Twenty-eighth Session

Twenty-eighth Session

Zhannur Timurlan makes war across Eastern Otan

Campaign	The Primordial Campaign
Game Date	Morning, Tamiz 8th, 261 IM
Start Date	Morning, Silde 2nd, 261 IM
Start Location	The Commodore, Jagalik, Araldar
Absentees	Sophie (Sarani Devalinth)
Prev Session	Twenty-seventh Session
Next Session	Twenty-ninth Session

The Twenty-eighth Session began in the port city of Jagalik, might capitol of the nation of Araladar. The party having commissioned a ship from what might be the greatest shipbuilding facility in Otan had the construction underway. The party, meanwhile had taken it upon themselves to study up for new proficiencies to prepare themselves for the battles ahead and of course, life at sea.

Each in turn studied for the six weeks they had to wait for their new ship to be ready to launch. The party began their studies with the promising news that echoed through the town; that the Araldar navy had defeated the Garis navy on their first encounter and sent the enemy to the bottom without much fuss at all.

Bubbles Littlefoot

Bubbles took up the study of navigation, a skill vital to the operation of a vessel at sea. A quick study, her mastery of navigation was almost intuitional for her. She meanwhile crafted a container for her Sunstone which would assist her in guiding the party into and more importantly, back out of deep water. This new new navigation skill paired up with her advanced navigational abilities conferred by the Sunstone perhaps make her the most capable navigator on all of Otan.

Obsidian Black

Obsidian had dual goals in mind. One was to learn more about the two Memes of Aspan still in his possession, the meme On the Ascent to Heaven and the meme On the Descent to the Nether World. While studying these with the help of Mira Nephilim, he was also determined to learn as much of the Old Otani language as possible. It was no surprise to anyone that the language came easy to him and by the end of the down time, he was able to read from the memes without assistance.

What did not come easy to Obsidian, was understanding the intent of the gods with these memes. The Aspanists have a different view on the afterlife than the Wodenists. They believe that the afterlife, for bad people in particular, is an eternity of torment and punishment, while the latter believe the afterlife in Helheim to be an eternity of boredom. Which eternity is worse is debatable, however both memes, one presumably dedicated to those who lead a good life and one to the bad, describe the preservation of the soul as being of the highest importance for anyone possessing such a thing.

Continuous study of the two memes gave Obsidian a picture of the afterlife... one of continuous life if the soul is preserved. The picture not only indicates that damage to the soul will harm the possibility for the possessor to achieve either the heavens or the nether world, but such damage could affect a series of selfs that share existence with the possessor. These selfs coalesce into the highest self, which can be accessed in the heavens and they are broken apart into numerous lower selfs in the nether world.

No instructions on how to move from self to self were explained short of the ultimate move... death. In this regard the memes were explicit that the owner of a soul should not fear death as it is a passing. Death, however, has a caveat in that a sudden explosive and complete destruction of the body in an instant could have a catastrophic effect on a soul that is not prepared to travel. Both of Obsidian's memes made reference to the memes On the Ascent from the Nether World and On the Descent from Heaven, which may combined create a more complete picture on the preservation of the soul.

Mira Nephilim

Mira had two goals in mind for her down time. The first was to learn as much of the Aydahar language as possible from Obsidian Black and the second was to work on her persuasion skills. For the former, she studied with and read with Obsidian, who turned out to be a far better student than teacher. As he gobbled up the Old Otani language, Mira struggled with the Aydahar tongue, despite her zeal for speaking with dragons.

Between lessons, she went into town to practice the art of persuasion, asking locals to perform small tasks and favours for her. In the end she gained proficiency in both affairs, the draconic Aydahar tongue finally finding it's way through her lips. Her persuasion skills were also much increased and her proficiency ensured.

Athin Alionel

Athin adjusts his mangonel.

