Light of Dawn
You're on your way as quickly as you can make it, to where a small village of sith-makar can be found. The village of Tlanextic. The mission came in urgently to the Adventurer's guild at the request of a sith-makar woman asking for the aid of adventurers. The village was under attack at this very moment by slavers. Which is how you've all found yourselves here; making your way hastily through the underbrush in order to reach the village. Darkness has fallen, and the swiftclaws you were given as mounts to take you safely there are irritable. They after all, smell the fire before you do.
You reach the village and the place is in shambles. Homes have been torn down, set on fire. A few bodies lay on the ground not moving. So still. The scent is one of smoke and bloodshed, there is no sign of anything moving; nothing alive.
GAME: Gregor rolls survival: (19)+7: 26
Gregor is riding with the group. He's declined the offer of a swiftclaw, not the first time this has happened. Traveller's not particularly happy about this, given the terrain, but he's steadfast in adversity, and he'll be treated very well when it's all over. This is not Gregor's first rodeo. When he arrives in the village, he winces at the sight, and says, "It looks like we're too late." But he will search for signs of what happened. That's what scouts do.
Iuitl barks a command in Draconic once they arrive to get her Swiftclaw to halt. She looks around at the dead with a wrinkle of her snout. She doesn't display the burning fury that one might expect for one seeing her former home in shambles... But she takes a moment to commit faces to memory, and count how many of either side have been killed in the middle of all of this. She also tries to identify how long it's been since they died...
Her fury is a cold fury. She hasn't many tools to harm people, but she can certainly make sure her allies can last a bit longer. Her longspear is braced against her shoulder as she rides, an ideal weapon for fighting on the back of an animal.
GAME: Iuitl rolls Heal: (18)+6: 24
"Sssshhhhhhhhhhit," says the small human at the back of the party as the glow of fire breaks the dark horison, well before the village comes into view. Not terribly familiar with the gait of swiftclaws as riding animals, the scaled, dagger-footed beast had earned itself as many suspicious looks as the land around them on their way up, but a town on fire earns top priority when it comes to where attention is paid.
Her sullen silence turns bleak as she pulls to a halt at the Witch's side, sliding off her mount and kneeling next to one of the closer bodies. While the medical arts may not be a specialty, there's always the chance a scuffle has dropped trail sign that can be used to follow the slavers that did this.
Taking people apart is much more her speed.
GAME: Donna rolls survival: (4)+6: 10
The tracks away aren't hard to find, it looks like a group was forced to walk through the jungle away from the village. Where they're headed you can't be certain, but Gregor has their trail. Those dead have only been so a short time. There's a whisper in the back of your mind that if you'd only been a little quicker... but traveling takes time particularly through the jungle. So you turn to the tracks and make your way along the path toward the destination that the slavers have set out before you.
GAME: Iuitl rolls Perception: (19)+1: 20 GAME: Gregor rolls perception: (17)+7: 24
Gregor points out the tracks to the others, and will be hot on the trail as quickly as possible. There's no time to lose. "They went this way," he says and leads on.
GAME: Donna rolls perception: (13)+9: 22
Mounting a swiftclaw on the run tends to be a bad idea, unless you are very, very well-known and trusted to the swiftclaw in question. Since Donna is patently neither of these things, she settles for a hard look at her beast, and a quiet "We gotta go, so I'm'a get back up. 'Preciate it if y'don't bite me, thanks?"
Suiting deed to word, she gets on her swiftclaw's back as quickly as she can, nudging it around until it's pointed in roughly the same direction Gregor took off in.
"C'mon, Shaman," she calls over her shoulder. "We got some People to save, an' twice that to avenge, yeah?"
Gregor will dismount, hopping from his horse, and moving forward while staying along the treeline, hoping to stay under cover of the jungle while he goes forward to look.
