Open fire! (A Bounty Upon Your Head)

A player-created Guide is available for this content: Piracy (Guide)

A player-created Guide is available for this content: Zailing (Guide)

How are the above links here?

ID: 258302

Spoiler warning! This page contains details about Fallen London Actions.

From: A Bounty Upon Your Head

The [Target] it is not. But it stands in your way nonetheless.

Challenge information

Narrow, Zeefaring 13 (50% base)

• 9 and below - almost impossible (10%)
• 10 - high-risk (20%)
• 11 - high-risk (30%)
• 12 - tough (40%)
• 13 - very chancy (50%)
• 14 - chancy (60%)
• 15 - modest (70%)
• 16 - very modest (80%)
• 17 - low-risk (90%)
• 18 and above - straightforward (100%)
  

Success

Is that all they've got?

[...]

The air thunders with cannon fire until it sounds as if the whole Neath might collapse about your ears. The zee roils [...] But your vessel dances through the hail of death [...] When the zee calms and the smoke clears, only one ship is left afloat.

Description summary:
The first paragraph varies based on the the type of ship you're pursuing.

Ship Type	First Paragraph
50	The Fleet of Truth, it seems, lay claim to all Starved artefacts [...] The vessel gets halfway through [...] the various maritime and academic laws [...] before an overenthusiastic postgraduate fires a starboard cannon [...] – at which point all hell breaks loose.
77	Despite flying the flag of Nidah, this vessel is from Gaider's Mourn. Another crew hired by the Mithridate Office, no doubt. Tripods smoulder on their deck, filling the air with familiar incense, but it can barely conceal the ship's carrion stink.
100 - 199	A practiced ear can pick out specifics within the clangour. The boom-whistle of Caminus Yards' 'Hellthrasher'. [...] Your pursuer has the latest in weaponry from London's shipyards – has the Admiralty outfitted a ship just to hunt down little old you?
200 - 299	The Khaganian vessel is a beacon in the darkness, its fierce electric lighting obscuring [...] its weaponry. It is a war-trimaran, double-outrigged and manoeuvrable, dodging your salvos and bringing its broadside to bear with startling agility.
300 - 399	[...] Portholes open up like eyes on the gun decks, revealing the black voids of cannons where none were visible before. The ship itself screams, a chilling, coal-powered war cry, and metal screeches as it forms itself into new and threatening shapes.
400 - 499	It should be impossible for rowers to keep up with your engines. And yet the brass galley is gaining on you, under the power of nothing more than its crew. Worst of all, you can hear them laughing.

[Find the rest of the story at https://www.fallenlondon.com]

•  Troubled Waters is increasing… (+5 CP)
•  You've gained [See below] x Pieces of Plunder Weighing Down Your Hold
•  You've gained ( Zailing Speed) x Zailing...
•  You've gained 1 x Time Spent at Zee (hidden)

Rare Success

Is that all they've got?

[...]

[...] The zee roils, a war of ordnance exploding just beneath the surface. But your vessel [...] returns the gift in kind. Your crew are fluid and unflappable, perfect [...] cogs in your giant machine. When the zee calms [...] there are plenty of riches left to claim.

•  Troubled Waters is increasing… (+3 CP)
•  You've gained [See below] x Pieces of Plunder Weighing Down Your Hold
•  You've gained ( Zailing Speed) x Zailing...
•  You've gained 1 x Time Spent at Zee (hidden)

Failure

Outmanoeuvered

Description summary:
The description changes based on the the type of ship you're pursuing.

Ship Type	Third Paragraph
50	The Fleet of Truth, it seems, lay claim to all Starved artefacts that land in these waters. [...] Your crew are caught on the back foot, and the academics prove startlingly willing to die for the chance to publish a new pamphlet.
77	Through a spy-glass, you can see their captain: another corsair [...] wearing a mask. But this mask is black, glistening, like onyx or obsidian. All their crew are malnourished and skeletal, [...] yet they hurl themselves into the fight. [...] You barely escape [...]
100 - 199	The captain of this vessel is a cut above the usual Admiralty dross. Your every manoeuvre is countered, your every gambit undercut. […] You are only just able to limp away, and are forced to spend the foreseeable future bailing water and patching holes.
200 - 299	[...] Your ship feels clumsy in comparison, aiming always at the empty zee [...] They leverage every advantage at their disposal, blinding your gunners with dazzling spotlights [...] You are forced to retreat [...] lest you become a prisoner of the Khanate.
300 - 399	[...] Your bosun contends that the vessel was simply attempting to ram you, to punch a hole in your hull [...] But you know the truth, and so do your crew. You stood at the railing as the Polythremean hulk charged towards you, [...] and opened its hungry mouth.
400 - 499	The brass galley's guns are comically small [...] And then the metal of your hull begins to sprout. [...] A rose blooms from the mouth of a torpedo launcher. You are forced to retreat before your vessel is transformed into a particularly buoyant shrub.

[Find the rest of the story at https://www.fallenlondon.com]

•  Troubled Waters is increasing… (+12 CP)
•  Your vessel is reviled by all the zee's lawful citizens. (Sets Unwelcome on the Waters to 1)
•  You've gained ( Zailing Speed/2) x Zailing...
•  You've gained 1 x Time Spent at Zee (hidden)