Orinastron steps up, nods to Bessum then sets about him:

08:17, Today: Orinastron rolled 2,9,1 using 1d100,1d100,1d100. Unarmed (46). First roll Easy (69).

Critical, Success, Critical.

Although no-one is more surprised than Orinastron, he will endeavour not to show it...

[ ooc - lol, don't get cocky or Murphy will roll better crits than you. ]
This message was last edited by the player at 03:15, Wed 09 Jan 2013.

In reply to Kordan Mardahar (msg # 23):

Tanek sidles over to Kordan during Orinastron's match and mutters to him, "Hey uh... so... uh... mmmhh... Orinastron.  I guess we neglected to mention his freedom to Safra and she thinks he's still a slave.  I sure hope he wins so she forgoes the portion of the slave sale price that she's never going to see..."

He then turns back and hollers "Yeah Orinastron!  Take him down!" while raising his eyebrows and nodding at Kordan.

In reply to Kordan Mardahar (msg # 23):

So the wiry Jekkarene strips to the waist, revealing a rather thin frame, pale skin and an ugly scar on his chest which may account for the bouts of coughing and wheezing...he keeps his eyes fixed on Bessum as he carelessly slops oil onto his hands and smears it over his torso. Despite the brave display, nobody has any doubt this is going to be a brief match, and Bessum will shortly be throwing Orinastron around like a rag doll.

Orinastron affects an air of cocky confidence to try and disconcert the big lad, stepping smartly, bobbing and weaving, before, it seems, stepping right into Bessums powerful embrace. But he fools the Assabian - and smart footwork sees Bessum grabbing at thin air, while Orinastron reappears at his side, stamps on his toes, and as Bessum reflexively lifts his foot from the deck Orinastron reaches for the other with both hands and heaves with all his might, sending the big fellow crashing to the deck. The Jekkarene immediately pounces, putting all his body weight on Bessum's head and torso to pin him down so he struggles like a beetle on its back and cannot rise.

It is marvellous performance...and Orinastron, having earned the trust of the other hirelings, has now confounded the expectations of Safra and her crew.

She affects disappointment at the outcome, but seems delighted with the show.

"So the good captain has his money back. And I am denied a slave - well there is a drama to tell of. Bessum's pride will never be the same again!"

And Orinastron can make an immediate improvement to his Unarmed/Brawl skill.

The whole ship's company is now in fine form. Respect is earned, and the wind that fills the sails and drives the Foamfollower to its goal seems heaven sent. What could go wrong now?...

In reply to Simulacrum (msg # 25):

23rd Arribea, Morning

LAND HO!

A dark streak atop the water in the morning light...this surely must be Solisand? Zenduf is confident that the course is true, and right here, where Rilados said Solisand would be, land is sighted. A few miles distant yet...to far to make out any form or detail but surely several KM across. The Foamfollower approaches Solisand from the East.

The party is now in charge of making plans...their job to locate the quarry and decide a strategy.

From what we know the East coast is rocky and without a suitable landing place although that's not to say Kordan couldn't find one.  We know from the historical record that there's a place to land on the northern end and the south has a lagoon bordered by a reef with the threat of a sea monster lurking there.  Yet putting in at the northern end may mean a difficult and treacherous passage of the interior.

If we sail around the island we may achieve no more than alert Haliskome to our presence.  Chances are she has found a good place to shelter her vessel from casual discovery?

Any preferences?  Orinastron isn't keen to meet a sea monster and would rather take his chances with the ground beneath his boots but that isn't a particularly inventive approach.

In reply to Orinastron (msg # 27):

To be clear:

The Foamfollower cannot beach, but must anchor wherever she may best feel protected from the elements, or is convenient for the team. The team will be delivered to the shore via the skiff, and unless you have other plans, two of the crew will come with you then take the skiff back to the ship. Which means:

Deciding on how to identify the best place to land
A plan for what the Foamfollower will do, where it may find shelter etc
Deciding what to take with you
Decide how to ensure you are picked up again when ready/needed.

When you get onto Solisand, the whole island is an adventure location. The speed at which you plan to move around is important - how quickly do you cover the ground, are you trying to be stealthy, are you searching, are you going to have a chance to spot an encounter before it spots you, do you spot 'found encounters'?

