Part 4

On the way to Nuevitas from where we sank the Black Freighter, Spike has been punished for starting the whole fight with them by a keel-hauling. There was some talk of letting him off as we did so well, but twenty of our crew did die, so he is punished.

From what the shore party discovered from the survivor of Nuevitas, the Black Freighter turned up seemingly out of the blue. It shot up the place, then its crew rounded up the survivors, tortured them for information, then tortured them for fun, before looting the place, torching what was left, leaving everyone for dead, and sailing off. They landed a shore party somewhere out of sight who prevented anyone from escaping into the jungle.

It is suggested that we pretend to be pirate hunters if the Spanish authorities turn up at Nuevitas.

Captain Raven thinks we should loiter here for a while in case the ship with the Cross of St Benedict is due, as it seems it is.

Finbar suggests that we rebuild the place and pose as survivors. Given the amount of damage there is this is basically impractical, but a façade could probably be put up that might do the job temporarily.

On the off chance that there might be anything valuable left in Nuevitas, a shore party is sent off, led by the previous shore party, to see what they can find.

Finbar suggests he go ashore and begin building the fake village and monastery. This will be a fake 'monastery in the process of rebuilding', rather than an entire fake monastery and village. There will be scaffolding, tents and so on, but no actual building of buildings.

Captain Raven tells him she wants the ship repaired first. Fair point. That being so, a second shore party is sent off to gather wood for the repairs.

We discuss how long we should wait. Times varying from days to weeks are mentioned, but no-one really convinces anyone else.

We are certainly of the opinion that no long-term party should be left here while the Black Mamba sails off elsewhere, as the Spanish will eventually arrive here and our shore party would be at their mercy.

We decide to pose as a British freighter should it become necessary. A shore party will pose as fishermen and a monk, if we need such a thing.

Diego will stay on the Black Mamba and not be involved in any of our plans, as we do not really trust him...

By this point night is falling.

A shore party consisting of our fake villagers and monk is sent off to sleep on land for the night, just in case.

Otherwise the night passes uneventfully.

By the morning, the last bits of a storm seem to be blowing over us.

More importantly, as Spike discovers when he goes up to the crows-nest, there is a Spanish frigate anchored a mile or so off shore. Captain Raven is very displeased when she is told this, as we did have lookouts posted. However, from the two boats moored to the frigate, it looks like the ship was towed in with its sails down, making it much harder to spot...

We decide to continue to pretend to be a British ship, and to send a message to the frigate. This will say that we saw the smoke from Nuevitas, chased, attacked and sank the Black Freighter, and here we are. We will pretend to have been sent here to fight piracy, as Catholics, by the Governor of the (Catholic) Maryland colony. We saw the Black Freighter and had a go at it, thinking (rightly!) that we were hard enough.

We are still not sure how to get the Spanish to give us the Cross of St Benedict, though!

From the crows-nest, Spike see people begin to climb down into the boats moored to the Spanish ship. He relays this to everyone else.

The party who will go on shore and pretend to be survivors of the attack make ready. Finbar, as one of the few Catholics on board, will pretend to be the monk.

My Vaughn begins forging documents from the 'Governor of Maryland' to back up our claims. Unfortunately, this will take considerably longer than the time we have before the Spanish boats arrive.

From the crows-nest, and relayed by him to everyone else, Spike sees twelve Spanish climb down into each boat, divided between two officers and ten sailors per boat. They begin to row this way.

Bert is put in charge of the Black Mamba for now, and the cannon readied, but the gun-ports not opened yet.

All of the other PCs go ashore. Mr Vaughn is pretending to be the Captain. Captain Raven is pretending to be a slave. Finbar is a monk, of course. The others who will be there, those of our crew who speak any Spanish at all, make up some 'locals', for a total of twelve or so. Another twenty or so crew also come ashore, but hide in the jungle in case of trouble. We bring the bell of the Black Freighter on shore with us too, in case of need, but hide it for now.

The two Spanish boats approach the shore. One hangs back while the other lands on the beach. The people on board prove to be two Spanish naval officers and ten Spanish marines. The more junior officer, a second lieutenant, jumps out and approaches us.

Finbar pretends to pray.

Mr Vaughn greets the Spanish officer with an ostentatious bow.

The Spanish officer proves to speak good English, and introduces himself as Lieutenant Miguel Dominguez.

We explain the situation to him, as we have agreed it shall be stated. We tell him we sank the Black Freighter. He says he thought the Black Freighter was a legend, not a real ship.

In return, he obligingly tells us that his ship is the Juliana, commanded by Captain Pedro de Alvarez, out of Havana on a routine patrol. They saw the smoke and came to investigate, being as stealthy as possible, and mooring outside the harbour mouth as they were not sure they could get in at night.

He tells us he is here to investigate, and will have to report back to his captain once he is done here.

He, along with the Spanish marines, begin to examine the remains of the monastery and village.

While he does so, to cover ourselves we tell him that the crew of the Black Freighter were asking about the Cross of St Benedict in Havana.

We also worry that the Juliana is also here for the Cross of St Benedict, that, like the Black Freighter, they have been sent out by Vendervecken to get it. We wonder how many ships we are in competition with for it...

Mr Vaughn suggests we make a fake Cross and see how the Spanish react to it. This could be a plan, given time.

As we talk, the Juliana is seen to raise its anchor and sail into the natural harbour of Nuevitas.

After a couple of hours of examining the remains of the Nuevitas settlement, Lieutenant Dominguez thanks us for our time, and he and the marines climb back into their boat and row back to the Juliana.

