Pirates and Murderers

Dear Charisse,

I have to clarify some things, then ask you a bunch of things.

First off, there were key pieces of information I was missing about the Swiftblade Warband - I guess it was just stuff they talked about before I got there, or assumed were common knowledge. Either way, I didn't get all the information about things until way later, after unintentionally making the warband look bad.

They're all members of a group called the Swiftshadow Company. I knew the name sounded familiar, the Swiftshadow part, but I couldn't remember why until after this was brought up. They're pirates, as in actual pirates, not just metaphorically. I suppose it's not so terrible, they seem to be focused on mercenary work right now, and they're currently helping out a group of Norn refugees.

I guess for the right price, mercenaries can be kind. Though I don't think that we're getting paid nearly what non-refugees can pay for work, so I think there is a lot more good to this Swiftshadow Company than bad.

Anyways, the Company owns the airship, and they only metaphorically stole it from the Pact. It's all Pact design at it's core, but quite modified from the run of the mill ships the Pact currently has. The frame's bigger too, which makes the ship bigger, and require more power. Apparently they were working for the Pact, as an airship crew, but got screwed in their deal and had to build their own from the ground up.

Over the past few months, they've seen a steady influx of Charr. Some have their warbands still, mostly the ones formed by their Fahrar fellows, some damn-near Gladium. Sargin Sunblood, the Legionnaire, decided to form a warband as an off-shoot of the Company.

That kinda explains the confusion with the rules. They were written by the First Mate of the Swiftshadow, someone whose apparently lost in the Underworld right now, and I was being brought onto the crew as another airship technician, but apparently one of the few whose actually worked on an airship before. I was made a member of the warband, so I am also a Swiftblade, but that's a very rare thing as of yet.

Now, I'm sure that last bit got your attention. Yes, apparently some crew members - all Norns, oddly - somehow managed to get lost in the Underworld or something like that. I barely was able to figure out much by reading over some notations made by the crew. They were going to be going after them, and it involved a lot of crazy complex ritual stuff by some guy named Abasur Mortis; haven't heard if they were successful or not.

I'm not really sure how pleased Grenth would be by the fact there are non-dead beings in His realm, particularly those who do not follow the Faith of the Six. He wouldn't be upset at them rescuing the Norn, would He? Since the Norn aren't technically His? It's a bit confusing, and I want nothing to do with the actual process of getting into the Underworld, don't think they'd let the new girl help anyways, but...kinda worried about what may come of it all, from a spiritual standpoint.

The other question I have relates back to that whole mercenary work I was telling you about. The first job I went on with them was to destroy a bunch of listening stations the Molten Alliance made; I'm working on securing a full, more or less undamaged sonic parascope so I can reverse engineer it, but I just barely got the electro-magnetic pulsation devices working, so I haven't got one yet. As I was saying, we destroyed a bunch of them, and they collected the recordings while I collected bits to try and reconstruct one of these things.

Once we'd cleared the area where our future operations will be taking place, the crew handed over all the recordings we got. The Vigil is way into trying to get rid of the Alliance, so they started listening to the fresh data immediately, before we even left.

Apparently, there's a huge homestead in the upper part of Wayfarer's - near Dolyak Pass, if you go looking at a map - where the Molten Alliance has made a sort of central stronghold for their operations in that part of the Shiverpeaks. The recording was talking about how some Norn died out near it, and their kin went investigating and found out how bad things really were. I'm really concerned about that, given it's right in the middle of where our operations are going to be, but everyone seems rather obsessed with the second recording we overheard.

The second recording had two people talking, a man and a woman. They were discussing a pregnant woman they planned on sacrificing; the man said that her blood was a powerful sacrifice, and it was kind of confusing to me. Do these things have some sort of rating system to them? Is the blood of one type of person more important than another? How would a pregnant woman's blood be more powerful than a woman who isn't? What kind of entities want blood sacrifices, anyway?

I don't recall you ever telling me that our Gods wished for us to sacrifice the living to them, so I don't think it's any of them. I don't think that the Norn animal spirits require that. Only ever heard of the Flame Legion doing anything like that, really, but these people did not talk like Charr.

Something weird is going on with it though. Immediately after, we were all told to get back to the cove - where the Swiftshadow docks - and then everyone was trying to keep things quiet. They knew something about it, and I found out the next day why.

We did this thing called a "Spirit Soak". They were doing it to purify the bodies of the people going into the Underworld. I don't quite see how it purifies them though, I mean, the chemical contents of those hot springs were horrid - most of that stuff causes burns and explosions! But, there were lots of people there, I think both crew and friends there of, and toward the end, I realised one of the voices speaking was on the recording!

