Prelude: Attack on the Constitution

General Summary

The story began on a merchant transport vessel bound for the capital city of Frankonia, Ponvarus. La Constitution de Fer, Frankonian for the Iron Constitution, had been at sea for five days, and three heroes happened to be in the vessel's mess hall. Gormar, a half-elf mage and estranged adoptive member of the d'Emmondif family, sat in front of the halfling wandering merchant Primolo, whilst the roguish half-elf Jamie (or James) stood by himself in a corner. Jamie had a quick glance around the room and decided to sneak up on a company of traders, and steal from one of them, a gnome woman. He successfully stole a small amount of gold and a silver locket (or rather, a silver compound) from the unsuspecting trader. Suddenly noticing Jamie's presence, the woman tried to speak with him, introducing herself and her entourage as a group of merchants who traded in alchemical wares; however, this was to no avail. Gormar, however, overheard the conversation and asked the company if they had anything left: indeed, they had a few potions that could be of interest to adventurers. Remembering that he lacked any financial means with which to purchase this, Gormar returned to the table.

Afterwards, Primolo and Gormar struck up a conversation. Primolo showcased a number of weapons, such as a rapier, attempting to sell this to the destitute mage. Again declining on the grounds of insufficient assets, Primolo attempted to coax a favour from him instead as a means of alternative payment. However, noticing the array of weapons on the table, a man clad in decorated black and yellow half-plate armour, who previously had been talking with two Golden Legionnaires, walked up and introduced himself as Wilhelm Kraftfall, Landsknecht from the Empire of Zimea. He strongly objected to the utility of rapiers and smaller blades, instead highlighting the qualities of halberds: strong and armour-piercing. The halfling noted that he was a merchant, not a warrior. Finishing the conversation, Wilhelm walked away and started smoking a pipe.

Some time later, Gormar, out of boredom, started to use a magic trick on his water. This earned the attention of the traders and the two Golden Legionnaires. One of the soldiers sat down beside him, introducing herself as Julienne Carus. Gormar recognised the name as being that of the ancient founder of the Golden Legion itself, Rochelle. She remarked on his open display of magic, saying that it was unusual to see such things in her profession; at the same time her senior officer Geneviève Frankling decided to converse with the solitary rogue. Jamie, who does not have a last name, casually suggested that he could take hers, a proposition Geneviève was unable to identify as smooth and instead took offence. Switching subjects, she asked him what he did for a living: Jamie gave a non-descript answer, and Geneviève asked if he was a mercenary or adventurer, two very common professions in Frankonia. Jamie 'guessed' that he was an adventurer, and she cautioned him that it was very easy to get entangled in the dynastic spats of Frankonia, as well as mentioning some 'rumours' that Jamie neither knew about nor asked her to elaborate on. After these conversations, the three adventurers left for their quarters (Primolo, however, went down to the pens on lower deck to sleep close to his donkey Otto).

In the midst of night, Primolo awoke hearing faint shouts and the break of sails. He quickly got ready and went upstairs to investigate, where he ran into Wilhelm just as he ended an unidentified assailant's life with his halberd. Taking the shortsword from the fallen enemy, the merchant and the veteran agreed to link up and find survivors and the captain. Whilst this happened, Gormar also woke up, spooked by the unusual sounds. He left his quarters and decided to have a peek into another room on his way towards the mess hall; he found two of the merchants, deceased, from the small entourage that he briefly spoke with earlier, as well as the body of what he assumed was a raider. He found two health potions free of charge and continued on until he encountered Julienne, spear and banner in hand, holding down a hallway against two raiders. She dispatched one of them whilst Gormar used a loud spell that electrified and threw back the other.

The thunderous crack from Gormar's magic jolted Jamie from his sleep and he, too, left his legally-rented room on towards the mess hall. Approaching it, he could hear a fight from within it, and he attempted to move in undetected. However, the door creaked a little too loudly and the combatants (Geneviève and two raiders) were immediately made aware of his presence. One of them, an archer, loosened an arrow at Jamie, giving him little choice but to take a side. The raider attacking Geneviève fumbled and lost his sword; she demanded their surrender, which the once-sword-wielding-raider accepted but not the archer, who was killed immediately afterwards. After restraining the captive raider, Jamie began to hastily question him. The raider said that he would die before giving up anything: Jamie notified him that he had just been given an option to die. Despairing in his blatant hypocrisy, he revealed that they were hired to secure the Iron Constitution and some mysterious cargo, and that only their leader would know the exact details. Jamie sympathised with the young man, a dialogue which the Golden Legionnaire sternly stopped, as the raider was formally in the custody of a state mercenary of the Grand Republic. The two locked the man in Jamie's room for safekeeping, and as they were about to leave the mess hall, Gormar, Primolo, Julienne, and Wilhelm caught up to them.

Now joined together, the party exited the ship and went out to deck, where they could see the anchored raider ship, as well as fighting between hostile assailants and adventurers. The sails of the enemy ship were black and emblazoned with a white horse; on this sight, Gormar surmised that the enemies were from a little-known pirate outfit calling themselves 'the Revenants of the Helot Order.' He shared his observation with the group, and Wilhelm remarked that they probably used that name for intimidation and little else. After this, they entered the office of René Le Marchand, the ship's captain, where they ambushed a large group of raiders in the process of interrogating the captain. They were led by what the party could only assume to be the raiders' boss and his lieutenant. Though, the large band of pirates were quite clearly not in their element, and were utterly demolished by the heroes, only taking one casualty in the form of Wilhelm, who was seriously wounded. The boss was spared, and stopped from bleeding out by Gormar, and a distressed captain René thanked the group for saving his life. However, before leaving to rally the rest of the crew, he slightly let slip and hinted about what the raiders were looking for, which made Gormar highly suspicious. Julienne left to tend to Wilhelm's wounds, and Geneviève prepared to cut loose the Revenants' ship. Now alone in the captain's quarters, the adventurers took some actions. Primolo spent his time salvaging gear from the Revenant raiders which he could later sell for profit; Gormar found a small box bearing the house symbol of the Merandure family hidden on the body of the unconscious Revenant leader, as well as an encoded letter in the captain's desk; and Jamie appropriated the captain's copy of the Frankonian Constitution of Liberty and Equality, and also managed to find and crack his safe, which was shoddily hidden behind some books, finding 400 gold and the legal deed of the ownership of the Iron Constitution. He stole the gold, leaving the document behind.

With the attack thwarted, our heroes returned to sleep and were now safely on their way to Ponvarus.

Report Date

20 Mar 2021