Skull & Shackles: Glittering Riches and Bloody Blades (Inactive)

Game Master DancingShadow

Yes, Noche'Wa, once he gets from Gan, that they'll be staying here a few days, will not join other teams.

Noche'Wa climbs up to the top of the mast. There, he rearranges a set of offerings to the Mother, and will start a small fire, purifying himself with the smoke. He starts humming softly, looking in the distance at the forest, calling to Her for guidance, for companionship.

For hours he remains up there, vision blurring between the worlds, shaken by short visions and moments of clarity. then cursing at invisible spirits to leave him be.

As night comes, he'll wrap himself in his ochre and red blanket, spitting in the cooling ashes to make a dark mud he'll cover his face with, his voice coarse from the chanting, he'll stand up and raise his arms, dancing like the eagle on the top of the mast. Crying as the moon rises over the jungle, feeling alone in the darkness.

As the dawn rises, long streams of tears cut through the dark mask and he stares with red eyes at the rising sun.

And the jungle stirs, a pair of eyes watching, unblinking... Noche'Wa climbs down, slowly, nerves and muscles raw from exhaustion and gets to the edge of the jungle, where he clacks his mouth and dances slowly, as a reptile's head stirs out of the foliage, its head bobbing with his movement, until the two of them touch and he lets the great snake of black and brown slide along his arm, his torso and neck.

Laughter wells up from the druid and he thanks the Mother for Her gifts.

Calling an Animal Companion.

We don't have tools on the ship sufficient to start cutting lumber?

"Luhz guht uhnuhduh puhtuh tuhguhtuh. Budduh wuh fuhn wuhz uhn duh uhluhn buhfuh uh fuhnz uhz. Wuh shuhd luhg duhpuh uhn duh juhnguh, uh cluhm duh muhntuhnz uhn guht uh buhttuh luhk."

Translation:

No, the ship was largely stripped bare. Some rope, hammocks, lanterns, and a few other mundane objects related to the operation of the ship are left, but nothing with any real value. All of the supplies, such as spare sailcloth or lumber, that could be used to repair it are gone, sadly.

As Four Skulls return with Ragnar and Red Fox he tells Gan. No one left alive at the village, the place looks abandoned and for quite some time. Those skeletons at the sea are not undead or magical in anyway I can sense, they look like to be... decoration.

To Ragnar
Poking the tiger my not be our best option. The more people we send on a hunt the less we will have defending the ship and repairing it.

Once their talk is finished the shoanti will find Rosie and tell her to keep a stash of weapons at hand to be distributed among the former prisioners at the first sight of trouble. He also retrieves a dagger from her. Afterwards he makes sure everybody else is already armed and asks around for anyone in the crew with some knowledge of carpentry. He will try to assemble a repair crew to start working on the ship.

Cant we use regular weapons: swords and axes, to get the job done?

"Cuhn' duh muh wuhduh tuhz uhn supuhz. Uh fuhd uhn fuhz wuhduh wuhn luhz fuhuhvuh nuhduh. Buhduh wuh guht puhuhgduhv nuh n spuh suhm puhpuh tuh uhtuhnd tuh uht duhn wuht tuh uhz tuh luht."

Translation:

We can try to salvage what little is left in the village and what we find on the island, but getting the ship ready should be first priority, before we wake up the gods know what lurking about here.

I nod. "I agree. there is more to this island than is readily visible. Hu can you organize another team to salvage what you can from the village. I won't send more than one team out at a time so when you return, I would like Skulls to prepare another hunting party. Anyone not in a party is working on the ship. Cut down some nearby trees for lumber. I don't want to stay on this island another day longer than we have too."

I think we're having a communication problem here- looking back to the last page, DM Bound Shade said that all the wood in the village is rotten and anything of value is gone. It's pointless to go back. We can start trying to chop the trees down with cutlasses and a greatsword or we can explore the island and hope to find some tools.

Ｔｈｅ　ｍｏｒｅ　ｉ　ｔｈｉｎｋ　ａｂｏｕｔ　ｉｔ, the more i think Ragnar is right though. perhaps it´s better to face a mutual threat than building a ship out of flotsam. We might even find more signs or leftovers of civilization.

Jove, obviously quite bored, pipes up I for one would like to get off the ship for a bit. Ayaki's right; a good exploration job would break the monotony nicely. Maybe we'll even find some woodworking tools. Have we found anyone on the crew who's a proper woodworker, or will I have to jury-rig something? I'm sure I read a book about carpentry once.

