"On the Account": Shaytan's Plan (Session 2.1)

The Atlantic Ocean, February 1651: Three battle-worn ships rock in the current, lashed together with ropes and grapnels. As blood drips from their decks, predators begin to gather in the waters around them...

With the final cutlass blow dealt and the last Genoese sailor herded into a group on the deck of the Estrella, the pirates plan their next move. Of specific concern to all are three things: how to deal with the wounded on both sides, how to divide the spoils of battle, and how to deal with Zandoz's continued politicking and clear ambitions to be captain. The matter is made pressing by Joe's discovery of Brimstone Jack, dead in his cabin. There is no time to waste! Holding a quick council of war in the hold of the Folly, the pirates act boldly, but with mixed results:

• Guillaume summons incredible reserves of endurance and medical skill to tend to the wounded among the pirates, and is able to save all but one of the casualties. The sole fatality is Jaap, the cannon master, whose wounds were too grievous to treat.
• Red Knife does what he can to tend to the wounded Genoese, but with no training as a surgeon he is not able to save any of the wounded. By the time Guillaume can move from treating the pirates to their captives, all fifteen of the worst injured Genoese have died or deteriorated beyond the point of no return.
• Using Old Jemmy as a cat's-paw, Joe preempts Zandoz's incipient call for an election by proposing an election of his own, speaking in favor of Zandoz for captain, and then subtly allowing Guillaume, Carmen and Red Knife to advance Eve as an even more attractive candidate. Through a mixture of fair means and shady ones (including bribing key members of the crew), Eve wins in a landslide and Zandoz is soon separated from the crew and sent away on board the Aquila with the remaining wounded pirates. 

Only thirty crew now remain on board the Fortune's Folly and the Estrella, which turn their bows westwards and away from the open ocean. Their destination is Le Carenage, about which Red Knife has been having a series of mysterious and disquieting dreams involving a ritual mask studded with emeralds. Along the way they happen across two castaways bobbing helplessly in a row boat, and Red Knife and Carmen are surprised to recognize one of them: it is none other than their old comrade-at-arms, Scotch Pete! He is accompanied by Samedi, an escaped slave from San Domingue. The two men gratefully accept rescue, telling a tall tale of a mutiny aboard their previous vessel which had been on a mission to the northern shore of Angilla to search for a missing mail packet.

Putting in at Le Carenage a few days later, the pirates find it much quieter: they are the only vessel anchored there. As Eve gets down to negotiating with Hisene to sell off the plunder from the Estrella, and the crew amuse themselves on the beach by telling tall tales of what they will do with their riches, the officers - along with Scotch Pete and Samedi - begin to do some research about the interior of St-Barthelemy and the possible whereabouts of the emerald mask. In service of this goal, they buy the freedom of Teiha, one of Hisene's Carib slaves, who is willing to serve as their guide. 

With Samedi acting as an interpreter, Teiha is also able to explain some aspects of the island's power structures to them. In addition to Hisene's mercenaries, there are two factions among the Carib inhabitants of St-Barthelemy.

• One faction is led by a warlord who the mercenaries call "Shaytan"; it is he who provides fresh slaves to the mercenaries in exchange for trade goods and the occasional firearm. Shaytan's base of operations is a half-built Spanish outpost at the top of a mountain gorge in the interior, where Teiha has indeed seen a mask like the one in Red Knife's dream. Shaytan's stated plan is to accumulate enough armament to drive Hisene and his men from the island, but from what they can gather he is still years from achieving this.
• The second faction is more numerous than the first, but leaderless and unskilled in violence. They are split between a dozen or so small (and hidden) coastal fishing lodges. According to Teiha, the runaway herbalist from the Fortune's Folly - Nzuzi - now lives among the Carib in one of these lodges.

With Scotch Pete, Carmen and Joe in favor of a frontal assault on Shaytan's fortress, and Red Knife, Guillaume and Samedi in favor of drawing the coast dwellers into some kind of alliance, Teiha is given a tie-breaking vote - and so, thanks to some linguistic finesse from Samedi in explaining the vote to her, the pirates are soon stomping and cutting through the jungly mountainside towards Teiha's family's lodge some few hours march away. There they are greeted by Nzuzi and a few villagers, and set about discussing their options.

Hours pass as the discussion seesaws back and forth between discretion and daring. Without drawing any attention to themselves, Scotch Pete and Joe decide to break the deadlock and bring matters to a head. The first the others learn of this is when the two men stride back into the lodge and toss down a bloodied sack containing nothing other than Red Knife's emerald mask! But by the sound of the war cries and gunshots in the jungle beyond the village, they seem to have brought every one of Shaytan's warriors with them...