There are three basic speeds to choose from - Search, March and Flight/Pursuit. The last of these also has a fatigue implication.

Other Notes:
Any experienced sailor knows that the Haliskome's ship, The Purple Wanderer, is a small galley and therefor even without rowing crew there must be at least 10 or so crew in order to handle it.

If the team is suddenly undermanned because a player has dropped out it needs to be flagged - this is a dangerous place, pirates or no. So I suggest cover with back-ups, or I'll hunt for an additional player if needed.

Good luck

Simulacrum

In reply to Simulacrum (msg # 28):

NB: Map Updated (group 0 map)

We're player characters, what could possibly go wrong?...

Do we have any sense of how long it would take to circumnavigate the island and survey major features?  We can see the extent of the north south axis as we are approaching from the East.  If a cirucmnavigation took only a day or two perhaps we could do that and get a sense of whether there are obvious places that Haliskome may be holed up.  Alternatively, as we don't know what weare looking for we could simply head straight for the East coast that we are already approaching and put ashore there but that sounds a bit aimless...

The risk it seems to me is that we are gong to wander around aimlessly and Orinastron doesn't have any particularly smart answers.  How about something like:

We circumnavigate and survey summarily  the coast and major landmarks.
In the course of doing that we identify a suitably sheltered anchorage for the Foamfollower.
We have them put as ashore within sight of the anchorage.
We take rations for 5 days and have the Foamfollwer send out a skiff to our landing spot at dusk every day in case we are ready to return.

Thoughts?

In reply to Orinastron (msg # 30):

One detail to add - the land ahead looks forested.

Likely time to sail right around the island based on what you can see? Maybe an entire day of daylight hours. Average speed under sail circa 8-9KM/hr, but can be rather slower when against the wind or current.

Circumnavigating the island will definitely give us more information about it, but also virtually guarantees that our presence becomes known.

So the question then is, does the value of the information gained exceed the loss of surprise?

Yep, I agree - it pretty much advertises our presence but I think it's probably worthwhile simply from the point of having some sense of the lie of the land and where it might be fruitful to look?  Otherwise I suspect we will be wandering around without any idea where we are going in a potentially hostile environment (normal modus operandi for any PC group?!  :-) )

In reply to Orinastron (msg # 33):

Hmm, well.  We know from the Report of Astangoras that the North beach is the only easy landing point.  I wouldn't want to risk our lone ship against a possible sea monster at the South beach, even if the one that was there was slain in 1014.  Now, Astangoras did say that there were some landing points on the rocky East and West sides.

Perhaps we could try to find a location to land on the East side here?  If lookouts haven't spotted us by now, I can't imagine that they wouldn't as we circle the entire island.

(I'm a little foggy on this point, but what year is it currently?)

Orinastron is OK with that - land from a skiff on the Eastern shore or at the beach to the North.  Anything that gets him ashore sooner rather than later, frankly.  We'll still need to solve for what the Foamfollwoer does in the meantime - needs a sheltered location to anchor lest we be shipwrecked here and how we make contact for a pick-up from shore?  Think we need to put ashore in sight of anchorage?

In reply to Orinastron (msg # 35):

There is a thin line of beach visible (labelled East Beach on the map). It's probably not a good beach for dragging up a galley, but I'm sure would be perfectly servicable to land a skiff.

If the Foamfollower cannot find a protected anchorage it must take its chances - but if an ill wind blows up Zenduff would have to take her out to open sea to ensure she does not break its anchor and cannot get driven onto the rocks and shallows about the island.

Shall we just land here then, let the Foamfollower anchor off the beach and send a skiff out for us each evening?

If there's just four of us now shall we take a couple of deckhands, dress them in red tunics (à la Star Trek) and take them along with us?

How's the open sea weather this time of year?  Is it safe for the Foamfollower to be just hanging out?

Another alternative would be to just swing to the north side of the island, look for safe anchorage, and leave the south and west un-spotted.  That would leave the Foamfollower better protected from natural issues and perhaps harder to spot.

In reply to Kordan Mardahar (msg # 38):

I'll defer such unimportant details as the safety of the boat [sic] to the seamen who are paid to make then. Like Kordan.

I think we should bring some gold shirted security officers along. That way if the captain dies we can have someone step up to replace him.

In reply to Kordan Mardahar (msg # 38):

Right now the weather is fine, and has been ideal since you left port. That can change.

