Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Fate of Exiles: Shoreline Tasks - The Medicine Chest

For exiles who reach Lioneye's Watch, there are more than enough tasks that need strong arms, quick wits, and nimble feet to achieve. This post will detail one of the options available to people looking for something to do other that gives Wraeclast a more complete, living feel.

Lioneye's Watch is a place in poor repair, with filth and sickness running rampant. Nessa has medical skills, but she can only do so much with what little the other exiles have managed to bring in - brackish water boiled over a smoky fire and handfuls of half-rotted plants that might or might not retain some medicinal value, plus whatever rags they can clean and dry out for bandages. Bestel has a solution, but he's in no shape to do it, and the only other exile who might stand a chance - Tarkleigh - has enough on his plate just keeping the place safe from nearby trouble. Bestel happily tells the party of the medicine chest that was in the ship he was on - he'll claim it was his ship, the Merry Gull, while the others will tell the group that he scooped the captain's hat off the corpse when it shipwrecked.

The medicine chest not only has supplies that would let Nessa treat the sick in the fort, it has tools to prepare more ingredients from raw materials; collecting it would make life in the ruined fort far safer. There's a catch, of course - two feral, cannibalistic Karui have amassed small tribes that control the shoreline between the fort and the wreck. Fire Fury is a Karui shaman corrupted by Wraeclast who controls the shoreline itself, his tribe consisting of people he's terrorized into serving and feeding him in exchange for him using his fiery magic to defend them from the wild beasts and living dead, while Hailrake is a castaway turned cannibal who has taken ownership of the wreck, fancying it a throne as his tribe of violent cannibals raid the fort and the other tribe in equal measure, relying on his command of cold and wind to keep retaliation at bay. As it happens, Hailrake has found the medicine chest, but lacking the education to recognize the value of it, he simply uses it as a footrest.

Many of the tribefolk under Fire Fury are little more than one-hit minions who might form up into mobs against players, but the majority can be talked or threatened into not interfering with the PCs. Fire Fury is a coward at heart, and more than willing to flee if a fight is going against him. He tends to be over-reliant on his two Virtue Gems - one of which can call down a rain of fire across an entire zone, the other letting him hurl blasts of fire at individuals. Defeating him will caused the rest of the tribe to scatter, with some showing up at the door to the fort, pretending to be freshly lost exiles in hopes of avoiding reprisal for their part in the raid on the fort. Fire Fury has Bonded By Fire, Soul-Eating Glutton, and Burning Up Inside as Aspects, and Virtue (+2), Notice (+1), and Acrobatics (+1) as skills.

The tribe under Hailrake is a tribe of unrepentant cannibals who view the murderous man as their kind, happily attacking anyone who tries to get close. Most are one-stress minions, easily taken out, but a few lieutenants might have two stress boxes, Fight (+2), and Notice (+1). Winning past them with diplomacy can be tricky, but doable for sufficiently clever players. Of course, Hailrake is a great deal harder to fool and quite willing to resort to violence to get a bite to eat. His Aspects are Cold King Of The Wreck, Cold-Blooded Beast, and Frozen Heart And Soul, while his skills are Virtue (+3), Notice (+2), Physique (+1), and Fight (+1), with Virtue Gems that let him produce a blast of icy spikes that attack everyone in the zone with him and a multi-target cone of biting wind and icy shards.. He has one mild consequence and two stress boxes, making it possible for him to become a recurrent foe if players don't take him down quickly enough. If pressed, he'll leap into the sea, using his cold and wind magic to create an icy raft that carries him away.

Returning the medicine chest to the fort produces a rise in spirits that soon sees the fort getting scrubbed clean of grime as best the exiles can manage, as Nessa turns the healthy to the task of preparing an area to treat the ill. She'll happily help any players recover from injuries suffered in the effort to claim the medicine chest, while Bestel starts composing a song in their honor.

Of course, the biggest 'reward' is that Tarkleigh seeing that they're capable will lead him to come to them with another urgent task, one too far out for him to deal with it while continuing to defend the fort - a necromancer has been sighted in the mud flats, raising the bones of dead beasts to fight for him.

That quest will be the next installment in the line of quest conversions, serving to lay the thread deeper into Wraeclast for players to follow.

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