Captains Log:

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Spearmint
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Captains Log:

#1 Post by Spearmint »

This is my forum for keeping track of time and events or for when you become captains of your own vessels.

Spearmint
Rider of Rohan
Rider of Rohan
Posts: 12357
Joined: Sat May 14, 2016 5:42 pm

Re: Captains Log:

#2 Post by Spearmint »

Captain Lazarus aboard the MacGregors Revenge:

Date: April 09th: Docked in St Eustatius to unload cargo and release crew on furlough. Recruited new crew from the Black Walrus tavern. The crew include an apprentice mage and a marine ecologist druid. Other men ...and boys...are put to the rigging.

Received message calling for help from Padre de Lautrere, senior cleric in Monte Verde native mission. It is 900+ miles away and in Bretonian waters. Still we will set a new course and sail to his aid.

Left Eustace Bay at 11.00pm sailing N-NW. Wind blowing westwards, we make good speed, 18 knots per hour.

April 10th: 6.00am The crew are put through cannon rehearsals and we pick up a shipwrecked castaway off in the Atlantic waters west of Angula. A whaling cleric of Poseidon. He is clear of delirium and fever and signs onto the crew.

3.00pm Crows' sighted convoy making slow progress eastwards. Sloop and three ocean barques.

Spearmint
Rider of Rohan
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Re: Captains Log:

#3 Post by Spearmint »

April 11th

Inclement weather wind driving sloop.

Mid Afternoon. Ship caught in middle of migratory pod of sperm whales. Close hauled sloop to clearer waters.

Early evening: no luck, whale buffets ship, rivets in bilge and lower deck spring leaks, several hull boards warp under pressure.

Depth charges released to drive of whales. Unfortunately a whale calf is stunned and drowns.

Enraged mother whale seeks to ram ship. All Hands man cannon to fend off beast. Sloop suffers hull damage but remains intregrous below waterline.

Mother whale driven off, with calf carcass in tow we seek haven in neutral harbour for repairs. Several men and cannon fall overboard as whale tips ship. Half a dozen ate rescued, another half remain missing.

During whale encounter, several crew attempt to throw cleric of Poseidon overboard, blaming him for whale phenomena. One draws blade and dies in personal combat. In all two dozen report to sick bay and nine hands lost. It is a grim day.

April 13th.

Limp into Cockburn Harbour on South Caicos. Territory under rule of freemen and pirates.

Spearmint
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Re: Captains Log:

#4 Post by Spearmint »

spent three days in Cockburn Harbour repairing the vessel. Sent out expeditionary groups to the Ambergris Cays, Cockburn Harbour and Djebel Tariks camp. Their individual adventures are noted separately Sloop repaired after whale damage, and one team returned with ambergris nuggets worth upwards of several thousand gold each. (approx. 12,00gp value), another group captured and brought back to be held in the brig a mysterious person named as Catriona the escort from the Succubus brothel. She may know the whereabouts of treasure from a map design , tattooed on the back of Capt De Courcey who she is accused of slaying during time at the brothel. Some rumours sweep the ship she is actually a doppelganger and may assume the guise of any humanoid she studies. For her safety and ours she is presently confined to quarters within the brig cell.

A team also recover a baby, christened baby Amber. She is the lone survivor of a gypsy wreck (?) and has been returned into the care of local wenches to nurse.

Djebel Tarik is recruiting an army of former slaves. They are the 'living dead'? bodies of slaves cast overboard from former Guineamen traders. The Turks and Caicos islands a notorious slave merchant hub. Somehow these slaves petrified underwater and still live....we took musket shot at some but it availed not their destruction. Tarik wishes to engage in a raid upon Iberian naval forces and has commandeering 1st mate Mr Simonsen to this task.

April 14th set off from the T&C's to head towards Monte Verde, 400+ nautical miles NW.

April 19th, sighted MV after skirting Breton forces near to Nassau. Gunboats patrol the bay keeping folk in an enforced quarantine. We turn away but unload jollies secretly on the western shores.

Spearmint
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Re: Captains Log:

#5 Post by Spearmint »

We land upon Monte Verde and cut our way through the dense forest to the mission station on the islands plateau highpoint. Padre Claude my old friend greets us. The mission station is in dire straits following native assaults. The 'smallpox' infected settlers are sheltering at the mission station and we eventually secure their rescue, taking several women and children on board. The menfolk are all deceased, the male boys all suffer from a lycanthropic virus which turns the boys into werewolves. There is no smallpox disease. The station rebuffs a native assault, several crew are injured but none fatally. After the battle the party raid the destroyed Infirmary to gain the vaults where the healing potions created from the venomous snakes are kept. Three wights are killed in the process, one of the crew suffers loss of experience and is drained. Iggway, native shaman recovers her vital study notes and various treasures are taken as booty. We second the crate of potions as payment to transport the were-folk to safety to a nearby island.

