Mission 1, Turn 1.5 - (moving this forward for the tower team)
Current Turn will end 7 PM UTC, 18 September.

The albatross followed the vague dark outline of the wall below it towards the tower. To the east, Queen Origi could see the lanterns glowing in the port town, eerie in the shrouding mist which was coming off the harbor. She could hear boisterous partying and drunken boasts and brawls, clearer now that the walls and bluffs of the cliff were no longer muffling them.

Compared to the port, the tower roof was dark and shadowy, barely visible in the wispy concealment of the mist, as no light shone upon it at all. it was kept that way intentionally, so any night guards would not have their night vision spoiled by the light, nor be easily visible to invaders from the sea. (roll dice) Queen Origi could not really see any figures. There was a large darker raised portion, but far too large to be a guard.

The albatross obediently circled the tower, coming in to land. (roll dice) To have enough room for its wings, the bird set its sight on the bigger raised deck and reached for as gentle a landing as the 747 of the bird world could manage. (roll dice) On touchdown the oiled tarp covering the large woodpile prepared for a signal fire gave way and the albatross crashed down into the oiled wood below. (roll dice) It tumbled head over tush, sliding down with the wood and entangled in the oiled tarp that had shielded that wood from rain as well as the sight of the high flying aerial spies that had reported to Polly. (roll dice) Queen Origi had been thrown clear of the albatross now calling in distress and trying to clear itself from the tarp, but she had taken a bad tumble. Bruised and battered with a sprained wrist, she lay against the half wall which had luckily kept her from tumbling off the tower entirely.

(roll dice) In the tower below, the raucous voices arguing over a card game came to a sudden halt. There was silence a moment, then the sound of chairs scraping and large booted feet headed for the tower stairs.

Reaching the shore, the tower assault team drew the longboat up onto the beach, tying it off on a convenient boulder somewhat sheltered from view. As they were preparing to ascend the incline, the breeze blew the sound of the albatross's cries of distress to their ears. Something had gone wrong.

Grog'tial mutters several inventive dwarven curses as the sounds of distress come drifting down. "Always those blasted royal ninnies which can't take a hint!"

He sighs. "Okay, mateys, this sounds bad, but with a bit of luck it won't be bad enough for an immediate alarm to town. Let's not be stupid and try a rescue, as these will be trained guards, and they can reach the roof well before we can reach the tower." Grog'tial eyes Aylar to make certain he's not intending any heroics with the locket. "Instead, let's treat this as a distraction, and make full tactical use of it! With a bit of luck, Origi's natural stealthiness might let her survive. Let us try and approach the tower unseen while the guards remain focused on the roof, and then proceed with our original plan, depending on what we observe when there!"

"Ouch!". Origi quickly rushes to the albatross, checks he's OK, tries to remove the harness, then finds her hiding place and hunkers down. "The guards shouldn't be too concerned when they only find a random seabird", she mutters to herself.

A fleeting expression of exasperated disgust crosses Aylar's face for a moment as he hears the albatross cry out. "As per her wishing and contrary to sensible warning, she be having one hell of an adventure right now. I hope she hasn't been discovered yet, but, and especially if she be having a full on audience with entire tower post by now, we need be ready to act fast lest she costs us the entire raid."

He picks up the pace, talking to the team as he does so. "Move quickly, but quietly, keep an eye and ear out. With some luck, the gates might be completely unattended, so if any of you lads" he nods towards the half-orcs, "give me a quick boost, I might be able to hop over and hopefully unlock it from other side'n let you lot in. If someone turns out to be outside, well, we'll see. Indeed, we have seen not enough to go on a solid plan yet."

Durik heard the albatross tumble on the tower from the shore down below.
"Oh, the bird fell. No good." :(

He listened to the quick plans while he was tying the longboat and then he replied whispering:
"Ok, we be goin' to the tower. You elf try sneakies, me push you up. If fail, we biggies smash heads"

Cap'n Rummyfangs and the remaining Brethren continued to surveil the surrounding darkness as their ship sailed in the night, waiting for any signs of anything, really. The longboat and its crew has been out of sight for a while now, presumably already docked at the shore. Then, the faintest of cries was carried by the breeze and picked up by a pair of Felinoid ears. The sound was too faint for human ears and even for Cap'n Rummyfangs, the breeze carried but a very brief instance of the cry for help. It was just enough for him to recognize that it was the sound of their albatross.

