We were now obviously getting closer to the city. The trail was getting wider and looked even more used. We could see some more figures in the distance. As we approached, a ragged half orc approached us:
“Buy your boat off you? A hundred copper?” We looked at him. He looked half starved, soaked and dripping water, with patched clothing and mismatched boots.
I whispered to Longhelim and he nodded. We laid our boats down and the paladin said:
“You can have them. We don’t need them any longer”.
With that, we moved past and left him looking at us, open mouthed.
As it neared the end of the day, we finally began to approach Seaquen; or it was not Seaquen proper, more like several refugee camps outside the city. We had been expecting something like this but even so, to see it in reality was overwhelming. There were thousands of people here; men, women and children of all races. Most of them looked badly fed and miserable in the wet. Many of their shelters were little more than tents and badly made ones at that so not very effective in the rain which meant that everyone must have been at least damp if not actually wet while sleeping. This must have been horribly uncomfortable, never mind the potential for disease and plague.
Our first actions were to make a tour of the camps and try to learn as much as possible through a mixture of chatting to people and using our eyes and ears.
Doing this, we learned that Seaquen was clustered around a harbour on the North Shore of the Peninsula and the whole area was blessed by a series of hot springs and vents which led to a very pleasant and balmy temperature; it also aided in producing an almost permanent mist. The harbour was extremely busy most of the time and completely full at the moment; therefore, another newer harbour had been established, now known as South Harbour. Also, very busy, this location seemed to be rougher, more disreputable and there were disturbing rumours of young women disappearing on regular occasions. There were also fierce, destructive fires in buildings. This was quite an impressive feat, considering the wet weather so, not surprisingly, foul play was suspected. Despite this though, several wealthy merchants had already built their mansions in the area; the most prominent was a Halfling named Cerraban Gremman. Many of these new wealthy were also refugees, including Gremman.
The person in charge of the whole town was a dwarf named Magistrate Lord Votberd who, according to everyone to whom we spoke, had been a very successful privateer in his youth.
As expected, the town of Seaquen was completely full. Accommodation was done on a “who is willing to pay the most” basis. Even most residential houses were being used.
Surprisingly, there were thousands of Ragesian refugees here. It seems the empire was just as ruthless with their people if they did not conform, or from what we gathered, if they displeased their Empress for some reason which amounted to the same thing. Unfortunately, not only were they the most numerous, they also lived in the most squalid conditions as they were distrusted because of their origins. Apparently, every second Ragesian in the camps was an Inquisitor; they were in disguise, not wearing their masks. Not surprisingly, this was the biggest camp.
Another camp was inhabited mainly by a mixture of Dessani and Sindarese. This was the most sanitary and well kept of the camps although again, it had its issues. It was also the home of a paladin whose name was repeated to us again and again as someone who kept the peace and encouraged what little unity there was; Laura Beck Adelsberg. Something else of interest was that most of the Dessani refugees came from the lands of a Lady Timor. We didn’t know why but it would be something to look into at some point. The Dessani refugees were led by an old warrior, Commander Xavius Foebane.
Finally, the nucleus of the final camp was a group of about fifty mercenaries from Ostaliner who had fallen foul of their Khagan or King. This was a regular occurrence from what we had been told as the Khagan was quite mad. Anyway, their leader was one Makung Shaftaban and their camp consisted mainly of humans and elves. Until very recently, Makung had been the second in command of the band. The disagreement with the Khagan was at the root of his promotion as the former commander had not managed to escape from the Khagan. This camp was also less than popular as they were perceived as being very mercenary….. in everything.
To compound matters, the camps were also split into various factions or Temples as they were known. The leaders of these seemed to be more interested in pursuing their own agendas and empire building rather than helping people, or so the rumours went.
In amongst all of our wonderings we found several offers of employment ranging from the mundane to the outrageous. The clearance of the goblins in the swamp was in the former category and the offer of a dragon hunt in the same swamp was in the latter one; it was even believed that the dragon concerned was supposed to own a strange magical instrument; it was a legendary lyre which would speed up building magically to such an extent that it would produce shelters at a miraculous speed. Looking at the refugees around me, I wondered if someone had just begun a wishful rumour. The goblins, in the meantime, supposedly possessed a magical bottle which produced water endlessly.
