Skiff Combat: Round One: Devlin

Devlin watches as the raiders board his ship. A couple of gnolls are already on the main deck, armed with bows and magical incantations.

"Attention crew of this elemental ship." One of the gnoll shouts in heavily accented common. "You are under attack by the illustrious Bomu clan of warriors! We're here to take your cargo. Cooperate and no one gets hurt."

The Bomu clan? Devlin wonders. Why would the Bomu clan choose to board a vessel so near the docking towers? These pirates are either desperate or they are working for someone. Someone who wants to get a hold of the Boromar merchandise.

Devlin quickly examined the grappling hooks Gian told him. These hooks were holding the Ravenstorm in place. There were four other pirates on soarsleds hovering over the ship.

"Damn raiders!" Devlin muttered as he quickly reaches for the helm. "Coreen should have hired a couple of extra hands."

The war wizard firmly grasped the ship's wheel of wind and water and turned it to the left. "Let's hope the ship doesn't break or Gian will kill me."

The Ravenstorm immediately responded.

It shook briefly and began to tilt to the left side. Devlin continued to hold the wheel as the crew and the raiders fumbled, trying to get their bearings. The skyship continued to tilt to the left, until Devlin lost sight of the pirates riding the soarsleds.

The snapping sounds of wood and rope were heard from a distance.

* * *

The Ravenstorm manages to stay together. Under the strain of the tilting ship, two of the four grappling lines become taut and finally snap allowing the Ravenstorm to roll to the left. The sudden maneuver catches most of the pirates off guard.

Two of the humanson soarsleds fail to avoid the airship as it rolls away and gets rammed by the larger vehicle. Both pirates get knock off their sleds and their unconscious bodies drop towards the ground.

The other two pirates on soarsleds manage to avoid the tilting of the ship but effectively lose sight of their targets.

* * *
As the air ship makes its roll, most of everyone on ship is taken by surprise by the sudden movement. On deck, both Gian and Rourke successfully grab unto the railings and riggings on the ship and are able to steady themselves.

Two of the gnolls on the deck are not to lucky, they slide off and fall prone on the deck. Both gnolls lose hold of their bows which falls off the ship. One of the prone gnolls manages to grab hold of the ship’s rigging slowing his drop. The other gnoll is not so lucky and follows its bow off the ship.

The gnoll leader, however, manages to grab on to the ship’s ballista and steadies himself. Angered by the unexpected escape of the ship from their trap, the gnoll makes a run towards the ship’s helm in hopes of taking control of the ship.

On the skiff, from the aft of the Ravenstorm, the gnoll sorcerer commands one of his bodyguards to bring the skiff back and near the airship. He then manages to get out of the sand bat swarm just enough for it to cast a spell causing him to vanish from the skiff and appear on the Ravenstorm's deck, just beside the gnoll leader who has reached the door leading to the ship's helm.