Pirates of the Caribbean: A Skull & Bones campaign

[RichGreen]

Session #11

Saturday 27th May (contd)

The rogues (well, the pirates) are a-plotting for much of the afternoon: a sleeping drug is bought at great expense from an apothecary and a cross-dressed Merritt scouts out the Governor’s Palace in a widow’s outfit.

At 8pm, Carlos del Diaz escorts Bloody Mary to the ball with Merritt along as her page boy. Peregrine also gets inside the ball, using a stolen invitation. Meanwhile, Rodrigo climbs on to the roof and then inside through a top floor window. William stays on watch in the Plaza Mayor. As Rodrigo sneaks about upstairs, trying to avoid the eyes and ears of the guards, Mary and Peregrine are tripping the light fantastic, and on the whole managing to not make fools on themselves on the dance floor. Merritt has been put to work in the kitchens, bringing canapes and glasses of wines to the frolicking nobility. During his trips back and forth to the kitchens, he observes a tray of food being taken through a mysterious locked door. By questionning the other lads, he learns that this door leads down to the dungeons beneath the palace where Clever Dick is being held until his execution tomorrow.

Outside, William is getting bored when suddenly, a hideous undead form appears in front of the palace entrance, coalescing from a swirling cloud of tomb dust. Cuauhtemoc has arrived at the ball! The mummy kills both guards and goes inside; William, brave enough to resist the aura of despair surrounding the unliving thing follows at a safe distance.
Cuauhtemoc wreaks havoc in the foyer and then moves into the ballroom, causing mass hysteria among the assembled nobility of Cartagena. Bloody Mary, Peregrine and Merritt are all paralysed with fear at his appearance, and Peregrine is doubly unfortunate to be standing in the way and is struck hard with a vicious slam attack. Realising what he is looking for is not in the ballroom, Cuauhtemoc heads upstairs where Rodrigo has been spotted by the guards and shot at by one of them. Rodrigo tries to dive out of the window when the mummy approaches but misjudges his leap and just ends up crashing to the floor. Fortunately, Cuauhtemoc ignores him, bashing down the door into the governor’s study and retrieving what he was looking for – an obsidian tablet – from inside a secret compartment concealed behind one of the bookcases.

Back downstairs, Merritt has shrugged off his fear of the living dead and headed down into the dungeons, closely followed by the captain, William and Peregrine. Merritt’s shout of “the French are attacking!” is enough to send the gullible prison guards racing upstairs, and the pirates are able to spring Clever Dick Richards from his cell after Bloody Mary has won over the dog holding the cell keys. Having achieved their objective, they hurry back to the ship. Upstairs, with Cuauhtemoc nowhere to be seen, Rodrigo picks himself up off the floor and peers into the study where he is happily surprised to find a bag holding 1,000 doubloons and several nice-looking pieces of jewellery left inside the governor’s secret cache. Grabbing the loot, he too makes haste for the Fortune.

Back on the ship, Clever Dick reveals the hiding place of his piece of the treasure map: it’s been tattooed on to his head! Bloody Mary calls for the ship’s barber.

Peregrine is not in a good way – he appears to be suffering from a terrible rotting disease.

 

[RichGreen]

Session #12 Disaster!

Sunday 28th May to Tuesday 30th May

The Fortune sails to Hispaniola. Simon Belmont and Merritt work day and night to keep the disease ravaging Peregrine at bay. The captain spends her time contemplating how best to assertain whether Rodrigo handed over all of the treasure he found in the governor of Cartagena’s mansion or not.


