (1d20+6)[26]

HP 7/12

[Anubis Dread]

It seemed like the little lizard birdies were more ferocious than they appeared. Grognar had been hoping to just calm them down and have them leave them all alone, but it looked like that wouldn't be happening. Instead it seemed like he would have to knock them all out so they didn't hurt someone.

Not wanting to slow down and be a burden to his comrades, the half-orc continued his rapid descent. Pulling out a small dart, he aimed it at the closest enemy and tossed it with some force.

Spoiler

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Athletics: (1d20+4)[24]
Dart Attack: (1d20+5)[16]
Dart Damage: (1d4+3)[5]
Dart Crit Add: (2d4)[6]

[Galen]

Spoiler

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Athletics to continue descent (1d20-1)[11]

We have a man down! Pull him up! Lany yells to the crew of the Manticore above as a cloud of flits engulfs them. Realizing the crew might even be unable to see them now, or know which rope to pull, she flexes her body, using her legs as a counterweight and swings toward the unconscious man.

Spoiler

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Acrobatics to swing; If the previous Athletics roll failed, this is at a Disadvantage, otherwise use just the first roll
(1d20+3)[16]
(1d20+3)[13] ... to be continued based on the result

[Galen]

... she avoids the worst of the flit cloud and tugs and shakes on the unconscious man's rope vigorously a few times, to indicate to the crew which rope exactly are they supposed to pull.

[Steel Mirror]

Grognar's dart hit home, lodging in the creature's wing as it wheeled around to attack him once more. It cried out as Grognar continued his descent, reorienting on him for another pass.

Lany's tugs on the rope attracted the attention from those above. As she had worried, they couldn't hear her voice, but she saw Lorilla's head poke over the edge to see what was the matter. A few seconds later the unconscious man began to be dragged back up to the Manticore. His wound was pretty bad, but with prompt medical attention he would probably be all right. Lany couldn't do anything more for him; she continued moving towards the Vulturnus, but she noticed that the snapkite which had wounded the man was now looking angrily at her.

Spoiler

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A swarm of flits crosses your path. If you fail your athletics roll this round, you accidentally inhale a bunch of the little pests or get them in your eyes, resulting in disadvantage on the next attack roll or ability check you make.

Round 2:
(the X's before names reflect number of skill roll successes. you need 4 to get to the bottom.)

XX Scarlette (21) - active
XX Lany (14) - rolled
X Basil (8) - active
XX Grognar (7) - rolled
Snapkites (7)
XX Ghara (6) - rolled

Damage to Baddies:

Snapkite #1: -
Snapkite #2: -
Snapkite #3, Grognar's: 5
Snapkite #4: -

Natural 20! For this round, enemies attacking either Ghara or Scarlette suffer disadvantage on attack rolls.

And wow, natural 20 for Grognar too! he also gives disadvantage to anyone who attacks him.

[Lemunde]

Scarlette groaned irritably as her shot went wild. It wasn't the first time she missed and it certainly wouldn't be her last. Unfortunately the more she missed the more harm she would bring to her companion and herself. Focus! Taking a moment to concentrate through the distractions of the wind and the cold, she lined up for another shot as another snapkite turned on them.

Spoiler

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Same attack.

Attack: (1d20+4)[5]
Damage (cold):(1d8)[3]
Crit Damage (cold):(1d8)[2]

[Steel Mirror]

Scarlette's shot was ruined by wind and sudden movements again, but at least she didn't have to worry about the flits. The group passed through the cloud without any of them being too discomfited, but one of the guards from the Manticore was hacking and retching from inhaling some of the little creatures.

The snapkites swooped in to attack again, this time targeting just those who were part of the fight in the dining hall. Well, at least they were doing a good job of drawing their attacks so that the rest of the people could get to the other ship.

Not only that, but they were doing an excellent job of dodging. Ghara, still smarting from where he had been bitten in the leg, kept an eye on both of the monsters that were attacking him and his passenger, and managed to swing free just at the right moment each time to avoid their attacks. Scarlette again got a good close up view as one of the snapkites dove past at unreasonable speeds, but again she escaped unscathed, partly thanks to her guardians quick moving. Grognar was swinging madly back and forth, but in a controlled manner, confusing the snapkite that he had just wounded. It sailed by far out of reach, still angry, but unable to do anything but climb in the air and try again.

Lany was in a bit of a pickle, considering that she had been too busy aiding the injured man to take evasive motion of her own. Still, her natural reflexes were enough to keep her out of danger this time, and she continued getting closer to the Vulturnus as the creature passed by harmlessly. Basil was fortunate enough not to draw any attacks- this turn. He did keep an eye out, though, in case the opportunity to use his training to help one of his allies revealed itself. He might not have been the most effective combatant so far, but he knew something of inspiration and the power to bring out the competence of his allies, and if nothing else he could contribute in that way.

