Chapter 6 - Session 2

Serpents, Survivors, and a Sudden Stillness

Events and Actions

While sailing cautiously through The Shatters at night, the party hears a distant hail, spots a flickering light, and moves to investigate. As they draw near, Wat, at the wheel, calls out a string of shrinking soundings — twelve fathoms, then ten, then eight, then six — and Captain Nab presses on until the ship is finally brought to anchor just short of the shallows. No sooner has the anchor caught than the ship finds itself surrounded by a massive swarm of aggressive sharks, and Cosimo answers the alarm with two light spells at once: a brilliant burst covering fifty feet in every direction, layered over a softer, more intimate glow pooling across the main deck, revealing the full extent of the danger to the unnerved crew.

An away team (Knick Nab, Mani, Riu, Werner, and Salter) takes a boat to investigate the light's source. They navigate the shark-infested waters and discover a small, rocky island populated by giant sea tortoises, one of which Knick Nab flips onto its back to clear a path ashore. Rather than row the boat around a still-larger specimen blocking their way, Knick Nab instead vaults it outright — clearing the tortoise but landing squarely on a smaller one, which snaps and claws at him for his trouble. On the island, they find a lone survivor sheltering behind the shell of a butchered giant tortoise with a small, guttering fire at his side: a sailor named Keyes, ragged and bedraggled with a few days' beard growth, armed with only a knife and a pistol, who claims he was swept overboard and his longboat crushed when a massive sea serpent attacked his ship, the "Fortnum," four or five days prior, and that he does not know what became of the ship or its crew. Brought back to the "Medallion" and examined by Riu, Keyes proves consistent with his story — battered and scraped from days of exposure, subsisting on raw tortoise, with only a mild ailment that Riu's healing quickly clears. Mani takes it upon himself to shadow Keyes for the rest of the night, and the quartermaster formally signs him onto the ship's articles before dawn, assigning him to the captain's watch under the eyes of Tyler and Old Salter.

The next morning, with the sharks mysteriously gone and only two young tortoises left on the rocks, an away team returns to the island. The team discovers a box containing a single bullet and powder charge, along with an empty grog keg — evidence suggesting Keyes was not shipwrecked but deliberately marooned. Confronted with this, Keyes confesses the truth: the "Fortnum," a Northern ship of war out of New Sardinia, had been pressing deeper into The Shatters for reasons even Keyes did not know, when a sea serpent surfaced without warning during a gunnery drill. Keyes fled his post at a swivel gun rather than fire on it, and for this act of cowardice his captain, Mason, marooned him on the island. The "Fortnum," though damaged, survived the encounter and, at the priests' insistence, continued its mission deeper into The Shatters. The officers make clear to Keyes that the crew takes an equally dim view of abandoning one's post in battle, but confirm he has a place aboard regardless. Poring over the charts with him afterward, the party realizes New Sardinia, the "Fortnum's" home port, is the same Northern settlement they already knew as the island of the Stone Men. Consulting his own journal, Mani finds a further record placing a ship named the "Fortnum" among the frigates that had been in port when the party made their escape from that same island years before. The two young tortoises are brought aboard as well, named Creep and Creep Too, and given into Batu Batu's care as ship's mascots. In response to this new threat, the officers establish a new set of battle-ready procedures for responding to sea monster attacks.

The party later encounters two more sea serpents — smaller than the one Keyes described, but still far larger than any of the crew — racing alongside the ship beyond a long rocky spit, faster than the "Medallion" itself. Only Noddy, watching from the rigging, and Knick Nab, who climbs up to join him, can actually see the creatures, so Werner has to fire the mortar blind, walking his shots onto target on their shouted corrections; two ranging rounds barely graze a serpent, but spending two Coins of Fate on a third shot, he lands a solid hit that sends it into a squealing dive, its companion fleeing with it. Moments later, the "Medallion" demonstrates its own magical nature, lifting itself on a great wave to pass safely over a rocky reef that would have otherwise destroyed it. Doubling back afterward to search the water, the party finds no corpse, no blood, and no oil slick, leaving the serpent's fate unconfirmed.

After several more weeks of travel, the ship is suddenly becalmed by a powerful, unnatural stillness in the air. The crew spends the windless first day on routine maintenance and fishing, netting enough to supplement the ship's stores for a hot fish stew that evening, but the calm holds through the night. The next morning, Noddy sends his familiar, Pocket, high into the air to scout ahead, and the bird spots distant peaks in the direction they had been heading. Unable to sail, the crew, including the officers, takes on the arduous task of towing the ship with its longboats, rowing in relays of about four hours each through a full day and night while Batu Batu keeps them fed with hot meals brought out through the day rather than saved for its end. They sight two massive island spires in the distance. One bears the wreckage of a ship perched atop it, while on the other a mysterious lone figure is spotted, who then uses a large sail to leap from the taller spire to the lower one before disappearing from sight.

