The sounds of waves and the smell of salty air peels you away from the torpor of sleep. Fighting a headache and a stiff back, you open your eyes just wide enough to realize you’ve been chained to a pole deep in hull of the sailing ship, The Star of Nostro.

Your last memory was sharing a Bon Voyage party with kith and kin, the ship’s captain Kristene de Keradel, her consort Dahut, and the ship’s crew. You were all celebrating your last night on your island home before departing to seek a better life working in the copper mines of Lys.

After your eyes adjust to the dark, you realize you are bound to a wooden pole with two others—three-to-a-pole—by a rusty chain shackled on your wrist.

To add to your despair is the gagging odor of rot and mold. The source of the earthy smell is not obvious. Not so for the decay: over half of the shackled aspirational miners are starting to burst from the bloat of death.

Naturally, someone shrieks out in terror. Turning towards the noise, you see one of your fettered neighbors struggling against a small black dragon! With a quick snap of its jaws, the dragon severs the man’s hand, ending his mining career (had it even begun?) in a single bite. As you struggle against your fetters, four more of them traverse the deck towards the nearest extremity.

Location: Below deck
Time: Unknown
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you meet or beat the dragons' init of 19, you may post ahead of them.
DC 13 str to be a chain breaker; DC 13 agi to be a chain wriggler.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:12, Sat 18 Jan 2020.

10:24, Today: Quadrakill rolled 5 using 1d20+1.  Aine init.
10:23, Today: Quadrakill rolled 14 using 1d20.  Obtentir init.
10:22, Today: Quadrakill rolled 16 using 1d20-1.  Fouillis init.

10:26, Today: Quadrakill rolled 21 using 1d20+1.  Aine wriggle chain.
10:26, Today: Quadrakill rolled 6 using 1d20+1.  Obtenir break chain.
10:25, Today: Quadrakill rolled 3 using 1d20.  Fouillis break chain.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:27, Sun 19 Jan 2020.

Josh rolled 10 using 1d20.  Initiative.

These three poor souls are taking too long to come to their senses, and will not act just yet...

Darnius, realizing what is going on, immediately looks at the other 2 attached to the pole with him (ZoeBreal, and Dashagog).

"If we all pull at the same time, we can break free", Darnius yells.

On the count of three they all pull, but weak at fatigued from being chained up (for who knows how long), the shackled men cannot muster the strength to break free.

However, Dashagog refuses to give up, and notices a weak link in the chain. Using this to his advantage, he manages to pull free!


16:16, Today: Momentum rolled 10 using 1d20.  Dashagog Chain Breaker.
16:16, Today: Momentum rolled 4 using 1d20.  Zoebreal Chain Breaker.
16:16, Today: Momentum rolled 10 using 1d20+1.  Darnius Chain Breaker!
16:12, Today: Momentum rolled 19 using 1d20.  Init.
Dashagog burns 3 luck.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:35, Sun 19 Jan 2020.

The three strangers tied to the pole blinked awake bleary eyed at around the same time due to the shrieking, dimly recalling their revelries of the night before. Even through their addled minds they realize the danger, amidst shrieks of their own start jerking at their shackles like madmen!

The fortunes appeared to smile on Kovac, or perhaps his chain was rotted more than the others, and snapped, sending him tumbling forward. Instinctively he fumbled around for a weapon while backing away from the small dragons, lips pulled back in a rictus grin of horror!

"Guards, there any guards here?" he yammered feverishly.

---

ooc: Kovac is free!

Initiative of 20

Today: The Three Strangers rolled 7 using 1d20+1.  Alrik chain break.
Today: The Three Strangers rolled 13 using 1d20+1.  Kovac chain break.
Today: The Three Strangers rolled 7 using 1d20+1.  Zulk chain break.
Today: The Three Strangers rolled 20 using 1d20.  Initiative.

Of the fifteen awakened chattel, two, a smuggler and a fallen noble, break the link between their chains and their poles. They each now brandish lengths* of chains with which they can wield as weapons in the manner they choose (d3 dmg).

With so much temptation, the dragons choose their prey at random from among both the comotose and non-comotose livestock--with one of them having already gained its first prize.

One swivels over to the island's best-fed beggar and clamps down on an exposed thigh (1 dmg to Kat). If not for the many folds of the mendicant's wraps, he might not have lived to panhandle again.

With a crunch, the next bites at the halfling's glove-making hand--which he yanks away just in time to escape with a flesh wound (2 dmg to Twanep). With his expert glove-maker's eyes, he appraises his attacker's scaly hide and concludes its stony scales more closely adhere to the pattern of the common island iguana than a swamp-dwelling black dragon. Curiously, the scales are coated in a veneer of slime and have an earthy ting.