Hastily, the pirates scatter around the clearing and prepare to meet the assault of over two dozen Carib warriors. Scotch Pete, Joe, and Red Knife decide to put their backs to the small river and face the first wave of attackers out in the open, while Guillaume uses his stinkpots to wreath the clearing in dense smoke, Carmen hides in the jungle planning to ambush the stragglers in the approaching force, and Samedi takes up a sniper's position on the roof of the lodge.

Battle is soon joined, and although grievous wounds are inflicted on both sides, the pirates' superior armament and solid defensive positions begin to push the battle in their favor. Red Knife throws a brace of grenadoes at his own feet and then dives into the river to escape the blast, cutting three attackers to pieces in a few heartbeats; Scotch Pete, similarly, is soon surrounded by a half-moon of downed warriors as his two blades form an impenetrable palisade of death. Carmen spots Shaytan himself floating down the river using a log as cover, and is able to ambush the ambusher; the great warlord is soon sinking out of sight as the green river water clouds to black with his blood. 

Things are going less well for Joe, Guillaume and Samedi , who are all are being pressed back by the attackers. Guillaume has been badly wounded in the face; Joe in the leg. However, the death of Shaytan and a plea for a momentary truce by Samedi bears unexpected fruit, and the two sides draw back from one another. 

Grasping the mask as the surviving warriors retreat, Red Knife experiences the unshakeable conviction that this artifact can be used to lift his family's curse; as to the fate of the island, and the pirates' vague notion that Hisene and his men should face some reckoning for the evil that they have brought to St-Barthelemy, these matters will have to be addressed another day.

On to Session 2.2!

"On the Account": El Humo hace Fuego (Session 0.1 - Prequel 1)

Santiago de Cuba, New Years' Eve 1650: as festivities and fireworks light up Cuba's second city on this night of revelry, all seems to be merriment and laughter. But through the revelers moves a single figure with more serious matters on her mind...

Carmen, a red-haired freelance spy who has been operating out of Santiago de Cuba for several months, is heading to the docks to receive a new assignment. She makes her way to a three-story tobacco warehouse with a makeshift tavern in the back. This is El Curatores de Humo, a well known site for those seeking to have meetings where privacy is of primary concern. There, she makes contact with Mercedes Delgado, her employer. Mercedes has a mission for Carmen, but she has also hired some outlaws from Havana to serve as her backup. We meet:

• Oman, a fugitive whose slight figure allows her to pass as a boy
• "Red Knife" Abrameu, a youthful Spanish adventurer loaded down with weapons
• Ilva, a resourceful castaway whose heavy cape conceals a trained monkey, and
• Scotch Pete, a burly mercenary with a taste for sweet wine and games of dexterity

Mercedes sketches the mission out to Carmen in the following terms: a visiting priest is staying at the enormous Castillo de San Pedro della Roca just outside town.

At midnight, he will be rowed out to a troopship at anchor in the bay to perform a mass for the soldiers on board. During the hour that he is away, Carmen and her team must enter his lodgings - a tent pitched on one of the castle terraces - and steal any correspondence bearing the seal of a local noble: Guzman Mendoza Diaz, the Conde de Fideo. To expedite matters, a servant is standing by to open a side gate of the fortress for them at exactly midnight. The correspondence is to be returned to Mercedes at the tobacco warehouse, at which time all will be paid for their efforts.

As it is still early in the evening, the adventurers split up to learn more about the mission while they still have time.

• Carmen flirts with Carlos, an off-duty soldier at the bar, learning that the priest is no simple friar but an official of the Holy Inquisition based in Cartagena; furthermore, that his tent is heavily guarded both by musketeers from the fort, and soldiers of the Inquisition. The soldier offers to tell more if Carmen will accompany him to his rented room, but with the aid of Scotch Pete and Oman she is able to extricate herself.
• Red Knife hooks an expensive handkerchief to his belt to serve as bait for a pickpocket. When he catches one - a fruit-seller's son called Alvaro - he interrogates him regarding the Conde de Fideo. He learns that the Conde is a hidalgo - a nobleman in title only, with no lands or wealth to speak of - but an ambitious and crafty one, nicknamed "the Snake" (ofidio) on account of his inquisitive and deadly reputation. The Conde has apparently been paying good money to all who will sell him information on heretics - Jews, Protestants, and witches - for several months.
• Ilva finds a religious procession waiting to bear a holy relic through the festive streets, and plays marbles with a cheeky altar boy called Filipo to find out more about the inquisitor, including his name - Fray Porfirio Cruz del Campo - and the fact that he recently drained the Mass supplies from Filipo's church and had them rowed out to his troopship. She also learns that the Conde added religious supplies from his own home to this shipment, such as an old family communion chalice. Perhaps he is attempting to win favor with the Inquisitor?

