[EF] A Fist Reborn (8/2018 - 10/2018)

[Judas D'arc]

Summary: A new incarnation of the Emerald Fist, a band of chaotic (and sometimes outlaw) adventurers, forms to contend with many of the strange threats rising across Sosaria. Under the auspices of the masked Emerald Empress, the group's members are recruited, a new headquarters is established, and they investigate and battle the elusive, otherworldly Technocrats.

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8/2018:

Following the disbanding of the Holy Fist, Chanticleer Reich (also known as “John”) and Piper Swift recruited members for their revival of the Emerald Fist, including Bacchus, Adegas Tazkia, Ezekial Roberts (also known as Zachary Crowley), and Dubhlidais, all veterans of the original Emerald Fist; Sergio Jarrett, formerly of the Holy Fist; Kalanna and Lia Nightbreeze, two recent acquaintances; Callisto, an old ally of the Fist; and Edward the Churl, an old friend from Trinsic. While Faeryl Tyra’them and Jolicia were not officially invited to join the group, they soon became involved with many of the Fist’s activities due to their shared history, interests and relationships.

8/11/2018:

One night, members of the nascent Emerald Fist traveled to the wilds of Malas to meet with the Ilharess Kal’iksix of House Viaxus, a community of dark elves that had recently migrated to the region, purportedly from another shard-world of Sosaria.

The purpose of the Fist’s visit was two-fold, they wanted to assess House Viaxus’ numbers and potential threat, as well as request a favor of the dark elves. Kalanna, who recently awoke from a years-long slumber beneath the ground, was searching for a daughter she had lost prior to her forced burial. A former servant of Lloth herself, she wanted the Ilharess to petition the spider- goddess to locate her missing child, a half-blooded dark elf.



In return, Kalanna offered what little she possessed, including her own life, and Kal’iksix agreed, asking only for respect towards the spider-goddess. According to the Ilharess, Lloth consented to grant the petition and performed a search of all sixty-six levels of the Demonweb pits for the missing girl. However, the spider-goddess could find no trace of her there. But she did instruct House Viaxus to continue aiding Kalanna in her quest, with proper payment being decided at a later date. And so Kalanna agreed, stating that her word was her word.



Following this, the Fist questioned the Kal’iksix and the rest of House Viaxus about their origins, their travels to this shard-world of Sosaria, and their intentions beyond claiming the City of Umbra.

8/15/2018:

At the Salty Dog Tavern in Britain, the Emerald Empress met with Chanticleer, Ezekial, Kalanna, Piper, and Sergio to discuss current matters, the threat of the Technocrats, Renthar and Jolicia, and the white-robed bearer of the Sextant of the Ancients. She also told them that she was still in the process of securing a new headquarters for the group.

8/16/2018:

Governor Haxley of Trinsic met privately with Chanticleer, Ezekial, Kalanna, and Sergio of the Emerald Fist, as well as their sometimes ally Thea Caine of Cove. Due to Chanticleer’s recent assault against Eban McFarlin of Trinsic and Jolicia, which he claimed was in response to the former’s penchant for asking patrons of the Keg & Anchor Tavern to show him their breasts, the Haxley banned Chanticleer from Trinsic for the remaining three and a half months of his current term as Governor. As a result of this, the Emerald Fist ceased frequenting the Keg & Anchor Tavern, and instead began to informally gather at the Salty Dog Tavern in Britain.

[Judas D'arc]

9/01/2018:

One night, the Emerald Fist was gathered at the Salty Dog Tavern in Britain, when a messenger from Compassion Couriers entered. After sharing advertisements from the messaging service’s sponsors, this messenger informed Piper that Kosha, a Meer of Lakeshire she had encountered in connection to the first encounter with the Technocrats in Ilshenar, wanted to meet with her.

The group then traveled to Lakeshire, and Kosha explained that after the Technocrat attack was repelled, the Meer had recovered their broken automaton parts from the battlefield and carefully secured them. Soon, a tinker from the City of Minoc tried to purchase them. The Meer refused, and a few days later, the parts in question mysteriously vanished, likely stolen.



The Fist journeyed next to Minoc, where they met the tinker Meyer. He identified their quarry as Sterling, a lonely tinker who wanted the Technocrat parts so he could impress a woman he was interested in wooding. Her name, according to Meyer, was either Niva or Neeva. Her skin was covered in strange tattoos and she dressed in dark robes, which matched the description of the Technocrats that some of the group had previously fought. Meyer agreed to contact the Fist if he learned anything about Sterling’s whereabouts.

