Return to the Known Lands - Session #26 - Pirate Battle!

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merias
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Return to the Known Lands - Session #26 - Pirate Battle!

Post by merias »

From https://smolderingwizard.wordpress.com/ ... te-battle/

Date: 3/27/21

PCs:

Louis (FM 3)
Osan (Elf F/MU 3/1)
Omes (Half FM 3)
Arro (MU 1)
Habru (Cleric 3)

NPCs:

Habru’s war dog, named Dog
Horace – Habru’s retainer – Cleric 1
Bunco – Omes’s retainer – Knave 1

Hirelings:

Samtik – Habru’s porter
Durdoon – Arro’s mercenary (RIP killed by a pirate)

Session Notes:

The battle with the pirate vessel began in earnest, with the pirates firing their trebuchet as often as possible, damaging the barge with a lucky hit. In return, the party launched a barrage of missile fire and spells. Habru and Horace both blinded pirates with light spells, and Arro disabled the trebuchet by aiming a magic missile at its firing rope. Osan swam to shore and began to pick off pirates with his bow.

Meanwhile, a small rowboat with six pirates launched and advanced towards the barge. Osan managed to put all six men to sleep, then swam out to the rowboat and rowed it back towards the larger pirate vessel.

The larger vessel was now very close to the Dragonfly, and several pirates managed to hook their grapples and board the barge. Melee was joined! Osan at this point had secured the rowboat, and was climbing onto the rear deck of the pirate vessel. The pirates did not notice him in the commotion of boarding and the melee that was in progress on the deck of the Dragonfly.

Claudia of course decided this was a good time to emerge from her cabin to see what was happening, and three pirates moved to grab her. Omes and Louis intercepted them, preventing the kidnapping but getting wounded in the process. In the larger melee, Habru and Horace were both also wounded, and Durdoon was killed.

Back on the pirate vessel, Osan was able to shoot an kill a few more pirates with his bow, and that, coupled with the losses in the melee on board the Dragonfly, caused the remaining crew to break morale and attempt to swim to shore. Several escaped, but a few were captured, including the first mate and the captain.

The party set about healing themselves and questioned the first mate, Lieutenant Dann. They noticed that all of the pirates who had been captured wore golden axe necklaces embossed with rubies, with the number of rubies indicating rank. Lt. Dann told the party that he would tell them what he knows if they let him free, and they will never see him again. They agreed to these terms, and learned of the Golden Axe Society, and that their leader (Captain Brant) had an agreement with a powerful person in Dolmvay to kidnap Claudia for a fee. Captain Brant was harder to crack, and for now refused to speak to the party.

To be continued…

LL Notes:

There was a lot going on in this session, with the 20 or so pirates and multiple action threads, but this is something I find very rewarding as a GM, when it goes well. The blinding light spells and the magic missile that disabled the trebuchet by breaking the firing rope were clever use of magic by the players. For the latter I considered that the magic missile is able to auto-hit what it is aimed at, but just in general it seemed like a good use of the rule of cool, and I let it happen.

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