Skull & Shackles: Sails under a blood red sky.

Game Master DBH

Percy, Cassiopeia? Since real life is hitting everybody hard I'll hold on till tomorrow.

Cass holds off since she doesn’t want to waste a powerful spell if Herzag and the cap’n havethings under control.

"They had their chance to stand down."

He answered coldly.

Laughing uproariously Ashlei throws the enemies a rude gesture!

"Hear that? YOU'RE DEAD! You just don't know it yet!"

"He will in a moment!" Rhialla quips back.

They don't have any real chance so I'm hand waving the death of the two goons.

Loot:
Rapier +1 (3)
Mithril chain shirt +1 (3)
Elixir of swimming (3)

Breastplate +1 (2)
Heavy flail +1 (2)
MW Composite longbow (+5 str) (2)
Cloak of resistance +1 (2)

2563gp

Below deck you find cages designed to hold large creatures, and documents showing that the ship was sent to the shackles to capture such for arana battles in Cheliax. They wanted merrow for an upcoming aquatic show.

The supposed 'crew' killed on deck were slaves bought to serve as bait, you find the real sailors cowering in their bunkroom.

What are you doing now?

Offer the cowering freedom to join our crew! I think we can start our fleet now too! What do you think Captain? Keep this ship? Or sell it? Treasure Note: I'll take an Elixer of swimming if its OK, but the rest I think are pretty much useless to me. Do we have some trusted NPCs yet who can use the magical stuff we don't want?

"Any chance to piss off Chelaxian, I'll take it!"

He paused while the crew gave the ship a good run over for all the wealth it held and well to look for any other crew willing to sail for a real pirate crew.

"You know what Burnout. You showed a real desire to take the fight to the enemy. Clearly you wanted a chance to captain your own boat more than some others. Take a prize crew, let's head back to Bag Island and see about getting that wheel mounted on the Bounty. The depending on what you think of this ship Ash, we will see about getting her armed and more crew. Get with Rhialla and we can pass some crew back and forth."

He paused halfway to the Bounty before he turned and back to his officers.

"Think of a name you like for this ship here, I Won't promise I'll allow it if its ridiculous, but i will take it into consideration... Brevet Captain Burnout."

Gonna grab also an Elixir of Swimming from the pile.

Otherwise Herzag is back to his regular duties.

Rhialla grins giving Ash a wink, clearly in agreement.

Ashlei looks to take the suggestion quite seriously, and thinks for a few moments.

"How about the 'Crimson Sunset'? Its straightforward and memorable."

Talking to the living but former crew members of the newly dubbed 'Crimson Sunset', Ashlei passionately gives a speech about total freedom and piracy without slavery...or they can take their chances with a dingy.

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (6) + 8 = 14

If that doesn't work...

Intimidate!: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (6) + 9 = 15

Can't win for losing.

She will then inspect and take an inventory of the new ship with Herzag as her backup, just in case something new wants to jump out at them.

Prof(Sailor): 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (15) + 11 = 26

The next few days are spent 'whipping' the new crew into workable shape. You sail towards Bag island and the only sails you see are those in the distance.

You arrive at Bag island without incident.

What are you doing now?

Herzag follows close on Ashe's heels as she inspects the Crimson Sunset, just glowering at everyone else and being generally unpleasant.

"Crimson Sunset, bah..." - he chuckles so only his fiery companion can hear - "That the best you could come up with?"

Since we've been very distracted I'll get things in place.

Returning to the Temple of the Hidden name with both the location of the wreck of the Brine banshee, and the secret of it's speed means that it's priest Slip will give you the information you are looking for on spies.

He informs you that he knows of a water naga named Sarlis who claims to know the location of a smuggler and spy for a foreign power. Sarlis resides in a shallow cove on the Slithering Coast at this time of year, the location of which Slip marks on your charts.
He tells you to look for a hillock with a lone tree at the top on the western side of the river flowing into the cove.
Nearby is a pool where you should wait for Sarlis, which could take several days. The nagas of the Slithering Coast are aggressive and
territorial, but Sarlis is more “social” than most of her ilk.
Still, they might have to wait several days for the naga to deign to meet with them.

