The Town Council arranges for the party to use a small fishing boat, just large enough to accommodate Cassandra and Lil and two local volunteers, and two of their excise men, a corporal and a private, to accompany the party and sail the boat for them if successful.

So the six of you get on the fishing boat, and wait.

Every hour, on the hour, you can see someone (whom you know was sent by the Town Council) signaling with a lantern from the correct window of the alchemist's old house.

At midnight, one of the men on board your boat whispers: "Look."

Someone on a ship not far away--about half a mile or so out to sea--is signaling back.

The men on your boat start carefully heading out toward the ship.

The sequence of lights proceeds as written on the paper you found...

The wind, tide, and currents are all favorable, and soon your boat approaches the larger ship. The two men sailing your boat clearly know what they're doing.

The party approaches darkly and silently from the port side, and so no alarm seems to be raised... presumably the smugglers on deck are watching the coast from the starboard side.

The name of the ship, you can see painted on the back, is the SEA GHOST.

But, even now that you're are right alongside the Sea Ghost, you must still get aboard.

The most obvious method is to climb the anchor chain... There are also some open portholes in the stern of the Sea Ghost... but you wouldn't be able to immediately see into the area you'd be climbing into...

Points to the chain and will try using her invisibility to scout ahead.



19:44, Today: Lethal Lil rolled 93 using 1d100 with rolls of 93.  Mage - Invisibility.
Failure



Mage 40--> 45

The spell fails. Good thing you can (attempt to) cast it silently... although the guys in the small boat around you wonder what the heck you're doing.

(Don't try it again until you're on board, please.)

Climbs up the chain to board the Sea Ghost

Cassandra gave her "invisible" friend a head start, then followed
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 02:44, Thu 15 June 2023.

Lil and Cassandra climb up the anchor chain near the prow of the ship, and soon they're on the forecastle (the front part of the deck, which is raised above the center part of the deck).

Gee, it's dark up here. It's hard to make out details of the main deck (partially because you're not standing in the best spot for that just yet) nor the poop deck (because it's farther away).

The forecastle, though, is dominated by a massive shape in the center which you can identify as the ship’s capstan. From it, the anchor chain runs down the chain vent to port of the prow (as you well know, since you just climbed up it).

Standing just to starboard of the prow and leaning against the bowsprit is a human figure. He appears to be scanning to starboard, and hasn't seen you yet.

(PORT = LEFT side of the ship, rememberable because they have the same number of letters.

STARBOARD = RIGHT side of the ship, rememberable because they both have an odd number of letters.)

The two volunteer excise men are waiting on the small boat down below, because they're waiting to see if one of the ladies will wave at them to come on up, or if it's too risky, in which case the ladies will presumably come back down soon, perhaps to try another way to get on board.

(If the excise men hear fighting, they'll climb up anyway to see if they can help...)
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:51, Thu 15 June 2023.

Since eyes are elsewhere Lil signals the men to start climbing.

Cassandra brings her magic to mind and readies her crossbow.   She moves towards the captain

The two excise men quietly come up and join you, careful to be very quiet about it...

Cassandra gets closer to the man that she has absolutely no proof is the captain, closer...
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:44, Fri 16 June 2023.

In reply to The GM (msg # 9):
OOC:  Sorry, i misread your initial description

Cassandra fired her crossbow at the man keeping watch at the prow, hoping to kill him instantly and quietly
OOC:


16:55, Today: Cassandra Everquill rolled 6 using 1d100 with rolls of 6.  Fighter: 65 attack sailor






FIGHTER: 65==>60
--ROGUE: 45
--MAGE: 60
--PRIEST: 50
This message was last edited by the player at 01:00, Fri 16 June 2023.

Lil knew she had to act when she saw Cass do so and used her curse Rapture of the Deep on the other man.



19:01, Today: Lethal Lil rolled 83 using 1d100-5 with rolls of 88.  Priest curse - Rapture of the Deep.

Failure



Priest 70--->75

(Actually Cassandra, you rolled a 6, so stat goes UP 10 points)

Cassandra shoots the sailor in the head with a crossbow bolt, THUNK, and the man drops to the deck, dead. He doesn't even make much noise when he falls.

At that same instant, Lil tries her prayer to the goddess of nature... not only does it fail, but a second later, another sailor climbs up to the forecastle from the main deck. "Tolbert? You say summat...?"

You can barely make out the look of surprise on his face when he registers that there are two men and and two women, all strangers, where he'd expected to find just Tolbert-- and that Tolbert is lying crumpled on the deck.

Now might be a good instant of time to do something about him, because he's sure going to do something about you in the next instant--

Lil was royally ticked she was back at sea on a ship that will be hers and here the sea goddess ignored her pleas. An anger rose up in her as she cursed the new threat condemning him to the Rapture of the Deep. Her prayer came out more like an angry threat.


12:19, Today: Lethal Lil rolled 24 using 1d100-5 with rolls of 29.  Angry prayer to the sea goddess to crush this new threat,.

Success

Priest 75-->70