Return to 50 Fathoms Recap 3

Return to 50 Fathoms Recap 3, August 19, 2016 @ 8:00-10:00 P.M.

 

<<WARNING SPOILERS FOR 50 FATHOMS! >>

Part 3: Off to Brigandy Bay

Scene 1 Day 14 Bluth's Crown

The group arrived at Bluth's Crown. 

They disembarked and saw another skiff that had landed earlier trading with a Masaquani mage. The skiff was selling food and goods to the mages in exchange for silver and liquid in flasks. Rather than investigate the trade or the skiff, they looked around Bluth's Crown. They didn't find much. The area has four solid pillars of stone in a valley surrounded by a C-shaped cliff facing the Pirate Sea. The cliff has multiple caves at the bottom and a spiraling mage's tower built of stone in the center of the C. 
 
Most of the crew bedded down for the night in caves, happy to simply rest without the sea's motion for a night. Horventerous and Natsu Nara tried to gain entry into the mage's tower. Horventerous scored a Raise on Persuasion and the guard allowed him inside, convinced the Kraken mage wouldn't cause any trouble. He wasn't so convinced by Natsu Nara with his condescending attitude. 

"Why do you want to go inside the tower?"--Bluth's Crown Tower Guard
"Some reason."--Natsu Nara

[The guard told her to leave and I gave Summer a Bennie for her character's Habit [Minor], sarcastic answers to all questions. It had directly hindered Natsu Nara, making his Persuasion a 7 instead of 8 (-1 Charisma), so he failed to get the Raise needed to get inside. Then Summer role-played it perfectly.]

A young Masaquani mage by the name of Pars Portri gave Horventerous a tour of the tower.  Pars showed him a ritual practice room with four neophyte mages practicing Bacchius Bluth's ritual that he used to create the four elemental pillars. a distillation room where the mages made potions, and four study rooms devoted to each of the four elements. Horventerous noticed the alchemist mage creating a Potion of Strength with his Knowledge of Arcana. Horventerous asked how the alchemist was making the potion. Pars explained that the potions were made by pouring elemental power into the flasks and that an elemental mage could do this with any of their known spells. This cost the elemental mage power that could not be recovered naturally until the potion was imbibed. Horventerous wanted to know how he could get some of the potions. Pars told him they were used to trade for things the mages needed like food and goods like lanterns. Unfortunately, the lumber that was on The Adrienne didn't interest the mages. Horventerous was given a bedroom on the first floor as the mage's locked the first floor door leading to the spiraling stone stairs that ascend to the upper levels. Still beats sleeping in a cave though!

[I handed Andrew a Curious Bennie for all of this exploration to sate his curiosity about the tower. I also thought I had them on the hook for the following since Andrew seemed to want the potions because of his Greedy Hindrance:]

Meanwhile, Natsu Nara snuck out at night and touched the Earth Pillar. Unknown to him, a crack appeared in the pillar... 

Scene 2 Day 15 Bluth's Crown

Everyone woke up to the mage's running and screaming out the tower with Horventerous following them to the four pillars.  A crack had appeared in the earth pillar. Natsu Nara tried to use his Elemental Manipulation to fix the earth pillar, but it led to cracks appearing in all the other three pillars. The mages panicked and hastily put together a reenactment of Bacchius Bluth's original ritual but it failed to fix the cracks in the pillars. Pars Portri fainted from the stress of everything. Horventerous used Succor to awaken him. 

[Andrew rolled a critical fail and I was going to have him fall over and faint on top of Pars for a Bennie, but he re-rolled with two Bennies to succeed. Yup, I run Jerrod Gunning's Critical Failure rule. +1 Bennie to take the fail or -2 Bennies to re-roll. ]

Pars Portri woke up with an epiphany. The ghost of Bacchius Bluth had come to him in a daydream and told him that the ritual required four symbolic elements to repair the cracks in the pillars. He would pay 1,500 and 2 Potions to the group per each element required for a total of 6,000 silver and 8 Potions if they collected all four. For earth, the group needed to go to the Kehana Flumes and collect a pound of gold. For fire, they needed to enter Torath-Ka and gather a pound of lava from the Great Volcano. For wind, they needed to ascend the Coaker Mountains and gather a bottle of air from the zenith. For water, they needed to collect a bottle of water from the heart of the Flotsam Sea. 

