Tales of the Broken Strand - Some old 7th Sea RPG Stories

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Sitting around today, relaxing after coming home from Origins 2014, I was browsing through some old 7th Sea Stories I had written from some 7th Sea game Mark had wrote and run for us. I thought that maybe you all would enjoy them, so I decided to post them here.

Tales of the Broken Strand

Main characters from the Broken Strand:

Mario D'Atolio - The Broken Strand's lusty master gunner. Mario was a sailor in the employ of the Bernoullis who was betrayed by his mentor (which he just recently learned). His mentor's betrayal caused him to be sent to La Bucca. Mario has a great weakness for the fairer sex, and the ship's eye candy (see Luna below) in particular. While well controlled other than that (especially for a Vodacce) when it comes to disciplining his men, when it comes to tough spots, he often gets himself (and the rest of the heroes) in trouble because his first response to ANY problem is to jam his sword into said problem's belly. This had led to several problems which could have easily been avoided by simply talking to someone.

Maike Groesbaek - Ship's Cook. Daughter of a well-to-do Vendel Merchant, she wanted to go and explore the great wide world like her father had. On board her first sea voyage, her ship was taken by the Castillian Armada (probably at the behest of the Vodacce) for piracy. The quietest member of the ship's compliment. Maike is in charge of feeding the crew and making sure there are enough supplies. The crew is kept very happy by her cooking (a specialty of hers). Given that she is Vendel by birth, she has access to many different national dishes. Not one of the best fighters on board, she never-the-less always makes a good show of coming to the aid of her brothers (and sisters). If she has any drawback, it is that she inevitably gets caught up in some adventure or another while the crew is on shore leave.

Luna - Ship's Eye Candy. Luna has skills both as a fate witch and capputina swordswoman. Because of her less than auspicious beginnings (her mother was a street prostitute in Dionna) she took up the blade to defend herself. It was not until much later that her fate twisting abilities came to the fore. As a result she has not been formally trained and is reluctant to use her abilities. Luna got the position of eye candy (a position which, by the way, pays higher than the captain) because of her habit of being less than fully dressed on board ship.

Pyotor "The Bear" Fyodorov - 2nd Captain of The Broken Strand. Pyotor took over by vote of the crew after the untimely death of the first captain KarlLee "Crazy Eisen" Stutzend at the hands of Castillian sharpshooters. Pyotor is the second son of a wealthy family in Ussura. Not having any other prospects, he thought to see the world. While in Castille, he was captured by members of the Inquisition for heresy (he is Ussuran Orthodox after all), found guilty and sentenced to La Bucca. Since he was attacked while in Castille a second time by people who had much more information about him than he, them, Pyotor has come to believe that someone is out to do him harm. Pyotor is a giant of a man who claims (quite rightly) to have never lost a fight. His quiet demeanor, devout beliefs, and protective nature as Bosun endeared him to the crew. In most situations he can be counted on to begin with negotiation (which helps counter Mario) prior to wholesale destruction. His one drawback seems to be that, if he can't find a solution quickly, he becomes discouraged.

"Rebecca Iavelli" - Ship's Sailmaker. Hmm what can I say that you don't already know. Rebecca is a fate witch who escaped Mondavi lands to live a life of freedom. Her first foray into the great wide world got her captured by the Castillian Armada for piracy (a charge she still denies). She was instrumental to the successful revolt on La Bucca. She used her powers to ensure that the doctor who examined the "White Plague" victim made the mistake of believing it was real. Since that time, she has gotten her sea legs, learned to trust in her BotC brothers and sisters, almost gotten killed by her brother, and even fallen in love (well maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, perhaps lets just say, she has been quite active in her expression of feelings towards her suitor).

Enrico - Ship's Navigator. The only Castillian officer aboard The Broken Strand, and coincidentally the only man to admit that he was a pirate and rightly convicted for piracy. Enrico was the plague victim at La Bucca. Very early on, he came to fall in love with a young woman found floating in the flaming wreckage of a destroyed boat. The young lady in question undoubtedly returns his affections, however, she has some very, um vehement, ideas about their relationship. Enrico, more often than not, finds himself forced to make rescue attempts, pay off creditors, go into debt, or generally follow his lady love to ensure her safety. He is the only officer aboard ship to ever lose his cool and murder a defenseless victim. The repercussions of this act are only now beginning to be seen.

Aerin - Master-o-the-Tops. Flaming red hair and a temper to boot, Aerin has been known to start fights just for the sheer joy of fighting. She wears the outfits typical of her people so some have been known to mistake her gender. Theus help you, though, if you happen to make that particular mistake. Her secret wish is to have five minutes alone with the person or people responsible for making her an orphan. She thought she might have gotten her wish earlier and did her best to make her victim regret meeting her. However, she realized later that she had made a mistake.

Pieter - Marine. Pieter came aboard The Strand as a grateful thanks from the Malacci family of Porto Occidentale. The Malaccis and the heroes forced a wayward member of the crew to live up to his responsibilities to a Malacci daughter and her child... Pieter, a loyal retainer was ordered to replace the missing crew member (although he was also to remember that his first loyalty was to the Malaccis, should anything go wrong...). When he came aboard he brought along his unlucky companion and ruken, Geran.

Geran - Marine. Geran is the ruken/back to Pieter. As such, where goes one, the other is sure to follow. Very little is known about him save that he studied at the Durchsetzungburg Academy.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

(There were a few before this one, but I never thought to write them down, so this is the first written game session)

Shore leave was up, and we made our way back to our ship, to find out one of the (NPC) shipmates had not returned. Checking up, we found out that he, a wine hobbiest, had come across some wine that he could not be without, and when asked where he could get more, was told it was a few hours away. Actually it ended up being 2 days away (GM plot to get group where he wanted). He had gone over land to the destination, but we found that there was a port and took the ship to go and get him (never leave a man behind, and all that kind of stuff).

Since he had left 2 days before we knew he was missing, we arrived at the port about 1 day after he should have been there, and did a search. This port was on this side of the border of Castille, a little to close to Vodacce for my liking.

We split the party up to get more info, and also to try to get some iron ore (or rather, info on any ship that might leave with some to "aquire" later), as this was a port for mining it, and would be worth quite a bit of money if we could sell some, at less reputable ports of call. The major part of the party went to the pub, to see what info could be found about our AWOL shipmate, while the purser and I tried to deal for some iron ore, without success.

Meanwhile, the other half of the party, at the pub, was trying out the wine that had so intreagued our shipmate. They found out he had been there, but found the people in the bar very strange, in that they kept trying to avoid talking about our missing shipmate. Everytime they tried to get info, other than he had been there, the people moved away, or changed the subject. Even though the other Fate witch was with them, as she doesn't use her ability, it was not until the purser and Rebecca found their way to the pub to meet with the rest of the crew, that we found out that "Fate" had been twisted receintly, and it involved our missing shipmate! We found out he was being taken away on a Vodacce ship called "The Swift Wind", to return to Vodacce, in reguards to an unresolved vendetta.

We needed to go back to the ship, to speak in private, inform the Captain of what we discovered. Unfortunately, before we could get to the dock, we were interrupted by 3 Vodacce men, with several henchmen.

The leader of the group, requested politely that we turn back, that we should forget about our fellow sailor.

(Let me set up the charactors)

Rebecca - Vodacce - Fatewitch

Cedric - Montaigne- amnesia swordsman

Alexander - Eisen - with Rasmussen gunmanship

Luna - Vodacce - Fatewitch (doesn't use powers) throws knives instead

Filippo - Castillian swordman - with amnesiac lady love tag-a-long (think of her as lead shoes while trying to swim, oh yeah.)

Mario - Vodacce (Unbound) - Bernoullli swordsman

Aerin - Inish (that saids it all!)

Pyotor - Ussuran- large human tank

Maike - Vesten - ships purser

Well, Pyotor was all for plowing right through the whole group, but Mario wanted to put his sword "through" a few in the group. Alexander wanted to shoot a few with his guns, while Aerin was all for punching her way through with her fist. Cedric just wanted to go back and drink more wine, and Filippo's lady love had him carring all of her packages from shopping so his hands were full. Luna held back quietly (as she was busy doing stuff besides gaming) while Rebecca tried to read a couple of the hubris/virtues (rolled 1, 1, 10 on 3 dice for inititive) hoping to find something to distract them with, and take them out of the fight, without fighting.

Unfortunately Mario made a comment to the leader of the other group about "His mother and goats...", which caused the 2nd man in the group to flare up (hot head), as he was the leaders brother. He made a comment about honor being soiled, but Maike took over the taunts, and told him "How could he have his honor soiled, as he wasn't enough of a man to have honor" which re-directed his fury at her, since it was now a personal taunt to his charactor.

Pyotor and the leader squared off, neither wanting to fight, but neither wanting to backdown either, and they tried to talk their way through. Pyotor for us to get to our ship, and the leader wanting us to turn back.

Mario and Cedric meanwhile stepped up to the 3rd guy, while the rest of us were put against the henchmen.

Unfortunately we didn't know their own strength!

Turns out man number 2 and 3 (probably the leader too, but it never came up) were journeymen in the swordschool "Ambrogia". (GM got reall good rolls and knocked us down a few pegs in the first few rounds) So Maike was hit a couple of times, receiving a couple of dramatic wounds, even though she had shot her guns into him a couple of times too. Aerin thought to help her, but #2 dodged out of her punch, grabbed her, pushed her into Maike, and causing more damage to Maike, as she received the punch instead. Maike was almost down for the count, but still taunting.

Man number 3 meanwhile, was dulling his sword by poking it into Cedric, while parrying Mario. (Turns out he had lighting reflexs). Cedric drops unconsious, and Mario and 3 have at it, as Mario made another taunt to his honor. Though Mario received a poke or two, he still came back at the begining of the next round, with 3 consecutive lunges (rolled 3 1's). and killed number 3 (cousin of 1 and 2)

Meanwhile, Rebecca, after checking on the hubris/virtues, was unable to do anything, while a henchman came at her with a sword. (this was on that 1,1, 10 rolls). So she had to take the damage given, and ended up with a dramatic wound, and a few minor wounds, before she was able to respond. Her responce was to slap him in the face, since she had no weapon in hand, and he was so close. She hoped to active his hubris, but turned out he did not have any, but he was supprised that she slapped him, and stood there long enough for Filippo, who had dropped the boxes, to shoot him with his guns.

Pyotor meanwhile had gotten the leader in a bear hug, and the man surrendered, since he could not break free. End of fight, we leave to run on to our ship, after finding out where our shipmate was being taken, from evidence on the dead henchmen, since the others would not tell us. (Great, we get to head into Vodacce, ugh!)

Now during all this fight, ships had been leaving the harbor, the first one being "The Swift Wind", because off in the distance, a Castillian armarda was heading towards the port! Our ship, "The Broken Strand", was the only one left at port by the time we got there. We started heading out of the port, but unfortunately, the pride of the Castillian Navy, "The Dawn Cutter" a pirate ship hunter, blocked the entrance. (There is where we leave our intrepid pirates, til next time!)

[Rebecca Iavelli]

When last we left our hero's, they were in Porto Occidentale, a small, but very modern Vodacce city, surrounded by at least 30 to 40 men, armed with guns and swords. As we stood there, staring at them, and they at us, from one of the side streets, several people came forward to the front of the line. It was Governor Malachi, his fatewitch wife, their daugher, with very blonde haired boy child about 5 years old, and also two other young men, that looked a lot like the Governor, and seemed extreemly on edge, with their swords at ready.

The Governor made his way to our group, showing he did not have any weapons in his hands, and asked that he speak to us privately. We also put our weapons away, and allowed him to come up to our party. (Not like we were going anywhere anyway.)

He explained that the man we "rescued" was the father of his daughter's son, and asked us to hand him over. That the man had to take up his responceablities, instead of galavanting around the seas. The Govenor explained that it was because of this man, we were able to get off of La Bucca, as easy as we did, since his family had been trying to get him off for the last couple of years, using sorte, and that when we escaped, and he had come with us, they had to find another way to get him back to Porto Occidentale, where, he could finally marry the Govenor's daughter, whom he had gotten pregnant, the boy child being the result. We two fatewitches in the group, checked on the strand, finding it to be very strong between the boy and our crewman. Without any pause, we handed him over to meet his fate.

The Governor, grabbing him by the shoulders, calls out to the crowd surrounding us "This man has asked for my daughters hand in marriage, and so, in good faith, I allow all these prisoners amnesty, and I hearby invite all of them to the wedding, as they are practially family, being his shipmates!"

So, we were given fine rooms in the best hotel on the island, new cloths, and fancy finery to wear to the wedding, to take place in one week. During that time, we wandered around as we each saw fit. Rebecca kept fairly low key, as she really didn't want to be in Vodacce that long. She stayed mostly with the ships treasurer, Maike, her best friend, as they wandered looking for supplies and cargo for our ship.

The wedding celebration lasted for another week, with everyone getting their fill of just about anything they wanted, or needed, when it came to food and wine.

On the day before we were to leave the island, Rebecca was up early, dressed to go down and have breakfast. She heard a knock at the door, and someone say "Housekeeping." (Asking the GM, has this happened before, and of course he said yes), So Rebecca, putting on her last shoe, calls them to "Come in!", and stands up as the door opens, to find at least six men standing there, with the seventh right in front, a small Vodacce man, lith of build, but with the same eyes that she sees, when she looks into a mirror!

"Hello, dear sister." the man saids, taking a knife out of his belt.

"Dominic!" Rebecca starts, as he throws his knife at her, slicing her across the cheek. The blood flows freely, but the cut is not deep. She grabs the closest thing she can find, and throws it at him, which he dodges, and comes up to her, and punches her in the stomach, hard.

Its at this point, she feels the burning around the knife cut on her cheek, and starts to feel lightheaded, and loosing focus. He backhands her, and she kicks him in his family jewels, then screams, as it is the only thing she can think to do at the moment, since she is on the 5th floor and can not jump out the window. He is resilant, and backhands her again.

Her scream awakens some of her fellow crewmen, and guest, also in the hotel. As her friends get up to run to find out what the problem was, their doors are slammed open, by none less than the city guards, who had been waiting in the hall to keep them from helping Rebecca. Several fights break out.

Pyotor, the Ussuran, leaps out of his open window, to become a owl, and looks for another way into the building, closer to where he heard Rebecca scream. He leaves the men who came into the room, searching for him out the window.

Mario, the Vodacce, is about to incounter five brutes and a henchmen, when he notices across the hall from him, Luna, in an undressed state, is also about to be attacked by some men. This gears him up, and he takes on the lot, but misses, since he was still waking up and distracted by Luna.

Luna, in her room across the hall, is trying to get to her knives, but has the men who came into the room, distracted, by her undressed state. From an attacking attitude, they huddle together by the door, deciding who would be the first to "have at her with their "Swords" (to put it in a nicer way)

Makie, who had slept through Rebecca's scream, had woken to the sound of the noise in the other room, and had just gotten out of bed, when her door was crashed open, and city guards rushed in. She grabbed a small bronze statue, and clubbed two of the men with it.

The Castillian is kept busy with his own bunch of men, and also, needs to go rescue his lady love, whom he hears in the next room, attacking her attackers.

Alexander, the Eisen, caught without his guns at hand, decides to use his hands and punches the first man that comes up to him, in his room.

Aerin, our little spitfire Innish, takes to the fight like a fish to water, slamming her fist into the men, taking out two or three at time, and makes it to her doorway.

Luna, using her footwork, manages to work her way around the men comming at her, who are supprised to find her so quick, and makes it to the door, before being grabbed, but they only grab some clothing, and more rip off as she runs out the door. Aerin sees her go by, and as the men come out chasing her, they are slammed back, as Aerin, puts herself in their way, stopping them like a brick wall.

Mario meanwhile had gotten most of his men, except the henchman Lt. After a couple of quick stabs with his sword, the henchman is now breathing freely through the holes in his chest, and falls, allowing Mario to run out of the room, to try and find Luna.

Luna had made it to Aerin's room, by then, and aquired some clothing. (Too bad Mario, lol)

Rebecca is feeling extreemly woozie, and is lifted up by the six Eisen brutes, that her brother brought with him. He leads the way out of her room, not noticing, that her spider waits above the door frame. As she is brought out of the room, her spider jumps onto her hair. She remembers, even under a hazy frame of mind, that he has a fear of spiders, and as they reach the stairway, she grabs the spider, and throws it toward him. He freaks, as it land on him, and backs into the men carring her, who being brutes, loose hold of her, and she is tossed head over heels, to land at the turn of the stairway, unbelivably, on her feet, grabs the spider, and starts running down the stairs, as best as she can. She activates her brother's arcanna, as he starts chasing her down the stairs. He stops to gloat, crossing his arms, saying "Run, dear sister, run! I WILL catch you, no matter what."

Pyotor, has found another way into the building, returns to human shape, and comes running down the hall, as he sees Rebecca, running down the far stairs. He arrives, at the stairway, just in time to meet her brother, who calls him an oaf, and sidesteps around him and continues down the stairs after Rebecca. The Eisen brutes follow, but are stopped by Pyotor's presence. Pyotor turns to go after Dominic, and takes a few hits from the Eisen brutes, but does get his hands on Dominic, and puts him between him and the brutes. Though he used a bear crush on Dominic, the little guy was hardier than he thought, and it didn't seem to bother him much.