There was also a strange offer to help salvage a ship which had ran aground on the Southern shore; apparently it was full of exotic creatures for the Lyceum, including a Pegasus, a Gorillion, a murder of stirges and a pack of hunting spiders, Ottercap Pouncers as they were known.
Something else which had created a great deal of gossip in the camps was the presence of the ship of the Wayfarer’s Theatre in the North Harbour. I did not know anything about them really. I had heard that they were travelling performers who had strange arcane powers, mostly to do with planar magic; bearing in mind what we had been told and had also seen, I suspect that they had their own problems; mostly to do with the fact that planar magic was synonymous with spontaneous combustion at the moment; apparently, even their ship could magically transport itself. Now, that was a spell I would pay very good money to witness, especially now. Otherwise, performance art was something I could live without. Anyway, their Guildmistress, Sheena Larkins was recruiting new members for some theatrical performance which was to happen in a few days. This piece of news was particularly attractive to Tiljann, who immediately said that she wanted to visit these people and introduce herself. She felt as if they were calling to her. So, with a promise to come and visit to make sure she was all right, Tiljann left us to pursue her dreams in the Theater.
Strangely, during our reconnaissance, a lady approached Longhelim and exclaimed:
“It’s you! I’ve been looking for you! Yes, tall, dark haired, symbol of Heironeous, smoking a pipe and a real looker. Yes, that’s you. Someone is looking for you; name of Jess; ring a bell? Anyway, it’s great to see you!”
With that she skipped off.
Katarina, immediately ran up.
“I don’t know who that was but she’s been magically influenced. Quick, let’s follow her!”
That was not difficult. The woman was not taking any precautions and quickly arrived at a house on the outskirts of the town. There, she knocked on the door; we could see that it was opened by a young boy, who was handed a note then the door was closed and the woman walked off; another mystery.
All of this initial reconnaissance had taken us several hours. We had decided to visit Torrent’s mentor the next day as arriving at his mansion so late would be a little rude. So we set up a camp for the night near one of the refugee camps, the one which was inhabited by the paladin. The others seemed a little chaotic for my taste.
Just before we did so, however, Katarina and Crystin came and said goodbye. Katarina claimed that she would be able to get into the Lyceum tonight; she said she had influence and she promised to introduce Crystin to the mages there; again, we promised to visit to make sure that they would be all right and then we wished them the best of luck. That left just the original group that had met at the Poison Apple pub all those weeks ago.
We prepared for the night and then, not expectedly, we received a visit. A beautiful, dark haired woman approached us, majestic and heavily armed. Judging by her appearance, she had a great deal of elven blood and she wore the symbol of the Order of the Aquiline Cross. This was the paladin about whom we had heard, Laura Beck Adelsberg. Everything she wore was of wonderful quality and as she approached to within speaking distance, we could see that her armour had been cunningly carved to resemble tiny, fine bird feathers. Her armour and equipment were also unusually well fitted, almost body hugging. This would tally with the information that she was often seen in the company of an enormous eagle; an honest to goodness giant eagle. I speculated that maybe this had something to do with her membership of the Order of the Aquiline Cross.
She was very friendly and approachable. Companionably, she sat down and shared our food. Cautiously, we talked a little about ourselves and about our journey here. She listened to us in silence and then gave us various pieces of advice about moving around in the camps and city. The conversation flowed and then of course, the talk turned to the camps.
She sighed: “I do my best but as a single person, there is only so much I can do. There is so much tension and infighting that I am at my wits end. Every day, I break up a dozen arguments and fights! The real frustration is that it need not be this way. If these people could work together, just talk to each other; they need a place where they could meet and realize that they are in fact similar and that their aims usually coincide. Then things would improve. Sure, some things wouldn’t be perfect but they would certainly be better than they are now; some of the camps are fine, with plenty of food, blankets, shelter and fuel while in others, disease and death are common; and the Temples! Most of them are too busy scoring points off each other or trying to gain converts to their cause or beliefs rather than helping. In the meantime, people are dying! It’s crazy!”
