finales: Water Margin
For the last session of Water Margin, we started two hours early, to make room for more to happen-and it did.
We started out with looking at how Sammy Meing had dealt both with the records left by Colm MacConnell (the head of the Irish Triads in Portsmouth, whom the player characters had killed last time) and at how he had dealt with MacConnell's widow showing up in town, looking for lodging and for an accounting of her husband's assets, while Garth McBride and John Shilling borrowed her farmhouse as a base for harassing the Polish mercenaries who were besieging the city.
We went on to the campaign against the Poles. This began with an attempt to interrupt their supply line, which didn't work too well, as their supplies weren't being delivered-the Chinese fleet was staying in port, after several boiler explosions caused by previous sabotage of their coal supply with hidden charges of gunpowder. Garth, John, and John Sunday carried out a couple of raids on the site of the docks the Poles were using, which tended to be unexpectedly combative, as the Poles' officer in charge was a better tactician than they had expected, and anticipated their next moves. Seeing that the size of the Polish garrison was increasing, they moved back to the main Polish base, where they carried out a stratagem involving Sammy and a wagon of supplies that happened to have sixty pounds of gunpowder concealed under the beer and bacon. That killed off enough of the Poles so they were able to mop up the rest, with the help of some volunteers from Portsmouth.
They then made a trip to London, where they bought a lot of goods that had been scarce in Portsmouth, including medical supplies for Sunday. John took their ally Kenneth Stark to a swordsmith to whom they had previously sold some Wootz steel from India at a good price, and who owed them a favor, and told him that they were transferring the favor to Stark, who needed a new and really good two-handed sword. (This gave them a solid relationship with Stark!) Garth announced a prize fight against "all comers," with a prize to anyone who lasted three rounds with him. He actually had to pay up to the first two, which produced some very intense betting against him. It didn't slow down when he beat the third man. The fourth turned out to be nearly as skilled as Garth was, and lasted two rounds with him, nearly taking him out of action once, before Garth landed a sound blow to his solar plexus (no head blows, as this was bare-knuckle boxing). That was spectacular enough so that the betting on the last two fights, which Garth won, was slow-but they went home with a fair bit of money. Garth complimented his opponent, David Jones, on his skill, and the two agreed to schedule a rematch and charge admission.
Back in Portsmouth, they decided to try to complete their victory by sneaking into the Chinese admiral's house on the Isle of Wight and blowing the admiral up. They got in touch with Woo Munglee, the local Eye of Heaven, who agreed to help them sneak in, but warned them that afterward he would make sure the fleet knew how they had done it, so that no one could blow up the next admiral. They accepted-but once the charges were planted, John cut Woo's throat and left him hidden in a closet next to the bomb. As they rowed away, they heard an earth-shattering kaboom. . . .
And we ended with two cliffhanger scenes: Sammy, who was half Chinese, deciding whether to turn John, Garth, and Sunday over to the Eyes of Heaven; and Bride O'Donal, an agent of the Eyes of Heaven who had been posing as Garth's fiancée, hearing Garth's story of how Woo had died ("He was killed during the mission and we had to leave him behind"), spotting that Garth was lying, and concealing her own reaction to the lie. So if there were going to be a second season we would have a plot all ready for it. . . .
We started out with looking at how Sammy Meing had dealt both with the records left by Colm MacConnell (the head of the Irish Triads in Portsmouth, whom the player characters had killed last time) and at how he had dealt with MacConnell's widow showing up in town, looking for lodging and for an accounting of her husband's assets, while Garth McBride and John Shilling borrowed her farmhouse as a base for harassing the Polish mercenaries who were besieging the city.
We went on to the campaign against the Poles. This began with an attempt to interrupt their supply line, which didn't work too well, as their supplies weren't being delivered-the Chinese fleet was staying in port, after several boiler explosions caused by previous sabotage of their coal supply with hidden charges of gunpowder. Garth, John, and John Sunday carried out a couple of raids on the site of the docks the Poles were using, which tended to be unexpectedly combative, as the Poles' officer in charge was a better tactician than they had expected, and anticipated their next moves. Seeing that the size of the Polish garrison was increasing, they moved back to the main Polish base, where they carried out a stratagem involving Sammy and a wagon of supplies that happened to have sixty pounds of gunpowder concealed under the beer and bacon. That killed off enough of the Poles so they were able to mop up the rest, with the help of some volunteers from Portsmouth.
They then made a trip to London, where they bought a lot of goods that had been scarce in Portsmouth, including medical supplies for Sunday. John took their ally Kenneth Stark to a swordsmith to whom they had previously sold some Wootz steel from India at a good price, and who owed them a favor, and told him that they were transferring the favor to Stark, who needed a new and really good two-handed sword. (This gave them a solid relationship with Stark!) Garth announced a prize fight against "all comers," with a prize to anyone who lasted three rounds with him. He actually had to pay up to the first two, which produced some very intense betting against him. It didn't slow down when he beat the third man. The fourth turned out to be nearly as skilled as Garth was, and lasted two rounds with him, nearly taking him out of action once, before Garth landed a sound blow to his solar plexus (no head blows, as this was bare-knuckle boxing). That was spectacular enough so that the betting on the last two fights, which Garth won, was slow-but they went home with a fair bit of money. Garth complimented his opponent, David Jones, on his skill, and the two agreed to schedule a rematch and charge admission.
Back in Portsmouth, they decided to try to complete their victory by sneaking into the Chinese admiral's house on the Isle of Wight and blowing the admiral up. They got in touch with Woo Munglee, the local Eye of Heaven, who agreed to help them sneak in, but warned them that afterward he would make sure the fleet knew how they had done it, so that no one could blow up the next admiral. They accepted-but once the charges were planted, John cut Woo's throat and left him hidden in a closet next to the bomb. As they rowed away, they heard an earth-shattering kaboom. . . .
And we ended with two cliffhanger scenes: Sammy, who was half Chinese, deciding whether to turn John, Garth, and Sunday over to the Eyes of Heaven; and Bride O'Donal, an agent of the Eyes of Heaven who had been posing as Garth's fiancée, hearing Garth's story of how Woo had died ("He was killed during the mission and we had to leave him behind"), spotting that Garth was lying, and concealing her own reaction to the lie. So if there were going to be a second season we would have a plot all ready for it. . . .