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

I find myself in a town filled with men preparing for war, such company as I would have once shunned yet to which I am now in sympathy. Their enemy is no mortal man, driven by pride or greed or some other earthly sin, but a thing of black malice and endless hate such as I never thought I would have the misfortune to lay eyes on. If I should now meet such a foe again than I could think of no better company than the one that had dealt with its like before, the Fellowship of Saint Nicholas. But worry not gentle reader I shall not linger overlong upon heraldry, upon the names and titles of valor which can in other parts of the present work be found as lesser scholars are wont to do. No, on this day, lingering still on peaceful shores let us look instead to the battles past and how it may inform the interests and the passions of the folk of the sunset Island.

I hear transcribe what I have heard of the sagas without verse or skillful kenning, but also absent the long detours of meaning that the storyteller's tongue is known for. I make no claim that this is the true form of the tale or the only one that is sung among the Anwa, only that it is the one that was best known to the sailors whose company I shared though many a long day at sea and which I could not confirm with one of the local bards over a abundance of bread, roast and mead, all out of my pocket of course. If this tale does not have the ring of truth than at least it will not be because I have been overly stingy with the price.

Unke the Red was born under the sign of the Bear, which by chance or deeper meaning is the same one the astrologers of my own world named thus, some six thousand years ago to the king of Korman. It it said the boy earned his moniker on the very day of his birth for he was born with the cord wrapped around his neck like a hangman's noose. It was then that he was called the red, for such was the color of his countenance more than that of any other babe that the midwife had ever seen to live. This Oluse the seer named a portent of the child's death, that he would die friendless and alone, an outlaw with every axe and spear against it.

Yet it seemed the young Unke was bound and determined to prove the seer wrong, for he had many friends beneath the stone arches of his father's hall, and though he was not eldest son, nor born to his first wife Unke was well loved without giving cause to jealousy... until one faithful day when he was in a small boat with three of his brothers and they saw a star streak though the sky and fall to the horizon and each in his heart yearned for it, but none of them told the other and instead they vowed to row and sail in search of the star.

The saga goes on to recount battles against giants and plots of the tricksome fey ever following the path of the star, with all three of his brothers falling along the way, the first to battle, the second to poison and the third to sorcery until at least only Unke lived and finally claimed the star for his own and forged of it a great black gauntlet Yet when the returned to his fahter's court he found that in his absence his uncle had already been chosen by the clan lords to be king, though he was a warrior of no great repute, nor a sailor or any other thing that the Anwa love in their kings. Here the tale lingers on all the insults that were heaped upon Unke as he served his uncle, until at least the man went one step too far, taking the woman Unke wished to marry to his bed not even because o lust but spite that his nephew was more beloved then he.

It was then that the Redman first broke with the traditions of his people in a manner that he would become famous for, he said rathere remarkably: Whereas it is known to be my fate to die alone and accursed, at least I shall buy a piteous doom for you with the price of my honor.

There was a duel then, though in truth it was more like the bleeding of a kill while the unfortunate king was still alive. His screams still echo in the deep places of the Thousand Caves it is said. Yet when the deed was done and Unke a kingslayer none of the lords thought to cast him out from their company, for he had spared them the company of a hated king and most of them counted his words provocation enough for a duel even by king.

This was not the first custom the Redman was to break...

OOC: I will be continuing this when there is a lul in the voting, hopefully giving you guys a bit of a parallel vision of the islands at war that is not intrusive or just an infodump.

Thirty Fifth Day of Elnu-eza (Elnu Ascendant), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

Perhaps you do the young king of Lirman an ill turn in thinking so, for he seems resolute in his course and his voice is more steady as he addresses his lords and guests, but you would rather hear the news from more experienced lips and you have questions that are meant for ears other than his. Thus as Antonio goes off to talk of trade with the lady of the Akuto you seek out the wizard, and glad you are to find him hale once more and not buried to the neck in loan.

