Kill Them All, Belch Later

Eyes on the Deck

The fight for the dragon's ship ran on, with pirates crowding the deck and dock, rifles cracking, and the party sworn to dispatch the crew. One of the enemy blasted Kithri and Litton with eldritch force, then looked up at the giant Litton and told him, "You will not leave this ship alive." Two pirates opened up on Mervyn and Marnok, and Marnok, watching the sky, caught a shimmer overhead. He shouted, "It's up!" and the dome closed over the western docks.

A Belch Heard Across the Docks

Marnok bound one of the pirates in thorns and shot him fast, and he refused to cast anything new, because it would have cost him his hold. "I'll keep him ensorcelled," he said. Then he drank a strange potion. A stabbing pain tore through his gut, gas built and built, and the loudest belch anyone had ever heard rolled across the whole dock. Every one of them felt power surge through them and found they had reached level 11. New spells would have to wait for rest, but the added strength and healing were there at once.

Right, Everybody, Kill Them

Kurgan, standing on the deck, looked at Kithri and the giant dwarf. "You all better get the hell off this damn ship," he said. Light gathered in his claw and two bolts of radiant fire struck Litton and Kithri. He drew a longsword that burst into flame and ordered, "Right, everybody. Kill them." Rifles answered from every side. Novriel healed Litton with a radiant aura, and Phaedra's shots from the roof helped pin the bound pirate. Litton swung his warhammer and knocked one pirate's head clean off his body.

Parkour and Copper Wire

Qah'arl leapt from the railing past two blades and took a cut to the arm, then landed on the dock beside Harrick. A rapier wreathed in green flame struck, and the pirate's life was gone. Grisyl cut down two more crewmen on the deck. Harrick drew a bit of copper wire from his cloak and spoke into it: "Captain. Get back here now." Mervyn, hasting Marnok, let the ship's shrinking spell lapse, and the vessel swelled back to full size, crushing a pirate in the water. Mervyn lay flat and drank a healing potion, the only way he could think to stay alive.

Dark Clouds and Hunger

Kithri made dark clouds gather and called white lightning across the field, scorching pirates near Litton and Kithri. Kaelan opened a pit of hunger and darkness over four of them. The bound pirate died in its blackness, and others stumbled blind, fleeing or running in circles. One pirate came down the stairs to join the fray against Grisyl, and another flailed at Kithri after the lightning, missing.

Take Care of Your Friends

Velmoth put her hand on Litton's knee and said, "Take care of your friends for me." She cast domination on him. Litton struck her as she cast, but the spell took hold. Kurgan saw it and stepped back, and Novriel noticed Litton made no move to strike him, which seemed out of character. Then Novriel's tolling death struck Velmoth and Priaris, and Velmoth lost her grip on the spell. Priaris looked at her, and she shook her head, defeated. "Well, there's no time like the present," he said, and breathed fire over Litton and Kithri.

Free Again

The surge in Litton's head faded. He looked at Velmoth, said no, and smashed her to the deck dead. He turned on Priaris and hit him again and again until the dragonborn looked hurt. Gurjek, raging at her fall, hacked at Kithri to reach Litton and missed every time. Qah'arl stabbed Harrick dead, and Grisyl stepped through space to land right beside Kurgan, who was leaning on the rail. Mervyn shot Kurgan with a gorgon bullet, though Kurgan resisted the stone, and healed most of the party with a word before ducking behind a barricade. Kithri called lightning down on three pirates, killing two, and loosed Duke, whose teeth bit into Gurjek while his claw missed. Kaelan left the pit open and fired on the fleeing pirates, and the dock still held a few dragonborn and a man with a flaming sword, as the party wanted to finish them before the captain came back.