Session Report 35 - Scarlet's First Ambush
General Summary
"Captain Rose's bones are now displayed in my quarters. I love waking up in the morning to be reminded that Harpsbilge is close to ridding the seas of Pirates."
-Estella Fairford
Another Day in Port
Another day passes in Port Evergreen. The crew is busy with various goings-on. Gunther sells his antique musket. Laire spends some time and money in the markets, picking up elvish-made trinkets. Ramone meets up with Starcillus Rex, asking him about dhampirism, The King of Destruction, and The History of The Kings' Sea. After a 3-hour-long lecture, Ramone crosses paths with Port Evergreen's Governor who is there to ask Starcillus to divine the location of a missing ship, though the scholar is unable to help as he has lost his ability to divine.The day passes relatively uneventfully, and the party makes their way back to the ship.
Scarlet Herring Attacks!
Something is immediately off when the party reaches The Driftwood. Though most of the crew is still in port, the ship is still unusually quiet. Snitchflick is still roosting in the crow's nest, but not another soul is to be seen on the main deck. Locke and Laire descend below deck looking for Lou, hoping to talk with her, only to find her and Pixchaxla tied up and gagged in a corner. From the other side of the room, Scarlet Herring pounces from the shadows.The battle is hard fought. Herring uses her surprising physical strength alongside a belt of magical daggers and her trusty scimitar to wreak havoc. She quickly establishes herself as a fearsome combatant, though she's laughing through the entire encounter. Locke runs to free Pix, who manages to help quite a bit in the battle. Being forced to the back foot due to being severely outnumbered, Scarlet retreats only to turn around and pull out her monster of a gun Big Sally. She loads it with an ammo packet which is labelled as small, then lets loose. The gun shreds most of the combatants, doing significant damage even just using the light rounds.
Grov breathes lightning at Scarlet, inadvertently hitting Alpaca, her first mate, who was using illusion magic to hide his presence. Alpaca uses his healing magic to help Scarlet a little bit. With this little bit of extra aid, Scarlet is able to get one more shot off of Big Sally, bringing almost everyone to their knees. At this point, Scarlet suddenly sits down and loudly declares how fun the battle was. Alpaca uses his magic to heal all of the downed combatants.
Scarlet explains that Locke never showed up to Port Rose on July 1 despite his promise. She used her premonitions to track him and a little bit of magic to sneak onto the mostly undefended ship. Locke pretends to be unconscious to avoid talking with her, though she still rambles madly a little bit. After a while she leaves, telling the crew that she's excited to see Locke actually become Pirate King.
Protecting The Chest & The Future of Lou
The crew is a bit worried because of the encounter with Scarlet. Pix recounts that she waltzed onto the ship, quickly subdued him and Lou, and then proceeded to find the hidden chest as though it was nothing, only laughing as she opened it and remarking that Locke really was destined to be Pirate King. Nonetheless, Pix is glad that the person who breached the ship's clearly lacking security wasn't a real threat. Everybody agrees that the chest needs more protection. Gunther says he'll try to get a magical bag to store it in. Furthermore, everybody agrees that the ship needs a few more people on it at any given time.Laire patches up Lou. He asks her what her plans are now. Given that she's probably wanted for high treason, she says she'll stay with The Drifters. After all, even if she isn't that safe here, at least she's being protected.
Port Rose Has Fallen
News reaches Port Evergreen on July 7 that Port Rose has fallen. Estella Fairford and her fleet successfully barraged the port and killed the majority of the pirates who remained there to the end. Apparently, 2/3 of the buildings in the port are still standing, though many are damaged. A Significant number of Harpish troops now occupy the island.A Bit of Downtime
The crew has another couple of days before they reconvene. Most people try their best to gather funds to pay for ship repairs, using a bit of time for themselves along the way. Locke and Laire try to sell the tapestry to a museum, though the process is due to take a while since it needs to be inspected and valued. Gunther sells his crowgun for a good profit, in the process meeting an adventurer from Port Rose, Captain Badger Drawermont, who has every surface of his body covered in flintlock pistols. As he says, "why reload when you'se can just shoot the fuckers again?"With the profits from selling his gun, Gunther buys a bag of holding to store the chest. Meanwhile, Ramone spends some time in nature. Grov spends the majority of his time babysitting Ouchie, occasionally training with the ogre both in combat and in chess.
The group takes a relaxing trip to the spa, during which time Gunther has a hard time keeping himself from looking at the dividing wall, on the other side of which are surely a number of bathing elvish women. Laire wonders just how much Gunther has to like elves to not even listen to his friends when they are talking to him.
Quests, Bounties, & The Spa Trip
The day before the crew is to meet up, Locke proposes that they look around town for some jobs. Heading to a postings board, the crew finds that Locke's bounty has drastically increased to 20,000 gold, likely as a result of telling Timber that they at one point had Captain Rose's Chest.The group manages to find 3 leads on jobs. One is a request from the village Oblau's Shallows in The Dread Sea, which is offering an artifact and one of the petitioner's children's hands in marriage in return for resolving a series of unnatural deaths. Another is from a girl who identifies herself only as the Charlapthi Hunter. She wants to see the last Charlapthi before it's too late and will pay to be taken to the Home of The Last Charlapthi and for protection during her time there. As for what a Charlapthi actually is, that remains somewhat vague.
The party learns about the final potential job from Starcillus Rex, who they run into during a spa trip, during which the scholar mentions some important information. The Governor is looking for a ship which went missing around the west coast of Androchia and apparently carried a diplomat. Locke and Ramone look into this and set up an appointment with the Governor in a few days to see if they can take the job, using Starcillus' name to get in.
The crew agrees that for now, the best job to take is to escort the Charlapthi Hunter, and they gather the next day to begin the journey to the relatively close Home of The Last Charlapthi.
Report Date
25 Feb 2023
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