I agree, but I think we will have our hands full fighting the slavers, the Red Mantis, and the Blood Watch while shepherding a massive group of slaves through the city. Fighting our way through a pirate crew on top of that gets tricky. Also, I'd rather not antagonize the Pirate Lords any further until we actually make them allies (or at least until we learn which Pirates favor the Red Mantis and which ones dont).
Okay, then. Next question: How will we get the pirate ship to the ocean from the kobold warrens?
Why are the slaves our responsibility after we free them? We're a strike team, not a non-profit. Free them and let them fend for themselves, unless I'm missing something? Is it a prison island or something?
Okay, then. Next question: How will we get the pirate ship to the ocean from the kobold warrens?
We would probably need to travel to the coast (which isn't that far - we eliminated that water based goblin tribe without too much difficulty) and then we build it from there.
Why are the slaves our responsibility after we free them? We're a strike team, not a non-profit. Free them and let them fend for themselves, unless I'm missing something? Is it a prison island or something?
Because to be perfectly honest, the slaves have nowhere to go, the Mantis, Pirates, or the remains of Goldshackle's organisation simply recapture them (or just kill them) and the changes end up being minimal.
I'll admit that its a massive pain in the ass, but technically as good aligned characters we should also probably be helping them rather than leaving them to their fate.
All right; then we only have the small problem of trying to sail the thing.
===========
I agree it's a pain, but cutting them all loose seems wrong. Maybe this is a debate we could take up in-character? Sounds like fun.
Also, there's a pretty good chance that Goldshackle will not have huge numbers of slaves at any one time. Keeping a large inventory of slaves around who aren't doing anything seems horribly expensive. Housing, guarding, feeding, dealing with their waste... it's bound to be a lot of upkeep. We're looking to dismantle the operation rather than save a current batch.
Could always arm, provide clothing, them and tell them where to find a ship. That way we help them, but their fate is in their hands. Might be dooming them, but it lets us focus on taking out the world-infamous assassins.
We can scene change to the next day, if you like, but discussing your plans against Goldshackle and what to do with the slaves afterwards sounds like a good in-character discussion to be had, as Ruel mentioned. Particularly if that's what you plan to do next.
No update tonight, folks.
Really sorry for the delay, guys. I’ve had a rough few days. Hoping to get going again tonight.
No worries here, take care of yourself.
No rush (don't let me stop your current conversation), but I need to know what the plan is for docking before I can move us forward.
Also, it sounds like the ship's name is Fair Winds, based on the discussion so far.
We probably need some insight into how it works GM
Talia's rolled knowledge on pirates before, and we have hung around the docks a few times for Shark (or even meeting pirates like Zera), as well as taking boats in and out (we sailed boats in and out of the harbor numerous times before we discovered the tunnel route). So she probably knows how things work but (OOC) *I* don't know because that process hasn't really been detailed up until now (to my knowledge) - we have usually just sailed in and out without a challenge before.
What specific detail do you need from us GM? I think so far we are sailing in, and Talia's steering / captaining (since she can pilot it with Knowledge: Nature). We also took 10 (20 if allowed) on disguise checks.
Well I think the major difference from before was that you were just using a small boat, not a full ship. I was also under the impression that you were being sneaky in the past, like Talivar using obscuring mist to avoid detection, sailing at night, etc.
As for docking, most “frequent fliers” have assigned docks. Those who don’t are expected to dock in a certain section of the Wharves where the bargemen’s guild will then inspect your vessel. Random inspection of known vessels will also occasionally happen. A full sized ship that’s never been at the port is likely to turn heads, even (or perhaps especially) at this hour.
My thoughts:
I think we sail in, be inspected, pay a bribe / fee and so on. I might be missing something obvious but I don't see what we have to fear from an inspection. I was planning on having a (weak) story tying the ship to the Six-Steps family. I doubt they have an available port but I was planning on using that legitimacy to get the ship in. I don't know if thats a good idea or not tho.
