This is the game thread for our Children of the Void game. This is a continuation of Luke's Shadow in the Sky Thread.
Riddleport is in ruins.
The three-part calamity of earthquake, fire and flood have reduced much of the city to anguish and desperation. The waterfront, literally the life blood of any self-respecting pirate city, has been completely wrecked. The sailors, stevedors and tradesmen of the relevant crafts are mostly drowned and washed out to sea. The Publican House is basically destroyed. The Gold Goblin and Gas Forges are soggy wrecks. It takes the sum of all Lia's tricks and tips to crack the casino safe and get at the cash. Within it she recovers 2,850 gp. If only there was someplace to spend it. The lower market is filled with debris washed from literally everywhere.
The Leeward district suffered more from fire than flood but the effects are nearly as devastating. Goods are being hoarded and people will soon be starving. Rumor has it that Boss Croat laid in stores long ago against a disaster like this. A premonition or good planning, those supplies (and the rumor of them) are paying large dividends now. The dangerous half-orc population of the city is firmly in his grasp.
Zincher effectively cedes the streets to Croat by default. Zincher's influence is reduced anytime seasonal migrations take Varisians out of the city. Now all the surviving wanderers combine what's left of their caravans together and flee the town at once, leaving Zincher with a small pool of replacements for his many staff vacancies. He's no credible balance to Croat's strength.
The gendarmes are non-existent. Overlord Cromartie's influence is entirely absent on the streets. Some say he's been killed, or that he and Slyeg killed one another. Whatever the case, chaos rules the street more than anything. Like the bad old days of the city's youth, when pirate law governed the city. Chaos and filth. There are rumors of monstrous harbor denizens gorging on the dead in Rotgut. The boneyard remains flooded and stands to be for some time. Certainly the caves below the Riddlegate are completely flooded or caved in - the evidence of the party's conquest erased entirely.
The Cyphermages brood silently over the suffering town, their undamaged lodge perched high up the bluff remains largely shuttered. The benefit of their mending magic is not really extended to parts outside the Windward district. Tammerhawk seems content to let the town diminish or to wait out the predictable struggle among pirate lords and ally with the winner. All eyes turn toward the sea - any number of local privateers might appear any day to cast the balance of power in the city on its head.
The first ship into harbor after the disasters quietly slips in and then out again in the dead of night. Rumors of its stealthy visit seep through the milling crowds of survivors. Some swear it was a ghost ship or harbinger of more sorrow. The more believable rumors say she flew the private flag of Lord Trondheim, dwarven master of the Gas Forges. And that the ship didn't even wait to water, just took on a boat or two of passengers and tools and stood right back into the ebb. Once people started to try and think like a dwarf, the motive became obvious.
Skymetal.
The most precious substances in Golarion are (naturally) not from Golarion at all. They fall to Golarion from the heavens. The secrets of the various skymetals are known only to the most specialized craftsmen, the kinds of craftsmen that Lord Trondheim employs in the Gas Forges. The head dwarf stands in a somewhat unique position of having a jump on collecting the stuff (if there is indeed any to collect) and the means to transform the stuff into something useful. On the street, envy and grief mix easily with outrage; the boat should have been comandeered, even volunteered into service of the town. There's suddenly alot of talk about the damage from the fires that were started by the gaslamps. Bad blood everywhere, more than enough to go around.
Kwava is on fire to be away. He binds a note to Ganmede's leg, speaks briefly and quietly with him, then sends him off. With the bird gone, he sits on the roof, presiding over the destruction and reading back through the dark elf's journal. Someone else already has a head start toward the island. There are answers there, perhaps even a terrible weapon to seize, and he is trapped in this cesspool of a town.
They were on some kind of sacred mission that was given to them by the matron of Depora's house, to come to the surface world and act as the eyes of her matron. She clearly felt that executing her part of this plan would bring fame and power to her family, and by extension to herself.
