Encounter with the Blooded Anchor

Military: Battle

Towards the end of the fifth day of travel on the Foolsgold River an enemy ship with a crimson flag was approaching on the starboard side.

They were slightly faster than The Sterling and closing the distance.

The crew soon noticed that the enemy ship had a couple of modified ballistas on deck.

It was inferred that they would use those ballistas to create hooks into their ship to help close the distance.

The party would focus on detaching these hooks as they were otherwise helpless in this fight.

Then, the next issue would arise as the crew heard what sounded like a fireball spell exploding and watched as a large projectile launched out of the enemy ship and embedded itself into theirs.

There seemed to be two of these odd metal cylinders that were capable of doing this.

The crew continued trying to expand the distance while trading ranged attacks with the enemy ship and dislodging any hooks fired at their ship.

Eventually, a cannonball would make its way below deck and cause incredible crew damage; this would cause some above deck to retreat below to render aid.

The young wizard Tim would try to use a magic missile spell to damage one of the cannons. However, the cannon was too sturdy to be damaged in this way.

Once the enemy ship was near enough, some of the enemy crew would take to the rowboats to begin their assault.

The party and crew would focus on eliminating the enemies in these row boats.

Tim would then try to use a magic missile spell to disable one of the rowboats

That fails, though he does eliminate the enemy leader within.

At the same time a new enemy sharpshooter would appear and start picking off the leaders in their crew.

Tiamat taking issue with this, fired a Chromatic Orb at the crows' nest to eliminate him.

However, the archer would deftly dodge Tiamats' magic attack, hopping out of the crow's nest to another below before it engulfed in flames.

While continuing his attack, River launched three Scorching Rays, and all three would hit.

This caused the sharpshooter to pop like a damn flesh balloon from the concentrated fire.

The tug of war would continue for a while as more cannonballs would either miss, overshoot, or hit relatively inconsequential areas.

Eventually, a firm hook would strike out of reach for the crew to disable, and the rowboats would arrive.

The enemy crew below the deck would start pouring out with boarding equipment.

At this moment Tiamat would prepare some of the explosive beads from his necklace, ready to throw some onto the enemy deck once they were close enough.

At this point, the melee began; the enemy crew climbed over the side and swiftly established a foothold for their allies to hook in a modified boarding plank.

Lilly and Tiamat fighting near the ship's bow would skillfully eliminate most of the enemies climbing over though they would soon be overwhelmed and take incredible amounts of damage defending themselves.

Elinor and Torgil fighting on the mid-deck would be the main defense force as this is where most of the boarding party was entering from during the initial assault.
They would keep many of the climbing crew at bay, though they would fail to defend the crew around them.

Tim, having lost the effect of his shield and now undefended would be directly killed with a combined stab to the chest and neck.

The warrior beside him Liam, already struggling to defend himself, takes a stray crossbow bolt to the face and perishes.

The ranger Judith and rouge Elain that were part of their team, distraught at this turn of events, focus fire on these enemy crew members.

Vin fighting near the stern would try to defend essential crew members like the captain and give River room to cast her spells.

River would focus on using her magic to pick off critical enemy crew members and try to aid the crew on deck.

Despite their efforts, the enemy ship reaches the boarding distance.

Tiamat finally sees his chance.

He broke off from the melee, and while Lilly defended him, he threw two of the explosive beads.

Each landed on the enemy ship, killing many enemy crew and disabling the cannons on the deck below.

The tide has turned...

Despite the devastation of this turn of events, the enemy persists in their assault.
They still outnumber the crew for the most part and are too close to success to back off, all or nothing.

The first assault party, having secured a foothold, made room for the boarding party to hook in the modified boarding planks.

At this point, many of the allied crew are below deck, trying to save whoever they can, and the only ones above deck are the skilled fighters and ranged support.

Most of the crew on both ships focused on ranged support would change their focus to eliminating each other to secure a new advantage as the melee starts to get brutal and now presents too much risk in hitting an ally.

Mistakes would begin to show as the crew tired from the assault.

This would result in some casualties on both sides as many of the remaining enemies of the initial assault would suffer severe casualties, and a few critical members would take fatal injuries.

River, made a couple of attempts at disabling the boarding planks, however, this would prove to be futile.

Understanding her magic's limits, she saves her spells for the worsening melee.

She observes the fallen young wizard and draws her sword, grateful for her father's training.

Vin, fully in his element; with his well-trained fists of fury; would break necks, crush chests, and decapitate unworthy foes.

He who is empowered by their demise continues to reap lives.

Torgil, would kill his way through the foothold that had been created to try and dislodge one of the boarding planks with his pure strength.
He would attempt this a couple of times, nearly succeeding each time before being forced to go back on defense.

Strained from the physical exertion, he would attempt to stab a line through the enemies on the plank, though they would swiftly dodge this by hopping over his spear thrust onto the ship.

Elinor, in her attempts to defend Torgil, would try to attack the enemy that hopped behind him, yet her sea legs would fail her at this moment as she face-planted and almost broke her nose...

Tiamat, receives a new level of focus fire as many in the boarding party target him directly.

He would receive critical injuries from one skilled attacker.

However, Tiamat got the last laugh as he cast Hellish Rebuke.

The would-be champion is engulfed in flames and reduced to ash; Tiamat barely resists passing out.

Lilly, wouldn't falter; she would show a well-trained endurance and continue to hold the line; this would receive unwelcome attention from a more powerful foe now finally across the plank.

