We debated a plan. We seemed to have two choices. (An assault from the sea was quickly rejected.) We could try to ambush some of them outside the cave to whittle down their numbers but risk raising the alarm or attack the cave directly. When the girl told us they went for water every day, we decided on the ambush. We got to the edge of the jungle closest to the lookout spot. Once the water team was at the pond, we snuck and attacked the lookouts. Unfortunately, the alarm was raised but the water crew was many rounds away. So we faced 2 pirates and a leader. One pirate ran for the cave with our Rogue in pursuit. The Swashbuckler followed in case he managed to warn the cave. He did manage to call out just as the Rogue took him out. But then the Rogue cast her disguise self and managed to convince the cave guard all was well. Eventually, she came back to the fight however the Swashbuckler stayed by the cave, just in case.
Meanwhile, the pirate leader was pretty tough. He got advantage when next to an ally, 3 attacks with a great sword and had a power with which he got to put an ally in the way of a successful hit, thus damaging him instead. However, when we realized he was much more dangerous with an ally, we were targeting his allies anyway. Some of the party were back in the trees so they were slow to get into it or using less effective range weapons. The other pirates trickled in as they cross the distance but all in all it wasn’t too tough. Andy managed to roll great against the high AC Monk and drop him a couple of times but there wasn’t much more. The leader’s last act was to take several opportunity attacks to get to the Wizard. He swung 3 times but only hit twice and didn’t drop him. His plan was to threaten him with death but he withstood his flurry. He was then dropped and the rest mopped up. We took a short rest, try to disguise ourselves as the water crew and headed to the cave. By the way, his great sword turned out to be +1 magic which the Holy Paladin took.
In the first room, we saw several pirates that were dancing to a fiddle. The disguised Rogue managed to cross the room and position herself near the warning bell. When the rest of the party entered with the water barrels, it was obvious they were suspicious. The Holy Paladin crack one with a barrel and combat was started. Most of these turned out to be spell casting acolytes but about all they had was sanctuary and cure wounds which were annoying but not that threatening. The big challenge was to keep them from warning the rest of the cave. When one managed the get into the next room and awaken those dozen pirates, the jig was up. The Wizard took an opportunity attack to get a Shatter on 3 of them followed by another that got 4. That took a big chunk out of them which was good because things were going to get more complicated.
Near the entrance was a berserker who raged, getting and granting advantage. He didn’t last too long. The Swashbuckler went to the north corridor mainly to keep them from running that way but he took a peek in and saw a water wraith? Demon? Undead? He tried to step back out but now she was moving our way. The Rogue went to another room and found 5-6 bugbears. She tried to bluff them to ignore the combat noise but only half were fooled. Lastly, there was a named pirate in the sleeping room who didn’t act. After a couple of rounds, she said that we were going to need her help and started attacking the pirates. Perhaps she’s a pirate that hadn’t been enthralled by the demon? The sea wraith cast silence in the middle of the main room which messed up the casters but also eliminated some of our conversations.
But then the Holy Paladin logged off from the late hour. The berserker came back to life as a Gibbering Mouther. Two spies popped out of the shadows and attacked the jungle girl and the “friendly” pirate. And the Bugbears started to attack. So it became 4 fights. Let’s start with the bugbears. The Monk joined the Rogue in hold that line since he assumed the sea demon needed magical weapons to effect. (I think she turned out to be resistant.) The bugbears weren’t too tough, having a low AC, low to hit and modest damage. What they did have was lots of hit points. Unfortunately, their room had the sailors in cages that we were looking for so we couldn’t ignore them. The Swashbuckler soon joined them and the Rogue fell back to help with the spies. The spies were giving each other sneak attacks but since they were mostly fighting the NPCs, it was about a wash. When our Rogue joined, the “friendly” pirate moved over to the sea demon. Eventually one of the spies went down, making the remaining one less dangerous.
The Mouther was bad news. Because of the silence, most of the heroes on the other side were unaware of it. It continuously gibbered so anyone that heard it had to save at the start of their turn (DC 10 WIS) or be confused. The terrain around it was difficult and you had to make a save at the start of your turn or have your speed reduced to zero. And it got a bite attack the did multiple dice of damage. And an extra attack that blinded that foe with puss. The Fighter engaged it and managed to make all 3 saves the first round and hit it pretty good. The Sorcerer initial thought he’d be better off in the silence with the sea wraith except that she had a reach attack with her hair, which then automatically grappled and pulled you into her and which point she did a kiss which turned out to drain strength. So another multiple effect monster.
The Sorcerer saved against the Mouther the first round, miss the second but used a blessed power to make it and then missed the third round and used a luck point to save. With his dragon breath spell, he managed to do damage to both the Mouther and the sea wraith. The Wizard missed 3 saves in a row and did nothing. (Sad since he’s proficient in WIS saves and couldn’t make a freaking DC10.) The Fighter missed the next two saves but one round he attacked a random foe in his confusion which had to be the Mouther and did some damage. The last round, he saved but then was blinded. But even blinded, he managed to hit. At the end of the last round, the Wizard finally managed to save and finished off the Mouther with a Chromatic Orb.
At that point, it was 2AM and Brian’s laptop had died and Jon had long left so we called it. The Mouther was thankfully out. The sea wraith was mostly untouched and the Rogue was down a chunk of strength. One spy was out and the other of the ropes? A couple of bugbears were out but there were still plenty of hit points over there to grind through. But none of us are out so the trend is good. The big issue will be that we’ve still got to kill the pirate captain and whomever he’s got with him plus the tentacle demon. At least. And we’ve used up a lot of spells and powers. If we live, we’ll certainly make 5th.
