BlackFlame/FirstGameMeetings
note: Story technically starts in Moksha's backstory, continues in Arius's.
Contents
Two Solars, a Boat, and an Attack
Gentle Rain continues along the course the captain plotted out days ago, moving from one port to another at the captain's whim. All in all it has been a pretty uneventful for the last few months, no big storms, no monsters, and best of all no Realm ships. That was about to change.
Arius was up on the deck...staring out at the sea...wondering where he was going to go. Moksha was also on deck, wondering if his Gem of Forgetfulness would be enough to give the Guild the slip. Moksha didn't give a damn about the white haired guy in power armor, and Arius didn't remember meeting the guy in the cloak with the bow that was wrapped up like a mummy.
The Ocean's Bounty slid in close to Gentle Rain and prepared to surface.
Both solars on the deck notice something under the surface of the water, however they are completely unprepared for a ship to appear beside them. They are also not ready for a Dragonblood to jump onto Gentle Rain with a cry of "Die Anathema!" Moksha is worried at first, until he sees that the target of the attack is the "God-Blood" in power armor. He helps out by firing a shot from his powerbow. The DB is not prepared to face off against two Solars, and quickly goes down under Arius's assault. Arius continues the battle by jumping down onto The Ocean's Bounty and taking the heads from two bowmen who had fired upon him. The ship then dived...very quickly, while Arius jumped back to safety.
After some introductions the two solars decided that two Exalts were better than one if the Wyld Hunt actually showed up in force. At the next port they were promptly asked to leave by the terrified captain and crew.
Our heroes arrive in Ebonheart...and attract the attention of a functionary of the Vvardenfell government whose job is to keep an eye out for powerful looking individuals. His name is Doda...he has a secret.
An Unexpected Ally
Read Doda's backstory.
First things first...what do you do after a long sea voyage? Why drink of course! After our two heroes have a couple of drinks they are approached by a man claiming to be an artifact hunter. After the language barrier is handled (somewhat) they find out that his name is Doda, then they get down to business. He says that they look like capable individuals, and he thinks that they would be assets on a trip he was planning. Are they interested?
Of course they are! The only problem is that Doda has no such plans, in fact he has no idea where to go or who to talk to so he runs back to his governmental contact in Vivec to see if he can get some advice. He is told that there are reports of something strange going on in Gnar Mok and that he should try to find out the capabilities of these strange new visitors.
A quick boat ride later and the group had arrived at Hla Oad. They discovered that the river that flowed into the swamp surrounding the town had begun to overflow. That and a group of raiders had just kidnapped a group of the town's young women. After some debating the trio decides to tackle the river problem first since it seemed the most immediate problem. After finding out that the town usually had good relations with the river god Okuton they set out to his lair to see why he had decided to flood the village.
After following the river to the Okuton's waterfall lair a massive fight breaks out. Gouts of water erupt from under the characters shooting them into the air. Moksha uses one of the water bursts to launch himself to the top of the waterfall to snipe at Okuton. Needless to say when Arius gets close enough to bring his Grand Daiklave to bear the fight doesn't last much longer. Doda lands the last hit, and in an effort to extort some info and any other reward he can get he just knocks him out. During the battle Doda figures out that his two companions are Solars due to the golden auras. He just spent personal however so Arius and Moksha were still clueless as to his identity.
After the interrogation they find out the god was just crying because he missed the maidens that were supposed to sing for him...though the group got the feeling that that wasn't all the maidens did. They decided to go back to Hla Oad to track the bandits and rescue the young women who had been kidnapped. Doda used his eclipse power, when the others were not looking, to bind Okuton to never flood the river again.
Babes, Bandits, and the High Seas
Moksha put the skills he had learned as a bounty hunter, as well as some charms, to track the trail of the bandits. After about two days of travel (the trail was lost a few times) the bandits base was found to be located in a cave. Moksha went in first since he was the most stealthy. He discovered nine bandits, of which only three were awake, and he proceded to introduce all of them to his arrows. Once all the bandits, except one, were dead the group searched the cavern complex. They found no prisoners, but they did find records that a shipment had went out two days ago. The last bandit informed them that the leader of the bandits had left with the prisoners and was now on ship headed west.
They needed a ship.
They quickly traveled back to Hla Oad and jumped the first boat back to Ebonheart. They arrived just as the sun was starting to brighten the eastern sky. Now they just needed to find a ship willing to go after the bandits.
