With the warning set, you continue onwards to Ropoko Island. It is another day's journey upstream before you finally reach the destination outlined in the Old Vashti's cryptic note.
[OOC: Hit points and spell slots returned]
Ropoko Island is formed from an outcropping of rock in the middle of the River Leng. The river runs either side of it, dropping several feet through a series of shallow but lively rapids, so that the downstream end of the island stands tall of the river by about 6 ft., like the prow of a ship, and the upstream end forms a gentle shoreline of shingle. The island has been colonised by blackthorn, willow saplings and rushes, all showing the first shoots of spring. At the downstream end stands a small building like a sentry box or minor shrine, covered in vegetation.
On the near (southern) shore there is an ancient landing stage, part of a portage point made long ago. The mooring bollards have been carved into the shape of animals, worn almost smooth by the years. A cracked and overgrown flagstone path leads up above the rapids to another landing stage.
Wen takes this portage, supervising the transferral of his boat in typically fastidious fashion. As you are launching on the upstream side of the portage, you see figures on Ropoko Island.
Hidden amongst the brush, you can make out a couple of canvas bivouacs, and some men have emerged. They are soldiers, dressed in hauberks of scale mail on the torso giving way to leather skirts on the legs. They wear ornate helmets rising to a spiked dome. The armour is coloured red and gold but looks worn - these are not mere ceremonial guards. They wear surcoats of red showing a lion rampant in gold. One carries a scimitar and the two flanking him bear spears based on the tlaxu long-claw (najinata). Beyond you can make out two more soldiers frantically going through the complex loading procedure of their Orrian dragon rifles. You also see a female tlaxu lurking in the background.
"Ahoy," calls the man with the scimitar. His red-lined pauldrons mark him as an officer of some sort. "This island is under the protection of General Chandrat of Ashoyin. Just in case you were thinking of setting foot here. Don't."
Grandfather Wen groans.
"What is it with you people?" he asks Growling Ape. "Do you naturally attract trouble or do you work hard to find it?"
[SBLOCK=OOC]
General Chandrat is the leader of one of the factions in the war-torn Ashoyin Protectorate, north of the river. He rebelled against the legal ruler of Ashoyin over the matter of unfair taxation. The war has dragged on for years in a series of skirmishes.
Orrian dragon rifles are muzzle-loaded flintlock rifles from the Hudan Technocracy.
[/SBLOCK]
[SBLOCK=Jar'Thol and Three Flowers]
The livery of these men suggest that they belong to the Lion Guard, an elite order of Chandrat's sepoys, noted for the ferocity of the lion. The man with the scimitar is a captain.
[/SBLOCK]