GAME: Gregor rolls stealth: (17)+8: 25
There's a soft click of her tongue, and Iuitl pulls her Raven from her robe. He puffs up, briefly, and she speaks a command to him in a whisper. "Find their numbers. Report back." Then she throws the bird up, and he flies on ahead to investigate the slavers. Flap flap flap! He's pretty speedy, especially since he doesn't have to worry about the terrain too much.
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+5: (8)+5: 13 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d100: (72): 72
Burai manages to join the group. He is riding a Swiftclaw so most likely he was sent by the guild as well. The mount seems slightly winded - either from riding hard to catch up, or perhaps due to the size of the rider. He quickly takes im the party and what they are doing. Then he seems to settle on watching Iuitl for a clue as to what they are going to do next.
Your scout heads ahead a bit by himself, Gregor quickly catching up with the group of slavers, and then returning to you. Meanwhile you've maintained the distance that you've managed to gain so far to give him time to gather your information. Like Gregor, the raven scouts ahead and their reports are identical if perhaps very differently explained.
Gregor makes his way back to the group to explain what he's seen, blinking as another ally has appeared. But that's good. "I saw three," he explains quietly, "on swiftclaws, leading about twenty villagers that have been captured."
The raven returns and provides the same information. Iuitl says, "Destroy their swiftclaws and they won't be able to flee," in suggestion, and she pulls her swiftclaw up around to reach out and lay her hand on Donna briefly. A soft shimmer of light wavers from her hand like ripples on a pond as she casts her Ward Hex on her ally. "Charge. Hit them hard. They can't flee with cargo."
As anonymous as her hooded cloak allows her to remain, the reddish woman astride her mount, calmly observes, "If they are chained, they will not make good time without a proper pace setter. No one is sounding a cadence." She considers the tactical input, then amends her own with, "Hit the lead mount from the side, it will anchor the cargo. After that, drive them apart and obliterate them at leisure."
"Arright, then," Donna says, showing her teeth as the magic settles over her skin. "If there's a mage an' I don't see it, call'm out. Makin' mages' lives difficult's kinda a specialty of mine." Her eyes flick to Elyanna as she provides her own tweak, and it seems to settle well with the brawler. "We wanna get fancy an' go from both sides? If not, well... follow me." And so she urges her swiftclaw forward.
Burai listens and then offers, "I can cast a spell that well entangle one or more of them." He pauses and looks at Gregor and then the Raven. "Only three...?" he muses. "With so many captives? Be careful, there may be more ranging ahead or behind.. "
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+5: (17)+5: 22 GAME: Gregor rolls 1d20+8: (4)+8: 12
Gregor will ride forward, passing up slavers to attack from the other side. He lowers his lance, but the thrust he does is off-balance and does not strike home.
Knowing that such a small group of slavers could just be trailing behind a larger group of raiders and deciding expediency was key, Elyanna spurred her horse forward with a harsh goblin word. She closes to the lot to draw rein and slip down before her shrugging her cloak wide from her arms and pulling her whips free. The braids of leather crack and whistle in a sort of driving beat as she growls a goblin war chant, meanwhile, the braids of multi hued hair, more familiar and much more dangerous, writhes about her in a warding display.
GAME: Burai casts Burning Gaze. Caster Level: 4 DC: 15 GAME: Elyanna spends ONE use of BARDIC PERFORMANCE. GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+6: (17)+6: 23 GAME: Iuitl casts Command. Caster Level: 3 DC: 14 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+3: (1)+3: 4 (EPIC FAIL)
Burai casts a spell. His eyes turn red - not unlike the veins running through his armor. He turns his head slightly to look at the nearest slaver and his eyes blaze. A faint line of smoke appears in the air as dust ignites, but the slaver seems unaffected.
Iuitl guides her swiftclaw forward with the others, and she barks out a Command at one of the slavers: "FALL!" And as if she were a Charnese noble, the man follows the command. She stays at about the maximum distance for the spell to be effective, not wanting to get into a melee with these people when she's so flimsy.