She describes a deep-seated hatred of her fair-skinned 'cousins' whom she considers corrupted. In fact she seems to hate everyone mentioned in the journal with the occasional exception of Shindiira, whom she seems to passionately love and hate. She writes about her feud with Shindiira over a male wizard, and her strong suspicions that Shindiira won this match by bedding the wizard. The wizard is named Novelniss, and his magic was apparently key to researching and constructing some kind of weapon. She felt certain that part of her test in being sent to the surface was to see if she could seduce the wizard, and she feared that her inability to dominate Shindiira would be seen as a weakness when she returned home. She intended to murder Shindiira as soon as her 'business' on the surface was finished.
Her task in Riddleport was to extract samples of stone from the legendary Cyphergate that dominates the city harbor. The stone was a critical component of some other witchcraft of Novelniss's design. She describes finding the caves and widening them to the point where the Cyphergate could be reached. She cut the famously ensorcled stone with some chisel sent with her for the task, then returned to the wizard with the pieces.
Apparently Novelniss was impressed with her efficiency, because he becomes her lover at this point in the story... though Depora suspects his motives. The wizard is upset with Shindiira because of the blot in the sky. For reasons not clear in Depora's musings, Novelniss blames Shindiira for its existence. In the end, Depora is sent back to Riddleport to observe the blot and watch for signs of it growing stronger or fading. She's not happy about these orders, but is reassured by the fact that Shindiira is trapped on an island named Devil's Elbow until her work there is complete, and cannot return to Novelniss while she is away. In any event they expect that the blot will disappear when Shindiira's secret work is complete, which should be any day now.
Brenin's sentiment echoes that of the dwarf. When he came to this city, everything was foreign to him and each day seemed to make him more bitter and weary than the last. Now, he wants nothing more than to be out of this town. The elf's quest aligns with his own to get to the source of the blot.
Brenin will wait to see what Samaritha wants to do, but he'll urge her to abandon Riddleport and come with the group. He'll also be visiting the dwarven smithy to check on his armor.
Lia's home as she knew it is gone. As she surveys the damage and awaits news of her brother and his friend, she realizes someone must pay for this. She hadn't had an easy life, but she liked parts of it. Now everything that she loved and that was familiar to her is a vast wasteland of rot and decay. She's never been out of the city, but she knows this is the time. She must convince what's left of her friends to travel with the dark elf to Devil's Elbow. Maybe there she will find answers and someone to pay for the crimes against her city. Until then, she wanders the streets searching for news of her brother and trying to gather information and supplies that will aid in their travels to the island.
"There's nothing for me here. I underestimated the depravity of this town when I came here... and now it's a complete wreck. I don't know how we can escape this place, but I'm with you."
There's no rational explanation for Gabbro's re-emergence back into the living, breathing world. No sense of the time that has passed, though he thinks he must have lain dead with the others for some while. The memory of his cold suffocating death, of all of their suffocating deaths hangs heavy on his shoulders like so much caked mud. He stands up to his thighs in a briny sludge of mud, water and debris. He's in a small yard between two wrecked buildings, a wall to either hand. The red glow of the burning town colors the pall of smoke above.
In the plaza with him, two large spiny creatures hiss and snap at one another over a corpse - another victim of the flood. They have wicked looking claws and armored bodies like lobsters, but long powerful serpentine tails.
They react to the new entrant into their little corner of hell with predictable violence.
Reese has been wandering around looking for Trystan and their friends. She hasn't seen nor heard anything from them yet. As she walks the plaza she notices a couple of monster lobsters mugging some poor guy on the street and decides he could use some help. She looks at the poor guy and yells, "I'm on your side!".
This is not the world I know, Gabbro thought as he pulled himself from the rubble. Have I been judged? What is this place that Pharasma has sent me?
He remembers the fights, bloodsports, gladiatorial combat, whatever you wanted to call it... He remembered the fights. Carving deep into whoever he was supposed to kill, or whoever was supposed to kill him. So far, he had been the victor, he had won his battles.
Then the stones fell. No one wins against the stones.
