Anago-Timeline

Pre-Chronicle

• Realm Year 748 to Realm Year 766
  • The most important events in recent years, both to the setting as a whole and to our heroes.

Prelude: The Moot

Realm Year 766

Descending Fire

2nd Day of Descending Fire

• The night of the moot had come and the lunars of the West answered the call and gathered on the nameless island that all sane men & women knew to avoid. They arrived one at a time to the isle where two were already waiting next to a bonfire. Most of them came wearing the shapes of the sea and assumed their human feet once they reached land. A few came from the forest and some from the sky. One came by boat with an entourage.

• Introductions were made all around as well as each caste and spirit shape revealed to their peers in turn. Pathfinder was asked to send his demons away so that the eyes of Malfeas would not also be in attendance. He did so without argument. His personal assistant, Turtle, one of his otter beatmen children was allowed to remain. The four lunars newest to their fellows in the West, Obsidian Gaze, Dead Eye, Pathfinder and Cozened Premonition, the youngest of them all, were introduced and questioned as well. There was some controversy over the Lintha motif moonsilver tattoos that Obsidian Gaze had been marked with by Fathom's Pen, who harbored an obvious dislike for the new lunar. And Adamant Depths was not very pleased when his attempts to question Pathfinder of his past were met with a defiant lack of information regarding his time before he arrived in the West.
• After introductions people were left to wander & mingle as they wished and quickly broke into various smaller groups to discuss various matters or to recruit the newcomers to various societies and factions. Capering Sifu spoke with Dead Eye and marveled at the workmanship of his weapons. Cozened Premonition made rounds to each of the group and introduced himself to each of the other newcomer lunars. Red Tusk after hearing Obsidian Gaze claim to have slain a massive wyld mutant of the sea demanded to see it's head that he'd kept as a trophy. He left & returned with the creatures severed head and proceeded to retell the tale of how he had slain it with an impressive enthusiasm that drew others to hear him speak.
• The fire burned lower as the night progressed and the moot had come to an end and the gathered lunars began to vanish into the dark one by one as they had arrived. Adamant Depths stopped the four newcomers and requested that they delay their departure so that he may speak with them of recent troubling matters that they should be aware of.
• The four gathered around him and as he began to speak, his belly suddenly split open as a mass of eels writhed forth from within him.

• Adamant Depths immediate began hurling offensive sorcery spells at the other lunars. He was older, but there were simply more of them and he was quickly dispatched, ending with Obsidian Gaze tearing him in half, though consuming some of the eels in the process. Once dead, the eels inside the dead lunars body melted away & left no trace as had the ones inside Obsidian Gaze's gullet, though he kept inducing vomiting to remove them, but nothing eel-like came out.
• The four of them gazed in general confusion at the corpse wondering what had just happened when Fathom's Pen emerged from the forest and indirectly accused them of murder. Obsidian Gaze stalked off knowing that any plea on his part would fall on deaf ears as the old squid lunar obviously had it out for him. When they explained what had happened, he did not seem to believe them and informed them that they needed to leave his territory immediately.
• The lunars decided to work together to investigate this mystery & clear their names of any slander Fathom's Pen would probably seek to tag them with. They all went and boarded the Sublime Huntsman where they were introduced to the otterpops crew, the old ship's namesake spirit and found Capering Sifu on board talking with the spirit and waiting to speak with them.
• The ship began northward while they met with Capering Sifu below decks to discuss the incident on the island. Sifu had seen the fight from the sky and had though it best to avoid involvement at that time. He had come to the ship to speak with them afterward and found the ship spirit somewhat informative on the matter. The spirit seemed to have some memory of a similar incident when he was awake in the First Age. It was a disease of the essence that they had called the "Writhing". Though his memory was foggy, he seemed to think that his awakening and their return to the West was somehow tied into the disease. Capering Sifu admitted to them that he had witnessed the strange disease personally once recently and that stories of lunars mysteriously going missing, particularly to the west near the edges of the wyld, were becoming more common. They discussed strategy and decided that Capering Sifu would seek an audience with Leviathan's entourage while the other lunars, now an impromptu pack, would investigate to the west.
• After Capering Sifu departed Pathfinder sent Turtle to have the navigator redirect the ship westward and then gave his new lunar companions a quick tour of the ship and then showed them to the Fate Engine room. While discussing and looking over the strange artifact Lavender approached and having heard their previous conversation made the suggestion that perhaps Pathfinder should summon forth a specific breed of demon that could perhaps aid them in their investigation of the Writhing. Pathfinder agreed, thanked her and bid Turtle begin preparations for the summoning the next night.
• As a precautionary measure, Obsidian Gaze agreed to allow Pathfinder to have him watched in case he had become infected by the eels that had entered his body during the fight. Pathfinder commanded his demon blood ape Burgundy to follow & watch the shark lunar.

