Session Seven Recap
The first morning outside of Rickety's Squibbs arrived with a loud whistle and a shout of "Out or down!" from Jax in the crew quarters. Those who were slow to rise were met with a slashed hammock and quick journey to the floor of The Broken Promise. After about a week of sailing southward, the crew finally found their first prey: a small fishing trawler working near to the coastline.
As their much larger ship closed in, the officers of the crew gathered on the decks leaving Sandara Quinn at the helm and their boarding parties waiting in the rigging for the ships to draw near. The animal companions of the druids lead the way, with Pluck managing to knock a sailor from the prey vessel right into the water, while Sadie the Goat's newly-recruited Walrus leaped onto the deck with a deafening bellow. The officers themselves were slower in making their move onto the enemy ship, and Captain Gilbert Sullivan learned that even the rough men of fishing boats can use a crossbow, as he fell to their counter-barrage as the boats closed.
First into the fray
The Captain of the prey ship, a cruel and salty looking dwarf in a fancy, former-military-cut coat, led the defense but suffered the combination of three hydraulic push spells, which forced even his stubborn dwarf frame over the edge of the boat. They spotted him swimming far too easily toward the near shore, and thus Sadie ordered her walrus to give pursuit. The two dived under the water, and only the walrus' bloody corpse floats to the surface after some time. Meanwhile, the rest of the crew was put to the sword by the officers and Slippery Syl (who seemed to really relish the fighting). Only two Mwangi sailors survived the battle on the trawler's side, and are pressed by the crew. Documents in the captain's quarters seem to suggest that the escaped Dwarf was named Captain Vesgal Falkirk, though the group learned little else about him. The holds of the fishing trawler held only fish, hardly even a single cargo load's worth. So the crew turned to salting the fish as their own provisions. Questioning the two surviving sailors, they found they were sailing to Senghor--the next major port down the coast past Bloodcove.
After another week of sail, The Broken Promise found a tiny village on the Sargavan coast named Dthai. Trying to sell the fishing trawler to the locals, they found themselves frustrated by an internal squabble between the two main fishing families in the village. The crew manages to broker a deal where the aging patriarch of the one family marries the considerably immense daughter of the other family, allowing the two families to pool enough income to pay for the trawler--buying it into their own fleet.
Another day of sailing passed by when they caught eyes on another ship, this time a Barque from Absalom. They give chase, as the ship cuts northward and out to sea--back in the direction of the Shackles. The chase took almost five days, but they finally caught the ship it as they neared the archipelago. Sadie the Goat used powerful hails of magical stone to pummel the decks of the ships, sending the crews diving under the cover of the deck. The fight becomes one of close quarters below decks, where a number of the Absalom merchantmen crew were waiting with flasks of acid to burn the invading pirates. Jax called for the crew to join the officers, recognizing that the close quarters fight favored numbers. Crimson Cogward was one of those who rushed forward, only to be rewarded by catching crossbow bolt in his right eye socket. The blow didn't kill him, but he wouldn't see out of that eye again. While Druna provided a nigh-impervious shield against crossbow fire (unable to progress deeper due to a grease spell from Scolvus), Jax clamored over the stowed cargo in the hold to menace the enemy Captain. The instant he held a knife to her throat, she surrendered (and humiliatingly wet herself out of fear in doing so). The rest of the crew surrendered with her.
Questioning their new captive, they found that Captain Portia D'Angelique was a terrible captain buy an amazingly shrewd businesswoman. Her merchant family owned the boat and gave her command, with her brother as first mate (slain by Scovlus' magic missile in the fray earlier). The ship contained a whole hold full of newly made products from Eleder, a port in the far south, to be faked as antiques back in Absalom--where Portia's family could make a bundle on the perceived "exotic" look of such "ancient" designs. Captain Sullivan recalled a merchant from Absalom he sold textiles with, a man named Fildus Beene, and thus thought that the crew might do well to ransom Captain Portia. They made her write a letter (twice) of ransom to her family, and suggest to her that they sent it, though they did no such thing at that time. The rest of her crew were pressed into their service.
"Can I borrow a cup of Halfling?"
The crew decides to resume their southward sweep, again passing by the southernmost isles of the Shackles. That night, Jax and Sandara were busy snuggling under the bowsprit, while Sadie the Goat was attempting to teach Ratline Rattsberger how to steer the ship. At that moment, a pair of deadly fishmen called Sahuagin slipped onto the rear of the ship in the moonlight, and attacked Ratline and Sadie. They seemed to be trying to take the two of them captive and abduct them, tho for what foul purpose the crew didn't know. A call of alarm rouses the rest of the crew, and Captain Sullivan led the charge. With a shout of "NOT ON MY BOAT!" he swung his cutlass and beheaded the Sahuagin in a single swipe. The other one tried to steal away with Ratline, but a well-placed grease spell again proved to be effective from Scolvus, causing the fishman to drop the squirming Halfling sailor. That remaining Sahuagin seemed to think better of his abduction plans with the rest of the crew arriving, so he dived back off the end of the ship into the night sea. The crew stood on the aft deck, wondering what the fishmen were doing and whether they might have to face more such menaces before dawn arose.
Infamy and Disrepute Tracker
Infamy Score: 5
Disrepute: 5
Port Infamy list:
Rickety's Squibbs: 2