9/2/2018:

Whether it was coincidence, or even the promised intervention of Lloth, the spider-goddess of House Viaxus, members of the Emerald Fist met a young woman at a tavern one evening. Her name was Anya, a half-blooded dark elf, and she mentioned dreams that featured a queen with many arms that spoke a strange, yet familiar, language. Adegas soon realized the girl fit the description of Kalanna’s missing daughter, and so the group approached her to ask questions. Anya was skeptical about their claims; she had lived a difficult life on the streets, without parents and impoverished and distrusted their intentions.

Eventually, she agreed to travel to Britain with them to meet Kalanna, though in the weeks to come, the mother-daughter reunion proved to be less than harmonious, and Anya’s view of the Fist grew increasingly negative, particularly after she began to embrace the philosophy of the late Ine and the Sosarian Socialist Party. She also sought out House Viaxus, but those dark elves soon vanished as quickly as they had arrived on this shard-world.

9/08/2018:

The tinker Meyer contacted Chanticleer with news about a gargoyle who recently visited Minoc, selling exotic machinery that fit the description of the Technocrat parts stolen from Lakeshire. Following this lead, the Emerald Fist attended the Royal City Market in Ter Mur, where they met their old acquaintance, the gargish scholar Ak Lem. From him, they learned that the merchant they pursued was named Fel Auks, a dastardly gargoyle with no respect for his people’s culture and traditions. He was recently spotted in the Fishing Village located in northern Ter Mur.

Next, the group traveled to the village and encountered the foul-mouthed Fel Auks. He admitted that he belonged to the band of thieves hired by Sterling to steal the Technocrat parts from the Meer. The dastardly gargoyle also confirmed that the tinker was motivated by a desire to impress a woman named Sister Niva. He offered to help them find Sterling if they agreed to kill Rakktavi, Chieftain of the Clan Chitter Ratmen, who dwelled within the Stygian Abyss. Fel Auks had tried to sell Clan Chitter his share of the stolen Technocrat parts, but Rakktavi became frightened by the technology and attacked, so the dastardly gargoyle wanted revenge. The Fist accepted this offer and traveled to the Abyss, where they slaughtered Rakktativ and his clan. They presented the chieftain’s head to Fel Auks, and he gleefully kicked it off the balcony of his home, promising to contact them with any news of Sterling.

9/15/2018:

Fel Auks soon summoned the Emerald Fist and their allies to the Fishing Village to tell them that he had located the other members of Sterling's crew, Marga and Leifandilus, and he suggested that they might know the elusive tinker’s whereabouts. According to the dastardly gargoyle, the two were recently hired for a job in the dungeon known as Underworld, and he suggested they begin their search at the Britannian Encampment there.

At the Britannian Encampment, the group learned that a duo matching Marga and Leifandilus' descriptions were asking for directions to the lair of Navery Night-Eyes, a monstrous and deadly spider-like creature Journeying deeper into Underworld, the Fist and their allies battled past Gray Goblins until they reached Navery Night-Eyes. After defeating the spider, they discovered a pair of corpses that belonged to their quarry. On one of them, they discovered an unsigned letter written in a manner reminiscent of Fel Auks’ unique speech. This led the group to realize that the dastardly gargoyle was actually responsible for sending Marga and Leifandilus there. Upon returning to the Fishing Village, Adegas and Ezekial were sent inside to capture Fel Auks.



The group then interrogated him, and he confessed that Sterling hired him to send their former comrades to their deaths, and he was expecting Navery Night-Eyes to also kill the Fist. He then revealed that after Sterling stole the automaton parts from Lakeshire, Sister Niva recruited him into her strange cult. The dastardly gargoyle was ignorant of where they currently were, but he informed them that Sterling told him to stay at the Fishing Village, as Niva and her comrades had plans for Ter Mur, and they might soon need Fel Auks’ aid again. The group chose to spare Fel Auks' life, and he was taken prisoner and placed in the custody of Kalanna. Ak Lem was soon informed of what had transpired, and he was told to remain vigilant for any signs of Technocrat activity in Ter Mur.

[Judas D'arc]

9/27/2018:

A couple of weeks later, Ak Lem contacted the Emerald Fist to warn them he had learned of a threat to Ter Mur, with the following letter sent to the Salty Dog Tavern:

“To warn the friend-Fists! To learn of a new threat related to the dastardly Fel Auks and the stolen automaton parts! To have fled the Royal City for safety! To meet in two more nights. To gather west of the Royal City at these coordinates: 154.30’S 53.22’W. To ask humans to bring many friends. To fear the fate of these lands!”

9/29/2018:

With a number of allies accompanying them, the Fist met Ak Lem in an isolated area west of the Royal City of Ter Mur.



Three Technocrat assassins suddenly assaulted the group, but these were quickly dispatched. The gargoyle scholar then informed his rescuers that the Technocrats were up to something at the northern Fishing Village, and he urged them to hurry there and stop it.

