Victory! Escape from the Slavers' Ship | D&D session #4

The Mürmaids Escape from Their Captors

When last we met, all but Oliver the Halfling Swindler had been either captured or killed as the party traveled northeast from the bandit's camp in search of goblin treasure recently lost to a tribe of kobolds. While the remainder of the party awoke in the hold of a small slavers' vessel, Oliver disguised himself as best as he could manage as a kobold, and went about looking for more information. We picked up the story as the entire party had awakened in the hold of the small vessel, with Guido, Horace & Clyde having 3, 1 & 1 hit point respectively.

Preparing for Escape

As the halfing Oliver skulked about in the woods for 2 days, stalking the kobolds and trying to size-up the enemy forces, the slavers hadn't moved much, attempting to heal the wounds of the captain, whom the party had bested in episode 3, and attempting to negotiate better terms with the kobolds for what appeared to be more slaves. He noted two things; first, there were 4 slavers remaining. The captain, the man he had run from once Clyde was captured (a wide cloth bandage still wrapped around his head from the last stone Oliver threw at him before diving overboard), a large, burly man who drank to excess who kept a large battle axe strapped to his back, and a woman, smaller than the rest, who apparently could speak with the kobolds.

Their boat had not moved from where Horace had first found it, anchored in a narrow part of the river with a sheer bluff on the western bank and a wide, flat, rocky beach on the eastern side. As the conversations with the kobolds didn't seem to be going anywhere for slavers, Oliver noted that they were starting to prepare their mizzenmast and poles to travel back upriver. Now was the time to act.

He took to the sandy side of the river, and swam to the back of the boat, where the slavers' small skiff, not much more than a rowboat, was tied up. He climbed in, and prepared a small fire bundle of dried grasses and mud. He also located Guido's harpoon in the small skiff, apparently left there by man with the head wound when he took Guido and Clyde captive. Oliver struck his flint and steel until a small ember sparked on the fire bundle, and he tossed it up over the rail of the slavers' larger vessel. Dropping into the rowboat, he cut the line securing it to the larger ship, and drifted slowly south downstream. Once he thought it safe, he did stick his head up and attempted to use the oars to guide his transit.

Meanwhile, Guido and Igrom (aka "The Bad Cheese"), the new dwarf captive with a bad smell about him, attempted to find a way out of their chains. Guido, Horace and the rest had already attempted to open their shackles with a nail Igrom had produced, but all had failed. Slowly, Guido and Igrom tried to lift up on the plank they were chained too, trying to stay as stealthy as possible. With a loud, resounding CRACK that echoed off of the walls of the ship's hold, their bonds broke free. "Oops," said Igrom, who then rushed back to the chains securing his fellow dwarf Clyde. Guido also shrugged and tried a turn at opening Horace's chains with their makeshift lock-pick.

A Distraction to Divide and Conquer

"What the hell was that!?" Yelled the captain of the slavers' ship. His female companion, in the heat of an argument with one of the kobolds ashore, turned and gestured for the burly man to check below deck to see what the commotion was. He took a swig from his wineskin, burped some of the foul-smelling stuff up, shrugged his axe off his shoulders and bounded towards the small staircase leading down to the captive's hold. The third man, the one with a welt on his head, reached into the small cabin to grab his crossbow and a handful of bolts. As he began to close the door,he spotted the smoke coming from behind the cabin. "Fire on deck!" he yelled as he cocked his crossbow back.

The captain and the female unfurled their cloaks from their shoulders and ran to the back of the boat, beating at the small source of flames until it could just be kicked overboard. With Oliver starting to row away, the captain looked up, and saw three of the kobolds ashore yelling in their chirping, squeaking language while pointing downstream, in pursuit of the halfling. He looked to the boat, and saw Oliver, still sporting some semblance of his kobold disguise, drew his sword and shouted something to his companion. Oliver couldn't make out what he said, with the blood pumping in his ears from trying to work the too-large-for-him-oars.

Meanwhile, the large man had made his way down the stairs. "The Captives Are Loose!" he yelled to his companions. He tried to bring his axe over his head, and found the space to be too cramped as it banged into the staircase. He dropped it, and lunged forward to Guido, who was still stooped over trying to unlock Horace's chains. He swung wildly, and Guido responded by grabbing the plank he had broken, and shoving it forward, one hand on its side and one at the butt-end shoving it into the man's face; he made good contact, and the man reeled back to the staircase. Clyde was free at this point, and rushed forward to take a swing at the man as well. Igrom ran to Horace, to pull the board out of its mounting as he had done with Guido.

