7thsea-a-minute, a synopsis: 'Service for All the Dead' (Avalon group) Scene 1: After buying a suspiciously cheap ship and painting it a gaudy black, our heroes set off across the channel to Avalon with the black talon from the previous adventure. Before they get there, they find a small rowboat containing a dead man with brown seaweed wrapped around him and a pocketwatch in his vest. Cadiz manages to give the man a very undignified burial at sea, keeps the watch, and sketches the man's face for future identification. The group lands in a small fishing village, and spends the night, but not before Pyotr gets involved in a brawl at the local tavern. Hilarity ensues. Scene 2: A delegation heads over to the quartermaster's house, to see if he has information on aforementioned suspiciously-cheap ship. Indeed, it seems someone tried to steal it solo a few years back. The quartermaster was injured, however, and his wife shooed everyone out before much more of the story could be related. In a well-measured and thoughtful response to this, the group decides to sneak the quartermaster some rum while trying to distract the wife with the Marquis and Bjorg acting as encyclopedia salesman. They are discovered, and the wife beats them to within an inch of their lives. Hilarity ensues. Pierre says that a man inquired about the ship, asking if it had been to Cathay. That bit of sleuthing done, the group proceeds to Carleon, where the Marquis receives a coded message by porte-post. Before he finishes reading it, he's shot by a cloaked assailant. A chase ensues, but Bjorg and Pyotr lose the man. The Marquis is carried to the Explorer's Guild, where he is comatose, but stable. Charles Baldwin at the EG is questioned, and turns up useful info about Bjorg's lost family heirloom, and gives us a book on Seelie history that includes some gibberish below what seems to be the talon, and tells us the 'Cup of the Others' is the Unseelie Cup. Pierre then rushes in with the news that one of the sailors has been killed on board. Bjorg notices hatch-shaped markings in the ceiling. Consternation ensues. Scene 3: Merchant stuff as we buy stuff with the profits from selling cloth. Cadiz comes through with a translated letter. Baldwin comes through with another talon reference in a painting: 'Service For All The Dead'. Then it's off to the Rose & Cross chapter house for info on the Marquis' dealings with NOM from the encrypted letter. As we get there, there's a scream and another death has occured--and when we rush to investigate, Charles sees a man in a green cloak and sneaks off, eventually getting himself arrested. There's an odd footprint at the scene of death 2, but nothing else of note. The NOM thing seems to be some sort of secret society the Marquis has stumbled across whilst tracking an artifact he had lost the bid on, and subsequently asked the R&C for help. A helpful vendor reveals that the painting was in the selfsame Vaticine church under which the talon was found. We get a note from Charles that he's been arrested, and cursing ensues. Scene 4: As we set out to try to free Charles, we're sidetracked by a commotion at the Explorer's Guild, where it seems that three thugs broke in just after the Marquis woke up, and the Marquis himself broke *out* at the same time. We head over to the jail, where there's been a third attack; this one in the cell next to Charles'. Charles himself is unhurt. Mr. Bradley, who accused Charles, sends a note saying he'll drop charges if we leave and give him The Item. Scene 5: Mr. Bradley turns out to be the Minister of Commerce, and Baldwin says he might just be interested in keeping the talon from finding *their* graal, and thereby destroying Avalonian commerce. He also tells us the beastie is a tentacled gorilla thing, which our boat's last captain destroyed. Scene 6: A group goes to see Mr. Bradley, who drugs them and throws them in jail--but the monster attacks as they're being dumped, so they all rush out. Bjorg aids the guards attacking the monster with a timely fog, but other guards see them, and they have to fight their way out, eventually jumping on a careering horse through the city, cart disintigrating behind them. Meanwhile, a mob is assembling at the docks, so Cadiz gets all the sailors back on board and ready to sail, which they do, just in time. Once safely sailing away, the group notes that even though Bradley had the chance to take the talon (which he did), he put it back again. And Roll (from the previous adventure) had done the same, namely, tried to get the group to part with the talon voluntarily. The group decides to use the talon, which Cadiz agrees to only if it's him that uses it. Sailing ensues. Scene 7: The ship outruns a pirate ship, and after a couple uses of the talon, it finally attunes itself to Cadiz enough that he can tell where it's actually pointing--to a spot north of Carleon, and an island in Vendel. A storm blows up, and the party almost loses a crew member, pushed overboard by something giggling. On the other side of the storm, the party is hailed by another ship with a letter from the church to Cadiz--they've heard rumors of what happened in the previous adventure, and insist he report to the nearest Vaticine church immediately. Scene 8: In the middle of the night, someone floats a bomb at us, but Bjorg manages to get it snuffed in time. Bjorg, Charles, and a few sailors hop in a boat to follow a small fishing boat to shore, follow tracks up a cliff, get to a cave, almost get into a fight, and the session ends. Waiting ensues. Scene 9: Picking up where they left off, a cliffside battle ensues between Bjorg, Charles, and two pirates. Eventually dispensing the baddies, they make their way into the cave, where they find a box, but have to make a hasty exit as the cliff collapses. Back on the ship, the box is found to contain 200 guilders, plus odd documents. Cadiz manages to discover they're recording smuggling transactions, including a 'NOM Fossil Collection', and that the smuggling has been going on for years, based on some numbering system that dates back 54 centuries. Fast- forward to landing in Teneberc, where Cadiz sets off to find a church. The priest there had a letter for him, but it was stolen along with various other papers recently, but it basically said, "You need to report stuff to us, and BTW, Ussuran shape-shifting is evil." Scene 10: Investigating re: who stole the papers, Charles and Cadiz manage to work out that it was done by locals who were annoyed at the preacher's fire-n-brimstone sermons. With a small bribe, they re-obtain the papers from a poor woman on the outskirts of town, and decide to head overland to Charles' home town. They also find out that the guy they found dead in Scene 1 was Henry Percival from Roestock, so resolve to stop by there, too. And that's where we ended. A couple things might get tweaked from the last session, like whether Cadiz & Charles still have the talon, since it looks like none of Pyotr, Bjorg, or Jack will be re-joining. And Ghogg is also letting us redistribute some HP and XP, since now we know what we're doing, but didn't originally. Which means Cadiz is now 2/3/3/3/3! Whee!