Sunday August 28, 2022@ 1:00-7:00 P.M.
< WARNING SPOILERS FOR 50
FATHOMS MAIN PLOT POINT LINE AHEAD MATEY!!>
NEW CHARACTER BIOS
Player Name: Shaune
Character Name: Tar-Tar
Race: Half-Ugak
Archetype: Marine specializing in below deck combat.
Hindrances: Arrogant (M), Ornithophobia, the fear of birds (m), Illiterate (m)
Notable Edges: Berserk, Improved Bilge Rat, Boarder, Rope Monkey
Notable Equipment: Chain Hauberk
Background: Tar-Tar was one of the six recruits the group picked up at Brigandy Bay. At present not much is known about him as he mostly stays below deck. The reason for this is his combat training and also because he is secretly afraid of Carifax.
DAY 297
PLACE: PIRATE SEA NEAR BRIGANDY BAY
WEATHER: OVERCAST
TIME OF DAY: NOON
Captain Red Pirate Roberts started the long turnabout to clear
Brigandy Bay and head north into the Flotsam Sea towards the treasure
island of Redbeard Rufus. Captain Red Pirate Roberts spotted the only
Man O' War left in Caribdus to the southwest and tried to run away only
for The Destroyer to get close to La Arcadia.
[The group ran for three turns of a chase, then drew a Joker and decided to change their plans.]
Horventerous cast blast at The Destroyer but did not damage it.
Chug used Rope Monkey to swing over and attack Blackbeard. Chug hit
him not once, but twice with his Grael battleball and Blackbeard barely
looked affected even though Chug knew he had hit him as hard as Ortega.
[Randall played Adrenaline Surge with a Benny.]
Natsu Nara swung over to The Destroyer and attacked Blackbeard with L'Espada de Vampiro. He gained strength as if Blackbeard should have been wounded, but nothing else happened.
Nimue glided over to The Destroyer and snuck towards Blackbeard.
[Chessie got an 11 on Stealth.]
The overcast sky turned dark and rain started pouring down on the
ships. The peal of thunder heralded a lightning bolt strike to come...
[David
played Volcano with a Bennie, so the battle will be in a legendary
Caribdus storm and players start with one extra card/play next time. At
this point it was 8 pm on a Sunday night when people need to work the
next day and they had started a battle with Blackbeard, so I was forced
to do a cliffhanger.]
[Beginning of session]
Blackbeard's zombified crew prepared two boarding planks with hammers and nails under the direction of their zombie officers.
[This kept the zombies busy for two turns to give the PCs a chance to escape.]
Prince Alain Amemnus declared, "I will get back my father's sword!"
As the lightning struck, Blackbeard's human face transformed, revealing a skull underneath. A wave of fear hit the sailors and Prince Alain Amemnus. The sailors retreated to the port side of the ship and Prince Alain fled below deck. Horventerous was afraid of the thunder and lightning and also went below deck. Blackbeard grinned and attacked Chug twice. The Sword of King Amemnus cut deep into Chug's skin but did not pierce his thick blubber.
[Blackbeard got a Joker, which triggered his Mighty Blow edge, and although I got 20+ damage and 40+ damage, Randall soaked them both.]
[Chessie played Revelation. So I revealed to her stealthy Atani that Blackbeard seemed to be invincible while on The Destroyer.]
Chug countered by disarming King Amemnus' Sword from Blackbeard by hitting him in the arm.
Nimue snuck up on Blackbeard and pushed him down, making him prone.
[In spite of Blackbeard's Danger Sense, as he only got a 10 Notice versus her 11 Stealth.]
Natsu Nara concentrated and an iron hand erupted from a ship's cannon that grabbed the Sword of King Amemnus and flung it across the Pirate Sea onto the deck of La Arcadia. Natsu Nara attempted to escape but Blackbeard grabbed him and crushed his ankle, wounding him.
[Summer played Arcane Inspiration, the Pirates of the Spanish Main version. This was a legerdemain spell use as a pseudo Mage Hand. Even disarmed, Blackbeard remained a threat.]
Meanwhile on La Arcadia, Blub climbed down from the crow's nest. Draco stabbed a zombie trying to nail the boarding plank onto the deck of La Arcadia. Captain Red Pirate Roberts maneuvered La Arcadia away from the lightning. Even more surprising was Blackbeard using his legs to control the rudder on The Destroyer though.
Cyrus Black's henchman asked "Is it time? The crew thinks it is time for a new captain after Red Pirate Roberts tried to order us to fish in a thunderstorm, an order that you belayed. She would not pay Chug a pittance after saving Horventerous. Her cowardice and miserly ways have only increased of late. What are your orders, sir?"
