February 15th: The Zeiss & Snarg Show

Spoiler:

Snarg:
You manage to give several the slip but you can still hear them running around, searching the waterline for you. It is highly unlikely you will retain the element of surprise past a single action once you get high enough for them to see you. You climb steadily up until you are just below the gunnery deck, and remain unseen up until this point.

Zeiss:
I assume by this point you've hit the water? Help me out here.

Zeiss, swimming to the ship from south west, decides to climb back of it, hoping they would not see him.

Zeiss:
The Dice is with you and you make it up to the edge of the ship. At this point climbing up is going to involve Athletics and Stealth rolls. By the time you're here, the ship is already in a bit of a tif searching for Snarg.

Snarg waits patiently, hanging on to side.

Spoiler:

Zeiss succeeded in not being seen. He was relieved, but his job wasn't finished. His companions on the shore needed help, and the cannons of this ship could help with that. He starts to climb, being ready to pop out his head to spy on the crew when he would get near the ledge.

Snarg:
As you are waiting patiently you hear a yelp from the other end of the ship. "Found 'im!!" someone shouts out in Undercommon.

Zeiss:
You carefully climb your way up the back, but slip and accidentally slam one of your boots into the wood, immediately causing several footfalls and a few people to peer over the edge, spotting you. "Found 'im!!" One of 'em grabs a wicked looking hook sword and starts climbing down after you.

Snarg looks confused for a moment. He carefully peers over the edge on to the deck.

Spoiler:

Snarg:
You barely make your way past the open ports of the weapons deck up to the top deck and peer over. There are, at a glance, 30ish people still roaming the deck, brandishing wicked looking weapons that make you uneasy just looking at them.

Snarg:
You draw down again instinctively, just in time for several boots to go clumbering past you, but they do not seem to have seen nor heard you yet. You wait a moment, then peer over the edge again. Far down at the south end of the boat, up on its helm, is a Lugian, tall even for their standards, with a massive-brimmed hat with a peacock feather in it, and a long, tattered coat.

Tongue hanging out to his side, Snarg makes his way around to the southern end of the boat.

Spoiler:

Zeiss takes a dagger out of one of his boots and prepares to stab the left of the person going down, ready to do everything he can to make him fall to the water, knowing he will also have to avoid him.

Snarg:
You may burn an AP or, given the unique circumstances, make an attack roll at a penalty to try and yank someone overboard before they sound the alarm.

Zeiss:
You make an attack on the person and he loses his grip, but his hooked blade is good at gripping the edges of the boat and though he falls a short ways he does not hit the water, but holds on just below you by his weapon.

Zeiss uses the same dagger he used to hurt this man and tries to throw it in his face. If that doesn't work, he will knock on his gripping hook with his foot.

Spoiler:

Snarg:
You manage to slip by unnoticed, but as you roam to the back of the boat you notice Zeiss is under you, currently fighting off someone. Similarly, several other people are approaching the edge with ranged weapons to start shooting at Zeiss.

Zeiss:
You start to feel a bit panicked as you realize your moment is slipping away. Others will be here any second now, and even though you hit the sod below you and smash on his hook, he does not budge.

Approaching stealthily up behind the Lugian, Snarg creeps up behind him, ready to strike. He jabs his foot towards the backside of his knee and attempts to bring his sword up around his throat with one hand and his other to clamp down over his mouth.

Spoiler:

Knowing it could be his last chance, Zeiss takes the Mirror Key and prepares to throw it on the ship, while using his ring of light to distract the archers for one second.

He knows he will have to go after the Mirror if it falls into the water.

The Mirror Key lands neatly on the bridge, right by the Lugian captain. Though you can't see it, Snarg can from his vantage, as the captain leans down, frowning, and picks the Key up. There is a low cackle that utters, almost inaudible, and with no preamble or flair whatsoever the Captain and all his men and crew are gone.

As the Mirror Key falls towards the Captain's feet, Snarg freezes in place, halfway to the Captain. A horrified expression comes across him as he watches the Captain pick up the key. He opens his mouth to speak, but the crew vanishes before he does, and he is left gaping at the empty ship.

Seeing that the man beneath him disappeared, Zeiss decides to climb the ship and get aboard. While he gets to Snarg, he says :

"Did it work...?"

He groans and see that everyone disappeared.

After a few tense seconds, and listening carefully, both of you are quite certain however many additional people were below deck in the ship, they aren't there now. It is very quiet.

Zeiss got on deck, looking around. Nobody was left on the ship.

"I did not think that would really work..."

Thinking about the rest of his companions, Zeiss goes to the ledge west of the ship and looks at the shore. The battle seemed to be over. Taking a few seconds to think about this, he decides suddenly to look at the contents of the ship, particularly the captain's room.

Spoiler:

After continuing to gape a moment, Snarg becomes visibly enraged, snarling at Zeiss. "You ... you sent them to that place! I thought ... I thought that evil thing was gone, that it'd been disposed after Holtburg, but you kept it? We go and rescue you from prison and the next thing you do is send a whole crew to a some torturer! There's fair fighting exchanges ... and then there's sending someone to that! What's wrong with you?!? We just were let loose for false war crimes and then you go and actually do it!"

Zeiss was going to enter the ship, but Snarg stopped him. He looks at him, then while wringing his cloak, he says :

"The people in this village are safe Snarg. I would have preferred to do it another way, if that comforts you. But it is done. Now, let's find out who these people were."