Last updated June 7th, 2008.
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Previously, on Mediterranean Plotluck... Through his slave, Xiao Nan, Ghamor learned about the state of oppression that Itrix had the citizens of Lemnos under. After he consulted Seikius, the pair determined they would need to investigate Itrix's ships to learn more about the enemy they faced. Seikius boarded one ship, and found it to be full of fiendish kobolds, presumably an army.
Upon relating his discovery to Ghamor, the two determined that they needed to rally the people of Lemnos to fight Itrix. Seikius ran from temple to temple, trying to garner support, and Ghamor created an illusory army of kobolds with which to create the appearance of an "invasion." Xiao Nan, under orders, created several fires to help lend to the effectiveness of the illusion.
The plan didn't proceed as planned, however. Seikius was unable to find any priests or holy warriors willing to join their fight, and the fire burned out of control, taking nearly half the city with it. Ghamor gathered "volunteers" to help fight the fire, and thus, the harbor was spared; much of the city now lay in ruins, however. Ghamor was venerated as a local hero for his involvement in fighting the fire.
While Seikius investigated some suspicious activity he became aware of during his previous sojourn, Ghamor, together with Ackrak, sought aid from the local gentry. Proving difficult to convince a complacent noble to show his support for the city, Ackrak and Ghamor commandeered his full complement of bodyguards and led them down to the harbor to attack Itrix's ships. The battle has only just begun...
Episode 13: Collision! The Climactic Ship Battle Concludes!
Date: June 7th, 2008
After the Rolling Turtle barrels through the first of Itrix's ships, cleaving it in twain, it loses much of its momentum. A few warriors and crew are thrown from the ship in the impact, but most of the casualties are their enemies, now floating in the wreckage left in their wake. The party turns their sites to the next of Itrix's ships, and prepares for another ramming attack. They have gotten the attention of the other ships, however, which turn to face them in a counterattack.
Two of Itrix ships cover enough ground to ram the Rolling Turtle, but the first one only just grazes the ship, doing minimal damage, and the second scores only a minor hit, not being outfitted for serious combat. The party's ship then rams the second of Itrix's ships and prepares to board.
Ghamor devastates the next few ships' crew with fireball after fireball, while Seikius leaps aboard and engages several kobolds in melee. Ackrak utilizes the powers of his sash to glide over to the ship, and with a two swings from his axe, fells over a dozen kobolds. Aleska helps to finish off the remainder of the kobolds on deck with a well-placed ice storm. Seikius is left on the ship with a dozen warriors to secure the vessel.
Ghamor identifies and dispatches the captains on all but two of Itrix's remaining ships. Ackrak reboards the Rolling Turtle and steers the ship towards their next target. By now, given the state of confusion among the ships caused by the surprise destruction of one ship, the rapid boarding of another, and the sudden slayings of four of the six remaining captains (along with nearby crew) via magical bombardment, the two surviving captains steer their ships out of the bay.
Ghamor creates an illusion of his red dragon "Gharkriff" over the harbor, and has it swoop the ships and breathe fire over the terrified crews. All but one ship turns back. The Rolling Turtle quickly overcomes the ship and rams it before eliciting a surrender from her captain. Ackrak orders the demoralized crew to head back to the docks, where they will await the completion of the battle. He makes it clear that anything but total compliance will result in the complete slaughter of the entire crew. The captain fearfully obeys.
Meanwhile, Seikius has managed to command the rowers in the captured ship to move towards another ship. Though significantly lacking in knowledge and experience regarding ship-to-ship combat, he managed to steer the ship into ramming another, then ordered the warriors to stay back and prevent any kobolds from getting passed him while he boarded alone. Seikius fought against the entire crew of the ship while the warriors hurled spears into the fray. After a long, drawn-out battle, Seikius was able to more or less, single-handedly wipe out the enemy ship's crew and capture the vessel.
Ackrak and Ghamor, through magic and superior ship-handling, subdue and capture the remaining vessels in the harbor. They are quick to force a surrender out of the only other surviving captain, and the captainless ships fall almost as quickly, albeit with a few more casualties. Now with a fleet of captured vessels under their command, the party sets about mastering the captured crews and whipping them into service under them.
The party's methods seem effective, and after only a week, they break down and rebuild a veritable army of kobolds and captured fiends, who seem just as eager to fight for the party as under Itrix. Though far from perfect, the party instills a new purpose in their minions, and set about refurbishing and refitting the captured ships for mercantile, dividing the survivors among them, and preparing them to help rebuild trade on Lemnos.
Having acquired more "experience" in the manipulation of arcane forces, Ghamor decides to branch out in his learning, and develops a spell to help him view remote locations, scrying. Though he lacks many of the necessary components to make full use of the spell, his improvisations meet with mixed success. Each casting of the spell requires an hour of concentration and preparation, and only lasts for a few minutes.
Ghamor first locates Liola, who is dressed in elegant clothing and being pampered by servants, which seems awkwardly unbefitting of her. He watches her for a few minutes but learns nothing of interest. His attempts to scry on Occela fail, wasting an hour of his time, but an hour after that he successfully locates and contacts Hythia through scrying and message.