Pierre, the farmer, doesn't breathe his last breath as a free man (3 dmg -- kills). He is also never reunited with his prize hen. But one of the ?iguanas? has his left forearm proudly displayed between its jaws.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

?Iguanas?--Atk bite +0 melee (1d4); AC 11

*The smuggler rolls a d30 on Common Shipboard Chains table from the DCC annual supplement: Chains at Sea. The noble rolls a d30 on the Fetters of Antiquity ("Compedes Veritates Antiquitus Acceptas") tome (which is only rumored to exist).
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:09, Mon 20 Jan 2020.

Aine étrange slips effortlessly from his chains as the two who are unfortunate enough to be his friends look on in disgust.  “Am I not a beautiful dream?  One moment I am a slave, and the next... dégager!  I am free as a bird.  Am I not spectacular?  Am I not le’mazing?”

Fouillis snorts, then folds his chained hands, pretending to say a prayer of gratitude for being allowed to coexist with Aine.

“Get us out, you pompous son of a bitch!” Obtenir screams, as he nervously watches a nearby dragon.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:42, Mon 20 Jan 2020.

Kovac

"Back, back I say!" Kovac screeched, whipping his manacled chain in front of him as if to keep the creatures at bay. Desperately he looked about him for some way out of this murderhole; it seemed to him they had been bound below the deck, which meant there must be a ladder leading out. Assuming the trapdoor up top was not locked ofcourse, which it likely was meaning they would all be eaten alive!

"Someone, anyone got a light?" he called out desperately as the dragons scrabbled ever closer, one of them munching on an arm.

---

Zulkandar & Alrik

The scruffy, bearded and elder looking Zulkandar had regained much of his senses and noted in the darkness how Kovac and another of the prisoners, a dim shadow he did not know, had broken free. He turned to Alrik and said, "Pull together, with me!"

Alrik nodded back and both the men pulled, the bulkier Alrik putting his body weight into it, while the skinny Zulkandar attempted the same. With a crack both tumbled free as their chains snapped, falling forward offbalance, the heavier Alrik landing on top of Zulkandar.

---

Kovac

Hope surged into Kovac as he noted the duo he had celebrated the night before break free of their bindings. There was another, a stranger in the darkness that had freed himself along with Kovac moments earlier as well. It appeared they had a chance!

"Quick, kill the beasties and save yourselves!" he snarled at the ones who had freed themselves, trying to use rage to fight off his fear. He cracked his chain like a whip, lashing it at one of the creatures while trying to maintain distance.

---

ooc: Kovac attacks one of the dragons with his chain! Attack Roll: 18; Damage: 02 (includes +1 to damage from STR)

Before attacking Kovac will look about him to try and find a way out of their current location/deck, such as a ladder leading to a trapdoor or what have you.

Today: The Three Strangers rolled 2 using 1d3+1.  dmg.
Today: The Three Strangers rolled 18 using 1d20+1.  Attack vs dragon.
Today: The Three Strangers rolled 16 using 1d20.  Alrik chain break.
Today: The Three Strangers rolled 17 using 1d20+1.  Zulk chain break.

This message was last edited by the player at 22:31, Mon 20 Jan 2020.

Darnius yells at Dashagog, "You got free good! Now help us you fool! Don't just stand there staring at the beasts! The more we have to fight the better!"

Dashagog shaking from excitement goes to help Zoebreal break out of his chains. Together they manage to break free.

Darnius also manages to break free.

Darnius yells, "Ahaa! I'll take the ugly one!"

ooc: Darnius and Zoebreal break free
16:40, Today: Momentum rolled 17 using 2d20 with rolls of 15,2.  Dashagog help break chains of ZoeBreal.
16:39, Today: Momentum rolled 13 using 1d20+1.  Darnius break chain.

Twanep and Kat Pentak both kick frantically at the vicious reptiles.  The halfling, with his stumpy legs, has little luck, but the human is just barely able to connect.

Meanwhile, Neftas just looks at the chain around his wrist and says "I'm sure that shouldn't be there."  A moment later, it mostly isn't, save for a bit that he could still whip around if the idea occurs to him.

At the same time, a couple pillars away, two out of the three prisoners manage to wriggle free of their bindings...

Josh rolled 1,9 using 1d20,1d20.  Kicking desperately.
-Kat spends 2 Luck to make the latter roll a hit, but I don't remember what to roll for unarmed damage

Josh rolled 18 using 1d20.  Escape (N).

