Privateering with Manum, Trapo and the Grandguildlings
989 Jan 31
After Harald et. al pop out to hang with Walid without contact for 2 days, Mamun assumes Harald is dead, crowns Face II Duke of Eritria and decides to get his thief on. Mamun slurps down a potion of treasure finding finding (or something) in order to earn enough for entry to the upcoming Valentine's Day Phoenix auction on the elemental plane of fire. Romantic. We locate 3 treasure-laden vessels in Marsala harbor. In order of richness: 1) The Falcon, 2) The Granites of Babylon, 3) The Leviathan. There is also an underwater rift in Marsala harbor (perhaps caused by a recent earthquake) that might contain some riches.
Mamun and FaceII head out to town to see what they can find out about the ships:
The Falcon: bound for Egypt. Captain Ali. Owned by the Bab al-Naser 'Gate of Victory' (this, unfortunately, doesn't ring a bell to Mamun) It has a small crew, but might also harbor some kind of hunchback/madman/demon that wears a gold mask, has two different colored eyes and apparently hides his wealth in his wounds (Gross!)
Granites of Babylon: A slaver bound for Magris, laden with gold before selling off its slaves, weird. Captain Harhem, owned by Grander a 'King without a kingdom' rumored to be 12ft. tall. Tough dudes.
The Leviathan: Bound for Spain under Captain Diego. Everyone on the ship is loyal to the holy woman Haddas an old Jewish lady dressed in white wrappings. They may be agents of al-Mansur's agent, Seshalow.
On the way back we meet Mael-Duin, an infidel priest who wants to hang out and is really keen to get his hand on a trident. Mamun is hesitant, not wanting to get any further on the Caliph's bad side, but a cure light wounds is a cure light wounds, no?
Vis/"pickety pockety" and Nura sneak about town and onto the ships to see what's up. The Falcon is as described, no sign of a hunchback-demon-jerkface, but Vis does see a big (drunk?) Viking guarding what might be the captains cabin. A sneak peak at the hold doesn't reveal anything saucy. The Leviathan is relatively non-descript, but the hold is filled with big jars: maybe wine, maybe not? We press our luck with the hide and sneak onto the slave ship and Vis misses a move silently, but manages to get away, but not before a (seriously) 15ft tall dude throws a massive boulder at her as she runs away. The deckhands that detected her implied that they may have a stock of female sex slaves in the hold: "She [Vis] is uglier than the rest of the cargo, but if you close your eyes..."
Mamun decides to strike the Leviathan as it leaves the Harbor. We divide up the thieves, boys on the Trap, girls with the Widows drafting behind. We follow them with 1st mate Sancho at the helm of the Trap out of Marsala harbor. As we get to within bow and arrow range, a pillar of fire turns Sancho into a pile of ash. His last thoughts are of the lining of Harald's GI tract. *(^%&%_*^&*%!!!
Despite paralysis that takes out a few of our best fighters we riddle the Leviathan with arrows, and swashbukle our way on board, catching a lucky break when Haddas misses a save against Mael-Duin's silence spell. Eventually the crew yields, but Haddas keeps fighting with her golden Star of David Scepter, until she vaporizes and was carried away by the wind.
We interrogate the crew and the captain: they came from Anatolia, and docked in Constantinopol on a trade mission for the Umayyad Caliph set up by Hadres. Two thieves Rubio and Rojo were part of the original crew, and found at Constatinopol the fist of the 12 wine jars in the hold. They told the Captain and crew to sail around and find others that looked similar, then took off.
As for the jars, they are filled with wine. We have the infidel taste test. He notices a metallic aftertaste. At the bottom of the jar is a whole lot of gold. We pour out the rest of the jars. One of them have a gelatinous jerk inside that we have to fight, there's some more gold and in one, the oldest one and the first that was brought onboard is Sancho!!! A fake Sancho, that shape shifts and tries to kill Mamun, but eventually disolves and washes down into the sea, apparently. We keep the Sancho jar. It looks like it has been painted over multiple times and has paintings of Afroditi on the surface. The total haul is 7000 gold, elemental plane of fire, here we come, the old jar and a badass weather vane from the mast that points only at your enemies.
