A Thousand Ships

11th of the Moon Darkening

The latest winter storm finally dies down. Khalid has been telling the Fire Lord a bit about our mission, and he offers to lend any aid he can to us to prevent us, but he isn’t leaving this area. Somebody else’s problem.

Vasco hears that he came to power surprisingly late in life. Those who come to power late tend to be the more powerful. There’s an argument that, untrained as he is, he might still be one of the more powerful mages in the isles.

Nanda’s suspicious that a mage, a noble on a par with princes, would just sit here and guard a bit of a dodgy area.

Gorgeous area this, lush countryside, which is a bit of a surprise to Jess who’s not really been to Tajidar before. Tajidar’s a desert, isn’t it? Scrub and marginal desert is all you can see from the coast, mind, at least where we are.

Port Alibar is a sizeable enough port town, but it’s only a port, serving Arkoda. We seek out the harbourmaster, as instructed. We’re getting stared at. A lot of what’s being shipped here is marked with military markings - likely weapons, ammo and a lot of food. Place is not really defensible, the walls are a token thing, as are the few small navy ships guarding it. There’s a long queue for the harbourmaster, and it’s dark by the time we get to the door. The guy looks exhausted, like he’s been up for 48 hours straight. We’re headed to his apparent assistants. Short discussion which reveals that there’s only one agent of the mage princes in town, called Salen Abn Khor.

We call down to him and are met by a very old woman in very traditional Taji gear. She brings us inside, where she’s stitching together a Taji military tabard that’s been badly ripped. We’re brought to a small, unassuming looking man with an isles look, could pass as Strazi or Taji if he tried. He recognises the token and asks if we’d like any other info or supplies before he takes us to our ship.

State of the war? “Confusion. There have been attacks form both sides on both sides in major port cities, some of the inland cities, there was at least a rumour of a major Taji attack on the city of Breem last week. None of the mage princes were aware of an attack on Breem.” And, Vasco asks, the several thousand odd troops transported out of Arkoda? “Which set?” Two days ago? “They would have been going to land on the coast of Elbentraz as near as possible to Breem, more to establish a beach head and find out what’s happening there than to actually attack anything. The trouble is that many of the intelligence conduits are behaving strangely. There was among other things a report of a massive attack on Arkoda about four days ago. You have just come from there, and you can see there was no attack. So there is much confusion.”

Nanda tells him what we encountered in the temple we were visiting. He says he’ll pass that on if we don’t mind.

What about the isles? “I have heard nothing remarkable. They are still neutral, they are still free. As far as I am aware it is nearly essential to our dealings that they remain so. I would expect that the same is true of Elbenstraz.”

There’s a low, muffled boom from somewhere outside. Khaild: “What was that?” Salen: “I do not know.” We go peek.

The old lady has put down the tabard and is holding up a sword which she hands to the agent, who takes it from her and bows briefly. The rank tags on the tabard are those of a captain, but there are so many decorations for valour that it’s starting to look like a general’s tabard. The agent heads out. Vasco asks who it belongs to. “It is my father’s.”

Out on the docks we see fire and flames, and a mast subsiding below the waves that looks very like that of the Good Hope. Nanda exclaims “oh no”. The agent claps a hand on her shoulder, and she is locked in place. “That is not your ship.” Very quietly: “That ship was a decoy.” They wanted to draw us out? “I think they wanted to destroy your ship.”

Jess detects magic. Traces of magic visible in the ship sinking through the water, and a few others here and there. The agent’s belt has lit up with stuff hung on it, and an elderly man making his way down the docks toward us is festooned with magic. No sign of anyone jumping or being invisible or anything. Jess turns it off.

The elderly man comes to a halt, and the agent salutes and then bows. “Father.” He looks a bit like Salen, but much more distinctive. Definitely spent a lot of his life fighting. He says: “The decoy was attacked as you predicted. We have the attackers. You are the party to whom the ship belongs? I assume you will want to interview these people. Come with me. I am Alisar Abn Khor.” Vasco’s aware of a Captain Alisar in the Taji military, not sure in army or navy or what. He’s a veteran of the last war, and has see-sawed promotion and demotion so often he’s been left at Captain. General talk is that whenever he got promoted past Captain, he slapped around a few superior officers until he got demoted again.

Vasco introduces himself as “at another time, I’d probably have been sent to kill you.” Alisar: “I’m hard to kill.” “So why are you doing this?” “Somebody’s got to and these kids don’t know how.”

We’re led into a barn of a building. Four men unconcious on the floor, and sixteen Taji army surrounding them. Vasco: “None of your ships attacked?” Alisar: “Just yours. This was expected. Magical for the movement in, conventional for the attack. Alchemical explosives. We were not ready for the first couple of attacks like this, so for this we were ready with nets and poison darts.”

