To Raid San Zanita: Chapter 13

[Obadiah Jib]

Chapter 13:  Dead men do tell tales

Your goal is to enter San Zanita, the question is how.  If you charge the fortress with your guns blazing, screaming and waving a blade you see the Spaniards on the top of the stockade look surprised, almost shocked!  One Spaniard even makes the sign of the cross!  They then lower matchlock muskets and fire!  Despite their poor quality of weapons and less than accurate marksmanship you are hit twice and take two wounds.  Remember unless you have some Exceptional or Master level skill in Fortitude you can only take three wounds.  If you have the chicken foot from Mambo Igbe you are still alive despite your remaining wounds.  Black Edward's ring can also save you.  The Spanish emerge from the fortress and if you are still alive, disarm you, remove everything but your clothing, and throw you in a small crude structure made of logs chinked together with mud.  In this simple prison you see several members of crew of El Toro inside.  For being taken captive you take a -3 to your Pirate Code score.   If you die from your wounds you are left to bleed out and then have your weapons and equipment removed from you and are tossed into a muddy ditch.  The end.

If you attempt to sneak into San Zanita through the garbage gate you first have to cross the mounds of offal, feces, and filth.  Once at the gate you discover it is indeed locked.  If you have the lock pick from the equipment list you can slip it between the gate and open the crude lock.  If you have a set of tradesman's tools you can attempt the same thing but ruin the lock making it obvious to even a casual observer that someone has entered this way.  If you have the Thievery skill Exceptional or Master level skill you can open the lock with a simple knife blade to gain admittance into San Zanita.  If you have none of these skills or equipment you can attempt to pry the gate open with a stick, weapon haft or blade.  Doing so makes a good deal of noise unless you have the Stealth skill at the Exceptional or Master level.  You know that the Spanish will investigate in mere second and you must find cover immediately!  Oddly if you have the chicken leg from Mambo Igbe you find this task easy to accomplish and you gain entry with little effort despite your methods or skills.

If you attempt to scale the walls of San Zanita you find hand and foot holds and climb upward.  If you have the Acrobatics or Athletic skill at Exceptional or Master level you easily climb over the wall and drop to the inside of the colony.  If you don't have either of these skills you catch your shirt, pants or belt atop the wall and tear a piece of fabric away making it obvious to even a casual observer that someone has entered the fortress. If you took the Athletics skill as you weakness you get to the top of the wall and then fall taking two wounds and become captured by the Spanish being thrown in the crude logwood building they use for a prison.  In the prison you see a few survivors from the El Toro.  For being taken captive you take a -3 to your Pirate Code score. Of course if you exceed your three wounds from the fall and do not have the Fortitude skill you break your neck and die.  The end.  Oddly if you have the chicken leg from Mambo Igbe you find this task easy to accomplish and you gain entry with little effort despite your methods or skills.

Once inside San Zanita you see that it is a poor, muddy, colony barely scrapping the means to survive in the wilderness.  Roughly a dozen crude pinewood building have been hastily constructed inside the palisade.  Many of these appear to be barracks for either the Spanish soldiers or the slaves.  Others appear to be warehouses for treasure fleet but you can't tell if they are full of valuable or not.  A small church appears to be the central focal point of the colony in traditional Spanish fashion.  You estimate the population at just over two hundred.

If you left a sign that you have entered the fortress at either the garbage gate or atop the walls a small cadre of Spanish soldiers is on patrol looking for you.  Armed with halberds and wearing armor you spy these soldiers before they see you.  You can hide from them amid a cartload of firewood near what looks to be a communal kitchen.  Of course if you have the Stealth skill as you weakness you attempt to hide in front of the church and are discovered!  You fight a good battle but take two wounds.  Remember you can only take three wounds and survive unless you have the Fortitude skill at the Exceptional of Master level.  Black Edwards ring can also help you at this point!  If you are still alive you are stripped of your weapons and equipment and thrown in the crude prison where you see members of the crew of the El Toro awaiting their fate. For being taken captive you take a -3 to your Pirate Code score.  If you are dead your body is looted and you are thrown out the garbage gate to become food for the maggots.  The end. Oddly if you have the chicken leg from Mambo Igbe you find this task easy to hide despite your methods or level of skill.

At roughly three in the morning (impossible to tell unless you have a time piece) you hear an eerie moan echo through the colony.  The citizens of San Zanita awaken to this haunting lament.  You can even hear this dirge if you are in the crude prison with the survivors from the El Toro de Blanco.  It sends shivers up your spine as if someone opened a doorway to hell!  If you are wandering about the streets of San Zanita you see the soldiers muster at the wall and begin to fire weapons at something outside the fortress.  Cries of dismay go up and the entire colony is alerted.  Soldiers rush forward as the heavy gates to the entrance of the fortress are breached!  There in the torchlight you see shambling rotten corpses of at least two dozen men in various states of decomposition!  Among them are the buccaneers who up until an hour ago hung from the gallows outside the colony walls.  The dead seem to ignore musket fire as they enter San Zanita clubbing down the soldiers with their fists and tearing off mouthfuls of flesh from the Spanish defenders!  You remember the words of Mambo Igbe and watch as more walking dead enters the breach.  Some of these zombies appear to be almost skeletal as if they died long ago.  Chaos fills the colony as slaves and servants rush into the muddy lanes of the colony.

If you have been hiding and exploring San Zanita you see a Franciscan Friar attempt to lead a group of Spaniards to the church to a make a stand.  Most of people who follow the Friar appear to be slaves and servants.  This Friar looks vaguely familiar to you.  You also see that one of the warehouses appears to have been opened in the assault.  It maybe an armory or perhaps holds treasure.

If you have been captured and still live in the crude prison you see all this activity through a small barred window.  Suddenly the door to your crude cell is thrown open by a Franciscan Friar who motions to you and your fellow buccaneers to follow him.  As he leads you out you also see that one of the warehouses appears to have been opened in the assault.  It maybe an armory or perhaps holds treasure.

What do you do?  Follow the Friar to the church or enter the warehouse to see what it holds?

[Capt Spleen]

Since I've gone undetected, I observe the goings on. The Friar although a bit familiar, I've never been comfortable in a place o worship, unless i'ma worshipin' some wench fer Saturday night services.
I like the option of the opened warehouse for search o whatever it may hold..........

Box of Mambo Igbe mud paste - Check! (jus in case I get surrounded by then undeadly walkers. Will be interestin t' try this stuff works out.) Other wise I'll be hackin heads!

[Welsh Wench]

*points to church sign*

Looks like a divine warning, Spleen. Better change your plans!




Regardless, I follow the friar because I know the zombies will be afraid of that nice big fat gold cross Friar is wearing.

[Blue66669]

Hmmmmm.... I'll go to the warehouse and hole up with Wenchie. Zombies aren't vampires, they can still go to church if they please.

[Lady Amy of York]

I chose to charge with my firearms. Seeing how I have firearms  as my exceptional skill and  I have fortitude  as  an exceptional skill , and I have the healing slave ,i manage to get by witha few scrapes but nothing major.

I hide out watching the going ons.

Hmm..church or  warehouse ?  Well,   thsi is for you mom... ....I  go to the church.

[Captain Jack Wolfe]

I'll follow my instincts, which tell me to follow the guy with the cross.  Let's hope any zombies out there don't have an appetite for a nice fat friar.  And if they are, I'm reasonably sure I can run faster than him.