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

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

"I would know more of what this shape-changer wishes to do here in Lirman or abroad," you say after a moment. "Mistake me not for seeking gossip or morbid curiosity. We of the Fellowship were the ones who pulled the first thread of this mystery and after the loss of a valuable ally in the Iranea. If there is some cause why they should be kept in the dark for the death of their erstwhile patriarch and their opinions of us tainted than I would know it that perhaps we might in some other way mend it."

"It's reasons were its own and of little matter now that it is dead, but if you must know than well and good..." Ohun sighs as he leans back on the wall. "They were hunters of sort and the Iranea, in a way the whole of the islands were its whale, the test of manhood and the proof of its mastery. Those who are not bound by many of the constraints of form seek ever ways to improve upon themselves and each other. Perhaps it is better to say they they were apprentice potters and flesh their clay. The mind of man boggles and recoils from their meanings seeing the flesh not as part of what makes a being who they are but as a vestment no more notable in its form than a robe or smock... or armor. The boar-men had the blood of the earth in them and the strength of them also."

"Was Alum... or the thing that walked in his kin lying when he said their sacrifice would serve against a great evil?" you ask quietly, suspecting the answer even as you do not wish to be right.

Ohun nods. "We are not the only ones who can see what is coming, the seas froth red deeper that the eye of man can pierce, this was a test yes, but also a plan with a purpose, like onto the hunting of the whale, wealth of many ships just as it might be their doom. Doom there was this time. We do not please to be hunted and made sport of."

You are silent then, looking into the flame of the lantern as it licks the glazed clay backed far from here. You had seen something like this in the cities of the Blue Sea, in the holds of the Marcella even, easy enough for one new come from Orinilu to now think of the Anwari as an uncouth folk, skilled only in sailing and bloodshed, easy and foolish.

"I noticed that the king's sister was not in the hall," you say lightly, as though it had no more meaning than the desire to give greeting after a long journey. She has spoken up in your first confrontation with the ill fortuned Eki Teranoa and the two of you had been acquainted enough for such purposes.

"She is no longer with us..." At your continued silence the magician added: "No longer in the city or the realm and you would be ill served to mention it to the king."

Ah, so there is some intrigue there, though of what kind you do not know for certain, perhaps Aina knows more. She might be at least a touch well inclined over ridding her of an unwanted suitor, you think with an edge of bitter amusement that makes it no less true.

What do you do next?
Day 2/5

[] Speak to Aina, about the king his sister and the intrigues that might yet bind the court, if there is another foe here with a hidden stake then you would see it unveiled

[] Approach the king himself about the way in which the campaign will unfold and your place in it

[] Buy something at the market in Orinilu
-[] Write in what

[] Covertly approach the Iranea, now that they are no longer puppets perhaps you can restore some manner of goodwill, perhaps even strike the deal with their smiths again

[] Write in

OOC: Sorry this came in so late guys.

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

Aina welcomes you with a courtesy that is only in part rooted in guilt you would judge. Her questions are quick and incisive and much concerned with what the fellowship, particularly Inge and Zaia, can bring to the battle for she us much concerned with the power of the enemy to befuddle the mind and sow fear in hearts. "There are many ships here, many crews pledged to help me take back the House of my fathers, but only some of them believe that we will be facing true evil and even among those none understand as we do who have been there. I fear that they will flee, or worse yet scatter to raid and pillage along the coast to the ruin of my people..."

So you give your accounting as she does hers; what Zaia can brew, what Inge can conjure, the beasts the girl can speak to and before you know it you are showing off Durendal and telling the tale of its second forging again. A part of you worries that you sound too much like a green boy boating of great deeds, but soon enough the feeling fades before the needs of the moment as you learn more of Korman and its people.


"Obari holds Noromo as you know, but we have found of late that he holds the salt pools of Iyotemi and the pools of Owkuta where many spears are forged. These should be lands of our House but not the lands of the king, yet he is alone so who is to gainsay him? To the north is Ikomi-Alaga, which means the seat of Ikomi from where many a raider fleet has sailed into the lands east of the Blue Sea, they have a strong fortress of stone there any many supplies dug into the earth. Following along the line of the coast one comes to Ejanla, which is a village of fierce whalers where in the days when my great-grandmother was a girl there dwelt a mighty sea witch who could conjure storms and still them. The men there they have no walls around the town itself, but a wall that straddles the narrow neck of the land which leads there. South of that again you can find Orinyiya..."

Stone of Tears, you translate trying to keep up with all the names that you had likely heard before but paid little mind to. Part of you wonders if you aught even concern yourself with the smaller villages and towns, if you can take Noromo and cut off the head of the snake than the Neverborn will trouble the world no more. Yet you can also see that from Aina's perspective she wishes for a realm to rule and not just to be set down in the minds of ruins and told to rule surrounded by hostile clan heads.

"Negu of Orinyiya was a cruel and vicious raider, little better than those who go in Razirah against kin and that only because his neighbors would turn against him, but he is also a canny warrior and and bold in battle when he has the chance, he has taken the heads of many young and old who came against him and they say the thing that has taken by brother used like a dagger in the sleeve against the other lords and against the common folk like a scourge, for in the southeast of the island are the two villages that had given the most aid to the giants and made war upon the lands of He who calls himself my brother and his traitor lords. Apagiga and Igigoolu are alike as peas in a pod, new villages raised when I was but a girl... less than a generation ago for the people who lived there before died in a great raid out of Surman. They have therefore a great love for my father, that and their piety has seen them turn against the evil the most of all the people of the island."

"Perhaps we may land there then, though it would be a longer march to the capital," you muse.

"And the way might pass by Emuina and if so then we should be wary of hunters and trappers in the broken country, they have always been strange there, asking only that they be left to live to themselves away from the shore and the sound of the sea and now the Neveborn have turned that spite to their own ends, drawing from there many hunters with bloodied spears."

People are never so strange as in a stranger's eye, you think. If all the people of this town want is to be left alone than perhaps they can be swayed to stand aside and not shed their blood in the cause of a monster.

"My thanks for all that you have told me, my lady," you reply. "That will be of great use when battle is at hand, but I have one more question about the way there, not the winds and currents, but what might lie in the sea. Does the word 'formless' bring anything to mind?"

"Oh..." a look of revelation passed over her face, followed almost at once by one of worry. Her words fall at once to a whisper "Much that was in fog is clear now to me, but this is not the place or the hour. Meet me by the docks at midnight two days from now, then we should speak freely."

What do you do next?
Day 3/5

[] Learn more about the people of Korman, you have played a diplomat once, perhaps you can do so again
-[] The King's Lands
-[] The Loyal Clans
-[] The Rebel Villages

[] Approach the king himself about the way in which the campaign will unfold and your place in it

[] Buy something at the market in Orinilu
-[] Write in what

[] Covertly approach the Iranea, now that they are no longer puppets perhaps you can restore some manner of goodwill, perhaps even strike the deal with their smiths again

[] Write in

OOC: The island is larger as the sea level is 120 ft lower than the modern map above shows, but I have not been able to find an ice age topographical map and attempts by me to merge topographical and undersea maps have shown me that I am not a geologist. For the sake of being able to play and plan multiply all distances you get along the coast by 1.5 and we should be in the right ballpark.