Campaign: Facets

[tshiggins]

(...continued)

The river had a fair amount of river traffic. In addition to a boat or two ahead of them, and several more moving upstream behind, they saw numerous craft of various types – including rafts of logs – coming downstream. The downstream craft stayed pretty close to the channel in the middle of the river, while the craft bound for upriver stayed close to the banks.

La Seine in late March ran fairly high from spring rains and snowmelt from the Langres plateau, but since the river ran wide enough, this close to the Atlantic, the boats close to the bank felt little in the way of current.

The day wore on with little interaction with the crew, as the party tried to stay alert and Grunt became more and more distressed. By the end of the day, the foo dog had started to tremble with anxiety and Beatrice kept him close.

As the sun neared the horizon behind them, they heard a couple of the crewmen shout, “Attention á pont!” A.J., Beatrice (with Grunt at the heel), Henrietta and Aurelia went out to the bow to see what was happening.

Looking forward, they saw their first bridge off the in distance – a long stone affair with several arched spans that didn’t appear to rise very high above the spring-high water of La Seine.

Bourgade appeared behind them, at the starboard and said they’d have to unstep the mast and secure it along the roof of the cabin, once they neared the bridge, and would use the sweeps to work their way beneath it. A little further along, on the other side, he said, the Dame D’Astalot would tie up for the night at a spot where the bank sloped down gently, put the plank down, and build a fire for the night.

Behind them, they noticed the closest boat was more than a quarter-mile away, and had already pulled up to the bank for the night. They also hadn’t seen any boats headed downstream for a while, either. Apparently, the river-traffic stopped early in the stretch of the river near the bridge.

Realizing that a dark camp might make a great place for an ambush, the A.J., Beatrice, Henrietta and Aurelia decided to stay forward so they could get a look at the bridge and campsite. The group inside also made sure they had weapons at the ready, and A.J. cocked his crossbow and slung it across his back.

The crew got the mast stepped down and removed the starboard sweep and the pylon from the top of the cabin, as it would only have about four feet of clearance as the Dame D’Astalog went under the bridge span.

Bourgade went to the stern sweep to use it as a rudder, while the eight members of the crew – four on each side – pulled the 15-foot poles off the racks on either side of the cabin and began to “walk” the boat forward while bracing the poles against the riverbed.

That meant no one but A.J., Beatrice, Henrietta and Aurelia were near the front of the boat when it got within nine feet or so, of the bridge, and Madame Faucher – looking even younger and more beautiful – appeared on top of the span, waved her staff while saying something, and a concussion like thunder slammed the four members of the Red Rocks Lodge.

A second later, the other eight members of the staff at the Hotel de la Gare, including Monsieur Corbett Faucher, popped up and fired a musket volley that swept the bow deck of the Dame D’Astalot.

Even at that range, only six of the muskets balls hit the four members of the Red Rocks Lodge, and they staggered back as the early 21st Century ballistic vests beneath their 18th Century clothing absorbed the huge, relatively slow (for firearms) lead balls.

Grunt didn’t get so lucky as a ball slammed into the foo dog’s side and sprayed blood everywhere. Two crewmen on each side of the boat hopped up to the top of the cabin and began to run forward, poles in hand, while one other ran forward along the deck and one from either side ran toward the stern.

Beatrice triggered a healing spell to stabilize the critically wounded dog, and she told him to find Doc Bascher as she drew a flintlock pistol and her mek’leth-style maine gauche. A.J. shot one of the men on the bridge.

Henrietta already had her staff in her hand, but Captain Bourgade, who had apparently left the stern sweep and moved forward on the starboard side, appeared behind Aurelia with a knife the size of a short-sword and, with a roar, tried to run her through.

The nimble art-thief dodged the blow and shouted a warning as one of the crewmen – handling his 15-foot pole with disturbing strength and dexterity -- came up behind A.J., who had just finished levering his crossbow, over on the port side.

The crewman took a swing, but A.J. dodged and fast-drew a bolt, slapped it home, and shot the man in the chest from six feet away. The man screamed, staggered back and, much to A.J.’s consternation, lost his hair and gained tough sandy-brown skin, yellow eyes and large clawed hands.

The crewman also added about 30 lbs of muscle and six inches of height.

A.J. immediately recognized it from his reading as a ghûl – an intelligent, shapeshifting ogre that historically preyed on lonely travelers in the sands of Arabia, the Middle East and North Africa, but was seldom encountered by the Cabal lodges, any longer.

