Both Tim and Nick fail to show up, owing to other commitments (work and whatnot, respectively). Bruce (Marcel Gasoin), Chris (Drake Sangaree) and Dan (Romeo Vestini) comprise the group, while Paul is in charge.
Everyone gets three experience points from the last session. Considering that this is the last actual session of this game (it was only supposed to last a month, after all), it isn't quite clear what net value this award actually has.
Prior to the game, Dan suggests that we all go to IHOP for breakfast. Bruce and Paul both agree, while Chris claims that he is moving too slowly to be able to join us. Fatefully, his decision proves to be the best. The entire IHOP experience is presaged by a pair of diners who walk past us as we enter, commenting that, "They'll leave now if they're smart." The meal starts out with a mysterious pot of coffee that nobody ordered and which stays with us like an albatross. The first warnings arrive with the orange juice, which hadn't been mixed. The next arrive surprisingly late in the meal with the silverware, when Dan discovers gunk upon his fork and Bruce finds hair in his eggs. All through this, nobody thinks to ask if the diners have any needs.
As a propitiatory sacrifice, Dan promises to avoid suggesting any restaurants for the next year. His offer is accepted with few reservations…
Drake Sangaree is suddenly awakened from a deep sleep! He walks around the cabin, finding to his dismay that he can't move any of his stuff. He also finds that he's unable to awaken any of the other characters. His first thought is that somehow he managed to fall through the Syrneth Hoop that he had securely placed between two boards in his pack. Unfortunately, he is unable to get access to the hoop because he can't move any of his stuff.
Drake makes his way out onto the deck, learning that he can't walk through walls in the process. He finds that the alter watch is going about it's normal business, though he is unable to get their attention.
It is at this point that he sees someone who shouldn't be there: the (formerly) deceased Father Esteban Parillo. The ersatz priest's robes are tattered, and he wears a golden panzerhand-like device carved in Syrneth runes. It is quickly obvious that Parillo is able to see and react to Drake.
Drake retreats back into the foredeck cabin, looking for anything to pick up as a weapon. Father Parillo follows him in. A conversation ensues, in which the Father claims that he managed to escape from the snake when he found one of the strange spherical balls. He clung onto it through his journey down the creature's gullet. Sometime before he hit the thing's stomach, the sphere started to make the same strange high-pitched tone it had before. This made the snake sick and forced it to regurgitate him. He also indicates that he is now able to see the minds of living things, and that he has only been able to communicate with Drake due to his proximity to some gateway artifact. He claims that he is becoming rather hungry, as he has only been able to find one half-crazed rat to eat, and needs some food. Drake promises to send him some.
When Drake awakens into the real world, he tells the other characters about the Father. Everyone agrees that the Father's reappearance is a Bad Thing, and that the guy must be dealt with in no uncertain terms. He and the other characters largely agree that the best plan is to wait until Parillo goes to sleep, then hunt him down in his alternate universe and stab him from the safety of the Hoop.
When Drake actually takes the Syrneth Hoop out of it's protective casing (intended primarily to keep bad things trapped), he quickly learns that Father Parillo really is in the parallel world, hanging around on the Succubus. He follows through on his earlier promise, and tosses some food through.
Father Parillo does his best to prove his usefulness by claiming that he's seen a device like this, and knows how to change it's size by manipulating a series of seven small rings around the circumference. Drake finds that his advice is correct, and enlarges it to a size that allows the Father to return.
Once the Father has returned, Drake confronts him with Mariana Octavia's various accusations against him. The Father purports to be completely innocent, and offers the alternate explanation that Legion must be corrupting her. Drake offers that she only accused him after he looked to be permanently dead, and had nothing to gain through the act.
Drake asks the Father Parillo remove his golden arm armor and place himself under custody until a trial can be convened. The Father makes the extremely convenient explanation that he can't remove the armor, "because it is a part of me." The characters refuse to believe this story. Drake hauls the Father out onto the deck, where he assembles a group of crewmen and starts making noises about having a trial. At this point, Mariana Octavia is brought out onto the deck and sees the Father, standing there very much alive. She reacts poorly, with obvious fear and a visible withdrawal.
Drake says, "That's enough for me. Kill him!" The priest objects, threatening to summon the Big Snake if the characters attack him. Everyone is unswayed by this claim and rushes to the attack. It is quickly obvious that Parillo is a staggeringly good fighter, much better than all the characters. He lays about himself, quickly crippling Romeo Vestini and wounding Drake and Marcel Gasoin. Fortunately, the characters have numbers, desperation, and an incredible lack of regard for their own safety on their side. The characters have been savaged to the point of death by the time they manage to finally cripple him. At this point, Parillo declares, "This fight is over!", waves his hands, and incapacitates Drake with a wave of pain. Drake, through his clenched lips, wonders why Parillo didn't do this before: it's much more effective than fighting. Romeo is unaffected, and manages to inflict another dramatic wound upon Parillo. In return, Parillo wounds him again, then hits Marcel square on and knocking him out of the fight. Romeo, slightly touched by the sight of his friend knocked down, hits Parillo and takes him down, checking afterwards to make certain that he is really dead.
Drake, who is the least wounded of the characters, chops off Parillo's golden arm and glares around at the crew, almost daring any off them to say, "Let's take them now that they're weakened!" Oddly enough, the crew seems to have gotten a taste for bloodlust. Most of them seem to have been rooting for the characters. The characters know that it is bad luck to keep a dead body on board, so Drake chops off Parillo's head (for good measure) and gives orders for the body to be disposed of. The crew then weighs down both the head and the body with cannon balls and dumps them overboard, separately.