Wednesday 31st May

Arrive off the coast of Saint Domingue. Captain Flint, William and Merritt and four crewmen row the ship’s boat into the bayou with the ailing Peregrine on board. As the mist closes in William is able to direct the rowers in the right direction but none of the pirates spots the two jaguar-sized green lizardlike monsters that leap out of the trees and into the boat! These creatures give off a poisonous gas as they attack that seeps into the blood of the men of the Fortune: enough to send Peregrine hurtling towards the very gates of Hell itself! [loses a life] There is a savage battle, and three sailors and Bloody Mary are next to fall victim to the jaws of the vicious reptiles [also loses a life]. Merritt manages to strike an effective blow on his assailant but it’s William who lands a killer blow on one of the monsters, sending its companion scurrying back into the branches of the cypresses.
Despite the casualties, William and Merritt have little choice but to press on towards Madame Laveau’s hut. Fortunately, the voodoo priestess is able to bring both Peregrine and the captain back from the brink. With William’s help, she performs a magic ritual and breaks the curse on Peregrine, allowing her to cure the rotting disease he is suffering from. She warns the pirates that they must make all haste in stopping Cuauhtemoc: each Tablet he finds grants him increased magical power.


Thursday 1st June

As the Fortune heads for the Yucatan and the pirate port of Hell’s Cove, the ship’s lookouts spy a Spanish merchantman and the captain gives the order to intercept. The Spanish ship, a brigantine named Nuestra Senora del Rosario attempts to outrun the Fortune but the pirates are too close. The Nuestra Senora fires first with its front cannons, inflicting quite a bit of damage to the Fortune. Bloody Mary is not deterred and unleashes a broadside. Unfortunately, this does not have the desired effect and the Nuestra Senora continues to maneuvre away from the pirate sloop. Captain Flint orders the Fortune to move alongside, aware that she is risking a broadside from the Spaniards by doing so. The Nuestra Senora fires all 10 of its broadside culverin, hitting the Fortune hard. Realising that her ship is about to sink, Bloody Mary orders her men to board the brigantine. Despite being outnumbered more than two to one, the men of the Fortune charge on to the Spanish ship. They are heartened by the presence of their captain and some flashy swordplay from Peregrine but this isn’t enough. Once ten of their number have fallen in battle with the enemy, the pirates surrender.

As Bloody Mary and her officers lower their weapons, a smartly dressed Spaniard approaches and introduces himself as Secretario General d’Oficina Finanza Senor Nicholas Chirino. Peregrine’s challenge to a duel is accepted: the secretario is lightning fast and the duel is over before it’s begun. Chirino offers the pirates a deal: if they accompany him to Santo Domingo and help him with a problem he has there, he will spare their lives and those of their crew. Bloody Mary has little choice but to accept. As much as possible is moved off the Fortune on to the Nuestra Senora before the ship sinks below the waves.


Saturday 3rd June

The Nuestra Senora arrives in Santo Domingo where, according to the secretario, many of the town’s slaves are fleeing into the jungles of the island’s interior and not returning. Armed parties sent to bring them back have disappeared. The secretario wants Bloody Mary and her men to look into this matter for him.

In the inn where the pirates have a drink when they first come ashore, an old black guy cleaning the tables is muttering “he is coming” under his breath. Meeting with the secretario, they talk about what happened in Cartagena and explain their theory that Cuauhtemoc might well be on his way to Santo Domingo. After a bit of investigation, the pirates next call on Father Jeremy, an aged hougan living in a hut at the edge of the town. Once they’ve told him their theories, Jeremy produces an obsidian tablet from under a cloth: one of the Tablets of the Smoking Mirror. He is happy to give it to the pirates, and also hands them a feathered stick which they can show to the slaves as a token of trust from Father Jeremy.

 

[ninthcouncil]

This, children, is what happens when your Captain sends an e-mail around the group the morning of the game, swearing that she's going to go up a level this session even if it means attacking everything we meet, including small children and ducks. And, so it transpires, vastly superior Spanish vessels.

Oh well, some things are improving; that's two combats in a row in which Merritt has taken part without ending up unconscious.

 

[RichGreen]

Unlucky 13th Session

Sunday 4th June

The mission to bring back the runaway slaves gets underway, with Bloody Mary, Rodrigo, Merritt and William heading inland from Santo Domingo. They pass through miles of sugar plantations before reaching the edge of the jungle at midday, with William and Merritt using their tracking skills to work out where the slaves went.

