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

Sixth Day of Elnu-Hamba (Elnu Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

Aina had left Korman, had left Noromo with nary a stitch to her name beyond that he had fled with heedless into the night and so all the things that made a queen had been given to her. She had clasps of amber and ivory in her hair and 'round her waist a belt of bronze rings and from it hung a dagger as we meet for a maiden of the Anwa who was expected to guard hearth and hall while the ships were out to fish or to raid. In warlike guise she bore a dress which had been backed with boiled leather. Just heavy enough to be hot under the glare of the noonday sun, but not heavy enough to do a damn thing about anyone who might be seriously trying to kill me, the princess thought as she looked around the battered faces of her allies.

It wasn't that she suspected the old priest of trying to make a pawn of her, it was clear to anyone who met his haunted gaze for more than a moment that those sorts of games could not have been farther from his mind, but she would not put it past the lady of Clan Akuto, nor yet captain Pokum, brown tongued worn that he was. Did worms even have tongues, she wondered distantly even as she smiled and tried to hammer together some agreement between the quarrelsome captains only now realizing they might not get the loot they had been promised.

The men of the city, brewers and smiths, potters and ropemakers claimed to have had nothing to do with the coming of the daemons, that the husk that had defiled the name of her brother was no longer among them since the Redman had come 'from the sea' and driven him out... Put not dead, the old priest pressed. They had no way of knowing this was not all a trap. 'Had they not seen the ill wreaker scuttle over the walls in unnatural guise...?'

"Yes I did see them and no I am not some fool child that you have to guard oh servant of Ikomi, great are the evils in the city of my fathers, but I will not enter it with spear and torch, unless there is no other choice and if I should perish in the doing than you may do then what seems best to you, I shall already be beyond the Pale..."

"How kind of you girl to permit this of me," the priest replied, sounding as much weary as frustrated.

"You had best hope I am more than just a girl master Ohun or you have wasted a berth for me when you might have taken in another warrior," Aina replied quietly. "Either I am to rule the island or I am as the feathers on the spear to be brought on festival days."

"Those sworn to your House are also the warriors most likely to have spent the most time under the eye and the power of the Anjo Oru. The craftsmen and city folk say they will let you and three hundred man to to the Thousand Caves and claim you seat, but what is there to stop tem from betraying you as soon as you are past the wall?"

"Your own watchful eye above us holy one," Aina replied quietly, firmly. "There are many others who have acquitted themselves well and who might join me in taking back the hall of my fathers." She glanced towards the men of the Fellowship, bold and skilled, but most importantly of all with no desire to rule Korman or to rob it.

OOC: So you know how you did not get as much of a say because you made choices to stay away from leadership. This is the other side of that, being trusted because you are not seen as ambitious.

Seventh Day of Elnu-Hamba (Elnu Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

When you were quite a small lad, barely out of leading strings mayhap, you recall asking your father what it was like to wear armor. He turned to you with a smile and said 'too cold in winter, too hot in summer and it always stinks'. You had been quite put out by that, though perhaps more so by the fact that your nurse had fallen to giggling over the whole thing. Would that this armor stank as well, of sweat or blood, but after it had been washed in the same waters that flowed though the heart of Noromo and laid out to the breath of the cold sea wind it still smelled of nothing but ash and withered flowers.

Thus you finally enter a city made quiet save for the passage of sandaled feet and the alien clank of hooves, you look about the faces of the same men and woman who you had seen celebrate the glory of war in festival now faced with the prospect that blood might flow on their streets There is precious little of warriors here, of those who had fought at the gate the day before. Much like whatever horror had screeched out of the darkness, they seem to have vanished like a nightmare of another time. It seems to you almost absurd to ask Orok the Barrel Maker if he knows aught of undead giants or savage furies falling from pitch-black clouds, yet those are the question that Aina must ask and she is not getting the answers she had been hoping for.

"We have not seen your broth... Obari who was king since the days of Ikomi, one man says, messages there were, heralds speaking at market day but some said he had gone abroad to look at the stones and to hunt the traitor priest.. ah apologies."

There is a lot in the way of apologies and little of answers. Some say Obari ad fled or left as soon as news of the fleet from Lirman had come, that he had gone to seek his own patron among the other islands, others that the 'young king' had not been the same since the death of his brother and sought often the counsel of solitude. More and more of the servants left the palace until all there was there were armed men.

Some made jests about it, the sort of crude humor that is common when all in a hall are men and no women and now the tradesmen of the city repeat them to Aina with the unease of a hound seeking to please a new master. It does little to calm her fears. Some men from the palace had fled since yesterday, though no man could say for certain where since your own army was on the plane to the east and the fleet guarded the way to the west.

"They are still here, hiding among the people," you counsel, keeping your voice low as though to hide it from foes though in trust you are less worried about earshot and more about bowshot. The flat roofs so common in this part of the islands makes for all too many places for an arrow to fly from, or worse some dark enchantment.

