With a swift smash of her staff Caelyn downs the last foe and moves up unobstructed to follow in Sam and ???'s footsteps. Vala and the civilians follow behind, clustering to the bottom of the stairs - Vala unwilling to leave anyone behind.

Though its rise is less dramatic to this deck than below, water seems to have totally subsumed the lower level and has now begun surging up over the lip of the level, combining the briny seawater with the sanguine blood that now stains the wood.

Spoiler: Map
Show



Due to the pressing concern of the boat sinking we're still in initiative...kinda, but there are no enemies on the lower decks.

With a dash, Sam and Leaf could reach the top deck and the open air on their next turn, but given the likelihood of an enemies up there not sure that's desirable. Your characters would be aware of this, so I feel comfortable giving that 'hint'.

So, to skip over "I dash this turn" x5, does the party want to spend a turn or two assembling at the bottom of the stairs up? Trickle up turn by turn? While you COULD try scouting ahead with Grepha, every round of scouting is a round closer to icy cold.

It's going to take Grok about 3 rounds to get to the bottom of the stairs, so I don't really want to spend a week or two on that. Might kill the interest a tad :P

Initiative order:

Grepha: [23]
Sam: [21]
Grok: [17]
Leaf: [16]

EA: [15]

Vala: [14]
???: [12]
Caeyln: [9]

EV: [4]
ES: [4]

Senna: [1]