With midnight drawing near, the adventurers hire a coach to take them up to the fortress. They consider bypassing the possibly-dangerous interior of the fortress by coming in at the sea entrance, but the presence of sentries and many light sources seems to suggest that this would be even more risky. Accordingly, they stick to Mercedes' plan, meeting her assistant at a side door and slipping in unnoticed.

The interior of the fortress proves to be nearly deserted, with almost everyone having been granted leave to go into the town for the New Years Eve festivities. Proceeding cautiously and using Ilva's monkey as a scout, they surprise two porters carrying wine and a tray of roast chicken; Scotch Pete uses a barrel that he is carrying as a part of his disguise as a deliveryman to knock one of them unconscious, while Red Knife is able to subdue the other one by beating him senseless with a heavy wooden serving tray. The porters are stripped of their uniforms and locked in a storeroom, and the adventurers proceed with Carmen and Red Knife wearing the uniforms as disguises.

The next complication involves crossing the fortress' inner courtyard, where a clerk is conducting an inventory of one of the enormous supply vaults. The clerk is blocking their progress, but Red Knife and Carmen are able to successfully distract him with questions about who to deliver the roast chicken to, while Ilva, Pete and Oman slip by behind him.

The adventurers are almost to the long stairs leading down to the terrace on which the priest's tent is pitched, but a locked door with two guards behind it now blocks their path. A plan is hatched; Carmen and Red Knife will gain entrance by telling the guards that they have brought food and wine for them, the guards will be given drugged chicken to lull them into a doze, and then the rest of the group will rush the door to overpower the guards.

However, two things go wrong: first, the guards pointedly close the door once Red Knife and Carmen have been let in, making a rush from the corridor outside somewhat more risky; and second, it seems that either these men have a strange tolerance to intoxicants, or Carmen's opium supplier has been letting quality slip of late. Either way, things move to Plan B: on a prearranged signal ("¡Feliz año nuevo!", shouted by Red Knife) the door is kicked open and Oman fires a crossbow while the guards suddenly fight themselves under attack with concealed knives. In a few heartbeats both guards lie dead - stabbed and shot through the gaps in their heavy armor. Once again, the adventurers loot their fallen foes for disguises, hide the bodies (down a pit toilet this time), and proceed towards their final goal.

On the terrace below, the inquisitor's tent stands revealed, as do ten armed guards standing in stiff parade-ground attention in two parallel rows in front of it: five musketeers from the castle garrison, and five soldiers of the Inquisition. A frontal attack seems unthinkably risky, the area is too well-lit to consider stealth, and although Ilva's monkey could probably get in and out undetected, how would it know which papers to steal? Suddenly, Scotch Pete has a flash of insight: what if the small and limber Oman, with Ilva's monkey clasped to her chest, was hidden in an empty wine barrel which was then "delivered" to the inside of the tent?

In a few minutes, the plan is in motion. Ilva overcomes some initial skepticism from the captain of the musketeers by insisting that the wine, although not scheduled, is a personal gift from the Conde to the inquisitor, and although they are closely watched while they manhandle the barrel into the tent they are allowed to do so without further objections. A few minutes later, Oman emerges, silently locates two leather folios bearing the Conde's seal on the writing desk nearby, and then relocates their contents to a watertight bottle held by the monkey. The monkey sneaks back to Ilva, and once it has arrived safely Oman steels herself, slips out under the front of the tent, and dives into the inky waters of the bay without being noticed.

Reuniting on the coast some way away, the adventurers examine their haul. The papers from the first folio, which was labeled “El enemigo interno” (The Enemy Within), contain a list of 300 names and locations. Possibly these are the heretics that the hidalgo Conde has been investigating? The contents of the other folio, labeled "El Gallo contra el León" (The Rooster against the Lion), are more inscrutable: maps of a faraway coastline, lists of English and French names, and a roster of ships. Deciding that knowing more about the materials they have stolen for Mercedes would be a useful thing, Red Knife and Carmen memorize as many of the listed names from the first folio as they can, while Oman memorizes the maps and Scotch Pete copies the various lists and names from the second. Ilva, in the meantime, takes specific note of one name on the first folio lists and carefully memorizes its associated details before sitting alone with her thoughts...

Back at El Curatores de Humo, Mercedes exchanges the stolen papers for payment. Hearing that two soldiers were killed in the course of the mission, she suggests that the adventurers may wish to leave town for a while. People say that Tortuga is nice at this time of year...

On to Session 1.1!

"On the Account": The End of the Chase (Session 1.6 - Season Finale)

Philipsburg, Saint Marten, January 1651: Joe, Guillaume and Red Knife prepare to depart the city with their new arsenal. In exchange for a promise of indebtedness from Guillaume, Captain van Breda has loaned them the Teringlijer, a swift vessel from her own squadron, to serve as a temporary escort.

