Post
by Serespar » Thu Sep 10, 2020 9:22 pm
The B Team
<Throalic calendar date equivalent to September 9, 2020>
To Whom It May Concern at the Great Library [Record Alteration Alert]
My friend Mal the archer brought a companion of his, a human Illusionist Named Dale, to see me. Dale needed research done on a famous t’skrang air sailor named Marrdok and I agreed to help.
I was surprised to find that a number of the records that should have contained references to Marrdok were instead cut away pages! Destruction of records in the Great Library! I have completed a list of the works with the missing pages and filled out the paperwork to alert the staff, but was sick, just sick, at the deliberately damaged books I found. (See Appendix A). Being a professional, I quickly moved past this ~ unpleasantness ~ to return to the task at hand, but only after making sure the Librarians were properly alerted. I hope the Investigation Committee’s well-known arsenal of forensic experts gets to the bottom of this terrible crime quickly and hold the parties involved responsible!
Ahem
From what I was able to find in non-expunged source ~ I mean really! What were they thinking! ~ Marrdok was heavily involved in a number of elite airship operations for some sort of secret team within a military organization loosely affiliated with the Throalic High Command. I certainly appreciate the need for discretion in situations of this sort, but would prefer that the public records be appropriately expunged and placed in the restricted collections under the proper security clearance process. This slipshod page cutting is just not done. Not. Done. ~ Harumph ~
Anyway. In summary, this Marrdok was an unusual t’skrang in three key areas, speculated to be caused by inappropriate heat application during the egg incubation process. First, while he never developed the distinctive k’stulaa (wing flaps) of a k’stulaami (the gliders), his medical records noted that scale patterns, bone structure, bone density, and tail formation more closely followed k’stulaami norms than standard t’skrang form. Second, his psychological profile shows that, while all k’stulaami are flight crazy, Marrdok takes it to a whole nother level as a baseline, and adds “significant psychological and repercussion disassociation” mental illness on top. Third, and likely related to the first two points, is that his body is frozen in the early stages of a genderless kaissa (puberty) with the extraordinary sensitivity to flight conditions common in the k’stulaami as they learn to fly. [Note: Male pronouns used here in a gender neutral sense.]
Opinions from the healers diverged on how much abnormal behavior was a result of physical differences and how much was purely psychological in nature, tho they also noted that his addiction to various psychedelic substances likely aggravated the behavioral issues. On the silver lining side, Marrdok’s choice to initiate as an air sailor certainly builds on his extraordinary flight condition sensitivity and adds magical divination and elemental attunements to make him one of the most gifted pilots on record, coupled with a complete disregard for crew and equipment safety. The sheer size of the expungement hints at the number of commendations, medals and disciplinary actions involved. While it was cut away, the top of one of the damaged pages was a form related to incarceration in a military prison. Marrdok sounds like one heck of a pilot, but one you would only want in the wheelhouse if you were desperate and needed the impossible made possible. Sedative application was recommended by the healer committee for all non-flight time.
There is also a significant reward for Marrdok’s capture, tho attempts to trace the money led to frustrating dead ends. The lawyers fronting the reward are quite good, and left no traces of who was behind the bounty in the public domain.
Marrdok has three known associates; Jonen Smith a male dwarven Archer, CB Bakara a female orc Weaponsmith and Gauntlet with a distinctive mohawk hairstyle, and Smiley a vain windling troubadour. Their current whereabouts are unknown.
In addition to Marrdok’s military admirers and adversaries, there were multiple mentions of a Captain Eaupriu, a heavy-handed militant elf warrior in charge of a mercenary organization called the Gray Company, with a penchant for gloating when he thinks he is in control. The descriptions of the elf can best be softened as “toxic masculinity with a badge” and left at that. From the tabloid description, Marrdok apparently quite enjoyed revealing to the world the black leather armor wearing tough guy elf’s collection of wearable lady’s underthings while pouring his whiskey collection out on the tarmac and lighting same on fire. The elf’s response was… …unkind.
…
It seemed Dale needed the research on Marrdok done in response to a job lead, and I was invited to come along with he and Mal. We were joined by my friends Redsun the archer and Vallone the windling shadow. Vallone kept talking excitedly about how she would be famous after the article was published, but I wasn’t clear on the details?
We met with a young human woman named Alara Amara Arden at the Wolly Aardvark Bar in Throal, quite a low brow establishment but with surprisingly good fried foods. It seems that Alara needed our help in rescuing Marrdok from an unfortunate misunderstanding (aka imprisonment) so that he might in turn help the residents of the town of Lanelas (on the border of hex 36.07 / 37.06) with an unspecified difficulty they were having. I am under the impression Alara was a free lance reporter of some sort, believed Marrdok should be rescued, and would be writing the article on Vallone, but how it all fit together certainly wasn’t clear. Always happy to help my friends tho, so….
We traveled overland to a woodland copse in hex 40.11, where we encountered a group of mercenaries with the distinctive gray skull badges of the Gray Company. Attempts to be pleasant to them yielded no results, so we hid nearby waiting to tail them to their encampment.
Once the encampment was located, we quickly discovered a t’skrang of Murrdok’s description being held in a wooden stockade. We came up with a plan to take advantage of Dale’s Mind Fog spell while Vallone darted in and gave Murrdok a dagger to cut the ropes holding the pen door closed.
Unfortunately, Vallone was discovered by a guard just as she handed Murrdok the dagger, and a chaotic melee ensued. The many mundane fighters in the camp were led by Ivusa, a Troll and Yudo a dwarf (adepts, disciplines unknown). We took advantage of the darkness and the chaos to fight Vallone and Murrdock free while doing minimal harm, but a few of the Gray Company were undoubtedly injured in the night raid as they fled to the north.
We later learned that we had earned their enmity, and that the Gray Company has reNamed itself the Grim Company, tho they continue to use their skull badges. Vallone and Dale were more clearly spotted and identified by the Gray Company members during the fight. The only Gray Company member that was in a position to spot RedSun was, I believe, among the unfortunate casualties. Mal and I provided cover fire and spell support from within the dark woods, and they likely have less of a description of the two of us (at least directly).
Travel with Murrdok was… …interesting. I will simply report here that he lived up to his reputation.
When we arrived near Lanelas, we found Murrdok’s companions constructing a large, heavily armed and armored self-propelled wooden wagon. Jones, CB and Smiley welcomed(?) sort of, their crazy companion, tho I am sure he was bruised when CB clocked him for trying to hug her. The last we saw of them, the wagon was billowing smoke and heading toward Lanelas.
Yours in Service,
Nib