Heroes of the Beholden - Beholden Crossing
General Summary
As the Wardens fly out of Vlypeum, the purge sequence blaring a countdown below, them they practically collapse onto the Divine Reach.
Battered and Bruised
As they collapse aboard the ship Adama asks Reach to run a scan. Reach reports that there are only the expected group members aboard but also reports that the power level is currently at 70% and quickly draining. Reach warns that longterm flight cannot be sustained but does inform Hagren that weapons are operational. Reach explains that the conversion from potenital to combustion energy may require longer term retrofitting to enable all capabilities again. The group looks at Myra who gives them a "what do you want we were falling from the sky" look, as the ship shakes. As Hagren starts to pilot the ship towards the small armada of ships that have appeared below Adama and Raijun go below decks to try to seal off the bottom floor of the ship with a previously obtained scroll of private sanctum. Myra stays on deck to fiddle with the engine trying to ensure that it holds out long enough for the group to land. Adama and Raijun duck below spending the time to cast Sanctum with a near miss causing Adama a pounding headache (thanks to lucky and guidance from Raijun the spell takes). The spell is successfully activated and Adama suggests that they put all the 'sensitive' items below including the boxes from Slekul and the Cursed Compasses. The group agrees and further nominates Spryg and Raijun's double to stand guard while they parley with the other ships below. Having stabilize the engine as much as possible Myra takes a second to ask Kanna how she is doing, taking in the damage to her form fully for the first time. Kanna's left arm is mangled with broken skin and chunks of her arm appearing missing. There are tints of green, blue, and yellow glinting in her stone skin as Lilum comes up and begins licking her. Myra suggests that she could try to heal her but Kanna gives her a look and says she just needs time and land commenting that "If you hadn't guessed as much I'm more for dry land." She gives a disapproving look at the water. She turns to Sarya, "You look more like a creature of the forest what brings you out here?" "I'm looking for Reina, a human druid. She is also a creature of the forests. I thought she might be out here, she had heard of these animals and wanted to see why and who. But I did not find her." Kanna says she hasn't heard of her. She asks if Sarya's planning on staying with us and Sarya looks to Myra unsure. Myra suggests that she's welcome to stay. Kanna comments, "They're fun. Skilled undisciplined. But they'll do right by you." Raijun comes up to tell the group it worked and collect them below briefly. As they deposit the goods they want hidden in one of the rooms below Adama starts to change into old Adama again in preparation for going down amongst the delegation. When asked why he changes his form he admits that Adama isn't his real name. He says that those in Slekul know me as Abio, but that is also not my real name. I'm not originally from Slekul either, and with that he turns to go back above deck. The group looks at each other before following behind. As Hagren pilots the ship he brings us down masterfully between the flagship of Lion's Crest and The Ay Collective. On one of the lion's crest ships a taller gentleman, well built and handsome with black hair is standing next to Admiral Atilius Manerver and excitedly claps as Hagren lands. On the other side, flying the colors of the Ay collective a metal object with smoke clouds billowing out of its center sites, in its center sits a pole with a ball on top of it. As Hagren gracefully lands there are looks of astonishment from several ships.Introductions
The group takes a dingy over to the The Alabaster Gale which seemed situated in the middle of all of the ships. Onsprey flies to meet them, "Well my friends it seems like we are not the only ones who had adventures." Myra inquires on what happened with them after we left to make repairs a few days ago. Onsprey remarks that they were able to make some repairs but in the fights hat followed some were "returned to the ocean" and Kay was injured. As they talk James Jasper Whitehall III approaches, "You know you all can stop being heroes for a -" He's cut off as his eyes fall across Kanna and her injuries and his smile fades to a look of shock and terror at her safety. He warps her in his arms picking her up and the group sees tears spring from Kanna's eyes. James excuses himself and Kanna, "let me get her her settled," and disappears below decks. Around that time various delegation parties begin landing; the first aboard a rich looking figure in an emerald tunic, a golden winged beetle cresting the front of his armor, deep blue skin and black hair shaved on one side. He's quickly pushed out of the way by another party of his delegation a short halfling woman as Miss Carter makes her way to the front. She beelines towards Myra, who has