Sit down.
Let me tell you a tale.
It starts with the sky above the dark Caribbean that doesn't wake, it bleeds.
A bruise violent dawn fractures over the horizon.
Clutching the black ribs of the Poseidon's rage, where she sits, anchored off the coast of Havana, like a waiting vulture.
Through the sulphurous morning mist, a lone dinghy cuts silently across the glass-flat sea.
A single lantern, sickly and green, swings from its bow, casting a grotesque shadow across the water.
There are three hooded figures in there.
They pull oars with mechanical and rhythmic finality.
Between them lies a man blindfolded, gagged, and bound in a heavy hemp rope.
They hoist him upward and load him over the gumwale into the damp air.
falls like a sack of lines on the deck.
Hey everybody, this is Nick here from Dead Letter Bureau, and today we are going to be playing Pirate Borg, the sinking of Cathagon, written by JBC Perry and illustrated by
Stratton.
I'm joined by some illustrious folks.
If you guys want to introduce yourselves, please do.
Jordan, over to you.
Howdy everyone.
Uh this is Jordan from Dead Letter Bureau, currently walking the plank today.
I'm Nathan, I'm from RPG Reanimators, and I am Sweltering with Grog.
And I'm Lex, also from RPG Reanimators, and also coincidentally sweltering from Grog.
Hey, I'm Patrick.
I uh am hanging out.
Well, cool, guys.
We are going to jump right in.
Below deck, the air is overcrowded with bunks thick, and the stench of cheap rum, stale sweat, damp wool invades your nose.
You had first watch, and your eyes are still burning from the salt crust when the heavy metallic thud of boots and sudden sharp commotion overhead cuts through the groaning
ship's timbers.
You four rise together and climb a slick ladder toward the morning light.
As each of you step out into the brine slicked wood of the main deck, the world narrows and you smell wet gunpowder.
As you come out, each of you, what does the camera see?
Alright.
Scrags will be the first out into the sun.
His big cavalier hat casting a nice shadow over his scrawny, like almost emaciated looking body.
He's smacking his lips with a wet cough underneath.
He's got that sort of like angry thinness with a a bit of a grog belly underneath.
And uh he just looks like he's a a bucket of fun, but he's got a nice machete at his side.
Isabel stumps up the short ladder behind Scrags, wearing just an incredibly fine silk coat.
Woolen trousers, but beneath those trousers are uh two peg legs.
Uh Isabel appears to be maybe fifteen or so, and would look fairly out of place if it weren't for the tricorn and three flintlock pistols bandoliered across her chest.
Deadliest sin.
Like the rising of this uh deep tattoo.
emerging from the bulbous belly of Babida Berica crests over the the deck of his ship.
He wears a coat long and dragging across the ground, but nothing could cover the majesty that is his belly like a gunnel ball.
He look like a man but he hunger
like a corpse's mouth smell foul and uh rank.
No one dare to stand in front of you.
Don't get too close.
Yeah.
As Babida is majestically announcing his presence and making his way up, you see that this long cloak is kind of going behind him and down still into the hatch.
Then all of a sudden there is an unceremonious GET THE FUCK OUT!
And you see it kind of pfft up, back out, before there is a lot of cursing and thump, zump, as a wiry yellow-toothed man who got his name through no small similarity, uh Jerry
Ratskull Robinson, is the ship's local philosopher.
And it takes me a little while in order to get all the way up due to this peg leg that's definitely not a musket.
Don't know why everyone keeps suspecting it's a musket.
I just really like cleaning my rifle.
Ugh.
Uh I had to sell my damn hat in order to afford a fucking flintmark pistol, but you know, it's a way of a buccaneer.
Holding up my philosophical text that I definitely know how to read to shade my eyes against the
Waxy son in this guy.
I'm sorry, Cherry, that's very rough on a on a leather.
I'm so sorry about that.
Oh my mistake, sir.
And then as the peg leg like punctures right down on it, you can see it leave a crease as he walks to another side of the ship.
You come out on the deck, and it is lively.
You see first the captain.
His name is
Will Oldham, the prince.
And he is laughing up a storm, and the men are laughing with him.
And you look around and start to see why.
He has just a massive brute of a pirate standing next to him.
And over that pirate's shoulder is a older man with his bare ass out, and other pirates are going up and slapping it and laughing.
Who's the ass?
Usually he goes in a barrel first, but you know.
Yeah.
The captain says, well, hello.
It's nice of you to wake up and see what we've got going on.
A little party.
Lover party.
This here is what was his name again?
Another pirate comes in.
Is Quintis or Quintus or something?
Is Quintus?
From Oxford?
Yes, Oxford.
And you know what we do to the king's men here on Poseidon's Rage?
And he points at a pirate.
And the pirate says, We kick their arse!
And he says, We kick their arse.
Now, I'm glad we're all up here.
And I have you all in one place, because well, Quintus here brought us a a gift.
Can anybody guess what that gift may be?
Gold?
Well.
It's a good thought, brat.
It's another good thought, Salty.
And ask.
Yes, most likely.
Uh Isabel, do you have anything you would like to say?
Ash.
Uh
Ash.
No, it's Ash.
You gotta work on your accent there, love.
Ash.
No, it is a map.
What's great?
Pirate tale doesn't start with a map.
I shouldn't Holds it up and it's it's a it's a sizable map.
Well drawn, very interesting, and he holds it up for just the briefest second and then closes it and deftly folds it and puts it in his coat.
And he is dressed as a naval admiral for the King's
Navy and his admiral hat, large and looming in red, has a shot bullet hole straight through the middle of it that's circled with black ink, and all over it is just graffiti
that somebody inked all over.
And he just wears his dirty, filthy Admiral.
He maybe he was an admiral, or maybe he stripped it, it's hard to tell.
And he lasts is it well.
We have a bit of old King George with us today.
And oh he points to you, Babida.
What do we say to Old King George when we have him on our ship?
I hope you like the deep He hopes he likes the deep.
Indeed.
We do say that.
Okay.
Well, he spins the guy around the guards dear God, this is
Unbecoming of any gentleman, what have you done to me?
And he looks like he's brick beat red in the sun.
He is old, he's probably in his fifties, which at that time probably looked like he was in his seventies, and snot is coming out of his nose like he had been sobbing at some point.
And he says, We will see what he thinks of the deep.
And my friends, if the wave is the only true law, what right does old King George have over us?
Salty, what do you say?
None.
Yes, spoken well and with clarity and a pithy pithy attitude.
I do appreciate that about you, Salty.
No problem, Captain.
Okay.
Now one syllable at the time.
He walks over to Quintus's ass cheeks and squeezes them together, and he says, And if old King George's pale white ars were right in front of us to boot, what would we do with that
ars, ratskull?
Wah, suppose we boot it, sir?
Right there.
You heard the man.
And he does a high kick up and kicks the man in the ass.
Whoa, I got it right.
Fuck yeah.
Yes.
Now, what do you think, Isabel?
Would we make old King George's man a prisoner and show him what it's like to be under his liege?
Or, well, would we uh give him the same mercy we give a stowaway rat?
No mercy.
Yeah, the the
Deck erupts No mercy No mercy and you hear Quintus Although in this case that implies we're taking him prisoner, right?
Did you question the captain Are you are you a mercy was the killing him, right?
No mercy needs no mercy.
Right.
But you said It's about your legal ease you're talking circles around me.
Do you want me to throw him overboard or would you like to chain him up and keep him on the boat?
Give it to me straight.
Pretty big word.
I'm going to take offense if you don't clarify.
Ransom him.
Oh aye.
We ransom him.
Okay.
Well, what do you think?
Quintus?
Quintus.
Just leave me alone.
And you look out and you see the rest of your crew.
There are only five other sailors, the captain and his first mate.
And behind him is that first mate, which you've grown accustomed to.
But he is or excuse me.
They are a deep one.
And they are a little unsettling to be around at first.
Their face kind of has this nightmarish anatomy.
And at a distance, their mouth looks humanoid, but when they speak or feed, eat, uh, it almost looks like a visage of a lamprey sucking on things.
And even when it speaks, and the crew avoids the first mate.
He's too beautiful.
This is beautiful.
Sits about five feet high, has gills, needs to jump in the water every once in a while, and you know the first mate as Mehekta.
And Mehekta leans in and whispers something to the captain.
The captain says, Well, I must retire to my quarters to pour over this map.
And he walks toward the small captain's cabin, and Mehekta follows.
And then
The man behind the wheels he didn't tell us which bearing to take.
You know where we're going, Babida.
I I know the way.
uh which way?
Is it one of those follow your heart type things?
I hate those.
Yeah.
No, it's I've never had a heart.
Yeah, exactly.
Well my fact she says that I know the way and am prone to getting lost.
So I don't know how you want me to fuck this up.
Babida and Isabel both give me a presence roll.
It's the DR 14?
It's 12, always 12, basically, but it's contested between you two, so whoever's higher.
And 18.
Yeah, you're both like that way.
uh his eyes go cross for a single I'll just wait for the captain.
We'll just let the wind take us.
And you are left on the deck to have conversation that you may.
And Quintus is laying on the side.
They don't even bother to tie him up anymore, probably.
He's just like sitting there crying.
you see him try to muster himself through some deep breathing and the sobs come through, so he's like From the hands.
Right, but Isabel, were you inferring that it would be a mercy to kill him or a mercy to let him live?
Because you could torture the living fuck out of him, and that doesn't seem like much of a mercy to me.
But Well the captain the captain said the captain said
Do we give him the same mercy as we give a rat we find in the hold?
And I know we kill those rats.
uh Well, technically we eat Right.
You gotta make use of it somehow.
So do we eat him?
uh God eat him because that's not a rat.
Got it.
So well, if we picked mercy, we could eat him.
Right, right, right, yeah.
So no mercy.
Does that just mean keep kicking him in the ass till it falls off or something?
