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[Tawa]

Noting Mila's actions, Galan reaches into his bag and pulls out his nunchucks.

"You can never be too careful..."

[Fniff]

"Is that a weapon or a device for pleasuring two ladies at the same time?"

[highmax28]

Varg curses under his breath as the others act in what Varg is thinking.

Mila, get on that ballista. If you got the same feeling that I do, then we should expect to be boarded.

Varg looks at Caerill and points to him.

Go alert Lord Physic and tell him we're expecting company. If you can fight, then grab your arms. You've been at sea, so you should know how to deal with an maneuver this thing in combat. If you can't, man the other ballista and hope your sea legs make your aim true. You, nunchuck, give me a hand with this!

Varg starts taking some junk barrels, spears (if any, or not, quickly make pointed wooden sticks from something we don't need) and pushing them to the side to be ready in case of a boarding party. When done, or if they get too close, start firing arrows at anyone that tries to get on board.

[USEC_OFFICER]

Mila grunts, "Then let someone else man the ballista. I'll alert my lord and prepare for battle."

Mila goes to tell Lorder Physic about the possible pirates.

[highmax28]

Mila grunts, "Then let someone else man the ballista. I'll alert my lord and prepare for battle."

Mila goes to tell Lorder Physic about the possible pirates.

Varg grits his teeth. I better get paid extra for this...

He mutters a quick prayer to himself, under his breath as he works the debris/spear wall.

Aegir, Lord of the Drowned Dead and Master of Sea Storms, give us the strength of your tides and storms so you may claim those slain here as your own. If all fails, then I hope that these bastards are willing to take an offer...

[Iituem]

Turns to the crew and asks them whose ship that is, pointing if needed.

The crew move to the edge of the deck and peer - they don't recognise it, and this worries them.

Call to the Captain.

"Captain! There be a ship on the horizon!

Lord Physic clocks your alarm and pulls out his spyglass, extending it and peering at the distant ship.  When he removes it, there is a distinct cast of a frown on his face.

"Aye, Morgawyn, and not a friendly one.  Helmsman, plot a course directly away from them.  Gentlemen!"  Lord Physic addresses the rest of the crew.  "Rig for full speed!  Likely pirate on the horizon, and I want as much distance between her and us before the wind changes.  Galan, get every ounce of wind out of this breeze you can, we're going to need it!"

Physic nods approvingly at the preparations of his two bodyguards.  When Mila approaches, he leans into her and comments under his breath.

"Good work, Asenov.  The Maiden handles like a brick, and that's a light corvette on the horizon.  With the wind ring we can just about keep pace with her in this weather, but we can't out-manoeuvre her.  We'll need to try and out-run her instead."

Physic snaps his fingers at Caerill.

"Crundmael!  You're not part of my crew, but if those are pirates you'll die the same as anyone else.  Cut the chatter and man the starboard ballista, fire if they get in range.  You'll know they're in range because they'll be doing exactly the same damn thing."

Varg starts taking some junk barrels, spears (if any, or not, quickly make pointed wooden sticks from something we don't need) and pushing them to the side to be ready in case of a boarding party. When done, or if they get too close, start firing arrows at anyone that tries to get on board.

You work quickly at creating a rough barricade [Luck: 4] but there's a severe paucity of crates or barrels large enough to provide cover or small enough to be easily dragged up from the hold.  You gather together some water barrels and cut some poles, providing about 10 feet worth of cover on the port midship.

The crew scurry to work, adjusting ropes, trimming sails and doing all they can to help squeeze every inch of speed they can out of the ship.  [12+2]  They manage to tighten the ship up a little, giving an inch more of edge to the chase.  How well the helmsman navigates, however, will depend upon Galam's ability to gather the winds.

[highmax28]

Varg keeps and eye on the other ship and how close it gets. As soon as it gets too close, shout out a warning and fire my bow at anything that starts to get close. The rain is going to hamper it, for certain, but if any land, charge them after I sling my bow and try to bull rush them overboard.

