Chapter 4 - Session 12

A Three-Way Dance

Events and Actions

Rather than parley further, Werner steers "The Bull" straight at "The Caliper" to force the issue at close quarters, bellowing at the crew to crowd on every inch of sail and to cut free any rope or tentacle that comes aboard. Just as the two hulls close, someone on the enemy deck cries out "Kraken!" moments before a massive kraken erupts from the sea between them. The two ships collide and become entangled in a mess of rigging and grappling hooks, yardarms grinding together as crews scramble across both decks. The party immediately launches a full-scale assault, aiming to cripple the enemy's masts, crew, and command staff before the fight — or the kraken — turns on them. Mani opens with a shot at the priestess near the bow, but she deflects the bullet with a flick of her hand — an unsettling display of power for what should have been an easy kill.

As six tentacles rise from the water in three pairs, the kraken seizes hold of both ships almost at once, and the party turns the chaos to their advantage. Riu shields himself against stray gunfire before studying the creature's behavior; he judges it is simply hunting for food rather than acting with any malice or direction, and works to keep its attention fixed on "The Caliper" rather than "The Bull." Knick Nab goes further: rather than fighting the priestess a second time, he throws her down with a brutal hip-throw, declares he is "feeding her to the kraken," and leaves her within reach of the tentacles, which drag her screaming over the side and down into the beast's beak.

Noddy climbs into the enemy's rigging to shatter "The Caliper's" masts with Cracks Call. His first attempt is nearly cut short when the entangled yardarms threaten to sweep him off the ropes; he abandons the spell mid-cast and leaps to the safety of the second mast rather than risk the fall, then casts it successfully once he's clear, cracking the mast top to bottom in a shower of splinters, though it remains standing for now. A botched follow-up spell later in the fight leaves him badly rattled and short on confidence for the rest of the day. Riu adds grenades of his own throughout the battle — a first lobbed into the crowded midships that scatters the enemy crew and scorches one of the kraken's own tentacles in the blast, a second that explodes at the captain's feet, blowing him off them and finishing off the mast Noddy had already cracked, sending it crashing down into "The Bull's" own rigging, and a third at the base of the foremast that brings the rest of the enemy's rigging down and pitches two marines out of the fighting top.

Cosimo blankets the enemy's main deck and quarterdeck in choking Tear Cloud gas, casting it four times over the course of the battle, and conjures Handsome Gulliver Gold, his illusory champion, who strides among the enemy denouncing them as heretics before dissolving into another blinding cloud of gas. Balanced on the ship's rail, one of the priests tries to bind him in place with a compulsion spell — "You shall not pass. You shall stay there and be eaten by the kraken" — only to watch it pass through him harmlessly, since Gulliver Gold is no creature of flesh; Gulliver Gold merely drifts closer and answers that he serves the true will of the two, not the priest's "vile lies." As the ships finally pull apart, Noddy blankets "The Caliper" in a fog bank to cover their withdrawal, while Cosimo fires one last Tear Cloud into its retreating midships.

Amid the mayhem, Mani swings aboard the enemy ship on a rope and duels the second priest at the stern, opening with a rapier thrust that carves a dueling scar across the man's face before headbutting and grappling him to the deck. The priest recognizes Mani by his birth name, Manuel de Barret, and tries to compel him to freeze in place with a spell, but Mani's long-standing resistance to magic holds firm. As Mani closes in to finish him, the priest warns him, "When I'm gone, you'll be nothing — I'm the wellspring from which you flow," before Mani kills him. Werner shoots the enemy captain, stunning him and later blowing off one of his fingers as the man tries to flee the gas. On their own ship, the party deals with tentacles that come aboard; Leela attacks one with her formidable axe, hacking clean through it, and Werner uses a swivel gun to blow another one completely off.

With "The Caliper" dismasted, burning, and being consumed by the kraken, the party manages to cut their ship free and escape; Werner directs the crew through the tangle of severed rigging even as their own main yardarm takes a further battering from the enemy's collapsing mast. Knick Nab has a close call: trying to swing clear of Cosimo's gas cloud, he misses his landing and drops into the water right beside the kraken, forced to climb the hull's ropes one-handed while a stray tentacle gives chase. Noddy throws him a lifeline and Riu, drawing on what he'd learned of the creature, talks him through staying still to avoid drawing its attention; the party hauls him aboard as they pull away. A lone marine leaps for "The Bull's" sail as "The Caliper's" fore mast comes down beneath him, misses his landing, and falls hard onto the deck below, breaking a finger but surviving; Mani talks him into joining the crew afterward, sharing his own story of being cast out by the Navy and put on a heretic list without explanation.

In the fight's aftermath, wary that the Divinity of Two somehow tracked them down in the first place, the party strips the dead priest of anything identifying and feeds his body to the kraken rather than risk him being traced. They also set aside the idea of returning to scavenge "The Caliper's" wreckage as it burns and drifts, unwilling to go anywhere near the kraken's hunting grounds again. In a lighter moment, they resolve to send the Priesthood of the Two a taunting letter — written, they decide, on tanned kraken skin — announcing the fate of their priest. The session ends with the party having decisively won the battle, leaving "The Caliper" to be destroyed as they set course for a river mouth to repair the ship and take on water before continuing toward a pirate enclave to the south.