Khalid and Vasco open up their robes, find their pendants and chuck ‘em in the fire. They’re also covered in weapons. Vasco hands them out to the army boys. They go into a sack.

Khalid: “The problem is, every time we have talked to these individuals…” “They have died? That happens to us too. None of us have been able to determine how they are killed. It seems they are killed rather than die.”

Their bodies are giving off magic… and they’re undead. Must be an illusion. Vasco wonders about looking inside one. Khalid says we did when the Fire Lord took one apart. The captain’s eyebrows go up.

Vasco’s checking for wounds and calluses. One has one on his finger - from holding a pen.

Vasco wonders about contacting the duke. Ask him a couple of questions. Arcvanin checks the weapons - they all seem to be magical. Not hugely, but it’s there. Darts, daggers, each had a shortsword strapped to the right thigh, bunch of stuff under their robes where they couldn’t possibly get them out to fight. Bladed knuckledusters? That’s an absurd weapon.

One of the soldiers snaps forward with his crossbow trained on the guys on the ground. “He moved, Cap’n. I saw eye blink.” He’s got a steady pulse. Vasco asks for smelling salts, Rannon throws him some strong ones. He sits up coughing, choking. Shoots Vasco a look of hell. Goes for his weapons, which aren’t there, then lunges into Vasco’s tunic going straight for the cheesegrater. Vasco manages to avoid him getting it, goes for the guy’s throat, and the guy drops.

Vasco swears. He’s also certain that the weapon was completely concealed.

“Captain Alisar, could you just kneel in front of me for a second? I just want to ask you a question? How many weapons am I carrying on me?” “I’m not particularly trained in this but I can see the dagger you produced, the matching one on the other side, and I’m not able to see anything else.”

Jess casts the dispel illusion spell. Nothing changes. The spell worked. There’s no illusion there. Possession? Some spirit keeping the body alive?

Khalid: “So can you draw the spirit out and interrogate it?” Rannon: “Yes, that’s what we need to do. We did this years ago with ghouls. To destroy it you need to draw the spirit out and destroy it, or it will just occupy another body. I know a ceremony that can certainly draw out a spirit. It will take me a little while and two boxes of sandalwood to set up.”

Rannon unwraps a rather nice vase from out of his pack. You set up the bodies on a mock pyre, and then instead of light it you do a small spell to drive out the spirit.

Vasco asks the captain where the men were heading to when they were captured. Away from the docks - they had men on the roofs that caught them. But these waters are not good for hiding a boat somewhere within reach, unless you’re going to hide it in a naval installation.

Nanda sees a twitch in the body of the other guy who was originally heavily armed. A tiny spasm in the fingers. It happened when Rannon passed close to him. She quietly alerts the captain, who nods to the soldiers to pay attention to that particular corpse. She sticks close to Rannon. The body reaches under it, into the sand, comes up with a stone and tries to hit Rannon. She severs the hand, blood spurts, and one of the soldiers catches the hand with the rock inside. Vasco bandages it up as two soldiers land on it to hold it down. The guy is sitting up snarling. He gets hit with another poison bolt from one of the soldiers and falls unconscious again.

Rannon returns to his business. He eventually puts the vase down in the middle, stands back, lights a small taper from the brazier, then leaning in from the edge of the circle taps it once on each pretend pyre, and stands back incanting something.

Green smoke issues from the mouths and nostrils of the people in the circle, floats up in an arc and down into the jar. Once all the smoke is in there, Rannon corks the jar. “Done. You’ll find the bodies are now just dead.” So they are. Two at rigour mortis, the other is, um, beyond that.

“This we can now interrogate. We’ll get about two sensible answers out of each spirit within it, and after that they will more or less dissipate.” Dissipate? “Become nothing. They cease to exist. Do not happen any more. Die, if such a word can be used. Otherwise are no use to anybody including themselves ever again.”

- Are you associated with the church of shafts?
- Who are you? (no)
- Are all agents of the shafts like you?
- What mission were they given? (no)
- How many?
- Where they were given the orders?
- Who sent them?

Captain: “What is the church of shafts?” Ah. Nanda explains that it’s a rumoured unpleasant organisation that, as far as we can see, is causing this war. Anathema to the church of spires. Prime suspects for the confusion.

- Has Breem been invaded? (no)
- Can you successfully impersonate a living being?
- What is the true name of your organisation? (no)

Nanda asks the first question. “What is the true name of your organisation?” “The Church of Shafts Eternal!”

Jess asks the second. “Who sent you on this mission?” “Evan Stonehand.”

Vasco: “That’s a dwarf name?” Rannon: “Dwarf oriented, but I’d say it’s a Strazi name myself.” Khalid: “If there’s a Strazi who’s working with the dwarves?” Nagan: “Certainly a name like Stonehand would be a likely one to take.”