I didn't really know, so I suggested we ransom him.
Hmm.
These negatives are very confusing.
Yeah, we should probably revisit some of the ship motto's.
Yeah, we've had a few just trying to mon for size, but uh, you know, some a little better than others, I gotta say.
What was our last one?
Parlay or something.
It's awful.
It's parlay time.
I think was my suggestion.
uh When you get too many modifiers, you are making me think, and I am not liking to be thinking.
Well speaking of thinking, um maybe we uh is since we've picked no mercy, let's let's squeeze the lad for as much information as we can get.
Like what's at the end of the map?
I can't stand getting another more uh one more X.
You follow these things, you just find X's.
I hate it!
And always in the red.
Right?
Well, it's traumatic, isn't it?
What else do you expect?
Mauve?
Who the fuck wants to find a mauve X?
you want another letter?
Let's find the mauve U.
That it doesn't have the same ring to it, does it now?
What about tea for treasure?
Oh now that's a good one.
I would search for a gold tea.
Don't be telling us it's an X.
We don't like X's.
So honestly, the sooner that you can just lead us straight to the treasure, the less you're gonna be on this boat, the less captain's gonna have to torture you.
Your ass is looking pretty sore already.
Like I I don't know.
He seems into it, so we don't judge too much around here.
But uh juicy eyes.
It is quite supple, I must say so myself.
dear God.
jeez.
A lot of us have peg legs.
You don't want us kicking with with those up in there, so I I sincerely recommend complying.
Have you ever had an ice splinter?
No, no, I've had none of the sort.
Just give give me a second to just to compose myself.
Uh you s sprung me away in the night and have haven't had a week of sleep.
Well no, we were sleeping, so we did no springing of the sort.
And I'm just telling you, the captain is gonna come out of his cabin.
Oh, I gotta work on the obliteration there.
Uh any minute now.
So if you don't give us an answer, then he's gonna kick your ass more.
So it's in your best interest.
Y y you follow?
You follow mate?
Yeah, gimme a presence.
Fuck ye.
Happen to have a plus four in that for some fucking reason.
What?
Rascals got it.
Um yeah, so that's uh fifteen.
Oh, okay.
Okay well I just here doing my part for the crown and I was taken in the night and yes I had the map I was doing some research at Oxford.
Are we in Oxford?
No, we're in the ocean.
I d I you've never heard of Oxford, I see.
Okay.
I was going to a place that academics and philosophers go, and I was pulling up old paper, like parchment, and uh studying it.
My studies led me here.
Well, those are some shitty studies then.
It shouldn't have led you here.
It's just bad.
Jesus Jesus Christ.
The study should have had some practical advice about, you know, avoiding getting captured by pirates and the like.
If this Oxford doesn't sound worth a shit.
Apparently it's not.
It's not.
Ooh, I don't know why you took me.
You took me and took my map.
A map is what I had.
What what do you want from me?
Uh the directions from the map, any any findings, interpretations hen thereforth would be nice.
Why did you have the map?
You're going to see to my safety.
We all all just look at each other like Everyone gets a little more diagonal, let's say that.
I d I I I don't know what that means, and I'm so scared.
But we we can do our best to mitigate the likelihood of future harm to your ass there, if
You you can help us out of it.
So it could be worse.
We're trying to make it not that much more worse.
Isabella's preaching no mercy, which is actually good for you, it turns out.
Which which might mean it's anything short of eating you, by my understanding.
By my reckon that eating is a mercy.
So anything less than that is on the menu, technically.
Uh so you know, we we can try to skip over some of the more grisly bits.
If you just tell us where the fuck to go.
Ratzko knows what I like.
Nope.
Yeah, you don't want him back back there.
I'm just telling you.
I'm the most polite on this fucking boat, right?
So come on.
That's my that's my interrogation technique.
Come on.
Give him that.
Let me stand.
He stands up and straightens himself out and then pulls up the flap.
of his pajamas to cover his ass and buttons it.
Well I I was sent by the Crown to to find uh a city.
A city it's called well it's called Cathagos.
El Dorito?
sorry.
Well uh Cathagan.
I was doing my studies and I think I found its location and I came here months ago and
I met some people who had been there, and they helped me map out the city proper.
you've been there?
I myself have not, but they sent a initial excursion, and I was waiting for the second one to come back with the things that I required.
I it's a a a ship of uh mostly Spanish sailors.
They were they were the black vengeance, I believe.
It was a pretty penny, but the crown is willing to pay.
What was their last heading?
Well, it was northeast from Havana, and he points to where Havana is.
And when were you expecting them back?
Three weeks.
So all we have to do is intercept.
Yeah, yeah.
I think I think you're right, Isabel.
Uh I don't I don't know that those Spaniards are coming back.
Uh what kind of you said it's the second expedition?
What did the first one bring back?
Like what was loot, lad?
Th there was no loot, but they confirmed that the city is real and they mapped out what they could see from afar.
So that their map i th is that a map to the city or of the city?
'Cause there's a very important distinction in there.
What can I call you, sir?
My name is Quintus.
Mr.
Skull's fine.
Mr Skrull.
Mr Skull, it is it is indeed both.
There's the headings from Havana.
On one side and on the other side it is the map of the city.
Proper.
Convenient.
this has been 'cause this has been twenty two years of my life's work.
It's not a mere convenience.
What a waste.
And you didn't uh So you spent two centuries of your life making a double sided map.
You didn't happen to make any redundant copies of it, did ya?
Cause
That seems like a terrible lack of foresight on one's part.
there are copies and I the the crown has them.
King George himself is interested in this venture.
This is you in fact are not merely impeding me, you're impeding the King of England.
And he says and puffs his chest out.
And you would know that Bill Oldham, the prince, your captain, is he absolutely hates the king and is a
revolutionary, some might say, and his moniker the prince comes from people relating him to Robin Hood.
Well orders of magnitude are of no issue here, I see, and um heh also, when we are taking this place, we are giving it a new name, so its own name is of little consequence.
I am s sorry, but he looks at the ship you and over your head if you think that you can do anything in this city.
Explain yourself.
This is not a mere human city.
This city is built long ago by an ancient civilization.
Some people even say a civilization that came from the stars.
I believe that, and he leans in close, assuming that you would know this, the Atlintean liturgies reside here.
And with them comes a legendary, reality-warping power.
You're saying a few words I am needing you for to say more words about that.
I do think I said quite a few words, but this Atlantian liturgis the Atlantian liturgis, sorry, I'm so scared.
I I think the problem is is the length.
Use more words but smaller Okay.
Let me think here.
Is it a liturgy, a book?
Yes, uh it would I believe it is a book, yes.
So we're looking for a book.
Why you gotta say it like that?
The words carry importance.
You keep talking like this, I'm going to take it as a sign of great disrespect.
Okay.
Well I d just tell me how to fucking talk.
I'm so scared Okay, okay.
Ratskall, Ratskal, why are you why are you letting them speak to me this like this way?
Because you didn't answer my fucking question, right?
Like I just asked you to tell me where the fucking city was, and then you you go to look over my shoulder here.
I'm the most fucking personable person here.
So That's definitely true.
Yeah.
That it's Todd.
I believe it they call it the the new world.
The Yucatan, maybe.
I don't I don't know, but I I can the map will get you there and your captain has it.
Like d
Do not worry, you will get there, but it is what you will find there.
I it is a city of disgusting very disgusting salty.
I saw that.
Cannot focus while you are picking your nose.
Okay.
I don't see how I'm part of this interrogation.
Jeez, I I
He looks the city.
You're saying there's disgusting people in the city?
That sounds like our kind of place.
And reality warping physics to make our greatest dreams come true.
So I'm not seeing a downside here.
I don't think he said that last bit, but I'm here for it.
Reality warping, which means wish-granting manifestation.
I'm pretty sure.
It's based on this book.
I say holding it clearly upside down.
It's like, yeah.
Sir, that is that is uh that's Hegel.
Not okay.
Okay.
Bless you.
When we get there Do you need to do caigles?
I've done plenty the past twenty-four hours.
When we get there, there will be there is a cult.
I think they're they refer to themselves or I've come to refer them to them as the wretched that are none too friendly to any interlopers.
They were the first to discover the the city after it emerged from the water.
Dangerous.
Well, I don't know.
I don't mean to diminish your powers of observation, but we're pretty fucking dangerous ourselves.
So if you're so worried about this rat shit called, then why should we?
Right?
We fuck you up, so we're probably stronger than them.
Real thing you have said this entire time, please explain yourselves.
But remember, many small words.
And explaining and explaining and explaining and expla I'll do better.
Here's what I'll say it is dangerous.
There is treasure that is completely alien to anything you've ever seen, and the crown has a keen interest in it, and that is why I'm here.
And I believe you're going to end up taking me there anyway.
And if you're lucky Hopefully in one piece, yeah.
The the more answers we get, the more likely it is just the one piece.
ah Speaking speaking of the crown, who will uh and this is a question that Isabel is directing to this fellow.
Who will miss you?
Well my beautiful wife, Dorothy and And how much will she pay to have you back?
She would pay a king's ransom.
No, I mean like how many pieces?
I mean we have an estate that she could leverage.
Um a number.
We don't talk in vagaries.
What currency do you you have here?
You have silver, correct?
I believe.
I mean it would be a hundred thousand silver.
Well only a hundred fucking silver?
Thousand What is it a hundred or a thousand?
god, god.
Magnitude.
We we keep talking about orders of magnitude, Redskill.
We talked about this many times.
It's zeros.
It doesn't sound like much, but it is a lot.
It it means a lot.
Right, right, right.
As you say that, the cap the cabin door opens up and the captain comes out.
Alright, lads.
We know exactly where we're going, and it's straight to treasure.
Hooray!
I know the way.
Isabel Yes, yes, yes, you do know the way, but last time you gave us directions we ended up lost and
I'm going to use the map this time if it I you I trust you won't mutiny.
um one last question for Quenchas.
