View source for Log7th Sea: The Search for Salvation-2011/12/22-Jason-1

{{Gamelog
|Session Date=2011/12/22
|Campaign=7th Sea: The Search for Salvation
|Author=Jason
|Session Title=Muskets & Mayhem
}}
There's a big fight going on. We have a few seconds for Felix to
organize the group into a hasty defense, and then six men with rapiers
come down the stairs. Léon stabs one with his rapier, but Benito's
adversary parries the blow. Nikolai, hidden per Felix's plan,
deliver's an absolutely crushing series of blows and kills three of
the six. Benito, whirling in the intricate maneuvers of his Saldano
school, strikes two of them but can't put them down. Felix picks his
target and puts him down. The survivor, clearly a brave man, takes a
swipe at Nikolai. Nikolai gives no shits about people with rapiers,
although he does have time to bleed. The fencer tries to press his
advantage, fails, and gets cut down by Felix's zweihander. Six guys
with rapiers clearly aren't enough.

We hear more men coming, and Mahmoud asks Léon to switch places so he
can get a turn. The attackers pause at the first bend in the stairs
but can't spot us, so they have to come to us. The first man down
throws his torch at Mahmoud, while Mahmoud shoots him. Gut instinct:
firearm trumps thrown torch. His assailant takes the bullet and keeps
on coming, while Mahmoud just gets a little singed by the flames of
the torch. The next rank of five men carry muskets, which means this
is actually pretty scary for us. Two man fire at Felix, but they miss the
surprisingly nimble mercenary. One does hit Benito, doing him a
crippling wound. Claude would have been hit save for Léon's heroic
leap in front of him. Sadly Léon's attempt to use his Porté magic to
deflect the ball fails, and Léon takes a crippling wound of his own.
Benito, incensed at the indecency of having so much pain inflicted
upon him by mere hirelings, attacks, followed by Nikolai. As the
heroes advance, the musketers become swordsmen. Claude moves to stand
beside his master. Nikolai attacks two of the hirelings, knocking one
out of the fight and dealing the other a blow. Benito attacks two
others and drops both while cursing blasphemously. Felix pokes at the
two survivors from his forward stance, knocking one down and
scratching the other. Mahmoud, using his off hand since he still has a
pistol in his good one, nonetheless finishes off the last man.

Benito asks one of the wounded men about their employer, and confirms
that the man behind the attack was
{{npcref|Salvadore Panebianchi di Vestini}}. Nikolai leads us out by a
different path, and then we head back toward the docks. He also
explains about how we need to poor boiling wine into the wound. As we
approach the docks, we see that there's a largish one on fire - it
looks like it might have been one of the 15-ish passenger ships that
carry passengers around the islands. Our boat is gone. On the plus
side, we see nobody around. We abort to plan b: find a place to hole
up. Mahmoud goes to find a doctor, while the rest of us find a tavern
with rooms to rent. We decide to tell the innkeep that Léon and
Benito's wounds came from a duel, which resolved their quarrel to
mutual satisfaction.

The barber ignores Mahmoud's knock on the door, so Mahmoud throws
pebbles at his window. When the man finally wakes up and opens the
window, Mahmoud jingles a purse at him, and matters proceed. The
barber does a decent job according to the standards of the time,
although Nikolai frets that without boiling wine to sterilize the
wound, infection must be inevitable. Felix takes first watch while the
party sleeps, to give Nikolai a couple hours rest.

Guerdi, Septimus 12, 1668

In the morning, Nikolai goes to get a boat, and finds that there's a
crowd on the dock watching people drag a body out of the water... and
then a second one, and the Ussuran recognizes them as members of
Evelina's gang. Oooh. Nikolai then pays a fisherman to delay his
departure and then give us a boost to Sigillo. 

Nikolai returns and tell us what he's learned and accomplished, then
goes out with Mahmoud to learn more information. Turns out the burned
ship was a pirate ship, and the pirates were taken. The townsfolk
expect a good hanging. They return, settle with the innkeep, collect
the party, and infodump some more.

This need to rescue the girl has increased the complexity of our plan
and the cost of paying a fisherman to neither fish nor go ferry other
people around.

Nikolai spots one of Mercede's servants in the street, gets his
attention, and speaks quietly with him in the alley. They have
Nicoletto's men guarding the house. Hrm.... Léon suggests that one of
the drivers could sneak us into the house. The thing is that when a
sensivista woman avoids marriage and runs off, it's a huge disgrace to
the family, and normally the parents themselves could be killed. With
the girl recovered and proof that Mercede helped her escape, the
entire family may be tainted.