What are you doing now?

Rhialla passes Slip the additional donation, taking note of the location of the wreckers, and the name of their Captain. "So, after we get the ships geared up, shall we go find the bastards that attacked the Savored Sting first, or meet with this Sarlis?"

"What's closer? Hit the closest first, then the next."

Cassiopeia points at Ashlei and says, "What she said."

"I would rather we dealt with the naga first - maybe it gives us more time to ask around about this Vakarla" - Herzag pipes in - "Wizards are nasty business. Best be as prepared as possible to face them" - he adds with a wink at Cassiopeia.

"I am in the same mind of Herzag, there. Lets's get your ship armed with at least some amount of self defence there Ash, See if any folk want to help round out our crews and... hmm. What do any of you know about Naga? What can we have on hand to help secure her aide?

what sort of knowledge check would it be to know about water nagas?

All I have is knowledge local.

Know(Local): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (13) + 8 = 21

"That's some sort of snake-people right? Back in Katapesh, my mom ...all Hell's blast her soul... would tell me scary stories of scaly peoples from ancient times hiding among us today. Is that what they are?"

Knowledge Dungeoneering for info on Naga's

Also, you are currently on Bag island, just below the Rampore isles. The wreckers are a day or two away, the Naga's are a week or so.

"Well we're a lot closer to the Ramapore Isles." Rhialla points out. "By five or six days at least."

Lore (Pirate Captians: Vakarla): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (10) + 6 = 16

Knowledge (Dungeoneering) on Nagas: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24

"My opinion is still the same" - the half-orc nods.

Herzag just makes the roll for Dungeoneering. Naga

Rhialla: The leader of this crew of barbarous half-orc reavers is an accomplished illusionist named Vakarla. Renegades from the Terwa Uplands, Vakarla and her wreckers take the perfidious and risky gamble of preying on Shackles pirates.

Roll not high enough to get more information.

"If I knew more about what they did, I could perhaps prepare specific countermeasures," says Cassiopeia. "Same for the nagas. Just tell me where we're going and what we need."

Assuming Herzag spills the beans on Naga's of the watery type

"Sounds like bribes might be the way to go then, as I thought, Officers, Take an extra share out in town, see if you can't find something exotic you think our future watery friend might enjoy, I rather do more talking than fighting at least on the Naga's Rhialla luv care to tour the meat market with me then see about rousing some extra crew for an eventual fight with half orcs?

diplomacy Looking for exotic animals that sea nagas might enjoy,
you know pig, veal, something not aquatic in nature really: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (20) + 8 = 28

diplomacy looking for more crew for Herzag's sake preferably lusty wenches with bad taste in men folk :P okay not really but add a +1 if they think im hot due to a trait.: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (9) + 8 = 17

Ashlei agrees whole-heartedly about bringing on a crew of lusty women for the Crimson Sunset!

"We should also have a trusted skeleton crew take the Sunset to get outfitted properly as a pirate vessel while we're away on business. That way its getting fixed up while we're busy."

"Of course!" Rhialla says with a grin, taking Percy's arm after selecting the 4 most trustworthy crew members who know how to use guns and presenting them with one of the firearms each. "They're a pretty ruthless bunch so better to have more blades than less."

Diplomacy (aid) gathering crew: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (14) + 6 = 20

Diplomacy (Aid)gathering crew: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (10) + 8 = 18

Wohooo!! Lusty wenches!

Diplomacy (aid) with finding the right wenches: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (12) + 4 = 16

With the new crew mostly going on Ash's ship he busied himself with restocking the larder of the Bounty with well 'exotic' Fowl... chicken, turkey and duck. If he had to bribe a sea naga to play nice he preferred to do it with non crew as food. Finding their ship's mage he brought about what she knew of illusion magic... or specifically how they might counter some of its known positive uses at sea. He had a healthy respect for that art to be sure.

"What sort of things should we be doing or could we get to help counter any sort of illusion magic Cass? Is there anything you need to help you be more effective. While we are here in the city its the time to speak up."

