Session Eleven - Recap

Session Eleven - Recap

The ship left Bloodcove in the morning, sailing back West further from the shore hoping to prey on the more cowardly merchant vessels that preferred to bank on a wide berth and extensive provisions rather than cutting closer to land. They spied one target in the distance after a week, but it was a Chelish merchant marine and the Captain and crew judged that they best let that one pass. They got further and further out, cutting North and West until they were even with the outermost "tip" of the Shackles, though still five days at sea from that point.

As the sun set that night, they caught a sudden glimpse of a ship's profile against the setting sun. It looked like a whaler that sat heavy in the water. With thoughts of plundering blubber and bone, the crew of The Broken Promise turned their heading to pursue. Yet as the sun sank under the horizon, they lost sight of the quarry. That left a bad feeling in Jax particularly, which deepened when he realized the whaler had been sailing against the wind when it was spotted.

The crew grew more discouraged as the next day was heavy with fog, starting shortly after noon. It thickened to the point where they were simply adrift, unable to sail effectively. The crew roamed the deck impatiently, hoping for a break and ability to sail safely. As night fell,they heard the clanking of a rusty ship's bell. The crew ran to the gunwhale and were shocked to see the hulk of a huge whaler loom out of the darkness above them. The boards were pitted and rotten, and they spied the ship's nameplate on the bow: Deathknell. Then as suddenly as it appeared, the ship was gone.

Panic spread through the crew that night and morning, fueled by the name on the ship. Crimson Cogward shared the definitive version of the tale; The Deathknell was supposedly a haunted whaler, crewed by the undead and lead by the ruthless and undying Captain Whalebone Plik. The ship is said to sail the seas to feast on pirate crews, stalking its prey for two days prior to attacking in order to instill fear in their prey. With dull menace in his voice, Cogward said "the fear makes the flesh taste better".

Whalebone Plik, the cursed whaler captain, was said to relentlessly pursue a massive bullhead whale to the point that his crew was ravenous from lack of rations--Plik refused to abandon the pursuit to refresh his stocks. The whale finally turned on them, sinking the ship and killing all the starving men. 

Anticipating the legends to be true, and expecting an attack at sundown, the crew of The Broken Promise prepared themselves for battle. Captain Gilbert hoped that perhaps the crew was simply hungry and that Captain Plik might be placated with a claim of "we got him" and a gesture to the whale skull mounted on their aft (actually Scolvus' strange scroll).

That dusk, with a fine spread laid out on the deck of The Broken Promise, the crew waited in anticipation. As expected, the massive whaler suddenly emerged from the water, and a crew of strange zombies cast boarding grapples. Whalebone Plik himself stood at the helm of The Deathknell, manically clanging the ship's bell and throwing a harpoon which magically returned to his hands after striking targets. As the zombies boarded the ship, the crew had a flicker of hope they would sit and dine. As one of them sank its fangs into the shoulder of a crewman they realized that this would be a fight. Scolvus launched a blast of lightning using his whale skull, burning down a number of the attackers. Sadie attempted to order her newly trained Walrus companion (Petunia) to attack, but the beast refused to engage the spoiling corpses at first.

Captain Gilbert decided to use a silence spell on the deck of The Deathknell, stopping Plik from the incessant clanging that seemed to drive the zombies forward. This sent the undead captain into a rage. He flew forward, his body half incorporeal, and savagely pursued Captain Sullivan. Gilbert was "luckily" knocked out of the way of Captain Plik's ghostly strikes by Petunia who slid through the grease of one of Scolvus' grease spells. Instead, Captain Plik latched his ghostly hand onto Pluck's chest, seeming to squeeze the life out of the bird. At the last moment, Druna was able to bull rush Pluck to safety before the air was drawn entirely from its lungs. Meanwhile, Captain Sullivan cast a curative spell and touched the undead Captain--the positive healing energy inflicting destruction on the unliving form, turning Plik into a pile of ashes and a dropped harpoon.

Jax swung over to the deck of The Deathknell, hoping to find plunder. Instead he found a hold stacked with dead bodies. They all remained lifeless, tho each had the look of the undead crew that had assaulted their ship. Jax turned and pried the ship's bell free from it's post where Plik had been ringing it. He also ran to the front of the ship and wrenched loose the rotten and pitted nameplate of the ship (earning the crew 2 Infamy points).

