Pathfinder 2E Skull & Shackles (2E Conversion), solo campaign
Crys
daydreamer and poet
Yeah... Mirielle's discussion with him is only represented here in brief. It was actually a rather long conversation because it was just so extremely opposite of Mirielle's actions and ideas at this point that it was surprising to her. Over the course of the conversation she managed to make him helpful to her and could have possibly persuaded him to instead stay and be a part of her crew, but she felt guilty about the idea of doing that because she has no way of knowing if the contract they have with their particular devil would endanger his family as a result of it. In the end she respected his wishes, but it's something she thinks about often and she's replaced her old dagger with his (she's been carrying one since they got their equipment back on The Wormwood just in case she's ever stuck in a situation where she needs it).
Owlbrarian has cryptically suggested more may come of this particular plot point in the future... So naturally I'm a bit curious about that. Mirielle did send his letters including one of her own (which might not actually be stated in the write up until the next session, I don't remember at the moment) back to Cheliax. I suppose we shall see.
Owlbrarian has cryptically suggested more may come of this particular plot point in the future... So naturally I'm a bit curious about that. Mirielle did send his letters including one of her own (which might not actually be stated in the write up until the next session, I don't remember at the moment) back to Cheliax. I suppose we shall see.
Owlbrarian
The Librarian is Here
I was pretty amused that Personal Rain Cloud ended up becoming useful. In my version of Pathfinder Gidras is the inventor of that spell which is why Dolce ended up being excited to meet him. I hadn’t really thought about PCs meeting the inventor of specific spells before though I thought it was a pretty neat idea. Not original or anything, just something I hadn’t done before this game.
As far as my version of Cheliax goes I added in the idea of suicide for the maintenance of infernal pacts along with another noteworthy thing. People who graduated at a high grade or accomplished important feats gain special pins that are put on their hats.
Each of them are minor magical items that are modeled off of specific devils. Something I sort of regret is the pacing I chose to do for this section. I wanted to get everything “done” before a certain future event, but honestly I think it would have been better to have taken my time with it.
Still even though I packed in a few too many encounters, going around devastating ships and getting plunder was a lot of fun. Honestly a pure sandbox with lots of random tables and maybe a plot or two set in the Shackles would be a heck of a lot of fun.
Though that is my bias toward sandboxes showing.
As far as my version of Cheliax goes I added in the idea of suicide for the maintenance of infernal pacts along with another noteworthy thing. People who graduated at a high grade or accomplished important feats gain special pins that are put on their hats.
Each of them are minor magical items that are modeled off of specific devils. Something I sort of regret is the pacing I chose to do for this section. I wanted to get everything “done” before a certain future event, but honestly I think it would have been better to have taken my time with it.
Still even though I packed in a few too many encounters, going around devastating ships and getting plunder was a lot of fun. Honestly a pure sandbox with lots of random tables and maybe a plot or two set in the Shackles would be a heck of a lot of fun.
Though that is my bias toward sandboxes showing.
Crys
daydreamer and poet
There is a small chance these posts might slow down in the relatively near future. We are unexpectedly moving out of our current living arrangement and into a house. This means we haven't been playing as much as we normally do. However, my blog is still several sessions ahead of this thread, so it may end up that said delay isn't really felt over here. I suppose we shall see.
Spoiler Warning: Many spoilers for the Skull & Shackles adventure path are contained within these story recap posts. If you don’t want your campaign spoiled, don’t read these!
They found a nice cove on the shores of Sargava near a small outcropping of trees. They anchored The Purr and began repairs on The Sandbalot. The cove was a convenient hiding place, and one with terrain advantages. From the nearby landmasses they could keep watch on the shores around them. Watches were assigned, water was gathered to restock both ships, and for four days they worked in peace.
The Sandbalot was almost seaworthy again when Samms Toppin, one of the original Wormwood crewman, came rushing over to Mirielle saying, “Captain! Captain! We’ve got trouble! A ship’s anchored, and she’s big!”
Dolce looked at Mirielle and the two looked back at Samms, “Show us, Barefoot.” Samms nodded and led them to the vantage point from which she’d spotted the ship. Flat on their bellies they peered through their spyglasses.
Dolce knew this ship almost at once. “She’s called The Dominator, Cap. Bad news having her so close at hand.” She was a man-o’-war, and more than The Purr and The Sandbalot could handle even if they’d both been fully crewed. It looked, from what she could see through the spyglass, like her crew were re-provisioning too. “I don’t think they’ve spotted us. Good thing our boats are smaller than theirs or they might have made for our very cove, Captain.”
“What can you tell me about her Captain, Dolce?” Mirielle was watching the crew unloading water barrels as well.
“Captain Paravountess Axia Lorvika. Mouthful if I say so, but she’s taken her share of pirates to their graves, she has. She’s a ruthless combatant, quite skilled at captaining. That particular vessel carries at least a hundred marines, has a whole slew of officers, and a commander who’s said to be more ruthless than even our Revel. Commander Kyan Kain’s his name, and he’s the meanest cur on the ship,” ship's boats were making for shore. Luckily, The Purr and The Sandbalot were already stocked with fresh water and the crew of The Dominator would be going inland rather than up the shore. Still, they might find recent tracks by the river and follow them back. “We’re in a bad situation. With all her yards of sails, we wouldn’t stand a prayer of getting away from her.”
“Aye, that’s true,” Ambrose said. Dolce hadn’t even noticed her friend join them, but she smiled and rolled to a side to make room for him on the ground beside her and Mirielle. She also offered him her spyglass.
Ambrose scooted further forward, “She is a fearsome ship, but…” He let the words trail off.
Mirielle looked at Ambrose now, “But what? Don’t leave us hanging, Fishguts.”
Ambrose smiled over at Mirielle, “We may not be able to match her speed, but that’s assuming she’s ready to sail, right? What if someone were to say, sneak aboard and sabotage her?”
Dolce grinned. Ambrose was an old salt, been on more ships than she’d heard stories about if his own tales were true. “What are you thinking, friend?”
Fishguts rubbed his chin and said, “Well… It takes forever to refit the pulley ropes of a tiller.”
Mirielle’s eyes lit up. “That’s true… and with our magic…”
Dolce nodded, “We could swim to the ship from underwater and climb aboard without much issue. I can give Nasha and myself the ability to see without light and you the ability to climb walls without effort.”
Nasha, who had apparently also crept up on them, said, “There will be very little moon tonight.” She was nodding as though agreeing with them.
“Revel could be a problem though. She’s not exactly quiet…” Dolce said, considering. She had learned many spells for contingencies, but she hadn’t counted on needing stealth when they spent so much time aboard their own vessel and in pursuit of others.
Mirielle shrugged a little, “They aren’t likely to hear her if she stays below. She can just listen for trouble and join us if fighting breaks out… Or provide a distraction.”
Dolce nodded now. “True. Right. I need to change some spells around for this to work. I’ll be nearly spent when you figure in allowing us to breath water. Besmara’s bounty, I’m glad you bought those Rings of Swimming.”
Dolce crawled away from the hill and made for their encampment. There she changed out her spells. It was indeed a plan that centered heavily on clever magic. Spider Climb, for Mirielle, Darkvision for both herself and Nasha, Water Breathing for the five of them. Unfortunate that she needed to use more power with these castings to pull off longer effects. Still, she’d have her trusty Truestrike / Acid Arrow combo to fall back on. The thought made her snort a little. She also had a slew of scrolls though, from all the spells she’d learned.
The night was dark, as Nasha had said it would be, with just a sliver of the moon overhead. Also working in their favor was an overcast sky.
The girls snuck as close to the ship as they dared along the beach. Not close enough to be easily spotted or for Dolce to be heard casting the numerous spells she was about to make use of. Soon enough they were wading into the water and then below it into the sea. The Rings of Swimming made approaching the ship a simple matter, though Mirielle was slow enough that Nasha had her captain hold onto her shoulders to pull her through the sea.
When they reached the ship they came up from beneath the water and Dolce spotted a slew of parrots on the deck. Quietly she whispered, “Those are actually imps. They keep watch at night, but from this angle they shouldn’t see us. You…” she singled out Revel, “…you listen for trouble and only come up if you hear it. Straight up from here to the window.” She gestured. Revel already knew this, but the hobgoblin could be headstrong so Dolce wanted to reinforce it.
“Right, Boss,” was all she said in response.
Dolce went back under the water and pulled Mirielle down with her. The captain was the weak link when it came to their athletic prowess, and now Spider Climb would make that a non-issue. She cast the spell under the water so there was no risk of sound carrying to the imps above.
The girls scaled the boat, well, three of them. Dolce and Nasha had little trouble, and Mirielle none at all for the strange spider limbs Dolce had granted her simply carried her up the side as though she was walking on flat ground. Of course, she leaned forward to minimize the chance of being seen.
Dolce used slender thieves’ tools to open the window and Nasha entered first, followed by Mirielle, and finally the elf. Within all was dark, but all of them could see the thick rope that was the tiller’s pulley cable. Nasha looked at Mirielle, who gave a nod. The lizardfolk fell into the all-too-familiar fighting stance and slashed at the cord with her mighty claws. She cut about halfway through when the door to the room opened.
There stood Commander Kyan Kain himself, mid-sentence, “The inspection shouldn’t take lo-“
He stopped, shocked to see a seven foot tall lizardfolk in the room, Dolce imagined. Nasha capitalized on his hesitation, striding to the door and closing it.
“More will come.” She said simply. The door thudded as the men outside beat upon it and Dolce clearly heard Kain directing someone to go in from above.
The elf moved Mirielle into a corner where she’d be more protected should the assailant make it before they finished their task and fished through her satchel for the right scroll. The elf also readied her rapier. “Break the cord, Nasha.”
The door splintered first and Kain triumphantly shouted, “Did you think that would keep us out?” His battleaxe swung hard at Nasha and bit into her flesh, sending blood splattering on the floor and walls. Dolce swore she saw her friend’s scales grow pale.
Nasha grunted, but hadn’t moved. She hesitated, weighing her options. Thankfully Revel joined the fray, for she’d heard the commotion from below. “OUT OF THE WAY.” The hobgoblin shouted, and Nasha obliged. She stepped back quickly, leaving Revel just enough time to get in Kain’s face before he gained entry to the room. “Good. I was hoping I’d get to taste you!”
The man snorted derisively. “Really? Not before I cut you to pieces!”
There posturing was all well and good, but Nasha sawed at the cord again. It almost cut through.. Almost. Hanging by a tantalizing thread as she prepared one more strike.
Mirielle, meanwhile, called upon her halo and sent healing energy flowing into their companion, who – stoic as she was – displayed obvious duress after the blow she’d been dealt. The magic knitted much of her injuries, stemming the tide of blood that had covered her belt and scales, but still there were parts of the gash that were open.
Dolce paged through the scrolls in hand briefly, but another combatant joined the fray. “Took you long enough!” Kain shouted. “Bar their escape!” The soldier nodded and moved in front of the window they had entered through, taking a swipe at Dolce in the process.
The elf felt the blade cut her and cursed. She launched her Acid Arrow at Kain, but used the time she would have needed to ensure a more accurate hit to find the right scroll for her future plans instead.
Kain’s axe came down on Revel now. Not as hard as he’d struck Nasha, but still quite mightily. The hobgoblin laughed heartily as she felt her flesh tear open. It was one of the more disturbing traits of hers. A fight wasn’t good in her mind until she’d been cut open or bruised. "Just what, exactly, is wrong with you? Stop – ” another swipe, “- laughing!” and a third.
Three jagged hack wounds bled through her steel blue skin, but her sharky maw still curled in a smile before she said, “I told you I wanted to KNOW!!!” and bit at the man. He dodged the first, but her teeth clamped down with the second and she left gashes of her own in his flesh. Kain snarled.
Nasha sawed the cable one last time and there was a loud snapping noise as it broke followed by the noise of it falling through the lower levels of the ship. “Curse you!” Kain exclaimed. “You will pay for this!”
Even as he issued his threats Mirielle was healing Revel, for now she was worse off than Nasha. It was time for their escape. Dolce’s fingers curled round the scroll she’d rifled for and she cast another spell from it, watching as the magical text upon the page disappeared in time to her speaking it. The room suddenly filled with mist, thick and agonizing. The elf shoved the man barring the window and heard him stagger back.
“Go!” Dolce ordered.
Revel didn’t listen, instead staying toe-to-toe with Kain, but honestly Dolce had been counting on that. Another bite landed and the hobgoblin growled happily as she tasted his blood.
Nasha hesitated until she heard Mirielle make for the window. The man Dolce had shoved tried to swipe at the Captain, but his swing went high and they heard it thunk into the wood. Soon came the sound of Mirielle splashing into the water. Nasha followed without hesitation.
“REVEL!” Dolce barked.
Kain assaulted Revel further, drawing more blood, “You gonna run like your companions?” He said, and the words were charged with magic.
Dolce feared the worst. Her companion was not exactly the most resilient to such effects and the elf suspected Revel’s own desire would be to linger and fight no matter how futile it would have been.
Another bite from the hobgoblin. Dolce was about to berate her when she heard her say, “Pity, I’d love to see how this ends..” And then she made for the window too.
Kain got a parting shot and left a nasty gash in Revel’s leg, but as soon as the hobgoblin got out the window Dolce was following behind. They swam straight down first, knowing the ballistae on board would be at a strong disadvantage and the ship’s crew would have trouble sighting them. Once they’d made it a decent way below they headed back to their own vessel, following Mirielle’s Know Direction spell to orient themselves in the water.
Dolce already had new song lyrics swimming in her head. This was going to be one of the better ones, she felt.
The rest was simple, for The Dominator was still scrambling to repair her lines when The Lady’s Purr and The Sandbalot fled the cove. Shots were exchanged between The Purr and The Dominator with one or two errant shots seeking The Sandbalot, but no real damage was incurred. The crew’s morale shot through the sky and they continued on their way to Senghor.
Fishguts joined Dolce at the rail watching The Dominator‘s sails vanish on the horizon. “I’m making a song of that for sure, Ambrose.”
The old salt smiled, “Oh, I expected you would be, Dolce.”
She looked at him. “You care if I give the Cap credit for your plan?”
Ambrose chuckled, “You earn it by working in the kitchen with me and I’ll consider us square.”
“Sounds fair…” Dolce was quiet for a while, but soon she said, “It’s Inara, by the way. My name. It isn’t our custom to share it outside of our family.” She emphasized the last, hoping he would take her meaning.
