Taking Flight

For weeks and weeks the girls have been planning to target Overseer Kova, the selkie overlord of Loanua. They have gathered allies, gathered information, and gathered weapons. They've made a name for themselves in the seedy city of Tailotha. It is time for them to finally spring their plan - if they can agree on one before time runs out!

The Temple and the Casino

First, the girls went to the Temple of Arakara - a syncretic mystery cult dedicated to the original ancestral Meako of Loanua within the foreign religion of Saraka. They met up with Priestess Grenetha and set to work doing chores for her - cleaning the temple, helping garden, the usual. At the end, as a reward for their perseverance, Grenetha allowed them to tend to the temple's sacred flame (a conduit to the supreme Goddess Tira according to their faith). The girls did, and while Akata debated Grenetha on matters of theology, Potha meditated by the fire. After some time she had a mystical experience: she saw the Goddess Tira inhabiting her body, and witnessed a chain of compassion shared between people passed down from the days of Halcyon. She also heard prayers to Halcyon whispered from the corners.
Eventually they had to leave (perhaps with more questions than answers). They had an espionage appointment they couldn't miss at the casino. Time to see Overseer Kova herself, from the eyes of serving staff.
Potha went in as a server and immediately noticed the level of stress and exhaustion being inflicted on the staff. Inside the private lounge of the casino, she found Kova and her entourage drinking fine liquors and coca-infused wines as if it was their last night alive. Kova was rude right off the bat, but in a mundane way. It took time and drugs for the Overseer to slowly unhinge over the course of the night. While Kova went to town on those intoxicants, Potha had a brief conversation with the most unusual of Kova's entourage: a selkie by the name of Dimura, who seemed more anxious and self-hating than hedonistic. Potha's station as a servant limited the information she could gather, though. The night ended with Potha getting close to Kova and provoking her more unhinged responses. And the more Potha reacted with fear, the more aggressive Kova became. When Potha burst into tears, Kova kicked her in the chest and almost had her dissapeared, but the other selkies intervened and de-escalated things. Potha was escorted out by soldiers, and had to undergo a medical check for a disease that no one involved believed could exist, but was let go without serious harm.

Building Prestige

Potha spent the next day planning with Virtue, performing at the Gambling Moa, and pit fighting. The planning was tense, the performance was a critical success, and the pit fighting was good (it was a 2 v 2 with Akata and Potha against a low level fighter and a dhampire).
The day after that was the day of the race. It was 3 laps of intense racing and dirty tricks, with the main opponents being two professional racers, one military officer, and a strange foreigner. Potha used her Meako powers to speak with her opponent's birds and trick them into failing the race - and took out both the professional's birds and the military bird with ease. She and Eora tied perfectly, with the foreigner close behind. They won prize money, name recognition, and a small speaking opportunity before the people of Tailotha, where they encouraged unity and compassion.
The foreigner, Losaro, proved to be friendly but unhinged. He revealed himself as a particularly radical Rider of the Free Flame, exiled from the mainland temporarily for his tendency to rack up bounties in every city he visits. His hatred of settled cities and his love of birds proved to be fodder for a quick friendship, as well as his brutal honesty.
The other contact Potha made at the race was Norin (or "Cop Dad"), the military officer. Norin recognized their spellcraft as Meako and was curious what they were doing racing in Tailotha. After Potha showed interest in talking with the Grand Marshal, Norin offered to arrange an appointment - these were most curious figures, and Norin was quite respected among the cavalry.