By this time, we had set up quite a large lean-to which sheltered us from the rain. We were all either sitting or lying under it. Longhelim was smoking his pipe as usual while the rest of us were having a hot drink, which we again shared with Laura.
Longhelim took the pipe out of his mouth:
“So, if you could do something, what would be the first step?”
The answer was delivered so quickly that she had obviously thought about it quite carefully:
“The first step is to provide somewhere which could be considered common ground. Somewhere where all the various factions or groups or temples or whatever they happen to call themselves, could get together and hash out some agreements about recruitment, about provisions, about converting disciples, about sharing resources and so on and so on. When you have thousands of people together like this, you need a central point. This site, call it a Temple for want of another term, would be it.”
“That seems eminently sensible. Have you approached anyone else with this?”
“I am too involved with the refugees already. If I tried to bring the factions together then everyone would suspect some ulterior motive.”
Longhelim puffed: “In other words, you need outsiders; someone without an axe to grind because they have just arrived and who could potentially be reasonably competent at…..all sorts of things?”
She looked at him and nodded.
“Would you give us a few moments please, Laura?”
We conferred amongst ourselves but her proposal appealed to our sense of right and wrong.
Then we asked her to join us again and Longhelim said:
“Laura, as no doubt you have guessed, we have our own reasons for being here and these have to take priority but it could be that some of our aims overlap so we will do our best to help you. Can you tell us anything about these groups or factions that are prevalent over the camps?”
“Of course; if there any groups with whom I have become familiar in my time here, it is the Temples. These are the main ones:
There are the Ragesian Philosophers; they revere the God of Knowledge. They are fairly much as they sound. Their High Priest loves to debate philosophy, listening to stories and adores books. There is a rumour that on the way here, he abandoned some of his followers but stopped and turned back and retraced his steps when he found he lost one of his books.
The Ragesian Hospitallers are priestesses who worship the Goddess of Healing. They literally save lives every day and the situation in the Ragesian camps would be intolerable without them. Their High Priestess likes to use parables. For some reason, they are hostile to me due to my Order. I have not been able to find out why.
The Ragesian Savages worship the God of Strength. Their leader is a huge barbarian and in this case, either approach them first or last. They will take great offense if you do not do this. So far as they are concerned, the strongest are the mightiest.
The Ragesian Druids are affiliated with the God of Pilgrimages. Their Great Druid likes to hear stories of travels; oh, he also likes cats.
The Dessani Dwarves only like other dwarves. They revere the God of Ancestors and are very proud of their lineage, which they recite at the slightest opportunity. For some reason, their god is very fond of goat sacrifice.
The Osterliner Mercenaries worship the God of Battle. Their High Priest is a former hippogriff rider and often reminisces of great aerial battles. He has already said that any Temple for them would have to be on high ground.
Then there are the local inhabitants from Seaquen. These mainly worship the God of the Sea and so would like any Temple to be built on the coast, on the South Shore if possible.
Finally, there are the Sindarese Exiles. This group worships the God of Sorcery and they have great fondness for arcane magic and sorcery in particular “.
Now this was a long and impressive list; also very detailed. She wasn’t joking when she said that she had studied the factions intently. We digested this and then asked her more questions about these groups, trying to get more ideas of how to approach and convince them to work together. As we were doing this, lounging under the lean-to, I noticed one strange thing. It seemed to be quite cold, wet and windy; we could see that Laura began to shiver a little, despite being sat next to the fire, so we lent her a blanket, yet I did not feel the cold at all. I was very comfortable, despite the weather. I didn’t know why.
Finally, Laura left and we readied the tents. As a matter of curiosity, I asked everyone else if they were feeling the cold and curiously, they were not. No one had given it any thought, thinking that although it may have been wet but it was warm; I wasn’t so sure and filed it away as another mystery to investigate when time allowed.
