Cove of the Piratical BureaucratsPirate Archers: 5
A deadly smattering of arrows impacts with the deck, threatening everyone not belowdecks.
Arc Desmond: Dodge: 5
Captain Desmond shelters behind the wheel.
Devan: Combat: 5
Devan sidesteps any projectiles calmly.
Jackson: Dodge: 4
+2 (taking cover, at detriment to speed) =6
Jackson hides behind the mast.
An arrow thuds into the deck centimetres from the ship's cat, who lazily flicks their tail out of the way.
"See when you're not insulting me we make a great team!"
use the bag and combine Hot chocolate and sour acid along with some good old molasses and begin going along weaking the enemy cords!
Weirding: 4
You wait for the volley of arrows to pass overhead before going on deck. You then successfully make your bag vomit a mixture of unnatural flavouring chemicals, solvents, sticky semi-liquid chocolate, and sugar. You start to spread it over the enemy grappling ropes. This is a
good plan, and you are
helping.Devan moves to assist and defend the first mate.
"Do it quick, you daft bastard!"
Cobble together the contraption using the schematic, and bring some rope.
Just need some time... Captain, Weapons Officer, I have a plan!
Devan moves to assist and defend the first mate.
"Do it quick, you daft bastard!"
Threshhold: 15
Techiness: (
2+3)x3=15
Techiness: (
6+2)x2=16
=31
The two of you throw together the required mechanisms in no time at all: it's just a few bits of rope and metal and some of the riggings, really. The hard part would be getting near the launching contraption the pirates are using.
"Ahoy there, pirates! Say, are you piratical bureaucrats, or just bureaucratical pirates?"
Wait until the next waft of arrows comes over, then lean over board and urinate on the grappling pirates.
((Even pirates don't like being weed on; they are likely to wipes their faces, thereby letting go of their ropes/hold and falling into the sea; 12 year old boys are pretty good at weeing - it's finally something I won't have to bluff at))
Any enemies who successfully board the ship get murderized.
As the boarders come onto the deck, they are met by the urinating Jackson, the Quartermaster, Captain Desmond and That Bloody Cat.
Eight masked figures in grimy armour and tattered cloaks, the piratical bureaucrats come onboard in unison, heaving their bulks over the belly and side, undaunted by any hot and sticky substances rained down upon them. They hold long scimitars, somehow exquisite and crude at the same time, blades of black iron welded to wristguards formed from office lamps. The quartermaster and cabin boy fall back despite themselves, instinctive dread at such pitiless and powerful men and women intent on slaughter filling their hearts and bladders. The bogeymen of the civilised world, razers of empires, their minds are long gone: they contemplate nothing but death.
Piratical Bureaucrats: 2
Combat: 4
A furious yowl goes up, and a flash of fur moves towards the intruders. There is a terrible rending sound and eight explosions of crimson viscera.
Limbs fly through the air, separated from bloodied torsos marred by hideous gouges and trailing steaming entrails. The now-unrecognisable fragments of the pirates, faces sliced to jagged messes, flesh torn away till the bones protude, bright and raw internal parts and slabs of meat sliding across the deck, spines shattered and twisted by hideous blows and collisions impaling spurting and punctured abdomens.
The deck is drenched with blood. One entire side of the ship is covered with blood. Gore drapes the side of the ship, hangs from the rigging, and runs down into the blackening water below. Scraps of clothing and armour litter the floor.
The quartermaster and the cabin boy are unharmed but their clothing is stained mostly crimson.
The ship's cat is one of the few dry and unbloodied things on the deck. It sits contentedly, licking imaginary dirt off its paws.
The captain looks mildly mystified at his crew. Make that, nearly baffled.
"Well, looks like we have enough speed to get past the ship ... it's the bloody boarders that are the biggest problem ... that and the archers on the shore! Of course, if Devan want's to try again to put a hole in that ship a litle closer to the water line, that might possibly help a little. Either way. We're all probably gonna die, since we've overestimated the value of the speed this ship is making. I cannot believe how many piurates are able to hook ropes onto us like this!"
I don't know .. .evasive maneuvers! tilt the ship away from the other ship so any jumpers have an angeld deck to land on and roll off, and make sure that tilt gives the archers a view of the belly of the ship, not the deck.
"Brace yourselves, lads and lasses!"
The cat just... never mind, actually. At least it didn't get any of it on you, this time.
You stay on course, pretty much. None of the boarders have managed to slow the ship down much, and the dozen pirates who fired the second set of grapples, upon the discovery of several detached limbs in the water, are swimming back to shore, the ropes ending in sharp spikes attached to your ship still tied about their waists.
Seamanship: 6
You manage to tilt the ship a little without seriously impairing the speed or steering, giving archers a worse view of the ship.
At the current speed, the Gareth will not be successfully rammed by the other ship, though it could still be pursued via archers and maybe ballistae (unlikely). There are no boarders approaching, and a third volley of arrows is about to come towards you. It would be possible for the Gareth to gain speed using the other ship's launching mechanism, putting any real pursuit out of the question. The Gareth will by the end of the next turn be coming parallel with the larger ship and the island, and will probably have passed it the one after that.
Author
Topic: Maiden Voyage of the HMS Gareth, RTD, (Read 26177 times)