I was still planning on sailing into the Port at night, but I don't think we can use obscuring mist (this time) because we need to 'park' somewhere :( I don't see how the hour matters though. I imagine that sea voyages (managed down to the hour) is outside of a captains control (with variables like bad weather etc playing a part). I'm pretty bad at marine history tho so I might be wrong.
Turning heads is a bit of a pain, but everything we have seen so far (via visions) indicates that the Mantis themselves don't give a damn about the pirates or their politics as long as they keep their head down and stay out of their way. I'm accepting the risk that we might make friends (or enemies) of some pirates or Pirate Lords but to be honest, we should gradually be mixing with the pirates more anyway. There's several NPC's with pirate backgrounds we have met within the city (Blackarm / Zera / Makori / Sardan) and linking up with them would be cool (though we don't have to if its not everyones cup of tea). There's also the Misty Shimmering vision (with NPC's Vane / Rumworthy / Captain Flanger / Grimmon) I had as a loose plot point I wouldn't mind addressing in the future.
Can't we anchor at sea and row in with a skiff? Or anchor at sea, and go in at night secretly with a smaller boat leaving from the Fair Winds? Some variation of that?
Then with decent disguises we'd just be new pirates in town.
I think the only issue with that is that we may be running away with a large number of escaped slaves. Getting them all onto a rowboat might be too unwieldy.
Of course, having the ship in dock as a getaway vehicle will burn it as ours if the escape is witnessed.
Tough choice.
Can't we anchor at sea and row in with a skiff? Or anchor at sea, and go in at night secretly with a smaller boat leaving from the Fair Winds? Some variation of that?
Thats a really good idea, and I like it a lot. There's two minor obstacles to it but I think we can overcome them with a bit of planning.
The first obstacle is that we dont actually have a skiff (and its probably cheating to ask the GM to handwaive Talia creating both a pirate ship and a skiff with one casting of Fabricate). Fortunately, I think we have left boats around the island before (and just never collected them) so we could stop off along the way and pick one up. We still need to sneak into the port via skiff but we can use Obscuring Mist and use Sharks hidden harbor like we have done previously.
The second obstacle is that we still need a large ship to dock because a skiff wouldn't be large enough to transport the slaves out of the city. We could use the skiff to enter the city at night though, and then approach the bargemen, pay a fee negotiate etc etc during the daytime or something and then sail in during a busy time? I don't know if we gain much from this but its worth a try.
I don't think we can anchor too far out because the GM has mentioned that the island has a ton of nasty weather / reefs but there might be somewhere safe.
EDIT
Uruelleth beat me to it kinda.
I do like the idea of the slaves sailing off in our ship because while it 'burns' the ship, we (disguised as pirates sailing a pirate ship) become a public face of rebellion to challenge the Red Mantis openly (which several Pirates actually want). Which idk, hopefully gives them something to feel confident rallying behind (or not rallying behind as the case might be, they are kinda lawless after all).
I didn't know if you guys already had a smaller boat around or what. I guess we will just have to 'burn' the ship?
Can Talia (bringing along a couple other PCs) teleport to Shark's hidden cove to get the boats? Then they can row out to the Fair Winds and pick everyone else up.
We could do that if we wanted to go with anchoring the ship outside the harbor, but that risks the ship itself.
"Burning" the ship could be something we could do since Talia could always cast those spells again and make yet another ship. Or, if there are enough slaves, just give it to them and let them sail away with it to freedom.
Can Talia (bringing along a couple other PCs) teleport to Shark's hidden cove to get the boats? Then they can row out to the Fair Winds and pick everyone else up.
We could do that if we wanted to go with anchoring the ship outside the harbor, but that risks the ship itself.
"Burning" the ship could be something we could do since Talia could always cast those spells again and make yet another ship. Or, if there are enough slaves, just give it to them and let them sail away with it to freedom.
I can, but not today since I’m out of 5th level spells. Would probably still favour anchoring inside the harbour though.
Reading along for now. I’m happy to see y’all having a lively discussion. :)
Well, then in the interest of moving things along so we're not stymied by indecision, it seems like it's preferred to sail the Fair Winds into port in Ilizmagorti.
