ADVENTURE LOG: July 1, 2019: THE CROSSING

A Sudden Death in the Family
Following their adventure in the hippy commune and the strange and harrowing events in the labyrinth of the demilich, the party travels for four weeks through the eastern feywild jungles as guests of Lord Baron Ti Bo Ange, or Baron Angel, whose caravan is bound for the river town of Pike’s Crossing to conduct trade with the inhabitants there. On the journey, Kalika, one of the numerous children of the baron’s sister, the Duchess Marie Catherine, disturbs a nest of colorful and highly venomous flying snakes while harvesting the sacred datura in the forest canopy one day. [1] The child dies in the encampment that night, her delirious ravings carried on the night air, casting a pall of dread over the baron’s people, who see bad omens in snakebite. The body is wrapped in homespun linen and the soul is prepared for the final crossing of the starry gulf, and after a period of waiting that lasts several days for the firmament to turn like clockwork so that the Great Bear hangs by its tail in the night sky, the burial rite is held. 

Few outsiders have ever witnessed a Seven Caravans burial rite, which is said to be very ancient, and is shrouded in rumor and misunderstandings on the Darkmanse continent. Ven, Korric, and Nik, as guests of the baron’s clan, are invited to be present at Kalika’s burial in the rainforest, a great honor for those who are not guildkind. [2] 

Nik, who has been attuning to Eva's locket while traveling with the caravan, has begun to experience a peculiar kind of affection for Eva’s murdered children, which develops into a perverse longing . . . almost a hunger. More and more, she finds herself opening the locket to gaze furtively at the images inside. Ven and Korric have noticed this behavior and are not sure what to make of it. Nik’s dreams are infected by visions of a looming citadel whose vast halls echo with shrieks and the sounds of ravenous chewing and breaking bones. The citadel is an enormous charnel house, a dreadful and most unholy place. In the daylight hours, Nik has begun to sense that she is being watched. It is like a malevolent yet seductive presence is spying her every move from the darkest heart of the jungle. Nik has begun to grow paranoid.

During the burial rite, she stares intently at the small body of Kalika, wrapped up in linen, as it is lowered into the earth by her grieving kinfolk. The demon’s lips curl back, revealing needle-like fangs. Her eyes smolder like embers as a single word plays through her head, over and over and over again: “Meat.” Korric and Ven notice that she is behaving strangely, but before they can do anything, Nik leaps into the grave, tears away the linen savagely with her teeth and claws, and attempts to feast on the small cadaver.

Nik’s actions cause the party to be stranded in the jungle by the baron, who continues on to Pike’s Crossing without them, leaving them to die in the feywild. After wandering for two days in a monsoon, they stumble upon a footpath that they believe might be a section of the guild road traveled by the baron’s clan. Standing in the path is one of the baron’s daughters, who explains that her father sent her back to offer the party a bargain. She will act as their guide, leading them safely to Pike’s Crossing, and in exchange the party must hand over all of Nik’s earnings from prostitution, which the baron will graciously accept as reimbursement for the insult she caused to his clan. The party negotiates the price down to half, and the baron’s daughter guides them safely out of the jungle. When they arrive in Pike’s Crossing, the baron welcomes them and their money warmly. His guildfolk seem unconcerned by the fact that the baron has used the unfortunate episode at Kalika’s burial to extort payment from the adventurers, and the incident is soon forgotten. 

The Town of Pike's Crossing

Pike’s Crossing is a bustling river town on the western banks of a great river, population 4,253. It is to the north of the marchlands—which are the mainland territories of the Darkmanse city-state—roughly sixty miles upriver from the Nazery, charnel grounds, and island shrine on the eastern shores of the continent, or about a week’s journey by keelboat. [3] 

There are two main river crossings in this region of the continent. One is the monumental Sky Gate to the south, where the Pilgrim Road crosses the river, and the other is Pike’s Crossing to the north. The Sky Gate is a relic of the imperial heyday of the Synarchy. With the advent of the Greening and the breakdown of the centuries-old social order, it has fallen into neglect like many of the family shrines along the Holy Road. The colossal arch on the eastern bank of the river is crumbling and half-swallowed by feywild jungle. 

