The Woad gets ready, by keeping his trusty spear ready, and standing by the bow of the ship, as if he is expecting pirates at any moment. Or at least keeping an eye open for them.
Roberto smiles. Ah, I get what you are saying. Stand guard here with Cidito. I have a plan. I will keep contact with you through him. .
After conferring with Captain Johan, Roberto hops on his carpet and takes off into the darkness. A storm is brewing.
The Woad stands guard, stone like in patient vigilance. Cidito tries to strike up conversation, which might get annoying. Thunder rumbles in the distance. The cat scampers off to give the captain some directions, then comes to get you.
Roberto sez we we are on course to intercept. Prepare yourself.
The Woad really doesn’t know any protective or boosting magi in preparation, yet.
But he does start calling upon the powers of the Morrígan, in his native Irish language- which sounds outrageous to everyone else. It takes longer than a spell
A slight sound is heard, like the cracking or grinding of stones, as the Woad’s skin takes a greyish hue with blue stripes and shapes seeming at random. (Stoneskin power is activated)
The crew is calm and quiet (there are about seven or eight of them). Even Cidito has gone quiet. The fog is cold and thick. The ship feels still, as if it was hovering above the water. Two sailors take up positions beside you, armed with loaded crossbows.
Cidito raises his paw,waiting, then he he yowls as he jabs the air, pointing to a spod up ahead just off he Starboard Bow.
MlrYOW! There! We are upon them!
The Woad sees the black vessel ahead in the fog. As do the sailors beside you. They fire, striking the only two men you can see on that ship. They stagger, but do not fall. The sailors fire again. You notice that there is another pair behind them, ready to had off a freshly loaded weapon and hand off the empty one to two other guys that reload them.
Keep their attention! I have something I gotta go do!. And Cidito runs off towards the back of this ship.
The Woad sees that on the other ship there are more men coming out. You see a few of them have bows.
What do you do?
Pffah, bows are for hunting - fowl and small game! The Woad will take the fight up close and personal.
However until the Woad develops some additional wards, his stoneskin may not be enough to simply ignore arrows.
The plan is - and please interrupt as things happen:
First order of business is Veil of Invisibility. Barring any negative aura effects, even a roll just below average allows the spell cast without Fatigue. Penetration should not matter. Die-roller app gives me an 8, +16 casting for a lvl 20 spell is more than enough.
Second: How far to the other ship? And is our ship moving into contact? I'm asking because the Woad would prefer to board, but it needs to be possible. And he also attempts to count the number of hostiles on the black ship, and checks whether Johan's crew are planning to board. He is not so overconfident that he charges into an outnumbered combat.
Third:
Time to soften up the opposition with Rust, Rot, and Ruin the Soldier's Kit*
It is T:Group in order to affect all a soldier's arms and armour, so it needs to be cast at each enemy separately. Casting requisites for Herbam and Animal apply. Looking at the design, I'm not sure how it should affect bows...it could just be the same because the wood warps and weakens making the bow a lot less efficient.
*)Rust, Rot and Ruin the Soldier’s Kit PeTe20
Voice/Mom/Group
Spell weakens all metal, leather, and wooden components of a single fighter’s weapons, shield, and armour. Casting requisites may apply. For weapons and shields this his halves Damage total (including Attack Advantage) and Defense totals. For armour it halves Soak Total (excluding contribution from Stm, Tough Virtue, Bronze Cord etc.). If the victim Botches an attack, defense, or Soak roll the item used may break.
(Base 2, +2 metal, +2 Voice, +2 Group)
Turning invisible is not a problem. We did use an official agreed to dice roller site. Cyotcode or Invisiblle castle. Not sure if either is still operational. I will check into it.
The bow of this ship is maintaining a consistent distance and aspect in relation to the black ship. Which should be impossible. Both ships are in motion.
You estimate the number of hostiles to be about a half dozen. Two or three of them seem to be acting as shields for the ones with bows. They don't seem to do anything except lumber and take hits from crossbows.
That spell you cast should have requisites for Animal the design. Casting Requisites have to be part of the design. You can't add them as an afterthought. It should be a magnitude higher, but you could have designed it a magnitude lower and flex-cast it. Fixer used to do this with Wirth all the time. Spells that make no sense as Target Part, intended to be Flexed to Individual or Group.