Therefore, I suggest we do that. Maybe there's a Knowledge (local) check we could make to see if one of us had picked up the general procedure for docking?
Then we either bluff or bribe our way through customs or whatever goes for that here in the pirate port. Several of us have decent bluff skills, and maybe use Bharaz as the "captain" since he's the one most likely to be unknown to those keeping an eye out for Pact members.
Thoughts?
I'm fine with that suggested course of action.
I'd prefer Uruelleth or Alayna be 'captain' for the purposes of speaking to customs or the guild since they have the highest bluff modifiers, and the captain is probably going to have to answer the most questions when dealing with the Bargeman guild.
Talia can aid if required.
Sounds good.
Let’s do it
I have family coming into town this week, so I may be less responsive than usual. I'm going to try to keep us moving, but if I miss a day, that's why.
No worries! Enjoy your family.
I suppose in hindsight, with family coming into town, I should have just said I would be away/not posting for a few days. So I guess this is me saying that later than I should have. Probably will be back to my normal routine by Tuesday, but I don’t expect us to get back to our normal pace right away.
No worries, take you time and enjoy your family.
Going to give folks the weekend to post since it’s a holiday in the US.
GM I think we have a wee bit of a disconnect here and I might need you to clarify something.
As per my earlier vision, these Cultists knew that we wanted to meet with them through the message passed through to Betty. In that vision, we saw that they had a discussion about it, and during this meeting they reaffirmed the hit on Kaleidoscope and said they would try to make contact with us.
Now, after we make proactive contact, they want to...go away and discuss this further? They were already operating under the belief that we would want to help out with the hit on Kaleidoscope, and trying to get in contact with us but now they need to go away and check back with the Cult again? I just feeling like I'm missing something here.
That's a fair point, Talia. Hopefully my in-game post (coming after this one) will provide some clarity. But happy to discuss further if not.
I’ll give y’all some more time to hammer out your plan.
To address your question, Talia, yes, Jaxira can tell you that Goldshackle almost always hangs out at her market, especially during business hours. Jaxira can tell you that the market is actually one large estate. The auctions are held outside and Goldshackle lives in the mansion on the estate.
Does that mean she is out and about within the auctions, or stays only within her mansion?
Jaxira couldn’t say for sure, but it’s probably a safe guess that she would be more likely to be outside during auction hours and inside when the market is closed.
I honestly don't care too much what we do, any plan we make is likely going to change as soon as it hits reality. So the more simple, the better.
A full frontal blitz works for me, as does going in on the pretense of buying a slave and then attacking once we are inside. Achutla is not good at disguises or lying, so anything that depends on him doing that might not be great.
I would like to hear from everyone at least once before we move forward with a plan. If you're just going with a straightforward assault, that's fine, but details of how, when, etc., would still be useful for me to know ahead of time. For instance, are you going in with weapons drawn as soon as you enter the area leading to the market, or waiting till you're spotted to start the attack? Questions like that would be good things to consider.
If we do a full frontal assault, I would suggest buffing to the gills first, and then either doing basic disguises as slave purchasers to get us close before we attack, or dimension dooring in if short range teleporting works. IIRC teleporting doesn't, but I don't know how broad that is.
The less dudes we pull at once, the better.
I think we should head in under the pretence of buying a slave, but it seems everyone prefers the frontal assault, so I'm fine with that.
Was quiet since Kilarra had no preference one way or the other.
I would like to hear from everyone at least once before we move forward with a plan. If you're just going with a straightforward assault, that's fine, but details of how, when, etc., would still be useful for me to know ahead of time. For instance, are you going in with weapons drawn as soon as you enter the area leading to the market, or waiting till you're spotted to start the attack? Questions like that would be good things to consider.
I think, for questions like this GM, you would need to tell us. At the end of the day, its an assassination mission. I think I speak for all of us where we probably want to get close to Goldshackle (so blend in) without arousing suspicion, discretely maneuver ourselves into a striking position, and then launch into an attack.