GAME: Donna rolls cmb: (10)+7: 17 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+7: (16)+7: 23 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+7: (12)+7: 19 GAME: Aftershock rolls 2d8+4: (9)+4: 13
The first of the slavers falls off of his swiftclaw, grabbing for his waist and blowing a horn there. With that done the other two attack. One of them swinging at Gregor - and missing - and the other swinging more accurately at Donna who takes a heavy blow. The sith cheer, gathering together as best they can and moving away from the fight.
A flying tackle off the back of a swiftclaw is not the smartest of moves, but it is the first thing that comes to Donna's mind.
Perhaps her sister's way of thinking is starting to rub off on her.
Regardless, she hits the ground, and winces sharply as the sound of a horn blast from the slaver near her... then lets out a louder yell of pain when the slaver's weapon bites deep. "OH YOU ARE GONNA PAY BUDDY."
GAME: Gregor rolls 1d20+6: (6)+6: 12 GAME: Gregor rolls 1d20+6: (2)+6: 8 GAME: Gregor rolls 1d20+1: (13)+1: 14 GAME: Gregor rolls 1d20+1: (18)+1: 19 GAME: Gregor rolls 1d6+2: (6)+2: 8
Gregor thrusts again with his lance, but his aim is off. Traveller bites and stamps, too, and he manages to stomp down on one's leg, tearing flesh. He falls to the ground, and it looks like he got an artery, because the slaver's not getting up again, laying there bleeding out.
GAME: Elyanna rolls weapon6+1: (6)+7+1: 14 GAME: Elyanna rolls 1d3+3: (2)+3: 5
Moving closer to the fray, Elyanna, between the guttural notes of her driving chant and cracks of the leather whip, chances a strike with the hair wrought lash to try and sever the bridge between cargo and driver, but to no avail.
GAME: Burai rolls 1d6: (1): 1 GAME: Iuitl rolls 1d20+1: (20)+1: 21 GAME: Iuitl rolls 1d20+1: (9)+1: 10 GAME: Iuitl rolls 1d8: (7): 7
Iuitl advances on her target, a furious shine to her eyes. The tiny Sith-Makar angles her spear just right and drives it down with a lethal precision (that is mostly luck, honestly). There's a brief sound of it hitting the dirt after it pierces its target, and she pulls the weapon back to keep it from getting stuck in her target.
Burai follows Elyanna towards the chain. He focuses his gaze on the same link she struck. It begins to glow with heat but shows no other signs of damage.
GAME: Donna rolls finesse+1-2: (11)+9+1+-2: 19 GAME: Donna rolls finesse+1-2: (19)+9+1+-2: 27 GAME: Donna rolls 1d4+1+2: (2)+1+2: 5 GAME: Donna rolls 1d4+1+2: (3)+1+2: 6 GAME: Elyanna rolls wisdom: (14)+2: 16 GAME: Iuitl rolls Wisdom: (4)+1: 5 GAME: Gregor rolls wisdom: (7)+0: 7
"You otyugh-smooching asshole," Donna snarls, scrambling astride the slaver that she knocked off his mouth, and just starts wailing on his face. "You DON'T! TAKE! WHAT AIN'T! YOURS! EVER! *EVER!*"
Before very long, she's panting, her fury dissipating before it can build up to a proper head of steam, pushing herself away from a ruined, pulpy mess attached to a Charneth neck. "Okay. Okay. We need t'move. How's the People?"
GAME: Donna rolls wisdom: (20)+1: 21 GAME: Burai rolls wisdom: (4)+3: 7
Iuitl swings the longspear, the blood coated on the tip falling free of the masterwork, well-kept weapon. Then she says, "We need to get them out of these manacles. That horn may have called their combat contingent. Check for a key, they should have one on them."
The last of the slavers dies a bloody death, all of them unmoving, untwitching. Meanwhile the sith look totally stunned, blinking at the group of you. Clearly they weren't expecting to be saved. Then they clamor toward you, lifting their manacled claws and all of them seeming to talk at once in draconic. There's so many of them talking though that you can't understand what they're /saying/.
