ec2-18-221-98-71.us-east-2.compute.amazonaws.com | ToothyWiki | EchoesofOblivion | RecentChanges | Login | Webcomic I'm eternally greatful to PeterTaylor for Spell Checking this, normally I do spell check GM notes before sending them out but I seem to have forgotten this time. I'd suggest rather than actually doing it for me, thwack me over the back of head next time I send masses of stuff to the wiki without spell checking it first, it's the only way I'll learn. --Edith
The players managed to kill the leader of a group of exalted pirates, The Brilliant Marauders, who had been harassing them.
Then they went and summoned his ghost.
And bound it.
And then forced him to tell them everything they know.
A small circle of somewhat less morally inclined Solars who command a much larger group of mortals. Somewhere between pirates and legitimate merchants but never quite committing to one or the other, the marauders are dispersed for most of the time, communicating through magical means and messenger birds. They tend to keep themselves low profile to avoid the legions, the guild and the Hunt, they also tattoo every mortal member of their group with a black caste mark on their foreheads to strike fear into their enemy and spread the word of a bunch of pirate pretending to be Solars (what better cover for a real solar than in a bunch of fake ones?) Following their purge from Kirighast, the Marauders travelled east until they hit the river, at which point they followed it down to the rich Satrapy of Andalusite where their operations have been ongoing for the past 2 years.
Prince Topaz: Originally a successful guild prince known as Torin Zana, Topaz was driven out of the guild by his own son after he exalted. Unable to bring himself to swear vengeance upon his own son, Torin fled south where he was captured by a brigand thief known as Captain Spike. Spike originally planned to kill Torin or ransom him, however he had figured he was dealing with a mortal and soon fell to the blades of his own men, persuaded by the Zenith Caste's golden tongue. Zana to the name Prince Topaz and began his leadership of this new disparate group. Zana's knowledge of guild workings, combined with an ability to read the actions of the guild Prince's he observed allowed him to lead a series of daring raids on guild caravans and independent merchants from which he and his group became somewhat rich. Topaz's merchant savvy also allowed him to sell and trade his stolen goods for a reasonable price and his bandit hoard soon developed a second, commercial side to their operations. Over the past few years the Brilliant Marauders have had a series of successes across the southeast scavenger lands, joined now by two other solar exalts the group comprises of hundreds of warriors, merchants, sailors and spies managed by Topaz. The group is always careful to remain low enough intensity in any one area to avoid unwanted attention and to hide the true scale of operations. However it is safe to say that the group has some part in at least 20% of the trade going through Andalusite these days. Topaz was ruthless and obsessed with profit. However he hides this well under the guise of a friendly and negotiable merchant and pirate king. Topaz believes in trade rather than war, knowing the former to be much more effective a tool for control than the later. Topaz makes deals to come out ahead and will do nothing out of the goodness of his heart, he knows the price of loyalty, of love and of faithful service down to the jade bit and this is how he ruled.
Madam Cynn (real name unknown): As far as Topaz knows, Cynn came from a peasant fishing village along the inner sea. She was some form of wise woman whose knowledge of spirits and occult proved useful enough to earn her a place on a Peleps Naval ship as a seer. Following an exaltation at sea Madam Cynn was quickly forced to escape to the south to avoid the Wyld Hunt (she never met them but when you exalt on a Realm Naval ship you don't hang around), she met Prince Topaz and quickly agreed to join the Brilliant Marauders. It was her idea to paint the Marauders' heads with gold paint while on raids and later to tattoo several of the better warriors with caste marks of their own. Madam Cynn now takes care of the Marauders' shipping ventures, both pirate and merchant (the difference being about as clear as fog), she also provides magical support to the Marauders (her magic is mainly sea based but she knows a few other tricks too). Cynn has no one flagship but travels on a series of separate ships as best suits her, she is sure to keep the profile of her fleet and it's tactics (magic raiding, etc) well under wraps, very few survive her raids, leading to a terrifying reputation on the high seas.
The Howling Fury: A barbarian tribesman from the East known as Howling Bear, fury originally thought himself a Lunar when he exalted in the middle of battle a few years ago. However an angry reception by his Lunar Chief combined with a chase from the tribal lands soon set him straight. Fury did the typical barbarian forced into the city Conan style thing for a while before finding a nice little group of bandits to hide out with and raid on his own. It was about that time that The Furies came into contact with the Marauders, fortunately much bloodshed was avoided by the negotiation skills of Prince Topaz. Fury and his band joined the Marauders, Fury becoming the chief warrior amongst the raiders. Fury's tactics are sometimes a burden to the marauders as a whole, Topaz is quite used to have to explain to Fury the price of honour and glory in raids rather than simply stealing the goods. This annoys Fury but on the other hand he does enjoy the riches Topaz's plans brings. Fury is at heart a barbarian warrior, he considers himself a chief of his bandits, he employs a bare minimum of formations and other civilised tactics, his raids being barbarian in nature. He does know where his loyalties lie however and he accepts Topaz as his superior, if not in battle than in wits. He has had a long running dislike for Cynn for some time, her means are much too civilised for his tastes and Fury's distrust of sorcery or a powerful female figure in the group has led to a long animosity between the two.
