Return to 50 Fathoms Recap 20: That one session we nearly spent a month in game time.

September 9, 2018 @ 2:00-7:00 P.M.

< WARNING SPOILERS FOR 50 FATHOMS AHEAD MATEY!>


NEW CHARACTER  BIO

PLAYER NAME: David
CHARACTER NAME: Cyrus
RACE: Human
NATIONALITY: African, Ivory Coast
ARCHETYPE: Merchant, Ship's Carpenter
HINDRANCES: Clueless (M: Caribdus knowledge, doesn't know Masaquani language yet), Loyal (m), Greedy (m)
NOTABLE EDGES: Master Merchant, Ship's Carpenter
CHARACTER BACKGROUND:  In Africa, Cyrus was a merchant trader with a knowledge of how to create small wooden ships for river travel. His small trade caravan would sell these canoes and rowboats to other villages. Cyrus was captured by English slavers from the Ivory Coast of Africa, stealing his wooden ships and putting his caravan to the torch. The English taught him how to speak their language and forced him to do hard labor aboard their slave vessel. But meanwhile he was studying their more advanced vessel while aboard. In a thick fog as they neared the Caribbean Sea on route to the Colonies, their vessel crossed from Earth to Caribdus. The slave ship didn't survive the crossing and only Cyrus survived. Unfortunately, Cyrus was found by a Kieran cutter floating on a piece of driftwood and he was taken to Paltos Prison temporarily as the Kierans awaited a slave galley to take him to the Coaker Mountains and other prisoners to Torquemada.

DAY 123
PLACE: PALTOS PRISON
WEATHER: OVERCAST
TIME OF DAY: DUSK

     In a flashback scene, Cyrus was one of the three random prisoners freed by the group. The other two left with Tomas and The Valiant.  Cyrus pledged his services as a merchant and ship's carpenter to Red Pirate Roberts in exchange for freeing him. 


DAY 123
PLACE: PALTOS PRISON
WEATHER: OVERCAST
TIME OF DAY: NIGHT

     As they sailed out of the harbor, a Kieran cutter arrived to try and cut off their escape route. Red Pirate Roberts sailed her junk to the west while The Valiant struggled to weigh anchor. Grikk swam eastward. The Kieran cutter closed on The Valiant and boarded her as the group escaped.

[The group made a decision to save their own skins over helping The Valiant.]

      Morgana May had snuck back on board after being escorted home by Paltos city guards and embraced Unk as soon as he got to his quarters.

DAY 126
PLACE: THE KIERAN SEA
WEATHER: OVERCAST
TIME OF DAY: AFTERNOON

      A roc appeared out of the clouds and began to dive at the ship. Most of the group spotted it including Cyrus in the crow's nest. Unk was a bit too busy with Morgana May and ended up missing the battle. 
    Red Pirate Roberts had her men ready their muskets. Cyrus fell out of the crow's nest and was moderately injured. Manuel and Horventerous tried to heal him and their treatment made him lightly injured. Rosetta cast fly on herself and Natsu Nara.

     Natsu Nara flew up at the Roc and hurled a heavy earth cannonball at it, but the Roc dodged it at the last second. 

     The Roc charged at Natsu Nara, leaving him lightly injured and bleeding from his shredded earthen robes. 

     Rosetta flew up and shot the Roc in its left talon leaving the Roc recoiling from the touch of the quarrel but unharmed. 

     Horventerous hurled a heavy water bolt at the Roc that drenched the Roc's feathers. The Roc crashed into the Kieran Sea and it drowned. 
     The group managed to salvage some of the meat off the Roc before it sank into the Kieran Sea. 
     Red Pirate Roberts remembered that Roc's have treasure in their high mountain lairs but refused to turn back towards the Kieran Empire to go search for the Roc's lair. 
     Manuel healed Natsu Nara's wound.

DAY 128
PLACE: THE KIERAN SEA
WEATHER: SUNNY
TIME OF DAY: MORNING

     Rosetta spotted a Kieran cutter and a Kieran merchant ship in the distance. Red Pirate Roberts steered clear of the two vessels. 

[I drew a Joker and on a 2d20 roll got a Kieran cutter and merchant so it was a guard vessel for the merchant rather than hunting them.] 

