As was common in the post-gnoll war Blue Star Principality, the season saw heavy infrastructure improvements, with varying structures and services being laid out across the camps and towns of the Principality. The harvest season also saw a continuation of the summer's exploration. Black Tori and her 'shadow' of elite rangers attempted to pierce the thick marshland to the north. The pace was painfully slow, with thick underbrush and muddy terrain making stealth a near impossibility. Biting insects harassed the party constantly, and within a day almost the entire party were running high fevers. On top of all this, the party also routinely had to hunker down when some massive beast could be heard crashing through the underbrush, or when a spiny scaled back was seen slowly drifting in a swampy pool. All of this compounded to slow movement to a pathetic kilometre a day, horrifically slow considering these were the quickest infantry the Principality had. The gravity of how hostile the environment first set in when the first ranger fell face first into the mud, convulsing and vomiting until finally laying still, and was compounded when the second and third fell. Black Tori was seriously considering turning her troop back when they finally found something worth reporting. Spread out along the banks of the first major river were rows of walled and irrigated rice fields, and interspersed between them were stout stone towers. Across the river was a city of great stone pyramids and towers, ringed by a series of rising walls. And throughout the rice farms and teeming in the river on dozens of boats or simply swimming, were wide set, upright walking lizards, their thick skin and long snouts resembling alligators. Many of the workers appeared to wear nothing, while the soldiers wore elaborate scaled armour and wielded wicked looking spears and hooked swords. Hauling supplies along roadways between fields were large four-legged reptilian creatures with long swaying tails, and here and there what was likely an officer rode on wingless, draconian beasts. The troop began their return trip after a day of observation. The rangers' fevers were getting critical, and even Black Tori was finding it hard to continue moving. Their condition failed them when they were set upon by a pack of dwarf sized, two legged reptilian beasts that leapt from the trees and tore with sharp claws and jaws. Only Black Tori and two rangers escaped the swamps, in thanks and as a consequence of Black Tori using the hound skull, and in a fevered daze slew the beasts, along with a couple of the friendly rangers.
Another party, led by Bagalar, was sent once again north in search of the mountains and the fabled bird-people, braving the hounds that stalked the plains. Once again using scorpio as a back bone for the expedition, the party made a cautious pace along the central river. Soon they were being shadowed by packs of the large hounds, though the dogs seemed to have learned from the summer, and always stayed far off, and keeping hills in between them and the siege weapons. As the party marched north, the stalkers continued to grow, going from a single pack of ten or so to dozens of packs, many led by bear sized alpha hounds. It became very clear that the hounds greatly outnumbered the expedition, yet the beasts made no move to attack, though they did noticeably encircle the party. After a long trek north across the plains, the expedition finally reach the mountains. Looking up from the foothills, Bagalar could clearly see small avian figures flitting about the distinct shape of fortresses in the peaks. The party camped in the defensible foot hills, scorpio trained on the mass of hounds, now numbering well over two hundred. Despite attempts to gain the avian creatures' attention, they appeared unaware of the party, or simply ignored them, and any thoughts of climbing the peaks were quickly discarded when the issue of how to haul up the scorpios was raised. While the party camped for a few days, there were frequent sightings of small grey creatures scampering amongst the rocks, evidently some sort of mountain dwelling goblins. Indeed, upon further inspection, the mountainside was dotted with cave entrances that the creatures would sometimes dart in and out of. Eventually growing weary of the ceasless howling of hundreds of hounds, the party set off for home. The dogs did not interrupt the party, but formed a ring around them. Just before leaving hound territory north of Garsun, the beasts halted, and began closing in on the party. Scorpios were ranged and armed, but Bagalar halted them from firing, he knew there was no chance of breaking free anyway. The hounds came close enough that the whites of their eyes could be seen, then a single, absurdly massive alpha approached them. It towered above the soldiers, well higher than an elephant. To everyone's horror, the beast suddenly jerked forward, snapping and crushing a halfing ranger in its jaws. A slaughter almost ensued, but Bagalar halted the soldiers from retaliating, instead simply watching helplessly as the great hound devoured the ranger. With a blood soaked sneer, the monster withdrew, and the ring of hounds opened, allowing the party to escape.
