The Wrathbreakers have run into some trouble with rival adventurers in Estona, and think the best thing for them is to put some distance between themselves and the town for a little while. Fortunately they have discovered that the missing apprentice they are looking for, Sara, was kidnapped and sent to the Valley of Gon by those same adventurers. They decided to travel to the Valley of Gon and find her, in the hope that they can gain some power while they are there and be better placed to take on their enemies in Estona when they return. The roster for this session:

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

So it was that on the 8th of Still they took ship on the Gone with the Wind, and headed for Gon.

Searching for Sara

They arrived in the Freeport of Gon on the 10th of Still, and found a comfortable tavern called the Golden Mug to set up their presence in the town. They already had a fairly good sense of where Sara had been sent, because they knew now why she had been groomed by Stitch in Estona. Someone in the Valley of Gon had been trying to find out about documents in the possession of Sara’s master, Siladan the Elder, and at about the same time as those documents had been sent to Siladan’s friend Gerald, Sara had disappeared. In their journey to Estona the Wrathbreakers had encountered raiders from the Valley of Gon who were searching for those documents at Gerald’s home, and their guess was that the same raiders had been spying on Siladan through his apprentice. So they guessed now that Sara had been sent to those raiders, either to be disposed of or to be interrogated or used in some way. They already knew that those raiders were based in the Freehold of Ar, far up the river from the Freeport of Gon, but they thought it would be good to learn a little about the situation in Gon before they went storming in.

So it was that the following morning they began to explore the town, looking for information about Ar and any signs of Sara’s transit through the town. Their investigations led them to a rundown park where homeless and day labourers gathered in a small transient community, and here they learnt a little about the process of trafficking people up the river. They also learned something of the history and situation of the Freeport of Ar. It appeared to have been taken over by a new gang of warlords a few years ago, and although it had been in dispute with its south western and north eastern rivals little had changed about its boundaries over that time. The leader of the warlords had styled himself the 11th Argalt, and renewed an old claim on the nearby Freeport of Azel, though to little effect so far. The Freehold sounded poor, rundown and a little desperate, but the Wrathbreakers were assured that its central fortress was splendid, an ancient tower built either by deepfolk or by an elf-trained human so long ago that its origin was lost to human record. This fortress, and the fact that the Freehold’s borders to the north were in the hills overlooking Hadun, had made it a target for a much larger central power in Gon, Elizabeth the 4th from the Freehold of El. Rather than going directly to Ar, the Wrathbreakers realized they might be better served attempting to forge an alliance with Elizabeth. Her town El was on the river journey to Ar, so they decided they would head to El first, investigate the situation, and then travel to Ar.

The assassins

Having met at the outskirts of the rundown park the Wrathbreakers headed back down the hill towards the Golden Mug, walking through slush and fresh falling snow. As they entered one of the tight, overhanging streets on the hill they noticed that the market stalls lining the street were suspiciously empty, and the street had gone quiet. Warned just in time, they were not overwhelmed when the ambush hit them.

Their attackers were a squad of leather armoured swordsmen in dark cloaks; some archers hiding amongst the stalls; and a wizard of some kind lurking further back behind his soldiers. The archers used poisoned arrows, and when the battle looked like it would not turn in their favour another squad of archers appeared on the balcony. While Kyansei and Quangbae distracted the swordsmen Itzel used a firebolt to bring the balcony down, and Bao Tap summoned a Nature’s Champion: a huge secretary bird that fell from the leaden grey skies to tear apart a stall of snake meat and set upon the archers with vicious, stamping attacks. After it tore through the archers the remaining one fled, and it turned its attentions on the next squad as they fell from the sky.

The battle ended quickly but unsatisfactorily. Every assassin who was not killed by Kyansei’s sword took an amulet around their neck, bit it and died within seconds. They had killed themselves rather than reveal their identity or the person who had sent them. Poisoners and fanatics – a cult?

Was the 11th Argalt building a squad of religious fanatics in his Freehold? Or was a more sinister group active in the Freeport of Gon, with the same target as the Wrathbreakers? With no one to question and no clues, they headed back to the Golden Mug and prepared to leave, keeping a careful watch behind them and an eye on every twitching shadow. They had escaped conflict with the Iron Hand in Estona, but what new swarm of horrors had they stirred with their arrival in Gon?