DAY 131
PLACE: PIRATE SEA
WEATHER: FOG
TIME OF DAY: DUSK

     Cyrus finally had his broken ribs healed.  At dusk, the group saw the terrifying visage of The Flying Dutchman. Most of the crew was fine, but Joseph fell off the ship in the middle of the night. Cyrus took his carpentry tools.

DAY 133
PLACE: BRIGANDY BAY
WEATHER: SUNNY
TIME OF DAY: NIGHT

     The group caroused as Brigandy Bay. They gave Knick-Knack (Unk's talking parrot) rum too.
     Horventerous paid 50 pieces of eight for Red Pirate Robert's grapple gun to be repaired. 
     Unk found a Masaquani selling a map to L'Ollonaise's treasure. He convinced Red Pirate Roberts to purchase the map. It indicated the treasure three days into the interior of Perck near Bluth's Crown.
 

DAY 134
PLACE: PIRATE SEA
WEATHER: FOG
TIME OF DAY: DUSK

      The day started with Knick-Knack hurling everywhere inside the crew cabins.
      The group spotted the Incinerator and Red Pirate Roberts rushed the junk in to deliver a cannon volley at close range. Cyrus hit the ghost ship with the ship's cannons and managed to moderately damage the Incinerator's hull. Horventerous cast a water bolt that went through the ghost ship's hull holes. 

     As Red Pirate Roberts sped away, The Incinerator was suddenly engulfed by a whirlpool that sucked The Incinerator into the depths of the Pirate Sea as Redbeard Rufus cursed in frustration. 

[David played Whirlpool and Redbeard's lookout zombies rolled d4+d6 group Notice and got a 3 and 2 so they sailed right into it.]

Poor Redbeard Rufus and his zombies are increasingly becoming the Team Rocket of 50 Fathoms.

DAY 136
PLACE: BLUTH'S CROWN
WEATHER: SUNNY
TIME OF DAY: NIGHT

      The group returned to Bluth's Crown. Manuel and Luis Domingo got off the boat and kissed the sand on the beach. They had made it home. The group gave the elements of Fire and Air to Pars Portri and the group got paid 3,000 pieces of eight and 4 potions (Potion of the Depths, Restoration, Strength, and Brain Booster). The group watched the mages of Bluth's Crown perform a ritual that imbued the Pillars with elemental power once again and restored the damage done when Natsu Nara touched the pillars. 
      
DAY 137-142
PLACE: PERCK INTERIOR
WEATHER: SUNNY, HOT

     
         Horventerous, Morgana May, and seven sailors stayed behind while the rest of the group headed to the interior of Perck following the treasure map they got at Brigandy Bay. Horventerous, the seven sailors, and Morgana May were given a week's worth of rum and fresh fruit by the grateful mages. 
      Meanwhile, Natsu Nara, Rosetta, Unk, Suzu, Red Pirate Roberts, Smithers, and fourteen other sailors headed northeast past the forest towards the northeast mountains and the desert in their shadow. The group found a small lake in the forest on the first day, and a mountain stream on the second day, but on the third day, their luck had run out in the desert and they all became thirsty and fatigued. Unk ordered Knick-Knack to find some water. He headed northwest and found a small bird-bath sized pool to get his fill of water. Unk followed the parrot and he was disappointed by the thimble of water he found. 
      The group found the spot marked on the map. Cyrus built a makeshift shovel and started digging. Natsu Nara cast burrow and dived inside the earth but didn't feel anything down there. After a day of digging, they had found nothing. Cyrus took the map from Red Pirate Roberts and told the captain it was a fake. Red Pirate Roberts berated Unk for wasting their time.

[Andrew played Folk Hero on Bluth's Crown after saving the Pillars. He stayed back, fearing dehydration for Horventerous. Cyrus had Knowledge (Forgery) and he discerned it was forged. The crazy thing is that they had the Windfall card, but didn't spend it here. It might have been the treasure spot of another pirate!]

DAY 145
PLACE: AZY CAY
WEATHER: FOGGY
TIME OF DAY: NOON


      After a critical failure on navigation, Red Pirate Roberts steered through a thick fog and the group arrived at Azy Cay. With the crew pissed about the forged map, the crew caroused and groused. Unk sold Knick-Knack to Stumpy Pete for a diamond to pay for the money lost on the treasure map. Captain Azy asked if any women wanted to stay at Azy Cay and Morgana May volunteered. Unk and Morgana May hugged and said goodbye. Unk cried in his rum all night as his sister Suzu comforted him.

