Blood n' Vinegar IC [Invite Only]

[souldoubt]

The searats came in the night, in vast numbers, and without warning. They overran the docks of Port Aulden in a single sweep, pillaging their way through the seaside town. And then, as quick as they had come, they were away with their loot and captives -- and you with them.

Now you've been chained in this searat galley so long you've nearly lost count of the days. But it seems that this day may be the last.

Last night a violent storm wracked the ship, and you heard a horrible noise like an explosion of splintering wood that drowned out even the thunder. Looking back over your shoulders you could see a huge spar of stormtossed driftwood retreating from a gaping hole in the forward hull. The hole might have been above the water-line in calm seas, but in the teeth of the tempest the galley soon began to fill with water, and the ship began to list forward. The rows of oarslaves at your backs screamed and thrashed in vain against the chains that bound them to their oars, unable to escape as the surging water overtook them, filling their mouths and terrified eyes, silencing them. Then came a groan of timbers and a tremor through the hull, and the ship ground to a halt. Everything stilled, and the storm passed away.

When the morning light finally allows you to survey your surroundings, you are no longer treading water in the half-drowned galley. The tide is retreating, leaving you apparently high and dry as the seawater drains slowly away through the breach in the hull.

However, you three alone have survived. You had each made reputations for yourselves as troublemakers among the oarslaves, and just the other day the slavedriver had moved you from your old positions and placed you in the aft of the ship near the hatch, where he could keep an eye on you. It seems to have been your saving grace. Behind you in the foreward-tilting ship, all of the nearly forty other oarslaves sprawl like about bleaching driftwood, or float suspended like ghosts in the clear water as tiny fish take exploratory nibbles at their waterlogged flesh.

Presently, you hear the sound of someone clambering down into the belly of the ship, and look up to see your nemesis the slavedriver enter the slave hold.

"Well, me lucky ones," he sneers. "Looks like you're still alive, more's the pity." He snickers. "Still you're in quite a pickle -- or a great jar o' pickles!" He cackles at his own joke and points one claw past you at the drowned slaves slowly steeping in saltwater.

When he's finished laughing, he continues menacingly, "Listen well, ragbags. We'll have this ship ship-shape soon enough, and I don't want to hear a peep out of any one o' ya till we do -- else I'll flay the blighter making noise and the rest of you with 'im!"

With that he turns and stocks out, leaving you to sit chained to your oars with seawater swirling around your footpaws.

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There's the opener. Have at.

Billum and Cardith are chained together at one oar, and Aelric is chained to the oar across from them, along with a drowned vole who was too frail and weak to weather the storm. You are all without your equipment. The ladder/steps up to aft hatch (to the deck) are just in front of you, and just aside of that is a door to some aft cabin of some sort.

WWMD?

[BDEYE]

Billum stares calmly at the slavemaster as he speaks.

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((Billum uses his Executioner's Eye on the slavemaster. He takes a sense motive check as a full round action- (1d20+14)[18](32). The slavemaster opposes with a BAB check or a Bluff check, whichever is higher. If Billum wins the check he gets two execution tokens against the slavemaster.))

As soon as the slavemaster leaves he looks to his left and right, at the others, a questioning, uncertain look on his face. What's next?

[Animegoat]

Aelric spits into the murky water, and waits until the slavemaster has left before muttering "It's only a matter of time... let him get overconfident - and he will - then he'll be nothing more than a notch on my hilt." Turning to the others, he whispers "We need to work together on this one. Are we in agreement?"

[BDEYE]

Billum nods almost imperceptibly.

[K-9]

"Yes, it is always just a matter of time..." says Cardith, almost to himself. Then, in a louder voice, he addresses the rest of the party. "There is no way our captors could have suffered no casualties. Yes, they were above deck, but at least some of them must have been swept out to sea, or had bones broken while being tossed about by the storm. At the very least they must be as exhausted as we are. No, they can't be as strong as they were when we took us."

Cardith is small for a member of his race, but hints of lean muscle show through his matted fur. From the taters of his tunic you can see a large patch of scar tissue where fur doesn't grow.

(Cardith looks around his immediate vicinity for anything that looks remotely like a weapon. I'll suffer the -4 penalty for an improvised weapon if I have to. Search: (d20+2)[11](13)
If there is time, I'll simply make a full-round action to search all around me as far as my chains allow, which will give me the result of a 22.)

[souldoubt]

(@BDEYE)
While studying the slavedriver, Billum did notice that he tends to favor his left footpaw, possibly from an old injury (or a new one), and leads with the opposite forepaw -- his whip-wielding paw -- implying that his left side is more vulnerable than his right.

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You gain 2 Execution Tokens against the slavemaster/slavedriver. I suggest keeping track of these tokens and other "statuses" by posting a "size 1" line at the bottom of each post (or at least, each post during combat), since it's less obtrusive than a spoiler at the bottom of every post, and can be taken in at a glance. For example:

Execution Pool: 2 tokens vs. slavedriver

(@K-9)
Cardith's eye falls on the heavy chain clamped to his paw as the most likely candidate for a weapon -- not much use at the moment, since the other end is attached to a mole, and the whole thing is strung through an eye-spike driven into the galley oar. The small door just below and one side of the hatch entices his interest, but he's unable to reach it, even at the full extension of the chain.

