Year 34

"I gotta say Marco, I was skeptical when you first brought the idea to me and going by the story you're telling me, I'd say I was completely right. Fortunately for you Yag smiles on fools and it worked out anyway." You remark.
"Yeah…I suppose so." Marco says standing before you looking completely disheveled.
"What I don't understand is why you came so clean with everything. I mean given the haul you brought in, I wasn't even going to bother asking you too many in depth questions."
"Uh, yeah I know, but I was afraid if you thought everything went completely well, you would have sent us out again."
"Hm, I suppose that was a bit of forward thinking on your part then, because you're probably right. Guess this is one of those rare cases where honesty was the best policy after all. Well I guess you and your little friends have finally gotten your pirate dreams out of your heads now."
"Yeah, it sucks. Months out at sea, nothing to do. Rationing food and water. And the worst is getting lost. As I said, it was a good thing that merchant ship came when it did, our boat was starting to sink."
"Certainly an unconventional way of taking over a ship. Signaling for help legitimately, being invited aboard as an act of mercy and then when you were feeling slightly better, you just held them all at gunpoint. Still, not only did you bring back an entire new ship intact, you brought back most of the crew as slaves, as well as all the loot. Not sure what we're going to do with crates of scrolls with Nichan writing all over them, but I'm sure someone is going to have an interest in this stuff. Always a market for something."

Marco just nods silently, he's obviously just glad you aren't punishing him and he's back on dry land. You didn't think much of Marco and his "gang" when you first met them, and to be honest you still don't, but you suppose they've come a long way since those days or at least the ones that have survived have.

"Alright Marco, I guess you and what's left of your group friends can go take some time or whatever for the next couple days. Don't go too far though, never know when some extra bodies might be needed." You say.
"Thanks boss." Marco replies and takes his leave.

With Marco's shit out of the way, you go about inspecting the latest expansions around the temple, which is now starting to resemble a "town hall" since there are separate buildings popping up all around it. These aren't just criminal types either opening up brothels or gambling centers. You've actually got a some ex-Jicol citizens opening up legitimate businesses since Jicol is on the downturn and they've lost their homes and businesses in that city thanks to the flooding disaster that the city STILL hasn't completely recovered from.

Doesn't really hurt to have cooks, blacksmiths and the like around so you've assured that they will not be harassed as long as they pay the usual "protection tax." While it's not exactly a proper town, already people are starting to give it the name of Nightfall. You imagine the name is related to the Nocturnal League's name as well as the deity that the temple was once dedicated to.

Speaking of Fel, you've been checking to make sure Kol hasn't been having any odd dreams or anything. So far so good, and Grayhaze's medallion is obviously working. He still casts his little shadow tricks every now and then, but again nothing major. You figure in another couple years he'll be ready to start learning from Grayhaze's book proper.

As for you, the only concerns you've been having, as of late is the Ebony Claw Syndicate and to a lesser extent, the Jicol government.

The ECS is always a looming threat in the back of your mind. You know there is going to be a reckoning with them soon and it's probably going to initially come in the form of intimidation first.

So far they haven't even contacted you, though you imagine when they do it's probably going to be in the form of several shadow magic trained assassins. If they're feeling benevolent, they'll try to intimidate you first into paying them a cut of your profits and then get rid of you later.

You suppose you could be big enough and out of the way enough that a take over might be considered costly for them and not worth it, but you can't help but believe that they'll try anyway.

Your more immediate concern however is the Mayor of Jicol who has implemented draconian measures in rebuilding Jicol due to the fact that people were starting to leave the city and even coming to Nightfall. He's completely shut the gates to the city and not allowing anyone in or out unless it's by ship and even then it's only legitimate trade as Jicol has now banned all pirates and the like from using their harbor anymore. In fact if they come within a certain range of the city, they'll be fired upon.

This has put a bit of a crimp in your own businesses a bit. Your own "habor" isn't nearly big enough to accommodate all the visitors you might get. You're trying to expand, but there is so much else to do. Not to mention slaver ships and pirates now have to sail all the way around the island to dock at Nightfall so they don't get fired on now. It's a pain in the ass for everyone involved.

Getting Grayhaze's supplies to her is also a concern, you'll need to get those to her somehow and with the city locked down, the only option is to somehow sneak in which means either digging a tunnel and risking another flood, or taking a small boat and trying row around to one of the open areas where the sea and the city have no barrier, but that would be incredibly risky given the heightened security. Using swimmers would probably be less risky, but not much better.

It was suggested a few times in the past that the League should just try to take over Jicol, but honestly it's not like that would have been really feasible or cost effective to even attempt. However, it's starting to look like you might have to do something though.

You envision that it would be possible to have your people sneak in during the night and employ hit and run assassination tactics against the Jicol Watch, and ultimately open the gates to let the rest of your people in.

Still, your numbers still aren't overwhelming enough to make the potential victory to not be costly. This isn't even counting the small fortress that the mayor of Jicol never leaves which again isn't a problem to get into, but who know what the hell is in store for you inside.

Even if you take Jicol, you're still left with its naval forces. Who knows if they'll just surrender or not.

Any plan to attack Jicol is going to come at a cost. Since you aren't sure what to do, you ask the only person you trust about all this.

