Icemonth the 23rd, 8:30 AM. We awoke the next day feeling well rested. The Rosa Sisters made sure we had a good breakfast, a coat and boots for Illi, and good advice for us for the way back. We were a bit surprised to find that Fuckna Ahshit, almost a dozen hobgoblin followers, and the Ogre Clog all wanted to hitch the way back with us.
As we were walking, we learned a bit about early goblin ideas and politics. King Jector and the clans he ruled, attacked and overwhelmed the Duke Machete and the city of Kerendal over 50 years ago. With the Dyrian elves from the Dawnlands no longer around and in power, the goblin tribes had swollen over time and after an attempted purge by Duke Machete the Slayer, they had fought back and took over the human duchy.
Instead of doing as normal, putting everyone to the sword, looting the place, and taking the people left as food and slaves, King Jector instead made peace. He offered ships to anyone who wanted to sail westward to Karameikos, and anyone left was welcome to stay, but with the Goblin King as ruler. Enough stayed and the rest is history. Jector (formerly Kerendal) is a hub for industry and trade with any and all kingdoms along the Dyrian Sea.
But, not every goblin clan agreed with King Jector. The thought was the goblin kingdom would fail and they did not want to give up their ancestral ways and lands. So a number of clans did NOT bend the knee to King Jector, and continued to live as they always have. The Ahshit clan was one of them.
After 35 years though, too many of the goblin tribes have been proven wrong. About a dozen years ago, King Jector the 4th relaxed the rules and instead of an entire clan swear allegiance to the Goblin Throne, now they would accept individual goblins who wanted to join the kingdom.
Gavin had a plan to sack Guido’s Fort, after seeing Moray Vaco and Valeria of the Syndicate. He assumed their knowledge, skill, and wealth were atypical of the humans in the area. So attacking the fort would have resulted in much riches. He was also a coward and ineffective. Too many times he would “exile” goblins from his clan for challenging his rule (the hobgoblins who lived by the lake).
So Fuckna and the others want to go to Jector, bent the knee and take the oath of fealty to the crown, and then decide what to do next. No matter what, Fuckna wanted to talk with Yandr about both their gods and the concepts of knighthood.
With so many with us, and staying on the trail, we made good time with no interruptions or wandering monsters, eventually coming to the bat cave where we decided to set up for the night. Clog went in and smashed as many bats as he could for eating, and we gathered wood and pine boughs for fire and sleeping areas.
The next morning was the 24th, and according to Thobar, we were down to the last of our food. We left early and made excellent time eastward until we arrived at the beach. The three canoes were still here and the hobgoblins and Clog worked on making sure they were in good repair as well as carving and making new oars and paddles. Hrimvir helped out while the rest of us lit the signal fire and waited for Tila to come across.
The goblin fisherwoman and her sloop and crew of 2 arrived. We talked about the trip back, her towing the two canoes across the River Shrill, paying her and the hobgoblins paid as well. Then it was a 45 minute crossing to Fort Guido. The eponymous Guido, his 2 guards, and a 7 count of rangers came out to see us come back.
We talked to Guido, explaining to his that he would get 5 lbs of silver now and to leave us alone until the ship to Jector came back up river (the 26th) to take us down, and if he does leave us alone, another 5 lb bag of silver in 2 days. Done! We gave Tila a tip and thanks for her help ferrying us about as well. Gun spent some time with Llerana, and the rest of us relaxed.
The ship from Jector arrived on the afternoon of the 25th from Freebody Shippers and we arranged with the Captain the trip back down the River Shrill to Jector. He reminded us it was the last free trip and if we wanted to come back up to Fort Guido, it would cost us at that time. We were fine with leaving.
Icemonth the 26th we were loaded up, Clog and the hobgoblins as well, and we sailed down the River Shrill, arriving in Jector on the 30th of Icemonth. After tying up, we unloaded everything and followed the longshoremen to Freebody Shippers office and eventually the Sailing Master, Abraxas Salazar. The rotund ex adventurer listened to our tale and was happy the Freebody could help out. He would have a ship (paid for by the church of Aine) ready to go on the morn back to Specularum. He gave us a free token coin to use at the company brothel and about half the group partook.
During the winter months shipping is expensive and there are less boats plying the Dyrian Sea, but the Church of Aine had prepaid for the trip and after sailing out of the icy harbor, the galleon turned west and began the 17 day trip home to Specularum. We passed out of the goblin lands, to the former elven lands now overrun by the orcs of the Brokenlands, and then eventually Karameikos Duchy.
We arrived on Restmonth the 17th, tired, worn out, and 2 months, 10 days after we originally left. All of us made our way to the Specularum Exploring Guarding and Adventuring Guild (Sega). Once there the Church of Aine was summoned as well as a variety of members of the Duke’s court and we then proceeded to explain what we had done, the Monastery, the tomes, the table, and the treasures we had returned with. The only thing we glossed over was the death of Netherathraxus (not wanting to attract the attention of being dragon slayers).
The Church paid us the 35 crowns each for doing the mission, and we immediately returned it as a tithe and thanks (according to Yandr, we had considerably more than that now to divide up).
When it was over and we had been thanked, the Church of Aine was going to arrange steeds for Yandr, Carl, and Hrimvir as extra thanks (the paladin was due a steed and the other 2 were promised one by Aine herself through conduit of the table).
At this point, the leader of Sega asked a few of us to stay behind – Hrimvir, Yandr, and Cara. The ambassador from Jector, the Goblin Semirva, the ambassador from Oenkmar (The Brokenlands), the Orc Fire Champion Serus, and the duke's own mediator, Ambassador of the Eastern Reaches Empsi wanted some time with the group.
Given the high profile of their recent exploits and relative strength of the group, there was a problem. Raiders during the late summer and fall had attacked a number of seaside towns, taking citizens away. Slavers. Onwall, Seaford, Herring Bay. The Duke wanted the matter resolved. And the Goblins from Jector had also suffered. Both were offering to pay for the group to hunt down the slavers and bring the operation down and/or to justice.
There was word the group was known as the Syndicate (we had that name from the Dragon’s paperwork) and according to Ambassador Empsi, one of his spies has seen some missing citizens at a slave market in Highport, 5 days east of Specularum.
As for Serus, the Orc was here to Argue that his people had NOTHING to do with it (even though orcs had been reported as slaver raiders) and King Thor of the Orcs wanted to make sure that everyone knew the goblins are liars and cannot be trusted. When its all done, the orcs want to be just as recognized as a kingdom as Jector is, and maybe if they do, there might be less raids in the future. Maybe.
We dickered on the price. The mission would not be until the spring (month and a half from now) and would not use a Duke’s ship (to avoid the slaver operatives picking them up at the docks). Jector was willing to give 80 crowns per person, and Karakamekios settled on 136 crowns and 3 healing potions per person. Plus, they would outfit the ship and transportation as well as rations. Lodging was still the party’s job. In return, the group promised to return 10% of treasures found to the Duchy. The guild masters of SEGA also were going to make sure that Thobar would be available to go with them again, the master porter spoke well of the group and was willing to adventure with them again.
We had 6 weeks of down time here in Specularum to take care of our long absent homes, duties, and families. We would be parting out our coins on the morrow and decide what we wanted to do with our time – and if everyone was willing to go on the trip or hang up their swords.
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