After a couple of hours of slogging through the jungle in the heat, the pirates decide to stop for a rest. Just as they do so, Merritt catches sight of something metal glinting in the sunlight: a rapier with an eagle-headed hilt is sticking out of the ground. As he goes to investigate, he discovers the mangled remains of two Spanish soldiers in the undergrowth. While some of the others move up to take a look, Rodrigo, at the rear of the group, is pounced on by a giant jaguar with six legs and two large tentacles growing from its shoulder. A desperate fight against the jaguar takes place: the beast lands many savage blows with its tentacles and bite on the party, but is itself very hard to hit, appearing to be somewhere slightly different than where it actually is. Bloody Mary and Rodrigo go down first, followed by Merritt and William…..


A few days (?) later, the former men (and women) of the Fortune come round: Bloody Mary has another hideous scar, this one on her neck [loses a life], and Merritt has lost an eye. Even worse, Rodrigo and William have both lost an arm to the jaguar! Merritt attends to their wounds to make sure they are cauterized and not infected: he does well, despite his lack of depth perception. With no real alternative, they decide to press on and find the slaves.

After an hour or so of walking through the jungle, the pirates come to a small river. Merritt and William are both worried about piranhas, but the Captain steps into the shallow stream and just wades ahead, using a stick and a weird dance routine to make sure she isn’t going to fall into a hole. Although this looks daft, she gets across safely. Merritt and William follow and are attacked by a swarm of piranhas! They do, however, manage to get to the other side with just a few minor wounds. Rodrigo is last to go: he takes a run up and spectacularly leaps the 20’ stream in a single bound.

Beyond the stream, the jungle gets thicker and the trail easier to follow, as the slaves started hacking their way through. The pirates emerge in a clearing with a depression straight ahead, crossed by a fallen tree. Rodrigo tries to jump on to the tree, slips, and falls down into the depression beneath. William and Merritt walk down into the dip, up the other side, and across to where there is a trail leaving the clearing. The captain decides to go round the outside of the clearing, through the undergrowth. Unfortunately, she is attacked by a large humanoid plant creature with nasty-looking spikes protruding from its body. Bloody Mary shoots at it, but her bullet has little effect; she decides a hasty retreat would be a good idea. The others resist being entangled by the undergrowth which has been animated by the plant monster, and move out of the clearing and down the path into the jungle. The creature hits the captain again, hard, but she manages to get out of its immediate vicinity and uses one of Madame Laveau’s concoctions to heal her wounds.

The trail throught the foliage leads into another clearing, this one is dominated by an enormous black monolith, a jagged shard of crystal 12 feet tall. As well as the footprints of the slaves, William and Merritt spot small webbed footprints. There is some speculation that these are from ducks, but this seems unlikely. As the pirates look around, thorns erupt from Bloody Mary’s face, causing her terrible pain and shocking the others!

Pressing on, the party enter another clearing with a large boulder shaped liked a coiled snake in its centre; yellow flowers and moss grow in the cracks between its coils. From here, they reach a bigger clearing, now home to about sixty slaves. The slaves are wary of the one-armed, battle-scarred pirates at first, but Merritt talks to them reassuringly and shows them Father Jeremy’s token. He explains that they are here to help and will draw Cuauhtemoc away from their homes. The slaves agree to return to Santo Domingo with the pirates, but suggest that they talk to the frog people about a safer route back to the coast.

 

[ninthcouncil]

Oh well, some things are improving; that's two combats in a row in which Merritt has taken part without ending up unconscious.

I knew that was tempting fate... while the Week 12 debacle was down to sheer recklessness, this week's bloodbath (unlucky 13, eh?) was partly down to our utter inability to roll dice, especially trying to get evens on d6 to bypass the displacement effect.

It's also clear that a setting which discourages armour and where the PC's don't have magic items throws the CR system right out of whack; what should have been moderately challenging for a party of four at 3rd level turned into a TPK (mollified by the "lives" lost and "afflictions" gained, but a TPK nevertheless).