As suddenly as it came, the fog lifted as The Deathknell sank rapidly under the waves. The crew rested the night and bandaged their wounds, having lost three deckhands to the attack with many others injured (the losses were three green pressed hands from their latest trip to Bloodcove). The next morning they sailed for the nearest island in the South Shackles, Scolvus, unnerved by the ship's bell, recognized it had a magical aura. He studied it the following day, and realized it was enchanted with something similar to a magic jar spell. With a gasp, Scolvus realized it was a phylactery, and that Whalebone Plik was likely to reform and re-awaken if the bell were not destroyed. Bringing it to the deck, Galfire smashed the bell with his Tiberolith greatclub and ended the threat of Whalebone Plik for good.

Sailing for three more days, the crew reached the Southwestern Shackles islands. Soon they saw smoke rising in the sky from the center of a small island. Looked to be cooking fires from a moderate-sized village up in the jungle. Druna transformed herself into a bird and flew to investigate. She found a small village there in the jungle. Notably, in the center of the village was an enormous idol with a fist-sized red gem embedded in its chest. Reporting this to the crew, they began to plot an attack. N'danho taught the crew the word for "surrender" in Mwangi, and the sailors landed with a plan to surround and attack the village to take crew for their ship.

The massive idol, a strange demonic-looking figure, which dominated the center of the village. 

Arriving at the town, the crew found that only the women of the village were present. They were gathered in the center of the town around the idol, performing some sort of ritual. Leading the ceremony was a priestess of some sort, her necklace adorned with feathers and gems. As they watched with horror, the priestess was handed a small baby. She drew forth a cold iron dagger from an alcove in the idol, and in a split second uttered some words and plunged the dagger into the chest of the tiny child. She continued chanting, and at this the crew lost the plan of waiting for the rest of their sailors and instead attacked the murderess.

Captain Gilbert cast a silence spell again, and the priestess looked in horror as she tried to intone words of magical power while holding the child--but the words went unspoken due to the magical interference. Jax began sapping women to knock them unconscious, while Captain Gilbert ran up and attacked the priestess herself. She seemed shocked, silently shouting something at Gilbert while pointing at the baby. He looked down and saw that it was indeed dead with the dagger right in its heart. As the battle ensued, more and more Mwangi tribeswomen were taken with nonlethal force.

Then the silence spell stopped, and everyone recognized the words that the priestess was shouting. Even though they didn't speak the Mwangi dialect, they knew enough to know that she was yelling "No! Oh no!" over and over. There was a strange burning smoke rising from the form of the slain infant in her arms. With a gasp, she threw it at the feet of Captain Gilbert. With a boiling rush, the baby seemed to almost "open". From inside crawled something enormous, so massive and dreadful to not be believed it came from the tiny form. Scolvus quickly recognized it as a Nabasu Demon, a great bat-like being from the Abyss.

Awww, isn't it a cute little baby? Goochie goochie goo. 

The beast suddenly screeched an unholy scream, causing everyone to shudder as if their souls were being torn from them. Two of the village women died instantly from the attack. Then more horribly, one of them started to lurch upward with her body animated with necromantic energy. The crew rushed into battle with the demon and its newly raised ghoul, managing to interrupt it as it tried to summon a second demon. Petunia the Walrus rushed up and managed to gore the demon badly. However, the demon turned its necromantic energy on the great beast, using an enervation spell to slay the walrus outright.

The demon's Abyss-hardened skin left it nearly immune to the strikes of the crew's weapons, but Scolvus' barrage of magic missiles managed to wound the creature. It turned its attacks to him, flinging objects at him with telekinesis magic. While Scolvus protected himself as best he could with castings of mirror image, the rest of the crew started to find their marks, with Captain Sullivan managing to land two critical strikes on the beast and Jax's sneak attacks inflicting pain as well. Finally they overwhelm the creature with small strikes, unable to get past its damage resistance (not realizing that the cold iron dagger in the baby's breast was exactly what they needed to strike true).

As the crew panted and bandaged their wounds after the fight, they looked at their plunder. Most immediately a number of Mwangi women lay unconscious or were held by their crew--including the priestess. It was at the point when they started wondering about where the men were that they got their answer: the sounds of drums in the distance. They looked and saw a column of the Mwangi menfolk, garbed for war and likely returning from some ritual in the mountains, snaking back down toward the village. They had to decide quickly whether they would stay and fight, or flee with their captives. And all the while the sound of the jungle drums grew closer.

And it sure wasn't the dulcet tones of the Morton Gould Orchestra...

