Act 1 ~ Chapter 1 ~ Finding Çidrães

General Summary

(Note that this is a report spanning multiple sessions. Also, this is not at all detailed.)

Heroes Involved

• Andrea ~ Born in the Free Lands, he used illusionary magic to commit crimes and earn money. Voluntarily exiled to avoid being persecuted for it, he is now a pirate in the group of Rrades. His current mission is to contact the Cajenian League and help them looking for Çidrães.
• Carin ~ Officer from the Cajenian League, she is currently investigating why Çidrães Skamas does not want to side with the League against the Arkadhian New Empire.
• Jeorjes Ãjo Majorca ~ Ex-pirate, he was involved in the notorious artefact retrieval mission Selado Sertero accomplished. He became a wayfarer after betraying the pirates by helping him getting the said artefact.
• Zlatan Mulliken ~ Former Shadow Court member, he decided to abandon it and flee when they asked him to kill a friend for experiments on Energy Circuitation. During the escape he and his friend got separated. He does not remember how, but found himself at the Crossroads. He is one of the very few Wayfarers Letscheal trained (which is debatedly not good).

Starting Off

The heroes meet at a tavern in Utre, a city on the Arnakian glass commercial road, get to know each other a little before moving on. A kid approaches to deliver a letter for Carin. It is made clear he was paid to deliver it anonymously and know nothing of what's going on. The sender is Çidrães and the message advises the officer to avoid looking for him, or else bad things will happen. Carin is not impressed though.
They all decide to move in the late afternoon, sailing for the inhabited island of Lleja, where Rrades base is. A couple of days later they are talking with her to decide what to do. The two wayfarers want to investigate possible connections between Çidrães, the Empire and the Abyss. Rrades is somewhat persuaded a demonic entity possessed Çidrães and would like to investigate. She really wants the pirates to help the League, but without the admiral's support, it will not be possible.
After their first night spent in Rrades' base, as the first thing in the morning, a bomb explodes out of their door. Luckily, only Jeorjes was close enough to be hurt, since he was opening the door, but he's a diviner and was not caught by surprise. They wisely decide to leave for the city of Roas, where they should find Selado. Rrades promises to gather her faithful men and sail for Roas to pick up the party and go looking for Çidrães together.
Selado is travelling with an ancient sentient automaton, saved during his notorious artefact retrieval mission, and Itchida, another imperial wayfarer recruited during the same mission. They are currently heading for the Unknown Waters, where all the other automata are asleep. The plan is to awake them and either make them join the war or create a kanva for them to live in.

The First Journey

Once all reunited, Sedo, Itchida, the automaton, the party and Rrades, decide to head towards the Maelstrom first, a permanent storm moving between Cajena and the Unknown Waters, since they know Çidrães often hides there his galleon.
On their way, a sea emperor, a huge predator with tentacles and a bony head, attacks the ship. They succeed not only in repelling the attack with illusions and other powerful incantations but also in cutting a tentacle and fry it for the crew to eat. Everyone's morale is over the top at this point and they are ready to face the Maelstrom's currents.
In the calm waters within the Maelstrom, they find a large portion of the pirate fleet, including the admiral's galleon. Sedo, Zlatan, Andrea, Jeorjes and Carin leave Rrades ship with a rowing boat to infiltrate the fleet and reach the galleon. They organized some rendez-vous with Rrades so that she could stay far from the supposedly hostile fleet as much as possible. If they miss all of the rendez-vous, the captain will leave them there and head towards the Unknown waters to let Itchida take care of the automaton mission.
Like that, the party cast an invisibility seal on the boat and reach the galleon.

