Episode 17:The Extraction of Saugus VanFleek

The infiltration of Whitebeard’s Jutty didn’t go as planned, and now the team finds themselves at the mercy of Whitebeard himself. With nearly the entire team captured, an invisible Siv attempts to get Saugus out of the stronghold alive, and a confrontation with the army of pirates leads to one of the most explosive battles in the show’s history.

### **GM/DM Intro**

*It started as a simple dungeon run…*
Our team came together in pursuit of treasure but found instead an amulet that has brought both chaos and purpose to their lives. Chaos in the form of forces of good and evil delivered to them from you, the watchers of the time stream, and purpose in the form of a quest to find and free the captured Wardens of Ain, the 100 foot tall sentinels who have protected the realms for generations.

*One of these Wardens, they believe, is being held at sea in the treacherous waters of The Deep Reef, but however dangerous The Deep Reef may be, getting there has proven equally deadly. Though they portalled directly aboard a ship called the Tardy Plunder, that was headed in that direction, they quickly forced it to change course, a detour to defend Lily Dumblestuck's island home, which had been under assault from creatures from the sea.*

*But the journey to save Bingle was fraught with its own perils, costing the lives of several of the ship's crew members including the helmsman, Loudmouth the Mute, so-called because his tongue had been cut out at the hands of the pirate known as Whitebeard.*

*When our team returned to the ship, as the heroes of Bingle, to set sail once again deep reef, the captain of the Tardy Plunder, Mervis Blowhard, told them he could not venture into such dangerous waters without an experienced pilot at the helm. The only other helmsman he trusted: Saugus VanFleek, who just happened to be under the employ of Whitebeard himself.*

*Blowhard and Whitebeard seemed to have a contentious past but despite their best efforts the team could not quite discover the details of that relationship, nevertheless they agreed with Blowhard to infiltrate the pirate stronghold known as Whitebeard's Jutty, take Saugus and create problems for Mervis' nemesis.*

*With the wizard Claudiette along side them, they rode out to the waterfall crowned island of Weir and managed to decipher the puzzle to the hideout's location. Having just gained a level of experience, James discovered his new Eldrich invocation allowed him to grant the entire party waterbreathing, so they tied off their dinghy passed the waterfall and simply walked in under it along the ocean floor.*

*Fahima's Baby Phoenix Meep provided an ingenious distraction which allowed the team to sneak in passed the outer guards and into the heart of the stronghold and gave Lily the opportunity to study one of the pirates speech and mannerism to create a nearly perfect, if slightly smaller, impersonation of him. While she chatted with and confused another pirate inside, Uggo incapacitated him from behind and the search was on.*

*Fahima turned Siv invisible and the rest of the team investigated a number of strange and fantastical creatures caged inside the stronghold. Then Siv and Lily walked headlong into the fort's inner sanctum. What they found was Whitebeard himself, surrounded by a cluster of swarthy pirates, set to watch some sort of blood sport, a huge albino Owlbear pinned and primed in front of them. They also found Saugus VanFleek, who turned out to be an old, slow-moving tortle with long grey sideburns, sitting at Whitebeard's side.*

*Unfortunately Lily's appearance, even in disguise, riled Whitebeard and when he ordered her punished, the physical attack revealed her deception. Using some quick thinking, Lily deployed the full chaos of the amulet, convincing at least some of the pirates that she was afflicted with a fearsome curse. Meanwhile Siv, cloaked in invisibility, slipped a note to Saugus and began spiriting him away, however slowly, down the opposite exit. Lily caused the pirates to dance and herself to bounce like a gummy bear, leaping into Uggo's saddle, to begin a riotous and frantic escape. That is until Whitebeard made use of one of his lair-actions called "Blow the man down", thunderous kabooms from the giant canons above shook the entire jutty and every member of the team, save Siv, failed their saves causing them to fall prone.*

*As we ended last week, James, Fahima and Siv remained undetected as Uggo and Lily lay sprawled, surrounded by angry pirates. Whitebeard looked down, his prodigious girth blanketed by his long, wide, silvery beard and said in a voice not at all ridiculous: "What do I make of this".*