Spoiler: Combat rolls and Status

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Attack Rolls for snapkites:
Against Lany:
(1d20+3)[13]
dmg (2d4+1)[6]
crit (2d4)[4]
Against Ghara (has disadv):
(1d20+3)[15]
(1d20+3)[21]
dmg (2d4+1)[7]
crit (2d4)[5]
Against Grognar (has disadv):
(1d20+3)[7]
dmg (2d4+1)[4]
crit (2d4)[4]
dmg (2d4+1)[4]
crit (2d4)[4]
Against Scarlette (has disadv):
(1d20+3)[4]
(1d20+3)[16]
dmg (2d4+1)[3]
crit (2d4)[6]

And then, the roll which determines random hazards for round 3. Hope for a high number!
(1d20)[18]
This turn, anyone who fails their roll (Basil, for instance) simply spins in place. Captain Holg has managed to keep the Manticore steady this turn, making life much easier for those rappelling. If you make your athletics roll this turn, you will only need to make 1 more roll next turn, and then you will be aboard the Vulturnus.

Round 3:
(the X's before names reflect number of skill roll successes)

XX Scarlette (21) - active
XX Lany (14) - active
XX Basil (8) - active
XX Grognar (7) - active
Snapkites (7)
XX Ghara (6) - active

Damage to Baddies:

Snapkite #1: -
Snapkite #2: -
Snapkite #3, Grognar's: 5
Snapkite #4: -

[Lemunde]

The wind and the cold were proving to be too much for Scarlette to focus properly. She could avoid the attacks of the snapkites but little more. It was all she could do just to hold on. But she had an obligation to defend her comrades.

Spoiler

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Let's try this again.

Attack: (1d20+4)[16]
Damage (cold): (1d8)[1]
Crit (cold): (1d8)[5]

[Galen]

Shoo! Shoo! Get away, you oversized moth! Lany gripped the rope even more tightly and focused on her descent, and on defending herself against further attacks.

Spoiler

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Action for this round: Dodge
Athletics: (1d20-1)[2]

Too focused on defense, it turned out. So tense was Lany that she forgot to unclench her grip, and after a while noticed she didn't slide down, not even an iota. Still a long way to go ...

[Anubis Dread]

"Oi oi, you should've gotten out of 'ere a long time ago little birdie," Grognar warned with a scowl, reaching to grab another dart and tossing it as he shot downwards. He wanted to grab the things neck and put it out of its misery rather than tossing little darts like this, but speed was of the essence. He couldn't slow down if he could help it. Unfortunately he over shot his arm - the dart flew off into space, and the half-orc dangled in place with a scowl.

Spoiler

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Athletics: (1d20+4)[8]
Dart: (1d20+5)[8]
Damage: (1d4+3)[7]
Crit: (2d4)[2]

[Steel Mirror]

Despite their good fortune in avoiding the previous round of attacks, the adventurers all of a sudden seemed stalled in their descent. The snapkites wheeled around again, vectoring in for another try at driving off these meddlesome intruders to their skies. Well, three of them did. The one that Scarlette had finally hit flapped weakly as part of its wing was covered in a thin sheet of ice. It struggled to gain enough altitude to swoop in again, positioning itself for another strike but unable to reach her again for the moment.

In any case, the others' attacks were no more impressive. Lany again managed to dodge the diving lizard, and Grognar was still swinging enough to avoid his attacker. The beast that had been attacking Ghara switched its attention to the guard who was currently retching up a wet handful of flits, but even it didn't manage to score a hit.

Ghara was left to try and succeed this time where his allies were having trouble for the moment: continuing down to the Vulturnus.

Spoiler: Combat rolls and Status

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Attack Rolls for snapkites:
Against Lany:
(1d20+3)[4]
dmg (2d4+1)[7]
crit (2d4)[2]
Against another NPC:
(1d20+3)[5]
dmg (2d4+1)[8]
crit (2d4)[7]
Against Grognar:
(1d20+3)[8]
dmg (2d4+1)[5]
crit (2d4)[5]
Against Scarlette (does not attack this round because slowed):
NOPE

Wow man, that's a lot of bad rolls!

This turn, anyone who fails their roll (Basil, for instance) simply spins in place. Captain Holg has managed to keep the Manticore steady this turn, making life much easier for those rappelling. If you make your athletics roll this turn, you will only need to make 1 more roll next turn, and then you will be aboard the Vulturnus.