Lilly having heard a sinister laugh turned her attention to a behemoth of a man, clearly a strength-oriented specimen of the Ancient Humans like Torgil.

However, whereas Torgils' muscles are dense, his are large.

Towering over Lilly he makes an overhead swing with what appears to be an oversized meat cleaver.

She quickly dodges as the cleaver embeds itself into the deck; however, the cleaver isn't stuck, and with a simple grunt, he tears the cleaver and a chunk of the deck out with it.

"...this is going to be tough."

While Lilly faced off with the beast.

Torgil is confronted by the other officer.

In the first confrontation, he is slashed across the face and wrist by the dual daggers he wields; while not the most immediate concern, he has started to lose blood and would need help.

That help arrived in the forms of River and Vin.

River armed with her trusty longsword struck, cutting into the officer's shoulder disarming him of one of his blades.

While Vin swiftly followed that up with a flurry of punches, deeply wounding the officer's forearms during his attempt to defend himself.

Torgil observing that the officer is being handled quite well by his party and the other crew, decides to disengage.

At that moment, he noticed the ship doctor armed with healing potions desperately trying to recover one of the ship officers who had taken a bolt to the neck.

Torgil, took a few potions for himself and moved to assist Lilly.

Elinor picked herself off the deck and made another strike at her foe.
However, she was parried, and before she could make another strike against him, he was killed by the ally rouge with a bolt to the chest.

"All the enemy archers and bolters have been dealt with; the advantage is ours!"

Lilly, barely ducked under the next horizontal swing from the beast as the cleaver chopped into the mast six inches deep.

Elinor, saved by the mast, quickly distanced herself; however, she was then knocked unconscious by another foe.

A nearby officer fighting alongside her fought the bastard off before he could finish the job.

Tiamat, seeing an opportunity launches a Firebolt at the beast's face, and due to the rage from almost losing a friend, the Firebolt is further empowered.

The beast is directly hit in the face, with most of the flesh on his skull blasted off.
While not dead, he does fall unconscious while standing up.

Lilly finally having a chance to breathe, stows her shield to wield her longsword in both hands.

She assumed an executioner's pose before striking the beast's neck.

However, she underestimated the strength of his flesh and could not make a deep wound.

At the same time, that Lilly made her strike.

Torgil stabbed with his spear, and while the wound was more profound, it was similarly ineffective.

At that moment, the beast regained consciousness.

The beast grabbed Torgils' spear, pulled it out of his chest, and pulled Torgil into his punch.

Torgil was then launched five feet back and lost his spear.

While most of the party dealt with the beast.

Vin, River, and the captain fought with the other officer.

They handled it with class and skill, undistracted by the other foes as the rouge, ranger, and other crew dealt with them.

Unable to respond with the same fervor as before due to his injuries, he was swiftly dealt a fatal blow as River sliced his throat.

Lilly, at that moment disengaged the beast to fight off the enemy crew trying to surround her.

Tiamat, also gets pulled into this fight as he is still a target despite his injuries.

With the combined efforts of Lilly, the crew, and the rouge party; they managed to eliminate the other enemy boarding party, save for the bosses, though Lilly was knocked downed at the end.

The ally officer was able to drag Elinor out of the immediate combat and managed to stabilize her.

Tiamat, in desperate need of aid noticed the dead ship doctor collapsed over a pile of broken potions, he managed to collect two unbroken ones and started to heal himself.

Lilly was rescued by another crew member.

Torgil continued to trade blows with the beast and took a hit to the chest, which left a large laceration.

However, this wasn't traded for nothing, as his blow left the beast in critical condition.

Vin having seen an opportunity, he retrieved a dart from a fallen foe and launched it at the beast's face; it penetrated his eye, which killed him instantly.

At that moment, the enemy captain arrived.

The enemy captain, unperturbed by the death of his crew, calmly analyzed the carnage.

He observed his dead officers, his crew, and his damaged ship.

"...pathetic."

He then assessed the party and the remaining crew; seeing that everyone was incredibly injured and several key figures were out of the fight, he chose to keep fighting.

Saber drawn, he dashed to strike down Torgil.

Within the first couple of attacks he further wounded Torgil and almost took him out.

Tiamat seeing his friend getting overwhelmed and determining that fighting this captain is too risky, decisively pulls another bead from his necklace and went to throw it near the captain.

However, having already seen what one of those beads can do, a crew member interfered.

This caused it to not land near its mark and instead took out half of the mast on the port side.

The force of the explosion pushed the enemy captain into Torgil and seared the enemy captain's back.

Torgil taking advantage of this weakness strikes him in the head and knocks him out.

Everyone rushed to secure him at that moment.

While that happened, the mast snapped and fell on the port side, causing the railing on the starboard side to be ripped out alongside the ropes.

Splinters of wood were flung everywhere.

Elinor already prone after being knocked unconscious earlier, avoided being struck.

River was struck by splinters, and her right arm was shredded.

Vin was hit by a large chunk of rail in the chest and was flung across the deck.

Several other crew that were still standing were also struck by debris.

Elain in the crow's nest manages to grab some of the rigging and use it to quickly clear the mast safely, though her hands were torn up a bit from the rough rope.

With the fight now over, everyone collapsed to catch their breath.

River, having taken very little damage, took a moment to observe the carnage as her eyes rested on the trail of corpses floating behind the ship before finally landing on a boat on the horizon...

Pyrrhic victory:

• The whole party is still alive.
• Many are dead or injured.
• Both ships are worse for wear or disabled.
• The enemy has been defeated.