After some investigation they decided to approach a ship that had just docked that morning. It was called Treetoh and its owner was General Chark. After telling their story, and promising the General a share in the reward (which they didn't know if they'd be getting) he agreed to let them use his ship. The chase was on.
Thanks to the sailing charms of the actual captain of the vessel, one Hakafu Songsaku, the speed of the ship was much greater than the one they were pursuing. The distance to their quarry was steadily lessened throughout the day. As the sun started to set and paint the sea red and gold the chase was over, but the fight was just about to begin.
Arius leaped from the Treetoh's yardarm crossing about 20 feet of open water coming down directly at the obvious leader of the bandits. He preformed an astonishing feat of athletics and acrobatics, all of which was for naught as his opponent easily parried his blow and preformed a counterattack with his red jade daiklave. After a brutal series of blows the God-blood showed Arius that it doesn't mattered how much damage a grand daiklave could do...if it couldn't hit. Also that regular daiklave's don't hurt as much, but could hit more often.
After a disastrous exchange Arius preformed a series of jumps which, thanks to his Crane Stance, left him at the top of the mast mercifully out of reach. General Chark began to shout orders, Doda grabs a bow from a crewman and fires a few ineffective arrows across the way. After some debating Moksha unleashed the full power of his archery charms into the God-blooded leader. His anima flared to full totemic glory as he unleashed a deadly volley of arrows into his opponent. With the leader down the fight didn't last much longer.
With the slavers captured, the captives freed, and the booty divided the crew of Treetoh split between the two ships and sailed back to Vvardenfell. Once back in port at Ebonheart the slavers were turned over to the local law enforcement, and the captive maidens were shipped back to Hla Oad. In thanks an emissary from the Vivec government granted full rights of plunder to the group who split monetary rewards amongst Moksha, Arius, and Doda. General Chark meanwhile was given full ownership of the captured vessel, which he renamed Shattered Chains. He then bought a Letter of Marque from the official and declared himself Admiral Chark the Pirate Scourge, though he still goes by General most of the time.
The group decided to take a little time off to find out more about Vvardenfell, do some training, and recruit some crew members. Rence ,Arius's merchant, set up a shop in Balmora to use to liquidate any booty that they captured while pirate hunting, as well as serve as a land base if the "fleet" had any jobs of a more mercantile nature.
Wasting Time
One day while they were going about there business Arius heard a commotion coming from the direction of the docks. He grabbed the rest of the group and they decided to check it out. When they arrived at the docks they saw that the excitement was do to a vessel coming into the harbor. The vessel was unusual in that it had no sails and that it was coming in as the tide went out. Remembering their last run in with a ship with no sails the characters were on high alert. Moksha activated a Stealth charm, Arius tried to blend in with the crowd, Gen. Chark was on board Treetoh and didn't know the significance of a sailless ship, though he was watching what was going on, and Doda decided to use his position in the government to find out what was going on.
However, it was a completely different ship than the one that they had encountered before. After some snooping around they were able to find out that it was named Dark Harvest and was captained by Sailor on the Seas of Woe. The crew unloaded some cargo which was taken into the custody of the Ordinators. Now amount of prying by the group could find out what was going on, and Arius soon became frustrated. He withdrew his daiklave from elsewhere and proceeded to walk directly in front of Sailor orichalcum in full view. Sailor appeared to show no emotion to all but the keenest eye, which belonged to Moksha.
The nearby Ordinators quickly confronted Arius and demanded that he put away his sword. They explained that they didn't really care about him, as long as he didn't cause any trouble, but they didn't want any rumors about someone using orichalcum to draw the Realm's eyes to Vvardenfell.
After their investigations didn't really get them anywhere the group gave up. The only thing they knew was that the government of Vvardenfell was somehow involved in whatever cargo was being unloaded from Dark Harvest. It was decieded that they should keep an eye out for any info they could get on Sailor.
A few days later a letter was sent to Gen. Chark, through Rence. It was from a member of House Hlaalu, one Hlaalu Lendoric, and he had a proposition for them, but he required a face to face in Balmora. Moksha, Arius, and Gen. Chark set out to the meeting, while Doda set off to Ald'ruhn saying he had some business he wanted to look into.
Once there they met with Lendoric who said that they might be able to come to a long term arrangement that would be mutually beneficial to all involved. First, though they would have to prove themselves by taking a cargo to Coral, no questions asked. Gen. Chark did NOT like this, but he eventually caved to pressure from Arius and Moksha.
