2022/09/28

Last time in the Iron Kingdoms, the price of information was paid

A couple weeks had passed since Lord Longfellow murdered Lord Governor Fariseu, and things had been relatively quiet. The new high captains had been sworn in, and Hurley and Lord Longfellow had been sent to Ord as the beginning of the diplomatic relations between the new free city and its former country. Things had been going too smoothly though, to the extent that even the populace was beginning to wonder when things would take a turn for the worse. The party got informed that the other shoe was dropping sooner than most however, as Ord had sent a diplomat to tell the new government that they were to submit to Ordic rule or consequences would be had. The high captains told the diplomat exactly where that offer could be shoved, and immediately began preparations for the coming storm. The party's role in the matter for now was one of reconnaissance and sabotage, High Captain Riordan's contacts in Merin had told him that there was a faction of the aristocracy that was opposing the deployment of Ord's navy which was good, though instead Ord had turned to its deniable military asset the Crucible Guard to bring the city to heel. The party was asked to both scout the forces of the incoming army, as well as to destroy a rail bridge that was likely to be used to bring troops to Five Fingers. The party accepted the task that was asked of them and began making their way north towards the location of the rail bridge and the coming army.

After two days travel, the party eventually came to the rail bridge and the enemy camp not too much further away. Seeing that the bridge was not particularly guarded, meant that scouting the nearby camp was hopefully going to be the more challenging of the two parts of the mission. In addition to the requested parameters of the mission, the party gave though to attempting to sabotage the ammunition storage for the camp as well, in order to inflict causalities as well as force the Crucible Guard force to resupply before they could attack Five Fingers. Looking at the camp from afar Gazza was able to estimate that the force bound for Five Fingers was numbering between one to two thousand, with a number of warjacks supporting the army. Closer investigation was needed however, in order to determine the potential of attacking the ammo dump as well as any further details about the army. To get Gazza closer to the camp without being noticed the rest of the party went into the surrounding plains to scare a local herd of sheep to stampede into the camp to cause a distraction.

The sheep stampede went off rather well, and Gazza was able to slip into the camp while the sentries were looking for the sheep that now occupied their camp. Gazza made his way through the rows of tents, looking for the munitions storage area. His search for the ammunition was impeded as the Crucible Guard had deployed rocketmen, their jetpack equipped airforce to search for the livestock from on high. Eventually Gazza found the ammo dump, set decently far away from most other tents within the camp. What little was nearby was command tents and the like, apparently the head of the army wanted to keep the explosives within eye's reach. Gazza was able to find the enemy commander, a fairly young woman for her position, as she was berating some of her lieutenants for the situation at hand. Gazza was able to get close enough to hear one of the lieutenants refer to the woman as Aurum Adeptus Istori. With the commander and her lieutenants away for the moment, Gazza felt the allure of the command tent. deciding that whatever was kept inside would offer great insight into the planned attack on Five Fingers Gazza decided that he was going to take the risk to gain access to the information. Gazza crept into the command tent and found maps of Five Fingers and the surrounding area, with notes detailing plans of attack as well as numbers on the various platoons involved. Gazza had begun rolling up the maps when he was interrupted by someone beginning to enter the tent. Gazza didn't like his odds in deceiving whoever was about to stumble upon him and instead opted to flee the tent by cutting a hole in the canvas wall of the tent. Unfortunately for Gazza the guard noticed the missing maps, and the hole in the tent and saw Gazza's fleeing form and quickly put the pieces together, and then raised the alarm by sending a red flare into the sky.
The flare and subsequent alert was less than good for Gazza, as the forces that were out searching for any wayward sheep were now looking for him. With the wooshing of engines Gazza was set upon by some of the rocketmen that were already in the area as they pursued him from the sky. The speed and flight of the jetpacks meant that it was hard for Gazza to lose them in order for him to make his escape and he thought that if he could make some distance from the rest of the camp he could slip through one of the gaps that would come from the widened search area. Gazza was dissuaded from this course of action however, as to get to the nearest cover he would have to brave the close to 300 yards of cleared land that circled the camp. Not far into his initial sprint towards safety, he was besieged by rifle shots from on high, as his pursuers had acquired weaponry and were now shooting at him. Realizing that he was not likely to survive a 300 yard sprint across flat ground with little cover, Gazza returned to the camp looking to find a refuge within in the hopes that something could change for him. Gazza found a storage tent that would keep him safe for the time being, though he knew that his position was a tenuous one, eventually the search would find him here, as even his skills were unable to hide in plain sight from a dedicated military search of the camp.

