Yohoho and a bottle of Rep! (subSPUF Skull and Shackles)

Game Master Rynjin

You've activated my trap card.

"Well... you see... I'm already married." Ixrul hurries on, saying "Even if this is a more, ah, casual arrangement, marriage is especially sacred among elves do to our long lifespan. Which raises the second issue: I do not like to risk attachment. Should I become... emotionally involved... well, I cause unnecessary suffering to everyone involved as, well, you grow old and die while I live on."

No bluff check necessary.

Lady Smythee sees your insecurity and pounces on it, like some sort of big cat.

"An eternally young boyfriend sounds like quite the catch to me." she purrs.

"And if one of us fails to satisfy the other, we can break it off at any time..."

Do it you little wimp, or I'll pound her ass into hamburger myself.

I'll post when I get back from church.

"Well, I'd need to know the exact conditions, but... very well."

"We can hash those out at out leisure. The gist of it is that it is, in all respects, a true marriage, albeit one made generally for alliance rather than love, and with a set time limit built in. It forces you to give up nothing, on either side, though compromise needs ot be met, just as with any relationship."

gaise i cant be the only one to talk

"You mention taking cut of our profits. How much cut?"

"As much as you pay your officers, at least. A steady income is hard to come by on this island."

"That's...fair enough, I suppose. You're okay with this, Ixrul?"

"I suppose I don't have much of a choice, so yes."

"Doo ittt"

"Excellent! It's settled then. By our mutual agreement, we are bound in marriage, until one year from now, where we may choose to dissolve or continue the arrangement."

She looks at Ixrul with sultry eyes.

"Now, there is simply the matter of sealing the deal..." she says.

i cannot nope that hard enough

Jrahk smirks at the elf's discomfort, revealing the chunks of crab wedged in his teeth.

Smythee gets up and saunters to her new husband's side.

"Come, dear, I'll lead you upstairs."

"I promise I won't bite...unless you like that sort of thing."

Cyrdic shares a look with Jrahk and is barely able to keep a straight face. "Ma'am, in my experience there's really only one way to find out what someone likes...always better to ask forgiveness than permission, eh?"

She give syou a smile and a wink, from behind Ixrul's head.

"You're a wise man Mr. Forthill." she says.

She leans in and starts nibbling on Ixrul's ear, arms wrapped around him from behind.

With a slight crack of his neck, Ixrul follows Lady Smythee upstairs.

This just won't do...

"Relax, darling, it won't be as bad as you think. You might even enjoy it!" she calls out, loud enough for everyone to hear.

You are now out of earshot of everyone if you wanted to start a conversation in private, perhaps.

"Well, that was...unexpected. Now what?"

"This is our base now. Should walk around, get familiar with it."

Ace casts detect magic on the area.

The dining room appears to be non-magical.

Are you calling a servant to give you the tour or something?

Brilliant idea.

Cyrdic waves over the nearest servant. "Show us around a bit, will ya? Looks like we're going to be staying around here for a while, we'd like to get acquainted with the place."

One of the servants, an older man, approaches and introduces himself.

"It would be my pleasure. My name is Albers Siggs. Is there any particular place you would like to start?"

"You've been around here longer than we have, I trust your judgment. I think for now, we'd really just like an overview of just what we've gotten ourselves into."

"Well, I'll just hit the highlights then." he starts leading you around the place.

"Up here we've got just the Feast Hall, and as you may have guessed, Lady Smythee's quarters."

He leads you down the stairs.

"On this floor, my and my wife's quarters, the kitchen, and that little room there where we store the water, as well as a privy should you need it."

He leads you down one more flight.

"And finally, we have the guardroom, the bunkroom, and the workshop down here."

"Battlements are on the roof, and the first floor is just a defensible entryway."

"Not much to see, really."

Ace starts wandering around after the mini-tour, casting detect magic whenever nobody is around.

"Your wife, you say? Sounds like you've been here a while then."

"We're Lady Smythee's first retainers. Been here as long as I can remember, now, though my memory isn't exactly what it used to be!" he grins widely.

Gimme some specific rooms, Ace? Casting Detect Magic on EVERYTHING will take you quite a while.

workshop and guardroom

"Wait, whats with your memory?"

"I'm getting old, son. It was just a joke."

No magic in those rooms.

okay stuff happens moving on let's go sailing or just get off this island

But the others aren't done exploring yet.

i have no intention of saying anything more believe me

Don't worry Jay, I'll speak for you!

Cyrdic is momentarily startled by a loud *thump* from upstairs, followed by an incredibly high-pitched scream. It's impossible to tell what gender it's from. He looks at Jrahk in bemusement, eyebrows raised, then continues.