[Animegoat]

"If there aren't too many o' them, we might be able to make a break for it at the least." Aelric tilts his head to one side and strains to listen for how many other beasts aside from those sharing a chain might still be on the ship.

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Aelric makes a listen check to try to estimate how many rats might be on board, or how many might be injured judging by the pained moans.
Listen check - (1d20+9)[26]

[souldoubt]

Filtering in through the oarlock, Aelric's keen hearing can distinguish at least three voices:

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"'Ow many survived then?"

"Only three. Biggest troublemakers o' the bunch. Any sign o' the Cap'n an the rest comin' back yet?"

"Not yet."

The only other sound of habitation he can make out are the creak of the slavedriver's heavy steps on the thick wooden deck overhead. If there are many more searats above, they would have to be being very quiet.

[K-9]

Cardith speaks up: "I could try to throw my manacles," he says, "but I could not do the same for you. Or I could try to pull the eye-spike straight out of the wood. Or we could break the oars into weapons of some sort and fight will bound, however much of a disadvantage this will be. Of course, this will make a lot of sound, and sure to attract their attention." He thinks for a moment, then says, "Or we could simply wait and see what they will do with us. They might even try to bargain with us, as they would be very foolish to simply kill us out of hand when all their slave labour has been lost. I can be pretty pursuasive when I want to be."

[Animegoat]

"No... I think there are only three up there right now. Seems the cap'n took a group out, so our best time to try anythin' is now. I have methods of... persuasion myself, but we aren't in very good bargainin' position. These types respond to strength, and we are pretty well tied up; not too strong lookin'. I think our best bet is to try to free all three o' us at once, and fight our way out. Once on open land it will be hard for them to find us..." Aelric pauses to grin through sharp teeth."Or I can always just head for open water, but as Marshal - or maybe ex-Marshal - I think I'll resist that temptation. 'Sides, we can fashion a nice hidin' place with Dirtnose here. Any good ideas for springin' us all before the rats can drop on us?"

[K-9]

"Should I try to get out of my manacles, then? I might be able to try it, but I cannot guarantee it would work."

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I can Take 20 on my Escape Artist check, but this would only give me a 29, one short of the 30 needed to escape from standard manacles. Unless these are very cheap manacles, with some lower DC. Alternatively I could use seawater or some other lubricant to gain the +2 bonus I need to get out of my manacles. Is there any way, DM, that I could simply SEE if I COULD escape the manacles without alerting my captors about what I am doing?

"And once I get out--then what? You two would still be bound and helpless?"

[BDEYE]

Billum closes his eyes and listens carefully. He seems to go into a trance, and for a minute he almost looks asleep. Then he opens his eyes.
"Three?"
He sniffs dismissively. He looks down at the chains on his wrist.
"Keys."
He looks up at the hatch.

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((Took twenty on his Listen check for 29, let me know if that's a problem.))

[Animegoat]

Aelric looks Billum full in the face for the first time, blinks, then says "Yeah, keys would be nice, but I don't think they'll give 'em even if we ask nice. Do you have anythin' useful to say?" Turning his gaze to Cardith he adds "You got any better ideas that will get us all out? I'm not much for gettin' outa chains... kinda outa my element here... bit o' a role reversal for me." Holding up the chains he mutters glumly "I'm usually the one puttin' these on beasts."

[souldoubt]

Cardith inspects his manacled paw, noting that the manacle is formed of two half-circles of metal, held together by a pin driven through the two ends that flair out and meet, like so:
(diagram not to scale... and way harder to make that it should have been)
.................____
...........___/.......\....chain
..........._|_.........|()()()()()
............/...\____/
..........pin

The pin holds the device firmly closed, but if he could get somebeast to pull on the two manacle halves, it might provide just enough wiggle room to slip his paw free with a bit of heroic effort and patience. Without help, removing his paw might be possible, but would likely be painful.

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The first, less painful of these possibilities would require Cardith to take 20 along with an Aid Another action from Billum; keep in mind that you can't take 10 or 20 on Aid Another.

[K-9]

Are Billum and I chained to the oar as well as to the hull, or just to the wall? Who is on the inside? If I am on the inside, and one hand is chained to the hull and one hand to Billum, does an Escape Artist check effectively remove us both from captivity?

[K-9]

Eh, I might as well make that Int check now:

Intelligence Check: (d20+2)[16](18):

[souldoubt]

Cardith sits on the inside. The chain that binds him to Billum is a single heavy length of chain that runs through the eye-spike driven into the oar, with no direct attachment to the wall or anything else.

It looks to Cardith that, with a bit of effort, an empty manacle might be forced through the eye-spike thus releasing one bound beast from his attachment to the oar and the ship, though leaving the loose chain still manacled to him.

