Chapter 4 - Session 2

Mercenaries and Man-Eaters

Events and Actions

The party confronted the Southerner, who introduced himself as Mathias Monadero, principal agent for the Southern Federation's trade on the island. Mani took the lead, spinning a cover story — that they were smugglers aboard the "Green Gull," running goods between the Channel Islands, the North, and the South — and lending it credibility with his genuine knowledge of his family's smuggling trade. Asked his name, Mani nearly undid his own ruse, blurting out his real name before catching himself and passing it off as an alias; Monadero thought nothing more of it and simply took to calling him "Manny." Pressed on how they had weathered "The Shatters," they described a flash of light and land bursting from the sea some three weeks past, and mentioned a recent island of hostile giant spiders where they had picked up a new companion, taking care not to mention that Leela had stayed behind aboard the Amada; as proof, they produced a spider's fang and the claw of the giant panther they had killed there. Monadero recalled the actual Green Gull as a three-master rather than the party's sloop, a discrepancy he let pass without comment. Monadero accepted the story, and after he produced a ledger and pressed the party to sign or mark their names as formal conscripts into the Southern Army, they talked their way into a mercenary contract instead, agreeing to help defend the settlement in exchange for supplies and the promise of trade.

Monadero revealed he was awaiting a resupply ship, now several weeks overdue, likely delayed by the cataclysm the party described as "The Shatters." He explained that the local Islanders are peaceful farmers who are periodically extorted for tribute — food, and women — by "Stone Men," desert raiders who ride large, hump-backed animals the party took to calling camels; a raiding band of roughly a dozen had been driven off weeks earlier when Monadero and his two soldiers, Lang and Fritz, opened fire on them, the first resistance the raiders had ever met. In exchange for the party's eight muskets, Monadero set Fritz to arming and training a handful of villagers, while Lang was assigned to guide the party on a tour of the settlement.

A tour of the area revealed a large, agricultural settlement stretching along the river valley, with a central village of huts built on stilts on both banks of the river, joined by a single bridge. Away from that bridge, locals crossed the river routinely in small reed boats poled back and forth without question, a convenience the party made use of themselves. The party's main interest was the "finger fruit" that the Southerners were trading for, which grows on trees violently carnivorous to anything that ventures beneath their canopy; Lang confirmed the orchards were dangerous but claimed not to know why, only that the villagers approached them with fire and smoke. At an isolated tree across the river near the desert's edge, Riu examined the multi-trunked growth — its wood, though plentiful, appeared nowhere in the village's construction — and noted the fruit hung the opposite way up from a normal banana; nearby, scattered bones and the sun-bleached skull of some large, unidentified animal hinted at previous kills. A rock moved telekinetically under the canopy drew no reaction, and a first attempt by Noddy to cast Sleep on the tree beforehand did nothing either, so Knick Nab stepped beneath it himself, shielded by Cosimo's illusion and covered by Riu ready to parry; a bunch of fruit whipped down on its vine like a striking limb, hissing and splitting open to reveal rows of pale, faintly glowing, tooth-lined "fingers," gouging a trench in the earth as it retracted after Knick Nab dodged clear. A second attempt by Noddy to put the tree itself to sleep afterward also failed. Beyond the tree, the party got their first close look at the open desert — a vast, wind-carved expanse of dunes running to the horizon, matching old sailors' tales of a southern hinterland called the Sands, said to hide a great city deep within where trade is struck with some unknown and mysterious people. Riu resolved to keep a small pouch of sand from every new island the party visited from now on, starting here.

The following day, the party watched the Islanders harvest the grove properly. Farmers piled bundles of a small, gnarled root around — never beneath — the canopy, set them alight, and pushed the smoldering bundles under the trees with long-handled tools until thick smoke enveloped the whole grove; only then did harvesters creep in with sharpened sticks to knock down some of the fruit, deliberately leaving the rest of each bunch untouched. Riu recognized the root as very similar to Bitterroot, and Batu Batu's translation confirmed with a farmer that it came from "beyond the wetlands," further upriver, and that the village had none to spare — it was too valuable. Knick Nab, whose old reliance on Bitterroot for pain relief had finally eased over the long weeks since their crossing, was nonetheless keen to gather and dry a supply of this new root for the party's own future use, given its apparent similarity.