Elyanna brings her lashes to rest, coiling one, then the other as she considers the slavey train. She frowns, slipping the leather whip onto a hook on her belt, then, "The children aren't here." As the crowd clamors and chatters and rattles on overpoweringly drowning their own message out, she cracks the second whip over their heads with a snap of, "QUIET!" Then thrusts a finger at one of the older looking sith, "Just you. What happened, which way did they take your young?"
Of all the times to not know how to jimmy open a lock...
At the first, Donna is simply trying to make sure the Sith are okay, curiously intent that little harm has come to them. But not knowing Draconic, and distracted by a thought at the back of her head, she fails to see Elyanna pull out a whip. The *crack* gets her attention, and she whips around with -- at least as is likely -- the Sith contingent. "...I was just about to ask," she says slowly, voice back to its sullen default. "Just wasn't gonna act like a slavemaster in the doin'. Might wanna remember your audience, lady, yeah?"
Gregor hops down off his horse and moves to the lead slaver's body, and he rifles the pockets professionally. It's a scout thing. Normally you're looking for maps or letters, but now he's looking for keys. He moves to the next, and then to the lsat, but comes up empty-handed. "These fellows," he says, "didn't have the keys. The rest of their party must have gone ahead. Or else they're back by the village trying to run down the stragglers."
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20: (2): 2
Burai sweeps his fiery gaze across the main chain. He carefully chooses a spot focuses on it. The seconds stretch until it's red-hot. Then he grasps the chain on each side and pulls. Muscles bunch and a bead of sweat rolls down his forehead. Finally the link opens and the chain is broken.
The sound of the whip strikes fear into the sith-makar, and as a whole they throw themselves down on the ground, bellies in the leaves; cowering. Not a one looks at Elyanna. The one she points to shakes like a leaf and makes a low snuffling sound; its tail frozen, it's body frozen like a snake trying to hide among the leaves. "Pleassssse. Pleassssse. Thissss one obeyssss." The low huffing sound continues and in the back one of the sith makes a little wailing noise.
"They sounded a warning." Elyanna replies to the other woman, "We have no time to sift through voices for answers." The hair whip is coiled as she speaks, then returns in due course, to its own place, "There should be another train for the hatchlings, some of their raiders will be coming back this way in answer to that alarm." She looks to the speaker and approaches, setting a light hand on it's back, takes a deep breath, "Things to unlearn...." she murmurs in goblin, then, in Trade, "Speak, elder, we want to help you but time is short. What do you know?" she tries, aiming for a more... gentle tone. She won't apologize, but the woman has at least part of a good point.
Iuitl grunts, and gets off of her swiftclaw. She steps up to one of them, and grabs them by the arm to try and haul them up to their feet. She speaks firmly, "We must know where the others are. Please. Where are children? Where are they?" To her, this is a familiar face, and she's hoping that seeing someone that once provided healing, even if they distrusted her, would bring them something approaching comfort.
"Best not to touch'm now," Donna murmurs. "You're scarin' em enough as it is..." Blowing out a breath that oushes a lock of hair away from an eye, she steps back to let Iuitl take the lead in this. Meanwhile, she moves on, looking for the largest, strongest of the captives that remain. If they're going to pursue the slavers and rescue the children, they *can't* leave a full score of hobbled captives in the middle of the jungle…
Gregor will help as well, going back to his horse and retrieving his lance. The tip of the lance is adamantine, and he will grip it right below that. He can lay the binding across the edge of the blade, and work the manacle-chains back and forth across it til they part.
Donna's warning is well founded and being dragged up seems to frighten the ever-loving out of the sith who promptly... faints. The elder sith is having a similar problem even crouched on the ground. Finally after a long moment the elder sith points away from you in the direction the carravan had been heading before. "Sssa. He took the hatchlingssss. Emerind. Pleasssse." Nobody is looking at anybody. Save the wounded warriors who are still defiant enough to peek up from the ground in spite of their injuries.
