Participated in the quest 'Down the Ship'
bladeandbow.boards.net/thread/931/ship - ran by GM Zolar
Gained: 2000xp and 1750gp
Gained 5 downtime days
Spend 1 downtime day to gather information about the ship and acquire 2 skiffs.
Spend 100GP for lodging, food, entertainment, gear maintenance in-between this and the next adventure.
Attached updated char sheet based on the above.
Through the eyes of a Noob running his 4th quest:I am the player Sjat T Uh. Often referred to as Shite and/or Shited. Need to change my name.... I wrote this little story as still a lot of what is going on is unclear to me. I hoped that by 'taking notes' I would manage to learn more. My "Minutes of Adventure" were so elaborate I could also give a pretty detailed account. As this is a Role playing game I wrote down how I think it would've looked through the eyes of the player's characters - rather than 'Player X rolls perception'.
People playing this game for years talk in abbreviations, slang, and terms I still need to learn. It gets worse when people have been playing together for a long long time. So far I noticed that games seem to have a little problems getting started and the first few turns people are still a little unsure. But once momentum is gained the games run smoothly and are highly entertaining.
Nonetheless - everyone I have been playing with is incredibly nice, helpful and patient with my fumbling attempts to master the mechanics of this game. Down the ShipFascinine approaches BMF, Gorm, Aku, Sirnora and Sjat T Uh to aid him in downing a ship. His contractor gave specific details as how this is to be done.
- Sink the ship in anyway possible with all its cargo
- The Captain has to go down with the ship
- None of the officers are to be killed on the ship
The group sets out to the harbor and finds out the ship is not docked. Spending a day around town gathering information they learn the ship is smuggling Artifacts and Narcotics both disapproved by the City of DweomerStar and the Guild of Thieves. Acquiring 2 skiffs they start to row towards the location of the ship under the cover of darkness....
As the party reaches the ship in an uneventful approach a moment of pause enters the group as they try to figure out how to proceed next. The Above Deck is occupied by several pirates and a choice has to be made on either go on a full out attack, risking the lives of the officers, or a more stealthy approach trying to capture the officers and set the ship on fire using Aku's, the Alchemist, bombs.
A moment of undecidedness later Aku, the Alchemist, remembers he has the ingredients, and blueprint, to a potion of 'Detect Hidden Door' which he announces to the party. The party then wait while the brewing, in the little skiff, starts and wait for Aku to see if there any other ways to enter the ship rather than climbing up its sides and engage the pirates on the Above Deck.
And as such, the plan is made and decided upon a stealth approach. Gorm, the barbarian, and Sjat T Uh, the in Banded Mail dressed, fighter frown upon the executability of this plan but decide to go with it...
After drinking the potion Aku quickly senses a secret door at the rear end of the ship and the party start to slowly, and quietly, row towards it. While moving past the ship from the front to the back something slimy from the water graces the hand of Sirnora who lets out a shriek. The party freezes and from above deck they hear:
"Carl... whats wrong?" - "Huh? Nothing is wrong." - "Then why did you just scream like a little girl??" - "What are you brabbling, John. I didn't say a thing."
As the blaming and denying between the pirates continues the party decides to grab the opportunity and keep rowing towards the end. Managing to reach the secret door with any further events they examine the door. A crafty hidden lever was spotted that could be reached, although with some difficulty, by climbing the anchor's chain. Aku, the agily Alchemist, is elected to open the hatch without alarming any of the pirates.
Aku climbs the chain, reaches the lever and opens the door. All this without failing staying stealthy. The party then quietly, but quickly, move up the anchor's chain and enter a small room filled with hammocks. Luck strikes again as the room seems to be without any pirates, but a clear snoring sound is heard from the room directly next to this one. As the party gathers around the door to peek into what's beyond footsteps are heard clearly moving towards the door 6 party members have their ear pressed against, all at once.