Returning to Monadero, the party learned a crucial piece of intelligence: the South's powerful weather-manipulating "Navigators" are Islanders whose homeland was destroyed by the Divinity of Two during The Great Change, 40 years prior, and who now assist the South purely out of a desire for revenge against the North. Monadero seemed genuinely puzzled by the idea that this ability could simply be taught, suggesting it is innate rather than a trained skill, and confirmed the Navigators look like ordinary Islanders — ruling out any connection to the small, pale, hostile people the party had clashed with on the Channel Islands, a group Monadero had never heard of. He also mentioned, unprompted, a grove of enormous trees his ship had once passed growing straight out of the open sea, though it had not been their destination and they had not stopped to investigate. Wanting to keep him talkative, Noddy reached for a subtler working — a second-level charm from his Closed Essence repertoire that left its target believing the caster a good friend — and Monadero grew unaccountably friendly, producing a bottle of Brandy and sharing it from his own proper stemmed glass — one of several personal touches, along with an ornately carved folding camp table and chair, that had plainly travelled with him from the mainland and marked him as considerably more refined than his two soldiers. With that goodwill secured, Pocket flew a survey of the valley for the party, revealing the river — which Monadero's people called the Uron — winding down past extensive cultivated fields and further orchards upriver, before the land gave way entirely to empty desert with no cover for an approaching force. Weighing a mobile response, using the Longboat, the ship's swivel gun, and the elevated stilt-huts as firing positions, against a fixed one, the party settled on trying to lure the raiders into a prepared kill zone with a false offering of fruit, illusions to steer them, and hidden pits, falling back on reacting to wherever the Raiders actually appeared if the ruse failed. They also weighed stripping the removable ramps that gave access to the stilt village from the northern bank, and noted that anyone posted at the desert's edge held higher ground than the settlement below — an advantage that would vanish the moment any attacker crested the rim and dropped down into the valley, out of sight of the huts. Questioning Monadero further, they learned the raiders always announce themselves with a horn and expect an unopposed handover at midday, though whether they could travel and strike at night was unknown.

Before settling in for the night, the party asked Monadero about the fortified gate they had passed through, spanning the river partway downstream of the settlement; he explained he had built it himself from the ship's own supplies purely out of fear of an attack from the sea, well before he knew anything of the Stone Men or their raids. Overnight, the party heard a large gathering of villagers chanting and singing to the moon and stars; asked whether her own people did the same, Leela — travelling with them but still kept out of Monadero's sight — confirmed it, explaining simply that the night is full of danger. Batu Batu questioned one of the few villagers not singing and came away less certain, guessing it was some form of prayer or worship directed at the moon and stars, but nothing else stirred that night, though the party spared a wary thought for the giant bird whose toe they had shot off on a previous island. The next day, after watching the harvest, the party sailed the Longboat back to the Amada to brief Captain De Guzman, bringing a finger fruit for Randolph the Chronicler to sketch and inviting the Chronicler himself into the cabin for the briefing, with Werner posted outside the door to keep it private. They found the crew had kept busy fishing and making repairs, including producing silk rope using the technique Cosimo had taught them before they left. Relaying what they had learned of the Navigators and the overdue resupply ship, the party reasoned that even in ideal conditions a Southern voyage from the mainland would take two to four months, pointing to a closer Southern outpost somewhere nearer at hand.

Warned that a Southern ship might appear at any time, De Guzman had the crew called to readiness with the ship's bell, and admitted he was tempted to attack anything of comparable size that showed itself; the party talked him down, arguing that intelligence on the Navigators mattered more than sinking one ship. De Guzman briefly weighed flying southern colours and papers to pass the Amada off as a second "Green Gull," but judged he couldn't make the ruse convincing enough to risk it. He agreed instead that the Amada would relocate down the coast, leave a hidden marker with a message, and quietly leave someone behind to watch the delta and report back — while the party returned to the Islander settlement to continue their mission and maintain their cover, careful, in the retelling, never to use De Guzman's own name in front of the Southerners. Randolph, delighted by the finger fruit and eager to see more of the island's strange life for himself, was invited to accompany them back.

Before heading back, they arranged an experiment to learn exactly how many person-days of food a single finger fruit represented: the Islanders would log how far one fruit stretched feeding the ship's crew, while Riu set aside a fruit to ration for himself and track how long it sustained him. They were provided with quarters and a small supply of the highly nutritious finger fruit, along with a jug of water.

NPCs & Creatures

Mathias Monadero: A "Major Domo" and trade agent for the Southern Federation, stationed on the Isle of Sands. His personal effects — an ornately carved folding camp table and chair, and proper stemmed glassware for his Brandy — had travelled with him from the mainland and marked him as considerably more refined than his two soldiers.
Lang and Fritz: Two Southern soldiers serving under Monadero. Lang guided the party's tour of the settlement; Fritz was set to arming and training villagers with the party's muskets.
Islanders: The peaceful, agricultural inhabitants of the Isle of Sands, said by Monadero to be led by both a man and a woman, though the party has not yet met either of them.
Stone Men: Also called Desert Raiders. A group of hostile Islanders who raid the settlement for tribute. They were discussed but not encountered.
Carnivorous "Finger Fruit" Trees: The source of the valuable finger fruit. The trees attack any creature that enters their canopy, striking with a bunch of fruit that splits open to reveal rows of pale, faintly glowing, tooth-lined "fingers"; bones and an unidentified animal's skull found beneath one attest to past kills. They can be safely harvested only after being pacified with the smoke of a root similar to Bitterroot. Despite the trees' plentiful, multi-trunked wood, none of it appeared to be used anywhere in the settlement's construction.
Batu Batu: The party's Islander cook, who translated between the party and the Isle of Sands villagers throughout the visit.
Captain De Guzman: Captain of the Amada, briefed on the party's findings and the overdue Southern resupply ship; tempted to attack any Southern ship that appeared, he briefly weighed disguising the Amada under southern colours as a second "Green Gull" before deciding the ruse was too risky, and was talked down by the party into agreeing the ship would relocate down the coast, leaving a hidden marker and a watcher behind, rather than risk engaging a Southern warship.
Randolph the Chronicler: Aboard the Amada, he pored over the finger fruit the party brought back, filling one notebook with observations and another with sketches, and eagerly accepted the party's invitation to see the island's strange life for himself.