At that point, the crewman on top of the cabin thrust his pole at A.J. and missed (quarters were too tight and cluttered for a good swing), and the group heard the sounds of blades being drawn from the top of the bridge. A.J. drew his machete as the staff of the Hotel de la Gare scimitars in hand, leapt atop the stone railing of the bridge.

Beatrice shot one as he stood up, but four of the others leapt across the 10 feet or so of river and thudded down on the deck of the Dame D’Astalot. Madame Faucher dropped down out of sight behind her wounded man, Beatrice drew her sword, Henrietta thumped her target, and Aurelia pulled out her small-sword.

Melee ensued in earnest, at the front of the boat. A.J. took a few cuts at the legs of the poleman on the roof of the cabin above him, missed, and got thumped in the chest by a pole. The body-armor absorbed the damage, but then the crewman started to swing at A.J.’s head.

He missed the first time, but connected with the second and only did minor damage. However, A.J. decided he couldn’t risk another hit like that and retreated down the port side, pulling out his crossbow.

Beatrice managed to parry the first two strokes at her, stuck one of the swordsmen with the mek’leth and then took a hit to the body armor from a viciously-swung scimitar that had no chance to penetrate.

Meanwhile, Henrietta the melee-combat monster delivered a beat-down to her opponent, adroitly parrying his swings with her staff and smashing him in the face twice, staggering him and blinding him, and causing him to leap backwards off the boat to get away from her furious assault.

(Yes, in fact, quarter-staves are awesome.)

Over on the starboard side, Aurelia wasn’t doing nearly so well. Bourgade came at her hard and fast, and she decided to leap up to the top of the cabin – right in front of the two poleman moving across the top. The front man immediately took a swing at her as the one behind danced from foot to foot, waiting for an opening.

Bourgade made one final cut at her, but then left Aurelia to his crewmen as he ran forward to take on the much more dangerous Henrietta. Aurelia bounced up on top of the covered mast-socket to dodge a swing, but then took a solid thump to the body-armor as the two crewman zeroed in on her.

Inside the cabin, the first volley had triggered a scramble for weapons, and the arrival of the badly-injured Grunt indicated the critical nature of the threat. Doc Bascher realized she couldn’t do much to help the suffering animal, right away, pointed at the benches and told Grunt to lie down.

Frank pulled out his katars and moved to cover the starboard side of the wide rear hatch, while Steven grabbed his musket (bayonet already mounted) and moved to the port side of the accessway.

Frank began to trade cuts with the first crewman who came through on his side, and the two danced for a bit. However, Steven’s bayonet thrust as the second man wedged in the jamb of the hatch, and the crewman moved into close combat with his knife.

Millie shouted for Apophis to attack, and the large savannah cat joined the combat by leaping on the face of Steven’s opponent. His bites proved ineffective due to the ghûl’s tough skin, but the yowling cat did manage to distract the crewman long enough for Steven to get a good grip and try to judo-throw him.

That didn’t work out but it did pull the man into the cabin. Millie hesitated to thrust her rapier into the tangle, but Doc Bascher wasn’t so timid. The small, wiry veterinarian jumped into the middle of the mess, grabbed the powerfully-built crewman around the waist and shouted, “I got him!”

Meanwhile, Frank’s armor had served him well against the crewman’s knife, but the man’s thick skin hadn’t proven nearly so useful against the former trooper’s katars. The badly injured crewman stepped back amidst the still-placid oxen (who didn’t care about anything except the feedbags on their noses) and Frank started to follow, only to have a third poleman over by the starboard railing poke at him as he stepped through the door.

Steven dropped his musket and began to hit the man ineffectually, the crewman struggled to pull the cat off his head, Millie danced around looking for an opening, Frank stepped back and decided to stick a katar into the scrum (successfully drawing blood), and then Doc Bascher proved true to her word as she executed a perfect belly-to-back suplex and slammed the muscular man to the deck (critical!), while Apophis jumped clear.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ack_suplex.jpg

(continued...)

[tshiggins]

(...continued)

Once the man hit the deck, Doc Bascher tried to wrap her legs around his and put him in a choke-hold, as Steven slammed the man’s chest with the heal of his boot. Millie took advantage of the opening to run the crewman through twice, with her rapier, and that was that.

Frank decided to take the plunge, at that point, and charged the wounded man, accepting the hit to his body-armor from the third poleman. He killed the injured man and turned to face the starboard poleman....