Meanwhile...in Ald'ruhn...
Doda decided that the best way to increase his knowledge of martial arts, and through that his power, was to join the martial house of Vvardenfell, Redoran. He made his way to Ald'ruhn which was the house's seat of power. He brazenly approached the Redoran Stronghold, walked up to the first person he saw, and demanded to know how to join the house. The person calmly replied that he would have to impress the House leaders, either through service to Vvardenfell, or by some feat of arms. The speaker told him to try for the former because he doubted Doda would be capable of the latter.
Doda, being the fairly overconfident Solar that he was, had a different opinion. He challenged the stranger to a duel, to show that he had skill enough to join the House. The stranger rose...and dropped into a stance, and it was only now that Doda thought to ask who he was talking to.
"My name is Redoran."
"Redoran what?"
"Just Redoran."
"Ulp."
A few bruises later Doda learned that fighting a master of the Earth Dragon Style was like fighting an avalanche. He left Ald'ruhn with Redoran's words ringing in his ears..."You show some promise, but a true warrior is wise as well as powerful. A warrior does not just rush into a battle with no knowledge of his foe, unless there is no other choice. Train your mind as well as your body, and perhaps in time I will let you join my House."
An Unknown Cargo
Eventually everyone ended up back in Ebonheart. Preparations were made for the trip to Coral, after which they awaited the arrival of Lendoric and the cargo they would be carring. Gen. Chark still grumbled about the unknown cargo, but the others agreed the rewards would make the trip worthwhile.
The trip to Coral was uneventful, with one exception. The third night at sea Moksha's curiosity got the better of him and he had to know what cargo they were carrying. His stealth charms made sneaking past the House Hlaalu guards extremely easy, as it should be for a Night caste. Once in the hold he moved to a cargo container and popped the lid. He discovered...rocks, plain ordinary rocks, and a device which was obviously supposed to detect if the crate had been tampered with. Seeing his mistake he tried to reset the device so that his prying would not be discovered, and made his way back out of the hold. He reported his findings to Gen. Chark and they both spent the rest of the journey hoping that the snooping would go unnoticed.
The arrived in Coral, the crates where unloaded, and Moksha and Gen. Chark held their breath. After a tense hour or so Lendoric came walking up to the characters, broke into a large smile and congratulated them for passing the test. They could now consider themselves to be in business with House Hlaalu. The group decided to celebrate their new status with a night out on the town, and begin their trip back to Vvardenfell the next day.
Everyone was in good spirits on the way back to Vvardenfell, but the trip back would have a complication, beastmen. It was a night that was illuminated by the wane light of the stars. The crew and characters had fallen into a comfortable routine, and no one was paying much attention as the sharkmen began to climb out of the water and up the sides of Treetoh and Shattered Chains. Everyone was surprised when the screaming began.
The sharkmen swarmed onto the deck at least a score on each ship. Hakafu and Bromiel, who were both on Shattered Chains, lead the defense of that ship leaving Treetoh to Moksha, Chark, Arius, and Doda. Unfortunately for them the Lunar leader of the raid was also onboard. The battle with the sharkmen was going well for the group, Arius was scything through their ranks, Moksha felled one with each shot, Chark's goremaul rose and fell, and Doda held his own against multiple foes...until Swims in Shadows joined the fray. The Solars were hard pressed by Luna's chosen, and after a few seconds the night was lit with the glow of four glowing solar animas, at which point Swims in Shadows looked surprised...and then promptly jumped from the ship, and his sharkmen soon followed.
The confused solars were left on deck with their crew to try to figure out what had happened. As they assessed the damage, treated the wounded, and honored the dead the puzzle of the attack still hung with them. They arrived back at Vvardenfell with their first accomplishment as a group, the new relationship with House Hlaalu. However they all knew that they had also experienced their first defeat, or they would have if the battle on the ship had continued.
A Trip North
Gen. Chark was quite happy with his additional ship. But one thing that was better than two ships was...three ships. After some talks with native he found out that the main shipyards of Vvardenfell were in the norther city of Dagon Fel. The General was quite busy setting up his new found trading combine with House Hlaalu. Doda was making himself useful to the General due to his knowledge of the political landscape of the island. That left Arius and Moksha to head north.