I tried to point this out to the Legionnaire, and another Charr there freaked out. So did Sargin - he put his paw over my mouth and wouldn't let me talk until the lady left. He had some new Charr I hadn't seen drag me off, turns out the guy was a damn bleeder and sat there threatening to rip me apart, the way bleeders do. He's kinda runty compared to some of the bleeders who've threatened to kill me, so I wasn't all that concerned about the threats.

No one seemed to care about the fact that the lady on the recording was there, though the Quartermaster for the Swiftshadow proper was going with the mercenary captain to talk to her. I really hope they locked her up so that poor woman doesn't get killed. I haven't heard anything else about it, and haven't seen the woman since so...I really hope they got rid of her.

Anyways, I have to try and get myself one of those parascopes so...I'll leave it at that for right now.

Love,
Tyra

Joining the Warband

Dear Charisse,

You'll never believe the luck I've had!

I was going to try joining the Pact again, except this time, I was going to go straight to Fort Trinity; I figured if I was already there, in the base, they would be less inclined to tell me I'm "too young" again. Or whatever other bullshit Dad has them spewing - I'm still convinced he's behind the rejections.

Anyway, I asked around the docks in Lion's Arch for passage to Fort Trinity. A sailor claimed that their ship would be heading that way, and I ended up having to give him almost everything I had after paying rent for the month for the ticket. Later that night, I got on the ship, got in a bunk and decided to take a nap while we made the long trip to Orr.

I didn't know how long I'd been asleep when they woke me up to tell me the ship was at the dock, so I assumed we were in Orr. I ran for the ramp down to the dock, but things looked a bit off as I made my way off the ship; before I could do anything, the sailor pulled the ramp up, and the ship started to leave. I realised that I wasn't at Fort Trinity, and that I'd been lied to!

Of course, I started yelling at the big meanie who'd taken my money and dropped me off Gods know where, but the ship still sailed away. All that yelling ended up interrupting the meeting of, get this, A WARBAND! There were a bunch of Charr, right there on the beach, bringing in recruits!

It's been so long since I've seen such large groups of Charr, since I got kicked out of the Citadel and everything. Well, Charr that aren't beat down refugees with their tails tucked between their legs; I get that the Molten Alliance is rough, but running away to Lion's Arch? Pfft. As Irontail would say, the Khan-Ur is rolling over in his grave!

Anyway, the only female Charr there came over and started talking to me. After she found out what had happened, she offered to take me down to Fort Trinity, even though I only had five gold and three copper left after the whole ship fiasco. We didn't get a chance to hash out details before the Legionnaire asked her to bring me over to the group.

He called me a mouse, but I guess to a Charr - especially the larger ones - I am small like a mouse is to a cat. So I made the best mouse pose I could and admitted such to him. I think he was amused, but...their new recruits were still in that whole posturing and bragging phase, so he had to ask me to wait while he dealt with their bullshit. They also weren't done getting them into the warband, so he needed to finish with that to.

I was content to sit there, surrounded by Charr, and try to figure out their prior warbands and talents based on their names. I know that whole thing was kinda confusing to you, but it's so simple - the first part of the second name is their warband, and the second part is a word that describes them or what they're good at. I think Irontail was part of the original warband for the Iron legion, or its descendant, and he did have a pretty legendary tail - with everything that's happened to him, I'm surprised he still has a tail at all, let alone a completely functioning one!

Anyway, I got one of the Charr's talents wrong, and he got really upset. I don't think he likes humans at all. He might not like anyone at all - he was really blustering over everything, to the point where the Legionnaire was calling him all kinds of names, and pointing out that everyone had bigger balls than he did. Arcus Clawsharp was his name; I'd avoid him if I were you, just heal him and get the hell away, if you ever run into him.

While the Legionnaire was still dealing with the new cubs, a skittish human found their way into the area. The female Charr seemed to recognise him, but I went over to try and comfort him anyway. I was kinda sick of the posturing, because the Charr-stosterone was thick at that point, so it was kind of a welcome distraction.

He seemed pretty afraid of the Charr, so I tried to tell him they were an alright lot, from what I could see, but they were just in that posturing getting to know each other phase. So there'd be a lot of bellowing, growling and roaring, maybe a kerfluffle or two; it didn't seem to make him any more relaxed.

I didn't get much more time to talk to him, because the Legionnaire joined us and asked about how I knew so much about Charr and their history. So I had to tell him all about Dad and Hiram getting into the Citadel once the treaty was done, how they were hired as airship mechanics as the Pact started to form and had the Charr start building the prototype airships, and about how Irontail would sneak me onto the ships so I could learn all about airships and maintaining them. Of course...I also had to tell him how we got caught right before the Pact left, but assured him that our work checked out, so Irontail didn't get in too much trouble; and I did have to tell him that after the Pact took everything south, I got kicked out of the Citadel cus Irontail wasn't there to vouch for me any more.

