17th May 2020

Sunday lunch time and I'm in my sitting room, logged into Zoom on my laptop and ready to play 50 Fathoms.

Location: Baltimus.

After Manny Morkon had left, we decided to investigate Bruno Baltimus some more.

On the next day, we looked into matters some more. It was fairly common knowledge that Bruno likes his drinking, whoring and drugs.

I looked into matters a bit further and it turns out that Bruno's 'party needs' are generally all met by an individual called 'Edgar Davies'. We also learnt where and when to find him.

Meanwhile Shia met with again Morkon and agreed to his conditions. - Shis will 'eliminate' Bruno and Morkan will provide her with 'Versalis'. Shia concocted a plan to poison the drugs that Bruno will take during the gala's 'afterparty'. Shia then went shopping for rat poison.

The invitation is for one person only - plus entourage.

We had to wait a couple of days for our clothes to be prepared.

During this time, there was much discussion amongst our company. We did not agree on how we should deal with Bruno and how we should deal with the situation.

The day of the gala arrived.

The invitation says to arrive at 6 pm, so we decided to turn up at 7 pm.

The gala is taking place at Bruno's mansion. It is a large and expansive two storey building.

Shia - under the identity of 'Vivian Veohiti' is welcomed and announced to the gala. After Shia is led to the ballroom, she is introduced to Baron Bruno.
As part of Shia's retinue, we are also granted entry, however we are essentially ushered into a corner with all the other 'hanger ons' so that the true nobility could mingle and entertain themselves.

The ballroom is filled with music, but we realised there was no band playing? The music must have been coming from somewhere else?

We notice sa small group of young men at one side of the ballroom. These were Bruno's 'friends'.
One of them was paying particular attention to Win.

Meanwhile the rest of us began to mingle. Rufus and Rackham were both in the possession of some 'strong weed'. They both proceeded to generously share it around the party and particularly amongst Bruno's friends, thus ingratiating themselves.

Meanwhile, I made some excuses and left the ballroom to go exploring the mansion.

As the gala is drawing to a close, we are all given 'tokens'. This must be something to do with the 'afterparty'.

9th May 2020

Saturday lunchtime and I'm sitting in the living room, in front of my laptop and logged into 'Zoom'.
The normal Sunday 50 Fathoms game is on Saturday this week.

Location: Outside Baltimus.

We entered Baltimus' port. Despite being early in the morning, it is already loud, busy and crowded with people.

We noticed that black flags are hanging out of various windows. We asked around about who was being mourned here? It turned out that 'Byron Baltimus' was still being mourned by some people in the city.
People are less enthusiastic about his son 'Bruno', who seen as hedonistic and uninterested in ruling the city.

After speaking with the harbour master, we were discussing our next step when some sort of commotion broke out.

A man was complaining loudly about the 'Baltimus family', accusing them of being treacherous and betrayers of King Amemnus?. Mostly the crowd boos and heckles him - although this seems mostly out of respect for the deceased Byron and not Bruno.

It appears that this man is well known for this behaviour as at least one person in the crowd knew his identity and told him to 'go home'. The man's name was 'Manny Morkan'.

We were in Baltimus was to find out about 'The Sword Of Amemnus' and we needed to speak with Bruno or read his father's journals, to hopefully find out more.

There were two possible approaches that we were considering.

The first was to get an audience with Bruno and explain that unless we rectify the situation, the world would slowly drown and that we needed his help. If this approach worked, we would have secured the maximum level of assistance from Bruno, but only if we convinced him. If he did not believe us for any reason, whether he saw us as con-men or just didn't believe us, then it make getting the journals even harder.

Since we knew how much Bruno liked to party, the second approach would require us to somehow get invited to or gatecrash one of his well known parties. Then we could 'attempt to ingratiate ourselves with him and proceed from there.

It may have seemed strange to say, but next we decided to go shopping for clothes! Either we needed to look respectable and serious, or we needed to look wealthy and decadent. In either case, we needed the clothes to match the roll.
I sold my used 'blue bear suit' and with the funds bought some sets of expensive clothes. The others more or less did the same thing.
Since the clothes were all fitted, it would take a couple of days for all them to be prepared.

By this time it was afternoon. I decided that I would investigate Manny Morkan, his talk of 'the betrayal of Amemnus, had piqued my curiosity.

