Entering the Governor's Bedroom

First point, essential: the Governor's Bedroom is locked all the time, day and night, be the Governor there or not. Moreover, the Governor keeps the key on him all the time, hung to a cahin around his neck, under his shirt. Even his Office is not as well separated from the rest of the house, so you can imagine the many interesting things probably hidden behind this door!

For those who would already be devising a plan to climb over through the windows, one must mention that they also are closed, except when the Governor gives some air in the room, which he only makes when he is inside and never while sleeping. There remain hence two solutions for that option: break a window and climb by a way or another or use a sleeping gas grenade (well, why not!) and throw it into the room from the outside when the Governor let the windows open… No light means but for sure effective ones, provided one can procure such!

Other options (more or less realistic) :

  • A variant of the previous one, requiring more thinking, could be to let serve the Governor an extremely spicy supper (or any other means to make him sweat like a he never did), hope that he would eat it anyway and then wait for the moment when, unable to stand it further, he'll come to open the window… Completing with some alcohol could be the ideal solution, however he might not appreciate the fun… And it remains a hurdle to be removed in the person of Allemania: should one take the risk to turn her to the objectives of the Crew? Is it more advisable to « improve » the seasoning of the meal in a more discreet way?
  • And now the variation on the variation: one could try to make a Voodoo Puppet with some of his hair and bring it close to the flame of a candle during his sleep; that implies, of course, to have some knowledge in Voosoo Crafts, which is not given to many. Do not forget some Rolls to evaluate the Success, adapting the Difficulty accroding to the quality of the collected body elements…
  • Waiting until the Governor goes to the beach and gets there asleep to withdraw the object is no good idea for he never goes to the beach. Finding a way to convince him to go sun bathing somewhere goes not without a lot of effort, a priori but if our Young Pirates are imaginative enough and your Players convince you with their role-playing, why not take the option, Friend Game Master?
  • Thinking about a role for Raffie is another option, especially if the « sympathetic » Saimiri (a female yellow capuchin monkey, anybody lost?) already « served well » under the Jolly Roger in the submarine forces to recover the Horse-like Headed Madallion™. Raffie could moreover wonderfully act in an « open window » type of scenario, other occasions rather being rare, even for a mischievious capuchin monkey as she is… However, she has more opportunities (and more motivation since she is a cleptomaniac) and could for instance try to rob the key while the Governor plays golf or, even better, makes a light little afternoon nap on the Verandah or, else too, when he is busy picking fruits in the orchard for his pleasure (a rarer occasion, that said). In short, we stop here with listing opportunities because the essential point is not here: the point is that Raffie must be trained to be effective and dropped on the field of operations: thus, it's up to our Players to imagine the situation where they hope that Raffie will be successful! According to the quality of their idea, Friend Game Master, take care to spice Raffie's Rolls with adapted Boni or Mali or according to your mood of the moment, however without forgetting her « training » level… (One would better say her level of collaboration with the Crew to be more accurate!)

There are maybe other ideas to come, they didn't come to us, so we let you, Game Master, the heavy, but as well funny, task to evaluate and let them be played in full autonomy! In any case, our Young Pirates will have to have decided: (1) Whether they then keep the key or they try to make a copy of it, so as to avoid awaking suspicion or a reinforced watch from the Governor's side; (2) How then they bring it back to the Governor to achieve this goal; he is, regarding that topic, indeed, extremely paranoiac…

The Governor's Bedroom

At last! There we go! Let us enter the Governor's Bedroom!

Was it worth all our efforts at all? At any rate, the Governor's Bedroom is a large beautiful room with dark beams and panels clearly contrasting with the white walls, decorated with a blue design all around the edges. The wooden floor is also made of very dark, probably exotic, woods, partly covered by a large dark red carpet. The old mango trees of the esplanade bring coolness and shadow to the room, almost protecting it too much from the direct light and heat of the sun, so that the room is nicely equiped with various candlesticks and two storm lanterns, which probably remind the Governor of his time spent as a Captain… None of these lighting devices has been fixed in the wall or anywhere else. They are thus (re-) movable. One finds easily directly in the room the necessary stuff to lighten them up: tinder and gas lighter, with an advertisement, on the latter, for the famous Grog-O'Deal, etc.

