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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Imaculata" data-source="post: 6913202" data-attributes="member: 6801286">Battle with Karagoz - Part 1War preparationsLast session the players learned that the dreaded Kturgian pirate captain Karagoz had captured one of their allies: Hugo Falasco, and his ship, Oddity. The rest of their traveling circus friends are docked at a cave, and Karagoz threatens to kill a member of Hugo's crew on the hour, unless they all surrender. For several hours the party debated their strategy. As a DM I gave them all the time they needed, because this lead to a ton of awesome role playing. I was very entertained by just how much thought they were putting into all this. The party eventually agreed on two things:They would perform a powerful scrying ritual to spy on Hugo, and on his ship.And they would send their npc wizard Aldric on a mission to teleport members of the circus who are currently at the cave, on board Oddity, while magically disguised as Kturgian pirates. They would try and attempt to recapture Oddity, to provide some extra fire power against the Crimson Abyss (the flagship of Karagoz and his fleet).[ATTACH]77331[/ATTACH]These are the actual ship positions. Not illustrated are the other two Circus vessels: Astonishment and Wonder, both docked inside the cave. The two enemy vessels at the top of the picture were unknown to the players, and not visible at first, because they were hidden inside the mist.The players first performed a scrying on Hugo's Vessel, after using a Message spell to ask the leader of the circus what the name of the ship was again. They forgot to write it down (and they write down A LOT).Upon viewing the ship, it looked completely empty. There was no one on the top deck of the ship. But alas, they could not scry inside the vessel.Secondly, the players performed a scrying on Hugo himself. What they saw was the Crimson Abyss, with Hugo tied to its mast. Looking out over the waters from one of the ship's firing castles was Karagoz, flanked by two wizards. One of the wizards made his check, and noticed the scrying. He whispered in the ears of the captain to let him know they were being watched. Apparently Karagoz was expecting the players to do this, so he looked up and smiled. He then walked over to Hugo, planted a knife into the mast, right above his head, and looked back up at the players. He made a gesture across his throat, threatening to kill Hugo.This scrying provided valuable information about the ship, it's armaments, and it's defenses. The Crimson Abyss was a well armed Dromond-class ship, with 4 light cannons and 2 carronades. Captain William Roberts and Karagoz exchanged some intimidating words through a Message spell. And the players noticed how Karagoz had disemboweled several of Hugo's crew, and strung them to the bow of his ship as decoration. Sitaara, their Speaker of the Dead npc witch, noticed that the ship was also equipped with a Spellcatcher. This handy custom magical item can absorb up till a limited number of spells that are directly aimed at the ship.A Dromond is a ship that has both sails and oars. But with a ship this size, it is very likely that the rowing-crew are in fact slaves. Because it would need a very large crew for rowing. And if the ship has slaves, then maybe they should try and rescue them, and turn them against Karagoz?Now the party had all the information they needed to form a plan. But there was still one detail they had to deal with: Princess Eleanore. A ritual performed by Che had revealed an answer from the Lady of the Waves. Princess Eleanore was both a victim and a spy for Hydra! But what did this mean exactly? The party agreed not to take any chances, and had Aldric the wizard turn the princess into a statue with a Flesh to Stone spell. Better safe than sorry.Approaching Dunster HollowAs the party approached the dark island of Dunster Hollow, they could see many temple ruins on the island, overshadowed by a permanent thunderstorm. The temple ruins were constantly being struck by lightning bolts. The coast was also littered with ship wrecks. With his bardic knowledge, Captain William Roberts knew that long ago the island had people living on it, who lived peacefully with local mermaids. But then they turned to a different, darker faith, and the worshiping of dark gods... the mermaids turned away from them, and the god of storms was so angered by this that he destroyed the magnificent buildings on the island. Even today the temples are constantly being struck by lightning, for the fury of the god of storms is long lasting.