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You will be starting in the town of Quintas in Seshar. Quintas is a mid-sized river town. It is the last city on the Welbyway River which runs from the northwest out of the mountains know as the Garl Nave. Further east of Quintas the naturally flowing, winding river changes to a bizarre, mazelike series of artificially created canals. The canals are all deep and regular, with smooth, 50-foot escarpments on either side.
For your various reasons, you are each ready to leave Quintas and have hired on with a sailing merchant Deymish. Deymish is taking a load of supplies to a small village along the canal maze called Redstone. The journey should take about 5 days on the 18-foot snyth-sail boat. Deymish is looking for some extra muscle to protect his boat, as well as physical labor to move the supplies. He never shies away from throwing in on the work though, even though he's paying for the labor.
You will load the cargo and leave in the morning...
...
Deymish is a broad-shouldered, bearded man, about 40 years of age. He has a broad nose and bright eyes. A good-natured fellow, he tells jokes and shares in any labor he asks of his hired hands. The loading of supplies takes about two hours, but at least early in the morning the heat of the day isn't an issue.
"I'm offering 3 shins a day for protection, should we need it and labor which we certainly will. The trip to Redstone'll take 5 days. Once I get paid by the Aeon Priest for this shipment, you get paid. Don't forget to bring some food. You might be able to fish from the boat, but I wouldn't count on it."
Sarsam puts down one of the cases and fastens it to the ship, nodding at Deymish. "That's not particularly generous, but reasonable." He looks up squinting his eyes, blinded by the sun; with a grimace, the man pulls up his hood, which had fallen to his shoulder during the moving of the cargo. He then steps into the shadow of the mast, staring out into the canals towards Redston. "When do we leave?"
Deymish laughs heartily at Sarsam's remark. "I'll have to remember that one. Not generous, but reasonable. Look, after we unload these crates to the clave in Redstone and I pick up a load of stone I'll keep you lot on till Nebalich if yer willing."
After the last of the load is secured, and your purchases are complete, Deymish unties the boat from its mooring, raises the synth-sail and takes the wheel. He points to Servae and Eptin, "Why don't you two take the forenoon watch. You can pair up and switch off in four hour shifts."
"Good, I'd rather make watch during the sunset and evening", Sarsam says, heading towards the lower deck. Before taking the stairs down, he turns around and addresses Deymish. "About Nebalich... yes, I'll take you up on that offer. I could use the ride." With these words, Sarsam disappears downstairs.
A tall graceful man leaps onto the vessel as it slides away from the dock, deftly placing his pack onto the deck as he also tskrd a last box from Deymish and places it in its place.
Straightening, he bows theatrically, "Voss Nerick at your service. Sarsam said you were punctual, Deymish....I almost missed you!" he declares with a smile, nodding to his friend Sarsam as he departs for the darker lower decks.
"I'm sure Sarsam negotiated acceptable terms, I'll be taking watch with him...if that's alright?" he asks, picking up his pack.
Looking at the floor as he takes the stairs, Sarsam notices his shadow turning around, a peculiar occurrence that, he has recently learned, can only mean that his associate Voss Nerik is nearby. A quick glance over his shoulder confirms the presence of the graceful man, who currently salutes their employer rather enthusiastically. "I also told Deymish you weren't", Sarsam says, referring to Voss' tardiness. "I'm glad you made it in time." However, Sarsam's satisfaction does not derive from affection, but rather from practicality. "One more pair of hands to share the load", he concludes bluntly before retiring to the lower decks.
The first and second day pass without incident. You see a few other small sailing ships along the river, but not many. Deymish tells tales of exotic ports of call, double-crosses he's been subject to, offers to smuggle illicit goods in and out of places and other interesting highlights of his life as a captain. He maintains a set of fishing gear which he uses to try and catch serpent-like creatures that swing in the river. They look strange, but taste excellent.
The artificial river is good and easy sailing for the most part, except when the canal turns at a right angle to perpendicular connecting canals. Deymish is a skilled captain, however, and is very familiar with these particular strange features.