But we're proper pirates now, with hooks and eye-patches and everything; arr!

 

[RichGreen]

Session #14

Thursday 8th June

After spending the night in the jungle clearing with the escaped slaves, the pirates decide that Merritt is the best person to negotiate with the frog people given the wealth of languages he is able to speak. The young lad advances cautiously towards the tree huts, initially unable to spot the brightly-coloured grippli who are training their bows in his direction. He bows, waves Father Jeremy’s feathered stick and tries several languages, getting a reaction from the frog-like humanoids when he speaks Spanish. Merritt explains that he and his friends are looking for a safe way out of the jungle and offers shiny doubloons and pieces of eight in exchange for this information. A large, bright green grippli gives directions once Merritt and Bloody Mary have filled the basket he lowers down on a rope with gold and silver coins.

Following the directions given by the frog people, the pirates head out of the clearing to the south-west where they spot a familiar-looking head peaking out of a pool of quicksand. It’s Peregrine! The swashbuckling fop had formed a rescue party with four men from the Fortune when the others didn’t returns as expected. His companions had succumbed to the dangers of the rainforest, but Peregrine is lucky and is soon rescued by his shipmates. Reunited, they head back to fetch the slaves which they nearly forgot to bring along with them.

Climbing up a set of giant-sized ruined steps covered in vines, the pirates and slaves head south towards the coast. After an hour or so, a jaguar appears from the undergrowth and then pulls back the skin on its head to revealing the bright pink muscles and bone underneath. This freaks out one of the slaves who runs into the bushes. There are some growls and a bloodcurdling scream which is cut short very quickly! Since the strange jaguar has run off after the fleeing slave, the pirates decide to press on. Later, when they reach the river mentioned by the frog-people and spot a winged snake, they refuse to be distracted from their mission and carry on marching south.

Towards the end of the day, the column of weary travellers comes out of the jungle and into the sugar plantations around Santo Domingo. Here, the slaves head back to their homes, with the pirates talking to the plantation foremen to stress that the slaves are not to be punished. They then head into town, stopping off to see Father Jeremy; Bloody Mary is very disappointed that the hougan does not have any lotions or potions for sale. He does, however, advise them to keep hold of the feathered stick he gave them as this may come in handy.

After chatting to Father Jeremy, Bloody Mary and her men head to the Secretario’s hotel. The Spanish official is impressed that they have managed to rescue the slaves and issues the pirates with a pardon in the name of King Charles II. Unfortunately, he has changed his mind about taking them to the Yucatan: the obsidian tablet being a major factor in this decision. Tapping the Secretario with the feathered stick has no effect, so Mary decides they will just have to steal one of the ships in the harbour. Once the men of the Fortune have been freed from where they are being held with the aid of the official pardon, the pirates proceed to the waterfront where they take up position in a pub with William leading the drinking. Meanwhile, Rodrigo, Peregrine and Merritt slip into the waters of the dock and swim across to the Aguila Real, a Spanish schooner. When they’ve climbed aboard, Bloody Mary and the others charge out of the pub and swarm on to the ship. As a pitched battle rages for control of the vessel, the tell-tale signs of the dust-swirling arrival of Cuauhtemoc are visible on the quayside!

The captain and surviving sailors of the Aguila surrender and Bloody Mary gives the orders to sail out of Santo Domingo at full speed. In an effort to lure Cuauhtemoc (who is busy killing the guards on the pier) away from their ship, Peregrine and Merritt strap a knapsack containing the obsidian Tablet of the Smoking Mirror over the muzzle of a cannon and fire it in the direction of the Pantera Rosa, another schooner moored at the docks. This takes out the mast of the other ship but, initially at least, does nothing to distract Cuauhtemoc who heads up the gangplank of the Aguila towards Rodrigo. Yet again, the sight of the hideous mummy causes despair among those nearby and many of the pirate crew are paralysed with fear. Rodrigo is hit very hard by the undead fiend. William tries to help by brandishing the feathered stick but this doesn’t seem to help much and he too is struck by the mummy. Seemingly satisfied with infecting both of the one-armed pirates with the rotting disease, Cuauhtemoc heads for the Pantera Rosa and the Tablet.