A third and final expedition, led by Second Mate Snarl Rogers, was sent westward in search of a rumoured second nation of gnolls. They very quickly found them, and to their surprise the gnolls were friendly. A patrol of gnolls greeted the party, and escorted them to their city. Far from the chaotic sprawl of the eastern gnoll city, this city was well constructed and organised, with impressive stone fortifications and expansive farmland. The gnolls were hardly the savages of the east, with only the apparently rather small warrior caste being armed, though well armed they were with shining metal armour and swords. The city was bustling with tradesfolk and farmers, and they almost one and all would stop to warmly greet astounded soldiers. Unlike the eastern gnolls, their didn't appear to be any outlying camps, with almost all stone and metal arriving via a northern trade road evidently leading to the mountain range. A meeting with a 'governor' went surprisingly well, and the leader, going by the title Clear Eyes, quickly offered to share the cost of constructing a trade road. The party was given room and board during their stay, then escorted back to Principality territory.
Far to the northwest, Aleweryn's black ship issue continued with a new incident. Smooth Pardus' Saskatchewan Sunrise once again caught up with the mysterious ship, catching it in the act of abducting some fishers. As the patrol vessel approached the black ship, the sailors were surprised to see that the fishers simply left their ship and climbed aboard the black vessel by their own accord. With the warlocks' dark magics and grapples the patrol ship tied itself to the black ship in hopes of keeping it from speeding away as it did before. The Sea Prince and his marines boarded the ship, finding the top deck entirely devoid of any sign of life. The ship was in horrid shape, sails torn and wood rotted, leaving no doubt that the vessel was propelled almost entirely by some sort of sorcery. There was no sign of the fishers on top, so the marines crept into the ships hold, and there they found the interior to be entirely filled with gold coins and bones. A crushingly oppressive atmosphere seemed to almost suffocate the marines, who had to flee to the top deck, retching into the ocean. Smooth Pardus snatched one of the coins before escaping the hold as well, and just in time, as the ship began moving forward, yanking the Sasketchewan Sunrise with it. The marines desperately clambered back aboard the patrol ship, and were forced to hack through the grapple lines, lest the ship be torn apart by the freakish power of the black ship. As the floating tomb raced off into the horizon, Smooth inspected the coin, recognising it as one of the oddly marked coins in circulation in Aleweryn.
Stat Changes
-800 food, +150 wood, +80 metal, -2 ballistae from Shining Horde deal
-160 currency, +2 patrol ships from Sails' Guild contract
-1501 wood, -535 stone, -605 metal, -200 unemployed population, -75 civilian weapons, +75 metal from construction
-108 currency, -15 templars, -39 unemployed population, +10 warlocks, +10 field surgeons, +3 rangers, +8 cavalry, +8 hound riders, +15 saboteurs from military recruitment and disbandment
-8 rangers from marshland expedition
-1 ranger from hound snack
-5 population from black ship abductions
-109 currency from military upkeep
+20 currency from 1 OTA
+258 currency from taxation
+1747 food from overproduction
+1250 wood
+675 stone
+625 metal
+1 stability from growth chance
+2xp for Smooth Pardus (expedition)
+2xp for Black Tori (expedition)
+2xp for Bagalar (expedition)
+2xp for Cedhar (expedition)
+1xp for military skill (expeditions)
+10xp for colony (2xp for expeditions, 8xp for structures)
Events
- Militarists want an immediate strike against the northern hounds to either kill them all, or at least show them that Principality soldiers can not be harmed without repercussion. Supporting merchants also suggest that if relations with the avian race are still desired, the hounds will stand in the way. Opposition, including Bagalar believe that conflict with the hounds could be disastrous. Bagalar in particular believes that nothing be death will come from venturing north in force. He admits that the hounds are dangerous, but he believes the murder of the ranger was just the hounds sending a message, as they could have easily slaughtered the whole company if so desired.
- Expanionists and merchants are eager for a larger expedition into the marshland to establish contact with the lizardfolk for trade. Others are worried that if the lizardfolk prove to be hostile, their defensible terrain and advanced society could be far to difficult a threat to deal with. Black Tori emphatically refuses to return to the marshes, and warns everyone that the marshes are 'a soggy sharthole.'
- Many are suspicious of the western gnolls, given the recent history with the race. The most negative reaction comes from the Principality gnoll citizens themselves, who dismiss their western cousins as 'domesticated,' ignoring the fact that they now belong to a foreign confederacy themselves.
Quests
Lost Seas
- The failure to capture the black vessel has further frustrated Smooth Pardus, as well as compounded the growing unease amongst the elves. An investigation about the gold coins found that the coins had entered general circulation following the revolution, most likely having been possessions of the human refugees taken in from a dying colony to the west. The coins do not appear to be normal currency of any human nation, but without any surviving human refugees, its unknown where the originated from.
