> I've been using [Men of the Sea] in my campaign, but I wouldn't say
there's "a
> scenario." If one of my players wants to post the writeup of the
> ongoing sea voyage, it might have some value to show how the book can
> be used, but I think it's pretty specialized to our game.
Here's the most nautical segment of my notes. The player characters, the Burning Men, are Umathelan storm barbarians and one Malki traveling from Pamaltela to Genertela on the _Shining Turtle_, a Maslo catamaran with a crew of about 50 under Captain Zutani. They are currently threading their way through the islands of Jrustela, which are dominated by a trading organization called the Orange Guild, and apparently infested with Vadeli.
Player characters include:
Gerdar, a Malki knight and orderly of St. Gerlant, who has brought his horse Duet of Death on the journey. He's also in the Hymnist Church written up in Men of the Sea
Drelon, a silver-tongued noble and initiate of the storm and trade gods
Huzen, a smith and ritual priest of the group's guardian deity
Jozarn, a hunter and expert archer
Warechan, a hunter and canoe builder who wants to import seagoing canoe technology to his homeland
Also mentioned is Alexarad, a Fonritian sorcerer who serves the _Shining Turtle_ by (among other things) shooting the sun to take divinations.
Leaving Crandess: Pursued by a Galley
We couldn't cast off immediately, as Captain Zutani needed to retrieve his crew from their entertainments in the city. He blew a conch shell, and the crew started straggling back. Zutani checked on the tides. We didn't really expect pursuit by ships for a few feathers, but who knows what the evil Vadeli might do? Maybe they had swapped the captain's kid for a changeling, and were sacrificing the real one to curse us, even as we were preparing to leave.
But the crew did make it in around 3PM, and we and several other boats prepared to leave with the tide. The rowing drum began to pound. About ten minutes after we left, a galley set out behind us. It had fewer oars (maybe 30 versus our 50), but it used them, too. We suspected it was in pursuit. Jozarn suggested that we head for open water as quickly as possible, as the pursuers probably know the local waters better than we. The captain thought the pursuing ship might be faster, due to its smaller size and the fact that it had no cargo aboard.
The other ship didn't appear to be closing: it remained about a half mile back. Drelon suggested that Alexarad try to divine what's going on, but they ended up playing a board game instead. Gerdar wanted to find out what the pursuing ship was doing, and tell it to back off . Huzen suggested changing course to see if the other ship were truly pursuing us. In the end, we decided to follow Zutani's lead. Zutani decided to stop rowing after an hour or so. The other craft shipped its oars as we did. Warechan suspected that there might be something waiting for us ahead. Drelon still thought that we should follow the captain's lead, but we might want to re-think a visit to Drochlinn or any other Guild port. Zutani noted that he didn't expect many non-Guild ports in Jrustela. So, we decided to press on to the Quipolic League lands on the icy northern continent.
Ahead of us, another ship sailed into the bay, but passed without provoking an incident, and gave us a reasonable berth. Zutani was willing to keep sailing at night, as it was clear and the crew could navigate by the stars. Despite all our concerns, we spent a peaceful night and emerged with the pursuing ship still behind us about the same distance.
Near Crandess: The Chaos Tide
(Fireday) Ahead of us, Drelon saw a flock of birds plummeting into water -- and they weren't just diving for fish. Then, suddenly, the ship rolled and we are all knocked off our feet. Jozarn, up in the rigging, hung on for dear life. Our nostrils were plugged by an evil smell like rotting fish, and the port side of the ship burst into flames. (Hey! Maybe we could run through it and get away!) The seas began to surge up on that side. Jozarn saw the ship behind still following at the same distance. Drelon called a storm to raise spray and damp the fire.
There were tentacles in the water that seemed to form and dissolve
before our eyes, and what appear to be dead bodies floating, but then
the bodies begin to move. The zombies tried to climb on board,
dragging on the oars. Jozarn led our archers in a volley of missiles
against the attackers, while Zutani shouted orders to the crew to get
the ship free.
Gerdar took a position on the side of the ship, his sword showing a
ghostly glow. A small tentacle reached out for him, but he cropped it
short. Drelon, also on the deck, was nearly struck down by the
horrible smell, but he held his own.