On the third day, in the evening during the Mid Dog Watch Sarsam notices another synth-sail ship, slightly bigger than Deymish's but it seems to be sailing directly at you!
Standing at the fore of the ship, Sarsam observes the canals with attention, spotting another synth-ship closing in on them. Suddenly, he realizes the other vessel is set on a collision course; he nudges Voss and points to the incoming threat. "Look." He turns to the aft of the ship and shouts out a warning. "Deymish! Eptin! Servae! Brace yourselves! We're about to get hit!" He seeks protection behind the mast and holds on to the ropes, waiting for the impact, positive that there won't be enough time to change their course.
About to ask Sarsam if he saw anything of interest, Voss spins around at his friend's warning.
Dashing to where his pack was secured, he snatches up his longbow and calls to Deymish, "Should I fire a volley? Or wait until thier intentions are more plain?"
Hearing Sarsam's warning, Deymish tries to get his boat out of the way but it is too late! Though, because of the warning what could have been a much worse impact is more of a glancing blow as the two ships collide!
As the two ships slam into each other, Sarsam, Voss and Deymish get a good look at four men standing on the deck of the other ship dress in leathers, holding daggers in one hand, and holding steady braced for impact with the other. Raiders!
Despite the violent impact, Sarsam holds on to to the ropes and manages to remain on his feet. He watches the four preparing ready to boardand gets ready for the action. Under the influence of the nanites in his bloodstream, Sarsam's eyes turn black, as do the veins in his body and face, in vivid contrast against his brass skin. Light around the taciturn voyager seems to flicker for a moment as shadows creep from under his feet in the direction of the bandits, seeking them out.
As the other vessel careens towards them, thier intent very obvious, Voss raises his bow and lets loose...
As the other vessel approaches at breakneck speed, Voss feels his own vessel attempt to respond ot Deymish's frantic attempts to avert the impending collision. Holding on to some of the stiff ropes running up the mast, Voss braces for impact...
When the ships come together, Voss hardly seems to move, so fluidly does he adjust to the sudden movement.
Without missing a beat, he snatches his sword-staff and steps forward, calling out to the raiders, "Leave now and you'll keep your lives..." , settling into an obviously competent battle stance...waiting...
Voss gets an arrow off at one of the bandits just before the boats collide. Both Voss and Sarsam nimbly manage to stay on their feet and ready themselves to be boarded!
The Raiders rush forward and stab at the men with their daggers!
Two of the men lung at Sarsam, trying to get the better of him.
The other two, including the one who took the arrow try to attack Voss!
Raider Initiative:
Voss Initiative:
Voss arrow:
Round 1
Raider 1
Raider 2
Raider 3
Raider 4 - 3 damage taken
Voss
Sarsam
Voss and Sarsam are up!
As your shadows flow forward scanning the area, you sense the presence of the 4 raiders (3 level 2, 1 level 3), beyond the leather and dagger you could already see, the level 3 has a second dagger hidden in his boot, and a few shins in his pocket.
Voss seems to be etched in stone as the raiders leap the gunwale and board thier vessel. Only at the last moment does he spring into action, his sword-staff a blur as he engages....
Blocking the first raider's thrust with the haft of his weapon, Voss then spins around him to counter the other raider's attempt to punch his dagger into Voss' kidney.
With blinding speed, Voss disengages, then leaps at the raider already wounded...
but the raider cleverly places the mast between them, foiling Voss' approach.
Sarsam dodges the first attack; as the second man thrusts a dagger aginst him, the nano diverts the blow with his right forearm and raises the other hand, causing the scanning shadows below to quickly crawl up the bandit's body until reaching the head. The shadows penetrate the man's eyes, ears, nostrils and mouth, seeking to shut down the raider's mind.
One of the bandits fighting Sarsam screams out as the shadows push their way into his mind! The man staggers under the mental onslaught momentarily, but presses on with his attack tossing his dagger from the right to left hand and trying to stab the nano in neck where Sarsam's armor does not cover!
