Completed [Play-by-Post] Magic World/BRP: "In Search of the Sorcerer"

Effort(90): [1d100] = 61

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Can I man both oars or is the boat too wide? If I can I would change below to ask Urash to check the plaques I found to see if they can save us.

"Solon, might that water magic of yours move us better than your arms? Hop to it man! Leave the menial labor to me. Urash take over for him unless you have a better idea. Let's get the current working for us."

 

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What Amon thought when he saw the lady.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1BDM1oBRJ8

 

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RIP to Borric, Marcan. In all fairness, I think nikolokolus pretty explicitly depicted the masked bosslady as a thing not to be trifled with.

Urash takes over for Solon at the oar. Visibly shook, he says: "That lady just... turned him into a fish."

[1d100] = 36 vs 45 Effort.

 

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This is a 20' long fishing boat with a single lateen sail (that nobody really knows how to use, because nobody has any sailing skill to speak of). The oar locks are designed to accommodate 1 rower (in an emergency) but are primarly designed for 2, since the boat has so much mass.

Rhenmyr and Urash man the oars and pull with all of their might as the Salmon of Doubt circles the boat and occasionally breeches the water. Moggle squeaks again in an alarmed voice, "It's gonna 'ave tae be faster lads! It's gaining on us." The shore is about 100' away and the disturbance on the smooth surface of the water has probably closed half of the distance.

Solon's eyes go wide, but the sorcerer with the ample girth springs to his feet and clutches the mast and closes his eyes as if in a trance and mutters strange syllables. About ten seconds pass and the stern of the boat lifts out of the water carried by a small wave that seems to only exist under your boat. The boat gets a slight boost and with some solid oar-work, you all feel more confident that you can reach the shore before the thing in the water can catch you.

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One more effort roll should get you to the shallows at least before it catches up to you.

Amon sprints for the docks and the baying sounds somehow sound more muted and distant, with a sigh of relief you look back and discover to your horror that 2 large bone-white wolfhounds are moving at a dangerously brisk clip down the trail with their noses to the ground. Counter-intuitively the closer they get the softer their howl sounds. You estimate that you have about 1 round to decide what you're going to do before they will be on the docks.

 

Amon decides he want to be a Ranger. He takes off his backpack as he runs and tosses it behind him, dresses and all, to give the puppies a chew toy. He runs a few feet more and takes the perfume bottle out and dumps it on the ground behind him to help mask his scent and hopefully give the animals pause. He then runs to the anchor point by the dock and begins his climb to the line across the river.

Climb:[1d100] = 83 vs 86

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His hands must be sweaty.

 

Amon dumps out the contents of the perfume on the ground. He retreats to the mast and climbs the 60' to the chain strung betweeen the two islands. One of the dogs, as large as a small horse seems confused and thrown off, but the other lifts its snout high in the air and jumps on to the dock and runs at the mast and starts howling and leaping in the air, trying to snatch at Amon.

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Amon needs to make another climb roll to transfer himself to the chain and start dragging himself across. A failure means you need to make an Effort Roll to hang on, while a fumble means you fall to the docks below. Getting across the 150' will take one Agility roll.

 

Urash tries to row faster, but is soon taxed by the effort.

[1d100] = 62

 

Effort(90): [1d100] = 69
Rhenmyr keeps his rowing pace and asks between strokes.

"Any...ideas on...dissuading...the monster...Moggle? Atlantean...fire? Bird can...get Mab?"

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A hunter,a semi-comatose woman, two wizards, and a cat rowing a 20' boat. We must be a sight.

 

With Urash's strength flagging, the boat slows a about a knot (Your MOV was 2, now it's about 1.5 The thing in the water is about 10 times that). Moggle has to lean into the tiller to compensate and keep your bow pointed toward the shore, but at least Solon's artificial wave is conributing to the cause. When you are about 50 feet from the docks there is a very heavy *crash* as something slams into the gunwales of the starboard side of your boat. A monstrous head breeches the surface of the water, something that looks like a cross between a wolf and a frog, dripping with algae and a maw lined with black, bony, serrated ridges. It takes a huge bite out of the freeboard.

Boat Stats (open) Boat Stats (close)

• Hull quality 11 (i.e. "Armor")
• Structure Points: 30 (boat's "hit points" at 0 it's broken into pieces, if it takes half its SP in a single blow there's a roll on the ship disaster table)
• Seaworthiness 18 (any damage to the boat reduces seaworthiness a like amount of points; once it reaches zero it starts taking on water 1d6 points every five minutes per 5 Structure Points (6D6 for this boat) when water exceeds Structure Points the boat is water logged and can't sail/be rowed)

Water Creature attacks the boat easy (60% x 2 = 120%) roll [1d100] = 63% damage [7d6] = 19
A huge hole opens up in the hull and water begins pouring in to the fishing boat. A few seconds later, a long serpentine tail raises out of the water from the other side of the boat and attempts to wrap itself around the mast. Water Creature constricts the boat with its tail (easy 40% x 2 = 80%) roll [1d100] = 85% but it flails about without taking hold. fortunately the vessel is still intact enough to keep rowing for now.