Even in the dim light, Dolce was pretty sure she saw Ambrose’s eyes tear up. “Aye, well, ye needn’t worry. I’ll be calling you Dolce all the same.” He put a hand on her shoulder and she smiled.
She and Revel would soon be moving back to The Sandbalot, but they’d all climbed onto The Purr initially to be sure there were enough hands for the ballistae and catapults til they got out of range. “The kitchen will have to wait til after Senghor though.”
“I expected. Have fun swimming.” He clapped her on the shoulder and headed off to join the rest of the crew in their celebrations.
OOC Notes for Session 15
Big difference between Pathfinder 2 and D&D 5e (and also I think D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder 1), scrolls are not consumed when you copy a spell to your spellbook off of one regardless if you succeed or fail. On a failure, you can't attempt to copy that particular spell to your book again until you gain a level. On a critical failure it also costs you half your materials. On a critical success you manage to use only half the materials required. Anyway, Dolce has been learning a lot of spells from scrolls so she has tons of scrolls to use.
This bit here: “His battleaxe swung hard at Nasha and bit into her flesh, sending blood splattering on the floor and walls.” This was where Commander Kain almost 1-shot Nasha with a critical hit. We use the Critical Decks for Pathfinder 2 and the card I drew for his nat 20 was triple damage and an abdomen shot. She was still standing though.. At 6 HP… With 1d4 persistent bleed going on. She was at 4 HP by the time Mirielle healed her.
Maybe not the smartest enemy to make, but an enemy that they would have had regardless of if they pissed them off or not. The elf wasn’t too worried for the time being. It seemed Mirielle had finally set her sights on Tidewater Rock. This because she wanted a place to stash some gold in case their ship got stripped from them and they somehow survived. Enough, she said, to buy a new boat and new armaments for her.
Her goal, ten thousand gold coins. Dolce was still pondering how they would hide such a fortune without risking it being claimed. She had an idea, but she was still fine tuning it. Ten thousand coins would be easy enough to hide in an extradimensional space. The real question was, who did you trust to guard something so important to you (and so valuable)? But Dolce had ideas about that too.
Just two days out from Senghor they had their first sighting of another ship. The winds were coming out of the west, which was where the ship was when they saw it disappear on the horizon. “Strange that,” Shade said.
Mirielle looked toward him, “What’s so strange about it?”
“They sailed into the wind, but their sails were full.”
Mirielle had noticed too, but her mind had immediately turned to magic. “Not so strange if they have magic aboard."
“Aye, Captain,” Shade said, returning to overseeing the rigging work.
Mirielle watched him and the crew performing their tasks, but as she observed she swore she heard a distant bell tolling. Her gaze was drawn to the sunset again.
The next day the weather was turning sour. Not so harsh as the storms they’d encountered with Mr. Plugg and later on their course from Ollo to Slipcove, but still enough to keep them busier than usual. When sunset came a strange fog seemed to creep up on them, and at the last moment possible a ship was sighted within.
A sonorous bell rang, and the sound was familiar to Mirielle. The collision was avoided and the ship seemed to withdraw as quickly as it had come upon them, taking the mist with it. Dolce cursed as she watched the mists receding.
“What?” Mirielle asked.
“That’s The Deathknell. Renowned ghost ship. Stalks its prey for three days before attacking. Same ship we sighted yesterday, and the reason we heard the bell.” The elf was pacing. She had copied the Ghostly Weapon spell to her spellbook, but wasn’t sure what kind of creatures served as The Deathknell‘s crew.
Mirielle scowled before saying, “And what kind of safeguards can you supply against a ghost ship, Dolce?”
The two started going over details, though shortly moved into the captain’s cabin and left Shade in control of the ship. Mirielle decided not to make for an island. After all, legend said if you sought shelter the ship simply waited until you left again to resume its stalking.
Dolce prepared one casting of Ghostly Weapon since it would benefit primarily her out of The Purr‘s strongest fighters. The magic would not take hold on Revel’s fangs or Nasha’s claws. She also prepared Lightning Bolt and Chilling Spray, though their effectiveness would depend upon the nature of The Deathknell‘s crew.
With plans set in place Mirielle and Dolce left the cabin and informed the crew they intended to fight The Deathknell. No one was particularly pleased and some seemed downright wary of the idea. Many cursed Narwhale for sighting her sails the night before.
Mirielle managed to raise the crew’s spirit while impressing upon them how important it was why fight without mercy. Their enemy certainly wouldn’t show any, and if they had their way the crew of The Lady’s Purr would never be seen again.
On the third night the mist formed again, and soon after they all heard the sounds of the bell tolling. Rather than flee the ghost ship, Mirielle ordered them to make toward it. The combat was fierce before the ships even closed the distance between them. Greed took a good bite out of The Deathknell‘s sails, but their artillery proved superior, completely shredding The Purr‘s own sails.
Mirielle used the last of their momentum to ram into the decaying ship. The maneuver was not a risk like it had been in their battle with The Red Mariah because Mirielle had paid for a proper ram to be installed on the The Lady’s Purr along with all of the other improvements made in Slipcove.
As the two ships collided, Mirielle ordered the grapple. The ropes flew through the air and they caught hold, The Purr‘s crew boarded the ghost ship before its unliving crew had the chance to board their vessel. The crew was not ghostly, but rather composed of more substantial undead.
A deep voice rang out when Nasha, the quickest of the girls, first set foot on The Deathknell. “What is this? They’re boarding us!? No one has been so bold as to board us in decades, mates!” It sounded jovial, but also menacing, and issued from the remains of Whalebone Pilk, the cursed captain of The Deathknell. “Let’s make them feel welcome!!!”
The decaying crew of The Deathknell started shambling forward, but one bumped into the bell by Captain Pilk. His voice rang out almost in time with the bell, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING! GET OVER THERE!”
The undead that had done it shrank from his yelling and said, “Sorry, Captain,” as it shuffled off toward the girls. The creatures were quite slow in reaching the girls.
Dolce and Mirielle discussed something in Celestial as they fended off the initial surge of the sluggish enemy crew. The two seemed to be in agreement, and their agreement didn’t require Nasha or Revel to understand.
The hobgoblin was reluctant to bite into the undead at first, but her fists – even with her brass knuckles – proved inconsequential to them. She started tearing chunks up, though the taste was enough to make her wretch.
Nasha basically cut down anything that came near her and made her way toward the aftcastle. She seemed intent on facing off against the captain beside his wheel.
Captain Pilk set his sights on Mirielle, most likely because she was the captain of his target vessel. He extended a decaying hand and an incorporeal shadow of it appeared, snatching at the aasimar. He caught hold of her throat with his spectral hand and started trying to squeeze the life from her.
Mirielle gasped for air, but her eyes narrowed as she pointed a finger toward Captain Pilk and sent a ray of holy, fiery death at him. The spectral hand almost foiled the casting, but Mirielle choked out the words of power just well enough to keep from losing it.
When the ray struck Pilk he called out in anguish, and when that cry faded he snarled, “KILL THE ONE IN THE HAT!”
Immediately the shambling crew made for Mirielle. Revel capitalized on their careless movements to take one down, but the captain fielded three attacks in retaliation for her spell.
Dolce took advantage of the crew’s distraction and made her way onto the aftcastle with Nasha and Pilk. She moved right past the undead captain, putting his precious bell between them before unleashing her first Lightning Bolt spell of the battle.
The captain seemed to reel as the electricity coursed over the metal and wood of the bell and his own body. “NO!!!!! I’LL KILL YOU! KILL THE ELF!” He bellowed, immediately overriding his previous command. For his own part, he tried to stab Dolce. The attack was true and she felt her flesh rend, but it was not a mortal wound.
The crew, slow as it was, tried to obey his command and crossed almost the entire length of his ship to do it. They were cut down by Revel on their way, and slowed by Nasha as they topped the stairs. Only one swung on Dolce before she released another Lightning Bolt in tandem with Mirielle’s second Searing Light spell.
The bell still stood, but between Mirielle and Dolce’s attacks, plus a few strikes from Nasha, Captain Pilk was undone. The necromantic energy that bound him fizzled out and his body fell to mist. The shambling crew did as well.
For a moment all was still, but the moment passed quickly. The ship began to tremble and the water around her rippled perilously. “BACK TO THE PURR!!” Mirielle bellowed.
The crew largely obeyed. Four crew members were fallen, dead or merely unconscious. Revel lifted two, Nasha and Ambrose took one a piece. Dolce, however, started pulling her thieves’ tools out of her bandolier. Mirielle was already back on The Purr when she noticed. “DOLCE!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?”
Dolce looked straight at Mirielle, “I’LL BE FINE!” It seemed a storm was brewing, but Dolce and Mirielle had agreed at the start of this combat that they needed to destroy the bell. Ghosts were often anchored to the world by but one simple thing or simple motive. If his was not simply to plunder, surely it was this instrument he was so fond of.
Dolce nimbly worked to free it from where it hung, for she hadn’t the strength to just shatter it and if two Lightning Bolts hadn’t gotten the task done… They would need more time. Sweat beaded on her brow as the ship continued trembling. It started slowly sinking in the water. She heard Mirielle give the order to cut the lines excepting those to the aftcastle.
The elf worked faster. Every time a tool slipped her heart skipped a beat, but if she could just get this last bit… And then the bolt came lose and the bell fell with a loud clang. She tucked the tools away and reached for it just as the ship lurched. The bell rolled toward the edge where it would fall into the ocean and likely be lost.
Dolce dove after it! She wrapped one arm around it and grabbed the edge of the ship with her other, coming to a halt just short of sliding overboard herself. “Besmara's grace...” She clambered to her feet and ran for the last remaining grapples, keenly aware of how low in the water The Deathknell now seemed to be. Once she had a good hold of the rope she cut it on her side.
“Cut every line but that one!” Mirielle bellowed, and the crew obeyed, though they almost cut Dolce’s too in their enthusiasm. Only Nasha’s steady hand stopped the blade from going too far and to do it the lizardfolk got cut.
Dolce swung into the side of The Purr, but held tight to the bell. The crew pulled her up. On deck she set the bell flat and looked behind her. The Deathknell was sinking further into the water. Mirielle ordered them to pull away, and they did as best they could.
Dolce suspected Besmara was watching over them, for they managed to escape the sinking ship without getting pulled under themselves. When that was done she took to her pack and pulled out a hammer. With all her might she struck the bell, but all she accomplished was sending a spine-tingling ring echoing across the ship.
Dolce sighed. “Revel! Break this cursed thing.” She held the hammer out.
Revel grinned, “With pleasure, Sir!” The hobgoblin seized the hammer and swung it hard. She too created an ominous ring, but also furthered the cracks Dolce’s electricity had put into its metal surface. Enough hammering eventually caused the whole of it to shatter and crumble.
Seemingly in tandem with the bell breaking, the weather started to improve. Of course, it was possible that was related to the ghost ship finally coming to a rest below and the seas in the area growing calm as a result.
Dolce collected the bell’s shards in her satchel and reclaimed the hammer. “Well done, Master-at-Arms.” Revel just grinned at her in satisfaction. “Well then, Captain, are we going down below to see what was in their hold?”
Mirielle just stared at Dolce for a moment before saying, “Are you serious?”
Dolce shrugged. “We are pirates. We do have the means.”
Mirielle sighed. “Narwhale’s dead.”
A cloud settled over Dolce, but then she said, “Wouldn’t want it to be for nothing. He sighted the sails, you know. We’re just shy of what you wanted before seeking to join the Free Captains.”
Mirielle’s expression softened and she ran her fingers through her golden hair. In the moonlight Dolce could see a strange pale impression of a hand on the captain’s throat. “You’re right. Besides.. I’d like to know he won’t be returning.” She cast her gaze out to the sea.
Captain Pilk had been slain before, but always returned. So the legends said. The girls took the time to prepare, Dolce changing her remaining spells around and collecting what belongings she thought would help them most in the water.
A casting of Water Breathing infused with more powerful magic than it required gave the girls and Owlbear until morning. Mirielle cast a spell known as Wanderer’s Guide to lead them to the ship’s resting ground. What followed was a long night of hard work lifting loot from the hold of the sunken Deathknell up above to The Purr. Several Ant Haul spells were cast to alleviate at least some of the task, and Dolce’s magical satchel was emptied of its contents on the first trip back up so that it could be used to carry some of the weight.
By morning they had lost another soul. This one had been badly injured, and try though he might, Quinn just couldn’t save him. The man’s name was Rollo, and he had joined them in Bag Island. Two deaths. The first since they’d mutinied.
Revel, Nasha, Mirielle, Dolce, and Owlbear slept late into the day after their hard day’s labor. The next day they continued their work, but also took Maheem, Shaveka, Barefoot, Calden, and Cog along with them. By the end of that day they’d emptied two thirds of The Deathknell‘s hold. They’d also all spent quite a long time around the mass of skulls in The Deathknell‘s hold. Apparently they were collecting them for some reason.
Before they drank that day, a new tradition began aboard The Purr. The crew was gathered on the starboard side and Mirielle said, “Two of our friends are fallen, but we can rest easy knowing they were not claimed for eternal unlife like the crew that took them. I want us to remember those we lose. Now is the time for this remembrance. Who will share a memory of Narwhale?”
The next hour was spent sharing stories of Narwhale and then of Rollo. Most of the latter from the halflings who had joined them in Slipcove. Then Narwhale and Rollo were released to the sea. The crew’s spirits were pretty high, all things considered. Moments of silence and stories of their lost friends were shared throughout the night above deck.
Dolce suspected Mirielle had or would cry over the loss of Narwhale. She’d grown rather fond of the dwarf. The elf joined in on the stories until she was ready for sleep, and then slipped away to her tiny private room in the officers’ quarters. There she contemplated how fleeting life could be. Many elves didn’t form bonds with those of other races. They’d grown too jaded from watching them die, but Dolce supposed in her line of work even an elf was likely to be quite short-lived.
Dolce used magic to clean herself up from her hours of swimming in the ocean and set about to penning the lyrics of the song she’d sing in their next port to regale taverns with the story of their victory over The Deathknell.
OOC Notes for Session 16
I love ghost ships in cartoons and stories. I had mentioned this to Owlbrarian when we encountered The Honeysnake. That said, I was really excited for The Deathknell once Dolce's Lore Pirates check revealed it was another ghost ship. I also can't wait to track down The Honeysnake, but the girls haven't had much downtime for side dalliances like that in the current plotline.
