Thargrin

Thargrin was always a loyal elf. Even when younger he never questioned the order of things. He also enjoyed natures animals. As he grew older, he adopted a friendly deer wildling as his own. They became close and even had a 'friendship'. Shrea became his constant companion and solace for him. Eventually he joins the Oakthorns, the special forces of the elven army, unquestionable loyalty, will take care of any mission for the elven lands, no matter the cost. They maintain the order and give strength to the elves. One day after returning from a mission, he is called to a special meeting. Once he reaches an open clearing he notices a few wildlings, with a handful of Shepards around them. He gets a sick feeling in his stomach, he never cared for how the wildlings were treated, and generally turned a blind eye, as this was part of their society.

As he is called over, he notices one of the Shepard's hands is covered in blood. Looking down, the color drains from his face, and he feels warm sensation of anger growing inside of him. In front of him is Shrea, missing a few limbs, covered with unspeakable devices, barely alive, if that is what you would call it. Thargrin lashes out at the torturer slicing his neck open, he leaps at the other Shepards and takes them on in a bloody fight.

After dealing with the Shepards, he releases the wildlings that remain as they run off in fear. He gently walks over to Shrea's body and sits down next to her. There is a pulse but she isn't aware. He realizes the shaking from Shrea has stopped and looks down. He doesn't know when it happened, but his dagger had severed her spine, taking away her pain. Looking down covered in blood, sweat, and tears, he just sits there rocking back and forth. He hears a scream, it sounds oddly like his own.

Aftermath

Kainlan awakens with a familiar face looking down on him. It his brothers friend. 'You're awake finally, how are you feeling?' Kainlan was sore, but better, 'How long have I been here?' 'Just over a week.' He begins to gather his stuff, 'I should go check on my ship.' His brother's friend has a look of concern on his face, 'I am not sure what you are in to, but please be safe, I cannot bear to lose you as we have already lost your brother.' 'He isn't dead!' Kainlan replies, as he stands up. His brother couldn't be dead, he just knew it, especially after he found the information he currently has, maybe Jack knew something as he heads out the door towards the ship.

Thargin woke up and looked around only to see darkness all around. 'Where am I?' he looks down, his armor is different, his weapons are different. They all seem familiar  they all seem to be what he used to where when he was part of the Oakthorns. 'This isn't right.' He strikes up a light pushing the darkness further and begins to walk methodically looking for a way out. After a few hours he being to hear a voice whispering, 'It wasn't your fault what happen to Shrea.' 'Shrea will always be with you.' 'Shrea. Shrea. Shrea.' Thargin crumples to the ground holding his head, shouting 'Stop!' as he passes out.

Slick finds himself in a small room, simple bedding, no adornments or furniture of any kind. He gets up gently opens the door to look out. He sees a bustling warehouse, elves, wildlings, humans, even a few drakins and dwarf or two, all running around carrying boxes or clipboards. Everyone moving things around efficiently and with purpose. As he steps out, and elf walks towards him, 'You! Come carry this over to section B!' Slick stares at the elf in confusion, he glimpses the symbol of a tree in a ring on the elf's clipboard. He pulls out his medallion  and gently places it on the clipboard. The elf stops mumbling and stares at Slick. 'Follow me.' as he hands back the medallion. They briskly leave the warehouse they are in, and Slick can see they are in the merchant district. After walking thirty minutes or so, they approach the lower trading district, Slick begins to recognize the streets, this is where the elfs who were told could help him were. They approach the elfs home and are greeted by an older elf, 'What?!' the elf carrying the clipboard replies 'This one is here to see the brothers.' and he walks off. The old elf looks down at Slick measuring him for a moment and just grumbles and leads Slick in to the house. 'The brothers will be back shortly. Always leaving me in charge of mundane things...' as he trails off mumbling and walks in to the next room. Slick waits till the elf is out of sight and walks out of the house, heading towards the ship.

