Board Thread:Midian Play-by-Post/@comment-24302820-20141007123300/@comment-24302820-20141211091823

The rains have returned to southwestern Stormundia.

Ralatar arrived from Minera. His motives and goals are yet uncertain. What is certain is that this Elf is doing an incredible job of ingratiating himself to the regulars of the Roost. He was attracted by a welcome sign by the walk outside (beneath the cast replica of Timmy's skull) in multiple languages, including Daen. Fortunately, the Roost (and environs) is the only place in all of Stormundia that accepts Shorguth coin.

Gunna has since grown her hand back. She has Scienced the temporary replacement hand recovered from the body of Prince Marcus Weaver, prince of the Riverlands and lord of the Aureate Throne of Lilac Palace. She used parts of the clock-spiders she expatriated from her homeworld of Minera.

Gunna and Jong are still on speaking terms, at least, but you could cut the tension with a halberd. Jong was watching the kids in the Roost, while waiting for their Gunna. Interestingly, he didn't take them directly into the Trollhouse. Gren, the Troll toddler, was acting up. She was running about yelling, "No! No pants!" while bottomless with her father chasing after her. She was misbehaving with her mother, as well. When Gunna was describing her Bouncy Baby Bumper Batteries (a kinetic winder for a spring inside a fanny-pack) with, "and it protects their little butts when they fall," Gren interrupted with, "No! Not little butt!  Big butt like Mommy!"

15B and some of the other Aerenidae captured one of the slasher gang of children. Runic, Ralatar, and Samaa interrogated her. After some rather enhanced interrogation, she (though they at first thought 'he') revealed that the masked slashers thought that they were somehow saving people from 'Mother'. They also found out that Tammy, the child, and likely the rest of their gang, were members of the Autrum Ortis cult, as were their families. Huge necro-tech constructs were involved, as was something so monstrous that prying it from Tammy's mind broke her. Something that the little girl was terrified was going to devour the entire city. Slowly.

Runic, Ralatar, Samaa, and the Deathlings were taking Tammy to where the rest of the slasher kids were going to be. Along the way, they ran into yet another group of dangerous children. These were armoured and mentally dominated as a group. Four years prior, Runic and Aeryldur (another Elf, coincidentally) ran into a similar group of children in southern Byzant, in the city of Gaslight. That time, the pair barely escaped with their lives. Ralatar and some of the Underdarks cornered these dozen children in an alleyway off of East Snake Street. In the brief scuffle, Abrianna shot one of the kids, though not fatally. She and Lacrimosa have to stop hanging out together. Or, perhaps Abrianna is having difficulty dealing with her friends' continued disappearance. Ralatar used some sort of unholy Mineran artefact to break the psychic hold over the kids. When the children recovered, none of them had any memory of the past few months. To a one, their prior memory was of going to sleep in their beds at home. Though the group mind spoke Anglan, none of the kids did. Though the plate armour was polished and looked quite impressive, a thorough examination revealed that it would not be practical armour. There was no padding. Though custom formed to each child, the armour would have been both difficult and uncomfortable to wear. It would not have provided much protection in actual combat. Finally, there were no hammer marks or other indications of tooling. It's as though the metal was perfectly warped into shape.

The Church of Amelioration is wanting to shut down the local branch and remove Adrik for 'gross endangerment' due to the disappearances (or deaths) of his congregation. They say that he caused greater suffering by his presence, and by bringing new people to Water's Way. This is, of course, if anyone can find him.

Marshal Will Anholy, along with the prisoners he was escorting, never made it to the Associated Barony of Wesson. They simply vanished off of the caravan taking them home. The Wesson embassy has been set up, staffed, and the bar fully stocked. Now they just have to convince their prospective ambassador to actually show up and do her job.

The Gothic Vampires in Innenstadt have improved their mastery of their communications portal. With it, they are seeking an alliance with the Wanderers.

With the Auditors of St. Buscador in force in Citadel, the population is becoming more overtly religious. Also, less tolerant. As such, no one has hired Mel-tek, the Kang Kids (Samaa and Kritot) or any (known) Mineran for any job. This has inadvertently placed Falcor into more of the face of the Corpse Cleanup Company. People may not care for Orcks much, especially a runt, but at least he's better than some fantast monster. Jacob Burnport is now formally with the Auditors. They have much to offer each other. According to Led, the Auditors have also been sighted frequently near the import lot of Jonathan Gob. It's unknown whether they are going to shut him down or take over his operation.

Speaking of Mel-tek, his chaos beast is sick. It's some sort of doggy flu, but anytime a 'roided up, biomantically altered, armoured, spiky dire wolf is upset, it's dangerous. Bunny, Kritot's hand-head thunder beast, seems to be the only thing that keeps the giant canine calm. Due to a lack of employment and the high upkeep cost, Kritot is considering selling Bunny. However, she is his childhood pet, and since she is already in her mid-thirties, may not have much longer in this world.

Cassandra, the necromancer, has been executed. Tink was named as her sole heir.

The Kadje Morsi, site of the signing of the Amaranthine Accords and suspected Badarian pirate ship, has left port. Almost immediately, there was an upswing in pirate attacks in the Ominous Strait. Surprise, surprise. The Stormundian Archduke has sweetened the deal for letters of marque. The sovereign take for returned pillage is only ten percent, little more than an import tax, really. He has also decreed that docks in Citadel and elsewhere in the province should not question signs of battle on ships in harbour.

Solitaire discovered (and Pagan later verified) that the Dark Wanderers have been frequenting the Pheonix. It would seem that the Dark Wanderers have hired over a score of sellswords.

The mysterious house, possibly linked to the disappearance of three of the Deathlings, has been confirmed haunted by a local necromancer patching up some of the Ravager Aerenidae.

Lots of good news came Runic's way. Nemesis, her ship, was released from impound, with all charges dropped. As it was officially in custody, she doesn't owe docking fees or taxes during that time. Many, even most, of the Aerenidae have formally offered their aid on an as-needed basis. It could be that they are wanting to help earn their keep, responding to the threat of the Dark Wanderers, uniting more as a sisterhood, or simply seeking a purpose in life. It remains to be seen whether Runic will take any or all of them with her when she travels to the Bay of Souls. She'll need an army. Bad news (other than the continued absence of three minions) was that the kitchen at the Roost ran out of ingredients for her favourite cookies, but this was quickly fixed. Finally, a Heldannic warlord, the death knight named Ran, sent a missive offering a formal alliance.