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Pocc unsure i can do much of anything coughs more of the green sludge out of his mouth as he weakly says "Iiii..ss tha..t yyyy...ouu Rex?"

Szmodics

Taps a few of the clams with his sword testing how stuck they are to the wall. With the Captain at his back (literally especially after the whip lashing), Szmodics tries to get in his good books. Does it look like the ones on the wall are placed in any kind of order, are they moving about? Can he check out the alcove without having to walk through the reef diarama?

Rexlin

"Bet your green ass it's Rexlin!" he says harshly, but is smiling despite himself as he gives the druid a few hardy slaps on the back to 'help' get the crud out. He does turn and notice Fishy is also i bad shape and looks dismayed until he sees Iggy tending to him. He nods to himself and hollars. "Time for a new tattoo, Green Gills! I'm payin!"

Iggway keeps tending to Fishy. She rolls him to his side, so he doesn't aspirate more fluid. She will heal him if need be. Fishy, can you hear me?

Aftermath:

Zoggrot and his comrades raid the cabins. Each has claimed a share of the various spoils, stuffing silver service trinkets and articles into their waist belts. By artful skill the half-orc buccaneer picks the banded chest lock and avoids breaking the vial of pressurized 'golem' gas. He debates trying to remove the trap altogether but firstly heaps handfuls of doubloons into his pocket as a 'brethren's tithe' is creamed off the top. The chest is stuck to the floor and so is unable to be moved to the other ship. 1,500golden doubloons are added to the McGregor trove as greedy eyes look on in anticipation of a bounteous share. The rug only hides a bare floor and may be taken away.

Geoffrey takes the prisoners and lines them up. The old sailors are eager to please their bosses and help with running out new sail cloth from the stores. He over sees them and Rico hands him the Cat O'Nine to bring any dissenters gently into order. (Geoff roll me a 4d6 if you know any Iberian language).

Szmodics and Siggard seek to impress Captain Lazarus with their investigations. Both seem to come to the same conclusion without actually giving voice to their fears. Szmodics puts his best feet forward and steps into the pool diorama. The clams that are submerged move ever so slowly and they immediately suction themselves to the fake coral reef when they feel the vibration through the waters of him walking through the pool. The clams stuck to the wall are immovable despite some best efforts to lever them away. You notice that the gummy ring marks on the metal wall have tiny scratches within each circle. Siggard tries to sack up the broken slime of the mashed mollusc. With no bones to hold it together it slips and slides like jelly in his hands. Within the bowels of the numerous molar teeth you note a lustrous apple white small pearl. (100gp value)

"I smell a lot of bull going on down here Hagslayer," says Lazarus, sidestepping a huge patty on the floor.

Iggway brings the injured around, distributing healing virtue as needed and accounting for any potions taken to heal the crew. Pocc, Rexlin and Fishy come around for a big brotherly love in.

can everyone please remember to adjust character sheets for inventory and current hit points. Everyone give me the next post please.

Siggard laughs loudly at the captains "bull" joke.
"Yes Captain, sir! That would have been me sir. Perhaps we can have the wolf brats clean up down here as well, sir? If you can forgive the cow pies on the floor for now, it really was a most effective way to get rid of marines without them shooting holes all over the hull, sir!"

The mage slaps his own forehead as he lets out his last few words.

"Oh for fucks sake! I just had another thought, sir! These huge limpets hanging everywhere are not here to be studied. I think they are far more useful than that. We need to get a man or 2 into the water, sir! RIGHT NOW!!! I think these bastards are using the limpets to slowly drill holes into the sides of ships, sinking them to the bottom without so much as one cannon fired, sir! The sailor dressed in nothing but his skivvies was bringing one up to the deck when I shot him in the head. The limpet instantly started chewing a hole through the wooden hull of this ship. I think those men we pulled from the water were down there attaching these damn things to the hull of the McGregor, sir! Savvy?"

Rexlin

Once he knows the others are going to be okay, he begins taking part in the looting of the other ship, using his experience to looking in nooks and crannies that others might have looked over, retrieving his muskets from the deck as he does.

Iggway is thankful her healing efforts are working for the crew. She heads back to where she left Sig and Szmodics, she's slightly nervous to see what they have found behind the metal door and if she can be of any help to them.

Szmodics

"Captain Sir, I pulled four men from the water. I thought they may have dived overboard when the big stink went off. Mr Blood has them lined up for questioning." Szmodics adds and thinks about how the sailors took them off the wall. The golem was in here, with some sparking spear. He will check out the alcove and that small hole in the wall.