The ship gained a little distance from the evil water, but then a horde of corpses came over the side and tried to drag Huzen down into the depths, getting him near the edge. Giant waves begin to pour over the ship, which seemed to drive some of the crewmen mad, causing them to attack one another.
Then Gerdar moved against the zombies and blasted through them,
spattering us with zombie fragments. Huzen cast his travel magic on
the ship to give us speed, while Warechan ran around trying to calm
the mad crewmen, and Jozarn continued to pick off zombies from the
rigging.
Suddenly, the Shining Turtle's sails filled with a favorable wind and
we left behind the foul water, seeing a giant oil slick filled with
tentacles and hacked-up corpses fall behind us. The crew and Huzen put
out the fire, which left the ship's side blackened and blistered. The
crew recovered quickly -- they didn't know what came over them and
didn't remember anything about it, but we didn't lose any of them.
Alexarad believed that we had survived a Chaos tide, which he had
thought would have been closer to Hellfount, a place in Jrustela where
there's a geyser of water like what we faced.
North and East of Crandess: Dealing With Our Pursuers
We discussed what to do about the pursing ship. Gerdar was intrigued to learn that the Shining Turtle's marines had anti-Vadeli spirits, which might be useful against our pursuers. But Gerdar and Drelon recommended that Zutani to let the crew rest, slow the ship, and play wounded to see what the follower does. We raised the Dormal distress flag. Zutani was prepared to fight the other ship, especially because it was probably Vadeli, and put out the ram when the Shining Turtle slowed.
The pursuing ship raised an orange flag after we ran up our distress flag. We turned in preparation for a ram, while Gerdar prepared Duet of Death for a little sortie and Jozarn returned to the rigging to scan the oncoming ship. There were rowers and a number of sailors, but he didn't see any armed men. The crew were Brown Vadeli.
As the two ships closed, Drelon and the Vadeli hailed one another.
Drelon: We have lost most of our crew.
Vadeli: Can you still make sail?
Drelon: We have to go to land to repair our ship.
Vadeli: Do you need crew help? Do you need a doctor?
Drelon: Some of our men are in need of healing.
Vadeli : It must have been the Chaos tide, which comes all the way from Hell, at the center of old Jrustela.
Warechan dove down into the water and saw that the Vadeli have a ram installed (and nearly gave the game away telling Drelon). Jozarn led Warechan and the other archers in preparing a volley. Drelon once again called the storm, to be at our back this time.
Contact. Our ram struck home, and Zutani sent the Shining Turtle into a turn to open the wound. Just then Red Vadeli erupted from below decks of the wounded craft.
But at the moment our ram struck, Gerdar and Duet of Death leapt onto the Vadeli ship. They faced six Red Vadeli warriors armed with iron cutlasses. Jozarn, Huzen, and Warechan began to shoot to support Gerdar. Gerdar took down one warrior in his initial charge, and the Vadeli war leader turned and cut the throat of one of his comrades.
Going for the leader, Gerdar knocked out a second. Wheeling, he saw the Vadeli leader licking blood off his sword. The war leader charged forward to knock Gerdar off his horse, as another climbed into the rigging, jumped down at Gerdar, and -- oops -- missed. Gerdar slashed through the remaining warriors, but as he passed the leader dove into the sea with his nearest follower. He faded into the waves through a hail of our arrows, his jaws closed on the follower's throat.
Drelon was determined to loot our prize while it was still above water. The crew of the Vadeli ship asked us for assistance, as their ship was mortally wounded. Drelon and the rest of us decided that the Brown Vadeli could leave on their small boat, while the thirty non-Vadeli crewmen could come on board the Shining Turtle. (The escaped Red Vadeli warriors later joined the Brown Vadeli in the small boat.) Gerdar searched for the Red Vadeli weapns and goods while Drelon tried to locate valuables in the captain's quarters, aided by Lucky's breaking and entering skill and Warechan's perception magic. Huzen cut chains for the galley oarsmen. Our loot:
This was not a trade ship. The boxes on board were just hiding places for the Red Vadeli.
Huzen tried to recruit crewmen of the Vadeli ship for the Burning Men. Most of them were Fonritans, but there was an East Islander who joined the band and now follows Huzen.
We decided to set out for Jiklinn, the closest major port, to get repairs for our ship and put the Vadeli ship's crew ashore.
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