already begun removing the goods belonging to Thirsten Thompson VII gathered in Vlypeum to place them on the deck. Carter pulls out a notebook, that looks suspiciously like one Myra had previously purchased and Raijun had gifted to her, carefully tallying the goods. "Where's the rest?" "This was all we were able to retrieve the rest, unfortunately is under the ocean or gone." "This will be coming out of your paycheck," she explains as Myra nods. "I'm glad you all made it out alive." "We didn't," Myra says soberly. Carter looks slightly taken aback, "Sorry," and while Myra doesn't truly believe her she does get the sense that Carter knows that she overstepped her bounds. She quickly turns back to the goods and the crew she boarded with making short work of having it handled back to the ship she boarded from. The blue man steps up and introduces himself as Captain Al'Saded Maharead takes in the awkwardness between Myra and Miss Carter remarking that "At least the problem has been resolved." Adama asks Carter if Thompson himself is around but she responds that he has returned home to Kolis-Tane to grieve the loss of his son, commenting that it has left her with larger than normal amount of responsibilities. Another delegation approaches an elegant elven woman, wearing a dress instead of the armor most other delegations are wearing, steps up to greet them as the delegation from Glemios. Raijun excitedly says that he is close to certain important individuals from Kolis-tane. The woman is suprised asking who he might know from their fine continent and Raijun proudly explains knowing both of the Stagwood children. The woman's brow furrows and she remarks that perhaps Raijun is, "not as familiar with their society as you led me to believe." Myra sighs and steps forward introducing herself as Myra Stagwood earning a sarcastic, "of course it is." From the woman who performs a deep bow and introduces herself as Grand Marshal Antenel Lunest. Myra asks if they will be staying or returning home the grand marshal indicates that given their situation and loss of a number of their vessels they will be returning. Myra asks if she might give the grand marshal a letter to diver to her family if she was returning which the grand marshal begrudgingly obliges taking the letter from Myra and handing it off to a lower ranking officer. The meeting with the grand marshal is interrupted by a dwarf in the colors of the Manten’Liche Army walking up to the Wardens and demanding to know, "which of you controls that ship," pointing to the Divine Reach. Hagren steps forward and asks what might be the problem and the dwarf (later identified as Admiral Blackspear) accuses, "you have stolen property of ours." Hagren says that they are welcome to tour the boat when the parlay is concluded but Myra intervenes (knowing that we do in fact have Slekul branded boxes in our hull) asking what evidence they have that we stole anything as we have just concluded saving everyone. Blackspear pulls out a familiar looking compass, "We have been on the search for a royal heirloom, this is it's mated pair." Myra asks to see where the compass is pointing saying if it is at their ship then they will happily let their delegation aboard but that she doesn't like being accused of things. The admiral opens the compass expecting the needle to point to the ship but it instead seems to be spinning, picking a new direction every few second. The admiral demands to know what we did to his compass and Myra proclaims that she's never seen his compass before. The admiral narrows his eyes but starts walking away. Myra says she didn't catch his name and he says, "that's right you didn't," as he walks into the crowd.Heroes or Villains
Admiral Atilius Manerver, Angelo, and a Yamil in bloody armor walk up. The Admiral remarks that it's good to see us all again on this plane, before taking a second and revising his comment to, "most of you". Angelo hails the group as heroes and asks for an explanation of what happened. The group looks at each other and then at Myra who straightens and steps up. Myra succinctly explains that they were hired to retrieve items that had been taken on the crossing of the Beholden, nodding to Carter. But that when we arrived we found that there was more going on. There was someone, she remains vague on who, who was using dead civilization technology to attack the ships crossing the beholden. That person has now been dealt with and the technology they used destroyed. She believes that the threat that was present has been dealt with and notes that if anyone was expecting goods from their losses they are now most likely at the bottom of the ocean. At the mention of technology some of the delegations turn towards a gnomish woman dressed in the colors of The Ay Collective (later introduced as Starmapper Decimal Tolerance) who is currently holding a sentinel arm in her hands, seemingly engrossed in studying it much more than listening to the conversation. One of her advisors nudges her as he notices the other delegations