An unremarkable day's sailing brings the three pirates and their cannons to a long, shallow beach on the western side of Saint-Barthelemy. There, as the sun begins to set, they find the Folly and a French merchant ship called L'Apostre (out of Marseilles) at anchor, and the encamped crew of Swedish privateer called the Wandervalke (out of Bremerhaven) lounging under their tents within a heavily fortified beachfront compound. This is Le Carenage.

The compound itself is run by Hisene, a Barbary corsair, and about twenty Spanish and North African mercenaries. Once sailors in their own right, the corsair crew now grows rich charging passing ships for careening and resupply services on their way into or out of the Caribbean. However, a cruel side to the operation soon reveals itself: the actual work is all done by Carib slaves, who work under the lash and the gun and who are chained in the upside-down carcass of a beached ship at night.

Some cautious inquiries reveal that the corsairs at Le Carenage exist in a permanent state of war with the island's inhabitants, and that both sides take pains to kill any stragglers they find in contested territory, but that some degree of trade also takes place - tools and supplies for slaves and fresh food from the interior. While gambling with the Swedish officers, Eve also discovers that the mountainous interior of the island is rumored to hold lost riches, but that dozens of parties of treasure-seekers have died searching for it. Their names now adorn a giant map of the island which is pinned above the bar in Hisene's stronghold.

As if the piles of skulls surrounding the map were not eerie enough, the pirates are also caught up in concerns of their own. Hearing that Brimstone Jack has been indisposed, Guillaume is paddled out to his sickbed on board the Folly. There he finds a shrunken, unconscious invalid bearing no signs of the apparent recuperation that had apparently characterized the captain on their trip from Hispaniola.

Nzuzi, the herbalist who had been treating Brimstone Jack, is nowhere to be found; according to the crew, she fled into the interior of the island soon after their arrival, shouting about sorcery and curses. Examining the captain and questioning Lolo, the cabin boy, Guillaume soon finds a snakebite on Jack's neck; he also find strange scribbles on the back of a map and rough sculptures of a woman's face made in candlewax. The scribbles refer to Oman; the sculpture is of Carmen. Mysteries upon mysteries...

The fog of strangeness surrounding Brimstone Jack is dispelled in the morning along with Zanzdoz's return to Le Carenage. He and the bulk of the new recruits have been out practicing boarding actions, and everyone now shows a keen enthusiasm for the hunt for the Estrella. The coconut wine comes out, a section of beach is cleared so it can be used as a rough blackboard, and the planning commences. The pirates make the following decisions:

• The company's arsenal of fifteen light cannon and the two heavy demi-cannon need to be split between the Folly and the Aquila. Each ship can only handle, at most, ten light and one heavy cannon. Given that Jaap, the new master gunner, is the most skilled artillerist in the crew, he is placed on the Aquila with ten guns and a demi-cannon. The Folly will take the remaining five light and one heavy cannon.
• The sixty available crew are similarly split - 35 to the Aquila, 25 to the Folly.
• Eve and Carmen will captain the Aquila; Joe, Guillaume and Red Knife will stay on the Folly along with Zandoz.
• The Folly and Aquila will operate in a dispersed formation, to maximize their chances of spotting their prey at the possible cost of not being able to attack at the same time.

After weighing the possibility of a quick assassination of Hissene, to end the tyranny at Le Carenage, the pirates elect to save that for another day and set out into the rising sun to lay in wait for the Estrella.

1. The First Engagement

After three days of false alarms and high excitement, the Estrella is sighted - speeding West towards Saint-Martin under full sail. The two pirate crews are caught unprepared, badly positioned to swing around and give chase, and the Estrella punches through the gap between them. Red Knife conceives a desperate plan, spinning the Folly's demi-cannon on its axis to fire a powerful and unbalancing blast: this shove to the ships center of gravity proves to be just enough to allow the Folly to catch the wind and fill its sails. On board the Aquila, Eve and Carmen replicate Red Knife's trick, and as the sun begins to set ahead of them the two pirate vessels begin - albeit slowly and sloppily - their pursuit.

2. The Second Engagement

By sunrise on the next day, the Estrella's zigzag course has successfully thrown the Folly off its trail, but on board the Aquila, Carmen's sharp eyes have kept them close on the Estrella's stern. Then, when their quarry begins to tack around an island while throwing ballast overboard, it is Eve whose maritime experience leads her and Carmen to perceive a trap: concealed within the flotsam are five Maltese sailors clutching waterproof satchels containing firebombs. The Aquila successfully avoids the trap and signals to the Folly, and the two ships finally begin to bear down on the Estrella.