Mario, by then, had made it to the top of the stairs, just above the brutes, and was able to see Pyotor, take and toss Dominic out the hotel window (third floor). Mario then took care of the brutes.

Dominic flew out the window, fell through 3 awnings, to land on the street, taking a dramatic wound, but still resiliant enough to get to his feet.

At the same time this happened, Rebecca had made it to the second floor , even though she is still drugged, saw more guards heading her way, and continued running down to the first floor, and out the door, right into Dominic, as he stood up. He grabs her by the throat, pulling her to him, as he faces up at Pyotor. "Thank you for giving me a short cut. I owe you for this!" He yells up at Pyotor. He then throw Rebecca to the ground, smirking once again. "Go ahead, Rebecca, run! I want a good hunt!" and he laughs as he watches her run away.

Rebecca crawls up and continues to run, as best as she can, trying to find a place to hide, in a city she doesn't know, with all the Guards looking for her and her friends. She knows she has to find a way to get away from her brother, but at the moment, in her drugged state, it is hard to think, so she runs, as she hears his laughter behind her.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

When we last left, Rebecca was running away down the street from her brother, Dominic. The rest of the crew was in the hotel, fighting off the brutes.

Pyotor had been looking out the window he had thrown Dominic out of, watching as Dominic followed Rebecca down the street. Leaping out the window, as a hay cart rolled by, he landed in the hay, and then worked his way off the cart to the street, and began to chase after Dominic.

Mario had finished up the brutes on the stairs, and continued his way down, in bounds and leaps to make his way down faster. Luna made her way from Aerin's room, back to her own, to aquire clothing that fit her better than the ones she got from Aerin.

Aerin left her room, chasing down the hall to the area where she had last seen Mario, but Alex raced ahead of her, and leaped out the window, that Pyotor had jumped from, (without looking, mind you), to fall the 3 flights and land into a manure cart that had parked outside the front door, after the hay wagon had passed.

Maike had gotten dressed, grabbed her weapons, and the statue she had been using as a club, and saw Aerin disapear down the stairs, so she headed that way. Seeing the broken window, she looked out, saw the wagon, with Alex flat in the back, she dropped the statue, and leaped out the window, using the awnings to make her way down, and landed herself on the back of the mule hooked up to the wagon. She looks behind and said to Alex "Gee, what a wonderful smell you have discovered!"

Mario meanwhile made it down to the last floor, and had to fight another brute squad, before getting out the door, and Aerin was a level or two on the steps behind him.

The Castillian had made his way to his lovers room, to take care of the brutes attacking her. She was using a coat rack as a quarterstaff, and as he came in, the brutes ducked her swing, but he didn't, taking damage from the coat rack. Still he was able to take care of the brutes, and she rushes up to him, to make up for hitting him. He notices at that time, that she is without clothing, and they take time for a "interlude".

Rebecca meanwhile, had run to a four way street corner, and turned right, since that was the way she was leaning at the time, from the effects of the drug, which still was causing her problems. As she turned the corner, she gets accosted by a vender, trying to sell her copper pots. She tries to leave, but he will not let her, and she tumbles into his wares, causing lots of noise as pots and pans go flying! The whole area turns to look at the commotion.

She gets grabbed by a man who saids, "I'll get a pretty bit of money for you, from your brother." He picks her up from the ground, and she knees him in the balls, and he goes down. She tries to leave, and is grabbed by two of Dominic's retainers, that he had put on the street for just this purpose, along with more Eisen brutes. He comes up to her, grinning evilly, grabs her chin, and pats her cheek. "You didn't get very far, did you dear sister." He saids to her. "Come on, lets go!" He saids to his two men, that are holding her. The rest of the Eisen brutes that are with him, surround them, and as they make their way back, Dominic notices that Pyotor has almost caught up, he sends the Eisen brutes out to take care of him, and turns around with his own retainers and Rebecca, heading down another street. They get to a main center of town, with a large fountain, marketplace, and eight roads intersecting into it.

The retainers are edgy holding on to Rebecca, knowing that she is a Fatewitch, and refuse to look her in the eyes. So, taking the opportunity, she leans over to the one on the left and kisses him on the cheek, as if she is cursing him. He freaks out, dropping his hold on her, and causing the other man to fall back from her too, both scared of what might happen to them. Her balance being off, from the drug, she fell to the ground, and Dominic reached out and grabbed her, pulling her along, leaving his men behind, while cursing at them, for their cowardice.

He is pulling her along, near the fountain, and Rebecca changes her motive, from resisting, to pushing, throwing him off balance, but also throwing hers off again. She lands in the dirt, and he staggers for a couple of steps, before turning around. Suddenly he is accosted by one of the venders of the marketplace. She gets up and runs around the fountain, and off to another street.

Pyotor meanwhile had grabbed one of the Eisen brutes and was hauling him over his head, to toss at the others, but didn't quite make it. So he used him like a club instead.

Maike on the mule, kicked it to get it going in the direction that she had seen Pyotor go in, Alex still in the back of the wagon. Mario was finishing up the brutes. Aerin was making her way down the stairs. The Castillian and his lady finished their "interlude", and he also started down the stairs, while she and Luna started to pack up our stuff. In the midst of it, retainers from the Malacchi family came in and helped them, and sent a word out to the ship to be ready to sail.

The Castillian, swiftly made his way down the stairs, passing Aerin, who was taking care of a couple of brutes, with Mario, and leaped into the seat of the wagon. Alex, seeing that Mario had just finished off his last brute, tried to reach for Mario to haul him on board, but missed, luckly for Mario, since Alex was covered in manure.

The wagon only got as far as a block, before stopping, because of the heavy traffic at the street ahead. Mario runs and catches up, with Aerin following. He sees Pyotor fighting the Eisen brutes, and runs to help, but is side tracked by two bunchs of the town guardsmen, who are making their way towards the crew. He leaves Pyotor to finish the Eisen, and heads for the closer group, and swiftly takes care of the six men, and heads for the other group.

Pyotor has four of the six Eisen down, when Alex fires at the last two, with his guns, that were also covered in manure, and so the two he hits also get splattered with manure.

Pyotor takes off after where he had last saw Dominic. He gets to the fountain square, just in time to see Dominic running up a side street as he chased after Rebecca.

This road was very strange, in the fact that some of the streets did not connect, the houses were up against a ledge on one side, and there was actually a ladder at one point, to climb up to another street. Rebecca chose to continue running up the road, but she moved the ladder, hoping it would make Dominic think she had climbed it. As she turned around the corner of the street, she found herself at a dead end! Looking around quickly, yet still drugged, she saw a window, broke it and climbed into the house. She found herself staring at the family that owned the house, and the father yelling at her for breaking his window. She grabbed her purse, and gave it to him, asking for a way out, besides the window. He smiled, hugged her, and lead her to the front door. She was on a totally different street, and turned right when leaving the house. She turned around a corner and came face to veil with a fatewitch! The Strega spoke to her, telling her to leave, that she had been trying to help Rebecca, but that she had to leave now, and never come back to Porto Occidentale, or she would die. She told Rebecca how to get back to her ship, and had her turn around and go back the other way down the street. Rebecca, shocked, but still woosy, turned around to follow the strega's directions.

Dominic meanwhile had climbed the ladder to the other street. Pyotor missed him climbing, and continued following the street, to come into the dead end that Rebecca had found. He also saw the broken window, and crawled into it. Pyotor does not speak Vodacce, so when he encountered the family, and the yelling father, he shruged, and handed him some coins. The father pointed to the door, and Pyotor made his way out.

Aerin meanwhile had followed behind Pyotor, and as soon as Pyotor had made his way down the new street, Aerin made her way through the broken window, encountering the family. She could speak Vodacce, and also paid for bothering the family, and made her way out the door, when shown by the grateful father. (He didn't know what was going on, but several people had paid him more than enough to get a new window.)

Alex too had followed Aerin, saw her slip through the window, and also made his way into the window, to be met by the happy father, (another who will pay for a window!), who hugs him, before seeing he is covered in manure. (Theah is punishing me for being a greedy man, the father thinks!) Alex offers to pay the father too, for messing up his clothing, and after making sure the money is not covered in manure, the father accepts.

Rebecca makes her way back down the street, following the strega's directions, turns the corner, into a group of town guardsmen! She stops, act like she had stumbled, as they look at her, but do not look her in the eyes (Vodacce custom, never look in a woman's eyes), calmly makes her way past them, smoothing her clothing. They continue to talk among themselves, and she makes her way by them.

Pyotor, Aerin, Alex, are eventually joined by Mario, Maike and the Castillian, they turn a corner down the road they had gone (turns out the wrong way), and come face to face with the Captain of the Town Guardmen, with a bunch of his men.

Rebecca continues father down the road she is on, sees more town guardsmen ahead, stops, stumbles backwards, to hear "I don't care how much money it takes to find her, just find her!", in a familier voice.

She turns around, at the same time the man does. They both look, and she throws herself into Emelio's arms! She was safe! He had come back!

And so we leave our group til next time.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

We start out with Emelio and Rebecca ending the embrace that she had on him, and he discovers the cut on her face. "What is this, mi amore!" he exclaims, as he gently holds her chin in his hand to better look at her wound. "Who would dare strike a woman!"

"This is a kiss from my brother." She answers him, "A kiss from his knife."

"I will send him to the lowest pit in the abyss, for what he has done to you!" Emelio replies, clasping Rebecca close to him again. Just as he does this, three brute squads of town guards come around the corner, lead by a henchman, and seeing Rebecca, whip out their swords. Emelio steps away from her, whips out his own sword and dagger. " I see you have now weapon, so here." he gives her his dagger, and draws another one out for himself.

Rebecca takes the knife, hesitantly, as she really has had no chance to learn any weapons skill at all. She grabs a rock from the street, and throws it at the guards, as they begin to surround them, and it misses badly. "Great distraction!" Emelio saids, with a bit of sarcasm in his voice, then attacks three of the men around him, taking them down easily. As the others crowded in, they seemed more intent on taking down Emelio, than attacking her, so she does the only thing she can think to do, and stabs one of the men in the back, then quickly turns and stabs another in the back also. (Not very heroic I know, but she is still drugged, using a unknown weapon, and they are attacking her lover! She must help defend his back, if it means stabbing them in the back!) Both brutes fall down and out.

Meanwhile, in another part of town, the rest of the crew is getting into a fight with more town guards, along with the Captain of the Guard. With the Captain, is two other henchmen, and at least six brutes for every crewmember.

"You have been obstructing justice, so you too must die!" the Captain calls out. He and his men take out their swords and begin surrounding the group. Alex takes out his gun, and shoots one of the henchmen, taking him out.

Mario, who is actually still hurting from the last fights, attacks one of the brutes.

Pyotor grabs two guardsmen, and smashes another up against the wall of the building, sending him down and out, followed by the other two, as he smashes their heads together.

Aerin went in slugging, taking out a couple of her brutes with ease.

Luna, who had caught up with the group, tossed out a couple of daggers, taking down a couple also.

Maike drew out her sword, and took down a brute.

Enrico, the Castillian, not to be outdone, whipped out his sword, and with three mighty slashes, takes out the other henchman.

Alex goes on a shooting spree, pulling and shooting several guns, taking down a few brutes, and also hitting the Captain of the Guard. The Captain takes the hit, but is still standing, and still fighting. He makes some remark, to which Mario replies, "Your as much of a low life as your son was, before I killed him." That remark enrages the Captain of the Guard, and he charges Mario with his sword flailing.

Pyotor grabs another henchmen and throws him into two others, taking another three out of the fight. He then grabs another and squeezes him in a bear hug.

Luna again takes down another brute with her thrown daggers.

Aerin, in the mist of fighting, is getting quite a bit of damage done to her also, but keeps on swinging.

Enrico, now fighting several brutes is also taking a few hits, but is slowly taking them down.

Back with Rebecca and Emelio, she takes down another brute, while he cuts down three more. He is like ice, cool, calm and collected, while fighting, and she is amazed at his skill. Yet he slips in the blood on the ground from all the fighting, and a few of the brutes get a hit or two on him, wounding him, but not much.

The crew has most of their brutes beaten, and Mario and the Captain are fighting, each heavily wounded, but still up. Alex fires another shot at the Captain, and he takes it, but still continues to fight Mario, his anger keeping him from feeling anything else. It takes several more hits, before he finally drops, and the brutes that are left run away. During this fight, another man had stepped up to help get rid of the brutes. He introduced himself as Pioter Malachi, a distant nephew of the Govenor, sent to help us, and join up with us, as a way of thanks from the Governor. They make their way back to the ship.

Emelio and Rebecca finish off the rest of their attackers, then he rushes her off to her ship. He leave her there, stating he still has to take care of her brother, for the dishonor her brother did to her. The others make it on board, and we head back out to sea, as fast as the wind will take us.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Stormy Sea
Well, in our last game we were back on the ship and heading out to deeper water. But before that happened, we looked back to shore, to find that Dominic had made it to the dock, too late to catch us, yet he did take a couple of shots at us, in frustration. Coming up behind him, we saw Emelio, who pushed one of Dominic's henchmen out of his way, off of the dock, into the ocean, waved once to us, then engaged Dominic in a swordfight. Then we were too far away to see what the results of the fight were!

We had been told that we were welcome back anytime, (as long as it wasn't known that I was with them, as the town could not be known to have helped us, or it would create a war between the families.) So, we now have a safe port, sort of.

We had two days of clear sailing, and had decided to head back to La Bucca, before heading north for a while, to get out of the "hornets nest" of activity near Vodacce. Avalon is nice this time of year, or so we had heard.

Anyway, after the second day, we encountered a storm. We prepared the best we could, but still lost six men overboard, and one that got smashed by a cannon that came loose from its port. The rest of us, except for our Captain, ended up with bumps and bruises, and Rebecca actually passed out from her injuries she aquired, as she's still working on getting her balance.

She woke up to a calm clear day, and made it out to deck to see we were anchored in a small cove, that would make a great hideaway, as it could only be approched from one direction, and a cliff blocked the view of the cove from the open ocean. The Captain had been leaning against the wheel, and as the whole crew made it over to him, he started giving orders for repairs to be made, and sending a crew out for food and water, inland. It takes us another couple of days, but repairs are made, and Pyotor hunts well enough to supply us with fresh meat for a few meals. We make a map of the area, for future reference, and head out, during high tide, to keep from hitting the scholes that blocked the entrance to the cove. Beyond that were several large boulders, that blocked our view to our stern, until we made it out to deeper water. Airen, on the tops, called down "Sail Ho!", before we made our way clear. She said it didn't seem to be moving, and was about a quarter of a mile away.

We sailed past the last of the boulders, and turning the wheel hard over, turned to face the ship. She still sat still in the water, so we sailed closer, and found out she only had one mast, but a lot of rigging, and as we got closer, saw that she was actually a three mast ship, but two had broken, and she actually was broken in half, on some sholes, yet level, as if in water. It wasn't an even break, as 1/3 of the front of the ship had broken off , totally seperate from the rest. There was no movement anywhere, and we saw the name of the ship was called La Rosa Spinosa, (The Thorny Rose), and she was definately a Vodacce ship. Mario thought he reconized the name, but couldn't remember from where.

We hailed the ship, but saw no one, nor received an answer, so as far as the rules of the ocean, she was ours to plunder. With ourselves and a few extra crew members, we took a longboat over, and climbed up the hanging rigging, to her deck. Airen and Mario went to check out the Captain's cabin, while we left our extra crewmembers to scavage up deck and keep a look out. Pyotor, Rebecca, Maike, Pietro (new guy), Enrico, Luna, and Alex head below deck to check if any cargo survived. We found quite a nice lot of good cloth, but as we were checking, up from the deck below, came the men from the ship, who had waited to attack us, while seperated.

One really big ugly guy (henchman) attacked Pyotor, and Pyotor actually had to look up at him! Several brutes attacked us, Rebecca went up against three, using her knife, again! The other "henchman" went up against Maike, and she had her hands full, as he was the "eviler" of the two. Mario and Airen heard the commotion and headed down to join the fight.

Pietro wiped up his brutes fairly easy, and Rebecca was able to hold her own, without getting hurt, and took down her three, but it took a while. Luna, Enrico and Alex kept themselves busy knocking off brutes. Pyotor and his henchman meanwhile, had gotten up close an personable, as Pyotor had gotten a bear hug on him, and just used his actions to keep the man immobile.

Maike aquired a dramatic wound from her henchman, and Mario and Airen joined her to attack him. Airen taunted him, and got his attention, much to her dismay, as he proceeded to slash away her clothing.

During this, from the other half of the ship, we hear a loud cry "MARIO DONNATELLI! YOU HAVE STOLEN MY LIFE! I WILL KILL YOU!"

Mario looks over to see his old teacher,Coscuro Albentli, the man who had taught him all he needed to know about gunnery, wenching, swordsmanship, swinging over the gap in the hull and land on our side of the ship.

They engage, each fighting in the Bernoulli style, making for a long drawn out fight, as they each knew the others weakness'.

Airen and Maike, were haveing enough problems taking down their "henchman" (actually villian), with lots of hits being rolled, but countered by his Villanova Sword school training. Maike (who should have the "Tenacity" knack) used up all her DD, to finally get through his defence and wound him. Airen scored a couple of hits, but didn't do much damage.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

We're in the Money!