The encounter was cool. I'm going to prod Owlbrarian to create a google doc of his ship encounter rules so I can link to them here. Normally the way it goes is something like this:
There are still some custom actions available to players during the combat aboard the enemy ship. They include things like raising our crew morale (done in a pinch once or twice by Dolce), lowering the enemy's morale (also done once or twice by Dolce), and instructing the crew to 'Take no Quarter' (done by Mirielle once or twice). All of these impact crew actions which happen at the end of Mirielle's turn. Basically by default our crew attacks the enemy crew in the background as we fight the 'highlighted' opponents who are on the initiative tracker. We roll an attack roll with Mirielle's captaining bonus and if we meet the DC roll 1d4 to see how many enemy crew we kill (the enemy roll the same at the end of their captain's turn, but we roll an additional d4 to determine what happens to the crew in question.... so if they roll 3, we roll 3 more d4. On a 1 someone dies, on a 2 someone gets a scar of some sort, on a 3-4 they are knocked out for the rest of the combat but come away relatively unscathed).
Any time we hit the enemy crew they make a save versus morale damage. If they run out of morale, they surrender (this has happened a lot). At this point we can have our crew attack any of the surviving enemy people on initiative (this has surprisingly only come up once or twice despite morale breaking a lot. I guess because it usually happens near the end of combat). The default at this point is that our crew rolls 1d4 to see how many attacks hit Mirielle's designated target. Each attack deals damage separately.
Take no Quarter increases the d4 to determine crew killed or attacks landed to a d6.
Phew. That was a lot longer than I thought it would be. Anyways, The Deathknell was a normal ship combat, only it wasn't running. It actually hurt us more than we hurt it, completely destroying our sails to the point where Shipwright would not be sufficient to repair it and we had to use resources from a nearby island to do so. Shade oversaw this, sending some of our crew to said island with a ship's boat to bring back supplies while we were diving down below.
We rammed The Deathknell with the last of our momentum (once the sails break you lose 30ft of speed per round, and the boat was only going 60, so it lost 30 and slammed into them and then the next round would have been dead in the water).
The on deck combat was a little different because it was kind of like a monster spawner. I say this in the sense of similar sorts of things in video games. We cut down all the initial notable undead, but more were coming in subsequent rounds. Ultimately the combat probably wouldn't have ended until we focused on Pilk, but luckily Owlbrarian telegraphed his obsession with the bell enough that I decided to focus on that primarily and catch him with as much damage as I could while I did it.
Also worth noting, since the undead feasted on the living they had a d6 by default. As though always 'Taking no Quarter'.
Again, it was a fun fight.
Spoiler Warning: Many spoilers for the Skull & Shackles adventure path are contained within these story recap posts. If you don’t want your campaign spoiled, don’t read these!
Session 15 – A Daring Plan
They found a nice cove on the shores of Sargava near a small outcropping of trees. They anchored The Purr and began repairs on The Sandbalot. The cove was a convenient hiding place, and one with terrain advantages. From the nearby landmasses they could keep watch on the shores around them. Watches were assigned, water was gathered to restock both ships, and for four days they worked in peace.
The Sandbalot was almost seaworthy again when Samms Toppin, one of the original Wormwood crewman, came rushing over to Mirielle saying, “Captain! Captain! We’ve got trouble! A ship’s anchored, and she’s big!”
Dolce looked at Mirielle and the two looked back at Samms, “Show us, Barefoot.” Samms nodded and led them to the vantage point from which she’d spotted the ship. Flat on their bellies they peered through their spyglasses.
Dolce knew this ship almost at once. “She’s called The Dominator, Cap. Bad news having her so close at hand.” She was a man-o’-war, and more than The Purr and The Sandbalot could handle even if they’d both been fully crewed. It looked, from what she could see through the spyglass, like her crew were re-provisioning too. “I don’t think they’ve spotted us. Good thing our boats are smaller than theirs or they might have made for our very cove, Captain.”
“What can you tell me about her Captain, Dolce?” Mirielle was watching the crew unloading water barrels as well.
“Captain Paravountess Axia Lorvika. Mouthful if I say so, but she’s taken her share of pirates to their graves, she has. She’s a ruthless combatant, quite skilled at captaining. That particular vessel carries at least a hundred marines, has a whole slew of officers, and a commander who’s said to be more ruthless than even our Revel. Commander Kyan Kain’s his name, and he’s the meanest cur on the ship,” ship's boats were making for shore. Luckily, The Purr and The Sandbalot were already stocked with fresh water and the crew of The Dominator would be going inland rather than up the shore. Still, they might find recent tracks by the river and follow them back. “We’re in a bad situation. With all her yards of sails, we wouldn’t stand a prayer of getting away from her.”
“Aye, that’s true,” Ambrose said. Dolce hadn’t even noticed her friend join them, but she smiled and rolled to a side to make room for him on the ground beside her and Mirielle. She also offered him her spyglass.
Ambrose scooted further forward, “She is a fearsome ship, but…” He let the words trail off.
Mirielle looked at Ambrose now, “But what? Don’t leave us hanging, Fishguts.”
Ambrose smiled over at Mirielle, “We may not be able to match her speed, but that’s assuming she’s ready to sail, right? What if someone were to say, sneak aboard and sabotage her?”
Dolce grinned. Ambrose was an old salt, been on more ships than she’d heard stories about if his own tales were true. “What are you thinking, friend?”
Fishguts rubbed his chin and said, “Well… It takes forever to refit the pulley ropes of a tiller.”
Mirielle’s eyes lit up. “That’s true… and with our magic…”
Dolce nodded, “We could swim to the ship from underwater and climb aboard without much issue. I can give Nasha and myself the ability to see without light and you the ability to climb walls without effort.”
Nasha, who had apparently also crept up on them, said, “There will be very little moon tonight.” She was nodding as though agreeing with them.
“Revel could be a problem though. She’s not exactly quiet…” Dolce said, considering. She had learned many spells for contingencies, but she hadn’t counted on needing stealth when they spent so much time aboard their own vessel and in pursuit of others.
Mirielle shrugged a little, “They aren’t likely to hear her if she stays below. She can just listen for trouble and join us if fighting breaks out… Or provide a distraction.”
Dolce nodded now. “True. Right. I need to change some spells around for this to work. I’ll be nearly spent when you figure in allowing us to breath water. Besmara’s bounty, I’m glad you bought those Rings of Swimming.”
Dolce crawled away from the hill and made for their encampment. There she changed out her spells. It was indeed a plan that centered heavily on clever magic. Spider Climb, for Mirielle, Darkvision for both herself and Nasha, Water Breathing for the five of them. Unfortunate that she needed to use more power with these castings to pull off longer effects. Still, she’d have her trusty Truestrike / Acid Arrow combo to fall back on. The thought made her snort a little. She also had a slew of scrolls though, from all the spells she’d learned.
Under Cover of Night
The night was dark, as Nasha had said it would be, with just a sliver of the moon overhead. Also working in their favor was an overcast sky.
The girls snuck as close to the ship as they dared along the beach. Not close enough to be easily spotted or for Dolce to be heard casting the numerous spells she was about to make use of. Soon enough they were wading into the water and then below it into the sea. The Rings of Swimming made approaching the ship a simple matter, though Mirielle was slow enough that Nasha had her captain hold onto her shoulders to pull her through the sea.
When they reached the ship they came up from beneath the water and Dolce spotted a slew of parrots on the deck. Quietly she whispered, “Those are actually imps. They keep watch at night, but from this angle they shouldn’t see us. You…” she singled out Revel, “…you listen for trouble and only come up if you hear it. Straight up from here to the window.” She gestured. Revel already knew this, but the hobgoblin could be headstrong so Dolce wanted to reinforce it.
“Right, Boss,” was all she said in response.
Dolce went back under the water and pulled Mirielle down with her. The captain was the weak link when it came to their athletic prowess, and now Spider Climb would make that a non-issue. She cast the spell under the water so there was no risk of sound carrying to the imps above.
The girls scaled the boat, well, three of them. Dolce and Nasha had little trouble, and Mirielle none at all for the strange spider limbs Dolce had granted her simply carried her up the side as though she was walking on flat ground. Of course, she leaned forward to minimize the chance of being seen.
Dolce used slender thieves’ tools to open the window and Nasha entered first, followed by Mirielle, and finally the elf. Within all was dark, but all of them could see the thick rope that was the tiller’s pulley cable. Nasha looked at Mirielle, who gave a nod. The lizardfolk fell into the all-too-familiar fighting stance and slashed at the cord with her mighty claws. She cut about halfway through when the door to the room opened.
There stood Commander Kyan Kain himself, mid-sentence, “The inspection shouldn’t take lo-“
He stopped, shocked to see a seven foot tall lizardfolk in the room, Dolce imagined. Nasha capitalized on his hesitation, striding to the door and closing it.
“More will come.” She said simply. The door thudded as the men outside beat upon it and Dolce clearly heard Kain directing someone to go in from above.
The elf moved Mirielle into a corner where she’d be more protected should the assailant make it before they finished their task and fished through her satchel for the right scroll. The elf also readied her rapier. “Break the cord, Nasha.”
The door splintered first and Kain triumphantly shouted, “Did you think that would keep us out?” His battleaxe swung hard at Nasha and bit into her flesh, sending blood splattering on the floor and walls. Dolce swore she saw her friend’s scales grow pale.
Nasha grunted, but hadn’t moved. She hesitated, weighing her options. Thankfully Revel joined the fray, for she’d heard the commotion from below. “OUT OF THE WAY.” The hobgoblin shouted, and Nasha obliged. She stepped back quickly, leaving Revel just enough time to get in Kain’s face before he gained entry to the room. “Good. I was hoping I’d get to taste you!”
The man snorted derisively. “Really? Not before I cut you to pieces!”
There posturing was all well and good, but Nasha sawed at the cord again. It almost cut through.. Almost. Hanging by a tantalizing thread as she prepared one more strike.
Mirielle, meanwhile, called upon her halo and sent healing energy flowing into their companion, who – stoic as she was – displayed obvious duress after the blow she’d been dealt. The magic knitted much of her injuries, stemming the tide of blood that had covered her belt and scales, but still there were parts of the gash that were open.
Dolce paged through the scrolls in hand briefly, but another combatant joined the fray. “Took you long enough!” Kain shouted. “Bar their escape!” The soldier nodded and moved in front of the window they had entered through, taking a swipe at Dolce in the process.
The elf felt the blade cut her and cursed. She launched her Acid Arrow at Kain, but used the time she would have needed to ensure a more accurate hit to find the right scroll for her future plans instead.
Kain’s axe came down on Revel now. Not as hard as he’d struck Nasha, but still quite mightily. The hobgoblin laughed heartily as she felt her flesh tear open. It was one of the more disturbing traits of hers. A fight wasn’t good in her mind until she’d been cut open or bruised. "Just what, exactly, is wrong with you? Stop – ” another swipe, “- laughing!” and a third.
Three jagged hack wounds bled through her steel blue skin, but her sharky maw still curled in a smile before she said, “I told you I wanted to KNOW!!!” and bit at the man. He dodged the first, but her teeth clamped down with the second and she left gashes of her own in his flesh. Kain snarled.
Nasha sawed the cable one last time and there was a loud snapping noise as it broke followed by the noise of it falling through the lower levels of the ship. “Curse you!” Kain exclaimed. “You will pay for this!”
Even as he issued his threats Mirielle was healing Revel, for now she was worse off than Nasha. It was time for their escape. Dolce’s fingers curled round the scroll she’d rifled for and she cast another spell from it, watching as the magical text upon the page disappeared in time to her speaking it. The room suddenly filled with mist, thick and agonizing. The elf shoved the man barring the window and heard him stagger back.
“Go!” Dolce ordered.
Revel didn’t listen, instead staying toe-to-toe with Kain, but honestly Dolce had been counting on that. Another bite landed and the hobgoblin growled happily as she tasted his blood.
Nasha hesitated until she heard Mirielle make for the window. The man Dolce had shoved tried to swipe at the Captain, but his swing went high and they heard it thunk into the wood. Soon came the sound of Mirielle splashing into the water. Nasha followed without hesitation.
“REVEL!” Dolce barked.
Kain assaulted Revel further, drawing more blood, “You gonna run like your companions?” He said, and the words were charged with magic.
Dolce feared the worst. Her companion was not exactly the most resilient to such effects and the elf suspected Revel’s own desire would be to linger and fight no matter how futile it would have been.
Another bite from the hobgoblin. Dolce was about to berate her when she heard her say, “Pity, I’d love to see how this ends..” And then she made for the window too.
Kain got a parting shot and left a nasty gash in Revel’s leg, but as soon as the hobgoblin got out the window Dolce was following behind. They swam straight down first, knowing the ballistae on board would be at a strong disadvantage and the ship’s crew would have trouble sighting them. Once they’d made it a decent way below they headed back to their own vessel, following Mirielle’s Know Direction spell to orient themselves in the water.
Dolce already had new song lyrics swimming in her head. This was going to be one of the better ones, she felt.
The rest was simple, for The Dominator was still scrambling to repair her lines when The Lady’s Purr and The Sandbalot fled the cove. Shots were exchanged between The Purr and The Dominator with one or two errant shots seeking The Sandbalot, but no real damage was incurred. The crew’s morale shot through the sky and they continued on their way to Senghor.
Fishguts joined Dolce at the rail watching The Dominator‘s sails vanish on the horizon. “I’m making a song of that for sure, Ambrose.”
The old salt smiled, “Oh, I expected you would be, Dolce.”
She looked at him. “You care if I give the Cap credit for your plan?”
Ambrose chuckled, “You earn it by working in the kitchen with me and I’ll consider us square.”
“Sounds fair…” Dolce was quiet for a while, but soon she said, “It’s Inara, by the way. My name. It isn’t our custom to share it outside of our family.” She emphasized the last, hoping he would take her meaning.
Even in the dim light, Dolce was pretty sure she saw Ambrose’s eyes tear up. “Aye, well, ye needn’t worry. I’ll be calling you Dolce all the same.” He put a hand on her shoulder and she smiled.
She and Revel would soon be moving back to The Sandbalot, but they’d all climbed onto The Purr initially to be sure there were enough hands for the ballistae and catapults til they got out of range. “The kitchen will have to wait til after Senghor though.”
“I expected. Have fun swimming.” He clapped her on the shoulder and headed off to join the rest of the crew in their celebrations.