I asked around and apparently, Morkan was well known for being something of a rabble-rouser and constantly going on about how 'Baltimus stabbed Amemnus in the back'.
I also learnt where he liked to go for a drink, an establishment called 'The Crow's Nest'.

We also learnt that there was a British actor who 'toured' around the area and would put on productions of 'Shakespearean plays' for the people of Ograpog.

Shia did some investigating of her own and discovered that this actor was a bit of hedonist himself and for being greedy and having what could only be described as 'shady' contacts.
Shia also managed to acquire a copy if the 'Macbeth' play and began reading it.

As the day came to its conclusion, I went looking for Manny Morkan in The Crow's Next.

Luck is with me and I found him.
I managed to introduce myself to Morkan.
When I spoke to him, I explained that I found what he said about 'Balitmus betraying Amemnus'. Since I was not in Ograpog at the time.
But Morkan would only talk about Bruno, he seemed obsessed about it. He told me how Bruno treated people like objects and just used them.
I couldn't get anymore out of Morkan before he departed. After he had left, I noticed that a note had been left where he was sitting.
It said one word. 'Versalis'.
I did not know what this meant. It was getting late, so I went to meet up with my companions.

Ensuring that I wasn't being followed, I returned to the others.

It was at this time that Manny Morkan appeared.
He approached us and said he was looking for. 'People of vengeance, people not afraid to get their hands bloody and were prepared to stab someone in the back'.

We noticed in the background behind Markan, there was a young woman trying to look discrete.

We asked Morkan to explain was Versalis meant and he told us it was a 'mystical' sword.
He then went on to tell us that he had invitations to Bruno's next gala. He wanted us to go to the gala and wait until Bruno went to a private event at the gala and to murder Bruno!

By now, he had practically become rabid.

19th April 2020

It's Sunday midday and I'm in my living room, in front of my laptop, ready to play 50 Fathoms, although for this session, we're using Zoom for the 1st time.

Location: The Whip Islands

Now that we had all four elemental 'ingredients', we decided it was time to 'Bluth's Crown'. It seemed like an age since we were last there, but it was just under one year ago.

The journey to Bluth's Crown is uneventful, but when we arrived, we could see that the rocks were definitely the worse for wear.

We docked and upon disembarking we were met by a young Kraken we recognised, Parspaltry! We greeted him and made some chat.
After this, we handed over the four elements and he gave us our reward, eight potions and six thousand pieces 'o eight!

The mages of Bluth's Crown took the elements and used them in some sort of ritual. This took some three minutes to complete, then we watched as before our eyes, the rocks become regenerated and repaired themselves!
The magic generated by the ritual was immense, we all felt the magic, even those of us who were 'non-magical' felt this great sense of euphoria wash over us.

Once the ritual was completed, we spoke with the mages, our journeys and adventures had landed us with a number of questions that needed answering.

- Where or what is the sword of Amemnus? We know that Amemnus drowned years ago.
- What is the heart of the archmage? Although we think that this is to do with 'Tress The Red'.
- What is it that the Kraken have lost? 

The mages tell us that we should find Bruno Baltimus - obviously at Baltimus. He may know something of the sword of Amemnus. Failing that, it was said that his father, Byron kept a journey. Maybe the journal will contain something.

The mages agreed with us that we must find Tressa The Red. She has gone missing though. The involvement of 'The Inquisition' is suspected.

Finally, with regards to the question of what the Kraken have lost, the mages could not help us. Although they said that they would undertake some research into the matter on our behalf, although this would take a week to conduct.

In the interim, Baxter decided to go drinking. It was a particularly heavy session and Baxter became what can only be described as totally blind drunk.
When he woke, he found himself tied to a bed and disarmed!
He also found himself stone broke, without a penny to his name. During his bender, Shia had relieved him of all his money and had given it all away!

We decided to go searching for Tressa The Red.

We scoured the area but only found a dishevelled Califax.
Win used her magic to heal the parrot, but it will take some time for him recover.

In the mean time, our next step was was to go to Baltimus. The journey was expected to last three to four days and was uneventful.

We have reached just outside the Baltimus docks.