That Spanish ship, how many guns did it have?
I I I don't know much about ships.
Um there were six holes on each side.
The captain walks up and talks to the navigator.
He's like, Alright, we're going northeast, northwest, all right, and spins the wheel and catches the wind, and you are off.
Wait, which north with what which way are we going?
He did keep saying east, but I'm pretty sure the Yucatan's to the west.
I know where we're going.
Yeah.
It goes out past Havana, you lose the land, and then bears east.
And it's a few nights of sailing and traveling.
It's pretty clean water.
The Caribbean is beautiful, and you get into the deeper ocean and
It is a little rockier, but it's the the open sea.
The good kind of water, not polluted from the city.
Are you drinking seawater, Saltley?
Just a little.
Right.
You know, I don't mean for you.
I think that's why you got all that phlegm kind of fucking about in there.
You know.
I didn't realize you'd gotten your doctorate, Rapskill.
Of course I got a doctorate.
I killed him back in Havana.
Look, that guy's right here.
And diploma is fucking diploma right here.
It's the same book, yeah.
Yeah, as you're sailing, there are some goals that start to trail the ship.
Can somebody roll me a D6?
Three.
I'm sorry, this is a completely random aside, but yes, my book is actually someone's dissertation that I stole because I'm obsessed with philosophy.
I'm a philosopher.
And I carry a book with me at all times, so this is my doctorate of philosophy, is just reading air quotes out of this book from someone's dissertation on crustaceans.
I do notice it says philosophizer.
Well, perhaps one needs a title out of it.
That's how you know he knows what he's talking about.
Thank you, fist bump.
Yeah, as as you are talking and philosophizing on the deck, you see three seagulls that look w look rabid.
In a way and converts get they come down like and they come swinging at and you see the the ship surgeon, Mother Marrow, and she's standing there and a goal just comes up and
starts pecking and just tears her ear off.
And she's like Ow!
my god!
My ear And then the goal the other two come flying down.
Can somebody give me a D6 for initiative?
Five.
You guys all go first.
There's one goal on Mother Marrow's head pecking her ear off and two more streaming down towards the deck.
You guys choose who goes first in what order.
That's a good ear.
And he'll just pull this uh machete, runic insignia all over it, and walk over and take try and slice this thing in twain.
Yeah.
Go ahead, give me that strength roll.
Yeah.
Always looking for a twelve.
Well, uh an eighteen will do it, and a D6 of damage gets me two whole damage.
Hey, you're lucky.
These goals have two head points.
Just absolutely lops the head off and catches the chunk of ear out of it.
Maybe uh no, picks it up off the ground.
That's more his speed.
Picks it up.
You'll be right as rain in the moment.
Stick, stick.
You can stitch this back on You idiot, I'm the surgeon.
Who's gonna stitch it back on?
I can't do it to myself.
Very use a mirror Just don't don't put it on the wrong side.
Thank you.
Who's next?
Isabel is going to start blasting.
There's two gulls left.
I'll make attacks until either they're dead or I'm out of attacks.
How many attacks do you have again?
Three.
Dang.
So give me that presence.
it's presence, not agility?
It's present.
Yeah.
no.
Shoot.
She has a lot of guns, but can she use them?
They're mostly for show.
Yikes.
Yikes, yikes, yikes.
So here's the first one.
It's a seven.
Miss.
Here's the second one.
It's a nineteen.
So that's a hit.
For six damage.
Oof.
Um
And the third attack is a five, so it's a miss.
Yeah.
I can how where are you holding the third gun?
Is it like I can only imagine that you have an elaborate mechanism so that you can hold it in your mouth and like bite down to pull the trigger?
No, she drops them as she fires.
that's wasteful.
Yeah, but it's sick.
It's just like belt, belt, belt, boom.
But then she has to go pick them all up.
Yeah.
It takes a round to reload each of so I shoot and then I take three rounds to reload.
my god.
Well there's one goal left.
Right.
Babita, do you want this one?
Or should I just let old faithful rip?
You give it a try.
I will use whatever is left.
Alright then.
I just k hop and precariously balance on my right leg, the left whoops as I just go and sh
Yeah.
As I'm going to use my Gotmon Musket leg?
Tell me, does a twenty two uh happen to do it?
Yes.
Is that a crit some way?
Or you're gonna plus like a million to your presence.
I don't know.
The random character generator was kind and gave me a plus four to presence.
Oh so that is gonna be eight damage on the gull.
Is it just feathers?
Yes, yes.
There's two
Mist clouds and feathers falling down, and you have a meal out of one, uh that's still on the deck while the others are destroyed.
I will cast raise the dead on the the one without a head.
And you will land gracefully with all feathers intact or right on my shoulder, as if nothing is wrong.
Give me the spirit roll.
I don't have to do that.
I'm not a pussy.
No you no role is required.
really?
Just in that romantic.
Yeah.
really?
What do you name your your scavenging seagull?
Big neck for the head on it.
Big neck.
So it doesn't make a sound, it's just like this like headless gold It is quiet just the way I like.
It tries to call it honk if it like really works at it.
A little spurda spurta blood, spurter blood.
Right.
There are eternal liquids floating this way and that.
I was going to eat that.
You have the headslock.
You can have the odd there's.
This one is mine.
I'll stick it on like a lollipop.
Go fuck.
Yeah.
Smooth sailing for some time again.
Anybody who's above deck typically give me a presence.
I went downstairs to polish my rifle.
Well these other chuckle fucks are upstairs.
Yeah.
Where did that shot come from?
I fail.
Okay.
Just looking for a twelve.
Yeah, I know.
Okay.
Have a natural.
Ooh.
That seems a pretty good isn't our presence guy downstairs.
What did you get, Bibida?
A natural twin.
Well well.
Bibida the sea as it flies up and
Splash your face here and there.
I'm loving it.
Yeah.
And ahead you spot a strange movement under the water.
And as you get close with a natural 20, you pick it out right away.
It is coral.
It's a massive coral reef that you are headed full wind ahead towards.
Watch out, you stupid beaches.
Yeah.
The the guy in the the nest the or sorry, yeah.
What do they call those things?
um You're having the perspective and you're waiting for me to see it.
Yeah, his name's Gallows Gideon and he's like, I'm so sorry.
There's something I had He forgot his glasses.
He was polishing his rifle.
He was polished his rifle up there.
Yeah, and there is a jagged reef in
You see the man at the helm flip the wheel trying to get the sails to turn around and the captain says Lower the sails Oh who's up to help?
Yeah Sc Scrags He's grabbing ropes, pulling ropes.
Give me an agility.
He's strong.
He's not smart.
agility.
Oh no.
Oh you know what?
Actually, yeah, let's give strength.
Yeah, yeah.
It doesn't matter, I would say, as he gets uh a a four.
With the strength.
You're trying and trying and like you get your ar own hand tangled up and get drunk like with some of it.
Uh the sails are not coming down.
Can Isabel help?
Oh, it wasn't.
Of course, that in the bat.
Uh natural one on agility.
Okay.
Isabel takes two steps and one of her two peg legs uh actually gets caught in a rope.
Like it just winds around it as it's going past and just zp.
Yeah, okay.
I am not meaning to be rude about this, but how many meat legs do we have amongst us?
Not many.
I have some well as I pulled across the deck.
I believe several legs were considered a mercy, whenever we ran out of supplies.
Okay.
Uh It's Isabel, roll me a D twenty.
Thirteen.
Okay.
Times ten, that's how many feet you're thrown off the ship into the water.
That is a long way.
130 feet.
And can you swim with peg legs?
I hope you have upper body strength.
You you can try.
Um Splash Isabelle's in the water.
Uh anybody el Rat Skull, are you emerging?
Yeah, I've emerged.
Uh it's a good thing I cleaned my rifle.
Can I attempt to shoot the rope that is keeping the sails suspended?
To try and drop them post haste.
Yeah.
I imagine you just stick your leg out of the like cabin quarter like the little pore.
Yeah, roll that presence.
That is an eighteen?
Oof.
It phrase and the sails drop and the ship slows down.
It's still going quick towards the reef.
It hits it.
Can somebody roll me a D eight?
Wow.
Yeah.
And so there the hole does a negative two for armor, so it just scratches a little bit on this coral and goes We d we dunk off of it.
We hear tiger screech sound effects for some reason.
The captain comes out and he says Ratskull, Ratzko.
Up top.
I know I know it's a bit hard for you to
accessibility of the ship is is wanting, but please, can you Isabel just gave me a wicked idea.
And I wanna try to rope and fling myself up to the gross nest.
Yeah, gimme an agility.
good, I have a minus one in that.
Good, because you wanna roll low.
Apparently.
That's what I learned.
so that's a ten total.
Yeah, you you're able it's cruising up there.
It's the brakes that don't work.
And you just smash right into the crow's nest and hit your head.
So you're gonna take a minus two on any presence checks now, because you are concussed.
And the captain's like oh Rat, what dear god you guys.
Uh i where is Isabel?
That way, sir.
She's up bolt.
Big neck has just taken between his two flappy feet the freight end of one of these ropes and it started to fly out towards Isabel's location.
Nice.
How does he know which way he's going?
You really have to give him one direction from the beginning, and if that is not working well then call it all off.
But how does he hear the direction though?
Well i it's more of a I
I release him in that way.
Ah, okay, alright.
I like how you explain yourself to Rascal.
You're shouting up at him.
He's like, how'd that happen?
But you are not quite getting it, but I promise it is working.
We have a system.
How does it know to drop the rope?
Well, it's ever so gently angled into the surf, and so it is going to crash at one point or another.
I am hoping that my direction is good enough.
And and hypothetically, if there was a leopard shock in the way between Isabel and I grabbed the rope.
Super super fucked.