The Raiders again try to double team Voss and Sarsam with their daggers!
Round 2
Raider 1 - 5 damage taken
Raider 2
Raider 3
Raider 4 - 3 damage taken
Voss
Sarsam
Eptin
Servae
All players may act!
Eptin comes from below deck and drops one of the raiders with a blast of emerald lightning!
Round 2
Raider 1 - 8 damage taken
Raider 2
Raider 3
Raider 4 - 3 damage taken
Eptin
Voss
Sarsam
Servae
Voss, Sarsam, and Servae may act!
Two of the bandits come at Voss from opposite sides of the mast and he meets them, sword-staff moving with blazing speed. One attack is met in a blink of an eye, and it would seem the same fate was in store for the other, but a wayward coil of rope trips the warrior for a moment, allowing the remaining raider an opening...scoring a shallow wound across Voss' forearm.
A grunt is all the acknowledgment that Voss gives that he'd been bloodied, so intent was he in defending against his two assailants. A quick jump backward surprised his adversaries, and they were equally surprised by his even quicker leap forward to attack !
Watching the blade plunge towards his chest, Sarsam vigorously parries the attack, twisting the raider's arm in the process. The criminal drops his weapon and screams in pain as Eptin bombards him with a bioforce blast. Sarsam quickly turns his attention to the second bandit, and invokes his shadow nanites to aid him in dodging his strike. The shadows swirl around the raider, hampering his attack and confusing his sight, which gives Sarsam the opportunity to dish out a devastating onslaught. Obeying his mental commands, the shadow engulfs Sarsam's foe and constrict him with great strength, muffling the cries of despair within its darkness.
As Sarsam's shadows slash out against the weak willed raider, the man screams in pain as he is crushed by unseen strength! Clawing at his throat he falls over on the deck with a thud. After a few spastic convulsions the man's screams cease and he lies unmoving, a stream of blood trickling from his mouth to the deck.
Voss deftly hops forward with his sword-staff, feigning to left then quickly spinning around and striking low, he strikes out at the raider who wounded the glave. The sword-staff pushes, with minimal resistance, into the leather armor the raider wears and deep into the soft guts that lay beneath.
Round 2
Raider 1 - 8 damage taken
Raider 2 - 9 damage taken
Raider 3
Raider 4 - 8 damage taken
Eptin
Voss
Sarsam
Servae
Servae may act!
Round 3
Raider 3
Raider 4 - 8 damage taken
Eptin
Voss
Sarsam
The heavily wounded Raider stays with Voss, again lunging at the glaive with his dagger!
The other Raider shift his attention to Sarsam, trying to bring his dagger down into the man's shoulder from behind!
All PCs may act!
Eptin unleashes another emerald blast of bioenergy at the Raider, just as he pulls back his dagger to stab again at Voss! The force of the emerald blast knocks the raider to the ground - dead, and pushes the dagger through the air grazing the remaining raider with it's momentum!
Round 3
Raider 3 - 2 damage taken
Raider 4 - 10 damage taken
Eptin
Voss
Sarsam
Voss and Sarsam are up!
Sarsam looks over his shoulder and sees another raider coming at him from behind, and barely has time to duck the attack. He feels the pull of the dagger as the blades rips the cloth in his hood; turning around, Sarsam thrusts both hands forward, and the shadow nanites crawl away from their prior victim to fly towards a new foe.
Round 3
Raider 3 - 5 damage taken
Raider 4 - 10 damage taken
Eptin
Sarsam
Voss
The remaining raider stands in a precarious position as Sarsam's shadow nanites invade his body, his back is now to the glaive as he tries to fight off the swarm!
Voss is up!
Voss' sword-staff is a blur as he keep the raiders at bay, when the eerie green energy from Eptin washes over one as he slid forward, dagger aimed at Voss' belly.