[ATTACH]77333[/ATTACH]Using flags the party instructed their fleet to assume a line formation. Meanwhile Bioran the elf scouted the horizon for hazards and hostile ships. They approached two tall rock islands, covered in trees. They kept a close eye on the islands, suspecting a surprise artillery. They used an illusion spell to cover their approach, but they knew that at close range this illusion would no longer hide them.They were now close enough for Aldric to teleport to the cave. Aldric would then gather as many circus-pirates as he could, and Dimension Door on board Oddity. If they could capture the ship without Karagoz noticing, this would help them a lot.Suddenly loud alarm bells sounded from the two islands. Indeed Karagoz had placed lookouts on the island, who would signal the rest of his fleet the moment the players approached from the east, and passed the islands. Technically the party could also have approached from the west, so there also were lookouts on the other side, and other vessels.[ATTACH]77339[/ATTACH]From the fog the party noticed three sail runners appearing behind them. They were closing in fast on their fleet, and trying to box in the ships, to hit them from both sides simultaneously with their cannons, to destroy their masts.Immediately Captain William Roberts turned his ship, the Lady's Vengeance, around to protect the back of his fleet. He commanded the rest to continue straight for the Crimson Abyss.Scurvy's Scarlet's ship, called Avenna's T*ts, was way in the back. But it had a secret weapon that the players would now put to good use. It would deploy primitive naval mines, made from paper, into the water between the two islands. These mines were an invention by the Gongya An. They were very expensive, but incredibly effective.As one of the Kturgian ship's, Murder at Sea, tried to pass through the two islands, it hit the mines, which exploded and set a large portion of the ship on fire! The players remarked that maybe it should rename itself to "Murdered at Sea". But it was not defeated yet. However, its crew would spend the rest of the battle frantically trying to extinguish all the fires on their ship. Plus the mines had dealt considerable damage to the front sections of the ship.[ATTACH]77335[/ATTACH]The other two Kturgian ships, Crow's Banquette and Dead Reverence, tried to box the Lady's Vengeance in. But with a stunning maneuver Captain William Roberts claimed the advantage, and rapidly closed in on Dead Reverence. He moved his ship so close to the Kturgian ship, that the Vengeance was now just out of range of Crow's Banquette. Dead Reverence fired its cannons, dealing massive damage to the mast of the Lady's Vengeance. But with Crow's Banquette now being just out of range, it lacked the punch to destroy the mast.The party unleashed the full power of their cannons on the longship, and quickly reduced Dead Reverence to cinder. As the now burning Murder at Sea was coming about to assist, Crow's Banquette tried to pass in front of the Lady's Vengeance. This would put it out of shot of the main guns of the Vengeance, and in range of its own cannons. But it had not counted on the large forward cannon that had not been fired yet. The cannon did not enough damage to Crow's Banquette to sink it. But the damage was significant. In a daring move, Captain William Roberts decided to simply ram Crow's Banquette, and split it right down the middle!CRASH!The Lady's Vengeance cut through Crow's Banquette like a hot knife through butter. Meanwhile Che was hard at work repairing the damage that was done to their mast and bow. Meanwhile Bioran and Sophie sniped at the Kturgian pirate captains from the crow's nest. While they were not able to kill the captains, the sharks would probably finish the job soon.[ATTACH]77338[/ATTACH]They made haste to rejoin the rest of their fleet. But Golden Savanah and Craven of the Sea were now completely boxed in, and at the mercy of the Crimson Abyss, Airen's Gaze, and Wailing of the Wenches. Avenna T*ts was only a small vessel, so it cleverly used Oddity as cover as it circled around.But this session would not be complete without a plot twist or cliff hanger....With a deafening sound the Oddity exploded, and was instantly reduced to splinters! It seemed Karagoz had trapped the ship, which explains why there was no one on board. But what of Aldric? What of Leopardo? What of Shifter's brother? Were they on board the Oddity when it exploded?I guess we'll have to find out next time when we continue this massive battle...</blockquote>

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