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Kaul reaches the shoreline and sees that the tender sloop is no longer moored there. With the moon now covered by thick storm clouds, he can only just make out the retreating craft and the escaping captain wrapped snugly in heavy furs. He yells out once again. "Next time I see you traitors, I'll make your hides into spare sails and use your sinews for lines!"
Corliss dutifully mends the crew's wounds, Kaul rubs away the dead skin from burned skin regrown for the second time that night as he advances toward the surf. The surrendered soldiers huddle in front of the barracks and one vntures a question to Jim now that the intimidating half-orc has stepped away. "Mind if we go inside, Sir? We wont cause no trouble and it's freezing out here." With that reminder and the lagging adrenaline, Jim and the others feel the chill of the dark and snowy night.
Kaul gives off the enticing odor of barbecue as he nearly topples over from the full effects of the lightning bolt. Jim dodges the worst of it. Fortunately, electrocution seems to have taken the fight out of the pirates and the dozen or so that remain alive drop their weapons and step away from their attackers with their hands up. From the sea comes a booming voice hollers, "COWARDS! CURSE YOUR YELLOW LIVERS!" The speaker remains outside the range of Dingus' light which doesn't quite reach the water's edge.
The angry mob isn't really listening to threats at the moment. They swarm over the crew, striking with fist and boot and sabre. Dingus has stayed out of reach and screeches, "I can't send a lightning snake through them if you all are right there in the middle!"
As a reminder- Demoralize in the rules can only be used against a single opponent. I allow it to affect the number of creatures equal to the crew's Infamy score (5) but this group is far more than that (25) and it's a mob so not listening at this point. I'll let y'all keep the roll, but I'll apply whatever effect it has AFTER the mob is dispersed (defeated), OK?
Maybe don't be so direct with the metagaming. ; ) I'll just say that Kaul can't flank them but I don't see why he couldn't otherwise attack them.
Jim can't get in an effective attack as he's pushed around by the mob.
Corliss moves to back up Jim and Dingus follows bringing the bright light forward. Kaul appears at the corner of the cabin blinking in the light which has compromised his darkvision. Perception DC 16:
A figure dashed toward the sea through the advancing edge of the light as Dingus moved toward the cabin and a splash is heard among the hiss of the surf. The crew bellow in response to Jim's offer and surge out of the cabin pushing him aside.
Kaul sneaks around the back of the barracks while Jim stations himself near the entrance. Dingus cackles as he sends a volley of hissing missiles into the guard dog, killing it. Kaul spots the captain dashing around the other corner of the barracks. Inside the barrack there are shouts and suddenly the door opens. Jim kills the first pirate coming out and the tumult grows!
Jim looks out the window but his blade doesn't give much light to illuminate the sleeting night. Yelling arises from within and behind the barracks.
Corliss wounds the dog.
The howling wolfdog
Jim runs into the dark cabin with only the dim gleam of the crackling lightning along his blade. He manages to hop over the large hound in the doorway and spin past Kaul to stab the figure crouched in the corner. The nearly naked, heavily tattooed, and now bleeding man bellows as he slips past Kaul to jump onto the bed and through the parchment window above it. The wolfdog starts howling loudly as it dashes out the door into the daylight just conjured by Dingus from the goblin hand. The mad dog goes for the praying sea priest howling and snapping at him with powerful jaws.
Kaul:
No AoO as the dog scampers to get on its feet. Kaul hits the crouched man pretty hard. As Corliss prays, Jim hears a growl from the dark interior of the hut and then Kaul's grunt and Lopper biting into flesh.
Are you still auditing, Kaul? I think we're all waiting on your action.
Ah, got it. I misread the previous post. Yeah, that's insane. There's def enough bloat in 1e to allow the PC engineers to go nuts. I guess my dislike with 2e is that DCs are dependent on level. I see that that tracks with the maxxers but unless i am misunderstanding it, it just feels wrong that the DC for say climbing a wall depends on who is climbing it. Is a L15 wall impossible for a L1 character to climb? Maybe I should think of it as averaged to the PC so a first level character has just as good a chance as a L15 character to climb the same wall? Still, the big numbers just seem weird to me. I should prob just get over it.
There's a character in that second game who's built in a way that really makes me understand why Paizo designed the 2E skill and combat bonus scaling the way they did. It's a 5th level bard with +26 Diplomacy. At 5th level. Here I thought my 5th level bard was approaching being unbalanced with a +13 on Diplomacy and Sense Motive, but no. Yeah, the modifier inflation is the main thing about 2e that i just can't get on board with. It's a different system so I suppose it works but I don't love it.
"Stand back and let me take care of this!" an unseen Dingus commands. ... *there's the sound of a bar falling inside the cabin* and the door swings open.