The party readies weapons, it helps with a stealth mission to be armed with axes, swords, bows, magic, armor, and so on, and wait, and pray, for the footsteps to pass the door. The doorknob starts to turn... the party readies their attacks... the door opens and a stunned pirate looks into the room spotting the party of 6 cramped in here. A swift cast from Simora causing minor damage to the pirate was quickly followed by a skull cracking blow to the head from Fascinine. The pirate sinks to the floor, still confused what just happened, as he lets out his last breath and dies.
*Meanwhile BMF checks out Fascinine's derriere and decides to play a little grab ass - this goes completely unnoticed by the entire party*Round 1:Fascinine, standing in the door opening, notices another pirate and storms toward it, stealth forgotten within 1 minute of entering the ship. Sacrificing the rather openness to a clean fight on the Above deck the party finds itself in a much less favourable situation Mid deck. None the less, Fascinine's trips the pirate before he can even understand what is going on.
BMF (Samuel Elf Jackson) moves out of the room and lets go a spell of daze on a pirate he noticed coming down the ladder. A moment where he glanced at the ladder climbing pirate makes him recognize him as an officer - not to be killed.
Citing:
"I'm sorry, did I break your concentration?"Gorm also moves out the room, becoming aware that of the 2 pirates in the room 1 is tackled down by Fascinine and the 1 on the ladder is an officer, dazed by BMF's spell. Gorm, the Barbarian, decides he stands at the ready holding his 2 axes, squinting his eyes together as he looks around the room.
Sirnora Mind Blast at the pirate, tackled by Fascinine, and he dies on the spot. His brain simply overloads and shuts down.
Sjat T Uh then, without making a sound in his heavy, metal, armor......., moves towards the dazed officer at the bottom of the ladder and grabs him in a headlock.
Aku moves to the other room's door just in time to throw his weight against it preventing the, now woken up, pirate from coming out and joining his pirate buddies in the fight.
Another pirate enter the room through a door directly opposite the door the party used to enter this room. A look of disorientation, similar to the pirate who opened the door at the beginning, falls upon the face of the newly entered pirate.
Round 2:Fascinine grabs the pirate he tackled,
confusing him to be an officer and still alive, and says, rather loudly, to the newly entered pirate: "Stop moving. Lay down your weapons. Or your officer and you both shall die!"
BMF readies a fireball and stands at the ready to burn anyone who disobeys Fascinine's order down to the ground.
Stating:
"The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy My brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay My vengeance upon you."Gorm, recognizes the flatfooted, newly entered pirate as a non officer and *shrugs*. He moves towards the pirate and makes his attack. Total miss and Gorm squints his eyes in disapproval.
Aku points at the pirate just attacked by Gorm and says loudly, but not to loud as to break the cover of stealth the party he believes the party is still under, "Not an officer!". He then steps back, timing his move expertly, letting the pirate, who was asleep before, into the room and makes the pirate trip using his bow.
Simora then lets fly another Mind Blast, this time on the tripped pirate, cracking his brain and putting the pirate into a seizure but not killing him.
Sjat T Uh drags the head locked officer back a few feet and says: "Stop moving. Lay down your weapons. Or your officer and you both shall die!" - Deja Vu?
- Literally not a single soul seems to be impressed....
A voice is heard stating:
All right, everybody be cool, this is a robbery!
Any of you fucking pricks move, and I'll execute every motherfucking last one of ya!The head locked officer tries to break free from Sjat T Uh's grip. This time its Sjat's turn to not be impressed.
Round 3:Fascinine swirls around and takes an opportunity attack on the tripped, mind blasted, but still very much alive, pirate behind him. The attack with his war hammer is a powerful one but missed accuracy and fails to connect to the pirates skull. Fascinine swings again and this time he hits and renders the pirate unconscious.
BMF throws a hand full of Force Missiles at the pirate in front of Grom damaging the pirate.