Mario and his old teacher, Coscuro Albenti, started a Bernoulli sword dance, involving lots of lunging and raising, causing much damage between the two. Mario got the upper hand, after his third attack, gave a final lunge, that Coscuro parried, but after that, fell to the ground unconscious, from the loss of blood.

Pyotor, meanwhile, still keeping a tight grip on the large henchman/bosen, used most of his rolls to keep that hold, before deciding to turn into a bear, still enabling him to keep the hold, but add more strength. That caused a big commotion, with his victum, because he had a fear of the supernatural, and with the extra edrinalin (?sp), boost, almost broke free, but Pyotor was able to hold on, and start chewing on the mans face.

Meanwhile, Airen, Rebecca and Enrico were keeping busy with the "villian" henchman, Rodolpho, whose Villanova swords school was keeping Enrico at bay, while Airen kept taunting him, til he changed his attack to her, causing two dramatic wounds, and making her step back for a moment. Rebecca, (who rolled three 6's), first checked his hubris, found out he was overconfident, and activated it (with her first two 6's), giving Enrico a chance to hit Rodolpho, who in his overconfident pose, left himself wide open for a lunge (at a TN of 5, no less!), and also at the same moment, (using her last 6) Rebecca was able to stab him with her knife, from a side angle. Rodolpho steps back very hurt and a bit confused as to why he even did such a stupid thing. Airen comes in again, to punch him from the back, causing him to flow with the punch, roll, and come up with his pistol, and shoot her. Unable to dodge, she aquires another dramatic wound. Rodolpho meanwhile aquires another wound from Enrico, and finally drops. (Enrico's player at this point saids to the GM "I kill him! I take out my dagger and slit his throat!" We all look at him in astonisment!)

Enrico claims Rodolpho's sword, which happens to have a little mark on it. On closer examination, it shows to be a rose and cross mark.

We leave our brutes to mop up, under the guidance of the missing player's characters, and continue to the lower cannon deck, get the gunners that were left there to surrender, and they do, after Pyotor shows them their bosen, with his hash of a face (Pyotor had changed back, after the guy passed out.) They then ask what we want to do with their captives.

Captives? So we have them take us to the brig, where we see a man and a woman, tied up, trying to keep their heads above the water, that had been coming in with the tide, and release them. The man then introduce himself as Captain Alberto Tinchare, a Vodacce, working for the Castillian Armarda, and his wife. He stated that the pirates we had just defeated, had sunk his ship and taken his cargo, and himself and his wife for ransom.

We were having the cargo, and cannons, and anything we could use or sell moved over to our ship. The Captain noticed this, but said nothing, just asked to have us put him and his wife off at a port where they could get a ship back home. Meanwhile, Enrico noticed that things just didn't seem right. The men from the other ship, kept watching Captain Tinchare, as if looking for clues in what to say, to questions they were being asked, reguarding the cargo, and the sinking of the Captain's ship. It was during this time, that 10 chest were discovered underneeth the bales of cloth. When asked if these had been part of his cargo, the Captain denied it. Rebecca checked for his most important strand, and found one the size of a tree attached from him to the chest, in yellow. She went and whispered this information to Pyotor. Mario and Enrico were in the progress of opening one of the chest, and inside were small ingots of gold, stamped with the Castillian Royal Mark, at least worth a 100,000 gilders. We had them taken over to our ship, and during the transportation time, discovered 40 more chest, in the ocean, between the two halves of the ship. (That's a lot of gilders!! It is also going to be one big headache, lol).

In the fact that he had lied to them about not knowing about the gold, Rebecca checked to see what link there was between the Captain and his "wife", finding no thread of blue, but one of green, showing that there was more of a business arrangement between them instead. Rebecca also informed Pyotor of this, and we decided to put the crew and the other two, in our brig, for safe keeping. It was during this time that Mario, reconizied the name of Captain Tinchare, and knew that he was the actual Captain of the ship we just left, The Rosa Spinoza. Rumor had it that he had died (at least four times), so we put extra guards to watch the brig, informed them that no talking was allowed, no moving was allowed, and especially, no secret Vodacce hand sign was allowed! We had planned on leaving the shipwreck intact, but since we were heavly overloaded, decide to leave some of the cannons behind, and using some of the gunpowder from their own ship, blew her to bits.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

FAREWELL TO THE CAPTAIN

When we last left the crew of The Broken Strand, she was heavy in the water, full of cargo aquired from the ship La Rosa Spinosa, and we blew up the remains of the ship. The Captain and First Mate were our prisoners, and we had decided to try to get back to La Bucca.

Ok, because of the fight, our Master of the Tops, Airen, had to take time to recover, so we had to use the back up NPC assistant, so we were not going to get as much speed as we liked, not having the experience, and being heavy with cargo. One of the new men wanted to try to help in the riggings, but became more of a hindrance, and had to be helped down, before he fell down to the deck. (Made a cute setting, as the GM played it out, and the player decided it was best that he stay out of the rigging).

Before 1/2 a day passed, we noticed a fleet of ships far off to the east of us, heading south, like us. Too far away to see their sails, but we believed they were just ships that had also left from Vodacce, and this was a main throughfare for them, it being between two peninsillas (?sp). Yet, while we spotted them, we also spotted another ship, in the water ahead of us, heading towards us. As she got closer, we saw that she was a new frigate, and that she was Castillian. We made to turn, so that we were not headed directly for her, but she turned towards us.

We got the guns ready, but didn't open the doors. They came within shouting distance, and stated they were looking for a ship that had sunk a Castillian ship the other day, and had taken her cargo. They wish to board us and check.

Well, we knew that the ship they were looking for is the one we just blew up, but we now had the cargo, so we couldn't let them board. So, we pretened to slow down a bit, then turned, getting behind them (crossing the T),(Insert large discussion on fighting ship mechanics here), and shot some of their sails, so that they couldn't follow us. Then we scurred away as fast as we could. Luck was with us and we got away, but before we did, some of the crew from the ship (Venganza de Theus) was able to take shots at us with their muskets.

Our Castillian, Enrico, who is the Navigator, heard something behind him go "thump", as he stood at the wheel. He looked behind and saw our Captain, lying on the deck, blood soaking his chest. Leaving his second to keep the wheel steady, he rushed over to the Captain, to hear his last words.

The Captain took off his panzerhand and handed it to Enrico, and told him to look in his cabin, inside his seachest, for his will, that he had been writing this past week. It would give the details he wished for his burial, ect. The last thing he said, was "Keep the Ship safe."

Of course, we did as he requested, and this is what his will stated:

To my brothers and sisters,

First of all, let me say what an honor and privilege it has been to sail with you these many months.

You've done an old man proud to be associated with such a company of, dare I say, Heros. As I write

this, you've just headed out for a well-deserved leave. I'm sure you'll come back with tales of great

adventure. I tell you this now in my private writings that I truly feel old. For the first time, I have seen

the icy shroud of death awaiting me. I tell you this honestly though, when my time comes it shall not

be feared as is so often written of in books and novels. Rather, I shall look at it as the cessation of pain,

loss and regret that seems to have characterized my life.

How is this you might ask? Well, the details are not important save to say that in my time I have been

a son, brother, ruken, lover, husband, father and father-in-law. It is to the latter that I will speak. Her

name is Emma Webber and I have no idea if she still lives. She is the eldest daughter of my Ruken Merrill

Friedrich Webber. My eldest son married her months before I and my Silberne Falken killed him, much to

my everlasting shame. If she still lives, she is the only proof of my existence. I would ask you, my brothers

and sisters, take my beloved panzerfaust to her. Tell her of my love for her, her father, and my son. She

will know what to do.

Of my earthy remains, I say this. Much as I hold dear my beloved Insel, its reminder is only one of pain. I

would ask you, my brothers and sisters, take the clothes here in the chest, I would like to wear them as

befits a gentleman of good stature. Bury me in my old clearing, where many of us first met, for it was the

beginning of this life. A life filled with adventure and joy. For that, more than anything else, I am indebted

to you.

Of my remaining possessions, I think it only fair to divide them as you would any other treasure, by fair

and honest vote of each of the remaining crew upon my passing.

Fair skies to you my friends. I shall be asling Theus himself to watch over you.

KarlLee Rainer Stutzend III

Captain of The Broken Strand

Brotherhood of The Coast

So I guess we are now on our way to Eisen.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

"Fate"ful Winds!

In the last update, our Captain had been killed, a passing shot from the crew of the Venganza de Theus, a new Castillian Frigate, that we shot some of their sails out, to keep them from following us.

Two days have passed, and Pyotor, the bosun, was voted to be the new Captain. We were still in the waters between Castille and Vodacce, making our way south, southeast, to eventually head to La Bucca, to drop off the gold, and then to continue our way to Eisen, to deliver our old Captain to his last resting place.

Well, as usual, things did not go as planned. We had a ship following us, since we had escaped the Venganza de Theus, but she kept out of range to tell her markings. Pyotor got tired of this, and during the night, had us stop, take up the sails, to try to get behind our followers. They somehow figured out what we were trying to do, so in the early morning, since they knew that we knew about them, they started to head towards us.

Aiden, in the crows nest, sighted three other ships to the south west of us, and another following in our path to the north of us. We readied the guns, and tacked more south east, trying to keep ahead of all the ships. With her keen sence, Aiden made out the other ships flag, but not before Rebecca, who also has keen sences. It was flying the flag of the Mondavi Prince! Her brother had found them!

A lot of mechanics were discussed throughout the game, so most of the night was taken up by them, and the chase. Just before we ended the game, we had outrun the three ships to the southeast, but only after the closest one had fired upon us longrange, and missed. We also had a few rounds of chain shot to the ship flying the Prince's flag, but were unabale to do much damage, as we were also shooting at long range.

Durning this time, Rebecca was trying to see if she could get a good view of any of the crewmen on board the other ship, but they were too far away, so she was not able to activate any hubris'. (She was hopeing to be able to activate several of the crew's hubris, to make them not work as well as they could together, and help slow down the ship.)

The ship that was trailing us, from the north, caught up, while we were engaged with the Royal Flagged Ship, but had not shot at us yet. Rebecca (after being informed by the GM to roll awareness, and incouraged to throw in a couple of Drama Dice) noticed that her brother was on the new ship that was comming in at them, not on the one flying the flag!With him are three fatewitches, standing at the fore of the ship. She informs Pyotor of this, as Aiden notices another ship (!) heading towards us from the south. As it draws near, we see that she is flying a flag with a skull and three daggers! We reconize it as the Hanged Man! Help has arrived!

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Boarding Party

Tonight when we began, we started in the midst of a fight between the Mondavi flag ship, with a sister ship heading towards us from behind (With Rebecca's brother and 3 fatewitches aboard), 3 other ships to the far port side, and The Hanged Man heading towards them.

We started waiting for the Vodacce ship to come up to us on the starboard side, then let her have it with our cannons. She of course returned fire. Then grappeling hooks were tossed, and the ships tied together. The master gunner, Mario, with the Castillian headed over to the wheeldeck (? right term?), to attack the men stearing the Vodacce ship. Airen took the high road among the sails, and started fighting with a sailor in the rigging. The new guy in our group, Peter also decided to board, took a running leap, jumped over to the other ship, and then landed on his face.

Rebecca stayed on The Broken Strand, taking out her knife, and just fighting off brutes here and there, while keeping an eye on the ship with her brother and the other fatewitches, as it got closer.

The other ship's men then jumped over onto our ship, before our men could board theirs, so the fighting took place mostly on The Broken Strand. Captain Pyotor jumped down from our wheeldeck, and grabbed a brute, to slam him against another one, to clear up some space to fight.

Airen in the riggings slugged her sailor a nice couple of blows, til he fell out of the rigging, and onto the deck, just missing the guy that Peter was fighting with. So she starts to make her way down to the deck.

Captain Pyotor, meanwhile, grabs another couple of brutes and slams their heads together.

Luna, attacks a brute with her daggers, and (gets awesome rolls), goes hog wild in making a bloody mess out of several brutes, the last one by biting it's nose off!

(Eric, who plays Captain Pyotor, at this time, after watching what Heather, playing Luna, has done, speaks up saying "Anyone want to make a bet on how close Mario can get to Luna after this?" )

The Hanged Man had taken out the ship farthest from us by then, and was ramming the one closest to us, while firing at the middle ship in the group, and also firing at the ship with the 3 fatewitches.

Captain Pyotor had cleared quite an area around him of brutes quite dramaticly using a spar, (aquireing 2 drama dice), and Peter had taken care of a henchman that was attacking him, (once he got back up on his feet), but was still in a long fight with another henchman.

The Castillian and Mario were occupied with another on the wheeldeck, but Mario aquired a few dramatic wounds, and needed to head back to our ship, when the Captain of the other ship arrived on the deck, from below. He started attacking them, while Airen tried to get closer, but got into another fight with a few brutes.

Mario was seriously injured, and Captain Pyotor, seeing the Captain arrive on deck, swings across ships to land up near where they were fighting. But the Captain of the Vodacce ship challenges Mario, to a duel, that if Mario should win, that he would surrender. (Asked why Mario, and not Pyotor, or Airen, who happened to be close by, the Captain replied that our Captain was a barbarian, and that Airen just used her fist, and that Mario was the only "proper" swordsman available, being Vodacce.)

So, even though Mario is on the verge of going unconsious, he fights the Captain (it's late by this time, so a roll of a dice calls it, and Mario wins!!)

The ship with the 3 fatewitch and Rebecca's brother takes off, and so does the last ship that the Hanged Man was after, so we did not have to have a Fate Witch battle after all (at least not now), and we have aquired another ship to sell!

We still have our gold, we put the men who surrendered out on a couple of boats (along with the Captain and his woman that we had as prisoners from earlier), and started once again back to La Bucca. Two days later, we come across something in the water, and go to investigate. We find a man (or at least it sort of looks like a man, one that has been torchered and mutalated as much as a man could be, and still be alive), and take him aboard ship. He is strange looking, and his one eye that is left is "almond" shaped, (so we the players think he is from Cathay, but we the characters, have no idea)

[Rebecca Iavelli]

A Distant Sound of Cannons

Tonights game was a little different than normal, because we played different characters for most of the game. This was necessary for the plot, according to our GM.

List of the Crew of the "Lady Anna's Favor"

Captain Margaret Ellen Adwater

Bosun Kaylech MacDonald

Surgeon Jame Green

Mercenary Helmut

Digger/Navigator Michel du Hommel

Digger's Asst. Emma Brown

Purser/Quartermaster Valentina Cinsenzo

Pilot Erasmus O'Dell



Three long dull days at sea, near the coast of Castille, by the Orange peninsula, with not a bit of wind. There were several other ships about too, but at a far distance, also waiting for a bit of wind to help them continue on their way to each of their destinys. The sun was heading down, and the sky was a beautiful livid red, with faint wisps of clouds enhancing the view. It was going to be another long quiet night.

Captain Margaret Adwater gave her Bosen his orders for the night, and headed down to her cabin to get some rest. On the way down, she saw several of the crew, the mercenary, and his men, finishing up a game of dice, trying to overcome the bordom of waiting. She heard the Bosen yelling orders to the Shipwright, to take the night watch, and then head to his own cabin.

Things quieted down for the evening, and several lanterns could be seen from the several ships about, but it was during the darkest part of the night, that the Shipwright, heard the sound of a approching ship, using oars. It was way too close as he peered out into the dark, and went back to where he believed the sound was comming from. Before he could get to the other side of the ship, cannonfire blazed in the night, and grapeshot grazed all about him.

"All hands on deck!" he yelled out, a little late, as the cannonfire had woken everyone, and they were making their way on deck, except for the Navigator Michel de Hommel, who grabbed his gun, and locked his door.

The cannons blazed again, as the Captain came on deck, yelling, and swearing. She took out her first gun, aimed and fired, hitting the pilot of the attacking ship, and wounding him seriously, but missed with her next two shots with two other guns.

The Mercenary and his men fired back from below deck, through the portholes, at the attacking ship with their muskets, since the ship did not have any cannons to return fire with. It was going to be a slaughter, but they would fight as long as they could. He aimed his gun, and took out the only obvious officer on the attacking ship. As the officer fell dead, a voice called out from that ship "They shot an officer, return fire!" The deck was suddenly filled with muskettiers, that had been waiting under dark tarps, to suprise the ship. They returned fire, seriously wounding Captain Margaret, and the Purser Valentina. Valentina retreated below decks.

The Surgeon came on deck, and continued to climb into the riggings, hoping it would be harder to hit him, but he got tangled in the ropes and ended up hanging upside down.

The Shipwright, seeing the Surgeon hung up, checked for the rope causing the problem and cut it, letting the Surgeon down, the hard way.

Meanwhile grappling hooks had been deployed from the attacking ship, and several of the crew from the Lady Ann's Favor were busy cutting what ones they could, but it was not to be. The ships were soon pulled together, and the attacking crew swarmed the deck.

Below deck, the Navigator, listening to the noise upstairs pulled out a strange looking knife, opened his door, and saw his Assistant Emma, also below decks walking by. Crazed for yet an unknow reason, he slashed out and stabbed her.

Valentina saw this, and shot the Navigator. The Mercenary and his men, who had been reloding their guns, saw Valentina shoot the Navigator. The Mercenary then shot Valentina, as he had made a private deal with the Navigator, to protect him. No reason was given to him of why the Navigator would need protection, he was given his money, and that was good enough for the Mercenary.

