Once their affairs are settled as well as they can be in Rencrue, the Sea Wyvern casts off and sets sail with the Blue Nixie. Two days of smooth sailing to the south-west see them reaching the coast of the mainland again. The third day dawns with an unusual arrival. A trio of wyverns circle down towards the Sea Wyvern, sending the crew into a panic, but it soon becomes clear that the little dragon-like creatures mean no harm. The instead fly alongside the ship for several miles – and action that the crew decides must be a sign of good luck considering the name of the ship.

Kinstal is disturbed though. This is exactly what Skald's dream predicted.

“Skipper?” yells down Amalie from the helm. The first mate has the watch and Alohan is down on the main deck, sulking around like usual. “I don’t like the look of those clouds,” she says, pointing to a dark, broiling mass of bad weather that is bearing down on them from the north.

Yes, EXACTLY like Skald's dream...

OOC: Do you guys want to find a harbor to shelter from the storm in, or try and ride it out in the open ocean?

Logan stares at the imposing clouds.  "I don't know much about sailing, but I think I'd much rather be close to land when those things hit than in the open ocean, right?  Maybe sheltered in a nice little bay.  Anything like that on the charts?"

Celene steps up next to Logan "I agree. No reason to chance anything. I can't shake the feeling we've skirted disaster already." she said.

Angati laughed out loud "I think I'd rather we harbour... even with all the damn crazy dreams I have been having, I still think it's the better option".

OOC: Okay guys. So the idea was that you were meant to notice that this day is an exact repeat of Skald's dream... i.e. the wyverns turning up, the stormclouds on the horizon...

Then I thought you might learn from the dream. For example, you could hunt down Rowyn in the hold of the Blue Nixie and prevent her from informing Vanthus of your position. You could round up the sailors who are actually Lotus Dragon traitors, including that scumbag Shefton, and through them in the brig. You could get away from Vanthus' ship full of cursed pirates and thunder lizards, even at the risk of sailing into the storm.

If you do the same things then the combat will play out again and I won't make you redo it... you will just get the same result. All of the sailors will get killed. Most of your NPC friends will die... and Kinstal will get a +3 longsword. Well, I suppose it is an ill wind that does not blow someone some good, but is it worth killing everyone for him to get that?

Alright so the idea is that the same thing will happen again? Everything we already did?

If that's the case then fast forward to where we make the changes and avoid all the issues. If we have all the information no one, Rowyn and the lotus guild, would be able to stop us from being able to subdue them. As far as I see it.

Playing it all out roleplay wise would take forever.

I strongly agree that we shouldn't waste time replaying the whole thing, and I am happy to fast forward through it and describe what happens, but can you give me a little more to go on?

How do you subdue the traitorous sailors? How do you capture Rowyn. How do you avoid Vanthus or do you lay a trap this time?

Sounds good. Anyone have any thoughts?

In reply to Celene (msg # 8):

OOC:
Okay, this is making more sense to me, if IC, we all know about the dreams.  I thought Kinstal or Skald was going to relay them to us, and we would want to change course to avoid repeating history.  So, we know Rowyn is on the Blue Nixie, so that's obviously where we should start.  And we apparently should be careful, because all that crew is with her.  If she's 100% disguised all the time, do we have a way to detect that?  Or should we just head over in a group and start questioning colonists?  From the dream, could we recognize any of the Dragon-Lotus Gang pirates?  Or would they have any distinguishing marks (like Rowyn's tatoos?)

Kinstal will definitely gather together the party and explain in detail Skalds dream to see if any of it makes sense to them since he doesn't know about the groups past adventures.

Yes, let's assume that Kinstal does a full brain dump to the party and they return the favour by bringing him fully up to speed with their adventures to date.



Well, actually there were four traitorous sailors on both the Sea Wyvern and the Blue Nixie, plus another half dozen were still hiding out as colonists on the Blue Nixie and came up on deck with Rowyn. So, yeah, some care is required in order to keep casualties down.



Okay, moving into auto-pilot mode to get things moving again.

While the Sea Wyvern and the Blue Nixie are still separated, the party stage an ambush to subdue the four traitorous sailors that Skald identified from his dream + one rebellious ship's cook. Shefton in particular maintains his innocence with huge cries of outrage and calls for justice, but when the four sailors are stripped to the waist they are each found to have the incriminating tattoo of the dragon lotus on their right shoulders...