"Well then...anyways...Mr. Siggs, how often would you say people like us come along here?"

What happens when she dies?

Please try not to kill the nice lady with your monstrous elf manhood.

*snrrk*

Don't sass me or I won't craft for you.

Don't worry Jay, I'll speak for you!

Cyrdic is momentarily startled by a loud *thump* from upstairs, followed by an incredibly high-pitched scream. It's impossible to tell what gender it's from. He looks at Jrahk in bemusement, eyebrows raised, then continues.

"Well then...anyways...Mr. Siggs, how often would you say people like us come along here?"

Missed this question before.

"You're the first in a long while, actually. Not many people trying to 'crack the Rock' these days."

Well, that was awful...

Hurrying up to Cyrdic, Ixrul says "I think it's high time we leave, Captain. The sea won't sail itself."

"Erm...we just got here, you've been upstairs less than 10 minutes. What's with the rush? This is our place now..."

"Surprised you lasted that long," Jrahk chuckles.

Ixrul confirmed for an inattentive lover. Didn't even want to cuddle a little.

Cyrdic absentmindedly fistbumps Jrahk.

Quietly taking Cyrdic aside, Ixrul removes his mask to look Cyrdic in the eye. "I do not have the patience for mortals and am, in most respects, a sociopath. Is everything as clear as can be?"

Whats the law for what happens when I kill Agasta and make it look like an accident.

"This place bites anyways, I'll be waiting on the ship."

"Actually, is there weapons or other things for sale?"

No law, but good luck with that.

So Agasta just happens to meet her accidental demise shortly after a pirate crew gains access to the Rock.

Did she literally f%%@ your brains out up there?

Cyrdic stares impassively back at Ixrul. "Is that supposed to scare me? Because news flash-we're all a little crazy here. We're bloody pirates, for Besmara's sake. Jrahk is almost certainly a cannibal, Ace hasn't stopped smiling since I met him, and I've literally come back from the dead and grown a new body from my old pinky. So you'll excuse me if I don't immediately drop everything and rush to your aid because a woman actually wanted to touch your no-no parts."

Gotcha, I can see that. You're in at least two other games that I know of, which gets hard to juggle.

Well, good luck in all that. =) I'll keep Nute around in case you want to rejoin at some point.

let's keep him around because i like having a diplomancer

slickjaw very ded (totally not, actually just joined the fish people and left behind a fake body)

What're the Char Creation rules? I'm thinking since Cube's campaign won't happen for a while I'll play a wizard in this one and see what I'm in the mood in for when his rolls back around.

As I've said on SubSPUF, I'm going to be out of commission for the weekend. But it looks like we're going to have a bit of downtime anyway, what with us getting slammed so hard by Faglord Grotus.

In any case, I'm taking Intimidating Prowess for level 5, which puts my intimidate at +10 (+12 with rage). So if you want to use me for...I dunno, scaring the local wizard into crafting me a magic peg leg, go ahead.

Here he is so far.

Wait, you get feats upon level up?

I f#&!ed up bad.

Well, it is my first time doing this.......

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im am out of cans

U srs Doop

You even have multiple Feats listed on your sheet! How did you get Dervish Dance at 3rd if you didn't know that?

I think I took a couple at the earlier levels, but forgot later on.

Well, this is the next level you get a Feat after 3rd, so...=)

You get one at 1st, and one every odd level unless your class or race gives you anything different.

In your case you should have a total of 4, 2 at 1st (1 normal, one from human), 1 at 3rd, and 1 at 5th.

So since dual is wizard now, I can copy spells off him, right?

Yesh.

For the small price of making Cyrdic trust Ixrul.

Okay, we need to have a quick discussion.

So, I hadn't read Book 3 in MONTHS, and completely forgot the plot of this damn thing has taken a sharp left turn I could have tried to work in earlier (maybe...it's just so subjective/odd).

Basically, the plot of this book ASSUMES you want to become Free Captains of the Shackles. For some reason.

You have given no indication of this being your goal at any point (seeming content to plunder and search for hidden treasure).

You need 10 Plunder and 20 Infamy to petition to become a Free Captain in Port Peril.

We have a few choices:

1.) Sail around, do a little homebrew adventure or something, and just wing it from here on out until you'd rather return to the plot of this AP.

2.) Assume this has been your goal all along, and assume you sold your loot in Port Peril. The clunkiest option, and not one I'm fond of, but if you guys would rather stick strictly to the book, there it is.

3.) Do some plundering and have you guys decide you're bad enough dudes to be Free Captains when you hit that Plunder threshold again.

