Chapter 4 - Session 4

Stone Men and Southern Deals

Events and Actions

Following their successful defense of the Islander village, the party set about interrogating the three captured Stone Men raiders. Unable to tell the identical, wrapped prisoners apart, they settled the matter by "scientific method," choosing whichever one had the most facial hair to question first. Noddy cast Charm Kind on him, and once the spell took hold the prisoner grew cooperative, answering questions through Batu Batu's translation. Early in the questioning, Noddy's own uncanny perception caught something the rest of the party missed entirely: beneath the man's wrappings, his ears were subtly elongated, echoing Knick Nab's own hidden shape. The observation stirred an unbidden, unexplained memory in Noddy — a flash of the deepest ruins of Cliff Town, of places down in the sewers he had never dared explore, though he could not say why they came to mind now.

Through the questioning, the party learned the raiders came from a starving "City of Stone," a twenty-night journey by camel across the desert to the north, traveled only after dark to avoid the worst of the heat. Their homeland's river had dried up many moons past, leaving a people with many workers, leaders, and fighters but no way to grow food; finger fruit and captive laborers were the entire purpose of the raids, taken to feed and build their all-consuming project — a massive stone structure meant to reach and "escape" to the sky, which they worship as the only way to escape death and the desert sands. He described his people's work plainly, cutting stone from cliff and ground with chisel and hammer, and their faith just as plainly: the sky never changes and never goes away, unlike the sands and the river that had betrayed them, so building closer to it was the only escape they could imagine. The prisoner had no knowledge of the black totem stones the party described to him, insisting his people worked only ordinary stone and prized no gold, and could offer nothing beyond crude flint-and-spark fire-making when asked about magic. Doing the math on travel times, the party reckoned that with the first raiding party already some two months overdue delivering food home, any larger, more desperate force the City of Stone might send in response was still fifty to eighty days out.

With this intelligence in hand, the party negotiated with the Southern agent, Mathias Monadero. Acknowledging that his own reinforcements were long overdue and likely lost, Monadero struck a deal: the party would remain to guard the village for two more weeks. If no Southern ship arrived in that time, the party would transport him and his two soldiers, Fritz and Lang, to the nearest Southern port. They also proposed sweeping up and down the river for the one raider who had fled the battle on camelback — a genuine chance to slow any future attack, and a convenient excuse for the trip upriver they were already planning — and Monadero, confident no larger force could arrive for weeks yet, readily agreed it was worth the time. In exchange for the two weeks' protection, Monadero agreed to provision their ship with a substantial supply of finger fruit, offered to keep the three captive raiders guarded and safe with his soldiers while the party was away, and promised to use his influence to arrange introductions that might help them secure a much-needed Navigator, though he was careful to promise nothing beyond the introduction itself. The party further floated chartering their ship for a supply run to the South's nearest outpost, a proposal Monadero welcomed as good business for everyone. He also confirmed that the Southern Federation is a loose alliance of independent, often-rival trading houses that unite only against a common threat, and that unlike the North, the South does not practice slavery.

The party then traveled back to the Amada by longboat to brief Captain De Guzman on the new plan, delivering baskets of finger fruit as promised. De Guzman reported nothing sighted on the horizon; the man he had posted to watch the beach had seen no sign of any ship, Southern or otherwise. The party agreed the crew would present themselves as Southern smugglers, keeping any obviously Northern faces below decks, should Monadero's people ever come aboard — Knick Nab vouched that the ship and crew had worn other guises before and could manage it again — while privately agreeing that if the ruse ever collapsed outright, taking Monadero and his two soldiers prisoner was the fallback. Along the way they passed a handful of giant crocodiles lazing harmlessly on the riverbank, sluggish enough to swim well clear of. They also spoke with the Chronicler, Randolph, who was eager to accompany them inland but agreed to remain behind once the party pointed out that his presence, recognizable to House Ohroh, would compromise their cover; he would take payment instead in notes, trophies, and specimens brought back from the expedition. Randolph mentioned he had already filled several volumes recording the cataclysm the party had described to him weeks earlier, and hoped to find a way to send his account back to the Academy before he ran out of pages — a problem sharpened by the fact that he had left his message pigeons behind and had no way to send word in the meantime. In exchange for their account of the battle, Randolph corrected an old assumption of theirs: his notes on Chronicler Willem's death at Old Port now showed the fatal wound had been a blade strike to the back, not the gunshot to the head they had believed, suggesting the official "plague" record had been deliberately falsified. Pressed on whether the Church had ever moved against a Chronicler for what he knew, Randolph said he was aware of no such case personally, though he pointedly would not say the same of the Academy as a whole; he described his own order's function as simply gathering and conveying information, leaving judgment and analysis of it to the Academy's separate researchers and historians.

Before preparing for their own expedition, the party confirmed their suspicions about the carnivorous finger fruit trees by stripping and feeding one the corpse of a dead raider; the tree slowly dragged the body in over several minutes, the same violent, tooth-lined motion that had nearly caught Knick Nab days before, this time with nothing to fight back. Weighing their options for the trip upriver — sailing, walking, or striking overland through the desert — the party settled on leading their eight captured camels, including one improbably fortunate animal they nicknamed Coins, on foot along the well-worn path Leela described, rather than risk their limited riding skills or leave the boat stranded partway up the river. As night fell, the party pressed the two remaining bound prisoners for practical knowledge of handling and feeding the camels; when one balked at answering, they marched his bound companion toward the same tree as a threat before breaking off to finish planning the journey. The session concluded with the party preparing to use the two-week waiting period to travel upriver, with their captured camels, to locate the totem that Mani could sense.

