c02s03e06 - Beyond Thunderdome Day 64 First thing's first -- Dhraksis burns his favor with Beyonce to have her help figure out the black singularity the team found as the focus of the Draegoth ritual. She's happy to help.. turns out Draegoth has been pumping defiling energy into a focus to create a necrobomb. this one would be like 10k damage to everything in a five mile radius.. but it's not mobile itself, so where you build it is where it is going to explode.. so obviously Draegoth was planning on blowing up the city. Frank has some smart ideas. 1. instead of defiling energy.. make it radiant. After Beyonce makes good on her favor, a cabal of sage archons do the math and figure out how to alter the ritual. 2. cast the ritual in a ship large enough to house it... now float that ship to wherever they want to nuke. ... I wonder who thought of it first-- Frank just now or Draegoth priests when they were hauling airships back to Ledo. The sage archons figure they need to siphon off the energy through cures and absorbing damage... between the team and a lot of volunteers, they can safely dispel the the singularity in 16 days. There's actually a lot of converted draegoth priests currently anxious to help with the dispelling as well as provide information about plans for Bodak. Many of the cultists just killed themselves outright when the geastorm hit.. others resisted and died from the spell punishing them.. some of them converted and know things. Like, The plan behind destroying Bodak was a demonstration to Karrnath and the other nations to not fuck with Draegoth. The team totally black-eyed that plan.. and then stole the technology. Beyonce called that even, reclaimed the Houndsman on another task and left the surviving 4 lantern archons to further assist, as well as sage archons to help with law writing. Dhraksis needed 14 days to recover from wish sickness. Frank bounced back faster after wishing nondetection onto himself permanently.. only 7 days. It was day 63 when the storm hit.. so the geas lasts until 93rd day... plenty of time to put some new order in place with a compliant population. With the Archons' help, an effective theocratic, Progressive facist government was implemented placing a focus of civil liberties, fair distribution of resources claimed by the ruling state and dedication to the in partnered guideance of The Fury and AllSpark (official title in debate) -arm militia & modernize defenses -security risk that is the donut hole - rzorwire netting (octopus shit) and turrets -modify patrol for the ships to defend barter town while maintaining the Cragwar Recon contact -improve tower defense structures -crime needs to stop -dissolve monopolies -remove capitalism for any necesary resources -arrest oligarchs -homeless put to work -food for all -slavery outlawed -take Draegoth land to finance the new efforts Even without the Geas, the athasian population was surprisingly easily swayed by the conviction of the trio of god-serving warriors. With their minds on uncontrollable broadcast all the time, it was easy for the athasians to see how a reater power can provide guidance wtihout demanding control. If anything, the Athasians lacked something to believe in-- and this new experience was inspiring and exciting. Obviously, as previously discussed, these are nearly the perfect soldiers to build an army around. The sentiment was easily read by the athasians and the type of people that would leave their home city to forge a new independent freehome are the sort of people interested in making a difference. 15% of the population is PC worthy... the team has an accumulated 4000 adults. 600 total.. 15 classes .. 40 each @ level 1. The 4 archons also leveled along with the team; blowing a feat to freely shift from docent to floating ball is a neat trick, considering they've expressed much interest in serving the team. While things have cooled down in the city; the envoys from Karrnath, Aundair and Thrane are still stuck there without easy withdrawal while the team sits on the airships in the temple quad. -- Breland came to make trade.. Bartertown was happy to agree to reasonable trades involving hallucinegenic flowers and the massive pearls for resources to stabilize the city. -- Aundair also agreed to open trade policies, though Breland has gained the lionshare of trafic. V Also with the Aundair entourage was a Bard Arbiter with the Guild of Judges; Vermillion Starr is a well- published bard keen to exploring foreign and derivative cultures. Once THX was identified as a Judge as well, she volunteered overseeing the installment of the judicial system in Bartertown, agreeing to bring significant cases to THX for Final Arbitration. --Karrnath team was willing and able to assist in storming the temple. Prior to house arrest, the Draegoth shared a thought crystal holding the observance of a Draegoth necrobomb being detonated. The diplomats' minds revealed their revulsion and a list of war crimes this sort of magic violated among the Khorvaire nations. Draegoth took that to mean negotiations were over.. this is when the Karrnath were able to send word for help, summoning the karrnath Dreadnaught Cruiser that the team raided, leaving the envoys stranded. Though the Karrnath diplomats are sympathetic to the team's objectives, they are unwilling to broker a weapons deal because bartertown is unwilling to pledge alliance with Karrnath- which woudl require them to take a hostile stance against Thrane as a threatening nation to