The boat ride to Dagon Fel was uneventful. Arius and Moksha completed their inspection of the drydocks and were happy that this mission had actually been accomplished without any complications, they then found a boat to take them back to Ebonheart. It was during the trip back that the complication arose in the form of a very large storm hitting them and driving them to the north, and further out to sea.
The storm was fierce, and the Solar's luck continued to hold, and continued to be bad as the boat pilot was washed overboard within the first ten minutes of the storm. Neither Moksha nor Arius had any skill with boats, however they tried their best...which was not good enough. The boat capsized throwing them both into the storm tossed sea. Arius spotted land in the distance and they both gave everything they had, and were able to crawl onto the beach before they collapsed from exhaustion.
When they awoke the sun was shining, and it did not take them long to realized that they weren't on Vvardenfell anymore, the main clue was that there was snow visible further inland. There was no sign of the storm that had brought them to this unfamiliar shore.
After getting their bearing the two Solars set off toward some smoke that they saw North-Northwest of their current location. After a few hours of walking, most of which Arius spent grumbling about Moksha's slow pace, they arrived at a small town. Talks with the locals let them know their location, Solsteim a smaller island north of Vvardenfell. The discussion ended with them being asked to leave, it seemed the citizens of Skaal didn't like outsiders.
The set out toward the south, where they had been told they could get passage back to Vvardenfell. Just as they crested a rise they heard screams of terror and the howls of many wolves. They quickly moved toward the sounds and discovered a pack of wolfmen pursuing a young girl. The wolfmen appeared to be toying with her, letting her get some distance away before closing he gap and nipping at her. They couldn't let this stand.
Two wolfmen died before they knew they had company, one with an arrow in the heart, the other with one in the eye. Arius used his power armor's awesome speed to quickly close and engage the remaining wolfmen himself. Moksha proceeded to cover the girl's escape, as well as picking off a few as they attempted to surround Arius. In less than a minute the girl was safe, most of the wolfmen lay dead or dying, and a small number retreated deeper into the forest.
The girl's name was Pia. An orphan who had been exiled from Skaal. Moksha and Arius both felt very sorry for her, and offered to let her travel with them back to Vvardenfell. She graciously accepted, and thanked them both for their kindness. Everything was going exactly as planned.
The three made it back to Vvardenfell without further incident. Pia proved to be more resourceful than she seemed after the characters tried to get her to stay in Balmora "out of the way" against her will. After accepting that they wouldn't be able to get rid of her they allowed her to stay with the main group.
While Moksha and Arius were away Doda decided it was time that he distance himself from the Vvardenfell Government. He went to the headquarters of the Bureaucracy in Vivec to put in his resignation as he put it. After being passed around, waiting in many lines, and filling out forms he was finally sent to an audience chamber...however this chamber was not in the Bureaucracy, but in Vivec's Palace. Doda was standing in front of Vivec himself. Feeling a little intimidated he reiterated his desire to leave Vivec's employ.
"Uh, umm...I'm here to quit."
"No you're not"
"Well actually yes I am"
"No. You're not. You're here to find out that Hlaalu Lendoric will be paying your circle a little visit. You're going to think what he has to say is an excellent idea, and you're going to whole heartedly support it."
"Uhmm...ok."
"Now, get back to Ebonheart Eclipse...and don't forget who you serve."
"Yes sir..."
A New Direction
About a day later Rence recieved a message from Hlaalu Lendoric. It was a request to have a meeting with Rence's employers. The sit down between the circle and the Hlaalu was set to take place in Ebonheart. At the meeting Lendoric passed on some news he thought the group might find interesting. It seemed that some artifacts dating from the First Age had been found in the Northeast. It seemed that the Dynastic Houses were on the move, and many people were making a fortune. When asked why that House Hlaalu was passing on this information Lendoric responded very cryptically.
"It seems that members in my house think that it would be better if proven allies were to uncover a cache of artifacts than strangers...or worse yet Dynasts. Use this information if you wish...or don't, my obligation has been removed by delivering the message."
After the Hlaalu had left discussions were entered, with Doda and Moksha for taking to the Northeast, Arius undecieded, and Gen. Chark leaning toward staying in the West. Eventually Doda was able to convice everyone that a voyage was in order. Preperations were made, the ships were stocked, and the journey began. To Rubylak, and beyond.
Epilogue
Story continues in The Fortress
back to:BlackFlame/FirstGame
Comments
I added a comments to this because I wanted to tell you that the story is rockin. - Alicrast
Yea, I took a little poetic license with some things, heh. - BF