As was becoming common, our sleep was interrupted. It was the middle of the night and Longhelim was on watch when I was woken up by a loud shout. As I crawled out of my tent and looked around I saw that a human figure had appeared from the darkness. She wielded a sword in one hand and a rope in the other. Longhelim had already rushed towards her with a raised sword but she seemed to speak to him gently and he suddenly rushed back towards his tent! Something magical must have happened although I could not tell what. Then Victor, also awake, rushed towards her and struck her with his sword. He had obviously “clicked” with this weapon far more than the previous one. The woman certainly felt the results as she grunted with the force of the blow and then tried to speak gently to Victor as well. This time, there was no effect; Longhelim charged out of his tent and this time struck her a beautifully placed blow. Now that the warriors were together, I was able to cast my speed spell and even managed to include Drudge within it for the first time.
The warriors were in their element as they began to position themselves in such a way as take full advantage of their speed and the enemy’s vulnerability. In this they were aided by a continuous stream of arrows from Drudge and in a flurry of sword strokes from both Victor and Longhelim the woman disappeared in an explosion of flame.
I have to say, considering that there was a problem with planar travel at this time, we seemed to meeting a great many beings who did not have any compunction against using it.
We settled back down for the rest of the night.
The next day, we woke up and performed our morning rituals; sparring for the warriors and praying and reading for the priests and arcanists; or both in the case of John who had foot in each camp. Then, we decided that our first port of call would be Lee Sidoneth, the druid and Torrent’s mentor.
During the daytime, travel through the city was chaotic but quite safe. However, what became far more apparent was the squalor endured by most of the refugees. When thousands of people live together in conditions such as these then a certain amount of…..waste of all types is produced; there seemed to have been little provision for its disposal and it was just lying on the ground, often being poked at by children. I had realised that Laura must have had great moral fortitude but I began to admire it even more when I saw what she must face every day.
We entered the town proper, which was a little better; it was just as crowded but at least here the shelters were permanent and there was less rubbish around; they probably had some sort of arrangement for its collection, unlike the camps, where it stank. That was not the only thing that stank but it was better not to dwell on or investigate that too deeply.
Torrent led us to the northern shore until we arrived at the harbor, where we saw many, many ships; anchored at the centre of the bay was an enormous craft; I had never seen a ship before but looking at this one in comparison to the other ships in the harbor, it was substantially larger than any of them; it had brightly coloured sails, furled at the moment as well as streamers and flags which flew cheerily in the wind. I assumed this was the Wayfarer’s Theatre. There were people on board but there was no sign of Tiljann. Then we carried on walking on the shore until we arrived at a wooden walkway that led to a small island which contained only one house, a large mansion. Confidently, Torrent stepped out and strode in the lead, followed by the rest of us. I was a little slower and noticeably less confident, hoping that I wouldn’t make an idiot of myself and fall in. The blasted thing even wobbled a little.
Thankfully, there were no accidents and we arrived at the front door. It was open a crack and a parchment was wedged in it. Curious, we picked it up and read: “Enter freely. I am usually at the back, tending to Lula.”
So, we entered and moved through an entrance hall. We could hear voices and called out, not wanting to appear like intruders. The voices stopped and four individuals entered the hallway from one of the side rooms. Two half orcs who looked tough; one very strange person: at first glance he looked like a normal human but then one could see small protrusions from his arms that looked like tentacles. I could also see what looked like teeth on his cheekbones. There was also what looked like an eye on one of his forearms. I couldn’t help staring. He was quite the strangest looking individual I had ever seen and that is saying something bearing in mind our latest adventures. Then I remembered one of the odder pieces of news from our excursion yesterday; it was about a shop called Majestic Creations on the South Shore. Apparently it was an establishment that was willing to change their clients according to their requirements; literally physically change them. I did not really enquire into just what kind of changes they were talking about. Looking at this individual, I wondered if I was seeing one of the shop’s clients…..who hadn’t quite realised what he was doing.
