Funnily enough, the PCs have never actually been to Atlantis in this game of Atlantis. Here's last time.
The heroes won the Battle of Gorgos, and over the next six months, they work with Queen Amara to rebuild the country. The topple the power of the Cult of Set and redistribute its wealth into the country. They rebuild the Vril cannons they destroyed (they figure that since there are other countries that are not fans of Gorgos, it might be wise to have the defenses up), but change them so that they don't run on human sacrifices anymore. They set up schools and hospitals, free the slaves (doy), and work to integrate men into society as equals. And, of course, they bring the exiles from the Black Isle back into society and try to help them.
The government shifts from a theocracy to a monarchy, with Queen Amara, Imani's wife, as the head of state. Imani, for her part, takes as her title "Protector of the Isles", and the others - Eithne, Thanos, and Akala - are made nobility of Gorgos (which has to really burn Set's ass).
As the month of Ululu wears on, the heroes get on a boat and head to Dardanus. They meet with the Gray Council and firm up their treaty with Gorgos, part of which is non-aggression, part of which is the agreement that the heroes won't rock up into the Institute and start breaking things. (Thanos: "As long as you're not hiding some creepy cult secretly running everything." Me: innocent whsitle)
After several weeks in Dardanus, the heroes meet in a conference room with a dope magical map and start talking about what's going on in Gondwana that might require their attention.
Thanos tells them that he's heard rumors about a creature that's romping around in the nearby nation of Dar (almost entirely farmers and herders, no warriors or soldiers to speak of) eating livestock and occasionally taking people. They say it can't be tracked; they're calling it the "Skull Wolf." Thanos notes that this isn't on the scale of things that they've been dealing with of late, but he grew up in Dardanus and the people of Dar were always very kind. He'd like to deal with this to help them out.
Imani brings a couple of bigger issues to the table. First of all, a big contingent of Gorgon pirates have a "village" (really a flotilla of rafts and ships) in the southwestern part of the Saharan Sea. They've been raiding the Hesperian colonies, largely because they're obviously not going to come back to Gorgos where they'll almost certainly be arrested. Also, the nation of Khem is fighting a war of border skirmish with Turan. Khem, now that it's not a monarchy, doesn't really want to be in that war, but Turan isn't going to forgive and forget. And, Queen Nyavinghi was promised land in Khem, which the heroes need to negotiate.
Akala mentions that there's a flying city called Ankhat that floats around southern Gondwana. It's not in great repair - it only floats about 30 feet off the ground and it doesn't have a working propulsion system, so it's hitched to elephants and slaves. Presently it's trying to get into the nation of Okalo, but it's causing some border disputes.
Also, also, the heroes learn that Dabba has rebuilt their lotus economy. After the heroes left Dabba, the nation nearly collapsed. The magical slaves (the Gallu) ran rampant, the poor went into withdrawal because they couldn't get their fix, and everything kind of went tits up. And then flower production got going again somehow. The Cult of Baal (sorry, "the Nameless God") has taken power again, and spread lots of rumors implicating the heroes in the chaos (which, in fairness, isn't entirely inaccurate).
There's a lot happening, is the point. They talk over their priorities, and decide to go to Dar and hunt down the Skull Wolf, and then go take care of the pirates, and then head to Khem, and then head to Okalo. Dabba's not on the agenda yet, but Akala correctly points out that they really need an army to march into Dabba, and they don't have one of those yet.
Next time: Wolf hunt!
No comments:
Post a Comment