Çidrães

Maybe unsurprisingly, Çidrães was waiting for them with his pet dragon Sovurras, alone on the galleon. He makes clear the Shadow Court made him some big promise and offer the party a place in the organization if they let him take revenge on Sedo and Jeorjes for what happened during the artefact hunt.
They refuse with style. Zlatan begins talking of his experience in the Court, trying to convince Çidrães they will just dispose of him once he's no longer useful and keeps talking about him and his friend. At some point, Zlatan understands it's impossible to persuade the admiral and tries to bluff to let him at least let them go away. He says he can cast the Vaelin, the most powerful magic existing, arguing the Court already knows how to cast it. The magic would be so powerful to destroy the whole fleet currently stationed inside the Maelstrom. Çidrães is not impressed though, and dares him to cast it, while stretching a hand toward Sovurras, ready for an emergency exit.
While all the talking on the Vaelin goes on, Carin backs a little, sneakily takes out a couple of grenades and throws against Çidrães, too focused on Zlatan to see her. Çidrães activates the emergency plan, consisting of teleporting the galleon, and all people aboard it, in the Abyss.
Çidrães boasts himself, Sovurras (which is now a giant ghost dragon) and the galleon are three sides of the same almighty entity in the Abyss. The battle begins and the party is clearly overwhelmed: phantom arms and hands rise from the galleon walls and floor to restrain them, Sovurras stays on the sterncastle attacking with his claws and Çidrães, protected behind a barrier, generates magical explosions against Zlatan.
Jeorjes decides their only way out of this mess is probably taking out the galleon from within. He knows of a magical chamber used as propulsion mean somewhere inside the ship. If they can reach hit and overcharge it with magical energy, they might be able to generate an especially powerful explosion. Deeming it worth a try, the party rushes inside. The galleon actively twists his corridors and walls to stop them, while a ghostly crew appears to battle them.
They succeed in reaching the room, hurt and tired. Sedo is designed as the one who is going to collect magical energies from the others, from the Abyss and overcharging them into the chamber's circuits. According to the plan, Sedo forces the energies to stay within the galleon and keeps amplifying them until everything explodes in a blinding light.

Out of the Abyss

The galleon emerges out of the Abyss, offshore a small island, far from the Maelstrom and the pirate fleet.
The party finds itself in the sinking galleon with an unconscious Sedo, and tries to reach the sterncastle. From there, they see the ship in half, Çidrães and Sovurras, now no bigger than a horse, on the other side. The admiral is unconscious while the dragon tries to put him on his back. Zlatan quickly ties himself with ropes and tries to reach them, gun in hand, to shoot the finishing blow against the pirate. Sovurras offers to call it a tie and let everyone escape alive. The wayfarer deceivingly accepts, only to distract the dragon and take it by surprise. Due to the difficult situation, he misses the target. Sovurras roars, generating an explosion in his direction, but the party is already pulling the ropes up.
Annoyed, the dragon grabs Çidrães with a bite and unceremoniously put him on its back. Then it flies, manoeuvring to have a good position to attack the party.
In the meantime, a catamaran closes from the nearby island. Leading it is Alvar, a horned pirate demon who worked with Carin. Seeing her and her friend in trouble he offers them a ride to the island. They board and set sail, but the battle is not over yet. Zlatan takes a rifle from one of Alvar's friends and tries to kill Çidrães again. He misses, hitting the dragon instead.
Sovurras decided it is too risky to press on. Casting a final shock wave against the ship, it flies off in the distance. The catamaran is invested and everyone jumps off. A wooden board hits Zlatan in the head, knocking him unconscious. The shallow waters make it easy to recover the ship's pieces and everyone else.
While everyone is catching breath and resting for a while, Sedo calls for Jeorjes and tells him the chaotic energies in the Abyss corrupted him. He has been fighting against corruption since, but cannot overcome it, since he's too weak. He asks to be killed before it gets out of hand. Jeorjes refuses and tries to purify him. After an hour of failures, he gives up, sadly having to kill his own master.
They prepare a funerary boat for him, set fire to it and push it into the ocean, letting it burn in the sunset.

Report Date

04 Apr 2021

Primary Location

Cajenian Archipelago