Intiative:
Keelhaul Kaul-
Madman Jim- Dingus- Corliss- foe- foe- Kaul: Kaul quietly slips inside the cabin and peers into the darkness within. It is simply furnished with a desk piles with charts, a table with a couple dirty plates, and a bed piled with furs. A figure crouches beside the bed holding a bow and blinking at the open door. A large dog lying at Kaul's feet growls.
Only took 10 days to open the door :D now y'all are going to have to wait until Friday because I'm on the road :/
Kaul spends a long while with ear pressed to the door of each hut and is rewarded by a cough from one of them. He knows at least one is inhabited.
Dingus glares back at Corliss but casts invisibility on Jim and himself as Kaul slips out of the barn and into the darkness ahead of the crew. Outside, the temperature has fallen and Kaul sees that snowflakes now float down in the night. Kaul circles the barracks and hears snoring within. The two much smaller officer huts are quiet.
The crew prepare to leave the sheltered if goaty smelling confines of the barn to renter the sleet and assault the officer quarters.
Isn't Age of Worms pre-PF1 though? ; ) That's a great one. I ran it back in the day and we got about halfway through before we ran into terminal scheduling issues. Sounds good, JW.
A couple thoughts. Now would be a pretty easy time for someone new to come in as they'd basically just have to make a L7 PC. Not sure how big the pool of PF1 folks is still. Does anyone know someone that might be a good fit or should I just do an open recruitment?
April sneaks up on me every year. Fifteen! That's something remarkable. Thanks for hanging around, Mates!
Harga tells Jim that the watch stations sailors are switched out every third day which would be tomorrow.
Skald: "Did you see the Akora at the dock? Typically just the tender, The Lash, stays there to run crews out to the watchtowers."
Arne shares what he knows. Skald: "There are maybe three score in total, split between the base and the watch stations. I think there are two watch stations at the entrances to this cove. The captain's name is Sculfer and he is a fierce fighter. The two highest mates are seers. A volve named Nixie and seidr named Jovan. Sculfer trades off running the ship with Nixie. Jovan is less popular and spends most of his time in the grave mound in the hill. He has some creature that follows him and he brings ancient hex stones from there that the captain implants into his face for power. Most of the crew are either in the longhouse or ship. The officers share the two small huts."
The enslaved men exchange looks and Arne says, Skald: "We would like to go home and hope that you are successful. What do you wish us to do?" Jim senses that the words are sincere though they seem uncertain if the outnumbered group will in fact be successful.
The older man nods. Skald: "Those are names that I have heard. Broken Bay raiders. Alfhild has been known to sell her spoils in Halgrim. I am Arne and the twins are Barga and Harga. We are from a village on Battlewall. We joined a whaling crew but had no luck and the Akora took us. Only we three survived."
The thralls don't understand Kaul unless Jim translates his comments to Skald, but the ax does attract their attention. Skald: One of the brothers ponders Kaul. "Dromaar, but not from Flintyreach. The ax is Ulfen. Did he win it in battle?"
Corliss doesn't detect any impending threat outside the barn, but is distracted by his shivering. He wonders if he might be warmer in a pile of goats despite the stink.
Jim knows that thralls are enslaved people in the Ulfen culture. They are generally captured in battle or condemned to service as punishment for committing a crime.
The first one seems older than the other two that look like brothers. He answers in fluent Skald. "We are thrall. The Southerners captured us and now we tend the goats and do as they tell us. You are with the Southerners?"
The men squint at the sailors. They appear Ulfen, fairly malnourished, unkempt hair and beards, and dressed in rags. "Ebben, Carl," one says. Another whispers to the first in Skald asking what the sailors want. The first one shrugs.
Corliss scans the barn and finds no unknown magics in the area.
The crew feel their way around the outside of the fence and barn until they come to the entrance. Once inside, they stand dripping and cold as Dingus opens his lantern's aperture a little more to reveal the herd of goats staring at the newcomers from their pen. Against the opposite wall, three ragged looking men stir with the rattle of chain links.
Dingus casts an invisibility spell on Kaul to aid with his reconnoitering. Not that anyone without dark sight can see beyond their nose under the thickening cloud cover and sleet. He is gone a very long time though every moment crouched in the cold and dark seems like hours so it's hard to say how much time is passing exactly. Eventually, Kaul clears his throat causing nearly everyone to jump. The spell is still in effect so it couldn't have been that long. Kaul explains that there does appear to be a watch on the boat, which is only a single-masted cutter which seems odd. He started with the barn thinking it likely the least guarded location. Slipping through the door, found a herd of goats and three men but they were chained by their legs so he was able to slip away without any trouble. The barracks were inhabited. He could tell by the snores he heard even over the sleet when he put an ear to an oiled hide window. He didn't disturb the two smaller cabins thinking they could be officers. |