Hours pass, and the pirates use every trick they can think of to close the gap. On Joe's order, the Folly's gunports are flashed open to cause the Estrella to tack away from an anticipated broadside and thereby lose some speed; soon afterwards, Guillaume and Red Knife are able to use the Folly's navigational charts to find a channel with a faster current than the one their quarry is using. On the Aquila, Eve and Carmen order Jaap to keep up a steady long-range fire with the demi-cannon, boxing the Estrella in and limiting its maneuverability. Inch by inch, yard by yard, the gap closes - and then, with a mighty roar, the Folly rams the Estrella at her stern and Joe leads a roaring charge of pirates over the gunwales onto the Genoan's ship's deck.

Little, Benerson. The Sea Rover's Practice:
Pirate Tactics and Techniques, 1630-1730
(USA: Potomac Books, 2007)

The pirates' initial sally goes well. Red Knife's sharp eyes have allowed them to steer clear of the heavily-trapped bow of the ship, as well as to not be caught up by the Knights' wily ruse: they have dressed the lightly armed sailors in their own black cloaks, and are counting on the booby traps and this misdirection to lead the boarding party into a death trap of gunpowder and steel. Instead, it is the pirates who dominate the fight, pushing the sailors to surrender almost immediately and engaging the heavily armed and armored Knights on much more even terms.

But even at this moment of triumph, the hand of despair is never far away. From the Aquila, a terrible concussive explosion rings out: the demi-cannon, with which Eve and Carmen had intended to provide covering fire, has exploded - killing and injuring more than a dozen of the crew. And on the deck of the Estrella, a hulking Knight-Sergeant meets Joe in sword-to-axe combat and, with one terrible blow, severs the Irishman's right arm at the bicep. The Estrella strikes its colors, but it has been a bloody day for the jolly pirate company that left Le Carenage less than a week ago.

Taking stock of their winnings, the pirates find the stash of ceremonial Crusader silver they had been expecting, as well as multiple crates and chests full of assorted fineries: the new governor's personal effects. Up on deck, Carmen has managed to stop the last Knight standing from throwing a stash of strange old swords and blacksmithing tools overboard, and these are duly added to the haul of plunder. Lastly, and in the furthest corner of the captain's cabin, the looters find - carefully wrapped in wool and oilcloth - a fine oil painting in the Dutch style. This may be the most valuable item on board the Estrella, if only a buyer of means can be found for it:

On to Session 2.1!

"On the Account": The Hunter or the Prey? (Session 1.4)

Santo Domingo, January 1651: The crew of the Fortune's Folly return to the Lopez plantation after their midnight struggle against the unquiet dead...

At the plantation, Affonso has in the meantime coordinated a salvage and stripping operation, and three large groups of freed slaves are busily preparing to leave as the pirates guide their wagon up to the great house:

• the hardliners, who have been gathering weapons while waiting to see if the pirates kept their word to investigate their missing family members, are preparing to disperse into the forests in their ones and twos
• the maroons led by Affonso, who have salvaged farming implements and trade goods and who are preparing to relocate to a hidden mountain sanctuary, and 
• the prospective pirates, who wish to join the crew of the Fortune's Folly and seek their fortunes at sea

As the new recruits unload the haul of Turkish treasure and begin to carry it down the forest trails to the beach, Oman and Carmen are taken aside by Affonso, who expresses the hope that they will all see each other once again soon and gives them an important piece of information: the secret route to the Place of the White Tree, where the maroons intend to found their hidden settlement. Meanwhile, Eve takes possession of a particularly fine scimitar from the treasure pile.

Upon reaching the beach just before dawn, the pirates are surprised to see most of their fellow crew hiding in the dunes rather than working on refloating the Folly. Old Jemmy explains that a ship's bell was heard in the early hours of the morning, and a flash of light spotted; they fear that there is a ship out in the darkness waiting for first light to attack them. Only Zandoz and his fellows are still on the ship trying to get it unstuck.

Joe, swathed all around in bloody bandages, is able to rally the beach party back to their tasks using some choice words, and with the added musclepower of the new recruits the Folly is pulling out of the cove just as dawn breaks. The ship is revealed to be the Aquila, a single-masted vessel flying no flag. The Folly hoists Spanish colors, hoping to seem innocuous, and while the mystery ship does the same it does not alter its posture to a more peaceful one. The Folly turns east and attempts to flee; the Aquila follows under full sail. The chase is on!

The two vessels chase each other for most of the day, while the pirates work hard to shake off their pursuers. However, Red Knife - despite his best efforts - is not able to outclass the Aquila's helmsman and sailing master, who are clearly seasoned sailors and who are steadily closing the gap between the vessels. 