As the crew swabs off the deck, Drake offers his apologies to Octavia, saying that he'd been planning on having a trial, but when he saw the expression on her face he figured that the bastard had to be guilty of something. Octavia, still surprised by the violence she just witnessed, nods mutely.
By the end of the fight, Marcel has suffered a total of six Dramatic Wounds and must be carried back to his cabin by three crewmen. The other characters fetch the mutinous doctor Josef Chevaille and tell him that they'll throw him overboard if Marcel doesn't get better. Chevaille notes that his target number to accomplish anything is 60 (ten times the number of Dramatic Wounds taken). Drake and Romeo grin at him and nod.
Predictably, he doesn't manage to improve the situation any, but Marcel spends his remaining Drama Die to become conscious. In an uncharacteristic act of generosity, Drake and Romeo decide that they won't throw Chevaille overboard after all.
Drake, aware that the characters may need to be able to savage other foes in the near future, gives over the Syrneth flaming blade to Romeo. Romeo is suitably impressed by the thing's light weight and impressive balance.
Drake then examines Parillo's golden arm. It looks like the thing is actually solid, and that Parillo had actually severed his arm to be able to use the thing: his arm bone was actually stuck down into the arm. Drake shakes his head and notes, "sick fucker." About this time, Romeo pipes up, "Hey, you can cut my arm off! I don't mind!"
The Succubus arrives among the islands at the south of Vodacce. The characters are appropriately impressed by the scale and quality of Vodacce architecture, which has been responsible for buildings far larger and more imposing than would normally be expected of the 17th century. The entire southern island chain is buried in a momentous collection of buildings and bridges. Romeo is obviously quite proud of his homeland's accomplishments, though both Drake and Marcel suspect that the first good hurricane to hit the area would really shake the locals' world…
Romeo Vestini tells the characters to set course for the Vestini Family's home island, with the intention of selling the Syrneth vessel to the head of his family, the Prince Tonelli Vestini.
After the Succubus docks, the characters head to Romeo Vestini's villa to get cleaned up. Romeo sends his majordomo to visit with the Prince Vestini and arrange an appointment. The majordomo returns reporting that the Prince has agreed to meet with the characters at the end of the week.
Once he has shaved, deloused, and washed, Drake loads up with extra ammo and heads back to stand guard over the Syrneth craft, threatening to shoot anyone who tries to climb up the side of the ship. This isn't necessarily such a good match with the arrogant, prideful nature of the people, but Drake remains convinced that it's all for the better.
Through the week, both Drake and Marcel visit tailors to procure clothing appropriate to a meeting with a Prince. Drake spends 30 G on a suit with silver buttons. Marcel follows likewise, purchasing a frock coat with a flare below the waist, a pair of pumpkin pants, and leather boots up to his knees. His getup costs a total of 50 G and really demonstrates that there is no way for money to undo the damage a life spent on the streets has already inflicted to Marcel's sense of style.
Drake, his ears full of Romeo's stories of the wonderful and delightful Vodacce Courtesans, ventures to a nearby Courtesan House after he tires of threatening every native in sight from the deck of the Syrneth vessel. He discovers that the House is a never-ending party, with sumptuous food and clothing everywhere. He also discovers that there are excellent opportunities for deep conversation with educated women. Unfortunately, a guy who grew up on the streets of Avalon and fought with cats for rotting food doesn't have much to say about philosophy or religion, so he settles down to Rogering a Vodacce babe.
Marcel sidesteps the whole problem by putting on his old clothes and wandering the docks until he finds a woman looking for "sailor-boys." Afterwards, he takes the appropriate measures and picks the lice off his privates.
Seeking good fortune in his meeting with the Prince, Romeo arranges a Sorte reading with his cousin Cressinda, a Fate Witch. He brings the two other characters out to join him.
The drawing is nicely mystical. The first card, representing the Present, is the One of Swords, inverted, which Cressinda claims means Unity. Specifically, she interprets this to mean that Romeo is tightly knit with the people around him. The card for the Past is the Imperator, indicating that he has recently been in a position of authority. The card representing his current situation is Terra (inverted), representing Greed. His future is represented by the One of Staves, representing Authority: he will need to deal with a single, powerful person in the near future.
Romeo thanks her for her wise advice, though he mentions later that he didn't understand what useful information she was trying to tell him.
Prince Tonelli Vestini proves to be a portly man, grown wide with wealth and sumptuous eating. Romeo leads off with a series of compliments to him, then offers him the incredible Syrneth artifact he can see floating in the bay. The Prince demands a tour of the vessel, a request that Romeo accedes to with pleasure. The Prince asks what worth the vessel has to him. Drake goes for a simple explanation: the characters don't understand it at all, but it is full of Syrneth mysteries and is almost indestructible. In return, the characters ask for a small, swift ship with guns and a shallow draft; a letter of marque; and refit for their two vessels. The Prince grants their request. Oddly enough, the letter of marque allows the characters to prey against any enemies of the Vodacce, but leaves it up to the characters as to exactly who those enemies might be. The letter has a stated duration of 365 days.
The characters thank the Prince and bow their way out of his presence. Out of happiness with their newfound fortune, Romeo takes Drake and Marcel out to buy weapons of quality. Each costs 800 G, and allows an extra unkept die both to hit and for damage.
With the characters owners of their own pair of ships and a letter of marque with which to pursue the hated Vendel and Montaigne, this is a good place to draw this to a close. The characters sail into the sunset, ready to prey upon hapless merchant ships all along the Western coasts of Theah…