I like option 3. Maybe we plunder for a little while until some NPC (Smythee, perhaps?) asks "Hey, have you guys considered becoming Free Captains?"

Option 3 sounds fine.

3 is fine too

DGAF, whatever the others want.

So 3 it is. Let's start by looting a town.

I'm going on vacation and since I'm going to a rural area I don't know if I'll be able to have internet access.

I'll be back Sunday night.

kk we'll try not to get lucy killed

I think maybe it's about time we had "the talk".

Here's the reason you guys keep getting your asses kicked: You're all glass cannons.

Your party consists of:

-Dex Magus. Decent AC, high damage. Melee. Decent saves. All around solid, but not great at any one thing.
-Barbarian. Low AC, high damage. Melee. Good saves.
-Bloodrager. Irrelevant AC (seriously most things hit Jrahk on a 2), high damage. Melee. Meh saves.
-Wizard. The only character with a decent defense. Mostly focused on buffing and weak minions.

What this means is you're going to get your ass kicked by anything that can hit you a few times and deal decent damage.

A single CR 8 (level 9) Flowing Monk and a level 5 Gunslinger (CR 4) should not have kicked your asses this hard, this quickly (the Bard and Ranger are largely irrelevant, besides that Haste the Bard got off). You'll probably still win this fight, but getting pounded this hard should tell you you probably need to start focusing more on your defenses. The massive influx of gold you've been getting recently should be put towards THAT, rather than ever increasing +1's to-hit and damage.

You guys are good on damage. You have the damage potential of some level 13 or so parties altogether. You kill most things in a single full attack. Hell, if Jrahk or Lucy managed to land 2-3 hits on this Monk, he'd be toast.

It will only get worse from here. High level combat is a LOT different from low level combat. Rocket tag goes both ways. You don't want to be out tagged.

Remember: The most important thing in a fight is ACTIONS. Keeping them, and denying your enemy them.

This Monk has f+#*ed up Jrahk and Lucy's actions solely by A.) Being able to take more (Snake Fang Attacks of Opportunity whenever someone misses him) and B.) Denying you yours (by making you choose between taking a -4 to AC and to-hit, or losing your Move action).

He is not a damage powerhouse (1d10+7 is, what, a quarter of one of Jrahk's swings?), he's not even a defensive monster (You guys can hit him on a 12 or 13, while he's buffed), he just has better action economy.

I know. I was gonna point out this issue as soon as we ended the fight - I'd been trying to pin down the exact issue for a while, but didn't realize Ixrul was the only non-glass-cannon character in the group until this fight began.

Also, don't call my tigers weak :(

So, we're going to dump a lot of wealth into fixing this. Jingasas for everyone. Upgraded cloak of resistance for Jrahk. We need to look into belts of Physical Might - they're 5000 GP for Ixrul to craft the +2 version. Pricey, probably worth it - CON and STR for Jrahk and Lucy, CON and DEX for Ace and maybe for Ixrul as well.

Jrahk, you need to get Mirror Image, aka "Save Your Life". Your size is irrelevant for it, so it's Da Best. It's too pricey for now, but a Cloak of Displacement (Minor, NOT major) is pretty sweet. False life would also be good for you, for when you do get hit.

We need a ranged character. Ranger Barbarians can be, by my understanding, fairly effective.

Ace, you're good, you just need to roll better. I'm not familiar enough with the Magus list to know for sure, but if they have any long-term buffs they can stick on the party, that'd be great.

We all need to do something to get resistances to Ixrul's action-denying spells, like Stinking Cloud. Regrettably, the cheapest option for that costs us 4500 a pop (necklace of adaptation).

Necklace of Adaptation fixes Stinking Cloud's nausea, and Fogcutting lenses fix the Concealment...but honestly you're probably better off just getting a Selective Spell rod.

Ranger Barbarian? I'm intrigued.

Ranged Barbarian, I think he means.

There's two Barbarian variants that make good Ranged characters:

1.) Urban Barbarian, who can allocate his Controlled Rage between Str, Dex, or Con at his choosing (note that you also have access to normal Rage if you eed it, though they share the same rounds).

2.) Savage Technologist, who gets a Str/Dex Rage instead of Str/Con.

Ah yes, that was a typo. I meant to say Ranged.

That would let Lucy strike any threat Jrahk doesn't want to engage in melee while Big Orc Guy just sweeps aside every smaller guy and the squishier enemies. Ace can do the C R A Z Y burst on scary dude, while Ixrul assures that we can do so while hasted with freshly-shined shoes and whitened teeth.