Natsu Nara figured out what had happened. He accused the mage's of draining all their elemental power and then taking the elemental power from the pillars to create their potions. Each potion drained the pillars of elemental power that Bluth had trapped there. The cracks in the pillars hadn't suddenly appeared; they had been there beneath the surface all along as small fractures as they drew and drew more power from the stones to create their potions.

Pars Portri didn't try to deny this. He simply begged them a second time to complete the quest to restore the pillars. Without the pillars they couldn't make any more potions. Without the potions to trade for silver or barter they would starve to death without food and fresh water. 

 "Without us, without the pillars, there will be no more new potions made in Caribdus."--Pars Portri

The group argued about the quest, with Calico O' Malley not wanting to go to the Kehana Flumes at all. In the end, Calico O' Malley convinced them to head to Brigandy Bay, as it would allow them to sell the Carroway Lumber at a high price and empty the cargo hold to collect more cargo.

Rather than spend any more time in Bluth's Crown they headed out immediately in between dawn and noon.

Scene 3 Day 16 Pirate Sea

[I drew a Joker for encounters, so I had them roll 2d20 for encounters and got a Great White Shark and an unconscious man in a dinghy (4, 6). Note this could be really bad, like double pirates (but they aren't necessarily allied either) or really good like two sunken ruins or some combination of good and bad.]

Red Pirate Roberts spied an unconscious man in a dinghy and a lurking great white shark. The group decided to do nothing. So the shark ate the dinghy and the man whole. 

[I had Ellen roll James Low's Harder to Kill, but he got odd, so the group will never know about him lol. Then I decided to let the Great White Shark trail them and "protect" them. ] 

Scene 4 Day 17 Pirate Sea

The group found some of their fish they had caught had rotted and threw them overboard. They watched the 25 foot long great white surface and swallow the rotted fish before submerging again near the aft of the ship.


[A critically failed survival roll creates a Reverse Raise effect -5 food from the ship's hold.]

Equias Logbook Entry 5

Well Bluth's Crown was a waste of time. Now they are headed to Brigandy Bay! A den of pirates and thieves. What kind of lot have I fallen in with? 

The crew says the captain spied a stranded unconscious man in a dinghy and a great white shark in the distance. She did nothing to save him! Just let the shark eat him!  Then they fed it rotted fish today like some sort of tribute! Are they trying to keep this great white shark following us around on purpose! Sharks destroyed Lala's Pride, killed its crew, and shattered me bum leg. I hate them so much!
 

Scene 5 Day 19 Pirate Sea

Red Pirate Roberts spied a sloop and watched in horror as the great white shark that had been following them took a piece out of their hull and gobbled up five sailors who fell into the Pirate Sea from the force of the impact. 

"This isn't going to end is it? We have to slay the great white shark!"--Horventerous.

Finally, after the loss of six lives, a destroyed dinghy, and a damaged sloop, the group decided to act. Red Pirate Roberts guided the ship towards the great white shark as the sloop attempted to break off. 

Red Pirate Roberts guided the ship right next to the shark as the sloop continued to drift away.   

Spying the shark, Rosetta completely panicked and tried to glide away towards the sloop! 

[Due to Major (Sharkphobia)] 

Smithers fired a cannon at the shark, but missed badly. The cannonball hit Rosetta in the back instead and she barely controlled her wings to prevent falling into the ocean with the shark. The cannonball shattered several vertebrae in her spine before veering off to fall into the Pirate Sea near the sloop.  Four of the sailors reloaded the cannon. The last sailor tried to stab at the great white with his spear but whiffed above its nose. 


