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Re: AAR: [2M] Freedom on The Soaring Espagra (2020-08-21@23:00 GMT)

Posted: Sat Aug 22, 2020 3:41 am
by verse86
Vallone's Journal
I met a T'skrang lady by the name of Bloodbeat in Throal while looking for work. She said she is a great mage like Shivalahala. Her magic and appearance are very different, but I believe her. She received a mission to investigate some recent disappearances around Kampug Gajah. Another Shadow is coming along, an elf by the name of Juniper.
We met some T’skrang merchants heading that way. They were nice. We were all going the same direction so we traveled together.
Nib was asking them a bunch of complicated questions, but it all went over my head. After they got the information they wanted, we met back up with our merchant friends who said they could take us down the river.
We were attacked by bandits. Bloodbeat scared the daylights out of them. They said they’re not associated with the pirates, but they did see these T’skrang in cages near the head of Lake Ban. They also saw this lady T’skrang who appeared to be the captain.
We went down the river and hopped off ahead of the slavers’ area so we could sneak up on them from the woods. Our group was super good at ambushing and dealt with the slavers easily. Juniper is amazing. I hope I can match his skills some day. The captain showed up and complained about us ruining his operation. He then realized he was entirely outnumbered and ran away. Juniper, who seemed the most ready to kill him, said to let him go. We freed the prisoners and took the slavers to V’strimmon. I hope Sarell is doing well. I'm glad my first adventure went well.

Re: AAR: [2M] Freedom on The Soaring Espagra (2020-08-21@23:00 GMT)

Posted: Sat Aug 22, 2020 10:01 pm
by Serespar
Date: <Throalic calendar date for August 21, 2020>

Re: Slaving Activity Confirmed for Member of House K’Tenshin on Coil River

To whom it may concern at the Great Library,

I met with a t’skrang woman who was the spitting image of the t’skrang who died so horribly at the hands of the twisted falcons the other day. It was eerie. She gave her Name as Bloodbeat too, and was also a Nethermancer. She made reference to dreams and images of her former life. I do not pretend to understand the mysteries of the t’skrang lahala, but it was an unsettling experience.

This Bloodbeat was organizing some adepts to meet with an acquaintance of hers, the V’strimon representative to Kampung Gajah (hex 44.13), one Jaclaeril Sarris of House V’strimon. Jaclaeril was hiring adepts to follow up on rumors of slaving by Captain Gerri Van Drake of House K’tenshin and her ship, the Soaring Espagra. We had run into the amoral Captain and her crew when we foiled her plot to kidnap the winning chef from the Skyrider Island Pastry Festival and were eager to bring her to justice. Jaclaeril shared six missing persons reports from the area; five t’skrang and one obsidiman. The obsidiman was a missing longshoreman, while the t’skrang all had skills related to river boats, and one was even a rare fire engineer. We were uneasy at the thought that the slaver captain might be upgrading the Soaring Espagra and agreed to the job.

We were joined by my friends Mal the elven archer and Juniper the elven shadow. We were also joined by two adepts I had not met before, Vallone the windling shadow and Rendar the orc cavalryman, and his magnificent horse Quichie, who it turns out is rather fond of apples 😉

Jaclaeril made arrangements for passage on a V’strimon allied ship, the Jundar Moonshine under Captain Travis V’strimon. We had actually met his crew earlier on the road from Throal to Kampung Gajah, and were pleased to see them again. Captain Travis indicated that the ship would be making a sweep south down the Coil, and would see if we could flush out any bandits on the journey while taking care of trade deliveries.
Evidently, the preferred bandit tactic at the moment is to pelt passing ships with arrow fire, cripple sails, dump obstacles in the river and so forth, to extort bakshevas instead of the more t’skrang, civilized, fashion of paying river toll.

All was quiet on the river for the first several days, then a group of poorly organized bandits attempted to waylay the Jundar Moonshine as we approached the east shore of the Coil (hex 47.14). Well, the proud t’skrang crew was having none of it, of course, but allowed us to earn our passage while they kept the ship traveling smoothly.