Iuitl goes person to person, laying a hand on each of those that need it and providing a gentle healing light to them. One by one by one... It'll take a while. "They won't escape," she tells them each in turn. She even tends to Donna, tapping her and giving her some mending.
GAME: Iuitl rolls 1d8+3: (7)+3: 10
Burai goes to the fallen slavers in much the same order Gregor did. But he has a different objective. He picks up a fallen weapon and the reins to the swiftclaw and brings them over, one a time, to the warriors identified. "Here," he urges. "Take them. Protect the others."
GAME: Elyanna rolls knowledge/nobility: (8)+6: 14
Finding her candidate out of the wounded warriors, Donna looks over her shoulder... but Iuitl seems to have anticipated her. Bobbing her head in thanks, she drops down to one knee, pulling two small glass bottles from a belt pouch. "Yo. Warrior," she says to the most defiant of the three. "We don't want to leave y'all here helpless. So, here. This one," she says, laying down a vial of cloudy red liquid, "smells like vinegar an' sour tomatoes, an after you drink it you'll have the strength of an ox for a while. This one," she says, laying down another of roiling yellow, "will make you large enough to pick up a swiftclaw. Between both of'm, it's the best I got for gettin' the rest of your people outta their binds. An' this way, you can make sure they're protected on the way back. We'll get the kids for ya, promise."
Rising to her feet, she nods. "Remember; red, then yellow. An' I'm sorry we didn't get here sooner."
"We will see to them, elder." Elyanna replies softly. She fidgets a little bit, then eases back from the crowd, "Emerind?" a sulphurous goblin curse, then, "Saddle up, if that -is- Emerind, he's put the spurs to work at the sound of that horn!”
GAME: Donna used a Potion of Enlarge Person. GAME: Donna used a Potion of Bull's Strength. GAME: Donna rolls survival: (18)+6: 24 GAME: Iuitl rolls Survival: (19)+2: 21 GAME: Gregor rolls survival: (13)+7: 20 GAME: Elyanna rolls survival: (16)+4: 20 GAME: Burai rolls survival: (5)+11: 16
You make haste after the trail, moving as fast as you can knowing that Emerind will be moving slower because of the children. They'll slow him down. What you don't know, what the sith were too afraid to tell you is that he has an time on you. A lot more time than you think he has. He'd made each group easier to control by splitting them up. You hear a horn echoing back about halfway through your journey, and then you reach a river.
There! Just downriver a ways you spot a boat. A boat bearing a cage on it. It's hard to tell at this distance, but you can't imagine that it doesn't hold the sith-makar children inside it.
"That's gotta be a call," Donna murmurs as the horn sounds, bending low over her borrowed swiftclaw and leaving it to do the work of navigating the jungle. Probably for the best.
"They're gonna cast off soon's as they figure they ain't hearin' back, an' we didn't get the horn. Shit shit shit..."
Burai squints into the distance at the boat. "I can change form and swim after them," he begins, "But I won't be able to cast spells. Or to speak," he adds almost as an afterthought. He glances at the rest of the party. "Perhaps I can slow them down, or somehow drive them ashore..."
Gregor says to Burai, "We'll keep that idea handy if they pull away. For now, I guess we follow." And he'll ride down the bank in the direction of the slavers.
Iuitl tells her familiar, "Keep eyes on them. Go!" And throws the raven up in the air so the bird can fly over the boat and track it as it travels. It won't leave his sight as long as he's pursuing it. She keeps the swiftclaw pursuing the boat as well. "Charnese filth," she spits.
GAME: Delilah rolls perception: (15)+0: 15
Keeping the accursed beast on track is trying for the whip dancer, but she's keeping up with the group well enough, pouring over her limited options as they try to keep pace with the boat. Elyanna, just in case, removes the leather whip from her belt and holds it en coil to be ready for an opportunity, should one present itself.