OOC Notes for Session 15
Big difference between Pathfinder 2 and D&D 5e (and also I think D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder 1), scrolls are not consumed when you copy a spell to your spellbook off of one regardless if you succeed or fail. On a failure, you can't attempt to copy that particular spell to your book again until you gain a level. On a critical failure it also costs you half your materials. On a critical success you manage to use only half the materials required. Anyway, Dolce has been learning a lot of spells from scrolls so she has tons of scrolls to use.
This bit here: “His battleaxe swung hard at Nasha and bit into her flesh, sending blood splattering on the floor and walls.” This was where Commander Kain almost 1-shot Nasha with a critical hit. We use the Critical Decks for Pathfinder 2 and the card I drew for his nat 20 was triple damage and an abdomen shot. She was still standing though.. At 6 HP… With 1d4 persistent bleed going on. She was at 4 HP by the time Mirielle healed her.
Session 16 – Strange Winds
Revel and Dolce had crossed over to The Sandbalot once they were well away from The Dominator. It only took two days to reach Senghor. Once again the guardians of the city boarded The Purr, but this time it didn’t seem to take very long. Dolce asked Mirielle why that was with Message and the Captain simply responded that the commander had taken her word they had no prisoners aboard.
If Quinn was to be believed, the commander had a thing for Mirielle, and this made Dolce suspect he was right. She didn’t harass Mirielle about that though. She was already causing her captain enough problems by making sure people knew her not just as a fierce tactician, but also as a pirate who still blushed at lewd comments and jokes.
They didn’t tarry in Senghor this time, simply paid the docking fees and sold The Sandbalot. Once the sale was handled they were back out to sea again. Of course, Dolce made time to share her new song in every tavern she could visit over a single night. Clipping the Dominator was well-received by every crowd she performed for. She was sure the tune would eventually make it back to the ship she’d written it for.
If Quinn was to be believed, the commander had a thing for Mirielle, and this made Dolce suspect he was right. She didn’t harass Mirielle about that though. She was already causing her captain enough problems by making sure people knew her not just as a fierce tactician, but also as a pirate who still blushed at lewd comments and jokes.
They didn’t tarry in Senghor this time, simply paid the docking fees and sold The Sandbalot. Once the sale was handled they were back out to sea again. Of course, Dolce made time to share her new song in every tavern she could visit over a single night. Clipping the Dominator was well-received by every crowd she performed for. She was sure the tune would eventually make it back to the ship she’d written it for.
Clipping the Dominator
Well, wouldn’t ya know,
We took us a boat
But the boat, well, scuttled she be?
We weren’t deterred,
Our spirits were stirred,
And our magic kept her on the sea!
When we made land,
We formed us a plan,
And repairs we got underway fast,
But when we was done,
There under the sun,
We saw a most ominous mast!
‘Twas a man’o’war all fearsome and black
With devils carved over her hull
And her sails of silk lay idle and slack
For her journey had taken a lull
There sat The Dominator,
So many pirates she’d ended
There sat The Dominator,
Clearly her needs were attended
Well, wouldn’t ya know
We’d fixed up the boat
From the last pirate hunter we’d fought?
But even with two,
‘Twas naught we could do
When faced with such perilous odds
Least not on the sea,
Says my captain to me,
And I realize that she is a’scheming!
And just what, says I,
Be that glint in your eye?
My captain, just what are you dreaming?
With that man’o’war if we should set sail
We wouldn’t have hardly a prayer,
But imagine now, if we could prevail
And somehow leave her anchored there…
There sat The Dominator,
Waiting to mete out our end
There sat The Dominator,
What did my captain intend?
Well, wouldn’t you know,
She sketches the boat,
And with little delay she proceeds
With a few choice spells
And some wish you wells,
We took to the water like reeds
We shared a prayer,
And then entered the air,
Below the window we sought
Then did we climb
Taking our time
To be sure we wouldn’t be caught
To the man’o’war we stealthily crept
And into a cabin we slipped
Where the rudder line was taught and kept,
We meant to be sure it was clipped!
There in The Dominator,
As the line was starting to strain,
There in The Dominator,
We met with Commander Kain!
Well, wouldn’t you know,
He was checking the boat,
And the rudder was up for inspection!
He didn’t expect
To find us when he checked –
You could tell by his startled expression!
But quickly did he,
With a face full of glee,
Nearly axe our man down with one swing!
We blocked the door,
And he cursed and he swore
As the rudder line waned into string!
On the man’o’war we battled and fought
As we sawed through the line til it tore
Then we turned and fled lest all be for naught
And swam into the ocean once more!
There stayed The Dominator,
Watching our ships sail away,
There stayed The Dominator,
And we’re still breathing today!
Well, wouldn’t ya know,
We took us a boat
But the boat, well, scuttled she be?
We weren’t deterred,
Our spirits were stirred,
And our magic kept her on the sea!
When we made land,
We formed us a plan,
And repairs we got underway fast,
But when we was done,
There under the sun,
We saw a most ominous mast!
‘Twas a man’o’war all fearsome and black
With devils carved over her hull
And her sails of silk lay idle and slack
For her journey had taken a lull
There sat The Dominator,
So many pirates she’d ended
There sat The Dominator,
Clearly her needs were attended
Well, wouldn’t ya know
We’d fixed up the boat
From the last pirate hunter we’d fought?
But even with two,
‘Twas naught we could do
When faced with such perilous odds
Least not on the sea,
Says my captain to me,
And I realize that she is a’scheming!
And just what, says I,
Be that glint in your eye?
My captain, just what are you dreaming?
With that man’o’war if we should set sail
We wouldn’t have hardly a prayer,
But imagine now, if we could prevail
And somehow leave her anchored there…
There sat The Dominator,
Waiting to mete out our end
There sat The Dominator,
What did my captain intend?
Well, wouldn’t you know,
She sketches the boat,
And with little delay she proceeds
With a few choice spells
And some wish you wells,
We took to the water like reeds
We shared a prayer,
And then entered the air,
Below the window we sought
Then did we climb
Taking our time
To be sure we wouldn’t be caught
To the man’o’war we stealthily crept
And into a cabin we slipped
Where the rudder line was taught and kept,
We meant to be sure it was clipped!
There in The Dominator,
As the line was starting to strain,
There in The Dominator,
We met with Commander Kain!
Well, wouldn’t you know,
He was checking the boat,
And the rudder was up for inspection!
He didn’t expect
To find us when he checked –
You could tell by his startled expression!
But quickly did he,
With a face full of glee,
Nearly axe our man down with one swing!
We blocked the door,
And he cursed and he swore
As the rudder line waned into string!
On the man’o’war we battled and fought
As we sawed through the line til it tore
Then we turned and fled lest all be for naught
And swam into the ocean once more!
There stayed The Dominator,
Watching our ships sail away,
There stayed The Dominator,
And we’re still breathing today!
Maybe not the smartest enemy to make, but an enemy that they would have had regardless of if they pissed them off or not. The elf wasn’t too worried for the time being. It seemed Mirielle had finally set her sights on Tidewater Rock. This because she wanted a place to stash some gold in case their ship got stripped from them and they somehow survived. Enough, she said, to buy a new boat and new armaments for her.
Her goal, ten thousand gold coins. Dolce was still pondering how they would hide such a fortune without risking it being claimed. She had an idea, but she was still fine tuning it. Ten thousand coins would be easy enough to hide in an extradimensional space. The real question was, who did you trust to guard something so important to you (and so valuable)? But Dolce had ideas about that too.
Unnatural
Just two days out from Senghor they had their first sighting of another ship. The winds were coming out of the west, which was where the ship was when they saw it disappear on the horizon. “Strange that,” Shade said.
Mirielle looked toward him, “What’s so strange about it?”
“They sailed into the wind, but their sails were full.”
Mirielle had noticed too, but her mind had immediately turned to magic. “Not so strange if they have magic aboard."
“Aye, Captain,” Shade said, returning to overseeing the rigging work.
Mirielle watched him and the crew performing their tasks, but as she observed she swore she heard a distant bell tolling. Her gaze was drawn to the sunset again.
The next day the weather was turning sour. Not so harsh as the storms they’d encountered with Mr. Plugg and later on their course from Ollo to Slipcove, but still enough to keep them busier than usual. When sunset came a strange fog seemed to creep up on them, and at the last moment possible a ship was sighted within.
A sonorous bell rang, and the sound was familiar to Mirielle. The collision was avoided and the ship seemed to withdraw as quickly as it had come upon them, taking the mist with it. Dolce cursed as she watched the mists receding.
“What?” Mirielle asked.
“That’s The Deathknell. Renowned ghost ship. Stalks its prey for three days before attacking. Same ship we sighted yesterday, and the reason we heard the bell.” The elf was pacing. She had copied the Ghostly Weapon spell to her spellbook, but wasn’t sure what kind of creatures served as The Deathknell‘s crew.
Mirielle scowled before saying, “And what kind of safeguards can you supply against a ghost ship, Dolce?”
The two started going over details, though shortly moved into the captain’s cabin and left Shade in control of the ship. Mirielle decided not to make for an island. After all, legend said if you sought shelter the ship simply waited until you left again to resume its stalking.
Dolce prepared one casting of Ghostly Weapon since it would benefit primarily her out of The Purr‘s strongest fighters. The magic would not take hold on Revel’s fangs or Nasha’s claws. She also prepared Lightning Bolt and Chilling Spray, though their effectiveness would depend upon the nature of The Deathknell‘s crew.
With plans set in place Mirielle and Dolce left the cabin and informed the crew they intended to fight The Deathknell. No one was particularly pleased and some seemed downright wary of the idea. Many cursed Narwhale for sighting her sails the night before.
Mirielle managed to raise the crew’s spirit while impressing upon them how important it was why fight without mercy. Their enemy certainly wouldn’t show any, and if they had their way the crew of The Lady’s Purr would never be seen again.
The Bell
On the third night the mist formed again, and soon after they all heard the sounds of the bell tolling. Rather than flee the ghost ship, Mirielle ordered them to make toward it. The combat was fierce before the ships even closed the distance between them. Greed took a good bite out of The Deathknell‘s sails, but their artillery proved superior, completely shredding The Purr‘s own sails.
Mirielle used the last of their momentum to ram into the decaying ship. The maneuver was not a risk like it had been in their battle with The Red Mariah because Mirielle had paid for a proper ram to be installed on the The Lady’s Purr along with all of the other improvements made in Slipcove.
As the two ships collided, Mirielle ordered the grapple. The ropes flew through the air and they caught hold, The Purr‘s crew boarded the ghost ship before its unliving crew had the chance to board their vessel. The crew was not ghostly, but rather composed of more substantial undead.
A deep voice rang out when Nasha, the quickest of the girls, first set foot on The Deathknell. “What is this? They’re boarding us!? No one has been so bold as to board us in decades, mates!” It sounded jovial, but also menacing, and issued from the remains of Whalebone Pilk, the cursed captain of The Deathknell. “Let’s make them feel welcome!!!”
The decaying crew of The Deathknell started shambling forward, but one bumped into the bell by Captain Pilk. His voice rang out almost in time with the bell, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING! GET OVER THERE!”
The undead that had done it shrank from his yelling and said, “Sorry, Captain,” as it shuffled off toward the girls. The creatures were quite slow in reaching the girls.
Dolce and Mirielle discussed something in Celestial as they fended off the initial surge of the sluggish enemy crew. The two seemed to be in agreement, and their agreement didn’t require Nasha or Revel to understand.
The hobgoblin was reluctant to bite into the undead at first, but her fists – even with her brass knuckles – proved inconsequential to them. She started tearing chunks up, though the taste was enough to make her wretch.
Nasha basically cut down anything that came near her and made her way toward the aftcastle. She seemed intent on facing off against the captain beside his wheel.
Captain Pilk set his sights on Mirielle, most likely because she was the captain of his target vessel. He extended a decaying hand and an incorporeal shadow of it appeared, snatching at the aasimar. He caught hold of her throat with his spectral hand and started trying to squeeze the life from her.
Mirielle gasped for air, but her eyes narrowed as she pointed a finger toward Captain Pilk and sent a ray of holy, fiery death at him. The spectral hand almost foiled the casting, but Mirielle choked out the words of power just well enough to keep from losing it.
When the ray struck Pilk he called out in anguish, and when that cry faded he snarled, “KILL THE ONE IN THE HAT!”
Immediately the shambling crew made for Mirielle. Revel capitalized on their careless movements to take one down, but the captain fielded three attacks in retaliation for her spell.
Dolce took advantage of the crew’s distraction and made her way onto the aftcastle with Nasha and Pilk. She moved right past the undead captain, putting his precious bell between them before unleashing her first Lightning Bolt spell of the battle.
The captain seemed to reel as the electricity coursed over the metal and wood of the bell and his own body. “NO!!!!! I’LL KILL YOU! KILL THE ELF!” He bellowed, immediately overriding his previous command. For his own part, he tried to stab Dolce. The attack was true and she felt her flesh rend, but it was not a mortal wound.
The crew, slow as it was, tried to obey his command and crossed almost the entire length of his ship to do it. They were cut down by Revel on their way, and slowed by Nasha as they topped the stairs. Only one swung on Dolce before she released another Lightning Bolt in tandem with Mirielle’s second Searing Light spell.
The bell still stood, but between Mirielle and Dolce’s attacks, plus a few strikes from Nasha, Captain Pilk was undone. The necromantic energy that bound him fizzled out and his body fell to mist. The shambling crew did as well.
Consequences
For a moment all was still, but the moment passed quickly. The ship began to tremble and the water around her rippled perilously. “BACK TO THE PURR!!” Mirielle bellowed.
The crew largely obeyed. Four crew members were fallen, dead or merely unconscious. Revel lifted two, Nasha and Ambrose took one a piece. Dolce, however, started pulling her thieves’ tools out of her bandolier. Mirielle was already back on The Purr when she noticed. “DOLCE!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?”
Dolce looked straight at Mirielle, “I’LL BE FINE!” It seemed a storm was brewing, but Dolce and Mirielle had agreed at the start of this combat that they needed to destroy the bell. Ghosts were often anchored to the world by but one simple thing or simple motive. If his was not simply to plunder, surely it was this instrument he was so fond of.
Dolce nimbly worked to free it from where it hung, for she hadn’t the strength to just shatter it and if two Lightning Bolts hadn’t gotten the task done… They would need more time. Sweat beaded on her brow as the ship continued trembling. It started slowly sinking in the water. She heard Mirielle give the order to cut the lines excepting those to the aftcastle.