Infamy and Disrepute Tracker

Infamy Score: 8
Disrepute: 8

Port Infamy list:
Rickety's Squibbs: 2
Bloodcove: 1

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

Session Three - Recap

Session Three Recap

The new crew on The Wormwood awoke to a morning of boarding training spent under the constant swearing supervision of Riaris Krine, the ship's gunnery master. Taking the small dinghy, they sailed a distance from the ship and practiced throwing grapples and then climbing from the small vessel to the large one. Unfortunately, other members of the crew were there waiting to throw garbage and pails of bilgewater at the ones climbing. Jax immediately distinguished himself by getting his grapple set and climbing across before anyone else had even begun to proceed. His preternatural ability to climb the lines continued to pay off, as Riaris congratulated him and gave him a bin of rotten cabbages to throw at his friends who were still struggling--which he did with glee (maybe to impress the other swabs, or maybe just for fun). At least Jaundiced Jape, who was tossing rotted fish from a barrel at the remaining climbers got a wheezing laugh from Jax's brutal aim at his friends. Druna and Nika were soon across, and Gilbert eventually made it as well. Galfire and Scolvus spent more time swimming beneath their lines than climbing, and Sadie managed to lose her untied grapple into the ocean prior to struggling with the climbing process. Eventually the floundering members of the crew are recalled to the ship as the sun sets. Amid the general praise for those who did well, the new crew saw various scowls as Mr. Plugg and Master Scourge watched from afar.

Druna, Gilbert, Jax, and Nika at boarding practice

(Illustration by Dan, see more at the link!)

The next day, the payoff of those scowls seemed evident as each one of the new crewmates finds themselves doing either tasks that they hate or are simply not skilled at. It's as if Mr. Plugg and Master Scourge have it out for them. That become evident to Galfire when he was assigned to pumping the bilges with two other mates: Aretta Banison and Fipps Chumlett. Thinking it odd that those two who were normally quite friendly with Master Scourge were assigned that thankless job, Galfire made his way below decks. Things got more strange when Master Scourge stopped Galfire and searched him, taking away his spear saying "you won't need this down there." Work in the bilges was, as usual for Galfire, focused around finding the first chance to slip away and spend the day shirking. That looking for an opportunity to cut out early from his tasks left Galfire unready for what happened subsequently.

Shortly into the work Aretta and Fipps each pulled hidden daggers and moved to attack Galfire, no doubt to try and dispatch him and then toss his body overboard. While they flanked him, they found him to be not such an easy prey. He lashed out with his bare fists, clobbering Aretta square in the face. Her arm slashed wild and the blade tore a length of Fipp's forearm open. With  two more swings, Galfire managed to knock Aretta senseless and then turned to Fipps. While Galfire did get some nasty cuts, his fists quickly subdued his other foe. Galfire took both of their daggers and tucked them in his belt. He paused for the briefest of moments to consider his course of action, then promptly held each of their unconscious heads in the calf-deep bilgewater until both were thoroughly drowned. Then he strolled up above deck as if nothing had happened and reported their deaths--saying that they killed each other.

Voices yelled out for the Captain. Master Scourge quickly accused Galfire, and while Galfire's initial lies about the situation convinced some, Captain Harrigan was not as easily duped... considering the pair's knives that they were supposed to have killed each other with were missing. And Galfire had some bloody knife wounds himself.

Swearing with rage at the death of the two crew members, the Captain immediately ordered Galfire put into the sweatbox--a metal container placed on the aft deck to roast someone alive in the heat of the sun. Murmurs of "he'll be keelhauled for sure" made their way through the crew, but soon gave way to a single shout from the crow's nest: "SHIP AHOY!

For about six hours Galfire baked in the sweatbox while the rest of the crew took up positions and closed on the vessel. It was a Rahadoumi vessel, and while bigger than The Wormwood it had fewer sails and showed some storm damage--exactly what the pirate crew was searching for. The Captain ordered a number of hogs to be slaughtered and the waters to be chummed to draw sharks in the ships wake as the black flag was raised.

Jax was given the assignment of leading his fellow new crew members on a specific mission--while the rest of the ship was to engage broadside, he was to lead a team to capture the enemy wheel and prevent escape on the ship's boats by grappling across the divide between the two ships. He was given the chance to pick one other to join them (as Galfire was indisposed in the sweatbox), and he chose Jaundiced Jape. The crew took their positions on the aft deck and waited as the boats closed thanks to the port ballista of The Wormwood which tore down the final portion of the enemy ship's sails and slowing her fully. Just as they could spy the name on the side of the ship as The Wormwood hooked in (The Man's Promise), the sailing master Peppery Longfarthing began casting spells--coating the main deck of the enemy ship in clouds of fog. Lines were tossed and the battle engaged.