No reason for me to ask that, but uh Yeah, you grab the rope and it's like the s this the tail of the scorpion who rides the back on the what the whatever animal and the the goal
the headless ghoul sits on your back in an eerie manner.
You feel its little claws kinda
Giving you little birdie massage and you are pulled up to the ship.
Roll agility or be hurled to the other side.
Yes, he no, you're good.
You get on and you're back on and the captain says, Okay, we have to take it easy.
I'll take the helm.
And he grabs it and yells up, Rat, please, guide us through the coral.
All right, sir.
How's the seventeen do ya?
It does me quite well.
You start
to cruise through it and you're you know deftly going around from up there the coral is strange it's it's like it gives a depth to the ocean that is deceiving which is probably
why you didn't see it has an unnatural shade and it kind of this amethyst glow presents itself every once in a while and as you're drifting through it slowly you know cat been
oldem is shouting
orders up to the two up top to find the way through, but you start to get a little hypnotized by this from up there.
Can both of you make a spirit roll?
That's Ratskull and who else?
Yeah, who went up with Ratskill.
Did anyone?
Anyone?
I don't think so.
So that means this is either pretty good or pretty bad, because that's a four.
Ratskill gussed himself I wasn't inclined.
Yeah.
The concussions making the patterns look very enticing.
So sleepy.
Yeah.
You are looking down at this and the geometry of it is just wrong.
You are expecting static coral, but it feels like it moves ev in your peripheral vision every time you scan over it and it's throwing you for a loop.
Your eyes start to water looking at it and you get vertigo.
And give me a toughness.
This feels somewhat important.
Don't fuck me over, Dice.
I like this character.
Okay, alright.
That is a 19 with the plus one.
You don't pass out and fall over out of the crow's nest, but you have to sit down and avoid looking at it.
You will not be able to guide the ship anymore.
The captain's like, Rut!
Hey!
As you scrape into some coral.
So it's it's in my head.
I can close my eyes and still say it.
It's not in the ocean, it's around us.
There's nothing we can do.
It's just getting consumed.
Oh Christ.
Is Rax come taking ash?
He's got the coral madness, sir.
No, we don't we don't want to start more rumours, Salty I There's no madness.
Okay, uh who who's going up there?
Isabel will go.
With two peg legs.
Isabel, please, can you
See if Rat's okay and guide us through this maze.
so yeah, Isabel uh scuttles up the rigging.
That is what a thing to watch, Isabel.
Probably.
Your upper body strength.
Something.
Okay.
Okay, Isabel, you see this quarrel.
Can you give me a presence roll?
It's presence, not spirit, right?
Presence to guide the ship.
That's a six, so I do in fact know the way.
Yep.
Yeah.
Onward.
Quickest way is a straight line, right?
Dead ahead.
Yeah.
Okay.
And he pushes forward.
Now, Isabel, as you're looking down at this coral, the same thing starts to happen to you.
You feel like you have vertigo.
Give me a spirit roll.
I have a minus three to this.
It's the human minimum.
You got a checking like you were going to have some advantage if it was spirit.
It's really just so that you didn't fall into a trench.
Uh I collapse.
Okay.
So you rolled a thirteen?
I did, which minus three is ten.
Yeah.
You wait, you know what, actually, this might be a great time.
Well, I should have done it for crashing the ship, but I'm gonna spend an omen.
devil's luck.
Yeah.
What do you you're gonna re-roll or are you going to just If I give it minus four DR, I succeed, right?
Do it.
Uh or do you can you only do that before you roll?
What are the rules here?
It doesn't say.
Let's just have fun.
Yeah.
You you know, you start to feel it.
And the for you it's almost like a dread that comes over you.
It just is gone and it's coral and you see the path forward.
When you use your devil's luck, how do you call on that?
I think that uh yeah, Isabel is getting hypnotized by the by the coral and begins to sway and actually uh catches her palm on a splinter on the edge of the crow's nest.
It's like ow, shit.
So she she gets lucky.
Yeah.
You look down it it is deep and the nurse surgeon
Missing an ear, so on your own for this one.
She picks it out with her teeth.
In rat school, Isabella's up here with you now.
The funniest choice for a navigator.
Okay.
Silent.
He's silent, but he's Oh sorry.
Sorry, Lex.
Sorry.
I forgot how to speak.
I just there's tears running down my eyes.
Do you say it?
I slap him.
Oh fuck, that's not very nice.
I'm good class, do you know?
What?
Did that cure my concussion?
It snaps you out of it.
Yeah.
Yeah, do you wanna try navigating again?
Right.
Well fucking hell.
I she's gonna lead us into fucking coral again, so yeah, why not?
Jesus Christ.
Yeah.
That's a Jesus Christ.
Uh so yeah, if I'm only have a plus two to presence, that's a twenty-one.
Yeah.
I'm gonna keep this d20.
Thank you.
Um Isabel, you you got rat back on track.
I appreciate it.
Just stay up there, I don't want to make you climb down again.
And you navigate through this coral.
Salty and Babida, what are you doing as the ship is trying to get through this maze?
Please.
I am it trying to use a big neck for to navigate, which I'm not realizing that eyes are a fairly important component of the seeing.
And the the deciding, but perhaps there is like a smelling that can still happen from the neck hole.
Yeah, yeah.
So you want the bird to fly in front of you and smell?
Big neck is flying in front and is through the neck hole, and perhaps that is providing some idea as of left or as of right as which one.
The way to go.
Mechanically useless.
Uh, and but that is what they are always telling me.
Yeah, it's just making everybody uneasy.
It just sounds like a middle-aged man is snoring at all hours of day and night.
And I think Scraggs is just staring into the water at this like coral stuff.
He's going for that high, baby.
Okay, Scraggs.
As you stare into it, you also notice that the first mate is swimming alongside the boat through the coral on the side of the ship.
That trimmy person.
Yeah.
And he's just swimming along.
And it's common for him to swim beside the boat sometimes, but you would think with this hypnotic coral it's Yeah.
I i I mean Scraggs is no stranger to swimming alongside the ship, you know, the the mood strikes him, but nothing as beautiful as Mahekta's stuff.
Like it is there's a purity to be admired with them, like if only.
They're but for the grace of Dagon Go I.
Yeah, it indeed.
Yeah, Mahekta he is like a dolphin, or sorry.
They are like a dolphin almost, like it it is something to behold.
But go ahead and give me that spirit check for looking at that coral.
Yeah, I I I may have rolled that and I I'm pretty sure I have a negative.
So five?
Five's good, right?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, five's great.
Um you start to look into it in where Isabel felt some despair, Ratzgull felt confusion.
You feel an overwhelming sense of oneness with the sea.
And the corals will inviting you to swim with it.
Like you and Mahekta could swim with this together.
Go ahead and give me toughness if you want to resist this.
He doesn't want to resist it.
Finally.
I can I can do it!
I finally today is the day I show him up.
Ha!
Does the uh you know the d the dive where your arms are right out.
Please don't dive right into a coral.
Swan dive.
I'm doing it!
I'm cor just breaks his neck immediately.
Yeah, give me an agility roll to keep up with the ship as you swim.
And are you transforming?
Yeah, yeah.
Once he hits the water, the uh the illusion
that he has two legs goes away.
It it's strange how he never seems to kick Quintus's ass.
Maybe.
He's always slapping.
And it's it's because he in fact only has the tail.
And uh I think it's that same kind of like scrawny bit.
Like you can see all the bones clearly in it as he's a uh a kind of an ugly merman.
And
Immediately with a roll of three starts to fall behind the boat.
Oh my god.
You're going the wrong direction.
Yeah.
Let me go roll me a D twenty to see if Mahecta can notice this and help you.
Natural twenty.
dude he Mehcta
They are your person.
Like they flip around, create like this sick ass whirlpool next to the boat quickly and then swim double speed what they were going back and throw you over their shoulder and
swim with you in taking you for the ride.
Like this isn't like a hey, I'm gonna get you back on the boat.
They are like, hey, you should enjoy this too.
And you're at one with the sea.
And this quarrel is just emanating to you.
Like you hear it.
It's almost whispering like swim, swim, swim.
He's moving, not accomplishing anything.
And when he comes to, he's not gonna be sure any of this is real.
This is like he has these dreams nightly.
Yeah.
And now it's happening.
Yeah.
As you're swimming.
Mahekta takes you out past one bar of coral and you see the open sea ahead of you and the ship gets out of the coral maze.
And the water here feels a little thicker.
Like it's y you know, in in like uh like in the beaches of Maine, where it has like a slate color at times in the winter the the ocean.
It it looks like that, very different than the waters of the Caribbean that you are used to.
The captain shouts to him, aboard.
What?
Come aboard.
He's stroking Mahekta's jaw.
Yeah, you do that and it's like a the lamprey mouth opens up and you feel the little spines and teeth.
And they kinda it's like sandpaper in parts.
And he's like, I wish I could be like you water.
Yeah.
You are like me.
You are of the sea.
He's crying, just sobbing into the salt water.
We're all part of the sea.
We are part of the sea.
Where we are going, we will be at home scraps.
I can't wait.
You climb aboard.
The illusion comes back after a moment.
He's gotta do like the I'm just lying down for a second.
Yeah.
Wiggle the toes.
Two legs.
Cat the captain yells.
Bring out Quintus.
Anybody.
I don't fucking care.
Please.
Just get the man.
Yeah.
Somebody get this man away from me.
That's the worst of your worries.
Nightmares about you.
Yes, Captain.
And he he's wearing the same clothes.
hasn't had a change of clothes.
Um has soiled himself a few times and stinks of shit.
Same, honestly.
Yes, Captain, what what can I do for you?
Well, it seems that we're getting close.
W yes, it we we passed the coral.
It's the thick water, Captain.
The thick water.
Hmm.
It is th he looks down interesting.
Lower a bucket.
He takes it out and he doesn't taste it, he snorts at this is strange water.
Hm Right, the water is the strange part in that equation.