About the furniture: to begin with, there is the huge bed of the Governor with its impressive black bedspread bearing the painted design in white of a Pirate-Zebra head over two crossed sabres, etc., etc. (refer to the description of the Sail Set of the Suzon for those who would be at a loss here…) On a successful Roll versus « Perception + DIY of All Sorts » (it can be done by everybody), the ones and the others may become aware that the bed has a trapézoid form: not so common for a bed! Actually, the bed was cut to exactly fit the shape of Ze Brailgantine™, once already mentioned somewhere. Those who would have unluckily enough got a Critical Failure to their Roll feel dizzy and like a kind of vertigo. Unless they succeed to a Roll versus « Nimbleness + Parched Throat », they fall - probably noisily! - on the floor: the reason? The strange shape of the bed which blends perspectives and creates an effect similar to ivresse…

(Well, that's just another funny possible adventure for our Young Pirates, yet if you think they had enough already, you can freely by-pass it, Friend Game Master!)

In short, the point is here that if our Young Pirates do not see there a sail of the Suzon, some of them will deeply regret that inadvertance when they realise the truth too late. That said, however, the sail is no small handkerchief to carry easily in a pocket! Besides, it is difficult to imagine how the Governor could fail to become aware of its disparition, so take care!

And what contains the room else? A small library (novels, poetry, the Complete Works of some Poke-O'Lino by his name and of another Escarole, as well as a compilation – which seems to have been travelling a lot – of short poems illustrated with beautiful black ink and pale watercolours of another one, Bashin' – probably the Criole transcription of a name of more remote origin… etc.), two large cupboards, full of clothes (but not really suitable for a use at sea), a mirror hung to the wall, a bedside shelf with, among other things, the Governor's alarm clock in the shape of a smiling smiley, his pillow book (Bewitched; we hope that you appreciate, not so much the incongruity as the irony of the situation!) and his chamber pot - cleanliness according to the hour of the visit and potentially a chance from a Voodoo perspective… for the ones who are not disgusted!

At last, the room contains also a small desk with writing material, a storm lantern, etc., and a coordinated chair. Unlike the one in the Office on the Ground Floor, the desk does not contain much paperwork. The Governor actually does not use it that much and, when he uses it, he usually bring the work from and back to his Office and stores nothing in the Bedroom.

We thus come to the point of wondering why the room is kept so safe from any potential intruders. Noteworthy (or not), while one wonders about all that, Poerava focuses on the little library and takes the three books we mentioned above, even if they are no small thing to carry… But let us come back to our question: is such a care of the Governor only taken for keeping intimacy? The argument can't really hold and, actually, our Young Pirates are « hot on the scent » and there is the reason why in two points…

Into the Governor's secrets

Half-hidden in the curtains of the window most oriented to the South, on a small high and barely remarkable piece of furniture, is an object to be found, which reminds one without remedy of a big battered brass compass. But, giving a closer look to it, the needle of that compass is made of a stuff similar to knotted vine roots and it seems to float over a sort of infamous grease, where some eyes also swim. A leather stripe - with teeth, feathers, lizard tails and the like inserted in it - encloses the case, of which the base seems to be designed to be inserted in a socket (A successful Roll versus « Perception + DIY of All Sorts » is necessary to become immediately aware of it). The - luckily enough - tight glass window closening the object on the other side bears some scriptures, which are impossible to understand. The signs are like directly tainted through stange colours in the glass mass - somewhat irridescent - by the means of « Dust », incorporated to the glass when it was a hot liquid mass. It is not necessary to be so much versed in Voodoo Crafts to guess that that object – Who still dares to say a « compass » ? – well enough overcharged of Lwa power. Yet, getting to know of which ones is a complete other story… Only a Critical Success to a Roll versus « Cleverness + Strange Voodoo Things » can show a likely link to the most powerful and dangerous of them!

