2022/08/24

Last time in the Iron Kingdoms an preemptive strike backfired.

The party reconvened at Undertow the day after their night of bonding, with the early risers of the party coming in first and those who enjoyed sleeping in coming later in the morning. The bar wasn't officially open quite yet and the party was the only ones in the building. Atrixia had not shown up just yet though the party was making breakfast for the day as well as continuing from where they had left off the night previous. As the morning continued on, Atrixia's absence became more and more noteworthy, as well as the odd emptiness of the streets. Five Fingers isn't really a city of morning people, and Chaser Island isn't really the heart of the industry that calls the city home though the lack of people on the streets was cause for concern. Worrying that something bad was about to happen the party left the building and began looking around. Charlotte and Gazza saw only one person out front, an thin nyss man about a hundred feet down the street. When the man noticed the party he began to flee from the area. The nyss's escape wasn't to be however, as with practiced aim, Charlotte shot the man in the knee, dropping him and allowing Kitten, her and Gazza to approach the man. From his wounded position on the ground the man shouted at them to stay back, a request that they heeded. Gazza was able to notice that the nyss was keeping something at the ready, despite his prone position, though that something didn't seem to be a weapon. A short but slightly tense conversation later the Nyss was identified as Avross, a nyss refugee who happened to be a sorcerer attuned to acid. Avross revealed that he was approached by some people who provided him with a scroll of Acid Cloud to use on Undertow, in exchange for doing this, Avross was to be provided with enough food to last him awhile. Realizing that Avross was just a pawn in someone else's game the party told him if he gave them the scroll they'd heal his leg and get him some food inside the bar. Avross accepted the party's hospitality and followed them back inside Undertow to answer any further questions they had.

Inside Undertow, Avross was provided with a meal and asked if he knew anything about the men that gave him the scroll to attack the bar. Avross didn't know much, as he tried to avoid the politics of the gangs of Five Fingers, though was able to tell the party that he was told to go to Anchor Island to receive his payment when the job was done. With the mention of Anchor Island it became clear who was behind the attempted attack on Undertow, High Captain Kilbride. This knowledge made Atrixia's absence even more concerning and the party began to make preparations to track down their missing benefactor. Avross was given the offer to remain at Undertow to avoid any problems with any of Kilbride's men, and if the party and Atrixia didn't return they supposed that he was the new owner of the bar.

The party then set out to Atrixia's home, and at the site they found remnants of a battle. Blood stained the walls and ground around the apartment though no bodies were to be seen. Xavier was able to determine that the blood was spilled by a flexible bladed weapon, which lined up with Atrixia's lacerator whip that she occasionally had to break out to put unruly patrons in their place. The lack of any bodies and relatively little amounts of blood meant that Atrixia was likely alive, though where she was was unclear. Either the satyxis bartender was captured, or had managed to escape and go to ground beyond the party's ability to locate. Regardless of the outcome the party was able to follow some of the blood from the scene back towards Anchor Island, The party decided that Kilbride was a threat no matter what and if he had Atrixia negotiating with him for her release needed to be done, and if not smoothing things over would hopefully mean that Atrixia would reappear. With that in mind they determined that those unable to be sneaky would approach the front door of the paranoid High Captain's fortress while Gazza snuck around back looking for Atrixia or a way in. The plan wasn't to be however as when the party approached the front door they were greeted by the gate guard who asked if they were here for the satyxis, which answered that question quite nicely. When the answer from the party was yes, they were let into the fortress to meet with Kilbride.
Inside a open space just inside the fortress, the party found Kilbride as well as Atrixia, who had a goon on either side to keep her in line. The party first asked Kilbride why he had attacked them and Atrixia, to which the paranoid High Captain replied that he saw how the winds were blowing and that Riordan and Atrixia's new government had no place for him and was going to remove him soon anyways so why not strike first. The party tried to explain that they had no plans to move against Kilbride and that their actions against Hurley were due to his political allegiances and Waernuk was an idiot who would rather destroy Five Fingers and was put down like the rabid dog that he was. Through the conversation, Kilbride expressed views that the party and Atrixia were pawns of Riordan and that they were the tools of Riordan's masterstroke. Charlotte responded with that she held no love for Riordan and if Kilbride wanted to go attack Riordan she'd gladly sit on the sidelines and roast marshmallows. This argument was somewhat hampered by Gazza's presence who did work for Riordan fairly often before being inducted into Atrixia's little team. Eventually, negotiations broke down and the ground began to rumble as part of Kilbride's fortress burst outward. Apparently Kilbride had procured himself a damaged Galleon class colossal warjack as well as a warcaster to operate such a weapon and turned the mighty construct against the party.

The resulting fight was extremely bloody as Gazza ran off to find and neutralize the controlling warcaster in the hopes that such person would be easier to deal with than the 50 foot tall warjack. At the end of the fight, Killbride and his warcaster were dead and what was left of his forces were fleeing seeing the colossal having been dealt with. The party was decently injured during the fighting, by both the Galleon's gun turrets and its trident, but also Kilbride's blasting spear which he used with dangerous efficiency against Abe. Though the day was won and after a bit of venting from Charlotte the party then set about looting the fortress for anything of value not nailed down. This was rather lucrative, as Kilbride seemed to be a hoarder of rather unique items from across the Iron Kingdoms, with such things as Cygnarian Storm Knight armor being found in his armories. After they had collected their spoils of war, Atrixia told the party that now that the violence should be over she was asking for their advice for rebuilding the now shattered government of Five Fingers. And that she'd give them more information tomorrow.