With so many extra men, from a larger ship, the crew was soon taken captive, and all brought on deck, to meet the Captain of the other ship. The strange dagger that the Navigator had, was shown to the Captain. At the sight of the dagger, the Bosen yelled, broke free, and pulled out a dagger exactly like the one the Navigator had, yelling to the Navigator "You! You were the one who killed my wife, with this dagger! I'll kill you!" but before he could, he was again taken prisoner and his dagger removed.

The Bosen, unable to get the Navigator, requested to have a duel to the death with the Navigator, and the Captain from the attacking ship, relented, as he approved of a little bloodshed. The daggers were returned to their owners, but the Navigator, seeing that his Assistant Emma was still alive, and on deck, turned to attack her, through the crowd, and with luck struck her again, before he was re-captured. The Bosen had gotten in a attack against the Navigator, and injured him. Yet everytime the Navigator got up, he kept trying to attack Emma.

Captain Margaret, during all this, was trying to break free to protect Emma, as she was, unknown to most of the crew, her twin sister, in discise. But she was unable to break free. She yelled swear words about, unable to do anything to help her sister. Once the Bosen finally killed the Navigator, she directed her yelling to the other Captain.

He turned and stated his name, and claimed that they were pirates, and he was there to arrest them. Margaret claimed back that she had papers to prove that she was no pirate, nor any of their crew. The other Captain just smiled as he turned to face her, wearing the robes of an Inquisitor, and stated that if not pirates, then smugglers, and the same fate awaited them. He then ordered his men to kill the crew.



Off in the distance, on one of the ships waiting for the breeze to pick up, known as The Broken Strand, Mario, the gunner heard the sound of Cannonfire. Several of the crew came above deck, and Captain Pyotor took out his spyglass, to have a look off in the distance, where the sound of gunfire was echoing back to them. "I know those guns Captain!" said Mario, "That's the Dawn Cutter! The pirate chaser!"

"Yes, we have all had a run in with her and her Captain." Pyotor said. "All hands on deck! Keep an eye out, and ready, incase she comes this way."

They waited, hearing the sound of return gunfire, and soon after, the sound of screaming, then no sound but the waves slapping the hull of the ship.

They continued waiting the rest of the night, but the Dawn Cutter never showed, and as the sun came up, so did the wind, and off in the distance they could see a lone ship sitting in the water, with tattered sails.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

The Survivor

We kept watch all night. Waiting for the Dawn Cutter to show, listening to the growing sound of distant thrashing in the water, but she never showed up. With the morning light, the breeze also developed, and we were able to set sail again. Off in the distance, a lone ship sat, sails hanging in tatters off the only mast left whole. She list slightly in the water, but she was still afloat, and drifting. As we got closer, we could see activity in the water of sharks and sirens, fighting each other over chewed up bits of "parts" can be the only discription for it.

Once close enough, we took out a longboat, to head over to see if anyone survived. After a slight incident of having one of our crew slip and fall face first into the longboat, and another between the Castillian and his lover, with him ending up on the longboat with a dagger sticking out of the seat, between his knees, we straightend ourselves out and started over. Halfway there, a siren came up out of the water and grabbed one of our brutes, and started pulling him backwards out of the boat. Mario took a shot at the siren, hit it, but it still clung to the brute. Luna got it good with a slash of her dagger, but it still hung on. Airen gave it a good punch in the face, and it weakened a bit. Rebecca looked over the sides of the boat and saw two more clinging to the bottom, slowing us down from reaching the other ship, and let the crew know. Pieter took a stab at it, and it finally let go of the brute, and sunk out of sight. The other two sirens then started fighting over the body, letting go of our boat, so we continued on the way to the "Lady Ann's Favor", as they could now see the name of the ship.

We got on board, to discover that most everything was covered in blood. A quick search showed only three bodys on deck, and lots of "body parts". The first of the three body's was that of a woman. She had been nailed up on the only mast left, and her body was punchered with lots of wounds, but no sight of the weapon that caused it. Above her head was a sign, in Castillian, as a warning to all pirates, that this would happen to them, if caught. The other two bodies were at the other end of the ship, one tied to the wheelmast, a highlander by the looks of his clothing, and the other at his feet, a bit chopped up, with a highlander sword sticking out of him.

We then split up, to check over the ship from one end to another. Any bodyparts were placed in ripped sail cloth, and brought to the main deck. Mario went and checked the Captain's cabin, and with luck, found the hidden spot where she had kept her Captain's log, and a bag of money. She had no cannons, and her hold was empty. Everything was gone, or made totally useless. No one was left on the ship that we could tell. Airen found an extreemly long gaff hook.

Rebecca felt that something still wasn't right, and tried to see if she could tell if there was anyone hidden somewhere, by looking for a viable fate line. She did find a faint one, and asked Luna to help her trace it. They followed it back to the standing mast, where it followed the mast up to the small crow's nest, and so they sent Airen up to see what she could find. As soon as Airen got to the top, a loud screaching is heard, and something leaps out and lands on her back. We are unable to see it from the deck. Airen, unable to see what it is, starts heading back down, and it leaps back to the crows nest, still screaching. She returns to the deck. Pieter grabs a orange from inside his side purse (something he carries to keep scurvy away), and climbs up the rigging takes the orange and tosses it into the crow's nest. He hears the sound of something eating, and some pealling come back over the edge. Then a small furry face looks down at him from the nest. He holds another piece of fruit he had out, and the creature leaps out to land on his shoulder. He then comes back down to the deck, with the creature. It takes a liking to Pieter, and stays with him, while Airen climbs back up the rigging to see if anything else is in the crow's nest. There is nothing. Pieter see's that the critter has a collar, and finds out it's name is "Chip", by reading the name on the collar.

As we take one final look through, before giving final rights over the bodies, Luna, who had been standing near the head spar, leaned up against it, and one side opened to find a locking racket mechanism, that when we pulled it up, and used the gaff, we discovered a hidden tow line, with a box attached. (Mario using his past memories of being a smuggler, figured this out).

So we grab the box, give last rights, set up a couple of barrels of gunpower (that had been left), to blow out the bottom of the boat, and head back to our ship, with the box. We get back and haul the box up, and get it open to find it filled with water. But surrounded by that water is a glass and silver ball that clockwork can be seen inside of, on some areas. We debate to take it out of the box, but decide we need to definately get back to La Bucca ASAP. The other ship explodes, and sinks down into the sea.

So once again we are heading to La Bucca, as fast as we can, heavy with gold, and now with a new "Crewmate" named Chip, and a strange thing in the box that can only be of Syrneth making.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

House of Rujeaux - part 1

When we last left the crew of the Broken Strand, they had just aquired a new "shipmate", Chip the monkey, and a Syrneth artifact.

For about three weeks we had clear sailing (Thank Theaus!), and finally made back to La Bucca. We get to one of the forts, and start making the gold less reconizable as "Castillian" bars, by remelting them down and reshaping them. Of course, the ritual 10% of our haul went to the upkeep of the island, and the syrneth artifact was kept locked up on the ship.

We left (npc) people to handle this job, while the "player crew" went to bury our old Captain, as he had requested in his will. Each of us said something over his body, in our own faith, there being several different variants: Vaticine, Church of Avalon, Ussuran Orthodox; so we figured we had him covered as far as faith went. As we returned towards our ship, later that day, going into evening, a young boy came running up to our group. He said that he had been sent by the Shantytown mayor (William, a pirate we had fought with in the breakout of La Bucca), and that our help was needed in Shantytown. Some adventurers had gone into Rujeaux's house, and strange things had been happening ever since.

Aquiring some horses that were stabled at the fort, we rode during most of the night to get to Shantytown, to be met by William at the crossroads. He welcomed us and thanked us for comming to help. He said they had the adventurers locked up in one of the hotels, and he wanted us to go and talk to them.

We went up to the room, and they unlocked it for us. Inside was a ragtag bunch of people as there ever could be. (Our brute characters from our only brute adventure). They saw us, and had heard of us, from the bear cave adventure, (which we had never gone back to get the treasure), and they had followed in our footsteps to find the treasure, to be able to get off of La Bucca. Unfortunately their trail had led to getting information from Rujeaux's ghost, and it seemed that since then, things had gotten worse. Strange things were happening up at the house, and the mayor wanted us to go and find out what (since the adventurers would not go back, and they were only brutes anyway), so we said we would go and find out. Before we left them, the adventurers claimed that they had found something at the bear cave, and wanted to barter a position on the Broken Strand for it, when (if) we came back.

We headed to the Rujeaux's house, with the mayor, who held back about 30 yards from going to the house with us. The closer we got to the house, the colder it got. We got to the front door, and opened it. Inside was very dark, and we were unable to see very far into it. GM asked us to make resolve rolls, we did, Luna failed and goes running back to where William is standing, holding a couple of lanterns. Pyotor comes back to get the lanterns, and we head inside. Again we are asked to make a resolve roll. Pieter and Chip fail, and go running out of the house, and join Luna and William.

We who are left inside, can almost see our breath, from the cold. Mario had brought a pry bar, and tried to take off the boards blocking the light from getting in through the windows. He, Pyotor, and Maike all try, but nothing happens, except that as they try to let go, they get the top layer of skin taken off of their fingers, as the "frost" on the boards ripped it off (like putting your tounge on a flagpole in winter). The rug on the floor has a large blood stain on it. Geren, the Eisen bodyguard calls out "Hello, is anyone here?" "I'm here." he (and only he), hears the reply. He asks where, but only hears strange laughter for an answer. The rest of the group look at him strangely, as he seems to be talking to himself. He tries to explain that he heard a reply.

Pyotor, followed by Rebecca, carring one of the lanterns looks down the hallway, the others follow. There is broken mirror glass shattered over the hall. We again have to make a resolve, but have no problem. Walking down the hallway, there is a room to the left that we bypass heading straight back to the end of the hall, and to the right. A quick glance into the room, it seems to be dripping blood, we blink, and instead, see a room totally covered in mirrors. There is one door in the room, and the cold is even greater in this room. Again we need to make a resolve check, and only Pyotor, Rebecca and Mario make it. The others go running back to the first room. As Maike heads back down the hallway she hears a ripping sound, but can't find where it's comming from. Pyotor goes to open the door in the room, which leads into a closet. Inside the closet is covered in blood, and a jumbled pile of body parts lay on the floor. Only the torso is in one piece, the rest is all cut up, but they can tell it belongs to only one body. Thinking that they could give the person a decent burial, they try to take the pieces, but they are frozen solid together like the rest of the house, and unmoveable. We close the door, and continue looking around. Mario decides to go back and check the room we had passed up before. Pyotor and Rebecca continue looking, Rebecca trying to sence something but only sees Pyotor lean forward and almost touch a mirror with his nose. (He meanwhile had seen his reflection reach out of the mirror and grab him by the shoulders, pull him forward and yell at him.) She tries the trick she did, in finding the monkey, but the strand just wanders around loosely, nothing living for her to find.

Mario as he is heading back to the room missed, hears the same ripping sound that Maike had heard earlier, and sees a porte hole open up. He blinks, and it is gone. He yells back to Pyotor that he thinks we are dealing with a Porte mage, as he just saw a hole open. Pyotor and Rebecca come and join him. He said he thinks it would be best if we left the building, and just burnt it to the ground. It's at this point that Rebecca hears/feels/sees (unsure yet of exactly how because GM just shruged when asked) a "Help me".

We head into the other room, to find it is just a kitchen, lots of decaying food, pots and pans all over the place, and hear some scratching sounds. Looking around at the mess, we see several rats scurring around, crazily. Pyotor tries to talk to them, to see if they know what is causing all this, but they make no sence, just "want to get out", so he tells them the door is open in the front room, and they scurry out that way.

Meanwhile in the front room, Pieter and Luna had made their way back inside the house, (Chip was still outside with William, smart monkey!), and they along with Maike and Airen decide to check around. They find a hidden door, that leads up some stairs, and near the top stair, there is a piece of paper. They head into the stairway, when suddenly there is a person in front of them. He opens his mouth, and the house sounds like it is screaming. They notice that they can see through him. They need to do a resolve check, and fail. Before they can turn to run out, the ghost runs down the stairs and through them, to stand on the bloodstained carpet, facing them. Pyotor, Rebecca and Mario are told to make a resolve (as they hear the scream of the ghost, and head back to the first room). The others watch, as the ghost falls to the floor, getting hacked to bits and pieces from a unseen, as in a re-inactment of what had happened to it. Then rebuilds itself and stands facing them, in a gory mess, starts heading towards them. Rebecca does not make her resolve, and goes running back to the back room, along with Mario. Pyotor stands in the doorway. Luna, Maike and Pieter in the stairway fail their resolve, and run up the stairs away from the ghost. Aiden stands to fight the ghost. She takes a slug at him, and "poof" he disapears. Aiden is suprised, but feels that the ghost has left, while Pyotor feels the ghost is still around.

They all head up the stairs, to find three more sheet of paper on the landing, with drawings on them. Two have a drawing of a chess pawn, one has a chess queen, and one a chess bishop. There are two doors, at the top of the stairs, one is open, and the other is closed. They decide to go inside the open one, finding a large library with books all around that have been ripped up and drawn on. The room is a total mess. There is a door leading to another room, and inside that room, they find a bed, that looks like a axe was taken to it with the covers on, but no blood stains. The walls are again totally covered in mirrors, some of them overlapping. Another door is found in this room. Before that door is looked at, Pyotor checks under the bed to find another book, and discovers that is is a diary, some pages are torn out, but towards the back of the book, away from the rest of the writing, more recent writings are there. It tells of how the writter had started having nightmares, of sitting playing chess with someone he couldn't make out, that it only played with the four chess pieces, and won, no matter how many different ways he played. The writter mentioned that he was trying to create a portal without using blood, and how later he dreamed of shopping at San Cristobal for books. He later claimed that he had done just that, futher in the diary. He also stated he dreamed of "digging", and would wake up covered in mud. There were a couple of other entries, and then nothing.

We checked out the door in the bedroom, to find it a large closet, but in searching, we found a hole in the floor, with a ladder leading down. The ladder was covered in mud.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

House of Rujeaux - part 2 - Syrneth Mystery

Before heading down the ladder that we found, Pieter had gone to check out the door we never opened. Luna and Maike decided to go with him, and as they pass the stairs, Rebecca was comming up and joined them. Pyotor, Mario, Enrico, Airen, and Geran stayed in the other room by the ladder searching around.

Pieter opened the door, and looked inside the room. Everywhere he looked was wood carved in many different forms and shapes. He walked inside, with Luna and Maike behinde him, and Rebecca bringing up the rear. Suddenly the skittering noise was heard in the back of the room, and heading right towards us. Imagine if you can multi-segmented eye, several of them above a maw with rows of razor sharpe teeth, eight legs, lizardish body, black in color, and at least five of them heading your way. Pieter and Luna ran back down the stairs scared, and Rebecca and Maike stood their ground in front of the door, each grabbing their knives to defend themselves. The first one attacked Maike, and she stabbed at it, but missed. It leaped at her and landed on her. Rebecca had time to try and stab at the one that attacked Maike, and hit, but didn't do much damage. When she pulled out her knife, it seemed to "smoke" a bit, where the things "blood" was on the blade. She attacked again, and hurt it some more, but then one of the other ones was trying to attack her.

Geran had decide to check on Pieter, and found us involved in a fight with the critters, and sliding between Maike and Rebecca, slid further into the room, to be attacked by three of the critters. Luna meanwhile, gathered up her courage, went back up to the room, and started throwing daggers at the critters, particulary at the one attaking Maike, because it was trying to bite Maike, but both daggers bounced off of its hide.

Mario and Pyotor heard the commotion in the other room, and came to investigate, Pyotor reaching and grabbing the one on Maike, and tried to pry the critter off of her, without causing damage to Maike, since its claws were fairly sunk into her. It whipped its head around and sunk its teeth into Pyotor's arm. Pyotor got woozy for a moment, but blinked it off, along with the sweat that suddenly developed on his brow. Geran, using his Drachenizen sword, stabbed one of the critters attacking him, and got the same results as Rebecca did, when he withdrew the blade. It seemed to "smoke" where the blood was on the blade. He too was bitten, and started sweating, but also became woozy and seemed to loose strength in his attacks. Mario had taken out one of his pistols, and fired at one of the critters, hurting it, but not killing it.

Rebecca's critter has managed to crawl up her leg, and is trying to bit her, when Geran, even though woozy, takes and stabs at it, again hurting it, but not killing it. Rebecca takes her dagger and slashes at its face, finishing it off.

Maike, not knowing that Pyotor is behind her, had been trying to grab the critter on her, and pull it off by its tail. Having no success with that decided to slam up against the wall, but slams up against Pyotor instead, but the critter rips free, and Pyotor has it in his grip. Maike had taken some fair damage from the encounter, and goes to stand up against the wall, away from the fight. Pyotor is in a tussel with the critter, trying unsuccessfully to break its neck, when Luna finally gets a dagger into the critter and kills it.

We finally get rid of the critters, and rest for a bit, having Enrico and the Cresent Dr (GM's character, that stayed outside of the house), heal us up. We then decided to check out the tunnel.

