Anarea Lastra IX 2504
The Road less Travelled By…
There has been a naval battle in the Bay of CASPIS between a small force of sailing ships defending Port Kambo and the large Goblin fleet of galleys approaching up the coast. The Kamboese attempted to pick off the invaders, but were hit by Fire Bombs from catapults and were overwhelmed by the ferocity of the Goblins when they attempted to board them.
Reports are emerging from Port Kambo that the Goblins have stormed, captured and looted the town. They have raped and massacred (not necessarily in that order) all the humans, put the buildings to the torch, and are said to have already set sail again for Port Habawi. Although Habawi is 300 miles to the North along the treacherous Jungle coast, its inhabitants are already beginning to flee into the Jungle or set sail across the Sea of Sighs. A fleet from the Southern Cities and Kuntax is said to be preparing to come to the aid of their trading partners, but is likely to be some way away in the Southern Sea.
A fleet of freelance Valdrean Noble Champions and adventurers has set sail from Hapral for the Jungle Ports. Some say it is already at Fort Venture.
The Goblins continue their rampage up the Jungle coast. The latest rumours say that they have now stormed and captured Port Habawi, and that the last of the three Jungle Ports, Port Daruo, is preparing for the worst. Meanwhile, somewhere out in the Sea of Sighs, the Kuntacian fleet is rendezvousing with ships from the Southern Cities and the Valdrean freelance fleet.
The Great Goblin, Ral-Ksarg, has now laid siege to Port Daruo, the last of the three Jungle Ports. But Daruo will be a tougher nut to crack. It has had time to prepare, and has been reinforced by many freelance Overworld adventurers, eager for combat experience. Meanwhile, the combined fleet of Kuntax, the Southern Cities and Valdrean freelancers sails ever closer.
The Great Goblin, Ral-Ksarg's initial assault upon Port Daruo was bloodily repulsed. Now the Combined Fleets of Kuntax, the Southern Cities and the Valdrean freelance adventurers have appeared on the scene, and in a series of naval battles against the Goblin galley fleet have sunk most of the enemy ships. But most of the goblins have disappeared into the jungle. Ral-Ksarg has taken his remaining shallow draft galleys up the River Daruo, which would be treacherous for the deeper-drafted sailing ships of the Combined Fleet to follow. The adventurers have landed at Port Daruo to secure it, and despatched most of the fleet South to liberate Ports Habawi and Kambo. They are said to be putting an expedition together to pursue the goblins into the mangroves, and the locals are contacting their allies in the jungle tribes to seek support. But the tribes are notoriously disunited and fickle.
The Combined Fleets of Kuntax, the Southern Cities and the Valdrean freelance adventurers have liberated the Jungle Ports Habawi and Kambo, but the goblins have melted into the Jungle, where the local tribes are competing to hunt their heads. But the goblins are not that easy prey, and are taking a few scalps themselves.
Today is the first day of Summer.
The Combined Fleets have defeated the goblin invasion, and are sailing for the Lands of the Goblins to destroy their shipbuilding facilities. The Jungle tribesmen are hunting down the surviving goblins who fled into the jungle.
The Valdrean freelance adventurer expedition to hunt down the goblins who escaped up the River Daruo into the Jungle has clashed with local tribes, who now seem to have sided with the goblin invaders, and are putting up a surprisingly co-ordinated resistance.
Ral-Ksarg and his goblins have been pursued east beyond the cataracts, towards the upper reaches of the River Daruo, and disappeared into the treacherous mixed terrain areas of bayou, and jungle swamp draining the fantastic islands of uplifted land partway towards the edge of the Basin. The pursuers have encountered significant groups of Lizardmen vigorously defending their sacred grounds.
The trail seems to be going cold. Sporadic encounters with goblins and Lizardmen are reported in the east. Ral-Ksarg has not been spotted for over two weeks. There have been several reports of encounters with some bands of ferocious predatory reptilian Saurians which caused some difficulties to the attackers. Unusually, they seemed to have acid blood, and were remarkably fire, cold, and lightning-resistant.
Meanwhile, Saurian Cultists in Port Daruo are pleading for more peaceful interactions with the Lizardmen, who they insist are just defending their distant Sacred Grounds. They report claims by Lizardmen that it was the Lizardmen themselves who in fact drove off the invading leader along with his ragged army remnants last month, and should be thanked rather than slaughtered. They deny the reality of bands of ferocious reptiles, suggesting that the encounters were in fact examples of the Trance of the Trees and unwary foreign adventurers wandering into the fringes of the Realms of Madness near the Dark Interior of the Jungle.
New reports are reaching the Jungle Ports of nests of unusually powerful Phase Spiders approximately 350 miles northeast of Port Daruo, somewhere between Mabul’Adib and Port Daruo (in the direction of the “Heart of Darkness” as some Scaremongers would have it). Saurian Cultists in Port Daruo are openly graffiti-ing pictures of spit-roasted Phase Spider, claiming marvellous health benefits of eating their cooked grey flesh. The superstitious night watchmen going about their business are taking care to sweep cobwebs and spiders out of their way. Mabul’Adib seems unaffected by the ongoing rumours and wild speculations rippling round Port Daruo.