Cyrus Black simply responded, "It is time for a new captain!" Cyrus Black and his henchman attacked Captain Red Pirate Roberts. Cyrus Black stabbed his cutlass into her gut and threw her off the ship and then grabbed the wheel, saying "I am captain, now!"
[David played Backstab, Extra Powder (to give him No Mercy), and Fireworks with a Bennie. He kept rerolling the 3d6 + d20 outcome until he winded up with a 44 damage result.]
At the end of the first round it looked like this:
Blackbeard got up and went to a witch's cauldron filled with acid. He grabbed a hose and sprayed at Chug, Natsu Nara, and Nimue while screaming out, "Since you are on board already, you might as well stay awhile!" Natsu Nara was severely wounded or so it seemed. The rain from the storm washed the acid away and cauterized the wounds.
[Summer played Second Wind.]
Draco defeated the two zombies at the first boarding plank. Blub used his spear to distract a zombie trying to hammer the second boarding plank in place. Horventerous managed to overcome his fear and ran out from below decks with a few sailors. He unleashed a blast that destroyed the first boarding plank.
Chug grabbed Natsu Nara and used rope monkey to swing back onto La Arcadia. Chug kicked up the Sword of King Amemnus and grabbed it in midair, but dropped his Grael battleball in the process.
[Randall played Barrel of Monkeys to give Chug a free trick, which I allowed him to use to pick up the sword.]
Natsu Nara used burst to destroy the second boarding plank.
With Blackbeard away from the ship's controls, the fierce storm knocked off 17 zombies and 2 zombie leaders. Cyrus Black and his henchmen were knocked off course. Disaster was about to strike, but suddenly the winds calmed a bit and the ship barely missed running into a lightning strike that would have ripped the ship apart.
[Andrew played Becalmed which forced me to reroll a damage roll that would have been lethal for La Arcadia and reduced it to a 4d6 that Cyrus Black was able to keep the ship from going out of control after the much reduced damage. Without Captain Red Pirate Roberts, they do not have Ace in the middle of a legendary Caribdus storm.]
Horventerous ran towards Cyrus Black, but due to his fear of tentacles he became so scared that he lashed out and stabbed the kraken in the left leg. Horventerous fell over and Cyrus Black moved to finished him.
Cyrus's henchman intervened saying, "No Captain, without him we have no fresh water!" Cyrus stayed his hand.
Horventerous was furious and got up, taking off his eyepatch revealing his devil's eye. The fear inspired by seeing the eye and the Kraken's tentacles gave Cyrus Black an immediate heart attack. He fell to his knees clutching his chest. Horventerous drew his blade and started a cleaving motion but stopped at the last moment saying, "I also need you to fix the ship, carpenter." Instead of killing him, he touched his left shoulder and healed Cyrus Black.
[Thus was an uneasy truce begun as Horventerous and Cyrus Black hate each other, but also need each other to survive.]
Nimue glided back onto La Arcadia. Blub and Draco defeated the remaining two zombies on board the ship and started heading back towards the captain in the center of the ship.
Natsu Nara used a second burst to try and defeat a zombie leader. They dodged out of the way, but he managed to kill a couple more zombies. Blackbeard fired the hose at Natsu Nara and they were severely hurt in the leg, causing them to fall over the bulwark into the Pirate Sea. Natsu Nara found a plank in the Pirate Sea from the remnants of a boarding plank and hung on for dear life. Blackbeard walked back to the ship's wheel.
[Nick played Out of the Frying Pan on Natsu Nara who had regained three wounds.]
Blub jumped into the Pirate Sea to try to save Natsu Nara, but started drowning in the storm.
[Andrew played Here Comes the Cavalry.]
A girl's whisper was heard in Horventerous's ear, "You must survive; you are this world's last hope." The storm had calmed completely and a thick fog rolled in. The Destroyer and La Arcadia no longer tethered by boarding planks drifted apart and could not see to even attack each other any longer.
Blub nearly drowned but eventually swam well enough to find the driftwood Natsu Nara was holding. Chug threw them down a rope and Blub climbed up. Natsu Nara cast wall walker again and again and eventually managed to climb up the rope. Horventerous healed Blub and Natsu Nara.
With the battle ended, a Half-Ugak named Tar-Tar came above deck. He looked for the captain who had hired her, but she was gone. The merchant Cyrus Black had taken her place. Tar-Tar shrugged saying, "Doesn't matter who the captain is as long as I get paid."
With Captain Red Pirate Roberts dead, Cyrus Black took over the ship as Captain and Chug was his navigator.
[With the Captain dead and her d10 +2 boating with Ace gone, the best boating on the ship was Chug with a d8.]