Grand Marshal Miskora

The next day, the girls went to go meet Grand Marshal Miskora, head of the Analonan army and center of the current political drama. Norin escorted them through the army camp, but was unable to join them at the meeting - the Marshal was set on privacy. Potha talked with Miskora about Overseer Kova hoping to find a high-level political ally, but the Marshal was not all they had hoped for. She seemed unhappy about the detainment of the non-human smugglers of Analona and the Overseer's erratic hedonism, but she was enthusiastic about Kova's military plans.
Miskora then offered Potha a deal: lead her tribe in supporting Analona diplomatically, and receive a high station in the new order. It was everything she had feared: Analona was gathering the colonies for a massive invasion of the Western half of the island, which was intended to finally unite the island under one crown. The plan was to create a "Fortress Loanua" - essentially, to fortify the island through intense strip mining and forced labor. That way, when the end of the world arrived, Loanua could hold out for decades. Alternatively, such a united military kingdom could help give Loanua its own empire. Potha was disgusted and horrified, but Miskora warned her against any rash action - the Keamara League was distracted invading Kingdom of Karzado and their lands were vulnerable to being razed.

Planning and Politics

Potha went to go recover from that traumatic meeting at the Temple of Arakara. She met up with Losaro there, and the two made plans to leave Tailotha together on a ship headed for the mainland. They also agreed to commit arson at the Hunter's Market to get their own bounty before leaving. Potha also talked with Grenetha about Miskora's plans, and Grenetha decided to go try to talk down the Marshal.
To try and raise their spirits, the girls turned to pit fighting again. Potha took on her first "main course" fight against a chorical bard by the name of Katashi. It was a narrow defeat for Potha, but the two had a great performance where they "redeemed" the anti-hero Katashi to a full hero through Potha's idealism. When Potha returned to the tavern, she found that she had a permanent seat there, with a shooting star carved into the chair. Having performed well at three fights, built up her relationship with the appetizer fighters, and challenged herself to go after a bigger fight, Potha was now considered a full member of the fighting pit.
The next day was much quieter. The girls met up and changed their plans: no longer would it be enough to try and talk Overseer Kova down. The question was now whether a targeted assassination would be enough, or if they should pursue the original chemical attack plan. The girls ultimately chose a more subtle but insidious plan: to provoke Overseer Kova into a downward spiral that would delegitimize her and the selkie regime, possibly even provoking a civil war in Analona. They would then seed riots across the city, destabilizing the government and preventing the invasion of the West. The collateral in the long run would be high, but the stakes were too high and the girl's options were limited.
That night, Potha went to talk with her two new moms (Grenetha and Laraka) to warn them of the coming civil strife. Laraka responded with the expected cynicism. Grenetha responded with news of her own - that she had been able to talk with the Grand Marshal, and that the Marshal had responded very negatively. Grenetha was certain that the Marshal was going to raid the temple for harboring foreign agents, and gave Potha an old piece of Walokara (the old kingdom preceding Analona). They helped her bury the sacred icons of Arakara and dragged her from the temple (as she intended to stay and become a martyr in her despair). She was hidden with the smugglers, and agreed to hide until the riots started.

Murder Day

The seventh and final day was the day where Governor-Queen Lokrek, Overseer Kova, and Marshal Miskora would all meet and discuss the future - and party together afterwards at Kova's request. The girls had accumulated enough prestige by this point that it was easy to gain admission for a performance (and they agreed to help the steward of the manor get into show biz, which helps) and their opening performance was a stirring success. Kova and Miskora both recognized them, but all the better to stir the political pot. 
First was phase 1: set the emotional explosives. While Potha kept the attention on her, Eora splintered off to track down Dimura (the guilt-ridden selkie) to figure out exactly what happened to the crew that traumatized them (both so that they could better provoke Kova and so they could infogather about the apocalypse). And while this happened, the smugglers (poised as merchants and servers) would offer as much stimulant-laced wine as Kova could bear, ensuring she would get smashed. While this went down, Potha did pick up some heat - the bladesinger Chorical mercenaries present at the party began pressuring her to join the Final Choir of Vetevism and seemed very set on it. 