Getting a grip on things, the pirates manage to manoeuvre the Aguila Real away from the dock. By this time, Cuauhtemoc has vanished with the Tablet and the Secretario has appeared, shouting orders at his men on the Nuestra Senora. As Bart sails the Aguila out of Santo Domingo, the schooner is struck by a couple of cannon shots from the Senora -– not enough to stop her getting away, but enough to seriously annoy the captain!

 

[RichGreen]

Session #15

Sunday 11th June

The Aguila Real arrives at the entrance to the infamous swamp. Captain Flint orders Rob to make repairs on the ship while herself and Merritt head into the bayou with the sickly Rodrigo and William and four sailors. Unsurprisingly, the boat is attacked, this time, by large crocodile-like humanoids, who shout out “tresor!” They are driven off by throwing knives from William and cutlass slashes from the captain.

Madame Laveau attends to the mummy rot afflicting the two pirates, and warns them all that Cuauhtemoc’s return will lead to more magic in the world and more encounters with strange creatures.


Monday 12th June

With the ship almost fully repaired, Captain Flint orders the Aguila Real to head for Hell’s Cove under full sail. En route, the figurehead of the Madonna is altered to look more like the ship’s modest captain and is renamed “La Maria Sangrienta.”


Monday19th June

La Maria Sangrienta is attacked by a huge, spike-covered sea serpent with foul breath stinking of rotting meat. As the giant monster snaps at the sailors on deck, the captain orders the ship to keep sailing at full speed towards the Yucatan to force it to keep pace. With one crewman dead and gunshots from William and Rodrigo ineffective at penetrating its scaly hide, Bloody Mary leaps up to attack the serpent but is grabbed in its mouth and swallowed whole! As she experiences nasty burns from its stomach acid and tries to cut her way out, Rodrigo makes a dramatic leap from the rigging on top of the serpent. Unluckily, he misses and narrowly avoids falling into the sea. Undeterred, he makes sure he is firmly fastened to a rope and swings along to have another attack. Meanwhile, Bloody Mary has managed to slash her way out of the beast’s belly. The sea serpent, cheated of its meal, sinks beneath the waves in disgust.


Wednesday 21st June

Following the directions given to them in Leogana by Soliere, the pirates arrive in Hell’s Cove with Bloody Mary (“the Indigestible”) at the helm. After talking to the flamboyantly dressed Chief Gustavo at the docks, the men of the Maria head for the taverns and inns with their shares of the plunder burning holes in their pockets. At the Dainty Juarez, the aging lothario Fernando de Posada makes none-too-subtle advances towards the captain but is rebuffed when she learns that he sold his piece of the Black Bellamy treasure map to Albert de Montblanc! The pirates also learn that Montblanc had an argument with Bullhead Willows before leaving Hell’s Cove and that Bullhead himself has also left the settlement with his captive: the governor of Jamaica!

Once all of these revelations have sunk in, it’s back to business! Bloody Mary strikes a deal with the ruddy-faced fence George Goodfellow who agrees to buy her 100 barrels of sugar and the Maria Sangrienta, and to source a suitable sloop for her to captain. William and Rodrigo head off to Old Ned’s Peg Leg Shoppe where they place orders for prosthetic arms, hooks and various guns and weapon attachments before blowing more money on rum and French prostitutes respectively. Mary also arranges for a unique flag to be made for the new ship by Shang of Shang’s Ship Supplies, depicting a skeletal sea serpent. She also hires an additional 21 men to bring her crew back up to full strength.

