2022/07/13

Last time in the Iron Kingdoms: Supply lines were cut and faces were shot.

It had been a couple days since the Night of Liberation and while the violence between rival gangs as well as loyalists and revolutionaries hadn't ceased, life in the port continued on. People continued their lives, as food still needed to be put on the table and industry hadn't stopped. In this time the party had continued their lives, though partook in the free drink at Undertow as their reward for assisting Atrixia. Though the party's rest was not to last as Atrixia sent out some couriers to bring back those of the party that didn't work at the bar, with the message that a rough plan to deal with High Captain Hurley had been created and their opinion and expertise was required.

The party reconvened at Undertow, a longer journey for some of them more than others, as Gazza was partaking in the bar's hospitality, despite Abe's best efforts to cut off the inebriated scoundrel. Once everyone was there, Atrixia led the party to a corner booth where they wouldn't be disturbed and began to lay out what had been learned and proposed. Reconnaissance of Squall Island had revealed that Hurley had been busy with the reprieve that he had gotten and had been fortifying the safe house, bringing in extra men as well as some naval cannons to defend the island against any naval attackers. The weak point to this is that between the warjacks and the extra men, the mostly uninhabited island didn't have the stores to supply such a force and thus Hurley's forces were smuggling food, coal, and gunpowder to the island to keep the defense up. What Atrixia proposed was if the party could sabotage the shipments to the island, it should weaken the defenses enough to allow for an attack on the safehouse.

The proposed plan was agreed to by the party, who set about trying to figure out how to deal with the shipments. Atrixia and her informants were unable to pinpoint a consistent location from which the supplies were coming from, as the boats used seemed to change as well as which of the many docks that Hurley controlled were the staging point was inconsistent. Thus the party decided that Squall Island was the one constant and the best point to try and get information on the smuggling operation. As Gazza wasn't much of a swimmer, the plan was for Shakes and Charlotte to get as close as they could to the next shipment on the island as they could and mark the ship with a phosphorescent paint made from some glowing mushrooms that Abe knew where to find. From there the rest of the team would monitor the bridges and try and figure out were the ship returned to so that they could attempt to learn who was in charge of the operation as well as where the next shipment was launching from.

With a plan in place the team went about executing it, with Shakes hitting up his shop to develop a prototype air launcher that could mark the ship at a distance. He and Charlotte then took a dinghy to Squall Island and set up at a position that could observe the few coves that would allow for the unloading of coal and the rest of the supplies. Around 3 AM the smugglers sailed in, under the cover of darkness and began the cargo transfer. Shakes got as close as he dared, and fired his air gun managing to hit the top of the modified fishing vessel that was now being used as smuggler's craft. With their part of the plan completed Charlotte and Shakes made their way off the island and back to Civilization. With the rest of the team, Gazza noticed the boat on it's way back to the docks and jumped down from the bridge that he was on and hid in some of the aesthetic fishing supplies on the boat to hide from the crew. While on the boat, Gazza overheard the smugglers complaining about a man by the name of Hamil who seemed to be in charge of the operation. Hamil seemed to be doubting the smugglers, which was causing them to complain about him out of earshot and shooting range. Gazza was also able to learn the location that the next shipment was being loaded at. When he passed this information to the rest of the party, they decided that this was good and that they would hit the docks the next night.

Heading down to the dock that Gazza learned about, the party saw the efforts to prepare for the next shipment underway. Large ogrun dockworkers lifted heavy crates of coal and gunpowder while a man in a trenchcoat oversaw everything. Shakes was able to identify the insignia on the coat of the man as the symbol of the Order of the Amethyst Rose, an order of Llaelese gun mages that suffered heavily during the occupation of that country at the hands of the Khadoran invasion. With the impression that they were in the right place, Charlotte and the party with the exception of Gazza stepped out on to the docks to confront who they presumed to be Hamil. Gazza was sneaking around in order to be in an advantageous position when the fighting inevitably started. Their attempts to intimidate Hamil didn't pan out and after he told them to run back to Atrixia and have her get out of Five Fingers a fight started. The fight ended seconds later, when Charlotte shot Hamil in the face with an arkantrikally enhanced shot from her rifle, splattering his brains across the docks. The ogrun dockworkers, not liking Hamil and really only being paid to protect Hamil who was now dead and load freight onto the ship decided that they were going to flee. The party then looted the area finding some contraband that was stashed away by the smugglers. Finally the remaining smugglers were convinced of the potential hazards of showing up to work in the coming days.

Back at Undertow, Atrixia was pleased with the outcome of the party's work, stating that if everything goes right, in three to four days time the defenses of Squall Island were going to be significantly weakened as the jacks would be running out of coal and the guards would be on reduced rations of food and powder. The plan for the assault would be that the party would get a lift from one of High Captain Waernuk's ships which would stay in the area to prevent Hurley from escaping again. To do so the party would have to disable the naval cannons that the island had so that the ship could get closer. Atrixia didn't fully trust Waernuk and wanted the party to meet with him and impress upon him the importance of following the plan. When asked if Waernuk was to be an ally of convenience or a more permanent one, Atrixia responded that it was up to him, though his recent actions weren't helping his case.