We hope that you understood or remembered (it is only necessary to read for that…) but, even more that our Young Pirates will sooner or later make the link between the base of that compass and the socket which is located on the Suzon's tiller! For that which concerns the way it works, however… There, one will have to be very very clever, aye! The other option is of course to try to find the necessary documents or pieces of information!

It may seem surprising that the Governor didn't hide such an object a little bit more but he's got his own reasons for that, good or bad, and which will probably remain unknown to our Young Friends but which we can, however, share with you, Game Master: first, he likes that object very much and placed it thus here as a decoration, second, he uses it still quite often, maybe because of some nostalgy towards his island of origin,Glabbooby, or towards other visited or dreamt-of places out of a time of his life or another… At last, in case of need and after a specific ritual which he knows and uses sometimes, the Compass can show him where a person is, of whom he is particularly thinking… It can even be used to guess where Poerava, or anybody else, disappeared again. Our Young Pirates are not aware of it but it may be that the Governor already knows about their recent expedition to the Suzon and others… Or not! For you to do according to your pleasure, Friend Game Master!

As for the second point, it's about – shh! – a secret passage, see for yourself: simply moving the mirror shows, on a successful Roll versus « Perception + DIY of All Sorts » which you'll hold secret, Friend Game Master, that it is not hung in a normal way but fixed into the wall thanks to a rotating axle through a metallic ring built-in into the wall; it might be that the Governor is so superstitious that he reinforced the mirror's fixation in the wall to avoid any accident? With such a device, unless one is a real big millstone it is absolutely impossible to break the mirror!

If by chance one of our Young Pirates would attempt seven years of misfortune and decide to let the mirror rotate around its axis in a very specific way – two turns clockwise, then one turn counter clockwise (Let us admit that it remains quite simple because the Governor also has no fun to manage complicated combinations with his large mirror everyday or almost so!) – he or she would then hear the light noise of a mechanism in the background (a noise not unknown to Poerava already, reason why she suspected the existence of a secret passage) and the wall behind the mirror would come to him like a simple door: whoops, Cap’tain! A secret passage!

Other ways to detect the existence of a secret passage: see some notes on that topic in the description of the Corridor on the same floor. It is otherwise possible to detect the secret door in the panelling of the room by directly searching for the discontinuities due to the door, though they are very well hidden; of course and also, knocking carefully on the panelling will give back a different sound where the door is; any of those methods requires a successful Roll versus « Perception + Nosing Around » with a difficulty of 5 for the hidden door is a real master work and even the sound is very similar to that of a normal panel.

We are thus finished with the different possibilities to discover the secret passage in the Governor's Bedroom: it is time to enter it before getting caught, now! And it is possible to close the door of the secret passage from the inside and to re-open it: on that side, it is just like a normal door. On the other hand, the passage itself has no lighting, which requires that one took some lamp or torch, for instance, any of the storm lanterns from the Governor's Bedroom.

The passage itself is made of a very small landing where from steep stairs plunge into darkness. The stairs are actually so steep they are more comparable to a scale, like the ones which join two decks on a Ship! Thus, one by one and very cautiously to not fall down heavily, one goes quickly through the ground floor and feels entering into the underground from the sudden cold humidity which falls on the shoulters; there is, at that point, a sharp turn and a few more steps down before entering a room which is either at the level of the Cellar or of the Storeroom, just below the Governor's Office and with about the same size: there it is, no doubt! The Governor's Treasure!

The Governor's Treasure

The large vaulted room is like a sort of warehouse or, rather, a huge storeroom used as a catchall lumber room… There is enough here to search for hours in every corner and for even more hours to move the things away… There is here everything which can be useful to a Pirate Crew on Board of a Ship: compass, sextants, log books, maps, sketches, etc.

But that is just the problem: time might well be too short for our Young Pirates and they have to be quick and effective… or they arrange things so that they can easily come back, day after day, while avoiding to be detected by the Governor or any other inhabitant of the Mansion who would not be allied with them. We let you, Game Master, and them, Players, the responsibility to manage that situation and will be, for our part, satisfied after having brought in a list the various most « interesting »special artifacts to be found in the Governor's Treasure. But you shouldn't consider that list as a complete one, feel free to expand it!