Ambryn wakes up in a quiet room, familiar to her but yet not. She sits up and looks around noticing her surrounding. A small room, with candles lighting it up. The room was adorned with beautiful but simple tapestries and basic but sturdy furniture. Looking down she realized she is not wearing her armor but rather simple yet colorful robes. She begins to get agitated and distrustful, 'Who took my stuff?!' she mumbles to no one in particular for someone has disrespect this god. As she stands up and approaches the door, she hears song, walking out she is notices a large hallway, people walking gracefully, dancing and singing. The tapestries on the walls all seem to tell stories, full of detail and color that makes them seem real. As she walks to find answers, Ambryn slowly starts to sway with the singing and music, the words are unfamiliar to her, but the beat of the music is familiar. She sits down, lost in her world, soaring above the skies, talking, laughing, arguing with someone.

Thargin awakes suddenly, Slyvia is kneeling across the room filling a bowl with water. As she turns around, she gasps when she notice's Thargin is awake and hurriedly walks over to him, 'Are you ok? You kept mumbling about a Shrea.' as she wipes the his head down. Thargin swats her hand away and sits up, he's on the ship in his quarter he sees. Looking down he is in his armor and his axes lay against the wall where they should be. 'Leave me alone!' as he sits down next to his weapons and begins to sharpen them. She looks relieved, gets up to gather her things and walks out, leaving Thargin alone to brood.

As Slick approaches the ship, he notices Kainlan coming from the other direction and quickly catches up with him, each asking the other what happen, neither having an answer. As they board the ship, the are greated by the captain, who now has one of hands in a sling. A note of relief in his voice as he explains the bustling on the ship, for now there are dozens of saliors and workers on the ship and repairing the damage to the side of the ship. 'Ambryn is at the temple of festival, Thomas has taken care of everything, and I've maintained the ship in port as best as I could.' Slick gets a little riled up the Captain taking charge and reminds him kurtly that this is their ship, and he works for them. Kainlan decides to go grab Ambryn before they seek out Thomas. Slick stays behind to watch the Captain and make sure he doesn't get out of line again.

At the temple of festival Kainlan is greeted by a lovely young lady wearing glasses. 'How may I help you sir?' He introudces himself and she tells him her name is Loriel. He explains he is looking for a drakin, at which point the lady face lights up, and she beckons him to follow. Kainlan attempts to flirt with the girl, and she politely responds to his conversation. As she leads him, they are continuously pulled in to quick dances and twirls, and polite greetings. Kainlan notices Ambryn sitting down swaying back and forth and making a sound he would only call as purring. As he places his hands on her, Ambryn opens her eyes, and the look of peace and joy on her face goes away to be replaced by annoyance and when she notices the little lady, distrust. The lady looks at Kainlan, I hope everything is good now and turns to walk away. Kainlan quickly says 'I hope we can meet and dance again!' she looks back and politely nods and continues on.

Back on the ship, Thomas has gathered everyone and explains what has happened, the large explosion, the bright light, the damage to the ship, the damage to them. How Slyvia took charge and called or directed each to be taken care of. Ambryn realizes Sylvia did not look like she has rested in days, and makes a note to get her to rest. She also finds out minion is in the care of the best healers and has not shown any progress other than being stablized. The group decides to go talk with Jack to see what exactly happened.

As the adventurers head off the ship, Ambryn notices Slyvia, and the glow she had around her is very faint and weak, almost non exsistent. She walks over and lays her hand gently on her shoulders, Slyvia looks up and a smile comes across her face, followed by a frown. 'You should find Shae, she's has been going off and getting in trouble ever since the incident.' Ambryn tells her not to worry, and she should rest and take care of herself too. Slyvia promises to do so, once she finishes taking care of the crew. Kainlan and Slick head to Jack to gather answers, Ambryn decides to check on Minion and look for Shae, and Thargin holding a pouch of cogs Thomas has given him decides to look for a bar.

