Session 6: Battle with the Elf's Blood Report

General Summary

From last session

After their dinner with the admiral, and learning what they could in Clekmore on Hecht about pirate activity, the group decides that they will travel between Hecht and the portal to Pirtelspace, posing as a merchantman, in the hopes of luring pirates to attack. The journey to the portal will be about 20 days, in the dark and cold outskirts of the Greatspace system. For the first 15 days, the journey is uneventful, but suddenly the ship lurches out of spelljamming into a debris field not marked on the maps. They spy a triop, presumably the Elf's Blood. The group debates how to respond for a few minutes as the ship closes, and then decides to make a half-hearted attempt to defend themselves, in the hopes of having the ship close and board. Hunter (along with his fellow Kzinti) and BN are eager to fight the goblins hand to hand.

Battle with the Elf's Blood

The Elf's Blood closes with the Skyrunner, firing its weapons as they bear. The Skyrunner's crew responds with spells and ballista, destroying both of the triop's forward ballistae. The triop responds by turning away, keeping its distance as it attempts to pound the Skyrunner with catapults--one shot of which does severe damage (causing 3 wounds, for a total of 4 wounds to the ship by the end of the combat), and almost destroying the Planetary Locator. The Skyrunner pursues the Elf's Blood to attempt to force a boarding, when the Elf's Blood suddenly veers, and rams the Skyrunner. This gives me the Skyrunner crew an opportunity to board the triop. After the ballista crews had already been devastated by spells and shot, additional magic from the party, and then a savage boarding action led by the blunderbuss-armed pussy cat posse, followed quickly by BN and Windy Clockitude on the top deck, and Windellian flying in the lower ballista port, abruptly turns the tide. Many of the surviving goblin sailors surrender, and the kzinti pursue the terrified goblin captain to his cabin, where he abjectly surrenders. There are no casualties aboard the Skyrunner. Early in the battle, the party heard one of the goblin sailors shout when he sees Windy Clockitude, that "General Gorgash will pay well for the clockwork man! Take him alive!". After securing the ship, the party assesses their situation.

They debate whether to kill the goblins, but decide that the elves are likely to do it for them. At the very least, Bonebreaker will surely hang for his piracy, whether at the hands of the Greatspace Navy or the Imperial Elven Navy. About half the crew (~25 goblins) survived, many of those injured in the battle.
The triop has taken one wound, and some damage to the rigging. The triop has both a (Type II) Major and Minor helm installed, making the ship and its helms a very valuable treasure on its own.
The Skyrunner has taken 4 wounds, but Jessa and Windy Clockitude manage to repair the planetary locator.
Interviewing the (now very helpful, in the hopes of staying alive) goblin captain Bonebreaker, the party learns that there is an base in the asteroids (roughly in the area Captain Greelon of the Grey Sword told them) that the Elf's Blood and a few other scro/goblin ships use (apparently there are 3 other scro/goblin ships regularly in system, including a scro mantis). Crew and passengers from their targets that survive are taken there, where they are sold to Neogi slavers.

The group decides to take all this information back to Port Shurius with them, and hand off Bonebreaker and the goblins to the POTS for the bounty, sell or trade the damaged Skyrunner and its helm back to the Arcane Merquat to hopefully clear, or at least greatly reduce, their debt (after moving the Planetary Locator to the Triop), collect their reward for discovering the Reliant from the Admiralty, get the triop repaired, and then take the triop as their new ship. Their intention is to hire what new crew they need to, and then use the map and information that Hobart left aboard the Skyrunner to pursue the mysterious Hive in a distant sphere. The voyage in to Thesalys/Myle would normally take about a month, including a few extra days to swing well above the asteroid belt to hopefully avoid any unpleasant encounters. With their two helmsman split between the two ships, it will take twice a long. After splitting the party and crew between the two ships (with Zayre on the triop's helm, and Windellian on the Skyrunner), the ships settle in for the long voyage back to Port Shurius.