Log7th Sea: The Search for Salvation-2012/01/05-Jason-1

Game log for the 2012/01/05 session of 7th Sea: The Search for Salvation, as taken by Jason

Guerdi, Septimus 12, 1668 (continued)

Mahmoud goes to arrange for the boat and make sure our ride doesn't leave without us.

The servant we´re working with, Dino, tells us that both Salvadore's henchmen and Nicoletto's mercenaries guard the villa. Between them they number around forty armed men. Marcus Faber leads the mercenaries, and Nikoali knows him of old, though not well. Faber does have combat experience. A man named Lazaro heads the Panebianchi men.

We decide to ambush them in town - not in the market square where the hanging goes down, but closer to the periphery. We purchase a wagon, straw, and a lantern as part of our preparation.

We position the wagon on the edge of an alley off the road with a broken wheel. Léon and Benito find unobstrusive locations by the road, Claude and Felix affect to be working on our broken wagon, and Nikolai hides in the straw. The riders glance at the wagon but make no fuss. Six horsemen precede the carriage, then Salvadore, Seraphina, and one other man are in the carriage, and 18 Panebianchi men follow, with Evelina Venzini di Sigillo, two pirates, and Mercede Panebianchi di Vestini in custody between them. The prisoners wear shackles, with a chain leading from the shackles to one of the guards.

Léon bursts from the side of the road and skewers two of the henchmen, freeing the women. Felix leaps up from beside the wagon, severs one guard's arm, and cuts the other guard's leg off at the knee. In so doing, he frees the two pirates. The noise does, however, alert the riders. Benito attacks the remaining men who were directly with the prisoners and puts them down, eliminating the prisoners' guards, then moves to attack the next squad. Sadly, they're more prepared and he can't get them. The guards retaliate and draw blood, crippling Benito. Felix engages Benito's attackers and knocks both out of the fight. Nikolai throws an axe at the horses to try to spook them. The struck horse panics, sending the carriage careening through the streets, out of control. Two of the mounted guards get knocked off their horses. The guards decide to key in on Felix and manage to get through his guard, inflicting a nasty-looking flesh wound. The guards get their horses under control and begin circling back. Claude moves Mercede toward our wagon. Felix jabs one of the second group of brutes in the collarbone, cutting deep and breaking bone. Nikolai, meanwhile, tugs Evelina with him back behind the wagon, yelling "we go!" He grabs Mercede from Claude as well, and runs off with both of them. The final guard in the second group of six decides to duck out of the way, so the incoming riders don't run him down. Claude intervenes to stab one of the horsemen en passant, and shoot another, which does thin them out in a real and useful way. Sta-blam! Claude's sword actually goes into the horse, which rears and blocks the path for the other two horsemen. The final six foot guard attack Felix but can't penetrate his Drexel guard.

It starts to rain.

Léon crosses over the wagon and picks up the lantern. The pirates also scramble over the wagon and run for it. The two remaining riders attack, and then encounter Benito first, but their hasty attack goes astray. Felix goes over the wagon. The foot guards attack Benito again, since he's the only one still in the fray, and they catch him pretty good. Felix finishes crossing over the wagon. Benito scrambles under the wagon, and once he does so, Léon breaks the lantern over the wagon, setting the straw ablaze. We run for it.

By the time we cover the 35 feet to the spot where we stashed the muskets, the wagon burns brightly, and the people trying to crawl under it have given up. Benito realizes that a man on a horse might be able to jump over the burning wagon, so he & Felix use the muskets to kill the two nearby horses. We discard the muskets and run like the proverbial thieves. Felix, bringing up the rear, stops to look periodically, then sprints after the rest of the group, while the others stick together. Evelina makes it known that she doesn't care for being carried through town over an Ussuran ogre's shoulder, but Nikolai insists on carrying here all the way to the dock. We reach the boat in good order and find Mahmoud and the fisherman waiting. The rain picks up, which reassures the kinder-hearted members of our merry band that we haven't just burned the town down. We pile into the boat, the pirates man the oars, and we're out of that town. Léon takes the tiller, and Evelina guides him to the nearby island of Rescigno. Léon makes small talk and confirms that it was Evelina's boat that burned, and that Salvadore planned to have Mercede's eyes put out. We see no sign of pursuit, and the fisherman leaves as soon as we disembark. Evelina tells us to follow her to a safehouse she has on the island, She knocks in a specific pattern on the door of a bookstore, and a woman (Anna Valente) opens the door and rushes us in. Benito asks about medical attention and a smith for the shackles, but Evelina assures us that all such matters can be resolved on her ship, the Castiga. That wasn't her ship that burned, you see, just the skiff. She speculates that Salvadore's right hand man probably followed her and that's how things went so far awry. Given that Seraphina will be looking for her daughters, it's best if they split up, and better again if we're not with them. Mercede talks about going to Castille. Will Nikolai allow us to leave Mercede's side? Tune in next session!