The Deal
Following their expulsion from Kirighast the marauders wandered for a while, until an old friend of Torin Zana contacted them, Prince Jade. Jade's offer to Zana was as follows: 15 years ago, Prince Jade was forced to "retire" from active service running the Andalusite - Nexus run and put into the position of managing Guild activities in Andalusite. This was mainly due to the actions of Jade's protégé, a young man now known as The Admiral. Jade still wants the position of running the Admiral's caravan back but doesn't have enough wealth or support to mount a takeover. Meanwhile, Cynis's demands have been pushing up the taxes in the area and seriously cutting into profits, Jade has had a long running political war with Queen Asha over taxes, however the demands of house Cynis have pushed this to a new level. Jade needs the money he is losing to taxes to mount a takeover bid and needs to show he can succeed even in the hardest times. So Jade turned to smuggling, or rather he asked the Brilliant Marauders to smuggle for him, Asha and the Eye have spies throughout his organisation so he needed someone independent to do his dirty work. The Guild have remained trustworthy and clean throughout the whole affair, the only suspicious part being the vast amounts of money flowing through their coffers despite taxes, something infuriating to Asha as she had nothing concrete to pin on Jade. Meanwhile the Marauders ran smuggling and pirate networks through Ima, Eras and Kras. Trading with intermediaries under a Guild cover, the operation managed to make a profit for both sides. In the meantime, the Marauders were free to build up crime networks throughout the kingdom and Jade guaranteed them cover within the Guild once he had attained his old position. Prince Jade provided the Marauders with maps of Guild trade routes and arranged that the Marauders would raid certain caravans of little importance, providing the impression that the Guild were being struck just as much as anyone else but with little actual loss on Jade's part.
The Other Deal
Cynis Wisel Nagata is a decadent, corrupt old bureaucrat put out to govern the city of Eras until he dies. He does so by playing crime-lords off against each other, taking bribes from everyone and ensuring that his own position remains untouchable. The city of Eras soon became a haven for pirates and smugglers, right on the boarder to the Mnemnon held satrapy of Carparum (who are more than happy to turn a blind eye to their neighbour losing revenue to smugglers) and with no real law enforcement given the right bribes. Again, another real thorn in Asha's side, she cannot send in troops to overrule Nagata as he is protected by house Cynis, she is forced to hit smugglers as they leave the boarders of Eras, which is much more difficult and time consuming than catching them in Eras. The Marauders became quite successful in Eras, they paid the right bribes and bullied the right people to own a large section of the crime networks there, they were guests of Cynis Nagata personally one more than one occasion. This led to the second deal: Nagata had started to become concerned that Asha may be collecting information on him, although he owned all his most trusted staff in more than one way he could never be sure he was truly safe from Asha's networks. So he offered the Marauders a deal, their networks of semi-legitimate traders would provide intermediaries between Nagata and the rest of the crime lords. The fear of the Marauders would keep the intermediaries secure and Nagata could have plausible deniability (They looked like ordinary traders, how was I to know they were dealing with criminals on the side) to keep Cynis on his side.
The Screw-up
For a while this worked well. However Asha's response was to build up the kingdom's military and train them to hunt pirates, this held the double advantage for her of cutting down on the Marauders trade (they were not the only pirates in the area and escaped lighter than others but they lost several ships) and building up a response to a possible Mnemnon incursion by the 2nd Legion. This left the Marauders at a disadvantage and income started to slip. Also, Fury had become restless, he was less and less content to make a profit in the shadows and wanted to hit back at the authorities who were killing his men. Privately Topaz suspected another influence but he could never be quite sure with Fury. So a plan was hatched. The Marauders would kidnap Ellen from the royal palace and lead the pursuers a merry chase to a pre-prepared pirate lair. A small battle would ensue which would see a large chunk of the Andalusite navy sunk but the rest ultimately victorious against the "pirate hoard", Ellen would be rescued and the kingdom would be convinced they had dealt with the pirate/smuggler problem for a while. Fury would also get his revenge on the Kingdom's navy. Cynis Nagata provided the plans of the Palace allowing Topaz to get in and out sufficiently. Meanwhile the Marauders would appear as if they were attempting a set-up as crime-lords in Rutile to make their operations look amateurish enough for the "destruction of their hidden pirate base" to be convincing. There were two problems to this plan: a) You bastards. b) Fury is a moron and flares his anima banner at every opportunity. This is a bad thing.
The Other Screw-up
The raiding of the death cult was all about revenge. Sure there might have been a plan to pull off the kidnapping again but mainly it was because Fury was too pissed off to let a sleeping death cult lie.
Guild Operations
Topaz does not know much of The Guild operations in Andalusite beyond Caravan routes (which Cynn handled) and the politics going on:
Prince Jade: Has ruled trade in the area with a jade fist for fifteen years, old but capable, still bitter at the Admiral for taking the Nexus route from under him. Wants to get back into running caravans before he gets too old. Typical Guild Prince, knows the price of everything down to the last jade bit.
Prince Karl: Long established, runs the Northern Caravan with a well trained crew. Jade's chosen successor and for a long time the only other real guild prince in the kingdom. Has a strong dislike for monarchy or many other forms of government. Plutocrat.
Prince Nina: Responsible for opening up the southern caravan in recent years. Has suddenly become very successful and is catching up in wealth on Karl. Fewer qualms about what she trades in or who she trades with. Has to keep having ambitious new underlings assassinated or play them off against each other. Ambitious. Currently the only trader to trade with Yirna on a regular basis.
Prince Zed: Responsible Nutcase. Leads the Guild expeditions into the plateau, daring, adventurous and capable of making exploration a profitable venture. Keeps his ventures fairly small and trusted at the moment with the option of expanding once trade routes are well established. Used to work under Nina but was promoted to prevent a power struggle. Large beard. Guffaws a lot. Currently investigating Skira.
Topaz goes on at some length about the trade operations in the kingdom what goods go where from whom via what. Nothing important.