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Møøse Trained By: Hugh Foster
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Great-grandchild of the sister's gibbon's friend of the nephew of the Campaign that Would Not Die, now in 3.25e Møøse Trained By: Hugh Foster |
 DM Comment: No Arthur, and Ric was a late start, so we had
the possibility of the entire player side in their boat being missing. So we unbubbled
them, Allan ran Talian and I ran Herb. Talian had quite a close run thing! |
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Baylock, shrouded in his own personal Night, delivered a horrible surprise to the pirate groping around in front of him, leaving him draped over the rail. He then leapt lightly across onto the pirates' sailboat and unslung his bow. Behind him Talian, suddenly outside the huge sphere of Darkness, lifted his sword and swiped at the pirate blinking ahead of him, who ducked and struck back, delivering another wound. To the rear of the sailboat, Herb jabbed blindly back towards the pirate he'd last seen at the nose of his own 'skipper, and scored a lucky hit, hearing the man groan.
Across on the southern 'skipper, Chambu threw a defensive cast of Hold Person at the pirate Baggy was fighting. The man froze, still balanced on the rail, then slowly toppled into the water. He had been fighting with his sword, still gripped in his outstretched hand, and the extended weight slowly pulled the front of his body down and under the surface. His terrified eyes, flicking back and forth frantically, disappeared under the surface and bubbles began to rise around his ears as he drowned.
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The pirate captain Asilan had already engaged Baggy and the pair traded blows. The man was good, very good, with his two-handed falchion, and Baggy was badly bloodied in seconds. "Hah!" crowed Asilan, "a foe worth fighting!" Baggy ground her teeth. Any minute now he's going to say 'I like a woman with spirit' and I'll scream, she thought.
Arcing around in midair, Nazariel noticed that Talian was in trouble, and blasted his opponent with a Magic Missile, staggering him badly. Talian finished him easily, and the last pirate on his skipper scrambled back to his sailboat, pursued by the suddenly emboldened boatmen. He siezed the tiller and pulled on the rope to release the sail. The boat started moving. Baylock stepped back onto his own boat as it slowly slid past the sailboat, dispelling the Darkness as he did so and shooting another pirate; the helmsman on Asilan's ship.
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Baggy stumbled slightly as another large gash opened on her arm, the dark swirling water dangerously close behind her. Her opponent grinned a wild, white, pirate captain smile, and declared; "I like a woman with -urk!" Behind him, Chambu had cast another Hold Person, and Aslian's cocky taunt and attack were both aborted. Baggy stepped forward, eyes hard, and rammed her sword down just above the neck of his armour, through his throat and into his body. Blood gouted and the pirate died.
All the few surviving pirates attempted to flee at this point. The last survivor on the ship alongside Baggy's also released his sail, and the boat ground along the side of the 'skipper, incidentally crushing the pirate struggling in the water between the two boats. Almost casually, Baylock shot him, and the ship wallowed away. Nazariel zipped over towards it. On his own boat, Herb cut down the last surviving pirate as he was trying to sail away and siezed the tiller. "It's my boat!" he declared happily, "I'm the Captain!" The boat veered sideways and bumped gently against the empty boat Baylock had just cleared. Herb laughed. "Hey, now I've a fleet; I'm an Admiral!" Then it occurred to him that he did not actually know how to control one boat, let alone two...
With Nazariel's airborne aid, lines were strung between the boats and the five craft pulled together. Various healing was then provided to those in need and a discussion started.
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| DM Comment: Still no Identify in the party! |
Searching the pirates and the captain had produced an assortment of change, most of which was, at Baggy's suggestion, donated to the three surviving boatmen to be passed to the families of the three who had died. The three boatmen had been eyeing up the pirate boats, which represented a pretty solid chunk of value, but Baylock made it clear that these were loot - though caring for them while the party were ashore would be rewarded. The boatmen suggested that if the party used the sailboats to tow the skippers, they could probably make up some serious time crossing the river - as they seemed to be in a hurry.
Searching the captain's corpse provided several items of interest; a breastplate and falchion, both probably magical, three arrows also probably enchanted. In his pouch along with a significant amount of gold was a short note;
The sailing boats were unable to cross from the river onto the surrounding marsh, so when the far side of the river was reached, one of the boatmen was left with the two sailboats and one mudskipper and the remaining two prepared to take the travellers on across the marsh towards the Hard.
Even with only two 'skippers, there were not enough boatmen left to get the job done, so Chambu, Talian, Baggy and - eventually - Baylock agreed to take turns on the oars. Transformed into their bizarre snowshoe-like form and locked in the rowlocks, they were a strange and heavy job to work, but gradually the volunteers got the rythmn worked out and the vessels lurched across the sticky morass. With Talian navigating, based on the Scrying of Redfinger they had been provided, the 'skippers lurched across the marsh until they reached the edge of the Hard.
As they approached, a dark smear came into view on the slope leading from the marsh proper up toward firmer ground. Cautiously, they approached, and it became clearer; a patch of burned ground rather larger than their boat, with blackened pieces of charred wood sticking up. No signs of movement or bodies could be seen, and eventually they landed, weapons ready, and started checking out the area.
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As they'd rather suspected, the mudskipper of Jarkko the boatman had met its' end here, and by the two large splotches of drying blood, so had the unfortunate boatman and his rower. Other tracks were discernable, and after some ranging around Baylock and Talian discovered several things. First, two people had been done to death close to the scene of the fire, and before it. Their corpses had been dragged to the edge of the soft marsh. Signs and traces were gone from there, but around the edge were very large webbed prints. "Lizardmen?" asked someone. "No... frog or toad," said Chambu. The prints were dinner-plate sized and gave a good idea what had happened to the bodies.
They also found tracks leading up the hard and away east; four sets of booted feet, presumably those of Redfinger and his hirelings.
After two days of pushing hard, the party had reached an area where the ground was rougher, more broken, and as they crested a rise they saw the glimmer of what could be a distant camp-fire. Many of the party were weary after the forced march, so Baylock and Nazariel - along with Spy who had good nightvision - set out to try and get a better look.
Slipping silently through the night, the pair discovered that they worked well together, flitting from boulder to boulder towards the campfire. Eventually, they reached a crag from which they could look down on it. Those around it appeared to be making no attempt at concealment. As expected, one of the faces illuminated by the firelight was that of Tharlan Redfinger; the others looked like the ones they'd glimpsed in the Scrying. Baylock, his confidence in his thiefly abilities bouyed by his success at the coppersmith's, weighed up the possibilities of sneaking up and pickpocketing the Knife; but by viurtue of sitting around the fire, the thieves were looking out - albeit not very far - in all directions. Both moons were up. It would be a piece of epic thievery to lift something from them.
As they pondered, a movement far to the east caught Baylock's eye and he squinted in that direction. Movement, against the slopes, a flicker of reflection from metal perhaps in the moonlight? Circling wide round the campfire they ghosted from outcrop to outcrop until there was no doubt.
A large warband of orcs, as many as fifty, was approaching from the east....
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Session Date: 3rd November 2020; in Cyberspace! |
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