A Brothers Search and New Friends

Thargrin was drinking again at the bar, losing himself and his pain in the bottom of his mug. Most of the barkeeps knew him by now, as he was at one of their establishments every night.

One of the days of late drinking, a small and petite lady, dressed in nicely cut robes walks up to Thargrin, while he is passed out and gently touches his shoulder. "Grakslhlasf!" as he pushes her away, a look of concern appears on her face. "I am here to help ease your pain." she calmly tells Thargrin. "I donsh wanna your elp, I'm fiiiine! Leaf me aloon!" She beckons to the barkeep, "Take this one to my room, please sir." The barkeep motions two bruisers over as they follow the lady up to her room. Thargrin fights meekly all the way.

 The next morning when Thargrin awakes, he doesn't feel his hangover. Looking around he sees candles and feels a sense of peace, nothing like what he has felt since a very long time ago. As Thargrin grabs his gear, he hears footsteps coming towards the door, moving quickly and silently behind the door he waits. The door opens, as the lady from last night walks in to the room, Thargrin grabs her, as she screams and drops the food she was carrying. "I mean you no harm sir." as Thargrin gently releases his hold, his anger becoming harder to hold on to, and the feeling greatly confusing him. He shrugs things off and heads back to the ship, as the lady follows him, gently helping strangers on her way but keeping up with Thargrin.

Back at the ship, Thargrin goes to his spot and sits down, as the others greet the newcomer. "Sylvia, a priest of the Lifemother, pleased to meet everyone!" she proclaims with joy. Walking over to Slick and sitting down next to him.

Elsewhere, Kainlan receives a message to meet a man that has information on his brother. Heading over to the agreed spot, the man points Kainlan at a local business man, Jake Muller. Kainlan heads back to the ship and shares the information he has found. The adventurers decide to help their friend, and join him to go meet Jake, so they bring heading over to the warehouse district.

An arrow whistles by and hits Ambryin square in the shoulder. Thargrin and Slick run from the direction of the arrow but are too late, the assassin is long gone. Syliva pulls out the arrow and gently places her hands on Ambryin wound, a light glows and when she removes her hand, it appears to have been healed. Ambryin thanks Syliva, as everyone examines the arrow. "This appears of distinct design, we should keep it and investigate this." as Syliva puts the arrow away in her pack.

Once at the warehouse, the group is confronted by a few bruisers, one of the steps up to Kainlan, "Jake will only see you." The others rile up up at the veiled insult, but Kainlan explains the importance of the information to him and they reluctantly agree to wait. Inside, the hallways is more exquisite than anything Kainlan has seen. At the end of the hallway a great room, with only one man sitting there. "Kainlan, welcome! I know you seek your brother, a favor I ask in return for information, bring me back a shipment of Cotton and I will give you the information you need." he pulls out a bag of cogs and hands it over to Kainlan. "2000 cogs to help you on your journey and expenditures, and 10,000 cogs plus the information on your return." Kainlan questions the ease of the deal as it appears too simple and easy for such a great payout.

Back at the ship, the crew discusses options, they decide to take some material with them, and find out from the locals where the best cotton island can be found. Ambryin and Kainlan go out on the town, asking around, they discover metals and sand are good commodities to trade and Bridgeway has the best cotton supplies in the skies. Once the group has gathered the supplies, they head in to the skies.

"Harpies!" shouts the captain on the third day. As the adventurers and crew scramble to engage. The fighting gets fierce, one of the ladies dies to the harpies, as her friend (Shaelyn) screams and kills the harpies near her trying to get to her friend. After the battle Syliva puts her hand on Shaelyn and shakes her head, Ambryin puts her hand on her shoulder as comfort  the crew as a whole are pained at the lost. Shaelyn gets a void look in her eyes for the rest of the trip, making others worry about her.

