(no subject)
Chasing the letter and map purloined from a dead pirate, they found a ship (the Accidental Sardine) and captain who would take them to their destination - or rather, they encouraged one of the crew of a poorly-maintained small sailing ship, whose captain was missing, to self-promote himself (Captain Blythe) and take them there. The captain, four NPC sailors, and the PCs filled out the crew of the ship.
On a stormy night they reached the archipelago informally known as The Feet. The arch consists of four islands, only one inhabited, where the mostly human and orc natives eke out a living mining and selling a mineral secretion with applications to necrotic rituals and formulae. One night in port was enough - everyone there is pretty sketchy - so they left the next morning for their destination, the small island at the far side of the Feet, whose shoreline consists almost entirely of cliffs; the map finds only one candidate beach for landing, within a cove, offering protection from the elements.
The weather, in the afternoon the PCs arrive, was a dreary rain. Nearing the cove, they saw Steeljack's ship - the Integral Hatchet - already anchored, and stopped just in sight of it; after a bit of argument with the cowardly captain, who wanted to turn and run, the ship was attacked by Malasp merfolk, who shot a bone spear through the bottom of the ship's hull and harnessed a giant octopus to it, intending to dash it on rocks. A brief fight nearly killed the octopus, and dropped the merfolk minions, but the merfolk leaders escaped, taking their large beast of burden with them.
Steeljack's ship noticed at this point and fired a cannonball, narrowly missing, and a second magically-enhanced one followed a curving path to miss by even less as they moved out of line of sight. But the Sardine cannot sail with the harpoon through it.
Repairs: they intended to send Tryn underwater to saw off the harpoon's front and back, so the ship would be seaworthy, but they were interrupted by something walking on the bottom toward the ship. Tryn resurfaced, pulled in, and a wight, underwater, touched the harpoon, sending necrotic energy through the dead bone - temporarily paralyzing the people in the Sardine's bilge - and the wight with its skeletal soldiers began boarding.
The fight was brief, but the wight managed to further weaken the harpoon, leaving them no more than an hour before the harpoon shatters and the holes in the structure it is plugging become freely-flooding breeches; they need to beach the Sardine to effect repairs and prevent it sinking.
Meanwhile, Vaars, the wizard, believes something was odd about this wight; at the least the method of its construction (or raising) was not typical, but he was able to discern no further details; this nevertheless added to the disquiet about the whole adventure.
With a ship taking on water and about to breech, they believe they have no choice but to assault the beach where Steeljack's crew is located; they identify a spot where a hard climb might let the crew into the interior of the island. They have only a rough map of the island's interior, and the location of the still-unknown treasure. It would be a near thing even to reach Steeljack's landing before the Sardine sinks, and they don't know what they'll find there. The Hatchet is a larger ship than the Sardine, armed, with a pirate crew, so a frontal assault is certainly impossible.
On a stormy night they reached the archipelago informally known as The Feet. The arch consists of four islands, only one inhabited, where the mostly human and orc natives eke out a living mining and selling a mineral secretion with applications to necrotic rituals and formulae. One night in port was enough - everyone there is pretty sketchy - so they left the next morning for their destination, the small island at the far side of the Feet, whose shoreline consists almost entirely of cliffs; the map finds only one candidate beach for landing, within a cove, offering protection from the elements.
The weather, in the afternoon the PCs arrive, was a dreary rain. Nearing the cove, they saw Steeljack's ship - the Integral Hatchet - already anchored, and stopped just in sight of it; after a bit of argument with the cowardly captain, who wanted to turn and run, the ship was attacked by Malasp merfolk, who shot a bone spear through the bottom of the ship's hull and harnessed a giant octopus to it, intending to dash it on rocks. A brief fight nearly killed the octopus, and dropped the merfolk minions, but the merfolk leaders escaped, taking their large beast of burden with them.
Steeljack's ship noticed at this point and fired a cannonball, narrowly missing, and a second magically-enhanced one followed a curving path to miss by even less as they moved out of line of sight. But the Sardine cannot sail with the harpoon through it.
Repairs: they intended to send Tryn underwater to saw off the harpoon's front and back, so the ship would be seaworthy, but they were interrupted by something walking on the bottom toward the ship. Tryn resurfaced, pulled in, and a wight, underwater, touched the harpoon, sending necrotic energy through the dead bone - temporarily paralyzing the people in the Sardine's bilge - and the wight with its skeletal soldiers began boarding.
The fight was brief, but the wight managed to further weaken the harpoon, leaving them no more than an hour before the harpoon shatters and the holes in the structure it is plugging become freely-flooding breeches; they need to beach the Sardine to effect repairs and prevent it sinking.
Meanwhile, Vaars, the wizard, believes something was odd about this wight; at the least the method of its construction (or raising) was not typical, but he was able to discern no further details; this nevertheless added to the disquiet about the whole adventure.
With a ship taking on water and about to breech, they believe they have no choice but to assault the beach where Steeljack's crew is located; they identify a spot where a hard climb might let the crew into the interior of the island. They have only a rough map of the island's interior, and the location of the still-unknown treasure. It would be a near thing even to reach Steeljack's landing before the Sardine sinks, and they don't know what they'll find there. The Hatchet is a larger ship than the Sardine, armed, with a pirate crew, so a frontal assault is certainly impossible.