A scout party is sent out to rescue a nun held prisoner by the native chief and bring back to the mission the famed Saint statues which radiate an aura of protection. The party discover the chief in league with yuan-ti reptilians and causes his warriors to meta-morph into snake-men. The party bring a single statue back, but it is enough to ward away venomous snakes as we return to the sloop. The fate of Sister Adelaide remains unclear. Padre Claude refuses to leave the island and hopes to reconcile with the natives once the infected folk are removed from the settlement. The laboratory and mission his life work.

Debt paid, we sail away and soon raid two military Iberian barques. We take one captive, sinking the other. We discover a multitude of giant limpet clams, which the Iberians planned to secure to the hull of a Breton flagship in order to sink it. Seriously damaged we sail into the Andros Islands and under our Gauloise flag enter Nicholls' Freeport for drydock repairs. The crew go ashore for a much earned respite while I as Captain visit the local governor.

One crewman has been assigned a vital task to infiltrate a loyalist rogue clique on board. He has much success and continues with his endeavours for the pirate brethren.

Spearmint
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Re: Captains Log:

#6 Post by Spearmint »

Guineaman report:

The party bribed the militia guards to 'turn a blind eye' to them sneaking aboard the supposedly haunted ghost ship, a former Guineaman slave vessel, stricken of masts and recently salvaged after being found drifting on the high seas. Listing to one side and anchored to the far jetty, the galleon is under the attentive watch of the conscripted guards, who shield themselves behind sandbagged cannon emplacements.

The 'sneak' aboard is abruptly halted at the first hurdle. A plank forms a bridge over a wide gap in the jetty and below, two kelp masses of Strangleweed lurk to snare the unwary. Alderhay is tripped and almost pulled off the plank but saved as Fenis hacks the grasping vine. Unfortunately the 1/2 orc loses his balance and falls into the deep, his chainmail armour weighing him down. In a frenzy of musket fire and blades the party attempt a rescue. It succeeds only as shaman Iggway casts light on a grapnel hook used as a fishing line, giving the orc something to grasp as entangling vines keep him drowning. The party win the 'tug of orc'.

Meanwhile Siggard casts a levitating spell (well, whatever 'floats his boat'), and investigates the forecastle of the ship. Descending to the prow deck he enters an unlocked door into the forward cabin. Halfling rogue Rene shelters within but he is exposed by a caged severed hand which animates to point him out. The cabin has been barricaded from the inside to prevent access from the deck and investigations show the trapdoor to the lower deck is warded by some type of clerical glyph. The rest of the party come amidships and split to explore areas of interest as wispy, etheral lights coalesce around the intruders, giving off an aura of dismay.

Alderhay, Van de Poel  and Ferrol are assaulted by cannonball throwing assailants. Rexlin and Fishy spar with severed hands on the mainmast from whose topsail swings the skeletal remains of Captain De la Vega. Stubble, given a surprising hand to load a cannon, chills out with some of Old Plighty's tobacco. Others enter the stern cabins, the doors held fast by some roguish 'hand'les. The Will O' the Wisp pastel balls  plunge the hallway into darkness as they crump across a trap of broken pottery, laid by nefarious ghouls who lurk in side cabins. Blows are critically traded before Iggway drives the undead away. Old Plighty announces a betrayal by the helping hand which strikes a light and ignites a gunpowder trail. The facial scarred dwarf fails by a whisker to diffuse the situation. The cannonball explosion devastates, blasting a hole open in the roof to the stern deck, through which now drops a viscous pool of ochre jelly. The party scramble to safety in the Captain's cabin.

Siggard is towed on an exploratory recce where he discovers the crucified remains of tribal chief Nyandoro. Alderhay braves the undead crawling claws to cut down the bones of the captain swinging from his noose. He acquires a gold, rune etched tooth, the Captains trenchcoat and the ship bell. Ringing the bell summons a zombie steward Clod, who assists the party with some background knowledge.

The ochre jelly is burnt to a shrivelled crisp. Searches uncover cannibalistic menus, a magic rebuking morningstar and a strange bone totem which when grasped causes the animation of Mr Bojangles, a four armed bone golem.

