Ironblaze

Maeleris pulls her bow and a handful of arrows. She nocks all of them at once, gives a wink to a confused looking human on the crew, aims for the sky, and fires the entire cluster at once. Muscle memory kicks in, and she quickly follows the first volley with a second. Actions Maeleris uses Hail of Doom with her Bow. This requires a 4:1 Body (Ballistics) Test for me, and every enemy in the target Zone (so the Plaguebearers and the tentacles if they are close enough together, however many I can tag at once) to make a 4:1 Body (Reflexes) Test. If they fail, they take Damage equal to the difference in successes. If they win this opposed test, they take no damage. I will then use my Mettle to take an extra action, and do it again! First Hail: Use my Focus on the 3 to make it a 4, so 3 Successes. Second Hail: Again use the Focus on the 3 to make it a 4, so that's another 3 Successes.

Maeleris continues swinging at the rats, hoping to keep them off her teammates and focused on her. Actions Making another Melee Attack against the nearest audible Nightrat with a Good quality Melee and Accuracy using a Sword (Damage 1+S). I do have Focus +1 to Weapon Skill, add as needed to adjust Successes against Nightrat's Defense. Spending Mettle to swing again at the same swarm!

As soon as the door shuts, Maeleris draws her sword and dives at the nearest sound of the growling! Actions Making a Melee Attack against the nearest audible Nightrat with a Good quality Melee and Accuracy using a Sword (Damage 1+S). I do have Focus +1 to Weapon Skill, add as needed to adjust Successes against Nightrat's Defense.

Maeleris smiles at the mention of some extermination duty. "I was starting to get a bit restless, so this sounds like a great deal to me. Never heard of a Nightrat, but that just makes the fight more fun!"

Maeleris enjoyed watching the crew bustle about as the ship shoved off the dock. Once the ship was away and the captain seemed less busy, she decided to take advantage of Sulemek's warning and chat with the captain. Others in the Binding might be more interested in a covert approach to gathering information, but the former Steedmaster never cared all that much for games of intrigue. "If you don't mind me asking, what led you to walk the path of a corsair? Thrill of coin and combat? Family profession?"

Maeleris grins at seeing the Idoneth crew member. "Cousin! Good to see a kindred spirit out from their homelands! Right then, who wants to bunk up? I don't snore too loud if that's a concern for anyone." She tosses her kit into one of the cabins. "Sulmek, do you want us staying out of the way when the ship leaves port, or can we watch from the deck? Never been on a ship like this before, would love to get to watch how it all works if that's not in your way."

"Scraps against the flesheaters happen from time to time back home. Always have to keep an eye on the sky, they've got some flying big guys and I've seen one of their dragons at a distance before. That's not a fight I'd choose to pick myself. The normal types though tend to just rush you; keep your wits about you and they aren't too terrible. Never heard of them having ships though." Maeleris shrugged as she waved down a barmaid. "Fireale for me, please, and not the watered down stuff you serve the humans." She turns back towards the group. "Then again, shipfaring and swashbuckling is new to me as well. This is going to be fun!"

Maeleris groans hearing the name Blackscale Coil. "Oh fickle winds. Yes, I know of the Coil and Serpentis, I have kin connected to the Order here in town. Was hoping to use them for information and maybe catch up with them. With any luck they aren't directly involved but could know who among their ranks might be complicit. Blackscale complicates things though, they have fingers in enough pastries across Aqshy who knows what's going on there." She looks at the Fyreslayer. "Order Serpentis are an old aelven knighthood, originally from Ulgu. Dragon breeders. Not sure why they would want to disrupt the defoliant though, or those other aelven groups for that matter. Coil are a mafia, sure, but they still operate out of Anvilgard and I can't imagine the city being consumed by the local flora is all that good for business."

Maeleris shrugs at Ellania as the collective heads inside. "Don't have the patience for that kind of nonsense like metalith hopping. Too much Aqshy in my blood, as my mother would phrase it. I'm one of those reckless fools who charges on horseback into Khornates just for a fun fight." She gives a nod to the vampire. "Maeleris Elarian, Steedmaster of Tor Ignatal. Swordswoman, archer, cavalier, give me a weapon and a fight and I've got your back."

Maeleris perches on one of the statue plinths outside the Hall and immediately dispels any of the stereotypes about the cold and distant nature of the Lumineth. She wears Vanari warmail, dark bronze with golden trim, and has her bright red hair pulled into a loose braid hanging down her shoulder, so she at least looks the part at a glance. A large and clearly well-made bow is strapped on her back alongside a quiver with a fox-faced totem of the Hurakan Temple hanging from it. Her fingers dance impatiently on the hilt of a longsword with a serpentine crossguard on her hip and a scowl mars her face as she mutters under her breath. "Join the Soulbinding, they said. Get to see action, they said. They said nothing about waiting around twiddling our thumbs waiting on some self-important councilor or whoever we're waiting on."