It’s always impressive to see what three range class adepts can accomplish with their fire as Mal, Juniper and Vallone maneuvered and sniped the attacking bandits. What was even more impressive was to watch Rendar and Quichie leap from the ship to the bank in an incredible display of horsemanship, then proceed to ride down bandits as tho they were dead fish floating in the river but just didn’t realize it yet. Bloodbeat wrested spears out of the very substance of astral space, while I buffed my companions with spells and even got off an offensive spell or two. In short, we made short work of the bandits.

I won’t discuss in detail what a Nethermancer does to get a captive bandit to talk, but I will say it seems both terrifying and effective. One of our captives became eager to babble all about a slaver camp he had recently seen… …eventually. After Bloodbeat was finished with him anyway. Ugh. And thus ends the short career of a group of bandits.

We reviewed the Jundar Moonshine’s charts with Captain Travis, and decided the best way to ambush the slaver camp was to move in close by River, then sneak through the heavy underbrush, do some reconnaissance, and complete a rescue, attacking as needed (hex 49.18).

The camp was pretty unsettling. Seeing intelligent people chained and in cages is revolting. While the captives (I won’t call them slaves) were battered, none appeared to be badly injured. *Snort* I guess the price is less for damaged (or too uncowed) goods. Just ugh.

While there were a number of slavers in camp, only one showed the astral pattern of an adept. Quietly, we planned our attack in the dirt, hidden by the bushes… …we cast our buff spells and pulled in magic for our talents… …then we STRUCK.

Bloodbeat whispered to the darkness and gave it form, our snipers peppered the unsuspecting slavers and we concentrated fire on the risk represented by their adept. Rendar and Quichie made a magnificent sight as they put on a burst of speed and cut the enemy adept down… …the non-adepts didn’t stand a chance and we kept them from revenge strikes against the chained captives as they too lost their lives in this despicable trafficking that they had chosen to become part of.

After the fight, who should appear but Captain Gerri, strolling out of the darkness and offering to ransom the slavers who still lived, so that they could strike at more innocent people living on the river yet again. Her offer was met with arrow fire, and we chased her back to the Soaring Espagra which then took flight. It’s so unfortunate for Captain Gerri that I was able to shave off splinters of wood from different parts of the ship and share them out to my companions. I feel a Mystic Pursuit may be in order soon….

Among the other goods recovered from the camp were some encoded records and slaver supplies. I was taken aback when I recognized the workmanship on the locks, manacles and so forth as being Throalic. I can only hope that the locks and manacles are missing from the storehouses of the Throalic Guard, and that there isn’t a supplier for slavers operating in the Great City of Throal. A copy of the encoded records is attached. It is my hope that the Great Library will be of some assistance in analyzing the records so that we can put an end to Captain Gerri’s career as a slaver, find out who her buyer was, and rip out those trying to re-establish slavery along the Coil by the roots.

In service,


Nib

Re: AAR: [2M] Freedom on The Soaring Espagra (2020-08-21@23:00 GMT)

Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2020 1:41 am
by Anoush
Journal Entry: [2M] Freedom on the Soaring Espagr
Date: 2020/8/21

I traveled to Throal from my home in Syrtis, having heard that there was trouble on the Coil River. The Krampung Gajah Lahala had spread the word that something needed to be done about slavers capturing law-abiding citizens. Such activities were unacceptable to her Niall.

The most recent attempted abduction instigated this. During the new Pastry Festival, a K’Tenshin ship attempted to kidnap the award-winning obsidiman chef. Luckily, some daring Adepts stepped in and rescued him. However, the overall problem still exists.

In Throal, I had little trouble finding Adepts to accompany me to Krampung Gajah, to see what could be done about the raids. I ran in a friend, Nib (a windling wizard), and he introduced me to some of his companions, who both seemed strangely familiar: Mal (an elven archer) and Juniper (an elven shadow). Perhaps I knew them in a previous lifetime? Once word got out about our expedition, we were quickly joined by two others: Rendar (an orc cavalryman and his mount Quechia) and Vallone (a windling shadow), with whom I became fast friends; we bonded over a shared hatred of birds.

