The Island of Coatzaco

THE RESCUE OF SVEN JOHANSSEN

            When we last left our intrepid adventurers, they had battled vile and evil creatures on the island of Coatzaco.  They boarded their ships and sailed out of the harbor to regroup, only to find a squadron of ships sent by the Governor was waiting to intercept them!  Cannons roared like thunder and tempered steel flashed like lightning as men clashed with men off the island coast on the glorious 21^st of June.

            Luck would be with our characters that day, crippling several of the warships and taking the flagship as a prize by boarding action.  Petru and a small prize crew transferred to the flagship only to find the Governor himself onboard!  An epic hand to hand combat ensued as the ship drifted toward the island.

            From the deck of the Gimlet, Captain Dwailyn could hear the actions from the flagship.  He knew Petru was a seasoned seadog and could handle himself, but there was something in the back of his mind that was bothering him.  Was it that Petru could be in need of assistance?  No, Petru’s capable of taking control of his situation.  Was it the fact that the Governor’s ships were waiting in ambush as if they knew we were here all along?  No, that can’t be possible, chances of them knowing our exact heading when we left Lion’s Port are slim to none.  Was it all the booty and the 400 gold coins that sit in the Captain’s quarters?  Aye, that’s it!  A very nice payoff for the crew after facing what they went through on that cursed plot of sand!

Wait…the crew…  Dwailyn did a visual check of the crew on board - Chun, Little Jim, Doc, Pankin, Sven…  Where in the hell is Sven?  A frantic search of the decks revealed no Sven!  In fact none of the crew had seen Sven since the landing party hit Coatzaco’s shore.  Sven’s still there!  We have to go back and find him!

Dwailyn assembles Chun, Doc, Little Jim and some other crew members as a rescue party.  As they discuss a plan, Chun mentions a temple marked _ _ ZOD _ _ on one of the maps he acquired from the island.  It’s determined that this is where they will start looking for Sven and they won’t stop until he’s found – dead or alive!

Are you willing to take up the quest to find Sven?  Does the thought of returning to the island make your skin crawl?  Do you have your brown pants on?  Don’t bother, they’ll be brown at some point, but a red shirt might be handy.

The Secondhand Lions gathered for the annual Halloween Heroquest game and this time we revisited our pirate themed re-skinning of this game.  It has been a full year and the tales of the brave Flashing Steel gang are growing numerous and vivid.  We were heading back into the jungle island of Coatzaco to rescue a friend.  The game was a dungeon crawl and was played with the full Heroquest mechanics.  Unfortunately no visual images survived the dank and horrendous caverns of the tomb below the island.  

The synopsis however was a huge butcher's bill and a very vivid Halloween horror tale. Dwailyn crawled out of the dungeon at the end of the night dragging Petru's  arrow riddled corpse followed by an egregiously wounded Sven.  Left in the howling undead mound of skeletal warriors were Chun, Doc and Pankin.  The last sounds were of gunshots and the slicing clash of many scythe wielding skeletons as the lost disappeared in the maze.

We lost the "Rapier of Despair"  in the final run for safety.  It was left behind with Chun as he tried to hold off a zombie rush that outnumbered him 12 to 1.   Pankin got greedy and went into a room against the best wishes of Dwailyn.  "There has to be great prizes in those chests!  This adventure is not over," were his last words as a failed attempt at unlocking a chest animated about 12 skeletal warriors all around him and Doc.

Great times with the best of friends.  Comradery and an annual gaming tradition.

The night ended with a little box hockey.  Caroms on speed.  More of that in another post.

A guest write up from our own Mr. T. Conn...

{Hours later in the aftermath of the brutal final fight...

Pain.  Pain and nausea.  Pain, nausea and…snoring?  Chun opened his eyes to slits, not wanting to alert anyone to the fact that he was awake.  
Initially, he couldn’t see anything, as his location was as dark as pitch.  Eventually, his eyes adjusted to the gloom and he could make out the faintest of forms to his left and right.  The one on the right was making an incredibly loud sound much like a saw scraping through wood.  The one on the left was smaller and dead quiet.  
Chun realized several things at once with a start.  First and foremost: He wasn't dead!  The last thing he recalled was Doc retreating along the corridor, urging Chun to run with him.  Debris on the ground kept Chun from fleeing the horde of undead sailors he was staving off with Dwailyn’s ‘Rapier of Despair’.  Wounded and regretting his decision to hold the rear, he watched as Doc’s Angel of Death spell whirled by, tagging the undead…captain?...before him.  The creature literally fell to pieces when Chun impaled it on the rapier’s point, but he didn’t have time to gloat under the press of decayed flesh forcing its way toward him.  A vicious blow to his head and…what?  Chun didn’t remember anything after that.
The next thoughts that whirled through his sluggish mind were that the forms to his left and right were Pankin and Doc.  He’d heard that buzzing snore before and hoped that Pankin was merely knocked out and not dead.  Chun rolled over and gently shook his fellow Chinaman, placing a careful hand over his mouth so as not to rouse their captors.  Pankin’s eyes popped open in surprise.  He quickly assessed the situation and gave an infinitesimal.  Chun took his hand away and asked “Are you injured?”  Pankin shook his head and quickly glanced at Doc’s still slumbering form, a look of confusion crossing his features.
“How did you get caught?” Chun asked quietly.  Pankin quickly filled Chun in on what happened after the group left with Petru and Sven.  Pankin’s story of greed in the face of danger and Doc’s problem of “wrong place at the wrong time” had Chun shaking his head in dismay.  
Chun sighed and said “Let’s wake Doc and see where we are and if we can get out of here!”  Doc was roused easily enough, his snore cut short, bringing a very sudden silence to the room.  
A quick search yielded few results.  It was a small room.  Hardly more than a storage closet, really.  A lone door let in a strip of faint light along its bottom.  As the trio stood there, quietly discussing their next step, the room shook then swayed to the familiar motion of waves.  They were on a boat!  