DAY 149
PLACE: THE PIRATE SEA
WEATHER: FOGGY
TIME OF DAY: DUSK


      As the group sped towards Baltimus, a galleon steered towards them raising the pirate flag. Red Pirate Roberts charged the junk at them and the galleon came in close for a boarding action...

[The pirate captain got a 16 boating -3 handling for a 13, three cards and got an Ace of Spades on chase initiative. So they closed in for the close range attack.  Ellen played Turncoat, meaning one of the pirates is a traitor. Summer played Windfall, meaning the treasure will be better from the Galleon, Chessie played Readied Weapons which means all the cannons are loaded as well as weapons in hand at the start of next time.]

XP: 2; Veteran (3; Seasoned) 

MINIMUM XP: 31

LOOT: None

PICTURES:


MINIATURES 

Tri-folds used are from the 50 Fathoms Figure Flat Pack PDF. Heroclix by WizKids are used for some figures. Ships used are from Letters of Marque by Fantasy Flight Games and a sailing porcelain ship from Red Rose Tea. Top down from Grey Matter Games Deadly Missions Fantasy Dungeon.

Return to 50 Fathoms Recap 19: You Only Sent 30 Guards to Capture Us?

September 2, 2018 @ 2:00-7:00 P.M.

< WARNING PLOT POINT SPOILERS FOR 50 FATHOMS AHEAD MATEY!>


DAY 123
PLACE: PALTOS
WEATHER: OVERCAST
TIME OF DAY: NOON

     Unk took Morgana May back to the ship in the morning. Suddenly the junk and The Coconut Grove were surrounded by 30 Paltos city guards each. They were delivered three Wanted posters and told to surrender.

Wanted

Horventerous, Natsu Nara, Manuel Domingo, and Rosetta.

For the crime of heresy by the Inquisition.

Wanted

Red Pirate Roberts, her ship, and her crew.

For the crime of piracy, freeing his majesty Emperor Jant’s prisoners, and conspiracy to break into Paltos Prison. 

Wanted

Unk.

For the kidnapping of Morgana May

What happened at the Junk

     Unk tried to sail the boat but it wouldn't go anywhere due to the lowered ship's anchor. Unk then jumped off the boat and tried to swim away. The soldiers shot at him in the water and forced him to surrender. 
     Rosetta was captured willingly while laughing maniacally. 
     Rosetta and Unk were chained and escorted to Paltos Prison by two soldiers each.
     Without the captain, Smithers and the crew put their hands up in surrender.
      Morgana May was "freed" and escorted back to her house by two soldiers.
     Natsu Nara refused to be captured and he killed three soldiers below deck with his earthen cannonballs before using wall walker to escape through a porthole and hang on the bulwark of the ship. He hit soldiers with earth cannonballs on the upper deck while hiding and hanging on to the side of the ship. When he was discovered by a soldier, he killed him and some other soldiers looking his way. He then got the drop on soldiers looking for him on the other side of the ship's hull. With the number of soldiers thinned out on the upper deck, he leaped on to the deck and crushed three more soldiers. When six soldiers rushed him with musket butts to try and knock him out, he gave an evil smile and said, "I am Natsu Nara and I will kill you all." 

[Summer played Drastic Measures.]

     With that, the morale of most of the town militia broke and the eleven soldiers patrolling the docks ran. Natsu Nara shattered three of the remaining guards with his earth cannonballs before toying with the three remaining soldiers by killing them one by one with his long sword. All told, Natsu Nara killed something like fourteen soldiers himself. He then left to find the captain at The Coconut Grove.

What happened at The Coconut Grove 

     When the soldiers demanded their surrender, Horventerous used his water blast to kill fifteen of them. Six soldiers rushed Horventerous with musket butts but his bone armor absorbed most of the punishment. Four of them attacked Red Pirate Roberts but missed. The other five guarded the doorway exit, three on the left, and two on the right. 
     Red Pirate Roberts used her grapple gun to crash through a window and escape as the men tried to hit her with musket butts as she fled. When she got outside, fifteen men surrounded her. She realized she couldn't fight them off with Horventerous occupied inside so decided to try a bribe. She paid the fifteen Paltos prison guards in full armor 2,500 pieces of eight to "take the day off".

