Session Thirteen - Recap

Session Thirteen - Recap

After the eventful afternoon of the wedding, Jax, Sadie, and Druna returned to the ship for the night. Scolvus chose a bed in the Rock, along with Shivikah and Dovan from Nisroch, as Lady Smythee had offered accommodations there to any of the officers. She also invited Captain Sullivan to remain with her for a late dinner.

That night, a deep fog crept into the small lagoon where The Broken Promise was moored. Unfortunately for them, the fog was hardly natural. It wasn't until those on watch sighted masts above the fog that the call of alarm was raised--and at the same time a broadside of heavy ballistae bolts struck the ship, damaging it severely. As the crew readied to give chase to the ship that was assaulting them from outside the entrance of the lagoon, it was only the sharp eyes of Druna and Jax that spotted a small group of buccaneers who had slipped aboard their ship under the cover of the fog, Led by a scarred man with spiked hair, the raiding crew slipped below deck quickly on some nefarious purpose. Fearing sabotage, Jax, Druna, and Sadie the Goat dashed after them.

 Knuckles Grype, the hard-hitting First Mate of The Thresher

Below deck, they heard crashing at the area of the Quartermaster's stores. The burly man had smashed down the door, and the trio engaged his thugs while he apparently was stealing some item from them. Knuckles emerged holding the deep platinum necklace that the crew had taken from the sahuagin leader of the ambush they encountered quite some time ago. They realized that there were rumors of Isabella "Inkskin" Locke working with the sahuagin, could this attacker be working with her? While they had felled the other buccaneers with ease, Knuckles proved a much more dangerous opponent. The Drow poisons on his spiked gauntlets managed to knock Jax unconscious, leaving him fist-to-club with Druna. Sadie worked to remove the poison affecting Jax. Once he awakened from her ministrations, Jax lept back into the fight. Knuckles, now cut and bloody from the combined assault, started to punch and push them out of the way--hoping to make his escape. However Druna turned into a leopard, and the flurry of attacks from her and Pluck left him reeling, to be finished by a scout's charge from Jax. The crew breathed a momentary sigh of relief, only to hear another broadside of ballistae shot strike their ship.

Topside, Samms Toppin was minding the crow's nest and sent out a yell--she spied a single figure flying through the air from the fog mists toward the top of the Rock. In the commotion on deck as the ship weathered the fire from The Thresher and readied to give chase, her shouts of warning were lost. Landing on top of the Rock was Isabella "Inkskin" Locke, and the first that Captain Sullivan and Scolvus heard of the assault was the scream of the dying lookout above. Captain Sullivan rushed out into the hallway, telling Lady Smythee to be careful. Scolvus peeped from his doorway into the hall, and Shivikah emerged as well with cutlass in hand. Dovan From Nisroch, on the other hand, was nowhere to be seen despite the commotion.

With a sudden roar of thunder, a streak of electricity blasted from between Captain Sullivan and Scolvus--Captain Inkskin had approached under cover of invisibility and unleashed a devastating
lightning bolt on them. As the Captain and Shivikah rushed to engage her in combat, Scolvus blasted back with spells from his room doorway. Her familiar, a small cobra, emerged from its own invisibility and struck out with a spell of its own, a vampiric touch onto Shivikah's foot. The power of the spell rendered him unconscious and dying, and further seemed to shrivel one of his toes with cruel necromantic energy. With a burst of her own necromantic power, Captain Inkskin rendered Captain Sullivan permanently blind, leaving her facing off against only Scolvus as an effective opponent.

 Isabella "Inkskin" Locke, Captain of The Thresher and reputed to have the treasure map to the secret hoard of Cyrus Wolfe tattooed upon her--a "gift" from when she was once a slave aboard the ship of Captain Soshimira. 

Lady Smythee rushed from her room, carrying a dagger and swinging it at Captain Inkskin, managing to land a hit in helping Scolvus press the attack back. Captain Gilbert, blind but desperate, plunged his sword blindly. While he struck flesh, it wasn't Inkskin's--instead, he had run his cutlass directly through the stomach of his new wife Lady Smythee. She crumpled to the ground, alive but screaming in pain at the wound directly in her belly (where unknown to Captain Sullivan, the three month old child of Jax was gestating). Recognizing his mistake, Captain Sullivan cast alter self to transform into a Trolodyte to use its scent ability to follow Inkskin as best he could. Scolvus meanwhile had continued his magical duel with Inkskin, trading blasts of spells with the vile Captain. Finally, a blast of burning hands manged to fell her--though the nonlethal damage inflicted on her by Captain Sullivan left her yet alive.

They rushed the wounded back to the ship, where the crew was still in a state of readying the vessel for sail. They had been hit by four broadsides of heavy ballistae, surviving serious damage to the craft and crew. The Thresher had sailed off in haste once it delivered the fourth fusilade, and it would take considerable time to ready the ship to pursue. On checking the deck when he emerged, Jax found that Murd had almost immediately manned his ballistae and returned fire--unlike much of the crew that sheltered in cover for fear of being maimed by the enemy's shots. "I hit 'em once," reported Murd--skewered a damn crewman square in the topsails. I was shooting to tear the mainsail, hoping that'd slow 'em." Lady Smythee had been cured by Captain Sullivan, but she was still in great pain and clutched her stomach. The Captain asked Sandara to take a look at Lady Smythee and make sure she was okay, and Sandara reported that nothing seemed wrong to her divinations. Shivikah also was saved, but his toe was surely lost for good due to the magical withering.

