Elgan-parrot does his best to keep his balance as The disguised Pip wanders to an' fro amidst the crowd. The bird looses a couple of feathers when Pip walks under a section of wall that a few cutthroats are using as their dart board. Otherwise he watches his partners back to make sure that no one tries to sneak up on Pip with unpleasant things on their minds.
roll spot:
dc 12
Well, bein' a bit o' both, sorr, I must arskye: which way ye injoy more to be?
Oh, and I be Kravitch; I sail off the Skinnybow. I were liberated from them Yeller Sails whot created my being, nigh on.....two decades since....oh, I've been asea a long stretch."
Tuborg bows to the mul
"Tuborg O'Shandy I be, Kravitch. I must say I enjoys bein' a Dwarf, when it comes to fightin' an' such, but I miss the agileness of me human form as it were. I foind the dwarvish shape to be a bit clunky in the riggins' so to speak."
Naah..."Yellow Sails" are the Scarlet Brotherhood; slavers and general scumbag scallawags; they own a big chunk of the Hold of the Sea Princes' real estate.
"Ware's Shandy? Hoy be not awarr o' much land that don't kiss immediate the water o' Jeklea Bay.
Wot ship diyya come in off of? Warr ye held by the Yeller Sails?"
This big bruisin' bastard walks by the impromptu keg party. He's a centaur. With the human bits being a bugbear, and the horse bits being a dire boar.
The mul looks at your amazed look; "that's Mongo. I'd steer clear o' that one."
"Ware's Shandy? Hoy be not awarr o' much land that don't kiss immediate the water o' Jeklea Bay.
Wot ship diyya come in off of? Warr ye held by the Yeller Sails?"
Tuborg laughs.
"Oi, Shady be a lil' farming thorp up in the mountains of the Yeomanry. I ran off to the sea when I was a young lad, never fancied farming as a career. Always gettin' in trouble with the neighbor's daughters too .."
Tuborg gives the mul a saucy wink
"One good thing aboot bein' a dwarf is no lil' bastard can track me down now! I hardly look Suelish these days!"
Bardic K: 1d20+11=23
You come up with "Bloodgutter." It's actual there, too.
"Who be capm o' th' Bloodgutter of late? I heard Shaenohirley wos smote addlecoved by an orcwive with a skillet from behind an had to give her oop."
You come up with "Bloodgutter." It's actual there, too.
"Who be capm o' th' Bloodgutter of late? I heard Shaenohirley wos smote addlecoved by an orcwive with a skillet from behind an had to give her oop."
Tuborg nods
"Aye, that he did an' I didna get along with the new cap'm. "Tis why I'm set aground here, tryin' to get me bearins an' see who's signin' on crew. "
You gather that the Bloodgutter's captaincy is in the decision process, between the former first mate Kelvish and a young upstart Drakelling.
Duels and discussions. Duels and discussions.
You come up with "Bloodgutter." It's actual there, too.
"Who be capm o' th' Bloodgutter of late? I heard Shaenohirley wos smote addlecoved by an orcwive with a skillet from behind an had to give her oop."
Tuborg nods
"Aye, that he did an' I didna get along with the new cap'm. "Tis why I'm set aground here, tryin' to get me bearins an' see who's signin' on crew. "
"Haye....either one of them I guess. Well, wot can ye do? I can put in a good ward far ye on th' Skinnybow. We'll be off any time now. Any time now. Arter th' Yellow Sails' silver convoy!"
Tuborg perks up a bit
"The silver convoy eh? That's a right trig plunder if yeh can steer clear of their frigates."
Tuborg thinks a bit
"I can cook, I can do basic rigging, I strums a mean gitar, I'm a rum boarder, an' I knows some healin' spells. Just an average jack-of-all-trades Tuborg be."
Tuborg leans in to the mul
"So is the Skinnybow going solo or is yer cap'm teaming up wif others of like moind?"
"Oh, no....Sencho's runnin this tiny navy. He knows when we move. He knows the route o' the silver ships...keeps his cards flush to his chest that one.
You see him, he's the fat bastard in the levitating chair."
Tuborg laughs
"That I've got ta see!"
He inquires of the mul
"Kravitch can I interests yeh in a pint somewhere's?"
"Somewhere's; anywhere's....It's all FREE! Til we run out, and then know what? WE'LL SOBER UUP AND GO STEAL MORE!!! It's like ye've doyd and gone to heaven, lad. Yore new here, soo I riggin I'll be yerr goydin angel loike. Grog? Point a finger, and it's that way. Harrs? You name it. All ferr a takin'. Just watches yarr step...."
He shews you over to a "tavern" which consists of a line of wine barrels. Two human doxy's, one wearing a "high murkin," or faux beard like the dwarf's enjoy, drape themselves about outside, offering this for that....
"This is the winery, plundered from the finest of noble houses in the Sea Princes....that had the misfortune to ply Jeklea Bay."
There's a gaggle of mixed scalawags about, at different levels of intoxication...
Tuborg will act up his drinking, and get 'drunker' as time goes by. He will eventually try and shake off Kravitch (gently) and he will keep an ear open for any info about the upcoming raid, the Hellwind, local issues, etc.
*Sencho is a former Sea Prince. Sounds like he's in charge of this rabble for the nonce. He's really got it in for the Yellow Sails, and loves to predate their shipping. He's also a real cruel bastard.
*There's about 10-15 ships in this fleet depending on who you ask and how well they studied in grammar school. You're able to note about 6 good size ships about the docks.
*There's a ship of goblins led by a "Peacock Cap" goblin; you've heard about him in Saltmarsh; he's been known to predate all manner of ships, not just Yellow Sails.