[Chessie played Reinforcements which showed up here. Ellen played the Contact card and allowed her to make the bribe attempt as a result.] 

     Dave O' Shanks ordered his men into the fray. Five of his men went to knock out the guards at the doorway, four knocked out two of the men formerly on Red Pirate Roberts, while him and three of his men tried to help Horventerous. Dave got the drop on one of the soldiers and slayed him with his cutlass buried in his back.

[Dave was played by Matt, since he didn't want to create a character to replace Lorlo on game day, who left the team pissed at Azy Cay due to Stripes joining the crew, the crew utterly failing to get help to Vittoria colony in Baltimus, and making an enemy of the British East India Company by murdering their employees.]

     Horventerous used his water bolts to pulverize two of the guards. 
     The town militia tried to knock out Dave's men and Horventerous again with musket butts and missed. 
      Dave and his men made quick work of the rest of the town militia as they had them outnumbered two to one. 
      Dave O' Shanks explained his plan to save Tomas de Orinjo to the group. They would use rope and cloth-covered hammers to climb the eastern cliff face of Paltos Prison and the prison walls. Dave and his twelve men joined Red Pirate Roberts, Horventerous, and Natsu Nara and headed to Paltos Prison. 


What happened at Paltos Prison

      Unk tried to wake up Grikk who was unconscious in the cell with him. He tried to get Rosetta to think of a way to escape but she just cackled and said, "Do you think they'll ransom you to the British East India Company, monkey?" He talked to Tomas de Orinjo and Kylie Kirrow. Tomas told him that he had been captured by the Inquisition on trumped up charges, "Kylie and I are to be picked up by a Kieran cutter to be transported to The Perdition, Torquemada's Inquisition flagship for public execution." Kylie told him that the unconscious man was Grikk, a Kraken who had been captured for trespassing in the Kieran Empire.

DAY 123
PLACE: PALTOS PRISON
WEATHER: OVERCAST
TIME OF DAY: DUSK

     The group approached Paltos Prison by climbing the eastern cliff face.

 

I was trying to use that black cannon as the bell tower but it just kept falling over!

  [Chessie played Volcano, creating a Hazard]

      During their attempted climb on the eastern cliff face disaster struck. An earthquake caused the island to shake and ten of Dave O' Shanks men died. Most of the soldiers that were on the castle walls fell over and died while men on the ground fell over. The castle's drawbridge also fell when the portcullis was damaged. 
      A massive hole in Rosetta's cell allowed her to escape and she flew through it. Unk begged her to help him but she just laughed and said, "This once caged bird is now free to fly but you are just a captured monkey!"
      Unk tried to break the steel bars but failed. 
         




 

     As the group climbed the eastern castle walls, an aftershock hit. This killed one of Dave's men and two of the castle guards as the man at the bell fell on a guard below in courtyard. Red Pirate Roberts and Horventerous fell. Red Pirate Roberts held on with her grapple gun and Horventerous was wounded as he grabbed Red Pirate Roberts and his bone armor smashed into the castle wall, fracturing his ribs. Red Pirate Robert's grapple gun was frayed. It got them back to the top of the castle walls with its rewind but can't be used again until repaired.
 

      The second aftershock and Unk's persistence caused some of the steel bars to bend. Unk used his strength to push them out of his way to escape.
      Natsu Nara cast Wall Walker and then climbed down the castle wall to try and lop off the head of a soldier manning a cannon but missed due to the tough angle.


 
  
      As a soldier attempted to fire a cannon at Natsu Nara, Unk burst through the prison doors and took it away from him. Unk fired the cannon but it hit the courtyard ground with a thud just in front of the soldier. 
       Rosetta landed on the northeast tower and started to fire her crossbow down at the humans in the courtyard. She pierced the armor of one of them and he went to the ground clutching his chest, "Stupid inferior humans and your armor, as if that will save you from a superior Atani's crossbow." 
       The Paltos prison warden fired a cannon ball blast at Natsu Nara. He somehow deflected it with his short sword and killed two enemy soldiers as it caromed in the opposite direction but his short sword changed to a U-shaped, broken blade.   

[Summer played Lucky Break.] 