We went down the ladder, to find ourselfs in a crawl space under the house. Crawling under it, til we came to a area that had been dug out more, and continued downwards. In this space, under the house was a huge boulder, of a strange kind, that had lots of pits and looked like it had been burnt. It had broken an opening into another tunnel, of a very strange kind. There was a metal edge to the tunnel, that was extreemly sharpe, so if you tried to use it to swing into the tunnel, you were likely to loose your fingers. The boulder made it possible for most of the crew to get down into the tunnel, using the pits to climb down. Rebecca used a rope she had, that her spider had spun, to make it easier for her to get down, and a couple of the others used it too, instead of just jumping down the ten feet into the tunnel, as Pyotor did.

Inside the tunnel, it was perfectly cylinder, about ten feet round, and it continued further downward at a slight angle. As Pyotor , and Mario who was right behind him, stepped further into the tunnel, it suddenly started to light up in areas. The sides and the top of the tunnel had little square, colored lights, that turned on and off randomly, and some stayed on all the time, so it was very dizzing to walk down the tunnel, without feeling or being sick. Pyotor shook off the feeling, and so did Mario. Luna had a bit of trouble, and so did Rebecca, who fell down dizzy from the lights. Pieter had the most trouble with it and got sick. Pyotor had gone ahead, with Mario slightly behind him, when Mario noticed that Pyotor stepped on something slightly different than the light, and mentioned it to Pyotor. Pyotor took his foot off the item, and looked up at Mario and shrugged, then dove out of the way, as a beam of bright white light shot over his shoulder and down the tunnel. It was close enough that he could feel the heat from it. They took their time after that, making sure not to step on anything that looked like the spot, and let the others know also.

We made it to the end of the tunnel, without too much trouble after that, but the end of the tunnel was another mystery.

The wall was tiled and black, and in the center of it was a black ball sticking out of it, about four feet round. Pyotor pushed against the ball, and it gave a bit, but then returned to its shape, as Pyotor dived out of the way from another light blast. Mario decideds to go attack the ball with his sword, and plays a game of "attack and dance", first he attacks the black ball, then dives out of the way of the light blast, which hit the ball, and cause it to glow gold for the moments that the light hits it. He does this several times, while most of the others decide to head back to the tunnels begining, to see what they can find. Pyotor waits, and so does Rebecca, who sits quietly, her curiosity arroused from this thing. It doesn't seem to be alive, but yet something is oozing out of it. The light blast are not comming near her, so she watches as Mario finally gets the thing to collapes in on itself, and behind it is an opening to another room. Looking inside we can see a set up of different levels of blocks, with lots of lights and jewels around them, and above them, hanging freely in the air, a door, with what appears to be unlit squares of light blocks arching over the top of the door. We know it is a door because it looks like one, and has a knob.

The others come back, and we go into the room looking about. It is here that Pieter realizes that maybe the book that Pyotor had found under the bed, may have some clues that we could use to find out how to open the door. We re-read the part about the nightmares, and figure out that it will take certain moves on certain blocks to open the door. Enrico, having the Worldly Arcana, is able to get the skill we need to do this, and we get the door open. It is even more frigid than it ever was in the house. Through the door we see a world where the sky seems lit, but dull, and the ground and trees are but shadows, it doesn't seem real. Rebecca has no way to describe what she sees. It is totally out of anything she has ever experienced. It is definately not like when she is using Sorte, and seeing the strands. She is still curious, but becoming scared. What should they do? The cold is extreem, and they are definately not ready to go through the door now, if they ever should.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

House of Rujeaux- part 3 - Secrets

=Warning - if you have yet to play any 7th Sea game, this part of the story runs to cannon, and has spoilers.=

We stood in the room, looking at the door. The coldness was almost unbearable, yet we could not leave this unresolved, should we go through the door or not.

Nothing could be seen through the door except what seemed what would be the outside, of what would be the view from the back of the house, if we had been there. There was no color, just shades of black and grey. Maike found a bit of a stick from somewhere, and tried to push it through the door. It went through, but the cold made it brittle, and it fell apart on the other side. After a few moments of debate, Pyotor decided to go through the doorway, and we followed behind, some eagerly, and some unsure.

The first thing you noticed once you went through the door, was that there was no noise. To even hear what the person was saying beside you, you had to yell into their ear. Looking around, we saw the back side of the house. Think of looking at a picture that was painted, but then ripped and shreaded so that parts of the picture were dangling and black showed in the area that was ripped. But inside the black areas were small golden lights, usually in pairs, and some times they were in one place, sometimes in another, but always in the black areas, this is how the house looked from our view.

Geran had discovered the ground was kind of spongy, and thougth to stick his sword into it to test it, but nothing happend except he slipped while he did it, knocking into the sword as he stuck it into the ground, injuring his manly pride, (to be polite), and though he yelled, it seemed but a whisper.

Mario meanwhile went up to the house and decided to try stabbing his dagger into one of the black areas, with the golden lights, and as he pierced it, felt something tugging on it, and pulled it back out.

As most of us watched, the hole that Mario had stuck his dagger into, suddenly had a head coming out of it, followed by a body. It was insectoid looking, with large eyes and mandables. Before it could attack, Pyotor had a hold on it, and Arien punched it, causing it some injury. Mario switched over to his sword, and Geran limped his way over with his sword to swing at it. Rebecca, tried to see if it had any fatestrands, considering that it was not human, and discovered that she could not use her ability in this strange reality.

With a bit of effort they were able to kill off the creature, and then saw that all the gold lights in the blackness of the house disapeared. They looked about a bit, and found three bodies of people who had previously made their way into this realm from the door, and you could see people that were waiting for our return, by the front of the house, but they seemed almost like ghost. Maike tried to touch a person, and her hand went through them, and there was no reaction, except she felt colder.

It was then that movement was noticed down the hill a bit, it looked like three people, two attacking one. The two people were all in black. We headed down to see........

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------------Oath's were given to never tell of what happened here. (Plot to be posted by GM later, Spoiler involved, and under oath in game to never speak of what happened, so I am not writing it either.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rebecca woke up in her bed at the inn, and streatched. Something slid off her chest and fell to the bed with a thunk. Seeing that it wasn't her spider, as it was hanging in the far corner of the room, she sat up and looked to see what it was. She reached down and grabbed the item, turning it to look at it, to find a black prophets' cross. So what had happended had not been a dream. She must never tell of what happened. The hair on her arms tingled with the memory of the cold and the event.

As each awoke, they too found a black prophets' cross on their chest. A reminder to keep their mouth shut of what had happened. That they were being watched, and they had been warned.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

The Adventures of the Crew of the Lady Anna's Favor

Again, and this time we go a bit back in time, to the Crew of the Lady Anna's Favor, where once again I play Captain Margaret Ellen Adwater. This happened prior to the last time I played her and she died. Long post.

We start off with the crew taking a shore leave at Canguine, Avalon. A city famous for its lawlessness and its pirates.

Captain Margaret and her purser/quartermaster Valentina Cinsenzo head to The Highwayman's Flagon, to meet Valentina's contact for the next job. We always met the "gentleman", Roland Cobbly, at this inn, and he always appears "well dressed", but the clothes don't "quite" fit. It's early, but sometimes he is there early, so they hope to get the info they need. The barkeep "Lucky", greets them personally as old customers, and the Captain orders drinks and a meal for them. They look around the inn, but Roland is not there. They eat their meal, wait a bit, but he doesn't show up. So they decide to check out The Confessional, the inn that he is know to stay at while in Canguine.

James Green, the "Doctor", of the ship decides to go to the Sea Chanty, a bar with "lots" going on for it, and get into a bit of gambling. The shipwright, Seth Collins, goes with him and also gets into the deal, while the Pilot, Hendrick Gottfried heads to another bar, to aquire lots of drink.

Emma "Brown", decides to stay on ship for the night, so the mercenary Helmut and his two brutes stay on board too, it is their job after all to keep an eye on Emma, even on shore leave.

The navigator/digger, Michele du Hommel, also stays on board to a few things, but after a while, ask Emma to go and find James and bring him back. So she and the mercenary and his two brutes head off to find him, but she knows where he will be, as he always goes to the Sea Chanty. They find him and return with him to the ship. He goes into Michele's cabin, and shuts the door. Helmut listens as best as he can, through the door. Inside, the navigator is bantering words with the doctor. He points out the "lack" of the law here in Canguine, to which the doctor agrees with, grudgenly. He then goes on to handing him a note, with certain items that can be "aquired" in the mayor's house, and again the doctor grudgenly agrees, while taking the note. It seems that the navigator "has" something on the doctor, and so the doctor must go along with what the navigator wants. He leaves to go and "aquire" the items on the list. Helmut has time to get away from the door before the doctor opens it, so he doesn't seem to be listening in.

Meanwhile, the Captain and the Quartermaster make their way to The Confessional, a know "house of ill-repute", and the Madame of the house meets them, raising her eyes, because mostly it is men who come to check out her wares. "How may I help you?" she ask. "We are looking for a gentleman who resides here, when he visits." the Captain said. "I'm sorry, this isn't a inn, we do not rent rooms." the Madame replied. The Captain flashed a couple of coins she was holding in her hands. "Are you sure? His name is Roland Cobbly." the Captain replied.

"Oh, Mr. Cobbly, yes, yes, he does tend to stay here, but he is already gone." The Madame said, taking the coins. "May we see his room, or has it already been rented out?" the Captain asked. "It is already in use." The Madame replied. Valentina asked, "Did he leave anything behind?" "Yes, an old sea trunk." the Madame said. "Can we see it?" Captain Margaret asked, holding out some more coins. "Right this way, Ladies." the Madame said, and took them up to the attic. There was an oversized sea trunk, that was locked, but with a little luck, the Captain was able to unlock it without the key. (Lucky dice roll, without the lockpick talent!) Inside they found all kinds of clothing, very nice, but kinda rumpled, some knives, a brace of pistols, and a book. Taking the book out, she reads her way through it, almost falling asleep with the bordom life this guy has lived, also noting that this is #17, and the very last page is very different in the way it is written than the rest of the book. She rips out the page to keep it, and because it is sooo boring, the burn the book in the fireplace as they leave (Valentina's idea.)

Meanwhile, our dear Doctor "made his way into and out of the Mayor's house, but was only able to find one object on the Navigators' list. He comes back to the ship, and Helmut again listens, to the bitting remark that the Navigator saids about finding good help these days.

Valentina and the Captain decide to look for a Captain Seward that is mentioned on the page, and spend the night bar hopping to no avail. They go back to the ship early the next morning to get some sleep. Later that day, they figure out that the letter is actually in code, and for them. It gives the Latitude and Longitude and other tid bits they need to know to get to a particular place.

Just as they are figuring this out, the ship gets hailed from a group out on the deck. The Captain goes back out on deck and allows the group to come aboard. It is a group of Explorers.

"Good day to you, I am David Stafford, and this is my second Kayle", he saids, pointing to a Highlander woman, who is scowling fiercely at them. "I need to speak to you, about a delicate matter." he finished. "Ok", the Captain replied, "lets go to my cabin. Your men can stay out here and relax." Kayle frowns even more at this.

The Captain and David, get to her cabin, and he ask her "Do you know Wiley Garland." "I am sorry, no, I have no idea who they are." she replied. "Well, he also goes by the name of Roland Cobbly." "Oh, him." the Captain said, "What about him." "It seems that he is a person that "aquires" things, and I believe that you may have some business with him. You have been seen with him before. What is your relationship with Cobbly?" "Well, I find him fascinating and he tells wonderful stories." the Captain lied. "I know better than that Captain," David said, "want to try again?" "He's my Great-Uncle, and likes to see me when I get to town.?" the Captain said again (this is with 2 bad panache rolls, just not good enough for him to believe). "I think that you are doing illegal business with him, Captain, and I think that you and your crew need to come with me to the lock-up and discuss this more." he said while reaching down to pull out his pistol. Helmut had been listening in and was able to hear the last sentence fairly well, and kicked in the door, causing David to spin around and shoot at him. He got Helmut in the shoulder, and then pulled out his sword, and turned back to angle himself between the Captain and Helmut. The Captain, still trying to talk her way out of this, changes tactics, and using her dangerous beauty, tries seduction, and with a great roll, gets both David and Helmut distracted.

Meanwhile above board, the gunshot is heard, and fighting breaks out above deck. Valentian takes a swipe at Kayle, who dodges, but grabs the hilt of Valentina's sword as it swipes by, and pulls it back, entangling them somewhat. The Shipwright strikes out at a brute, with Corps-a-corps, and floors him, and another one. The Doctor hits Kaley for a bit of damage, while she is entangled with Valentina, and the Shipwright also gets in a swing at her, but before that, she had used her instep to stomp on Valentina's foot, trying to get her sword out of her grip, but fails. Valentina drops to the deck off balance, and Kaley soon follows after being Cor-a-cored by the shipwright.

Fights break out between the crew and the brutes, eventually, the crew is slowly winning. Meanwhile below deck in the Captain's cabin, with another seduction roll, the Captain keeps David off balance enough for Helmut to knock him to the floor, and grab him. The Captain also gets a grip, and giving David a goodbye kiss, she and Helmut take and throw him out of the window of the cabin.

On shore, a lot of "Sea Dogs" start running to the ship, to help the Explorers. Before they can get there, the fight is over, and the crew are casting off, as fast as they can. They kick off the gang plank, and then throw Kaley and the brutes out to the crowd, to catch them. They have just barely gotten away!

[Rebecca Iavelli]

A Storm Most Unusual

The crew of The Broken Strand had finally gotten the ship restocked, the gold all melted down and needed to get some new crewmembers, since with everything that had happend in the last few months, and a skeleton crew had been sent away to take the captured Vodacce ship (from a few updates ago), back to La Bucca.

We had a meeting with some of the brutes on the island, and a particular bunch (see brute story from a while ago), had aquired a particular book, and used it as a bargining chip to get berth on the Strand. Maike appraised the book, a Captain's log, finding it not worth much as the book itself, but found in the writings, a coded message for finding buried treasure, so the brute crew was given a spot on the ship, and we aquired a few other brutes for good measure.

With everything ready to go, we decided to leave the next morning, but woke up to a very red sky. As we made our way towards the harbor, the sky grew darker and darker, and it started to rain exteemly fast and hard. With all the signs pointing to "bad luck" we decided to anchor and wait out the storm, taking our regular shifts to keep an eye out. Around 2am, Enrico happend to notice that there was a longboat out farther in the harbor, and looked like it would soon crash into the reefs, if something wasn't done. It seemed rigged with a sail, but as he watched, the sail was torn out and the mast seemed to lean over. He sent a brute to wake the Captain, who decided that he and Enrico with a few brutes would take a longboat out and try to see if there were any survivors. Even in the rough sea, they made it to the boat before it hit the reef, and then towed it back to the Strand.

Inside the boat was five men, but two of them were dead. Of the other three, we reconized them as some of our old crew sent away with the prize ship, Alex was among them. Our new Crescent doctor patched up the ones he could, and we returned to our post (those that were up), the Captain leaving word to have him woken up if Alex came too.

The next morning, still very dark, as the storm still raged, the Captain was summoned, and he went down to talk to Alex. He heard a very strange story.

According to Alex, their trip from Vodacce waters, all the way to the Orange coast, was smooth sailing. Once they got beyond there, a fog bank suddenly developed, and no matter how far he tried to sail around it, it seemed to move into his way, so he finally decided to sail through it. As soon as he did, this storm developed, and lighting struck and destroyed the crows nest. They tried to out sail the storm, but as they watched, it actually turned around and followed them! More and more crew men were lost as they tried getting to La Bucca, and when he thought he was almost there, Alex finally decided to abandon the ship, thinking along with the rest of the crew, that it was cursed. Just as they got the longboat in the water, the ship hit a sandbar, on the bad side of La Bucca, and they made their way up the coast trying to get to the harbor. The storm followed them, and two more men were killed, when Enrico discovered them.

Pyotor nor Enrico could hardly believe the story, but decided they wanted to try and bring the ship back the rest of the way. Since it was on the other side of the island, and the storm was too rough to sail, they decided we would take a longboat, and walk down to the ship. After a fair amount of time, we made it to the rough coast, got the longboat in the water, and made our way to the prize ship.

We get on board and check it out, finding the bilge flooded, so we sent brutes to pump it out. Checking around a bit, throughout the ship, when Maike heard a strange wet plopping sound. She turned and looked and saw several gross bloated undead seeming men climbing aboard, and screamed, alerting the rest of us throughout the ship.

Mario had to make his way up a couple of decks. Geran came up and sliced at one, taking off it's head, struck at another and missed. Rebecca, up by the wheel, turned and took out her long knife, and leaping off the deck to the lower one below, landed on the one Geran missed, and stabbed it with her dagger. (Heck this was nothing, after the last adventure!), and gave it a major wound, as it fell to the deck with her on it. Maike sliced at one with her dagger and wounded it. Both Luna and Pieter made it to the deck, and (not making their resolve), screamed and fled back into the ship.

Mario then made it to the deck and killed another one, as a larger one climbed aboard, looked around, and said in a voice that seemed to bubble up from water filled lungs "Good, you are stilled, my master seeks revenge", and as he says that, large tenicles whip up out of the water, and it is noted that one of them is cut off about half way.