Ghamor learns, from Hythia, upon their arrival at Itrix's palatial estate, they were taken prisoner, Liola was tortured and somehow bewitched, and they were soon to be condemned to the nearly-complete Labyrinth. Hythia also told Ghamor about two men she saw who resembled Ackrak and Seikius. Both, she said, had bluish-violet skin and their skin was embedded with crystal shards. Ghamor tells Hythia that they will soon be coming to the rescue, and the spell ends.
Ghamor then scrys on the Seikius look-alike, and notices a large, green gem on a chain hanging from the monk's neck. The look-alike "notices" Ghamor and somehow ends the scrying effect. Ghamor then attempts to scry on the Ackrak look-alike and the spell not only fails, but the backlash created by a protective spell blinds him and leaves him gravely injured. Stumbling out of the temple of Aphrodite where he was using their pool for his spell, Ghamor conjures up a phantom steed which carries him back to the harbor.
Ghamor is soon joined by Aleska, who examines his wounds and says she can restore his sight if given three or four days to do so. Seikius returns from his information-gathering venture, and tells Ghamor what he's learned. The two decide that they must now somehow confront Itrix. Seikius wants to use the noble's bodyguards, but Ghamor is unwilling to sacrifice them when they will be needed later. Ghamor suggests using another spell he's been developing ... lesser geas, based on ideas and concepts he's learned from his mastery of mind-affecting spells.
Ghamor brings Xiao Nan with him to guide him, and they set out under the cover of invisibility with Seikius. It isn't long before they encounter a couple of bugbear thugs, guards hired by "Itrix" to watch over the road to his estate. The thugs manage to locate and grab Ghamor, though not before he has put them under a geas. Seikius is forced to intervene to stop the bugbears from harming Ghamor. Once free, Ghamor puts the thugs under deep slumber, cutting the battle short. Seikius continues on foot, while Ghamor resorts to fly, to avoid further confrontation.
The next couple of bugbears prove difficult for Seikius, though Ghamor has already geased them and moved on, leaving Seikius to fight them alone. A prolonged battle ensues with Seikius only just managing to survive long enough to escape down the hill from the road, into the monster-infested woods below. The bugbears don't pursue, and give him up as dead.
Ghamor, however, continues to fly along the road, using geas on the bugbears and ordering them to release the prisoners in Itrix's estate when night falls. He makes his way clear to the end of the road, where Xiao Nan spots a figure that looks like Seikius, walking down the road. On closer inspection, it is the look-alike that Ghamor scryed on, and Xiao Nan makes several unsuccessful attempts to collect some small item of the monk's to use for scrying. Frustrated, Ghamor then unleashes a number of spells against the monk, most of which fail, and when he takes a moment to recharge his magic, the monk disappears.
Ghamor decides to return to the city with Xiao Nan, to begin the process of restoring his sight, though the pair don't encounter Seikius on the way back...
ANONYMOUS
Uncle Ackrak wants YOU to join the navy.
Kobold Academy.
(Reference to Police Academy.)
ACKRAK
Surrender or be destroyed!
I am the scourge of this sea!
(Ackrak's sash flares up and makes Ackrak look like a great, big balor.)
JACK
I'm going to teach them to shit. I mean fish.
NICK
I think they already knew how to shit, Jack, they were doing it during the battle.
DON
All over the deck!
NICK
Do you have any idea how hard it's going to be to get these kobold shit stains out of the deck?
JACK
Do the kobolds have porn?
NICK
No.
JACK
Then I give them bugbear porn.
NICK
The kobolds don't get pornography. They're always naked.
NICK
The kobold captain jumps up and down waving his hands, and shouts "parley!"
DON
French hasn't been invented yet!
NICK
I will give you guys the tarrasque on a platter. When you hit that level, it will wake up hungry ... and you guys will eat it.
Do the kobolds have two sexes, like we do?
(Reference to Mars Attack!)
There is no Dana, only Zooh.
(Regarding the newly-named NPC Zooh; reference to Ghostbusters.)
This game had a couple of "chapters," not unlike the previous game session. The first chapter, could be said to be the resolution of the previous game's cliff-hanger. It was also the longest part of the game session. The group demolished the first kobold ship, then proceeded to annihilate the crew of the second. By the time, they got to the third ship, the others were attempting to flee the harbor.
Ghamor began to systematically wipe out the captain and a large number of the crew of every kobold ship but the last two. Ghamor used his illusion magic to corral the ships, and Ackrak rammed their vessel into ship after ship until they surrendered. The party captured 7 of the 8 ships, along with a large part of the kobolds and the rowers. They didn't encounter the overseer.
The next chapter could be considered downtime. The party went about training the kobolds and the crews to be loyal to them, instead, and eliminated the bad element. Their training regime had an 80% success rate, and they were able to repair the ships and outfit them for trade. At the conclusion of this "chapter," Don logged off to take a nap.
Having leveled up from their recent endeavor, Ghamor quickly went about putting one of his newest spells
...
Twelve new NPCs are named for the purpose of making them captains/vice-captains aboard the PCs' new fleet:
Ackore, Belia, Dahl, Kalmash, Mor'oughi, Palon, Rhamora, Seros, Skeln, Vorom, Zigglet, Zooh. (Names chosen collectively by the players and GM.)
Date: June 14th, 2008
Link: mp080614