The elf worked faster. Every time a tool slipped her heart skipped a beat, but if she could just get this last bit… And then the bolt came lose and the bell fell with a loud clang. She tucked the tools away and reached for it just as the ship lurched. The bell rolled toward the edge where it would fall into the ocean and likely be lost.
Dolce dove after it! She wrapped one arm around it and grabbed the edge of the ship with her other, coming to a halt just short of sliding overboard herself. “Besmara's grace...” She clambered to her feet and ran for the last remaining grapples, keenly aware of how low in the water The Deathknell now seemed to be. Once she had a good hold of the rope she cut it on her side.
“Cut every line but that one!” Mirielle bellowed, and the crew obeyed, though they almost cut Dolce’s too in their enthusiasm. Only Nasha’s steady hand stopped the blade from going too far and to do it the lizardfolk got cut.
Dolce swung into the side of The Purr, but held tight to the bell. The crew pulled her up. On deck she set the bell flat and looked behind her. The Deathknell was sinking further into the water. Mirielle ordered them to pull away, and they did as best they could.
Dolce suspected Besmara was watching over them, for they managed to escape the sinking ship without getting pulled under themselves. When that was done she took to her pack and pulled out a hammer. With all her might she struck the bell, but all she accomplished was sending a spine-tingling ring echoing across the ship.
Dolce sighed. “Revel! Break this cursed thing.” She held the hammer out.
Revel grinned, “With pleasure, Sir!” The hobgoblin seized the hammer and swung it hard. She too created an ominous ring, but also furthered the cracks Dolce’s electricity had put into its metal surface. Enough hammering eventually caused the whole of it to shatter and crumble.
Seemingly in tandem with the bell breaking, the weather started to improve. Of course, it was possible that was related to the ghost ship finally coming to a rest below and the seas in the area growing calm as a result.
Dolce collected the bell’s shards in her satchel and reclaimed the hammer. “Well done, Master-at-Arms.” Revel just grinned at her in satisfaction. “Well then, Captain, are we going down below to see what was in their hold?”
Mirielle just stared at Dolce for a moment before saying, “Are you serious?”
Dolce shrugged. “We are pirates. We do have the means.”
Mirielle sighed. “Narwhale’s dead.”
A cloud settled over Dolce, but then she said, “Wouldn’t want it to be for nothing. He sighted the sails, you know. We’re just shy of what you wanted before seeking to join the Free Captains.”
Mirielle’s expression softened and she ran her fingers through her golden hair. In the moonlight Dolce could see a strange pale impression of a hand on the captain’s throat. “You’re right. Besides.. I’d like to know he won’t be returning.” She cast her gaze out to the sea.
Captain Pilk had been slain before, but always returned. So the legends said. The girls took the time to prepare, Dolce changing her remaining spells around and collecting what belongings she thought would help them most in the water.
A casting of Water Breathing infused with more powerful magic than it required gave the girls and Owlbear until morning. Mirielle cast a spell known as Wanderer’s Guide to lead them to the ship’s resting ground. What followed was a long night of hard work lifting loot from the hold of the sunken Deathknell up above to The Purr. Several Ant Haul spells were cast to alleviate at least some of the task, and Dolce’s magical satchel was emptied of its contents on the first trip back up so that it could be used to carry some of the weight.
By morning they had lost another soul. This one had been badly injured, and try though he might, Quinn just couldn’t save him. The man’s name was Rollo, and he had joined them in Bag Island. Two deaths. The first since they’d mutinied.
Revel, Nasha, Mirielle, Dolce, and Owlbear slept late into the day after their hard day’s labor. The next day they continued their work, but also took Maheem, Shaveka, Barefoot, Calden, and Cog along with them. By the end of that day they’d emptied two thirds of The Deathknell‘s hold. They’d also all spent quite a long time around the mass of skulls in The Deathknell‘s hold. Apparently they were collecting them for some reason.
Before they drank that day, a new tradition began aboard The Purr. The crew was gathered on the starboard side and Mirielle said, “Two of our friends are fallen, but we can rest easy knowing they were not claimed for eternal unlife like the crew that took them. I want us to remember those we lose. Now is the time for this remembrance. Who will share a memory of Narwhale?”
The next hour was spent sharing stories of Narwhale and then of Rollo. Most of the latter from the halflings who had joined them in Slipcove. Then Narwhale and Rollo were released to the sea. The crew’s spirits were pretty high, all things considered. Moments of silence and stories of their lost friends were shared throughout the night above deck.
Dolce suspected Mirielle had or would cry over the loss of Narwhale. She’d grown rather fond of the dwarf. The elf joined in on the stories until she was ready for sleep, and then slipped away to her tiny private room in the officers’ quarters. There she contemplated how fleeting life could be. Many elves didn’t form bonds with those of other races. They’d grown too jaded from watching them die, but Dolce supposed in her line of work even an elf was likely to be quite short-lived.
Dolce used magic to clean herself up from her hours of swimming in the ocean and set about to penning the lyrics of the song she’d sing in their next port to regale taverns with the story of their victory over The Deathknell.
OOC Notes for Session 16
I love ghost ships in cartoons and stories. I had mentioned this to Owlbrarian when we encountered The Honeysnake. That said, I was really excited for The Deathknell once Dolce's Lore Pirates check revealed it was another ghost ship. I also can't wait to track down The Honeysnake, but the girls haven't had much downtime for side dalliances like that in the current plotline.
The encounter was cool. I'm going to prod Owlbrarian to create a google doc of his ship encounter rules so I can link to them here. Normally the way it goes is something like this:
- We sight a sail.
- We roll captaining checks that determine how long it takes us to catch up to the sighted ship (there are very few contested checks in PF2E. Almost everything is against what is basically 'Passive' scores from 5e. These captaining checks work like that. I roll against a DC of 10 + my enemy captain's captaining score. The enemy captain rolls against 10 + my captaining score. The three skills you can use for captaining are Diplomacy, Intimidation, and Lore Sailing. Mirielle captains with Diplomacy, Dolce with Lore Sailing. Revel could do either Diplomacy or Intimidation if she had to do it, but would do best with the latter. Thankfully I've never needed her to pilot a ship yet).
- Once we catch up, starting heading and position relative to one another is determined by rolls.
- Combat begins with initiative rolls using the relative skills (this is baked into PF2E. It's part of how they got away from Dex being a god stat in d&d 5e. The other part being there are very few ways to get Dex mod to damage in PF2E, so it's still AC and Reflexes, but your fighter needs Strength to hit harder and can use Perception - the default initiative stat that is Wisdom based - or other relative skills - stealth is pretty common for sneaking, athletics for bursting down a door or engaging in combat while swimming or working on a ship, deception if you're bluffing to catch them flat-footed, etc.). Mirielle uses her captaining stat (diplomacy), Dolce uses perception (it's higher than all other relevant skills), Revel and Nasha typically use Athletics unless they are engaged in something that makes another skill more thematically appropriate.
- We go in initiative order.
• Mirielle has a number of special things she can do as the captain including turn the ship, speed it up, slow it down, ram the enemy, shear their oars, etc. A lot of them are dependent on range and speed. Also at the start of each of her turns she gets a roll to 'Gain the Upper Hand'. This allows her to move the ship 1 square on a success and +1 square for every 5 by which she beats the DC. Alternatively she can use those squares of movement to turn the ship up to 90 degrees. This roll is meant to represent taking advantage of the ocean. The enemy captain also gets this roll against my captaining DC. Notably, these actions and this roll go to whoever is captaining, it's just usually Mirielle.
• All PCs gain access to special things they can do as crew members. They can sing a shanty to increase all ship action rolls (including attacks and steering and gaining speed, etc) by 1. They can order a single ballistae or catapult to fire (1 action), or order a broadside (3 actions, but fires all ballistae on one bank). They can order the Crew to Take Cover (1 action) and give them a +2 to AC and Reflex saves against enemy attacks til the end of the next turn. They can order a Grapple (2 actions if I remember right), but only the captain can order a Board and it requires her to use her reaction.
• Note that Mirielle can do all the stuff the non-captain PCs can too if she chooses, but usually she needs to control the ship movement. Quite often it ends up being Revel or Nasha or Dolce that orders a grapple after Mirielle tells them to get ready for it. Also, they can cast spells and use their normal actions from the combat system (like Dolce has a spell that puts out mundane fires she may start preparing soonish (relative to session 27, not the above recap) because fire is a serious danger on a ship, but she'd be spending 2 actions to cast that spell and only have one left over to use on a ship action. - The enemy ship's actions all happen at once on the captain's turn. They get more than 3 actions to represent their crew doing stuff. This seems to work pretty well for balance purposes.
- After the order to board is given the girls all roll Athletics for getting onto the enemy ship. A critical success means you can place yourself anywhere on the enemy ship (such as Revel did in one of our earliest fights, separating her completely from the other three player chars). A normal success means you board at a logical point close to where you came off of your own ship. A failure means you board, but have trouble and lose an action on your first turn to keep your balance. A critical failure means you fall into the ocean (rolled a few of these, but used hero points to reroll them, cause yeah... >.>).
There are still some custom actions available to players during the combat aboard the enemy ship. They include things like raising our crew morale (done in a pinch once or twice by Dolce), lowering the enemy's morale (also done once or twice by Dolce), and instructing the crew to 'Take no Quarter' (done by Mirielle once or twice). All of these impact crew actions which happen at the end of Mirielle's turn. Basically by default our crew attacks the enemy crew in the background as we fight the 'highlighted' opponents who are on the initiative tracker. We roll an attack roll with Mirielle's captaining bonus and if we meet the DC roll 1d4 to see how many enemy crew we kill (the enemy roll the same at the end of their captain's turn, but we roll an additional d4 to determine what happens to the crew in question.... so if they roll 3, we roll 3 more d4. On a 1 someone dies, on a 2 someone gets a scar of some sort, on a 3-4 they are knocked out for the rest of the combat but come away relatively unscathed).
Any time we hit the enemy crew they make a save versus morale damage. If they run out of morale, they surrender (this has happened a lot). At this point we can have our crew attack any of the surviving enemy people on initiative (this has surprisingly only come up once or twice despite morale breaking a lot. I guess because it usually happens near the end of combat). The default at this point is that our crew rolls 1d4 to see how many attacks hit Mirielle's designated target. Each attack deals damage separately.
Take no Quarter increases the d4 to determine crew killed or attacks landed to a d6.
Phew. That was a lot longer than I thought it would be. Anyways, The Deathknell was a normal ship combat, only it wasn't running. It actually hurt us more than we hurt it, completely destroying our sails to the point where Shipwright would not be sufficient to repair it and we had to use resources from a nearby island to do so. Shade oversaw this, sending some of our crew to said island with a ship's boat to bring back supplies while we were diving down below.
We rammed The Deathknell with the last of our momentum (once the sails break you lose 30ft of speed per round, and the boat was only going 60, so it lost 30 and slammed into them and then the next round would have been dead in the water).
The on deck combat was a little different because it was kind of like a monster spawner. I say this in the sense of similar sorts of things in video games. We cut down all the initial notable undead, but more were coming in subsequent rounds. Ultimately the combat probably wouldn't have ended until we focused on Pilk, but luckily Owlbrarian telegraphed his obsession with the bell enough that I decided to focus on that primarily and catch him with as much damage as I could while I did it.
Also worth noting, since the undead feasted on the living they had a d6 by default. As though always 'Taking no Quarter'.
Again, it was a fun fight.
Owlbrarian
The Librarian is Here
So it’s been a while! We ended up moving into a new house and have been super busy trying to get everything unpacked.
Clipping the Dominator is my favorite song by the way. Just saying.
The combat on board the Deathknell was the first time I killed an important named NPC using my ship combat rules. Narwhale way back in the first few sessions was the one that stabbed the captain (when they tried to kill her in the bilges) making him the only crewmember to almost kill her and stay as crew.
At least so far that likely will change since the Purr tends to recruit people from conquered crews.
Now onto the Deathknell itself. This is one of those things that Pathfinder (and D&D in general) does that I kinda hate. It will mention something like in this case that Whalebone can only be slain by destroying the bell. It doesn’t give the players any way of knowing this instead relying on the DM to give (or not) the information to the players.
Now yes you could just run it as written and have the PC’s figure it out after the fact that he is still around. This may be the intended way of doing this encounter I am not sure. Because it really doesn’t say much one way or another.
Though if that is the case it almost comes across as the PC’s “missed” something especially since I let them know about Whalebone Pilk beforehand. Which honestly is another issue I tend to have with these adventures in general. The flow of information. What should I tell the players or not?
There is all this lore locked behind DM sections without any guidance on how it should be used. Even just some suggestions would be nice! Because DMs might very well run the Whalebone encounter without the players finding much of anything out about it.
Anyways little mini-rant aside from what I remember this was quite a fun session with a somber ending. Though at this point it feels years ago with the move in between.
Clipping the Dominator is my favorite song by the way. Just saying.
The combat on board the Deathknell was the first time I killed an important named NPC using my ship combat rules. Narwhale way back in the first few sessions was the one that stabbed the captain (when they tried to kill her in the bilges) making him the only crewmember to almost kill her and stay as crew.
At least so far that likely will change since the Purr tends to recruit people from conquered crews.
Now onto the Deathknell itself. This is one of those things that Pathfinder (and D&D in general) does that I kinda hate. It will mention something like in this case that Whalebone can only be slain by destroying the bell. It doesn’t give the players any way of knowing this instead relying on the DM to give (or not) the information to the players.
Now yes you could just run it as written and have the PC’s figure it out after the fact that he is still around. This may be the intended way of doing this encounter I am not sure. Because it really doesn’t say much one way or another.
Though if that is the case it almost comes across as the PC’s “missed” something especially since I let them know about Whalebone Pilk beforehand. Which honestly is another issue I tend to have with these adventures in general. The flow of information. What should I tell the players or not?
There is all this lore locked behind DM sections without any guidance on how it should be used. Even just some suggestions would be nice! Because DMs might very well run the Whalebone encounter without the players finding much of anything out about it.
Anyways little mini-rant aside from what I remember this was quite a fun session with a somber ending. Though at this point it feels years ago with the move in between.