Pyotor attacks the big dead man, as the Kracken makes a grab at Maike, and snares her! Pyotor disposes of the man, while Geran attacks the tenicle that is wrapped around Maike, and manages to cut it a bit. Rebecca meanwhile, had taken a stab at another tenicle, and cut it, but not by much. The storm had receded by then.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Kraken Bait

At the start of the fight, Maike is already in the grip of one of the tenticles, and Rebecca is trying to help her get out by stabbing at it with her dagger. Mario, Enrico, Geran also have their own tenticle each to do battle with, while Pyotor is still fighting with the head zombie. At the moment, he has the zombie in a bear hug, and the tension is building between the two, on who can break free, or keep their grib. The zombie tries several times, and breaks free once, only to be re-grappled by Pyotor.

Enrico's lover comes up from the lower decks, and he throws himself in front of her, leaving the one he was fighting, slamming the door in her face, knocking her back down the stairs, as the tenticle that had been about to grab her, grabs him instead.

The tenticle that has Maike, tries to crush her, and does some damage to her, but her arms are still free, and though she is caught by it, sees Enrico being grabbed by his leg, and dragged across the deck, so she throws her knife at the tenticle, causing it to be wounded.

Mario meanwhile has had quite a fight with his tenticle, and finally gets some major damage done to it, but not without taking some in return.

Geren slices the tenticle he was fighting open, and it ducks back under the ocean, too hurt to continue fighting. He then runs over to help Rebecca hack at the tenticle that has Maike. It has tried to crush Maike, and she took some damage, but between the three of them, they open it up, and it releases Maike, and disapears under the ocean.

Enrico, drops his weapon, as he comes to the edge of the deck, that the tenticle has pulled him too, to grab on to the railing, trying to keep from going into the ocean. Though he tried, it pulled him in, but not before Maike was able to get another dagger into it, causing it to drop Enrico.

With luck and helping each other, they have wounded the kracken more than it liked, so it made one last swipe, and Mario gave that tenticle a good cut, it pulled all its tenticles left back down into the ocean and left.

Pyotor, still in the struggle with the zombie, when he re-grappled him, was able to break him over his knee, and then he tossed the zombie overboard, finishing up the last of the fighting.

They were able to get the ship back to dock after a couple of days, and when they got back heard about some of the Pirates that had been landbound too long, had tried to over take The Broken Strand. Luckily no one had been seriously hurt, and the men who tried were put into the brig at the fort. The new ship was given up to another crew, with stipulations that a certain percentage of their looting was to be given to the crew of The Broken Strand til a fair amount was paid for the ship.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

From Spending Gold...To Seeing "Red"

So, we start off, by leaving La Bucca, all geared up and ready for some downtime in Castille, as we have a whole lot of gold to spend, and some very randy pirates. Straws are drawn for chores and watches while on the trip to Castille, so that everything could be worked out by the time we got there.

Once we arrived at the edge of the harbor off of Castille, the harbormaster meets us, in his boat, to inform us that there is only one place left to tie up the ship, that the harbor is full, but we were lucky, and he leads us up to the place where we tied up the ship, on the very end of a dock so that the ship made the "T" crossing on top, and those on shore leave made their way ashore

Life is good, those of us that want to shop, go shopping. Those of us that want to drink, go drinking, and so forth and so on. Our Captain, Pyotor, picks out a bar, and we (the officers of the ship), take it over. Some of the crew heads for other bars, depending on what they were looking for.

First few hours go by, and Geran, our bosun, went back to the ship, to make sure that the men who were to be on second watch, came back. Most did, but most were also drunk. After making sure that things were going well, and having a new batch of sailors heading out for fun, he headed back to the bar to inform Pyotor of the change, and to continue with his own drinking.

Meanwhile, at the bar, one of the crew comes staggering in looking for the Captain. He is bruised and battered, and tells the Captain that he had been with some of the other crew, down the street at a Jenny's house, when a bunch of Castillian officers came in claiming that they were "enlisting" the men in the room into the Castillian Navy. "We ignored them at first." He said, since we had more men than they had, "but then remembered most of our men were upstairs with the Jenny's, and so a fight broke out. First inside the building, then it moved outside the building, and where more people joined into the fight, until the whole street was in a huge brawl."

Pyotor decided of course that we had to "rescue" our crew, and we headed out to the street. Mario, Enrico, Pyotor, Pieter, Luna,and Aerin imeadiately head into the fray, Pyotor in a mode to break up the fight, while Aerin with a wide grin on her face, for the enjoyment to be had.

Pyotor starts bashing heads together, and both he and Mario head for one of the groups with the "Castillian Officers", while Enrico heads for the other with Aerin and Pieter. Luna sticks to the edge, but gets in a few punches in the fight. Meanwhile Rebecca stays out of the way, occationally helping a fighter that had gotten knocked out and down, out of the crowd. Maike and Enrico's Love "Elle" (finally named tonight, lol), are not with the group, as they had gone shopping, and hadn't returned yet.

Bodies are thrown here and there, as they make their way to the center of the fighting, where Pyotor, trying to break up the fight, yells to Rebecca, to go to the closest pub, and tell him that he will be buying drinks for all who go there, and then yells out to the crowd, while still bashing heads, that he will buy first round drinks for all those who quit the fight and head to that bar. Rebecca makes it to the bar ahead of some of the "bystanders" who heard what Pyotor yelled, and wanted their fair share. She informs the barkeeper, and then having no escape from the crowd starting to pack in, dives over the bar for protection. The barkeeper looks at her, and saids " I hope your Captain can afford this!" as the crowd hollers for beer. "He can." She answered, "But, since I can't seem to leave at the moment, and the only space it seems available is here behind the bar, maybe it is best if I help you pour the beer?" The barkeep points to an extra apron hanging on a peg on the wall behind her. "Be my guest!" he replied.

Geran, on his way back. finds himself on the edge of a brawling street, hears Pyotor yelling about buying the first beer, and also offers the same deal for the brawlers, as he tries to make it back to his Captain. Before he does, there is a gigantic explosion behind him, back towards the pier, and everyone stops fighting, to look back towards the pier, while it suddenly begings raining slivers of wood, and other odd items out of the sky around them, causing people to duck and cover themselves as best as possible.

It is at this time, that Pyotor notices someone trying to crawl towards him. It is Maike. She is bruised and battered, but also there is a very definate "Gunwound" on her forehead, where blood is flowing heavily out of. The group comes up to her, to hear her say "They took her, They took her! Some people in hooded cloaks took Elle! They mentioned something about a Church Spire, before they shot me, telling me that I was "Absolved of my sins"!"

People are starting to run to the pier, frightend of what might have happened, and seeing smoke rising from the explosion, showing that a fire has started. Pyotor sends Mario, Geran and Aerin back to the ship, to get it out of the harbor, he tried to send Maike back too, to have the ships Dr look at her, but she refused, wanting to go and help find Elle. Enrico grabs a local Castillian, heading towards the pier, and ask him about the "Church Spire". He is informed of a church known as "Church of the Golden Spiral", as it has a golden spiral on top of its roof. "Show me where it is!" Enrico demands and pushes the man away towards the way the man had pointed, while explaining. Pyotor goes and pays the tab, recovering Rebecca at that time, and then they head after Enrico and the other man.

Meanwhile, Mario, Geran, and Aerin make their way with the town crowd towards the pier, to see that three ships have been damaged from the explosion. The ship that exploded is but a frame sitting low in the water, while two of the closer ships are on fire. They head towards the pier that the Broken Strand is docked at, and finally make it through the crowd, to find the dock totally quiet, and head at a run to the ship. Before they make it all the way, a slight figure in a cowled cloak comes out of the darkness and whips off the cloak. It is a woman, hardly bigger than Luna, but it is her outfit that makes them stop. She is dressed in red robes of the Inquisition. She demands them to stop, and informs them that they are sinners that need to confess, and be absolved of their sins. Geran draws his sword, and several more people work their way out of the dark, behind the woman, also dressed in red robes. "Throw down your weapons!" the woman saids, as around them, in the dark ships, you can hear the clicking of the cocking of guns, that are aimed at the three.

Pyotor and his group make their way farther into the town, following the local Castillian, until they come across another large group of people blocking the streetway, but looking farther down the street at the large bonfire, and a some other happening down the road. Pyotor stops the group, as the Castillian points to the skybeyond the crowd, and saids "see, there is the church, now I am leaving!" as he runs back towards the pier.

Because of the crowd, it is hard to see what is happeing, so Pyotor looks around, and heads for the closest inn, the rest of us follow him. He finds the innkeeper, and gives him a golden gilder, and states he wants to rent the roof. The Innkeeper agrees, but informs us that it is a bad night, that the Inquisition is here and making themself known. Pyotor tells the innkeeper to lock the door, as we head up to the roof.

We get a better view of the spire of the church, but it is still too far away to see what is happening in the church square, so we leap from the Inn to the next building, and from that building to even a closer one. Rebecca almost falls from the building during that leap, but Pyotor notices and grabs her before she can.

The church is still a bit away, but we can now see what is happening in the square. There is a huge bonfire, and another woman, in gold robes, and she seems to be yelling and pointing around. Off to one side are three post, with lots of wood piled around them. As the woman continues her "sermon", several more figures come out of the church. Most are wearing the red robes of the Inquisition, but three are in rags, and in chains. The last one of the three we can tell is Elle.


Edit: forgot to mention, before the explosion, the barkeeper of the original bar the fight started in came out and yelled at Pyotor, for sending his customers over to another bar. Pyotor motions to the "Castillian Navymen" out cold on the ground, and explains that they should cover the tab for ruining his bar, because they actually started it. So the barkeep starts looting them, to find lots of money, and shows it to Pyotor, after the third man, stating that there was already a "weeks" worth of money, so Pyotor said he could have the coins from the first group, and we would take the second groups money (since that would pay for the drinks that Pyotor now owed.) It was also noted that it was strange that the uniforms did not fit the men correctly.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

"Brotherly Intervention"

(Ok, this is going to be long. Grab yourself a nice cold drink;sit back and relax. First of all, we had a guest player, Awlgnume, from the board, (Hi Karl!), who was visiting BJR from Texas. Also, the player who plays Aerin was unable to play (college bound), so her sister came in her place and created a new character, a priest. )

The crew is split into two groups at the moment. At the dock, by the ship, is Mario, Geran, Pieter, and Aerin who are confronted by a high ranking priestess, several of her henchmen, and lots of gun from the people on the ships that line the dock. The Priestess calls for them to give up and lay down their weapons. She calls out to Mario by name, telling him that she knows he killed his mentor, and that he needed to be absolved of his sins. Mario is slightly suprised, as only we on the ship supposidly knew that information. He takes the initiative, leaps to the right side, bounding off the side of a ship, to propell himself forward, and jumps down between the dock and a ship, to land in the water, under the dock.

Father down the dock, a Vaticine priest, (not of the inquisition), who had come upon the quiet dock, after a couple of the ships had exploded, and about half of the townsfolk were at the other end of the docks trying to put out the fire, and thought that something was suspisious, had gotten too close and was also told to halt. She also leaped out off the side of the dock and into the waters below.

The Inquisition Priestess, yells out to Mario "If you do not return to the dock and surrender, your crew and ship will be destroyed!" as she takes out a gun, and points it downward to a line of black powder, that leads up the plank, to the ship, which if looked at closely, has "lots" of barrels piled up around the center of the ship.

Meanwhile, Pieter ran to the left, grabbed a rope hanging from a ship and swing aboard it, to be overtaken by the brutes on board, and heavily injured, but still fighting.

Geran decided that he needed to try to get the Inquisition Priestess, and runs straight for her, and she yells for her brutes in the ships to fire upon him. He too, is heavily damaged, but still continues forward.



Meanwhile, back in the town, Pyotor, Rebecca, Maike, Enrico, and Luna, are watching another High Priestess give a sermon of the wages of sin, and it's cost. There are several Inquisition guardsmen spread out over the rooftops, and the croud, keeping a watch with crossbows. Rebecca tries to get fate to help Pyoter, Enrico, and Maike, to increase thier fighting skills, but fate decides not to work (lousy dice rolls!)

While the Priestess is continuing with her sermon, and Rebecca is trying to cast her spells, across the town square, on another roof, several of us notice that one of the Inquisition guards is taken out, by a lone man in dark clothing. After a few moments the two drop down, and then one gets up, putting on the others robe, over his dark clothing. He then makes a running leap to the next roof, and takes out the next guard. Pyotor decides at that time, to leap off the roof, Enrico and Luna follow him, using the awingings to make their way down to the street. Pyotor and Enrico land with no problem, but Luna falls through the last awining, landing on her bum on the ground, for some minor damage.

Pyotor is shoving and pushing people out of his way, trying to make it across the town square full of people, to rescue the three people that have been tied up on the poles. Having no luck getting through, he becomes desperate and turns into a bear, and starts swiping people left and right. The Priestess notices this and continues with her sermon, and calls for her henchmen to attack the "barberic blasphemer" and his crew of sinners.

Rebecca and Maike are still up on the roof. Rebecca gives Maike a blessing, to help her be a better fighter, as Maike wants to take out one of the Guard, across the street from them, using her gun. She shoots, but misses, making the guard aware of her. He shoots back with the crossbow, but also misses. She shoots again, from another gun, and hits this time, taking him out. (Reall good roll!). Rebecca had decided to head down the stairway to follow Pyotor, but taking a safer route. She wanted to get closer to the Priestess, to see if she could read her Arcanna.

On the other side of the town square, opposite from both roofs that Maike and the Guard had been on, the man in the dark robes, had leaped over to yet another roof, and taken out a third Guard, then removing the robe, leaps while cracking a whip around a pole, and lands on the ground, not to far from the Priestess, and her two Guards, with a dramatic flare of his cape. There is a gasp from the crowd of people, and then an outcry is heard "El Vago!!"

The man in the El Vago mask, seems a bit hesitant, and looks over to the three people tied to the poles. Before he can do anything though, the High Priestess yells to her Guards "Get El Vago!" and to El Vago yells " I will know who you came to rescue, and you will watch them be torture slowly, defiler!" Then he is attacked by her henchman Guards.

Back at the ships, Pieter is heavily damaged, but still fighing, taking out a few more brutes, before he is knocked out. Geran is also heavily injured, but manages to get a good slash at the Priestess neck, but not enough to do major damage to her. She, in revenge, shoots at the black powder, and it smokes up, heading up to the ship. He is attacked by her henchmen, and taken down. Mario, meanwhile, had gotten to the end of the dock, climbed back up, and was able to stop the fire from continuing up to the ship, by breaking the trail, and getting the powder wet. He then gets into a fight with another of the henchmen.

The Vaticine Priestess meanwhile had swam to our ship, and was able to get to the back side to climb up to the deck, and make her way into the hold, without being stopped, since there were no Guards on the ship. She has to get down to the bildge, before she finds the crew, and starts to set them free.

Back in town, El Vago takes a couple of hard hits from the henchmen, and still seems a bit hesitant. He fights for a few moments more, and one Guard manages to take his whip away, so he turns to run towards the post, where the three people are tied, followed by one of the henchmen Guards. "Look!" the High Priestess yells to the crowd "See, El Vago runs away!"

Luna was working on a few henchmen from a distance, throwing her daggers into them as they passed by her. She shot one dagger into the Guard chasing El Vago, and stopped him for a moment, but he continued on. Pyotor, as a bear, was taking out several brutes, as was Enrico. Rebecca made it out of the building, and across the square to the fountain in the center, to get a better view of the High Priestess, to see if she could read her Arcanna, and found the Priestess had "Comanding", which she was already doing, and it wouldn't help the group anyway, so she checked the second Henchman , and saw nothing. Unable to do much more, she decided her best thing to do was to give El Vago a "boost", in fighting, so she was able to stretch his sword strand, and increase his fighting ability. He seemed a bit more confident. One of the men tied up nods at him, motioning him towards the other two captives, with a terse grim face. "Rescue them first 'El Vago'!" he saids. But several brutes that were waiting by the captives attack El Vago, and he is kept busy. All are amazed at him, as he downs six of the brutes in no time (awesome roll!).

Rebecca, having nothing left to do magic wise, takes up her dagger, and heads for the poles, hoping to be able to cut the captives free, while the brutes are busy fighting Pyotor, Enrico, and El Vago. Unfortunately, there had been a brute trying to start a fire, and she had to engage him, but had no problem taking him down.

It's at this point that Enrico made it almost to the High Priestess, and she sent her last Guard against him, while she made her escape.

Back on the boat, the crew, freed from the bildge, grabs their weapons, and runs out of the ship, to attack the brutes on the dock, to eventually get the other Inquisiton Priestess to run with the few Guards she had left. The crew, then with Mario, Geran, Pieter (and Aerin who had also been captured, but unhurt), headed back into town to find the rest of the crew, so that we could leave.

They get back in time to see the captives being freed, and El Vago being cheered by the crowd, and a speach given by Enrico. "See! It is the Inquisition that runs! They are the ones telling lies, not us!" The crowd was a bit confused, since they had seen Pyotor change into a bear, and that was magic, and magic was bad, right? But they cheered the group anyway, and we made our way back to our ship, to head out of the cove.

Before we could get halfway out, we notice a familar looking ship blocking the way, with her cannons at ready.



This is where we left off. It was a very long game tonight, so I hope I got the main parts of it correct. If not, I am sure that Mark will let you all know, lol!



Edit: Oh, and if you didn't guess, the "real" El Vago was one of the people tied to the poles. The "El Vago" in the story was his brother, comming to rescue him, but not sure exactly what to do, not actually being "El Vago". Karl played him wonderfully! We had a fun time.

Post note: August 24, 2007 Karl passed away due to a long bout with cancer. I only met and played with him that day, but he was a really nice guy! Rest In Peace Karl!