...who promptly broke Frank’s left leg with his stick, because the poleman realized the trooper was wearing an impenetrable hauberk.

Frank went down in pain, as an alarmed Steven charged past him, stuck his bayonet in the poleman, and then discharged the musket. Millie delivered the coup de grace as she stabbed past Steven, and that cleared the stern of enemies as Frank triggered a healing spell and clambered to his feet, one leg noticeably shorter than the other due to the unset bone.

Frank dropped his katars and pulled out two flintlock pistols, and limped toward the starboard side of the boat.

Up at the bow, the scimitar wielders had learned the same lesson about the “impenetrable hauberks” and had started to cut at the arms and legs of the ladies. Beatrice had her rapier out, by then, as well, and managed to parry or dodge the incoming blows, while Henrietta continued to dish out more than she took.

Aurelia, on the other hand, struggled with her two opponents, until she saw the last opponent at the stern go down. She then tried to run along the mast to reach the rear and dodge an incoming swing. Her left thighbone broke like a dry branch.

A couple more swordsmen from the Hotel leapt down to the bow to take the place of those who had been killed or knocked overboard and Beatrice and Henrietta found themselves outnumbered. In the cabin, Doc Bascher realized the fight up front had taken a dangerous turn, and dashed out the front entrance with her sword and a pistol, to take on the opponent to Beatrice’s left.

At that point Claudia, who had pulled out her shield and then hid behind it in a corner of the cabin, realized that (despite her moral code against killing) she had to do something. So, the portly physicist dashed out the front accessway a second behind Doc Bascher, slammed her shield into the swordsman focused on killing the veterinarian, and knocked him over the side.

Her shocked elation proved short-lived as two more swordsmen from the Hotel leapt into the fray to take the spaces cleared by Claudia and Henrietta. The one who jumped to the railing in front of Henrietta promptly lost his footing and tumbled over backwards into the river, which allowed the middle-aged archaeologist to focus on Captain Bourgade.

The loss of two men and the arrival of (apparently) effective reinforcements from inside the cabin prompted Madame Faucher to join the fray.

The young and graceful Madame Faucher (not at all middle-aged, any longer) leapt effortlessly to the deck to Beatrice’s left, staff extended over her left shoulder. and pointed one end at Claudia and Doc Bascher. She spoke a word in a language Henrietta identified as some ancient form of Arabic, and what felt like a jet engine ignited.

Claudia ducked behind her shield and successfully protected herself, but Doc Bascher wasn’t so lucky. The blast slammed into her entire front, bloodied her nose and turned every part of her body not covered by the ballistic vest into what felt like a slab of tenderized meat.

The force of the blast caused both Claudia and Doc Bascher to stagger backwards, but they narrowly avoided going over the side. The space cleared allowed the man shot by Beatrice originally (and then healed by Madame Fauchet) to jump to the deck.

Madame Fauchet turned her attention to Beatrice, who quickly found herself in dire straits with two opponents. Doc Bascher reached around Claudia and shot the man who just landed, and the physicist decided to try her luck a second time. She charged the stunned man, slammed him with her shield, and knocked him into the river, too.

Right about then, the swordsman to Beatrice’s right landed a solid blow to her right leg (the real one) and blood sprayed from the nearly severed limb. Beatrice managed to keep her wits well enough to trigger a healing spell that stabilized her and stopped the bleeding, but her right leg flopped like dead fish – crippled and unusable.

Beatrice went down, triggered a second healing spell and, desperate, called for Grunt as she cut at the ankles of her opponent. The badly wounded dog ran out the front of the cabin, saw his mistress in dire need and leapt at Madame Faucher.

The woman easily dodged the jump. Grunt sailed past her and then splashed into the river.

Another swordsman jumped down to take the place of the second guy Claudia knocked into the river, and took a swing at her. She successfully blocked with her shield and pulled out her bolo, which she began to swing at the attacker like a morning star.

The battered Doc Bascher triggered a healing spell to keep from passing out.

Up on the top of the cabin, Aurelia triggered a healing spell for her broken leg and managed to stab one of her opponents and stun him, only to have the second one break her leg, again. She flopped down to a sitting position straddling the mast, continued to fight, and realized she was about to die.

At the stern, Steven saw Aurelia's dire straits, jumped up to the top of the cabin, and charged her second opponent, taking him in the back with the bayonet. Injured but not dead, the stunned man turned around and engaged Steven, which allowed the badly wounded Aurelia to focus on only one opponent.

