Had I already said that I hate being on the sea? You never know what the water will do and now the pirates were adding to danger. I had a stable position under the stairs to the upper deck at the aft, but this wasn’t looking good. We were all on the deck, while our crew hid in the hold.
The battle was getting even more intense as the other ship came into close enough range to use regular ranged weapons and spells. It was damaged quite badly by the long range weapons, but it was still faster than us. We were now close enough to see the enemies on the deck:
- 10 Cultist spellcasters packed together on the front deck
- 12 pirate sailors spread out all over the ship
- 4 Bugbears mid ship
- 2 Rogues high in the mast
- 1 Barbarian mid ship
- The first mate, a strong female, at the aft
- The captain, a strong male, also the aft, behind the helm
Our Ratfolk guy called the first mate the matriarch and made her his prime target as he always expects a strong female to be the leader. The others of us targeted the Cultists first as they were the closest by and a perfect target for the flaming sphere the Tiefling had on the ship and my moonbeam. Also, their magic could really sting at a distance, so they had to be dealt with first.
Meanwhile, the Naga made himself a prime target at the stern and he proved himself very hard to be hit, neither the spells from the Cultists nor the javelins from the Bugbears did any serious damage. The Rogues were too high in the mast to use their crossbows.
The Cultists weren’t prepared for a fight like this and died fast, but at the same time the enemy ship came close enough for them to throw ropes with hooks and attach their ship to ours. The Bugbears quickly used the ropes to board us and after them came the Rogues and the Barbarian. The battle got very difficult at this point as there were too many enemies too close by.
One of the Bugbears broke through and ran straight to the hold. Without thinking, I changed into a black bear and went after him. The Rat also wanted to go to the hold, but as the two Rogues broke through, he had to protect the Tiefling. They killed one of the Rogues, while the other also went into the hold.
The Bugbear who went into the hold first looked around and grabbed our first mate straight away, ignoring me. There was very little reason for him to bother about me anyway, as I struck at him 10 times in bear shape and missed every time. I even hit the first mate once! With the first mate grappled, the Bugbear and the Rogue left the hold again and I went after them, unable to hit them.
The other ship was very close by and the Bugbear managed to hand our first mate to another Bugbear who was back on the other ship. At this point, the Rat made a quick decision and shot our first mate, killing him outright and preventing the pirates from gaining any advantage from capturing him.
While I was struggling in the hold, the battle on the aft also continued. The Dwarf managed to push one of the Bugbears into the water, who then climbed back on board of their own ship, but the other two Bugbears and the Barbarian gave them a lot of trouble. The dwarf went down but was rescued by the Naga. The Naga then managed to constrict one of the Bugbears and kill him, but the Barbarian grabbed the Dwarf and tried to jump overboard. The Naga managed to prevent that by constricting the Barbarian, but then was hit once too many by the other Bugbear and went down himself. A quick potion from the Tiefling rescued him, but the Barbarian hit the water with our Dwarf and the Naga had first to deal with the Bugbear.
As the Barbarian hit the water with the Dwarf, he changed into a Gibbering Mouther. A fearsome creature who made it very hard for the Dwarf to escape. With the other bugbear out of the way, the Naga had to save the Dwarf again and pulled him out of the water. The Gibbering Mouther escaped.
During the battle, the pirate sailors went into the hold of their own ship and grabbed oars to row. However, the Tiefling had her flaming sphere still active and sent it after them. Without seeing it she flung it around in the hold, causing carnage. All but one of the sailors got killed.
At this point we had the upper hand again in the battle, but I was in trouble. I blocked the way of the Bugbear who came from our hold and he hit me time after time. He took down my bear shape, my ape shape which I tried next and then my true shape. Luckily the Naga was there again and saved me.
While the last fighting was still going on, the other ship tried to escape, but the Dwarf tied a new rope to the hooks which had been used to board our ship. The Tiefling used her mage hand to hook it to the other ship, preventing its escape.
Then the Rat finally took down the enemy first mate, the ‘matriarch’, while the Bugbear in front of me was also killed. The enemy captain behind the helm also went down, and I killed the last Rogue, who had escaped back to his own ship and was almost out of range, with a moonbeam.
As the fighting finally ceased, all but three enemies were killed: the Barbarian who had changed into a Gibbering Mouther escaped, while the last Bugbear and the last sailor hid in the hold of their ship. Once my mates boarded the other ship, I didn’t dare cross the water over a rope, the last Bugbear was also killed, but the sailor was kept alive and treated so friendly by the Tiefling, that it seemed she had an ulterior motive, although she denied that.
The enemy ship was then plundered by my mates, who took a lot of weapons, armor, the magic sails and the captains journal. We will study the journal later.
When it was time to report to our captain, we learned something new about our first mate: he was the husband of our captain! Very sad about his death, she asked how this could have happened and when the Rat was clumsy enough to tell her that he killed him, she went mad.
With the fighting over, the sailors quickly repaired our ship and we reached our intermediate destination, an island several miles from the coast, before the end of the day. While we had agreed with the captain to take us to our final destination, she was now too angry to take any further and made us disembark. She paid me, the Naga, the Dwarf and the Tiefling 75 gold pieces each for our effort, but refused to pay the Rat.
The Rat of course did not agree with not being paid, went back and stole another 75 gold pieces from the captain. The Tiefling noticed that and decided to go back as well and put down her wages instead.
So there we stand now, in the harbor on an island, with a lot of extra weapons, armor and a sail too heavy to carry around. We will need to find another ship to continue our travels...
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