Recap 2- No Witnesses

Season 1: Golden Oak

Episode 2: "No Witnesses"

Pre-game ret-conning and housekeeping:

- Inspiration points will be awarded by the DM for excellent character play and such.  You can cash in a point to re-roll anything but the points only last for the session.  I gave everyone a point and then promptly forgot about it (you guys weren't failing a ton of rolls anyway), so we will try it again next time.

- Oaken (citizens of Golden Oak) who are unable to keep pace with the costly lifestyle of the Oaken are considered "Driftwood."  In the minds of the Oaken, this is the worst fate that could befall any one of them.

- I didn't talk about this like I meant to because of my stupid computer but the Oaken refer to the indigenous peoples they enslaved as "Albacans."  Albacans are considered an ethnicity; they generally have a mix of human and wood elf lineage- generally they show signs of their fey ancestry through slighter stature, pointy ears, and slight, ethereal feature- they tend to have a slightly olive complexion like wood elves.

Synopsis

Scene 1: North Docks

The episode opens on the Crown Manse, silhouetted against a nearly full moon.  The camera traces down Mercy Hill (the hill on which Golden Oak is situated) across Golden Oak and along the River Marion as we say a few tall ships making their way down river in the night.  It is well past sundown but Ship's Berth is a-glow with all sorts of activity.  Saxon, Sandro, and Silyana huddle in an alley discussing their plans.  Silyana attempts to use magic to influence Saxon but Saxon is having none of it.  Sandro steps in and appeals to Saxon's sense of duty to allow Silyana to move forward with her plan to gain control of Mercutio's Excuse.  Silyana disrobes and dives into the stinking river.

Director's Commentary: Good character stuff here.  We start to see a working relationship developing amongst the group: Saxon and Sandro have to work together and around the impetuous, strong-willed Silyana in order to succeed.  This will no doubt by a recurring theme throughout the season.  Saxon got his accent straightened out.

Scene 2: The Deck of Mercutio's Excuse

Silyana magically grows gills and fins underwater and swims along the underside of the boats moored on the North Docks.  She surfaces on the starboard side of Mercutio's excuse and charms a couple of sailors.  The sailors attempt to fulfill Silyana's wishes but it is quickly clear that they are just hired hands and have no idea what is going on or where to find the "golden book" Silyana is searching for.

The commotion on deck draws the captain out of his quarters and he is also charmed by Silyana's piscine-but-feminine wiles.  Sandro and Saxon listen on nearby as Silyana tells the captain to take the rest of the crew (four men) for a drink at a small tavern nearby, The Tight Clam.  As the crew disembarks down the gangplank, Saxon and Sandro appear and the crew become uneasy as Saxon announces that he is conducting an inspection and will need to see everyone's "papers."

Saxon orders the captain back on the boat and the captain signals for two of his men to follow and makes some sort of other gesture at the other two.

Director's Commentary: The actor that plays Silyana really got into this part.  He must have had childhood dreams of seducing sailors as a River Siren because he pretty much improvised all of his dialogue on the spot and was fucking nailing it.  I'm pretty sure he could have seduced sailors for the rest of the episode.

Scene 3: The Captain's Cabin

The captain leads Saxon, Sandro, and two sailors into the captain's cabin where he attempts to fulfill Saxon's demand for "papers."  Silyana attempts to climb up the side of Mecutio's Excuse but loses her grip and plunges back in the water.  Saxon inspects the ship's manifest and logs and, with Sandro's confirmation, finds them inadequate.

Tension grows in the cabin as one of the sailors expresses frustration with the captain for ever becoming involved with "southerners." A bass drop is heard in the distance...

Director's Commentary: Really nice police bullshitting by Sandro.  The actor who plays him did a career's worth of research for this part.

* + - DM's Comment:  Let me ret-con you some info that I had in my notes but didn't give you at the time because my computer...

In the manifest and log you would have found the following information:

Mercutio's Excuse belongs to Lord Alamir Redgrove of Golden Oak

It is laden with antiquities (junk)

Before being docked here, it was most recently docked near the North Mines (north of the Verdant Valley)

It's next port of call was a small harbor near Pacelli Village

This crew was hired out of Ship's Berth and just came aboard

Scene 4: The Party Barge

We cut to a wild party taking place on a 200 ft barge a quarter mile upriver.  Women and men dance provocatively in revealing costumes and masquerade masks while others sip lavish looking libations from uniquely-shaped crystal glasses.

