Spies and Pirates, Part I

This post is essentially just story time. If you're not really into hearing about how a fistful of grown men played pretend for a couple of evenings, you might want to skip this one; but that begs the question, aside from satisfying your own curiosity, why are you here? This is a blog about roleplaying games, which is almost always about adults playing pretend.

Anyway, some weeks ago we had just gotten back together after one of our regular players had gotten married and gone on their honeymoon (congrats J & C). I was somewhat frazzled because of home life, and we've been trying to make time to play Lamentations of the Flame Princess a little more regularly. Now, I'm sure some of you know the reputation, but I'm not running it "as intended". I like that it's a streamlined version of B/X D&D, and that's how I've been running it, with a little help from the AD&D 1e DMG, plus some Basic Fantasy RPG monsters.

In previous sessions, I'd set the game in a country called Clovina, loosely inspired by France before the revolution. For this game, everyone made new characters, and they decided to be quite a diverse cast of characters:

• A holy man turned crusader, wielding fire and steel for his fiery god of industry. Mechanically a Cleric.
• A dwarf from an allied hold in the northern part of Clovina among the only real mountains in the country. In service to the dwarven embassy in the capital.
• A man who has served as part of the Foreign Office run by the king of Clovina's younger brother. Essentially a combination diplomat and spy. Mechanically a Specialist.
• An elf nobleman whose age and love of drink had given him something of an unhurried outlook on life.

These four were recruited by their various leaders (including the highest priest in the land, the magistrate in charge of the Foreign Office, the dwarven ambassador, and the elven ambassador) and told that there was an important mission that they were being offered.

Yes. That's right. Offered. I don't like strong-arming my players into doing anything they don't want to do. I offered them the hook, and let them take it if they wanted. My players are great, they played along. The idea of being spies for an early modern government proved to be a neat enough idea. Either that or they were just being nice.

Having taken their leaders up on the mission, they reported to a tavern not only to meet one another for the first time, but to receive their orders and their appropriate documents for the times ahead. Introductions were fun as everyone was stepping into their character's shoes and working out their personalities.

The mission was straightforward: From a port on a nearby island, pirates had been raiding the Clovinian coast for decades. The current king wished them disposed of, but the navy was unable to strike at the buccaneers due to the presence of a supernatural storm which destroyed any ships approaching the island. By means unknown, the pirates were able to pass through. The group's mission would be to infiltrate the island, discover the means by which the pirates were able to traverse the storm, and (if possible) kill the wizard who was known to have created the storm in the first place.

 Over the course of some questions about the documents, their knowledge of history, and some bits of pieces of information their leaders had said, I think that everyone had a clear view of the island and both its history and current status:

1. The island had never been part of Clovina, and the natives had resisted vigorously against them, to the point that their Queen had invaded the mainland many hundreds of years before.
2. A wizard (of indeterminate age) had settled there later looking for the legendary Queen's tomb, which was rumored to contain fabulous riches, and more importantly, lost and terrible magic.
3.  Raiders had come to use one of the island's sheltered bays as a port, or they had sprung up from the existing unconquered population. Which was unclear. What was clear however, was that the raiders had struck some sort of deal with the wizard. In return for unknown pledges, promises, or goods, the wizard had conjured a powerful storm and granted the captains of the raider ships magic of some sort that allowed them to bypass the storm.

Having noted these facts, the party realized that they must procure passage aboard one of these pirate ships.

In our first session, they left the capital and went to one of the big sea ports. There, they scoped out the docks and the ships. Some pointed questions yielded up the answer they needed. The Listing Lady was in port, and was by reputation, one of the ships they needed. The elf sounded out the crew and captain, while the specialist decided to investigate the warehouse the pirates were loading their cargo into. Most of what he discovered was mundane things, like crates of firs. But, in one box he discovered a small chest (about the size of a cashbox) with a number of purple vials, unlabeled.

Believe me, he was itching to try them out, but was afraid of the consequences. Taking his prize, he returned to the party. The next morning, they boarded the Listing Lady and set sail. Most of the trip was them scouting out the ship as best they could, and sounding out the crew for just what fabulous magic could allow them to sail through the coming storm.

The first session ended around this point. Continued in Part II.