NPCs & Creatures

Keyes: An able seaman from the Northern naval vessel "The Fortnum," rescued by the party after being marooned for fleeing his post during a sea serpent attack. He has joined the crew of "The Medallion," assigned to the captain's watch where Tyler and Old Salter keep an eye on him.
Captain Mason: The captain of "The Fortnum" who marooned Keyes for cowardice.
Jacopa: A crewmember on "The Medallion" who explained the Northern Navy's informal practice of marooning to the party.
Wat: A former whaler serving as an Able Seaman aboard "The Medallion." Manning the wheel through the night, he calls out the night's shrinking soundings as the ship creeps toward the light, and is later assigned to the harpoon gun under the new serpent orders.
Naymes: A large, physically imposing able seaman placed in charge of a four-man team of axemen under the new serpent orders.
Arnum: A Medallion crewman put in charge of a four-man team of spearmen under the new serpent orders.
Tyler: The Medallion's Sergeant-at-Arms. Alongside Old Salter, he is charged with keeping an eye on the newly recruited Keyes, and stands among Mani's marines under the new serpent orders.
Gus: A Medallion able seaman assigned musket duty under the new serpent orders, tasked with aiming for the eyes of any serpent that attacks.
Sharks: A large swarm of various dangerous sharks, including hammerheads and tiger sharks, that surrounds the ship at night and drives the local tortoises ashore.
Giant Tortoises: A large population of sea tortoises, some of immense size, inhabiting a small rocky island in The Shatters; two young ones are adopted as ship's mascots and named Creep and Creep Too.
Sea Serpents: Two sea serpents, smaller than the one described by Keyes but still enormous, were encountered and driven off by Werner's mortar fire. A much larger one was described by Keyes as having attacked the "Fortnum," crushing part of its foredeck with a head the size of a horse.

Locations

The Shatters: The party continues their slow, cautious journey through this treacherous region of rock spires.
Tortoise Rock: The party's name for a small, rocky island pinnacle inhabited by a large number of giant sea tortoises, where they found the marooned sailor, Keyes.
The Twin Spires: Two massive rock spires sighted at the end of the becalmed night's rowing. One bears the wreckage of a ship perched atop it; on the other, the party glimpses a lone figure who leaps between the two spires using a large sail before vanishing from sight.
New Sardinia: The "Fortnum's" home port, marked on the party's own charts. Consulting those charts with Keyes, the party realizes it is the same Northern settlement they already knew as the island of the Stone Men.

Conflicts

Sea Serpent Encounter: The party engaged two sea serpents from a distance as the creatures raced alongside the ship beyond a rocky spit, faster than the "Medallion" could match. Only Noddy and Knick Nab, aloft in the rigging, could actually see the serpents past the intervening spit of rock, forcing Werner to fire the mortar blind on their shouted, ill-measured corrections; with an indirect weapon lobbing shots at a moving target he couldn't see, the first two ranging rounds only grazed a serpent before Werner, spending two Coins of Fate, scored a solid hit that sent it into a squealing dive, its companion fleeing with it.

Learnings and Discussions

The party rescued a sailor, Keyes, who initially claimed to be a shipwreck survivor but was later revealed to have been marooned for deserting his post during a sea serpent attack on his ship, the "Fortnum."
Brought aboard, Keyes was awestruck by the "Medallion's" unexplained glow, immediately assuming the ship must belong to the Two — evidently the default explanation for any inexplicable display of power. The officers, amused, briefly weighed letting the assumption stand and passing themselves off as carrying a prophet of the Two, though nothing came of the idea.
Keyes's account provides the party with their first second-hand description of a sea serpent: a single, massive, snake-like body with a head the size of a horse and coils stretching far into the distance, which surfaced without warning during a gunnery drill and crushed part of the foredeck. He also confirmed the "Fortnum" was damaged but survived and, at the priests' insistence, continued its mission deeper into the Shatters. The party notes with unease that the attack came while the "Fortnum's" guns were being drilled, raising the question of whether gunfire itself might draw the creatures.
The party learned from Jacopa that marooning, while not a traditional Northern Navy punishment, has been informally adopted by some captains for capital offenses — such as desertion in battle — now that ships can no longer return to the mainland; it is considered less cruel than a court martial since the condemned is left a small store of supplies.
The officers developed a detailed set of "serpent orders," a new standard operating procedure for how the crew should react to a sea monster attack: all four swivel guns permanently manned, Wat posted at the harpoon gun, a dedicated mortar crew, incendiaries kept ready, and two four-man melee teams — spearmen under Arnum and axemen under Naymes — standing by for boarders. Mani's own marine detachment — himself, Tyler, Gus, and Leela — was assigned to repel boarders directly, with Gus posted for aimed musket fire and Leela wielding her prized monster-slaying axe. The party also discussed weighting a large net with cannonballs as a possible means of entangling a serpent, though nothing came of the idea this session.
The party witnessed a powerful magical act from their own ship, "The Medallion," which lifted itself on a wave to avoid running aground on a rocky reef. Combined with the ship's bell ringing of its own accord earlier in the session, this further convinces the party that the ship itself is sentient and protective.
When the ship was becalmed, Cosimo and Noddy determined the cause was an active, large-scale magical effect they identified as "Still Air," sensing only that, in Cosimo's words, "a foul voice on the wind sets its will against us."
During the cautious transit through the Shatters, Noddy repeatedly used a water vision spell to see up to 100 feet into the water ahead, watching the seafloor for the shoaling that warns of hidden rocks.
The party discussed tactics for a future encounter with an enemy ship. Cosimo described an illusion that could cloak the "Medallion" inside a stationary false image roughly 160 feet across — not proof against close inspection, but effective at a distance or by night — which he could sustain for up to seven hours a day without depleting his reserves, or longer in a pinch at the cost of days to recover. Noddy's portal spell, capable of tearing a temporary hole through a ship's hull below the waterline, was floated as a devastating, if risky, option if the party could get a swimmer close enough; short of that, they discussed swimming a sealed, weighted keg of gunpowder up to an enemy hull to be set off by hand, ideally against the powder store, or aiming for a fire on the enemy's gun deck instead.

Items Gained

A small box recovered from Tortoise Rock, containing a single bullet, a patch, and one charge of powder.
Two small, live tortoises, adopted as ship's mascots and named Creep and Creep Too.
The shell of a large, butchered tortoise, kept as a souvenir and for collecting rainwater.

Items Lost

None.