Dimura's Story

As Kova got smashed, Potha went to help Eora extract information. Dimura had been pushed into having a breakdown but was not willing to turn over the information. With Potha's helpful persuasion, Dimura finally told Eora the story: that the crew had visited a secluded coastal town along the equator, West of Sumaren, a town they alone knew the location of and had an exclusive trade deal with. The town seemed weathered, with many new faces but many of the old ones gone. The walls showed signs of damage, and most of the townsfolk were injured or sick. The crew spotted a great swarm of horrible monsters in the jungle and even saw a mountain that seemed to crawl along consuming the other peaks. Everything in that jungle was either dead, or a creature using normal appearances to get close. These monsters attacked the town, destroying it. The selkies evacuated as many of the townsfolk as possible and fled to sea. They tried to use the The Divine Contact to seek the aid of the Gods, only to find that a horrible presence answered instead. The presence claimed to be the Goddess Halcyon, but its words were laced with malice and spoke of the end of days. 
The ship fled along the coast, terrified, and the monsters followed in pursuit. For five days, the boat sailed and was denied access to the shore by creatures. Finally, on the fifth day, they had lost them completely. But the refugees they had taken had grown terrible ill. And on that fifth night, they turned into monsters themselves, butchering most of the crew. The captain and officers locked themselves in their quarters with the food and water, and for three days they heard 'Halcyon' and the monsters taunt them and describe their horrid fates. On the third day, Kova was finally able to sneak into the armory and detonate the gunpowder, sinking the ship. The selkies, donning their pelts, were able to escape. They washed up near a village, that took them in and healed their wounds - but some of the villagers seemed ill. The crew, taking no chances, slaughtered the village and took their supplies. They returned to the Khilaia, who disbelieved their horrible tale. So Kova and the crew gathered together a number of like-minded selkies and headed to Loanua, to make their impenetrable pocket of safety. 

Pushing Kova

So, back to provoking Kova. With this information in hand, Potha constructed a plan: they would convince the bladesigners to begin singing (as they dryad-prism voices matched the strange tones of the monsters' songs Dimura described Potha would animate a tree branch to fall and act strangely (but just normal enough to not provoke other people's attention and then Potha would approach Kova and pretend she could hear Kova talking when she couldn't. 
This went off without a hitch. Kova, high on coca, stressed from the court intrigue, and suddenly confronted with her trauma, panicked and lashed out. Potha kept pushing, getting close to Kova and acting in cordial (but intentionally triggering) ways. Kova eventually stabbed Potha when Potha went so far as to touch her - completing the escalation. 
Potha was dragged off for healing. Before she could leave, she was apprehended by Marshal Miskora, who thanked her for showing the court Kova's weakness but warned her from further interfering in Analonan politics. 

Kiss Kiss, Start a Riot

The squad met up at the clocktower to give their teary goodbyes. Eora and Akata both had their moments with Potha, and headed West to the Keamara League, before things went South here. Virtue and the smugglers headed their own way, to go further stir chaos in Analona in the coming months. And Keen was appointed to guide Potha back to Holy Zeshema for her rewards and honors (and to help teach Keen the value of foreign allies). 
Potha set off to go start a riot at Cocolo's Wall. She stirred the crowd, inspiring them to build community and stand by one another against the Overseer. As the crowd hit peak emotion, Priestess Grenetha arrived and pushed them to outright rioting by revealing her attempted arrest and the temple of Arakara being raided. 
Riot number one done! And, like dominoes, the energy soon spread to the mainstream Sarakan temple, which had been seeking a fight since Potha got there. Now time for the secular riots. Potha headed to the Hunters Market to stir the Fighting Pit to arms, and gave an inspiring speech to that effect. The Fighters stood by her but didn't seem willing to go to violence over simple words - but the speech provoked its own negative reaction from the poachers and adventurers that shared the square, who attacked Potha's bird. Losaro jumped in with his arson using Fire Termite oil, stirring the market into a panic. The Fighters leapt to protect Potha from the poachers, and the market began an all-out melee, which devolved quickly into a riot.
Now just to escape - the guards were swarming towards the square, and quickly identified Losaro and Potha as suspects. The two raced from the guards through the streets, opening fire on their pursuers and trading arrows. Finally, injured, they reached the docks, where the local port guards tried to stop them. Potha's bird went down - but it did not die, it merely dissolved into magic as Potha's powers reached their next level. It provided an ample distraction for Potha to sneak aboard the ship. By nightfall they were off into the East. Loanua was behind them now - the whole world lay ahead. Time to fight the apocalypse!