Horventerous and Natsu Nara sent bolts at the shark but they missed dropping into the Pirate Sea on the left and right sides of the shark.

Calico O' Malley jumped into the Pirate Sea and tried to stab the great white shark with her dagger but merely nicked the shark's skin. 

An enraged Equias appeared from below deck and screamed at the great white shark. He lashed out with his pincer and measuring rod as a clumsy club. He whiffed with his pincer but hit the shark in the nose with the rod.

"You sharks took my leg and me mates! For Lala's Pride!"--Equias 

 

The great white shark countered Calico O' Malley with a gruesome bite that left her bleeding in the water and sent the shark into a thrashing frenzy. 

Natsu Nara missed the shark with an earth bolt.

Equias attacked again but missed with his pincer before delivering another smash to the nose with his measuring rod. 

Rosetta landed on the sloop. 

Finally, Horventerous gathered a mighty water bolt and used the surrounding water to swallow up the shark and crush it with pressure. The force of the impact made the great white shark explode into chunks of meat that covered Calico O' Malley and Equias.
  
The sailors helped Calico O' Malley on board and then Red Pirate Roberts guided The Adrienne to the sloop.  The Kieran merchant sloop was shipping iron to the Free Towns. He couldn't give them a hold full of iron because it would sink their skiff. He handed over sixty silver and a strange stone to Horventerous. 

"This beautiful stone may be worth many pieces of eight, but you did save my life and half my crew. Thank you."--Kieran merchant 

Horventerous used his knowledge of arcana to learn that it was a Tempus Stone, a magical wondrous stone that held elemental power inside.   

[Autumn played Buried Treasure to make the reward rolls. So she rolled 2d10 for the silver amount x 10 and D100 twice to get a relic against 2%. Its 1% in the book, but I am doing 2% so 00, 0 and 00, 1 gain a relic at the Loot level (aka 100 or 1). So surprisingly she rolled 100 on roll 2 and they got a random relic. I actually used the dead 5 sailors as the loot/reward here. If they had killed the shark within three days, they would have got James Low's loot too, but it had been processed through the day before. lol. ] 

With that the merchant sloop limped to the west and The Adrienne headed northeast towards Brigandy Bay. Horventerous used his healing magic to restore Calico's bite wound and mend Rosetta's spine into its proper shape.
 
Equias Logbook Entry 6

I heard the crash from down below and rushed above deck to see what had happened; well at least as fast as me bum leg would let me. That's when I saw the great white shark right next to the bulwark of our ship! The crew says I went berserk and attacked the shark with me pincers and measuring rod. I blacked out in rage so I don't remember it too well. They said I gave him a couple good whacks with me measuring rod to the nose of the shark, but Horventerous was the real hero, killing the shark with his magic.  I never was too good at fighting; measuring is what I love to do. Too bad I bent me measuring rod in the fight. I guess I could train to get a little better at it...

[He advanced at end of session and the group decided to up his Fighting die to d6.] 

 
Scene 6 Day 20 Pirate Sea to Brigandy Bay

[Andrew played Favor of the Gods. I let it work like Spurred On! of the normal Adventure Card set.]

Favorable winds took the group to Brigandy Bay by noon... 
    
[End of Session]

XP: 2 (For taking out the great white and gaining their first relic from actual play).


Loot: 60 pieces of eight, Tempus Stone

Pictures:

   I used our two tablecloths to represent green land and blue sea on the tabletop. DramaScape's River Barge is used for the small fishing boat we are using as a skiff. Cannons are from DramaScape's Western Keep. Tri-folds used are from the 50 Fathoms Figure Flat Pack by Pinnacle Entertainment Group. The 50 Fathoms metal miniature is also from Pinnacle Entertainment Group. I also used some HeroClix from WizKids for this one. Jace from Magic: The Gathering Arena of the Planeswalkers makes an appearance as Natsu Nara. 


River Barge
 
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/102117/River-Barge?affiliate_id=12615