Mosaic
A Rising Storm
After the Summer Solstice, more than eighty warbands under the banner of independent captains, and more than twice that many fleets, depart for the port of Xeier on the shores of the Sumaah Republic. The northernmost point of what was once the pirate nation of Frieøyer - before Zemress of the Isles brought them the Salvation of the Way - serves as the staging point for the attack on Chalonsio. There are many more ships here than can find berths at the actual docks. A forest of Imperial and Sumaah masts creates a second town on the sea around Xeier that swells to near the size of a city once the Commonwealth ships arrive. It seems almost every free ship in the Republic is here, and most of the Sumaah military captains likewise. There is little time to waste - the Asaveans most likely already suspect something is happening. Perhaps an evening to visit the great Storm Temple on the cliffs overlooking the town, that marks the spot where Zemress herself swayed the pirate princes of Frieøyer to the path of Prosperity.
Then, the armada sails. The Sumaah vessels lead the way, notable in that the sails of all their warships bear either the seven-sided labyrinth or some icon of the virtues. The Imperial and Commonwealth ships follow in their wake. Every vessel is laden down with soldiers - any ship with space on deck or in the hold for a unit of Sumaah soldiers finds them eager to board. Language barriers create some minor obstacles, but the sheer fact everyone is united in a single cause does much to quell misunderstandings.
The first Asavean ships encountered by the armada barely have time to realise what is happening before they have been sunk or boarded. Yet it is only a matter of time before some swift vessel spots the great naval host and manages to bear word to Chalonsio of what is coming, like a bird of ill-omen before a storm. it makes little difference.
A City of Corruption
It cannot be denied that the city is impressive - practically covering the island that bears its name with bridges connecting it to neighbouring islands where more modest settlements cluster around the shores. The largest settlement in the satrapy of Chanteolleth. One of the richest Asavean cities outside of Nemoria itself. A city of temples, and palaces. A city of slavery and corruption. A city of shipyards, where shipwrights craft warships for the Asavean plenum. A city where the high priesthood of the God of Chains - the Asavean patron of slavers, torturers, and jailors - are holding their grand convocation.
The harbour falls quickly - few ships manage to evade the crushing might of the armada. The city defences are swiftly overrun as well - the catapults and ballistae barely have time to fire more than a few shots before grim Commonwealth marines and Imperial sailors have swarmed their towers and turned them against the Asavean defenders. Once the docks are taken, the ships unload their cargo of virtuous warriors. The fighting in the streets is fierce - the Ceruleo family pay well and they ensure that the soldiers who represent them are clad in fine armour and wield the finest weapons their tainted wealth can provide.
The civilian population of Chalonsio flee - cower in cellars, trust to stout wooden doors to protect them. For the most part the raiders simply ignore them. The Distrito de Cadena - the Chain District - is the main focus of the raid. Here are the slave markets, where human lives are bound in misery in return for a bowl of coins. Here, people are reduced to the status of objects, of cargo, of produce to be bartered like cattle, like haybales, like barrels. Here also are sold accoutrements of indignity - chains, whips, cages, muzzles. Here, the raiders show no mercy to those who have built their fortunes on the suffering of their fellows.
Many of the slavers employ soldiers of their own - well paid mercenaries as guilty as their masters. The narrow paths between the stalls, the wide marketplaces, the twisting alleyways, become a battlefield. The paved streets flow with blood. The doors of the cages are wrenched off, the chains broken. Wherever they are found the slaves are freed. Some of the soldiers provide escorts back to the docks to the waiting ships - but not all those enslaved by the Asaveans want escape. Some want revenge. These people are former soldiers who fought the Asaveans, trained in the arts of war, and they seize the weapons and armour of the fallen mercenaries and join the fight.
A Final Convocation
At the same time, a second force assaults the Grand Temple de la Maître de la Cage d'Or - the foul fane dedicated to the worship of the Master of the Golden Cage, the god of slaves. The doors of the temple have been closed - sealed against the raiders. Ironically, the Sumaah have armed themselves with mithril chains that bite deep into the weirwood doors and tear them down allowing access to the awful temple beyond. The great statues of the God of Chains - the hooded god of slavery and imprisonment - meet a similar fate. The fighting spreads into the interior where a great convocation of the priesthood is apparently underway - a gathering of all the most influential priests of the lash come together to discuss what to do about the Liberty Pact. There is no end to the irony.