Meanwhile, based on meticulous long-range observation from the crow's nest, Guillaume and Carmen are able to deduce that the Aquila  is lightly crewed, counting on its cannons to beat the Folly in a straight fight. This inspires Red Knife and Joe to propose a risky strategem: break line-of-sight with the Aquila, pull into a sheltered cove, and spill the wind from the sails until their pursuer catches up - then surge out of the cove into boarding range before the Aquila can use her guns. The plan works, and the crew of the Folly pour over the Aquila's gunwales before the Spanish gun crews can fire their broadside.

The fight that follows is short and decisive. The crew of the Aquila deploy a swivel gun to deadly effect, but Carmen leaps from concealment to kill its crew before they can fire a second salvo. The more experienced Spanish sailors begin to break the momentum of the pirate assault through superior formation and discipline, but Red Knife keeps up a fusillade of musket fire which helps the Folly's crew bring their greater numbers to bear. Soon, the crew of the Aquila - which is revealed to be a guarda costa ship, or private ship hired to perform coast guard duties - are forced to surrender. The crew of the Folly have taken their first prize, including the Aquila's small cargo of confiscated cacao!

A brief meeting of officers is held in the wake of the battle. The Spaniards are permitted to escape ashore, and Zandoz is given command of the Folly and its crew of fresh recruits, while the characters and all the experienced pirates move to command the Aquila. In doing so, the characters hope to contain Zandoz's obvious ambitions to be captain - they have given him a crew that is primarily loyal to them, and they have split him off from the four or five members of the crew who he might have counted on for support. Thus divided, the company set off towards St. Martin and the adventures that await them there...

On to Session 5!

"On the Account": The Sweet Embrace of Death (Session 1.3)

Santo Domingo, January 1651: The crew of the Fortune's Folly have won the battle for the Lopez plantation. As flames rise all around, they now attempt to win the peace...

With the plantation owners and hired hands disarmed and kept under guard, the pirates return their attention to plundering the great house for weapons. Guillaume is able to convince some of the farmhands to brave the flames to bring out their armory, but they are blocked from entering the house by a fearful group of freed slaves - until Guillaume is able to enlist the help of Affonso, the plantation's blacksmith and the leader of the freed slaves.

With a few armfuls of muskets and gunpowder thus retrieved, Affonso and the pirates discuss what to do next. As things currently stand, the freed slaves have formed into three factions:

• One group, composed mostly of noncombatants and the infirm, wishes to flee the plantation together and found a secret camp in the deserted interior
• One group wishes to arm themselves, seize control of the plantation, and prepare to fight off any Spanish forces who attempt to return them to slavery, and
• One group with no long-term plans as such, but an immediate and intense interest in exacting revenge on the plantation owners and hired hands

Representatives from each faction give a short speech to the crowd of freed slaves, and Affonso invites the pirates to also have their say. Joe speaks for the crew of the Folly, and chooses a cautious and somewhat noncommittal approach: send as many freed slaves as wish to leave the island off to sea on the Folly, and have those who wish to stay keep the Europeans alive as hostages or free them to deflect the wrath of the neighboring planters.

Joe's measured approach calms the passions of many in the crowd, but the fate of the overseers remains a sticking point: will no-one make them pay for the sufferings they have inflicted?

To break the deadlock, Affonso proposes a solution which which he thinks will appease the most hot-headed of the hardliners. Seven days ago, the plantation owner's young son Miguel returned to the plantation after one of his customary sketching trips into the countryside, rounded up ten slaves and one of the overseers, and disappeared off with them into the hills. If the fate of these missing members of Affonso's group can be discerned, he believes that the consensus among the freed slaves will tilt towards Joe's plan. 

After some deliberation the pirates agree. They are introduced to João and Tshilobu, two members of the hardliner group who have family members among the missing people, and who will guide them to Miguel's ostensible destination: the deserted de Flores plantation, eight miles away. Tshilobu is a hunter who knows the region well; João was the plantation's "cutter," standing ready to strike off the hands of slaves who got them caught in the cane crushers, and Affonso believes that retrieving the abductees will help to reintegrate him into the community.

A few last minute preparations and discoveries are then made:

• A horse-drawn wagon is prepared for the trip. The colonial militia will likely arrive just after dawn, so there is no time to walk to the de Flores plantation; at the same time, there are not enough horses for all the pirates. The wagon should get them there and back by dawn.
• Asking after the specific slaves that were taken, Red Knife and Tshilobu discover some patterns: one of the abductees, Maria, was a skilled traditional healer and spirit medium, while the other nine were the most economically unproductive among the slaves - the old, the sick, and victims of industrial accidents mostly involving the plantation's sugar crushing rollers.
• According to his manservant Batubenga, Miguel returned to the plantation from from his last sketching trip with a large sack containing a bulky object. The sack is found, and is the object revealed to be a heavy, discolored silver tureen of Turkish manufacture. 