[Rebecca Iavelli]

A matter of a Rescue, part 1 - continuing story of the crew of the Broken Strand

So, we leave in a bit of a rush, and as we head out of the port we see the silouette of The Dawn Cutter sitting off in the harbor. Mario calls to have the cannons readied, but finds out that they are trapped, and must untrap them before we can do anything, and we will be in the Dawn Cutter's sights before then, so while Mario and his men untrap the guns, we get the ship to sail as fast as she can, to try and outrun the D.C. It takes us a bit and we head back towards La Bucca, and it is only as we get under the protection of the cannons of the island, that the D.C. heads back towards Castille.

After fixing the guns, and stocking up all the gunpowder that was left on the ship (a whole lot of gunpowder, one of the reasons that we decided to run instead of fight, one good hit and "boom", no more ship), we head farther west to start to travel up the Castillian coast, looking like a merchant ship, heading towards Eisen, to finish the last errand our old Captain requested of us. We are hardly a week out of La Bucca, when we notice a sail off in the distance. We are sailing north at this time, tacking the wind, that is heading south. We decided to tack more westerly, to get by this ship, and then re-tack north, but it alters its course a bit to get within hailing distance of us. She is flying the Castillian flag, and her name is "Corazon del Castille".

We are hailed and told to await for borders to check our ship to make sure that we are not selling anything to the Montaigne, as the war between Castille and Montaigne has just started. Being the "proper" merchants, we wait as a short man and several others in the Castillian Navy uniforms come aboard. The man apologizes, and states that his Admiral request that the Captain and his officers are invited to dine with the Admiral on the Corazon del Castille. He accepts the offer, and he, Luna, Pieter, Geran,Rebecca, Enrico and his girlfriend, and the new priest, head over to the Admiral's ship, to be greated by his body guard. who is also his wife, a beautiful woman by the name of Margaretta Orduno.

We are led to the dinning hall, where the table is laid out for a very formal dinner. Margaretta leaves, but comes back in about a half hour, stating that the Admiral has been delayed, but she will enterain us while we wait for him. She has musicians called in to the room, and dancing and drinking commence.

Meanwhile over at the Broken Strand, the "Jumped-up Officer", as he was called by the Captain, under his breath, earlier, reads the ships logs, while his men check the ship out top to bottom. They notice the load of gunpowder, and it is mentioned to Mario, who saids that we would be happy to sell the Navy some, since we aquired too much by a bad order and were stuck with it. The officer notes this, and saids he would be happy to buy some, and would talk to the Captain about it later. He and his men continue with their work, and then after about an hour, head back over to the Corazon del Castille.

After about another half hour or so of dancing, the Admiral comes into the dinning room, and introduces himself as Enrique Orduno. It is the "Jumped-up Officer", from earlier. He apologizes for not letting them know who he was earlier, but with the war, he needs to make sure of any merchant vessels in the water, are not selling to Montaigne. He also mentions that he reconizes our ship, as one that his cousin built, but it had been stolen by some pirates, and that we were those pirates. Now, because of the war, he said, makes strange bedfellows, we had two options. The first was that he would arrest us, and sink our ship, or we could go to San Juan and rescue a woman known as Tamara de Guerrero Dela Pasiega, who has some information that he needed. Of course the Captain agrees to do the rescue, and being the freemen that we are, he allowed us to vote on the subject, which for some reason, everyone voted to also rescue the woman. So we have dinner, and sell our extra gunpowder to the Admiral, and head off to San Juan, to preform a rescue.

The Captain decides to sail wide of the coast, and beyond the city to be able to come from the North, as if comming from Montaigne, instead of Castille. From the far harbor, we can see that the war has started, and sounds of battle carry over the water, and fire and smoke trail from several areas of the city. We decide to take a long boat into the harbor, and send it back with a crewman, while we hunted for Tamara. Several citizens request to get passage from the city, and they are sent to the ship on the longboat, while we head for the land end of the pier. We are stopped by some men, stating that we cannot go into the city because of the war, to turn around and head back the way we came. Pyotor wasn't in the mood to talk this out, so grabs two of the brutes, and knocks down the rest of them with their bodies, while their lead man was chased by Geran, but unfortunately Geran lost him in the croud of panicing people. Pyotor gets directions from a man, to the hotel that Tamara is supposed to be staying at, allowing the man to leave on the longboat for the information.

We get to the hotel, and it seems empty, until we hear a couple of voices, getting louder and louder as they argue, about seeing if it is the Montaigne Army comming to get them. Pyotor calls out to them that we are not, and that we need information on a guest. The two men stand up, and one introduces himself as Rafel, the doorman of the hotel. We ask about Tamara, and are told that she had left about twelve hours ago, by coach or horse, depending on what she could get at the stable that she had asked about. We asked if we could see the room she stayed in, hoping that we could find a clue to where she was going. There was nothing left in the room, but Rafel stated that he had sent her to his cousin, who was guarding the Eastern wall, and that he would probably know where she went. We left to go find his cousin, after letting them know how to get to our ship, so that they could escape the war.

We get to the Eastern wall, and after several times asking different people, we finally find Lt. Gilberto Soles de Torras.

He states he remembers her, because she was the only person who wanted to go out of the walls, while everyone was trying to get inside the walls, before the Montaigne. He said he saw her get about 100 yards before the carriage she was in was overtaken by the Montaigne, and she was captured. He also said he knew where she might be at, since then, the Montaigne had taken the wall, and had made some of it their headquarters, where a General D'toylle was stationed at. He drew us a map to show us where it was located.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

A Matter of a Rescue - Part 2 - Continuing the story of the crew of the Broken Strand

So we started off looking for the buildings that were being used for the Montaigne forces. As we head in the direction that we were sent by Lt. Gilberto Soles de Torras, we find that we are heading more into the war zone, finding both Castillian and Montaigne bodies lying in foxholes and on the streets. The smoke from the cannon fire and gun fire clouds the air, and helps us to get closer to the area we need to go, without running into combatants, but we did almost run into a couple of Montaigne groups. One passed us by, as we hid in a large foxhole, occupied by two dead bodies, and the second one, we heard and were able to avoid, as Mario explained that the screaming sound we could hear was actually the sound made when a Porte Mage was opening a portal.

We made it to the area that was described to us. There was a courtyard with houses around the edges, and on one side a major street. This area had seen a lot of the battle, and a lot of houses were in a lot of disrepair and rubble, yet quite a few of the houses around the courtyard were fairly intact, and this is where the Montainge had chosen to use for a headquarters.

Most of us find a building across the street from the circle of houses, in a partily destroyed house, and Pyotor changes into a mouse and heads into one of the houses around the courtyard. The first one seems to only be made into a barracks for soldiers. The next house is the same, and so is the third, but here he finds two soldiers being sent to see the Captain, and they don't seem happy to be going, but do, so he follows them, hoping that it will lead him to where he could find Tamara.

Meahwhile, while we are waiting for Pyotor, Geran and Pieter are skulking around the house we are hid in, looking around and making sure no one comes upon us by accident, when Geran hears what sounds like a bunch of Montaignes trying to break in a door to a house, off in the distance. He also hears a cry for help in Castillian, in a womans voice. He listens harder, hearing the sound of the door breaking in, and a louder scream from the woman, and takes off down the street, with Pieter following him, to find a woman with two young daughters being attacked by several of the soldiers. He attacks the men holding on to the woman, as Pieter comes into the building and attacks the other men. Being better prepared, and not distracted, Geran and Pieter take the Montaigne soldiers out in no time, and have rescued the woman and her daughters. Once he finds that they are ok, he then offers them a way out of the war zone, by offering to take them away on The Broken Strand. The woman is thankful, and asked to have them take her daughters, but she herself couldnot go, as she needed to find her husband, who had joined in the battle. So Geran and Pieter find themselves in the baby-sitting business, and take the two girls back to our hidden area.

Pyotor meanwhile had followed the two soldiers to the largest building in the courtyard, and follows them up to the second floor, after the butler who let them in. They are lead into a room, where a man sits behind a large desk. He notices Pyotor creaping inside the door, and screams to the butler about "more filthy rats" and that it needed to be killed. The butler goes to get a broom, while Pyotor crawls under a dresser. The man then goes on a rant to the two soldiers, about their disbehavior, and conduct under battle. They are disarmed and sentenced to the "prison" with the "other prisoners". As they are taken away, Pyotor tries to follow them, but is seen again by the man behind the desk. He takes out a gun and fires it at Pyotor, taking off a hunk of the dresser, but missing Pyotor, who squeezes out the door. He rants some more about fithly rats, and calls up another soldier, stating that his dresser needed to be fixed. "Right away, Captain D'Ariscent!" the soldier replies. Pyotor hears the mans name as he is leaving, and if a mouse could grin he would have been. He followed the two disarmed soldiers and their guards to another house, one right across the street from where we were hiding, and watches as they are tossed into a basement "cold locker", as the main floor of the building seemed to have once been a store.

He watched the guards leave, then turned back into himself. He opened the door to the basement, looked down the stairs, and putting a finger over his lips in a gester for the people in the room to be quiet, he came down the stairs to them. He saw a stout Castillian woman, a slender Avalon woman, the two soldiers, and also a couple of others who were unfortunately dead. "Who is tired of the hospitality of Captain D'Ariscent?" He asked them quietly. The Castillian woman laughs outloud a moment before covering her mouth with her hand. "I would be into hurting some of them soldiers, if I had a sword and a knife." she saids. Pyotor looks at the Avalon woman, who states " I'm all for leaving!" "What about you two?" Pyotor asks the two Montaigne dis-armed soldiers. "Well", said the first, " If we call out about you, we could get a promotion." Pyotor cracks his knuckles. "But", the first one continued, "you look like you could crush our heads before that could happen." Pyotor smiles in their direction. "Would you like to get back at him for what he has done to you? I have had dealings with him before. How does becoming a pirate strike you?" The two men look at each other, then look at Pyotor. "That was you?!" they state. "Oh, but we have heard much about you!" they grin. "We are your men Capitan! But we do not want to hurt some of our friends, so we must sit out this fight to leave." "Fine. Just as long as you stay out of the way and keep quiet." Pyotor saids, then looks at the Castillian woman, and introduces himself, and she introduces herself. "Orduno sends his reguards." Pyotor states, and she looks again at him and saids " Well, where you go, I am definatly wanting to go now!" "He sent me to get you." Pyotor replied, as they head up the stairs.

Geran and Pieter had gotten back to the hideout with the girls, when Pyotor burst through the back door of the building, then turning back inside to take on the guards comming in through the front door, while the Castillian and Avalon women ran across the street to our hideout, as they were told by Pyotor. Unfortunately, there were men watching from the second story of the building and they took shots out at us, as we stood up to urge the women to us. Two of them shot at Rebecca, who looked at their strands, saw the friendship between them, and tugged it to weaken it.

The Avalon woman had grabbed her bow and arrows that had been left up on the main floor, so as soon as she got across the street, she readied herself to shoot. Tamara meanwhile took a sword and a knife from Mario (extras that Geran and Pieter had just aquired from the other Montaigne soldiers). She looked him in the eye and stated the sword was not as good as a "Vodacce" sword, but it would have to do for the moment. They both grinned.

Pyotor meanwhile had grabbed two Montaigne soldiers and threw them into a third, taking down three of the six coming after him. Pieter had charged over to help, and took on two of the others, while the Priest threw a few knives to take down the sixth. Meanwhile a second bunch of Montaignes had worked their way into the building, and Pyotor grabbed a couple of more, and took them out. Geran was in the fray by this time, taking on a couple, and the Avalon woman shot one of the men Pieter was fighting, and Pieter and the other Montaigne watched as his partner fell asleep at Pieter's feet. They looked at the man, looked at each other, shrugged, and then both got ready once again to fight. They saluted each other, when another arrow took out the othe Montaigne, and he fell asleep at Pieter's feet. Pieter, not knowing what was going on about this, ducks down to make sure he is not going to be hit with one of those strange weapons.

The rest of the Montaignes were taken care of, and before anymore could show up, we headed out, back to the dock, but before we did, Pyotor takes out a spare flag he had, of the symbol of "The Broken Strand", and hangs it where he is sure that D'Ariscent would find it, and grinning like a mad-man, leaves.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

A Deadly Fate - the continuing story of the Crew of The Broken Strand 11/20/05

So we are trying to make out way back to the ship with Tamara, and a Avalon Lady Archer that we rescued from the Montaigne soldiers "prison", be it as it were, along with two young girls that Geran was honor bound to watch, and we had made it back as far as the courtyard area where earlier Pyotor had turned himself into a mouse to find out the information on where to find Tamara.

Over across the way, we noticed that a group of Castillian civilians were making a last stand in a couple of ruined homes, and were halfway surrounded by Montaigne soldiers. Tamara saw this and decided she needed to help rescue these people, her fellow countrymen, and give back to the Montaigne some of what they had been dishing out. Geran and Pieter, his Ruken, were all for charging in and attacking the soldiers, but Mario and Pyoter decided on a plan, that would work better. We found a house behind the soldiers, and using some muskets that we had aquired from earlier fights against the Montaigne, started shooting at the soldiers, without them knowing. Rebecca gave a boost to Mario and the Avalon Archer to hit the brutes, then she took the two young girls to the back of the group out of the way of the fighting.

Meanwhile Pyotor turned into a owl, and using what strength he could, started taking ammo to the Castillian in the ruined building. Being small, he had to make several trips, while Mario, Enrico and the Avalon Lady Archer took shots at the soldiers. There just happened to be a man who was ripping open the "air" and pulling out guns for the Montaigne soldiers to use, so the Avalon Lady Archer shot him with one of her sleep arrows from her sidhe bow. Mario and Enrico were taking shots at several brutes and taking them down, and finally Mario seemed to get one of the leaders of one of the three groups. A medic was called, and the Lady Archer took him down with another sleep arrow.

Quite a few brutes had been taken down, when they decided it would be best to rush the last group of soldiers. The Castillians, who had been amazed that an owl was delivering ammo to them, but not amazed enough not to use it, saw what we planned to do, and decided to charge from the other side, taking the Montaigne soldiers in a pincer move. The plan was successful, and the Castillians came up to thank us, and were supprised that most of us were not Castillian. They mentioned the Owl, that had flown off, towards the ship, and what it had done. Mario told them not to worry about it, that the First Prophet had been watching over them, and then we had to leave.

We could tell that the city was over run with the Montaigne soldiers, and that we would need to get back to our ship as soon as possible. There was death and dismemberment all over the place, and Pieter noticed a familure person off one side street, lying dead with a gunshot wound. It was the young girls mother. He informed Geran, and they tried to keep the girls from seeing her, by standing in the way. Rebecca hurried the children through the streets, while the rest of the group kept watch for the soldiers.

We were almost back to the main docks, and we could see the long dock that our ship had been docked at earlier. People were screamming and shouting, trying to get away from the Montaignes, who were killing everything in the city for spite. At the end of the long dock, there was a group of Castillian brutes, and two men who seemed to be in charge of them. They were shooting at anyone who came towards the end of the dock. The larger of the two men was shouting out orders, while the smaller man kept looking back on the water. Two ships were still out in the harbor, one was our ship, The Broken Strand, and the other ship, a bit smaller, was opening up her gundoors, and reading her cannons to shoot at the Strand. While the Strand was trying to take up her anchor, and get her guns ready amist all the confusion on her decks with the extra people that she had taken on to rescue.

Rebecca looked out at the two men at the end of the long dock, and read their arcanna's. She saw what she needed in the smaller man's reading, and informed the rest of her people of the information she had gathered. It seems that he was a Coward, and was just a hair's breath away from panicking. With this information, Mario planned out our attack. We would need to take out the four men in the middle of the brute squads, that were lined up one behind the other, with the larger man right behind them giving orders, and behind him, the smaller man keeping an eye out to the harbor, where we could now see a longboat heading its way to the end of the dock from the attacking ship. Once the four brutes went down, the Avalon Archer was to take down the larger man with an arrow, and then Geran and Pieter were to rush the smaller man, while Rebecca and children, Tamara and the others made for the longboat.

The plan went off beautifuly, and the people on the long boat were quite suprised, when Enrico leaped into the boat, and held them at bay with his pistols. "Plans have been changed." he said, "We are taking over your boat." Geran meanwhile was engaging with the smaller man, who was not able to get his sword out before Geran started popping off his coat buttons with his sword. Frightend, the man gave up, after a couple of tries.

Mario did a beautiful flip leap into the longboat, landing so lightly that hardly a wave was made, and pulled out his sword. The men in the boat looked at each other then raised their hands, giving up without a fight. Mario then helped Rebecca and the two children on board, and the others followed. Geran grabbed the smaller man, and pushed him into the rushing panicking crowd before he leaped into the boat. The coward pleaded to be taken with us, and then ran and tried to leap into the boat, but had leaped too hard, and landed in the water on the far side of the ship. His rich clothing, and gold heavy pockets made sure that he wasn't able to get to the boat, and screaming sank under the water.

The people from the town had also leaped into the water, and we were able to save some by having them drag behind us on ropes, but unfortunately we could not save them all.

Back at the two ships, cannons had been firing back and forth for a few moments, but our men were good, and took out a couple of sails and the rudder of the other ship, so she wasn't able to manuver. We made it to The Strand, to find that Pyotor had made it back earlier, and looked out to the other ship as we sailed out of the harbor. The Captain of that vessel was swearing at us, and promised to see us again and get his revenge. The name on the ship we saw was La Sombra Marinairo (?sp), or The Sailor's Shadow.