staring in time for someone to suggest that perhaps the Ay had something to do with the attacks, as they sustained almost no casualties from their delegation and seemed to provide limited aid. The gnomish woman looks confused saying that of course they blocked their ships from the attack but that they didn't have anything to do with the larger problem. The Kolis-Tane delegation, the one that appeared to have been hit hardest during the fight, comments that they certainly didn't seem to help. Myra intervenes on the behalf of the Ay, saying that they did sustain losses prior to the battle noting that we had come across the Tangent Wave (see Sea of Secrets - Crossing the Beholden) on our initial crossing. The gnomish woman interrupts Myra's defense to ask for more information on the ship and the research on board. Myra gives her a look that says 'really I'm trying to save your ass,' and says they can talk about after the larger parley has concluded but mentions that we did have their findings. Myra then continues that because they found the wrecked ship and that they saw no sign of the Ay's presence in the conflict she did not believe that they were involved in the attack. Someone from the crowd asks how we made it out alive when so many of the ships that came to aid are gone, their sailors dead. Myra, tears stinging her eyes, say that they also had several losses, quieting the nay-sayer, and that it was probably mostly through luck that the rest of them made it out alive. Captain Al'Saded Maharead steps up to Myra to console her saying that one as pretty as her should smile more. Raijun agrees while Myra turns away, frustrated with herself for showing emotion and with the captain for making her feel that her emotions were invalid. As others step up to question the Wardens Raijun and old Adama step in going into slightly more detail about the beasts we faced, though still being intentionally vague. Admiral Blackspear asks if we saw evidence of the Slekul saying they had lost many important cultural artifacts in this area. Adama concedes that we saw multiple ships and signs that they were in the area but didn't find anyone living, reiterating what Myra said that what we had seen was probably at the bottom of the Ocean. Blackspear says he doesn't "care for our stories," the area darkening around him but before he can continue Adama pivots revealing that we also saw a rift and beings come out. This causes discussion from the delegations as it appears that a number of other rifts have bene opening up with many murmurs along the lines of "it's not just us". Blackspear's eyes haven't left Adama when Yamil steps up and creates and illusion of the rift asking if this is what we saw. Adama confirms that that is an accurate representation and asks Yamil if he has seen it too. Yamil dodges the question instead explaining multiple rifts have been sighted opening up all over the archipelago. No one has been able to find a pattern for the openings or closings yet and some of them have left odd creatures behind. Blackspear steps up again questioning the integrity of the Wardens. He says that we are an unknown entity and how could any of them trust anything we say. This time the gnomish woman from the Ay Collective steps up speaking in our defense backed up by James who has arrived back to the conversation. Admiral Atilius Manerver intervenes saying that with that information it seems that there is still more work to be done on organizing the cleanup efforts. He notes that some individuals will be staying and that they have all contracted with a neutral third party and that 2 members of the Shikari organization. The handsome man (Angelo) steps up, "Well I think we have these heroes to thank for whatever happened. For now let's celebrate." As he pulls out a flask and raises it high Admiral Blackspear turns to leave. Adama pulls Raijun aside and asks him to, stealthily, deliver a note to Blackspear. Raijun agrees and tries to quietly intercept the Admiral but as he does a seven foot tall figure in leathers and a hooded face steps blocking his path. Raijun hides the notes abandoning the mission as the dwarf gives him a malevolent smile showing that he is missing five of his teeth as he steps into a dingy and rows away. Raijun apologizes to Adama saying he wasn't able to deliver the note and asked what it said. Adama admits it was a threat to the admiral and Raijun is thankful that he was intercepted lest they have accidentally started an incident. Meanwhile, as the other Wardens are absorbed into the party that is starting aboard the Gale someone bumps into Sarya. As she turns to address the person who bumped her she spots a gold coin on the ground, no evidence of who bumped her. As she picks up the coin she has a familiar sinking feeling in her stomach as she see's its not a normal gold piece an octagonal coin, more of a calling card really. As she flips it over she sees in a familiar code, "Welcome back".
Report Date
04 Feb 2022
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