What size is the catapult? (And what size is the ship?)
"Vic, you are a tinker, no? Can you get that catapultt of the ship and onto ours?" Satinder asks away from too many prying eyes.
Chumtooth orders the crew of the Kiss of Vengeance to round up the crew of the Absalom ship and group them together on the deck of the captured ship.
"Drop your weapons and armor here; drop your treasures here," he bellows, pointing to two separate spaces on the open deck, as before. "If you hide them. You will feel PAIN!"
He watches the captured sailors divesting themselves of their gear, looking for those who might attempt to hide anything.
"Take the weapons and armor below! You! You! You! Work with Vic to move the rock thrower!"
Once the crew have their orders, Chumtooth moves to where Santinder is speaking with the surrendered captain. He looks down with disdain at the kneeling captive.
"What shall we do with those who do not join us, Cap-i-tan?" he asks in a tone that implies he has a specific, gruesome suggestion. "And what of the ship? Do we take it as prize, or burn it?"
He watches for the prisoner's reaction to his pronouncements.
Satinder watches as well, waiting for a reaction from the captain to Chum's threats.
"An' maybe ask why they attacked us," Vic whispers, "Navy or pirates or summat else. Before we burn 'em and all."
"You were a fool to fight. The last ship we took did not fight, and they were left alive," Chumtooth replies, ominously.
"Absalom, eh? Tell us something about the city's... merchant district that... only a merchant would know," Vic replies.
Satinder listens and sees, and decides on her course of action.
"Captain, we are taking you and yours for ransom. If you have any useful information, or a family willing to pay a price for you, that would be the easiest ways out for you. If not, they'll have one well-educated slave at the stocks next town we come across with a decent market."
Satinder escorts the captain and his officers down into the hull, in chains.
When she comes back up, she signals a few of her crew.
"You, you and you. Take everything of the ship we can use, but leave it sea worthy. I made a promise and I intend to keep it. Dantes, I'll need you and your ledger.
..
You, you and you.. I want <whisper> painted on the side of the ship. In red paint.. If we have none, use blood instead.."
She then turns to her crew.
"FRESH FISH!! Let's turn around and go hunting for more!"
"Heh. I don't think Besmara cares much about that sort of gesture, but maybe you've got her laughing."
Dantes follows along, dutifully making notes on what the haul as they go. He includes estimated appraisals as well.
"And the rest of them? Are we letting them go?" Chumtooth asks in a tone of disappointed annoyance.
"They were merchants," Vic replies, "Fighting to save their lives. They fought for good reasons, and surrendered for better reasons, and didn't really hurt us or ours; plus, we've already taken everything that ain't nailed down. I'd call this two outta' two successful piracyin'."
Eternally practical, Dantes says "If we let them go, they may go back into trade and cross our path again with another bounty." Then he considers a moment and adds "It may also enhance our reputation if they go on to spread it. That may serve as a defense against past conflicts within our community. But of course, the decision lies solely with our captain."
"Chumtooth seeks to give a lesson in pain to this one that cut Chumtooth. Chumtooth will not kill this one, only leave scars as a warning to those who would seek to fight, rather than surrender what is to be taken."
He points to the sailor he fought who cut him twice with a cutlass.
"It's a flesh wound, CT. Ye've had worse."
"Those who have given me worse now reside here," Chumtooth replies, putting a hand to his necklace of shrunken heads. "And here," he says, pointing to the skull rack.
While Dantes talks, Satinder listens intently.
"You speak wise words, master dwarf. It's an in-ves-tment," she slowly pronounces for Chumtooth to follow her lips.
She then looks at the one Chumtooth is talking about.
"What would you do, Chumtooth? I'm not against a little revenge, but simple torture... "
She ponders on it a few moments, before continueing in a stronger voice:"You may give him one deep scar on the same spot you received one of yours. Let the other scar be his defeat by you."
"Chumtooth seeks to bite this one three times. Each will leave an clear mark. The first two will make this one unable to wield weapons in battle. The last will make certain this one cannot boast of the wounds he inflicted on Chumtooth. If this one does not die from blood-loss, this one may join the crew that is being set free."
Dantes bites his lip at the exchange between Chumtooth and Satinder. He finds that they are speaking too quickly and using vocabulary that he hasn't picked up yet, so he doesn't understand what they are saying. Something about "biting", "two" and "blood"? Dantes takes an involuntary step back, thinking perhaps he violated a cultural taboo by casting the spell on Chumtooth without his permission. He looks nervously to Satinder to see how she replies.
Taking Satinder's silence for agreement, Chumtooth grabs the sailor who cut him, and drags him to the center of the deck in plain sight of both crews.
He grasps the wrist of the man's left hand and places the last two fingers in his mouth. Without hesitation, Chumtooth bites down hard, and tears the fingers from the sailor's hand, leaving two bloody stumps.
As the man wails in agony and begs for mercy, Chumtooth switches his grip to the right hand and does the same, biting down and tearing off the two smallest fingers.
"I spare your life, but you will never hold a weapon again." He gives the gathered crews a look that dares anyone to step forward.
"This man will also not boast of cutting Chumtooth in battle, nor take pride in fighting against Captain Morne and her crew. This man shall remember forever the Kiss of Vengeance!"
Chumtooth pulls the man's head back roughly by the hair, and places and open-mouthed kiss on the man's lips. In a manner of moments, the sailor begins to thrash and contort; his panicked screams of pain, muffled by the kuru's embrace.
Chumtooth pulls away roughly, as the man drops to his knees, blood pouring from his mouth.