Finally defeated, he lay crushed among his rivals, his audience, his compatriots, as the stones and water took everyone. Then... silence. Nothing. Death descended and took all.
But then, a chant. Beneath all that rubble, a chant. It was the sounds of an audience, as if his fans called to him, their voices echoing through a thousand channels of rock. Muffled, distant... but there. That gave him the strength he looked for. He saw his chance. Climbing, battered, bruised, through the most crushing of passages, all quarry and dampness and death. He crawled and pushed, sustained on the echo of his fans like a suckling baby, until he emerged into who knows what.
He could barely tell where he was. But all he knew was that monsters were approaching, and he was being welcomed by some demon-girl.
The Abyss. Pharasma has sent me to the Abyss. Well, you monsters... let's see you fight.
Gabbro's 10' from the pair of monsters (they are adjacent to one-another). I'll have a map up pretty quickly...
Gabbro looks at his two opponents, thinking tactically. He is unsure of their capabilities, so it is best to give them a moment so that he can gauge their mettle... and get his weapon.
So actually that's my fault. The map's been up but I just assumed you would magically know where to find it. It's the home page of the campaign site usually, but if not there's always a left-pane link to the current battlemap.
The monsters put those powerful tails to good use as they come rocketing forward, but what they have in enthusiasm they lack in effectiveness. Their wicked looking claws can't find a purchase on the half-orc's slick armor.
One of the creatures stops moving and begins to sink into the knee-deep brine of the alley.
As the first one sinks, Gabbro launches his fury at the second.
Power Attack: Damage:
Gabbro's attack misses his mark. The Reefclaw lashes out at the warrior's exposed arm and catches it in an exposed spot.
Fortitude:
HP 23/32
I know I know, no one saw this coming but BAM! I hit the other lobster with my crazy yellow eyed stare. I wait patiently to see if he falls.
The monster goes into an absolute frenzy at the scent of the half-orc's blood. Its toxin invades Gabbro's bloodstream like a flood of hot needles. Suddenly the ghosts are everywhere again, watching Gabbro as he begins to swoon.
At the end of the alley, the witch's eyes flash a second time and the creature clamped to Gabbro's arm stops thrashing. One of the ghosts, an elven child, walks over and tries to take the witch's hand but she doesn't see it. She stands there for a brief moment at the end of the alley, saying something that fails to penetrate the fog that's numbing his mind.
And then there's another wave washing down the street with a crashing rumble. Rees is washed away with it, catching herself on a scaffolding and climbing to safety somewhere else in the dark and smoke and chaos.
Gabbro climbs to survive. The ghosts push him until he gains the roof above the alley. The dozing monsters are left behind in the swirling flood waters. He collapses on the roof in a poison-induced stupor and hallucinates his way through the remainder of that terrible night.
Your group finds the dwarves very happy to honor the deal for the armor. Trondheim eagerly accepts the cash, and the group is soon slinking back to the Goblin with a comfortingly solid package under you arm.
Back at the Goblin, Kwava nods with approval as Brenin dons the armor.
"Eccentric - even for a surface elf. Our dark cousins have a certain elegance about them that is very... familiar to me. These dwarven smiths do good work, even if they're not exactly cherished by the man in the street right now."
Yes, that's what I do.
Within he finds Korrum, another of the half-orc fighters that worked for Zincher and someone who Gabbro has bested more than once on the combat field. He's was bound with rope an gagged. Once free his story spilled.
Zincher's going after the skymetal. He whipped his desperate men into a frenzy over how much wealth it would bring them to collect the stuff. Talked alot about a startstone, and how Korrum was to tell Croat that when Zincher returned to the city it would be wise to side with him.
"We have to get out of here soon. We can't defend this place and too many people are head hunting for us now. We'll be better off on the road or in the brush."
"So that's all we are to him? Not even worth thinking about as he goes for the skymetal? Some shiny whatever matters more than finding out who among us survives?"
Gabbro reaches out his hand to Korrum. "Thanks, you've been a good friend. Most of the people we know in town are dead. Make of that what you will... but I must head back out. There's gotta be a way to get out to the starstone or skymetal or whatever."