*A good estimate of manpower here....not much more than 600; it's hard to tell exactly.
*This doesn't look much like a town, more like a raider's camp. No economy past the barter system exists, though there is a bit of what I'll call pragmatic socialism going on; if there's liquor and food, everybody is fat and drunk; if it's lean times, well....it's time to go out raiding.
*There doesn't seem to be much law and order; nobody explicitly f$*%s with you; they're too busy getting s+~+faced. However, certain people go to fists or knives over personal disagreements here and there. The only law seems to be this: don't mess with Sencho. This is Port Royal before there were even any pretensions of legitemacy.
You shake the old mul loose. He gets in on a card game....
Maybe not pragmatic socialism as much as "bread and circuses..."
Any questions; else you want to know?
Waiting for an auspicous moment to duck around a corner and let Elgan and himself reform, Pip flys back to the Hellwind.
EDIT:
Two human doxy's, one wearing a "high murkin," or faux beard like the dwarf's enjoy,
The Green Pip Beret and his raptor dustoff arrive back at the ship a few hours later, none the worse for wear, and with some possibly useful intel.
Two human doxy's, one wearing a "high murkin," or faux beard like the dwarf's enjoy,
I was pleased wi' that one.
“Gathering intel eh?” Beldan looks at Pip with narrowed eyes on his return, smelling the whiff of liquor on him. “Ah well, sounds like you found out some stuff … so, what’s the plan from here. What’s our main goal here again?”
Pip fills them in with what he got for intel, then goes to sleep off the rum
Elgan snaps at the fingers of those who (try to) get to close to the faux-dwarf's bag o' change.
,...............
Upon return, he only smiles and says that "Pip is as clever wit' askin' questions as he is wit' his geetar."
"And, he needs ta go onna diet if'n dis is gonna be a reg'lar t'ing."
He rubs his aching shoulder muscles and climbs up the main mast to curl up for a nap in the crow's nest.
"hey, you cheeky bird!!!" she snaps. "just trying to size a feller up!!!"
On the edge of the water on the map; that's the wall of the caldera of the volcano thrusting up out of the ocean; there's a little break in the rim on the south where ships can enter. The wall is hundreds of feet high some places.
On the edge of the water on the map; that's the wall of the caldera of the volcano thrusting up out of the ocean; there's a little break in the rim on the south where ships can enter. The wall is hundreds of feet high some places.
There's nothing new under the sun.
Actually, those one-off episodics like Scooby Doo and Star Trek only exist to churn out 500 little flavorlettes riffing off of one idea each and not thoroughly utilizing them, only to claim imitation later. If you cover every concept, then yes, you WILL be imitated eventually. You don't know how mad I was when Voyager ganked my "evolved dinosaurs in outer space" idea, and used it for one whole episode.
Sure, man.
Elgan in skuaform gets a birdseye view of pretty much what Pip has seen from the ground....
Fish is something different. There's ruins on the floor of the caldera, as well as outside of it. It looks like this was an island with a city on it at one time. And there's sahuagin swimming around down there. A few, here and there. They emerge from and enter an underwater cavern, an old lava vent, in the caldera, swimming to and fro on whatever mission possesses a sahuagin to be on.
Elgan returns from his underwater excursion so fast that he almost flies out of the water and back onto the deck of the ship before changing shape back into an elf.
"Saguahain,... undeh deh pie-rat base. In deh caves. Ah don' t'ink we shud go in dat way,..."
"So, we go in, kill all them?"
sweeeeeet.
"So, we go in, kill all them?"
"More or less. The sahaguin complicates things, though, as do the great natural defenses of the place. We sail in pretending to be pirate-ish types and then snoop around a bit, finding the weak spots. Then we make sure the backup can sail in - and then kill everybody. We need to talk to the lizardmen and see what their take is as well."
Sailing back, or communicating via Bubogram?
They mull it over;
the lizardmen know nothing of the pirates; they were driven out by the sahuagin.
The officers don't know if 600 or so pirates will be doable to attack, to turn around and get jumped by the sahuagin from below afterward.
"Did the sahuagin and pirates seem to be in communication or teamed up?"
Pip speaks up
"Well they were heading out soon to hit the Yellow Sail's silver convoy, why not wait 'till the armada sets out and then fall on the base then?"
Oso nods to Pips idea, "sounds good. And p'haps Gittik and us can take out the head first. No leaders and it should get easier."
“Yeah, we don’t need to kill every mother-loving last one of them. We just need to cause enough confusion and panic that the rest are left not knowing which way is up or who’s coming at ‘em. Take out a few of the tough guys, push a few fat drunk captains into the water – half of them probably can’t swim anyway – sneak on and set a ship or two aflame. Spread rumour that the crew of ship A all took turns tupping the woman of the captain of Ship B, let ‘em fight it out.”
*HIC*
"Yo ho ho en e boodul o' room...."
*CRASH*
"Ooo tarned oota lights?"
"I, for one, am most worried about the sahuagin. However, I have plenty of water-breathing magicks - what we Reavers could do is to accompany the lizardfolk force and strike against the sae devils. Once we've cleared them out, we can take care of the pirates. Hell, with a bit of luck, they might never notice the initial fight in the first place."
Elgan looks thoughtful. He nods slowly. He pulls back Stiggy's hat so the drunken, toppled dwarf can now see.
"Yeh got's deh right o' it ah t'ink. Let us take out or drive off the sea devels, den we kin attack from inside deh base whilst deh othurs attack wit' deh ship, deh way dey iz expectin'."