Are you sure you didn't just read the title before deciding it was a waste of time? Zephyrus sniggers. You always were rather one-sided in your taste in books. Great Hexpectations, Magical Me, Ars Arcana for Dimwits...

You probably forgot magic for lightheads Zephyrus Ayaki adds laughing.
I read that too hahaha! The field trip was Ragnars idea though.

Noche'Wa climbs back on the ship with a boa around his neck: "I can help." he says as he gathers his kit.

So what do we actually need to repair the ship and do we have carpenters or anyone who can do the job among the npc crew DM Shade?

After a quick survey of the crew, there is no one forthcoming that has any skill with carpentry. The few of the Wormwood pirates that are left tell that the "Stitchman" was the only person on board the ship that had any skill with a saw. The rahadoumi speak of one of their officers, who now rests in the hold of the Wormwood. However, neither of these men are available to you. It's looking like any repairs made to the ship are going to be makeshift at best.

Another look around the ship shows that you have little in the way of tools available to you either. Although you have a number of cutlasses, daggers, and saps, that is fairly well the extend of your inventory. The rahadoumi have short swords, but nothing that looks to work well on a tree can be found. This ship was thoroughly cleaned up, much to most of the pirates' chagrin.

A patch can be rigged with three successful DC 10 Craft(ships) or Craft(carpentry) checks. Each check takes 1 day to complete. Chopping wood is going to be a problem. The best tools you have right now for the job are cutlasses, but they are extremely poor at it. Gathering wood in such a fashion will take 4 days to gather sufficient wood to attempt one Craft check. Getting your hands on axes cuts that in half, while obtaining proper woodworking tools cuts it down to one quarter of that. Remember that you take a -2 penalty for improper/no tools.

Aayaki doesn´t hesitate long. She grabs a cutlass and walks towards the woods. Looking over her shoulder she says:

It will be faster if someone joins me cutting wood.

It appears that you are our new carpenter Sirocco.
Mumbling almost to himself I hope that book was a good read.

Four Skulls waits for a couple of seconds for any volunteers to join Ayaki in the cutting crew and fill the rest of the spots with random crew members sending half of their number to the woods together to start chopping. To the other half of the crew he gives instructions to start emptying the bilges and doing other general repairs to the ship and rigging.
You, you, you, you and you... Bring your swords, or grab a cutlass from the quartermaster if you dont have one, and follow us. We could use your strong arms if you are willing, Ragnar. he then joins the lumberjacks himself.

When I say ramdom crew members I am talking about the npcs... So here we go, day on of chopping.
PS: Crap, I dont have a sword either! Roflol.

Knowledge (nature): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (15) + 6 = 21

Noche'Wa takes a look at the jungle: "Careful which trees you pick. Most are good with a strong hard core, but some are just wasting your time. Make sure you thank the island and the tree before you cut!"

Alright, at that rate, it'll take at least 12 days to patch the ship. Is anyone else doing anything in the intervening time?

I would very much like to explore more of the island and try to find some tools to speed things up, assuming I can get some more PCs or NPCs to assist.

After setting the rest of the crew to work, Ayaki would join Ragnar.

12 days? How many people need to be doing the tree cutting to be done in 4 days? All of them?

Noche'Wa would join an exploration team. He wouldn't miss it!

My assumption is that as much of the crew as possible, except for a small group to keep the ship in order and guarded heads into the jungle to cut wood. Besides, you don't actually have that many cutlasses amongst the lot of you... Maybe 10 at most. Also, there's other circumstances that make it harder, but you'll find those out over time.

Ragnar, Noche'Wa and Ayaki are heading out to explore the island. Anyone else?

"Wuh shuhd huhd fuh duh huh gruhn fuhzt- wuh cuhn suh huh buhg duhz uhlluhn uhz uhn guht uh suhnz uh huh fuh duh juhnguh guhz. Uhn suh uhv duhz uhnuh muh buhduhnz. Duhd Pluhh huhv uh spuhgluhz?"

Translation:

Noche'Wa nods to Ragnar and climbs the ships' mast to look out from high up and get a sense of the best direction to start.

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12

Alright, well, no sense in me sticking around to chop down trees until they've cut enough for me to work with. I've got a nice complement of battle spells prepared, so let's go explore! Perhaps Miss Quinn should join us? Might be useful to have a cleric with us, in case we run into something nasty. Jove sends Zephyrus to get her, if there are no objections and if she's not right in front of Jove. In that case Jove will just ask her himself.

Haven't heard anything from Gan or Jove in a while.