Performers are everywhere: acrobatic fire-eaters, naked sword-swallowers, and dozens of illusionists create an endless array of colorful light and strobe effects... all timed perfectly to EDM that blares loudly from the barge.

DJ SAUL presides over the debauchery from his DJ booth at the bow of the barge.  He languidly puffs a joint and stares off into the night, then steps forward as if an idea has come to him.

He announces that the 600+ guests on the barge will soon be boarding the Marcotte Sex Cruise and that they should further prepare to "tear (said) boat apart."  The barge alters its course slightly toward the North Docks.

* + - DM's Comment: Awesome.  So fucking awesome.  I had thought of the party barge ahead of time but I was only going to use it if Stu came in at the right time and it was just perfect.

Then this idea to bring the party to the Excuse was so great... it really exceeded all of my expectations and lit a fire under everyone else's ass.

Scene 5: The Captain's Cabin (Again)

Silyana makes it onto the deck on her second attempt just in time to hear DJ Saul's announcement and see two of the sailors rush across the deck of the Excuse with swords drawn.  The 5 crew members try to ambush Sandro and Saxon but Sandro was ready for their Hail Mary attempt to save themselves and cuts one of the would-be assailants to ribbons.  Somebody makes the mistake of poking Saxon with a dagger and the Paladin Of No Mercy lives up to his Oath by caving in the dude's skull with his spiked-skull mace.  But Saxon's not done.  In a display that would make Joe Theisman shit his pants twice, Saxon slams his mace down across another sailors knees, buckling the poor bastard's legs the wrong way.  NO FUCKING MERCY.  Upon seeing this, the remaining three sailors toss their weapons away.  Saxon and Sandro turn their attention to locating the Golden Book, which the Captain divulged may be in the safe within the Captain's Cabin.  After some brainstorming, Saxon figures he might be able to crack the small box safe with his mace.  He wheels back and slams the skull mace into the door of the safe, pushing the door back in its frame and busting off the hinges.  The door of the safe falls forward onto the floor with a thud.  Saxon reaches inside and produces a book-like package, wrapped in brown paper with a note on it.  The note reads:

"Keep this safe.

- A Friend of a Friend"

Inside the package is the Golden Book in question: a book bound truly in solid gold with the title "In Excelsis Dominus."  The book also has a lock on the front and it is locked.  Sandro finds 500 gold in the safe while Saxon and Silyana argue briefly over who will hold the book with Saxon ultimately winning out.  Saxon holds the book and seems to lose himself for a moment in reverie.  Suddenly, Saxon looks up in abject terror and confusion as a hooded, caped, black-clad figure floats down in front of the large window at the back of the Captain's Cabin.  Saxon bolts out of the cabin and across the deck of the Excuse in an apparent attempt to get as far away from the figure floating outside of the cabin window.  Three other individuals make their way onto the deck.  As one of them shouts orders to the other two to cut the moorings for the Excuse, Silyana steps out of the shadows with handfuls of glowing, crackling, multi-colored sparks dripping from between her fingers.  She blows across her palms, releasing a dazzling cone of light made of multi-colored rays directly at the three who had recently boarded the boat.  Two of their faces melt immediately, one is left standing...

Scene 6: Back on the Barge

The party-goers on the barge see Silyana's spell and cheer, believing it to be just another illusion that is part of the show.  DJ Saul is standing in his DJ booth but is no longer alone; a beautiful brunette party-goer is hanging off of his arm, smoking his joint and giving him the "let's get out of here" look.  The barge is nearly at the Excuse now and DJ Saul glances back over his shoulder to look at the deck of the Excuse, looks at the woman hanging on his arm, and shrugs.  He nods his head as if to indicate a direction and he and the young woman make their way down to a rowboat on the side of the barge, get in, and row away...