CHARACTER SHEET MAELERIS ELARIAN Vanari Warrior of Tor Ignatal Attributes: Body 3, Mind 3, Soul 2 Melee: Good (5) | Accuracy: Good (5) | Defense: Average (4) Armor: 2 (Medium) | Toughness: 8/8 | Wounds: 0/4 | Mettle: 1/1 Speed: Normal | Initiative: 5 | Natural Awareness: 2 Skills: Awareness (1d6, +1 ), Ballistic Skill (2d6, +1), Beast Handling (1d6, +1 ), Determination (1d6), Reflexes (1d6), Weapon Skill (2d6, +1) Talents: Shining Company, Hail of Doom, Loyal Companion (Horse), Stand and Fire Aqua Ghyranis: 100 Drops Equipment: Vanari Plate (Medium Armor), Bow and Sword, Scryhawk Lantern, amulet from the warhost of Tor Ignatal, Horse BACKSTORY Daughter of an Hurakan Windcharger and an Order Serpentis warlord, Maeleris grew up in the Aqshian Lumineth outpost of Tor Ignatal and was raised as a warrior first and foremost. Much of her youth was spent skirmishing with Khornate warbands on the ash plains surrounding her home city, and she rose to the rank of Steedmaster of a company of Dawnriders. Her father had hoped she would follow his footsteps and swear herself to the Hurakan temple, but a introspective and controlled life among the Lumineth didn't feel right for her Aqshian nature. She joined the Soulbinding in order to always be the tip of the spear against disruptive forces in the Mortal Realms, and a trip to Anvilgard provided the perfect opportunity to become more involved with her mother's kin among the Order Serpentis loyal to the Free City.

I'm also looking at an elf, either a Lumineth or use the Freeform Archetype to make an Order Serpentis fighter (Elven Knight, traditionally riding Totally Not Raptors but probably on foot for the sake of simplicity here).

Goblins Leader: Gob Diplo 6 | Military 5 | Industry 7 | Faith 3 | Intrigue 5 Hero: Lin 9 Regions: 209 and 208 Treasure: 5 Actions: 1) [Intrigue] Theft of Technology: Those Rising Sun types have been rather rude lately. Claiming to be better than us, making weird mysterious trade deals, the whole "kill our Myr friends" claims going around. We think it's time someone rifled through their pockets, well okay their inventors' and scholars' pockets, and look for any notes or clever inventions they might have dropped! Or "dropped". Whichever. 2) [Intrigue] Investigate: Come to think of it, who are the Rising Sun making the weird trade deals with anyhow? Deploy a party of investi-goblins! 3) [Diplomacy] Improve Relations: Good news, everyone! The Disciples of Silica gave us knick-knacks! Who doesn't like knick-knacks? We will send them some of our own knick-knacks as well. 4) [Intrigue] Investigate: Albatross cursed? And she might be trying to get involved with our friend Rizzo? We should make sure it's not a contagious curse or anything. That could be bad. Would we be cursed just for doing this digging? 5) [Intrigue] Investigate: The Disciples are pretty vague why they want so many troops. Maybe they just don't know what they're fighting and need some scouts! Let's do a little recon for them! Nonaction: Accept the DoS offer to store even more "waste" on the islands. No reason not to help some friends clean out their pockets! Nonaction: The Myr have so many interesting stories! We'll gladly offer to help with translation! (Spending one favor) Nonaction: [Military] The Limitations of Steel: Our Disciples friends need help! We will gladly loan them fighting goblins to assist with whatever this mysterious task is. They do love their mysteries in their Vaults, don't they? (Deploy Four Goblin Land Units!) Housekeeping: Ignore the Diplomatic Mission roll, action removed due to misunderstanding of rules and current world situation

Goblins Leader: Gob Diplo 5 | Military 5 | Industry 6 | Faith 3 | Intrigue 5 Hero: Lin 9 Regions: 209 and 208 Treasure: 3 Actions: 1) [Industry] Generate Treasure: Now that we have this new shiny rock from our new friend-goblins, pets stockpile some! We'll find a use for it later. 2) [Industry] Generate Treasure: More piles of shiny, more problems? More like more shinies, more fun! 3) [Diplomacy] Improve Relations: Good news, everyone! The Disciples of Silica like us more! This is very nice, we should continue talking to them. Maybe this time we will learn what silica is! 4) [Diplomacy] Special 5- Create Cultural Identity: The Goblins have a long history of wanting to learn. A growing and vocal portion of Goblin society, perhaps inspired by the pirates, are becoming more voracious in this need to know, to the point of not always asking first... (Cultural Identity for the Theft action) 5) [Intrigue] Investigate: More time, more pirates. Meathook turned out to be disappointing, so let's see if any other more interesting captains are out there. Nonaction: Accept the DoS offer to store "waste" on the islands. They're friends, we help friends. Also we gotta know what this stuff is.

