The Collective - Session 28

This is the twenty-eigth session in The Collective campaign and the third and final in the Exploring the Buried Auction & Attack on the Docks sub-arc of the Treasure of Captain Lofy Arc.

Summary
THURSDAY, JANUARY 4, 1001: Taking heavy fire from the schooner and beset on all sides by pirates, the party desperately defended themselves from their attackers while determining a way to incapacitate the boat. Calhoun, in a panic, jumped into the freezing waters and began swimming towards the boat to escape from the cannonfire. The rest of the party began fighting back against the pirates, with Badger taking on the form of a bald pirate (later revealed to be named Simpson, Simp for short) and hopping onto a dinghy with another pirate to return to the ship firing upon them. During this attack, Gorrn and Gnorbitt were taking a nice stroll through the city with F A S T C A B B A G E when they saw that the docks were being bombarded. With no time to lose, the two of them pushed the cart down a hill leading to the docks and hopped on, arriving in the knick of time to assist their companions in the fight. Gorrn and Gnorbitt shoved a pirate into a cannon and fired her at the schooner, turning her into red mist, while Rosanhi and Roscoe took heavy fire from the cannons.

Roscoe and Rosanhi took cover behind the shattered Fresh Fish Daily stand before realizing that the pirate named Simp had taken refuge there as well. Being ever so polite as to allow Roscoe and Rosanhi to exchange a few words before attacking them (as Roscoe had recently been struck by a cannonball and had begun to bleed out, meeting with Feydrid to work out some tunes while he died), Simp watched as Rosanhi was stabbed through the back by another pirate with a thick blue beard (or about half of one, as it had been burnt away during combat). Rosanhi, broken and bleeding, woke up to find herself away from the docks and instead inside of her old home in the Forest. Climbing out of bed, Rosanhi quickly noticed that her surroundings were eerily quiet before looking out of her window to see the village in turmoil; houses and trees were set ablaze while Elven men and women ran wildly about, trying to escape from something unknown. The sensation of sound quickly returned to Rosanhi as she could hear something calling her name; she ran through the forest and, as she rounded the corner...she awoke to see Roscoe's face once more, standing over her and healing her wounds with his magic music, the smell of sulphur and the sounds of combat in the air. Rising to her feet, she and Roscoe watched as Gorrn attempted to grab a cannonball out of midair (unsuccessfully).

In the confusion, Badger managed to board the ship thanks to Roscoe's smoke clouds and the pirate cannon and lit a fuse underneath the ship, carrying the ship's gunpowder. Badger managed to jump off of the boat and into the water as Gorrn made a magically-assisted long jump into the water to save Calhoun, the three of them swimming just far away enough to avoid being killed by the explosion of the ship. Injured and shaken, the party returned to their estate (with Simp in tow, who had been captured and knocked unconscious) where they met with Peart and learned of his origin. Peart, as well as Simpson, were both former members of the crew of Captain Edward Lofy, the son of the original Captain Lofy who had his maps grafted on the backs of his cabin boys long ago. Edward had spent his entire life as a pirate searching for the maps so that he could find his father's treasure; his obsession had grown when he had learned that someone in Paradeen had come into possession of the other three maps, something that eluded him in the Mountains. Seeking to lure them out, he told his crew that he would capture the man with the fourth part of the map, who turned out to be Calhoun's dad, and bring him to an island in the Endless Sea. The ship that they saw in the harbor is Lofy's flagship, the Mendota. Peart longed to get away from that life and decided to leave the crew to come live in the city. After some discussion, the party (with Calhoun, Simp, and Peart) decided that they would acquire a ship and pursue Lofy to save Calhoun's dad.

After the discussion, it was clear that Calhoun had extremely mixed feelings about the entire situation. After discussing what roles the party would play on the ship, Calhoun departed and Simp and Peart went to sleep. Rosanhi went out into the night to consult with Astrid about the dreams she had been having, leaving Astrid with her mother's necklace to use as a scrying device.