As the crew nears Bridgeway, they notice a ship limping in the distance, as they get closer a larger ships appears to be chasing it. The smaller ship has an injured Orc, in the outfit of the couriers guild, he is pulled on to the ship where Syliva rushes to treat him. Before he passes out he hands Kainlan a message saying this needs to get to the Couriers guild as soon as possible. The crew look around and decide to out run the pirate ship, which they do with ease. The Orc is taken below deck and tended to, as the group breaks the seal and opens up the couriers message. It reads as gibberish to the group so they decide they will return it to see if they can get some rewards.

 Once at Bridgeway, the adventurers travel with the Orc to the nearest couriers guild. Once inside, the guild is bustling with people running around efficiently  carrying messages and notes as fast as possible. The orc continues to the back of the hall where he is greeted by the local courier overseer. "Greetings! What messages do you bear?" The Orc beckons to Kainlan as he hands over the message to be handed to the overseer. His eyes squint in displeasure when he notices the seal was broken, "Who broke the seal? All courier messages should have their seals maintained, otherwise we cannot guarantee the message inside. There will be some disciplinary actions taken." The overseer glances over to the Orc, who turns slightly white at the comment. Thorgrin chimes up about a reward, and overseer nodes and calls over a page. "Escort them to the quartermaster." As he hands the page a note. Once at the quartermaster the group receives 1000 cogs for their troubles. Slick and Thargrin feel that the couriers are being insulting and spit on their way out of the halls. As Slick looks back, a page runs up and quickly cleans up before running off again, leaving a grin on his face.

Ambryin and Kainlan proceed to attempt to sell off the goods, and find some cotton for the trip back. Once the cotton is secure, the group begins their trip back. While in the void, they are ambushed by two small pirate ships. The captain with the help of the crew deftly maneuver the ship and blow up one of the small ships with their cannons and chase off the other.

Once back at Gateway, the adventurers are greeted by four hooded men and large man dressed in finely crafted clothes of dark material. "You have something of mine!" he proclaims, Thargrin calmly throws his ax at the man, and charges in to battle. Kainlan takes aim at the man and hits him squarely in the head, but instead of killing him, the man looks angered and hurt. "Kill them all!" as he pulls out a dark sword. Ambryin notices the dark glow the sword has and shouts to her friends, "Be wary of his sword it has a black aura!" as the adventurers throw themselves at the dark man, the four robbed figures begin chanting. Four large spheres of black void grow and engulf the adventurers. As Kainlan, Slick, and Thargrin pass out, Ambryin barely holding on to consciousnesses Syliva walks down the plank and calmly walks down as a light glow quickly expands from her. The dark man looks up with fear in his eyes, "The gods avatar! You should not be here!" The light gets very bright, the last thing Ambryin hears is the footsteps of men running away and a gentle voice saying "Rest."

Bloody Messenger

A bloody elf walks in to the bar, covered in blood and tattered clothes. Many patrons rush to his side to help  him. As the adventurers approach, he can be heard rambling madly about skeletons and undead coming out of the ground. Treasures greater than any have seen and screaming monsters. His ramblings pique the interest of the group, for the alternatives didn't seem 'fun'; following up on the gods warning, helping two elves with some smuggling, or helping a trader procure some cloth. Salvage and fighting seemed more excitable to the group.

Heading over to their ship, the adventurers realize they could hire on a few sailors to help them out. The elf asks Kainlan if they could find female sailors to help. After questioning one of the dock-hands  Kainlan is directed to the far end of the dock, where two ladies were helping load some cargo for a ship. One appears shy and hesitant to join, but is convinced when her friend shows excitement at the opportunity of proper sailor work. The dock-hand also petitions Kainlan to join the crew as he has aspirations to become a Captain, Kainlan reluctantly agrees.

On the way to investigate the island of the dead, the crew encounters a large ship. 'Take them on!' yells the crew; as the captain deftly maneuvers the ship in to position, out maneuvering the other ship very nicely. Once the ship is in position, the adventurers and their new found friends begin to board the ship. Lots of pirates engage them, with their captain in the back urging them forward. Ambryin heads in to the first group she sees and begins to slash away, taunting the enemy captain as well. The two ladies who have recently joined, are inspired and bring down a few pirates themselves. As the fight starts to sway in the adventurers favor, the enemy captain begins to get riled up, accidently shooting one of his own while attempting to take out Ambryin.

