My latest campaign

[Pergamos]

So I have pulled together a GURPS campaign here.  Unlike the previous one unfortunately none of the players are posters here.

The setting is the Caribbean in 1660.  The party consists of Queequeeg (directly based on the one in Moby Dick) the Tahitian harpoonist, Olaf Gustavson a Swedish entrepreneur, Finn, a pirate, and Herbert Wilcox a British soldier from the great war, who was the subject of an experiment with magical time travel that did not go as planned.

Olaf had chartered a whaling vessel which had quite a successful outing and was now pulling into the Windward Isles, on course for Martinique when it was attacked by pirates.  The pirates took the vessel as well as the wealth of spermwhale oil, ivory, and opium that the ship contained.  They put those who did not wish to join their crew into longboats and sent them out, the one containing the party (minus Herbert) also held the captain of the whaling vessel, a Frenchman named Jean-Jaques De Molay.  Upon finding land they spotted a fishing party of Caribs on the beach with spears.  In a burst of smoke and light Herbert Wilcox appeared in between the fishing party and the castaways.  The Caribs readied their spears and advanced, Queequeeg and Finn readied weapons as well.  Herbert attempted to surrender.  Finn shot a Carib, the Carib's greivously wounded Queequeeg and attacked Herbert.  Herbert used his advanced weaponry to drive the Caribs back, although Finn also sustained serious damage.  The Caribs surrendered and were allowed to leave, Finn tailed them stealthily and discovered that they cooked and ate the bodies of their fallen comrades.

The party left the beach to head south, around a rocky area of the island, finding another beach they rested, with Finn on lookout.  Finn was approached by an old native fellow, dressed differently than the Caribs.  He approached, then did some chanting before speaking to Finn in perfect English.  He tended to Finn's wounds, allowing him to recover completely in a rather miraculous manner, and attended to Queequeeg as well.  The aprty accompanied him to his village, whih was a remnant of it's former self and inhabited only by a few old people.  They also brought Captain De Molay and Olaf up to let them rest in one of the huts.  They spoke with the man, who spoke perfect Polynesian when adressing Queequeeg, and learned that his tribe had been destroyed by the Caribs, who now left them alone as they were too old and tough to make good meat.  Finn and Herbert left that night to scout out the Carib village.  Along the way they shot a jaguar and avoided interaction with a Carib hunting party.  Arriving at the village Finn snuck into the hut of the chief and shot him in the chest, the chief died without waking but Finn attempted to steal one of his wives for his own and her scream awoke the village.  The two managed to make it out without being apprehended however.  The next day they returned, checking the beach first and finding that wwhere Herbert had arrived had been fused into glass.  They went to the village and discovered the dozen best warriors contending for who would be the new chief.  Queequeeg roared a challenge to them and they advanced.  Herbert used a grenade, which made them fairly easy pickings after that, the party did not sustain any major injuries.  The rest of the village fled into the jungle.

The party is on the island of Petite Martinique in the windward isles. 

[Pergamos]

Fynn headed off into the jungle after a few of the village maidens, Queequeeg set to taking the heads of those he had killed and Herbert worked on cleaning his weapons.  He spotted a man hiding nearby while doing this and he and Queequeeg approached. The man identified himself as Nicholas Alvel, an Englishman who had been stranded on the island.  He accompanied them to the beach where they spotted a passing Dutch merchant.   They lit a fire and the merchant approached, asking who they were.  When Herbert identified himself as a member of the British Navy the Dutch told him they would be obligated to take him as a prisoner of war but they would not be offended if he escaped when they made port.  Queequeeg made his way back to the friendly native village while the Dutch took advantage of the signal fire to do some cooking.  Queequeeg rowed the longboat back, with Fynn and Olaf and Captain Jean-Jacques all of whom were asleep.  They boarded the Dutch ship, which was carrying a cargo of slaves, and headed south, around a larger island and then down to the island of Grenada.  They spotted a French naval vessel and an unnamed vessel which was not flying a flag and had a bare breasted woman as the figurehead.  The port on Grenada was a small town and fairly newly settled, the town of Port Louis.

