A Wanderer's Romance - Session 2 - The Sun Pirates

The other day we played another 2-hour session of the burgeoning Wanderer's Romance campaign.
Here's what happened:

- Don Pazzari, Captain of the Sun Pirates, climbed on the PCs table, taking Mun's drink from his hand and loudly proclaiming his arrival. Mun got mad at this and tried to sweep him off the table, but the Corsair was quicker than expected and jumped onto another table, shifting his attention to Mun - who in turn jumped on the first table. A Face-off, some taunts, and a circle of pirates surrounding the table (also spreading all around the Pagoda cause there's 50 of them). Hanshi somehow sneaks out onto the first floor, followed by The Western Dragon aka Long Dong, Don Pazzari's second-in-command (a GNC monk figure wearing the staff, known as a devout student of the Soul Mirror legendary style, pretty friendly for a baddie though). Lei starts a betting ring with the pirates and some bold patrons as the fight between Mun and Don Pazzari begins!

- It's an affair of 3-4 intense rounds, Don Pazzari is all-out offense with a massive axe, splintering the table in half and regularly destroying furniture while the strong but swift Mun barely manages to block or dodge, waiting for a way in - when he does get his opening though, he throws Pazzari down and disarms him, just in time for the Madam to arrive and ask what's going on here exactly?

- Then Pazzari reveals his trump card: he snaps his fingers and a bunch of pirates reveal firebombs they had hidden under their clothes. "Now everybody be very cool or we burn this place down." He then explains that he's been sent by Lady Sahina of the Butterfly Clan and has come to collect a tribute of 3,000 Gold. When she hears the name, the Madam complies, although explains she doesn't have such a sum (an exorbitant amount of money no business like hers would have around, really). Don Pazzari says that's fine, he'll just take three girls instead. Sing La wants to protest but the Madam stops her, clearly afraid of what could happen if she opposed Lady Sahina. The pirates round-up the girls and leave with Maya the Teamaker, Jade and Thistlebloom. Jade fights back and gets knocked out, the other two don't resist. In the mean time, Hanshi kind of just stared at the seen and Lei somehow traded the betting ring's money for a firebomb with a clueless pirate. That'll come in handy later.

- With the threat of a widespread fire, the party realizes that beating Don Pazzari in a fair fight won't help and lets the pirates go (also there's like, 50 of them and 3 PCs. My ruling is that dealing with normal people that can fight in this game is a test, here it'd require 5 success spreadout through the 3 PCs, so five rolls with solid odds of success, although any failure means rolling damage wich has a 50% chance of getting a PC knocked out/defeated and captured). Then they sneak after them!

- Mun swims and gets helped up the boat by Long Dong, who's like "hey long time no see also you're my prisoner now!" - they're from the same island, it turns out. That was a helpful distraction for Lei and Hanshi on a small boat sneaking on the boat and down the hull though. When Pazzari does his big speech to gloat at Mun, they pop out, Hanshi puts a dagger at his throat, and Lei shows off her firebomb. Here's the deal: they release the captain and don't set the ship on fire, and the pirates release the girls and let them escape on a small canoe. Don Pazzari says OK. They leave, but right before throwing the captain overboard and jumping on the lifeboat, Lei throws the firebomb anyway (:

- They get back to the island safely and the Madam gives them her thanks. Sing La points out that they should depart for the City of a Thousand Paper Crane in the morning, as the Trial of Emerald begins soon. Somewhere else in a moody dojo, a silhouette covered in dragon tattoos is interrupted in their meditation by Lady Sahina opening her fan as she stares at her crystal ball going "ara ara~, it seems things have become more complicated than expected." SPOOKY CLIFFHANGER.

Some Comments

- Pretty cool session. First part was mostly about Mun showing off and doing cool duel (why? Not sure but it was radical), then we realized duels could not solve every situation. Then the PCs used wits and guile to beat overwhelming numbers. Next time will be about the journey to the City I think, cause I want to emphasize the journey as much as the destination.