Gorm has enough of trying to knock out pirates and takes a swing with both axes, each in 1 hand, at the pirate. The first swing misses but the second swing goes right across the pirates chest.
The pirate screams something incomprehensible in a Scottish accent about having the desire to fornicate with Gorm. Any illusion of maintaining the stealth approach has by now been thrown right out the window.
Aku realises the downed and K.O.'d pirate at his feet is not an officer and stabs him in the neck with one of his arrows. Slicing through the jugular ending the pirate's life with some mercy.
Sirnoren casts a spell of Obtain Thoughts on the officer held down by Sjattuh trying to obtain the Captain's location on the ship. The officer manages to resist the spell and no information is acquired. Sirnoren blames Sjattuh by almost choking the officer out and into unconsciousness making it impossible to penetrate his mind.
Sjattuh then lets go of the officers neck and instead pins him down to the floor.
The pirate in the door opening, still screaming in an incomprehensible Scottish accent, moves back into the room he came from and throws the door shot.
Gorm quickly reacts to this and throws himself at the door kicking it wide open again before the pirate manages to close it. Giving him a full view into the room behind the door.
Round 4:Fascinine takes a few steps toward the door Gorm is at and screams some 'intimidating stuff' and casts Blistering Invective setting 5 out of 7 pirates within reach of the spell on fire. At the moment the party is unaware of the massive impact of this spell as this action becomes the eventual and unavoidable downfall of the ship.
BMF moves into view of the, now burning pirates, in the room south of him and lets go a crossbow bolt and a magic missile, badly hurting the pirate.
Gorm squints his eyes and looks around menacingly saving his energy to react when a situation asks for it.
Aku, based on his old Elf knowledge of everything, informs us there are anywhere between 3 to 7 officers onboard a ship of this size and crew - including the captain. Focussing on the stumbling sounds and screams of horror from above deck he shifts focus to the ladder and readies himself in case someone hostile starts to climb down.
Sirnora decides to wait and she, together with the rest of the party, finally realise the crew of pirates is made out of dwarves.
Sjat T Uh manages to finally tie down the officer and turns toward the door close to him. He kicks it in and sees a ladder leading down to the belly of this ship. Flashing lights, heat and screams come up the stairs.
"Put it out! Hurry! The ship will burn! Put it out!" He skids down the stairs and sees a pirate on fire. A quick evaluation of the burning dwarf makes Sjat T Uh recognize him as another officer. Which he is really not.... So much for being perceptive.
All the pirates on fire keep burning and panic starts to spread amongst the ship. Rather than facing their threat, the boarding party, head on and drive them off they start to run around in fear and slowly set more and more of the ship on fire.
Round 5:
Fascinine moves into the room with the pirates he has just set on fire. Swinging his giant hammer at the closet one the frantic moves of a dwarf on fire makes him miss. Lucky bastard...
Gorm follows Fascinine into the room and crosses it to a door at the other side, but not before he looks around, *nods*, and recognizes a 2nd pirate present as a non officer. He opens the door and sees a stairway, much like the one Sjat T Uh encountered, leading down into the belly of the ship. He starts to descend - leaving the burning pirates to do just that - burn.
BMF follows the example of Fascinine and Gorm, stepping into the room. He decides to let go some of his devastating trying to put one of the burning dwarf pirates out of it's misery. No scrape that - he changes his mind and starts to perform another action. He cancels that and decides to do shoot the magic arrows anyway - doing, as always, considerable damage.
He mumbles to himself:
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa... stop right there. Eatin' a woman out, and givin' a woman a foot massage ain't even the same fuckin' thing.
Mimicking another, male, voice he says:
Yes, but would you give ME a foot massage?"
Aku decides to go up the ladder to see what is going on Above Deck. Using his extraordinary Elf agility he hops up the ladder in a way that makes us all look like immobile trolls and in 1 fluent motion launches himself of the top step right through the open hatch and onto the deck. Once landed he says to the (burning) crew surrounding him:
"I demand to speak to the captain of this ship." - As ge says this and looks at the pirates assembles he realises the pirate closes to him is another officer.
