Ghilda moves to help her friend lying on the ground, casting spontaneously Cure Serious Wounds on Markizio. "Get back up - Besmara commands you!" She winks at Markizio as he regains his composure.
Markizio spits out sand as he sees the angelical face of Ghilda again.
"Thanks. That's twice in ..."
He couldn't remember if it had been yesterday or today that he was saved from the brink of death.
"The Pirate Queen must really want me to hang around then..."
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HP 14/43
AC 19, touch 12, flat-footed 17
Conditions: shield so AC=23, flaming and corrosive on blade
Melee (+1 keen falcata): +7 = +1(magical) +3(base) +3(STR)
Melee Damage (+1 keen falcata): 1d8+4 = +1(weapon) +3 (str), 17-20, x3
1/5 arcane pool
Spell used: magic missile, shocking grasp, burning hands, shield
"Kung tired, you die now. Or go away; Kung no care, but Kung want sleep!"
The half-orc reaches for his final javelin, and finds that he miscounted, and has no more! He quickly grabs a small axe from his belt and gives it the mightiest heave he can muster in his fatigued state.
HP 48/55
AC 19, touch 12, flat-footed 17 (+6 armor, +2 dex (fatigue), +1 natural)
Fort: +11, Ref: +10 (fatigue), Will: +5
Conditions: fatigue, prayer
Melee (+1 furious greatsword): +9 (+4 BAB, +4 str (fatigue), +1 enhancement, -2 power attack, +2 luck)
Melee Damage (+1 furious greatsword): 2d6+15 (+6 str (fatigue), +1 enhancement, +6 power attack, +2 luck)
Ranged (throwing axe): +8 (+4 BAB, +2 dex (fatigue), +2 luck)
Ranged Damage (throwing axe): 1d8+7 (+4 str (fatigue), +2 luck, +1 whetstone)
0/11 rds Rage remaining
6/10 rds Fatigue remaining
Jane moves up 30 feet and fires another bolt into the witch.
Marnir's sling bullet bounces off the flying woman harmlessly, Jane continues her streak of luck and sinks another into the enemy, while kung's tired arm comes no where near her.
Captain Locke looks even more angry and in a desperate move swoops down on Marnir, reaching out to touch him with one hand.
Missing pitifully.
The party can go again.
I believe Marnir gets an AOO first?
Marnir hurriedly drops his sling to the sand as the sorcerer captain lands next to him. He ducks her outstretched hand and pulls his axe back out. "Get away from me witch!" he snarls as he he swings his axe.
Silence falls over the beach as she drops dead at your feet.
It seems the other ship has already turned and fled the harbor, the last two buccaneers left on the beach hurriedly raise their hands in surrender.
You can all make a DC15 Knowledge(Local) check as you regard Locke's corpse.
When he sees Captain Locke fall at his own captain's feet, Kung allows himself to relax. "Fine, you choose die. Fine choice." He bends at the waist placing his hands on his knees and remains standing that way until he regains his normal strength.
Finally, he pulls himself up to his normal height. Taking a deep breath, he walks up to Marnir and examines the corpse.
"Good job Captain, you finish her good."
Markizio's wind left his sails as the fight was over. Suddenly he ached from... like everywhere. Even the dire trident wound from the fishman that had healed yesterday was throbbing.
He croaked a thanks to his companions, "Good job. Now let's go take a close look at that b$%~@. Why would she attack the Rock? We need answers."
He neared the captain and searched her.
------------
Almost forgot the important part.
Take the time to level up gang.
"Hahahahaha!" Marnir laughs like a madman, the joy of battle flooding his veins as his enemy's lifeblood soaks into the sand at his feet. After a few moments he returns to his senses and sees his friends approaching across the beach. "Is everyone upright?" he asks, noticing Markizio's second ruined shirt in as many days.
"Does anyone know who this woman was?" he asks, before turning back to the tower. "Get that door barricaded and secured!" he shouts over his shoulder.
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Ghilda collapses, exhausted on the sand. "Praise be to Besmara - I hope you find us worthy." Two fights in less than a day...miraculous...fine warriors we are. "Gather round me for Her healing - yes, even you two scoundrels." Ghilda channels her blessed energy through her holy symbol, using up the rest of Besmara's power, she feels. "What do you see here, mates? This sexy pirate was a menace."