Components

Goals

QUEST GOALS

• Leave Loanua to join up with the others (Complete)
• Fight Imperialism 
• Protect the Southside Sirens/Ladies in Black/Girls Be Smuggling
• Talk with and/or assassinate Overseer Kova of Analona (Complete)

NEW GOALS

• Visit Holy Zeshema 
• Reach the Empire of Shirpatra 
• Meet up with the other Architects
• Scout out the equatorial area to learn more about the brewing doomsday

Relations

Allies

Eora: Daughter of the Priestess of the Sarana tribe, Eora is a charismatic beacon of joy (if a little unused to being outranked by someone). Very attached to Potha and aware of her nature as Halcyon incarnate. Grappling with the terror of knowing the world is ending. Increasingly attached to Akata. Slowly coming to terms with the situation in Loanua. Former member of Rabbit House
Akata: A daughter of a Meako officer in the Western military state of Huaka, Akata was the model girl of the Huakan military elite. Still deconstructing the trauma of growing up in a militarized society, Akata is learning to give others their space and communicate in a healthy way. Akata is still be disciplined, courteous, and ambitious, and sees Eora and Potha as inspirations to always improve herself. Former member of House Eagle.
Coco and Cobi: Potha's moa and falcon respectively. Coco is a moa with a sweet tooth that is unusually friendly for a moa; Cobi is a falcon with a sense of determination.

"Sergeant" Kevara: The leader of the smugglers, Kevara is a Half-Dryad smuggler with a sense of style and bravado that often leads her into dangerous situations. A self styled "badass pacifist" that seems to love throwing weapons around but squirms at the idea of killing people, Kevara is the party face and self-appointed leader. Perhaps she was an effective leader back when they were smugglers instead of bandits, but her inexperience in robbery and distaste for lethal violence means that she basically just follows the directions of Virtue.
The Smugglers: The smugglers are a group of coincidentally all-lady smugglers who go by many names. This includes The Southside Sirens, the Ladies in Black, and many more. They have excellent branding and a reputation for professionality and effectiveness, but their need for panache has been a major problem evading the notice of law enforcement. All but one of these eleven women are non-human, and they just barely escaped being black-bagged by the new regime. They are now desperate, vengeful, and lost.
Virtue: A Hunter of Norinar of the religion of Zesheko , Virtue is an expert assassin whose job is to take down corrupt or imperialist Selkie s. Virtue has scouted out Loanua as a prime candidate for their operations, and hopes to eventually attract other Zeshem to their cause once they are able to do something big. Virtue is restrained and friendly for a Zeshem - they treat foreigners as ignorant children rather than unclean outsiders, and seem curious as to whether Loanua could be brought into the Zesheko fold. Despite Virtue's unusual curiosity and affinity for foreigners, they still do not value foreign lives and seem absolutely willing to kill any Loanuan who gets in their way. Virtue has only been seen using a specially crafted scoped crossbow and seems adept at mechanical traps.
Keen: Virtue's apprentice, who prefers a more hands-on and personal approach to assassination than their master. Keen is less well-controlled and actively seems disgusted by non-Zeshem, but is fiercely loyal and obedient to Virtue. When not aggressive, Keen is quiet and seems afraid of Virtue.
Priestess Grenetha of the Wall: A kind older woman who is a senior member of the Cult of Arakara (the Weniko mystery cult of Saraka ). Was once a tribal revivalist who wanted to reorganize the Tokarana tribe (from which she is descended) and tried touring the island for inspiration, but had to give up those dreams to join the Cult of Arakara.

