January 1660: Our Story Begins
In which our heroine, Aleydis van de Zeldenthuis, washes up on the shores of Lemuria and sets about carving her own destiny with cutlass and pistol.
Firstly, our lass is a Rep 5, 22 years old, Dutch, and aspires to the Privateer class (with perhaps future options on going Pirate if circumstances demand it). She automatically gets the Brawler characteristic for being a Privateer, and gains Hawkeye and Fast to go with it. As is customary, she starts on her own with 500 gold pieces and a few Items...ten, to be precise (defined as a telescope, a compass, a sextant, a curious medallion of unknown origin, a copy of her grandfather's rutter, an open letter of marque signed by the Stadtholder, an extra pistol, and enough change for three rounds of drinks.) Thus and so, she is ready to embark upon her quest for fame and fortune!
On the grand scale of things, somewhere England and Spain are at war. There are no Random Events this turn. Otherwise, we begin in section three of the campaign map, making landfall amongst the Moros...
Moros are not the most friendly of peoples, having a well deserved and generally unsavory reputation as pirates, which means that they are probably not the optimal place for a bright young lady of means to begin her illustrious career, but Fortune Favors The Audacious! Thus and so, Aledys politely asks the captain of the Merchantman that has borne her thus far where she might find someone willing to sell her a good ship at a reasonable price. Armed with his best guess, she sets off along the fringes of this den of scum and villainy to find the disreputable dealer thus named.
The map is as follows: Sectors 4,5, and 7 are Wooded. Sector 6 has a Hill. There are buildings in sectors 2,3, 4, and 6...the one in sector 6 is a two story building. Possible Enemy Forces generate in sectors 1,3, and 6. She enters the board from Section 8.
It is immediately apparent that the dice gods are feeling capricious today. In the first three turns, doubles happen twice, generating one new PEF in sector 6 in the process, and our poor heroine fails to activate at all. There is a PEF shuffle between Sector's 3 and 6, and on turn 4 when she (finally) gets to do something, it's the PEFs that move first. One moves closer to her, and resolves when Aledys wanders over into Sector 9 to see what's going on. It proves to be a Noble and his Guards. They're Neutral, so they talk first.
Someone clearly says something wrong, because failing a Social Challenge (or, rather, passing only 1 die twice in a row) means a Fight just started! As a Star, Aledys is allowed to choose her response to the In Sight test that results...and shoots the Nobleman Obviously Dead! His guards are either very loyal, fanatically xenophobic, or just plain mean, because they all pass their Man Down test and our lass must fight for her life. Which she does with amazingly good rolls, and the turn ends with two of the three Guards Knocked Down and Stunned, and the third Obviously Dead. Much hinges on the next Activation Roll...
(I have not bothered to check for the Watch since the Moros don't strike me as the sort of people who have a Watch. By the rulebook description, the lot of them are well-armed Rep 5 Pirates and can thus take care of themselves.)
Here's the situation as it started...
Aaaaand this is what happened, a few quick rolls of the die later. Ouch!
Well, that was fortuitous! Two turns of good activation rolls later, and both Guards are disarmed and effectively captured (although she could have killed them both, I'm playing a privateer...not a psycho). The PEFs do their shuffle this way and that between Sectors 3 and 6 again, but on Turn 7 our lass moves up the hill and then into the two-story building in search of that elusive Merchant. There is no Defining Moment on the ground floor, but the in-building PEF resolves and we're now at Settlement Activity Level 4. Turn 8, she moves upstairs and meets a pair of Neutral Soldiers. This time the conversation is not followed by a fight. They give her some information, and I take the SAL boost to 5--this makes it a lot more likely that she'll meet someone in the last two buildings. She's also able to Recruit one of them. (Rep 4 Lung Ho Soldier, Wary, according to my daughter's dice.)
Turn 9: the PEFs move first, and both of them move to Sector 6, just out of LOS until Aledys steps out of the building. Both resolve...and she has two Friendly townspeople and four Neutral Pirates. After resolving a conversation with the Pirates, which (like the one upstairs) ends well, she Recruits one of them as well as both Townsmen.
(I realize, after the fact, that the Pirate looks kind of like Ed. :-) It's the beard, I swear! )
For the fun of it, I asked my lil' pirate to roll their Nationality and Attributes.
"Ed" is English, and also a Born Leader. The two Townies prove to be an Alawar with Nerves of Steel and and a Moro. All prove to be Rep 4, and the Moro rolled Brawler which cancels out Runt...but he's probably a bit on the young side, since most Moros are Rep 5.
Turn 10 thru 12. Nothing much happens. There are no remaining PEFs on the table, and none of the activation rolls come up doubles, so it's mostly a matter of wandering over to the last two buildings on the board in hopes of finding a positive Defining Moment...and coming up with bupkes. Nothing. Not a sausage. With some resignation, Aledys leads her new friends back down to the dockside (and delivers the two bound and humiliated guards to the surprised and wary custody of a certain merchant captain) while she goes to make the rounds elsewhere...
Actually purchasing a ship isn't a matter of an encounter, so she manages to find a 5th Rater for sale at a slight markup due to the market being a bit queasy this month. Being in need and not really wanting to wait a whole month for a better deal, she suffers the additional cost and pays 220 Gold for her pre-owned ride. 280 Gold left. She spends 60 more to double the number of guns on board at the expense of 10% of her Cargo room. 220 Gold left. She dubs the ship The Lily of Anjou as a bit of poetic misdirection.
Because she has taken no prize this month, her Fame automatically declines. The dice gods are harsh: she's now at -2, losing the +1 Adjustment from Carousing.
