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[ 11374 ]

Intrigue in the Palmar

[ 2003 - '06 ]

 

Feib 11374 - Having journeyed through the Point of Know Return, the RoachKings found themselves once again on the airship, sailing westward among the clouds over the ocean of their home world. They continued to do so for many days before Shady noticed a small island far out to the south. He recruited a couple of elven crew members, gave them shadow wings, and flew off to investigate. They discovered a tribal society that was being oppressed by a pair of shadow dragons. Shady & the elves took out the dragons and discovered that their lair was, in fact, a mithril mine. Needless to say, they established a RoachKing claim on the ore.

Back on the airship, the RKs continued to sail west until they reached the shore of their home continent, becoming the first people ever to sail completely around the world of Lia. However, there were some odd lingering effects of the voyage. For instance, they and their world felt somehow "different" now [Lia was now a GURPS campaign setting.] And then there was the fact that, even though they had sailed around the world, they still did not know what lay on the other side of Lia. Clearly, there had been a long, strange trip in between, but none of them could recall everything that had occurred over the past 5 years. It was as if they had simply lost several years of time.

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[ 06/28/2003 ] Houghton & the Dark Gnome War . . .

27-Feib - The RoachKings landed on their home continent at the river port city of Houghton, in the Braish Barony called The Palmar. This left them still across the entire breadth of the continent from their castle on Pasadena Island. To the best of their knowledge, their home still hovered high above the outer Bromar Sea, thousands of miles to the west.

The RoachKings knew of Palmar primarily as a land of horsemen. The Braish warhorse breed is known to have originated there and the Palmarans are renowned for the engineering & craftsmanship of their chariots as well, as the RKs could see in the city’s streets [the BMWs of chariots.] Salád once journeyed to Palmar with Amblinon and they both obtained Palmaran steeds there. However, the RKs noticed that their ships were not nearly as advanced – quite primitive, in fact – and they exhibited an intense prejudice against elves.

The RKs also saw a man walk out into the street and use what was essentially a small hand-held cannon to try and “teach a lesson” to an obviously-wealthier man in a chariot. The only problem was that the device blew up in his hands, severely injuring him. The presence of gunpowder technology in the streets of a Braish city was concerning, and what it could do to a class struggle that seemed about to boil over didn’t bode well either. As they got a meal and gathered news, the RKs found out that the gunpowder & weapon had been taken in the war from some of the “dark gnomes” up north. It seemed that the local gentry did’t think much of this “new manna-free magic” and felt it would come & go quickly, like any fad.

Feib 1 - The RoachKings wanted to know more about where this technology came from, so they got involved in the Palmarans’ so-called “Dark Gnome War” in the hills north of Einstun. There, they fought artificially animated undead gnomes dropping primitive explosives from steam-driven dirigibles. Once Salád brought one down, the airships were seen to be massively over-complicated, as would be expected with gnomes. When the RKs traced the airships back to their origin, they discovered a hilltop compound where the gnomes launched the airships from an airfield hidden by illusion. Inside the compound, the RKs found an abominable laboratory where a gnomish “mad scientist” created the undead golems. The lab was silent & not in use, but they found equipment and notes & diagrams showing how to sew together the parts of dead bodies, inject a complex formula, encase the body in another complex fluid, and then send a high-voltage electrical current through it to bring it to life. The lab included a large Jacob’s Ladder contraption (over-thought as usual by the gnomes) to send the current of lightning strikes through the mechanism.

When they caught up with the gnome leader, he didn’t seem to have much in the way of answers, except that he had gotten his technical information from someone representing “the League,” a group of powerful beings from “across the ocean.” Upon further exploration into the compound, the RoachKings encountered a group of elemental meta-beings who caused them much havoc & then escaped. Could this be "The League?" The assumption left to the RKs was that these quasi-elementals had given the gnomes steam power, gunpowder & explosives, and the technology to create undead without magic. But for what purpose and for what in return?  Though they didn't have all the answers they sought, the RKs returned to Houghton, where they spent about a week & a half re-supplying Ozone's airship for the next leg of their journey.

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[ 07/07/2004 ] The Storm King Klaaxon . . .