13th April 2020

It's Easter Monday, Easter Sunday was a no-go for gaming, so we decided to reschedule for Monday as everyone would be available. So I'm sitting in my living room, connecting to the group via Skype.

Location: The Flotsam Sea

Our fight against the Octopods continued.
We are still battling the warlock and the giant octopus. Rackham manages to defeat the warlock and by using fire, Shia manages to vanquish the giant octopus.

We searched the enemies' ship and found some useful spoils of war:
- A sealed barrel of water, we examined this and discovered it was water from Earth. What we've been looking.
- We also found an unusual pair of cannons that exuded an air of magic, they were magical and apparently known as 'The Big Pounders!'
- A magical figurehead.

Rackham searched the dead warlock and found a glass eye in a pocket, he senses that it was magical in some way.

After this, we went deeper into the Flotsam Sea. Eventually we managed to acquire some elemental water without any trouble.

After this however, a thick fog settled on the water and as we pressed on, it became thicker. Navigating our way out of this was going to prove very trying.

As we are trying to get our bearings, a figure of a maiden or a girl seemingly materialised out of the fog? Even though she is not close, we easily hear her voice.

She told us the following. "Seek out the sword of King Amemnus, the heart of the archmage and what The Kraken have lost? Without these, our task will fail.".

With this she simply vanishes, lost in the fog.

A few hours later the fog evaporates and is quickly gone.

We spied some land on the horizon and now the sky is clear, we take some bearings. We are greatly surprised to find that somehow we have crossed the Flotsam Sea and found ourselves on the other side.

The island we spotted ahead, is part of 'The Whip Islands' chain of islands! 

5th April 2020

It's Sunday lunchtime and I'm sitting in my living room. It's time for 50 Fathoms over Skype.

Location: Flotsam Sea

We continued our journey on the Flotsam Sea.

Whilst we were travelling we came across another ship, they appeared to be scavenging.
As we observed them, it began to rain. A fog then appeared on the ar side of the ship. We then saw another ship appear, heading straight for the scavengers. It was an attack!

When new ship charged, massive tentacles burst from the sea and wrapped around the scavenger's ship. As the attackers closed, 'octopods' from their ship boarded the scavenger's ship.

We moved in as quickly as we could. We saw that the attacker's ship was named the 'Maria Terquesa'. We launched a two-pronged counter attack.

Rackham boards the Maria Terquesa and engages the warlock aboard the ship in a duel. During this confrontation, somehow both of them become blinded?

Meanwhile I have jumped aboard the other ship and gone for the octopods. Shia is targeting the giant tentacles and attempting to burn then. Win is trying to use her Stun power to incapacitate them.

We fought for a while until most of the octopods had been defeated.

To be continued, next session...

29th March 2020

It's a Sunday lunchtime and we're not at 'The Sovereign' in Woking. Due to the Covid-19 social distancing policies, we're not together at all.
I am actually in my living room in front of a laptop, logged into a Skype group video chat for my first ever 'virtual' tabletop RPG session ever.
Let's see how it goes.

Location: Paltos; at the prison.

Our battle to free Tomas continues!

We had just broken into the 'prison proper' and Shia had managed to take the captain here prisoner.

Shia then convinced the remaining guards to back down and surrender.

We quickly searched the prison and found three prisoners shacked to a wall. A human, a kraken and a masquani - Tomas, Grick & Kyle.

When we released them, Tomas went on a rampage attacking the guards. We had to ignore him and flee with the other prisoners back to the town and our boats.

On our return we saw another Kieran ship approaching Paltos. Kyle used his magic to drive the ship back and we made good out escape.

When we were well at sea, Kyle gave us 'The Tears of Lys'.

It is a necklace decorated with a length of tear shaped gems. When one of these gems are used, it allows the owner to have a question answered. There is only one gem left.

However, it was not quite so simple, the owner must tell a tragic tale and cry a tear on to the gem in order to use it.

​So Shia had a sad tale from her past that she recounted, a tale which is not to be repeated here...

After telling her tale, Shia was given a vision.
The vision showed the trial of the three sea-hags from thirteen years ago.

After the vision, we discussed our strategy and what our next step will be.