However, my staring was broken by the last person of the quartet, a tall, bald, human who looked very powerful, with a strong physique and the weathered countenance of a sailor or fisherman. Without hesitation, he moved to Torrent and hugged her.
“Torrent! You are back. Did you manage it?”
That question triggered a narrative of what we had done so far. The three others excused themselves, saying that they had business to attend to. Lee led us to his kitchen and we sat down to breakfast; Torrent did most of talking. She was enthusiastic and animated, obviously very glad to see Lee again and enormously proud of what we had achieved. Just as she was in the middle of the last part of her tale, the sound of a small bell could be heard and Lee stood up and said:
“Excuse me; please come. It is time to attend to Lula.”
Curious, we followed to another room where we saw Lula. It was a large room with a pool in the middle and in this pool was a curious beast which looked roughly like a fish except that it had no fins and its front consisted of a group of tentacles. It was very big, ugly and to be blunt, I didn’t like it very much.
Drudge whispered:
“That’s a squid and it’s the biggest one I have ever seen”.
Judging by how Lee was “attending” to it, it was also carnivorous, viciously so.
When Lee finished with Lula, he took us to another room.
“I applaud your efforts so far. We must get you to see Headmaster Simeon as soon as we can. We should be able to get an appointment for you tomorrow morning. Just leave it to me. Get to the Lyceum at this time tomorrow.”
I was a little disappointed as I wanted to see Simeon and hand over that gods dammed case that everyone seemed to know about as soon as possible but I realised that no one knew us and really, getting an appointment with someone like Simeon from one day to the next considering the current situation, was actually an impressive achievement.
That left us with a day to ourselves.
Torrent said goodbye to us at this point, staying with Lee.
The first thing we did was a certain amount of commerce. Although we had not been able to carry a great deal, there were several small precious pieces that we had collected as fortunes of war from several of our enemies. These we were able to sell. Following this, a great deal of that money was spent on the acquisition of small pearls which was a necessary component for a spell which would allow me to investigate the functions of various magical pieces and wands we had also acquired.
Once we had completed these tasks, we debated what to do next; our first thought was to inquire about the supervision and transport of the cargo of exotic creatures from the ship which had run aground near the South Shore; but, as we made further inquiries, we found that the creatures involved included a pegasus, several ottercap pouncers, which as we found out, were hunting spiders and a gorillion, a huge ape like creature with four arms as well as a murder of stirges, the infamous blood sucking….flying things. There were several others, in total thirty different creatures, each more exotic and dangerous then the other. In short, they were all awkward, difficult to transport, large and worst of all, the trip would have to be undertaken through part of the swamp. We discussed it and then decided that it could be something that we could do in the future but frankly, at this time, it sounded like a great deal more trouble than it was worth.
Then Longhelim suggested that we visit the Ragesian Philosophers. This would be our first contact with any of the factions or Temples within the refugee camps and we were all curious as to how these groups operated.
Before we did so however, we realised that we needed some sort of proposal or suggestion as to how to proceed with this communal Temple. So, we approached the Town Hall and managed to get an appointment with a town functionary. In fact, when the “functionary” saw us I was shocked to see that it was a dwarf who matched the description of Magistrate Lord Votberd. It became quickly apparent that he had made time in his schedule to see us because he was just as frustrated with the conduct of the Temples as Laura was. First, he questioned us closely, wanting to know who we were and what we were doing here. He relaxed slightly when we told him we had an appointment with Headmaster Simeon the next day and opened up:
“To put it bluntly, these Temples are a headache and I am having a great problem with them. We have people arriving every day, crying out for help, some sick, most poor and starving; but these Temples, instead of offering help or solutions, are becoming part of the drain on us. So far as they are concerned, anyone is just a potential recruit for their philosophy, or religion or regiment or whatever; but of course they don’t actually provide anything. They just want the affiliation, as if being the biggest proves some sort of point; you know – my way is the best, look lots of people believe so. Honestly, it’s like a bunch of children.