@Noche'Wa: Climbing to the crow's nest gives you a good look at the island. Although there isn't much in the immediate area, you do notice a path at the edge of the jungle near the abandoned village. The cliffs that rise on the western side of the island seem to be mostly barren, but perhaps a mile or two away, you notice what looks to be a small wooden pallisade.

*coughs* psst...look right above you, GM... ninja'd :)

Sorry, a week in bed with the flu followed by tons of school has made things a bit difficult to post. Back to normal now.

I nod to the group wishing to explore. Very well, I will stay with the rest of the crew and continue supervising the repairs."

"I see some wooden wall! Way over there." Noche'Wa points to the distance.

A wooden wall? Where?

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (19) + 4 = 23

We should probably build a bigger team to explore that. And we should be cautious. Something or someone must have erected that scarecrows in the water. Either to warn or to scare, or both, but the question is still from what.

Wow, nice ninja. I completely didn't notice. Gan, I was just gettin' a bit worried. Life is sucking hard for me right now, so I understand.

Question: How do people want to run this? I'm getting something of a split vibe from everyone. Should it be run more realistic and gritty or with more flair? Anyone ever watch Star Trek? Should the captain pick an away team or head down with it? Should it be Kirk or Picard? (I'm not aiming this at Gan in particular. I just know Star Trek well.)

The boatswan, first mate, and Captain can't ALL leave the crew. Those are all the leaders. At least one should stay behind to supervise and I volunteer because school is in its home stretch and I won't be able to post as much.

P.S. I know Star Wars.not Star Trek

"About two miles that way." says Noche'Wa. He climbs down, with his boa around his neck.

Don´t split the party^^.

I'd prefer not to split the party, too. I know IRL all the officers would not go on a dangerous mission away from the ship together, but this isn't real life :) Rosie I'm sure would keep the crew in line while we go risk our necks looking for a +1 axe of shipcrafting or whatever. :)

I also insist on playing my character and he sees no reason to leave the ship or the crew but understands the need for the island to be explored. This is why he is seeding out a team instead of going himself. Splitting the party isn't recommended but again, I am going to play my character and therefore he will stay with the ship. Simple as that.

I was always a bigger fan of Picard myself, Kirk is a punk even in the new movies. Spock was the best character from original series.

Leave Sandara to help organize the crew here, I will go with the exploration crew. Lets start, we can go check that wooden wall. Four Skulls says following Ayaki.

Twelve days! Cursed Ancestors!

NocheWa, i get the water is your element, but would you take the lead? I think you are the one clostest to nature here in our crew. Please find us the best way to this palisade you saw.

Heh. I prefer Picard as well, but I see the Kirk mindset (as far as leaping into danger headfirst) being more conducive to adventuring.

Sandara nods to Skulls, "I'll do my best, but I fear with the captain here lookin' over my shoulder, I'll have little to do." She grins and glances back at Gan.

"I will lead you. Keep an eye on the jungle. It suffers no fool."

Noche'Wa's boa slides to the floor and stays near him as he opens a trail in the jungle. He walks softly, his back bent slightly. He carries his spear in hand while his shield is strapped to his back.

Survival: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (1) + 9 = 10
Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (3) + 7 = 10
Hehe... Looks like we might be there a while...

Ragnar keeps his own eyes peeled, offering suggestions and pointing things out to Noche'Wa.
Aid another on Survival.
Survival: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9
Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (15) + 6 = 21

Four Skulls follows his companions into the jungle.

I wave to the party as they head out. "Best of luck to you all. Be careful out there. I will keep an eye on things here."

I return to help the boat workers. I look through the ship's stores for artisans tools for crafting Carpentry. I expect the ship would have them, I see no reason it wouldn't

Craft Carpentry:1d20 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2

Craft Carpentry:1d20+1

Noche'Wa smiles as he hears Gan swear loudly in the distance about his hammer and his thumb. He turns to the others: "Ahahah! I hope there will be a ship left when we return..."

Lol! With that roll Gan would

Actually, there's been a back and forth with Skulls that there aren't any tools on board the ship to aid in its reconstruction. It's likely that the orders were either to sell it whole or have it stripped down for materials.

The closest trail into the jungle is the one nearby the village and even it is becoming heavily overgrown. This trail has not seen use in a long time.

The trip down the trail takes a few hours before you come to a crossing over a boggy river that intersects it. A good fifty feet across, this thick peat bog looks to be near impossible to swim in. As per the rules for quicksand. It looks as though whoever lived here before built a bridge across this sludge, but only the pilings, sticking up from the bog, and a few planks, embedded in the bank, remain.

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6

1d20 ⇒ 18