The boat isn't getting away, in fact as you follow on the swiftclaws (and thankfully they take after their names in this instance), it starts to slow down a little bit. Not enough for you to catch up, but to close the distance little... by little. Until you can make out the forms of the sith makar in their cage, and the forms of various slavers walking along the decks commanding the row crew to move faster. The river is wide and deep, and you catch sight of various animals using it. Namely alligators who snap and hiss at your swiftclaws.
GAME: Donna rolls perception: (18)+9: 27 GAME: Iuitl rolls Perception: (7)+1: 8 GAME: Gregor rolls perception: (11)+7: 18 GAME: Burai rolls perception: (5)+10: 15 GAME: Elyanna rolls perception: (1)+2: 3 (EPIC FAIL)
It turns out that those present on the banks aren't the only ones who were trying to stop the slavers; Donna's twin sister, Delilah, was with another group trying to do exactly the same thing. However, in their case, it looks like they good bushwacked by the slavers before they could, y'know, beat the unholy crap out of them.
Therefore, standing on the deck and flanked by a couple of slavers who are busy being various levels of jerk to her, is Delilah; her 'stuff' is in a pile elsewhere on the deck, and she's stuck standing there in her robes, with her hands manacled behind her back and a bit in her mouth just in case. (Apparently she casts spells. Can't be too careful, afterall.)
Also, she looks like she is less afraid, and more just various levels of pissed off.
GAME: Donna rolls intimidate: (4)+7: 11
"Wait, is that...?" Donna peers over her swiftclaw's head at the boat for a moment, then rears back, eyes wide as dinner plates. "How in the--" And she's off, urging her swiftclaw to as much speed as it's willing to humor her with, trailing wisps of pale-blue fire. Rearing back in the saddle, she gives up all pretense of stealth and bellows "YOU MOTHERFUCKERS SLOW THAT TUB DOWN AND LET US ON BOARD, AN' *MAYBE* I WON'T FEED YOU YOUR OWN ASSES! MAKE ME JUMP, AN' YOU *BET* I WILL!"
GAME: Iuitl rolls 1d20+18: (11)+18: 29 GAME: Elyanna rolls 1d6: (3): 3 GAME: Elyanna rolls acrobatics: (12)+6: 18 GAME: Donna rolls intimidate: (17)+7: 24
Iuitl turns her swiftclaw in the middle of its run and it takes a running LEAP, instinctively reaching out but falling short of the boat...! And she hits the water with a howl of frustration and violence in her voice. She holds her breath and tries to direct the Swiftclaw onto the boat before the gators get to them... that's not going to be easy.
Either inspired, or driven to madness by having to wrangle her mount, Elyanna sees an overhanging branch with what she suspects has the angle she needs. as she nears, the whip uncoils and snaps out to launch the halfbreed into a daring (insane) swing, that, sadly leaves her landing with a >SPLASH!< right next to the boat.
The wisps of fire trailing Donna begin to grow in number, and pure, frustrated rage is slowly filling Donna's eyes with pale-blue light. "YOU HEAR THAT, YOU CHARNETH PIG-DIDDLERS?! THAT'S THE SOUND OF *YOU HAVE MY FUCKING SISTER ON BOARD AND I WILL MULCH EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING BETWEEN US.*"
Yet as furious as she is, she doesn't swerve to try and take the jump. Yet.
Not when she sees the bend in the river coming up...
GAME: Elyanna rolls weapon6: (10)+7: 17 GAME: Elyanna rolls strength: (4)+2: 6 GAME: Elyanna rolls strength: (7)+2: 9
Burai finds himself in the water, and for the first time in the form of a large finned sea-creature with round and surprisingly innocent looking black eyes. Luckily bull sharks are known - and sometimes feared - for being able to travel in rivers. With so many new sensations he doesn't even know how out of place it feels to be in fresh water rather than salt. And he learns quickly. Turning swiftly he orients himself and then begins to swim with powerful tail motions, darting to where Iuitl and her mount landed, eyeing the nearest alligator as if daring it to come near.