The temple has its own guardians - templars bound in mithril armour armed with scourges and flails - and many of the priests themselves are more than capable of defending themselves. The God of Chains is also a god of traps and entrapment, and there are cunning nets and snapping metal jaws that the priests employ to their advantage. Many of the tattooed priests are potent sorcerers. Their faces are hidden behind leather hoods but their mortified and painted flesh exposed thanks to the spiked mage armour they favour. They wield rods and staffs of imprisonment - magic items that boost their already impressive ability to entangle and paralyse and weaken.
For all their malice and dark magic, though, they cannot stand against the righteous flood that pours through the halls of their filthy temple. They die, unmourned, and not one of their torturous inner sanctums evades the attention of the Liberty Pact. Their information about the so-called Noble Lady of the Sea is recovered - the Liberty Pact now knows where the aerie of the slaver-lords lies and can potentially strike a decisive blow against the international slave trade. At the same time, a great many prisoners - some of whom have not seen the light of the sun in decades - are brought blinking into the open air and offered sanctuary in Sumaah if they wish to take it. All of them do.
A Beacon of Smoke
Then, at least, there is the Sapphire Keep. The fortified palace of the Ceruleo family who have grown fat and powerful on the pain of others. The speed with which the Liberty Pact have struck - made possible due to the sheer number of Imperial vessels that have answered the call of the Republic - has made it impossible for them to flee. It has also bought the raiders time to lay siege to the palace, to breach its defences. Patrio Sebastian, the head of the family, is dragged weeping and begging for mercy from a hidden chamber deep within the edifice. He is treated with the same ruthlessness he has shown to so many other people - his crimes are read and he is decapitated in his own audience chamber. Most of the rest of the family meet similar fates.
The vaults of the castle are emptied - the treasure with which the Ceruleo have glutted themselves is distributed to any who can carry it - and then the entire vile structure is put to the torch. Weirwood burns, white granite collapses, and a great column of black smoke rises into the sky, visible across the whole of the southern Archipelago. Sic semper tyrannis, as the ancient Asaveans once put it.
And then the armada returns to Sumaah - pausing only to fire the docks and the shipyard, adding a second great column of smoke to that issuing from the burning palace. The navies of Asavea are too late to save the city, too late to catch the Liberty Pact, too late to do anything but stare at the ruin of Chalonsio and vent their fury to an uncaring sky.
Game Information
The raid on Chalonsio has been a resounding success. The leadership of the God of Chains' priesthood has been wiped out at a stroke thanks to the attack during their convocation. The slave trade in Asavea will be crippled for years to come, almost certainly forcing the Plenum to respond to the pressures on their society. Other Asavean familys will be loathe to openly step into the vacuum created by the destruction of the Ceruleo for fear of a similar attack from the Liberty Pact. Other slaving nations in the Known World - especially the Principalities of Jarm - will be left in no doubt as the fact the Pact intends to wipe the practice out and will take precautions of their own.
Breaking the Chain District has provided an opportunity for gathering some of the ill gotten wealth of Chalonsio, and raiding the temple of the God of Chains has allowed the recovery of large numbers of healing herbs. Successfully besieging the sapphire keep has provided even more wealth to those who took part. Every fleet and military unit will gain an additional 4 crowns, 5 ingots or measures of random materials, and 4 random herbs in addition to the money provided by the Sumaah House of the People. In addition, 10 wains of mithril claimed from the Ceruleo family vaults will be distributed randomly between all the fleets and military units that took part.
Finally, there is also the matter of the Noble Lady of the Sea. The Noble Lady is the rumoured head of a large, clandestine slaving fleet that preys on small, undefended nations and raids their coastlines for slaves. The Noble Lady of the Sea's scarlet sailed ships are known to ply their trade in the Asavean Archipelago, the Principalities of Jarm, and even Dubhtraig. The exact location of their base of operations has never been discovered - but the priests of the God of Chains knew where it lay and that information was recovered by the Liberty Pact during the raid of the temple. There is certainly sufficient information to create an opportunity to strike at her stronghold, which will be presented during the Wind of Fortune.