Well it's a double C thick.
Yes, it's it's triple C thick, I I presume.
I'm covered in it, I am Don't lick yourself, Scrags.
Mecta in your swim what did you find?
I found scrags and the coral is what we are looking for.
What we are looking for?
It smells of katagan.
So if we hit the thick water we went too far?
No Somebody slapped Quintus's a Oh okay, never mind.
No, we're right on target.
Terraquintus.
Mm?
Yes, we we are.
what we should expect is the the city is in an alcover bay of sorts, and it should be another day's ride up the coast, Nee points out, and you see land in the distance.
It's uh I hope you can get a night's rest.
Gideon, is it your job to do the landhoe thing?
Ah well Radskull was up there.
It's his job now.
it is, is it?
Well shit fuck fuck Landhoo Almost wanted to do that.
It's a it's a good try, you gotta get a bit your pitches on your a LAN hoo!
So everyone hears.
Oh right, that's good projection, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, see?
That way the captain hears ya Anyway Right next to him.
Yeah.
Gideon.
Well
We have a night of merriment as we sail along the coast.
Can everybody roll me 4D20?
And sum them up?
Nah, just yeah.
Just tell you three numbers?
Three numbers?
Or four numbers?
Yeah.
One at a time though.
I'll just put them in chat for sake.
perfect.
Yeah.
Put it in chat.
I didn't roll above a 10.
my god.
That's a good thing, right?
my god.
So Scrags was four three nine nine.
Isabel is eight three three six.
Oof Babida is twenty fourteen eight and eleven and Jerry Ratskull is eighteen fourteen ten and five.
Alright, we'll start with Scraggs.
Scraggs, you spend the night carousing.
Ha!
Oh it's a small ship, you know everybody on here, but you've made enemies with somebody.
Yeah.
And that
Somebody is the hog in the hold below deck.
Hog in the hold.
Yes, yes.
Always said the hog's the mermaid of the land.
Son of a bitch thinks he's all that.
Yeah, and you wake up, and at first when you wake up, you think you are in a dark, lightless cave, and you panic.
And you hear the oinking in the side of your ear, and the hog is laying on your face.
Right there.
Right.
On your face, and you are now haunted by this hog's oink.
Haunted by the hog.
Yes.
Hogginted.
Babida, our friend.
Babida, you had dinner last night, and you know you had dinner with yourself.
Good company.
Indeed.
And you wake up swinging from the mast, upside down.
Say what now?
Back and forth, back and forth.
And you wake up and you are ravenously hungry.
Is always.
Isabel, you had a wild night, but you stole from that pig downstairs.
Yeah, the same pig.
I don't know what you stole from them.
And you wake up in your bunk.
But you are missing your pinky.
Hey, where'd I put that thing?
Rat Skull.
Wha wait, that's the subtotal You guys had a good night?
I gotta get a peg pinky now.
Okay.
This is great.
Uh rat school.
you wake up and you last night you got married to yourself somehow.
And you
Wake up deep in the hold and you're sitting in a coffin.
The coffin that the captain brings with him just in case he comes across King George, and you're passed out in it.
And when you wake up, you are haggard.
Like that marriage to yourself wore you ragged.
Can you roll me a D4?
Whoa, I always said the honeymoon would really take it out of you.
That's a two?
Okay.
Yeah, you have t two less hit points right now.
I have one hit point remaining.
Oh, okay.
There you go.
This could have killed him.
It literally I could have fucked myself.
And so I was rolling off of this carousing table for your night.
I was about to ask, what the hell table was that?
And I love it.
The captain looks like he carroused too.
He's wearing his pants backwards and comes out with a half mug of rum still.
Ugh, boys, what a night.
Isabel, what happened to your pinky?
I uh I I lost it somewhere on the ship.
Let me know if you find it.
Watch your step.
Captain, great news!
Yes.
We had an extra pinky in the holds.
Salty!
You savior!
Give give that to Isabel.
I I do believe it's Finder's Keepers, but if you It's the Pirates Code.
Salt Salty you Finder's Keepers.
It's Finder's Keepers.
That's one of our little mottos that got crossed out.
uh That's right, it was causing too many troubles.
Fine, here you go, Isabel.
She puts it in her pocket.
Okay.
You are g glowing, Rat Skull.
thank you, sir.
I'm a married man today.
Oh, although may want to let that coffin there air out a bit, if you know what I mean.
It's it's an open coffin.
Great.
Um what is did Mother the is Mother Merrow the object of your matrimony?
Uh no, but I am gonna need Mother Marrow to help patch me up a bit, as I think I threw my back out, giving myself what for last night on the old marriage bed.
Haha.
Congratulatory Pat on the back.
Yeah.
right.
it's a slip disc, alright.
Congratulations, rat.
I I I'm happy for you.
Does he have a ring?
uh
Mm.
Well I do.
I found it on a pinky and it happened to be my five.
Except I have a ring on both fingers.
Like the left hand, right hand.
Because you had to do the the thing.
Uh-huh.
Mm-hmm.
When I turn this way, it's my left.
When I turn that way, it's my right.
Somebody get Babida down.
I'm actually having a pretty good time up here.
Take your time up.
Yeah, never mind.
Leave it.
Just uh
Well we are approaching, I believe.
Ouch Could I talk to Miss Meadow to could I try to get patched up before we disembark, Captain?
Yeah.
Go ahead and roll me a D twenty for her.
And did we get back our devil's luck or did I fail to spend both of mine and thus it does not refresh?
You get your devil's luck back, but yeah.
Well that's not another The first time.
The first time.
Okay, so you're gonna lose another pinky if it happens again.
it's an eighteen on the die.
Great.
Yeah, give yourself a D4 of hit points back.
One?
Fuck.
Okay, fine.
Whatever.
and now you have to split it between both sides.
I don't think you've thought this through, rascal.
Ah shit.
Do you know how to divorce yourself?
Did you sign a prenup?
no, I I I'm trying to make a nipple joke and it's just I I got nothing here.
Yeah.
Quintus You guys you sure know how to party, Oh what a night.
Um and he's wearing somebody else's clothes.
Well, um we are on the precipice, everybody, and I this was not the means which I plan to travel here, but I do thank you for bringing me along.
It's been a rough journey, but um I would like to give a speech, and I want to tell you a bit about
The city of Cathagen.
And are we letting him do this?
That the prisoner we've been abusing for days is just like let me tell you a story.
Well, he said the word speech is, I think, where we would get rowdy.
Go somebody give me a presence roll.
Three.
Okay.
You hate speeches.
Uh Ratskill he must have found
a stash of ash on board because you see The ash stash some ash on his face.
In the old Yeah, the in his stash.
So he's it's quite unruly now.
his eyes are kite.
Maybe he'll let loose where that treasure is.
Then we can shoot him.
What it is one second.
We're gonna ransom him for a hundred thousand silver, I think he said.
Can somebody roll me a D twenty?
oh
Pick a two or a seven, which one's more interesting, or whoever you like better.
Okay.
Um two is fascinating.
So I will need another D twenty though.
Yeah.
It's a seven, that's what we got.
yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Okay, perfect.
Yeah.
He Democracy.
He stumbles forward.
And uh toast to our captain for steering us true.
And the captain's like, What's what's he on about this?
And he's on Ash.
He falls to the deck and k dunk and he tries to lift himself up but can't.
He's like, Uh dear, what is going on?
This is what a life of academia will do to you.
Yeah.
He's not wrong, yeah.
There's an you get next to him and you know those heat lines that come off of highways in in the sun?
That's coming off the deck now.
And as you take a step forward, it is like you are wading through water.
It's the ash He's on the ash.
eh Well it's a it's a bit hard to move, but I s we we stay along.
Can somebody get him below deck?
Are we not concerned that he's gonna push burst into flames or something?
Well maybe we should get him in the water to cool him off a bit.
Tie a rope to him.
Tie a rope under his arms and overboard he goes.
I was just gonna push him off the plank, but yeah, that works too.
He's being drugged by the buttons.
We're gonna ransom him.
You can grab him?
The fish guy.
Yeah, the fish guy.
Right.
Okay.
uh Sorry.
Um, no speeches.
onward.
Boy, I feel like we missed some exposition there, but that's all right.
Yeah, you get the sense that he was gonna tell you something really important.
Well to hell with that.
Yeah, you sail on and it the clear skies of the Caribbean turn into a cloudy morass above you.
It's not stormy, it's just a blanket of grey.
You push forward.
And the shore is a normal shore for a while, and then you go around this strange cove, and there is from afar the city.
Does anybody have a spy glass?
For sure I do.
Yeah.
Are you you're looking through it then I'm guessing?
So what are you stupid?
Yeah, yes.
You look through it and you s start to go through you see jagged land and then you see the city.
itself and Cathagon, it doesn't look like solid land.
It's like fractured on the edge, fractures on the edge of the world.
There seems to be just this strange architecture that doesn't look like any city you've seen or town or even jungle.
Like it is just weird shape after weird shape.
And there is emerald smoke
That rises from a massive obelisk looking thing further inland, and there's low clouds right above it.
And the horizon behind it, where there's a huge mountainside and cliffside, like it was carved into that.
Not by any civilization you would know.
Uh it looks sickly back there.
Like the rocks are stained with this strange.
Purplish green and you look down at the sea beneath you and it's getting darker and darker as you've gotten closer.
He said not so good.
And let me get a share a this is what the captain's map looks like.
Like the emerald smoke.
This is what the captain's map looks like?
I mean it's not as good, but I can see why it took him twenty-two years to make this.
This is some qual the illustration.
Damn, this rules.
This is very fun.
I really like this ISO.
And you said you've never seen it.
I've He had a really tall ship and a really good spy glass.
You even got the color right.
I c I commissioned the best map maker and in the crown he's down he's under the t he's sleeping off ash.
Yeah.
I'm I'm shouting down through like the Although the statute to Cthulhu is a little sus.