Sirnora moves toward the unfortunate pirate whom opened the door all the way at the beginning of this scuffle and casts 'Grave Words' on his lifeless body in an attempt to gather more information. Specifically about the captain and his location. The spell hits but successful information gathering from a deceased body is a hard task, even for a sorcerer as powerful as Sirnora, and apart from some random mumbling nothing useful is obtained.
Dead Pirate mumble:
"I need to wax the deck. Trim the sails. Oh dear not to forget secure all the cargo. The captain will be angry if I fall asleep during my watch again. No uncle Jim, no. Where's the bucket? Darned Max always winning at poker. I've been on board to long."
Sjat T Uh decides to safe the burning dwarf pirate officer, who really isn't an officer, and runs towards him. During his dash, dodging the ship's contents, he notices and grabs a, rather large, piece of canvas and manages to completely wrap him in it effectively putting out the fire.
OOC "At this point it got a little confusing for me as the party and DM starting discussing whether or not I actually did put out the fire and if I would realise if I hadn't. It's magical fire that shouldn't be able to be put out and I wouldn't be aware of this, is how the, rather short, discussion started. I am not sure what went on but in the end the conclusion was I did put out the magical fire but I that really isn't possible - so I guess I didn't.... or I did. Still not sure..."
3 pirates manage to put out their fires and are no longer slowly burning to death. The other 2 are not so fortunate... 1 burning pirate decides to make a run for it and while he passes BMF and Fascinine the following happens.
- BMF places a firm grip with both hands on 1 end of this quarterstaff and jams the other end in the burning pirates chest. Effectively keeping him at distance, and more importantly, in place.
- Fascinine, seeing the burning pirate has turned to 'Dwarf-on-a-Stick', and is momentarily immobile, slowly takes aim and releases a devastating well landed blow with his giant hammer smacking the pirates head into a mushing pulp. He's dead. No furter confirmation required.
Round 6:Fascinine looks around and only sees 1 burning pirate is left standing. He enjoys this. He stays to watch this dance of fire.
Gorm decides Sjat T Uh has the situation under control down here and runs back up the stairs, crosses the room, meanwhile evading a pirate with a pulpy head slowly sinking down to the floor, rushes through the open door and takes a sharp left. Reaching the ladder he swings himself up going after Aku on the Above Deck to provide some raw Barbarian aid to his fellow party member. Of course, all this is done with squinting his eyes every now and then.
BMF manages to get up the ladder, before Gorm gets to much in the way, and once upstairs drops a vanishing spell on himself. As his invisible self he moves into position to help Aku and, the approaching Gorm, in taking out the Dwarf pirates here, at the Upper Deck.
Aku, by now aware one of the still burning pirates is an officer, and turns to him. Saying
"Surrender now and I will heal you." - As absolutely not even the faintest hint of acknowledgment comes from the officer Aku decides to move away from the hatch making room for the others to climb up.
Sirnora makes a second attempt to gather information from the death and this time targets the pirate that was sleeping in the room next to the room the party used to board the ship. The spell does hit again but no useful information was gathered. Sirnora is not pleased.
Sjat T Uh manages to pick up some rope and ties down the canvas wrapped pirate officer, who still isn't an officer, creating a human burrito, if such a thing would exist. However, the pirate is completely overpowered and any threat he might pose has been eliminated.
Meanwhile Above Deck 2 pirates let go the bolts from their crossbows and shoot at Aku. Aku, however, being the elf that he is, takes full advantage of his highly attuned senses and body control steps out of the way of the flying darts without any effort.
A third pirate charges Aku and lashes out with a boat hook. This time contact was made and a nasty scratch defiles the pure and beautiful skin of Aku. Sadly for the pirate, a lot more is needed than a scratch to stop Aku...
