Chapter 4 - Session 3

Ambush at the River Village

Events and Actions

With the Southern trade agent's warning in mind, the party spent the following days fortifying the stilted core of the Islander village. One building doubled as a musket nest for Knick Nab and Cosimo's own position, reachable only by a ladder that could be hauled up to deny access from below. Cosimo used his rigging skill to string ropes off the main building in each cardinal direction and out to trees on the far banks, giving anyone up top a fast way to swing or slide down toward whichever bank the raiders approached from; with no pulleys to be found, the party settled on riding the lines down with a musket barrel or another curved handhold rather than bare rope or cloth, reasoning that anything flat would burn through or slip. Knick Nab organized six Islander volunteers, newly drilled on musket use, splitting them between two buildings flanking the central plaza so they could fire out from cover on either side. The ship's boat, mounted with its swivel gun and crewed by Werner, Salter, and Batu Batu, was anchored in the river channel to cover both banks, and Mathias Monadero, the Southern trade agent acting as the village's Major Domo, committed his two soldiers, Fritz and Lang, to the defense under Knick Nab's command.

While the party waited, Leela grew restless and left with a group of Islanders travelling upriver to harvest root near a swampy area three or four days away. Riu spent the same idle days playing amateur chronicler, gathering plant specimens and quietly asking around after mutated children or religious customs that might echo the mother-and-father cult, much as he had on the previous island, though nothing of note turned up. Leela's group had barely begun harvesting when raiders emerged from the desert on strange antlered, camel-like beasts, wrapped head to toe in pale robes and turbans, and crossed toward the party's side of the river; the Islanders scattered and fled. About a week into the party's watch, Leela came sprinting down the north road, breathless and shaken, having run for days to warn that the "Stone Men" had crossed the river and were coming. Riu suggested guarding against fire arrows, and the party had the villagers lay in torches — kept well clear of the tinder-dry finger-fruit trees — a standing bonfire, and buckets of water at the ready, including a bucket on a rope they could lower straight into the river for a quick refill.

Riu spent the following day taking repeated turns levitating a hundred feet into the air to scan the desert, while Knick Nab trekked out to the top of successive dunes on foot and came back convinced the open desert was as flat, featureless, and disorienting as the open ocean, easy to get lost in without landmarks or a compass. Late in the day, near sunset, Riu spotted a distant dust cloud to the southwest. The party settled in for what they assumed would be a night assault, but the night passed without incident.

The attack came the next morning. Pocket, aloft on Noddy's orders, confirmed three approaching groups: raiders coming straight down the river valley, and two more flanking groups cresting the desert ridge on the north and south banks, invisible to anyone below the crest. Faint horn calls passed between the three groups as they closed, confirming a coordinated advance rather than any intent to parley; recognizing that opening a dialogue would only give the flanking riders time to close unchallenged, the party chose to let their muskets answer instead. Knick Nab held the trained Islander riflemen's fire until the lead group of four riders closed to effective range. Their opening volley snapped the lead rider's reins and tore open his hand, and in the same moment Cosimo loosed a blinding flash of light that stunned all four riders and their mounts at once. Mani followed with a shot that opened an artery in a second rider's collarbone, killing him outright, while the other two mounts bolted in confusion, their charge broken before it began.

As the flanking riders reached the village and dismounted, the untrained villagers scattered rather than hold their ground, and the fight turned into a running melee around the huts and stairways. Not every defender held: on one bank, several of Knick Nab's own riflemen broke and dove for the river rather than face the raiders bearing down on them, and two who couldn't get clear in time were cut down where they stood, one gashed across the leg and the other stabbed through the thigh badly enough to leave him barely able to walk. Riu spent much of the battle as Mani's loader, keeping spare muskets primed and swapping them into Mani's hands so he could fire almost every round instead of stopping to reload himself. Cosimo summoned Handsome Gulliver Gold, a phantasmal warrior in a turban with a jeweled feather and a scimitar, who burst from the sand behind two raiders closing on Knick Nab and Leela with a cry of "no one expects Handsome Gulliver Gold," disarmed one with a slash to the wrist, and later vaulted onto a hut roof to flourish his blade at the retreating enemy, a gold stud glinting in his tooth as he grinned. Knick Nab swept an attacker off his feet in melee, leaving him unconscious, while Leela cut a bloody path with her axe, opening a fatal wound in one attacker's thigh, finishing off a second who had already gone down, and shattering the kneecap of a third. When a raider slipped close to Mathias Monadero, Fritz and Lang shot him down at point-blank range.

