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Age of Ice and Blood: A Pathfinder System Heroic Fantasy Quest

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@DragonParadox, thanks for the interlude, I love such character pieces! I wouldn't mind less votes if we'll get more of this.

On another matter, State of the Company is still not up-to-date, please consider updating it from my previous post
myrix said:
up-to-date State of the Company
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even if there is no Fame and Infamy section update on your part, experience shows that not up-to-date infoposts can lead to changes being lost, in e.g. total gps we have, which is obviously not so good.
 
myrix said:
@DragonParadox, thanks for the interlude, I love such character pieces! I wouldn't mind less votes if we'll get more of this.

On another matter, State of the Company is still not up-to-date, please consider updating it from my previous post

even if there is no Fame and Infamy section update on your part, experience shows that not up-to-date infoposts can lead to changes being lost, in e.g. total gps we have, which is obviously not so good.
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Added, thanks. Infamy/fame will be up after the next update and vote
 
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Arc 15 Post 11: Weeping Skies and Troubled Seas
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    • Weeping Skies and Troubled Seas ​

    Eighteenth Day of Olweje-eza (Olweje Ascendant), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

    The day after you spoke to the children the wind turned to a more northerly gust, cold and brisk off distant ice and with it came roiling rain showers that soaked just about anyone unfortunate enough to work on deck as well as driving Megin into the ever more crowded hold. the loss of both the sun and the islands of their birth over the horizon leaves the children despondent and the rest of you not much better off. The vast expanse of water, not blue but grey stretching to the horizon north, south, easy and west makes one feel lonely even in the midst of company.

    Alas when you finally catch sight of some of that company you wished that you you had not. Four longships which could easily account for more than two hundred men are on your trail and gaining about three leagues out of the thirty between you every hour.

    "Gulls giveth, gulls taketh away," Antonio sighs, looking up at one of the birds in question and more to the point at the white smear some eight feet long on his precious ship

    Doing your best to ignore to ignore the misquote of the Bible you answer so as to be heard. "The Fellowship's warriors are ready to defend the ship from those who would pillage her."

    "But t'would be best to deal with some of them at least from afar. I don't suppose now that there are more birds on board..."

    "No," Inge snaps, though she had obviously been expecting it.

    "We could try to sail into the wind, straight south, that would add eight days to the journey, but they are sure to tire and turn back sooner rather than later. Marcella's sails are better made and she can add some of her own nimbleness to the speed of the wind and leave them with nothing but tired backs and broken hopes of plunder."

    "Are you so opposed to more longships?" you quip, but it is only half a jest. You have magicians and they do not, you know they are coming. Best of all this is likely a pack lead by little more than greed and the chance of a swift profit. If even one of the ships breaks the others are likely to follow. No one wants to die for someone else's claim in whatever loot they think the ship might hold

    What do you do?

    [] Sail south, take the loss of time but likely avoid the enemy

    [] Keep the course, deal with the enemy as they come

    [] Send messages to the pursuing ships, perhaps some of them at least could be persuaded or threatened from open battle

    [] Write in

    OOC: Really short, but would not fit in the interlude behind it and I wanted to get this up before I went to bed so you guys would have a vote overnight.
     
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    • @DragonParadox, I checked our previous pirate encounter more closely and I have to ask, back then you explicitly confirmed that we could get away when the pirates were coming for us:
    myrix said:
    @DragonParadox, asking just in case, does it looks like we have time to come board to board with the Pride, get people off of her, ditch her and then ditch the pirates due to Marcella's superior aberration-provided speed?
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    DragonParadox said:
    You could do that, but you would almost certainly lose the ship and her captain is unlikely to agree to that
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    What has changed? We could have gotten away from the reaverest of reavers then but can't do it now with these run of the mill reavers?

    That the Pride would be left behind as a possible distraction is irrelevant because back then the guy wanted to kill us in revenge for his brother and would not have stopped for it.

    Combat without any external non-combat goals is just a chance for us and our men to die and should be avoided, I really don't want to be forced into it without reason.

