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

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I'm tired of dancing around them. Let's end this conflict once and for all, either by diplomacy or by force.

[X] Purposely sail to meet them
 
This was a really, really nice character piece and I'm super glad I put in some time with that write-in. Looking up bible verses on the nature of marriage and husbandhood was not something I'd expected to do today!

Thanks DP :)
 
Tomcost said:
Three canoes? We can easily set them on fire thanks to Zaia
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Between Inge's Webs and Esha's Blindness/Deafness spells, they would be sitting ducks for fire bombs.

Hopefully it won't come to that, though. While I'm perfectly willing to slaughter them all if they fuck with us, I would prefer there to be no ongoing hostilities with them.
 
Snowfire said:
This was a really, really nice character piece and I'm super glad I put in some time with that write-in. Looking up bible verses on the nature of marriage and husbandhood was not something I'd expected to do today!

Thanks DP :)
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Glad you liked it, I have been getting this one ready for a while, ever since you paid out the coin for that first season. I rolled what everyone would do with it and most of it was mundane, but then one guy got... well what you saw and I had to think of when to show it off. This was a good moment for a couple of reasons I can't reveal yet, but it was also a fun moment of its own.
 
Good night guys, see you tomorrow with the encounter on the sea and maybe an interlude out in the world since you have not gotten the one from the end of the last arc yet.
 
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Arc 12 Post 4: On the Trail of White Wings
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    • On the Trail of White Wings ​

    The fifth Day of Elnu-eza (Elnu Ascendant), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

    Soon the canoes appear even to eyes un-blessed by the Lady of the Sea. They seem to the Marcella as minnows beside a shark, but still your men are on their guard. The closer they come the easier it is to recognize that your first guess at been right. These are travelers of the Owl Clan who have once held the Mouth of the World against you and once cast a dark spirit into your midst.

    Tanke! Tanke!" Antonio calls out in the tongue of the Sunset lands, at once a greeting and a welcome, though as the Anwa themselves say, warm words are cheap on cold sea.

    No steel or bronze is drawn, no bows are strung, but many hands hold them close and Esha and Zaia are both on deck to lend their powers as much as counsel if there is need. Still, as the boats draw close, it is hard to keep suspicion foremost on your mind. The faces of the men and women inside them are at once weary and filled with a guarded hope.

    The lead on the foremost boat is a woman perhaps into her fortieth winter, old by the harsh seasons of the north, but here still hale and obviously a respected elder. You are relieved to see she wears the tools and weapons of a warrior and not the headdress of a shaman, indeed none of them have any hint of sorcery among them, which alone might have threatened the ship.

    A glance at Inge reveals a shake of the head, she does not see any mark of power by sight beyond sight.

    "Tanke!" the woman calls back. Then in a halting manner of one who knows the words but does not often have cause to speak them asks something you did not expect: "I am Bear Bane of the People of the Narrow Way and I come seeking one who is near to me in heart and in mind. Is she here, is she with you, my daughter? Please, I ask only for news of one gone from the People. She fled place, fled people, said she had dream of dark thrice passing and you ride the dark."

    "We have seen none of your people near as you are to us now for a season and when last we met it was not on kindly terms," Antonio replies. "Strange is the hour for us and not expected to see your folk so far from their waters."

    "She followed you three turns of the moon past, I know it, I saw her," the woman replies, before another younger woman holds back her arm and says something in their own tongue, which you know not... but Esha does.

    "I think that is her other daughter and she is saying to the woman that it is foolish to approach us at all, that Sings to Sorrow, that is the person they are seeking I think, is probably gone and that we... er, fed her to the monster. I think she means the Marcella and not me," she adds, trying to cut the heavy air with a jest, though to no avail.

    "Ask if the one they seek had wings when last they saw her," you offer, not wanting to usurp the captain's place to speak when a stranger addresses the ship, but recalling the strange woman who had been unveiled by the fey before she vanished.

    As Antonio does so shouts ring out across the water as the second and third boats come close enough to hear, Knilut calling one to the other as they recount perhaps what he had said.

    "Not very friendly, are they?" Esha muses. "Some of them are saying they are well rid of her, others are arguing and..." Bear Bane shouts something as she shows her spear to her people. Your hand twitches towards your side, towards Durendal's hilt, but Esha continues. "She is reminding them of whose in charge and of the oaths they swore to follow her... saying they have to bring back the spirit."

    More arguing back and forth followed as your unexpected company argued backwards and forwards as to your honesty and if the Marcella had consumed their missing tribeswoman.

    What do you do?