It was decided that we needed to acquire both 'elemental water' and 'water from another world'.
Elemental water can be found somewhere within the 'Flotsam Sea'. The Flotsam Sea is a massive and treacherous swirling sea with a vortex at it's heart. It so named for all the wrecked ships it has claimed. This includes wrecked ships drawn in from Earth and other worlds. We theorise that one of this 'otherworld' wrecks may contain water from where ever they came from.

The journey into the centre of The Flotsam Sea will take two to three weeks.

​Early into our journey we spotted a burning ship! Upon closer inspection, we saw that there were 2 salamanders aboard.
Rackham used his magic to remove the salamanders and extinguish the fires.

The ship was entirely abandoned, so we took ownership of it. It was a 'brigantine' called 'Argon'.

We continued on with our journey into The Flotsam Sea and over time the seas became rougher and rougher. 

We are about a week into the journey when we spot another ship, and again it appears to be in trouble!

Drawing closer, we see that the ship is listing significantly to one side. We can now see that a rope is running from the ship to a rocky outcrop just above sea level. The rope is lashed to the rock, preventing the ship from being sucked into whirlpool. We also notice that two individuals are clinging to the rocky outcrop that just above the sea level.

The ship is named 'Donna Briam' and we can see that the rope is straining and won't last long.

Rackham uses his elemental magic to help Win glide over to the stricken ship. Win manages to secure a 2nd line to the ship, allowing us to 'tow' the Donna Briam away from the deadly pull of the whirlpool.

Once we are all in safety, we chat with the crew of the Donna Briam. The captain is one 'Hargreaves Mcoy'.
As thanks, Captain Hargreaves gifts use a magic 'ship's wheel'​ made of bone!

1st March 2020

Sunday lunchtime at 'The Sovereigns' in Woking can only mean one thing. Time for more 50 Fathoms.​

Location: Paltos.

We've prepared for the big battle to free Tomas from the prison on Paltos.

It was the time to begin our assault. In the first moments of our attack, a 'foghorn' blasts out from the prison!

Whilst the former crew of 'The Valiant' stormed the front of the prison, Rackham used his magic to assault and damage the buildings in the prison.

We attacked the prison from the rear and headed to the main entrance, we managed to quickly defeat the guards and secure it. We then noticed that a group of soldiers were charging up the hill from Paltos towards the prison, there were thirty of them. This could proved a serious problem.

We cut the portcullis rope and it came crashing down with a booming thud. The reinforcements could not get into the prison... for now.

So we turned our attention to the main building and fought our way there. Our attempts to break into it were proving futile. The building was well constructed and our entry was significantly slowed.

Eventually we managed to break in!

23rd February 2020

Sunday afternoon has arrived and we're at 'The Sovereigns' in Woking.

This week we are continuing 50 Fathoms.

Location: Paltos.

Even though Paltos is a very small settlement, it has two interesting establishments; 'The Jailor's Den' and 'The Coconut Grove'.

The Coconut Grove was a bit of a strange place. There are posters nailed up that talk about a 'monkape' call 'Deadeye'?
It turned out that The Coconut Grove hosts a 'coconut throwing competition, in which participants compete against Deadeye in coconut throwing.

Rufus felt up for it and entered the competition. It seems that Rufus has a talent for coconut throwing. He managed a massive throw and won the competition!

The rest of us entered The Jailor's Den, a watering hole frequented by jailers and staff from the prison. We also noticed a number of typically drunken sailors.

We spoke with the sailors and discovered that most of them are the former crew of 'The Valiant'! They were kicked off when the governor took possession of the ship. We even managed to speak to the captain.
We asked them about Tomas and they confirmed what we knew. The captain went on to explain that governor intents to prosecute Tomas at court. The captain also explained he expects Tomas to be found guilty and holds the opinion that it will be 'kangaroo court'. The captain had also heard mention of 'Torquemada' coming to Paltos for this hearing!
Overall, the former crew of The Valiant are unhappy at the situation. 

After some discussion, we came to an agreement.

Rackham would use his earth magic to cause an earthquake on one side near to the front of the prison wall. Then the former crew of The Valiant (Whom Shia had recruited to our cause - and to some degree their own cause.) would storm the front of the prison.
While the guards are distracted by this assault, the rest of us would sneak into the prison from the rear.

We were ready to go!

16th February 2020

It's Sunday at 'The Sovereigns' in Woking and we're here to play 50 Fathoms.