And that's January. In February, she's like to put to sea but won't be moving to another area until March.
Firstly, our lass is a Rep 5, 22 years old, Dutch, and aspires to the Privateer class (with perhaps future options on going Pirate if circumstances demand it). She automatically gets the Brawler characteristic for being a Privateer, and gains Hawkeye and Fast to go with it. As is customary, she starts on her own with 500 gold pieces and a few Items...ten, to be precise (defined as a telescope, a compass, a sextant, a curious medallion of unknown origin, a copy of her grandfather's rutter, an open letter of marque signed by the Stadtholder, an extra pistol, and enough change for three rounds of drinks.) Thus and so, she is ready to embark upon her quest for fame and fortune!
On the grand scale of things, somewhere England and Spain are at war. There are no Random Events this turn. Otherwise, we begin in section three of the campaign map, making landfall amongst the Moros...
Moros are not the most friendly of peoples, having a well deserved and generally unsavory reputation as pirates, which means that they are probably not the optimal place for a bright young lady of means to begin her illustrious career, but Fortune Favors The Audacious! Thus and so, Aledys politely asks the captain of the Merchantman that has borne her thus far where she might find someone willing to sell her a good ship at a reasonable price. Armed with his best guess, she sets off along the fringes of this den of scum and villainy to find the disreputable dealer thus named.
The map is as follows: Sectors 4,5, and 7 are Wooded. Sector 6 has a Hill. There are buildings in sectors 2,3, 4, and 6...the one in sector 6 is a two story building. Possible Enemy Forces generate in sectors 1,3, and 6. She enters the board from Section 8.
It is immediately apparent that the dice gods are feeling capricious today. In the first three turns, doubles happen twice, generating one new PEF in sector 6 in the process, and our poor heroine fails to activate at all. There is a PEF shuffle between Sector's 3 and 6, and on turn 4 when she (finally) gets to do something, it's the PEFs that move first. One moves closer to her, and resolves when Aledys wanders over into Sector 9 to see what's going on. It proves to be a Noble and his Guards. They're Neutral, so they talk first.
Someone clearly says something wrong, because failing a Social Challenge (or, rather, passing only 1 die twice in a row) means a Fight just started! As a Star, Aledys is allowed to choose her response to the In Sight test that results...and shoots the Nobleman Obviously Dead! His guards are either very loyal, fanatically xenophobic, or just plain mean, because they all pass their Man Down test and our lass must fight for her life. Which she does with amazingly good rolls, and the turn ends with two of the three Guards Knocked Down and Stunned, and the third Obviously Dead. Much hinges on the next Activation Roll...
(I have not bothered to check for the Watch since the Moros don't strike me as the sort of people who have a Watch. By the rulebook description, the lot of them are well-armed Rep 5 Pirates and can thus take care of themselves.)
Here's the situation as it started...
Aaaaand this is what happened, a few quick rolls of the die later. Ouch!
Well, that was fortuitous! Two turns of good activation rolls later, and both Guards are disarmed and effectively captured (although she could have killed them both, I'm playing a privateer...not a psycho). The PEFs do their shuffle this way and that between Sectors 3 and 6 again, but on Turn 7 our lass moves up the hill and then into the two-story building in search of that elusive Merchant. There is no Defining Moment on the ground floor, but the in-building PEF resolves and we're now at Settlement Activity Level 4. Turn 8, she moves upstairs and meets a pair of Neutral Soldiers. This time the conversation is not followed by a fight. They give her some information, and I take the SAL boost to 5--this makes it a lot more likely that she'll meet someone in the last two buildings. She's also able to Recruit one of them. (Rep 4 Lung Ho Soldier, Wary, according to my daughter's dice.)
Turn 9: the PEFs move first, and both of them move to Sector 6, just out of LOS until Aledys steps out of the building. Both resolve...and she has two Friendly townspeople and four Neutral Pirates. After resolving a conversation with the Pirates, which (like the one upstairs) ends well, she Recruits one of them as well as both Townsmen.
(I realize, after the fact, that the Pirate looks kind of like Ed. :-) It's the beard, I swear! )
For the fun of it, I asked my lil' pirate to roll their Nationality and Attributes.
"Ed" is English, and also a Born Leader. The two Townies prove to be an Alawar with Nerves of Steel and and a Moro. All prove to be Rep 4, and the Moro rolled Brawler which cancels out Runt...but he's probably a bit on the young side, since most Moros are Rep 5.
Turn 10 thru 12. Nothing much happens. There are no remaining PEFs on the table, and none of the activation rolls come up doubles, so it's mostly a matter of wandering over to the last two buildings on the board in hopes of finding a positive Defining Moment...and coming up with bupkes. Nothing. Not a sausage. With some resignation, Aledys leads her new friends back down to the dockside (and delivers the two bound and humiliated guards to the surprised and wary custody of a certain merchant captain) while she goes to make the rounds elsewhere...
Actually purchasing a ship isn't a matter of an encounter, so she manages to find a 5th Rater for sale at a slight markup due to the market being a bit queasy this month. Being in need and not really wanting to wait a whole month for a better deal, she suffers the additional cost and pays 220 Gold for her pre-owned ride. 280 Gold left. She spends 60 more to double the number of guns on board at the expense of 10% of her Cargo room. 220 Gold left. She dubs the ship The Lily of Anjou as a bit of poetic misdirection.
Because she has taken no prize this month, her Fame automatically declines. The dice gods are harsh: she's now at -2, losing the +1 Adjustment from Carousing.
And that's January. In February, she's like to put to sea but won't be moving to another area until March.
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