apologies for the delay. game on!
Xisco's knife work is careful and fast, clearing a few of the less critical lines so that the wing can fall freely. As it does, it tumbles and flops, except for the bit still attached to the goblins, which falls like a stone. A bit of the sail flutters overboard, but the majority crashes to the upper hull of the ship with a crash. Fairfield starts climbing down after it.
The occupants of the ship can hardly hear the thud from the rigging though, over the echoing blast from the rear cannon. Blendin attempts to fire the forward cannon but it begins to smoke and steam, and the late bang from it is not reassuring, although the thick bronze bands hold in the explosive force.
Blendin is out of bennies. rerolled his attack roll - and got a 2 and 1 on the shooting die. cannon fouls, no explosion, the shot is lost, but will need to be cleared and cleaned before it can be reloaded. Will take a successful repair roll to clear.
The shot from the rear gun arcs out, hitting the portside hull of the closing galley, but sliding along the surface harmlessly.
The orcs attempt to close, making ready to fire, but gain no advantage on the faster Olic. The shot from the catapult is surprisingly well-aimed. (13+2-10, hit. Damage:2,8,2,6 = 18. Hit with 1 wound. Burst template placement is midships. Cover is pretty good in the ship, but ports are open, so Blendin, Harmony, Vuyen and Medicus are potential targets. On a d6 roll of 1 they take the hit, otherwise it misses them. Rolls: 1,3,1,1. Fuck me. 18 damage to blendin, 18 damage to Vuyen, 18 damage to Medicus. Vuyen and Medicus incapped. Blendin is wearing armor, so toughness is 6, Shaken. 3 wounds. Xisco and Fairfield need to make AG rolls to avoid a fall w/ normal saves available. Rolls: 8, 6. Successes, still in the rig. Gardner attempts to maintain control of the Olic: 4+2. Success. Gardner uses last benny to save the Olic from 1 wound. Roll 1,1. Failure. Olic takes a wound, and is @ -1. Critical hit test: 5. Controls, 6. Ship can only turn to starboard until repairs are made.)
The entire vessel shudders and the boards along the portside midships bend a full foot before they explode into shards as the stone bursts upon impact. The hull is surprisingly intact as the dust settles, but the crew is not so lucky. Harmony covers over, saying a silent prayer to the Artificer as the men around her spin through the air all screams and blood. She stands unscathed, but others are not so lucky. Rubble on the far wall obscures medicus and Vuyen, their fates unknown. Blendin finds himself dazed, bleeding, and out of breath in a pile of rubble that used to be the loading door, as well as bits of stone and Vuyen’s hat. A particularly large bit of stone is held aloft from crushing him by a burst of air from his wrist. His first thought is the guns, which may or may not be damaged.
From their view in the rigging, Xisco and see the side of the vessel bow inward before exploding to shards. The carefully dropped goblin skysail is largely swept overboard in the blast.
Fang looks to his master in concern, and Taz is shouting something to the crew that is lost in the thunder still pounding in everyones ears.
Round 7 continues, its Olic move. Positions unchanged. Olic can take 2 actions in a row, basically.
Round 8 initiatives:
Olic: 6 of Clubs
Galley: 2 of Hearts
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Well, could be worse.
ReplyDeleteHarmony peeks out from behind the mast that sheltered her from the debris and sees Blendin lying wounded. She runs over to him, pulling out her healing pistol, noticing that his armor protected him from much of the minor wounds she'd expected. His chest seems sunken, however. Her trained eye recognizes crushed ribs, so she thrusts the device into his mouth, holds it closed, and fires the healing steam down his throat. Somewhat to her surprise, his chest re-inflates after just two shots of mystical steam instead of the three she expected.
As the wildling rouses, coughing, she says, "Better get back on the guns, you're not dead yet." Flashing an impish smile, she turns and trots over to the toolbox to retrieve the prybar she saw there earlier, and begins working on the debris hiding the other two crewmembers.
Lucky the healer was the one who didn't get hit. Healing rolls for Blendin: 13,6. That should do it. With Taz's help, he should be able to get a cannon shot off in Round 8 if not Round 7.
Once Blendin is better, Harmony will use the prybar to dig out the other crew and heal them if possible. I should note here that Harmony would have no idea the ship can't steer left, so she'll have to be told if Gardner wants her to try to fix it.
How much height do we have on them? We should keep climbing, turn slightly right to get some deflection and use the starboard guns, and hope BR's dice are out of freaking C-4.
blendin is back in action, with about half of the first turn remaining. you can probably load a single gun in that amount of time with help. It will take the rest of round eight for Harmony to dig out and examine the rest of the crew members. Both are incapped, but alive, with remarkably good rolls.
ReplyDeleteSo she can heal them at the end of round 8? If not, she'll heal them at the beginning of round 9, assuming nothing else ridiculous happens. Healing rolls: 5 and 5.