Miles away on the other side of the island and in the company of our portion of the crew that made it to safety...

Petru grimaced as he watched the receding coastline of Coatzaco.  He rubbed his ribs, his fingers gently probing the scars from the arrow wounds he’d sustained.  ‘Thank goodness for Doc’s poultices,’ he thought.  ‘Without them, I’d be nothing more than another tally mark on the Governor’s death count.’  
Dwailyn had rushed him aboard the Gimlet, roaring to the crew to shove off and fetch him a vial of Doc’s murky concoction.  Lucky thing he had, too, as Petru was just about as far gone as he could be without permanently joining the Ever After.  ‘I owe him one’, thought Petru, a thin smile on his lips.  ‘Not that he’ll let me forget it!’
Petru’s musings were cut short by a cry from the crow’s nest.  “Rigging spotted, Cap’n!”  Indeed, Petru could spot the tall masts of one of the Governor’s ships moving out of the sheltered harbor…toward them!

Dwailyn’s roar for all hands on deck and getting them the Hells out of there made everyone jump and scurry.  Petru eyed the slowly approaching ship and thought ‘Your time’s comin’, Governor.  The Boys and I are gonna have some words with you that you’re not gonna like.’  He turned and headed to his post, readying himself for the upcoming confrontation.

Flashing Steel on the Island of Coatzacos

Scene V

On the Island of Coatzacos, due east of Neptune's Lair and Lion's Port there is a secret smuggler's cove wherein our adventuring band of cutthroats have hidden the Huntress.  Captain William Azure is securing wood and water in the hidden river cove.  Just at the entrance to the fresh water river is a stockade fortress of which no one has any information.  This island is a victualing point for many bands of buccaneers and an easy reach from most of the Caribbean.  It is said to be peopled with a headhunting tribe of idol worshipers - but that was a long time ago. 

Like any other clump of land in this blue bowl of water there are trees, palms, jungle flora and fauna and the oppressive heat that comes with this latitude.

The Gimlet is anchored in the roads to Coatzacos and has dropped an away boat.  Our band of adventuring brethren is coming ashore to do business at the Stingy Bastard Inn. A smaller trading vessel the Cyprinadae is anchored - nearly beached on the sands to leeward.

The port view of Coatzacos from the deck of the Gimlet, captain Dwailyn commanding.

Idol gossip can be heard on deck as the sailors discuss the notion of headhunters on this island - but that was a long time ago.

Dwailyn's away team would include: Gunther, Sven and Jim Nesbit.

The wary crew of the Cyprinadae seem to be readying their ship for departure and then perhaps they will wait and see what develops now that another larger ship has anchored off the coast of Coatzacos - an island that used to be inhabited by an idol worshiping tribe of headhunters with a stockade fort that no one has any information about....

All bow before the great blood ruby of _ _ZOD_ _ .

The away team is watched.

Part of our troupe is from the far far East.  Chun is the leader and his band of martial artists include, Ned, Yu Won To, and Pankin.

Dwailyn meets and talks with the Professor and Gylles.

The long sandy trek toward the Stingy Bastard Inn.  The stockade fort can be seen dead ahead.  Of which no one can say who goes in or out of that old stronghold....

Poor business is conducted with the proprietor of the Stingy Bastard.

Watering and wood aboard the Huntress...

_ _ZOD_ _

Death poors from the tomb of _ _ZOD_ _.

On the doorstep of the Stingy Bastard the pirates make a stand.

And now dear reader a guest author has sent in a view of the actual combat as seen from the point of view of Captain Dwailyn.  Please welcome Jon Haworth tableside:

Chaos was running rampant on board the Huntress.  All attempts to collect fresh water had ceased and they were frantically making preparations to sail back into the cove to get away from any perceived impending doom.  The crew was in an elevated state of panic after hearing countless unearthly screams from the island’s interior and witnessing the surreal battle Pankin Mi Munki had endured on the bank of the inlet.  It was somewhat disconcerting that after the fight, instead of returning to the ship like a normally sane person would do, Pankin did a back flip and ran headlong back into the jungle for more. 