Back with the rest of the party, the red flare was seen and the commotion that followed it didn't spell good things for Gazza within the party. Despite the danger that was bearing down on Gazza the party was at a loss as to what they could do to directly rescue him. Charlotte was rather adamant that they as they were they could not take on such a force without dying themselves, and getting everyone killed meant that whatever information that they had learned about the Crucible Guard force would be lost with them. As the teal dots of the rocketmen darted across the sky, the rest of the party decided that the best they could do was to destroy the bridge in the hopes that it gave Gazza enough opening for him to make his escape. Charlotte reasoned that this was Mr. Enthus's specialty and they would just have to trust in his skills for him to make his way back to them. Abe didn't particularly like that reasoning, though couldn't argue against it and began assisting the preparations to blow up the bridge. Unfortunately for the rest of the party, none of them were really well versed in demolitions work, this part of the plan had been initially been left to Gazza who said that he had done such things numerous times. Though as the situation was rather dire, they managed to rig the explosives without losing a finger and detonated the charges from a safe distance. Unfortunately their lack of demolitions expertise meant that while they had damaged the bridge enough that getting a train over it was no longer possible, the bridge remained standing. Charlotte knew that such damage wouldn't slow anyone with a capable engineering division for very long, and used the scroll of acid cloud that they had gotten off Avross when they stopped him from engulfing Undertow with the acidic vapor. The spell did the trick, as the caustic vapors ate away at the damaged bridge;with a large groan and crash the structure collapsed under its own weight leaving a pile of rubble in the river. The rest of the party bid a silent prayer for Gazza and began making their way back towards Five Fingers to escape those who would be coming to investigate the explosion at the bridge.

In Gazza's hiding place the destruction of the bridge was noticeable enough to divert soldiers from looking for him, however he and the information that he had stolen was too important enough to just let go so the search was still continuing. The reduced guards were to his benefit however as for the first time in 15 or so minutes, Gazza was able to safely change position. This is where the good news ended however, with the explosion at the bridge the enemy commander went to go get something to end the search for Gazza. Not long later, Gazza noticed that the soldiers looking for him were giving him a decent berth, which was odd given that they were still looking for him. Gazza then noticed the reason for that, the enemy commander had obtained what looked to be alchemically enhanced and blinded trolls to search for Gazza, and these trolls seemed to be a step to the left of feral. Realizing that the trolls were in the process of sniffing him out, Gazza picked up his efforts to escape. All of this reached its conclusion when one of the trolls looked right at him with its blinded eye sockets and broke loose of its handler warjacks to chase Gazza. Gazza's escape from the trolls was further complicated by the Crucible Guard soldiers who began shooting at him, not wanting to get close enough to the trolls to capture him.

Gazza was able to dodge enough of the bullets and keep ahead of the troll long enough to make his way back to the bridge where he was rescued by the detachment of rocketmen that were sent to investigate what happened to the bridge and search for the culprits. Lucky for Gazza while the rocketmen knew that there was an intruder in their camp they didn't know that it was Gazza, and instead fired upon the enraged troll that was chasing him. With the troll driven away, the sergeant of the squad dropped down to talk to Gazza and to see if he was ok. Gazza tried to play off his injuries saying that he was in a hurry and that he'd be fine, though the sergeant seemed adamant that Gazza went back to camp with him to get patched up and they'd give him some food for his journey as apologies for the troll. Gazza still declined the sergeants instance despite protestations that with the bullet wounds traveling through marshland would make him wish that the troll had caught him. Eventually Gazza realized that this sergeant was too noble for either of their good and decided that he needed to be removed so that he could meet back up with the party. With that in mind, Gazza uttered an apology to the sergeant and then stabbed him in the chest. Unfortunately this wasn't a fatal blow to the man and a fight ensued which Gazza was keen to disengage from, diving into the river to escape the fight. The man's rifle wasn't too far though and as Gazza tried to swim across the river he was shot one final time by the sergeant, with the river washing away his body to places unknown.