We met Ray, who joined us for games 3 and 5. Ray played Mikal, who's introduced below.
In the previous game, we'd talked about where the characters stayed in Hollin, and we added a few more details this game:
To help plan future games, I asked hypothetically whether the party would rather work for organized crime, or work for the law infiltrating organized crime. The players said they'd rather work for organized crime.
As another possible lead, Kasskar received a mysterious message.
At the Mooncalf, someone has left a message for Kasskar with the bartender. It says: "I'd like to meet you up close at the Shambles. - An imp." Kasskar and the other characters can make an easy intelligence test to deduce that "an imp" refers to a Masquerade costume. The Masquerade is in the beginning of November, a few months from now.
In the previous game, Beowolf heard that he would be able to revisit Highpyre, his birth city on Hilde, if he joined an expedition to find two Admiralty explorers missing there. Now the party heard that the expedition's ship was ready sooner than expected, and would be leaving Hollin that night.
The ship is called the Hedgepeth. It's in a cove away from the city, having some last minute fixes done. If they go to the ship, they find that a captain, Burns, is organizing the last minute things for the trip: last minute repairs, bringing on and checklisting barrels of food, water, and supplies. He tells them they can come along as skilled men or sailors, for a small stipend (1 gold piece a month) plus a very small fraction (1/333rd) of anything the expedition salvages.
If they ask more about the Hedgepeth's mission, Burns tells them they're looking for a lost explorer, named Ammiral. Ammiral left the summer before last and was expected back in the fall, so now he's almost two years overdue. Last anyone heard he was heading to Highpyre, so they'll go there first and see what information they can find.
Before, Beowolf's friend had told them that there were two captains missing; if they ask Burns about the second captain, he'll tell them that if they want to come along, they'll have to accept orders onboard and not ask questions about the mission.
As way of introduction to the ship, Burns tells them that the Hedgepeth is about 150 feet long. It was a former two-deck gun ship, but the second deck has been modified ("razed") to convert the ship into a more stable one-deck gun ship. They'll sleep below deck with the cannons. When they get there, one thing they see is a furnace for heating shot before firing it into an enemy ship.
Here are a mental image and character sheet for Captain Burns.
Despite the modest pay and stringent conditions, the party joined the expedition so that Beowolf could see Highpyre. The Hedgepeth did leave that night. Life on board was regimented.
The Hedgepeth sails out of the cove at night. There are some experienced officers getting the ship underway, and there are some inexperienced sailors helping by doing as told. You deduce that the inexperienced sailors have been pressed into service: sailing and having orders barked at them is new to them and some seem flustered.
Because of the constant orders, the impressed men already know the complete routine on board by the end of the first full day. They wake, eat, and go to bed at specific times. They sleep in hammocks below deck, with the cannons. The sailors scrub their own sheets, clothes, and dishes every morning and hang them to dry below deck, at specific times. There's bread, soup, and water for each meal. The sailors get a rum ration with dinner, but can't get drunk, so they need to restrain themselves. They do get about an hour of free time to play cards after dinner and before bed. And then on Sunday afternoon, they also have off after lunch.
Much of the rest of the day is spent doing hard labor, like tarring the deck. Some of the work is dangerous, like climbing the masts to make repairs. The impressed men are trained in working the cannons from the first day.
Discipline is severe on board. If the sailors aren't doing a task at the appointed time, they're whipped. If they get drunk or fight in the evening, they're whipped. If they make a willing mistake or they're insubordinate, they're whipped.
Besides Burns, the officers are:
Non-officers make up the rest of the ship's complement, which is about 40 men total.
Some of the crew were watchmen, including Browning, Emil, and Owen, while some others were archers, including lookouts Diregale and Milch.
After a few days rumors started to circulate that a second captain was aboard, but had been in the cabin unseen since the Hedgepeth left Hollin. Soon after, the party did see the second captain, Krill, coming out of the cabin for just a few minutes to get some air and check the ship's position. Krill had one withered arm and a barely noticeable hunched back. Here are a mental image and a character sheet for Captain Krill.