- Where is your base?
- Where were you going afterwards?

Captain says that where they were given the orders is useful info. It tells you how far they can travel on a mission.

Nanda gets the third question. “Where were you given the orders for this mission?” “In the city of Breem.”

Jess goes fourth. “Can you successfully impersonate a living being?” “Easily.”

- How do we recognise an impersonation?

Nanda gets to ask that one. “How do we identify a possession of a living being by your kind?” “There are two ways. First, for those of you who use magic, it will be evident, written upon the skin. In other cases, you must be more subtle and look for a blue colour in flames close by.”

Rannon: “That was rather helpful.”

Khalid wants to find out more about Stonehand.

Jess takes the last. The puff of smoke is a little bigger. “Who is Evan Stonehand?” “Evan Stonehand is a confidante in the church of spires, or so he claims. He lies. He is corrupted. He is malicious. He is pulling strings. he has his fingers in all things where he is, and he has them in many things where he is not. He controls things. He controls many things that would not be controlled. And he serves some other power.”

The smoke finally dissipates.

Vasco asks the captain what language the creature was speaking. “Taji.” Um, not to me.

Khalid: “Stonehand. Is there a Herald who would be associated with such a name?” “Schilling would be the most obvious, being associated with stone and rock.”

We’re done here. The captain takes us to our ship, tarpaulined over in dry dock. Vasco asks if certain members of the Taji military would like to say anything to certain members of the Strazi military. “Pass this on to people in general who you think are trustworthy. Those who are beached and looking unlikely that they should be, those ordered into odd situations sand so on. Those in short who look like they are not a part of the conspiracy. Tell them that for the length of this war, the flag of truce will not be white but blue.”

Peleve is the country of our next stop. They are a trading nation, main trader being Mardras to the north, who routinely offer them protectorate status. This has been going on for the past sixty years.

As we sail out, Vasco snaps off a perfect full salute to the Captain. The same is returned from the Captain, and then the soldiers are in a parade unit doing the same.

Predicted time to Narbolo is about ten days. Nanda steers us through the shortest route, which is fairly heavily militarised. It’s been very carefully fortified. They’re not marked on the charts, so they’re new. There’s a good thick chain going down from one of the castles into the water. A small ship is approaching us, signalling us to come to a halt and prepare to be boarded.

One naval lieutenant and a number of marines.

“What’s your purpose in these waters?”
“Pilgrimage. I’m a hired captain”
“Where are you heading?”
Jess: “Narbolo”
“What temple are you bound for there?”
Arcvanin digs out his books, and eventually comes out with “Estanzia.”
Lieutenant nods. “Mind if we look around?”
Sure.

They encounter Khalid. He smiles at them. They’re searching around. One looks as if he’s going to ask him to move, then decides not to.

There are about twelve of them doing a good, competent (though not offensive) search. The lieutenant gets to the bolted up cabinet, and knocks on it. Vasco opens it, and raises an eyebrow. “Who uses these weapons?” “Just in case” “Who uses them?” “All of us. Not priests.” “Alright. Close it up.” He seals it with sealing wax. “I’m going to seal it now so that other inspections will see that you have been inspected.” Vasco acts dumb manservant.

He comes back onto the deck. “All’s fine. You will probably be boarded by a few parties as you pass through the strait. I have sealed your weapons cabinet. You won’t need it going through the straits. When you’ve passed to the end, the last party will tell you you can unseal it when you want. I’ll give you papers now. They’ll probably look through it anyway, but the papers will stop them from unreasonable actions.” Hands them to Nanda. “These should stay in your possession at all times. Good sailing.”

Khalid: “Why did we not use the symbol of passage the mage princes gave us?” Nanda: “Because I don’t want to advertise that unless we have to.”

We’re boarded seven more times before we reach the end of the straits two days later. Every search is competent. We’re finally told by the last inspection, just as we pass another large castle on the coast - we’ve been passing smaller ones and watchtowers all the way along, all more or less within sight of each other.

Vasco wonders why this is so heavily fortified. Arcvanin notes that it’s basically an internal strait. The other island is part of Tajidar, practically mainland. Odd place to fortify.

We’re just over the horizon from the last watchtower. One of the ships from the traffic is coming fairly fast up behind us. Looks like a small merchant ship, flying the unarmed merchant flag. After about ten minutes of following, flags are run up “leading ship, please slow to meet.” As Vasco looks through the glasses, the ship skews so that we can see its name. “The Pride of Seerie.” Nanda slows down.