But anyway, moving forward...
That spell seems to be your best option. But since itwas the third thing you thought of, it is fair to say that the hostiles on the back ship get a few shots in. One of the re-loaders takes a hit.
So does The Woad
Archer Characteristic + Ability + Weapon = 7, 1D10 = [9], -3 for Invisible, Total = 13
You were visible just a moment ago and have not moved. That was a shot in your general direction.
Make a Dodge roll, and if unsuccessful, the Damage is 6 + (13 minus your dodge).
That will require a Concentration roll if you still want to cast your Perdo spell.
OR...
You could choose not to dodge, and if your "stone skin" can handle it (damage +19), then you do not need a concentration roll.
Wait, so the ships are facing bow towards bow, are still moving, but maintain distance and aspect...is one of them moving backwards?
How far in between are the ships?
The spell Rust, Rot and Ruin... is designed as a Terram spell like many other Terram spells without any other Form requisites in the design (meaning: not costing a magnitude) but requiring them as casting requisites. Fist of shattering and Stone to Falling dust are examples. This seems to be an inherent advantage Terram has. That seemed fair to me, I assumed it was ok.
The Woad does not have total damage immunity, so he'll try to dodge. You can roll the dice if you want, I can't seem to find the online die roller.
Brawling Defense is 2+ stress die [edit: unless you allow the use of other combat abilities instead?], I assume I'll get hit. Soak is +10 so I'm counting on that. The Concentration roll is 9+ stress die, EF for dodging looks to be 12 so that's doable.
Assuming the Woad escapes relatively unharmed, he will be moving around to be a more difficult target.
If he succeeds in ruining the bows, the next step is more offensive. What arms and armour are they carrying, are the archer equipped like the meat-shields?
Since Shattering the Sword in Seven Sharp Shards both has T:Part and allows wood to be exploded (with a casting req), there is no shortage of targets when standing on the deck of a ship.
Splinters were historically the most damaging effect of cannonballs in hulls during the xviii-early xix century naval battles. At least to my Trafalgar book by Osprey Publishing. So yeah, exploding wood should be an extremely effective weapon in a Naval battle.
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Try this...
http://www.coyotecode.net/roll/
Since you leave it to my discretion, I say it is easy to dodge the arrows. But you fail your Concentration. Try casting again the next round. You are still invisible, and now that you have moved, you can notbe made a deliberate target.
Or can you? mwahahahahahaha!
The ship you are on, the Betty, is moving sideways. It gets pretty freaky if you think about it. But Santiago once told you that it is wise to adapt first and analyze later. The enemy ship (the *Black Agnes") is moving normalllly at a speed of maybe five knots? The Betty is positioned so that her bow is pointed at the starboard bow of the Black Agnes. She maintains a distance of a quarter cable (about 50 yards or more),and is moving sideways to keep pace with Black Agnes.
You can discern the nature of the enemy a bit better if you scrutinize. I'll make that roll for you too. 
You see four "corpse-men", that which you refer to as meat-shields. They don't seem to be equipped with anything. Behind and dodging between them are three archers with long bows. One of them is down. They took a hit from Betty's fire team.
So top of the next round. You can try to cast your spell, but you may want to wait on that. The archer that took a hit. He rises up as walking dead. You saw that coming. But the same thing happens on the Betty. The one guy in the fire team that took a hit, it killed him. And now he rises up from the dead, a corpse sailor, and will start to attack the crew.
But that attack comes next round. It is this round in which he rises up from death. The Woad has the next move.
Corpse-men don’t fire bows, so the Woad thinks.
But an enemy in our midst has first priority.
The Woad attacks the rising corpse-man with his spear, before it harms our side.
_: 1D10 = [6] = 6
And Atk + 11 = +17
Dam +8, in addition to a hopefully high Atk advantage.
The Woad makes sure to move about as much as he can
Eilric might be the smallest sailor on the Betty, and the youngest, and the newest, but he was damned if he was going to let anyone tell him he was the most useless! As soon as trouble started, he grabbed his bow and started shooting. At first he didn't realize what exactly he was shooting at. But as he looked more carefully he could see that some of the enemy weren't alive - well., not really. He'd heard the older sailors tell stories about things like this. But he hadn't really believed them until just now.
