Session 39: The Bilious Saber Report

General Summary

Seklyn, Mystan, and Virion clamor aboard the Rambunctious Devil, a keelboat owned by the Saltmarsh Guard equipped with mechanical oars and armed with one cannon. It's captain, Samuel "Mad Dog" Lopez is a gruff sailor. The group is joined by a single crewmember; the dwarven Ortega Steelthighs.

After 2 hours of sailing, the ships are within range of one another. After a sending spell, Ciaran makes a break for the aft cargo hold, making it 60 of the 90 feet - but crew above decks hears them.

Virion holds his action to cast Fireball once the ship is 80 feet away. The Devil surges forward, and Virion casts Fireball, and a blast of steam erupts, creating light obscurment and half cover. The Devil then fires her cannon, and suffers a misfire. Seklyn follows up Virion's fireball by taking a running jump and then flying off the ship, connecting a grappling hook to the ship.

Mystan then casts Control Water and creates a countercurrent to slow the enemy ship down. The Saber then fires two cannonballs - one at Seklyn, one at the Devil - the latter hits. By now, Ciaran has reached Ingo, and she removes his gag. Ciara asks "I need you to trust me. I'm going to turn you into gas, and you need to head north to the other ship." After Ingo confirms that Ciaran isn't going to turn him in to the Overchief, he agrees.

Virion then decides to cast another Fireball, targeting the aft of the ship. This causes the cannons' gunpowder to explode, destroying the helm and seriously damaging the ship. Also Ingo and Ciaran, but they don't know that. The Devil moves forward and fires her cannon, but it bounces off harmlessly.

Seklyn boards the ship and cries out to the crew "Ladies and Gentlemen, you ship has clearly been defeated. Surrender so we can take you back to shore!" they refuse, and then Seklyn breaths lightning at them, immediately killing six more crewmembers. They then kill another one with a line and hook, and the crew surrenders.

While the crew utterly fails to put out the fire, Mystan's Control Water and Ciara's Wall of Water put out a decent amount of the fire. Virion then jumps forward and casts Misty Step, landing on the aft of the boat in what had about a foot of water just a second ago. He states the obvious: this ship will have to be towed. The crew grumbles, but the Captain (Drizzly Liar) approaches the knight and admits they got him - though he doesn't know why. Virion points out that the merchant ship shot first. And that the keelboat was flying a military flag. Ciara heals the sailor who was hooked.

Virion checks all the ship's lifeboats, as he fears the doppleganger is on board. Using Control Water the ship is rotated, and Seklyn helps set up the towing mechanism. Virion basically takes charge of the galley, and assembles the remaning crew. They interrogate the crew, and learn the captain and crew were bought out for 1500 gp each by a masked and cloaked man to transport Ingo to the Styes on their way to sell lumber and ore in Port Ountzos (a fourth is already loaded onto their ship, the other three-quarters upon delivery. The deal was made last night). The Captain was told was that a dockhand would take Ingo off their hands with the codephrase "Brother, I dearly missed you."

Realizing that with the festival fast approaching they won't be able to follow up, they make a plan. Ciaran transforms back into a hawk and flies back to shore in a little under 2 hours with the sending stone. Just in case, the party takes that time to check the ship for dopplegangers. Virion checks the ship's manifest for the crew signed on. Then, Mystan casts Zone of Truth and checks to ensure Drizzly Liar's story checks out. They furthermore check the crew in a similar way, and the Doppleganger is not in the crew.

Ciara returns Saltmarsh, flying through an open window into Fireborn's office. She unwildshapes, and Captain Fireborn asks "What's your favorite color?"

Ciaran responds "Periwinkle" and the Captain's response is to draw the blinds and lock the doors and windows. He alerts the party, and Seklyn confirms that the doppleganger was not on the boat.

Captain Fireborn is perterbed as Ciara gives her report, but they collectively come up with a genius plan: the Bilious Saber will be towed to the Hool Lizardfolk fortress at the mouth of the Javan River. Then, a seperate galleon will have her nameplates changed to match that of the Saber's. The crew can be a - vetted, obviously - captain Esmeralda Losoya , first-mate Citali Darkarch , quartermaster Gun , and bosun Tl'l'hwtko along with outside sailors. Dame Serrano will pose as Ingo the Drover.