AAR - January 2015 Mission When the Fog Lifts by ShadowDragon

[ShadowDragon]

When the fog lifts (aka – a short and brutal affair)
My version of the 2015 Campaign scenario, When the Fog Lifts, by 7eat51:
https://sailsofglory.org/showthread....-the-Fog-Lifts


“Buccaneer for hire: Gabriel de Bergerac – greatest terror of the seven seas. How does that sound?”, Gabriel asked Anamaria. Gabriel was the born Gabriel Parese, the illegitimate son of a de Bergerac aristocrat. His father had been executed by the Committee of Public Safety along with any other de Bergerac they could find. As there were no de Bergeracs to claim the name – as far as Gabriel knew – he might as well take it for his own.




“It’s weak”, replied Anamaria, “If you’re the greatest terror of the seven seas you’d hardly need to say so and you’d hardly need to advertise for work.”




Gabriel might know about sailing and fighting but Anamaria was the real business brains of the outfit. He often thought that she should be in charge – The Pirate Queen – now that sounded real fine, but Anamaria demurred. She’d usually reply, “At the moment it suits me the way it is.” “But why”, Gabriel would usually ask. “It’s better that it should be a man.” “Don’t see why that should be so,” persisted Gabriel – sometimes as he know what would be next. “It’s because you have a pretty face,” Anamaria would smirk. Well that would get under Gabriel’s skin – but it would end the discussion. So – for now Gabriel was ‘in charge’ while Anamaria made all the plans and managed all the accounts. It was better that way – as Anamaria really was the smarter one.

The had news that Gabriel’s arch-nemesis, Admiral Lamontagne was on a frigate – the Dryad, which was where Gabriel’s pirate career had begun. Anamaria had thought that chasing a war vessel for personal vengeance was a poor business deal – much better to be relieving fat merchantman of the treasure or even better liberating the poor captive souls on those infernal slave ships. Usually a few would hire on to the pirate fleet – and they made excellent pirates. Anamaria knew that well – she had been such a captive until Gabriel and the Hermione had liberated her and her fellow captives. A few smiles and other wily ways and Gabriel had taken her on as a member of the Hermione’s crew.

They had done well. They even had a small fleet. But that’s another story and this one is already long enough. We must get to the action. They were chasing the French Admiral Lamontagne – at one time a colleague of Gabriel’s but Spanish treasure had made them enemies. Gabriel had turned to piracy while Lamontagne became a respectable admiral and had invested his treasure in the slave trade. Anamaria sometimes wondered if Gabriel had a natural hatred for slavery or if was more because that was one way to get at Lamontagne. She guessed all that mattered was that Gabriel was on the ‘right’ side if not the ‘legal’ side.

They had followed the Dryade until they were becalmed in a fog. The wind picked up and the fog began to clear. There was the Dryade facing them. If they could move fast enough they’d get first shot and a raking one at that.




The Dryade saw it’s danger and turned but not fast enough. Gabriel had the Hermione turn into the wind and into the path of the Dryade. “Fire,” Gabriel cried out and the guns of the Hermione barked as one. Cannonball flew down the length of the Dryade smashing wood and men alike.




The Dryade turned to fire it’s broadside – and even though at close range the damage was less than that meted out by the Hermione. They closed further – musketeers in the rigging picked off crewmen on both ships. “Ready the grappling hooks,” ordered Gabriel.



The Hermione fired back – the Dryade was being hammered and the Hermione’s pirate crew were getting the better of the musketry.



“Now”, shouted Gabriel and the Hermione’s crew had grappled the Dryade. Pirates swung on to the deck of the Dryade as if they had watched an Errol Flynn movie. Before long it was over – the Dryade’s crew were all dead, wounded or surrendered.




But – no Lamontagne. It had been a false rumour. Nonetheless the Dryade did have valuable information that would be useful.

“What shall we do with the crew?” one of the Hermione’s pirates asked Gabriel.

“The ordinary seamen will a choice – join us or we drop them off at the next port. The officers? Hmmm….maybe turn them over to the British or maybe to the rebels at Saint-Domingue.” The Dryade’s officers shuddered at that last thought.

“The Dryade’s not taken much damage. She’ll be a fine addition to our fleet,” remarked Anamaria after her inspection of their prize to a disinterested Gabriel. “What are you thinking about?”

“Something a young man from the Louisiana coast said to me on our last journey to those parts. He said of the Lamontagne’s of this world:
‘I am a pirate. The vilify us, the scoundrels do, when there is only this difference, they rob the poor under the cover of Law…we plunder the rich under the protection of our own courage.”
“Will it always be thus? Damn, if only that scoundrel, Lamontange, had been aboard.”