Chapter 6: The Exodus
Two days following Council’s
decision, the residents of Fallcrest and Winterhaven gather outside of the cities for their mass
exodus. The general feeling is quite sad and most of the people are crying. The
Dwarfs of Duerok had left in their airship several
hours earlier. To the front of the assembled convoy is the Iron Giant and Most
of the military forces. To the back there is a very large catapult, and several
mechs constructed by Jim Flanagan. It is at the back
of the lines where Lord Warden Faren Markelhay is having a heated argument with Jim Flanagan.
|
“I am sorry my Lord, but I can’t agree with you that submitting
ourselves to the mercy of Dwarf’s is our best option. We should instead move
out to the plains. There you can retain lordship over everyone and we don’t
need to be treated as second class citizens by those that are shorter than
us. Why be a soldier, when you can be a lord? Come
with us and bring the Iron Giant. With that, no one will be able to dispute
our power” explains Flanagan. “Lordship means nothing to me if my citizens are not safe. The Dwarfs
have given us a great offer and we will be safe once we reach their lands.
Besides, even with the Iron Giant, we are not the mightiest people around.
Our traders that returned from Duerok have
confirmed that there are more Iron Giants and some of them are even larger
than the one that we captured.” “That maybe true, but I still feel it is wrong to subjugate ourselves
to a society headed by a scientist rather than a true leader. I cannot go
with you and if you try to force my hand, we will be forced to defend
ourselves against your crazed will.” “Force you? No. It would be wisest to come with us, but I will not
force you just as I am not forcing Nimozaran the
Green and those who wish to stay to follow us. You are free to take those
that wish with you. We will miss your support and I wish you the best of
luck. You will need it.” The Lord Warden turns and leaves Flanagan. |
Once the Lord gives permission to
Flanagan to leave, Flanagan turns to Selena and says...
|
“Because of your loyalty to the Lord Warden, I doubt that you want to
come with me, but you have something that I want so I would like to make a
deal. I would like one of your steam-powered mechs.
In exchange for your wooden mech, I will leave you
with two of my Totem Walkers or Four of my Flanagan Warriors, all fully
loaded with ammo. Please let me know now if you are interested as we will be
leaving very shortly. And as promised,
here is the catapult that you ordered along with its ammo and nets. “ |
When Selena gives her answer (max
five minutes to decide), Flanagan leaves the convoy along with all of his mechs (8 Flanagan Warrior Walkers, 3 Totem Walkers and 1
Defender), 50 armed foot soldiers and 200 Human citizens.
(100 Citizens are staying behind in Fallcrest if the PCs ask.)
The Lord Warden comes back to the
PCs and states...
|
“Let them go. If they are not willing to live in Stenian’s
Confederation, then it is best that they don’t come along and give us a bad
name. It is funny that they are all human. We have a fairly mixed citizenry
and I think there may be some prejudices at play of which I was previously
unaware. Subjugate ourselves to Dwarfs? What difference does race make? I
just want my people to be safe. I thank you for staying. Now let’s figure out
how to organize this convoy.” |
The PCs organize the convey and head out. The
first week of travel has been fairly uneventful. Lately, the speed of the
travel has been reduced because the Terrain has become rough enough to trap
wagons here and there. They come out with a little pushing, so it is more of a
nuisance than anything else. Aside from several meteor crushed houses, castles
and towers here and there and many small boulders lying around randomly, there
is not much to see. The land is mostly barren and a thin layer of Moon Dust
covers most of what you travelled in the past two
days.
Dusk approaches
tonight and you feel an abrasive mist falling from the sky. Staying outside is
painful — you must find cover somewhere! You hear many screams of pain echoing
throughout the convoy. Apparently you are not the only people affected by this
mist. Off in the distance, you see that tonight’s night sky brings with it the
lunar rains. From how fast the night sky approaches, you figure you have about
30 minutes before the large boulders start falling from the sky and who knows what
the effect of this abrasive mist will be.
The group finds a fortress of friendly Dwarfs that take in some of the
citizens. They also find and clear out an Orc
fortress, a
2 Hours after the Rains end, a Young
Lunar Dragon Combs the land looking for tasty morsels to eat. The Group takes
out this dragon by engulfing it in a net from a catapult and attacking it while
it is entangled. In fact, it was a volley of arrows from Human rabble troops
that killed the beast. A second beast appeared and fought much more violently
than the first. The second was not entangled in a net and managed to eat 15
soldiers before Selena traced a target on it and flattened the Giant with a
Huge bolder from a Gargantuan Catapult.
After the PCs defeated the Lunar
Dragons, the Exodus made it to Duerok and Joined the Stenian Confederation. The PCs didn’t like how military
life cramped their freedom of spirit so our Heroes opted to be fully licensed Privateers of the Stenian
Confederation rather than to be a part of their military. As Privateers of the Stenian Confederation, the PCs are allowed the following
privileges.
1.
They may legally
sell seized goods not of Stenian Origin to
communities in the Stenian Confederation.
2. They
may use force on any group not aligned with Stenian
within the boarders’ of the Confederation.
3. They
are entitled and licensed to carry out missions from the Stenian
Privateer Mission Boards.
4. They
have the protection of the Stenian Confederation.
5. They
may cross the boarders of the Stenian Confederation
as desired.
But as members of the Stenian Confederation, the PCs are restricted by the
following rules.
1.
Attacking the
military forces of the Stenian Confederation is
punishable by death.
2. When
operating outside Stenian’s boarders, do not bring
any negative associations to the Confederation in any way. Miss-representing
the empire is punishable by death. Especially if you accidently
start a war.
3. You
may not sell or salvage Military Mechs that belonged
to the Confederation. Report our downed mechs but
leave the retrieval work to our Mech fleets.
4. Do
not sell weapons or mechs to those that would like to
cause harm to our
5. You
may be called by the military at any time to perform tasks on behalf of the
Confederation. To refuse a mission from a high ranking official is considered
treason, punishable by exile and full seizure of assets.