ReplyDeleteGardner curses himself for not being able to shake the galley or the catapult shot. He looks through the smoke and debris to see what the damage to ship and crew has been. [Notice 3] "Is anyone hurt? Harmony, can you get to the injured? I think the rudder's been damaged, we can't turn to port." Gardner will climb and maintain present course to give Blendin time to shoot once more with the port rear gun. [Boating 6] Then he will change course 90 degrees to starboard to run that way and bring the starboard guns to bear, continuing to climb. [Boating 7]
ReplyDeleteGardner can make out shapes, but can't hear a report from the crew. Taz understands the captains plan and moves to load and ready the port gun.
ReplyDeleteGardner begins climbing the ship, and then turns hard starboard. If blendin is able to take a quick shot (from a possibly damaged cannon, mind you) it will be from the distance after the first move (4+2 for height - call it long range) before the turn. After the turn, you'll be at 5+3 away and a parallel course to the Galley (almost out of range entirely, but certainly out of range of their death machine.
Xisco and Fairfield are still in the rig, harmony will finish digging out the crew at the end of round 8. healing will wait until round 9 as you noted.
With a stiff nod to Harmony, Blendin finds his feet and runs to the gun to get it loaded.
ReplyDeleteHe'll take his shot if he gets the opportunity.
Shooting: 7 (pre-mods)
Once the crew is dug out and healed up, Harmony heads back to the helm to try to find the problem with the steering.
ReplyDeleteFirst repair roll was 2, but I'll benny that to a 6 if the ship is still in danger or a failed repair roll will make things worse. I'm a bit unclear on failed rolls for non-time-critical things.
If the rigging is good, Xisco will climb down and help on the deck; otherwise keep fixing the rigging.
ReplyDeleteBlendin's shot hits, but bounces with a clang off the giant bronzed penis.
ReplyDeleteHarmony is still digging folks out.
Xisco and fairfield return to the deck from the rigging, which is now in reasonable order.
The galley attempts to close on the running olic (boating roll 2) but falls back, out of range - which is lucky for you b/c I'd already drawn initiative for round 9, and it pulled a THIRD JOKER OF THE FIGHT.
Disengaged.
The galley shadows the Olic for an hour before turning off. Gardner knows from experience that orc galleys likely have a base of operations nearby, usually a small island, but maybe a raft where they can store their goblin crews in the dark to keep them from going Mad.
Taz reports that the tiller damage is severe and grumbles about a list that only he and the captain seem to notice. Harmony estimates probably 3 or 4 days to repair properly. The gundeck is half-exposed to the Glow, and most likely needs to be sealed up as well before too much more time is spent there. One of the storage crates on the top of the ship was lost in the catapult attack, along with some of the ships repair items and tools. Vuyen is upset about his hat, which is torn to shreds; Fairfield is remarkably calm about the whole affair. The front port cannon was damaged as well, and will take some time to fix; Harmony estimates a day or two, but wouldn't trust it very far.
ooc: oh, and I don't quite remember if this was ever resolved. I'd assumed you were heading to Freedom Isle, but at some point Dragon Spine came up as well. It's the same in terms of distance, you expect you are about a week out. Your provisions will likely hold until then.
ReplyDeleteCaptain, where is the waysphere tuned to?
Dragonspine then Freedom Isle will get us more profit, I think, but going straight to Freedom Isle will get us to Mt. Ore faster.
ReplyDeleteI assume that Taz can direct the other crew in putting up a temporary roof of sailcloth or sleeping canvases, so Harmony will get to work on the tiller right away.
ReplyDeleteMy view is we should be going to Freedom Isle to make it to Mt. Ore and proceed with the avenging of Tooly sooner, not dilly dallying around for profit.
ReplyDeleteWell, since Harmony's on salary, she doesn't mind.
ReplyDeleteThe captain will get a hearty yes from Blendin with regard to avenging Tooly sooner.
ReplyDelete"Thanks for the assistance back there, Harmony. How much do I owe you?" Blendin asks pulling out a purse of cogs.
Harmony laughs. "I think the captain is in charge of paying me for doing my job. You don't have to." After a moment, she adds, "If you like, you can get me a gift when we land on Freedom Isle. I wouldn't mind a change of clothes." She looks at her increasingly-dirty tunic and gives the wildling a wry smile before getting back to work on the damaged tiller.
ReplyDeleteooc: delays continue. dissertations are bastards, just for reference.
ReplyDeleteI'm uploading a brief primer on Freedom Isle here. I'm also rolling glowmadness checks for everyone following extra exposure during the repairs.