Locations

Isle of Sands: The party explored the agricultural settlement along the river Uron's valley, observing the central village of stilted huts spanning both riverbanks — joined by a single bridge — and the dangerous orchards of finger fruit trees. Elsewhere along the river, locals crossed by small reed boats poled back and forth for anyone waiting. The hut given to the party for their stay stood near the settlement's outer wall and entrance, well short of the true village center and the bulk of its cultivated fields, both further upriver. An aerial survey by Pocket showed further fields and orchards upriver before the land gave way to open desert.
The Sands: Standing at the edge of the desert beyond the river valley for the first time, the party got a close look at the wind-carved dune country stretching to the horizon — matching old sailors' tales of a southern hinterland by that name, said to conceal, deep within, a great city where trade is struck with some unknown and mysterious people.
The Amada: The party briefed Captain De Guzman and Randolph the Chronicler aboard ship before returning to the Isle of Sands.

Conflicts

The party engaged in a tense negotiation with Mathias Monadero, talking their way out of formal conscription into the Southern Army and into a mercenary contract instead.
Knick Nab deliberately provoked an attack from an isolated finger fruit tree — after a thrown rock and a first attempt by Noddy to sleep the tree drew no response — and, shielded by Cosimo's illusion and Riu's readiness to parry, dodged clear as a bunch of fruit whipped down and split open to reveal teeth, gouging the earth where he had stood. A second attempt by Noddy to sleep the tree afterward also failed.
Aboard the Amada, Captain De Guzman was tempted to attack any Southern ship of comparable size that appeared and briefly weighed disguising his own ship as a second "Green Gull" to avoid suspicion, but the party talked him into holding off outright, arguing that intelligence on the Navigators mattered more than sinking one ship.

Learnings and Discussions

The South is trading muskets for "finger fruit," a highly nutritious food that can sustain a person for a full day with just a small slice.
A Southern resupply ship is weeks overdue, likely due to The Shatters. Reasoning from their own crossing, the party judged that even a fair-weather Southern voyage from the mainland would take two to four months, suggesting the South keeps a closer outpost somewhere nearer at hand.
The finger fruit grows on carnivorous trees, harvested by piling bundles of a root much like Bitterroot around — never under — a grove, burning it, and pushing the smoldering bundles beneath the canopy until heavy smoke subdues the trees enough to approach; even then, harvesters take only some of each bunch. The root itself comes from "beyond the wetlands" further upriver, and the village keeps none to spare. Riu noted that, despite the trees' abundant wood, none of it seemed to be used anywhere in the settlement's construction.
The South's "Navigators" (weather mages) are Islanders who hate the North because the Divinity of Two destroyed their homeland during the event known as The Great Change. Monadero seemed genuinely puzzled that an outsider might simply learn the ability, suggesting it is innate rather than trained, and confirmed Navigators look like ordinary Islanders — ruling out any link to the small, pale, hostile people the party had clashed with on the Channel Islands. Monadero also mentioned a grove of immense trees growing straight out of the open sea that his ship had passed but never investigated.
The peaceful Islanders are preyed upon by "Stone Men," raiders from the surrounding desert who ride camel-like beasts.
Villagers gather at night to sing and chant to the moon and stars; Leela confirmed her own people do the same, calling the night full of danger, though Batu Batu's questioning of a villager suggested it might instead be a form of prayer or worship of the moon and stars.
The Amada's crew produced silk rope in the party's absence, using the technique Cosimo had taught them before they left.
The stilt village sits lower than the desert's rim, giving anyone posted at the edge the high ground — though attackers would lose that edge, and vanish from the huts' sight, the moment they crested it and dropped into the valley. The party considered stripping the removable ramps that give the stilt huts access from the northern bank, to deny the Raiders an easy approach.
The fortified gate the party passed through downstream of the settlement was built by Monadero himself, using the ship's own supplies, purely out of fear of an attack from the sea — well before he knew anything of the Stone Men or their raids.

Items Gained

A bowl containing approximately ten "finger fruits" and a jug of water were provided to the party in their quarters — by the party's own rough reckoning enough to feed their whole crew for roughly six months, pending the results of Riu's more careful rationing experiment.

Items Lost

Nothing of note was lost.