So we set off. The trip was quite uneventful. About a half day North of Clear Creek Crossing, we came upon a group of t’skrang traders, also heading to Krampung Gajah. Their leader was Named Travis. They proved good companions along the journey. We camped outside of Clear Creek Crossing for one evening. The town was paranoid about something called ‘deceivers,’ and was forcing everyone to strip naked that wanted to come into town. We declined.

Krampung Gajah was a bustling, busy town and river port: lots of shops, taverns and the like. Asking around, we quickly got directions to the town hall, where we met with the V’strimon representative, Jaclaeril Sarris. She told us that what brought the issue to her attention was a fireship leaving here for Lake Ban. At the same time a group of 6 Namegivers — 5 T’skrang and 1 obsidiman — went missing. Certainly not a coincidence. They were all ship crew members; one was a fire engineer.

Between that and the recent kidnaping attempt at the Pastry Festival by the crew of the Soaring Espagra, Jaclaeril felt that it was more than time to deal with this trouble. She wanted us to investigate the unusual traffic on the Coil River, especially by K’Tenshin ships, and learn who or what is behind it. Jaclaeril gave us descriptions and sketches of the people that disappeared most recently. Nib tried to find a pattern in all this information, but to no avail.

Jaclaeril arranged for us to take passage down the Coil River on the Jundar Moonshire, which happened to be Travis’ trading ship. We made plans and departed Krampung Gajah the following day.

The trip went soothly for a few days, but on the fourth day, as we came to a narrow part of the river, we saw bowmen on both sides of the river. Further downstream, one of their companions was starting to chop down a tree, with the obvious intent of blocking the river. Melee ensued.

One of the bowmen was merely unconscious, not dead, at the end of the skirmish, so we questioned him. I convinced him to talk to us using Soulless Eyes; a few glances and he soiled himself. The told us that they were new to piracy. Previously, they had talked to a ship and for a small bribe, that is, a gift to the river gods, let the ship go on its way. He said that that’s how most of the river’s banditry is done. A fight is relatively rare, so far as he knew. Of note, he said that there’s a slaver camp where the Coil River meets Lake Ban, on the North side. We have him note the location on a map.

That slaver camp sounded like where we’d find the missing Namegivers. So we continued down-river, and set anchor a few miles North of the junction. We traveled over land to near the camp, using darkness as cover. Stealth wasn’t an option for our group, so we didn’t surprise them. However, what we found were 5 t’skrang, presumably the slavers, guarding several Name-giver sized cages. 5 of the cages held T’skrang, and a sixth an obsidiman.

Working together, we made short work of the slavers. Just as we were freeing the last of the kidnap victims, a female T’skrang approached from the river: Gerri van Drake, from the description we had. She demanded to know what we were doing. Render proudly announced that we had freed the Name-givers she’d taken in slavery, and dispatched her crew of slavers. We began massing to attack her, whereupon she leaped back into the river and quickly swam to her ship, the Soaring Espagra, anchored well off-shore.

Nib followed Gerri, but was unable to stop her. He did get several splinters of wood from the Soaring Espagra, which we’ll be able to use to track the ship.

We boarded the Jundar Moonshine, along with the rescued Namegivers, and returned to Krampung Gajah. There, we reported to Jaclaeril what we had found.

Re: AAR: [2M] Freedom on The Soaring Espagra (2020-08-21@23:00 GMT)

Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2020 11:18 pm
by Rathan01
*Written in precise and un-flourished penmanship --*

While looking for more work, I ran into Nib and Juniper. I had to rub my eyes and look again when I realized they were talking to a T’skrang that looked exactly like the one that died on our last outing a couple of weeks ago. When introduced, she said her name was Bloodbeat and vaguely remembered me as if from a dream. This was very strange but the others seem to not be too put out so I went along with it. There had been more information about the slaver ship Soaring Espagra that we encountered before and we were going to finally put them out of business. We grabbed 2 other adepts, Vallone and Rendar, who were also looking for work and headed out to meet with the House V'strimmon representative in Kampung Gajah.