The two vessels tangled as the decks of the enemy were covered in magical fog

In the commotion of the fresh fight, Jax took a chance and tried to pick the lock on the sweatbox to free his friend. Given some time, and more strength than finesse, the lock was eventually broken. A quick healing spell later and Galfire groggily opened his eyes to Jax handing him a boarding axe with a "hey, get to fighting." The group tossed their grapples and began streaming onto the enemy ship. Jax led the way, crossing faster on the ropes than the enemy were ready for. Soon Druna, Galfire, and Gilbert were all across as well--while Sadie, Scolvus, and Nika attacked with ranged weapons. Jax swung about the rigging, striking from flanks. Druna and her adopted parrot Pluck lay about on all sides, smashing foes with club and tearing at their faces with claws. Gilbert and Galfire managed to scramble aboard after them and started engaging the Rahadoumi sailors as well, while Nika stood back striking again and again with her harpoon across the gap in the boats.

After the others were across, Scolvus attempted to jump over to the other boat himself, but misjudged the distance. For a moment he hung onto the ship's railing, but then slipped and plummeted into the water. As he started to fall behind the ships the ominous fin of a large shark emerged from the water and moved right toward him, attracted by the blood in the water and Scolvus' thrashing movements. Sadie took a moment and spoke an incantation, directing her magical energies toward the approaching creature and calming its aggression. Meanwhile, Nika quickly tossed a rope to the floundering Scolvus. She gave a tug to try and pull him in, and shouted for Jaundiced Jape to help her out. The two of them managed to haul Scolvus back up to the aft deck of The Wormwood soaked but no worse for wear. 

This came very close to being Scolvus' final resting place

While the group finished off the last of the enemy crew that had held the aft deck from the start of the battle, a shape emerged from the fog: Captain Barnabas Harrigan striding across the decks with some of the officers, headed below. Suddenly, from behind the unaware Captain emerged a Rahadoumi sailor with a nasty spear readied to strike the Captain from behind. With a roar, Druna dashed across the deck and clobbered the sailor with her ensorcelled club, preventing him from striking the Captain. Harrigan turned, appraised the situation, and with a series of smooth swings cleft the man into four separate pieces that tumbled onto the deck in a spray of blood. He gave an appraising look at Druna and the rest of her group, including Galfire. Galfire smiled back somewhat sheepishly. The Captain then turned and rushed below decks to continue the assault.

The crew had their hands full at once, as it was clear the battle was turning against the Rahadoumi. The enemy crew started making for the ship's boats in droves, joined shortly by the Captain of the Rahadoumi vessel--a savage woman warrior with a deadly longspear. Jax and Gilbert laid into the sailors attempting to free the boats, eventually slashing one of the lines and leaving Jax perched precariously on the upended dinghy. Scolvus and Nika crossed onto The Man's Promise to help engage the enemy Captain, as the woman had laid Gilbert low with a brutal spear thrust as she tried to help free the boats. Nika moved in quickly, striking first with her harpoon at range as she moved into position. Scolvus cast a grease spell onto the area to try and cause the enemy Captain to slip, but the woman kept her feet and drew closer to Nika while she dodged blows from Galfire and others. Finally Nika closed in, drawing her two short swords with the patience of a practiced hunter and struck. Both slashes hit critically, and in a fantastic set of blade swings the Rahadoumi Captain went from deadly foe to fallen foe thanks to Nika's brutal precision.

Nika's bloodied twin blades

(another illustration by Dan)

An enormous explosion sounded from below decks, a barrel of alchemist's fire set off by Kipper, and that marked the end of the battle as the remaining Rahadoumi crew surrendered to the pirates. They were bound and brought onto the main deck as the rest of The Man's Promise was looted. Drinking and celebration began, as shares of loot and plunder were counted and distributed. The Captain included a personal thanks to Druna for attacking the Rahadoumi that was going to assault him, giving her an enchanted necklace as a share of her loot. He also admonished Galfire briefly, saying that it was a good thing that they had some potential new recruits captured from the enemy vessel. Which he followed with a stern warning that any more killing of crew would result in Galfire's being keelhauled, this time immediately. The slight joviality masked the underlying nasty threat, but it was better than being stuck in the sweatbox.