Crys
daydreamer and poet
Thank you! The move was thankfully relatively small in distance. We only moved about 25 minutes away from where we were before. Working nights also meant we did all of our moving between like 8pm and 5am most days, so very little traffic to contend with and much cooler temperatures (summer in Texas is not a fun time to move, even at night). It was fun getting some of our bigger pieces of furniture over, and the first time I ever tied something to the top of a car (we have an SUV with a roof rack, but we'd never used it for anything until moving our bookcase). Ultimately though, it was relatively painless and didn't involve much contact with others. We've had more contact with strangers by bringing them into our new house to look at issues it has (leaky sink, broken oven, etc). But we have all our things here now and are getting everything sorted away. When we do have contractors over we ask them to wear a mask and we do too. Texas had 14,000 new cases of covid19 diagnosed on July 17th and 8,700 yesterday so we're trying to be as careful as we can. I'll be really happy when these last issues are ironed out and we can just isolate.
I did not account for Owlbrarian being so tired when I said I doubted the posts would slow down much. I was tired too, but it's a lot simpler to edit existing content than to write a response so it probably wouldn't have slowed me down much. That said, onto Session 17.
Spoiler Warning: Many spoilers for the Skull & Shackles adventure path are contained within these story recap posts. If you don’t want your campaign spoiled, don’t read these!
Ultimately, their encounter with The Deathknell had occurred only two days from Tidewater Rock. The Rock had a long history of changing hands and being a launching point for renowned pirate captains. It was a very defensible position, and while not as profitable as it once was... Pirates were a superstitious lot, and Dolce and Mirielle felt sure taking the Rock would earn them further renown in the Shackles.
Unfortunately, the current Lady of the rock was said to be interested in a marriage alliance. Something Mirielle had no interest in entering into considering she had only just started enjoying the prospect of choosing her own future. The plan, as such, was to see if Lady Smythee could be convinced to consider some other alliance, and failing that, to take the Rock by force from within.
They were sure they'd been seen from a distance. After all, being an excellent vantage point was what Tidewater Rock had been prized for when Sargavan vessels were still commonly preyed upon. The girls were met by Lady Smythee's commander at the dock. Dolce noted the man seemed displeased when Mirielle informed him they were here to see if Lady Smythee would consider an alliance. The elf had suspicions he had feelings for his Lady.
Still, he was dutiful and showed them inside. They were taken up to the fourth floor, where the dining chamber was. Royster, the commander, knocked upon Lady Smythee's door, and soon enough the lady joined them. They supped with her and discussed at length her interest in the current situation in the Shackles. Mirielle broached the topic of an alliance carefully, but found that Lady Smythee would not give ground.
The woman would only be satisfied with a marriage contract to a strapping young captain like the man she'd lost. With a sigh Mirielle began to announce that their goals were at odds. Dolce, Revel, and Nasha, who had all been informed Mirielle would not consider a marriage contract, began to rise, but Smythee reacted first.
She seemed to relish the opportunity for combat, drawing her rapier with almost shocking grace for a woman of her age. Mirielle was nearest her, and she nearly knocked the aasimar unconscious with a well-placed blow from her cutlass, but the captain returned the favor with a fiery ray of magical energy.
Revel charged across the table to join Mirielle in assaulting Smythee while Nasha closed with Royster to keep him occupied. It did not take long for further soldiers to start assembling.
Lady Smythee used the soldiers for cover as she attempted to flee the room, but she was not fast enough and Revel's teeth laid her low by the door to the chamber. One of the soldiers attempted to lift Lady Smythee, but Revel bit his arm and ceased his first attempt. He grunted and bore the pain to lift her again, this time successfully, and retreated into the downward stairwell.
Royster ordered two of the soldiers to go above and fire on The Lady's Purr. He closed the distance between himself and Mirielle, but did not have the chance to kill her before she used her Vanishing Wayfinder to turn herself invisible. Revel pursued the soldiers with the fallen Lady Smythee into the stairwell, tearing into them as she did so.
Dolce ordered Nasha to go above and stop them from hurting The Purr. She said a silent prayer to Besmara that there wouldn't be more soldiers above than Nasha could handle.
Nasha obeyed Dolce's order, going in pursuit of the two soldiers who had run above. They had gotten to the top much faster than she'd expected, but her speed was greater than theirs. A puzzle for later. She had thought to fight them, but one realized she was giving chase and told the other to fire the ballista before meeting her in combat.
Nasha took a blow from his blade and felt the wiser course was not to engage the two, but rather to disable their weapon. Unfortunately the soldier's comrade did fire off a shot before she tumbled through his legs and made her way to the ballista. She could see The Purr below and that the ballista had struck true. Nasha severed the ballista's cord. That would stop them from using this one, but there was another on the other side of the roof. She made toward it.
The two men cursed and both started firing at her with crossbows. Bolt after bolt struck true, and Nasha began to fear she might not accomplish her task, but she did with just enough time to spare. When the second cord was severed the lizardfolk climbed over the battlement and clung to the wall, carefully moving around the corner while she was out of their sight. This would, she hoped, at least buy her time as they tried to locate her.
Besides the terrifying fall that awaited her if her grasp on the wall should slip, Nasha saw sailors below with a battering ram. Shade's doing, no doubt. He'd proven rather useful and skilled at his job.
To her surprise, Nasha heard the men say, "Nevermind this, let's help the Lady," rather than pursuing her. She waited a short time to climb back onto the roof, and sure enough, they were gone. She looked at her wounds for a moment and steeled herself. If they were rejoining the fight, she would as well, and if luck was on her side, Mirielle would restore her strength.
Nasha made her way toward the stairwell across the rooftop.
As Nasha gave chase and made for the roof above, Dolce retrieved Lady Smythee's sword since her own had not been allowed in the tower. She joined Revel in the stairwell and saw, to her delight, the recently roused Lady Smythee still in the arms of one soldier with a group of others clustered around them. The elf moved directly into harm's way so she could cast Chilling Spray and catch them all in the spell's effect.
Her ploy worked. It hardly hurt them, but Lady Smythee had only regained a small amount of vigor from whatever they'd brought her back with and fell into unconsciousness once more. The rest were chilled to the bone and their movements hampered. Still, they were retreating.
Royster snarled in agitation, joining the stairwell combat. He targeted Dolce with one attack before tumbling past her to run to his lady's side. Revel and Dolce pressed the combatants hard on the stairs while Mirielle stealthily moved along as well, making sure her friends were still standing.
The fighting continued as they made their way down an entire flight of stairs, halfway around the tower's perimeter, before one of the guards poured a third healing potion down Lady Smythee's throat and stopped in shock. "It's no use, Commander. She's-- she's not breathing." The commander was enraged upon hearing this. "What do we do?"
"I don't care what you do, but I'm going to kill them all!" He shouted, turning back to face Dolce and Revel now. Dolce expertly slew one of the remaining soldiers as Revel moved opposite Commander Royster, climbing along the walls to get there. The hobgoblin was delighted her prey had stopped running and happily attempted to sink her teeth in him.
She missed. He was quite an experienced veteran and skillfully dodged her attacks. It didn't deter Revel, but when Royster returned her onslaught Dolce saw to her horror that Revel fell from nearly top condition to sagging on her feet in a single quick exchange of blows. Dolce fished a wand out of her pack as Mirielle cast healing magic on Revel from a distance, breaking her invisibility.
Thankfully, Royster seemed fixated on the hobgoblin and didn't turn his attention on the injured captain. Revel managed to land a blow on him now that Dolce was in position to distract him, but it was not the strongest hit. Royster struck her savagely again and Dolce swore her hobgoblin companion teetered on her feet. It was now or never!
The elf invoked the magic of the wand, shrouding herself with Mirror Image before saying, "So vulgar. It's no wonder your lady didn't return your affections." It worked. She could tell it by the rage in his eyes as he wheeled toward her. She took advantage of his wild shift in attention to stab him once with his lady's sword to decent effect, but he was still standing.
Mirielle spent more of her healing energy on Revel since Dolce hadn't been injured yet. She too sent up a prayer to Besmara that the Mirror Images would hold out since Dolce was not nearly as hardy as Revel was.
Royster sliced into Dolce relentlessly, twice erasing an illusory image. The third blow struck the elf with shocking force and she found the wind knocked out of her as blood gushed from her wound. Still, she held her ground and returned his assault with her own, another good strike. Revel also bit into him as his attention was turned on the elf.
Mirielle's healing magic flowed into Dolce now, knitting her fresh wound and restoring her vigor. Another strike from Royster dispersed the last illusion. His second miraculously missed, but the third struck true. Dolce felt certain she would meet her end if the fight continued much longer. She stabbed back at him, but only one blow connected.
To her relief, he fell to Revel's teeth just before his blade fell on her again. Dolce's hand reached out for the wall, trembling, and she steadied herself even as Revel's attention turned on the last remaining soldier. "There's no need for further death, Revel," Mirielle said.
Revel looked back at her captain, disappointed. The soldier didn't seem convinced. He'd yelled at someone named Birney to stay in the room he now guarded. Mirielle talked him down. They were not here to claim lives, she explained, but to take the Rock and that was accomplished without slaying him or the occupant of the chamber.
The soldier dropped his weapon. Mirielle bade him stay there. She took Revel and Dolce to seek out Nasha above.
They encountered the soldiers before they found Nasha, making Mirielle's eyes tear up. Revel screamed in fury, saying "I'll KILL you!!!" and bit wildly at them, but managed to get her teeth stuck in the frame of the door they were passing through.
The soldiers, while rattled by Revel's fury, didn't hesitate to strike back, and one landed a solid blow that resulted in a sickening crunch. Revel wrenched her fangs free of the door, but her jaw hung awkwardly open and was clearly broken.
Mirielle's healing repaired enough of the damage for Revel to bite anew as Dolce caught up and stabbed into her attacker. The two took the soldier down with little trouble and turned their attention on the last one. This one exclaimed, "Forget this!" And bolted, though not before feeling the gnash of Revel's teeth.
They didn't give pursuit though, because just as he ran for the stairs Nasha landed softly beside them. Seeing Mirielle, she smiled weakly and said, "Good. I have made it."
Mirielle healed Nasha and Revel both even as the hobgoblin hugged Nasha, her rage subsiding. "I thought you were dead!" She exclaimed, tearing up a little herself.
Even Dolce's eyes were watery, though she hid the gesture of wiping the tears away as one meant to brush her hair out of her face. "Indeed. When we saw the soldiers we thought the worst."
"No. But I could have been. Their bolts were sharp," Nasha said calmly. She had returned Revel's hug and placed a hand on Mirielle's shoulder. "Thank you again, Captain." The respect and gratitude was clear in her voice. "Your sailors are breaking down the door below."
Mirielle blinked, dashing the tears from her eyes openly. "Are they?" Nasha only nodded, and the four headed back down.
Only four of the inhabitants of Tidewater Rock survived The Purr's assault. Mirielle let them leave, with their personal possessions. One cursed her and she coldly told them to go before she changed her mind. They even allowed them to take the ship's boat that had been docked here since there was no other way off the island.
Within the Rock, they found a number of spoils, including a magical spyglass and magical breastplate. The Rock had clearly seen better days, for what wealth was within it seemed meager compared to what a successful captain would have accrued. Of course, Lady Smythee's husband had been gone for quite some time.
With this wealth, and the last of the stores still below the waters on The Deathknell, Mirielle believed they could impress the Hurricane King enough to earn her the title of Free Captain. So they returned to The Deathknell's underwater resting ground, using Mirielle's magic to guide them, and spent another day's labor bringing up the last of the wealth below. They left no one at the Rock for the few days it took them to retrieve the sunken treasure, thinking nothing would try to take it in that short a span of time.
The crew got treated to Dolce's newest song about their most recent exploit during this venture. She gaged their response, and decided ultimately it wasn't her best work, but would certainly have a place in her tavern repertoire.
During this time, Dolce finally took note of Shade purposefully avoiding her. She eventually confronted him and forced him to tell her why. When he removed his gloves and she took in his dark skin her first instinct was to stab him with her rapier... For she recognized the distinct hue of drow skin without ever having seen it before. It made his strange accent make sense as well.
The elf restrained herself, imagining the hassle of explaining to Mirielle why she'd attacked the bosun when he'd been doing such good work, but she did make certain he had nothing else to hide from them and interrogate him regarding why he was a pirate and not below with his kind. The drow revealed to her that he had been part of a heretical society, one which worshiped the devil, Moloch, rather than the demons they usually prayed to.
As a result, surrounding drow settlements had deemed his a threat and murdered all but a few of them. He was among those who escaped and now sought out a new life far from the underground. Dolce snarled that he should watch himself, because she certainly would be, and hastily withdrew from him to go and inform Mirielle.
As the elf predicted, Mirielle was not on board with the idea of murdering Shade outright. Rather, she said they would continue with him and see if he gave them reason to. He did his job well, and was a capable combatant. He'd proven useful once or twice already, and until he did give them cause she would let him continue to do so. The two debated this at some length, but ultimately Mirielle pulled rank on Dolce, ordering her to stay her hostilities unless directly merited.
OOC Notes
So, as it turns out, the people of Tidewater Rock are supposed to take a hostage, unarmored and unarmed. Likely I would have chosen Nasha since she doesn't need armor or a weapon to be devastating as a monk. My husband didn't read that paragraph of the module though, and I only saw it because he lets me reference the books for proper names when I'm writing up these posts.
I figure this is fine, cause he also accidentally converted both Lady Smythee and Commander Royster as one level higher than they were supposed to be, and that battle was terrifying. We'll call it even, huh?
There's a big difference in how PF2E handles dying and how D&D 5E does. In 5E the player characters are, for the most part, perpetual yoyos. They can go down and come back an infinite number of times as long as there's healing to be spared and it happens before they fail 3 death saves. In PF2E when you fall unconscious you gain the dying condition. So when Smythee went down, she became "Dying 1". When she was revived, she lost the dying condition and instead gained the wounded condition, so "Wounded 1". In PF2E you die when you reach Dying 4, and your Dying rank is based on your Dying condition + your Wounded condition. You can use a hero point to revive yourself without gaining the Wounded condition, but of course... NPCs don't have those.
• So Smythee was Dying 1, got a potion poured down her throat and became conscious, Wounded 1.
• Got knocked out by Chilling Spray, Wounded 1 + Dying 1 = Dying 2.
• Was given a second potion, Wounded 2. Got knocked unconscious by another Chilling Spray. Wounded 2 + Dying 1 = Dying 3.
• Failed a death save while being carried down the stairs, Wounded 2 + Dying 2 = Dying 4 = Dead.
