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

Game log for the 2011/12/22 session of 7th Sea: The Search for Salvation, as taken by Jason

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 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.