Josh rolled 8,13,15 using 1d20,1d20,1d20.  David's characters, rolling to escape.

It's a festival of limbs, at least from the hungry, hungry lizards' perspective, and they're not attached to any in particular, at least until they are. They attack the bipeds at random, whether they're trying to shoo them away, club them with chains, or still sleeping against their poles. Two of these sleepers die before they wake after offering their wrists to the saurians.

No guards respond to Kovac's yammers. Perhaps, Kovac could find several of them amongst the corpses in the room.

In the chaos, Kovac and others look about for a way out of this charnel house. It is definitely below deck as there is a wooden hatch on the ceiling and on deck. They look kinda massive (like they're meant to impede, rather than aid, egress), and the above one can only be accessed from … above.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

?Iguanas? Atk bite +0 melee (1d4); AC 11; HP >2
?Iguana? Alpha: -2
?Iguana? Beta: -1
?Iguana? Gamma:
?Iguana? Delta:
?Iguana? Epsilon:

# of Surviving Sleepers: 9 8 7

20:32, Today: Autarch rolled 21,17,2 using d24,d20,d4.  I5.
20:32, Today: Autarch rolled 16,7,2 using d24,d20,d4.  I4.
20:32, Today: Autarch rolled 9,4,4 using d24,d20,d4.  I3.
20:32, Today: Autarch rolled 13,18,1 using d24,d20,d4.  I2.
20:32, Today: Autarch rolled 10,7,1 using d24,d20,d4.  I1.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:14, Thu 23 Jan 2020.

Darnius
"Now stand back as I beat the ugly outta' this lizard." Darnius, being overly-cocky, rambunctiously attacks the nearest lizard. He slashes at the lizards side with his broken chains; smiling as they split the outer substance of the monster.
"I'm here to eat meat and mine coal, and since there's no coal!..."

Zoebreal
Happy to be free, looks at the others still shackled, and feels the fear pouring from the still chained people. He rushes over to help the nearest chained, (but may still be able to help) alive bipeds.

Dashagog
Realizing the 2 doors, concludes this must be a multi-decked ship.
"Either we are food for the monsters," (not unreasonable from the smell of the rotting corpses), "or they managed to escape while being escorted. Or... maybe the ship is under attack." He peers for an obvious, "forced" sign of entry, which would eliminate the "food" theory, and dashes at the deck scuttle, hoping it's unlocked. Either way Dash RIPS at the door, thrashing to try and open.

ooc: Darnius does 2 damage (preferably to the one that already got hit)

22:32, Today: Momentum rolled 18 using 1d20.  strength check to open locked(if it is) door.
22:10, Today: Momentum rolled 2 using 1d4+1.  damage.
21:59, Today: Momentum rolled 18 using 1d20+1.  Darnius attack.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:14, Sun 26 Jan 2020.

With no help whatsoever from their ‘friend,’ Fouillis and Obtenir have another go at breaking their chains before they end up as lizard snacks.  The former fails rather spectacularly, while the latter succeds.  Now he must choose between attacking Aine or doing battle with the black dragons...

01:44, Today: Quadrakill rolled 13 using 1d20+1.  Obtenir break chains.
01:44, Today: Quadrakill rolled 1 using 1d20.  Fouillis break chains.

Meanwhile, Aine swings his chain like it’s attached to his body.

“En guard!  Take that... and that!  When when le spoken to, filthy dragons!  I’ll teach you to keep a man from his wine!”

01:48, Today: Quadrakill rolled 2 using 1d3.  (modified to zero!) Damage.
01:48, Today: Quadrakill rolled 17 using 1d20.  Aine to hit w/ chain.

While struggling to break free, Fouillis trips... he'll spend next round getting back up.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:56, Wed 22 Jan 2020.

Zoebreal decides to help Fouillis, realizing he can't break free.

ooc: Zoebreal breaks Fouillis free

Zulkandar

Scrabbling to his feet Zulk glared about at the creepy crawlies with crazed, wide eyes. "Group up and kill them, three to a lizard!" he announced, swinging wildly with his chain. Unfortunately, not really being a fighting man of any sort, Zulks chain whipped around him, tying him up and nearly taking off his own head.

ooc: Fumble. Fumble Result: 03 (-2 penalty on next attack roll)

---

Kovac

The resourceful Kovac spotted a trapdoor up top and shouted this fact to everyone. He then took another lunge at the serpent he had smacked earlier, whipping his chain at its scaly, slithery hide. "Someone try and open that damn door!" he screamed.

ooc: Attack: 15; Damage: 02 (@ same Iguana he attacked last round)

---

Alrik

Alrik was finding it hard to get his bearings in the dark and simply tried to follow what the others were doing around him. Sadly this meant he did little save flail at the air with his chain.

