The Wrathbreakers are searching for a missing apprentice called Sara, and also trying to find the person who hired mercenaries to skin and gut selkies on the coast west of Estona. They know that Sara was spending time with an older man she called her “starfall”, at the docks, and they also know that the mastermind of the fey hunts organized them by way of printed notes. But who are these people, and how can they find them? The roster for this session:

  • Bao Tap, human stormcaller
  • Calim “Ambros” Nefari, human rimewarden
  • Kyansei of the Eilika Tribe, wildling barbarian
  • Itzel, elven Astrologer
  • Quangbae, wandering blacksmith

The Wrathbreakers have been carousing in the docks, sitting around with sailors and scoundrels plying them drinks trying to find clues to the identity of their target, this “starfall”. They have also set an urchin watching a dropbox in the Old Town, where they think their note-printing target is likely to visit. While they wait for these tasks to bear fruit, they spend a lot of time in the Boar, their chosen tavern while they are inside the city walls, and Itzel spends a lot of time at the Academy researching Fey. Unfortunately her research yielded few results, except the knowledge that a much larger and more useful library can be found at Alpon in Ariaki, where the Wrathbreakers have connections and mysteries to solve. They resolved to travel there as soon as they have resolved the current problems.

The Urchin Network

While scanning the docks looking for the man who might be behind Sara’s disappearance the Wrathbreakers had to spend a lot of time sitting watching the day-to-day activities on the wharf. They spent many hours between the 12th and 19th of the month of Ice watching people moving around on the docks, trailing people away up the snow-dusted slopes of the winter-bound town hoping to find hints of criminal activity, or watching small deals take place out of sight of the main squares and merchant spaces of the city. It was cold, difficult, boring work and it yielded few rewards – after 8 days of careful attention they found no clues as to the identity of the “starfall”.

However, they did discover one of the secrets of Estona’s underworld. There was a small network of children who worked delivering messages and running small chores for the people of Estona, and those children were obviously connected and working for someone. The younger ones could be seen gathering and sharing resources, then meeting older ones to hand over money and other rewards, receiving instructions and returning to work. Many were clearly poor and struggling, but this may have been an act: others dressed well and filled other roles, such as acting as messengers or porters for Astrologers, Rimewardens, ship captains or ladies in waiting. Some obviously knew their adult contacts well, as if they were regular clients, but others obviously were performing tasks for people they had never met before. Much of the work was simple and blameless – delivering bread, looking after a baby while a father delivered goods for his shop, running off to the blacksmith to get an urgent repair done, the kinds of work that keep small businesses functioning throughout the land – but some was obviously shady. They watched notes and packages exchanged, subtle gestures, children slinking into alleys to make arrangements with shady men. Some could obviously read, and were employed for that skill, to be able to follow instructions and written information. Others obviously could not read, and received either the lowest paid jobs or in some cases jobs where it would help if they were unable to read at all – jobs where they could be trusted not to understand the content of the material they carried, and thus not to care to spill secrets to others.

At the center of this network of children they guessed there must be an adult, or a small gang, pulling the strings that connected all the gangsters, ordinary businesses, scholars, and government workers in Estona. Did everyone know about this network, or was it operating mostly unnoticed in plain sight? And how much did that gang at its heart know about all the criminal activities happening in Estona?

The crayfish trap

After a few days of watching the subtle patterns of criminal activity on the wharf, the Wrathbreakers were approached by one of those urchins. It was a different child to the one they had set to watch the dropbox (as far as they could tell), but this one told them that not only had he seen the person who owned the dropbox, but he had followed her to a secret location outside of town. The child demanded extra payment – after all, he had done more than asked – but in exchange he would be able to guide them exactly to their target.

Like foolish naifs, the Wrathbreakers paid up, and followed his tip. The urchin told them that the woman they wanted had left Estona and headed along the river to a secluded bank with an old wharf, where she was hiding in a small river boat with a group of armed men. They followed the child’s directions, traveling near the river for a few hours until they reached the place he had described. A crumbling wharf jutted into a small bay in the river, and leaning against it was a decrepit old river boat that was obviously too old and unstable to be used. The edge of the river was swampy open clearing surrounded by a dense stand of silent trees. The old boat had no cabin but a kind of tent of canvas covered the middle of the deck, and inside that tent they could see a dim light.

They approached the wharf. Itzel remained in cover in the dark shadows of the trees, keeping watch in case anything crept up behind them. They crept forward in the faint glow of the distant light and the fading remnants of the sunshard, which pulsed slowly in half of a cloudless sky; the other half of the sky was blocked out by the distant bulk of the Orun cliffs, towering here 2 km above them on the far side of the river. A freezing breeze blew down the river, and all they could hear was the slosh of water against the boat.

Nothing noticed their approach. They walked carefully down the rickety wharf and onto the boat, pulling aside the curtains of the tent carefully to look inside. The tent covered a set of splintered, fragile-looking stairs that descended to a low-ceilinged underdeck, from whence they could see the light. They carefully descended the stairs into an empty room, on the far side of which a small light glowed from an emplacement. There was nothing in the room, and noone. They fanned out to search for doors or lurking trouble, and at that moment everyone felt it: a faint wave of magical force, a creaking, grinding sound, and the ship fell apart around them. The walls and floor collapsed and freezing, muddy river water crashed in through the rapidly fragmenting hull of the ship. They all floundered in the water, and then the giant crayfish came.

There were four, ancient chitinous beasts from the murky depths of the deeper river. They slide under the kicking, struggling Wrathbreakers and lunged in to attack, striking and grabbing with pincers the size of a child. In the dark and the chaos the sinking Wrathbreakers could not tell how large these beasts were, but they knew they were in trouble. They attempted to drag themselves out of the water, either onto the water or the swampy ground, but with little success until Itzel, far away in the trees, was able to levitate Kyansei out of the water. She dragged Calim, and Quangbae dragged himself somehow onto the mire at the water’s edge.

It was then that the archers opened fire, shooting at them from within the cover of the trees. Truly, this was a vicious ambush. As they lay gasping and frozen on the shore, Bao Tap still battling the beasts in the water, a hail of arrows struck at them. A massive crayfish emerged from the water to attack Quangbae on the shore, but now Bao Tap was able to make a moment for himself, and unleashed his most difficult and powerful spell: Nature’s Champion. It took two tries but on the second try a huge snapping turtle came at his call, bigger than any of the crayfish, and started attacking them in the water.

With the crayfish under control the group were able to turn their attention on the archers, who were shooting now at Itzel. They made short work of them, but took no survivors. By the time that battle was done the crayfish had been destroyed and the snapping turtle had slid away into the turgid depths from whence it had come. They all stood, frozen and exhausted, at the edge of the water, watching as the remains of the ship drifted into the river and out of sight. They had been set up by someone who wanted to kill them, who had powerful magic at their disposal, and who had used the urchin they had paid to lure them into the trap.

Questions would need to be asked, and their search for the person behind these notes would have to be stepped up. They returned to their stronghold and the next day sent Selena into town with a message for the Myrmidon. After she returned they set out for the town again. They would continue their search, and if necessary the Myrmidon would help them. It was time to call in some favours, and start hurting people …