At the Fishing VIllage, the Fist and their allies discovered it had been seized by their foes, who were in the process of rounding up its gargoyle residents. They fought past a horde of soldiers and automatons until they reached the docks, where they confronted Sister Niva and the tinker Sterling. He was clad in mechanical armor that caused him to resemble a golem-like creature. Niva, who was previously encountered at the battle of Lakeshire two months prior, repeated the Technocrats’ demands about the Emerald Empress and Renthar. Before vanishing in a burst of smoke, she ordered her lover to prove his worth by slaying the group.



Sterling and the remaining Technocrat forces struck. After a long battle, the Fist and their allies were triumphant, and the renegade tinker was slain. Crawling out of the wreckage of his armor, he apologized to the escaped Niva for his failures.



Ak Lem then arrived at the Fishing Village. From questioning the rescued gargoyles, he learned that Sister Niva was trying to enslave them as soldiers for the Technocrat army. The gargoyle scholar stayed behind to aid his people, while the rest of the group returned to the Salty Dog. The Emerald Empress soon greeted those gathered, and she invited them for a tour of the Fist’s new headquarters, Emerald Town, located up the road from the eastern side of Britain.



After a short tour of the area, the Empress invited them into the keep, introducing herself to the group’s members she had yet to meet. She also advised them of her intention to erect wards that would protect the area from scrying, as well as magics related to time and space, then they briefly discussed the matter of the Technocrat threat. The group also summoned Fel Auks from Kalanna’s home, electing to turn him over to the authorities in the Royal City of Ter Mur to face their punishment. Unfortunately, the dastardly gargoyle fled at the first opportunity, escaping to parts unknown.

10/13/2018:

The Empress organized a meeting at Emerald Keep, and Bacchus, Chanticleer, Edward, Faeryl, Kalanna, Lia Nightbreeze, and Piper attended. She mentioned their alliance with the sorcerer Renthar against the Technocrats, with Jolicia serving as his liaison with the group. It was also proposed that they seek out one of the Xorinite Wisp to trade for information about their elusive foes. The discussion shifted to the topic of erecting Emerald Town’s proposed wards. Most of the ingredients were in place except for a focus, and the Empress offered them three potential choices for that: a Skull of Death from the necromancer Neira; a Skull of Power from the dragon champion Rikktor; or the Dust of a Primeval Lich. She warned them that each foci might have a different effect on the warding ritual. After discussing the matter, the group chose Rikktor.

Their meeting was then interrupted by the appearance of a ghost that Chanticleer and Faeryl as Lady Sofia Elias, one of the latter’s companions from her native shard-world. The spirit acted confused about her whereabouts and promptly vanished, leaving those gathered to ponder the reason for her brief manifestation.

Joined by Sergio, Adegas, and her hired bodyguard Godfrey T. Murdoch “Doc” Kade, one of the late Governor Ine Dir’ath’s hirelings, as well as Jolicia and some of the Riverwatch Rangers, the group traveled to the dungeon Destard to battle Rikktor and his horde. The dragon met defeat, and the Fist recovered the Skull of Power for use in their warding ritual.

10/15/2018:

The Empress led Adegas, Bacchus, Chanticleer, Edward, Ezekial, Faeryl, Jolicia, Kalanna, Lia, and Piper to the top of the Tower of Twin Suns in Emerald Town. She needed three volunteers practicing three different spellcasting disciplines of magery, mysticism, and spellweaving to perform the warding ritual, but warned there might be consequences to this, possibly a vision.

Agreeing to participate were Adegas (magery), Jolicia (mysticism), and Faeryl (spellweaving). Respectively, they donned different colored robes: black, white, and green, and the Empress gave each of them a text that detailed the ritual. The focus, the Skull of Power, was positioned at the center of the roof, beneath an unlit single black candle. Together, the three ignited it, then took turns casting spells related to their discipline and chanting the following: In Sanct An Vas Tym Grav Ort. Adegas was first, Jolicia was next, and Faeryl was last. In unison, the trio then repeated the incantation.



With the wards erected, they moved to discuss the Technocrats and their native land. Known as Everywhere, it was a unique and chaotic version of Sosaria, of a separate nature than the various shard-worlds across the multiverse. Purportedly, the original history of Sosaria was intended to unfold like it did in Everywhere, but the course of this history was mysteriously altered by the interference from an unknown Enemy Alliance. On Everywhere, which Chanticleer, Faeryl, and Jolicia had also visited, the Empress and Renthar once kidnapped and tortured the Techno-Prophet, the Technocrats’ leader, a twisted version Blackthorn, similar to the Exodus-created imposter that invaded Britannia years prior. Their Technocrat foes now sought revenge for this affront, and it was up to the Emerald Fist to find a way to defeat this threat once and for all.

9/4/2018 - 1/18/2019:

Story: A Fist Reborn