Could you go over exactly what being a free captain entails, Rynjin?

Here's what it essentially breaks down to (...maybe. It's never fully defined in any of the books, this is just what make sense to me):

Being a Free Captain essentially means you're an "official" pirate. This gives you a spot on the Pirate's Council, where you can voice your opinion on matters and vote on important decisions.

While this does, in some ways, make you beholden to the Hurricane King and Council as a whole, it also affords you some protections. Namely that you're no longer fair game. You've been lucky so far, not having come across many hostile pirates, and most of them being within your capability to defeat. However, the longer time you spend out there, actively choosing not to be a Free Captain, the more the other Free Captains might take offense, and send somebody to kill you all and take your ship. Or just scuttle you, depending on the mood.

This is because the Free Captain system works to everyone's benefit. It keeps the Shackles' main military (naval mostly, but some ground forces as well) as a unified front. Together, the Free Captains and their fleets can fight off even the empire of Cheliax. Their fleet is just THAT big and powerful. Divided, they would fall.

So a powerful captain operating outside of that system, or working against it, is a danger.

TL;DR: The Hurricane King is the Don of this big pirate mafia, and you'd be the head of your own little family as long as you kiss the ring every now and then, and don't rock the boat too much. Your main benefit is "not dying" but you also get an increase in reputation and potential allies.

Sounds agreeable, then. Rest of ya'll? Shall we go become free-captains?

FREEDOM!

Youre_a_Pirate.wav

sure

Everyone:
- Ring of Protection
- Jingasa of the Fortunate Soldier (A mere 500 to craft, with a great extra, plus the luck bonus will almost certainly stack with what you have)
- Amulet of Natural Armor (a wondrous item, so half-off)
- Mithral Bucklers have 0 ACP - so you take a -1 to hit for a +1 or more to AC
- +DEX belts give AC
- +CON belts give HP

Doop:
- Primarily defensive spells: Blur, Mirror Image, Displacement, Shield, Etc - the DEX belt especially pays off for you, because DEX magus.

Jrahk
- Same as above, but you're stuck with Wave Shield (which isn't great), Shield, and Mirror Image

Lucy
- Not really sure what more can be done for you other than having Ixrul buff you up more.

Lucy can keep going down the Beast Totem/Superstition path and soon she will be invincible.

Can they get the Euphorically Balanced FCB?

Neither are Human.

Such a shame.

but muh carryweight

Muleback Cords are 1k GP (Shoulder slot, so may have to stack them onto your cloak of resistance or in a different slot) and give +8 strength for the purpose of carrying capacity.

Ace can't use a Buckler.

And they don't benefit Jrahk and Lucy except in rounds they don't attack.

I think we need to dip into the party fund to get some of the goodies.

We just need to sell some loot first.

Trouble with defensive spells for me is that I get very few per day. I have to be really stingy with my self-buffs. Upgrading my Charisma headband probably isn't worth it, since I'm not a face and I never cast anything with a DC. Is there some cheaper way to get more spontaneous spell uses per day?

Also, I was thinking about taking the Spirit Totem line, which would give me a 20% miss chance against non-adjacent attackers. Would that "stack" with the Minor Cloak of Displacement's miss chance?

Jrahk: ...Label your s*&+ better. I've been treating your AC as 17 this whole time because your quickbar goes "AC: 21 (-4)". But I just noticed your character sheet says your AC is 21 AFTER the decrease from Size and Rage.

Oh...whoops.

Miss chance never stacks.

You could get some Runestones of Power. A Wand of Shield is cheap.

Eh, I already got a belt of +2dex, should I sell that and craft a better one?

how do you craft anyways?

You don't, unless you've got the Feats (Ixrul does). You don't need to sell your belt, you can just upgrade it by paying the difference between prices.

However, a +4 belt of Dexterity costs 16k, and I don't think you have 12k lying around.

I can craft to reduce the price to 6k, right?

Sure.

Before we go any further with this Free Captain thing, there's a long-standing issue I think we should put to rest.

A pirate crew needs a proper captain, which we've lacked ever since Cyrdic went into background-NPC limbo. Ideally, the captain should be someone who stands head-and-shoulders above the rest of the crew. Someone who strikes fear into the hearts of his enemies. Someone who has more than one rank in Profession (Sailor).

So my questions are: Which one of us is best fit to be the new captain, and why is it me?

Because Jrahk is the physically imposing one who actually has decent CHA thanks to Bloodrager, it is him. Ixrul doesn't want the attention of being captain. Ace is a bit too far """""out there""""" to be qualified. Lucy lacks any real social ability.