Millie and Apophis, meanwhile, ran across the stern deck. Apophis leapt nimbly up to the roof of the cabin on the starboard side and Millie clambered up, too – right in front of the poleman chasing A.J. and swinging again at the engineer’s head.

Apophis jumped at this man’s face, too, and (once gain) couldn’t do any damage but definitely distracted him. However, this crewman dropped his pole and transformed his hands to their clawed natural versions. They drew blood in deep gashes as he tore the cat from his face and slammed it down on the roof.

The badly wounded kitty crawled under the edge of the mast to hide as Millie, who had made it to the roof, tried to run the monster through. The crew-ghûl nimbly dodged the thrust, stepped forward and grappled the young woman with his powerful clawed hands.

He tore at her body, only to realize that, while she wasn’t wearing early 21st Century ballistic armor with ceramic inserts, she had donned a fine set of chainmail underwear beneath her clothing. Still, his claws did manage to draw blood as Millie tried draw-cuts with the part of the rapier blade next to the hand-guard.

Then A.J. shot the crewman in the face with a heavy crossbow bolt. The half-blinded man staggered back, and Millie ran him through as A.J. levered his crossbow, pulled out a bolt and began to move forward along the portside deck toward the ugly situation at the bow.

That took a turn for the worse as Henrietta finally put Captain Bourgade on the deck, spun back to face Madame Faucher, and missed a parry as her second opponent cut at her right leg. It cleavered into her bone, which promptly snapped, and Henrietta went down bleeding.

That left Claudia facing one opponent while Madame Faucher kept bludgeoning at Beatrice and the third opponent up front tried to finish off Henrietta. In an act of desperation, Claudia wheeled to her right, spun the bola, and nailed Aurelia’s second opponent.

It snagged his right arm and tangled around his torso, trapping the arm and forcing the ghûl to drop his pole. He also transformed his hands to claws and started to tear at the bola lines, as the exhausted Aurelia thrust into the man Steven had already wounded, putting him down.

The bola throw cost Claudia heavily. Her opponent swung his sword at her left arm, she missed the block, and took a savage hit several inches below her left shoulder that crippled her arm. She quickly triggered a healing spell, but the second stroke caused her shield to clatter to the deck, still strapped to her twitching, severed limb.

Doc Bascher drew her pistol and shot the man in the chest, exactly too late, and he fell to the deck.

Up on the roof, Millie finished off her opponent as looked around for a new target, just as Aurelia’s slightly-wounded first opponent managed to tear the bola off.

Aurelia prepared to defend herself as the creature started to come at her with his powerful claws -- and Frank’s pistol shot exploded into his bowels from behind and below. Frank moved forward and reached the edge of the bow just as Henrietta put Bourgade down, and then took the cut the broke her leg.

Up top, Aurelia finished the last man, took out her bow and nocked an arrow as Claudia went down and Doc Bascher shot Claudia’s butcher. The former high school art teacher drew the string back to her ear and shot Madame Faucher through the chest, killing the sorceress instantly.

(continued...)

[tshiggins]

(...continued)
The two remaining fighters, suddenly leaderless and badly wounded themselves, jumped overboard – right into the jaws of Grunt. The last two uninjured fighters on the bridge, along with the wounded man, turned and ran.

With that, everybody up front collapsed, except Doc Bascher (still badly battered herself), who began to triage the injuries. A.J. and Frank (who still had an unused pistol) helped Grunt kill the last of the swimmers, and pulled the wounded dog back aboard.

They also checked the body of “Madame Faucher,” and found that her skin had turned a pale blue. She also had beautiful blue-black hair and dark eyes, with sculpted brows and a body like a dancer.

A.J. identified her as a si’lat – a djinnaya sorceress of considerable power.

Clearly, the djinn – the greatest existential threats to the lodges of the Cabal, had taken the portal to the Red Rocks Lodge member’s 21st Century home world in the catacombs beneath Paris, and employed the powerful, shapeshifting ghûl, as minions.

With that, the session ended.

The Butcher’s Bill
Claudia: Left arm severed in a ragged cut four inches below her left shoulder.
Beatrice: Right leg crippled and unusable.
Aurelia: Left leg broken, healed crooked, and then broken again.
Henrietta: Right thigh broken.
Frank: Right leg broken, healed unset. Combat effective.
Doc Bascher: Bruises, broken nose and deep-tissue hematomas over 30 percent of her body.
Millie: Scratched up, but combat effective.
Steven: Some bad claw cuts, but healed up and combat effective
Grunt: Critically wounded but stable, injuries exposed to filthy river water
Apophis: Seriously wounded but stable.

