Session 23: Blood in the Water
General Summary
To an outsider, the River Kingdoms, where Hajoth Hakados is boarding on, may seem like a fairy tale come to life thanks to its tiny kingdoms of humble farmers and petty monarchs, its wild woods filled with bandits and knights-errant, and of the fey and witches who haunt its strangest corners. Residents of the River Kingdoms faced with its mundane realities and lethal dangers are less inclined to romanticize its appeal. Life in the River Kingdoms isn’t easy, but it provides something all its citizens desire: freedom. Riverfolk don’t care whether you’re an escaped slave or a noble-in-exile; in the River Kingdoms, you are what you make of yourself.
Recording
Link
Previously
We got on the boat, despite our best efforts
Torch
Starting at the spring of the River Sellen, where the dock is
1-1.5 days to get to HH
Dock is brimming with people ready to leave or coming off of boats
Thoroughfare of traffic, but the boats moved in and out like clockwork
Sellen River is usually calm, thanks to the locks
The Boats
Barges
Deck
Rudimentary Sail
One lower area
Storage
Food
Sleeping area
Our Boat
Small
2 man crew
30s-40s human merchant
18 yoa human
3 fingers
Tattooed in Kellid style
Sticks mostly to the river
3g for four passengers + 1 mount
Bessie is luggage
Thorn settles in the middle of the boat on the upper deck
Shota gets snacks
Carmel over nuts
Sleeping Arrangements
Below Decks: Bonnie & Shota
Upper Deck: rose & Thorn
No other passengers
The River
This section is quick, bringing the boat down relatively rapidly
Lots of locks to keep boats travelling safely
Shut it off, fill a section, and let the boat go by releasing the water
Mid-section
Gentleness kicks
Little steering to do
Plans
Bonnie
Going through her guide
Some old commands have started working for Bessie
Looking up other possible ones
Some components have been replaced over time
Likely had hide stapled to her, but has obviously come off over the years
Bits that were clearly added later, but Bonnie doesn't remember Bessie ever without it
Mention of Bessie making other sounds
Bessie could possibly be fixed
Shota & Thorn
Studies Thorn's Bracer
Shield spell
2 hours
rose
Propellors
Can she make herself a portable flying?
Could do it with one
Would require more materials with stuff
Put work in now
Can they be use a weapon?
Not inside a cage, to make sure the metal
Just in a chassis
Would need to cut out blade form and sharpen that
rose & Shota
Shota asks about Scrapwall
rose's descriptions
Lords of Rust
Like their secrets
Throw people into their arena
Smilers
Cannibals
Enemies of Redtooth
Steel Hawks
Consider it their job to protect the entrance to Scrapwall
Keep it 'proper'
Shota's looking for Whiskifiss
Looking for the mail he dropped, and find out if he's dead
Last known to be in Scrapwall
Doesn't want us to mention that I'm helping her to
rose knows him as a cousin of Redtooth
Beast tamer for the Raiders
Works their tech mounts
Halfway Through the Trip
Bonnie dumps the bag of the chips from the horses/TL folks overboard
Witnessed by the 18yo
Sunset over the Planes
Torch is set up on a singular mast
rose starts up a game of Towers
Trying to get info
A lot feels very surface
Mostly stuff she knows
HH has a lot of cultures clashing
River Kingdoms and Numeria
Pathfinder Society
Traders of all sort
ASPIS Consortium has a strangehold on the economy
Giving a lot the highlights, with enough lowlights to
'Tensions' for open hostility and stabbings
Shota sees this, and offers them information for real information
Shota's trying to give information carefully, not to give too much
Trying to employ gnomes in Chesed and from HH
Active recruiting
Guys are unimpressed
Bonnie is gambling to win
rose helps to distract instead
Wins 3 from 1
Captain suggests
Suitcase against a breathing mask
Bonnie refused, but suggests
Breathing Mask vs Wand of Burning Disarm
Thorn is counting cards or distracting
Chooses card counting
Not sure how not cheating these cards are
Tries to read his cards
Flicks ears to signal to Bonnie
Shota
Invisible and tries to read his cards
Can't get an angle
rose is reading this guy to make sure he isn't cheating
Doesn't think he's actually going to cheat, even though he doesn't want Bonnie to win and is worried that he might
Shota gives Bonnie luck, invisibly
Bonnie wins!
It's very close
Shota decides to fuck with the captain by magicking the cards to look as though they are marked
They are the crew's cards
Captain berates the kid
Pre-Bed Routine
rose checks on Thorn
Thorn is fine
rose brushes her hair out, oils it, and wraps it up before she sleeps
Thorn ripples and trains her nanites to improve her health
The Night
Calm, rocking
23rd of Pharast, 4714
Morning is bright and golden
Dry day
Can hear the fish in the waters
Doesn't see much of medicinal or other value
Thorn: Threat Assessment
Black Horse Tribe very far out
River Bandits
Numerian fluid junkies
Blackpipe
Not a huge settlement
Small community of farmers, herders
Large adamantine cylinder that juts out of the earth
About 15 ft tall; 55 ft in total
Extends far further down into the ground
Tunnels have gone down to the base, where a weird door was found
Otherwise not really notable
Pushing On
Thorn spots the occasional brave crab trying to get on the boat
Gets weird shudders, and then not the place it wants to be (Thorn effect)
Some of the crabs, tiny as they are, seem to have had parts replaced
Where the backplate is has been replaced with metal
One or two claws replaced with metal versions of them
Delicate, fine work
Grabs one and holds it down
rose examines it
Very finely crafted, in how small it is
Some rough work; not in a forge
Made from bits and pieces they found and filed down
Probably on the go
Filing marking on that
Been up and down the River a few times, even up towards Scrapwall
Blood Gar symbol
Not normally on this side of the River
Usually on the other side of HH
This is how they work with the metals
Tend not to deal with fire or forge
Hammered out, filed down
Thorn believes they could be a threat as a swarm
Crushes the crab and climbs under the boat
Entire bottom of the boat is covered in these
Coming up to a lock
Two swarms / 100 crabs
Goes into the middle of them and
Tries to decrab the boat
Shota & rose
Examine the crab
Metal claw
No chips detected
rose: The Blood Gar
Live on the river
Take in the flora and fauna
Some tame the water animals
Some farther along who tame crocodiles
This is a tactic far further along the river
Wait for boats to reach the locks
Swarm up and over the boat
Small packs of raiders
Preparation
rose warns the crew
Kid checks out the lock, but can't see anything
Captain has a modified firearm
From Beneath You
Thorn keeps moving along the keel
Doesn't see anything unusual under the water
Proceeding towards the Lock
Dry brush all around us
Almost tumbleweed-style brush
Single tree near the lock
In it are perched a lot of crows
Shout from the boy that he's spotted something hiding in the brush itself
Quick laser fire in response to his shout
Initiative
rose, 2 Green enemies, 2 Grey enemies, Thorn, 1 hooded enemy, 1 Green enemy, Bonnie, Shota, 1 Green enemy, 1 Grey enemy
Captain & kid to be added to the turn order
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