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Jane watches as the witch is taken down. She goes over and starts taking off the now dead witches items. "You hurt me a little." she says, as she notices a fake tooth. "This might contain poison. I'll hold onto it for now." Laying the rest of the items out, she points to the Svingli’s Eye."This would be good by the wheel or above the maps on the ship." she holds up the amulet. "This is pretty, can i have it?" she asks.
As the Rock's guards start re-fortifying the doorway with tables and benches, Marnir turns to the two remaining invaders. They kneel on the sand, disarmed and afraid. "Right then lads. You're going to tell me who your mistress was, and why you came to the Rock. You're going to tell me now and you're going to tell me everything you know. If you don't, it's going to be very unpleasant for you," Marnir states calmly, running his thumb across the sharp edge of the axe that killed their captain.
Kung steps up beside Marnir as he attempts to interrogate the remaining buccaneers. He says nothing, simply standing tall beside his captain, staring at each of the vanquished attackers in turn.
"If you require more healing, let me know, mates."
Markizio stumbles over to Ghilda, "I think that rapier was made for you. Er... all this blood on me, lots of it is mine. I don't feel so good. Will the Pirate Queen bless me?"
-----------
HP 14/43
AC 19, touch 12, flat-footed 17
Conditions: shield so AC=23, flaming and corrosive on blade
Melee (+1 keen falcata): +7 = +1(magical) +3(base) +3(STR)
Melee Damage (+1 keen falcata): 1d8+4 = +1(weapon) +3 (str), 17-20, x3
1/5 arcane pool
Spell used: magic missile, shocking grasp, burning hands, shield
Jane snickers. "You two are hopeless." she comes up and points her crossbow at one of the crewmates. "Now, tell us what our captain wants."
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Markizio stumbles over to Ghilda, "I think that rapier was made for you. Er... all this blood on me, lots of it is mine. I don't feel so good. Will the Pirate Queen bless me?"
"Aye mate - She has more where that came from, you lucky soul. I will suggest you perhaps name your first-born after either Her or me?" Ghilda snorts with laughter, and then focuses healing energy on the poor magus. "O Pirate Queen, heal this deserving pirate. Oh, more, please, great Lady."
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Cast Cure Serious Wounds
Spontaneous cast, replacing Remove Disease
Cast Cure Moderate Wounds
Spontaneous cast, replacing Weapon of Awe
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Ghilda notices Jane's hurting too. "Here - the healing from Besmara."
--------------
Cast Cure Moderate Wounds
Spontaneous cast, replacing Remove Paralysis
The two buccaneers can tell you little, Captain Locke made Barnabas Harrigan look like a gentle, enlightened soul. They were originally sailors on merchant ships captured by Locke's ship The Thresher.
"Join or die! Was the only choice that she-beast gave us." One of them tells you.
"Aye.' Nods the other. "Mosta her crew are like her, more happy to kill than plunder. You keep your head down and do what was ordered. Or she'd go shark fishing with you as bait.. Saw that happen more'n once when she got bored."
From their accounts it seems that Locke didn't tell her crew much at all, they do know she was oddly close to the Sahaugin though, and the attack on Tidewater rock came shortly after she met with a party of the aquatic monsters.
As for her ship, they both believe that the First mate, a vile, scarred man named 'Knuckles' Grype likely fled as soon as he saw the attack on the beach failing.
Jane lowers her crossbow. "Then that leaves you two choices.... well a few more, but two is what we'll give you." Jane looks around. "You can stay here on the beach, with no clothes." she pauses to let that sink in. "Or, with the captains approval, you can work off this attack against us on our ship." she thinks for a second. "With no clothes." she adds.
The Knowledge (Local) check shows you that the tattoo on Captain Locke's back is actually a map. A map to the infamous Captain Cyrus Wolfe's lost treasure hoard at Mancatcher cove!
The Free Captains are the most obvious menace of that maze of hell-cursed waterways and a thousand perilous isles and knife-edged reefs called the Shackles, but they are not its only danger, nor the worst.
Nearly a century ago, Free Captain Cyrus Wolfe, a black-hearted rogue with an even blacker gift for the dark arts, plied the waters off
the western coast of Garund and brought fear to hundreds of ship’s captains and crews. His daring daylight raid on the fortified Thuvian port of Aspenthar directly under the nose of that city-state’s admiralty left a dozen of the principality’s warships in flames and over a hundred of its citizens carried off as captives for ransom.
