Waters Foul
Potha has set sail with her new companions, leaving her home island of Loanua behind her. It is a long way to where she needs to go, to distant Samvara or Sonev, and the journey will be perilous. First, she needs to leave her home region of Western Garadel - which itself may prove to be quite a task.
After a week of traveling over open ocean and island hopping, the Firebloom finally reached continental Garadel. Potha spent the first week meeting the captain, protecting Keen from hazing, and befriending the crew. The city of Mazita, one of the largest trading settlements for the Kingdom of Linorn, served as the ship's first real port for a day off.
Potha headed into the countryside to try and forage for Divine Contact incense, and stumbled across a monastery growing significant amounts of it. Some herbs were near the edge of their plot, and Potha went to try and subtly sneak some of this off. She was spotted by a peasant boy, Gwin, who was arriving to help the monks with their fields, and she was taken into the monastery to either pay for the herbs or work for them. The monks recognized her as an adventuring mercenary, and offered a job: find and intimidate a steward's son, bring him to them, and Potha could have all the incense she desired. And so Potha headed into the city of Mazita, to the Hotel Zoselik to try and find this scallywag. She found him at the back of the salon, drinking and heckling with the entourage of the duchess' daughter (Telka Zoselik). Potha withstood their obnoxious posturing and hazing, and dropped hints that they should seek monastic life; the steward's son, Winek, fled at the mention. Potha followed, and found out that Winek was being stalked and intimidated by the monks, who wanted to kidnap Winek and use him as a political hostage against the steward; the duchess had taken the monk's traditional peasant labor away recently, and the monks wanted the steward to let them take some of it back under the table. Potha decided to spare Winek the fate of a political hostage and escorted him home, revealing to him the job she was given. Winek asked for her to be his pen pal and seemed quite wowed. Then, Potha headed back to the monks, informed them she couldn't find Winek, and bought some incense off of them for slightly cheaper than market price.
Back at the ship, Potha played King's Cup with the crew and had a good time with Losaro. Afterwards, she told Losaro and Keen about her divine nature. Losaro accepted this flatly and asked Potha to set up a line of communication with Tira (the fire Goddess of Saraka). Keen disbelieved Potha and seemed to associate the idea of Halcyon with Pratasam rather negatively. Potha also discovered that Emesh was impersonating local deities through the divine contact.
Potha set about using the Divine Contact to chat with her squad over the next few weeks of travel. First, she contacted Orchid of Blue with Keen. Orchid was suspicious of Potha, informed her that she was now considered Lily-aligned, and arranged a possible passage for their group through Navanan land to go fight the other Nemesis building power in the equatorial regions. She also warned Keen that a powerful warlock named Harwen was gathering Leviathans at the Mejika Isles.
The next talk was with Losaro and Hiku the Muse. Hiku was much more open with Potha, and the two had a conversational dance of sorts. Hiku agreed to spread news of Potha across the pantheon as her herald, and to talk Lily down from trying to claim leadership of the pantheon. Hiku revealed that she had figured out how to use the devoted souls of her followers as components for epic level bard magic, but explained her ethical reasoning for why this was all morally acceptable. She also indicated that she had used a Wish spell to look "beyond the veil" at what she "really was" - an illusion of the Architect's dreaming minds, brought to life only by people thinking about her. She asked Potha to be her paladin, but seemed willing to be a bardic mentor instead if necessary. She also offered Potha access to her soft power spy network. Bestie acquired.
The next significant stop was at Zohalia, sacred city of Sarakism. This was the final default stop of The Firebloom, and they would need to find new work for Captain Jyen if they wanted him to take them further. The crew scattered across the city to find leads. Keen was able to connect with local Zesheko families to arrange a trading contract between Jyen and the Zeshem if he headed to a Zeshem port. And Potha was able to arrange a contract for the Firebloom escorting a merchant ship that did magic item runs, The Magic Star, Eastward. With work acquired, they journey continued. Now Potha was working 2 jobs, though: sailor aboard the Firebloom and guard aboard the Magic Star. With the time she had, Potha focused on connecting with Keen. She practiced swordfighting with him, encouraged him to use acrobatics for self expression, and had a chat about his experiences training and traveling as a Zeshem assassin (they weren't good).
Things became more dangerous as they sailed further Southeast. They were going to have to go through Greater Losha, which was in the middle of a religious trade war between the Zihari Holy League and the Sarakan Blessed Alliance. Rather than affiliate themselves with the Sarakan navy, Potha guided Captain Jyen towards an alliance with the selkies moving through, who had organized under Captain Kohika. They would sail through the warzone as a neutral caravan and hopefully would be inconvenient enough to rob to avoid trouble.