Avoiding the south is a reasonable call as you suspect there is a reef there (based on the textual evidence), nbut have no idea where it is and how far out.

But someone...decide what to do. If all else fails Sanjar should step in?

Orinastron listens to Tanek and Kordan, 'OK, agreed.  We let Zenduff worry about the Foamfollower - his job is just to make sure there is a skiff within shouting distance of our landing point at dusk each day to pick us up or provide supplies in case of need.  Kordan's point is well made - we know there is a beach at the northern end based on the historical reference.  Let's have Zenduff take the Foamfollower round there and send us into the beach by skiff.

'We know that there was a 'stronghold' towards the south and that we must cross some thickly frosted terrain to reach it - that might be where she is holed up, alternatively the ruined village in the West.  Or somewhere else entirely.  At least by getting ashore at the northern end we are underway and off this boat.  Let's go!'

Orinastron will set about tooling up - he will retrieve his light armour and his fine new helm, his broadsword and buckler, his bow and the sheaf of arrows he bought in port and a couple of spare bowstrings.  He'll also requisition three days light rations from the cook.  He will approach Sanjar and Safra and ask if they can spare a couple of likely deckhands to accompany us ashore primarily to carry surplus kit - rope, water skins and the like.

Ref:

By the time our fleet reached the apostate's island, we had already lost 2 ships to the ocean's violent temper. So with land in sight we put in at the first available beach, on the north side of the island. We set a camp and sent two parties inland to explore. One returned within a few hours, reporting that they had found the ruins of a village to the West. The other party returned the following day with reports of a forest that stretched as far as they could reckon, forming a barrier between our position and the location of the Apostate's stronghold  - indeed three of their party had already become lost. As a result of this intelligence I decided to send a ship under Captain Ortantos to circumnavigate the island, rather than risk more of my men on a march into the forest. The captain reported back that East and West coasts were both rocky with few landing places; yet at the south, closest to our objective, were many miles of beaches, however made treacherous to approach by the presence of a broad reef.



This message was last edited by the player at 11:15, Wed 16 Jan 2013.

"Tis settled then, we be landing on the north shore.  Sanjar, do you be having at your disposal any means of magical communicating?  If not, might I be suggestin' that when we do be needing pickup, we be at the drop-off point during the first hour after mid day?"

[ OOC]

While on land, unless stating otherwise, Kordan plans on walking around with his bow out and an arrow knocked at the ready, and will be assuming hostility unless shown otherwise.

Who all speaks any Archipelegan besides me?  That could come in handy if there are natives.

[/OOC]

In reply to Kordan Mardahar (msg # 42):

Someone make me a team test for Perception. Assume there's an eagle eye among the crew at 60% if noone in the party has better.

14:39, Today: Kordan Mardahar rolled 80 using 1d100. Team perception check.

Sorry everybody.

In reply to Kordan Mardahar (msg # 44):

GAME MAP UPDATED (see group 0 map)

Zenduf sets the course to skirt the north side of the island, taking a wary course around the headland and the crew keeping watch for any rocks or banks on this unfamiliar coast.

As she passes the point where the coastline turns back then runs to the West, the forested upland of the east drops away and a long shore comes into view, a silvery line denoting many kilometers of beaches. The forested headland gives way to low ground behind the beaches, beyond them shades of blue-green that suggest more trees and thick undergrowth. In the distance a long, high crag, and to the south of it, the pale outline of two hill tops.

As Zenduf takes a line to come closer to the island to find a place to launch the skiff, a large shape becomes visible on the first (easternmost) beach. It looks like it could be a vessel dragged up onto the shore. Those aboard the Foamfollower gather at the rails, trying to decide what it is. Is it a galley? Could that be the Purple Wanderer? or is it something else?

Perception rolls - individual this time, make one team test for the Foamfollower crew.

Should Zenduf hold his course?

22:51, Today: Orinastron rolled 34,88 using 1d100,1d100. Perception (Orinastron 45, Crew 60)

Orinastron makes the roll but the crew roll (assuming the 60 you mentioned before) fails.  We will instruct Zenduff based on the results of the roll but, if it looks like a Jekkarane vessel, we might be inclined to make straight for sure now and endeavour to avoid detection.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:55, Thu 17 Jan 2013.