With a bad feeling about the last two pieces of information, the pirates and their guides set off in the dark for the de Flores plantation, which sits atop a steep hill to the north. Scouting reveals the layout of its buildings as follows:

The would-be rescuers creep up to the ruined plantation under the cover of the low scudding clouds into which the top of the hill protrudes, and begin to explore:

1. The entire plantation bears a cloying, sweet smell - as if sugar sap is currently being processed, even through the de Flores family are said to have fled around twenty years ago
2. A thrown torch reveals nothing at the bottom of the dark, silent quarry just below the plantation
3. The large, three-story stone hacienda is abandoned and shows signs of having been partially and hurriedly packed up. In the main bedroom, Eve finds a pair of ornamental Turkish scimitars suggests a link to Miguel's looted coffee urn
4. As Red Knife leads the group out of the hacienda, he is fired on from a garita by a sniper with a powerful rifle! The group takes cover at the base of the staircase leading  up to the garita, where Tshilobu saves Joe from stepping onto tripwire linked to a musket on the stairs. The two of them attempt without success to talk down their attacker - Victorio, the Spanish overseer who accompanied Miguel, who is raving about "hungry ghosts" somewhere above them. Victorio finally tries to kill them with a grenado that instead fatally collapses the tower around him.
5. Investigating the church, João and Guillaume find two of the missing slaves, including João's mother Pungu. She tells them that Miguel is in the crypt below, that he has been there all week, and that every night he has been taking one of the slaves away from their camp in the nearby warehouse in chains. That person is never seen again.
6. Pungu blames Maria, missing the spirit medium, for providing Miguel with forbidden knowledge regarding the appeasement of evil spirits
7. In the partly-collapsed warehouse, Maria is found frozen within a partially-completed veve, reaching for her fallen cornmeal pouch. Red Knife tosses the pouch closer to her, and she completes the veve before falling into a trance and addressing them in a deep male voice as "Papa Legba".
8. According to Maria/Papa Legba, the boy Miguel has called up the "hungry ghosts" by bringing his greed for wealth onto the deserted plantation. This greed has brought together a blood curse of the slaves who died here, and an incantation of revenge associated with Turkish plunder held as trophies by the de Flores family, to create a legion of vengeful specters. 
9. Legba wishes to prevent harm to his "horse", Maria, and so will tell the pirates what they need to do to break the connection before more blood is spilled: they must ceremonially reassemble the shattered bodies of the long-dead slaves and thereby break the conjoined curse. He tells them that what they seek can be found in the giant sugar-sap cauldron in the cookhouse at the plantation's highest point.

As Guillaume and the others approach the giant copper cauldron in the deserted cookhouse, a roiling tide of syrupy-smelling white fog spills from it, mixing with the low cloud to severely limit their vision. At the same time, shadowy figures spring from all around them to attack with rending bony claws.

Red Knife, João, and Joe enter into desperate close-quarters battle with the figures, receiving multiple wounds but also striking down a handful of the figures. Tshilobu readies his ammunition bag as an improvised grenado, but is unable to get the others to gather together so that he can throw it safely. Guillaume springs up to the cauldron and, blind in the heavy fog, reaches down into it instead to find that it is filled with hundreds of finger bones. He scoops these into his medical bag even as Red Knife is struck a terrible blow and Joe, trying to free himself from a claw, wounds himself deeply with his own axe.

Luckily for the pirates, it is at this moment that João determines the attackers' weakness: although their bodies seem insubstantial, or at least hard to hit in the blinding fog, their ever-grasping hands are solid and vulnerable. The pirates use this information to protect themselves as they carry their stricken friends with them to the gravesites of the plantation's slave village. There, Maria/Legba awaits near a freshly dug grave; when Guillaume pours the fingerbones into it, the fog momentarily thickens to complete opacity and then lifts. The grave is filled with earth, the shadowy figures are nowhere to be seen, and Maria lies nearby in a deep sleep.

A few hours later, the pirates' wagon returns to the Lopez plantation. On it are the rescued (and now freed) slaves; young Miguel, bruised and bound in chains; Red Knife and Joe, deeply wounded and leaking blood into their bandages; and, under a rough tarpaulin looted from the de Flores warehouse, a substantial haul of Turkish silver. What next for the crew of the Fortune's Folly? Only time will tell...

On to Session 4!

"On the Account": Bring me that Horizon (Session 1.2)

Tortuga, January 1651:The Fortune's Folly has taken on new hands, and the sails are set to depart on the first tide. The day begins...