With most of the raiders dead, unconscious, or scattered, the last rider bolted for the open desert on his camel; Knick Nab lassoed him off the animal with Cosimo's spare rope before he could escape. In the end the party had killed several raiders outright and taken three alive — one relatively unharmed, one with a shattered kneecap, and one with a badly broken hand — along with eight of the raiders' twelve camels, the rest having escaped or scattered too far to bother chasing. Riu used his medicine skill to stabilize the two badly injured prisoners, setting bones that would otherwise have crippled them for life, so all three could be questioned. The party stripped the dead and the captured raiders of their weapons and gear and settled in to plan the interrogation.

NPCs & Creatures

Stone Men: The desert raiders who attacked the village, wrapped head to toe in pale robes and turbans and mounted on strange antlered, camel-like beasts. They are named for their reputation as stoneworkers. Armed with spears, scimitars, and bows, they were routed with several killed and three captured.
Leela: Left the village to help gather root upriver, was nearly caught when the raiders first crossed the river, and ran for days to warn the village. She fought alongside the party in the battle, cutting down or crippling three raiders with her axe.
Camels: The large, four-legged beasts used as mounts by the Stone Men. The party captured eight of the twelve they encountered.
Handsome Gulliver Gold: Cosimo's phantasmal warrior, manifested in a turban with a jeweled feather and a scimitar. He burst from the sand announcing himself, disarmed a raider engaging Knick Nab, and later postured triumphantly atop a hut roof.
Werner, Salter, and Batu Batu: Crewed the ship's boat and its swivel gun in the river channel throughout the battle, standing ready to fire though the fighting was decided before they were called on.
Mathias Monadero: The Southern trade agent acting as the village's Major Domo. He committed his two soldiers, Fritz and Lang, to the defense under Knick Nab's command.
Fritz and Lang: Monadero's two Southern soldiers, who fought in the defense of the village and shot down a raider who slipped in close to him.

Locations

Islander Village (Isle of Sands): The stilted village where the party organized the defense and fought off the raid.
The root-harvesting grounds: A swampy area three or four days upriver where Leela's group was ambushed. Beyond it lies a wilder stretch of river surrounded by untended finger-fruit forest that the Islanders never visit and that the party suspects is the Stone Men's point of origin.

Conflicts

The primary conflict was the large-scale, three-pronged battle against the Stone Men, who approached down the river valley and along both banks of the desert.
Reading the raiders' own coordinating horn calls as a sign they meant to fight rather than parley, the party chose to let their muskets speak first rather than risk giving the flanking groups time to close.
The party broke the raiders' charge with a coordinated musket volley and a blinding flash of light from Cosimo before the melee even began.
Key moments included Mani's fatal collarbone shot, Leela's brutal effectiveness against three separate raiders, Knick Nab's unarmed sweep, and the repeated interventions of "Handsome Gulliver Gold."
Fritz and Lang killed a raider who slipped close to Mathias Monadero, and Knick Nab personally lassoed the last fleeing rider off his camel to take him alive.
Two of Knick Nab's riflemen broke and fled for the river when raiders closed on them and were wounded before help arrived; Riu treated them, then later stabilized the surviving prisoners' injuries as well.

Learnings and Discussions

The party learned more about the local geography and fauna from the villagers, including the existence of a dangerous, wild finger-fruit forest far upriver believed to be the Stone Men's origin, and the nature of the large, domesticated "cow things," which are used mainly for labor and can cross the open desert.
They learned that the raiders are called "Stone Men" because they are said to build with stone.
The party discovered that the desert is vast, featureless, and navigationally challenging, similar to the open ocean. They also learned that the blowing sand is extremely harsh on firearms, requiring them to be cleaned after exposure.
The villagers described their reliance on reed cultivation for construction, a flax-like crop for linen thread, and rice and other grains grown in flood-irrigated fields, along with fishing in both the river and the open ocean, all supplemented by finger fruit when the river runs low. They also make a potent finger-fruit wine, which Cosimo sampled.
Asking about "weather witches" turned up no local magic practitioners and no concept of controlling weather; the villagers' entire sense of environmental change centers on the river's rise and fall. The party deliberately avoided asking about the "big black stones" in front of the Southerners, wary of revealing what they know of the old magic.
Despite having more material technology than other Islanders the party has met, the villagers keep a notably weak oral tradition — no one could say how long their people had lived in the valley, only that they always had.

Items Gained

8 Camels: The party successfully captured eight of the raiders' twelve mounts.
Weapons recovered from the dead and captured raiders, including shields, crude but unfamiliar curved scimitars, spears, and composite bows. Knick Nab kept the best of the scimitars — a thick, crudely made blade of an unfamiliar cutlass-like style — meaning to practice with it.
Simple twisted-copper rings of no real value, along with the raiders' empty sacks, baskets, and cordage — apparently brought to carry off loot — and a supply of dried fruit provisions.

Items Lost

Nothing of note was lost.