The night continued with a great deal of revelry, and things started to get a bit out of hand on all fronts. Nika attempted to thank Jaundiced Jape for his help of saving Scolvus, but ended up talking to the mute as if he were a child which seemed to upset him a slight bit. However Scolvus smoothed things over with a thanks of his own. Meanwhile, Sadie talked to Crimson Cogward and while getting him to warm to her slightly realized that he is a somewhat unorthodox follower of the Goddess Pharasma who believes that his killing of sentient beings (such as the crew of the enemy vessel) is helping her mission of shepherding souls on their final journey--a rather chilling statement. Sadie followed that awkward conversation with two others, one with Slippery Syl where she dropped the hint that Tam "Narwhal" Tate had been lurking around his locker (counting on the fact that earlier Jax had broken into Syl's locker, removed an item--an eyeball made into a fetish--and snuck it into Tam's locker). The second was with the cabin girl, Caulky Tarroon, who as always was rude and unkind. Most unsettling, Druna attempted to get Cut Throat Grok riled up and excited as a way of ingratiating herself with her. That quickly ended when Grok got so excited she ran over and embedded her axe square into the skull of one of the Rahadoumi captives, killing him instantly. A thunderous bellow came from the upper reaches of the aft deck where Captain Harrigan sat, saying that the next person to kill anyone on the ship without his order would walk the plank immediately.

Meanwhile, Jax had started talking with the ship's sailing master, Peppery Longfarthing. He thanked her for overlooking them freeing Galfire at first, as she had been at the wheel and likely clearly saw what he had done. Their talk soon turned into Jax making a suggestion that they go below decks for some fun, which soon led to he and her having sex--this time with the light of Besmara's middle-curved moon shining through the portholes down on the pile of blankets in the officers quarters where they had their tryst.

Gilbert and Nika, meanwhile, worked with Maheem to talk to the captured crew. Gilbert found the Rahadoumi sailors to be a rough bunch, and inclined to join with Captain Harrigan's outfit. While Gilbert used his magical spells to understand the strange dialect, Nika simply talked to those she could communicate with. She found a young, scared sailor named Farik who related a pitiful tale--he had left for sea to care for his family, who were awaiting for his return from this voyage which he hoped could finally leave him with enough to leave the sea life behind him forever. Nika assured him that he would be okay, and to just be careful in the meantime.

As night grew near morning, most of the crew were sound asleep. Jax left Peppery Longfarthing asleep in the pile of blankets and crept out onto the deck. He found Riaris Krine there, completely inebriated but still putting the ship's armaments back in order after the attack. As is his nature, he flirted with her heavily. This time it did not yield sex, but rather a heap of praises for his ability in leading the attack as well as training in how a ship's ballista works. Meanwhile, Nika was creeping out and about as well--though she turned her attention to the captured enemy ship. While it was fairly well plundered, she did manage to find some maps in the ship's chart room. One was a large nicely drawn map of the Shackles region of islands, which she rolled up and took with her just in case.

In the morning, the full crew was summoned to deck by Captain Harrigan, who addressed the Rahadoumi captives. "As for these fine fellows, we'll keep the ones who will make good ransom back in Azir. As for the rest, if the life of a pirate's not for them, they can spend the rest of their lives at sea!" With a sudden motion he grabbed the young sailor Farik who Nika had befriended. With a single hand, the massive Captain Harrigan lifted the sailor and threw him overboard. As the ship sailed on, the new members of the crew could only watch in horror as the young man was left screaming and sputtering behind in the wake, certain to drown. The Captain turned to the rest of the crew, which was being joined by all the remaining Rahadoumi seeking to save their own skins. He explained the plan to all assembled. Mr. Plugg would take command of The Man's Promise and sail it to Port Peril to be sold for salvage. The Wormwood would continue to its current destination then rejoin them at Port Peril later. Druna, Galfire, Gilbert, Jax, Nika, Sadie, and Scolvus were to join Mr. Plugg's crew, along with Master Scourge, Owlbear Hartshorn, and all of the swabs and riggers who had served on The Wormwood and a fair number of the more salty looking new Rahadoumi sailors. The rest of the officers would sail The Wormwood with the remaining Rahadoumi crew. The Rahadoumi cook survived the battle, and Captain Harrigan was quick to replace the drunk Ambrose Kroop, who will go to Plugg's ship as well.