    If it's because some of these are like particularly feisty or hard-rowing reavers (though how can they be like that if even the hardest from Surman couldn't?), maybe at least please reduce the number that could reach us to 2 or even 1 ship?
     
    myrix said:
    @DragonParadox, I checked our previous pirate encounter more closely and I have to ask, back then you explicitly confirmed that we could get away when the pirates were coming for us:



    What has changed? We could have gotten away from the reaverest of reavers then but can't do it now with these run of the mill reavers?

    That the Pride would be left behind as a possible distraction is irrelevant because back then the guy wanted to kill us in revenge for his brother and would not have stopped for it.

    Combat without any external non-combat goals is just a chance for us and our men to die and should be avoided, I really don't want to be forced into it without reason.

    If it's because some of these are like particularly feisty or hard-rowing reavers (though how can they be like that if even the hardest from Surman couldn't?), maybe at least please reduce the number that could reach us to 2 or even 1 ship?
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    What changed is you are very close to the port of very well stocked pirates which means they can overload their ships in he way they cannot for a long journey and the wind is not with you. But that will only take them so far hence you can run south with the wind and tire them out until they have to return to port.
     
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    All right, if we have to do it, I say we tell them off and then take them on if they don't see reason.

    The campaign was longer then expected, we lost some time retrieving Ansefu, so we shouldn't tarry. And we are reasonably powerful, we should be able to take them on. Compared to previous pirate encounter we levelled a bit and a Zentragt and Drums of Haste are on our side now.

    [X] Send messages to the pursuing ships, perhaps some of them at least could be persuaded or threatened from open battle
    -[X] "If you think yourself better and luckier than Okunrin and Isele Okomo of Surman, come and get your death and gift us your ships!"
     
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    [X] Send messages to the pursuing ships, perhaps some of them at least could be persuaded or threatened from open battle
    -[X] "If you think yourself better and luckier than Okunrin and Isele Okomo of Surman, come and get your death and gift us your ships!"
     
    Actually, there's another thing we can do better than the last time, we can start trying to get in touch with Marcella for more active help right away, 10 hours to conduct a ritual is better than minutes we had last time.

    I know we now have bonuses from her help for Reflex Save, but we should try to ask for more.

    [X] Send messages to the pursuing ships, perhaps some of them at least could be persuaded or threatened from open battle
    -[X] "If you think yourself better and luckier than Okunrin and Isele Okomo of Surman, come and get your death and gift us your ships!"
    -[X] If any of them are still pursuing, start preparing for battle, including conducting a more involved ritual to commune with Marcella to ask for more active help during battle, with Antonio, Esha and Swift Pebble. Roland would help if required. Use any bonuses that might help, like Guidance from Inge and Magian Wine from Zaia.
     
    Hopefully they'll all turn back. If not and most or all of them keep the course, I would prefer to just take the southerly course and lose some time. We can't expect the pirates not to get lucky eventually, so we shouldn't give them this opportunity for shit to finally go in their favor.

    [X] This is why I don't like the Anwari
    -[X] Send messages to the pursuing ships, perhaps some of them at least could be persuaded or threatened from open battle.
    -[X] "If you think yourself better and luckier than Okunrin and Isele Okomo of Surman, come and get your death and gift us your ships!"
    -[X] If more than two ships continue pursuing us, we'll sail south and accept the lost time.
    -[X] If only one or two continue pursuing us, start preparing for battle, including conducting a more involved ritual to commune with Marcella to ask for more active help during battle, with Antonio, Esha and Swift Pebble. Roland would help if required. Use any bonuses that might help, like Guidance from Inge and Magian Wine from Zaia.
     
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    [X] Send messages to the pursuing ships, perhaps some of them at least could be persuaded or threatened from open battle
    -[X] "If you think yourself better and luckier than Okunrin and Isele Okomo of Surman, come and get your death and gift us your ships!"
    -[X] If any of them are still pursuing, start preparing for battle, including conducting a more involved ritual to commune with Marcella to ask for more active help during battle, with Antonio, Esha and Swift Pebble. Roland would help if required. Use any bonuses that might help, like Guidance from Inge and Magian Wine from Zaia.
     