The man tried to retaliate, but as he brought a fist down on Guido, his knuckles only met the hard wood of the board he was using as a weapon. Horace jumped up, and attempted to wrap the man up in his chains, then Guido took the second shot, with his plank, and this time knocked the man senseless. After he fell, Igrom and Horace finished him off. Guido dropped his plank in favor of the the battle axe. While stooping to gather the weapon, he found a hatch, bashed it open, and in the second hold, they found the goods the slavers were using to trade with whomever they bought slaves from.

Mopping Up the Mess

With his companion no longer responding to his calls, the man with the head-wound from Oliver's stone popped his head down the hatch into the captives' hold. He saw Guido with his friend's battleaxe, and fired his crossbow immediately, scoring a minor hit. Igrom, though, would have none of that, and with a yell, charged ahead, with Horace's plank in hand, and with a heaving overhand swing, cracked the man's head back. Guido and Horace nod in approval, and they head into the second hold. Within, they find a variety of alcohols, something that fetches a high price with kobolds, generally unable to master the art of distilling. Each of the dwarves smiles widely and takes a drink of brandy, restoring one hit point apiece. Guido also chokes one down, but it doesn't have the same affect. Horace also attempts, though he reached for the dead man's wineskin, and the less-hardy half-elf pitched into a coughing fit, and started vomiting, losing his one and only hit point in the process. The young boy, who at this point hadn't played a roll in the fight to this point, consoled him, while Guido and the two dwarves prepared to dash up the steps and confront what they thought would be three fully armed slavers abovedecks.

Fortunately for them, Oliver was still outside. Having been spotted in the skiff, and with the kobolds racing downstream to catch him, he decided to attempt to slow down. He stood, looking at the woman and the captain, and decided that the woman, who seemed the more calm and intelligent of the two, would be the better mark. He grabbed Guido's harpoon, and planting one foot against the stern, he heaved with all his might. She, cloak still in hand from beating out the flames of his fire-bundle, tried to side-step it, but Oliver's aim was true, and the harpoon traced a long gash across her midsection. She grasped her stomach, warm with wet blood, and fought for life as she fell forward in shock, never to rise again. The captain snarled, and squinted to make out their quarry. At the same time, the man in the bow of the boat, rubbing the second knot on his head, called back that their friend who went below was dead, and the captives were free. The captain, with a rabid shout, declared it an ambush, and drew his sword, leaping ashore to combat the kobolds, who he assumed must have been ambushing them. The man at the bow loaded his crossbow again as Oliver jumped off the skiff and waded back to the sandy beach.

The man above, unlike his captain, recognized Oliver when his attention was drawn to him. He hated that halfling who popped him in the cranium with a rock and led him on a chase through the woods, so he fired off a shot at Oliver just as the little man was ducking behind some of the larger rocks on the beach. Luckily for the small man, the bolt ricochet right next to his head, at which point the man aboard became distracted.

The man, with his companions dead and his captain run off to slay a few measly kobolds, did the only thing he could think of, and fired off a shot into the staircase leading down the hold as Guido started to come up, and ran to the cabin, where he attempted to close the door. Guido stopped him, though, yanking the door open, and swinging the axe with a ferocious chop, putting the man down immediately. As he dropped, Guido realized that the keys to their shackles must be on the captain, so he grabbed the fallen crossbow and gave chase, eventually wounding the captain until the kobold he was fighting killed him. The final remaining kobold dropped his sharpened stick and ran back towards his home.

Oliver came aboard, apparently forgetting how convincing his kobold costume could be, and Igrom shouted "Gragh! Kobolds!" and swang his plank right at the halfling. Oliver put up his hands, wiped the mud off his face, and pulled the severed, stinking tail out of his belt to explain. Clyde got the situation calmed down, and they all relaxed, heaving great gasps of air.

However long it seemed from the time Oliver placed the fire-bundle on the stern of the slavers' ship to the time that Igrom hit him with a plank, only a few moments had actually passed. As they dug through he slavers' belongings, they discovered a small trove of healing potions, obviously used to keep their newly-acquired slaves alive until they reached market. They also found, on the woman, a few rolled-up pieces of paper with some scribbling on it that none of them could recognize. Once they return to civilization, they will discover that they have found a small spellbook. Skip has decided that Horace will pick up a second class, and become a thief/mage.

We played an extra-long session this time, and the remainder of the re-cap will be picked up in D&D Session 4.5.