DAY 298-299
PLACE: PIRATE SEA NEAR BRIGANDY BAY
WEATHER: RAINY
Chug sailed the ship around Brigandy Bay's cove to the northern side of the island.
DAY 300
PLACE: FLOTSAM SEA
WEATHER: RAINY
The sailors attempted fishing and got a lone disgusting black tentacle that they threw back into the sea.
DAY 301
PLACE: FLOTSAM SEA
WEATHER: RAINY
TIME OF DAY: NOON
Cyrus spotted a lone skiff that he had Chug chase. Chug maneuvered the ship to long and medium range. Cyrus screamed out, "Closer!"
The much smaller skiff outmaneuvered La Arcadia and managed to get a couple shots off at short range. The skiff's cannon hit the bulwark and ricocheted into Blub and then caromed into the Flotsam Sea off his great blubber. The wounded ship could no longer keep up with the skiff which got away.
DAY 302
PLACE: REDBEARD RUFUS'S TREASURE ISLAND, FLOTSAM SEA
WEATHER: PARTLY CLOUDY
TIME OF DAY: AFTERNOON
Chug sailed the ship to the closest island hoping to repair La Arcadia. They found a small island covered in tentacle-like vines. The six golden triangles glowed brightly.
In the center of the island was a stone monolith with six indentations for the golden triangles. After Horventerous placed them on the monolith, it split in half revealing a pit in the center. Blub got a rope and attempted to climb down. He slipped and hit the bottom with a thud and blood curdling scream. Nimue and Tar-Tar climbed down after him with a torch in Nimue's hand. Blub had been impaled by spikes, but his blubber covered them at the bottom of the pit. Unfortunately, a high weight person like Chug could displace Blub's weight and would become impaled by the spikes, forcing Chug to remain above.
Nimue and Tar-Tar squeezed through an opening at the bottom of the pit. The tunnel went forward for a bit before Nimue noticed a piece of rotting wood on the floor. Using Blub's spear, she touched the rotting wood. The wood shattered and Nimue dropped Blub's spear. It went down the hole becoming just another spike in the second pit. She attempted to use her grapple gun to get over the pit, but a guillotine snapped the rope in half after the hook landed. Tar-Tar backed out and Nimue was forced to return to the surface and ask Natsu Nara to cast wall walker on her. Nimue glided down and hurried into the tunnel, using the wall walker to go around the pit and guillotine. When she grabbed her grapple hook, the guillotine reset. She tossed her grapple hook forward and another trap was revealed. A flint and steel in the ceiling lit a tar-wrapped torch that dropped into a pool of boiling oil that caught fire. Nimue used the updrafts from the fire to glide across and into a wide chamber stacked high with 30,000 pieces of eight, a magical rapier, magical grapple gun, magical leather armor, magic ring, magic compass, and magic Grael battleball.
[Chessie played Windfall. Randall traded Chessie the Windfall card, so I made the treasure mostly fit Nimue with an item for Chug and a couple of boating aids that may be necessary.]
When Nimue and Tar-Tar returned to the surface with a mere fraction of the treasure, the group saw The Incinerator appear offshore and Redbeard Rufus and his zombie crew wade onto the island. Redbeard Rufus screamed out, "No one leaves this island with my treasure!" Something behind Rufus grunted.
[And another week and another cliffhanger.]
[End of session.]
XP: 3 Legendary, 4 Heroic
MINIMUM XP: 72/Heroic
LOOT: 30,000 pieces of eight, Magic Leather Armor +1 with 1/2 weight, Magic Rapier +2 damage, +1 Fighting and Parry, Magic Grapple Gun +1 damage, Magic Grael Battleball +1 damage, Captain's Ring, Pirate's Compass
MAPS
DramaScape's Above
Decks Volume Two: Smuggler's Sloop and The Wave Cutter Smuggler's Sloop
side print on demand used for La Arcadia.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/114448/Above-Decks-Volume-Two-Smugglers-Sloop-and-The-Wave-Cutter?affiliate_id=12615
DramaScape's Above
Decks Volume One: 18th Century Corvette Ghost Ship
side print on demand used for The Destroyer.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/113794/Above-Decks-Volume-One-18th-Century-Corvette?affiliate_id=12615
MINIATURES
Tri-folds
used are from 50 Fathoms Figure Flats and the metal Kraken
miniature made by Pinnacle Entertainment Group. Top Down minis are armies from Precis Intermedia's Disposable Heroes Pirate Statix 1.
Ships used include a ship from Letters of Marque by Fantasy Flight Games and a porcelain ship from Red Rose Tea.