       Horventerous directed a water blast that killed four soldiers that were loading a cannon and drenched the cannon.
        Red Pirate Roberts kept firing her pistol at the soldiers but it couldn't penetrate their armor. 
        Dave O' Shanks and his remaining soldier fired down at the men with their muskets but couldn't pierce their armor and reloaded. 
         Rosetta reloaded her crossbow.
         Unk tried to fire the cannon again but nothing happened because it wasn't loaded. He then threw it at the Paltos prison warden, missing him, but crushing the man next to him. 

         The Paltos prison warden took a firing position on the cannon and his remaining men reloaded it. He fired it at Unk but missed. 


        
       Horventerous and Natsu Nara directed their bolts at the Paltos prison guards until only the Paltos prison warden remained. 
       When the Paltos prison warden tried to fire the other cannon at Horventerous, the powder store was wet and the cannonball rolled into the courtyard out of the barrel.
       Rosetta shot the Paltos prison warden in the left side with her quarrel as Natsu Nara finished him off with a heavy bolt. 

 

        The group got the Paltos prison keys from the warden and freed the prisoners.  
        Tomas de Orinjo was freed and the group asked him to give them the Tears of Lys. He handed it over to Red Pirate Roberts. Tomas told her to think of the greatest tragedy to befall her and cry on to the jewel to gain a vision. 
         Red Pirate Roberts cried as she remembered the horrific great white shark that had eaten her leg and caused her to crash her head into a reef before passing out. She found herself alive on Azy Cay with a mysterious peg leg made from a Narwhal horn. Who had saved her and why?
        The jewel revealed a scene where King Amemnus sentenced the three witches to drowning for killing their father and sister. The jury of Ograpog that had convicted them included a man bearing the symbol of the Baltimus family, a leaping shark. The witches cursed the world to drown as they had drowned before they were thrown overboard. The group couldn't believe they had to go back to Baltimus to find Byron Baltimus' journal after making an enemy of the British East India Company.
        Horventerous used elemental manipulation to create water and draw a bath to clean and hydrate Grikk. Fully conscious, he ran towards Paltos harbor with Horventerous chasing after him.


DAY 123
PLACE: PALTOS HARBOR
WEATHER: OVERCAST
TIME OF DAY: NIGHT

     The group escaped Paltos Prison. Dave O' Shanks, Kylie Kirrow, and Tomas de Orinjo boarded The Valiant. Horventerous questioned him and Grikk told him he needed a rare plant to save his son. There was no time to talk he said. Grikk dived off the docks of the harbor and swam east. The group boarded the Junk. Manuel and his brother Luis boarded the Junk as well deciding to flee the Kieran Empire since Manuel was wanted by the Inquisition.
     As they sailed out of the harbor, a Kieran cutter arrived to try and cut off their escape route...

[At the end of the session, Andrew played Second Wind to get rid of his wound and Arcane Inspiration to restore his Power Points. Summer copied it with Eye of Insanity. Ellen played Spurred On and Homing Beacon, so their next travel distance is x3. Matt played New Henchman on his last remaining soldier.]

XP: 3; Veteran (4; Seasoned) 

MINIMUM XP: 28

LOOT: None

PICTURES:

MAPS

I used DramaScape's Lake Prison for Paltos Prison. It is perfect for this plot point in that it has the correct terrain of a peninsula that is surrounded by water on three sides with only one land entrance that can be heavily defended with lookouts and cannons. It also has a courtyard for the ground level and four towers with castle walls with crenelations that can be used as the upper area of the prison and a place to put the bell tower. The prison in the back is a little different layout than the map in 50 Fathoms but works well.

If I was going to use maps for Scene 1, I would have used DramaScape's River Barge and Docks POD for the ship and dock battle and DramaScape's free Basic Tavern for the fight at The Coconut Grove.

MINIATURES 

Tri-folds used are from the 50 Fathoms Figure Flat Pack PDF and a metal 50 Fathoms miniature by Pinnacle Entertainment Group. Heroclix by WizKids are used for some figures. Arena of the Planeswalkers by Wizards of the Coast also used for figures and terrain. Cannons from DramaScape's Western Keep. Unk figure is Kongo from Deadly Missions Mercenaries by Grey Matter Games.


Lake Prison

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/216290/Lake-Prison?affiliate_id=12615