Tidal Blades: Bait's Dads are Found!

Yesterday we played Tidal Blades once again! Here's last time! I am very sleepy!

Our heroes sail their stolen ship, the Lunch, southwest to Angler's Cove. Angler's Cove, as Bait informs his fellows, a pirate hotspot, the place where ne'er-do-wells, buccaneers, scampers, coral miners, and monster hunters congregate. But that's apparently where the Brotherhood of the Forgotten Hunger has taken his dads.

They pull into the harbor and give the harbormaster a shell. He asks the ship's name, and Bait says "The Lunch", and Hobie quickly adds "...box. The Lunchbox." They disembark, and decide to split up and look around.

Bait goes off by himself down the docks, to see if he can find the Breakfast and/or Dinner, since hopefully that'll indicate where his dads have been taken. Hobie, Faesli, and Sobek go into the Scary Tigress, a nearby bar (why, yes, I do use a random generator for tavern names), both to get a lay of the land and to see if there are any crocs who might be members of the gang hanging around.

The place is busy and there are crocs, but no one they can identify. Hobie gets an idea - they ask the bartender (a chameleon making using of his independently mobile eyes to watch the patrons) if they can tell stories and perhaps earn some shells. The bartender chortles and says that if you can get this crowd to listen to anything, good on ya. But this guy don't know Hobie.

Hobie finds a corner of the room and calls for attention, and then tells the story of the Dire Suchid. Sobek stands behind them menacingly, with a "you better listen" kind of look on his face, and Faesi watches from the sidelines. And sure enough, Faesli spots a skinny croc slip out the door. She signals to Sobek and they sneak out after him, following him all the way across town and over towards an arena!

They manage to remain stealthy enough to avoid notice - there's one close call where the croc looks back, but Sobek ducks into a doorway and Faesli quickly activates her distortion power. In any case, they eavesdrop as the croc meets with another, much larger croc, and tells him that there was some cuttlebeard in the pub talking about the Dire Suchid! Should we tell the Boss?

"Nah," says the other one. "Let's just go grab it. Boss'll like that." And they head back into town to find Hobie.

Meanwhile, Bait walks down the dock looking for the Brotherhood's other two ships. He doesn't find them, but he spots Steefan, and old sailing acquaintance, and chats with him a bit. He tells Steefan that he's got his own ship now ("I'm the captain...and the navigator...and then first mate...and the cook") and asks whether he's seen his dads. Steefan initially says he hasn't, but then seems to remember something. Bait pushes the issue and Steefan says that he saw a couple of ships pass by the entrance to the docks, and he saw a frog on the deck of one of them that looked like Lowery Cain. The ships were heading to the southern bit of the Cove. Bait knows that ships sometimes anchor near there and let the crew camp near the Battle Pit. 

Hobie, back at the tavern, has Garnet hold up a hat so folks can throw shells in it. They spend a spell and buy a box of loyters (edible clams) and then head out, but Garnet scampers off almost immediately. Hobie follows and spots Bait down the block ("I'm gonna assume you knew Bait was there and not that you're a BAD SHRIMP"). They fill each other in, and Bait sits down to fish. 

Sobek slips up to the crocs and reverse-pickpockets a bad-luck cypher into the big one's pockets, and then he and Faesli get ahead of the crocs and head to the Lunchbox to wait. They are below decks when they hear someone board the ship, and Sobek yells "WHO'S THERE". One of the crocs responds "YOU'RE ON OUR SHIP." Faesli and Sobek come up, and the skinny croc and his beefy companion are there, looking annoyed. The fight is on!

Sobek socks the big one in the snoot, dazing him, while Faesli strikes the skinny one with her battlestaff. The big one recovers and charges Sobek, bad luck kicks in and he loses his footing, and Sobek is able to avoid harm. The skinny croc tries to shove Faesli into the drink, but Faesli activates her resonance field and the croc bounces off. Sobek handily knocks down the other one, and the skinny one goes for the railing, but Faesli trips him up. These crocs know when they beat, and Sobek ties them up. Faesli goes to find the others, and Sobek stays to guard them.

Faesli does find the others and has them come back to the ship, but when they get there, the skinny croc is gone! Apparently Sobek's knot-tying skills need work. But Bait just dives straight into the drink and sees the croc swimming away. Crocs (in this setting) aren't terribly strong swimmers, which I know is silly, but Bait is a very strong swimmer, and quickly catches up with the wayward croc. He tosses a net over him and drags him back to the ship. The characters then demand that they talk!

