RPG Campaigns

Giraine Summaries

You continued your confrontation with the Dripping Beards pirates on board their ship. At first this consisted of the guard outside having a taunting match with you but that went nowhere, not even upsetting Fraud Shaven or the other Purple Sonneteers. Being told that the other dozen or so of the Shadow's crew was sacrificed to their god Wachaza didn't faze you, although Ahappi wanted to know where the Shadow was and they didn't say. The guard was wary to open the door, with you casting spells and lurking just inside, certainly unbound and dangerous.

Losing patience, you started pounding on the hull of the ship. At first this did nothing but soon enough, with the Captain's sorcerous enhancements to your naked bodies' weaponry, you (especially the Seastrengthened Ahappi) began to inflict accumulating damage. Ahappi also threw a breath-holding spell on all of you, so you could survive the planned sinking of the ship. To calm himself, Fraud Shaven entered the trance of the Ebon Sanctuary, feeling a cold connection to something, which soothed him but also made him aware of a presence. The crew became alarmed (you could tell that there were now 3 pirates outside your door) and you continued attacking the ship. Once you'd punched some holes in the wall big (and low) enough to bring in water, the Dripping Beards got a bit more concerned and changed their tactics.

Water surged into the tiny brig from under the door, just as the water began surging in from the ocean. The Captain and friends kept pounding away, but then the swirling waters revealed a terrible threat: the pirates had unleashed a large water elemental (undine) that first exerted violent pressure around your legs, causing everyone to collapse soon enough- one of you (Curly?) with major wounding from pulverised tissues. The undine also briefly pushed outwards to stem the inflow of ocean waters, while the pirates called from outside to ask if you'd given up yet. Fraud Shaven heard a cool inner voice say “Remember, friend: Elandra can free you. Wait for the night's embrace.” But with the ship in danger of sinking, that didn't seem so timely.

[GM aside: so this was of course a hard situation. I didn't know how you'd handle this bound-and-naked-in-an-unknown-ship situation. Fighting your way out was one way, but hard because the pirates are not completely stupid, and you want your gear back. Talking your way out was another way. I had to improvise based on what you did. They have their motives and resources (talking might have informed you more about those– e.g. why were you 5 still alive?), and I had to roleplay them responding to your actions while trying to further their agenda. So once things looked bad enough for them, they played one of their aces, and although they could have killed you all, they did not (for reasons; not just me being nice), and you had [barely] enough time and luck to get rid of the undine. That literally turned the tide…]

Yet then, with heroic zeal, Ahappi blasted the demonic undine with a Dark Foreboding spell and it fled into the ocean. You held onto what you could as the brig filled with seawater, and you grabbed your two incapacitated crewmen. Then the pirates, foolishly wondering what the problem was, opened the brig's door and let loose the flood of incoming water, dashing two of them deeper into the hold while one leapt away.

You swam skilfully after the pirates, although Bobard lost his way and ended up alone, deep in the hold's flooded darkness and unable to find even an improvised weapon, but carrying a friend's unconscious body to safety. Fraud followed Ahappi, who grabbed the fleeing pirate guard's spear and eventually took it from him, then impaled him in the buttocks as he, after many shenanigans, tried to make it up the ladder to the main deck, where the rest of the crew was causing much commotion doing whatever they were doing. The ship now looked to be in big trouble. Fraud grabbed one guard and strangled him underwater until the pirate struggled, panicked, and ended up with a broken neck. The third guard mostly fought the floodwaters and darkness.

Now events have shifted back toward a more balanced confrontation, perhaps. With crippled limbs, Ahappi and Shaven (now armed with a dagger) are facing a growing band of pirates, most with some magics cast and all armed, who are descending the ladder to engage you and maybe try to save the ship. Bobard has yet to fully join the battle (IIRC), though. You out-skill the pirates you've seen so far but where are their captain (or did they mention captains)? And can you defeat them, on their own magical ship, while being outnumbered and mostly unarmed?

Not even Wachaza knows what will happen next, but the ocean must claim victims for its dark, doom-laden depths, and Ahappi leads you in his bold, merciless quest to ensure that it is the Dripping Beards that meet that doom. The third player in this struggle is the uncaring sea, which seeks to swallow all…

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