To add to the mayhem, a group sneak below to discover ghasts lurk in the middle cargo hold. Stubble does a 'do or die' surprise charge and critically 'does one' before retreating, the chasing ghast  then getting decapitated by the shot of the day, Zoggrot's surprise Stubby, (a pistol not the dwarf), maxing out brains everywhere. Exploration continues.

The severed hand band get diced and sliced but not before Siggard is almost fatally shot and a large pile of silver coins are found. Siggard finds his right hand doesn't know what his left hand is doing after the latter is washed in some soapy foam and turns invisible. Rexlin and Fishy   lose their orientation from a cursed sigil.

A scribing hand scripts art and spells in the quatermasters cabin, under the watchful gaze of a bog eyed toad. Potions and scrolls are taken, and spiritual hammers bless the cleric.

Zombie Clod leads the way to descend the algae covered stairs where confusion reigns. Obliviax steal spells and memory from a quartet of spell users, including Roger, the serpentile mage-head of Pocc's companion Ettin snake. Clod's helpful zombie presence is forgotten and he is turned, fleeing into the dark cursing his masters betrayal. He runs into the dagger of a lone figure sheltering in the bilge. The militia guard captain Thierry suffering amnesia and fearful of the lurking dead above. Alderhay decides to repatriate him back to shore. He is accompanied by Goldie, fear stricken by the crazy frog and Old Plighty.

Siggards desire to 'root out' the problem besetting them causes the briny moss to put several to 'Sleep' and 'Entangle' others. A 'Hypnotic Pattern' to snare the party permanently is thwarted only by elvish resistance, orcish ignorance and a hungry dwarf who bites a mannequin in his rage.
 
The party reconvene in the cabins to discuss options. During this break Alderhay returns, invigorated by a potion from the Grinning Ogre bartender Vladric. OP,  Goldie and Szmodics, fresh from a timber yard heist and a hippogriff's kicking, join him. Coming aboard they are assaulted by swooping carrion crows. The severed hands once more lynch their captain's skeletal body.

The driven away ghouls, (Doug, Dougal, and Douglas) are discovered and despatched and a new zombie aide is summoned, Cuadrado. Iggway
casts 'Speak with the Dead', questioning the spirit of the slain chief Nyandoro. Rene interprets, a gift of language from the totem. His birchbark canoe is requisitioned and paddled away in the night by Cuadrado under the wrathful command of an ogrish Alderhay. The vessel is loaded with the sailcloth wrapped remains of the chief for internment on home soil, being directed back to Green Turtle Bay by the navigational locket won by Szmodics and accompanied by the constant tolling of the ship's bell with each ebb of the waves.

Finally the party explore the remaining cabins venturing literally into 'the bowels of the ship' as a surprise metamorphosis takes place when the final door is opened.

Inside the purgatorial intestines, the team, a trio of which are enhanced with heroic levels of skill and health, battle the maggot lemure forms of the cursed crew and fight their way past some parasitical hemorrhoid ropers into a gut cavern.

Their nemesis awaits within, the mummified zombie figure of De la Vega, enveloped in a skin scroll like swaddling bandages. In a side cave a guardian wight whips lamentations from a choir of slave spirits. In the ensuing melee, several of the party get infected with a rotting disease and Ferrol literally has the breath taken from him.

Overwhelming numbers and critical hits eventually bring down the undead pair, Siggard's Africanus leopard toying with the wight's skull as a trophy. The skin scroll is unfurled off the Captain's burning and crumbling corpse to reveal the handprints of the crew, a signature to their evil deeds.

The chasing lemures catch up and with new spawned maggots attack. Fenis and Old Plighty fall as a defensive line shields the cleric and mage. The 'Black Devil's' covenant is finally broken under the intoning of the Remove Curse prayers as Siggard places the caged severed hand upon it's soul-sworn imprint.

The slave spirits are released as raging seawater enters the cavern, tearing away at the very fabric of the intestinal dimension, flushing everyone out to land in the flooded cargo deck. Potion sips prove a life saver. Together they lurch back down the jetty, ignoring a chance to delve the bilge for silver ingots. Bruised, battered, corrupted in flesh and smelling like shit, it is a wonder the Freeport militia don't mistake them as ghoulish figures and fire the cannons.

After an exhausted night in a local stable, the party recover, get cleansed and divide the plunder. Experience gained, they rejoin the McGregor's Revenge for the next adventure.

The End.

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