    [] Speak up and pledge that neither you nor anyone on the ship harmed Sings to Sorrow, indeed if she is who you think she is you had not even known she was more than an owl until just before leaving on the journey

    [] Let them settle it among themselves, no reason to meddle, or to show that you speak their tongue

    [] Write in

    OOC: The rolls could have gone worse, they could have gone better, no one has attacked on first contact and they are talking to you, for all many of them seem deeply suspicious of the Marcella and of those who sail upon her.
     
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    • [X] Speak up and pledge that neither you nor anyone on the ship harmed Sings to Sorrow, indeed if she is who you think she is you had not even known she was more than an owl until just before leaving on the journey
     
    [X] Speak up and pledge that neither you nor anyone on the ship harmed Sings to Sorrow, indeed if she is who you think she is you had not even known she was more than an owl until just before leaving on the journey
     
    Now I'm kinda regretting asking Fechin about Owlady. It was still the right thing to do, IMO, especially given the timing, but it might have been helpful if Sings to Sorrow were still around.

    Well, this meeting hasn't turned hostile yet, so fingers crossed that it will stay that way.

    [X] Speak up and pledge that neither you nor anyone on the ship harmed Sings to Sorrow, indeed if she is who you think she is you had not even known she was more than an owl until just before leaving on the journey
     
    [X] Speak up and pledge that neither you nor anyone on the ship harmed Sings to Sorrow, indeed if she is who you think she is you had not even known she was more than an owl until just before leaving on the journey
     
    Arc 12 Post 5: Of Fish and Foul
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    • Of Fish and Foul ​

    The fifth Day of Elnu-eza (Elnu Ascendant), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

    While the Knikut continue to argue over their path and how much they might trust your word, you motion to Antonio, gestures as good at silent speech for the purpose: Should I?

    His wave in reply has the snap of exasperation beneath the graceful manner he had been keeping with your unexpected visitors. Have at it, he seems to say and thus you do:

    "We vow to have done no harm to she whom you name and we knew not her true shape until the very day we set off from Orinilu when one of the fey revealed her and set her off in flight."

    At once they fall silent, some of them mid-word, realizing their arguments are heard and understood. Finally the leader turns and looks you in the eye and in that moment, though you must look down and she look up, she seems almost to loom above you in disapproval. "What good is your word, far-man, when you made a vow not to pass the Narrows yet pass them you did like a wolf in the night?"

    "An oath made with a knife tickling the throat that utters it is poorly made and such things crumble even in a light wind," you answer while choosing your words carefully, honesty without showing weakness, or so at least you hope so to clear the air once and for all. "Alas, it was the storm of desperate need that drove us, to seek shelter with those who spoke the only tongue of these lands we then knew. If you would count us foes over a broken word than so be it, but if you would not..." you glance at Zaia and Antonio, glad to see both men approving so far. Hopefully that holds. "Then we will not hold you in enmity for the ambush nor for the other evils that plagued us when we passed those waters."

    "Evil! You bring evil with you!" the younger woman in the boat with Bear Bane says.

    But now it is time of the elder to restrain the younger then she says. "Maybe we were rash, too swift to judge you. This disturbed land, disturbed dreams, Great Boat has shape of world but is not of world, woke dark dreams, disturbed land, disturbed spirits, make my daughter take name of ill omen, past she through the trials of the Old Blood, took shape of owl, still dreams lingered, flew after you then looking for answers. Now you say she stayed in North-land."

    "One of the spirits of the land unwound her guise and she fled into the woods, yes."

    Someone shouts a challenge from the second boat, you hardly need Esha's translation to make sense of it: "They lie!"

    Yet most of the Knikut seem to be on the side of the leader whom they had followed so far. In spite of their suspicion of you they are seemingly at least willing to listen to what other evils you have suffered. Thus Esha steps forward and recounts when she had learned of the rat spirit, including the suspicion that it had been cast onto the deck of the Marcella by a passing owl.

    "Thing like rat and like man?" Bear Bane says and all at once you hear something that had been so far absent in her tone, fear.

    Some of her companions start to argue again, not just about how you are liars and without honor but about how their wise one, their shaman, could not have wrought such a thing and borne it in his claws.

    "How would we know to say just the words that would smear your wise man in your own eyes?" you ask, loud enough to be heard but careful not to sound accusing. "We have seen what we have seen." Thus you recount the rest of it, the mist, the currents, the watcher fish.

    At the word fish even more of an outcry erupts in the boats and among the calls and recriminations you hear a familiar word, for all that it is not addressed to you... formless. It seems more and more clear among them that he did not give counsel of the owl, but of allies in the depths, and some think that Sings to Sorrow, his apprentice, had fled him as much as she had gone in search of the Marcella.