##

Funny Quotes

Bennie Rae (OOC, reading last session notes): Why are we staying in a vampire hotel?
Bernetta (OOC): I know, right? That’s what I kept asking! I’d have stayed someplace different!

(The staff of the Hotel de la Gare appear on the bridge, looking strong and agile.)
Doc Bascher: Maybe they’re werewolves! Do we have silver bullets?
(The group notices the suddenly youthful Madame Faucher.)
Aurelia: She's draining people!

Claudia: I get my shield out and hide in a corner.

GM: As A.J. runs like a coward….
Anten (OOC): These guys don’t know when to make a tactical retreat.

Doc Bascher (Grabs the crewman around the waist): I got him!
(Samantha rolls a crit and Doc Bascher slams the attacker to the deck.)
GM: Wow. You really do got him.

Steven: I stabbed him with a bayonet, then shot him in the chest, and he’s still not dead?!

Claudia (Knocks the first man off the boat.): Whoa, hey! That worked!

Claudia (Knocks the second man off the boat.): And none of my actions are life-threatening!

(The ghûl start breaking and crippling legs with disconcerting frequency.)
Doc Bascher: Y’all aren’t horses! I can’t just put you down!
Bernetta (OOC): You have to write that down!

Aurelia: GOOD GOD, I HATE STOOPID LIZARD SHAPESHIFTER FRENCH DUDES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Apophis the savannah cat gets badly wounded.)
Bernetta (OOC): Ooh! Poor kitty!

Aurelia: I’m gonna die.

(Aurelia kills the fake Madame Faucher.)
Aurelia: Oh, thank god! (The si’lat returns to her natural form) I killed a fairy!

(A.J. notes that the Invisible College of Thoth-Hermes can probably heal up everybody – if they can make it back to England.)

Claudia: I’d prefer a cool cybernetic arm, but I’ll take a regrown biological one.

Beatrice: I’m gonna ask ‘em to regrow both my legs!

##

This was a vicious combat that required everyone to bring their A-game to the session to avoid dead PCs, and everybody did. It also uncovered a significant secret that moves the story forward, dramatically.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

... Grunt became more and more distressed. By the end of the day, the foo dog had started to tremble with anxiety and Beatrice kept him close.

I'm amazed that nobody did any magic to try to figure out what Grunt was worried by.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by johndallman

I'm amazed that nobody did any magic to try to figure out what Grunt was worried by.

The ghûl were physically shape-shifted, so the magical approaches were limited. An Aura spell would have told them something, but that's about the only "detect" spell they normally use.

To be honest, Grunt is the best "detector" they've got.

I'm using Ritual Path Magic in the campaign, and I pulled in a conversion list where someone went through the GURPS: Magic book and defined the entire list in RPM terms.

It was called "Hermione's RPM Spell List." I downloaded the entire list of worked examples, assigned them to the decanic "colleges" from G: Cabal, and cross-checked them against some of Christopher R. Rice's threads, to make sure the costs all lined up.

(Unfortunately, that Web site seems to have disappeared.)

I then decided which spells Oliver McShane would've left in notes for his wife to learn, that wouldn't get her in trouble. That was the initial list of spells available to them from JoBeth's grimoire, and it was really limited.

When they found his library, they got a lot more, but still nothing that could get them in a lot of trouble or do anything flashy, because the lodges tend to restrict that sort of thing.

The search for the library also pulled them into conflict with other mages, almost immediately. From that point on the group's selection has always skewed toward spells that heal them or make them more combat-effective.

They just don't pre-cast detection spells, very often, and since they knew they were likely going into hostile situation, they didn't prep any, this time. They loaded up on Healing spells, and Protection and Warning.

Once they make it back to England (and they almost certainly will), the number of spells available will improve, again, because the Invisible College will grow quite alarmed.

The British mages will also teach them how to fill their Mana reserves (they don't even realize they have that), how to sacrifice Fatigue or HP for spell points, and how to grant that energy to a single caster who wants to cast a powerful spell (I'll let them contribute not only HP and Fat, but also the points in their mana reserves).

After that, their capabilities will improve, dramatically.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

That was the initial list of spells available to them from JoBeth's grimoire, and it was really limited.

When they found his library, they got a lot more, but still nothing that could get them in a lot of trouble or do anything flashy, because the lodges tend to restrict that sort of thing.