"Blimey!! Did ye hear that cry, me hearties?" Cap'n Rummyfangs shouted in the direction of his crewmates. "I heard somethin'! Faint 'n distant, but unmistakably the distress cries o' our albatross! Somethin' has happened. Somethin' ain't right. I can nah see anythin' beyond the darkness ahead. Nah even sure if Origi has made it t' the tower's rooftop. But 'tis the sound o' trouble, thar be no doubt about that!"

Cap'n Rummyfangs perked his ears again, hoping to catch more cries from the breeze, but the night offered no additional clues.

"So, wha' do we do now?" he asked his crewmates, a hint of aggitation in his voice.


*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
Cap'n Barfdeck Rummyfangs: Felinoid pirate / +1 agility, stealth / -1 constitution / permanent +1 hit (unless stunned or incapacitated) / Rapier +1 strike chance / 2 x rum concoctions for adrenaline rush / 2 x wooden stakes / 1 x holy water / 1 x rope / 1 x "harmless" disguise / weakness: loud noises (except roar of the sea & ship's cannons)

Bhrigu was really impressed by Count Karnstein's idea to create garlic grenades to counter the vampirates whose centuries old dull noses are unable to cope with the excellent rich aroma of dried garlic. When Larissa, with help from Pugwash, finally prepared them, Bhrigu was mightily amazed at their potential. "Arr, them be some fine balls of garlic, can ye make some after the mission for Argy to serve with the celebratory dinner, of course sans the cow dung. The will cheer up the loblolly, poor john, or salmagundi."

Inspired by this ingenious idea, Bhrigu had one of his own. Since, they were waiting on the ship while the other teams headed to the tower, he still had some time left for preparations. He took the last remaining bottle of holy water, filled up the reservoir of a pen with it and some alluring magenta, and started writing on a few pieces of paper. He was preparing a flier for an establishment that served specifically to those whose needs were for a night full of dancing and 'special' varieties of wine; those full of more sanguine humour. Surely, such an flier would attract the attention of a sea-fatigued bloodsucking buccaneers. He, soon, completed writing six exciting little fliers, which theoretically sting the vampirates in an extremely painful way, if they touched them. "These be providing us with a stealthier weapon against those scurvies, Aye!"

Keeping two for himself, he asked his fellows if they wanted any of these fliers for "Deadly Disco". "Perhaps the Count would prefer not to touch them, arr! The rest of my mates are welcome to take some for me, since we have four left."

Argy can't help thinking about recipes with albatross meat when hearing the shrieks. But she clears her mind and focuses again soon.

"Let's rush, mateys! The guards're distracted now fer sure, and Origi might be in trouble. Walls or main gate, no time fer side 'ntries"

Nevertheless, she will take a quick look upon disembarking to avoid bumping into unexpected guards and to look for a visible side door or an easily climbable part of the wall.

Mission 1, Turn 1.5: Updated Actions so far- from Post 81
Current Turn will end 7 PM UTC, 18 September.
Please post any corrections. Inventories have been noted. Incorporating below post.
6 Anti-Vamp Garlic Gas grenades, 4 holy water inked fliers on deck table

Albatross Air (flight to Tower) -
Queen Origi and Albatross have crashed into the wood kept for a signal fire on the tower roof. Origi - battered, bruised, sprained wrist; checks albatross, tries to unbuckle harness, hides. Boots are heard approaching.

Tower takeover team - landed and tied up longboat, proceeding to tower
Polly has told Durik and Mighty to listen to Aylar (he's been a Cap'n before) and help him with the large Pulley & Chains.
Grog'tial, urges tactical caution, use albatross crash as distraction. 6 stakes/5 stake-bolts, twine.
Aylar small belt axe, (some night vision-Half-Elf); urges move quickly but quietly and wary, plans for Durik to boost him over gate if possible and he will unlock for the others
Durik lockpicks, matches, knife, bandages, 2 big stakes. Agrees w/Aylars plan.
Mighty w/parrot & 3-headed monkey he proposes as distractions (per briefing) Will help Aylar.
Argy keeping up as fast as halfling legs can, but watchful for side doors or easy climbs of the wall.