2 more pirates move in to Aku (BMF is still perfectly safe under the influence of his vanish spell) and 1 lashes out inflicting minor damage.
Round 7:
Fascinine, still enjoying the burning pirate dance, intimidated the pirate.
OOC - here was another situation were I got lost. First I thought he casted something. Then it looked like he intimidated him. I am not sure what he tried to achieve - nor what he actually did. I know he succeeded and that it helped, in what way I can still not say.
Gorm, by now he has reached Above Deck swings both his hand-axes, but the pirates start to recover and put up a fight. Gorm's attack was deflected and no damage was done.
BMF 5 foots back unto the edge of the ship and starts to ready a sleep spell.
Aku backflips out of the way and unto the stairway leading up to the highest part of the ship, right above what normally are the Captain's quarters. As he lands he throws one of his Alchemist bombs causing massive damage to several of the pirates.
Sirnora reaches the bottom of the ladder leading to the Above Deck and prepares her Mind Blast spell incase any of the pirates come in view.
Sjat T Uh picks up the canvas wrapped tied down officer, nope still not, and drags him up. He puts him next to the officer he tied down earlier and turns towards the ladder.
The last burning pirate doesn't seem to be able to put out the fire and he keeps burning.
At the same time Above Deck Gorm gets attacked by no less than 5! pirates at once. Luckily for Gorm only 2 of them manage to hit - 1 boat hook and 1 crossbow bolt. But as any self respecting barbarian would, Gorm only squints his eyes as this kind of minor damage doesn't impress.
Round 8:
Fascinine continues to watch and enjoy the last burning pirate but starts to be aware by now the pirate has started to put his surrounding on fire as well.
The recently hurt Gorm goes into a state of barbarian blood rage and attacks the pirate that hit him with the boat hook with his 2 axes. The pirate manages to block 1 of the attacks but the second one hits him hard. Taking off half his face the left side of the pirate's skull has become visible. A nasty long deep cut running from his left temple all the way down to his jaw will make living for this pirate very difficult in a very short time.
Gorm flares his nostrils in approval.
BMF drops his sleep spell on the assembled pirates. Putting 1 to sleep and dazing another. Casting the spell has countered the vanish spell and BMF becomes visible again.
Aku moves up the to midway of the ship and downs a potion of healing. Curing the nasty cut that had defiled his elf skin.
Simora climbs up to the top of the ladder and sees a pirate standing close to the hatch engaged in battle with Gorm, who is standing right over the hatch. Simora holds on to the top step with 1 hand as she casts a Mind Blast spell on the pirate with her other hand - instantly killing the pirate and making life a little easier for Gorm. However... Simora is now hanging around holding on with only 1 hand with her legs kicking in nothing but air.
Sjat T Uh is at the base of the ladder and looks up as he wants to get Above Deck.
OOC: Sjattuh, aka me, would never take advantage of this situation. Sirmora hanging around situation is allowing full view up her dress. Now, me would never, Sjat T Uh... that's a whole different story...
Sjat T Uh climbs up the ladder but, still distracted by a view to remember, gets entangled with Simora and both of them are kind of stuck, groping around, very uncomfortable for Sirmora. Sjat T Uh tries not to smile.
The last burning pirate down mid ship still burns on and ignites more and more of the cargo around him.
The currently last standing pirate, directly in Gorm's vicinity, attacks the Barbarian but meets nothing more than the mocking expression of said Barbarian blocking a blow.
BMF, now visible again, get shot by a crossbow dart from the high deck above the Captain's quarters inflicting considerable damage.