I should exclude the healing Temple from this,” he said grudgingly, “but even they have their problems.”
“Anyway, I applaud and support your efforts if you are going to attempt to bring them together. Frankly, it was about time someone tried to do this; I was going to give them only a little longer before I sent the Elite Town Guard to sort them out. I was holding back because that could have become….difficult but now you are trying to sort this mess out I will hold fire a little longer and see how things work out.”
Longhelim said:”Just so you understand, this is not our primary concern or reason for being here, but you’re right, it’s a mess; but all these groups or Temples as they call themselves, they’ll want concessions, space, a building. We are going to need to be able to offer them something so they listen to us; any thoughts?”
Votberd thought for a while and then said: “Look, I can’t give you a building; I can’t give you any money either. Gods know I’d be lynched if anyone found out I was giving either of those to that lot trouble makers; but…..this is what I can do. If you decide a plot of land on which to build something, let me know where it is and I am sure that it can be “donated” to the cause, providing you use your common sense; I am also sure we can work something out about the taxes. It’s not a lot but it is something”.
It was actually more than we had hoped for and we now had a starting position and something with which to bargain.
“Thank you for your time and generosity, Lord Votberd. We will be seeing you again.”
Finding the Philosophers was not a problem. Their camp was very clean and well designed. They looked quite innocuous. Their leader was tall, bearded, elderly gentleman and with his pale skin and white beard, looked like a person who spent a great deal of time indoors. I suspected that travelling did not agree with him; yet he seemed very friendly and was more than happy to see us although he gave us a thorough questioning before we were able to tell him what we wanted. I realised fairly early that he was eager to see anyone he did not know purely to be able to able to wring them dry of their knowledge and experience, for want of a better term. His appetite for stories and ideas was insatiable; not in a bad way, just obsessive.
Of course, we were not able to tell him everything, but he had a keen, probing mind and some of the questions were extremely clever. He was a skilled interrogator and he did manage to get more out of us than I was hoping to divulge but I was also pretty certain that he knew that we still had many secrets left; finally, we reached the point in the conversation where he asked us what we wanted. Longhelim revealed the reason for our visit, the potential to build a communal Temple building where all the other Temples could inhabit, worship, communicate and hopefully organise. His attention sharpened again and this time he began to question Longhelim very closely.
What followed next was a master class in the art of debate. I was amazed at Longhelim’s skill. For every point the priest made, the paladin was able to answer and make a point of his own. I was able to follow the debate and mentally make a lot of the points myself but I would never have been able conjure the rhetorical skills than Longhelim was using. Of course, as usual, his voice helped; it was developing as he was using it more and more and its softness, inflection and power at various points in the debate certainly aided the paladin’s efforts. As the hours passed by, it was obvious that the Philosopher was enjoying the debate more and more; every so often, he would make a point that was not quite relevant, but Longhelim would gently steer the debate back to the matter in question.
Finally the Philosopher said:
“Well, young man, you have certainly convinced me. I have not had such a wonderful conversation for a very long time. Of course, I will have to consider your words further but let us say that my door is always open to you and your friends and that your proposal has great merits. We have been watching the chaos with concern but really, we are philosophers; we know the reasons and the consequences but we find it difficult to actually do anything about them. It is so pleasing so see a man of both thought and action”.
When we left, I walked with Longhelim:
“Clever old coot isn’t he? I bet that he was convinced half way through and that the rest of the time, he was just testing us to make sure that were weren’t just talking through our hats. He was making sure that you were bright enough to at least make an attempt to pull this off and also making sure that we were clever enough to keep our mouths shut at the right times; I bet that if we had tried to intercede, we would have been pulled into the debate where he would have torn us apart and then the deal would have been off.”
I do think we took a risk with that one though. We did go in a little cold. Actually, I had no idea what or who they stood for, why they had to leave or even how many of them there are. We should at least try to find out a little more information before we attempt to speak to any of the others, don’t you think?”
Longhelim and the others nodded as we walked back to the camp. The debate had taken hours and it was now dark.