Plains, Wagon Trains, and... Sailing Ships?

Còigeamh 23 - Siathamh 9, 6638; next holiday: Brightest Night, Siathamh 35 (the Summer Solstice; Lawful characters receive a +1 to all rolls!)

The Party:

• Rig Bigny, Gnomish Beastmaster
  • Flit, the bat familiar
  • Clench, the Wardog War-Badger
  • Midnight, the Panther
  • Faufe Yitaw, Dogwere (Badgerwere?)
    • Rawf, Wardog familiar
    • Aroof, Wardog familiar
  • Llarm Paphyra, Elvish Polydoctorate
    • The Metal Man, construct
• Caranthir, Human Leader of Men
  • Rhea Trueheart, Elvish Nightblade
  • Lucille "Luce" Burwood, Fighter
  • Elenora Garrard, White Mage
• Gróin of Norston, Dwarven Sapper
  • Laurita Gomez, Priestess
• Quetgar, Thrassian Assassin
  • Zarc, Thrassian Gladiator
• Grogg, the White Mage

The journey from the elves back to civilization was fraught with peril - give or take. On the first day, they encountered either terrifying antelope, which Quetgar was unable to capture. Two days later, they shot down three giant flies, hovering over the decomposing corpse of an ox.

Two days after that, as the party was setting up camp, two figures entered - a witch named Quiet Heart, and her companion Serkan Soroush, a Zaharan Ruinguard. They camped with the party, and left before dawn.

Finally on the road, the party encountered four terrible beasts - gorgons! The battle was fierce, and Zarc was turned to stone, but eventually the creatures were slaughtered. The next evening, the gang encountered - or rather, was encountered by - a gang of desert ogres. The ogres, none too bright, couldn't figure out how to make their way around the stone camp, until Quetgar eventually managed to convince them to walk around. Even then, it took much experimentation before they believed him.

Summerset passed with little fanfare; out here in the wilds, few are around to celebrate such civilized holidays.

Not much later, they ran into a medium sized warband of orcs, headed north; the orcs, feeling generous, suggested a minor tax of 3,000 gp. Caranthir offered one of the gang leaders a +1 sword, worth 5,000 gp; the leader graciously accepted, then turned and told the other leaders that he had decided to let them pass with no tax at all. Orcs aren't super smart, but the other leaders guessed something was up; as the party strolled past, a rather uncivil war broke out between the various gangs. Hopefully that won't come back to bite them later.

Finally, they made it to Kanka Sehir, one of the twin cities of the Shining Sea, the only human cities apart from Mareten that survived the Age of the Beastmen. Though over a hundred miles away, they could still see the enormous mountains to the south, and the gap that leads between them. After un-stoning Zarc and purchasing a few useful items, including some things from a rather shady shopkeeper, they chartered a small sailing ship.

They set off in the morning with a brisk breeze at their back; they had hardly gone half a day's journey before they spotted the writhing tenticals of two octopi. Unwilling to fight such monsters, they avoided them handily. The next day, however, they had no such luck. They were spotted by four galleys - pirate ships!

As the lead galleys opened fire with their catapults, Zarc and Quetgar dove into the water, and Caranthir shifted into his dragon form. The sailing ship had but one catapult. As the boulders crashed into the ship, Quetgar began shredding the outer planking on one of the rear ships. While the ships traded catapult fire, Zarc and Quetgar punched holes into two of the ships, eventually gaining access to the ship! Caranthir, meanwhile, wiped out the entire above-board crew of one of the ships, then turned and wiped out half of another.

By the end of the battle, only one of the ships was undamaged - the one Caranthir had wiped out. The others were listing in the water, gaping holes letting in the ocean... Caranthir, meanwhile, after tossing the last of the pirates overboard, asked the slaves to stay on; the slaves responded affirmatively, pledging their lives to the creatures that rescued them from slavery. 216 slaves survived.

The pirate ships, meanwhile, contained quite the treasure haul; the party had plenty of time to count their treasure while the crew of the sailing ship and the ex-slaves from the galleys enacted repairs. A little over two hours later, the ships were ready to sail again. The ships are as follows:

• Singing Maiden (chartered): 77 max shp, 71 current shp (max until repaired in drydock)
• The Lusty Wench (captured): 76 max shp, 67 current shp (max until repaired in drydock)
• Thunder Bucket (captured): 76 max shp, 64 current shp (max until repaired in drydock)
• The Angry Strumpet (captured): 76 max shp
• Sea Scourge (captured): 76 max shp, 70 current shp (max until repaired in drydock)

The ships need repairs, and there is enough treasure that it would be fairly dangerous to attempt the high seas... so, now what?

• Experience from Encounters:
  • 8 antelope (escaped)
  • 3 Fly, Giant Carnivorous (60 xp)
  • Quiet Heart, level 11 Witch, and Serkan Soroush, level 9 Zaharan Ruinguard (avoided)
  • 4 gorgons (1600 XP)
  • 12 desert ogres (avoided?)
  • 57 Orcs, 11 leaders (bought off, fought each other: 790 xp)
  • 2 octopus (avoided)
  • Pirate Fleet: 4 Small Galleys with 40 sailors, 80 marines, and 240 slaves (2400 xp)
• Treasure:
  • 2000 Electrum, 3000 Silver, 2000 Copper (820gp)
  • 1 Bone jewelry (9gp)
  • 1 shell jewelry (90gp)
  • 1 onyx (50gp)
  • 1 jade (100gp)
  • 1 jet (100gp)
  • 1 Aquamarine (500gp)
  • 1 diamond (1,000gp)
  • 106 animal horns (2120gp, 21.2 st)
  • 9 bags of loose tea (675gp, 45 st)
  • 7 barrels of fine spirits or liquor (1400gp, 112 st)
  • 24 bottles of fine wine (120gp, 4.8 st)
  • 20 bundles of fur pelts (300gp, 60 st)
  • 3 crates of armor and weapons (675gp, 90 st)
  • 6 crates of monster parts (1800gp, 30 st)
  • 5 crates of terra-cotta pottery (500gp, 125 st)
  • 5 gallons of lamp oil (10gp, 2.5 st)
  • 8 ingots of common metals (8gp, 4 st)
  • 1 jars of dyes and pigments (50gp, 5 st)
  • 12 jars of lamp oil (240gp, 72 st)
  • 1 rich fur cape (1800gp, 1 st)
  • 40 rolls of garishly dyed cloth (400gp, 160 st)
  • 5 rugs or tapestries (25gp, 24 st)
  • 3 sets of engraved teeth (210gp, 0.03 st)
  • 33 sticks of rare incense (588gp, 0.33 st)
  • 3 vials of rare perfume (225gp, 0.03 st)
  • Total weight: 756.89 stone
• Total experience from treasure: 820 (now), 12995 (when items are sold)
• Total experience: 5670 xp (plus 12995 xp when items are sold)
• XP per PC: 667
• XP per henchthing: 334 (all henchmen)
• Treasure per PC: 205gp (plus 3248.75gp each when items are sold)

Additional treasure: Potion of Extra-Healing, 2x Potion of Speed, Scroll of Ward against Lycanthropes, Sword +1.