Session Six - Recap

Session Six Recap

The new Captain of the ship, Gilbert Sullivan, began his captaincy by discussing the officer positions on the ship. Some are by volunteer, such as Galfire who indicated his wish to be the cook--saying "I'll cook for you and the crew, but I reserve the right to beat the shit out of you at any time" to the new Captain. Jax was made Botswain, promising to run the ship with a hands-on approach to the sailing. Druna requested the position of Mistress-at-Arms to provide security and punishments on the ship. Scolvus inquired about being Quartermaster, which all agreed that he, with one of the more educated minds on the ship, would be ideal at that position. Sadie the Goat was asked by Captain Sullivan to be the sailing master, counting on her knowledge of the seas, nature, and ability to magically sense the direction north. Shivikah was asked to be the Carpenter/Surgeon, to which he agreed. Finally Dovan of Nisroch, another candidate for Captaincy was given an "appeasement" position as Master Gunner of the ship--appeasement owing to the fact that the ship had not a single gun or artillery piece to fire anyhow. Then came the question of what to do with Maheem, the one of the former crew who sided with Plugg. After a sharp talking to, and statement of expectations going forward, Maheem opted to comply with the commands of the new Captain and officers, and joined the riggers without further fuss.

Jax then spoke to the assembled crew, getting a sense of their likes and dislikes for tasks on the ship. He then started them on their tasks and gets sailing toward Rickety Squibb's (using Maheem's knowledge of the exact location) to refit and disguise their ship. That evening at dinner--fresh caught shark prepared by Galfire--Sandara Quinn joins them at the officers table and talks about what sailing life will be like after the squibbing. Her advice seems well received: Captain Sullivan should seek to become recognized as a Free Captain, getting a letter of marque from the Hurricane King. In order to do so, it would require a fair amount of infamy as a crew to get that recognition.

That evening, Sandara pulls Jax aside to speak with him on the fore deck. She points out that it was exactly two weeks after she and Jax first slept together, and asked him to do so again--this time under the absent moon. The session included some strange rituals, including reading some words from a paper in a language Jax didn't understand, but he complied and had a fine time in the pitch black night.

A fine port for a squibbing

After a further week of sailing, the crew arrived at Rickety Squibb's, a port hidden by the coastline just past the southern end of the isles that formed the Shackles. Signalling their peaceful intent, they sail into the hidden cove. A small launch sails out to meet them, and aboard is an old man named Rickety Hake, the proprietor of the squibbing dock and governor of the small town. He offered the crew safe port and repair, if they prove to be friendly and can pay for the latter. Scolvus goes ashore to start the selling of plunder assisted by Jax. They met Chandra, a halfling druid, who runs the village store and conducts the business transactions of buying plunder for Rickety Hake. They take her on a tour of the ship and their goods, where she seems quite enamored with both the cargo and Jax himself (leading her to make a somewhat suggestive remark about one of the dire tiger fur rugs). They processed the business transaction with her, and get the ship into dry dock to change the lines and look of the craft to hide it from Captain Harrigan.

That night, most of the crew gathered in the small tavern in Rickety's Squibbs, where Captain Sullivan told tales of being swallowed by The Whale and his nasty scar, increasing the crew's infamy. Jax spoke privately with Chandra, which leads to her inviting him back to her place for the evening.

Rickety Hake, master of interior design and the ancient Tian Xia art of ship-board color balance

The next day Rickety Hake takes Captain Sullivan, Jax, Sadie, and Scolvus on a tour of his dry dock. He worked with them to pick out some design elements for their ship, to set it apart from others--ultimately deciding upon a succubus masthead design and vulture-themed sails.

Meanwhile, Galfire and Druna hiked out the finger peninsula to see the watchtower that guards the small cove. On the way, they ran into a mated pair of wild boars rooting along the trail for food (as the drought has been bad). The pair quickly slew the wild hogs, then stopped to dress and skin the pair for food which they carried  along to the watchtower. Upon arrival they met Lyle Goodwin, the lookout, and his parrot Rotgut (who seems only able to say "Shoo fly don't bother me"). Roasting one of the boars with him, they had a generally pleasant time talking about books and the sea, Lyle's two passions.

