II-VIII. Ashore at Campeche, Yucatán. Sunday, February 25, 1725 Anno Domini

• Arriving at the specified hacienda, the command crew of the Graceful Dame meet Mister Gordon Reade who is attended by Monsieur Boissonade and his own command crew. Dinner is served.
• Mister Reade is evidently the sole survivor of an expedition to find the Treasury and is greatly interested in Sir Randel’s plans as well as that of Monsieur Boissonade. He even goes so far as to suggest the two men join forces, something that sits poorly on them.
• Following the dinner, Doctor Spenser abruptly experiences a powerful headache and momentarily sees a two-headed snake wrapped around Mister Reade’s neck, though he does not know what to think of that.
• After a game of billiards and some additional chat, Mister Reade extends an offer for the command crew to remain in his hacienda, an offer he’s already extended to Monsieur Boissonade.
• The following morning, the crew depart the hacienda to accomplish individual goals, intending on attempting to solve the riddle that Sir Randel has regarding the Treasury. Along the way, they observe a corpse being hauled from the bay, victim of a shark attack it seems, and recognize him as one of Monsieur Boissonade’s crew.
• Following a brief visitor to the collector, Imran Wasil Ferrón, who examines Mister Davino’s massive gun and copies pertinent logs, the command crew put their heads together to solve the riddle which points them toward a nearby fort. To ensure they are not followed, Leftenant Rogers puts them through some counter-surveillance techniques.
• At the fort just before the sun sets, they manage to convince the guards to allow them in and Sir Randel secures the Compass in the appropriate location. This leads them to notice an odd reflection deeper into the interior and they take note of the location … and then, on the opposite side of the fort at the beach, several of them observe Mister Ned Long, the strange woman and the ugly, tall man waiting … as a fourth figure emerges from the ocean, naked and just as ugly as the third. This new quartet disappears out of sight soon after.
• Later that evening, Mister Davino is back aboard the Dame on watch when he hears a loud thump and finds himself frozen into place somehow. The great ugly man snatches Misericordia from him, then taunts him when he shoves the weapon back in his hand. Mister Davino fires once and the man collapses, a fire seeming to burn from within. In seconds, the man is gone … and only a great, dead shark is now on the deck!

Player Notes:

• Down Claude’s player as she recovered from outpatient surgery.
• The party ended up being a bit more confusing than I think it was intended, mostly due to the players apparently not quite understanding what our objective was. That was, probably, a fail on both sides as the players didn’t think it through and the GM thought we had.
• This was the first time that Spenser has seen magical effects after having gained some minor “spells” … I’m still leaning toward Spirit Communication being his next one but I’m not wholly positive if that’s what it’ll end up being…
• Amusingly, Davino’s player will be out next week, right after he blasted his first real supernatural critter.

See the Daniverse Blog for the GM’s post-game debrief.