Neutrals/Bystanders

Granny Wiskora: An old woman with one eye, filed teeth, and quite the approach to life. Owns the fighting pits, and according to pit legend was once a champion of the pits herself who bought them out from the old aristocratic owner. Is also a barber, a surgeon, and a healer at the pits.
Laraka, Queen of Loanua: The head of entertainment at the Gambling Moa casino and a former Meako from the Nehenala tribe. Ended up in Tailotha long ago after the Kingdom of Karzado A small kingdom of poachers and squatters in North-central Loanua destroyed her tribe and the tribe's league (the Rurana) and has built a public persona as the supposed long-lost heir to the throne of Loanua. Does tap-dancing with her moa and is an expert at using Meako abilities for show business. Is cynical, bitter at the island's failures to help defend her home tribe, and wants to just buy out the casino and retire with something to call her own.
Dimura: Member of Overseer Kova's old crew and prospective governor for the Northern part of the island. Dimura is the only member of the crew that has not fallen into hedonistic despair, and the only one willing to openly confront her guilt. Dimura is not exactly stable, seems to frequently relive her trauma, and seems to almost revel in her guilt in an unhealthy way, but she does small things to try and help out Potha (mostly in terms of cryptic advice encouraging Potha to go to the North and hide).
Norin: A military officer in the Analonan bird cavalry. A nice guy who wants to open a bird ranch. Totally oblivious to politics and cannot comprehend the Marshal being a good superior and a bad person at the same time.
Katashi: A pit fighter, the only other chorical met so far. A child of the Bladesinger mercenaries, and an amateurs sword bard.
Brothers Min and Doom: Two pit fighters styled after Samvaran monks. Min is a performatively priestly warrior; Doom is a dhampire.

Adversaries

Overseer Kova: An aggressive, hedonistic selkie who currently rules over the Loanuan colonies. Paranoid and currently spiralling under pressure, Kova is abrasive, cruel, and prone to fits of erratic behavior. Increasingly reliant on substances to cope, she is prone to open violence when high on her favored stimulants. Once wasn't like this apparently.
Grand Marshal Miskora Urraiyl: The head of the Analonan military and one of the three main power players of the current regime. She is a woman of discipline and confidence, who does not like to let those she talks to forget her authority. Miskora, according to Priestess Grenetha, was once someone who revered the Cult of Arakara and even claimed to be a direct descendant of Cocolo the Ghost (a legendary freedom fighter), but the years have changed her. After joining the army, she made her way to the officer corps and was able to enter high command after her brilliant logistics and maneuvering during the Karzado wars (where she served as one of the initial planners). Now, she embodies the domineering ruthlessness of the Analonan military.

Backdrops

Locations

The Pits: the Fighting pits at the center of the Hunter's Market are a site for animal fights, gladiatorial matches, and individual fights. While the stadium itself is modest, it is maintained by an elaborate series of tunnels that may or may not be safe when it rains.
The Fighter's Tavern: a largely unmarked tavern near the Pits, where the pit fighters go to drink and relax. A very rough establishment that is hostile to strangers, but respects fellow pit fighters. Has a small attached bathhouse, lots of wrestling art, and an unspoken seating hierarchy.
Cocolo's Wall: a vestigial remnant of an old fortress painted with a large mural of a man falling (or ascending) surrounded by birds. Maintained and controlled by the Cult of Arakara the Lovers, with some very overt Weniko elements. Covered in art and offerings to both Cocolo and to the unjustly killed.
The Gambling Moa Casino: a large casino with a clockwork moa statue and very faux-Loanuan vibes. Currently thriving, with tons of gambling and entertainment from tourists, commoners, and elites alike. Richer people go to the higher floors, poorer to the basements, but all get a taste of luxury.

Plot type

QUEST

Parent Plot

Exploring Tailotha

Subplots

• Waters Foul

Related Organizations

• Kingdom of Analona

Related Locations

• Tailotha