Location: At sea.

As we were passing the port at Kiera, we noticed a docked ship there flying a Spanish flag and the name of the ship was blacked out.
This was definitely worth investigating.

We dropped anchor and Rackham swum out underwater to investigate. He confirmed it was 'The Valiant.
​We decided to go into Kiera to investigate.

We pursued some leads in Kiera and discovered the following.

Tomas is a fire-mage.
The Valiant was last at the Port of Paltos.
The Valiant had gone to Paltos to 'get brigands' and get refit.
When The Valiant returned from Paltos, it had a different crew?
The Valiant returned to Kiera just one day ago.

We realised that Tomas would not be among The Valiant's new crew. Tomas' last known location was now Paltos. We had to go Paltos.

During our time in Keira we also do some trading.

Win went looking for the Kieran officer that she got drunk and robbed a while ago, but was unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, Baxter and Rackham in their infinite wisdom decideed to find someone to mug and pump for information. By sheer chance they came across the very man that Win was looking for!
Without realising who he was, Baxter and Rackham attempted to accost him. Win then stumbled into the situation, she only just realized who he was as he looked so different. When the officer saw Win and recognised her, he became apoplectic! Win returned the documents she stole from him, he was not placated!

It turned out that after having the documents and other items stolen from him by Win, he lost his commission in the army, slid into poverty and has been on a downwards spiral ever since. After explaining his predicament, he stormed off.

Later on, when Shia learned of this, she decided to try and recruit the man. It would give him a new opportunity, going some way to compensating him for what happened and it would also give Shia an experienced officer. Shia discovered his name - Norrington and found him. Shia convinced him to join our fleet.
Shia and Win went ashore with Norrington to buy him a new uniform for his new position. Norrington took the opportunity to purchase the most extravagant (And expensive!) uniform he could find.

The next morning we departed Kieran and set sail for Paltos. The journey to Paltos should only be six hours or so as it is close.
The trip was 'a bit rough' as we encountered some bad weather, but we arrived without any incident. 

Paltos is a small town with only 4 streets. Paltos mainly serves the prison located that is situated locally.

Baxter went ashore to investigate and gather some information.

He discovered that the governor of Paltos had accused Tomas of sorcery and imprisoned him. The governor had also stated that 'The Valiant' had been owned by Tomas (A dubious statement by the governor.) and therefore should be seized and claimed by the governor.
The governor then sold 'The Valiant'.

This meant that we had to break Tomas out of the Prison.
Yet another breakout!

2nd February 2020

Sunday at 'The Sovereigns' in Woking and we're here for some RPGing.

Location: Yumas.

​We had been watching a house in the port of Yumas when we noticed that a Kehuna was watching us!

We spoke with him and he introduced himself as 'Rufus'. After some conversation, Rufus agreed to join our crew.

We continued to scout the house.

Shia concocts a 'cunning' plan.

Using the Kieran Empire uniforms that we had acquired previously; we would pretend to be guards and take the prisoner (Rana.) out of the house.

One of our company pretended to be a wounded soldier. They approached the house, pretending that they had been attacked.

Meanwhile, out of sight, Rufus lights a fire and lets off his pistol to cause a distraction and reinforce the story.

​Shia appears (In disguise.) and convinces the guards to let us in and that they should go to the lower tier to help repel the attackers.
Now that we had access to the house, we headed straight for the room that we believed held Rana.

We found the room and entered. Rana was not alone, she was accompanied by Captain Livis and his companion.
We tried to convince Rana to come with us willingly but she refused to do so.

Baxter stepped forward to bind her arms and it was at that moment that Captain Livis moved to stop Baxter.
We managed to quickly incapacitate Livis and his companion as they did not suspect that we were not guards. We searched them and then tied them up. We then tied up Rana and fled.

In the meantime; guards had left the fortification at the top of Yumas to deal with the fake attack.

Win and Rackham surmised that it must now be empty and went in to loot the fortification.

We returned to the dock. A large crowd had gathered there and were milling around confused. We managed to avoid all of them and get back to our ships.

Win and Rackham made their own ways back.

When we were at sea, we released Rana, she was suspicious and agressive towards us. Shia however, manages to convince her that we were rescuing her and not kidnapping her. Shia explains that we will let her off some place safe.