Somehow, amid the flurry of staff and blade, Voss manages to pause for just a second and nod a courteous thanks to Eptin, before his body once again wholly enters the dance of battle.
Sarsam's shadow distract the other raider, giving Voss an excellent opportunity, which he seizes, thrusting his blade into the raider's back.
Voss is able to easily dispatch the last Raider!
Deymish comes out from behind the ship's wheel, a huge grin on his face. "That was some pretty fancy fighting you guys! Great work! I knew I picked a good group for extra muscle!" He nods his head over toward the other synth-sail tangled up with his ship. "You guys wanna go over and check that one out before we try and untangle this mess?"
Voss casually allows the raiders listless body to slide off of his blade, then takes a deep breath and turns to Deymish, shrugging "They were enthusiastic, but lacked skill."
He cleans his weapon, then leaps across to the other vessel, beginning a careful search.
"They lacked sense. Attacking without assessing their target... a reckless idea", Sarsam says, correcting Voss. He jumps to the other ship and starts perusing the raider's belongings, looking for cyphers or any technology they might be carrying. "It's ironic that by attempting to take what they did not have, they should lose what they did..."
Searching the second synth-sail turns up very little useful gear, it would seem the raiders had not had any recent victims. The synth-sail itself is in fair shape, and Deymish seems to think taking it as a spare would be a good idea. Most of the ropes and rest of the sailing gear are in a pretty poor state and not worth taking.
Going below deck you find the crew quarters and a small caged area. Inside the cage lies an unresponsive woman, with a broken spear haft sticking out of her left side.
Upon encountering the caged woman, Sarsam halts and keeps staring at her with a puzzled look on his face. "Oh. A prisoner." He makes no mention of coming to her rescue.
The Lady, being Unconscious dose not respond
"What is she doing here?" Voss muses aloud, gently pushing a lock of a hair out of her face.
"That spear isn't doing her any favours..." he says as he opens the cage ,nods at Eptin's comment and gently lifts the woman up into his arms, noting her strong body and noticing for the first time the pile of gear in the corner.
"Those must be her possessions, Eptin, Sarsam, grab them will you?" Voss asks his companions
While most would find the task of carring and unconsious person between two rocking vessels, Voss find it not trouble, depositing the unconsious woman on a pile of sail.
He then looks down on her uncertainly, "What do we do about that spear?"
The woman is tall and thin her violet hair hangs lose around her head, concealing much of her face. Faintly glowing blue circuit like patterns cover the pale greyish skin of her neck and left arm. She appears unharmed, aside from the spear sticking out of her left side, but she doesn't respond to any of your attempts to communicate. From what you can see, she is wearing a loose fitting pale blue vest over a tight fitting Shirt/pants of forest green her shirt appears to be missing its left sleeve, the right one continuing down until it meets a brown leather glove covering her right hand.
Eptin is able to determine two things, firstly that the spearhead is actually some kind of sharp, pointed numenera device. Secondly, it appears to be lodged into some subdermal nanomesh that this woman appears to have in her body. Eptin is reasonably certain (being a Nano with knowledge of such strange things) that the spearhead is keeping the woman in her current state. He removes the spearhead and the woman immediately opens her eyes and begins looking around confused!
Where am I? she says as she climbs unsteadily to her feet
Who are you people? She asks a hint of suspicion in her voice
Hey, you did it, Eptin!" Voss booms enthusiastically, before lowering his voice when the prisoner asked her questions.
"We're guards for Deylish over there..." he says, indicating their boss, "Those raiders..." indicating the dead pirates "attacked us...and failed. We found you in their hold, in a cage, with that in your side."
"Eptin here , smarter than all of us, figured out that it was keeping you asleep..." he says, smiling and extending a hand to assit the woman to stand.
"Then it would seem that I am I your debt" the woman relies
"My name is Sirona, and if you need my aid, I would be happy to grant it. she smiles wryly
And if not, could I persuade you to grant me passage to Rachar, as I have Business there."