Later that evening, Mary, Merritt, Rodrigo and William head to Bullhead Willows’ apartment to look for clues. A few attempts are made to open the door once the person inside refuses to do so. Meritt taps the captain on the head with the feathered stick but this doesn’t seem to help. Eventually, Mary kicks down the door and charges in, only to be shot by two pistols fired by Willow’s Mayan first mate, Paolo. Despite the gunplay, the pirates decide to negotiate with Paolo who reveals that Bullhead left in a hurry for Rigas Island where he believed he could get the curse lifted from the locked chest of gold doubloons Montblanc had given him.

 

[ninthcouncil]

Thus proving that Captain Scarlett really is indigestible.

 

[RichGreen]

Session #16

Thursday 22nd June

Rodrigo, now a trainee hougan, performs his first ever Caille ritual successfully, and is able to cast spells! He celebrates at the Loose Lady in the companion of a French whore who he pumps for information about Albert de Montblanc. William gets drunk.


Friday 23rd June

Rodrigo and William have their new prosthetics fitted at Old Ned’s Peg Leg Shoppe. They celebrate by giving in to their respective vices yet again. Bloody Mary collects her expensive new flag from Shang’s Ship Supplies.


Saturday 24th June

Bloody Mary hears that the pirate captain Weird Arnie Buckthorn is in town with a captured Dutch sloop. She heads down to the docks with the others to meet him, only to be confronted by the well-spoken English pirate Adrian Locke and his dozen French cutthroats. Locke is working for Albert de Montblanc and demands both the skeleton key and Black Bellamy’s treasure map! Brandishing his asson (ceremonial rattle), Rodrigo casts cause fear on Locke which shakes his confidence, and Bloody Mary does the same to his men by shouting threats at them. Inevitably, a fight breaks out. Mary and her men kill three of the French sailors and wound several others. Adrian Locke fights well but is eventually taken down by a blow from Merritt. When he falls unconscious, his cowardly lackeys run off!

Merritt takes Locke back to the Maria Sangrienta to patch him up while the others loot the bodies of the dead. Next, they head over to where the Mad Dog is docked. Here, Bloody Mary greets Weird Arnie Buckthorn, a tall pirate dressed in green with matted, blond dreadlocks. Weird Arnie invites the party to the Burning Parrot for a few drinks: he has seen Cuauhtemoc in Puerto Bello and wants to find out what Mary and her crew know about him. Since Weird Arnie is known for his violent mood swings and Rodrigo is known for provoking veteran pirates, it is not surprising that the one-armed hougan’s comments on Arnie’s ritual scars cause offence. Weird Arnie flips the table over with an almighty crash, grabs Rodrigo around the neck, strangling him, also striking him with the hilt of his cutlass for good measure. Bloody Mary intervenes and Arnie lets Rodrigo go, but the Spaniard cannot resist another wisecrack. This time, purple with rage, Arnie slashes Rodrigo twice with his cutlass, wounding him badly. Rodrigo runs off. Afterwards, Mary is able to calm Weird Arnie down and negotiate the purchase of the Dutch sloop, the Welstand, for 10,700 doubloons (the same price she will get from George Goodfellow for the Maria Sangrienta). The dreadlocked northerner also tells Mary that the mysterious feathered stick given to her by Father Jeremy is a “talking stick” that helps when negotiating with people.

Back on the Maria Sangrienta, the pirates interrogate the now-conscious Adrian Locke. Mary’s technique of slapping him hard in the face with a glove is enough for Locke to crack: he tells her that he was due to rendezvous with Montblanc off Ambergris Cay in the next couple of days in his dhow (named The Dainty). They decide to keep Locke prisoner for the time being.


Sunday 25th June

The Welstand sets sail from Hell’s Cove with Bloody Mary at the helm and her new flag flying from the mast. As the sloop maneuvers out of the tunnel and into the sea, the lookouts spot Montblanc’s ship, The Vermillion, positioned at ninety degrees to the entrance and apparently at battle stations! Bloody Mary orders the Welstand to sail to the starboard and unleashes a savage broadside at the enemy. For once, the gunners’ aim is true and massive damage is done to the Vermillion which begins to take on water quite rapidly. Montblanc’s cannons reply feebly and Bloody Mary orders her crew to make ready to board.