OOC: Enter Eilric, the smallest, youngest, and newest sailor on the Betty. Eager to prove himself, he's ready to do whatever it takes! Just tell me how you want me to participate. I posted his stats on the New CharGen Ideas thread so as not to clutter things up here.
You do surprise the thing. In only you were strong...
(I am suggesting maybe you may want to trade one Great Stamina Virtue in for Improved Characteristics in Strength. If you want.)
But I will give you this. You distract and confuse the corpse (who is just barely dead with an arrow in the eye (and brain)). Two of our sailors manage to pin it down and restrain it. This slows our fire rate, but the enemy has slowed also. Mindless corpse men don't use bows. Too much multitasking for the animator, unless he focuses on animating just one (and can use bows).
Next round: Both sides are maintaining cover and no one shoots. The Woad surveys the situation. Black Agnes is making a turn to their starboard coming towards the Betty. Johan tries to pivot and maintain distance, but the Betty is buffeted by an unfortunate wind (The Woad suspects it was a supernatural wind).
Distance is about an eighth of a cable (30 yards).
I took Great Stamina twice, because Concentration rolls are vital for the Woad being in the midst of battle and wanting to cast spells while touching with his spear.
But reducing Stm by that one buys Str from 0 to 2...
The Woad wants to spot the enemy helmsman and blast deck planks with Shatter the Sword in Seven Sharp Shards
(I was just putting the idea out there.That fifth point of Stamina is impressive in many other ways).
Eilric the sailor, in cover behind the rail, takes aim at the cowardly English hiding behind corpses. The Woad looks for where he thinks the helm would be. He spots someone that looks to be a leader type. A filthy and disgusting obese thing. You feel offended just having seen the thing.
This is Ugly Pete.
25 yards.
Roll your spell, take your shot.
Raising his crossbow, Eilric takes aim and fires his crossbow at the English hiding behind the walking corpses. He has a perfect shot at one of them, and his aim is true. But will it be enough?
Roll to hit: Eilric crossbow attack: 1D10+10 = [8]+10 = 18
Damage: Eilric crossbow damage: 1D10+9 = [9]+9 = 18
OOC: Well, that's it for the crossbow. 
It's 30 combat rounds to reload. I'm guessing the undead aren't going to give us that long. I hope this shot counts!
According to Lords of Men page 139, reloading takes three rounds using a belt hook, or a single round for someone with Str +3 or better to do it by hand. You had a two man team behind you, handing off a fresh weapon and taking the discharged one to reload it. One of those two guys got shot in the head. He is now a corpse being restrained by two other sailors. You and the other sniper now share a back up crew of just one guy.
To speed things up: Your shot was great, and you incapacitate an archer. The other shooter aims for the last remaining archer and hits him in the leg.
Waiting on results from The Woad before I decide Ugly Pete's next move.
It’s probably Ugle Pete at the helm, so Penetration matters.
Is he wearing armour or bearing arms? In that case I’ll go for them, or another individual object close to him, flexing down to Individual and lvl 20.
Roll is a lucky _: 1D10 = [1] = 1
followed by a _: 1D10 = [8] = 8
Casting 16+36=52
Penetration is thus 52-20+4=36
Damage is 10+ _: 1D10 = [9] = 9
Whoa, I just remembered that the Woad has the spell mastered at lvl 1 with Mumtiple casting, so he casts two copies.
I'm hoping Ugly Pete has both a sword and a helmet, in order to cast using only Terram. Using Herbam casting requisite means the casting bonus drops to +22.
Second copy rolls _: 1D10 = [7] = 7
so Penetration is 22+7-20+4=13 for Herbam or 36+7-20+4=27 if there is another Terram object.
Damage is 10 + _: 1D10 = [8] = 8
Ugly Pete has an axe strapped to his left arm. He is missing a hand. No helmet. Pirates don't wear helmets 
You have no difficulty with Penetration, even at your Herbam score. You shatter his axe-arm, and it knocks him asunder! He is tough, and undead, so it does not destroy him. But he is stunned.
Assessing the tactical situation, you have the upper hand. There is one wounded archer left, and Ugly Pete is down for the round.