[Animegoat]

Aelric returns his attention to Billum, his eyes shielding frustration with sarcasm. "Don't suppose you can gnaw through metal..." He vents a soft groan and casts about for something - anything - that could serve as crude tool in their escape.

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Search check - (1d20+8)[26]

[K-9]

"Can you give me a hand here?" I ask Billum. "Hold open these manacles like this," and he gestures, "and maybe I can get loose of these bonds."

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I'm asking Billum to Aid Another (i.e. me) with an Escape Artist check vs DC 10. If he succeeds, I can simply make another Take 20 with a +2 circumstance bonus for a result of 31, which will let me escape

If Billum doesn't succeed, I will try to find some kind of lubricant to make the metal bands more slippery: lamp oil, seawater, or even my own blood if I can't find these things.

[BDEYE]

Billum attempts to hold the shackles open and help get them loose.

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(((1d20+3)[15](18)))

[K-9]

Does this mean I'm free?

[K-9]

Okay, I'm assuming I'm free, if not I'll chose some other strategy.

I'll explore that door next to the hatch that I was unable to explore before.

Search Check: (d20+2)[11](13)

Or I'll just use a Take 20 check. I'm looking for tools to pull the the spike out of the oars or bend the metal enough to pull their paws out. Also, anything that can be used as a weapon.

[souldoubt]

Cardith pulls himself free with no more damage than a few pinches of fur. Stepping through the small door into the narrow aft cabin, he finds it is a sort of navigation room. A single porthole looks out on one side, and two unused heavy manacle chains are hooked to the wall. A desk fixed to the opposite wall has a map laid out and pinned down atop it, showing the location of Port Aulden marked with a large, crude X. Taking a few minutes to search the desk, in one drawer he finds a mess of pins like the ones that held his manacles closed, along with a metal-headed mallet, a small dented square sheet of iron, and a sturdy chisel. In the other drawer he finds more crude maps, crammed in, rolled up, or sloppily folded, as well as a small dagger, and, too his immense relief, a very familiar scroll case.

[K-9]

Cardith quickly checks to see if the scroll case and it's contents are intact. If they both are secure, he places inside of his tunic at the small of his back. Then he places the dagger at his waist, in easy reach of his paw if somebody comes down from above. He grabs the mallet, the square sheet of paper, a handful of pins, the chisel, and one of the unused manacle chains. He brings them back to his comrades and says, "Surely we can figure out a way to free you both with these various things. The problem is that this," and he waves the mallet up and down, "is sure to cause a racket those above will surely hear. Any suggestions?"

[Animegoat]

Aelric looks over the equipment with obvious disappointment. "Well, I spose we could use the chisel and hammer to quickly break the chain. It'll make a racket but we'll be free enough to fight... or maybe you can use the chisel to pry apart the manacles." Glancing down at the dagger he adds "Ya know how to use that, lad, or should I take it?"

[K-9]

"I can use this, if I needed to," Cardith says, referring to the dagger. "I hope it doesn't come to that, however." He looks at the manacles on his hand. "There has to be some way of taking the manacles off without making a serious racket. If we had two mallets we could destroy each of them at the same time. As it is, we will only have time to get one of yours off before those above hear us and come down to see whats going on. I'd rather have three in a fight than two." He thinks for a moment. "Maybe we could dig the eye-spike out of the oar itself? Your hands will still be bound, but at least you could move."

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do the manacles bind their hands close together? In other words, will they take any combat penalties if their paws are still bound together but not attached to the oar itself?

[BDEYE]

Billum nods approvingly at that last suggestion. His joints crack as he stretches his claws.

[K-9]

What skill check should I use to dig the eye-spike from the wood? An untrained Craft check?

[souldoubt]

Billum and Aelric's paws are bound but there is enough slack in the chain to allow them to defend themselves and fight if necessary.

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Likely they would incur a -2 circumstance penalty to attack, but this would not stack with the -4 penalty for using an improvised weapon if they swung their chains like a flail (meaning they would suffer only the -4 and not a -6 penalty).

I'm thnking that digging the eye-spike out of the wood would require you to simply damage the oar, as per attacking an inanimate object. EDIT: An untrained Craft check doesn't seem to make sense to me, since your lack of training in this instance wouldn't be a huge hinderance; you're not exactly trying to keep the oar intact or anything.

The manacles that had bound Cardith might be forced through the eyes-spike, freeing Billum from the oar if not from the manacles. However, the other end of Aelric's chain is still attached to an emaciated drowned vole.

[Animegoat]

Aelric glances over at the vole's corpse, then follows the chain to his own hands with his eyes. Returning his gaze to the dagger at Cardith's side he says,"Think you could cut the vole off the line? Make things a whole lot easier without the dead weight hanging on."

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If Cardith refuses (possibly due to some sissy mouse code or simple squeamishness) Aelric says "Fine, I'll do it," and he extends his manacled hands to receive the dagger. That is, if he can reach the vole.