Athin Alionel, a marksman with a bow, was determined to apply his deadly skills to the much larger seaboard equipment, specifically the mangonel. It was a long six weeks for Athin as the subtleties of lobbing gargantuan amounts of shot evaded him. To focus on a target bobbing at sea, while ones own self and weapon are similarly bobbing, gave Athin nothing but grief. Others at the port provided guidance and comradery as he practiced, but it was several weeks into his studies before he was hitting the mark. At that point, he was hitting the mark every time and ready for sea.

Panamon Cree

Panamon, armed with a small collection of followers decided to try his hand at recruitment, specifically into the Cult of Æski. Panamon poured his heart and soul and every ounce of his charisma into the recruitment campaign. At the end of the six weeks, he had recruited a total of 55 new minions, 30 of which were very capable of crewing the ship. The rest of these, he left behind with instructions to construct a temple of Æski and to continue the recruitment effort.

The End of the Araldar navy

All through the month of Silde, the news kept coming in on the progression of the Garis war. The news began with the complete and utter destruction of the Araldar navy on Silde the 8th. This unexpected turn of events was sure to leave an unprotected Araldar vulnerable to a great many things that it had been impervious to.

On learning the news, Mira Nephilim coaxed a dolphin to examine the area. It took nearly three weeks, but with the dolphin returned, it was able to describe the carnage and the total destruction of the ships, but also it was able to retrieve part of a skull from a captain-like-person who had died in the sea battle.

The War Continues

By Silde the 13th, the fall of the glorious Sigis Empire was complete. All of their armies had been slain or surrendered to the much superior Garis military. Occupational forces quickly moved in to manage the area as Zhannur Timurlan pressed his forces toward the Ortalyk border.

Meanwhile, a warship from Ælfgarade sailed into the port. Several dignitaries disembarked from the ship and marched to the Jagalik Admiralty Office. Athin Alionel sent a mouse to listen in on the conversation and there he heard the Ælfes demand the surrender of the port. The party also witnessed a number of Ælfgarade warships out at sea, forming what was undoubtedly a blockade. Meanwhile, Ælfgarade sailed into port and Ælfen troops began to take over the various military posts, the Araldar military now all being out of work.

The occupying military soon declared martial law and imposed a curfew. A few rebels were killed, but overall casualties were very light. It became clear to most that the Ælfes were in it for the money. It was sometime after all of this excitement that the party noticed the very likely Garis-owned sloop in the port had vanished. The Araldar guard undoubtedly having abandoned his post after the surrender of the navy to the Ælfgarade delegation.

The War Continues to Continue

On Silde the 18th, Ortalyk forces lost the capitol of Kala Astanals to the invading Garis. The Tsar, Batil Zhurek survived the battle, and retreated with his family and remaining divisions to Karagay. It was not long after that that the Garis routed the forces of southern Aydahar, killing countless chromatic dragons in each of the southern regions. The few surviving dragons fled to northern Ontustik and the new country of Jalinjeri.

As the dragons fled, the Garis pushed even further, overtaking the eastern border of Ontustik and pushing into the country as far as Sie. The major advance happened on the 28th of Silde when the defending clerics had little or no power to defend the border cities.

Getting Underway

By the 8th of Tamiz, the Dirti Nelli was complete. What to do about the completion was somewhat frightening, however, Obsidian Black and Athin Alionel approached the new masters of the Admiralty Office and asked to register with the Ælfgarade navy as privateers. Perhaps because the pair were Ælfish, the navy did not appropriate their ship and granted them the letter of marque and a pair of Ælfgarade flags. These were granted and a fee of 5000 pieces of gold, obvious extortion, was levied. Obsidian immediately paid this in gems and the party was nearly underway.

The last bit of business was to exercise their commercial independence. A trip to the Kuulik Trade Company Office gave them a lead on two transport deals. The first to deliver several tons of cargo to the Free States city of Asylzhan. He also had a passenger who was willing to pay handsomely for transport to the Ontustik capitol of Anar. The passenger turned out the be the Fourteenth Rose of Karakat, an important and powerful spiritual leader of the city of Karakat... and perhaps the most beautiful woman anyone in the party had ever seen.

To sea!

Player Comments

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