On the road, we met with a group of T’skrang who were also headed to Kampung Gajah. After greeting rituals, we had dinner and made plans to share the road with them over the next week of travel. The trip was uneventful and when we arrived at Clear Creek Crossing, they were still making people strip before entering the town. Apparently, they haven’t yet done anything with the information we brought back to Throal about the Deceiver breeding grounds. We camped outside then headed down to Kampung Gajah.

Upon reaching Kampung Gajah we met with Jaclaeril Sarris, the House V’strimmon representative, and found that Captain Gerri Van Drake of the Soaring Espagra was in trouble. This was something we could take advantage of and finally take her out of the picture. The rumors were that she was going to make up for getting caught trying to capture an Obsidiman slave by bringing in “something big” in/on/under the Coil. That last part was a bit disturbing.

We headed down the river on a ship called Jundar Moonshine whose captain was part of the group of T’skrang we traveled with, Travis V’strimmon. We were unsuccessfully ambushed by a group of new bandits. After quickly defeating them, Bloodbeat used an impressively scary spell to interrogate them. We found out Captain Van Drake was most likely camped at the end of the river where it enters Lake Ban. We convinced the bandits that they should definitely try a more legitimate form of occupation then continued on our way downriver.

We stopped a mile or so before the slaver camp to try and get the jump on them. The ambush failed but we were able to still fight well. They did have an Adept but Rendar and I finished him off quickly. The rest fell easily and we were able to free their captives. Captain Van Drake showed up and thought she could take control of the situation; she was stared down and then fled. Nib was able to follow her back to her boat and scrape a handful of splinters so we can track her later. We escorted the freed slaves back to Kampung Gajah and passed along all our information in the hopes Van Drake can finally be put down.

Re: AAR: [2M] Freedom on The Soaring Espagra (2020-08-21@23:00 GMT)

Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2020 1:50 pm
by Dougansf
Rendar Field Report

The V’strimon frown on slaver operations in territory allied with the Aropagoi, or Great House, especially since it would be so easy for slavers to take entire newly resettled villages without anyone knowing what is happening. Before the Scourge, K’tenshin merchants made fortunes supplying slaves to the cut and burn Theran plantations being built in the Servos Jungle. The concern is that some of the K’tenshin merchants may be up to their old tricks, preying on the opening t’skrang kaers and rebuilt villages along the Coil just as they are beginning to reestablish contact. Confirmation of this, or at least more information about it, is needed before steps are taken.

The T’skrang of Kampung Gajah have been noticing more traffic along their stretch of the Coil River. Some of the same K’tenshin ships seem to be coming and going with regularity. While trade with the Aropagoi is welcome, an incident at the recent Skyrider Island Pastry Festival raised concerns about what the K’tenshin ships may be up to. One of the ships, the Soaring Espagra under Captain Gerri van Drake, attempted to kidnap the obsidiman chef who won the Pastry Contest. The attempt at taking a slave was stopped by some courageous adepts who stepped in, but the Soaring Espagra got away and was last seen traveling south down the Coil. (See journal entries for the adventure, Food Fight.)

The V’strimon representative to Kampung Gajah could really use the adepts’ help with her investigation.

Mal Tyrnith - Elf Archer
Nib - Windling Wizard
Bloodbeat - T’skrang Nethermancer
Vallone - Windling Shadow
Juniper - Elf Shadow

We follow the road and find a camp of T’skrang. We approach and they invite us into the camp. They have only 3 carts to trade. They tell us about a ship headed off to Lake Ban. Their speaker is Travis, with Mathew, Kennedy, Ashleigh, and Samuel. They have symbols of woven reeds, so house V’strimon. We perform our greeting rituals before bunking down for the night.

The next morning we continue onward to Kampung Gajah. We request to speak with someone from house V’strimon. Jaclaeril Sarris speaks with us. They’ve seen the Soaring Espagra heading South towards Lake Ban. They’re hoping someone could help them track it down and end their piracy. They also have reports of 4-6 recent kidnappings: 5 T’skrang, and an Obsidiperson. All those taken were shiphands of various skills.