It does not escape you that Aina had barely any warriors to her name, the nobles of the island are still out in the field and the palace is still, no man answering hails.

Ohun wants to set all your might to purging it of the stain of the Neverborn, to hold the city and wait for the nobles of the land to command pay homage whereas Aina wants to be sure the city is safe and to send heralds at once to all the other settlements to demand their fealty, to arm a new guard. The trouble of course is that arms need money and payment must be made to the host that had come so far, lost lives and lords... and the payment is in the palace.

The offer is already on your tongue... but something holds you back. So far you have been lucky, so far none of the Fellowship had died, by luck and skill and perhaps the eye of Saint Nicholas upon you, but to walk into the heart of the enemy's power, one even the locals had not dared to set foot in since it had fallen silent is another sort of risk.

The gauntlet grows warm against your palm, felt even through the lining... eager. Such a fine key it would make, but do you want to deal with that is behind the door?

[] Offer to spearhead the expedition into the palace and discover what might lie there

[] Stay with Aina, she will need all the protection she can get until the lords have assembled and the city was made safe

[] Write in

OOC: Hope you guys like the atmosphere this one did not flow all that fast, but it did flow well once it got going.

Ninth Day of Elnu-Hamba (Elnu Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

As ever in the wake of battle, armed men of uncertain banners and pledge are treated with about the same measure of trust by the citizens of Noromo as a stray hound at the fire's edge with its scout covered with stolen grease. At least it's not blood, one might think of such a beast... and mayhap out of caution drop your gaze. So it is now following around a woman who would be queen in a hall not quite a palace, looking in every corner, every shadow for foes. Do the servants avoid you because they fear, or do they have some more sinister purpose?

Try as you might you can find no rumor of the wizard or dark spirit that had scuttled up the wall and of Unke's shadow none had heard outside of legend. You would call it hunting shadows if it were not shadows that you fear. As far south as the Great Lands you had heard of Shadow weavers seeking power just as the Anjo Oru had done here, but not of anything like how Unke had come to be. Esha did not know what to make of it and if Ikomi knows she has not shared with Inge any vision, any sign that the girl can unravel, so you are left here in the half gloom of a long hall lit by sputtering torches guessing at shadows on the wall.

Bloody torches, not lanterns because no one could find enough of them to match so that Aina's borrowed hall did not look like some sort of mister's hoard and not mage lanterns as they would count Inge's magic 'ill omened for a new queen'. What omen could be worse than knowing that you likely still have fiends walking about in the skin of man you could not say.

At least you had the chance to meet and to speak with the others at length and decide what you would make of the meager spoils of the expedition if, as you now have cause to hope, there will be no more bloodshed beyond what Ohun might need to do to cleanse the Thousand Caves. Antonio would buy as much of the more exotic goods gathered hither and yon along the coast in Obari's raids and take that chance to meet face to face the raider lords who had most profited from it... and see if they had been touched by the Anjo Oru. Aina herself had agreed to the plan and even offered to pay you for the attempt. You had tried to demure, but you had not been quite has fast as Antonio and so paid you would be, but for now it is another day of watching, another night of modest drinking as you tell tales 'round the hearth... not tall for there is ne need to make them anymore fantastical, but broad instead.

---

Triumphs
+Successfully counseled Hugh the Younger in the matter of his faith and his place in this world
+Spoke to the western Knikut and parted in peace
+Passed the Ibanoran blockade at the Mouth of the World safely
++Learned of other far travelers from Ninku the Giant
+Aided in diplomacy with the lords of Korman
+Safely passed through a storm that was the doom of a king
+Helped Ohun gain control of the fleet and keep the expedition going
++Defeated the dead giant and many warriors in the First Battle of the Breakers
+Gathered more warriors to the banners of the expedition
+Slew Pale Ones in the Second Battle of the Breakers
+Won the battle at sea against Unke the Red, forcing him to retreat
+Learned something from the prisoners
++Slew Unke the Red in a duel driving back his allies

Total XP Gained 4,000

What have been the lessons of this war for you and yours?

[] You have faced foes living and dead, man and beast and giant, mindless horror and great warrior king, thus you have been honed to a raxor's edge (Gain Martial Training I as a bonus feat; must choose maneuvers from either Iron Tortoise or Golden Lion)
Cost 2,000 XP

[] Whispers grow to words, meaning from the madness spun, rare is the one who steers such a ship upon the fields of fate (Antonio Gains Awakened Talent)
-[] Write in first level psionic power
Cost 1500 XP

[] Tom is not too hasty nor too bold, but in such battles as these he has been forged anew a warrior and above all else a leader, the rock upon which the Fellowship hangs... and the man to tell you at the battle's end when you have taken too much of a chance (Tom Levels up)
-[] Write in level up plan
Cost 1250 XP

OOC: I did not want to do any major rolling for this one and this has been a really large arc so I figured you would appreciate a chance to get to use some of that sweet XP.