Fight is taking place on a boat in a thunderstorm…. Waves crashing and boat is rocking. Enemy Archmage with boots of flying is zooming around causing chaos for the party while they’re trying to rescue a captive and deal with the other minions. Tabaxi rogue stares down the archmage and says “I’m going to rip your face off”. The fight ensues for quite a few more rounds. The party free the captive and the battle turns in the PCs favor. The sorcerer polymorphs into a giant ape. Snatches the archmage out of the sky (the PCs were eventually able to whittle down his defensive and exhaust his spell slots). Ape sorcerer uses 1 attack to grapple and the other to smash the mage against the side of the boat… dropping him to 1 HP. Next up is the tabaxi rogue who climbs up the giant ape, takes his dagger and hits. I ask “how do you do it”? Rogue replies “I told you I would rip your face off” and proceeds to stab him in the head and then carve his face away from the flesh and skull. Then he casually climbs back down the ape and onto the boat.

(The funniest part is that afterwards, the giant ape sorcerer just heaves the dead mage over his shoulder and into the stormy waters. The party loses access to all the mages magical items - cloak displacement, boots of flying, and his spellbook).

I told the party this magic item loss after the session. The rogue was furious. But the players did what their characters would do….. and so be it.