Attack: 05

---

“Diex aye!” Claude screams, swinging clumsily at a dragon, using his former fetter as a weapon.  He uses so much strength that he disarms himself!

10:56, Today: Quadrakill rolled 5 using 1d6.  Bonus damage. (Total damage 7)
10:54, Today: Quadrakill rolled 0 using 1d4-2.  Claude crit roll.
10:52, Today: Quadrakill rolled 2 using 1d8-2.  Claude damage.

0 or less Force of blow shivers your weapon free of your
grasp. Inflict +1d6 damage with this strike and
you are disarmed.

This message was last edited by the player at 15:58, Thu 23 Jan 2020.

With panic in his voice, Kat shouts Neftas, strike this one!  The dwarf obliges, whipping his chain at the monster which his companion had kicked a moment ago, but striking with little force against its scales.  At the same time, Kat pulls hard and manages to break free of his own chains.  Twanep is unable to do the same, and remains bound and threatened for the time being.

Josh rolled 3,17 using 1d20,1d20.  Escape (T, K).

Josh rolled 14 using 1d20-1.  Attack (correct dice this time).
-Josh rolled 0 using 1d3-1.  Damage.  But at least that still rounds up to 1.

Gnori

Gnorii woke to darkness, despair and terror. Somehow he freed himself in a stupor, and followed the lead of the other survivors, lashing out with a manacled chain.

He had never been a strong man, or even a weak one, feeble was the word most used to describe him. Still, he was quick and managed to (barely) connect with one of the lizards with the slavering teeth.

---

Attack: 15; Damage: 01


22:25, Today: The Four Strangers rolled -1 using 1d3-2.  damage.
22:25, Today: The Four Strangers rolled 15 using 1d20+1.  Gnori attack.

To Dashagog, everything appears to be in shipshape order, fetor of decomposition not withstanding. The cargo hatch resists his admittedly mighty effort. It would take, he surmises, the efforts of multiple men to lift this hatch. As for the overhead hatch, it is not accessible from this deck. The hold is secure.

The last of the lounge lunges at Darnius's terribly exposed chain arm--just as it's locked in full extension after fatally flogging beta. Though it is only three feet long, a third of that length is dedicated to head, snout, jaw, and incisors. Clamp! Rend! Triumph! Beta displays the diehard coal miner's arm in its jaws. The blood drains from the aspirational picker's face and he drops to the deck, dead.

The brains and the whores never survive, and it is for the survivors to conclude which was Darnius.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

?Iguanas? Atk bite +0 melee (1d4); AC 11; HP 3
?Iguana? Alpha: -2 --killed by Kovac
?Iguana? Beta: -1  --killed by Darnius
?Iguana? Gamma: -2 --killed by Gnori
?Iguana? Delta:
?Iguana? Epsilon:  --killed by le Clod

# of Surviving Sleepers: 9 8 7

19:16, Today: Autarch rolled 4,20,4 using d21,d20,d4.  Delta .

Twanep continues struggling, and curses his luck - clearly he has the smallest wrists here, what with being a halfling, and yet he seems to be the only one who still can't pull free of his manacles.

Kat and Neftas, having already broken free, now do their best to thrash the nearest reptile with their chains.

Josh rolled 6 using 1d20.  Escape (T)

Josh rolled 19,18 using 1d20,1d20.  Attacks. (I forgot to add the Str penalty for Nef, but even so he still gets an 18)
-Josh rolled 1,3 using 1d3-1,1d3.

As Fouillis gets back up, his comrades swing their chains like there’s no tomorrow.  (And for some of them, there might not be...)

09:59, Today: Quadrakill rolled 1 using 1d8-2.  Le damage au’ Clod.
09:58, Today: Quadrakill rolled 14 using 1d20-2.  Claude to hit.
09:58, Today: Quadrakill rolled -3 using 1d4-4.  Le damage.
09:58, Today: Quadrakill rolled 19 using 1d20.  Aine to hit.
09:57, Today: Quadrakill rolled 9 using 1d8+1.  Le damage.
09:57, Today: Quadrakill rolled 16 using 1d20+1.  Obtenir to hit.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:00, Sat 25 Jan 2020.

After Kat and Neftas team up to slay the last member of the lounge, other fall upon the corpses with their chains, breaking their bony hides and spraying themselves with corpse meat until their limbs hang loose and their pants echo throughout the deck.

