Corsairs: Session 3 - On to Coastone

Having left Altes on a cargo ship, our valiant crew launches and sails off to Coastone, a stone city on the western edge of Teboa, at the foot of the eponymous Coastone Mountains and Lake. Looking back at the wood and daub houses of Brawicke, they see an ill-dressed man, our Mr. Altes, standing on the dock and watching the ship sail off. Unbeknownst to our crew, the cargo ship sailor took the coin then just dumped Edmund into the trash pile behind a warehouse. Upon waking the next morning in his knickers and a bad hangover from the drugs, he scavenged some clothes before heading back and seeing the Fools Errand sail off. With Sleve scrubbing the decks in Alte's fine clothing. 

Slightly larger than Brawicke, Coastone boasts 10 sky ship docks. As they approach, the winds behind them a giving a gentle nudge into a perfect dock, the Harbormaster greets the crew. 

"Fine dock, lads, fine dock indeed. Yea Ironbound, when ye take to the skies, do make foine sailors." Pleasantries aside, they do find that there can be guides to the mountains available here, and the Cows Manger off the Merchant Square is a "foine" place to drink and eat. Ordo takes the Harbormaster aside, and handing him a coin, asks to be notified should any ships come from Brawicke. The Harbormaster agrees to send a runner should a ship come in, but as always our crew is a bit vague as to where they will be. Miss Baudelaire was taken with the vapors and stayed aboard, splicing the main brace, e.g., getting a round for the crew (the player was unavailable this evening).

There are three or four other ships there, including one from the Roche Empire as well as a huge size 3 ship from the Alderil Empire. With the truce, the countries are having visitors but there is tension when the outsiders come to town.

Heading into town, and talking with some of the towns people, they find that the Melting Drum tends to have Dwarves, so they head for that tavern. Upon entering, and noticing a stage, Ordo makes a bet with the attractive barmaid that "our man Sleve here can play a pretty tune for our first round". Taking him up on that bet with flirtatious eyes, Sleve commences a wondrous solo, rolling no less than an 8 draft! The crowd is tapping their feet, coins are flowing, and the bartender seems quite happy with the transfer of funds for ales. 

Ylervan notices a Dwarf in the corner, and walks over to talk with him to see about guides in the mountains, trusting the Ironbound more than most people. Brandit Beastgut is drinking down some fine regellian draught in a mug bigger than his head, and welcomes the sight of a fellow Ironbound.

Getting a matching mug on the house due to Sleve's plucking his oversized lute, Ylervan finds that while Brandit is not a miner, his cousin Yuzzick Trollrock is, and has the family mine up in the Coastone Moutnains. A bit unstable, the two Dwarves head to the bar where Ordo is talking it up with the bartender, and also manages to fine that the very flirtatious barmaid is no relative of his.

Eventually Sleve finishes his set, and they discuss the plan to go to the Mining Registration Office in the morning. A bit of boisterous banner ensues as Ordo tries to get Ylervan to take his musket and coin purse to the ship, so we had a winner for 3XP in this session! Ordo heads off with Gwen who is off any time for our hirsute hero, and the Dwarf and Nomad head back to the ship. 

We also uncovered several rumors:

• the big Alderil ship may have an Alderil Empiure captain. but the woman giving the commands has a harsh Roche Empire accent. And two finely made sabers, and is not one to mess with apparently
• conflicting rumors about the local council representative, who may or may not be in cahoots with the Alderil Empire
• there are spies everywhere!

Next morning our crew awakens, and after Ordo fixes a nice breakfast for his lady friend, they regroup and head to the mining office. The burgermeister there, who works off the people's taxes, is more than willing to share public information on the mines in the mountains. They find a map that corresponds to the red-x on the scrap of a map they got from Pirate Pete. 

Heading back to the ship, I rolled a random pickpocket, and rolled again and Sleve rolled his Grit vs the pickpocket's skullduggery and noticed a hand trying nip his coins. He grabs her, and she screams bloody murder and this man is attacking her in broad daylight! Sleve, laid back Nomad dude that he is, recognizes her garb of that of a Grasswalker, a group of nomads he has hung out with in Jieghan and the huge nomad pack animals.

(And I am going to have to use this in my Fantasy Trip game - too good to not use!) Turns out that the Nomads have a very broad definition of family, and our young Sineag MacGill'Oig is distantly related, and she is on her walkabout. After explaining things to the constable (with the fine hat), our group returns to the ship, now with a young ward in tow, being met by a runner from the harbormaster. The Alterin Empire ship had left a bit before, heading north into the mountains.

And I think that's where we left it. I think I've got it all covered but my players will hopefully let me know if I left anything out.

And we learned a bit about the fish-squeezing clans of the northern islands: they only give the bad squeezings to the rich and hoity-toity, keeping the good stuff for themselves. And they are friendly and outgoing. 

We learned that the Nomads go on walkabouts when young to learn about the world in their own way. And apparently they are all related somehow.

I think the game went a bit better - perhaps we're getting our sea legs. Or is that sky legs? And my notebook did help as things are a bit better organized. And I found if I print landscape, I can have foldout pages! Other pages are 1 page character sheets for the NPCs that are important. 

And finally - several of the images came via searching while playing. The one real advantage of this type of gaming is the available resources. Which is also the downside as it is too easy to get distracted. The big nomad creature is actually out of a Kickstarter I backed by De Architectura. And the names of drinks and things via quick searches for random name generators. I actually have a few of those lists printed out for when I play The Fantasy Trip as usually I am not at the computer.