Guinesss McGlavin had taken position in the crow’s nest on the main mast to survey the action.  He could see glimpses of gunfire and movement, but it was hard to tell who was who in the fray.  Suddenly out of the bog, he could see part of the landing party heading for the ship! Dwailyn was toting a strongbox full of treasure under each arm, followed by Gunter von Girdlefrazzen and “Little” Jim Nesbit.  The diminutive captain yells to the crew, “Hold boys! There be nothin’ of concern for ye.  We’ve got ‘em right where we want ‘em and there’s more of this to come!”  With that, he tosses the boxes on board and heads inland again.

Upon returning to the village, Dwailyn finds that Chun had almost single handedly resolved any “issues” they had with the locals.  Yu Won Tu and Ned, members of Chun’s crew, had been injured and were in need of medical attention onboard ship.  Half rotten corpses and skeletal remains of the creatures they had just dispatched were strewn all over the ground, ghastly to be sure.  As he takes a swig of ale from his finely Jamaican crafted, red striped flask, Dwailyn shares his observations, “Well lads, we’ve certainly seen things here that no man’s witnessed before!  Let us gather up what booty we can and make haste back to the Huntress.”

Chun replies, “There’s some maps and documents inside the tavern.  I’m getting them, they could be helpful in understanding what happened here.”

It is that part of the day when the morning sun blends with the remaining shades of night that make the surroundings feel almost heavenly – almost.  Cheers rang from the deck of the ship as the landing party returned.  The injured were hoisted onboard and taken to the infirmary.  The remaining booty was laid out and assessed.  Not a bad haul, $400 gold, munitions, cannons, miscellaneous trinkets and, of course, the maps. 

“The crew faced the minions of Hell full sail and triumphed very lucratively’, Dwailyn thought to himself, as he watched the sun glimmer across the gold inside the strongboxes, “I’ll transfer to the Gimlet when we meet up in the cove and…”  Then, like a cold shiver that starts at your toes and runs all the way to the back of your neck, he realized that something was not right.

“Where’s Sven?” he cried.

“We thought he was with you!” responded Chun.

“No!  I thought he was with you!”

A frantic search proved futile.  Sven was still out there!  “We’re gonna go back there and rip that place apart and burn it to the ground!”, Dwailyn screams.  “I’ll be damned if I’m gonna leave anyone behind!”

The rest of the story is for another day.

Flashing Steel in the Mean Streets of Lion's Port

Act III

The Mean Streets of Lion's Port

The scene opens with the clanging of the ships bell emergency signal.  All hands on deck!  The alarm punctuates the attention drawn by a series of musket and pistol shots that rang out from the port and on deck of His Majesty's ship the Hotspur. 

 

Call out the militia there's mayhem in the streets of Lion's Port.  The murder of innocent civilians is attended to by the militia as a foot chase occurs in the area around Admiralty Square.

It's 8:00 AM.

Someone is attacking the Hotspur.

The rising sun begins to enlighten the harbor port and the scene of the previous night's adventure.  The Annic Nova is gone (did it sail away or what...) The landing party that arrived on the docks in the predawn were maddened by some mysterious force and began assaulting all that came within arms reach.  The madness has poured onto the decks of the admiralty ship anchored in the bay.  A ninja madman acrobat and a ferocious little imp are slaying all on board the ship.  They must be stopped.  The dwarf killed two more midshipmen as they attempted to evict the madman from the ship.  Then the monster went below decks to wreck havoc on all the furniture and cabinetry on board the vessel.

 



A murderer is loose on the streets of Lion's Port.  He will be hunted down and brought to the Governor's justice.  He made an escape into the neighborhoods behind the Bollocks Mollusk tavern.  There is a rampant fear in the village and nearer the cane fields that the slaves are going to revolt and take over the island backwoods. 

Currently a farmer is missing and his slaves have taken over his residence. It is becoming a small gathering spot for the town's pirate brethren...

On board the Hotspur the dwarf is trapped in the main cabin. (Notice the stunt double for the absent player character mini.)

and the ninja has been captured as well. (again, anther stunt double.) He made a valiant attempt to leap from the bow sprit of the ship and rolled three 1's to catch his foot in some rigging rope and dangle from the end of the boom like a bobber on a fishing line.

 

A great Thursday night of gaming and a fine story line has emerged.  Will the slave revolt turn into a full fledged battle?  Can the imp be contained in the ship or port for that matter?  Will the murderer be found?  And why did all the characters that went out to the Annic Nova come back so blatantly mad and violent?

 

Tun in next time for more Flashing Steel!