Arrangements are made to put us on the Jundar Moonshine riverboat under Captain Travis. We start heading down the Coil River for several days.

One afternoon, we spot 4 bandits along the shoreline. One is cutting down a tree to block the river. They start firing arrows at us but miss most of the time. The magicians weave threads, the archer and shadows return fire. Quechir and I leap off the side of the boat and head up a path to one of the harder to reach archers, knocking him down. In short order, we knock out some, kill others, one gets away.

We get back on the ship and sail for another few days. The survivors are questioned. Two weeks ago, they spoke with another ship that had cages on it. They’re not part of the piracy problem.

Nib works with the Captain and Navigator to find a place where the Espagra is likely to be, and how we can approach with stealth. We head there and get onto dry land. We come up behind a group of them. Bloodbeat helps us sneak with Shadow Meld. Nib casts Dodge Boost on us all and using Astral Sense discovers one of the enemies is an adept. Unfortunately, they notice (most of) us coming.

The Adept leader comes up and Taunts Mal. Juniper and Mal end him quickly. The other T’skrang close on the elves. Quechir and I attack one on Mal, nearly killing him.

When we’ve killed the last of them, we grab the keys from the Adept and start to free the captives. Captain Gerri van Drake appears and asks what we’re doing to her slaves and her crew. She decides that facing all of us alone is a suicidal idea, so she swims back to her ship.

Nib flies after her using Astral Sense to see her in the water. While at the ship, he grabs splinters from the ship for tracking later. We take the only surviving crew member back to the village to talk and pay for his crimes.

News from the Underground

Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2020 4:24 pm
by bronzemountain
TYRANNICAL T'SKRANG TERRORIZES TOWNS

Kampung Gajah is the northernmost niall of the V'strimon Aropagoi. Situated at a bend in the Coil River, not far from Skyreader Island, it is, for most people of Throal, their first point of contact with the great T'skrang clans of the Serpent River. It is a peaceful place, though its position between Throal and the Floating City has created some amount of political turmoil.

Centrally placed, as it is, in the lowlands, Kampung Gajah is a hub for many namegivers, both resident and from nearby villages. Workers and professionals of all skills and trades pass through. This, apparently, has drawn the attention of the worst of all evils - slavers! Yes, fair readers, your eyes do not lie to you. There are slavers, here in Barsaive, operating in our own rivers and towns!

These pernicious pirates, these terrible tyrants, these sickening slavers are led by one Gerri van Drake, a T'skrang who might or might not be associated with Aropagoi K'tenshin. "She captains the Soaring Espagra," recounted Malonin Tyrnith, describing the river tyrant's paddleboat of despair. "I will avenge my sister," declared Bloodbeat, though it remains unclear what this had to do with the slavery situation. But who can blame her, fair reader? Oppression naturally and inevitably births thoughts of vengeance!

"No foul slaver shall escape my spear!" So said Rendar, Ork Cavalryman. He hastened to add, "Indeed, of all those assembled, I am the second among Champions of the Oppressed. Juniper, that wondrous and shockingly handsome hero of Throal, is of course the first."

Whatever the foul intent of these tyrants, who captured pastry chefs and cooks, carpenters and tailors, they were foiled by the work of heroes. Mal, Rendar, and Bloodbeat, as previously indicated, but also Nib, Windling Wizard, who explained in great detail the magical Pattern present in the splinters he had acquired. With this arcane knowledge, he was confident that Adepts would be able to follow the Soaring Espagra wherever it raised its sails of oppression. Of course, Juniper was pivotal in freeing the captives and driving the tyrant Gerri van Drake away.

"I only wish Juniper had not only freed me, but taken me with him. I want to be with him always. For serious. Do you know where he is now? I embroidered this for him," said Branwith Bord as he brandished a floral handkerchief. "I'm not pregnant or, actually, even in a relationship. But if I ever have a child, I am naming him or her Juniper," announced Laryma Ordescu.

Stay vigilant, good readers. Know that evil lurks on our great waterways and threatens our very freedom. Gird your hearts and raise your fists and let none of us be shackled ever again!

News from the Underground - Like Regular News but Way Cooler