Freedom Isle was once a minor island power, Jorvan. A handful of human settlement dotted the large island, under a single hereditary patriarchy in the eponymous capital ‘city.’ Life was not ideal; the humans here were often scrounging for food and shelter because while the island receives a regular rainfall, the soil is a terrible alkaline loam that tends to poison most foodcrops, aside from the local Bitterbranch, a flowering tree that is believed to have medicinal properties. The humans here would collect and sell excess bitterbranch root and water to traveling vessels in exchange for goods and sustenance, and the island is still a minor holy site for pilgrims of the Lifemother.
About a century ago, the Trade Council recognized that the Glowborn were, in fact, ‘souled’ creatures, and as such could no longer be summarily imprisoned and tortured by the orcs without basic legal protections. There was some dispute initially while the orcs thought that they would lose all of the goblin slaves in their service, but once it was clarified that only the smart, rowdy ones with leadership skills would be taken off their hands, they agreed. But now the Council had a new problem: a race without an ancestral homeland that were, at best, a third class race in most settlements. Some chose to join the council military, where service tends to breed unity, but the ones that pursued a civilian life found outbreaks of racial violence and abuse, particularly in the higher islands where goblin raids are not uncommon, and the Glowborn were blamed.
The king of Jorvan, while on a diplomatic mission to Shadowhaven to meet with the Council regarding their taxation, was offered a plot of land on Plenty in exchange for granting his island to the TC as a new ‘ancestral’ home for the Glowborn. He agreed readily, as did most of his subjects, who then chose to follow their ruler to Plenty (or at least to the more bountiful resources there) and are still a major ethnic group on that island.
The TC began relocating ‘docile’ goblins and glowborn immediately to the newly dubbed Freedom, although the name was not without irony. Within months, the goblins were suffering the same fate as the Jorvans before them, and while the human population that remained on the island was not hostile, they were unable to support the influx alone. The Willow Court offered an intercession to ease the blight on Freedom: they would transport topsoil and plants from Heartland in exchange for a small trading tax on top of the usual 5%.
This of course has been cemented with time. Now a hundred years after the first Glowborn settlements, Freedom is in effect an Elven colony, lush with forests and ripe with fresh foods. The bitterbranches are all but extinct. The glowborn tribunal the overseas the islands policies is a puppet of Elven magistrates and overseers. Almost all of the commerce that passes through the island is directly controlled by elven interests. The Trade Council has little official power here anymore, having ceded most of it to the Willow Court ages ago, although there is usually a fleet of light vessels in the area. They are no match for the dozens of elven ships stationed outside “The Glowborn Project.”
A small human settlement of old Jorvan remains huddled around the Basin, the Lifemother’s sacred site. Rumors have begun to spread of a resistance movement, desirous of throwing the elves and glowborn alike out into the Burning Skies, and are mostly linked to the human youth.
This will get you started on your thinking for FI. I’ll need to know where you want to set down the Olic. Her repairs are not bad, but she could use some time mending the worst of the damage, probably a few days worth. Jorvan has no ship facilities to speak of, and is about a days walk inland from the ‘coastal’ glowborn settlements. I’ll let you think/respond/ask questions, then post tomorrow with an update upon your arrival.
ReplyDeleteWell, so long a Blendin doesn't get into trouble, FI should be a pretty quick stop to repair, resupply, relax a little, and load up on as much lumber as possible.
ReplyDeleteSince we're probably going to try to get metal cannon on Mt. Ore, this might be a good time to sell off 2 of our guns, since that's all we can man anyway. With plenty of wood and significant repairs already underway, Harmony could be induced to set up a way to move the guns from one side to another, with help from Taz and/or Gardner.
With that in mind, the humans might want some cannon.
Have our bennies reset yet?
On a related note: you know what else are bastards? Kidney stones. If anything I wrote seems off, I blame the morphine.
Harmony was going to use this opportunity to ask for a raise, but I'm not quite up to the task of writing that just yet.
just to clarify my above comment about 'no ship facilities', The glowborn and elven sections of the island have extensive shipbuilding capability, and ample wood supply. It's the human settlement that is a bit backwatery.
ReplyDeleteBennies are not reset yet.
In that case, can we get a benny count?
ReplyDeleteAs for docking, I would say we should either land in the human area or in a glowborn area with facilities near the human area. Probably want to minimize the contact with elves.
I think we should go to the glowborn area. Repairs are our most pressing issue. How much does Harmony make currently?
ReplyDeleteHow much do we think/know the elves police & patrol the non-elf areas? Depending on the answer, it might be better to put in at a human area initially, negotiate the use of a shipyard, drop off Blendin (& others?), then move and fix the ship.
ReplyDeleteHarmony mounts the steps up to the quarterdeck where the captain is at the tiller a day or so out from Freedom Isle. "Well, captain, I've done all I can with repairs until we get some lumber on Freedom Isle. I'm excited to see another island, I've been on Shadowhaven since I was a wee girl."