Twenty pirates have crowded into the aft hold of the Folly. There, in his tiny captain's cabin, Brimstone Jack is gasping out a secret. Among the pirates, six stand out:

• Eve, the Quartermistress of the Folly (played by Melanie)
• "Red Knife" Abrameu, a youthful Spanish noble laboring under a mysterious curse (Gerald)
• Guillaume, ship's doctor and political idealist (Elin)
• Joe Malone, a mutineer and would-be boatswain (Padraic)
• Oman, a young runaway dressed in boy's clothes (Amanda), and
• Carmen, a disguised spy fleeing enemy agents (Jacquie)

Other crew members of note include:

• Jerome, sailor, lately of the French navy
• Jean, the gigantic cook
• Old Jemmy, English master carpenter, recently hired
• Zandoz de la Rosa, leader of a Spanish faction among the crew, recently crew of the Dagger

His speech made less painful by some of Guillaume's anesthetic preparations, Brimstone Jack reveals what he knows: the island of St Martin will soon be sold by the French Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique. It's new owner is Giovanni Paolo Lascaris, Grand Master of the Knights of Malta:

Brimstone Jack has found out - he does not say how - that a substantial amount of ceremonial silver is being sent from the knights' stronghold across the Atlantic to St Martin. The silver is being carried by a fast but lightly-armed Genoese ship, L'Estrella, which will be arriving in the Caribbean at the end of the month. If L'Estrella can be taken before she reaches St Martin, it will be enough to change the lives of the entire crew of the Folly, perhaps up to the point of buying and fitting a much bigger ship for more ambitious adventures.

The crew retire to discuss Brimstone Jack's revelations, pausing momentarily to elect Joe as the new boatswain. Zandoz de la Rosa runs against him, but Joe's cool intimidation and his past as a mutineer carry the vote.

As the rest of the hands return to their tasks aboard the ship, Joe and the others continue to discuss the hunt for L'Estrella. Of primary concern is the Folly's shortage of firepower, even relative to a smaller ship. After considering raiding fortresses in Puerto Rico and San Domingo for weapons, the crew instead decide to beach the ship along the northern coast of the Spanish section of Hispaniola, and raid a sugar plantation instead.

The plan hits an initial hump when Oman and Red Knife find themselves unable to bring the Folly in close to the shore, and instead get stuck on a sandbar. Most of the crew stay behind to work on getting the ship loose, while Red Knife, Joe, Guillaume, Carmen, Eve and Oman travel inland towards a nearby plantation.

At the plantation, some reconnaissance reveals several points of interest:

1. A fortified great house, presumably the location of any lootable goods
2. A dormitory building, occupied by the farmhands and free laborers
3. Two slave lodges, each guarded by a pair of armed sentries
4. A large warehouse partially filled with cane bundles and processed sugar

The pirates' initial, stealthy approach is ruined by a surprised rat. Joe fires a pistol and mortally wounds a sentry; a brief firefight follows. Oman shoots a second sentry, Joe kills a third and is wounded in the ribs for his trouble, and Eve leaps from the darkness to skewer the fourth and last sentry.

In the lodges, Oman and Carmen try with little success to free the slaves. In the mens' lodge, a heavy chain running through hoops set in the stone floor serves as the anchoring point for each group of four men, and is held in place by a monstrous padlock; in the womens' lodge, the occupants are unchained but the door itself is sturdy and hard to unlock.

As the pirates continue to struggle with these locks, the gunfire outside has raised the alarm, and return fire is beginning to rattle out from the dormitory as the farmhands respond to the raid. It is only a matter if time until the outnumbered raiders are surrounded or driven back with nothing. Three acts of reckless daring, and one of cynical self-preservation, resolve the situation:

1. Red Knife scoops up several muskets and keeps up a one-man assault on the farmhands, using stealth and speed to make himself seem like several attackers
2. Carmen, improvising the dress of a plantation laborer running for safety, and utilizing a cloud of smoke created by Guillaume with a stinkpot, infiltrates the dormitory and returns with a heavy blacksmith's hammer capable of smashing the slaves' chains
3. Oman rallies the slaves with the aid of their leader, sending a party of ten men to brave the gunfire and assist Joe in tearing the great house's armored shutters open enough to permit him to throw in a firebomb
4. Eve, faced with a choice between drawing gunfire away from the freed slaves, or keeping herself safe, selects the latter

As the great house begins to burn freely, a flag of surrender is extended by its occupants and the shooting dies down, but dozens of freed slaves lie dead as collateral damage and the disarmed plantation staff are soon the focus of a general desire for revenge. Their fate is now in the hands of the crew of the Fortune's Folly...

On to Session 3!