He straps on his scizore. Deep beneath him, he hears a roar, a low sound of disapproval. He does not have to see them to know what they are gesturing.
Thumbs down. Time to fight.
The reality of Zincher's message through Korrum is there to meet you as you return to the street. Rumor spreads through the waterfront that a flotilla of small-craft assaulted the next tradesman to enter the harbor. Witness accounts say Zincher was among them. The ship was said to be the Black Bunyip, a well-founded brig. The hijackers spun the Bunyip on its heel and raced out of the harbor.
Power in the town is gathering to just a few hands now. Croat's actively recruiting for his all-half-orc band of mercenaries and pirates. The odd notion of half-blood purity seems to be his message. Yet his strength in the town in undeniable.
That settles it, then. Coming to grips with the fact that this is actually still Golarion and not the Abyss, he realizes that if there's any hope to catch the people who plan to take the skymetal, we'll need to rush there ourselves.
Gabbro signs up to join the pirate vessels heading for the fallen stone.
A trading vessel came in, but as it was approaching it was mobbed by a couple boatloads of pirates and thugs led by Clegg Zincher himself. They took the boat right back out.
Just like that. Zincher's on the skymetal chase. Someone else is heading for Devil's Elbow and you are still stuck in the city formerly known as Riddleport.
Kwava looks like he's about to join the riot.
Standing there, unsure how to proceed, you catch sight of the woman who helped you against the lobstrosities. She stands just at the edge of the mob along with four others: a weathered male human, two females - likely half-elves and a slender male elf with long white hair.
Ugg. Were any of you guys pirates in a former life??? How in the world are we supposed to get a boat out of here?
I'm feeling a little pissed off and I start walking towards the water. I wonder if any of these are sailable??
I'm with Rees. We live through a disaster of epic proportions and we have no way to deal with the aftermath. It's enough to cause me to join the rioters, but I don't. There has to be a way to get to the Devil. Let's keep our heads level and see what we can come up with.
Brenin surveys the scene with distaste. "How far is the island? Can we get there with a small boat like we had the other night?"
"Let's get out of this town. Ganmede must have flown far up the coast by now. If the Flying Cloud lies along the coast, we will have our ship. Her captain is Josper Creesey. He's a trustworthy soul for a privateer. I still have hopes of him - he's an associate of my order - and I've traveled with him in the past."
"When he dropped me here it was by ship's boat, at the mouth of the Velashu. Given the state of the port, he'd probably prefer to pick us off the coast somewhere anyhow. His plans were to practice a sailing run he intends to race at the end of the summer. Up and down the coast between here and Roderic's Cove."
"It's better than rotting in this place, anyhow." He shoots a look of revulsion at the milling crowd.
"I'm sorry for the loss of your friends..."
Just add whatever to the roll.[/ooc]
I'd posted this link in the last thread, and just realized it might be good to post it here as well. Naval area Map.
Kwava, thanks I really miss the guys. I agree, we should leave now. Hopefully we can get out before anyone notices that we are making a plan. Are you guys ready?
"Let's find our little boat or one or two that looks like it and get out of here. We'll camp along the way. Once we get to the mouth of the river, we'll figure out how to get to the island."
Brenin surveys the crowd as he talks, looking for signs of trouble directed towards the party.
Brenin notices a large half-orc wearing a shining suit of spiked armor approaching the group.
"You!" he calls out, pointing to Rees with a savage-looking crescent blade encompassing one of his hands, smooth metal extending down his arm. "You were there before, when this place was all the Abyss... I never had time to thank you."
Lia looks at the orc and then looks at Rees. She puts her hand on her rapier and takes a step back. She says to Rees, "This a friend of yours?"
Brenin surveys the scene with distaste. "How far is the island? Can we get there with a small boat like we had the other night?"
"Twenty miles, most of it road to get to the mouth of the Velashu. I think the island is not very far out, but I'm no seaman. Small craft on the river is more my speed."