The British mages will also teach them how to fill their Mana reserves (they don't even realize they have that), how to sacrifice Fatigue or HP for spell points, and how to grant that energy to a single caster who wants to cast a powerful spell (I'll let them contribute not only HP and Fat, but also the points in their mana reserves).

Aha, I didn't realise they were limited to a list of known rituals! Presumably, they don't have much in the way of the Adept advantage either?

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Aha, I didn't realise they were limited to a list of known rituals! Presumably, they don't have much in the way of the Adept advantage either?

Correct. They do not.

The major premise of the campaign has always been the discovery of this secret reality by people who have no preparation for it, who are forced to learn quickly, and how that changes who they are.

One reason that works so well, is that it has allowed me to slowly bring up to speed players who have never played in an RPG, before.

That's been really important, given the complexity of G:Cabal setting (even the more "action-adventure" version I went with).

If I'd dumped all that on them, straight away, they'd have been overwhelmed.

It also helps that my players are all mature adults - except for Rebecca who, as a teenage girl herself, did a great job playing Sunmi, a teenage girl.

(Also, as a teenage girl -- who actually just turned 20 years old -- Rebecca developed other interests. She dances with drum & bugle corps in the summer, and teaches color guard classes in the winter, and has a second job, and she'll soon start college classes. She doesn't have time for RPGs, these days.)

Kaitlynn, who just joined as Millie, is even younger than Rebecca was, but quite a smart young lady and pitching in willingly.

It also helps that I set up the characters to start out with a nice technological advantage.

Table-top RPG players have far more patience with limitations to magic when their characters have access to modern ballistic armor and automatic weapons. :)

[SionEwig]

That was a great write up on your part. Clear and concise. The party did about as well as they could have hoped for considering the opposition they were facing. This looks to have been possibly the toughest fight they have been in and they managed , with no small use of their brains and a healthy dose of luck, to come out of it alive if more than a bit banged up. Two thumbs up to the players!

[303Radar]

Steve's Log Notes.
I have decided to start taking notes and possibly a diary as this mission is becoming complex and I want to keep track of events as best I can. Perhaps I'll write something important down.
As we leave the Hotel, I wonder what had Grunt in a tiff. I mean, we searched the stable, we kept an eye on the staff the best we could. Hell, we even cornered the owner in his own stable and damn near threatened his life and well being. Still, nothing helpful about who or what we are dealing with was revealed. The closest we came was trying to inspect the cellar. Initially, we were repelled by some magic that sucked the air away from us. I think only AJ recognized what was happening at the time.
Once we made our way in to the cellar, the only remarkable thing was a large hogshead for wine. With no idea of how it got there and not sure of what to do about it, we left the cellar to pass out the week while waiting for Millie's chain mail to be completed. Before this, a walk through town we learned there wasn't much extraordinary about the Inn where we're staying. While we're certain we were being followed, there wasn't anyone definitive we could track for long.
What had Grunt in a tiff this whole time? We eliminated Vampires and blood slaves but there is so much we have to learn or worse, unlearn.

[303Radar]

The journey through town to the boat was uneventful. The Captain and AJ talked a bit about the size of our party but we were able to load up any how. Now, on to what happened last. While apparently setting up for the night, an ambush had been planned. An ambush on us, not them. I hate being ambushed. So much chaos, so much unknown. At the start, we probably found ourselves out of position. In spite of this, I think we did a good job of forcing the crew to spread out. But crap, they brought friends! With any luck they're just strong lug heads and not something unknown.
At the beginning of the fight, I stayed in the cabin with Frank. Two of the deck hands tried to enter through the rear entrance. At this point we found ourselves engaged and in the thick of a fight. Crack gores the sound of thunder at the start. Hope we're not fighting Zues himself!
As I try to use my bayonet to stab one of the deck hands coming through the door, I miss my target jam the bayonet into the door frame. Damn, it was going to take too long to get it out in this fight. Guess a tackle is next but this guy is hard to grapple. Thankfully Doc got him to ground but dam, he won't DIE! With Millie's cat at his throat, the only clear shot I had was a boot stomp to his chest. Next time, I need to go for a clavicle or crotch. Can't kick the cat out of the way, it was a wonderful distraction. Even when it wasn't causing effective harm. Finally Millie kills him.
On the way out I grabbed my "musket" with the bayonet and try to help Frank. Although Frank had killed one, there was another. I think Frank broke his leg and got a decent healing spell in. When I get the chance, I run my bayonet into the chest of the nearest crewman who doesn't die.