* A ring of fire starts to form around the burning the pirate - the ship is starting to reach a point beyond saving
Round 9: Fascinine decides he has seen enough and rushes back into the room with the ladder. He notices some dangling legs from the hatch and yells:
"Fire! Fire! The ship is on fire! We have to leave! ITS ON FHYYYYYYYYUUUUUUUURHHHH!!" - he moves towards the pirate he knocked down in the first round, still thinking he is an officer and only knocked out, both of which are untrue as he is, in fact, a very dead non-officer dwarf pirate, and throws him over his shoulder.
Gorm, still enraged, makes another double attack at the same target and this time he breaks the pirates wrist. Gorm seems to have problems hitting with his main weapon but barely misses with his off hand one.
BMF turns towards a the dazed pirate and drops a Flaming Sphere on his head, completely engulfing the pirate in a cone of fire, and the pirate falls to the floor, dead.
Aku throws another bomb. This time at the pirate who is sleeping in front of Gorm yelling:
"What goes up! Must go BOOOM!" - killing the dwarf in his, forced, sleep.
Gorm, witnessing the explosion and dead of the pirate, blinks calmly and nods in approval.
The area of affect of the bomb staggers another pirate and waked up another - both suffer massive damage.
Simora manages to free herself from Sjat T Uh's uncomfortable grip and as she reaches the Above Deck she casts a spell of Psychic Blast and instantly kills the pirate who was awoken by the explosion.
Sjat T Uh also reached the Above Deck and swings at the pirate directly engaged in combat with Gorm. Sjat T Uh's sword makes contact with the face sliced, wrist broken pirate and kills him.
* Gorm faces Sjat T Uh and flares his nostrils in disapproval for stealing his kill
The impossible happens and after rounds of burning the Pirate finally manages to put out the fire - only to find himself surrounded by a heavy burning hold of a ship... Oh no... the Alchemist case...
* A large explosion mid ship is heard and felt all throughout the ship. The ship sways from left to right. All of the party manages to counter the unexpected movement of the ship and remain on their feet. All except Fasinine, still mid-ship and closest to the explosion, who is knocked on his back.
The pirate who was at the highest point of the ship, shooting with his crossbow, decides its time to bail and jumps overboard.
Round 10:
Fascinine gets up and once again throws the unconscious officer over his shoulder. Don't forget... he is carrying a corpse whom never held the rank of officer....
Gorm decides its time to leave ship as well and starts to move down the ladder to get back to the skiffs the same way we entered the boat. While he descends someone yells at him:
"Don't forget the officers!"
BMF moves his sphere of fire right on the head of the pirate that had just jumped ship. The pirate sense the heat and dives down before any damage could be done. Being a pirate makes him an excellent swimmer and he vanishes never to be seen by this party ever again.
Aku swiftly crosses the deck and slides down the ladder.
Sirmora moves to the back of the ship and jumps down into the water right next to the skiff. Meanwhile thinking:
"Skiff? Weren't it skiffS?" - As she looks around she sees 2 pirates about 500 feet away rowing frantically in one of the party's, now stolen, skiffs.
Sjat T Uh goes down the ladder, grabs the canvas wrapped tied down "officer" and makes for the secret door to leave the ship with the others.
As the party works together everyone manages to get to the skiff, including the "3" captured and "alive officers". Rowing away from the boat they look back at it going up in a series of explosions as whatever was in its holds is starting to explode because of its exposure to the heat. After a little while not much remains and the boat, including its cargo, has been effectively destroyed by the party.
The party is convinced they killed the captain, which they didn't - he was one of the pirates on the stolen skiffs, he had disguised himself as a regular crew member. They did sink the ship and its cargo. And they managed to save 3 officers. 2 of them aren't officers and 1 of those is actually dead...
So the real end score is: 1 officer rescued, the other officers killed. Captain escaped. Ship and cargo sunk.
Once back on the main land Fascinine meets with his contact and informs him the mission was a success. The contact knows better and is rather disappointed and will probably never hire this party again...
We fear not - we learned. We will get better. And there are always others to provide us with jobs that shall lead to amazing adventures.
Thanks to all. It was an amazing ride.
