Log7th Sea: The Search for Salvation-2012/04/26-Jason-1

Game log for the 2012/04/26 session of 7th Sea: The Search for Salvation, as taken by Jason

Terdi, 19 Septimus The party wake up, much improved from a good night's rest and some medical attention. The nuns send a messenger to inform the Church of this disturbance.

Nikolai bids the children a fond farewell, cautioning them that if they misbehave, Matushka will eat them. Mia elects not to say goodbye in person. We then head into the mountains, relying on the big Ussuran to track our quary for us. He thinks he smells some smoke, and heads in that direction. We find a kicked-over campfire, still warm, with signs that at least three people stayed there.

Cut to Reginald Buckley, whose group of three broke camp in the woods this morning. It's him, Ivan Tomakivka, and Janisse Rambeaux, with Ivan leading the way. They find a cave, which Ivan says "might be it." They light their torches and go in.

Cut to Nikolai, who found tracks leading into a cave. They head in...

Reginald's party continue to explore the caves, until Ivan tells them that the cave has become impassible, and then turn back.

Nikolai hears them talking, and tells the team to hide. Léon and Benito insist that we have to try to talk to them, leading to bickering and allowing Reginald's party to estimate our numbers and jabber-happy nature. They stop, Nikolai hears them stop, and he yells, in Ussuran, "Bandits, you can come out now!"

"So you are bandits and want us to come out?"

"I say you are bandits and you should come out."

"We are not bandits!"

Ivan hands Janisse the torch, and they agree to come out. Nikolai advises his friends to step back, since the strangers claim not to be bandits. The strangers talk amongst themselves in Avalon, which Felix can understand. Eventually the three of them come around a corner and meet the other four. We all make friendly... well, sort of friendly.

We talk a while and then agree to team up, finding the bandits first, then showing Reginald's party the Syrneth cave. Ivan doffs shirt and belt, and changes into a wolf. Reginald expresses enthusiasm for that stunt. As a wolf, he tracks pretty well. Ivan leads us for hours, during which we get acquainted. At the end of the day, Nikolai finds a great campsite. Benito and Janisse have a wonderfully vague conversation. Nikolai and Ivan compare notes about the trail. Léon joins the conversation, and Ivan explains about becoming a wolf and making friends with the packs. Benito asks Reginald about the mountains purported loathing of magic, and Reginald tells him he's never had a problem. Hrm. Nikolai asks about the blue lights, and Reginald and Janisse both say they've seen them. Janisse says they're burning gasses released from the earth. Reginald says they're a result of people performing occult rituals in the mountains, which makes Janisse roll her eyes. Felix begins laying a scheme to become friends with Janisse. Léon asks Reginald about the Sidhe. We set watches and turn in. In the night, Ivan wakes Nikolai up, warning him that something doesn't smell right. Nikolai suggests they move away to opposite sides of the camp fire and see if they can spot anything, but he doesn't wake the others. Out of the fire light, with their eyes adjusted to the dark, they look for the source of Ivan's consternation. Nikolai spies five pairs of eyes watching him from a nearby cliff. He whistles Ivan back to the camp and alerts him to the eyes on the crag, suggesting that Ivan bed down as a way to set a trap.

Pounce!

A giant black wolf leaps out of the darkness. Ivan turns into a bear and roars. That must beat hell out of any alarm clock ever. The thing slams into Nikolai but doesn't hurt him too badly. Then it starts with the teeth and the biting, and that does hurt. Nikolai tries to use the hook of his axe to hook a burning piece of firewood and thrust it toward the dark wolf thing. The thing somehow vanishes from the path of the attack and appears behind him, but Nikolai simply spins and swings again, whacking it upside the darkness. Wolf no likey. Then the bear attacks, although it doesn't accomplish much.

With the party alerted, the fight grows. Reginald tries to stab a wolf with his knife, but misses. Nikolai once again swings an axe, and once again the wolf vanishes and appears behind him. The bear finds that its foe has vanished, so it rears and roars. Claude stands and draws. Nikolai once again turns and strikes, but this time the creature can't disappear in time, and it takes a nasty blow, yelping in pain. Felix gets into front stance and moves to guard Nikolai's back. Ivan swipes at a passing wolf with his bigass bear claws, sending the wolf flying. Benito draws and stands. Felix spots a wolf readying to attack, but it's out of sword range. Léon gets ready to fight and takes up a position with his back to the fire, adjacent to Claude. Janisse waves a pistol around, and Felix tells her where he saw a wolf, so she fires and misses.

Felix calls to everyone to get in a circle. A wolf pounces on Ivan, misses, and evades the bear's teeth. A second wolf gets its teeth into him, though, making the bear growl in pain. Léon tries to stab a wolf but misses. Ivan tries to bite the wolf that bit him, and the wolf escapes by teleporting to the other side of the fire. Benito sees a wolf appear in front of him and strikes, drawing blood. Reginald goes after the same wolf and gets his knife deep into it. Sucks to be that wolf... we hope. One attacks Felix but without any great pain, and gets sliced open by a zweihander in response. Nikolai throws his axe at the wolf menacing Benito, but misses. Felix stabs the wolf in front of him and finishes it off. Reginald, in a quick, deft movement, sinks his dagger deep into his foe's side. The wolf, apparently not having any fun, blinks over to Léon. "Oh, hello!" Even such a genteel exclamation alerts Claude, who tries to strike at the wolf, but misses. The wolf attacks Léon, but the nobleman simply steps back, and the gaping jaws fall short. Nikolai swings with his other axe, but misses. Benito goes to help Ivan. Léon swings at the wolf attacking him, but both he and his bodyguard miss.

Felix, following Nikolai's lead, moves to help Ivan out, and gets a slice of a wolf for his pains. Reginald starts to help Léon, prompting Nikolai to yell "Stay with the girl!" The Avalon takes Nikolai's advice. The wolf in front of Léon bites at him again, and this time it gets its jaws into Léon's well-bred attired leg. Léon's counterblow misses. Felix pokes the same ol' wolf in the same ol' fashion, and while he rakes it good, it doesn't go down. Nikolai attacks and clips the wolf solid with his axe, and that's all that wolf can stand. It flops over with its skull split. Claude once again tries to save his master from the big bad wolf, and once again falls short. The wolf lunges back and bites him, but not badly. Felix moves to help him out, as does Benito. Nikolai looks for the wolf we have yet to account for, but doesn't see it. Claude swings and misses. Benito gets there in the nick of time, running it through. It tries to vanish and briefly grows indistinct, but then falls dead. Benito twists the blade as he removes it, just to make sure it dies in a way that leaves it really dead. In fact, it's not clear that any amount of dead could be entirely sufficient.

Fight over, Felix suggests extra fires, to give us a little extra cover. Felix, out of curiousity, wonders whether they ignored Janisse because of some gender thing. If so, it's not because of the wolves' gender, as they are a mixed group.

Nikolai starts trying to mend Ivan's pants.

Reginald begins examining the corpses, with Janisse's help, and trying to puzzle out what the wolves are. The bigger lads begin making a larger fire with which to burn the corpses. The more academically inclined object, so we compromise, allowing them one corpose for study after Nikolai butchers it. A brief discussion of the difference between cleaning animals and conducting an autopsy ensues.