The Dutch auctioned their slaves off, Nicholas asked around about Captain Billy Blood, who had been the captain of the ship which captured the whaling vessel and also a person of interest to Nicholas.  He learned that Captain blood had a letter of marque from Grenada and that he had not been seen for about a month.  They arranged passage on a French merchant vessel to Barbados, where Captain blood was also known to put into port.  While they were waiting for the ship to put out to sea Queequeeg spent some time fishing for sharks, which resulted in the long boat being damaged but he traded a shark for repairs.  Nicholas attempted to get the governor to revoke Captain Blood's letter of marque, because he had attacked a French whaling vessel, the governor was noncommital.  Queequeeg transferred the unconscious folks to the local church.  Herbert rounded up the ingredients for nitroglycerin from the jungle.  That evening they observed French planters complaining about their slaves running off and that some of them had killed a planter.  They demanded a refund and did not receive one and the Dutch ship departed rather quickly.  That night they were awoken by the town being lit on fire.  Queequeeg managed to get the three folks from the church and they went out to the merchant vessel which anchored further from shore so that there would be no spillover from the havok.  The rebellious slaves pillaged the town.  The next day the merchants headed to Barbados, the party played a few rounds of Liar Dice, Herbert lost enough that he was in danger of becoming an indentured servant on the ship but Nicholas won enough to bail him out.  After arriving in Barbados the party saw the unmarked ship with the barebreasted figurehead, now flying a British flag.  They discovered that it was the ship of Black Bart, an escaped slave who had letters of marque from the French and British both and who tended to prey on Dutch merchants.  Nicholas spent some time asking after Captain Blood and discovered that he had set sail from Barbados roughly a week ago, which would be just before he took the whaling vessel, he also learned that he had stocked up on cannon balls and powder and that his crew had treated the local tarts poorly.  Herbert explored in the jungle a bit and managed to find some rare and expensive herbs, which he sold to the local apothecary.  Queequeeg went fishing for sharks and although he was bitten he managed to harvest 3.  He also spoke with Black Bart, making him aware of the slave rebellion.  Bart said that he planned to make contact with the slaves and possibly support them and invited Queequeeg to join the crew.  he also expressed disdain, although not outright hostility, toward Captain Blood, who he felt put on airs of being a gentleman.  Nicholas and Harbert signed on to Bart's crew as well, after verifying that they planned on heading north from Barbados and that there would be no hard feelings if they had to depart the crew to pursue their mission against Captain Blood.

[Pergamos]

Olaf awoke from his opium stupor to the attentions of Queequeeg the whaler.  He realized that he had lost his fortune, in whale oil, ivory and opium, and when Queequeeg mentioned shipping with Black Bart he went down to the docks to talk with the man.  he managed to talk Bart into giving him ten shares until his boat was recovered.  The ship set out and headed west, after the sun set Olaf went up to the crow's nest to smoke opium.  He failed to spot a pirate ship which Bart's ship, the Liberté ended up colliding with.  Olaf's quick words managed to avert hostilities and the collided with ship, that of Red Rackham, joined in the endeavor.  They did head toward one of the windward isles to make repairs from the collision.  Along the way a Dutch merchant ship was spotted.  Olaf negotiated a surrender from the ship and put the crew ashore on the island where Red Rackham was conducting his repairs.  A party ensued in which the wine plundered from the dutch merchant ship was consumed.  Natives of the island joined the party.  Queequeeg attempted to hunt sharks and was attacked by a school of them.  A pirate lost his life saving him but Queequeeg, both boats, and half a dozen sharks were recovered.  3 of the sharks were given to the lover of the deceased pirate as blood payment for his loss. 

The pirates encountered a Spanish naval vessel and put down a long boat to attempt to take it before it could do too much damage to the Liberty.  There as a brief skirmish between the boarding party and some Spanish defenders, then Queequeeg crippled the rudder and the Spanish cannonneers had a catastrophic failure which ignited the powder and caused the ship to explode.  Queequeeg and the rest of the boaridng party made it back without any serious harm and Queequeeg maintained (with the support of the others) that he had caused the ship to explode by smiting it with his poleaxe.