This is not how things were supposed to go. Emerging from the waters with a gasp, she's already drawing her favored whip by reflex, which snaps up and out to snare a section of handrail. Success, though as her other hand shoots out toward her companion with a, "Hold on!" ... the current sunders her own grip on the scaley one's limb.
GAME: Gregor rolls 1d20+7: (7)+7: 14 GAME: Burai rolls 8: (3)+8: 11
Gregor rushes forward in while fishing rope from his saddlebags. A quick knot and he's got a lariat, and a hard throw .... just misses the bow of the boat. "Crap," he grumbles, reeling in the wet rope for another heave.
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+5: (17)+5: 22 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+5: (15)+5: 20 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+5: (1)+5: 6 (EPIC FAIL) GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+11: (16)+11: 27 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+11: (3)+11: 14 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d8+4: (2)+4: 6 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d8+6: (7)+6: 13
Three alligators notice that dinner has decided to drop in, and quickly swim toward the splashing meal. One takes a bite out of Burai, and the second really sinks its teeth in, rolling him over and spinning him upside down in a dizzying frenzy that leaves blood pooling to the surface of the water... The last lazily snaps at Iuitl, but misses her entirely.
GAME: Iuitl rolls Athletics: (7)+0: 7 GAME: Iuitl rolls Athletics: (13)+0: 13
Iuitl reaches through the water and snags ahold of Elyanna's arm, clinging to the woman, and pulling herself up. She coughs and peers up at the edge of the boat, and then back at the alligators that snapped at her in the water. Oh jeez.
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+3: (13)+3: 16 GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+7: (18)+7: 25
The slavers... panic a bit. Maybe it's the woman yelling at them (it's definitely at least partially that), maybe it's the reputation of Alexandrian adventurers (okay yes that too). Either way they put the pedal to the metal metaphorically speaking and whip their slaves literally. One of the men beside Delilah panics and pushes her over the railing. "TAKE HER WE DON'T WANT HER!" He yells. His companion meanwhile is running to where there's a whip holding two people in place... and starts sawing at it with his knife.
Delilah is standing on the deck of the ship, and watches... several people use various methods to throw themselves into the water. She sighs audibly, and jerks back as one of the slavers standing beside her starts pulling down the front of her robe. "Hymphhh!" she shouts at him.
And then, there's Donna, screaming righteous murder from the banks, and she snnnrrks around the bit in her mouth, flexing her arms and making the chain behind her back clank loudly. "Hyuu unhhf ahh hroood oww," she growls at them, which would've been at least a little bit threatening if she could speak properly. And about that moment, one of the slavers just shoves her towards the railing; she trips, and "AAAEEEEEEEEE"s her way down to splash head first into the water with a loud 'sploosh'.
GAME: Donna rolls 1d20+18: (4)+18: 22 GAME: Donna rolls 1d20+18: (6)+18: 24 GAME: Donna RAGES!, gaining +2 to melee attack/damage/Will saves and 10 temporary HP
Perhaps the swiftclaw was as unnerved by Donna's screaming as the slavers. Perhaps it was the heatless explosion of pale fire that surrounded its rider when her fury finally boiled over. Perhaps it was the rot on the underside of the log. Whatever the reason, the swiftclaw jumps gamely, but doesn't manage to get as far as it or Donna would have liked.
Donna's too pissed for that. If she has to punch the water out of her way to get to her sister before the alligators do, then dammit she will.
Heavy steel gauntlets slap against the side of the boat, and Donna breaks the water like an avenging wraith, her sister's manacled hands looped around her neck, as she just pissed-s her way up the side of the boat. "YOU MOTHERFUCKERS TRIED TO *KILL MY SISTER.* //FEEDING TIME.//"
-TBC