Region 208: The Short Forest Geography: The region consists primarily of brushlands transitioning into more traditional forests to the south. Of course, to the goblins of smaller stature, brush is virtually as tall as they are, making it a forest of sorts! Most of the area is a relatively high plateau above the coastline, resulting in a relatively dry environment.   Natives: The Goblins of the Short Forest are in fact relatively tall and hairy creatures compared to the typical Goblins of the islands with two legs, two arms, and hands featuring thumbs. The coastal region is occupied by the more typical and scaly variety of goblin.

Goblins Leader: Gob Diplo 4 | Military 5 | Industry 6 | Faith 3 | Intrigue 4 Regions: 209 and 208 Treasure: 3 Actions: 1) [Intrigue] Investigate: The land to the North is gone to some strange goblins. It would be smart to learn more about our neighbors. 2) [Intrigue] Investigate: Those pirates are definitely still out there, especially this strange Meathook. Who calls themselves that? Why would you make a hook out of meat? These are truly some pressing questions. 3) [Diplomacy] Improve Relations: We seem into have gotten off on the wrong (webbed) foot with the Disciples of Silicon. Maybe it was just a bad day for them. We'll keep trying to be friendly and see what happens 4) [Diplomacy] Diplomatic Mission: The maps made by the best goblin cartographers show a dotted line extending northeast from our islands. Surely there's someone on the other end of the line, otherwise there wouldn't be a line, right? Send forth a diplogob! 5) [Military] Special 5- A Hero Rises!: An exceptionally clever fighting goblin has emerged! Lin has the makings of an excellent adventurer and seeker of stories to bring home to record on the bones!

Goblins Leader: Gob Diplo 4 | Military 4 | Industry 6 | Faith 3 | Intrigue 3 Region: 209 Treasure: 5 (Spending 2 this turn) Actions: 1) [Intrigue] Investigate: The Scaleback Scallywags are now sent to the mainland in search of these Disciples of Silicon. We don't know what "silicon" is, but maybe they will tell us in exchange for some buckets of Starblood! Take a couple buckets from the Treasure Hoard to be safe. 2) [Intrigue] Investigate: Our friends killed some pirates, but there's definitely more out there and it just dawned on us that they could blockade our home! We better figure out where they are hiding. Perhaps we can offer shinies from our Treasure to convince some outsider goblins to share what they know. 3) [Diplomacy] Press A Claim: Region 208 is.home.to strange looking goblins, but they are indeed goblins and more than welcome to join us! 4) [Military] Recruit: After more than a few goblins cut themselves collecting shiny black rocks from the tunnels, we had a brilliant idea: weaponized them! The Stonestabbers tied some of the smaller and more especially stabby-shaped rocks to the ends of spears and arrows for just this purpose! 5) [Military] Recruit: No taking chances about pirate armadas and getting trapped on our islands, the Blockade Runners form up and practice at sailing their boats sneakily between other boats without getting caught! What clever Boatsgoblins!

Goblins Leader: Gob Diplo 4 | Military 3 | Industry 6 | Faith 3 | Intrigue 2 Region: 209 Treasure: 2 Actions: 1) [Intrigue] Investigate: The Scaleback Scallywags are dispatched to the West to gather information about the pirates in the surrounding waters. 2) [Intrigue] Investigate: Scouts are deployed along the coastlines to search for pirate shipwrecks. 3) [Diplomacy] Press A Claim: Region 208 has been claimed in the traditional goblin fashion (planting a flag then leaving a scent on it), it's time to make friendly with the locals and learn each other's ways. 4) [Industry] Generate Treasure: The tunnels near the Starblood veins are filled with black glass rocks, perfect for a variety of uses! 5) [Industry] Generate Treasure: No time like the present to stockpile stone buckets of Starblood for future use!

