Compromise and Conceit

The Wrathbreakers have been investigating a mysterious puppet-master in the city of Estona who uses printed notes to dispatch various mercenary and criminal groups on shady missions. They are also attempting to track down the former apprentice of the wizard Siladan, by finding the boyfriend they think may have harmed her. All they know about this man is that he had long dark hair, was older than her, hung around the docks, and was referred to by her as her “Starfall”. They have reached a dead end looking for the notes, and know that the only way they can pursue them now is to confront the man or woman who runs the network of street urchins who deliver messages across Estona. Their investigations proceed from this impasse. The roster for today’s session:

• Bao Tap, human stormcaller
• Kyansei of the Eilika Tribe, wildling barbarian
• Itzel, elven Astrologer
• Quangbae, wandering blacksmith

Seeking the Puppet Master

It was nearly the new year, the 31st day of the month of Ice, and all would go quiet the following day. They had learnt that the Puppet Master organized his business arrangements with a first, initial visit by one of his agents – one time a dwarf, and one time an elf – so they decided to search the seedier areas of town to find out if there was any knowledge on the streets of a group of adventurers or criminals that was multi-racial, containing an elf and a dwarf, and had been in the town for at least the past year. Unfortunately, this investigation turned up nothing – they could not tell if such a group was here and hiding, if their inquiries had been insufficient, or if the group did not exist. This, their last avenue of investigation that would not bring them into conflict with other forces in the town, ground to nothing.

New Year

New Year in the Archipelago is a day of quiet reflection and prayer, where the citizens of all the islands retreat into quiet contemplation and prepare themselves for the year ahead. The wrathbreakers participated in this day of still inner peace as well, though in their own ways:

• Bao Tap visited the primary Shrine of the Storm in Estona, a huge tower of ancient stone with a large, open chamber at its base where devotees of Storm could spend the day in silent meditation. He eschewed the option to climb the outside of the tower’s noble spire where, buffeted by the strong winds above the city, he could absorb the full energy of the storm, and instead prayed in the Great Chamber of the Winds at the base of the tower
• Kyansei rose early at the stronghold to pray to the sun as it rose over the mountains to the east, then traveled all day to the storm-tossed beaches on the western side of Estona, where she prayed again to the setting sun and bathed herself in the salt waters of the first tide of the new year
• Itzel attended services at the Academy, where she spent the day in the ancient building’s sun dome, meditating on a beam in the pale glow of the new year’s sun
• Quangbae also attended the Academy, but only for simple prayer and reflection in one of its devotional chambers

At the end of the day, refreshed, they were ready to face the new year, and all the challenges they knew it must surely bring.

Confronting the Rock Spider

They decided that it was time to force the hand of the man or woman who controls the urchins, who they call the Rock Spider. They could have tracked him by carefully observing what his urchins do and where they go, but Itzel thought of a subtler technique. A few days earlier they had received a letter from the Rock Spider telling them not to interfere with his business or inquire further about the notes, or they would be punished. They decided to reply to this letter with a new year note, wishing him well and agreeing to his request. However, the letter would be written with magical ink that would tell them where it was delivered and when it was opened. Itzel knew this ink could be bought from the Academy, and set off to find it. She bought a bottle at the Academy, but they learned it would take a few days to be delivered. In the meantime they decided to continue the search for the missing apprentice, Sara.

The Iron Hand

This time the Wrathbreakers decided to use their limited charms to search for the boyfriend of the apprentice, again trawling through bars and restaurants in the Docks and Old Town looking for signs of a man who might fit the description they had been given. By now they had narrowed down the area of their search to a small cluster of bars and night districts just back from the Docks, so they set out there with a simple plan. Kyansei would again pretend to be on the hunt for men, while the rest of the group would stay nearby within easy alarm distance, ready to pounce.

They plied this tactic for two nights, and on the second night finally found their target. Kyansei was relaxing on a verandah of a well-known bar when from across the road she heard a young woman’s voice exclaiming “Oh stars you have a tattoo! Oh wow! On your neck!? Let me see! No show me! Oh wow it’s a falling star! So beautiful!” Looking closer, she saw a man who matched the description they had been given of Sara’s former boyfriend, flirting with a young woman who was exclaiming over this falling star tattoo. Remembering the nickname Sara had given her boyfriend – “my Starfall” – she realized this must be him. She stood up, abandoned her drink, gestured to the rest of the Wrathbreakers where they sat in a nearby coffee bar, and walked across the road to speak to the man.

Perhaps it was something about her demeanour, or perhaps their investigations thus far had not been as subtle as they had hoped, but as she approached the man saw her, pushed his woman away, stood up and snarled something at her that suggested he knew who Kyansei was. Then he attempted to leap over the balustrade of the verandah where he sat, and battle was joined.

