The Sea's Righteous Might

[reddist]

Ven leads you back down the tunnels to the opening, where the drainage pipes spill out into Swift Rock Bay. He silently points to the Lord Bingham’s Belle, and with his direction you can spot the two thugs clinging to the support beams under the docks, and one more of the saboteurs swimming about near the ship. The fourth man must be on the other side of the ship, planting the last of his explosives.

The Dock Watch paces back and forth, looking bored and tired. There are two close to the landing ramp of the Belle, and two others at the far end of the dock. Each pair carries a single lamp, which casts a wide, yellow glow, and all are armed with short pikes with edged hooks. They wear the black and gold colors of the Swift Rock Bay militia, and their tunics are emblazed with the sign of the Shipping Guild. Neither pair seem very attentive… the pair at the ramp seem involved in a quiet argument, and the two at the end are leaning on their pikes, wobbling as they try to stay awake.

The two saboteurs acting as lookouts have also grown bored, and are only keeping a cursory eye on the guards. They are close to completing their assignment, and are becoming reckless. The swimmer is making his way slowly back to docks to join the lookouts, and they all appear to be waiting on the fourth man, looking out to the water for sign of him…

 

[Harvey]

Marisa Calathar, Cleric of Wee Jas

Marisa makes a quick, silent prayer to Wee Jas over the foes they felled before moving on. She does take the time to point out that one of the men of the party should collect the loot of these thugs.

Once the party reaches the end of the drainage pipe, she looks over at the situation. She turns to the party, and asks with a whisper "Well, any ideas? I'm afraid my spells will not be of much use... all I've got left is a Comprehend Language spell and some minor orisons..." She looks down at the bay below "plus, I'm not much of a swimmer."

 

[scout989]

Jaleph Bigthumbs Halfling Sorceror

"Oooh, I have another one of my ideas!" Jaleph hisses quietly. "How does this sound? One of us make our way quietly up to those guards and point out what they're missing. Hopefully, they'll raise a big hue and cry, and the saboteurs will attempt to bugger out, back in this general direction. Imagine their surprise when they find us waiting for them! With any luck, we'll be able to keep them at bay until the guards arrive. Then maybe we can get some answers about what's happening here! So, what do you all think?"
OOC: If people are getting tired of Jaleph always being the one to try to make the plans, let me know and I'll tone it down- I just realized how much I've been doing that

 

[Mavnn]

"Only one problem with that, lad. What happens if they set off the charges when they realise they're discovered?" He looked around the group. "Anyone know how they'd set off the charges? Would they do it immediately, or do you think they're planning to wait until they've left and give us a chance to get some help and disarm them?"

The pack of loot jingled slightly as he look around.

[ooc: unless anyone objects, Kragor just swept all of the loot into a large sack, commenting: "We'll sort it later..."

Scout: no problem at all - give us all the plans you've got. We might not follow all of them, but we're glad to hear them.]

 

[scout989]

Jaleph Bigthumbs Halfling Sorceror

After hearing Kragor's words, Jaleph pulls out one of the ceramic pots and begins fiddling with it, attempting to find out how they are detonated. He looks first for fuses or some sort of timing device. If he doesn't find anything on the outside, he'll open it up and see what it contains.

 

[reddist]

The pot is of a reddish-brown clay. It is about two hands wide and two tall, but only two fingers thick. The opening appears to be plugged with a cork and then covered with a thick heavy brown wax. One of the flat sides of the pot is covered with a waxy paper, which when peeled back leaves a sticky, tacky gum-like substance.

You think if you peeled the paper off and then pressed the sticky side to some surface, it'd probably stick pretty well.

You don't see any obvious detonation devices on the pot. You do know, however, that the chemicals inside catch fire as soon as they are exposed to air, and the tarry goo sticks and spreads very easily, and that the goo itself burns with enough heat that water has little effect unless it is totally immersed, cutting of the air supply.

Even cracking the pot would no doubt allow enough air in, causing the goo to ignite with enough force to blow the rest of the pot apart, spreading the goo in a wide area. They must have planned on striking the pot with something, a crossbow bolt or slingstone, or smacking it with a long pole, or otherwise physically damaging the pot in order to set them off. At the hieght the saboteurs were placing the pots, the Belle would be at risk just leaving her berth, possibly bashing one of the pots against the docks as she moved out.

Perhaps the sabotuers planned some sort of coordinated attack, setting all three ships ablaze at the same time?

 

[Harvey]

Marisa Calathar, Cleric of Wee Jas

Marisa marvels at Jaleph's quick analysis of the explosive devices. "Luckily we know they have only sabotaged one boat. We know that they were after Finlay's Dream, the Sea's Righteous Might, and Lady Bingham's Belle. We stopped the parties set to sabotage the Finaly's Dream and our ship. So, the Belle is the only one left... the one they're on now. At least we don't have to worry about other ships exploding around us."

"I think that we need to get others involved. Maybe we alert the guards below? The guards can keep the saboteurs occupied, while we attempt to remove the devices from the ships hulls."

Marisa looks at the others, hoping that one of them can come up with a better idea...

OOC: Good call, Scout. Keep bringin' the good ideas...

 

[scout989]

OOC: How high are the saboteurs setting the explosives? Basically, would the ship be in danger of sinking if one or two were detonated?

 

[reddist]

The danger probably doesn't come from explosive force blowing a hole in the hull. The goo, once spread, would burn with an intense heat and be resistant to most attempts to put out the flames out. The risk is the ships catching on fire and that fire spreading rapidly, destroying the ships, possilby spreading to the docks and neighboring ships.

What, or even if, Hugo and his men had planned to do during the panic and confusion is anyone's idea...

 

[Mavnn]

Kragor chewed over Jaleph's information and then turned to Bran. "Bran, do you think you could get to the guardsmen unseen and let them know what's happening? It looks like the rest of us will have to move in and do something about the already set containers."

Pausing to set the sack down to one side in the shadows of the sewer, he turned back to Jaleph. "Jaleph - do you know anyway of putting this stuff out if they set it off?"