Hearing the commotion on deck, Zoggrot pockets the trapped lock for later use or inspection and rushes back to see what the hubbub is about.

Aftermath:

Zoggrot tweaks and twists his lock-picks to secure the vial in place and carefully saws around the edge to dismantle the gas trap and use its potential later. Despite a previous warning that removing the trap was a risky business, the half=orc pushes his luck. Too far though, a nick cracks the pressurized vial and a cloud of noxious poison bursts into the cabin. Zoggrot coughs and chokes momentarily before stumbling out into the light of day on deck, his constitution hardy enough to withstand the Iberians concoction.

Zoggrot remove traps vs 35% [1d100] = 94
poison saving throw [1d20] = 13 (sorry Zog, I wrote before in your PM forum you would need a successful remove traps to take it away from the chest. Still enough dust and residue remains spread around the chest to perhaps do a little sweep into a thimble and study for later use).

Pocc is ushered into the metal aquarium room and shown the large clams. Captain Lazarus asks if you can identify them?

Pocc hard wisdom check vs 14. [4d6] = 13 They are giant forms of limpets. giant forms for most of the snail molluscs you have seen are less than hand sized. these are the circumference of dustbin lids. Pocc goes into his 'thesis' mode, "Sir Captain Sir, ... ...The common name "limpet" also is applied to a number of not very closely related groups of sea snails and freshwater snails (aquatic gastropod mollusks). Thus the common name "limpet" has very little taxonomic significance in and of itself; the name is applied not only to true limpets (the Patellogastropoda), but also to all snails that have a simple shell that is broadly conical in shape, and either is not spirally coiled, or appears not to be coiled in the adult snail. In other words, the shell of all limpets is "patelliform", which means the shell is shaped more or less like the shell of most true limpets. The term "false limpets" is used for some (but not all) of these other groups that have a conical shell.
...Thus, the name limpet is used to describe various extremely diverse groups of gastropods that have independently evolved a shell of the same basic shape (see convergent evolution). And although the name "limpet" is given on the basis of a limpet-like or "patelliform" shell, the several groups of snails that have a shell of this type are not at all closely related to one another. In order to obtain food, limpets rely on an organ called the radula, which contains iron-mineralized teeth.[5] Although limpets contain over 100 rows of teeth, only the outermost 10 are used in feeding.[6] These teeth form via matrix-mediated biomineralization, a cyclic process involving the delivery of iron minerals to reinforce a polymeric chitin matrix.[5][7] Upon being fully mineralized, the teeth reposition themselves within the radula, allowing limpets to scrape off algae from rock surfaces. As limpet teeth wear out, they are subsequently degraded (occurring anywhere between 12 and 48 hours)[6] and replaced with new teeth. Different limpet species exhibit different overall shapes of their teeth.

Growth and development: ...
Development of limpet teeth occurs in a conveyor-belt style manner, where teeth start growing at the back of the radula, and move toward the front of this structure as they mature.[9] The growth rate of the limpet’s teeth is around 0.51 rows a day.[10] Fully mature teeth are located in the scraping zone, the very front of the radula. The scraping zone is in contact with the substrate that the limpet feeds off of. As a result, the fully mature teeth are subsequently worn down until they are discarded - at a rate equal to the growth rate.[10] To counter this degradation, a new row of teeth begin to grow. that's all, Captain Sir."he says saluting.


Rows upon rows of concentric large grinding teeth and a very strong suction to grip the beasties onto the walls. A realisation that the Iberians may have gone overboard and stuck several of these limpets along the hull of the McGregor dawns upon the gathered folk. Siggard voices the conclusion correctly.

"Sister Iggway, you have potions taken from the Iberians at the salters cottage. They will enable sailors to breath underwater. Gather four men and Fishy, get diving and see what the situation is. We are dire straits if time is short, we cannot be holed. Szmodics, you went into the bilge before, go again to check your work and seal any new spawned leakage. " Lazarus orders and goes upstairs to interrogate the prisoners.

Geoffrey whips them into shape. He understands the curses well enough, defiantly speaking back despite several slashes of the cat o'nine which fails to break their spirits. Lazarus summarily shots one in the head at point blank range and loads his pistol to aim at the next. The men soon confess to attaching the shell mines and scorn your sloop as doomed.

Rexlin, Geoffrey Fishy, Siggard, Pocc and Zoggrot are all commissioned to locate the limpets and find a way to unstick them before they chew their way through the hull and sink the sloop. Szmodics sent once again to the bilge, Iggway may volunteer to join either course of action.

next actions please folk.