Combat Begins:
Round 1 DEX Ranks:
Rhenmyr 17 (INT rank 13)
Moggle 15
Urash 9 (INT rank 21)
Solon 9 (INT rank 14)
Holy Shit!!! 4

 

Unencumbered by an overflowing bag of women's clothing, Amon deftly swings onto the rope, knowing failure means certain death, or death by snu snu.

Climb: [1d100] = 13 vs 86 = Special Success!

He swings his leg over the top and positions himself onto the top of the rope. He quickly pulls his body along the rope.

Dexterity: [1d100] = 32 vs 80 = Success.

Amon mutters to himself as he crawls for his life.

"Dogs, she had to bring out the dogs..."

 

Amon pulls himself methodically across the slack chain crawling for 150' on his belly toward Dreg. You don't risk turning your head, but you can hear the hounds getting louder the farther you get away (paradoxically, this is reassuring to you) Quite a crowd is gathering on the docks, people straining to look across to the island and shrugging their shoulders and exchanging gestures of bewilderment. Off to your right, about 100' upstream you see the fishing boat plowing through the water at a pretty steady clip, carried by some weird wave that is lifting its stern out of the water. Distressingly about 50 feet from shore it shudders and jolts, listing badly to port before righting itself. A large serpentine thing emerges from the water attempting to constrict the mast, but it misses and slaps down in the water.

 

"Well, I guess my situation could be worse. Water monsters are definitely worse."

Amon grunts as he continues to pull himself along. He looks at the crowd forming at the dock.

"Oh great, spectators."

 

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Well shit. How far did we get last round? I imagine we won't get as far this round with a chunk of boat missing. Did our boat take 19 or 8 (11 armor) damage?

 

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Distance travelled was about 25 meters out of the 40 to shore, so you're about 15m from the dock/shallows. Close enough to make a swimming roll and get to shore, but also close enough to row for another round and beach the craft/bump into the dock. Which are you aiming for?

As for the boat, it took 8 damage. It's still "seaworthy", but it's taking on water, so it's got a definite life-span . . . I'll make a "water roll" of 6D6 in five minutes and if that exceeds its "seaworthiness" rating (18) then it's swamped and unusable until fixed/patched.

 

Amon is still invisible . . .

 

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He ran and performed physical actions (climbing/crawling) so he is no longer invisible. Although, the giant splashing monster might be a good distraction from what he is doing.

 

Effort(90): [1d100] = 90

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that was close.

Rhenmyr keeps on rowing.
"Dock or shore... Moggle... whichever... closer""

 

Moggle turns the tiller toward the dock which is about 15m away, (the shore beyond it is probalby 25-30m). The boat turns sluggishly with the torrent of water gushing in, but eventually it comes about. After a tense 10 seconds or so, the boat bumps hard into the dock, which is fortunate because the large serpentine creature is coming about

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Grimgravy and L'ennui you need to make Agility rolls to get off the boat before the creature closes, if you are trying to get Oona off the boat as well as yourself, take a -20% penalty. If anyone fails, then it attacks before that character is able to disembark. Alternatively, if you have a Jump skill higher than your Agility roll, use that instead.

Moggle and Solon's Agility Roll to exit the boat (75%, 45%) roll [1d100] = 6%, [1d100] = 23% Moggle practically jumps from the aft of the boat and lands on the run. Solon, despite his corpulence clears the boat.

The people along the dock look on at the spectacle of Amon and the listing boat dumbfounded, but when the water-beast resurfaces near the dock, a few cry out, "Big Chook! Run!" Mab and the 4 ogres are running up the dock toward all of the commotion.

 

Agility(90-20=70): [1d100] = 52
Rhenmyr grabs Una and jumps to the dock.

 

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at least you guys didn't hear banjo music while crossing the river. That would have made things significantly worse.

 

[1d100] = 61 vs 45. Yikes!

 

When Amon finally gets to the other dock he will climb down the other pole.

Climb:[1d100] = 24 vs 86 = Success!

He will then run to Fanrin and Yazo's tent to see if they can provide some assistance.

 

Urash stumbles and trips over the a loose oar just as the creature surges out of the water and attacks the boat again with tooth and tail.
Water Creature attacks the boat again (easy: 60%x2=120% and 40%x2=80%) roll bite [1d100] = 78%, constrict [1d100] = 95% Again the creature bites into the gunwales and rips chunks out of the boat bite damage [7d6] = 26 minus 11 hull points The bowsprit is broken off and the boat takes on even more water as it pitches forward.

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L'ennui Urash needs another Agility roll or he's pitched into the water.

 

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This will take you about 3 rounds in a dead sprint to reach their stall/shop.

Amon takes off running past a bewildered Mab, and 4 equally confused ogres at his side.

 

[1d100] = 6 vs 45!