ReplyDeleteShe clears her throat, clearly meaning to say more. "I wanted to ask you, sir. It's clear to me that sailing the Void is dangerous, and you obviously need a healer and...repair...person." She sighs at herself. "Anyway, it occurred to me that without me, this ship might have been overtaken my the goblins, and You almost certainly would have lost some of the crew when the ship was hit. You need me, and I'd like a reason to keep sailing with you. Maybe discuss it with the other shareholders."
She starts to leave, but pauses at the stairs, hair blowing across her face from the wind coming from astern. "Also, I'd strongly recommend getting another magical healer on board. Had it been me and not one of the others incapacitated, things would not have turned out so well." She smiles wryly at the mention of her narrowly-avoided death and heads back into the cabin.
I understood she was getting paid the same as Taz. After (possibly) saving the ship and 3 dying crewmembers, though, and narrowly avoiding death, she wants a raise to stay on this dangerous ship.
I was thinking the same thing, sam. Though if we docked near the humans, Blendin and whomever could stay with them while the ship was not too far in glowborn territory.
ooc: So I feel like I was a bit muddled in the last post, and want to clarify now that I've slept a bit. I don't want there being a huge disconnect between the information behind your decisions and what I use to make the rolls behind the screen. That being said, your information is imperfect and outdated, based on what Taz and Xisco heard in bars, Blendin remembers overhearing before his escape and what Gardner saw last time he was here.
ReplyDeleteGlowborn territory and Elven territory are synonymous. Even if you want to do business with the glowborn, you're almost certainly really going to do business with the elves. These are not private enterprise elves like on Shadowhaven, this is the Willow Court's governors and selected merchants.
The human settlement is, historically, relatively autonomous. It is among the 'ruins' of their old capital, Jorvan, and relatively far (a day or so overland on foot) inland from the coastal settlement of the elves and glowborn. No one has actually been there, so you might have to spend some time looking to find it.
As you'll recall (from over a year ago), overflights of settled islands is kinda a no-no, as it's a common precursor to a pirate attack. Overflying the elves or one of their (likely many) watchtowers along the coast could provoke a response from either their troops on the ground or their fleet in the Glow (typically such responses would be violent) and overflying an island is mildly hazardous (although Gardner is an awfully good pilot, so the risk isn't huge there). If you wanted to approach the human settlement, you'd need to skirt in without upsetting the elves. It's certainly possible, but you'd need to scout a good path, and then land among the buildings there.
Dropping folks off while the rest of the crew flies over to the shore isn't necessarily a problem, you'd just have to do the dance twice to drop off and twice more to pick them up.
Benny for in-character chatter while doped on morphine for Harmony. Harmony and Taz receive the same pay, 100 cogs a month. She also gets salvage benefits, but no portion of the trading income.
Current Benny Count:
Blendin: 0
Harmony: 2
Gardner: 0
Xisco: 4
oh, and I picked up the new SS minibook today. Some really awesome stuff in there - I'm thinking to incorporate almost all of it. luckily, most of it isn't relevant to you... yet. You'll find out soon enough I imagine.
ReplyDeleteToo bad we didn't get to keep one of those skysails...
ReplyDelete@ sam: If you want a death trap, you can buy one or have Harmony built you one, I'm sure.
ReplyDeleteI say we stop in at glowborn territory to get a route to the human town and check prices so the humans can't gouge us, then go there. They'll have better prices for our goods, maybe cheaper prices on lumber, and we don't have to worry about any elves trying to arrest one of our crew, or the subsequent body disposal.
If Blendin (openly) leaves the ship the elves will try to "arrest" him, as they see him as, at best, an escaped fugitive. If he stays on the ship, there's still the risk of our ship being boarded and searched. We could always try hiding him in a smuggler's hold, but we'd have to build one, and he'd have to not leave it...
ReplyDeleteXisco will want to check out any human ruins. He'll also keep his ears open for some Elven Leather to purchase. And, of course, any good gambling opportunities.
It occurs to me that you may have a difficult time keeping Blendin from leaving the ship. He has this thing about hiding from elves... He really doesn't like to do it unless he is in the process of scoping in on their heads or stealing their stuff.
ReplyDeleteThat's why we need to park in the human town. If Blendin really wants to go kill some elves, he could go elf-hunting outside of town, even. If he doesn't want to go on a killing spree, he'll be able to hang out with the humans more safely.
ReplyDeletespin me right round.
ReplyDeleteOkay, so we got JWW voting for the coast, Bphage for the human camp.
That's 1 to 1. Sam, LR, lets have it. vote gentlemen so we can get goin.
Blendin will vote for the human camp as the safest bet.
ReplyDeleteNot going to deadlock vote. Overland flying it is.
ReplyDeleteawesome, will update after my dinner party. would rather update now. such is the life of dinner parties.
ReplyDeleteclosing thread
ReplyDelete