...Shefton seems very surprised about. "I had no idea!" he splutters in protest. "I never saw these four in the Lotus Dragon lair, they must have been from a... umm... different department. Yeah, umm..."

The four lotus dragon sailors, now deftly bound hand and foot by Kinstal, look at Shefton coolly with a mixture of contempt and disgust... and a second later the cook is bound and has joined them in the sail locker now serving as a makeshift brig.

"I was never going to hurt anyone, I swear it," wails Shefton. He seems very sincere about it.

The ten traitors on the Blue Nixie take a bit more work to flush out, and it requires bringing each of the sailors into the captain's cabin one by one so their shoulders can be checked to find them. Then the same trick is used on the male colonists - by the time the Lotus Dragon's figure out that the gig is up, there are few of them left free and they are quickly put down.

During the operation on the Blue Nixie the party were on full alert for Rowyn, expecting her to appear at any second - either bursting from invisibility or shape shifting out of the form of a colonist. But she doesn't appear. Angati remembers her experience on the Sea Wyvern and the hold of the Blue Nixie is searching including the bilge... and that is where she is found. She is pulled out of her retched hiding place by Alohan and subdued before she manages to get even a single spell off.

The Rowyn that is discovered is very different from the wild cleric seen in Skald's premonition. She has obviously been hiding down in the bilge for a couple of days and is dirty and sodden.



Once she realises that escape is impossible the strength goes out of her. "Fine. You got me. Enjoy your revenge while you can. But I have summoned one far greater than any of you - he has achieved power beyond your understanding and you will not escape him."

OOC: Yeah, she has loot. I will do it all at the end though.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:22, Mon 22 May 2017.

"I assume you mean Vanthus. Somehow, I have a feeling we can take him too. You might say it's a ... premonition."
Kassius responds with grin.

Rowyn tries to maintain her poker face, but doesn't quite manage to pull it off. Her mouth opens to say something, then she clamps it shut and crosses her arms, glowering at Kassius.

OOC: Okay, what is the rough plan for ambushing Vanthus?

I am thinking that their ship would need to be sunk as soon as possible. Knowing where it is going to be coming from, we moor safely, and I summon a lantern archon to drop them on them before they approach.

If we can avoid dealing with the dinosaurs and any extra support then that would be fine.

We also prepare the ship with nets or whatever so that the things can't jump from their ship to ours, and we all wait in the blue Nixie.

Also, probably put something to block the hearing on everyone and avoid his compelling voice.

Large ships are actually quite hard to sink and it is going to take more than a lantern archon dropping an anchor or two on their decking to manage that.

Also, Vanthus' ship is where all the loot is. Do you really want to put that at the bottom of the ocean? :D



Check. Rope nets are put together and readied at the railing of the two ships. At a moment's notice these can be strung up and will effectively prevent the dinosaurs from jumping over.



Check. The party and crews of both vessels arrange some hearing protection and are now immune to his words of command.

Anothing else? What is the plan to handle the spellcaster?

Celene instructs Liamae in the art of dispelling by using the same spell.

Liamae can cast lightning bolt I assume. If she readies an action to dispel she can counter his lightning bolts.

quote:

How Counterspells Work: To use a counterspell, you must select an opponent as the target of the counterspell. You do this by choosing to ready an action. In doing so, you elect to wait to complete your action until your opponent tries to cast a spell. You may still move at your normal speed, since ready is a standard action.

If the target of your counterspell tries to cast a spell, make a Spellcraft check (DC 15 + the spell's level). This check is a free action. If the check succeeds, you correctly identify the opponent's spell and can attempt to counter it. If the check fails, you can't do either of these things.

To complete the action, you must then cast an appropriate spell. As a general rule, a spell can only counter itself. If you are able to cast the same spell and you have it prepared (or have a slot of the appropriate level available), you cast it, creating a counterspell effect. If the target is within range, both spells automatically negate each other with no other results.

Don't we also have Ballistae to ready? If so we can use them to ready attacks on the caster as he casts.

Can Kassius safely fire from the rigging? Crows nest? He'd have unobstructed views I'd think. Especially if we can furl the sails.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:48, Tue 23 May 2017.