He was surprisingly accepting of the situation, and extremely interested in the fact that the Mikhonas are airship mechanics, even though I was only an apprentice airship technician, and haven't been on an airship since the Pact went to Fort Trinity. What happened next was absolutely amazing.

He told me the warband stole an airship from the Pact! They have their own airship and he wanted me to become one of their technicians! I'd already overheard him tell the new cubs that their warband wasn't the traditional warband, and he started to explain to me that they were more like pirates and mercenaries; that's kinda understandable, I mean, historically Charr have kinda been land pirates...which I guess we call bandits, but you get the idea!

I thought about it for a minute. While I really want to see Dad and Hiram again, and catch up with old Irontail...the Pact was being stupid about everything, and I was being offered a place on an airship. In a warband. I mean...Dad might be sad that I wouldn't be working with him and brother, but at the same time, he'd probably shoot me for refusing the offer of joining a warband.

So, I said yes and he gave me a big list of their rules. They didn't sound very Charr, and I found out a human had written them so dumb humans who can't wrap their heads around Charr wording could understand them. I really don't understand how any can't understand Charr wording, I mean, it's not at all crazy complex like Asuran wording or anything. But, I suppose he had to be sure the "mice" they hire knew what was what, so I read over it and signed it.

That's when things got a little confusing. He'd told me if I signed the rules, I was in...but then said he needed to see how the rest of the warband felt about allowing humans in. It was super confusing, because why would you need humanized rules if humans weren't allowed in, and why would I be told I'd be in once I signed it.

While the Legionnaire went off to talk to the other Charr, I turned my attention back to the skittish human. There was a ferret draped around his neck by then, although he says it's a weasel. I pointed out to him that unless he talked to a weasel rancher, then he couldn't possibly be sure it was a weasel, because it really looked like a ferret; I did tell him I've only ever seen a ferret before, but advised him to seek out a weasel professional to make sure he got a weasel and wasn't lied to.

I think he's just scared of the world. He seemed way scared and kept saying he'd just look it up. It was then I realised he was one of those mage types, and likely in that scholar order you told me about. It was all books, books, books, books, books for him - no life experience! No living in the now! No adventure.

He was wearing a dress. A big dark blue dress. So I pointed out that he was a mage - because male mages wear dresses just like the girls do - and he admitted to such. Now, I've met some brave mages in my time, but I can't say I've ever met a mage that was as scared of his own shadow as this one. How can he even be a mage when he's that scared - maging is dangerous!

The Legionnaire rejoined us, and called the lad "Chocolate Wonder". This made it sound like he was some sort of chocolate addict that was wonder-struck whenever he encountered a piece of candy, and then I sort of realised that his skin was so dark, that I might be wrong about the fact he was male.

Dress + chocolate addict...sounds like a woman to me! No offence, Charisse, but all those girls you trained with are SO just like that. I asked him about it, and sort of teased him about how it looked like he had little boobs, and he got all upset and took it out on the Legionnaire, who was very amused. Kinda frustrating, how serious mages are, so I made sure he knew I was teasing him.

Finally, the Legionnaire let me know that yes, I was an honorary member of the warband.

Charisse. I'm a member of the Swiftblade Warband, who stole an airship from the Pact! I'm their airship technician!

Dad would kill me if I dropped the family name, so I guess that makes me Tyra Mikhona Swiftblade now. Isn't that spiffiriffic!

Another of the Charr snuck up behind Chocolate Wonder, and all he did was say "Boo!", which freaked the mage out like crazy. I don't see why he got so upset, the Charr was only teasing him. Sure, the Charr called over a giant dire wolf that was a bit of a...pretentious animal, but it's not like he was going to let the wolf attack the lad. Still, as the Legionnaire and the other Charr walked away, Chocolate Wonder walked off in a huff.

I let him know the secret about Charr: if they didn't like him, they wouldn't bother teasing him - they'd just rend him limb from limb and be done with it.

Left him to think that one out, and went to ask the Legionnaire if we made camp here on the beach. He told me we did, so I got permission to go get my other tools from the shop in Lion's Arch, and he agreed. I even went back to Aneko's place in Kessex Hills to get that tent I made when we were younger, so I'd have my own tent. So now the Mikhona Self-Erecting Mechanical Super Tent is up on the beach, just behind the big tents they use for meetings, well away from the shore so that any projects I do don't get all salty and wet.

Isn't it fantastic!?

Oh. Oh, dolyak poop! I didn't get the Legionnaire's name!

Gotta go! Bad form to not know your Legionnaire's name and all that!

Love,
Tyra