Day 26 — My sailor

KahuPachinkoRyutoOona Katoa

Chapter summary

The Lively Lady serves as bait in a multinational trap for a Cathayan ironclad—and ends up inside the assault.

Connections

Session notes

We spend a day frolicking and mercatiling. Ryuto orders a Wand of Tea from a remote amazon merchant. It will arrive next time we’re here. But now must go be bait.

The contessa wants to come with us. She is aware of the dangers. We also have a representative from the expedition, Sabrina Spellman. The Albion fleet goes off in some direction. We’ve been told that the General That Pacifies Barbarians is one day to the north and we should direct them towards the elephant isles and we should survive for a few hours. We’ll be able to sail downwind for our escape.

The two Albion frigates sail east for some reason. There’s some warning shots from the migrant fleet as a canoe from Serpent’s Repose approaches us. It’s a canoe full of boggarts. The canoe is led by Polly who wants to join us. We told them our home is their home.

We stock enough ramen for the boggarts who will join us on the ship. The Eucretes house is one of the Jianti and they are trying everything to stay alive and win the house wars. Captain Jackdoe is not enamored with the idea but we do need additional crew. He is happy if they work only for room and board. Polly and crew have now joined the crew of the lively lady. There are 11 boggarts + polly. A dozen boggarts.

Ryuto prepares the obscuring mists for the day in case it’s needed. Pachinko is going to prepare a dinghy with explosives and gundpowder as a deterrent. He attaches a remote detonation mechanism to it.

There’s the ironclad on the horizon. It’s coming towards us. It’s far enough away. At a distance of 5km, Kahu senses a sense of doom. Now it’s time to start running away to the west. We reach the maximum speed of 11 knots. We’re running high. The captain is under pressure and his navigation is not enough but Oona encourages him.

We deploy an illusory dinghy that looks just like the real one. The ironclad sails just over it. The ironclad fires a warning shot.

The captain is in disarray but Kahu shakes him into competence again. We’re one knot faster and we should be able to survive the two hours. Now it’s time to release our bomb boat. The bomb boat does not seem to do much as it explodes against the hull.

Sabrina has a backup plan. She will try to find a distraction for the last mile. She shoots up a blue and green firework.

90min pass and the ironclad is 1km away. Their guns are trained on us.

We send a message threatening that they will regret attacking us. They are confused for a moment and we end up gaining 15min of time.

Another ship is approaching from the west. It got winds like a bird. It has so many sails and it’s being propelled by its own wind source. A varangian wind jammer says captain Jack Doe. It races past us. It shoots at the ironclad to get its attention and then uses its speed to distract the ironclad. We continue running in our original course.

We start throwing stuff overboard to lower our weight and increase our speed. The ironclad is confusing because it doesn’t know whether to pursue the wind jammer. They’re off by 500m. We’re starting to enter the rough zone of the destination. Sabrina fires a red and orange firework and tells us we have to last 30min.

Pachinko goes down the hull and talks to one of the boggarts who offers to do blood magic to summon a distraction. We get the blood from the contessa as it’s the noblest of blood. Ryuto provides fog cover for the ritual. A water spout appears outside of our ship and heads towards the ironclad. It delays them for 30min as they have to move around and back.

Now we hear shouts in the distance to the west. A squadron of Carolingians ships of the line are arranged in a line behind us. The sense of doom of Kahu tenfolds as we drive our ship towards the line of Carolingians. We turn north to avoid the incoming barrage. A new sun rises on the west. A person flies in the air between the top masts of the Carolingian ships. Captain Jackdoe says it’s Saint Theresa, the saint of Epiphany. Fire has been exchanged. The shots of the carolingian are on target but none of them are able to penetrate the hull of the ironclad. The ironclad is missing because of the blinding light.

Polly is scared of blood magic as from the East, an orb in the water appears. A big portal. 20m across. The Albian fleet pops out of the blood portal and drops into the water. It’s from the salamanders that stole it from the boggarts. The albian fleet now has an angle on the exposed side of the ironclad but it’s still not enough to damage the ironclad.

At this point, Sabrina says it’s time and there’s fireworks from all the ships. Polly is now wailing as black holes appear in the iron clad and all the ships and we go through the hole. Kahu emerges prone as he pukes from the travel.

We emerge into a big combat happening with dragons on the deck.

Initiatives:

Kahu 30
Ryuto 24
Pachinko 15
Oona 13

The dragons have fire sticks. They use them to trigger fireballs and then move to attack with swords. After three fireballs, Kahu is down temporarily but everyone else is still fighting.

We manage to kill all three dragons but we’re battered and bruised.

Overall on the deck, the dragons are dying as the strike force is a coordinated menace. The captain’s quarters is where the last stand is happening.

Ryuto is going to fireball everyone in the room.

A green bolt of retaliation zaps out of the captain’s quarter. The first soldiers outside the room drop dead. The admiral is down and the captain is asking for a ceasefire to ensure the emissary is escorted back to their territory. The officers on our side stand down and the battle dies down.

Captain Long Wei appears and Ryuto hides using his wand. He is now a giant Scorpionbeetle.

The emissary in red robes appears, looks like Anna Taylor Joy.