[Iituem]

Galam, you reach your arcane senses into the workings of the wind ring, feeling the tendrils of magic reaching out into the air all around, and attempt to focus the flow of wind inwards towards the sails.  [Spellcraft: 3+7]  Unfortunately with only a light breeze to work with, you can only gather a fraction more wind to your aid.

[Navigator: 4+4+2+0 vs ??] The helmsman panics, trying to gather more speed but actually cutting against the wind in a pitifully inefficient way.  The distant corvette gains quickly upon the Maiden, and you can hear the distinct *chuff, chuff* of a pair of ballistae being fired as they come into range, just under a thousand feet away.  [Corvette: ??+?-8, x2] One of the ballista arrows sails just short of the helmsman, falling harmlessly into the water just off the aft of the ship, the other completely misses the ship by about 25ft.

The ship is in ballista range if anybody wants to take shots at it (Wisdom + any artillery skill), and Galam may continue to make Spellcraft checks to force the wind.

You can roll your checks with Roll20 if you wish, or your own dice, just put the results here in the format [Skill: raw+bonus] and I'll tell you whether or not it succeeded.

[highmax28]

Despite never using a ballista before, let alone getting in naval combat, Varg grabs the second ballista and fires a shot! (Wisdom: 18+2) ((First roll ever for 3.5, lets hope this does something!))

EDIT:
((Someone just pointed out my sig in context of this. Priceless!))

[Iituem]

Despite never using a ballista before, let alone getting in naval combat, Varg grabs the second ballista and fires a shot! (Wisdom: 18+2) ((First roll ever for 3.5, lets hope this does something!))

Fortunately, the ballista is not too different from a crossbow - at least in operation.  You have to slightly wing the adjustments for a moving target and rain, but you set your sights and ready to fire.  [Navigator: 16+4 vs ??, grants +2 bonus]  The helmsman, seeing this, banks the ship slightly left, opening up your field of view.  You pull the trigger and a massive steel bolt is propelled out of the siege weapon as its sinuous spring releases.  The bolt sails through the air and lands right on target, punching a great hole through the deck of their ship and, you think, probably letting on water down below.

"Grand shot," says one of the sailors, who claps you on the back and helps you to reload and rewind the ballista.  [A ballista takes 2 full rounds to fire - one full round action to load, one full round action to fire.  During naval pursuit such as this, this is slightly abstracted.  Your ability to fire is affected by the relative Navigation checks of the ships as they try to evade and adjust their bearings to favour the ballistae on one side or the other.]

[highmax28]

Varg, having put a nice hole in the side of the enemy ship, gets an idea.

Aim for their sails! If we can slow them down, we might be able to outrun them!

Varg reloads in the meantime

[Tawa]

Force the wind! Get the hell out of here!

Oh, and get a swig of vodka, as stressed alcoholic sorcerers are wont to do.

[Fniff]

"... Alright, sir..."

This navigator is no good. I'm going to put in some assistance. This captain has no idea what he's doing.

"Hey, navigator, allow me to assist! I ran a fishing skiff off the coast of Groan, I can do this. You do something important."
Use my ELITE NAVIGATING SKILLS to turn the ship to fly against the wind... if I can wrestle it off the navigator.

[highmax28]

"... Alright, sir..."

This navigator is no good. I'm going to put in some assistance. This captain has no idea what he's doing.

"Hey, navigator, allow me to assist! I ran a fishing skiff off the coast of Groan, I can do this. You do something important."
Use my ELITE NAVIGATING SKILLS to turn the ship to fly against the wind... if I can wrestle it off the navigator.

((Isn't that what we DONT want?))

[USEC_OFFICER]

((Isn't that what we DONT want?))

((It is impossible to sail against the wind, but depending on how the sails are set up on the ship it could be possible to sail close to the wind, and thus outpace the pirate vessel if they can't move as quickly or as closely.

...

Of course given the fact that we're in a merchant vessel we probably have square sails and thus can't do what I outlined above. Oh well.))