Mario reconized the name of the ship, and had heard of Valdez, her Captain. He informed Pyotor of what he knew, and then he went down to congradulate his men on their fine aim. We stood and looked back at the city as parts of it blazed up, knowing that anyone left in the city was destined to a deadly fate. None would live to see another day.

Just then, a ripping sound was heard, and behind Pieter, two hands reached out and grabbed the musket he still was holding, and pulled both the gun and Pieter into the hole, and then it closed up behind them. We stood in shock, looking at the spot that Pieter had been, while Geran screammed and ran to the spot, but Pieter, his Ruken, was gone.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

A Plundering We Go

First off, I will say that tonight's game was quite interesting, and had a shocking end.


We had gotten away from the town, loaded to the brim with escapees. After about a day and a half, we had to decide where to drop off the extra people, and were keeping a watch on the coastline to find a good spot, and make sure none of the Montaigne Navy was around. We would have kept them longer, but we were running out of food and water, and had to get Tamara to her destination.

Just as we find a good place off in the distance we see a ship. We soon see that it is a Montaigne flag flying on her, and she was all set to take us out, but hailed us.

We meanwhile, had been busy, while she had drawn nearer. Tamara couldn't be found, nor could all the other escapees, so we had them crowd down in the lower part of the ship. Tamara dressed up as a Vodacce Fate Witch, and Mario dressed up as her Rich husband, and we flew a Bernoulli merchant flag. Most of us hung around as crew, as the Lieutenant from the Montaigne ship arrived on ours, hosted up on a "ladies seat", as it was called, and his men climbed up the rope ladders.

Mario and the Lieutenant imeadiately started a "sparing match", using Geran as the interpreture, since Mario did not speak Montaigne. After a few thrown "insults", they finally got down to the business of what it would cost to not have the Montaigne Navy take over our ship, and take us a prisoners. His name was Lieutenant Aleesie Alexander du Montaigne. They got to speaking of the "trouble" it was for the Lieutenant to follow the orders of his Captain, for all the trouble it caused him, and finally got into exactly what it would cost us not to be taken over.

We, the crew, meanwhile were waiting to see what would happen. The guns were ready below deck to open and fire if needed, though the Montaigne ship had it's cannons already aimed at us. Rebecca had checked the Lieutenant's arcanna, but found that it wouldn't really help to activate it, since it probably already was. She listened to the bartering (as the Lieutenant did speak Vodacce, and had switched, when the real barganing began), and when things seemed best, she tugged the fate strand of coins to work a better deal for us. So we made out with only having to pay 500 gold and a box of fine wine for the Captain.

Tamara had sat as quitely as she could during the proceedings, but had occationally "kicked" Mario under the table, to "hurry" him along with his barganing. She was a bit miffed by the time the Montaigne Soldiers left, yelling back to us that we were faithful to the cause of Montaigne and Le'Emperior, that she grabbed a bottle of wine, and hid in her room.

After the Montaigne ship left, we were able to unload all the escapees and send them on their way to becoming revolutionaires in the war, and then headed on northward.

After another day, we had to stop to aquire food, water and rum, since we had run out. We were now along the coast of Montaigne, and decided to plunder to get it. We looked for a place that looked like it had a wealthy person to rob, since we didn't want to rob the poor Montaigne phesants. After a day, we located what seemed to be a rich farm on a hillside that could be seen from the sea. Pyotor changed to an owl, and scoped out the place, and the best way to get there without being seen, and then he, Mario, Rebecca, and the rest of the hero's except Geran (who stayed with the ship to get the water restocked), made their way to the farm, to plunder.

Just before we get to the front of the farm, the owner comes out, with his dogs (4 of them), and starts to feed some of the animals around the farm. He is a short fat man, and seems to have a problem walking. Thinking that he is drunk, Mario sneeks up and tries to bushwack him, but he turns and sees him before it happens, and stumbles out of the way of the swing. His dogs then start to attack Mario, and the man screams and tries to keep his dogs away, as Mario pulls out his gun to shoot them. He pulls the dogs back, and raises his hands in surrender. Everyone splits up to raid different area's of his house and farm, while the man finds out that both he and Mario can speak Castillian, and he explains that he gave up so that Mario would not kill his dogs. He explains that he will not be able to pay his tax if we take everything, but if we only take half, then he will have the other half to give to the tax collectors when they come. (After much player debate), it is agreed to only take half. The man meanwhile invites us to come and eat with him, to let him make us dinner. He wanders into the kitchen, where Rebecca and Maike are raiding his larder. He walks over and tries to talk to Rebecca, but she doesn't speak Montaigne, and Maike wasn't watching. He takes something off the shelf, and aims it at Rebecca and Maike, then a bright light happens and things go "black" as they pass out.

Meanwhile the rest of the heros grab what they can, and send it back to the ship with the brutes we had brought, and they do a last check to grab a few final things and head back to the ship. Halfway back they realize Rebecca and Maike are not there, so they send the brutes back to the ship, and then go back to the house.

They confront the owner again, and explain that we are missing. He explains that he last saw us in the kitchen, and takes them to it, to see if we are still there. He watches as they look around, and goes to the shelf and explains that he thinks he knows what happend to us, as he aims the item at the group, and they too see a bright light, and then darkness as they pass out.

Meanwhile back at the boat, Geran has all the water barrels stocked up, and is watching the shore as the brutes return. He sees the heros start to come down, then turn around and go back to the house, and then inside the house. A half an hour goes by, and no one comes back out. So he takes a group of brutes and heads to the house, while leaving the rest of the crew to finish restocking.

He arrives to sneek up on the door and listen, hearing the man talking "baby talk" to his dogs inside. As he is listening, he hears the man come closer, and hides in the bushes beside the house, and his brutes hide also. The man comes out, chatting to his dogs, of feeding the animals. He heads into the barn. Geran and the brutes head into the house, and look around, while two of the brutes keep an eye on the man, to watch when he comes back. They find no one, and at the warning from the two brutes, they head out the back door, as the man returns.

Unable to figure out what happened to the rest of his crew, Geran decides to come back around to the front door, and talk to the man. The man answers the door, and invites him and his group in. Geran ask what happened to his crew, and is shown to the kitchen, while the man rants on about his dogs and saids he can explain to Geran what happened. He has Geran sit down, and goes to the shelf, taking the item down once again, and Geran and his brutes see the light, and then the darkness.

(Now that everyone is back together) We all wake up, to see the man standing in front of us, behind a fence. He seems taller now, from our point of view, and he tells us that we shall now serve him, one way or another, as he pats his stomach, and we look around and realize that we have been changed into animals!!

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Barnyard Breakout - the continuing story of the Crew of the Broken Strand

Ok, here we go. It's going to be long. First off, we had a couple of extra player come back for this game, who had been away for a while, so we had a large group. To make it a bit easy, I will list the characters, and what animal they ended up being.

Pyotor - Captain - Goat

Aerin - Topsman - Horse (return player)

Maike - Cook/Cargo Master - Cow (return player)

Mario - Master Gunner - Bull

Zeph - Montaigne fighter - Duck (the player used to be Pieter, so I am still unsure of how he spells his new characters full name.)

Rowena - Avalon Archer - Chicken

Geran - Eisen fighter - Ferret

Enrico - Castillian fighter - sheep

(?) Ex Vaticine Priest character - Rabbit (still don't know the name she chose, never uses it.)

Rebecca - Sailmaker - pig (yep, I got the pig.) The story is going to be from her view, since we couldn't speak to each other except through Pyotor
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I woke up to find that I had been changed into a pig! Once I found out how to co-ordinate using four legs, I looked around and saw quite a few things happening. First of all, lots of noise from different animals all trying to speak at once, and sounding very upset (as best as a pig could tell other animals being upset.)

I decided to try to check out the fence and the layout of the farm, to see if there was a way to get the dogs that were waiting on the front poarch away, so that maybe I could get back into the house somehow, to get to the man who had done this, to get him to change me back. As I made my way around, I noticed a ferret climbing up on one of the post, and then suddenly in clear Vodacce (to me at least), I hear Pyotor yell out "Everyone calm down and be quite!"

The silence was amazing for just a moment, then a lot of animals went running up to the Goat, who seemed to understand what they all were saying. He got them to calm down again, then called out to us, to find his crew. I called out from my postion by the fence closest to the house, as I was studying the situation. "I'm Rebecca! I'm over here!"

One of the things about being the pig (I was told), was that it could think as well as I had as a human (others were given minus' on their wits due to the smartness of the animal they became, so I went over to talk to Pyotor, who was still calming down the other animals, that were not of our crew. He then got our bunch aside, and we started making plans on the best way to get back into the house to get the synerth item.

We were seperated into two groups, large animals in one fenced off area, and medium and small animals in another, with one wall of the fence that was used for both areas, so it was from there that we planned our escape. Mario, being more brawns than brain in his bull form, went off with a willing cow for a bit of a tryst. Rowena, as the chicken, spooked at about everything, so couldn't help much at first.

The plan was that the horse would break out of the fenced in area, and the duck would fly off in the other direction, to have the dogs follow them, while the pig, goat, ferret, and rabbit would try to get into the house and get the item. So, while the goat is chewing the rope off one fence, and the ferret on the other, the pig decided to give the horse and duck a bit of a boost for their upcomming efforts, and gave each of them a blessing (of course that also gives her curses, but it at least helped a bit). The ferret got through the rope in no time, and the horse burst free, galloping off. The dogs imeadiately followed her. The duck didn't even need to try to get any to chase her so she decided to check what the man in the house was doing. He heard the dogs barking, and getting fainter, as they got father away. "I told you not to try to break free!" He yelled, as he made his way out the door, "I guess I will have who is left for dinner tomorrow!" he finished, as he got out the door, and headed out to the gate of the large animal fence.

Pyotor calls out to Mario, now trying to involve Maike into a tryst (and she kept kicking him away), to run the man down. Mario comes at him in full speed, knocking the man flying for about ten feet, and skidding off farther than that. Maike then runs out to him, and puts her foot on his chest to keep him down. He is dizzy, and out of breath, so she is left to watch him as the goat, pig, rabbit, and ferret go into the house, since he had left the door open. We get into the kitchen and the pig heads for the area that she remembered the man standing while he had used the item. She calls over to the goat to call the ferret to climb up and see what he can find. He climbs up, and after a bit, comes out with the item. The goat explaines to him how he saw it used, and we watch as the ferret wraps around the middle of the item (shaped like a dumbbell with square ends) squeezes as hard as he can, and thinks of the goat as Pyotor. Nothing happens. The pig has the goat tell the ferret to throw the item down, to see if she can use it somehow, having a bit more strength than the ferret. He throws it down, but in doing so, one side cracks a bit between the handel and the square end.

The pig takes it into her mouth (the handel size is just big enough), to hold it towards the goat, pressing on the handel, to get a shock! The part that cracked now is open to the strange wiring inside it. She drops the item, and has the ferret, by way of the goat, come down to see if he can reach inside it. He gets shocked also. The goat decides we need to go out to the man, to see if he can make it work, so we head out again, the pig carring the item by the good end.

They get out to see the man trying to sit up, but the cow is keeping him down with her hoof. The pig comes over and drops the item by the man's hand, so he can see it, then goes and "stomps" very deliberatly, between the man's legs, and grunts evily as he screams in fear. (She didn't step on "him", but he definately feltl the wind movement from the closeness of the stomp.) "What! What do you want me to do?" he yelps. She snorts again, and stomps again, threatingly. "Ok! Ok!" He saids, as he picks up the item, and then yelps as he squeezes it, as he receives a shock. "Ow! It's not supposed to do that! It's broken!" The pig snorts and stomps again, and the cow adds pressure to her hoof, while spitting up her cud on him. "Yuck!" "Ow!! Ok!Ok!" he saids again, taking the item back in his hand, trying to squeeze it, to get another shock, and drop it. "It's not working! It's broken! It doesn't work that way anyway. It can't change you back!" He yelps. "Don't hurt me!" as he trys to curl up in a ball.

The cow then grabs the man by the front of his shirt and shakes him. The pig squeels in anger, and the ferret bounces off the mans face, scratching at him. "Ok! Maybe there is another machine down in the salt mine that this was found in, that can turn you back!" he cries "Just don't hurt me! It's farther inland from here."

The goat decides to send the duck to find the horse, who had outran and lost the dogs. They are closer to the salt mine, and meet up with the rest of the animal crew, who brought the man along with them.

The mine has a notice in front of it, stating it is unsafe due to caveins, but we head in anyway. The ferret is leading, but we stop because we can't see, so the man lights up a lantern, and threatened by both the cow and the pig, heads into the mine with us. We get in a little way, and find it goes downhill in a sharp angle. The ferret scouts out the way, and finding nothing that seems dangerous comes back, and we all head down, not sure of how we would get back out, since the ramp was very slipery with rocksalt nuggets. The man is hesitating and doesn't want to go farther, but the pig once again stomps and snorts, and he continues on his way, talking about the last time he was here. He had originally been one of the miners, but they had discovered a Syrneth cave, and several had died, and he didn't want to go back, because whatever had killed them could still be there.

We finally make it to one of the bodies. It is nothing but a skeleton by now, but the cause of death is a miner's pick in the skull. We look at the man, who shruggs, and we continue on. "Do you want the tour, or the direct route?" he ask us. The pig squeels angerly and stomps, and the cow shoves him forward. "Ok, we will go straight to the last place that was before we found the item." he saids. So we find ourselves in front of an opening, and along the way saw a couple of other bodies, one looked like it's arm had been cut off by a extreemly fine blade, very smooth. At the entrance of the Syrnth cave, the man refused to go farther, being scared. The bull butted him into the room, that the ferret and other animals were checking out, and he and the cow blocked the exit so the man could not escape, though he tried. He finally ended up on his knees in front of the cow, begging to be let free. "I was even going to get you a nice bell! he said to the cow. Her responce was to crack him in the face with her hoof, knocking him out.

Meanwhile, the room that we were exploring was made of even black square tiles, that looked shiney, but when the ferret put it's paws up to it, gave a bit, and when he pulled his paw away, it sounded and felt like the feel you get when you pull tape off of your hand, and left a imprint on the tile. The room was round in shape, and like a amphitheater, the center being lower than the entrance, going down several steps that were about two feet in depth. At the bottom, just off center was a trangleolid shape with trailing lines off the three sides, indented into the floor, but after searching the whole room, nothing else was found in the room. The ceiling followed the shape of the room, dipping down in the center, with the center round piece having a edge ring of a different color, and several half round indentations inside of the ring.

After searching for a while, it is decided that we needed to check the bodies that we had passed to see if they had what we were looking for, and we did find a trangleoid item in the clothing of the man with the pick in his skull. Taking this, we headed back to the room. The goat took the item to the bottom and put it into the nook. Nothing happened. Then he went to push it out, but it clicked when he did, and a blue light came from the upper ring and surrounded him. The trangleoid object seemed to melt into the lines around it, and the whole center floor started to move downward. The ferret tries to jump on with the goat, but hits the blue light, and bounces back off.

We watch as the goat disapears downward and wait. Not too long later, he returns, and explains what he has found. We all decide to go down with him, and take the man with us. Down below is another room, and some of it has caved in. But what gets our attention, is the buzzing sound from the electric shield that circles most of the center of the room, that occationally, very quickly, we can see through, and see that there are more Syrneth items inside. The goat had brought the item we had, and threw it towards the shield. We watched as it sheared it in two, clean and smoothly, and knew what had taken the arm of one of the skeletons. In fact we could see the arm when the shield "blinked". Problem was, how could we get past the shield. It was too quick. The man was squeeling in fear with this, and crying to go back home.

We search the best as we can, around the shield, but nothing is found. So it is decided we need to check out the rest of the place to see if we can find out how to get the shield to turn off. Using the influences we have been using, we get the man to take us around the place and explaine what each is. We find a church they made of salt, many different other things that they had done, in their bordom, including a lake they had made underground. We finally get to a room that has nothing but a small hole in the center, about a foot round, with occational lights flashing out of it. The ferret, rabbit and chicken check it out, and find another machine, that when water from the floor above (it had once been a lake too, but had drained out the hole, but water still came into the room) fell onto the machine, it created the light, that flickered in a "short-out" way, and we noticed that it was in the same way the shield had flickered. We decide that if we block the water for a bit, we could build up the amount, and send a larger batch down, to try to short it out completely. It takes a while, but we do it, and head back to the shield room, to find that the shield is indeed down. There are many things strange around, but we find a object that looked like the one the man had. It is the reverse one, and we all get back to our original shape!! The man is a complete coward, and grovals at Maikes' feet. "I would have gotten you such a pretty bell!" he mumbles, as she scowles down at him. A few of the crew grabs the odds and ends of some syrnth things to take, and we take the man with us, planning to give him to the people he had changed, so that they may dish out his punishment. We take the "elevator" back to the upper room, to find the blue light on again, and the walls alive with shadows, reaching out to grab at us!

Edit: Well, that was the last story I found I had written back then, so unfortunately we will not know the ending, unless I can find anymore lost on my computer. I do have another 15 stories Mark GM'ed for us, later on, continuing Rebecca's tales, at a later date, that I will post at another time.