11 March - After stocking up on supplies in Houghton, the RKs sailed southwest across the Palmaran plains & into the territories of the Helfindians, the native half-elvish tribes. As they neared the Marben hills on their left, they noticed to the right some smoke rising from a tall rock formation on the distant plain, so they investigated. There, they encountered a medicine woman named Singing Wolf, who had just taken over as chief medicine woman of the entire 7 Tribes because her grandmother had died. In fact, she told the RKs that they were the fulfillment of a vision her grandmother had told her about. After joining the gathered chiefs & warriors at a council, the RKs learned that the Helfindians were threatened by the expanding Palmarans and their new “boom sticks.” They wanted to migrate into lands to the south, but there was a conflict with the “Storm King of Ice Mountain” at the top of a glaciered peak in the Marben Hills. The Storm King’s giant owls prowled those lands hunting big game & the Helfindian chiefs feared their people could not survive there. They had sent a war party to go up the mountain, but none had returned.  The RKs agreed to attempt to deal with the Storm King for the Helfindians.

12 March - One of the Helfindian warriors, Standing Bear, joined the RoachKings for this quest. Ozone sailed his airship as far up into the blustering winds at he top of the mountains as he could and then tethered it off. The RKs flew on, eventually encountering several giant owls. Ozone flew onto the back of one owl, which turned its head around 180-degrees and asked him why he was doing that. Ozone, who speaks bird languages, explained that as a kindred spirit, he wished to speak with the owl’s master. The owl agreed and took the RKs up above the wind & clouds to an ice tower, where they bantered with a frost giant. When the frost giant needed authority from his master, he let the RKs’ voices carry up to the highest mountain on the winds. Their answer came as a thunder on the winds also. They had made an agreement for the Helfindians to provide a certain amount of game at certain agreed-upon locations for the owls. In return, the owls would not attack Helfindians or their livestock. The RKs returned to the gathering of Helfindian chiefs and the news was well-received. A celebration ensued and the RKs stayed for the rest of the week with the Helfindian tribes.  Before leaving, Ozone placed a teleport runestick in Singing Wolf’s cave in the tall rock formation.  The warrior Standing Bear decided to leave with the RKs so that he could explore the world beyond the Helfindian territories.

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[ late 2005 (ScreenMonkey) ] Into Phort Santonio . . .

15 March - The RoachKings then continued on their way, sailing on Ozone's airship past the Marben Hills and along the Früzenhüt River, which flows southwest out of the hills and runs into the Sanguire Sea at Phort Santonio. As they flew along the river, Kendril remembered a particular root that grows in the hilly country to the southeast, just beyond the river on the south side of the Marben Hills. Kendril, Shady, By-Tor, Draken & Standing Bear flew off on a small side-trip to gather some of this "Tryddis Root" and got involved in investigating an accident that happened in a wizard’s tower. By the time they were finished, they had saved the hobbit town of Tukville and once again, the RKs were being sung as heroes. Ah well, another day in the life of a RoachKing, eh? They then caught up with the airship and traveled on to Phort Santonio.

Phort Santonio is the southwesternmost outpost of the Braish Barony of Palmar. This port city was once a frontier fort & it has retained its vertical-pole construction, but it has become a bustling trade hub where goods from all over the southern half of the world first hit the Braish market. [This means “middle-eastern” & oriental goods and those from “Latin American” cultures, as well as “western European.”] The “boom sticks” feared by the Helfindians are present here also, but the class struggle doesn’t seem to be as prevalent. People are far more polarized either for or against expansion into Helfindian territories than about your family’s historical social standing. It seems out here, it’s what you make of yourself that’s important, not who you were born.

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16 March - When the RoachKings first arrived in Phort Santonio, the “Gubnor” (governor,) Jebediah Sage, sent for them to join him at his mansion. They obliged him & flew over the walls of the “Old Fort” into the courtyard of what is now the governmental center of the city. Gubnor Sage calmed the edgy palace guards & invited the RKs in for dinner, after which he made them a proposition. He needed someone to repair an important but secret facility on a small island just off the coast. This meant placing a rare gem on a pedestal at the center of a large ring of monolithic stones. The job required more discretion & stealth than he believed he could expect from members of his own forces, so he took advantage of the situation when he heard the RoachKings were passing through town. Shady, By-Tor & Draken took the job and completed it in an evening’s work, easily handling an ambush by some stone golems that had sonic blasting abilities. All the RKs benefited from the deal; they each acquired a small crystal of the rare mineral “psionicite” for their mind protection circlets (giving triple their normal range to all psionic elements of the circlet.)