I can appreciate the need for extra detail in this plan, but in this case, there is probably 'invisible knowledge' that our characters know that we don't know as players. Doubtless, Talia knows how everyone in the city carries their weapons, and what would cause suspicion and what wouldn't. We also probably know (by now) how best to blend in to a crowd.
We can take it scene by scene if you want GM but its trickier for me to articulate the smaller details of the plan without knowing the inner workings of the city. Usually, I'd do an in depth scouting mission for this sort of thing (like I did with the goblins) but with the watchers and cities warding its a bit harder to do that :)
General Pointers
-Talia casts Summon Ship + Skeleton Crew in an area where we wont get much traffic (maybe Shark's place? We have been able to launch from there many times without incident). The idea being, that a second ship confuses pursuers and causes damage on the way out, as we flee on our other ship with the slaves. We could use Fog magic to help pull off the initial casting unseen if required.
-We prebuff
-We enter the markets on the pretext of buying a slave, trying to blend in as much as possible. We spot Goldshackle, we position to strike, we execute. IDK what Jaxira is, or the resources she has or what shes doing but she can probably help. I'm fine with her permanently coming with us too if she wants to take a break from the city after this particular mission.
-We flee with the slaves.
-We get on our ship with the slaves, Skeleton Ship follows us out causing damage w/ cannons all the while. Worst case scenario (ie in an extreme case), I'll have Skeleton Ship full speed ram into a chasing ship / structure to cover our scale if required. Our exit strategy is more 'shock and awe' as opposed to 'subtle' because I don't think there is anything subtle while running through a city with a bunch of slaves. Would be good to know how many slaves there are tho.
No worries, Talia. The main thing was I wanted everyone to chime in before we proceeded (though your expansions certainly help).
I'll push us forward tomorrow assuming no one has anything else they want to add or adjust.
Update coming tomorrow.
Hope everything's going okay for everybody.
I'm here
Wouldn't call things particularly OK here - after 101 days of no community transmission we had a mysterious outbreak and went back into lockdown. So theres a lot of anxiety atm. I'm managing ok but its hard telling my mom and dad that I just can't come home and stay in lockdown with them.
Still, I feel a little bit guilty complaining when there are other countries out there in worse spots than we are.
Where are you? Certainly not in Florida...over there a sheriff banned masks.
I really wish my country was smart enough to wear masks, let alone to have a temporary lockdown.
I'm in NZ so its a bit easier for us to stop the spread than it is in a place like the US thats significantly larger. We still have our fair share of idiots though. A couple of entitled morons returning home from overseas seem to think its a good idea to try and escape out of quarantine centers and our deputy leader of our Opposition was caught trying to claim our second outbreak was 'planned' by our prime minister to help win the election.
On the plus side, our daily COVID-19 updates have scored 9.7 on IMDB so I guess that's something
I'm in NZ so its a bit easier for us to stop the spread than it is in a place like the US thats significantly larger. We still have our fair share of idiots though. A couple of entitled morons returning home from overseas seem to think its a good idea to try and escape out of quarantine centers and our deputy leader of our Opposition was caught trying to claim our second outbreak was 'planned' by our prime minister to help win the election.
On the plus side, our daily COVID-19 updates have scored 9.7 on IMDB so I guess that's something
It’s sad to say, but it is comforting to know that idiocy is a human trait, and not just an American one.
I'm here. Just suffering through some power outages this week. Should be fine now.
As for covid, I live in Canada, so we're handling it okay. My husband and I both work from home, so we've been able to self-isolate pretty much the entire outbreak -- minus essential shopping and things. We're reopening a lot of businesses here, which is worrisome, and school's supposed to start in three weeks at full capacity, which is both absurd and terrifying. I've got kids that catch everything, and I'm immunocompromised, so that's... Yeah. Worrisome. We should hear news about plans for the reopening in another week or two.
But, I'm getting lots of freelance writing projects, so that's amazing.
You alright, Zek?