3rd Day of Descending Fire

• While the newcomers acclimated themselves to the ship, Obsidian Gaze had the pleasure of meeting Otis the Cookie in the kitchen and was given a demonstration of the...infinite egg dispenser...thing. And a tasty dish of seasoned scrambled eggs.
• That night, Pathfinder, attended by Dead Eye in case of trouble, summoned forth the Naneke and bound it successfully to the task of assisting him research the writhing until he released it. He then renamed it Chartreuse.

Book One: The Writhing

7th Day of Descending Fire

• Chapter One: The Eel Sargasso
• Pathfinder was awoken by one of the crew and informed that something was slowing the ship down. Upon arriving on the deck he found the Sublime Huntsman spirit worrisome and confused. A portion of his lower body was sluggish and seemed to be mired in some sort of tar-like substance. It was too dark to see what was slowing the ship, so Pathfinder woke Obsidian Gaze from his nightmares to make use of his night vision.
• The ship had become mired in some sort of dark mass, but he could not make out enough detail so he brightly flared his caste mark and revealed a sargasso of countless writhing eels slowing the ship. Dead Eye descended from the crows nest where he had been resting to investigate what was going on deck. Pathfinder swiftly glided to wake Cozened Premonition and inform him of the circumstances. Meanwhile on the deck the ship spirit panics as the dark mire slowing his movements reveals itself to be the writhing eels and dematerializes.
• Pathfinder and Cozened Premonition joined the others on the deck. The otterpops were dispatched to search the entire ship and assure that none of the eels have managed to infiltrate their way aboard and one to enter the spirit's sanctum and check on him there. Moments later the spirit reappears and assures them he is unaffected by the writhing condition and is only manifesting the ship's current dilemma. The ship was still moving westward, but at a painfully slow rate.
• While the lunars contemplated the problem at hand, Dead Eye & Obsidian Gaze noticed lights in the distance. They both assumed their flight forms and went to scout ahead to find another ship stuck unmoving in the eel sargaso. They flew down and around the ship to see that it had been crippled, it's sails, rope and rigging slashed and damaged or destroyed. The crew were working hastily on repairs as best they could under their agitated yet clearly concerned superiors.
• The lunars returned to the Sublime Huntsman and informed their fellows of what they saw. Pathfinder noted that the sun was soon to rise, so they had no choice but to make themselves known one way or another. They discussed the situation and decided to approach and offer assistance, assuming their need for help would outweigh any superstitious fear of the beastmen crew and Pathfinder was all for positive publicity for his people.
• The Sublime Huntsman raised a peace flag and the other ship, the Prosperous Hart, raised their distress flag in response. The lunars pulled their ship up next to the other and stopped. The other ship's crew seemed wary of the strange ship and it's even stranger crew, but the hope of aid seemed to outweigh any resignation they might have.
• The trierarch and proreus of the Prosperous Hart met the lunars and welcomed them to their ship. Each of the lunars claimed various ship positions in their introductions, save for Pathfinder who as usual referred to himself simply as the Patriarch. They discussed the purpose and problems that had been inflicted upon the other ship and quickly determined that a saboteur was at work. It was also revealed that the island colony that both the lunars sought and was the destination of the Prosperous Hart seemed to have entirely vanished as they were currently sailing in the eel infested waters where the island should have been.
• Pathfinder agrees to allow the use of the Sublime Huntsman's spare materials and a team of skilled otterpops to assist with the repairs on the other ship, enough so that they may limp along with the lunar's ship to the next settlement, one Krill identified Harmony, three days further under normal sailing conditions.
• Pathfinder and a group of otterpops boarded the other ship with supplies and material and began to assist with the repairs. He was pleased to see that the human and otterpop crews seemed to be getting along well. The human's wariness had turned into curiosity, amusement and gratitude at these bizarre helpers and many of them had shared pears and oranges, which the otterpops gobbled down happily.