The crocs (Brisket and Speck, if you're interested) tell them that the Brotherhood has a camp outside of town, near the Battle Pit. The boss, a croc they call The Appetite, is meeting with someone to buy...something, a gadget used in monster hunting, they don't know. The frog-dads are with them at the camp.

The crew isn't sure what exactly to do with these guys. There probably isn't a "jail" per se in Angler's Cove, leaving them tied up seems cruel, and they certainly aren't going to do any lasting harm. Instead they decide to get them drunk and take their clothes ("crocs without clothes are mostly harmless," muses Faesli), but while that works, the merriment is infectious, and basically everyone gets very hammered and wakes up the next morning on the ship with pounding headaches. (Garnet gently punches Hobie until they wake up, because yes, they're hurting, but FOOD TIME FOR SHRAMP.)

The heroes gather themselves together, and Bait makes them all a pirate hangover cure ("what's in it?" "Rum."), and they head out to whether the crocs indicated the camp was. They don't see the frog-dads, but they spot a couple of crocs turning a large something on a spit (for one horrible moment Bait thinks it might be a frog, but it's the wrong shape). 

Bait has a crazy idea - using a disguise cypher, the croc's clothes, and a little cardboard, he dresses up as Brisket! He walks into the camp clear as day and asks the other crocs where everyone is. They tell him that the Boss is taking a meeting in the Battle Pit, and he's got the frogs with him. Bait tries to guess which bedroll is Brisket's, to get his "stuff" (hey, maybe he's got some money around), but he guesses wrong. The other crocs tell him he'd better get out of Amuse's stuff, or she and Bouche are going to kick his ass. Noting this, "Brisket" heads on to the arena, and the others catch up.

A big bouncer-turtle at the gate asks if they're there to compete, but they say they aren't and he doesn't have any information about crocs ("there's lots of them here." "...yeah, OK"). The heroes enter the stadium and spot a huge croc sitting in a box overlooking the arena. Bait's dads are there, with collars on their necks, and a few more crocs are seated around the big one, but there's also a huge blue turtle there with them.

The heroes head over, Bait hoping that the disguise will hold, and slips in behind the crocs. Two of them, one orange, one blue, turn and look him up and down, and then pull off the disguise. "You're not..." says one. "...Brisket" finishes the other.

The big croc turns and sees the golfin, and things look a bit tense, but it's pretty clear that it's the turtle who's really in charge. Actually, Bait knows who this guy is - he's Angler, as in "Angler's Cove." Faesli notices that he's got a big scar down the back of his shell, and this rings a bell, but she's a little preoccupied right now.

Bait demands his fathers be released, and the big croc - The Appetite - refuses. Bait challenges him in the arena, and the Appetite rather arrogantly agrees to fight all four of them. He puts up the frogs as the prize; Bait also offers to give back his boat, but The Appetite doesn't agree to that ("I'll be taking that either way, it's my boat." "No, we stole it fair and square." "MY BOAT." "...we'll come back to the boat."). 

Angler facilitates the match, and all four of the heroes go into the ring with The Appetite. 

A cuttlebeard referee comes up and tells them the fight goes to a clear winner, until one side can't or won't fight anymore. Faesli and Bait both place bets on the heroes to win, and the fight is on!

Hobie, not much of a fighter, activates a cypher that lets him swim through the air, flies upwards out of The Appetite's reach, and starts whipping up the crowd to boo the croc! The Appetite, though, doesn't seem fazed. He charges forward, leaps into the air, and spins, smacking Sobek, Faesli, and Bait with his tail. They all land, realizing they need to take this fight seriously.

Faesli activates her resonance field to give herself a bit of protection. Sobek charges in and slugs The Appetite, dazing him, but even dazed the croc is a skilled pit fighter. He lashes out again with his tail and smacks the heroes around a bit. Sobek strikes, but The Appetite dodges and stabs him in the leg with the coral-spikes on his bracers. Bait, fortunately, is clever, and jumps at The Appetite in a feint.

This leaves The Appetite distracted, and Sobek is able to get in a shot with his hook. Faesli leaps behind The Appetite and trips him with her staff, and at that moment Hobie strikes! They swoop down from above holding Garnet, and Garnet punches The Appetite in the snoot, knocking him right out!

The fight is won! The crocs released Bait's dads, and the twins help the Appetite out of the arena. Angler, amused, invites the heroes to dine with him, and Bait picks his frog-dads up and hugs them. Victory!