Notably, Chilling Spray, is a slightly weaker option than Burning Hands, if you strictly look at damage. Chilling Spray does 2d4 damage. Burning Hands does 2d6. But... but... Chilling Spray also gives creatures a -5ft move penalty on a failure and -10ft on a critical failure. (A critical failure is any save that is 10 or more below the caster's DC in PF2E. Rolling a natural 1 makes your result one category worse than it would have been based on your total (usually also a critical failure)). The marines were our level or lower (so they failed most of the time) and Royster and Smythee were higher than us (and succeeded most of the time). Movement in PF2E is looped into the 3 action economy. All actors (PCs and baddies) have 3 actions, they can choose to use one or more to move. You can't break up your movement (so move, then act, then finish moving). Instead you would spend 1 action moving, then 1 attacking or whatever, then have to spend another to move again. So... that -5/-10 is really as much as -15/-30 feet of movement per round. The spell was beautiful here. And I only chose it for Dolce over Burning Hands because she spent her whole life daydreaming about being a pirate and knows fire is dangerous on ships.
Revel has a climb speed when she is raging courtesy of a Barbarian feat. This meant that it was faster for her to climb on the walls of the tower in her pursuit than it was to run down the stairs (difficult terrain), so just imagine the blue-skinned hobgoblin scurrying along the inside wall of the stairwell and gnashing her teeth at her enemies the whole way down. It was a wonderful image in my mind.
Shade being a drow was sort of my doing. I had found a picture of a really cool drow swashbuckler and had commented that it would be cool if they recruited another elf since Dolce is quite young. In Golarion an elf reaches physical maturity and adulthood at around age 20, but aren't considered emotionally mature by other elves until they are closer to their first century. I thought it would be fun to have someone aboard who might note that Dolce is still young (she's 85). Owlbrarian decided to use the cool drow pirate and put him aboard our ship to give Dolce another elf to interact with. Of course, this changes the dynamic of the relationship she will have with said elf because she was raised to hate Drow.
-In Golarion, the elves fled a catastrophe that threatened the entire planet by retreating to another planet... Except a few who remained behind and went below the surface. These elves were influenced by the presence of Rovagug (a god who seeks only to destroy creation and the other gods; they did not realize they were influenced by him at the time), and became Drow. In fact, this effect can still happen should an elf be cruel and evil enough they can spontaneously become a Drow. The reverse has never occurred. The Drow take special delight in torturing their surface kin, and view their flight to the sheltering planet as The Abandonment.
Last note for this lengthy OOC section, this was a fun thing for me to get into the mindset for. I don't play characters who are so... cutthroat... basically ever. And somehow this felt more ruthless than taking over a ship. So getting into the mindset to go and just murder all these people living in this fort solely so they could put another feather in their cap was definitely playing outside my normal wheelhouse, but it made sense for the characters. In my head...
• Nasha is indifferent to it. To her all that really matters is her companions and the crew, and if this furthers their renown and position then she's fine murdering these warm blooded strangers.
• Revel is a bloodthirsty fighter, perfectly willing to take from others by force and relishing fear that she brings upon others. Again, perfectly fine with this.
• Dolce is a scheming, thrill-seeking, elf. She wants them to be renowned throughout the Shackles and beyond as their powers grow. Perfectly content to do this. Even more so to do it the way they did, by getting invited inside and then taking them from there. It really caters to her motivations and will make for another defining point of their pirating career in her stories.
• Mirielle thrives in her newfound freedom and appreciates comfort, but she actually doesn't like violence. It is a means to an end for her. She preferred to find a peaceful resolution or form an alliance with Lady Smythee, alas, the module literally said all the woman wanted was marriage (pretty sure Owlbrarian also said it would have to be to the captain when I floated the idea of maybe marrying her to The Purr's mysterious bosun or to Dolce)... And marriage is one thing Mirielle is not willing to do because of her own backstory. She also wants to lead her crew to glory, so she basically chose to ignore her aasimar heritage and her guilt in order to claim the Rock and further their reputation. Of course, she also is saddened by how many ultimately died. She clings to the fact that Besmara "cares little for senseless murder" (this is from the writeup of Besmara in book 1 of the adventure) as justification for why she spares the lives of her enemies whenever possible. She also had to make a diplomacy check with her crew to make sure there were no ruffled feathers when she allowed the four survivors to keep their belongings as they left the Rock (this she chose to do just cause she's a softy).
I did not account for Owlbrarian being so tired when I said I doubted the posts would slow down much. I was tired too, but it's a lot simpler to edit existing content than to write a response so it probably wouldn't have slowed me down much. That said, onto Session 17.
Spoiler Warning: Many spoilers for the Skull & Shackles adventure path are contained within these story recap posts. If you don’t want your campaign spoiled, don’t read these!
Session 17 - Cracking the Rock
Ultimately, their encounter with The Deathknell had occurred only two days from Tidewater Rock. The Rock had a long history of changing hands and being a launching point for renowned pirate captains. It was a very defensible position, and while not as profitable as it once was... Pirates were a superstitious lot, and Dolce and Mirielle felt sure taking the Rock would earn them further renown in the Shackles.
Unfortunately, the current Lady of the rock was said to be interested in a marriage alliance. Something Mirielle had no interest in entering into considering she had only just started enjoying the prospect of choosing her own future. The plan, as such, was to see if Lady Smythee could be convinced to consider some other alliance, and failing that, to take the Rock by force from within.
They were sure they'd been seen from a distance. After all, being an excellent vantage point was what Tidewater Rock had been prized for when Sargavan vessels were still commonly preyed upon. The girls were met by Lady Smythee's commander at the dock. Dolce noted the man seemed displeased when Mirielle informed him they were here to see if Lady Smythee would consider an alliance. The elf had suspicions he had feelings for his Lady.
Still, he was dutiful and showed them inside. They were taken up to the fourth floor, where the dining chamber was. Royster, the commander, knocked upon Lady Smythee's door, and soon enough the lady joined them. They supped with her and discussed at length her interest in the current situation in the Shackles. Mirielle broached the topic of an alliance carefully, but found that Lady Smythee would not give ground.
The woman would only be satisfied with a marriage contract to a strapping young captain like the man she'd lost. With a sigh Mirielle began to announce that their goals were at odds. Dolce, Revel, and Nasha, who had all been informed Mirielle would not consider a marriage contract, began to rise, but Smythee reacted first.
She seemed to relish the opportunity for combat, drawing her rapier with almost shocking grace for a woman of her age. Mirielle was nearest her, and she nearly knocked the aasimar unconscious with a well-placed blow from her cutlass, but the captain returned the favor with a fiery ray of magical energy.
Revel charged across the table to join Mirielle in assaulting Smythee while Nasha closed with Royster to keep him occupied. It did not take long for further soldiers to start assembling.
Lady Smythee used the soldiers for cover as she attempted to flee the room, but she was not fast enough and Revel's teeth laid her low by the door to the chamber. One of the soldiers attempted to lift Lady Smythee, but Revel bit his arm and ceased his first attempt. He grunted and bore the pain to lift her again, this time successfully, and retreated into the downward stairwell.
Royster ordered two of the soldiers to go above and fire on The Lady's Purr. He closed the distance between himself and Mirielle, but did not have the chance to kill her before she used her Vanishing Wayfinder to turn herself invisible. Revel pursued the soldiers with the fallen Lady Smythee into the stairwell, tearing into them as she did so.
Dolce ordered Nasha to go above and stop them from hurting The Purr. She said a silent prayer to Besmara that there wouldn't be more soldiers above than Nasha could handle.
Above
Nasha obeyed Dolce's order, going in pursuit of the two soldiers who had run above. They had gotten to the top much faster than she'd expected, but her speed was greater than theirs. A puzzle for later. She had thought to fight them, but one realized she was giving chase and told the other to fire the ballista before meeting her in combat.
Nasha took a blow from his blade and felt the wiser course was not to engage the two, but rather to disable their weapon. Unfortunately the soldier's comrade did fire off a shot before she tumbled through his legs and made her way to the ballista. She could see The Purr below and that the ballista had struck true. Nasha severed the ballista's cord. That would stop them from using this one, but there was another on the other side of the roof. She made toward it.
The two men cursed and both started firing at her with crossbows. Bolt after bolt struck true, and Nasha began to fear she might not accomplish her task, but she did with just enough time to spare. When the second cord was severed the lizardfolk climbed over the battlement and clung to the wall, carefully moving around the corner while she was out of their sight. This would, she hoped, at least buy her time as they tried to locate her.
Besides the terrifying fall that awaited her if her grasp on the wall should slip, Nasha saw sailors below with a battering ram. Shade's doing, no doubt. He'd proven rather useful and skilled at his job.
To her surprise, Nasha heard the men say, "Nevermind this, let's help the Lady," rather than pursuing her. She waited a short time to climb back onto the roof, and sure enough, they were gone. She looked at her wounds for a moment and steeled herself. If they were rejoining the fight, she would as well, and if luck was on her side, Mirielle would restore her strength.
Nasha made her way toward the stairwell across the rooftop.
The Battle of the Stairs
As Nasha gave chase and made for the roof above, Dolce retrieved Lady Smythee's sword since her own had not been allowed in the tower. She joined Revel in the stairwell and saw, to her delight, the recently roused Lady Smythee still in the arms of one soldier with a group of others clustered around them. The elf moved directly into harm's way so she could cast Chilling Spray and catch them all in the spell's effect.
Her ploy worked. It hardly hurt them, but Lady Smythee had only regained a small amount of vigor from whatever they'd brought her back with and fell into unconsciousness once more. The rest were chilled to the bone and their movements hampered. Still, they were retreating.
Royster snarled in agitation, joining the stairwell combat. He targeted Dolce with one attack before tumbling past her to run to his lady's side. Revel and Dolce pressed the combatants hard on the stairs while Mirielle stealthily moved along as well, making sure her friends were still standing.
The fighting continued as they made their way down an entire flight of stairs, halfway around the tower's perimeter, before one of the guards poured a third healing potion down Lady Smythee's throat and stopped in shock. "It's no use, Commander. She's-- she's not breathing." The commander was enraged upon hearing this. "What do we do?"
"I don't care what you do, but I'm going to kill them all!" He shouted, turning back to face Dolce and Revel now. Dolce expertly slew one of the remaining soldiers as Revel moved opposite Commander Royster, climbing along the walls to get there. The hobgoblin was delighted her prey had stopped running and happily attempted to sink her teeth in him.
She missed. He was quite an experienced veteran and skillfully dodged her attacks. It didn't deter Revel, but when Royster returned her onslaught Dolce saw to her horror that Revel fell from nearly top condition to sagging on her feet in a single quick exchange of blows. Dolce fished a wand out of her pack as Mirielle cast healing magic on Revel from a distance, breaking her invisibility.
Thankfully, Royster seemed fixated on the hobgoblin and didn't turn his attention on the injured captain. Revel managed to land a blow on him now that Dolce was in position to distract him, but it was not the strongest hit. Royster struck her savagely again and Dolce swore her hobgoblin companion teetered on her feet. It was now or never!
The elf invoked the magic of the wand, shrouding herself with Mirror Image before saying, "So vulgar. It's no wonder your lady didn't return your affections." It worked. She could tell it by the rage in his eyes as he wheeled toward her. She took advantage of his wild shift in attention to stab him once with his lady's sword to decent effect, but he was still standing.
Mirielle spent more of her healing energy on Revel since Dolce hadn't been injured yet. She too sent up a prayer to Besmara that the Mirror Images would hold out since Dolce was not nearly as hardy as Revel was.
Royster sliced into Dolce relentlessly, twice erasing an illusory image. The third blow struck the elf with shocking force and she found the wind knocked out of her as blood gushed from her wound. Still, she held her ground and returned his assault with her own, another good strike. Revel also bit into him as his attention was turned on the elf.
Mirielle's healing magic flowed into Dolce now, knitting her fresh wound and restoring her vigor. Another strike from Royster dispersed the last illusion. His second miraculously missed, but the third struck true. Dolce felt certain she would meet her end if the fight continued much longer. She stabbed back at him, but only one blow connected.
To her relief, he fell to Revel's teeth just before his blade fell on her again. Dolce's hand reached out for the wall, trembling, and she steadied herself even as Revel's attention turned on the last remaining soldier. "There's no need for further death, Revel," Mirielle said.
Revel looked back at her captain, disappointed. The soldier didn't seem convinced. He'd yelled at someone named Birney to stay in the room he now guarded. Mirielle talked him down. They were not here to claim lives, she explained, but to take the Rock and that was accomplished without slaying him or the occupant of the chamber.
The soldier dropped his weapon. Mirielle bade him stay there. She took Revel and Dolce to seek out Nasha above.
They encountered the soldiers before they found Nasha, making Mirielle's eyes tear up. Revel screamed in fury, saying "I'll KILL you!!!" and bit wildly at them, but managed to get her teeth stuck in the frame of the door they were passing through.
The soldiers, while rattled by Revel's fury, didn't hesitate to strike back, and one landed a solid blow that resulted in a sickening crunch. Revel wrenched her fangs free of the door, but her jaw hung awkwardly open and was clearly broken.
Mirielle's healing repaired enough of the damage for Revel to bite anew as Dolce caught up and stabbed into her attacker. The two took the soldier down with little trouble and turned their attention on the last one. This one exclaimed, "Forget this!" And bolted, though not before feeling the gnash of Revel's teeth.
They didn't give pursuit though, because just as he ran for the stairs Nasha landed softly beside them. Seeing Mirielle, she smiled weakly and said, "Good. I have made it."
Mirielle healed Nasha and Revel both even as the hobgoblin hugged Nasha, her rage subsiding. "I thought you were dead!" She exclaimed, tearing up a little herself.
Even Dolce's eyes were watery, though she hid the gesture of wiping the tears away as one meant to brush her hair out of her face. "Indeed. When we saw the soldiers we thought the worst."
"No. But I could have been. Their bolts were sharp," Nasha said calmly. She had returned Revel's hug and placed a hand on Mirielle's shoulder. "Thank you again, Captain." The respect and gratitude was clear in her voice. "Your sailors are breaking down the door below."
Mirielle blinked, dashing the tears from her eyes openly. "Are they?" Nasha only nodded, and the four headed back down.
Survivors
Only four of the inhabitants of Tidewater Rock survived The Purr's assault. Mirielle let them leave, with their personal possessions. One cursed her and she coldly told them to go before she changed her mind. They even allowed them to take the ship's boat that had been docked here since there was no other way off the island.
Within the Rock, they found a number of spoils, including a magical spyglass and magical breastplate. The Rock had clearly seen better days, for what wealth was within it seemed meager compared to what a successful captain would have accrued. Of course, Lady Smythee's husband had been gone for quite some time.