The ship put into Martinique, where Captain blood had not been seen.  Queequeeg got several baths from several beautiful women to learn this information.  They all declined this invitation to wed.  The ship continued north, putting into harbor on the island of Dominica, which did not have white settlements.  Fynn got himself caught in a trap, Queequeeg waited for locals to come to retrieve him and with Olaf's help traded a shark and several spears for Fynn's freedom and healing services.  The ship continued north to Guadaloupe, a much smaller settlement, where Queequeeg managed to secure a vow of marriage from a young woman named Elysse.  he also engaged in mercantile transactions with a dark skinned Merchant named Deskar Null.  Fynn stole an odd flat black device from him, the pair, along with Elysse, were visited by a tall demon with a cigar.  He tongue lashed Fynn but lost his cigar to  him and then had a knife planted in his eye by Elysse and vanished.  Captain Blood's ship was sighted,  Queequeeg rowed out to present a challenge to duel,  he ended up dueling Captain Blood's champion and losing the battle.

[Pergamos]

Fynn gave the demonic cigar to Olaf, who had a stronger will than him and thus could hopefully resist the demonic taint the cigar might offer more effectively.  Olaf used it to heal Queequeeg and also tested out it's powers by compelling Fynn to pee on queequeeg.  He managed to convince the approaching longboats from Captain Blood's ship to wait until he had a chance to confer with their captain.  Arriving at Captain Blood's ship the party surrendered their weapons and engaged in some gambling, which went poorly for them.  Olaf attempted to adjust the results and ended up with the eyes of a goat or cat, rather than the normal human eyes he had started with.  Captain Blood returned and Olaf convinced him to trade the cigar for his ship full of whale oil, however he also acquired scales for skin along the way.  Fynn and Nicholas did some sneaking about and Nicholas got his cutlass back as Fynn attempted to drop a trap on Captain blood from the rigging above.  The trap missed and combat ensured while Olaf attempted to talk things to a peaceful resolution.  Captain Blood used the cigar to convey himself to the whaling vessel, allowing Olaf to accompany him.  The party managed to subdue the remaining crew on the ship but were unable to crew the ship themselves, as they did not have enough people.  They managed to get a few of the crew of the Liberty to come and join them, the Liberty looked like ti was in immediate danger of falling to attack from the assault by captain Blood's crew.  Captain Blood blew smoke at Olaf, who found himself back on the Adventurer's prize, and the ship was transported a few leagues away.  The device which Fynn had stolen from the merchant was used to contact the merchant who gave Nicholas an advanced pistol as thanks, telling him that he would get the price of it from the thief.  He also sold Queequeeg some armor and rather advanced swords and put Olaf in touch with Glorm, the cigar smoking demon.  Glorm took all of Olaf's remaining money as down payment for retrieval of his whaling ship and set off to retrieve his cigar.  The ship headed south in the direction of Guadaloupe, with the hope of sailing south of it and finding a native shaman who might be able to return Olaf's skin and eyes to their normal state.   Those pirates that had not been killed, along with a sailmaker who had been kept prisoner on the ship were enough to crew it, although just barely.

[The Wizard Joseph]

That was a fun read! Sounds like the party has a lot of moxy. Maybe too much! The best kind.

[Pergamos]

Thanks Joe.  I partly post these because there is a lot of cannabis consumption involved in play and I like to remember what is going on, but knowing i am entertaining someone also helps make me feel better about the whole endeavor.

[The Wizard Joseph]

It's worth it for me to tag along vicariously! Eventually I'm opening a LARP. Since reconnecting with folks in my hometown and watching the consensus go full potato I think it's time to give myself and my friends what we all want.
I try to get out...
And She pulls me back in!
My muse's methods are quite unamusing sometimes.