Pocc has nothing else to do at this time besides head back to being treated for the golem's poison...though not before assisting in removing the Clams.

Geoffrey suggests they might want to purposefully list the boat to one side, exposing the other half the keel. Moving heavy cannon and cargo to one side might be enough, also swinging the sails one direction to cause drag on sided.


Then, they could tie down a couple of men to hack away at the limpets with swords until dead or removed. Once one side is clean, repeat on other side.

Rexlin

After seeing to Pocc and Fishy he nods to his orders. Aye, aye, Captain, Sir!" he joins the others on thr Limped teams and claps young Geoffery on the back, thinking it sounds like genius to him. In the meantime, he leans over the rail, curious to see if any are visible and possibly within musketshot.

Szmodics salutes the Captain. He would rather go overboard but obeys the order to check on the bilge again. He leaves checking out the alcove and the small plug hole until later.

returning to the McGregor he checks he can identify any more of those blood sucking leeches with a visit pass the galley medics, before grabbing a lantern and more buckets of tar pitch to plaster over any seepage and gnawed out wood.

Siggard almost jumps at the chance to try one of the magical potions that will allow him to breathe under the water.

"Sir, Captain, sir! I would be happy to lead a team, well, perhaps just Gin and I, to go below the surface of the waves to investigate the damage to the hull, sir. The creatures seem to release their powerful suction once their outer shells are smashed, as was witnessed by the one that was crushed by the cannon ball. So, maybe we each bring a hammer of some kind to se if that works in removing them?, sir?"

If offered one of the potions, he and Gin will split it evenly and rope off to the side of the ship so as not to sink to the bottom with the heavy hammers. They both impressively swan dive over the rails and into the water, swimming below the waterline to see what they can find.

If Geoffrey's brilliant suggestion is used, and the ship is able to be listed to one side, the duo will investigate opposite the side that is raised.

Iggway listens to the Captain's orders...Yes, Captain, I have them here! She distributes the 2 potions from her medicine bag to the team. Siggard, this one's for you and Vande to use, drink half so you don't drown yourselves down there. She hands the other vial to Rexlin. Share this with Geoffrey, Fishy should be able to manage without it. She begins chanting to Stoneribs, a hero, the Ancient Indians painted stories about, may his fish-like abilities aid the men with saving the McGregor. Iggway goes into a trancelike state trying to commune with him.

The Clam Hunt:


Suggestions are made to deal with the limpet search. Listing the boat may work on some racing yacht around Port Royal harbour but forcefully tipping a 200+ ton 90' ft vessel is impossible. Only one way to see if more than barnacles are stuck to the hull and that is to look for yourselves. In the water you need to go. Water breathing potions are handed out. The 'press-ganged' volunteers quaff the briny tasting liquid and strip off. (minus the potions from your inventory please Iggway).

Siggard, Pocc, Rexlin, Zoggrot, Geoffrey, Van de Poel and Fishy jump. let me know what armour you wear if any and if you carry any weapons to prise the limpets off with. (otherwise I'll narrate you strip to basic AC and equip with the hammer and chisels from the galley stores as suggested).

The three Iberian marines are clubbed unconscious, bound tightly by hands and feet and then summarily thrown into the metal lined room with a splash. Their bleeding cuts and wounds arouse the placid limpets who slowly at snail mollusc pace crawl off the reef diorama inexorably towards the floating bodies. Overwhelmed by the numerous grinding teeth finding tasty morsels of meaty flesh to chew, the Iberian men are eaten alive. Captain Lazarus watches grimly through the porthole window, "So be it to any who dares sink us." The settler women look on equally distressed by the painful cries of the suffering men. Lazarus acknowledges their displeasure but goes on unrepentant, leaving he men to their gruesome fate."Mr Crowthorne, a prayerful silence for the dead and dying if you please." Elijah casts a 'Silence 15'radius into the metal room to drown out but not drown the snail bait.

Szmodics crawls into the bilge space. Before he goes he taps Iggway upon the shoulders,"Sister Iggway, please, I need some assistance in the bilge. But not to secure any leaks I cannot trust the others with what they will find there."he whispers and nods in the direction of his Breton friends. Szmodics scoots off quickly, going below decks and into the crawl space of the lower hull bilge. (Iggway, let me know if you follow Szmodics or remain on top deck).


Everyone give me an action post please.

Pocc strips down to just his basic clothing and takes naught but a hammer and chisel to do the underwater work.