For that grand audacity, Wolfe was offered the Hurricane Crown by his
fellow Free Captains, but it is said that he simply laughed in their faces. After 3 decades of terrorizing the shipping lanes, Captain Wolfe made his biggest haul ever when he surprised a convoy of Katapeshi treasure ships returning from secret mine holdings on the coast of southern Garund.
It is believed that Wolfe divided up his treasure and hid it in several different sites, but the locations of most of them have been lost to time. However, one name has stayed at the forefront of maritime legend as the location of his spoils—Mancatcher Cove.
To dispose of the most valuable portion of his plunder, Captain Wolfe selected an uncharted island somewhere in the Shackles—an island shrouded in dense jungle and surrounded by forbidding cliffs save for one cove said to be so deep that it descended all the way to the pits of
Hell.
There Wolfe hid his treasure, reputedly using his sorcerous powers to reach down into the very heart of Hell to summon forth a guardian beast to crush any ships that dared anchor in the cove. Before departing, Captain Wolfe made a map of the island and the location of his treasure.
However, less than a year later he was captured by a flotilla of ships commissioned by the queen of Aspenthar and the Pactmasters of Katapesh. Even under torture, Wolfe refused to divulge the location of his ill-gotten treasure, and so he was hung from a gibbet over the harbor of
Aspenthar, where his bones were picked clean by gulls and crows as a warning to others.
Since then many of Captain Wolfe’s treasure troves have been located and looted, and copies of his map of Mancatcher Cove have likewise managed to find their way into the hands of fortune seekers. However, unlike at
Wolfe’s other caches that were looted, those few ships that came to Mancatcher Cove in search of the fabled treasure were never seen again—victims, it was whispered, of the Beast of Mancatcher Cove.
In time, the last few copies of Wolfe’s map were lost, and the hunt for the greatest hoard of Captain Wolfe’s treasure subsided, leaving little more than an old sea dog’s legend.
The Treasure Map.
The map tattooed on the Isabella Locke’s back depicts the outlines of several small islands. A stylized half sun sits to the right of the islands, while simple images of a monstrous eye and the face of an aged, bearded king are to the left. Beneath the map are five lines of crude verse:
From blue bight’s embrace
Spy the Grave Lady’s prize tooth
With the Dawnflower’s first kiss
Climb the Captain’s wayward orb
To claim old king’s hoard
Now you can make a Knowledge (Geography) DC20 roll, and a Knowledge (Religion) DC10 Roll to get some information from the skin map.
Jane is a bad navigator.
"Sounds like today has been your lucky day then," Marnir says. "Like the lady says, you have a choice. I'd advise you to sign on with the Drake though, we're a better lot than your captain and her cronies."
With the new hands secured, Marnir turns towards where the others are examining Captain Locke's body. "Sounds like she was working with those fishmen from yesterday, and that maybe her first mate fled with her ship. Maybe he's trying to claim this treasure," he suggests after the others tell him the tale of Captain Wolfe.
A DC 20 Knowledge (geography) check reveals the islands to be an unnamed archipelago in the Shackles north of the Ushinawa Isles and west of Besmara’s Throne.
These islands lie 110 miles northwest of Tidewater Rock as the albatross flies, but you will likely have to sail a bit farther through the numerous atolls and archipelagos of the southern Shackles.
Jane thinks, "Oh, the archipelago up north. I know those." thinking for a time. "It will take about a week to get there. Plenty of time for preperations."
Markizio beamed, "A treasure map and we know where this location is."
The magus was already rubbing his hands together, "Think of the prestige we'll get. Not to mention the treasure."
He started giving orders to his sailors, "Let's make sure we're ready to go in the morning after we all rested for a bit."
He asked his companions, "What about this 'Knuckles' Grype and his connection with the sea devils?"
The magus rubbed his torso where he was almost killed by a sea devil trident, "Should we expect to battle the sea devils?"
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"Aye - some rest, well deserved, and more glory! We please Besmara!" Ghilda is clearly tired, spent from battle and using her links to her goddess. "I need to sleep and meditate on the past events and what the future holds, but I do seem to recall something about the marking on this pirate's backside."
Kung approaches Captain Locke's corpse, drawing his dagger as he does.
"We need keep map?" he asks as he kneels down by the body, ready to flay the map free if requested.