They thought they would be confronting one man, unarmoured and carrying just a knife, but they soon realized they had stumbled into something much worse. A woman emerged from the bar where the man had been resting, carrying a shield and sword; from an alley nearby they saw a wizard with ruined legs, marching towards the square in a chair with magically animated spider’s legs; someone else emerged from the bar carrying a bow. Bao Tap called forth his Nature’s Champion, which manifested as a giant hippopotamus and charged down the alley toward the wizard in the animated chair; as it did so a solid, powerful looking women in half plate armour with a great axe emerged from the shadows and hit it a huge blow with the axe. The wizard began dropping balls of fire on the main battle, which enveloped Kyansei and Quangbae but seemed not to harm their engaged enemies at all. The woman with the sword and shield teamed up with the Starfall to take on Kyansei, and she had great difficulty hitting either of them; behind them the man with the bow deployed healing magic or blasts of stone bullets from his hands to support the warriors or take down the Wrathbreakers’ marine minions.

The battle was poised until the wizard in the magical chair and his heavily-armed colleague finally beat the Nature’s Champion hippo to death; they began to move towards the square, and the Rimewarden on the verandah with the bow did a serious injury on Itzel. Things were looking bad for the Wrathbreakers, but Bao Tap decided to risk everything and cast a second Nature’s Champion. It worked, and another giant berserk Hippo appeared in the square blocking the path for the wizard and his female companion. At this point another man emerged from the bar carrying a bow, and called for a truce. The two sides backed away from each other, the Hippo stopped its advance, and they agreed to a ceasefire while they tried to find out whether they actually had any cause for disagreement.

Badly injured and exhausted, the two groups cautiously moved back into the bar, set out tables, ordered drinks, and sat down to negotiate.

They discovered that they had run into a group of adventurers called The Iron Hand, who had been based in Estona for a few years and made money from various mercenary tasks. Their rogue, Stitch, had been paid to befriend Siladan’s apprentice Sara and find out more details about her master’s work. He had sent these details as letters to his employer. Eventually, after a few months of investigation, Stitch had been told to kidnap Sara and send her to the Valley of Gon. This had been about 4 months ago, about the time that the Wrathbreakers had run into raiders looking for an old friend of Siladan’s just outside the Valley of Gon.

The coincidence was too great to be put down to chance – they guessed they had run into raiders sent by the same people that had taken Sara. Although Stitch did not know this – he had simply sent the girl as a package to a ship he had been told about – they guessed they knew where she had been sent. But why? They asked him who his employer had been and he explained to them that he had been instructed to do all these vile deeds through a series of notes sent to him.

The Iron Hand, then, were also being paid by the mysterious Puppet Master, by the same mechanism. They asked who had set up the arrangement initially and were told it had been a Wildling agent of the Puppet Master. At this point Itzel realized, the agent must be a Changeling. The Changeling appeared to all of the Puppet Master’s agents as a different race, to ensure that they could never find the agent’s employer. From then on they would be given instructions in notes, which they were instructed to destroy. Except …

… They discovered that the Iron Hand had not been destroying the notes. It was always good to keep evidence of their employers’ foul intentions, so they had kept them all, with the wizard casting a spell to make it appear that the notes had been destroyed. They offered to sell a note to the Wrathbreakers for 500 coin, and the Wrathbreakers quickly agreed. Now they would have the notes, they knew where Sara was, and they guessed that the Puppet Master was interested in some secrets buried in Siladan’s past adventuring. What had been in those elven documents that had been stolen by Deepfolk…?

The Wrathbreakers had more pressing concerns, however. Having established what they needed to know, they had to negotiate a careful truce with the Iron Hand. They had been surprised and unready, but even so it was clear that the Iron Hand were easily their match, and they could not afford to go to war with them. They carefully negotiated an agreement not to interfere in each others’ affairs, finished their drinks and went their separate ways, but as soon as they were on their own the Wrathbreakers immediately agreed that they had to destroy the Iron Hand. They were certain that they would be forced into confrontation with them again, and also sure that soon the Puppet Master would pay the Iron Hand to kill them. As they neared their targets, they needed to clear this mercenary band out of the way. But there were 6 of them and they were very dangerous. The Wrathbreakers would need to be stronger and would need to get the upper hand in some way.

First, however, they decided it would be best to find Sara. She had been kidnapped and sent off to the Valley of Gon, possibly to a very bad fate, and needed help. They also guessed that if they found out who had taken her and why, they might be able to track down the Puppet Master from a different direction. Having crossed the Iron Hand they guessed now would be a very good time to get out of town for a while, and when they came back, more powerful and hopefully with more information, they would be in a position to attack and destroy the Iron Hand – then move on the Puppet Master.

They were close to answers to many questions, and whatever evil secrets the Puppet Master sought in the viscera of the Selkie she had paid for was connected to the disappearance of Siladan’s apprentice, the raiders they had encountered in Gon, and the deaths of the surviving members of the Ashentide. Somewhere behind it all was some dark secret buried in ancient elven lore and stolen by the Deepfolk. They were close to something now, though they did not know what, and the answers were trapped somewhere in a dungeon in the Valley of Gon, scared and alone and waiting for rescue. It was time for the Wrathbreakers to leave Estona, and to be heroes again …