• Cozened Premonition and Dead Eye had taken up position in the merchant ship's crows nest, while Dead Eye in the form of a gull kept watch in the remaining rigging.
• The unseen lunar watchers spotted a figured garbed in darkness moving amongst the rear rigging. The figure had moved up to the pulley systems that held the rigging in place and seemed to be trying to damage it. Cozened Premonition moved first, a speedy blur through the air towards the figure. He slammed down upon the target, stabbing with his curved swords, pinning him through his dark garb to the mast. In that moment he realized that it was not dark clothing the man wore, but that his entire body was encased in a mass of dark eels that spilled forth from his gaping open torso. Enough of the man beneath the eels could be seen now to reveal that it was the proreus of the ship, Red Conch. Cozened Premonition called out in order to draw the attention of others. At that moment Obsidian Gaze in his massive shark-man form tore through the air and literally ripped through the man Cozened Premonition had pinned, boring through him and severing his body in half. The two halves of the corpse fell away to the deck below amongst the confused and terrified crew. Pathfinder sent his otterpops back aboard their ship and moved to the trierarch's side. The eels melted away into an ooze that then evaporated into smoke and drifted away leaving her dead second in command.
• Dead Eye stated that he needed to study the body and Pathfinder assigned the Huntsman's surgeon, Pearl, to assist him in removal and study of the body. The Hart's trierarch immediately promoted another crew member to proreus and they vanished below decks for a short time. Obsidian Gaze made no attempt to hide his transformation from his deadly beastman form to gull shape and perched on some rope to keep watch on the other ship. The crew continued repairs all of them warily watching the terrifying bird that had moments ago been a monster that tore a man in half. The gull cackle-whistled in what seemed to be a laugh and the crew of the Prosperous Hart shuddered under the beady black gaze of their horrifying avian guardian.
• Dead Eye and Pearl removed the remains to the cargo hold of the Huntsman where Dead Eye began a ritual that would allow him to commune with the spirit of the dead man. The spell required him to become a little personal with the dead body, which shocked and disturbed Pearl who had thought they were simply going to perform an autopsy, not watch the creepy bad lunar make out with the dead. Once the spell was completed, Dead Eye sent Pearl to fetch Pathfinder to attend him in questioning the ghost. Pearl eagerly left post haste, found Pathfinder who thankfully relieved her to go hide under her blankets and try to think happy thoughts.
• Pathfinder and Dead Eye questioned the ghost as much as they could. They learned that the man seemed partially in control, but that the writhing had caused him to be filled with a growing hatred and that it had come from nightmares that had plagued him. When asked what it wanted it responded, "hunger and desire to return to the womb". The ghost did not know what had become of the island they sought and when asked why he had sabotaged the ship it stated that it had done so to keep the ship there.
• Once they had finished questioning the spirit Pathfinder reminded the necromancer to dispose of the body and returned to the other ship to resume helping them make repairs. Dead Eye remained below with the corpse and summoned forth Red Conch's ghost and bound it to serve him for a year and a day.

8th Day of Descending Fire

• The following morning, the Huntsman lookout, Isaac, approached Pathfinder and informed him that he had seen a monster on the horizon. Pathfinder immediately informed his companions. Cozened Premonition and Obsidian Gaze assumed gull forms and went to scout ahead. Pathfinder went to the trierarch of the other ship and informed her. The two of them traded looks through her telescope and saw what the lunar gull scouts saw: the Ravenous Behemoth, a massive lintha pirate ship churning it's way through the eel sargaso toward their two ships. Pathfinder traded a grim look with the trierarch and made haste back to his ship with commands to the crew to make ready for battle.