The most prominent family in the town are the Pikes, led by the patriarch James Pike. The family owns the harbor and customhouse, which collects duties on all goods that pass through the port. The Pikes also own the busy ferry service that the town is named after. Commercial trade on the river is conducted by barge, keelboat, and sailing skiff, and Pike’s Crossing is a major port in this region. James Pike and his wife, Jessica, live in what is known as the Captain’s House, an austere brick mansion on a hill overlooking the harbor. The residence is colloquially called “the Steerage” by the men on the wharf. The nickname is a mark of affection for Pike, who commands respect among river folk. 

The bankers guild also has a presence in the town—Pike’s Crossing, after all, is a sizeable commercial hub on this part of the river—though their masonic guild hall is not nearly as grand as the one in Cumorah. Its façade is adorned with three pillars symbolizing wisdom, beauty and strength, the so-called Three Virtues of Synarchy and Guild.

Politically, Pike’s Crossing exists in a kind of grey zone. It is not a dissenter city—the heretical liberalism and funerary practices of the Ultramontanist Heresy do not have a foothold here—but neither is it one of the fanatically religious faithful cities.

Doctor Jessup's Second Letter 

The Baron Angel enjoys leaving a lasting impression on impressionable minds, and to the guild clans, people who live in towns have the most impressionable minds imaginable. The caravan has arrived before dawn and raised its colorful tents and banners in the agricultural fields on the outskirts of the neighboring village of Stone Church. To the local people, it is as though their fields have sprouted a traveling circus overnight. All throughout the long weekend, there will be games and music, food, drink, and carnival intrigues. The harlots in the baron’s employ will conduct a brisk trade with the dock laborers and bargemen at the harbor, and the baron will get his percentage. The circus atmosphere, however, is a cover for more serious matters. The traveler guilds exert their influence over the continent behind such distractions, and the baron weaves but one strand in a vast commercial web. His clan has come to Pike’s Crossing to trade in medicines and narcotics. They are also here to gather intelligence, nurture alliances, and settle scores on behalf of the guilds. John Pike has no illusions about this. He and the baron are in accord. The two men share a mutual respect while also treading with care and vigilance in their dealings with each other, which is wise on both of their parts. 

Pike’s Crossing provides some well-earned some downtime for the party. They take rooms at one of the inns on the waterfront, and over the next several days, they rest, sample the town’s many taverns, and stock up on supplies for their journey.

Korric hires a "master" blacksmith to make more bullets for him. The blacksmith botches the job, naturally, so Korric buys more materials and uses the blacksmith's workspace to make the bullets himself. Korric also has a comical encounter with a oddball secret society in a tavern called the Ferryman. The members of this curious society claim to be the last vestiges of the United States government from before the Dead Hand. 

Looking to buy diamonds for Ven to cast revivify, they are advised by the proprietor of the Ship’s Emporium—a pawnshop—to deal directly with John Pike himself. They head over to the Captain's house, where they are met at the front door by Pike's grizzled old manservant, a former bargeman named Brace. Jessica. Pike's wife, invites them into the front parlor. There is a pleasing nautical clutter to the room: a huge globe in the study, brass sextants on mantles, a large spyglass at the window in the parlor (so that Pike can keep an eye on doings below on the wharf), and oil paintings on the walls of past generations of Pikes. Jessica has several pretty young maids bustling about the place.

John Pike walks in. When he lays eyes on the three adventurers, he is struck speechless. When he finds his words again, he says, to the sheer astonishment of the party members: “I thought there would be five of you.”

Leading them upstairs to an attic room, he explains that the heads of his family have kept a secret for several generations of Pikes, going back nearly two hundred years to the time of Asher Pike, the founder of Pike’s Crossing and the man who built the Captain’s House. 

Pike unlocks a sea chest with a small key on a silver chain that he withdraws from his pocket. He explains: “The secret was revealed to each new head of the family, who was enjoined to speak of it to no one: Barnabas, William, Hiram, Gideon, Ahab, and now me, John Pike. About two centuries ago, a mysterious man strode up the brick walk of the Captain’s House, knocked on the front door inquiring after Asher Pike, handed a letter to him and asked that, if he would be so kind, he give the letter to some travelers who would be passing through Pike’s Crossing at some future date. The mysterious man said that there would be five of you, and described each of you in some detail. He told my ancestor that it would be several years before you showed up, but insisted that day would come when you would show up—who would have thought it would take nearly two centuries! Each of my ancestors has carried this secret with them to their deaths. This peculiar man said that you would be on a very important quest whose outcome was very much subject to uncertainty. Its outcome would determine the fate not just of this world, but of the many worlds. According to the family legend, those were the exact words he used: ‘The many worlds.’” 

