2023/05/31

Last time in the Iron Kingdoms: Solutions and Complications.

After Abe and the party returned to Five Fingers, Abe set himself back into his project to develop a floating farm for Five Fingers. Progress had been slow going so far, as while he had experience as a farmer, he was no engineer nor any sort of arcanist. One of which was looking like it would be necessary to see this project to completion. Despite these setbacks, Abe was working diligently at the problem, much to the concern of Charlotte who was wondering if she needed to stage a second intervention. One night the solution to Abe's problems came to him in a dream, as he awoke he had the idea for a frost engine that would freeze salt water and then the melt water would come off as fresh water. Such a idea would be less power intensive than using electricity or other methods of desalinating the water. With inspiration at his back, Abe began working intensively to bring a prototype into fruition. Abe entered an arrangement with Hector so that he could retrofit the first barge at Hector's shipyard.

After about a month of work or so, the first barge was complete. As this was to be a government project, a test was in order so that it could be assured that it was a valid use of taxpayer money. Which was where the first unexpected complication arose. While the prototype could likely be placed just about anywhere, once there was a fleet of barges they would need to be placed away from the river as to not disrupt the trade flowing through the city. Additionally the Bay of Stone was a bit too politically hot to fill with farming barges at this time. While Five Fingers had rights to fish the bay, the high captains weren't quite willing to push the boundaries of the treaty just yet. So it was decided that the final fleet, pending a successful test would be put out to open ocean to grow. As it was prudent to perform the test under the conditions that the final product would be under the prototype would be put out to the open ocean as well.

The barge was given a crew and a crop of fast growing food to see the results in a timely manner and sent off to grow. Abe was following the progress quite closely, and had to be talked down from heading out there himself to assist a couple times when reports weren't quite what he expected. According to the reports the crop wasn't growing as well as predicted, though nobody knew if that was from salt water spray from the ocean or if the crew wasn't quite the best farmers. Despite the problems the test continued on. One evening Atrixia approached Abe and told him that she had news for him concerning the barge. Contact had been lost with the barge after a storm though before the barge went dark they broadcasted that they were under attack. Abe was rather upset at this news and was willing to begin the search himself if necessary. Atrixia told him that there was a ship going out to check on the barge its crew in the morning. In the meantime Hector consulted his moonlight script to inquire about the status of the crew of the barge. The answer that was given was the the crew was “Undeceased save one.” Which most thought was that there was only one casualty, though upon further reflection likely meant the opposite, that there was only one survivor. Addition the undeceased implied that Cryxian pirates were to blame.

Still the knowledge that there was one survivor to be rescued was cause to launch the search vessel. And Abe and Hector were aboard looking for the barge and the lone survivor. Eventually shouts of man overboard were heard, and soon the boat was pulling up the survivor of the barge. The sailor was shaken up and slightly dehydrated given his experience though was able to answer some questions about what happened to the barge. The crew of the barge had hunkered down for the storm as given the nature of the barge a large wave could easily sweep one of them overboard with ease. During the storm they heard a crash and that's when some ghosts emerged from the walls of the barge. The sailor wasn't too proud to admit that at that moment he had no desire to fight for the barge and instead chose to jump overboard and to take his chances with the sea and storm. As that answers most of the questions that Abe had, and with the barge nowhere in sight the search vessel made its way back to Five Fingers to regroup and figure out a next move.

The first thing that the party wanted to figure out was what Cryx would want with a farming barge, given the majority of the population is undead of some variety. The two main reasons that anyone could come up with were that they either wanted the desalinating array, or wanted the barge because it floated. Both of which meant that the barge was likely intact, as even if their only interest was the array mere pirates would likely not risk trying to take it apart by themselves. Hector asked his script as to where the barge was being taken, with the response being that it was being taken to “The floating city of Captain Rengrave.” Captain Rengrave was a known figure among the sailors of the Iron Kingdoms, he is a revenant pirate who had been plundering ships for centuries. He commands the ghost fleet of Cryx which so long as the fires of the flagship Atramentous burn can never truly die. His floating city was likely a reference to the full ghost fleet which was rumored to reside in a channel known as the Dying Strands. If the party was quick they would likely be able to beat the barge there and hopfully recapture it. In preparation for the ensuing fight, Charlotte requisitioned some napalm to help burn out the revenants.

The party boarded one of the fastest ships Five Fingers had access to and began their pursuit. Eventually catching up to the undead pirates close to the mouth of the Dying Strands. The party was to board and recapture the barge as they were unlikely to be of much help in the naval battle. As the party got to the barge, the sounds of the cannons were taking up the air as the two ships began their fight. The party had a fight of their own on the barge however, as there were revenants and two specters on the barge to defend it. The party began their fight and was dismayed that the stories of the revenants never truly dying was true as even after being struck down with mortal wounds the pirates would just get back up to continue the fight against the party. One of the specters seemed to take particular focus on Shakes, cutting into him with his ghostly cutlass and inflicting necrosis wherever the ghostly blade landed. As the fight progressed Shakes was looking worse and worse before one final strike cut through his neck and struck him down. Shortly thereafter the ghost ship was sunk and the magic reanimating the pirates was dispelled thought that didn't make Shakes any less dead. Even as Xavier and Hector rushed over to try and heal Shakes they realized that there was nothing that they could do. Cycles wasn't taking the death of Shakes particularly well and Charlotte bonded with the warjack temporarily to make sure that it didn't go berserk in its grief. The party stored Shakes and the other sailors that had perished during the battle in the ice chamber so that they would be preserved until they could be brought back to Five Fingers and given last rites. Along the journey home Abe was blaming himself for Shake's death as he was out there to recover Abe's barge. Charlotte consoled him and told him that it wasn't his fault and that if it wasn't his barge they would have been out there trying to recover something else. It was of little comfort to Abe who just hoped that these barges would work and be worth all of this death.