Once the pirates are defeated, the adventurers decide to take over the new boat as it is much bigger than their own and let is drop in to the abyss, moving themselves over to the bigger ship. As expected the ship is harder to pilot than their old ship, so food and water become a concern, especially for the return trip.

The rest of the journey to the island is uneventful. Once at the island, the adventurers disembark and begin investigating the ruins. As they approach, skeletons pop out of the ground and assault the adventurers. A wraith also joins the fray. Thargrin rushes to the wraith, while the rest of the adventurers, engage the skeletons.

After a hard fought victory, Kainlan while looking around spots a cache of goods hidden in the rubble off to the side, full of salvage and a relic!

The slow trip back to town to (due to the larger ship) puts the crew dangerously thirsty and exhausted. Once they reach town, Thomas greets them and takes their salvage for them.

Scavenger Hunt

Slick asks himself, 'Why did I accept this job?' He recalls a human coming to him and asking for his help finding his son. He understood the pain that losing a family member is, and reward was more than he has gotten so far doing any job, but now he questions the companions recruited. A quite elf, who is fascinated by his weapons, speaking very little. A female drakin, proclaiming to be his god and protector, followed around by what he can only see as a man in servitude to her. Finally, their captain, a large Orc, who 3 days in has begun to show his frustration at not being able to find their destination.

Kar looks around his 'crew' and surveys them, if there was a more in-sociable lot, he has yet to see it. At least they haven't killed each other yet. Where Thomas found this ragged group he will never understand, but the pay was good, and Thomas always was good to his customers. Kar barks out orders to his crew. The wildling shows surprising knack and agility for working on a ship. The elf seems to be very clumsy and has almost fallen off the edge of the ship a few times before Kar just stopped asking him to help. The insane drakin was useful, even if she proclaimed her godhood everyday and demanded he bow to her. She had some talent at least on spotting food and keeping the lines tight.

On the fourth day, a shout of 'Ship!' wakes everyone. Rushing up to the deck, they can see what the captain has called out, a beached ship. The adventurers hurry to prepare the island hopper to investigate.

As the hopper approaches the ship, four large apes jump down and being to throw rocks at the group. The elf takes a hit directly, and while he shakes it off, the others quickly close the distance and kill three, before the last ape makes his escape. While debating how to investigate the ship, the elf walks up to a corpse, and begins to soak his blades in the blood and draw symbols on himself. The sight causes a sense of unease between the group as they do not know what to make of this ritual.

The group makes its way up the side of the ship, to a gruesome sight. Skeleton heads adorn the mast, broken and wasted. The only way down is through the hold, that has a foul stench. The wildling throws up when he is hit by the smell of rot and decay.

At the bottom of the stairs, more apes start attacking. One of the seems different, the skin barely holding on to his bones, his eye's appear to be melting, and is clearly the source of the smell. After an intense couple of minutes, the apes are dispatched. Ambryin bleeding  as she took a hit squarely across her chest and the claws dug deep. While her minion took care of her wounds, Slick surveys the room and finds a tunnel that leads further in, possibly to a hold. As he looks up to inform the others, again the elf is soaking his blades in the fresh blood and eyeing the drakin weirdly.

As they near the hold, a sound of gently crying is heard, maybe this is the son! But as soon as the group walks in to a room, they see a large obese monstrosity leaning and scratching against the wall, the void glow coming through an opening creates and atmosphere of dread. The grotesque abomination notices the adventurers and turns around. Four skeletons stand up in from the rubble, attacked to the grotesque through tentacles. Slick steps up to a skeleton, and breaks it with one hit, however the tentacle releases and quickly darts to him and attaches to his neck. He begins to feel commands and thoughts in his head but resists them. The elf rushes over and cuts down the tentacle, causing the grotesque to scream. Ambryin goes toe to toe with the obese hulk, until finally it is cut down.