[Pergamos]

The ship found a long boat with an East Indian man and a gorilla on board.  The man identified himself as Kali and declined to introduce the gorilla.  The ship headed east and managed to find the island of Antigua where they went to the jungle and Elysia, Queequeeg and Kali went into the jungle to try to find a shaman to cleanse Olaf of his curse.  They discovered a couple of pig traps, which Kali disassembled, and then set up camp on top of a hill to wait for the locals to arrive.  The locals arrived and brandished spears.  Queequeeg and Elysia dispatched a couple of the natives quickly, Herbert Wilcox appeared in the jungle from nowhere, apparently a glitch in his time travel spell, and dispatched another, in a rather dramatic fashion due to his high tech bullets.  Kali was taken down by a couple of spears but played dead briefly before arising to attempt to take advantage of the shock from the high tech death.  Elysia was taken down and althoguh she did not die she was unconscious.  Queequeeg chopped a man in half with the vibro blade weapon he had bought from Deskar, Kali's gorilla knocked a man through the air and Kali managed to get the natives to surrender.  Olaf had sent reinforcements when he spotted the fire and the reinforcements shot down several natives as they tried to escape.  They returned to the ship and sailed to the  port of Antigua where they rented a slave named Juan who spoke both Spanish and Carib.  Queequeeg gave assurances which were betrayed, by agreement from the crew.  He also rallied the crew behind him in a mutiny against Olaf's captaincy.  The ship headed west toward Haiti where Juan knew a voodoo bokor who could possibly cleanse Olaf.

The ship was waylaied by a Spanish Naval sloop which crippled them with a cannon blast.  Kali sent his crows, carrying rats that he had trained to chew ropes, over to chew the ropes from the sails and Herbert shot the helmsman.  Kali managed to repair the worst of the holes made by the cannon and the ship sped off while the Spanish were left faltering in the water.  They then encountered a flotilla of Arawak canoes, the Arawak were intially hostile but did no serious damage with flaming arrows before being persuaded to let the party know the location of their village on St Kitts.  The party made their way there where they learned of a remote valley in Mexico where great feathered beasts roamed and were told that the tailfeather of one of the largest of them, a monster with teeth as long as man's arm that stood on two legs with two little useless clawed arms, could be used to chase the demonic taint from Olaf.

[Pergamos]

In Saint Kitts Queequeeg and Herbert went to recruit crew, they found a few seamen and also (Irish name forgotten due to consumption of intoxicants during play to be inserted later) who was playing music to entertain the crowd in a tavern.  Glorm the demon returned to let Olaf know that he was unable to recover his ship, but he offered him 400 pounds of recovered ivory and a barrel of whale oil, as well as a pound of opium.  Queequeeg sent Kali to arrange a boxing match while Olaf and the bard went to court to settle the matter of the pirate ship that they were on.  Olaf told the court how they had acquired it and received a legal title in the eyes of the Dutch government.  The bard played music and the representative of the crown had his wig infested with fleas.  Olaf handled the gambling for Queequeeg's match, the bard played music which inspired the crowd to overconfidence and Olaf drummed up a vast quantity of people to bet and offered 2:1 odds favoring Queequeeg.  Kali found an aggressive dog, which attacked his gorilla, but he managed to calm it down and win it's grudging acceptance.  Queequeeg's opponent was overcome with lust, upon hearing the songs being sung to accompany the fight and switched from punching to grappling Queequeeg, he was thrown to the pavement and fell asleep as the song switched to a lullaby.

The boat headed south to find the ship of Black Bart, who had managed to seize it back from Billy Blood while Glorm was attempting to retrieve the whaling ship and gambling ensued.  The bard ended up badly in debt to the crew, some of which debt was settled in exchange for sexual favors the rest of which was simply held.

[Pergamos]

After a couple hours of travel the ship discovered a canoe with a lone arawak, armed with a bow and arrow.  The inhabitant said she was scavenging materials for making herbalist potions from.  They continued their journey and put into the port of Montserrat,  there Olaf spoke to the magistrate about his acquisition of the ship and had it registered as his in French colonial territories.  They then recovered the Liberte, the ship of Black Bart, and his remaining dozen crew members and, after returning to Mont Serrat, recruited 30 new crew members including an enthusiastic dragon hunting fencer named Pierre.