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WVHTCF 50 Fathoms, Sessions Index

Campaign Notes
#1: 2009-12-04 — Shipwrecks, Savages, & Giant Monkapes (writeup by M.A.H.)
#2: 2010-01-14 — Sharks, Pirates, & Commerce (writeup by B.MC.)
#3: 2010-09-13 — Salvage, Pirates, & Enterprise (writeup by C.A.H.)
#4: 2010-10-21 — Razorwings, Giant Octopus, & Octopons (writeup by M.A.H.)
#5: 2010-11-04 — Pirates, Salvage, Healing (writeup by B.MC.)
#6: 2010-12-22 — Back to the Whip Islands (PENDING writeup details by C.A.H.)
#7: 2011-02-24 — (PENDING writeup by M.A.H.)
#8: 2011-03-30 — (PENDING writeup by B.MC.)

WVHTCF 50 Fathoms, Session #8: Sharks, Timber, Pirates

This is an actual play report from the Savage Worlds 50 Fathoms plot point campaign from Pinnacle Entertainment Games. These actual play reports are available in html with atom and rss feeds from T.K.B.'s blog.

Attending

Clockwise round the table, starting with the GM:

T.K.B. — GM
B.MC. — playing Azrulektos, a Kraken warrior/wizard
C.A.H. — playing Karl Kroc, a Masaquani treasure hunter and navigator
M.A.H. — playing Moorumah, a charming but rather dim Grael

B.MC. took notes. [Writeup pending]

Introduction

Actual Play

Aftermath

Each PC each got +3 XP.

WVHTCF 50 Fathoms, Session #7: The Gullet and the Teeth

Attending

Clockwise round the table, starting with the GM:

T.K.B. — GM
B.MC. — playing Azrulektos, a Kraken warrior/wizard
C.A.H. — playing Karl Kroc, a Masaquani treasure hunter and navigator
M.A.H. — playing Moorumah, a charming but rather dim Grael

M.A.H. took notes. [Writeup pending]

Introduction

Actual Play

Aftermath

Each PC each got +3 XP.

WVHTCF 50 Fathoms, Session #6: Back to the Whip Islands

Attending

Clockwise round the table, starting with the GM:

T.K.B. — GM
B.MC. — playing Azrulektos, a Kraken warrior/wizard
C.A.H. — playing Karl Kroc, a Masaquani treasure hunter and navigator
M.A.H. — playing Moorumah, a charming but rather dim Grael

Introduction

Partial session report from e-mails provided by the GM. The notes on the setting and system background were provided for a friend who isn't playing in this campaign, but was interested in what happened this session.

C.A.H. took notes. [Additional details pending, to be provided by C.A.H.]

Actual Play

Setting Background

We're playing the 50 Fathoms campaign using the Savage Worlds rules; it is a fantasy pirates game, in a world that was flooded by the evil magic of a trio of witches, now called the Sea Hags. The Sea Hags flooded the world making a magic connection to the seas of earth, letting in a flood of water and sometimes sailing ships from various eras, which come through in an area called the Flotsom Sea, in the center of the map of the world.

The players were exploring the Whip Islands, where wreckage from the Flotsom Sea often washes up, and had found a small chest of silver ingots (1000 pieces of eight worth) underwater amongst some wreckage of a ship. Their Spanish pirate crewman, Senor Miguel Figuroa, said that it was likely from the wreckage of a Spanish treasure galleon! They couldn't find any more on the inside of the reef, so they left their ship anchored in the cove inside the reef and took their ship's boat outside the reef and began exploring underwater. (B.MC.'s character, Azrulektos, and one of their crew are fully aquatic and can breath underwater; another NPC and M.A.H.'s character, Muroomah, are semi-aquatic and can stay underwater for more than 15 minutes; and Azrulektos had cast a spell on C.A.H.'s character, Karl Kroc, that lets him breath normally underwater.) (Actually, I think A. cast that on Muroomah as well, so she could stay underwater longer.) They found another small chest near a large part of the bow of the ship, but noticed something large moving behind the bow section. They fastened a rope around the chest, and yanked the rope to signal the two crew in the boat to pull the chest up. Unfortunately, the underside of the chest had been chained to a spike driven into the rock of the seabed, and wouldn't come up, and a giant octopus appeared from behind the bough. Muroomah charged forward and with her new and very fine great ax killed the giant octopus with one blow. [The GM is afraid that this was the second giant octopus she's killed with one blow.]

Muramah Sez

Mooramah kill eight armed thing with one blow! Ugh! Moormah want to find other sushi to kill. Dis fun.

Unfortunately, a bunch of octopons appeared around the bow of the ship, and everybody decided to flee the obvious trap.

Upon arriving at the surface they found another group of octopons already surrounding their small ship's boat. The two crewmen in the boat fired their two pistols at the octopons, but missed. At least they had alerted their crewmates aboard their ship, anchored 1/8 of a mile away, behind the reef, in the cove. In the mean time, it was a melee in the water. Muroomah did massive damage, attacking all the adjacent octopons with her ax and sending them dead and bleeding to sink into the sea. Azrulektos stunned and damaged octopons with his magic. Karl Kroc attacked bravely. The NPCs were unable to hit anything. However, the octopons kept coming, with new pods of them showing up when the originals had been disposed of.

Things had gotten to a grim point. All the PCs were wounded, a couple of the NPCs and Muroomah were unconscious, and Azrulektos was out of spell points.

System Background

In Savage Worlds the player characters (and some non-player characters) have "bennies", which they can spend to reroll Trait rolls (Attributes like Strength, and Skills like Fighting or Boating), but not damage worlds. They can also spend them to stop being shaken (a stunned condition in which they cannot act, often the result of minor damage), or to attempt to Soak (get rid of) wounds which they have just taken.