The kuru's face and chin is crimson, and in his teeth is a pink lump of flesh that can only be the man's tongue. He slowly and deliberately chews and swallows the meat, making sure everyone watching can see.
Once he swallows, he looks to Victoriana and says softly, and with a jarringly out-of-place note of compassion, "you may stop his bleeding, if you do not wish him to die. Chumtooth's revenge upon this man is finished."
"Sure, but... dang, CT, you've got some issues to work through."
Satinder is slightly taken aback by what the Kuru suggested, but was too late to stop him.
Interesting character, him..
Satinder steps up after the man has stopped bleeding, and shouts the order to leave.
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The sailor howls in agony as the punishment is applied, but accepts his due without dispute. Whether it is courage or abject fear that motivates him, you are not certain.
After the other vessel has been permitted to depart, Kroop comes to Satinder. "Beggin' the captain's pardon," he says, "But might I suggest some low-hanging fruit?"
"Low hanging fruit? What are you talking about Kroop?" Satinder says, unsure if this is sailor's lingo or a genuine desire for fruit, at the bottom of a tree.
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Kroop clarifies, fetching a map of the area. "There are small villages all along the coast here and here," he says, indicating the Mwangi and Sargavan coastlines. "Any one of them would put up only a small defense, at best, and we could slip in and slip out again with hardly any fuss. If we attack by day, we're like to be spotted and a better defense prepared ag'in us, but if we sail on, then return after dark..." He lets the words hang in the air.
"I'm not a fan of killin' villagers," Vic responds, 'But I've met some pretty nasty Mwangi slavers. If we knew a bit about the villages, that might help us make a decision on pillagin'"
"Free slaves may become loyal crew," Chumtooth says speculatively. "Slaves are sold to the rich, so slavers may have gold."
"Sounds like a decent plan. Let's get us some easy looting, and who knows, some more pirates for the crew."
Satinder turns around and shouts some orders.
"Helmsman, take us away!"
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You sail for a few days without sighting shore or another vessel. On the afternoon of the fourth day, you spot a shoreline to the east. You sail on for another 10 days before finding a small, unnamed village. Victoriana identifies it as a probable slaver camp as Kroop reiterates the advantage of attacking under darkness.
The ship is taken out of sight from the village and anchor dropped until darkness falls. At that point, the anchor is weighed and the ship approaches the village. You come ashore in longboats, hoping to catch your prey by surprise.
The ruse works and you have rounds before a defense can be mounted. What are you doing?
Dantes will cast Enlarge Person on Chumtooth, and then Invisibility on himself.
"Use torches. Burn them out," Chumtooth suggests, hefting his morning star.
"Get me close enough and I can do that," Vic replies. "But do we want to announce our intentions and demand before we start killing?"
"We are taking all of the treasure and slaves, yes?" Chumtooth replies. "Unless these slavers are cowards, they will fight to keep both. Why bargain? Just kill them."
Chumtooth's tone is one of offering a suggestion, rather than giving an order. He stands ready, waiting for Captain Morne to make the call.
"What Chumtooth says makes sense. We will attack, and not give away the element of surprise. Try to take down their defenses as soon as possible, and we'll see how many able men are left standing. Avoid excessive violence, but crush defenders as swiftly as a hornet's sting."
Satinder looks around at everyone as they reach land, and takes her bow while giving her longspear to Chumtooth.
"Onward!", she cries out, as she unleashes the first arrow of a volley of her men.
Chumtooth reaches into his pouch and retrieves his flask of alchemist fire. He moves cautiously toward the hut to his right.
He kicks at the door with a big foot.
Finding it sturdier than expected, he steps back a pace and flings his alchemist fire against the stout door.
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The tinder of the hut catches fire immediately, and it quickly spreads to the roof. Cries of panic and surprise from inside indicate that someone is home. Seconds later, the door is flung open from within and two men armed with cutlasses emerge. From elsewhere in the complex, others emerge from their huts and dogs can be heard barking.
INITIATIVE
Satinder
Dantes
Chumtooth
Slavers
Victoriana
Dogs
Chumtooth swings his morningstar at the head of the first man to exit the hut.
As the momentum of the swing draws him closer, he lunges with his teeth, trying to tear the man's flesh away.
Satinder is amazed at Chum's inability to kick in the door, but doesn't let it show. She drops the bow as shooting into a melee is quite difficult, and only the best archers are capable of such a feat.
She charges into the foes on the left, lest they try and flank her crew.
"Chum, first to five is winner tonight!" she cries out to him,
as she steps up nimbly and slices the face of the first defender in front of her.
"Five what?" Victoriana calls out, still disoriented.
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Satinder's sabre flashes in the torchlight, drawing a line of red across the man's midsection. His guts spill out onto the ground and he pitches face-forward into the dirt.
Dantes casts invisibility on himself and disappears.
Chumtooth's first attack connects with the startled man's chest, eliciting a whoof of pain. Before the man has time to recover, or even fall forward, Chumtooth sinks his teeth into the man's shoulder and rips his left arm free from the body! The man falls into the dirt at Chumtooth's feet.
The second man from Satinder's hut takes a stab at the agile captain with a spear, the attack leaving a scratch across her right thigh. Chumtooth's second opponent also stabs at the huge man with spear. His stab, however, comes up short.
Vic whistles, drops a flaming sphere on one of the slavers not too far away, then rolls it through a second slaver and into the hut behind him, hitting anyone inside.
Tasting the warm, fresh blood, Chumtooth feels a surge of battle-lust.
He turns to the remaining slaver, swinging at him with his morning star.
He lunges with his bloody teeth.