Karrnath's objectives. Bartertown firmly proclaims neither alliance nor hostility towards any of the Khorvaire nations. Thrane decrees Bartertown, Stryfe Keep and surrounding terrain south of Cragwar as protectorates of Thrane; vowing to defend the budding city-state from foreign hostility. This wrankles the Karrnath diplomats, who are allowed to have a ship pick them up to return to Karrnath... but negotiations are at a close. day 66 team moves alchemy lab to Bartertown... it'll be 10 days for the basic lab to be up and running. day 67 Leroy Tough - 1 of high council - warlord Estala Sustain - 1 of high council - mindbender return from Gulg with a contingent of druids that have negotiated agreement to healthy the city in exchange for a treaty of peace and trade rights... which Bartertown is open to honoring. Gulg is ruled by the cult of Oba. lalali puy high priestess of Oba margerah puy leader of the Oba delegation from Gulg. After spending some time with the soil, and talking with THX; they suspect the Draegoth templars were draining life from the crops to fuel defiling power... there was never anything wrong with the crops.. the soil THX tested had been depleted by defiling, but he's not familiar with it, so simply misjudged it for badland dirt. The side effect of this was Draegoth gets converts and a town dependent on the cult for survival. Recovering the earth will be a gradual process but with the environment so much more generous in nutrients it won't take long at all to be self sufficint again... about 90 days is what they need to recover the ground to so it will be the start of autumn by the time the soil around the city ahs recovered.. it'll be ready to plant by the following spring. the grain supplies from Wither's silo is enough to get them through winter... trade lines will need to be opened for the period between spring and autumn harvest next year, which Breland, Thrane, and Gulg are all willing to assist. day 70 Frank has recovered from his wish for nondetection. day 73 Rogar connect with the dwarven weapons dealer in marketplace-- Bromen Kilnheart-- about supplying Bartertown with arms and defenses... wich is a Tall order. The dwarf says it's not imposible but will take time... update in 14 days. (day 87) day 76 honest henry boat comes due along with a new payment of pearls. He's got a 60 foot skiff 30mph fishing barge (sidekicking with the crabship to fish off-shore) The team is able to claim the ship and pearls without challenge... suspicious is starting to rise regarding the thwarted pirates. the amount of disrespect the Team served to the pirate crew would warrant a violent response from the Llazhaar collective as a matter of principle.. but so far nothing. Bartertown alchemy labs set up; able to produce 10 doses of any alchemy formula known every 7 days. as per shop rules here: <a href="http://dmsworkshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04" rel="nofollow">http://dmsworkshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04</a>... team setting up a magic lab in Bartertown. 10 days for common (day 86), 30 for uncommon (day 106), 60 for rare (day 136), and in 100 days (day 176) day 77 dhraksis recovers from wish sickness. day 80 The team has diffused the Draegoth necrobomb. Abbot Bobbi has new coordinates for the next cyre stronghold-- located near the southern tip of Mekillot Mountains. Taking a ship to check it out, a vast expanse of the ivory plains has simply caved in on itself, creating a massive indentation of damp clay and mud sinking at points hundreds of feet. Nothing evident on the surface of the plains indicating a stronghold... Dhraksis takes some crab custard to pick up tremorsense and gets a read that there's vast caverns underground here as well... Princess can't dig her way to an opening, but Dhraksis takes some more custard and OD's enough to acquire earthglide for disadvantage on strenght and dex skill and saves plus reduced movement until he can heal through the fatigue. earthglide allows swimming through earth without threat of suffocating while active. Water is coursing through the porous rock between the ivory plains and the deep caverns.. its not surprising the plains collapsed after taking in so much rain. the force of the moving water creates some obstacles for Dhraksis to overcome, but once he does, he breaches the ceiling of the cavern to find deposits of black ooze clinging to the ceiling stalagmites in a cavern miles in volume... More evidence that the warmek skiff back at the underground entrance of Cragwood was meant to travel far underground... and legitimizing Kiva's story about an extensive world beneath the surface. Unfortunately, Dhraksis doesn't have the protection needed to properly investigate the area for any evidence of Cyre... recovering the skiff and investigating below is the most obvious path to take-- they may be able to find the route the cyrans would have taken themselves back when these sites were still active during the height of the war some 400 to 200 years ago. The team also finds a downed aundair ship in the hills of mekillot mountain, "Three Feathers", which has been stripped of its helm and left discarded. Damage to the ships indicate giants, but the tracks are mysteriously absent from entering or leaving this area. >> end of session <<< Day 80 ... beginning of summer. Now level 11 Loot acquired: ritual of radiant nuke fishing skiff (hooked on life) city of Bartertown Loot expended: - Frank's wish - Dhraksis' favor from Beyonce