"Woah woah woah, hold on there!" Marnir exclaims, reaching for Kung's arm to pull him back. "I'm sure Jane can make the appropriate marks on her charts, no need to go skinning people." Happy that no flaying will happen immediately, he turns to Markizio. "Aye, we should go after Knuckles, if only to stop his alliance with the fishmen from causing us more trouble. I suspect there will be more of them, though, and we should make sure everyone's ready for them."
"But why not? I've heard it's fun." Jane looks back at the two captives. "We still need to decide what to do with these two."
"Get them aboard the Drake, Markizio and Kung can show them the ropes once we've set course. I want us sailing as soon as possible. If this jumped up first mate Knuckles is going for the treasure I don't want him to have a big head start."
Knowledge (Religion) tells Ghilda that the “Grave Lady” is the goddess of death, Pharasma, also known as the Lady of Graves.
“Dawnflower’s first kiss” refers to the goddess of the sun, Sarenrae, called the Dawnflower, whose identity is hinted at by the stylized image of the sun on the map.
The Unbound Drake took little damage in the ship battle, Jena can repair what needs doing from her stores as you sail.
Your two new crewmen are nervous and jumpy, but begin to relax as the days pass and they see the Drake is a different ship from their last berth.
It takes you 4 days sailing to reach the isle indicated by the map, as you approach the isle I'll need perception checks please.
Kung works with Markizio to help the new crew get acclimated. As they approach the isle that may contain a fortune, Kung keeps his eyes peeled, spending much time in the crow's nest to see as much as he can.
it was good to be away from the Rock, that place was stifling.
Now with the wind whipping the sails and nothing but sea, Markizio could breathe again.
The fact that he no one tried to kill him in the last few days was an added bonus.
He peered at the island as the Drake made its approach...
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Jane eventually gives the new crew their clothes back. "No hard feelings." she says as she goes to tinker in her workshop before the island. "Any requests? she asks before working on her own projects.
Coming up a few days later, the dark circles j see her eyes are not too big. "Is that the Islas?"
Marnir leaves instructions with the Rock's guards to increase patrols and to ensure the main door is replaced with an even stronger door, before sailing with the Drake. He spends the next few days going over the charts with Jane, reviewing the ship's finances with Ghilda, and reviewing the crew with Kung and Markizio.
Marnir is at the wheel as they approach their destination, scanning the horizon.
As you approach the isle indicated on the map everyone except for Markizio spots a Shackles Junk trying to conceal it's self behind the cliffs.
It's easily identified as the same ship that attacked Tidewater isle. She seems to be holding back and letting you approach the cove.
"Sail ho!" Marnir calls from the wheel. "Looks like she's waiting for us to make the first move. I don't want her coming up behind us while we're stuck in the cove. How about we take the fight to her first?" he suggests to the officers.
"Sail ho!" Marnir calls from the wheel. "Looks like she's waiting for us to make the first move. I don't want her coming up behind us while we're stuck in the cove. How about we take the fight to her first?" he suggests to the officers.
Now that he was shown what everyone else was looking at, Markizio nodded, "Good call, captain. Let's deal with the known threats before we search for this treasure. No sense in bringing something up and then get hit from behind."
He turned to his sailors, "You heard the captain. That there ship wants to take our hard-earned plunder. We're not gonna let it, are we?"
Seeing the ship coming up, Jane loads her crossbow with a red feathered arrow and cocks it. "Well, I'm ready."
How about we take the fight to her first?
Kung breaks out into a familiar grin. "You know Kung like fight."
"Let's do it then," Marnir says with a grin. "Hands to action stations!" he bellows, spinning the Drake's wheel to take them on a course to intercept the ship lurking across the cove.
In what seems to be a move of desperation the Thresher answers your challenge. Clearly under manned and poorly captained she charges straight at you in an attempt to close and board rather than soften you up.
With the now familiar grinding crash your ships come together amid the screams and howls of the crews.
Knuckles has bullied what's left of the Threshers crew into a battle line and is clashing his fists together as he awaits your arrival.
The party can go now.
Then Knuckles and his crew.
Marnir spends a few moments as the ships approach weaving his protective and enhancing magics.
He then steers the Drake into a boarding action alongside the enemy vessel, the name Thresher painted along it's prow. Starting as a low chant, then rising in volume and fervor, Marnir's now-familiar Ulfen war chant rings out across the deck as he readies himself for the bloodshed to come.