Scene 7: The Excuse and The Barge

On the deck of the Excuse, shit is hitting the fan.  The lone survivor of Silyana's spell, a tallish and shadowy figure who seems impossible to look at directly, grows a 30 ft shadow tentacle arm and uses it to detach one of the two lines keeping the Excuse moored to the dock.  Saxon comes to after being under the hooded figure's spell and decided it's time sink the Excuse: he Randy Johnson's a lantern perfectly into his jugs of kerosene waiting in the middle of the Excuse's main deck.  The deck goes up immediately and the fire begins to spread quickly.  Sandro figures that's his cue to exit and leaps off of the starboard side of the Excuse into the River Marion.    The hooded figure that attacked Saxon appears above the Excuse's poop deck and begins firing beams of blue/black, reality-distorting energy at Saxon and Silyana, hitting them both and knocking them to the ground.  Worrying about the growing blaze and high winds around all these wooden ships, Silyana conjures an ethereal, disembodied hand to free the Excuse from the dock.  With the Excuse freed, Silyana decides she's had enough and attempts to follow Sandro but the tentacle-armed shadowy thing catches her by the ankle before she can leap off the deck.  Saxon gets up, dusts himself off (he's hurting some) and dashes for Silyana, tackling her and taking them both of the side of the boat.  Silyana, headstrong as she is, attempts to take control of their fall as its happening and manages to backflop into the Marion for her trouble.

As Saxon treads water and watches the flaming Excuse careen toward the party barge, he appears to suddenly realize something and then turns away, bringing Sandro and Silyana underneath his arms like a mother bird protecting her young.  As the Excuse comes ever closer to hitting the Party Barge, much of the crowd cheers, still believing this to be all part of the show.  As the much smaller Excuse impacts the Party Barge, barrels of kerosene aboard the Excuse (standard for any lengthy naval journey) ignite and explode.  The explosion is deafening.  The area where the Excuse hits the Barge go up in a ball of bright orange flame.  The explosion instantly cracks the barge in half and those who don't die instantly in the explosion are thrown/catapulted in various direction.  The scene is complete carnage.  Bodies and body parts everywhere as the living are all nearly drowning each other trying to escape.  A few hundred feet away Silyana, Sandro, and Saxon all tread water, the Golden Book in their possession and their mysterious assailants (the blurry tentacle thing and the hooded, black clad, floating thing) are nowhere to be seen, though Saxon has a strange feeling they made it out alive.

- Cut to Credits -

Director's Commentary: Damn, this shit was awesome.

* + - * DM's Comment: Same

Characters We Met:

The Sailing Crew of Mercutio's Excuse: they're all dead sailors, now

Blurry Tentacle Man Thing: A tallish, shadowy figure that seems impossible to look at.  It can grow shadow tentacles and seems like it was part of the group who were leaving on Mercutio's Excuse

The Spectral, Black-hooded Floaty Thing: This thing whispered a nightmare into Saxon's mind and could shoot powerful beams of blue/black energy from its hands.  Man, this all sounds really awesome and even a little familiar...

"WHO'S BAD???!!"

Well, Silyana melted some faces and Sandro slit some throats.  Saxon remembered his Oath and not only defeated his enemies but COMPLETELY BRUTALIZED them.  He kind of did save Silyana's life though... that was... unexpected.

And then, DJ Saul... once again, the only non-evil character in the group... DJ Saul was playing another game of "what would happen if" only this one got a few hundred people killed.  How was he to know things would go like they did?  He left to go get laid!

Questions to Consider and Discuss:

- What are you going to do next?  You're treading water at the scene of a major disaster that you pretty much caused.  It won't be long before first responders make the scene.  Where will you go?  How will you keep a low profile?

- What will happen after that?  So, you have the book but things didn't quite go like you thought they would...

- Saxon, there's a lot of investigatory threads to start pulling on here.  How will you figure out what's going on here?

- Sandro and Silyana, is it time to get the hell out of Ship's Berth?  You probably need to get paid first.  How do you do that?  Will Saxon ever let you hold the Golden Book? Disaster is also rife with opportunity for a couple of scam artists like yourselves.  As Littlefinger like to say, "chaos is a ladder."

- Sandro is Saxon making a move on your young companion, saving her life like that?  Would you consider being the second husband in a three-way marriage?

- Wow, who were these crazy characters we met at the end with the suuuuuuuuuuper cool powers?  What the hell is going on here?

Talk it over, decide what the course of action will be for the next session- get out of there, get somewhere safe, and plan the next move...

Thanks, dudes!

It was a blast!

-back toThe Golden Oak Campaign