It's fine.
What w how do you spell this place's
Name, don't worry about it.
Kathagen.
Totally different from Katung.
Yeah.
And Fatagan definitely not just outta here with that Fatagan tag and if he shows up, we'll just hit him with the boat.
It works every time.
As you say that, there is a thump on the side of the ship.
Katunk.
On the port side.
Let's go take a look.
We go look.
You look down and Scrags, you see a a merman.
Maybe its body, but it's laying face down.
Hey Does not rouse.
I'm gonna go overboard for just a moment.
Nah, throw him a rope.
We're in weird waters.
Splat.
Please draw on the back of You jump in.
Yeah.
scum.
Yeah, roll a jelly.
Unconvincingly.
Unconvincingly goes over the edge.
He fumbles a sister.
Yeah.
And based on my role, it's very unconvincing.
No, you y you grab
The merman, he is indeed a corpse.
Do you bring him aboard?
Brother No Brother.
That's fine.
we will see what what stories you have to tell.
We will find you a good resting place in the locker.
And he's like tying the rope around him.
Uh like around the the chest respectfully, not like the tail.
Yeah, yeah, don't touch the tail.
Mm-hmm.
You pull him aboard.
Yeah.
You pull him aboard and he is covered in a strange writing carved into his front and back.
And the captain says, And he pulls out the map and he points to part of that he sees some of the lettering matches up.
Mm.
This can some
Somebody needs to get Quintus.
I got him.
You hear uh rabble rousing below the decks.
That was a perfect door slam.
What leave that hog alone?
He's been through enough, all right.
Yeah.
How would you rouse?
Quintus, they're here for your speech.
They're here for your speech, man.
Okay.
We're all waiting for you.
The whole audience is there.
Yeah, that'll that'll do a good presence roll.
Okay.
Nat twenty.
Yeah.
comes to like a adrenaline shot to the heart.
King George is there, man.
The king!
I've always wanted Where where am I?
fuck, I'm here.
I thought it was a goddamn nightmare.
It is a fucking nightmare.
I need what?
My speech?
What are you talking about, man?
I don't give speech.
You were gonna tell us all about the city, but we're here now and but you it's not too late.
We haven't docked yet, so you can still give your speech about how moved you were.
You're my best man.
I'm counting on you.
I was your that was real.
God Yeah.
Okay.
What is it?
And
He sees the merman just laying there.
Merman.
I'm sorry I couldn't help in.
That's all I've heard.
The Merman.
And dear God.
And he starts to pour over the writing on him and is making he pulled out his his
Oxford bound notebook and is writing things down.
So oh.
This is some sort of dark psalm or fell psalm carved into his skin.
oh That's terrible!
Or good?
Depends on how good of a song is, I think.
Is it wonderable?
Heheh Yes.
Um here, it translates a great city shall fill the air as the sacrifices sing their final song.
The city rings
With their final lament, deafening all until a new verse is uttered.
Beasts of the waves shall throw themselves upon the city, where their blood shall slick the streets, and make it unwalkable.
The city shall shudder and crack, from the cracks shall pour forth the maldorous smoke of pestilence, the great doors of the city shall open, and from them come multitudes.
Oh, that was a horrible song.
None of it rhymed.
Uh in indeed, rat.
Um It's a shame.
Not even an Iambic pentameter.
let's see.
Uh I think I think it's into some sort of I I don't know what to make of it.
the smart one is speechless.
Oxford my ass!
Oxford his ass.
Well gent ladies and gentlemen, um I I think we should tread carefully.
Do you've seen the map and uh wha how shall we make our approach?
So I've uh out of character, I've been looking at this map, and there are some pretty notable locations.
Uh including at the far left, a gate with what could possibly be tombstones behind it.
and if we're worried about the gates opening and multitudes coming forth, I'd say that's a good place not to be.
There's there's an arena too.
There is a Colosseum, there's a stepped pyramid, there's uh a sort of courtyard with a uh a gazing pool and an Isthmus.
There's a pit with a staircase up to it, and then like colonnades and whatnot.
Um there's also like a a Keebla on the far right.
A what?
What's that what it what do you call the um the big cube?
A cube?
No, the uh you you you like the big cube stone at Mecca.
What's the thing called?
You go around it.
Madison Square Garden.
No, if if you're Muslim, you there's the it's the direction you pray towards Mecca.
It's like a huge stone.
K A A B A?
No, Q I B L A.
Yeah.
Yeah, there it Nick, can you play the more you know sound effect at this moment here?
Because I just learned something today.
I'm in the region of curiosity.
I will send a big neck for to go and perceive anything that is perceivable from a big neck.
From within one's old neck.
How will it tell you what it finds?
Okay.
The skull.
Yeah, mechanically.
Not a lot.
Okay.
uh Thank you.
Well there could be a furious flapping if perhaps there is an energy that one would want to be aware of, but uh I am not annoyed.
You've been teaching Big Neck how to communicate via semaphore flags with a swing.
But it still does not help the whole lack of perceptive ability part of scouting.
Looks pretty British to me.
And Olive.
Branch is shoved in the Trachea I am not sure this is so peaceful as you would imagine.
Well I if I could offer a suggestion uh kind of near the western side there's like a a spot where the land goes up.
There's like a an underwater shelf.
Did you say the western side?
Yes, the western side.
It's that way.
And he points to the west.
And there there is if you look underwater, there's like a little yes like a little step up thing and then we can't And there's something out there in the water too.
Yes.
The tides perhaps are we at high tide?
I should probably know this.
Oh, I see.
It looks kind of like the the stairways in Moria over there.
Got it.
I was gonna say to dock more in one of these other places towards the eastern side that looked like it could be a dock.
And need the conspicuously looming statues.
But I do like the stairs, because that would be a way out, even if the tide drops.
Look to the captain.
I know the way.
oh Well we've got four dingies, and I say we split up.
Split the What say you?
Hurrah W we'll take the front gate, right up the center, past this um strange statue.
You can go to the west or the western side.
Mm-hmm.
Are they gonna drive the boat through the big gate?
What's the game plan there?
How's that gate work?
um, I I don't I don't rightly know.
I uh we don't know how anything works in this city.
What if what if instead they dock at the dock right next to the bottomless pit with the staircase to it?
See what I'm talking about?
Right in the middle?
There's that little
That's cool over there.
Um, from the I don't sure not sure about the scale of the map, but I we could probably dock there.
But we should leave Poseidon's rage out here and take the dinghies.
I worry about her.
that's a really good idea.
I had not thought to do that.
I was just about to suggest that I'm sure.
And that's why you know the captain.
I'm a step behind.
That among other things.
I'm sure.
Well
To the dinghy.
You can take the wheast and dinghy.
We'll take the east and dinghy.
And well Yeah.
You guys get in the dinghy, have your gear with you, and it cuts through the perimeter.
And you see the blasphemous geometry of this place.
It hits you like a physical weight.
The tower way in the back and it just
It's like the Tower of Sauron or what is this the other tower?
Yeah, the Tower of Sauron.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Um, it looms over this thing and it begs your attention.
It's hard to look away from it.
And the smoke rises from all around it.
It's not just coming out of the tower somewhere.
It's like this entire structure has something burning in it.
And the s clouds mix with that smoke and you see that it is swirling just a slight bit right above the tower up in the sky.
And as you get closer to the shore, you see there it's not clean.
Like there is a black viscous like spots all over the place.
Almost like there's ink that was just sprinkled down.
Um here and there.
It's not ever present, but it it's there enough to be of note.
And you row up to what?
Just this stair the end of the staircase between the two obelisks.
Well, what's the thing out in the water at the end of where the pier used to be?
Yeah.
You pass that and you look in the water.
It is hard to tell, but you see a platform with some sort of altar.
There and below it is another staircase and a row of obelisks that are smaller that lead up to it.
Uh looks like some sort of religious place or sacred place.
This is where you sacrifice someone to the sea.
Yeah, do you wanna check it out?
Give it a look.
Sacrifice the pig on it.
You you didn't bring the pig on your teeny lesson.
What about what about just throwing that little pinky down there?
Maybe that's scared enough.
Yeah.
I think maybe we shouldn't activate random altars.
What?
What's a fucking coward over here?
Have you not no one calls Isabel a coward.
You have a big Oh, okay.
Now she's getting it.
Okay.
Can you open your book up and roll from the magical mishaps?
Wow, that was fast.
Alright.
uh
what page is that motherfucker on?
Was it sixty-six?
I bet it was.
Hell sure was.
Sixty-six.
Hey, uh it's a D twenty.
I got a an eighteen, whereupon hundreds of tiny crabs swarm me.
They are harmless and provide an extra D two damage reduction.
It does not count as armor.
Wow.
Horrendous.
With crabs.
Yeah.
I have gotten crabs.
Not the first time.
I'm just ke eating a couple.
Not not too many.
Yeah, they f cover your dinghy and crawl all over you, Isabel.
Your skin is an ever present, creepy creeping feeling of just a s shifting organism.
You might get used to it.
Can you roll a D6 to see how long that lasts for?
Days wise.
Okay, two days.
Days?
That says days?
Days.
Two days.
You're fucking welcome, yeah.
That is like hugely beneficial.
I have one point of armor and it's my hat.
This place is obviously magic, right?
Like that's what hits you first.
It's like this is an alien landscape and I gave something to this altar and now I'm covered in crabs.
This
Maybe we should find something bigger to sacrifice.
Should we go back for of I think we can all get crabs.
How do you think the captain would feel about the hog going missing?
Hmm.
I did steal something from it.
Perhaps it was his tail.
Ew.
It's pinky.
Yeah.
You gonna toss the tail on there too?
Someone else can.
Ooh Okay.
Uh yeah, give me a roll on the magical mishaps and hope you don't die.
I hate that pig.
Seven.
What?
yeah, gravity behaves as if everything within thirty feet is underwater for d eight minutes.