After a little while we send a message to the Juliana inviting the Spanish officers to dinner with us, a feast, to be held at nightfall, on the beach. We want to avoid a fight by plying them with rum and finding things out that way.

While we wait for their response crewmen are sent off to hunt for roastable beasts, but unfortunately find none - as if people lived in this area and had hunted them down already.

At the same time, a fair amount of wood has been gathered for repairs, both from the jungle, and from salvageable timbers in the remains of the monastery and village. This is being ferried back to the Black Mamba.

After a while, a reply is received from the Juliana. Apparently Captain de Alvarez is 'too busy' to attend, but lieutenant Dominguez will be attending in his stead.

Mr Vaughn immediately suspects that they are planning something.

We discuss this. It is possible that someone could swim out to the Juliana and eavesdrop on them, but then again, there are sharks in these waters, so no-one is terribly keen on that idea.

Word is sent to all the crew of the Black Mamba to be ready for possible trouble this evening. A boat is hidden some way off along the shore so the shore party can escape without the Black Mamba if things become violent. A signal is arranged with Bert (the only one of us who will remain on board the Black Mamba) to tell him to stealthily sail the Black Mamba away if required; he plots a careful course.

A large bonfire is built up, and what food we have for the feast begins to roast.

At the appointed time, a boat departs from the Juliana and lands on the shore. Lieutenant Dominguez steps out onto the beach. We greet him.

Polite conversation ensues. After a while we decide that the Spanish are not our friends, and we need to find out much more about them and the Cross of St Benedict.

That being so, and the night being a dark and cloudy one, with the wind ideal for sailing out the harbour of Nuevitas, we give the signal, via careful blocking and un-blocking of the fire, for Bert to sail the Black Mamba out and away. We just about see him begin to do this. No-one else seems to notice.

Engaging in chit-chat we keep the Spanish busy for enough time for the Black Mamba to, we hope, escape.

Then a signal is given to our lurking crewmen, and, as Spaniards go off into the jungle to relieve themselves, they are mugged, rendered unconscious, and tied up.

One Spaniard makes enough of a noise to alert the others, and has to be killed to shut him up. Then the rest of the hidden drew get the drop on the Spaniards while they are still surprised, and, outnumbering them, overpower them and drag them into the jungle.

When they are all a good way off from the beach, all the prisoners are assembled in a clearing, and a brutal interrogation of Lieutenant Dominguez begins. Finbar gives him a good beating, and when he is still reluctant to talk, threatens the other crew members, then delivers a couple of tutelary beheadings. Lieutenant Dominguez gabbles as the killing begins, so a couple of Spanish sailors die, and he is dragged off further into the jungle.

He tells us everything.

There are one hundred and fifty crew on the Juliana. Captain de Alvarez is aged fifty-two, and has commanded four vessels over his career, including the Juliana, which he has captained for three years. They have not seen too much combat, and do little gunnery practise. Lieutenant Dominguez has been with the Juliana for about six months.

The Juliana was going to try to take over the Black Mamba, as they are "English and pirates". Apparently Captain de Alvarez does not like the English.

Finbar beats up Lieutenant Dominguez periodically, to keep him talking. When Lieutenant Dominguez refers to us all as English, Finbar chops off one of his fingers - he's Irish and proud of it! Lieutenant Dominguez takes this about as well as might be expected.

When asked again about the Cross of St Benedict, he changes his story from what he told us previously. Now he tells us that it is supposed to arrive at Nuevitas in two weeks on a galleon, though he knows no more details than that.

Captain Raven wonders why he says two weeks when everyone else has said it is due about now.

Spike thinks Lieutenant Dominguez is lying now to save his skin and was telling the truth before when he said they knew nothing of the Cross.

Hmm...

We decide to return to the Black Mamba for now.

Slowly picking our way through the dark jungle we make our way to the hidden boat and wait for the Black Mamba to show up. Eventually she does, and we row over and rejoin her.

We ask Lieutenant Dominguez about Captain de Alvarez's plans. He tells us that five other boats, with sixty sailors and marines aboard, were going to come over and board the Black Mamba. That would not have been good.

Finbar suggests we do lots of sailing around and sink the Juliana as we did the Black Freighter.

Bert says he is unsure he can sail us back into Nuevitas harbour and to the attack while it is as dark as this.

Captain Raven is also unsure we will be as lucky as we were against the Black Freighter a second time.

That being so, she gives the order for us to sail out to sea instead.

If the chance arises we will get some other pirates or the British to return in a couple of weeks and attack the Juliana then.

Based on its coming from Spain, Bert can plot a very rough route for the galleon carrying the Cross of St Benedict. However, we are probably not capable of taking it on directly - galleons typically have a broadside of sixty guns or so, ten times as many as we do, and their guns will also be larger than ours.

We re-interrogate Lieutenant Dominguez to check his story. He tells us the same thing.

We wonder what we can do.

Could we catch the galleon in Nuevitas harbour? Perhaps with a fire-ship? Perhaps not.

Could we perhaps sink some ships to enhance the treacherousness of the local waters and make it run aground or sink? We do have a shallower draught then a galleon, and Bert thinks he could, given time, make some accurate makes of small areas using a boat and a sounding line.

Could we sabotage it?

Could we move some cannon onto the headlands at the harbour mouth and attack the galleon from there?

All of these are possibilities, and if Lieutenant Dominguez is correct we have two weeks to plan...

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