    "Well, it seems we have found another treacherous holy man. We seem to have a gift for that," Antonio says, keeping his voice low and his words to a tongue the Knikut cannot speak. "Question is do we get involved in this?"

    Ah, and isn't that the riddle. As long as the shaman who now twice barred your path has influence among the Knikut of the Mouth of the World he shall seek to trouble you for his own strange reasons, yet to depose him you must go out among his kin and confront him at the cost of time and peril. So far you have been able to run the straights well enough.

    What do you do?

    [] Offer to accompany some of the Knikut on the boats back to their tribe and tell your story again before the tribe

    [] Wish them luck in their search up north, you have to reach the Sunset Islands a swiftly as you may, you will take your chances with the Mouth of the World

    [] Write in

    OOC: Not a lot of votes, but then not the most interesting vote. Hopefully this one will get more discussion.
     
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    • [X] Wish them luck in their search up north, you have to reach the Sunset Islands a swiftly as you may, you will take your chances with the Mouth of the World

    This sounds very much like other people's problems.
    We have our own daemons to fight, they can take care of their corrupted shaman.
     
    Jeez, it seems like Shamans are BBEG bait, either to possess, replace, or suborn. Given the influence they wield within their tribes, it's certainly a good tactic to target them, though out of everyone, they should be the most difficult to overcome.

    I wonder if being open to the spirits of the world somehow makes them more susceptible to Daemon possession, or maybe just easier to find in the first place? That might not be relevant in this particular case, however, since this one appears to be more aligned with the Formless.

    This sounds like it would be a good opportunity to improve relations with the Knikut who have hassled us at the Straits, but just like when the other side-quests became available before and after we departed Orinilu, we have other commitments and time is of the essence. There is no telling how long this diversion would delay us. At least a couple days, if we're lucky, but potentially several more. I don't want to reach Apuku and find out we've missed a critical departure window. That's easily possible, because we know DP is rolling events in the background.

    [X] Wish them luck in their search up north, you have to reach the Sunset Islands a swiftly as you may, you will take your chances with the Mouth of the World
     
    Goldfish said:
    Jeez, it seems like Shamans are BBEG bait, either to possess, replace, or suborn. Given the influence they wield within their tribes, it's certainly a good tactic to target them, though out of everyone, they should be the most difficult to overcome.

    I wonder if being open to the spirits of the world somehow makes them more susceptible to Daemon possession, or maybe just easier to find in the first place? That might not be relevant in this particular case, however, since this one appears to be more aligned with the Formless.
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    I speculate that daemons are willing to sacrifice a lot of other people they have influence over to get at a shaman, or to make a person become a shaman or otherwise important.

    If there's for example three people tapping into the forces of Good, they can cooperate better and with more trust, which is nice in the long run and for an adventuring party.
    Whereas if there's three people tapping into the forces of Evil, then Evil will happily reveal and sacrifice two of them to get the third a reputation as "the guy who killed two demoniacs" and the status that comes with it.

    (SV puts a red line under demoniacs, so I'll spell out the definition: people who are possessed or influenced by a demon.)
     
    Exmorri said:
    I speculate that daemons are willing to sacrifice a lot of other people they have influence over to get at a shaman, or to make a person become a shaman or otherwise important.

    If there's for example three people tapping into the forces of Good, they can cooperate better and with more trust, which is nice in the long run and for an adventuring party.
    Whereas if there's three people tapping into the forces of Evil, then Evil will happily reveal and sacrifice two of them to get the third a reputation as "the guy who killed two demoniacs" and the status that comes with it.

    (SV puts a red line under demoniacs, so I'll spell out the definition: people who are possessed or influenced by a demon.)
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    That does make me wonder who is working with them willingly rather than acting as dupes or flesh puppets. There has to be someone in the background supplying them with information if nothing else, as Abaddon can't be the best place to learn how to blend in with the peoples and cultures of this world, unless they get access to their host's memories when possessing them. That seems more likely, now that I think about.

    Still, given the unprecedented scope of their operations and the long-term nature of their planning, which runs so contrary to typical Daemon behavior, there is probably going to be a non-Daemon pulling strings at or near the top of this conspiracy's hierarchy. Whether or not that mastermind is Human is a whole other ballgame.
     
    [X] Wish them luck in their search up north, you have to reach the Sunset Islands a swiftly as you may, you will take your chances with the Mouth of the World
     
    [X] Wish them luck in their search up north, you have to reach the Sunset Islands a swiftly as you may, you will take your chances with the Mouth of the World
     
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