c02s02e06 - Let's Start a War Day 43 - 48 = 6 day downtime used to: 1. equip BlackFly with weaponry and refurbish for long recon missions 2. black market weapon trading - the Relic of Evil: sword -- getting that out of house and swapping it for some quality magic sword action for frank. Trading it through the Zil guild houses leaves a smaller trail back to Cragwar; They'll have a order pick up on Day 60. 3. church tending in Cragwar by THX leads to new total of 17 followers.. 3 away from self-sustain. Also-- first athasian parishoner now living at the Cragwar church under THX. 4. Dhraksis taps his Contact -- establishing communication with Larkin. Larkin is a Bodak trader, fence and smuggler who's been working with Dhraksis' ally, Fitzberg. Fitzberg and Larkin are selling Athasian hallucinogens to rich Aundair socialites. --Larkin reports that diplomats from Karrnath, Aundair, and Breland are guests in Bodak currently... rumor is that they are attempting to negotiate trade and alliances with the different city-states of Athas.. and that Draegoth controls the government of Balic, Ledo collective, and now Bodak as of 9 months ago. --Larkin verifies the missing two Wolf Pack ships got brought in to Bodak and stolen by the Draegoth cult, who then sent the ships to Balic about a week ago. 5. Stonecure production - 33 total produced as of Day 48. They spend 6 doses on the petrified athasians and 3 thrane warriors to begin interviewing them. (down to 27 doses) 6. interviewing the petrified athasians as well as petrified thrane soldiers -- Athasians are 3 brothers turned into Necropolites... normal people turned into a sort of sentient zombie by Draegoth magic. They no longer starve to death, but are eternally hungry. They also can't heal naturally... they need Draegoth magic to provide healing... normal cure spells don't work on necropolites. Once a necropolite drops to zero HP they become cunning ghouls, fast and tireless while retaining their intelligence. Some of these escaped into the underground crab tunnels in cragwood. These three were hired to accompany the Draegoth warlock on a seed-collecting scout mission when the Draegoth priest led them into the Cragwood fort and started monkeying around. The three brothers got petrified trying to run from the automated defenses. -- Thrane soldiers are all possessed commoners. The real sentience in charge are low-tier Lantern Archons that act as high-functioning operatives in the war against cyre. This was very popular in Thrane until Cyre figured out that if you petrify the host, the angel is trapped inside undetectable and unable to take action. Cragwood Fort was a storage house for transporting the POW's to hell where the angels could be tortured and turned. 7. finish clearing the Cragwood Fort -- additional warforged mec and augments are recovered... details in the loot thread. -- a reinforced double hanger door wide enough for 2 Titan units are uncovered. NONE of the warforged have any memory or references to the passage that lies beyond... a 2 mile corridor reinforced with iron leads miles underground where more reinforced doors are found peeled open from the outside. The wrecked doors oepn into a massive blackened cavern with a landing dock fit for 2 ships. the cavern is measured in miles for in length width and possibly height. -- 1000 feet below the docks on a rocky outcropping of the wall, a wrecked warforged gunship lies smashed. if recovered and repaired, it can be manned by 3 docents for control and weapons while providing enough room for 10 people or two additional weapon platforms. The team sent scout mec town to check it out so they wouldn't have to worry about being eaten by spiders... the scouts confirm mild spider activity from dog-sized spiders down at that depth. Too much to burn out with a torch... Thick monstrous spider webbing expands from nearby wall tethers.. Dhraksis senses the spiders are in a sort of Torpor/state of hybernation. -- the team logics there's no way the gunship would have fit through the corridor... so there's got to be a point of exit down there somewhere... but they're putting a pin on that mystery until they have more information. 8. sort out new team members between remnants of The Wolf Pack, athasian prisoners, the cyran warforged and the thawed thrane warriors -- specifics will be detailed in the Loot Thread -- A few athasians are good enough alchemists to be able to help expand stonecure production from 4 per 5 days to 6 per 5 days. 9. Aundair bounty hunter came looking for the Gilded Edge. The team met him in Cragwar as the new Ivory Plains security detail to work with the hunter... Jake the huntsman. Turns out Leopold Ir'Giliard is the son of an Aundair Duke who got hooked on Athasian Senseroot. He went missing two weeks ago and intel indicates he made his way down to Salt View. Some of the wolf pack mercs admitted they had pirated the ship and sold both the duke's son as well as the ship to Bodak traders. 10. scouting of cragwood and Ivory Plains desert -- there's crop circle patterns of dead land amidst withers' wheat fields now. ranging from 5 to 25 foot diameter disks of scorched-gray earth They proceed linearly from the Eastern edge of cragwood through withers' land towards Bodak. -- after the rains stop again, the desert plains absorb the water quickly... but the land begins to buckle under the weight.. large drops up to 50 feet instances are tearing up the once-smooth plains surface. Land travel is becoming a new challenge finding stable paths that won't collapse under mekillot weight. day 49 = relaying between Larkin and Dhraksis takes time. giving him Tug's sending stone. They can now communicate freely with him. He'll be on mekillot caravan out of Salt View from day 50 to 55 ending in Bodak.. it should only take 2 days, but with the rough terrain intensifying, his travel time is going to double. He can keep eye on town for the team once he's arrived. day 50 = The team is putting pieces together and recognize Draegoth + Karrnath necrotech = bad idea. Also... they're seizing ships now. once they are airborn, it will be very difficult to contain the athasians.. and if Draegoth is spreading athasian defiling, khorvaire could face the same fate as Athas. 1. tell Baron Ir'Flanagan at Cragwar of Draegoth and Envoys at Bodak. 2. tell Zil guildmasters about Draegoth and karrnath efforts to partner with the cult. -- stone cure: 6 more doses now that athasian alchemists are helping production (33 doses total) day 51- 53 patrolling Bodak region of the Ivory Plains - Waiting to see if the Karrnath diplomats will leave on their ship... an opportunity to do some privateering for Thrane. - they see a large procession of Draegoth, warriors, and commoners between Stryfe Keep heading to Bodak. - Rancher Jebediah is randomly encountered heading from Bodak towards his ranch... upon interviewing, turns out he had the idea of selling seeds to Bodak, and picked up a case of Necropolite from a Draegoth Cultist. The team ended him and his yak in a hurry. day 53 midday the team spot a karrnath Battle Cruiser sauntering in from the southeast towards Bodak... land's end is southeast... the must have taken the long way around q'brra to come around the contienent from the southeast. The team took this to mean that karrnath was escalating their relations with Bodak, and decided to take direct action. Readying the ship for a crash-assault, they head full-speed on a collision course with the massive battleship... </end session> time sent in game: 10 days (ending afternoon day 53) 2/3 way to level 8 Loot acquired - ownership of Cragwood fortress from Raskal - Desert recon contract (37 day trial period til old contract expires = from day 43 -> day 80) - balistas on BlackFly - the now-blackpainted aundair damselfly - (awaiting arrival on Day 60) +1 greatsword 3d6 damage - 2 new titan warforged - 4 new goliath warforged - lots of warforged augments (see revised loot list) - many new recruits (see revised loot list) Loot expended - raskal favor (for Cragwood and ending contract with Raskal) - cragwood favor (for Cragwood fortress deed) - cragwood favor (for desert recon contract) - open favor worth of gens and cyran coins (for extra set of sending stones) - Sword of Evil (traded to zil guildsmen for new Frank weapon)