NPCs & Creatures

Stone Man Raider: The eldest of the three captives, questioned first by "scientific method." Charmed into cooperation by Noddy, he revealed his people's origins, desperation, and their goal of building a tower to the sky, along with an unsettling resemblance in his ears to Knick Nab's own.
Mathias Monadero: The Southern trade agent from House Ohroh. He negotiated a deal with the party for protection and eventual passage to a Southern port, and confirmed the South's federated structure of rival trading houses.
Fritz and Lang: Monadero's two Southern soldiers, who fought alongside the party in the previous battle and stood guard over the prisoners while the party talked amongst themselves.
Captain De Guzman: Captain of the Amada, briefed by the party on the new arrangements and the plan to present the ship and crew as Southern smugglers if Monadero's people come aboard. He reported nothing sighted on the horizon from the lookout he had posted on the beach.
Randolph the Chronicler: Remained on the ship after acknowledging that his presence would endanger the party's mission, but traded information — including a correction about Chronicler Willem's true cause of death — for the party's continued reports and trophies. He mentioned he had already filled several volumes recording the cataclysm the party witnessed weeks earlier, and was without his message pigeons, having left his rookery behind, leaving him with no way to send word to the Academy for now.
Coins: The party's nickname for one of the eight camels taken from the raiders, remembered as improbably fortunate in the previous battle.
Giant Crocodiles: A handful of large, sluggish crocodiles seen lazing on the riverbank on the way back to the Amada; harmless enough that the party gave them a wide berth without concern.

Locations

Islander Village (Isle of Sands): The site of the interrogation and negotiations.
The Amada: The party briefly returned to their ship to deliver supplies and information.

Conflicts

The session's conflicts were social and strategic rather than physical: interrogating a wary prisoner, negotiating delicate terms with Mathias Monadero, and planning a fragile smuggler cover story — one the party quietly agreed to abandon for taking Monadero and his soldiers prisoner if it ever collapsed outright — that would have to hold for weeks. Underlying it all was a genuine rift within the party over where their loyalties lie between North, South, the Church, and the third power tied to their medallions. The session closed on a smaller, sharper edge: a bound prisoner marched toward the finger fruit tree as a threat when he refused to share what he knew of camel handling.

Learnings and Discussions

The Stone Men come from a large, desperate society a twenty-night journey across the desert, traveling only by night. Their homeland's river dried up long ago, leaving them unable to grow food; their entire society is bent on building a tower to reach the sky they worship as an escape from death, and they showed no knowledge of gold, the totems, or magic beyond simple fire-making.
The party held a long debate over where their true loyalties lie. The trigger was that destroying the totems — visibly tied to their own medallions and abilities — seems to tear open the world itself, from tidal waves to land rising from the sea, which felt too violent and too personal to be a neutral act of theology. Weighing evidence that the Church may have silenced witnesses at Old Port and moved against Leela's people, and recalling the secret society opposed to the Church that Major Hubert, Captain Maynard, and Captain Barrows all belonged to — and that Maynard vanished while pursuing this very question — the party concluded they are not necessarily enemies of the North, or even of the two gods themselves, but that the Church of the Divinity of Two must be treated as an active threat — one they will avoid provoking directly, but will not trust if encountered.
Randolph revealed that the wound that killed Chronicler Willem at Old Port was a blade strike to the back, not the gunshot to the head recorded in the official account — evidence that his death, and the "plague" explanation given for it, had been covered up.
The party learned that the South has at least one established port on this side of the Maelstrom, and that Mathias Monadero belongs to House Ohroh, one of the two largest Southern trading houses — the other, its quartermaster recalled, being House Bax. Unlike the North, the South does not practice slavery.
The carnivorous finger fruit trees will consume carrion, not just live prey.
Leela informed the party that the path to the area where the root is harvested follows the river's north bank, is used by cart-pulling draft beasts, and is a two-day walk upriver ending in a swampy region where no black stone has been seen.
Randolph explained that a Chronicler's function is only to gather and convey information; judging or analyzing it falls to the Academy's separate researchers and historians, and the Chroniclers themselves render no verdicts.
Turning over the logistics of the camels, the party recalled that horses in the North are a controlled, almost state-owned resource — carts there are pulled by oxen and donkeys rather than horses — historically the foundation of Northern cavalry dominance, much as the Navigators' skill now anchors the South's unlikely strength at sea.

Items Gained

The party secured an agreement for a large quantity of finger fruit as provisions for the Amada.
They retained the weapons, clothing, and equipment of the defeated raiders, including their small shields, scimitars, spears, bows, and simple twisted-metal rings, along with a full Stone Man outfit and a curved sword that Knick Nab kept for himself, tying its wrapped headscarf into a style of his own.
Eight of the raiders' camels remain in the party's hands for the journey upriver.

Items Lost

Nothing of note was lost.