"I don't know." Vera says.
"Great, I was hoping for some enlightenment on this situation." You remark.
"Well I mean you've explained the pros and cons of everything and I more or less agree with everything, including not being sure of what the best approach is."
"Well in any case, I gotta get the supplies to Grayhaze. Last thing I need is to piss off an old witch on top of everything."
"Sneaking in the city shouldn't be an issue should it?"
"Eh, it's going to be a pain in the ass, but it can be done. It's also possible that this is going to just be temporary and even if it isn't, it probably won't hurt our business too much and we'll survive."
"Yeah, but…wait a minute. What about that merchant ship that Marco just brought in?"
"What about it?"
"Couldn't we use it to get into the Jicol harbor?"
"Maybe once, and then they'd probably execute everyone on board. Our people aren't exactly the most subtle, if you were thinking about having them masquerade as merchants."
"I dunno, Marco managed to do it and he's an idiot."
"Marco and his crew were also genuinely in danger at the time so it was a lot more believable that they needed help."
"Well why don't we do that?"
"Do what?"
"Put the ship in danger?"
"What are you suggesting then?"
"I'm saying we hire some pirates to attack our ship as it approaches Jicol. Naturally the Jicol navy is going to go into action and our ship safely gets in the harbor while they're distracted."
"And then?"
"Well then our people come screaming out of it and start wreaking havoc in the city."
"Hm, certainly a different idea I had about infiltrating the city which involved sending a few to scale the walls or swim around and attack silently over the course of a few days."
"Could work too. I mean if we did attack, we probably should go all the way with it so employing both tactics would be best. Also if we were going this route, with hiring pirates to provide back up, I think I can convince one I know Zamed, to lead."
"Hm. I know who you're talking about. Never trusted him."
"Well he's a pirate, of course he's not trust worthy, but he's had the most experience with doing privateer work for the Delantium Kingdom, so he'd probably be able to organize a small group of ships to harass our enemies effectively. Of course it would be very expensive to secure their reliability."
"I dunno. I mean the plan with the merchant ship sounds okay, but I'm not sure if I want to pay out any more coin for pirate assistance. Also I don't see them lasting too long against the Jicol navy and that seems like a waste."
"Well you wouldn't pay them all of it obviously and you could promise them some of the spoils. Either one of two things is going to happen. Either none of them survive and you won't have to pay them or some of them survive which means they turned out to be a better investment after all and you still probably won't have to pay much since I can't imagine there will be that many survivors."

Well there's a couple ways you could go if you did decide to take over Jicol, though maybe the best solution is to just leave it be.

You attack Jicol without assistance

You think you need to keep this all in the family so to speak. No need to hire a bunch of pirates who might not be reliable anyway.

"We're doing this ourselves. I don't want to rely on outside help, also we can get this plan underway a lot quicker with just us involved." You say.
"Well if you think that's best." Vera remarks.
"I think it is. Guess I better inform Marco that his days at sea aren't quite finished yet since he'll be the one to take the merchant ship seeing as he's got the most experience with it and nobody else here is much of a sailor."
"Neither is Marco apparently from what you mentioned on his attempt to be a pirate."
"Hm, I'm confident that he'll have at least enough experience to pull this off, since that's not going to be the hard part anyway, it's getting off the ship and out of the harbor area alive as soon as he enters it."

Later when you inform Marco, (who was just starting to enjoy his time off) he is indeed not happy about hearing what his latest task is going to be, but you don't need him to be happy about it, just compliant. Which of course he is. He does carouse extra harder though for the remainder of the time off you've given him though.

You inform the rest of the League of your plan and assign your most skilled to start finding ways (or making ways) of sneaking into the city now. You tell them not to engage anyone and to keep a low profile while they're scouting the security and such. You then tell them you want a report on everything within the next few days.

A month passes and Marco and his crew are about as ready as they're going to be and your spies that have been sneaking in and out of Jicol, have made steps in opening the gates along with just creating as much havoc for ground forces as possible during the actual attack.

As far as your involvement, you're going to take a lesson from the last time you led one of these attacks. Meaning you're not going to put yourself on the front lines and going to stay at a camp a mile away from Jicol's gates.

The day of the attack within the first hour you wait anxiously for a report. With any luck Marco's crew will manage to make it off their ship before they're all slaughtered.

In another couple hours, a runner finally comes to you with news that your people have opened the gates and fighting is going on all over the city. Marco and his crew successfully entered the harbor and managed to fool the Jicol Watch long enough to break through and start joining the attack on the city.

No sooner has this runner given you this information when a loud explosion is heard along with a visible black cloud in the distance of the city, you surmise that Marco's merchant ship that was also full of explosives was set off in the harbor.

A few days pass and the fighting is still going on and it's not going well. The Jicol forces have managed to maintain a stalemate. Marco has apparently died in the fighting as well.

You're still at the camp, not having set foot in the city yet and you're starting to wonder if this was a good idea. You might have to hire pirates and mercenaries to finish this job if things continue to go this way.

Suddenly you hear several loud explosions, but this time coming from the direction of Nightfall! You immediately start running back in that direction and bump into one of your people along the way.

"Boss! Boss! Jicol has mounted a counter attack! They're blasting us with cannons from their ships and we can't do shit about it!" he says.
"Are their no pirates docked in our harbor?"
"No, and the one slaver ship was sunk during the initial volley."
"Why the fuck wasn't I informed soon…"

More explosions are heard and now you're seeing chunks of stone flying overhead.

"Shit!" you say and push your underling aside and continue to run towards Nightfall.

When you arrive, you find several dead bodies and people running about in panic. Some of your men ask you for further instructions, but you're not even paying attention, you're just looking at the temple, which is half in ruins. You don't see Vera or Kol and you're sure they would be out of the temple by now.

You run towards the temple even though some are telling you not to go in since its being targeted, but you don't listen or care.

You run through the increasingly unstable temple which is already starting to collapse from weakened structure in an attempt to find your wife and child.

And you do, but no longer alive. You find the pair of them not far apart from each other. Their broken bodies are partially covered by several large stones, which you assume killed them instantly.

You collapse in despair and begin to weep, ignoring the several new explosions causing more of the temple to crumble around you. You brought all of this on them.

While you probably could get out in time, you don't bother, choosing to die along side your family in the same manner they died.