The waters were filled with Nalastran fire mines, the coast was bristling with artillery that had a hair-trigger approach to self-defense, and the waters were full of shipwrecks and hostile vessels. The neutral expedition chose to thread the coastal shelf rather than go out to sea and risk Leviathans, but this approach drew them into the most recent naval battle at Sosella. The port was Zihari, and guarded by several fortress-ships that had been stripped of their dhow escorts by the Sarakan fire mines. Sarakan sloops were tearing these larger boats apart, and the bay was full of liquid fire, shrapnel, and general chaos. The neutral ships tried to skirt by, but attracted the attention of the Knight Witches/Night Witches - Zihari special forces that used their superior magic item arsenal to ambush, kidnap, and destroy in lightning fast strikes. The Night Witches wanted to quickly rob the Magic Star of any magic items and kidnap any magic users, as it was becoming clear that they were unable to efficiently raid the large numbers of Sarakan war sloops. They dropped shrapnel bombs across the deck of the Star when they did not immediately surrender, and Potha clambered up the rigging to try and stop the attack. She was singled out, demonstrated her powers, and was knocked out - but was able to do enough damage and distract enough that the Night Witches retreated with her as a prisoner.
Potha awoke in the fortress of Sosella, roughed up and alone. She was able to use her last spell slot to speak with the local rat, named Prison Rat, who was willing to try and steal her cell key for her in exchange for food. Prison Rat succeeded, and Potha snuck out into the fortress. The morale of the fort was low, as the Sarakan fleet was now bombarding them and the town and seemed ready to try and land troops - it was easy for Potha to just get her stuff and walk out as an unaligned mercenary. The Night Witches left with the remaining magical prisoners and valuable assets, and they didn't bother to try and search for Potha as they left. She had escaped her fate as a Zihari POW, and was now out on the streets of a burning Sosella.
The neutral ships made it to Sosella port, and took over a corner of the dock for themselves. Potha got confirmation that all was good aboard the ships, and everyone she cared for was safe. And then she headed into the battered streets of Sosella, to find the grand cathedral that supposedly hid a secret cult of Hiku she was looking for. She found the cathedral packed with panicking refugees, and she wandered its labyrinthine basement until she fell through a trap door and was captured (in a friendly, formal way) by the cult.
Portnite
Godtalks
Out of the West
Components
Goals
QUEST GOALS
- Visit Holy Zeshema
- Reach the Empire of Shirpatra
- Meet up with the other Architects
- Scout out the equatorial area to learn more about the brewing doomsday
Relations
Allies
Coco and Cobi: Potha's moa and falcon respectively. Coco is a moa with a sweet tooth that is unusually friendly for a moa; Cobi is a falcon with a sense of determination.
Keen: Virtue's apprentice, who prefers a more hands-on and personal approach to assassination than their master. Keen is more aggressive, volatile, and xenophobic than their master, who they also seemed afraid of back in Loanua. Tentative friend of Potha. Scared of new places and people, feels like the world is out to get him, and traumatized by his training as a Hunter of Norinar.
Losaro of the Sacred Flame: Losaro is a member of the Riders of the Free Flame, a Sarakan zealot who sees sedentary life on the fireplains as an abomination (as well as generally distasteful). Losaro looks on Potha as an admirable companion, and supports her quest to protect the birds of Loanua.
Neutrals/Bystanders
Captain Jyen: A friend of Losaro who has helped the zealot out of many tough situations, Captain Jyen is an old Pearl Pangolin who rides around on a wheelchair and with a broad pink (perhaps once red) hat. Jyen is quite grizzled and scarred, and may have been a tough fighter once, but now he is enjoying a legitimate life as the captain of The Firebloom.
Winek of Mazita: Son of the steward of Mazita, Winek is a pompous and perhaps spineless half dryad. Stalked by the local monks who hope to use him as a political prisoner against his father, and bullied by his friends and future employers, Winek is not a happy boy. Asked Potha to be his penpal. 25% simp energy.
Gwin Farmingson: A peasant boy Potha met and whose family Potha healed in the farmland outside of the city of Mazita.
Captain Kohika: A selkie captain just trying to get by, with a big hat and tall boots. Friendly, professional, and open to letting in outsiders, Kohika has helped The Firebloom survive the deadly waters of Greater Losha.
Lady Miza of Ezekos: A wizard from the Kingdom of Ezekos and the head wizard aboard The Magic Star, Miza is an old woman who loves to listen and talk with strangers. Despite being a prism, Miza carries snacks for humans and dryads (in the form of small cookies she always keeps on her) and makes sure that every sailor or mercenary she travels with gets regular treats. She likes Potha and has been recording Potha's experiences.
Gozeer: A magic item merchant and captain of the merchant ship The Magic Star, Gozeer is a prism from the Sacred State of Nalastra who has contracted Potha as a guard.
Backdrops
Locations
Mazita: A city in the Kingdom of Linorn and the default port for trade to Loanua. Large, disorganized, hierarchical, and messy. A city that has embraced business over feudalism, and centralized under the forward-thinking Zoselik magnate family.
Sosella: A small city that is the capital of the Kingdom of Skarel - a small kingdom in Greater Losha. Known for its Lunar cult and massive cathedral.
Parent Plot
Subplots
Related Organizations
Related Locations
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