    Goldfish said:
    If not and most or all of them keep the course, I would prefer to just take the southerly course and lose some time. We can't expect the pirates not to get lucky eventually, so we shouldn't give them this opportunity for shit to finally go in their favor.
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    Valid point of view. Yet I think about it, and difference between 2 or 4 ships doesn't seem that meaningful to me, for following reasons:
    1. We should relatively easily dispatch the 1st and perhaps 2nd ship, with fire bombs, webs, Esha's Cause Fear and Sleep and our Drums of Haste strike group of Roland, Silver, Tom, Wanderer and Zentragt and the rest of our fighters.

    2. Then the 3rd and 4th are expected to turn away anyway, they are motivated by profit, not by wanting revenge, and we have IC indication of that:
      DragonParadox said:
      Best of all this is likely a pack lead by little more than greed and the chance of a swift profit. If even one of the ships breaks the others are likely to follow. No one wants to die for someone else's claim in whatever loot they think the ship might hold
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    myrix said:
    Valid point of view. Yet I think about it, and difference between 2 or 4 ships doesn't seem that meaningful to me, for following reasons:
    1. We should relatively easily dispatch the 1st and perhaps 2nd ship, with fire bombs, webs, Esha's Cause Fear and Sleep and our Drums of Haste strike group of Roland, Silver, Tom, Wanderer and Zentragt and the rest of our fighters.

    2. Then the 3rd and 4th are expected to turn away anyway, they are motivated by profit, not by wanting revenge, and we have IC indication of that:
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    I wouldn't want to make those assumptions when dealing with four ships. That's just too many for us to safely handle, IMO. It would be too easy for them to hem us in and attack from all sides if we give them that chance.

    Like I said, we can't keep giving them opportunities to get lucky.
     
    [X] Send messages to the pursuing ships, perhaps some of them at least could be persuaded or threatened from open battle
    -[X] "If you think yourself better and luckier than Okunrin and Isele Okomo of Surman, come and get your death and gift us your ships!"
    -[X] If any of them are still pursuing, start preparing for battle, including conducting a more involved ritual to commune with Marcella to ask for more active help during battle, with Antonio, Esha and Swift Pebble. Roland would help if required. Use any bonuses that might help, like Guidance from Inge and Magian Wine from Zaia.
     
    [X] Send messages to the pursuing ships, perhaps some of them at least could be persuaded or threatened from open battle
    -[X] "If you think yourself better and luckier than Okunrin and Isele Okomo of Surman, come and get your death and gift us your ships!"
    -[X] If any of them are still pursuing, start preparing for battle, including conducting a more involved ritual to commune with Marcella to ask for more active help during battle, with Antonio, Esha and Swift Pebble. Roland would help if required. Use any bonuses that might help, like Guidance from Inge and Magian Wine from Zaia.
     
    I was right. More pirates like flies to honey and so more loot and XP.

    Remains to be seen if they're cousins of the pirates you killed so they're out for blood.
     
    @DragonParadox, a question for when you'll be able to answer, just wanted to check, given that we have a direction where our speed is higher and that we are more maneuverable, if we'll fight we'll be able to position ourselves and maneuver to receive attacking ships in a staggered fashion, one by one and not all at once, right?
     
    It's arrogant to assume we can fight off four pirate ships simultaneously, and it's overly optimistic to plan for the sort of encounter assuming we can string the ships out so they only attack us one at a time.

    If you're only chance of success requires your enemies to be inept, you need to reconsider the merits of avoiding combat entirely.
     
    Goldfish said:
    It's arrogant to assume we can fight off four pirate ships simultaneously, and it's overly optimistic to plan for the sort of encounter assuming we can string the ships out so they only attack us one at a time.

    If you're only chance of success requires your enemies to be inept, you need to reconsider the merits of avoiding combat entirely.
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    I understand where you're coming from, that's why I'm checking my assumption that we'll indeed be able to string the ships out, as we should be according to my understanding. Antonio is a good sailor, he should know if it's possible and therefore we should know too.

    If we'll be able, coupled with our knowledge that "if even one ship breaks, others are likely to follow" I weigh fighting these at most 4 ships one by one when we'll only need to fight off 1 or 2 better than losing 8 days.

    If we won't be able, then your approach is obviously better and I'll change my vote.
     
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