The festival of limbs is over. There is evidence of the celebration of another.

Some of chained passengers are disemboweled, while others have bled out from a missing hand or foot. The entire area reeks of death and an earthy musk.

Among the dead are two of the crew. Their faces are covered with cloth masks resembling large bird beaks. They are slumped on top of a coffin-sized box in the center of the berthing. Their hands are gripped to the lid of the box in their death pose, and their swords remain sheathed at their sides.

A narrow ladder leads to the deck above. There are two large cargo hatches, one overhead and one in the deck.

The light of dawn filters in through the opening for the ladder. You can hear the sound of clucking and bleating from above deck and the force of a steady wind, propelling the ship onward.

Location: Human Livestock Hold
Time: Dawn

Cheered by the death of the creepy crawlies, Kovac immediately fell upon the fallen sailors and began stripping them of their swords. One he immediately grasped in a hand while the other he tossed to Alrik. He then began patting down the sailors in search of anything that might be of use in their pockets.

"I've never used a sword before!" Alrik sputtered, barely avoiding stabbing himself as he grasped the blade.

"Learn fast if you want to live," Kovac snarled back. The smuggler wasn't a swordsman himself, but it didn't take a genius to know you had to stick 'em with the pointy end. And a few feet of pointy steel between you and certain, horrible death couldn't hurt.

"Good, now both of you be sure to stay in front of me with your swords!" Zulkandar squawked, peering at the corpses of the crew-members, and at the box they clutched in their death grips in particular. "I wonder what's in there, maybe its our stuff?"

Gnori was silent, but stared at the cargo hatches in mute appeal. "We should get together and force one of those open," he finally observed, staring at all the survivors in turn.

Dashagog
Hearing Gnori's rhetoric words come across his ears, gives a silent eye-roll, and replies, "Yes, yes, let's do that. This one first I suppose, since I'm already here. I have concluded we are the nourishment for these foul beasts." He says, wondering if he has ever seen a monster like this before. "The doors were clearly opened and locked by something with opposable thumbs. Probably the clacking we hear coming from above. Not that the rank smell of decaying flesh, or the metallic smell of iron in our comrades flowing blood appeases me in anyway, but I'm not sure we are ready to go up a ladder, 1-by-1, into whatever can control these things. I think we should formulate a plan first. In the meantime, let's open this door. I can't imagine they put anything more important than meat fodder below our deck. I'm Dash btw."

Zoebreal
Rushes over to help Dash open the door. "I'm not much of a fighter, but maybe we could hide on the side until they open the door to retain the lizards, and when they come in, we AMBUSH them! Of course, maybe we should wait to see what's in that box before we make any rash decisions. good to meet you Dash, I'm Zoe."

They both try vigorously to open the hatch.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:49, Sun 26 Jan 2020.

Neftas strolls cheerfully through the carnage to the large box and, without a second thought (or possibly even a first one) pushes it open.  Or at least tries to.

Kat, meanwhile, is left to help Twanep out of his chains on his own.

As his companions rush over to see what’s in the box, Aine examines the bodies of the dead lizards.  Could their bodies be hollowed out and used as disguises, perhaps?  He thinks this is a brilliant idea, which is unsurprising since he came up with it.

Alrik and Kovac help themselves to the dead sailors' short swords, each imagining bravado will pass for skill. While they don't find anything else useful on their persons, they learn that their cloth masks are filled with coffee beans.

Zul, the healer, possesses knowledge of anatomy and examines the corpses of the two crew members to learn more about the cause of death. Unlike Darnius, they still have their full complement of limbs. It's the internal organs that can't be fully accounted for: each lacks a liver. Fascinating, assuming Zul finds such things to be so.

Gnori, Dash, and Zoe all attempt the mighty feat of opening the cargo hatch*, Dash's sarcasm, formidable as it was, having failed to do so.

Aine appraises the quintet of dead saurians as though he were a trapper or taxidermist. Since he knows nothing of such trades, he concludes, sure, yeah, I've got this. Little bits of still sizzling membrane and slime, which he notices now that the festival has concluded, attached to their hides do give him pause. So would, one imagine, the lack of a tanner and tanner's workshop.

Neftas pries the fingers off the lid of the box the sailors died trying to close and blithely opens it. He beholds manure, soil, and mushrooms and inhales a most stupefying aroma .

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Location: Human Livestock Hold
Time: Dawn + 5

*3 characters need to succeed at DC 12 Str checks to open the hatch. Each attempt takes 5 minutes.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:36, Tue 28 Jan 2020.