Once in hearing distance, they shout “are you headed for Narbolo?” We are. “We have letters for Narbolo. Will you take them?” Sure. “We’ll come alongside!” The captain swings over. “Bound for Narbolo. Have to get there, and it’s the only way we have to get them there. How much will you charge to pass them on?” Where do they go to? “They’re for a strazi temple there, temple of Estanzia I think.” Vasco asks for some particular goods. He says sure, and offers some Peleve currency.

While the other captain is back on his own ship sorting that out, Nanda peeks into the sack. A whole lot of sealed parchments. The captain returns and hands Vasco a small bag, and a barrel of goods is brought over. Nanda: “Where are these from?” “Search me. They just came to me with a must-get-to-Narbolo urgent message. The message was passed on to me from the last guy.”

Detect magic. No magic in the barrel, no magic in the sack. The captain thanks us, heads back on board his own ship, and they head off almost at a right angle.

Rannon marches over and starts counting the parchments. They’re all addressed to a Confidante Rovion Cordwainer. The barrel is brought below deck. More salted pork than we could ever use.

Arcvanin: “You’ve got to wonder how much they were paid to get this thing on its way if they were willing to hand over a bag of cash and a decent sized barrel of provisions to get it on its way.”
Vaco asks Rannon how much we have in the sack of currency.
Rannon counts. “This would, with a bit of bargaining I think, cover two nights’ food and lodging for all of us.”

Five more days sailing to Narbolo, and we arrive on the morning of the sixth. Thriving town, token defenses out front, a couple of merchant ships converted for war use. We berth, and when we ask for the temple we’re pointed up the hill to the single spire.

It’s nice to be on neutral territory again. People are much more casual, even trying to sell us things. The temple is a sizeable building, the main part being easily as big as the one in Arcoda, and it’s been extended. We’re met at the door by a manservant. Nanda asks for Confidante Rovion Cordwainer: “Post.” “Oh! It’s been a while. Come in.”

Nice office. Fire in it and all. Shakes hands with us all. We deliver the post. Nanda: “They said there was rather a hurry with them as well.” “Well, the hurry was that none got through for the past eight months. And frankly I’ve been glad of the peace.” We tell him we’re on a pilgrimage. He gets some tea brought out.

He starts to open the letters. Grumbles at the first, puts it aside. Peers at the second. Looks up at us. Back at the letter. “This is really rather peculiar. This letter, um, well, it’s come through signed and - rather not signed but sealed and stamped with the spiral’s office in Breem. It’s not signed, but it says that if people answering a description that rather well matches most of you come through, I’m to apprehend you and hold you. It’s not signed. I mean, this has no authority. And besides, how in blazes am I supposed to apprehend seven able bodied people?” “Ask?” “Would you like to be apprehended?” “not entirely” “I didn’t think so either. And as I said, this has no signature. It has the seals of the office of the spiral.” “Does it say why?” “No. I have the legal power here of a minor landholder because I’m a minor landholder, and that’s it. I have no power to apprehend you, arrest you or anything so silly, nor does this give me any reason to or do anything except make me very suspicious. Is there any reason to?” “Can’t think of anything good and valid. Can think of those that might.” “Then why not sign their damned names to it and give it some authority.”

Khalid: “we are on a pilgrimage, confidante, to end the war. There are those who wish the war not to be ended. Our enemies know that we know this, that we are progressing –” “But your enemies are in the spiral’s office?” Nanda: “It’s starting to rather badly look like that.” “I think I have a perfectly rational proper response to this damned thing.” He plonks it into the fire, which remains perfectly orange.

A maidservant brings in the tea. Proper Strazi tea. The Confidante goes back to opening his post.

Another letter. “This one is a circular, from the Spiral’s office, signed by an undersecretary and by the spiral himself, saying that orders have gone out from the Spiral’s office, please ignore them, the seals have been changed, this is the new seal. I’m now glad I didn’t apprehend and hold you. It appears that whoever in the Spiral’s office bears you ill will has been apprehended and probably held.” Jess takes a rubbing of it.

Vasco asks if the Spiral is elected. The Confidante explains that there is a process of election, but it’s never used. For the last two spirals, that he’s been around for, then after the old one passes on everyone knows who the new one should be. Vasco: “Has he ever been a military commander, or led the spires in a war?” “In a war, no. There was a chap about 200 years ago a chap who was a military chaplain, once he got off the bottom rung of the ladder he shot right to the top.” He goes to his shelves to find out which one it was. “Ah, here we go. Man was called Istvar Ironaxe. And indeed, according to the listing here he stayed in the job for 25 years once he got there. He died some 203 years ago.” Vasco: “Did he give up his military standing?” He obligingly goes to look that up too. This’ll take a while, and he’s kind enough to offer us accommodation. “It says here that not only did he retain his military rank, he actually rose a little higher while climbing the theological ladder, and by the time he was Spiral he was also a Captain.”