Our Players must have here the feeling to be in a junk-supermarket-antique-shop of Curry-Bean Piracy, a sort of insight in that which awaits them on Tortuga, however, here, for free and to be stolen off-the-peg…

  • The Governor's Sabre
  • The medallion of a lady, still looking young, with an elegant dres and fine hair cut: if one opens the ivory case, one can read on the back « Elorria Barbisurte, born Jollyqueue, 57 ». Can one guess or at least make the assumption that it is actually a picture of the Governor's mother?! After that, everyone can think what they want about it! One can also find a beautiful lock of blond hair, tied by a blue ribbon, inside the case. It is actually a lock of the Governor's hair when he was a little boy…
  • An album of instant pictures (!!) on which one can easily recognise the Governor, older or younger, and some pictures with his mother (the lady of the medallion). One can only state what seems to be a total absence of the father and, there too, think whatever one wants about it…
  • Various ingredients, preserved or dried, including, but not limited to, dried onions, rum vinegar, dried chicken legs, pickled eyes and wild thyme but – as can be expected! – no fresh product, even like juicy carots or mackerel bile… Moreover, according to your mood for fun or not, Friend Game Master, the Governor may have also stored here some fermented turnip in glass bottles… If those details look weird, forget about them and go forth down the list!
  • A Hattean cook book, containing, among other recipes of unclear exactness (see the introductory words of the book, starting with warratny exclusions of all sorts…), the famous recipe for the Voodoo Piloting of a Ship (see the corresponding notes in the paragraph regarding the « Mysteries of the Kitchenette », already discussed);
  • Some complete set of clothes, including a fitted coat and a top hat, which seem completely out of any thinkable Pirate fashion, and a sailor's costume « à la Jean-Paul Gauthier ».
  • A casket, containing various pieces of fabric, for instance for making bandanas and belts or shoulder straps. That casket actually has a doubled bottom (Successful Roll versus « Perception + DIY of All Sorts ») in which are two folios to be found with mysterious contents: the first, carefully hand-written, makes for a coincidence between Bermuda Islands (where one easily loses everything: a bermuda as well as a ship) and Zebra Island when considering the quantities of « Dust » which would be accumulated there; the second one is a document of an obviously completely different origin (like a page torn apart from a book of science, impossible to understand, quoting the words « Orichalk » and « Dust »). Without any other detail. One can wonder why the Governor has hidden those two pieces of paper of which the contents are so obscure! Be patient, however! If some answers may come, there will be answers… later, much later…
  • A middle-sized chest, containing dusty log books in better or worse condition: be careful while handling! Their contents is precious for sure: they are the log books of the Captain Juan Ernesto Barbisurte, as well as some maps, some which he copied, some which he drew himself. Among the master pieces of that collection are some pages relating the exploration (on foot) of a Hattean Valley and a navigation in sight of the coast of Zebra Island, as well as two sketches of related maps… Generally speaking, the information contained here should have the value of many a treasure for our Young Pirates and they probably even have no clue how important the two briefly discussed documents may be so precious because they still have practically all to learn about the World… As to making a use of that discovery, friend Game Master, make clear that the whole isn't readable nor memorisable just like that, of course, but, if they take it all with them, you can use it from time to time as a source of information for when our Young Pirates are about to land on a new island or are searching for a direction at sea; not all the Known World is described here but there is already a good deal about a few islands in the regions between Yellow Lizard's and Glabbooby Islands, including some indications about places where to make for fresh water and food along Cue-Bar and Madlascar, addresses where to procure useful commodities and spare material for the Board in several harbours of Islands of the Curry-Bean and Aunt-Sea.

And that's it for our part about the remarkable items in the Governor's Treasure but, please, feel free to add more if you judge necessary, Friend Game Master. The most important is actually and at any rate to find a way - refined or brutal - to move the whole stuff to the Suzon without being disturbed… And there, this is our Friends Players' turn to play!

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