Death!

After fighting waves of octopons, everybody was out of bennies, and Azrulektos had two wounds. Each would gives the player a -1 penalty to all Trait rolls. Azrulektos drank a potion to restore some power points, and rolled 2d6 to see how many were restored, and got snake eyes: 2. He was out of bennies, so I said if he took another wound I'd let him reroll, and he did, getting 7 power points back. Then something else happened and he rolled badly, and I said I'd let him reroll that, if he took another wound. That would make his fourth wound, which would mean he'd have to roll on the Incapacitation table. He accepted, made his reroll, which wasn't any better, failed his roll on the Incapacitation table, which meant he was Bleeding out, and had to make Vigor roll to stabilize, and rolled a critical failure (snake eyes - ones on both his Vigor die and his Wild die), which is instant death.

Stupid GM's House Rules :-(

After game reasoning: So, a badly thought-out house rule and a bad run of dice "killed" Azrulektos. My mistake was overestimating how helpful the rerolls for additional wounds would be, and underestimating how deadly the results of those wounds would be. I won't be using that house rule again. Since I was very dissatisfied with the results of my mistake, I went looking for a different in game result that could be plausible.

In game he drank a potion, and a couple of rounds later keeled over dead without any physical attacks on him. Reasoning from the in-game events led to me to think that the mana potion must have been magically cursed, which lead to the idea of a coma, rather than actual death.

Back to the game. Anyway, the other crew brought the ship up, and fired a volley of muskets at the octopons, scaring them off, brought everybody on board, and fled to Baltimus, and a healer. (Azrulektos was the company's healer, too, unfortunately.)

Aftermath

The GM suggested that, unless someone thought it was a bad idea, we should recton [1] the game mechanics interpretation and in-game result slightly, since there were no in-game physical wounds for those last two wounds. Instead of there being actual wounds, the potion that Azrulektos ingested (discovered in an Octopon treasure chest, if I remember correctly), in addition to restoring mana points (the bait), was also cursed and triggered a delayed magical attack on the imbiber, with the end result that a couple of rounds after he drank it it wounded him and put him into a death-like coma. A successful Natural healing roll will bring him out of the coma. An application of the Healing spell will enable him to continue to survive in the coma for five days. Since Grimnar found a good healer when you all arrived in Baltimas, all that is needed is time and money.

B.MC. thought that would work fine, and nobody objected.

[1]	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retroactive_continuity

Each PC each got +3 XP.

WVHTCF 50 Fathoms, Session #5: Pirates, Salvage, Healing

Attending

Clockwise round the table, starting with the GM:

T.K.B. — GM
B.MC. — playing Azrulektos, a Kraken warrior/wizard
C.A.H. — playing Karl Kroc, a Masaquani treasure hunter and navigator
M.A.H. — playing Moorumah, a charming but rather dim Grael

Introduction

[Session report by B.MC., lightly edited]

Actual Play

Here Be Loot!

After escaping with the only serious injury being Azrulektos's burnt and useless arm, our adventurers sorted through the booty captured. Mooramuh forced open the chest and we found a magic ring that made the wearer feel better about sailing (a [Captain's Ring] which gives a +2 bonus to Boating) which was given to Karl Kroc, a yellow potion (restores power points) and $4,375 ($3,938 after 10% salvage fee).

A Sad, Sad, Day!

On the 8-day voyage back to Baltimus to find healing for Azrulektos’ arm, we happened upon the black pirate ship, a sloop known as the “Red Fox”, attacking the crumbster ship named “Windfall”. We defeated the pirates, saving some of the Windfall’s crew, and captured the pirate captain. Unfortunately, Mooramuh accidently threw her beautiful mallet far, far away into the ocean never to be seen again. The Fox had been chasing the Windfall for two days. We found $1,070 in general loot on the Fox and also found a pair of thieves slippers (+1 climbing and stealth) which Azrulektos took.

A Happy, Happy, Day!

We were given a $6,750 salvage bounty for the Windfall and $10,000 bounty for the Red Fox when we reached Baltimus. We sold our skiff for $5,000 and bought the Red Fox for $20,000. We found, through amazing, stupendous luck, that there was a very powerful healer named Benga Mamoto in the village of Tulago. He was from an Earth slave ship. We also bought Mooramuh a 2-handed great axe ($500) with a strap ($100) to replace her mallet. She subsequently bought a formal gown ($268) and went on a date with the weaponsmith Grimnar, having a wonderful time talking about our adventures.

Moorumah the Shark Killer!

We hired two privateers and two novice sailors to help sail the ship and also resupplied for the trip to Tulago. We also repainted the Red Fox sea green and the sails blue before leaving port. Our ship was attacked a half day from Tulago by a giant shark that was almost as large as the ship. Azrulektos pummeled the shark with screaming water bolts and Mooruamuh jumped to its back attempting a killing blow. Unfortunately she missed and the shark began to swim to the depths with her holding on. Azrulektos fired another volley of bolts and stunned the fish which sank to the depths.

Healing

We easily found Benga and he agreed to heal Azrulektos’ arm for $1000 and the promise that we would search for his brother Machawi (~410 lbs and 7’8” tall), who is larger than an elephant (whatever that is), and was last seen on the slave ship the Black Prince. The healing took one week during which time the crew relaxed and Mooramuh worked lifting heavy things and making $35 spending money. We ended up having $2537 after paying crew, repairs, supplies and various trading and fees.

Aftermath

Each PC each got +2 XP. B.MC. submitted a session report, so Azrulektos got a bonus +1 XP. (Azrulektos has 15 XP, Karl Kroc has 14 XP, Moorumah has 14 XP).