A great number of glances at the horizon were exchanged

The crew were given an hour to transfer their lockers and say goodbyes, and get The Man's Promise ready to sail. As the final supplies were transferred the new crew looked at the deck of their new vessel, with Mr. Plugg and Master Scourge standing atop the aft deck at the wheel glowering at them, and felt a whole new set of nervousness set in about their continued voyage.

NPC Matrix

The characters have a basic idea of attitudes of the other crewmembers to them, which will be represented on this matrix and updated after each session. The (current) indicates where the attitude is, while the names in boxes show who influenced whom. (Permanent) indicates that the character is now permanently that status relative to the PCs. While they can still directly benefit from interaction with that NPC, the attitude is fixed unless something extreme happens to push the NPC the other way (cruel or insulting treatment of a helpful ally, for instance). Where movement goes back and forth, the names will be numbered to show the order of influence. I make this information public because living in close proximity on a ship really cannot hide their interactions!

Name	Face	Hostile	Unfriendly	Indifferent	Friendly	Helpful	Description
Ambrose “Fishguts” Kroop				Start	(current) Gilbert 1		Ship’s cook, perpetually drunk, smells of rum Voice: Long John Silver
Aretta Banison							Swab, Bad tempered ex-harlot who escaped a pimp named Pepper Jack. Big ears. Drowned by Galfire.
“Badger” Medlar		(current) Master Scourge 7	(current) Start Gilbert 4 Mr. Plugg 6	Scolvus 1 Master Scourge 3 Sadie 5	Scolvus 2		Swab, Older woman who has shaved white stripes like a badger on her head. Voice: Woman’s Low rumble
Conchobar Shortstone		(current) Sadie’s Spider 1 Mr. Plugg 3	Start Gilbert 2				Rigger, overly dressy and fussy gnome Voice: Olaf Peterson (“Hello beautiful ladies!!!”)
Crimson Cogward			Start Mr. Plugg 2	(current) Nika 1 Sadie 3			Swab, Easily angered loner, impressed only by stories of bloodshed. Voice: dark and brooding
Owlbear Heartshorn		Start	(current) Sadie 1				Tarred-and-feathered simpleton lackey of Mr. Plugg. Voice: pathetic
Dovan from Nisroch				(current) Start Mr. Plugg 4	Gilbert 1 Master Scourge 3	Gilbert 2	Swab, Colorful rogue mercenary captain, tells stories from Fitzburgh. Voice: Sexy guy voice
Fipps Chumlett							Swab, Fat, Pushy bully. Drowned by Galfire.
Jack Scrimshaw				Start Master Scourge 2	Sadie 1 Scolvus 3 Master Scourge 5	Gilbert 4	Swab, Talented young man always doing scrimshaw Voice: meek and mild
Jaundiced Jape		Start	Jax 1 Nika 3	(current) Jax 2 Scolvus 4			Swab, Humorless, greedy mute Voice: Mute
Maheem		Mr. Plugg 1 Master Scourge 3	(current) Start Jax 2 Gilbert 4				Rigger, Rahaddoumi half-elf with a permanent scowl Voice: Arabian Nights
"Ratline" Rattsberger				Start	Druna 1 Mr. Plugg 3	(permanent) Scolvus 2 Druna (saved life) Gilbert/Nika/Jax (helped)	Rigger, Rat faced Halfling missing fingers Voice: Chuckles constantly (think heh heh heh)
Rosie Cusswell				Start	Scolvus	(permanent) Gilbert / Fiddle	Swab, Swears constantly. Voice: stream of expletives
Samms Toppin			Jax 1 Master Scourge 3	Start Jax 2 Jax 4 Jax 6 Mr. Plugg 8	(current) Jax 5 Scolvus 7 Scolvus 9		Rigger, Former fisherwoman, never wears shoes Voice: Sweet melody
Sandara Quinn						Start (current) Nika Jax	Swab, Believer in Besmara’s guidance Voice: Moonbat
Shivikah			Start Master Scourge 2	Nika 1 Jax 3	Druna 4	(current) Scolvus 5	Swab, Mwangi ex-slaver Voice: Deep African voice, says “My friend” to everyone
Slippery Syl Lonergan    (or Greasy Pete)		Master Scourge 1	(current) Start Mistrust of Tam 2				Swab, Unhinged murderer who escaped to sea Voice: Dirty Harry (You feelin’ lucky punk?)
Tam "Narwhal" Tate		Start (current)					Swab, old friend of Master Scourge, Huge Nose Voice: Sniveling Toady