Upon returning to the rest of the crew, Galfire roasted the other boar and presented a sumptuous feast upon the shore of the cove. Turning to the makeshift tavern again, Druna started an arm-wrestling contest to try and win a few coin. Unseen by most, she enhanced her strength with magic before her matches, but she still only managed to break even in the process. Captain Sullivan spread tales of sea-faring daring-do, again raising the group's infamy yet again among the dry dock workers and few stranded sailors of Rickety's Squibbs.

In the morning at breakfast, a dockworker comes dashing into the longhall where people are eating and shouted "There's a Chelish Warship, sailed right into the cove, no warning!" Sure enough, a big ship is anchored in the small cove, with a shore party climbing aboard the docks as people watched. While others hung back, Captain Sullivan boldly strode out the dock to the new arrivals with a cocksure "Hello." Sharp eyes quickly spotted that the new arrivals were not in Chelish marine gear, but rather were rather rag-tag. The leader of the landing party, a tall Andoren man with a peg leg, introduced himself as Merrill Pegsworthy.

Once you loose a leg, it's nickname time...

Captain Pegsworthy said that he didn't get any signal from the watchtower so he just sailed right in--hence the cautious attitude and his sailors' dirks drawn. Rickety Hake reached the docks at about that point, and was concerned about the lack of his lookout sending word to the docks of the approaching ship. The crew of The Broken Promise offered to check up on Lyle Goodwin the lookout, which Rickety Hake said he'd sure appreciate and reward them for if they find something amiss.

Heading up to the lookout's spot to check on Lyle, the crew finds no answer when they call out. Climbing up to the lookout perch they are greeted with a gruesome sight. Lyle's body lies there, horribly swollen and clearly dead. Investigating the body, they do find evidence that he was stung numerous times, but it wasn't venom that killed him. Rather, the loss of blood from huge sword-size stingers did the job.

Presuming some sort of giant insect, the crew searched into the headlands of the peninsula. There they found a giant sloth stung to death, and a huge wasp nest torn to bits by the creature in it's death throes. Unfortunately, there were only giant wasp larvae and a few dead insects--not nearly the number that would likely to be present with a hive of this massive size. Suddenly the crew became very nervous about where all the wasps were.

Running back to Rickety's Squibbs the crew find the town beset by the giant wasps. They leaped into immediate battle, and while a few get stings they manage to finish off the last group of wasps. Many of the villagers were injured from stings and a few died from multiple strikes. Their crew assisted, along with Captain Pegsworthy's, in defending the town admirably. Most were okay or only superficially hurt--though Jaundiced Jape suffered about eight stings and was absolutely swollen with poison. He managed to mutter his particular hiss-like laughter and give a thumbs up with the hand that wasn't swollen stiff.

After spending the evening resting and tending for the wounded of the village, the next morning the crew found Rickety Hake ready to launch their modified ship. For good luck, Rickety suggested that an existing free captain like Captain Pegsworthy christen the launch. Pegsworthy agreed to do so, saying that the bravery the crew of The Broken Promise showed in defending the village and his sailors made him owe them a debt of gratitude. He said that his ships all fly the sign of the Three Birds, and that they'll be informed to run fair with The Broken Promise as long as it does the same. At the rechristening, Captain Pegsworthy offers a toast, saying in part that "Good fortune and sure sail await what one can crack the Tidewater Rock." As the crew board their ship and ease out into the ocean from Rickety's Squibbs, they wonder whether they should turn their eyes to preying on merchants, pillaging fishing villages, seeking out buried treasures, or taking a chance at what Captain Pegsworthy suggested: attempting to control the small fortress island known as Tidewater Rock that marks the southern point of the Shackles.

Infamy and Disrepute Tracker

Infamy Score: 5
Disrepute: 5

Port Infamy list:
Rickety's Squibbs: 2