With this wealth, and the last of the stores still below the waters on The Deathknell, Mirielle believed they could impress the Hurricane King enough to earn her the title of Free Captain. So they returned to The Deathknell's underwater resting ground, using Mirielle's magic to guide them, and spent another day's labor bringing up the last of the wealth below. They left no one at the Rock for the few days it took them to retrieve the sunken treasure, thinking nothing would try to take it in that short a span of time.
The crew got treated to Dolce's newest song about their most recent exploit during this venture. She gaged their response, and decided ultimately it wasn't her best work, but would certainly have a place in her tavern repertoire.
Cracking the Rock
I’ve heard a story ’bout Tidewater Rock
That I’m sure you’ve all heard as well-
It says that glory you can unlock
If you claim the old fort for a spell!
Captain Mirielle wanted the place,
And she always gets her way.
So mercurial, Besmara’s grace,
Yet always with her does it stay…
Take up a tankard, I’ll tell ye a tale;
True as the day is long.
Sure as we’re anchored, and sure as we sail,
Our lust for the rock was strong!
Smythee’s commander met us at their dock
To learn about our intention…
We didn’t pander with flattering talk;
An alliance was all that we’d mention.
He led us inside to meet with the lady
And she asked us please to dine.
This did we abide, lest it seem shady,
While our causes might yet align.
Sadly, sadly my friend, the lady, she had some demands
My captain was loathe to meet…
And so, the meal at an end, we felt that she’d tied our hands
And conspired, their lives, to cheat.
To my surprise, Lady Smythee was swift;
She’d seen through our veiled presentation,
Before I could rise, she gave us a gift –
Much to my consternation.
Her blade drank deep of my captain’s blood
And we all rose up to the fight,
The battle grew steep, Smythee fell with a thud,
From the power of our captain’s smite!
Now far from the battle, she’d fallen just short of her men,
And we followed with haste.
Her breathing, still did it rattle, they took her to carry her then,
And down the stairs they raced!
They tried, oh they tried – just to save her life,
But we didn’t give them an inch
And when she died it filled them all with strife;
Not a man of hers would flinch.
I’ve heard a story ’bout Tidewater Rock
That I’m sure you’ve all heard as well-
It says that glory you can unlock
If you claim the old fort for a spell!
Captain Mirielle wanted the place,
And she always gets her way.
So mercurial, Besmara’s grace,
Yet always with her does it stay…
Take up a tankard, I’ll tell ye a tale;
True as the day is long.
Sure as we’re anchored, and sure as we sail,
Our lust for the rock was strong!
Smythee’s commander met us at their dock
To learn about our intention…
We didn’t pander with flattering talk;
An alliance was all that we’d mention.
He led us inside to meet with the lady
And she asked us please to dine.
This did we abide, lest it seem shady,
While our causes might yet align.
Sadly, sadly my friend, the lady, she had some demands
My captain was loathe to meet…
And so, the meal at an end, we felt that she’d tied our hands
And conspired, their lives, to cheat.
To my surprise, Lady Smythee was swift;
She’d seen through our veiled presentation,
Before I could rise, she gave us a gift –
Much to my consternation.
Her blade drank deep of my captain’s blood
And we all rose up to the fight,
The battle grew steep, Smythee fell with a thud,
From the power of our captain’s smite!
Now far from the battle, she’d fallen just short of her men,
And we followed with haste.
Her breathing, still did it rattle, they took her to carry her then,
And down the stairs they raced!
They tried, oh they tried – just to save her life,
But we didn’t give them an inch
And when she died it filled them all with strife;
Not a man of hers would flinch.
During this time, Dolce finally took note of Shade purposefully avoiding her. She eventually confronted him and forced him to tell her why. When he removed his gloves and she took in his dark skin her first instinct was to stab him with her rapier... For she recognized the distinct hue of drow skin without ever having seen it before. It made his strange accent make sense as well.
The elf restrained herself, imagining the hassle of explaining to Mirielle why she'd attacked the bosun when he'd been doing such good work, but she did make certain he had nothing else to hide from them and interrogate him regarding why he was a pirate and not below with his kind. The drow revealed to her that he had been part of a heretical society, one which worshiped the devil, Moloch, rather than the demons they usually prayed to.
As a result, surrounding drow settlements had deemed his a threat and murdered all but a few of them. He was among those who escaped and now sought out a new life far from the underground. Dolce snarled that he should watch himself, because she certainly would be, and hastily withdrew from him to go and inform Mirielle.
As the elf predicted, Mirielle was not on board with the idea of murdering Shade outright. Rather, she said they would continue with him and see if he gave them reason to. He did his job well, and was a capable combatant. He'd proven useful once or twice already, and until he did give them cause she would let him continue to do so. The two debated this at some length, but ultimately Mirielle pulled rank on Dolce, ordering her to stay her hostilities unless directly merited.
OOC Notes
So, as it turns out, the people of Tidewater Rock are supposed to take a hostage, unarmored and unarmed. Likely I would have chosen Nasha since she doesn't need armor or a weapon to be devastating as a monk. My husband didn't read that paragraph of the module though, and I only saw it because he lets me reference the books for proper names when I'm writing up these posts.
I figure this is fine, cause he also accidentally converted both Lady Smythee and Commander Royster as one level higher than they were supposed to be, and that battle was terrifying. We'll call it even, huh?
There's a big difference in how PF2E handles dying and how D&D 5E does. In 5E the player characters are, for the most part, perpetual yoyos. They can go down and come back an infinite number of times as long as there's healing to be spared and it happens before they fail 3 death saves. In PF2E when you fall unconscious you gain the dying condition. So when Smythee went down, she became "Dying 1". When she was revived, she lost the dying condition and instead gained the wounded condition, so "Wounded 1". In PF2E you die when you reach Dying 4, and your Dying rank is based on your Dying condition + your Wounded condition. You can use a hero point to revive yourself without gaining the Wounded condition, but of course... NPCs don't have those.
• So Smythee was Dying 1, got a potion poured down her throat and became conscious, Wounded 1.
• Got knocked out by Chilling Spray, Wounded 1 + Dying 1 = Dying 2.
• Was given a second potion, Wounded 2. Got knocked unconscious by another Chilling Spray. Wounded 2 + Dying 1 = Dying 3.
• Failed a death save while being carried down the stairs, Wounded 2 + Dying 2 = Dying 4 = Dead.
Notably, Chilling Spray, is a slightly weaker option than Burning Hands, if you strictly look at damage. Chilling Spray does 2d4 damage. Burning Hands does 2d6. But... but... Chilling Spray also gives creatures a -5ft move penalty on a failure and -10ft on a critical failure. (A critical failure is any save that is 10 or more below the caster's DC in PF2E. Rolling a natural 1 makes your result one category worse than it would have been based on your total (usually also a critical failure)). The marines were our level or lower (so they failed most of the time) and Royster and Smythee were higher than us (and succeeded most of the time). Movement in PF2E is looped into the 3 action economy. All actors (PCs and baddies) have 3 actions, they can choose to use one or more to move. You can't break up your movement (so move, then act, then finish moving). Instead you would spend 1 action moving, then 1 attacking or whatever, then have to spend another to move again. So... that -5/-10 is really as much as -15/-30 feet of movement per round. The spell was beautiful here. And I only chose it for Dolce over Burning Hands because she spent her whole life daydreaming about being a pirate and knows fire is dangerous on ships.
Revel has a climb speed when she is raging courtesy of a Barbarian feat. This meant that it was faster for her to climb on the walls of the tower in her pursuit than it was to run down the stairs (difficult terrain), so just imagine the blue-skinned hobgoblin scurrying along the inside wall of the stairwell and gnashing her teeth at her enemies the whole way down. It was a wonderful image in my mind.
Shade being a drow was sort of my doing. I had found a picture of a really cool drow swashbuckler and had commented that it would be cool if they recruited another elf since Dolce is quite young. In Golarion an elf reaches physical maturity and adulthood at around age 20, but aren't considered emotionally mature by other elves until they are closer to their first century. I thought it would be fun to have someone aboard who might note that Dolce is still young (she's 85). Owlbrarian decided to use the cool drow pirate and put him aboard our ship to give Dolce another elf to interact with. Of course, this changes the dynamic of the relationship she will have with said elf because she was raised to hate Drow.
-In Golarion, the elves fled a catastrophe that threatened the entire planet by retreating to another planet... Except a few who remained behind and went below the surface. These elves were influenced by the presence of Rovagug (a god who seeks only to destroy creation and the other gods; they did not realize they were influenced by him at the time), and became Drow. In fact, this effect can still happen should an elf be cruel and evil enough they can spontaneously become a Drow. The reverse has never occurred. The Drow take special delight in torturing their surface kin, and view their flight to the sheltering planet as The Abandonment.
Last note for this lengthy OOC section, this was a fun thing for me to get into the mindset for. I don't play characters who are so... cutthroat... basically ever. And somehow this felt more ruthless than taking over a ship. So getting into the mindset to go and just murder all these people living in this fort solely so they could put another feather in their cap was definitely playing outside my normal wheelhouse, but it made sense for the characters. In my head...
• Nasha is indifferent to it. To her all that really matters is her companions and the crew, and if this furthers their renown and position then she's fine murdering these warm blooded strangers.
• Revel is a bloodthirsty fighter, perfectly willing to take from others by force and relishing fear that she brings upon others. Again, perfectly fine with this.
• Dolce is a scheming, thrill-seeking, elf. She wants them to be renowned throughout the Shackles and beyond as their powers grow. Perfectly content to do this. Even more so to do it the way they did, by getting invited inside and then taking them from there. It really caters to her motivations and will make for another defining point of their pirating career in her stories.
• Mirielle thrives in her newfound freedom and appreciates comfort, but she actually doesn't like violence. It is a means to an end for her. She preferred to find a peaceful resolution or form an alliance with Lady Smythee, alas, the module literally said all the woman wanted was marriage (pretty sure Owlbrarian also said it would have to be to the captain when I floated the idea of maybe marrying her to The Purr's mysterious bosun or to Dolce)... And marriage is one thing Mirielle is not willing to do because of her own backstory. She also wants to lead her crew to glory, so she basically chose to ignore her aasimar heritage and her guilt in order to claim the Rock and further their reputation. Of course, she also is saddened by how many ultimately died. She clings to the fact that Besmara "cares little for senseless murder" (this is from the writeup of Besmara in book 1 of the adventure) as justification for why she spares the lives of her enemies whenever possible. She also had to make a diplomacy check with her crew to make sure there were no ruffled feathers when she allowed the four survivors to keep their belongings as they left the Rock (this she chose to do just cause she's a softy).
Owlbrarian
The Librarian is Here
It is super stressful especially when we have to have people come over to service things. Honestly at this point I feel like I understand people who are afraid to be around other people better.
Ah cracking the rock. Honestly there is part of me that wishes I just had skipped this part of the adventure. Paizo adventures are designed so that in theory people can come in from the middle and more or less play from there. So you could play in book 3 of the adventure path without too much issue. Because of this they rarely reference stuff from previous adventures. Because of this Tidewater Rock is just sort of an afterthought, and becomes a bit pointless since the PC’s get another island at the end of book 2.
Add on to that the encounter with Lady Smythe isn’t all that interesting in of itself made this section a little blah. Though you know what makes things exciting?
Screwing up your conversion levels!
Lady Smythe and Royster were a level higher than they were supposed to be.
You might think one level? (and yes level not CR or Challenge everything in PF2 is based on levels) That doesn’t sound too bad.
That one level meant that I almost killed Mirielle the entire encounter went from being a fairly even one to a lucky crit or two away from being a TPK.
Honestly it is kind of refreshing that it is pretty easy to turn the “challenge knob” without resorting to shenanigans like I often had to in 5th edition. Though on the flip side it can have unintended consequences where for example I made a custom monster using this site (PF2e Monster Tool) and used “extreme AC” on accident. This means for that level it has very high AC.
To the point that when I used the monster because it also happened to be 2 levels above the party they could only hit it on a 16 or better.
Oops.
Still I rather err on the side of finer control than looser when it comes to creating challenges. I got pretty good at balancing encounters in 5e by the time I stopped playing it though it was all from gut feelings based on the group rather than math.
Overall while at first I felt kinda blah about the encounter, the party splitting up with Nasha separating from the group and climbing on the side of the tower was lots of fun. So I guess I ultimately am glad we did this encounter even though in a lot of ways it was sort of pointless. I suppose they can do a whole “Lord of the Seven Kingdoms thing…”
“Lady Miirielle. Captain of the Lady’s Purr. Lady of the Rock and Ruler of the Island of Empty Eyes”
Ah cracking the rock. Honestly there is part of me that wishes I just had skipped this part of the adventure. Paizo adventures are designed so that in theory people can come in from the middle and more or less play from there. So you could play in book 3 of the adventure path without too much issue. Because of this they rarely reference stuff from previous adventures. Because of this Tidewater Rock is just sort of an afterthought, and becomes a bit pointless since the PC’s get another island at the end of book 2.
Add on to that the encounter with Lady Smythe isn’t all that interesting in of itself made this section a little blah. Though you know what makes things exciting?
Screwing up your conversion levels!
Lady Smythe and Royster were a level higher than they were supposed to be.
You might think one level? (and yes level not CR or Challenge everything in PF2 is based on levels) That doesn’t sound too bad.
That one level meant that I almost killed Mirielle the entire encounter went from being a fairly even one to a lucky crit or two away from being a TPK.
Honestly it is kind of refreshing that it is pretty easy to turn the “challenge knob” without resorting to shenanigans like I often had to in 5th edition. Though on the flip side it can have unintended consequences where for example I made a custom monster using this site (PF2e Monster Tool) and used “extreme AC” on accident. This means for that level it has very high AC.
To the point that when I used the monster because it also happened to be 2 levels above the party they could only hit it on a 16 or better.
Oops.
Still I rather err on the side of finer control than looser when it comes to creating challenges. I got pretty good at balancing encounters in 5e by the time I stopped playing it though it was all from gut feelings based on the group rather than math.
Overall while at first I felt kinda blah about the encounter, the party splitting up with Nasha separating from the group and climbing on the side of the tower was lots of fun. So I guess I ultimately am glad we did this encounter even though in a lot of ways it was sort of pointless. I suppose they can do a whole “Lord of the Seven Kingdoms thing…”
“Lady Miirielle. Captain of the Lady’s Purr. Lady of the Rock and Ruler of the Island of Empty Eyes”
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