The crew then discussed what to do with Captain Inkskin. There on her shoulders and down her back was definitely a treasure map, along with inscriptions that seemed to yield hints about where the treasure was buried on the island. Discussing all sorts of deals they might offer, the crew finally awakened her to make their offer. She smiled a hideous smile, said nothing, and swallowed. She had opened a hidden compartment in one of her teeth and swallowed a virulent sea urchin spine hidden within. The poison killed her within seconds. Left with a corpse bearing a map, the crew discussed how to best keep her and find their way. They decided on a somewhat gruesome solution, employing Jack Scrimshaw's skills from his time apprenticed to a leatherworker. He skinned Locke except for her head, and created a wooden stretching rack that held the head in place along with the stretched-skin map as a reminder of their triumph as well as a navigation aid.

As the crew turned their eyes to repair, Jax followed up on his plan to leave Sandara at Lady Smythee's fortress while she was pregnant, saying that a pirate ship was no place for a pregnant woman. When he spoke to her about it, she agreed, saying cryptically "because I am due so soon." She revealed to him that her belly was immensely swollen. Jax was taken aback, and did the math on the timing--there was no way she could be that pregnant already. She explained that the rituals she had performed in Besmara's cradle had hastened her pregnancy, and that of the others. With a sudden groan, Jax inquired about the "others?" Sandara revealed that Besmara had shown her that both Portia D'Angelique and Samms Toppin were pregnant with Jax's child, so she did the ritual on them as well. "So are all of us to stay with Lady Smythee?" Jax gave a noncommittal "I'll get back to you on that"and went to speak to the Captain.

Captain Sullivan seemed surprised but took the news well, recognizing the truth of Jax's comment that Sandara was nothing but "hippie-dippie Besmara rituals and nonsense" so how could Jax have known what was coming. Jax returns to Sandara and agrees that she can talk to Portia and Samms. She does, and reports back to Jax the difference between the two--but that both have agreed to remain at Lady Smythee's for their pregnancies. Sandara informed him that Portia was sad about the situation, but that Samms Toppin was merely inconvenienced. "She said that she had two orphans somewhere already," reported Sandara. Sandara then revealed to Jax that there had been two other children on the way, but now only one. That one was the Halfling woman--Berylla Goodbarrel--who was an alchemist and quartermaster at Rickety's Squibbs. When he inquired about the other, Sandara said that Lady Smythee had been pregnant, but the Captain's cutlass strike had terminated the child. Sandara finished the conversation with the assurance that the growing children were going to be just fine, and that Besmara's influence would see that they all were born at the same time--truly brothers and sisters of the sea.

 I'm sure that everything will turn out just fine with Lady Smythee as well. No problems to worry about at all...

The Captain decided to set sail for Rickety's Squibbs, as that was the nearest port, in hopes to finding a cure for his blindness. During the trip, Jax spoke with Scolvus about his situation. Scolvus detected magic, but found no ongoing curses or effects that his magic was able to reveal. Jax shared the comments that Sandara had made, that she had blessed Jax in a ritual on that first night they spent together. From that point onward, any time his seed found purchase it would produce. While it seemed like it could not be magically undone, perhaps some other method could help him.

Arriving at Rickety's Squibbs, they found another ship hidden in the dry dock--very hush hush, as ships undergoing squibbing tend to be. Captain Sullivan and Jax went to Berylla Goodbarrel the Halfling alchemist's office. She was able to produce a potion of remove blindness for the Captain to cure him. After the others left, she had a somewhat awkward discussion with Jax--revealing that she was pregnant from their encounter. Jax revealed his problem, and she immediately bursts into alchemist mode, scheming a way to help him. She created a sort of protective "rubber" sleeve for him out of pig intestine that would do the job--and showed him how to use it in somewhat "hands on" fashion. Afterward she discusses with him that a better one could be made from the entrails of an ethereal creature, as it would be less obtrusive. They also discuss his "blessed by Besmara" status. "When I have the child, do you want it?" she asked. They agree that she'll raise the child at first, but once it's of age to be on a ship it can join him--and settled on nautical names: Coral for a girl, and Jib for a boy. They parted amicably, and Jax wandered back to the ship somewhat less worried about what was in store for someone so "blessed" as he.

With repairs done and blindness cured, the crew set sail for Mancather Cove using the map made from Captain Inkskin's stretched hide. They near the island, one of a set of unremarkable ones with high bluffs on all sides. The map leads them to a particular hidden cove, and they sail inside the hidden inlet. They arrive in a perfectly cylindrical and crystal clear pool of water that seemed to sink to an impossible depth. Doing a sounding, it proved to be deeper even than their string. The crew sent Druna (in the form of a monkey) and Jax crawling up the steep rocky sides of the cove to explore the island above, but they found nothing. As dusk fell, the pair dove back into the water of the cove. Scolvus reflected on a verse on Inkskin's flesh: "with the dawnflower's first kiss". They would have to wait until morning to uncover the secrets of Mancatcher Cove and locate the hidden treasure of Cyrus Wolfe.

The entrance to Mancatcher Cove is completely hidden--without the map on the stretched skin of Isabella Locke the crew never would have recognized the location. 

Infamy and Disrepute Tracker

Infamy Score: 11
Disrepute: 11

Port Infamy list:
Rickety's Squibbs: 2
Bloodcove: 1 (favored port)
Besmara's Cradle: 2