He added to their mage not wanting to walk into anything ill prepared.

Smirking at the question about illusions, Ashlei pipes up.

"Blindfolds? If you can't see it, then it can't be real. Right Commodore Percival?"

She then sniggers a bit and snorts once, trying to hold back her own laughter.

Cassiopeia says with a slight frown, "I only know of one spell that will see through illusions, and it's very powerful - too powerful and complex for me to weave it."

True seeing is above my casting ability. There isn't really anything else (that I know of) that will see through illusions, aside from being able to see invisibility, which I can do. (If we expect invisibility, though, the cleric should have invisibility purge prepared, which is not a wizard spell.)

Glitterdust works for indivisibility and in a pinch sometimes illusions too. I saw a player use it for illusions to help identify them. Our GM ruled that the glitter only sticks to real things, not illusions unless the caster is paying attention and modifies the illusion as it goes, assuming he's still concentrating on the illusion spell. Doesn't work for Mirror Image or similar spells since all the images automatically modify themselves to look like the original person, although it can still blind the person.

Wasn't there like an action or something in D&D 1ed or AD&D that you could take to 'Disbelieve' an illusion? :D

If you interact with an illusion directly or it is obviously fake somehow, you get a chance to make a will save to ignore it basically. In the end it is up to the GM, although most GMs I know give players a save as soon as a PC brings up the possibility there might be an illusion involved too. 'A Dragon here? How did it get in the building?' Although I've had GMs fake that roll too to see if they characters ignore something that is real too by accident: 'Roll to disbelieve the dragon! OOps! The dragon looks real to you! He's getting ready to breath, do you dodge? Or ignore it and try to run past?' kinda thing... NOTE: As I understand it, if you create an illusion of a wall or curtain, even if someone makes their save, it STILL blocks line of sight/targeting and they gain a miss chance from ranged attacks. Knowing something is an illusion does NOT mean the spell disappears for you. You just know you can walk through it like it is nothing, or ignore an illusory creature's attacks. The GM may prefer to handle them in some other manner too.

I'm back. What is the party doing now? Port Peril is on the way, so you could buy scrolls and get crew there.

Its up to the Captain...I mean Commodore Percy..in the end. One of the downsides of being in charge? =)

There's always mutiny. :)

If Port Peril is on the way sounds like a good stopping point to get whats needed before we go talk to a naga. After the fishsnek lady sounds like a good time to wreck some wreckers :P

Asheli's ship has enough crew to sail, but not really enough for fighting. So heading to Port peril for crew and supplies is the best idea.

How are you sailing there? Together as a pair, or have the smaller ship ahead and scouting?

Ashlei's ship will lead the way scouting. Clearing a path for the other ship if needed.

Clearing a path? more like being bait *lawls* That sounds fine

Call it whatever you want...as long as it works! There are tons of piratical maneuvers we can do with 2 ships now. Hehehehe.

Works for me. I'm sure I can catch up if they get into trouble

Time to get those new levels tested.

Heading southeast to Port peril with a nice following wind you detect a pair of sails on the second day out of Bag island.

Perception checks and Profession Sailor rolls from the captains please.

Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (13) + 11 = 24

Profession (Sailor): 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (14) + 12 = 26

"Two tasties' on the wind! Are they Hunters or Prey? Herzag! Get the crew on deck...and get a man in the crows nest for a better look...or I will roast someone's gizzard for dinner!"

"All right sweethearts, you heard the Captain!" - Herzag roars - "What are you waiting for, breakfast in bed? It is another glorious day at sea! Fall in line, and I want someone up there STAT!" - he looks around for a second - "Alian, start climbing! Eyes open and report!"

perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (16) + 6 = 22
profession sailor: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (2) + 10 = 12

He was so busy at trying to spot the ships and ascertain their size and capabilities that he sort of forgot to handle the ships business. When he realized the silence of the boat as they waited for her him he could only laugh out load.

"Well get the balistae ready, Rhialla love close with the possible enemy, Run up our colors just to see how they respond."