"That island's notorious for its reefs. An ill tide may kill us."
As the half orc comes up, Kwava takes a protective step closer to the ladies.
Lia looks at the orc and then looks at Rees. She puts her hand on her rapier and takes a step back. She says to Rees, "This a friend of yours?"
I wouldn't say friend quite yet. This was the guy I told you about. Remember, the one getting mugged by lobsters.
Brenin notices a large half-orc wearing a shining suit of spiked armor approaching the group.
"You!" he calls out, pointing to Rees with a savage-looking crescent blade encompassing one of his hands, smooth metal extending down his arm. "You were there before, when this place was all the Abyss... I never had time to thank you."
Oh yea, hi ah your welcome. Wow, I kinda thought you were dead when you floated by with those lobsters. Glad to see you made it. Nice blade you have there. You out looking to get a shot at them again for lunch??
"I'm not a seaman either. Let's cross that bridge when we come to it. In the meantime, we're not safe until we're away from here."
"Lia, how about some help rounding up some boats? You know anyone around here?"
Brenin heads toward the docks away from the riot trying to find someone who looks like they are in charge.
The half-orc narrows his eyes. "I was a pit-fighter before... before everything died. Now, the entertainment never ends. The name's Gabbro. Gabbro Ghawn. Boss Croat should be signing people up for a pirate vessel headed out to the harbor. Zincher's sped out of the harbor on the Black Bunyip now. I'm signing up. That's where the next round begins."
At the mention of Boss Croat, Brenin turns back to the newcomer. "You're signing up with him? Sign me up to put an arrow through his heart. I think he would kill us as soon as hire us."
Gabbro growls a guffaw. "Of course he'd kill us. But if he's going to have any chance of not playing second fiddle to Zincher, he'll need to be at the skymetal as well. How about we get ourselves out there, and let the Boss and Zincher find the metal down there... and stay there?"
Of course no one is in charge of anything. The streets are a little quieter away from what used to be the waterfront, but the din is spreading and may soon overtake the Goblin.
Kwava talks as you retreat together.
"All this ignores the lack of ships. I don't think Croat's going anywhere right now for lack of a ship to get him there - same as us. Look at this place!"
He holds out two hands, offering the unfolding riotous disaster as his evidence. The docks are gone - worse than gone - buried in piles of mouldering, stinking rubble. What will burn is now burning. The crowd is descending into general melee - a group-mugging.
"Maybe he could storm the next thing that comes to port like Zincher has done, but he'd not have us on his crew regardless. He's only employing those with orc blood in their veins."
"I think we either take to the road, or steal some small craft from someone and make our way downstream. Our best chance of getting to that island is still the Flying Cloud."
At the mention of her contacts Lia swallows down the sorrow. Everything she has known and loved in this city is gone. "There is no one left to ask, Brenin. There are no ships available, and if we wait any longer the city will only become more dangerous." She continues walking. "We need to leave," she says with resolve. "We must gather what we can and be gone. A small craft, if it survived the tidal wave will have to be found somewhere else. Maybe we can start off on foot and find something still whole farther downstream that we could hire. Until then, let's get organized and move." She turns to Rees, "Your new friend is welcome to join in the fun, if you like." She addresses Gabbro, "But I'll not join Croat even if I was a half-orc. You seem strong. If you are looking for adventure you're sure to find it with us." Lia continues with Kwava toward the Goblin to ready what's left of her things for leaving.
Lia, I'm not claiming this guy yet. The lobsters were kickin his a##. But your right, he does look strong. I think he would be a good guy to have with us. Off to the goblin with us and then lets leave pronto!!!
Brenin puts a hand on Lia's shoulder. "The town will rebuild. It will take a while, and things will be different, but it will be back."
"Let's find your ship Kwava. We'll take the road out of town then circle South and back towards the river. We'll follow it as best we can. If we don't find a boat before we hit the sea, then we'll have to figure out the next plan from there."
"Gabbro, you're welcome to come along. No more talk of signing on with Croat though. Name's Brenin."