Soon after, the mates discovered Mikal, a fourteen-year-old stowaway hiding in one of the ship's covered row boats. Krill appeared on deck and wanted to punish Mikal harshly, saying that he would be hung or whipped, but the crew argued for Mikal. Krill said hesitantly that he would ruminate on the correct punishment, and the punishment was later forgotten.
After a few weeks, the Hedgepeth reached Hilde.
As they sail north, the weather gets noticeably colder. The days get longer, and soon the sun is up 24 hours a day. Some of the men find that disorienting.
After you've been on board for about two weeks, you get up one morning, go up to the deck, and you can see blinding white cliffs nearby. Some of the other sailors are murmuring that it's Hilde, the land of the dead. Krill appears on deck at this point, rallying the men, telling that Hilde is the land of the dead, and that they'll brave it together. It's also a lawless land, where they can be attacked by Blackwells, etc. But, if the opportunity arises, they'll also privateer enemies' ships and settlements. If so, maybe the men can take some money back to their families.
That night the Hedgepeth passed the ruin Pitcairn and entered the Aden sea, a large bay on Hilde. There, they met the Durst.
As they round the bend, the Durst, a Blackwells ship, comes into sight. Surprisingly, Krill allows the Durst to come aside the Hedgepeth, which it does in a friendly manner. Krill explains they think the Hedgepeth is a friendly ship, since Krill captured it from them a couple years ago and never let out that the ship was captured.
Krill asked the Durst's captain to come aboard the Hedgepeth to confer, but as the Durst's captain lowered in a rowboat, Krill unloaded the Hedgepeth's canons on him and the Durst. In the ensuing fight, the party and the Hedgepeth's crew crossed over to the Durst and took it as a prize, but first mate Copeland, third mate Emil, and second lookout Owen died fighting.
Krill said that the Durst might sell for 40,000 gold pieces, and that the characters' 1/333 shares of that would be 120 gold pieces, but they wouldn't know for sure until the actual sale. Given the uncertainty, Krill offered to buy out each characters share for a sure 60 gold pieces, while also suggesting they wait, saying fortune favors the bold. The characters delayed their decision.
Exploring the Durst, they also found:
The Durst's behavior confirmed that the Blackwells still thought the Hedgepeth was friendly. So, Krill and Burns now proposed to continue up Hilde's coast to the Blackwells-controlled city of Portsmouth, sail through Portsmouth on the river there, and continue up the river to a Blackwells compound they want to loot. The crew was doubtful about sailing through an enemy-controlled city, but the Hedgepeth did so without incident, and found the compound at the end of the valley.
At the end of the valley they'll reach a serene lake, Lake Annika. The shores are rocky but a thick forest comes almost up to the edge of the water. Looking out over the lake they can see a plume of deep green in the water coming from the shore on the far side - Krill says that's what they're looking for. Nearby people are distilling a valuable powder out of a green salt that's unique to Hilde. The plume is where they're dumping the left over waste salt into the water. He says there's a compound there but he doesn't know anything else about it. How should they best approach it? Sail there? Leave the ships/boats here and walk around the lake?
Closer to the compound it looks like there's a bluff overlooking the camp - should they go up there and see what they can see looking down? Else, they can approach the camp directly.
The distilled green powder was called Greencake.
The party decided to go to the top of the bluff and survey the situation further. From there, they could see inside the high wall that surrounded the compound. There were two guarded gates where ore carts entered the compound. They also saw barracks, a long flat building with a lot of activity, and a stone tower.
But now turning back from the cliff, they found they were trapped there by guard wolves, who they fought and defeated.
Keith's notes say that the 1/333rd share was later amended to a 2/333rds share, but I'm not sure when that happened, or if it happened for everyone, or just for Keith, who later earned Burns's favor.