One of the skeletons is wearing the gloves of the son, as described by Thomas. Another has a pendant on him, that creates a sense of dread to Ambryin. Once back on the ship, Kor is taking aback by the pendant, even offering his share up in exchange for it. Ambryin decides she better not, as it seems to hold some power.

During the night, a scream is heard. As others rush to the deck to see what happened, Kar is enveloped in a bright void light, the pendant floating in front of him. The light envelops Kar, as he gets larger, as the light disapates, you see an Ogre, an orc who has gone glowmad! The elf swiftly steps forward, and with some help from his comarades, takes down the ogre quickly.

As the ogre dies, a sound is echoed in to everyone mind:

"I am the god Lightbringer, but before my insanity I was Oceanius, Lord of the Oceans.The disk you found was a holy symbol of my priests. I have not seen its like since before the dawn of this world. 

Seek these artifacts of the Souls in preparation for the final battle. The fuel that burns in the Queen's barge; the armor of Orcbane; Festival's harp, ignored by my followers; the hammer of the damned dwarf; and the raven staff. Recover them all, for soon the Shield will fail again. 

Begin your quest by seeking Joeseth Truthbearer in Gateway..."

After successfully returning the remains of Thomas' son, and bringing him closure, the events that transpired bring along many questions.

Thomas has offered his services for salvage recovery and sale as well as he will help in finding missions for the adventurers and has offered up his services and trade at discounted prices (10% discount).

You also find yourselves in ownership of a small Skyship (1 crew + 7 passengers). This means you need 1 person to be dedicated to flying the ship, the other 7 members can disembark/lounge. Your ship also comes with an island hopper ( 1 + 4 ) that ferries a small group from/to islands. The Skyship comes with 1 cargo hold.

Shattered City - Gateway

Before the Sundering, the Shattered City was an enormous metropolis. Now all the remains is a vast field of drifting islets each bearing the ruined fragments of the once-grand buildings and streets.

The settlement of Gateway exists on the fringes of the Shattered City. Merchants of all kinds compete with one another to sell their wares to scavengers. One of the merchants making a name for himself is Thomas Hawke. He’s been known to offer 10% off his wares to scavengers who sell their salvage exclusively to him.

Thomas is haunted by his own demons. His son, Allon, went down with the frigate called the Raven 7 years ago. After getting himself sober, building his reputation, and saving up some reward money, Thomas has started looking for a captain and crew to help him investigate the wrecked ship and return his son’s body for proper burial.

While down at the markets, he chances upon an Orc, Karr Luckfinder. Karr is the captain and only crew of a cloudskiff. These ships are quick and agile making them great for transporting small and valuable cargo. Karr and Thomas work out a deal where Karr will get two shares of any salvage found. Thomas shakes Karr’s hand and sets off the task to find scavengers. It should be easy to find a few willing to help him find his son.

Ambryin

Dreams and reality. Ambryin walks the line in between, where does a dream end and reality start. She dreams of wars and destruction, power and flight, visions of a world similar yet different to where she is today. She looks down on herself, and is smaller than she remembers, yet bigger than others of her kind. 'The elves did this!' she curses under her breath. The cursed elves, that took her from her master and friend, Festival, took her dragon form away from her, and left her unable to comprehend the common language.

In her defiance of the elves, she helped the wildlings, with her power and memories, she was a god, their savior, their protector, and cursed elves had to pay. Pay for cursing her, pay for daring to defy her, she who flew the skies and wielded power and ran with the gods!


'Minion!' she shouts. 'Yes, mistress!' replies a burly man, coming to her side. To onlookers the sight was something to behold, a drakin larger than most, and a human bowing and obeying humbly, running off to whatever errand his mistress has demanded. Curses of mistreatment to a god, and dirty elves can be heard by anyone close enough to her. Distrustful looks to people passing by, not many venture near her other than her 'minion'.