"Glad I am to see you in this dark hour, sir knight. We shall all need spears such as your fellowship bears soon enough." He greets you, though truth be told he does not seem to have done too badly by himself over the past season. When last you had seem him he had been healing in the embrace of the earth and now he is hale and walking, not even leaning on his staff, with only the circles under his eyes yet lie like pools into which flow the lines of his aged face. "There is much to be done and little time in which to do it..." so saying he glances towards the seat at the head of the table where his lord holds court and offers him a nod. I will deal with these most foreign of foreigners, it seems to say, and to that the king acquiesces with a tip of his silver lined drinking horn.


As soon as you are away from the bustle of the court Ohun explains what he knows of the goings on in Korman. A few of the lesser Houses had agreed to swear to Aina, either for the sake of piety or profit, though alas they are not among the mightiest. Still, rumors of dark rites as well as the death of one of the princes so near to the ascension to the throne had unnerved the free warriors of the island, the yeomanry as you might think of it, and there is war and rumor of war among the villages of Lirman, though none yet dare take up arms against the king save with the coming of the giants.

"They have been coming and going along the shore doing as much harm to the reach of the king and those clan heads still loyal to him before they melt into the sea and those who summoned them return to their farms or their boats. It stirs up the land and keeps them off balance, perhaps it is enough to even slow the malice of the Enemy until the ships come ashore and gather an army for the lady Aina to take back her realm."

"So the plan is a campaign to rally the land rather than strike for the capital," you ask, not bothering to keep a note of skepticism from your words. Many a would-be king had tried to make a host of lesser men and petty few had succeeded. Eadric the Wild, Hereward the Wake, the names of brigands and of outlaws despised by high and low alike in the end. No army marches without bending a blade of grass, for all that some may claim the goodwill of a farmer or fisher asked to feed one from his own stores is soon spent.

"The Fallen One will have to meet us on the field of battle for he is alone and without heirs, save for she who rides with us. To refuse to give battle would be to show himself craven before all those who still keep him as their lord, of that you can be certain," the priest replied darkly. "There is more to foresight that reading the bones..."

Spies then in the enemy court, you think holding back a grimace, not that you do not think any true-hearted folk of Lirman should do all they could against such a monster on the throne, but you can never be certain with spies how much is true and how much poison dripped in the ear. The whole plan counts upon the enemy acting as he is expected with not enough men to actually take the capital. "What of the sea then, will they try to stop us from coming ashore?"

"We have too many ships to try to match on the sea, all the more so with the arrival of your Marcella." From the way he says it you guess that Ohun means more than her sails and her high sides that would cast off the boarder.

"And what of the other peril we spoke of when we were last here?" You ask in lowered tones. "The servants of the Formless?"

"Walk no more in the guise of Onogu of the Iranea, the old man has found his rest," Here he pauses and looks around the chamber once more as though to spot hidden watchers. "Yet his kin do not know of the peril in which they were in and it is better that it stays so. They think he died in his sleep at peace with Ikomi."

"You..." truth be told you are not sure how to ask the question. 'By what treachery did you kill him?', hardly seems courteous yet that is what it all comes down to in the end.

"I poisoned the imposter and my stealth dealt with Alum and with others who had partaken of the power of these new masters. Yet all this must remain secret lest the new lord of the House seek vengeance and find only death. Men have little power save that which is god granted over such foes and I have not the time to spare for that feud." The words come too quickly, almost too assuredly, as a man who wishes cast the veil of authority over some secret.

Once more you recall the absence of the king's sister, and your suspicion that her presence might have had something to do with what drew the servants of the Formless hence.

What do you do?

[] Press on the matter of the imposter
-[] Mention that you did not see the king's sister in the hall
-[] Do not mention the king's sister

[] Ask more questions about the situation in Korman
-[] Write in

[] End the conversation and speak to one of the other people at court
-[] Write in

[] Write in

OOC: Not entirely happy with this update, too much exposition, but at the same time it is stuff you guys need to know so I can hardly cut it out. If you guys have more questions do not hesitate to ask though.