Age of Ice and Blood: A Pathfinder System Heroic Fantasy Quest

Twenty Fifth Day of Olweje-eza (Olweje Ascending) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)

"Let is be know that of these two beasts now filled with the spirit of Ashinu the Lifemaker the king may choose a foal to be his and of his household," so it is said all along the streets leading to the docks and up through the marketplaces of Apuku as the pregnant mares are lead with great fanfare to their new place of stabling. Horses are still a strange enough sight to draw small crowds of onlookers and especially trails of barefooted children burned by the sun yet for the most part wholly uncaring of it, straw hats flying in the wind off frayed string like strange kites. Of course it might also be the nature of the guards that Antonio had thought to acquire for the beasts that draws the eye of the locals.

The Knikut make quite a show on their own, heavy furs of beasts only spoken of and not seen on the island draped over shoulders wider than that of any local warrior, bearing no weapon of bronze, but for the sword Tender had claimed from a fallen servant of Olweje. Zaia had worried at the prospect of hiring those who already draw a measure of animosity from the locals to help keep the horses, but in the end Antonio had swayed you to the notion that having some sort of protection against wizardry was worth the risk, especially as they would not be working alone.

You could not say for certain where Antonio had found warriors willing to work with the Stout Folk of the north, indeed from their mien you are not entirely sure you want to know. Grim are all five of them scarred with the marks of many battles, draped not in bronze but leather, many bearing cords of teeth and bone alongside the rings of gold and silver that are a sellsword's only wealth, but their blades are bright and oiled, warriors and not stable hands that is for certain. All told a season's work for these guards is about twice the cost of your new sword, though thankfully you and split it evenly with Antonio for horse are not all the assets you have to protect in Apuku, between the storage and the goods he does not wish to take on the journey to the east.

The captain might have asked Zaia to add his own coins to the pile but for the fact that the good doctor stripped his laboratory and moved it either into storage in the hold or into his cabin that he might continue his brewing in on the open sea.

Lost 450 gp/Antonio Loses 450 gp

Thus you bequeath upon Hugh the Younger and James their task, not only to care for the horses, but ensure a night watch is kept and that they do not stray far from the horses when trouble could be brewing. "Do your drinking when the sun is up and never alone," you command bluntly, knowing enough of the nature of men to be sure that any command not to drink at all would is soundly ignored.

And thus you find yourself standing on the deck of the Marcella once more watching the harbor fade into the crimson twilight of the western horizon as the ship sets its prow to the east, to waters at once strange and familiar.

Who do you spend most of your time with during the journey?

Choose two:

[] Zaia to learn more of his wanderings in the east as well as his thoughts on the Awa, their spirits and their magic

[] Antonio, discovering more of the contacts he made in Apuku and his plans for the ship going forward

[] Inge, to discover more of what the girl's former master said of Orinilu and its people

[] Silver, to judge how he enjoys sailing now as well as all the new foods you have picked out for him

[] Tom, a man of few words normally, but you would judge many thoughts regarding all the strangeness that surrounds you

[] Write in

OOC: These are not mechanical choices, like they will not give you stat benefits, you already made those vote, more a mater of who you want to get close to and learn about. Not yet edited.

Twenty Seventh Day of Olweje-eza (Olweje Ascending) 1348 A. L. (After Landfall)

As though to balance out all the clear skies you had enjoyed of late the Marcella's second day out from harbor dawns grey, the light of the unseen sky barely managing to pierce the heavy clouds, the rain falls in sheets and the wind gusts hither and yon such that even the overhang at the stern of the ship is no protection, driving you into the cabin and the company of the captain. Not that you mislike the latter, but you to make sure the beer is of the lighter sort than what you had drunk when last you spent a day in his company.

Fortunately Antonio himself is less in the mood for hard drinking and more for talking, a tale for a tale. Once you might have balked on speaking of your House and your kin to a man of low and foreign birth, but many a day had gone into the west since then and you had come to trust and count upon the Genoan captain as a companion in a strange world. Thus you recount how your own kin can trace their line to Sicily where the Verley yet have kin, how you had fought in the Baron's War and not on the winning side. Upon the matter of your participation in the crusades you are yet silent, not having yet the words to share what you had seen and learned there with another soul, or perhaps not wishing to hear those words upon your lips.

In return the captain is less generous with the family history, though you gather they pass for nobility such as there can be in a land with no lord or king, and speaks more of his own youthful doings. "I left Genoa angry, proud and full of vinegar as many young men do. As you may guess a woman was involved..." The smile involved leaves you to guess some sort of salacious tale, but there is something about the look in his eye that gives lie to the notion, a flash of sorrow perhaps. But if that is so than it is quickly pushed aside for other fonder memories. "Not to say that I left destitute or with curses ringing in my ears. My family, like many in the city had, still has I suppose in a world lost to us, the habit of sending troublesome sons to the east to make their fortune and prove their boasts, my first ship she was not the Marcella eh?" He laughs and pats the wall of the cabin as one might do to a beloved pet.

"The Principessa was I think given her name deep in the cups, she would have been kindling out in these deep waters, but she did the task she was meant for well enough and mayhap for her poor showing dissuaded brigands who would have otherwise come upon me. Bloody Venetians, like bilge rats they are always hungry always looking for fresh meat. I was there when they sacked the City you know, running supplies for whoever would pay the most to be honest I had plenty of flags to run going to one side or the other and my second in command was a Greek from Corinth... we stayed well out to sea when the city finally fell, but you could still see the flames reflected off the water. Wasn't worth going back for almost five years after that, mostly sailed out of Rhodes traded with the east then, with the despots and he Saracen emirs, they'd give me a roa deal sometimes, but at least they would not try to draft my ship in the name of Christ and the Holy Mother Church. Always a shit deal that, listen here never take pay in plunder if you can help it..."

"Aye, you'll not hear me argue with that..." You had not really been paid in anything for the last war, such is the fate of the defeated.

Before you can reply a call comes from the deck the deck, faint from distance and the sound of the rain: "Ship ho! Ship ho!"

A ship there is indeed off the starboard side, an Anwa longship neither small nor large for its kind. It is dark against the grey of the rain, but it seems to have foundered in the water and from what little you can see shielding your eyes with your hand against the rain... "No oars in the water and I can't see a single soul on deck," you say, as much to yourself as to Antonio. "Inge, can you..."

Before you can finish the girl shakes her head. "Birds won't go near it. There's something nor right with it."

"Reckon we should be about our way and not risk whatever misfortune they came to catching us," the second in command and former carpenter of the ship says, softly enough not to spread to the rest of the crew should the captain decide against it.

Antonio turns to you. "It's you and yours who'd have to do most of the clearing of the wreck, what say you?"

[] Leave the strange ship to its fate and sail on, no sense looking for more peril than will find you on its own

[] Try to hail and board she ship, there may be something of worth aboard, mayhap even the ship itself is worth salvaging

[] Write in

OOC: Not doing the character pieces back to back, I had you guys vote on two so I would have one in reserve for the next quiet patch. How now looks like you rolled a strange drifting ship. Not yet edited.