Factions have erupted into open hostility in Port Daruo and to a lesser extent in Port Kambo and Port Habawi. Spider Cultists are blamed for the rather obvious attack on the Saurian Temple of OUROBOUROS in Port Daruo in which several young men were poisoned and partially devoured by a giant Spider, as a distraction for the main purpose of the attack. It appears that the old records were the target, and perhaps some were taken, though the majority of the material was torched before the Spider Cultists were driven off from Port Daruo, their banishment reinforced by certain Shamanic Dire Threats, Uttered by the High Priest of OUROBOUROS who pointed his Evil Eye and shook his Assegai at the direction they had taken.
Freelance adventurers Teleporting back to the Gatehouse of Port Daruo after attacking the nearest Phase Spider Nest have taken heavy casualties, but claim to have taken out the Spider Nest. They report deaths of one of their Planists and one Cleric / Paladin. They have no live specimen, and therefore no significant profit. They defray expenses slightly by selling the cadaver of their dead specimen to the Temple of OUROBOUROS, who declare a Feast.
Some of the adventurers involved in the Phase Spider Expedition leave. The Planist survivor seems to have become sick, and Teleported back to Valdrea with two colleagues whilst he still felt able to do so.
A sudden attack by a Phase Spider on the guard house of Port Daruo is repulsed by the Saurian Temple Guard and one of the adventurer Paladins. The Spider escaped. Its tenacious web is thoroughly burnt off and all traces removed, including cutting down and burning the wooden gate and its support posts. The gateway and guard house are rebuilt with the help of Tree Cultists' Magic, using seasoned Ironwood. The Saurians purge a number of alleged Spider Cultist Spies, but all apparently denied their involvement before they had their hearts ripped out. The Temple of OUROBOUROS declares another Feast.
Reports arrive of the sack and slaughter of several villages by armies of Spiders, including Phase Spiders. The nearest is 120 miles away. They all lie on a path between the Phase Spider Nests and Port Daruo. Locals are bewailing their banishment of the Spider Temple, and say the Saurians have upset UNGOL, with dire potential consequences to them all.
A ship from Hapral docks in Part Daruo, with some freelance adventurers. Scouts are sent out to study the Phase Spider Threat. Wind-walking adventurers report seeing clusters of floating small poisonous spiders using webs as parachutes, and are still looking for the source of the invasion further back towards the first sightings of the Phase Spider Nests.
In Valdrea, an unexpected attack on Hapral Gateway by unusually vicious Phase Spiders is driven off. Rumours of missing Planists abound. A rumour spreads (strongly denied by the AVM, who allegedly sent investigators to confirm their position) that enormous Spider Webs can be seen by the keen-sighted near the Hapral and other Gateways to Valdrea, and that Planists are being caught and eaten by Giant Spiders. The AVM issues a statement reinforcing the principles of the Gateway Concept, and further implies that anyone claiming to see a Giant Web must either be a madman or a Chaotic, or even both, and should be treated as such; furthermore, no such monstrous threat exists, and trade with The Empire should continue as normal.
In Bjarmigen, a nest of Phase Spiders is cleared from Bjarmigen Heights after attacks on two druids alerted the City to their presence. A merchant’s house is sacked by Phase Spiders in the heart of Bjarmigen. Town guards are attacked from the Ethereal as they tried to contain the threat, which was dealt with summarily by adventurers from Castle Bjarmigen.
In Grinen, the docks are invaded by a nest of Phase Spiders, which are ruthlessly destroyed by Harrek and his followers.
A Grand Palaver has been called for 1 Lastra 2504 in Port Daruo at the request of a remarkable representation by the Chieftains of half dozen or so tribal villages in the nearby Jungle.
An Imperial Decree arrives by Message via a SARAN Paladin at Port Daruo declaring a ban on Planist travel from the Jungle, including the Jungle Cities, to any Valdrean destination, except to the recognised Valdrean Gateways or to the Quarantine Gateway at the Temple Site in Bjarmigen. The local Mabula seem to find this amusing, and appear to think that their reputation is somehow enhanced by the attention.
A similar Decree signed jointly by King Bjørn and Lord Protector Harrek, arrives early in the day, carried by one of Bjørn’s Planists accompanied by a thief and fighter bodyguard, who stay for the imminent Grand Palaver but refuse to participate in any mission, stating it to be a purely local matter. They leave immediately afterwards.
The terms of the Northern Decree are that Planists are forbidden to enter the Kingdom of the North from the Jungle Lands except via the Temple of Heaven on Earth Site at Bjarmigen, where they will be quarantined and debriefed.
The Grand Palaver is attended by the pleading Chieftains, by representatives of local Deities and Cults of many Alignments, and by the very wealthiest of the local merchants, plus invited agents of Imperial, Southern, and even Northern vested interests. Some individual adventurers also manage to get themselves accepted, with help from locals with influence. The Grand Palaver is really very impressive. Security is significant. Something is definitely up. Word on the streets has it that a captured Spider Cultist is going to be sacrificed…
© 2 January 2006, P.R. Wild / A.R. Magnay
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