Bloody Mary, William and Merritt fight alongside the men of the Welstrand who are much less successful with their belaying pins than they were with the cannons! Rodrigo casts shillelagh on his belaying pin and makes for Albert de Montblanc who is standing on the sterncastle of the Vermillion. The Vermillion’s men fight back fiercely, inflicting heavy casulaties on Welstand’s sailors, although Bloody Mary and the other officers are able to clear part of the deck of enemies themselves.

Meanwhile, Rodrigo is in close combat with Albert de Montblanc. His magically enhanced belaying pin is a devastating weapon but Montblanc is a skillful swordsman and is able to land several vicious blows on the Spaniard. As Rodrigo backs away, Bloody Mary arrives on the scene, just in time to deliver a lethal thrust with her cutlass. Albert de Montblanc staggers backwards and falls over the rail and into the sea, mortally wounded. With their captain dead and their ship sinking, the rest of Montblanc’s men surrender. Offered positions aboard the Welstand, they accept and join Bloody Mary’s crew. A quick search of the captain’s cabin before the Vermillion sinks beneath the waves turns up a chest containing 3,200 doubloons, a deed to a plantation in Jamaica, and the fourth and final piece of Black Bellamy’s treasure map!

 

[RichGreen]

Session #17

Wednesday 28th June

The Welstand sets off north in search of Black Bellamy’s treasure.


Thursday 29th June

The Welstand sails past the English merchantman, the Wooden Nichol. Towards the end of the day, she arrives at the mouth of the river marked on Black Bellamy’s treasure map.


Friday 30th June

A hand-picked group of pirates heads inland in one of the ship’s boats. The rowing is hot and thirsty work, and several of the crew succumb to heatstroke as the party head upriver through the Yucatan jungles. At dusk, Bloody Mary orders the men to set up a camp on the north bank of the river, opposite what appears to be some Mayan ruins: the main pyramid can be seen towering over the trees on the other bank. Watches are set. William can’t resist having sharing a few swigs of rum with Sailor Bob and Sailor Chris while on his watch. This might be why seven jaguar-men are able to sneak up on the pirates’ camp without being heard or seen and unleash a volley of poisoned arrows at the trio. Sailor Bob is killed and William is poisoned and gravely wounded. Fortunately, his deafening shouts for help bring the rest of the officers (if not the regular seamen who seem to take an inordinate amount of time to get dressed, find their boots and so on) to his aid. Six of the jaguar-men are killed; the one survivor escapes into the jungle.


Saturday 1st July

In an attempt to keep the sun off the rowers, Merritt and the others try and rig a canopy over the boat using the tents. Sadly, the attempt fails and the pirates are forced to make regular stops in the shade as they did on the day before when the rowers get too hot. Towards the end of the day, they arrive at a tall (100’ high) waterfall, meaning the party will need to press on on foot or portage the boat. Bloody Mary and William decide to scout ahead to see if there is a way to carry the boat around the falls. En route, they run into a small brighly-coloured lizard which seems very curious. They try and befriend the creature, with Mary drawing pictures for it on a piece of parchment. The pair seem unpeturbed as the lizard is joined by more and more of its fellows, and downright surprised as the swarm of little sharp-toothed reptiles attacks, leaping all over them. Both pirates are badly wounded but Bloody Mary’s terrible scream brings the others running. Rodrigo casts shillelagh again, creating a huge club from his trusty belaying pin with which he is able to deliver devastating blows to the swarm. Despite her wounds, the captain charges back in and the little reptiles disperse. Merritt is able to identify the creatures as “needletooths”. After the battle, the pirates go back down the slope and portage the boat.


Sunday 2nd July

The pirates reach the cave entrance to Black Bellamy’s treasure. The shaft descending into the darkness is lined with webs which gives them pause. Rodrigo even contemplates throwing a dead lizard into the pit.