Round 3:
(the X's before names reflect number of skill roll successes)

XX Scarlette (21) - rolled
XX Lany (14) - rolled
XX Basil (8) - rolled
XX Grognar (7) - rolled
Snapkites (7) - rolled
XX Ghara (6) - active

Damage to Baddies:

Snapkite #1: -
Snapkite #2: -
Snapkite #3, Grognar's: 5
Snapkite #4, Scarlette's: 1 (slowed this round)

[Razorstorm]

Ghara keeps resolutely working his way down the rope. "Keep them off me!" he says to Scarlette, yelling so he can be heard over the whipping wind.

Spoiler: Athletics

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Athletics [roll0]

Spoiler: OOC

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Oops! Posted in the wrong channel! Reposting here.

[Steel Mirror]

Ghara continued to control his and Scarlette's progress with a steady hand, putting his military training to good use in a situation that even the most sadistic Sergeant at Arms would never imagine for his recruits. In his peripheral vision, he could see that he was ahead of most of the other members of the boarding party. In fact, what with one thing and another, only one person was keeping pace with him- the dwarf who had surrendered to him during the brawl in the breakfast room. The dwarf gave him a grim nod when their eyes briefly met, then returned his full attention to making his way to the Vulturnus, which was now almost close enough to them to touch.

Just then the Vulturnus' engines gave a cough of thick brown smoke, and lurched the ship forward in an unexpected burst of speed. The Manticore had no choice but to accelerate to keep up, yanking the men and women who were dangling on the ropes all around and smashing two of the other volunteers together with a nasty sounding THUD. Both of them were battered, but conscious, and the rest of the group did their best to hold on and continue the ever-more perilous journey without being bashed into something else, themselves.

Spoiler: Round 4

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The roll which determines random hazards for round . Hope for a high number!
(1d20)[13]
The Vulturnus puts on a sudden burst of speed, forcing the Manticore to accelerate to keep up. The resulting jostling deals 1d4 (3) bludgeoning damage to anyone who fails their athletics roll this round.

Round 4:
(the X's before names reflect number of skill roll successes)
If Ghara makes his athletics roll this round, he and Scarlette will be aboard the Vulturnus. The better the roll, the more advantageous their final positioning.

XXX Scarlette (21) - active
XX Lany (14) - active
XX Basil (8) - active
XX Grognar (7) - active
Snapkites (7)
XXX Ghara (6) - active

Damage to Baddies:

Snapkite #1: -
Snapkite #2: -
Snapkite #3, Grognar's: 5
Snapkite #4, Scarlette's: 1

[Galen]

As the rope is yanked taught, Lany is thrown aside violently and lets go of the rope as it slips her grip. But instead of plummeting into the mists below, she manages to recover, and, as a pleasant surprise, finds herself this much closer to the Vulturnus. With only a short distance to go, that slip turns out to be a fortunate accident. But, there was little time to relax, as the Snapkites were circling back for them. Seems like passive defense was doing little to discourage their attacks. Perhaps it was time she fought back a little. Arcs of lightning crackled around her fingers. She let the energy build up before reaching forward into the oncoming danger. She wagged a finger at the flying beast. Come on. You want some of this? Come and get it.

Spoiler

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Action: Readying Shocking Grasp at the first Snapkite to come within 5'
Attack (1d20+7)[14]
if hit, (1d8)[4] electricity and can't take reactions
possible crit (1d8)[2] more

[Anubis Dread]

Grognar was getting real tired of these ropes. Would it be too risky to just cut himself loose and land on the ship that way? It certainly wouldn't take nearly as long...

Shooting off another dark, the half-orc fought to get his momentum back and catch up to the others.

Spoiler

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Athletics - (d20+4)[7]
Dart - (1d20+5)[7]
Damage - (1d4+3)[4]
Crit - (2d4)[8]

[Lemunde]

Scarlette saw that despite her poor aim they were making good progress. Some of the other volunteers weren't as lucky. She couldn't help that now as the snapkite that had been harassing them was still intent on making sure they didn't reach their destination. Her frost spell slowed it down but she thought she might need something a bit stronger this time.

Similar to last time, she pointed a finger and spoke a word of power but instead of a beam of cold blue light a burst of flame shot forth.

"Dzurst!"

Spoiler

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Fire Bolt: You hurl a mote of fire at a creature or object within range. Make a ranged spell attack against the target. On a hit, the target takes 1d10 fire damage. A flammable object hit by this spell ignites if it isn’t being worn or carried.

Attack: (1d20+4)[17]
Damage (fire): (1d10)[3]
Crit (fire):(1d10)[10]