Just the dinghy maybe is still moving and he just realizes like What?
Where are you going?
Yeah, you in fact the dinghy has floated on without you and you were floating in the air.
Fucking pick.
Seven minutes.
Seven minutes of this.
Yeah.
Honestly, if it was gonna happen to anyone, the Merman is better best option.
Yeah, it's we rope him to the demons.
Swimming in okay.
Yeah, you drag him along.
So and like a balloon.
Are you going over to the obelisks?
I did want to see the yeah.
Are you going towards the two little ones or the biggin?
Is pretty appealing.
The one with the three pieces?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, you go out to that obelisk.
Well, this is a democracy, because we're pirates.
So do we want to go out to the big uh big obelisk?
Seems cool.
Do we think there's treasure there?
I don't think there's treasure anywhere around here.
Hmm.
I don't know.
That looming pit of death seems like a good place to hide your treasure.
you're right, I forgot.
It it you just wove wonderful magic that give you s gave you affinity with crafts.
This is a blessed land.
I'm carcinizing.
Let the rest of the crew find the treasure in the hole.
We are going to the tower.
Fuck yeah.
Yeah, so you go to the obelisk.
Yeah.
Okay.
You get there, and you're looking around and it is it is a strange material.
This is the you were by the altar, but seeing it this big, it is noteworthily pulsating.
Like with
Cold.
It's like a it's just yeah, it's like your freezers didn't exist, but your hand, it's like touching a cold filament or something.
Is it stone or metal?
Yeah.
Give me a presence.
16.
Yeah, it feels somewhere in between, right?
You've seen bronzed copper or copper that has oxidized, I believe it is, and it
Gives you that feeling, but it it just has a texture of stone though.
Stone that oxidized.
That's interesting.
I've we've can somebody roll me a d6.
Alright.
five.
Great.
Yeah.
Damage.
Yeah.
A lightning bolt comes out of the obelisk.
No, she can't.
Do not observe the obelisk.
You're standing there by this obelisk.
And out of
The water, almost out of the pitch black depths of it, there is an ink-stained tide that slops onto the stone next to you.
And the specter of evolutionary malice flops out.
And it is this thing that it looks like a jellyfish, but inside of it is a skeletal ghost that has no sensible limbs.
It's just all limbs and strange bone.
Doesn't make any sense to your human eyes.
It almost looks like a like pale blue ectoplasm or something inside of a uh this ghost.
In fact, you might even mistake it as a ghost if it were swimming next to you.
And the luminescence of it really matches the f smoke that's coming from that massive, massive temple.
And it
Looks dangerous.
uh Mm-hmm.
But the sky it's not a people skeleton, it's like a jellyfish skeleton.
Yeah, yeah.
It's like head is bulbous and gelatinous, right?
And the inside of it has like a just yeah, it's like bones that shift with it.
There's nothing connecting them.
A skelly fish.
damn.
I if it's unde is it undead because my machete g starts glowing if it's undead.
I don't know that that helps us, but I would I guess no.
Yeah, it's it is not undead.
It is very much alive.
And always we can kill it.
We can kill it and it'll bleed.
I feel like I have that backwards.
Uh you guys are first.
And yeah,
Shoot first, shoot some more, then ask some questions, maybe.
Yeah, give it a give it a sh roll.
Seventeen.
That's gonna do it.
For eight damage.
Eight damage.
From the old leg.
Oof.
Yeah, you maybe you just spin around and it's like a gut reaction.
Although I am gonna ask for homework because in chat you said that if I can get a peg leg blunderbuss or a peg a peg leg musket, then I need to make an agility test.
Yeah.
Roll it.
Hell yeah.
Oh, fifteen.
Yeah.
I do spin around gracefully.
Yeah.
And it goes through this.
Exactly.
It goes through the jellyfish portion of it and you see it connect with something inside and it sends ripples through this thing's flesh as it starts to vibrate and you have hit
it.
And you said what was the damage?
Eight.
Okay.
Great.
Oh, usually that kills it.
it's still coming.
Who's next?
Babide sends big neck uh raking through it with its talents.
What do I need to roll to hit?
The fearsome talents of a seagull.
The talents of a seagull.
Yeah, agility for that one.
Okay, well I am having to commit that's but I'm thinking I'm thinking perhaps in number one is not doing.
Regardless of what you roll.
It just flies into the It's like the thing, like it flies to it and you see these small tendrils come out and just stick into it and just crack it into multiple like pieces and
split it apart and then suck it in and you see it floating inside of the That is not a very good I would not recommend.
That was my dinner.
From inside the jellyfish, the skelly fish, you hear It's not it it hasn't stopped being undead.
Um It's true.
Yeah.
Yeah, Isabel was considering uh saving ammo if everyone else uh you know had a handle on this, but fuck that.
Uh bam, bam, bam.
Three?
Off the bat, all right.
Yeah, fuck that thing.
That thing's weird.
I don't like it.
nineteen plus one is twenty.
Whoa.
Uh eleven plus one is twelve.
Okay.
Nice so you hit with all three, roll up some damage.
Just Yeah.
Damn.
Tell you the total or tell you what each of are?
What each each of are 'cause I'm modifying what you're Armor.
Uh the first one is a four.
Okay.
Second one is a four.
Okay.
Consist of the third one is seven.
The first tube, pop, pop, you see the shot go into it, but it stops before it hits that core, right?
So it doesn't quite get to it.
But the the seven one goes in and you see that rippling happen and it looks upset.
It's like and it starts to make this pitch sound that hurts your ears.
no, that is that just big neck.
It is b yeah.
It's becoming big neck.
It's like
I do want to say Isabella's gonna like start kind of kinda running a little bit.
Maybe put the obelisk between it her and it.
She didn't like that.
Shut your mouth.
And Scrags just lunges forward towards that like all the gunshot holes and just tries to stick the machete right in there.
Do it.
Uh and I'm sure this will go well for him.
Apparently a eighteen on the attendee well and a
Beautiful D6.
not that well.
One damage.
Yeah.
But it's magic.
You got a magic machete.
It's true.
It's a plus one.
It's not.
Yeah.
Doesn't ignore armor.
Is it in the ghost touch rune?
wrong ghost rude.
god.
No.
Alright.
This is better for vines.
It is its turn.
And Isabel has
Fucked off and hid behind an obelisk.
And it's You guys can do it.
You see two rubbery translucent tendril things come out and start dripping black, almost like squid ink, and they s wipe straight towards you, salty.
Roll your agility.
I'm very agile.
Nope.
And I believe uh twelve is the target, right?
Yep.
no.
Yeah.
A negative one agility is not so good.
Okay.
Do you have armor or I do have armor.
I have a D two of armor.
you have devil's luck.
That's true.
I can always minimize the damage though if I need to, so I'll can you?
I'll keep it.
Do you want to roll the damage or do you want me to?
I'll go for it.
Go for it.
I rolled a one while you're doing that.
Alright, first one's fine.
Great.
Yeah, it hits you and
You feel strange as this thing has connected with you.
Can you make a presence roll?
Brother?
okay, so I I that is a zero.
It is not a natural one, but it is a zero total.
What what's your minus to presence two?
my god.
Roll me a D six?
Brother.
he's not a smart Scrags.
One.
Okay.
Everybody except for Isabelle, you see Scraggs get hit by this tentacle and then phase out of reality.
Scraggs, you appear one thousand feet in the air.
No.
Yeah, yeah.
In fact you appear Look at the map.
There is a ziggurat pyramid.
You appear at the top of that.
And you're like You do still have the water floaty stuff, don't you?
Or did that go away?
Yeah, yeah.
No, that's it's been seven minutes, I assume.
damn it.
Damn it.
Okay.
Huh.
He's looking around with his machete on top of this ziggurat.
It is back to you guys.
Oh shit, I was hoping it would take more than a round to eat scrags.
fuck.
I'm gonna spend an action to reload my leg.
Great.
Okay.
Who's next?
Cover me.
Uh Isabel is
Has her back to the obelisk and is like frantically jamming powder and wad into guns.
Are there any obviously deceased corpses in the water?
Ooh.
Opportunistic.
Did we bring the the cut up merman into the with us?
That would have been good.
I would notice how much he looks like scrags.
Exactly.
I will let you use one of your devil's luck.
I will be doing that.
Yeah.
And I have one brave soul who lost his life squaring up against this thing, wants to go straight back to it.
And he is going to do so in death for as to take the ire of its focus.
Great.
So below.
A drowned body comes out.
And he is wearing a tricor hat and is rotten and full of kelp and salt water.
His skull starts leaking out all the seawater as it climbs up over and is look.
And so a drowned you do you have stats for your undead or I barely.
I know that it is attacking for a D4.
There is not much more to know than that.
Okay.
The HP is four.
Okay, that's fine.
Yeah, just keep that.
So Yeah.
Yeah.
And then it says in undeath.
hey.
Scra no, Scrags' thing does not light up.
Scra It's just thinking it on And so can it attack on your first turn?
I have no idea how these are rules.
Yeah.
Let's make it let's give let it attack.
It's fucking attacking.
Here we go.
When it rolls it rolls a four.
It's not so good.
It just gets out of the water and falls on this thing.
As it wails, it's Sibatara around his head.
m Yeah, not so good.
Uh and that's salt or scrags.
What do you want to do?
Get swimming.
He starts to climb down the rides.
Yeah.
ah
It is covered in that inky material and you yeah, can climb you can start climbing down.
Yeah, I assume there's not like a a treasure chest on the top of this or whatever.
You'd hate to have to, you know, come back for the one hundred percent where you have to climb up it again.
Okay, roll me two D sixes and then give me the first and second.
All right.
Three and then five.
Yeah.
As you're climbing down.
You feel something on your leg and you look down and a strange green cat looks up at you and meows.
Or cat.
Yeah.