Staying on Ship (Denuvo boarding party)
Bellandra 4 stakes
Count Klaus Karnstein - Vampirate info, Suggestions
Foggy checking Ship's readiness, ready to man guns or board and kill if things go deadly wrong.
Bhrigu 2 stakes, 2 holy water inked fliers.
Pugwash on watch in Crow's Nest w/crossbow (farsight/Sharpshooter)
Larissa Pouch w/garlic powder, anti-slip boots. ready to man Crow's Nest or masts.
Rummyfangs watchful on deck (night vision-Felinoid), 2 stakes, 1 holy water
Captain Baldbeard asks for used clothing from crew for tracking if lost; 2 stakes, 1 holy water
Gilius now entitled to say "I told you so" ... oops; 2 stakes, 1 holy water
Kyp Everswimmer comes aboard to join the Crew

NOTE: Anti-Vamp Garlic Gas grenades - I was curious, so I looked it up. The ammonia from either chicken or cow manure would intensify the garlic. I don't know about putting the Vampirates into a stupor, but the garlic would burn their eyes and drive them crazy and the Holy Water would burn/eat into their skin, so the reaction would definitely be to overwhelm their senses and cause them to blindly flee or be stunned depending on how much of it got on them.

Vampirates: die from beheading or crushing the skull completely, from a stake through the heart (it must be left in so no you cannot reuse the same stake), or by burning (fire is dangerous on a ship though). In this instance, Vampirates cannot turn into bats and do not fly. Holy water acts like acid, burning and eating into their skin. Intense sunlight will also cause them to burn and possibly catch fire if in it long enough, shadowed sunlight however, only causes sunburn.

Cannons: The Fiendfyre cannons on the foreward and rear Gun Deck are controlled by the Ship. Normal-ish cannons on the Gun Deck mid-area (Berth) take cannon balls and are manually reloaded and operated.

Polly spun swiftly to the Felinoid and her eyes sparked with a frightening intensity. The spectral energies of the Ship suddenly swirled dangerously about him, as if ready to bind and gag him and lash him to the main mast.

"What we do," Admiral Polly said quietly but with an undertone of menace, "is to not be alertin' the whole guard post and harbor watch to our presence by shoutin'. We be stealthed t'sight, not t'hearin'. Ye be lucky the wind be comin' from the shore an' not toward it."

The Ship's energies calmed, but the warning was clear. Maintain the quiet. This was a sneak and grab mission, if that was still possible.

Gilius watched as everybody opted for the tower assault option.
"I don't particularly like that there choice. Why risk an unnecessary confrontation that there could go wrong when we can avoid it ? The climbin' o' the wall on our way back sure was the weak spot o' me strategy, but maybe we could 'ave figured somethin' out like with some rope ladder or somethin' rather than rushin' fer the tower ?
Oh well, maybe I be paranoid fer nothin' ! Surely, things will go smooth an' sail at the tower, 'opefully..."

Gilius then goes and takes the remaining 2 stakes and the holy water, then joins the others readying to board the Denuvo when the time is right...

[ OMG... My sincerest apologies to everyone and especially to bjgamer. :( I don't know if it's because I'm exhausted and somewhat absent-minded lately, but in a moment of senility when composing my text, my mind did not connect that my character should not be "shouting" onboard a ship sailing in stealth mode in the night. I am surprised at myself for having lost sight of this very obvious detail. ]

Please, let's not take this too seriously. No worries, Me Heartie. Your GM isn't upset at all. Actually, I should have thanked you for another tutorial example. Polly reacted to a post and showed that she isn't some patsy parrot, even tho she's been relatively easy-going so far. This is the training run for far more dangerous waters, so to speak.

So thank you, Cap'n Barfdeck Rummyfangs, for another good tutorial example - think about the setting when you compose your posts. Sometimes the dice won't save you.

Oh, and the GM isn't really trying to kill you ... it just may seem that way sometimes. :p
Now let's have fun.

IMO players' mistakes add more interesting or funnier consequences than just random dice-rolls, so I like that they can happen ;P
In this case it could have been fatal for the mission, though, so I can understand why the GM fixed it. Maybe you'd deserve a penalty for another check tho hihi.

You are right. I took my error too much to heart. I'll probably laugh about this in a couple of days. xD And like you said, it's a good tutorial example. ;)

This is so true! :) Players mistakes is part of the fun too, I agree! I think on the spot, I couldn't believe I made such a silly mistake and felt bad about it. Then I went to bed. Now it's early morning, on my way to work and I am happy I read your post because it gave me a better perspective. So, thank you! ;)