Session 32 – The Sea Dogs Finally Get Some Booty

Written by KoshcheiBessmertnyi

General Summary

The Salamander nearly tips all the way onto its side, and begins taking on water. The orcs lose their footing, and slide to the railing. Glitterstem catches Rahab with an arcane vine, and keeps him from going over. He then calls upon the waterweeds to stop the ship from slipping backwards. Enkidu falls down the stairs into the hold, but barely avoids further damaging his broken arm. Meanwhile, Miletus collects himself, and casts the anchor back into the water on the port board side. Theobald comes over to help him. When the orcs manage to regain their footing, they make their way to the port side to try to rebalance the ship. Below, Enkidu tries to get the rowers to shift as best they can. Glitterstem spots a pump below deck, and begins to remove water from the hold. The ship stops drifting, and begins to right itself, but the party has company – two canoes have come within shooting distance, and arrows begin to rain down on the hapless hijackers. Fortunately, Glitterstem is able to summon forth more wind, while his companions draw the anchor out of the water. The Salamander rushes forth upstream, and quickly outpaces the pursuers.
As the ship comes within sight of the Brotherhood’s encampment (which is only a few miles distant), orcish arrows fly in its direction. Theobald and Hursag yell that the ship belongs to the brotherhood, and the missiles stop. While the orcs on the shore come out and cheer, Miletus drops the anchor. Hursag then leads the group down to the cabin, which contains a captain’s table, food provisions, three barrels of port, two smaller casks of rum, and a large crate with just under 300 pounds of tobacco. On top of the table is a map of the Sword Coast, a silver flagon with a depiction of a mermaid on it, and a skull-shaped pipe made of meerschaum. Hursag sends Rahab and Sharru, along with the barrels of port, ashore in a sloop, saying that the rest of the group will follow them shortly. She, however, is particularly interested in the locked chest under the table.
Glitterstem is distracted by the fact that he has lost his coonskin cap. He has searched for it all over the ship, but with no luck. As he picks up the pipe, and fills it with tobacco, he spots a macaque sitting under the table – with his hat. When he alerts his companions, Miletus tries to grab the hat with a magical appendage, but the monkey, which has jumped up on the chandelier, snatches it away, apparently using the same trick! After a short arcane tug of war between Miletus, Glitterstem and the macaque, the gnome gets the hat back, but the monkey manages to snag Theobald’s crystal scale. Finally, Glitterstem offers the creature the pipe, and without missing a beat, it starts puffing away like a pro, and releases the scale. Glitterstem begins to befriend it. Meanwhile, Theobald has been looking for the key to the chest, and confronts the bound captain about its location. The captain reluctantly hands it over, and Theobald inserts it into the keyhole. A blade suddenly springs out, and almost takes off the sorcerer’s fingers, but he escapes nearly unharmed and the chest now stands open. It is filled to the brim with coins, and after a thorough accounting, which takes several hours, the party catalogs 500 copper duits, 11000 silver stuivers, 2000 gold guilders, and 90 platinum pounds. Theobald wonders out loud why the crew would have had such a large trove (perhaps they were taking more money out of Claymore). Hursag, for her part, recommends that the party split the booty into eight parts, including shares for each member of the Company of the Horse Pelican, one each for the three orcs involved in the raid, and one for Humbaba. Everyone agrees that this would be wise. Humbaba soon boards the vessel, with Enmul the shaman, to claim his share. He seems pleased by the results of the raid, and in response to a request from Theobald to inform the party about the Thunderbird, he begins to intone orcish epic poetry. Everyone present engages in an orcish ritual to divide the booty, which involves rapping one another on the knuckles. Theobald ends up claiming the map, and Miletus – the flagon (which contains a liquid tasting suspiciously like the healing mushrooms). Hursag wins the monkey, but decides to sell it to Glitterstem for 10 guilders.
On the shore, the orcs celebrate the successful raid for the next two nights. Agni and Dafna are glad to see Enkidu back, and do not want him to go anywhere else until he is fully healed. They now appear to be welcome to stay in the encampment as long as they want. Theobald seeks out Humbaba again, and channels some dweomer to try to convince him to refrain from attacking Claymore, but the orc chieftain seems uninterested in doing so at the present regardless. The sorcerer also spends some time talking to Amando, and expresses some interest in the White Hand. Amando disavows any deep knowledge of the Hand’s plans, or the subterranean elves. He recommends himself as a soldier who follows orders, but does offer that the elves built the civilization which human money-grubbers and zealots are now trying to tear down. If Theobald is interested in joining, he can guide him, and recommends that he begin with the physical exercises and meditation. A new copy of the manual (the old one is still in Claymore) is easily acquired, and in any case, Amando has the whole thing committed to memory. In the meantime, Glitterstem receives a mole messenger from Balint. The mole informs him that Bester is very angry, and wants to see some successes soon. The party, which now has a better sense of the surrounding area thanks to the new map, begins to plan for a display of gunboat diplomacy, perhaps in the nearby goblin village of Talon’s Gate, which lies just upstream from the orcish camp.
Except for Enkidu, the Company members stay aboard the Salamander when they sleep. On the morning after the second night of celebrations, Glitterstem is awoken by the sounds of something slamming into the deck. As he rushes up, he sees three more canoes from Claymore. Shooters of flaming arrows launch their missiles at the masts, sails and deck of the ship. Glitterstem creates a sleet storm to obscure the ship from the shooters, while Theobald changes into an aquatic form, and begins to swim toward the canoes, with hopes of driving them away with a fireball. Miletus is the only one who can actually do anything to the rowers in the canoes, and manages to hit several of them even through the cloud. When Theobald comes up above the surface of the water and launches his fireball, but when he emerges from the cloud, he finds that the boats have already moved back downstream, and have escaped unharmed. Meanwhile, Glitterstem rushes around, putting out the fires. Making repairs on the Salamander occupies him for the rest of the day.

Report Date

17 Jun 2016