As you say that, its tail that's sitting there wagging splits into seven other tails.
And they kinda wiggle and cattail around.
And it looks like there are two who are missing, so it used to have nine.
Okay.
Tell if you're a friendly thing.
So I'll assume you are.
Okay.
He's hearing shouting from the obelisk and gunfire, and he's like, I'm not gonna get there in time.
So he just kind of parks it on the ziggurat starts fed in the kit.
Yeah.
Yeah, you're looking over and you can see you're like, Okay.
And it is our creature's turn.
It goes for the zombie.
What's the agil go ahead and roll a D twelve the beta for your zombie?
It's a CX.
Okay.
Yeah.
This thing easily just grabs it as it's standing there.
Does it have any armor?
Why would you think it does?
Three?
Well, that's less than four or six five.
Yeah, it starts to it sticks its tendrils around it and then they try to go inside of it in
his back through some of the rotten flesh to get better hold.
You guys have reloaded.
It is your turn.
Right.
I don't really like my chances here, so I'm gonna plop down on my ass and like just really aim the old planet Terra leg.
And um I am going to go ahead and roll presents.
Yep.
And that's a 23
And I am going to use a devil's luck for max damage for yes.
What is it?
Uh 12 damage total.
Damn.
Okay.
Yeah.
How do you finish this thing?
Well, I I was hoping that it would get distracted and eat on scrags because you can say that if you have high enough presence, that it's eaten through the skellington on the
inside, so it needs to pull the ama back.
And then consume.
So I'm waiting till it's just chowing down on this big stinky fucker.
And at that point, as it's taking another bite, I take a shot through it into its ugly fucking skull.
Yeah, it's It'll look real good as a necklace.
It does that and it the gelatinous part starts to melt off of it and just these strange translucent bones are there.
And you start to see some of the things it ate as well.
Can you roll me?
Two D6s.
Rosan.
man, I don't know if that's good or bad.
A one and a two.
Yeah.
You one of them is this small tablet covered in symbols that's like this big.
Like a like a pocket tablet.
And a moleskin tablet.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
And it is.
Do you want to try to read it?
Yeah, sure.
I mean
My book got wet when I pissed myself there, so sure.
Let's see how this tablet goes.
Okay.
Each day this tablet can cast one random arcane ritual.
Do you have the PB book?
Or I do not.
Okay.
So Actually, no, this is even better because I have no idea what it's gonna be.
I'll just let you roll it and just narrate what happens when I hit the big red button.
Target tablets.
Yeah.
I won't let you know what it is, but yeah, so I have it.
Give me a
I think it's a D twenty.
Okay.
Yeah, they're definitely a D twenty.
Yeah.
So uh all right.
That is a ten, middle of the pack.
What could go wrong?
Maybe it'll give me crabs.
I love how like the tank of the party now is the one hiding.
So I'm the tank?
Yeah, dude.
You're covered in crabs.
You've got basically one plus one D two damage resistance.
Like you're in front, bro, till we can get Scrags back.
Scra how much HP does Scrags have?
A six.
Yeah, but he's in three.
Yeah.
I am great.
I have nine.
I will I will start doing a better job.
I happily send whatever lunk of the deep I have just conjured in front of you.
Now we have a predicament.
Hey you hear from across the water Hey I'm not dead I feel fine.
Was there anything else in the jelly?
No, just that little tablet.
Was there anything else of interest at this uh three-part obelisk?
Or shall we go retrieve the scrag?
Yeah, I mean that's about it over here.
Actually, did you find any loot?
Babida, do you want this tablet?
Not that I feel like it's going to horribly backfire, but you just always seem more magically inclined.
No no, you are in the roll of ten.
I wouldn't dare to take it from you.
Why do I feel like the deck stacked against me here?
well.
Must be my imagination.
Yeah, are you so are you going to Scrags and picking him up or are you just getting on land there?
I guess we don't have much of a choice.
I mean we could uh I mean I can swim.
I can also just swim out to you.
Like it's not a big deal.
But if you're coming to the land anyways, yeah.
Right.
Thinking we are walking to the base of the ziggurat.
I'll come down and meet you.
There's no treasure up here.
Just a little sweet pea.
I think he paid himself.
Yeah, you row and get to the ziggurat.
It's a bit of a climb up a cliffside to get to the point where you can
Get there and the cigarette's not that tall.
It's pretty squat, especially in comparison to the giant temple behind you and some of the strange they almost look like melted candles, but are buildings like in the distance as
well.
But you are all together now and Scrags has a seven-tailed cat with As we are walking through the buildings in this area, are there any reactions to our presence?
Any other beings that we have perceived on the way?
Yeah, this this little area right here around the temple seems empty so far.
I found the cat his name Sweet P He's he's living here, so this must be safe.
Uh but the cats don't often take treasure, so there might still be treasure in the ziggurat.
Does it like you because you smell like fish?
I don't question why the cat likes me.
I just accept it.
Yeah.
Well, if we are here and you are perhaps smelling treasure, then perhaps we are going inside for the sea.
Yes.
Get a torch.
Okay.
I am asking
A clandestine corpse for to go before us into the ziggurat.
Yeah.
You send the corpse in and you can't see through his eyes or anything like that, like D and D E.
Why w Why would you assume so?
Is this a some something you call a common denominate?
You get yeah.
After a while, about let's say ten minutes, the connection is severed.
You feel that
The corpse is no longer in your control.
Oh he's super fucking dead.
But it did take a while.
I know you are waiting.
We are waiting the same amount of time.
He made it a pretty good way down.
Now we know when we find the skeleton, that that's where the danger is.
Sound reasoning to me.
Let's go.
So wait, you'd want to go in there?
You just know you had internet connectivity issues with with your their zombo.
Uh Well well it stands to reason.
In an ancient pyramid, there's gonna be traps, right?
And now there's one less trap to have to deal with.
And you only put traps in your ancient pyramid if you stock it full of treasure first.
Imagine oh Damn Hey.
You going in?
We've got at least ten minutes before we have to worry.
Let's go.
Yeah?
Uh Isabel lights her one perenne candle that I rolled at character creation.
I have four candles.
Fuck you.
You got a D4 on that?
As long as you go for it.
Go for it.
Did we all roll candles?
I have a candle and a pillow and a blanket and a dinghy.
So like
Alright, I have four candles and then that, so I'm just honks shooing my way through this.
That's really funny.
I got a satchel, a candle, and a bottle of fine rum.
I I've got some hammer and nails.
Then we need any any carpentry done.
and a magnifying lens.
Just the lens.
Huh.
Well, you can use that to start a fire if it weren't cloudy.
You can?
Well, if not here, you can't.
Yes.
Given as we are going underground in a great a stone lair, my spigas will probably not be much use either.
Yeah, Isabel walks in the front, keeping her eyes peeled for the she's assuming like maybe a guillotine blade trap.
That's what she saw last time she was inside a a stepped pyramid.
Ziggurat temple was one of those swinging blades.
So she's Yeah.
Is that why she doesn't have two feet?
Uh no, actually.
Let me tell you, when you forget to turn that home security off, boy, it'll get you.
You go in through a tunnel, it is like barely two people wide and about eight feet tall, and it goes to a center chamber that has some coffins around it, and you start to see that
strange writing everywhere, and that black inky
Liquid is covering the floor and you're stepping in it.
And you hear actually give me a presence roll.
Do I have to roll presents if it's touching my peg legs and not my people legs?
Yeah.
Okay.
That twenty.
You said pr presence certainly.
Nice.
You won.
Okay.
Thank you, Ratskill.
Ratskill, you
I was wondering like what these guys are listening for.
Babida is like talking to himself or something, just and you hear down a hallway, there looks like there's some stairs that go down to another level.
You hear some whispering and it's like they're trying to drag something.
You hear and You can't pick any of it up, but
There's definitely somebody else in here.
Come on.
Down there.
I think they're dragging you never named your zombie, but I think that they're dragging him away.
I I can hear I can hear some fuckers down there.
But if they have bodies, I am interested in bodies.
There you go.
You go first, absolutely.
Okay, okay, okay.
Yeah.
And d making my way through the hallway.
Gimme agility roles.
Okay, you're liking this.
This is going to be an eight.
Seventeen.
For everybody or anybody who's going, so if you want to stay quiet.
And somehow fourteen.
If you want to.
Okay, I'm thinking perhaps I will be doing that.
Yep.
I'm tempted to use my last devil's luck, but this is also kind of funny.
So What did you roll again?
Sir.
I rolled a a six, including my minus one.
Because the downside about trying to sneak
on stone steps, whenever your leg is a blunderbust, is that metal barrel sure does clank every single I don't wanna hear it.
I got two.
Yeah, but neither of them have guns, are they?
That sounds like skill issue.
I'll save you the devil's luck, Babita, because you're all gonna be heard, right?
So you hear them stop moving.
Do you continue on?
Yeah, I jump around the corner, guns blazing.
Blazes fast.
Yeah, go and roll initiative.
Five.
Great.
Yeah.
You jump down there and you see three pirates, one in a large captain hat with a huge feather.
It's black.
And he jumps.
When you jump down, he's like, holy shit.
You gonna fire?
Really tempting.
Hands up.
Uh where's our dead man?
You see him on the ground.
They were dragging him to a corner.
That's our guy.
I hidden.
Uh-uh.
Well I am requiring a replacement.
Who do you offer among your number?
Uh getting twitchy with that.
Ma uh please, please, I am the captain of the Black Vengeance, Shondong Yak.
Can you please?
I I I'm trying to get out of here and whatever you you think this is is is not it.
You have to escape the city.
Thanks for listening to our first episode of The Sinking of Cathagan.
We are partnering with RPG Reanimators on this episode, and you'll be able to see the video version over on their channel on YouTube.
You can find the link in the description or just search up RPG Reanimators.
And the audio version will be over here on Dead Letter Bureau.
Thanks again for listening.