NPCs & Creatures

Kraken: A colossal sea monster roughly 80 feet across that erupted into the battle between the two ships, seizing sailors from both crews with its tentacles before ultimately fixing its destructive attention on "The Caliper" and devouring the priestess Knick Nab fed to it.
Priests of the Divinity of Two: Two priests were aboard "The Caliper." The priestess at the bow showed an unsettling display of power, deflecting Mani's opening shot with a flick of her hand, before Knick Nab threw her down and left her within reach of the kraken, which dragged her screaming over the side and devoured her. The priest at the stern recognized Mani by his birth name, Manuel de Barret, and tried to magically compel him to freeze in place, but Mani's long-standing resistance to magic held; Mani scarred him in their duel, and as he closed in to finish him the priest warned, "When I'm gone, you'll be nothing — I'm the wellspring from which you flow," before Mani killed him.
Captain Colchester: The captain of "The Caliper," stunned by an early shot from Werner, maimed when Werner shot off one of his fingers as he tried to flee the gas, and finally blown off his feet by a grenade from Riu. He was left aboard his doomed ship, taking with him whatever charts he had made as a noted mapper and surveyor of these waters.
Crew of "The Caliper": The Northern navy crew and marines were largely neutralized by the party's magical assaults and the chaos of the kraken attack.
Leela: Proved her combat prowess by fighting a kraken tentacle with her axe, severing it outright — a weapon that seemed particularly effective against the creature.
Handsome Gulliver Gold: Cosimo's illusory champion, conjured to fight alongside the party once again — striding among the enemy to denounce them as heretics before dissolving into another blinding cloud of Cosimo's tear gas. One of the priests tried to bind him in place with a compulsion spell, only to watch it pass harmlessly through him, since Gulliver Gold is no creature of flesh.
The Marine Recruit: A Northern marine who leapt for "The Bull's" sail rather than go down with "The Caliper's" fore mast, missed his landing, and fell hard onto the deck below, breaking a finger but surviving. Mani talked him into joining the crew afterward, sharing his own story of being cast out by the Navy and put on a heretic list without explanation — a fate the marine recognized as his own.
Shark Fin: The rescued pirate, still recovering aboard "The Bull" from his ordeal in the gibbet, shared what he knew of the dangerous waters to the south once the fighting had died down.

Locations

The Sea off the Isle of Sands: The entire session takes place on the open ocean, on the decks of the entangled ships "The Bull" and "The Caliper."

Conflicts

A massive, chaotic three-way battle between the party's ship, a pursuing Northern cutter, and a kraken.
The party successfully boarded and systematically dismantled the command and crew of "The Caliper" through a combination of magic, ranged attacks, and melee combat, including Mani's duel with the second priest and Knick Nab's brutal takedown of the priestess.
The kraken's appearance was a decisive factor, absorbing much of the enemy crew's attention and, once the party fed it the wounded priestess, eliminating one of their most dangerous threats outright.
The party defended "The Bull" from kraken tentacles that came aboard, with Leela's axe and Werner's swivel gun driving them off.

Learnings and Discussions

The priests of the Divinity of Two are powerful and knowledgeable foes, as one of them knew Mani's full name, suggesting the party is being specifically hunted. The stern priest's attempt to magically compel Mani to freeze in place failed against his long-standing, unexplained resistance to magic — a trait the party has come to rely on.
Leela's axe, recovered from the priests on Spider Island, is confirmed to be a weapon designed to fight giant creatures.
Riu's study of the kraken during the fight suggested it was driven by simple hunger rather than any directed malice or command, a read that let the party steer its attention toward the enemy ship rather than their own.
The party enthusiastically discussed how they could skin and process the severed kraken tentacle, hoping to fashion sword sheaths, climbing boots, and other trophies from its hide to commemorate their victory.
Shark Fin told the party of a dangerous, shoal-strewn region to the south called the Shatters, said to be infested with krakens like the one they just fought, and of established pirate enclaves further south still, reachable by ships that use "wind witches" to cross the maelstrom in a way the north cannot.
Mani asked Shark Fin whether he had heard of a Captain Barrows, but got no real answer — the exhausted pirate begged off, promising to address it later.
With "The Caliper" burning and lost, any detailed charts of these waters went down with Captain Colchester, its mapper and surveyor; the party's own charts cover nothing but the routes north, leaving them dependent on Shark Fin's word for anything to the south or west.
Werner ran the numbers on their water situation: emptying every spare food barrel and refilling it would stretch their supply to roughly 65 days for the whole crew, a calculation that factored into the decision to prioritize the river stop.
Following the battle, the party weighed their next steps and settled on a plan: sail up a nearby river to repair the ship and replenish their water supply before continuing on toward the pirate enclave to the south, setting aside for now the option of heading west toward another totem. They also began kicking around what to do once they reach the enclave — selling "The Bull" outright for something more manageable, or simply recruiting more crew and adding cannons to the ship they already have — without settling on either.

Items Gained

Kraken Tentacle: One of the kraken's arms, severed by Werner's swivel gun, remains on the deck of "The Bull," already earmarked for the cook, Batu Batu, to prepare.
Priest's Hat: Mani claimed the distinctive hat from the priest he defeated.

Items Lost

"The Bull" sustained damage to its main yardarm and rigging during the collision, worsened when "The Caliper's" collapsing mast came down into it, and its sails were holed by musket fire throughout the fight.
Two crew members were killed during the battle.