Goblins Leader: Gob Diplo 4 | Military 2 | Industry 5 | Faith 3 | Intrigue 2 Region: 209 Actions: 1) [Military] Raise Unit: The Scaleback Scallywags are a naval unit patrolling the waters around the homeland! 2) [Military] Raise Unit: The Goblin Warhulks are a dedicated regiment of massive (7ft tall) goblins armed with bludgeoning weapons. 3) [Diplomacy] Make A Claim: Region 208 to the south always to be an excellent place for a new colony, and might even possess the lumber our society needs! 4) [Industry] Generate Treasure: Resources required for expanding goblinkind into the larger world, or maybe stockpile for the return of the Great Star Fish 5) [Industry] Generate Treasure: Never enough resources!

Goblins Leader: Gob Diplo 4 | Military 1 | Industry 4 | Faith 3 | Intrigue 2 Region: 209 Actions: 1) [Military] Raise Unit: The Piscine Privateers are a naval unit patrolling the waters around the homeland. 2) [Military] Raise Unit: The Sharpfang Sharpshooters defend the home islands using arrows tipped with spare teeth. Gotta do something with them, right? 3) [Military] Raise Unit: The First Goblin Expeditionary Force meanwhile are intended to be used in the case of offensive needs. Or raiding. Or maybe stealing shoes, those seem very bizarre, you'd think covering feet-wedding would interfere with swimming! 4) [Intrigue] Investigate: A prophet claims the moons are warships from the stars? Maybe the ships were intended to sail as an escort to the Star Fish! This needs to be determined! 5) [Industry] Expedition: The seas to the northeast look interesting, and none of these new friends seem to know what lies that direction. Grab a ship and set sail! 6) [Industry] Expedition: To the east, straight towards 216! Maybe more islands? Maybe a fishland? Who knows??? 7) [Project] Vaires Translation Project: The Goblins are a curious race, and some individuals have taken up trying to learn a bizarre new language!

Gob the Goblin's Stats are rolled below. Diplomacy: 4 Military: 1 Industry: 4 Faith: 3 Intrigue: 2

Race: Goblins Physiology: Goblins are generally speaking creatures with two legs, two arms, eyes mostly forward facing, ears ranging from long and pointed to internal, covered in scales ranging from a murky green to a bright blue, have webbed feet and hands (generally three mildly clawed fingers and a thumb), sometimes dorsal fins, and almost always pointed teeth. They range in stature from three to eight feet tall. Most goblins have secondary gills, while rare individuals have primary gills and secondary lungs. They prefer to live near coastal environments, but aren't picky if that means along an ocean, a lake, rivers, or hot springs. Culture: Goblins believe they were put on this planet from a home beyond the stars to experience anything life has to offer. They seek adventure and exploration, and to bring stories of what they say home to be recorded among the Great Star Bones of their holy sites. Particularly memorable events will be recorded on their bodies or their bone arms and armor in ink, scrimshaw, or scaring. Religion: Goblins believe that while they experience time as a line, the reality is time and causality are a great Maelstrom. Events that happened once will happen again, and the future has already happened. Their drive to record events is part of this, so future generations can use the wisdom of the collective to help solve the issues and crises of their present. Chief among these recordings is the goblins arriving to the world riding upon the Great Star Fish. Or maybe the world they now live upon is the Great Star Fish and is currently swimming in the sea of stars on the way to a new homeland. Leadership: Goblins generally do not have structured leadership. Deference is given to those who have experience with whatever matter needs to be decided; for example, goblins who have spent more time among humans have their opinions respected more when negotiations are happening with humans. For matters where nobody in a given enclave had applicable experience, a youngling is chosen by lottery to try to keep the wisdom in living memory as long as possible. Occasionally a singular goblin with a wide range of experience becomes a trusted elder across all the communes, one such alive in the current times is Gob the Goblin. Homeland Geography: Batholithic cliffs of black stone are a dominant feature on the Island of Slardar, located off the north coastline of Taer Mojr. The gravel beaches are littered with the skeletons of megafish, and these bones are used for construction of shelter, tools, and armaments. Hot springs dot the island and are often used for incubation. Some local legends claim the island was once a star in the night sky which loved the world so much it left the night sky to be with the Great Star Fish. Starting Tech: Tall Sails. The drive for adventure means the goblins would not stay confined on their island for long. Starting Resource: Starblood, a hot viscous fluid found within the volcanic tunnels and channels of Slardar. Some claim it's the blood of the Great Star Fish (hence the name), others say it's congealed memories and soulstuff, and a few radicals even claim it's molten rock. The heat it provides is useful for cooking and lighting. If only it didn't require stone buckets to transport.