Pike opens the lid of the sea chest and pulls out a sealed letter. The parchment is brittle and yellow with age. Pike blows dust off the letter and hands it to Ven. The contents of the letter are as follows:

Dear friends,

By now, I expect that my colleague, Doctor Brodie of Project RAND, OSRD, will have made his initial contact with the party and is proceeding with you to the rendezvous point. We have great confidence in you all, and now believe that it is possible to not only halt the expansion of the whole track implant but to reverse it and perhaps even nullify it altogether, at the very moment of inception. As you might expect, the implant is electronic in nature and appears to follow the pattern of the G.P.M. The instruments at our disposal on this branch of the time track are by no means ideal, but by our current mathematical calculations, Incident I can be dated at 4, 132,891,832,611,177 years, 344 days, 10 hours, 20 minutes, and 40 seconds from 10:02 ½ PM Daylight Greenwich Time, April 30, 1947. The expeditionary team can tell you more when you reach the rendezvous point. Until then, good luck! The coordinates are: 41.074125°N 74.868878°W.

See you in time, 

Doctor Jessup 

Murder and Flight

As the party is making arrangements to cross the river and proceed to Doctor Jessup’s rendezvous point, the inquisition rolls into town. The roaming ecclesiastical tribunal, which defends the Synarchy from heresy, arrives under the protection of a company of heavily armed watchers. The tribunal commandeers the town hall and begins to adjudicate cases. Most are resolved with penances, though some of the punishments are corporal—having a hand or foot cut off, for instance.

To the alarm of the party members, the watchers post wanted posters throughout the town. The posters feature sketches of four outlaws who sparked an insurrection in a village to the west called Jericho’s Purchase. The sketches bear a striking resemblance to the adventurers. The watchers set up sentries on all the roads leading out of the town and on the waterfront. They seize manifests and ledgers from John Pike’s customhouse and pore over them for any intelligence the papers might contain. The watchers actively search all boats entering and leaving the harbor.

That night, the grand inquisitor takes over the finest rooms at the Leaping Stag and carouses with prostitutes. The priest’s boozy excesses can be heard on the streets below. The adventurers attempt to slip out of town disguised as watchers, but are waylaid by a drow officer, who orders them to help him round up some young boys for the inquisitor’s pleasure. The adventurers murder the officer down by the river and hide the body, and easily dispatch three sentries further downriver. 

Equipped with a letter of introduction from John Pike, they slip off into the night along the riverbank, hoping to make contact with a band of smugglers—associates of Pike’s—to convey them across the river, and perhaps act as guides to help them find the location of the coordinates given in Jessup’s mysterious letter.

 

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[1] Datura stramonium, a plant in the nightshade family, also known as devil’s snare, which is sacred among the Seven Caravans both for its magical properties and its profitability. Used as an analgesic (pain relief), anesthetic, shamanic hallucinogen, and, in high doses, as a poison. Was called the “zombie’s cucumber” by voodoo priests in Haiti, who used the plant as an ingredient in their toxic powders used to create zombies. In European witchcraft, D. stramonium was a common ingredient used for making “witches’ flying ointment” and lycanthropic poisons.

[2] It is customary for the dead to be interred in the Darkmanse necropolis to await the resurrection of the body and the final judgment preached by the Synarch’s priests and inquisitors. The traveler guilds, which are notoriously clannish and resistant to authority other than their own, are not bound by this dictate. The Synarchy, recognizing the vital importance of the guilds to the economy on the continent, has made an allowance for the clans, permitting them to bury their dead according to the old ways. The funerary customs of the traveler guilds, which many consider to be heretical, only serve to enhance the air of menace and witchery that surrounds the guilds. 

[3] Pike’s Crossing is nestled in the Appalachian hills in what is today called the Delaware Water Gap.