The Establishment of The Exchange

The small irritant out of the way, implications aside, the group continues on its journey unmolested, but the further they go the more the realization dawns on everyone present. There are a large number of Gnolls, Kobolds, Goblins, Drudges, and Mosswarts traveling the road in the opposite direction. And not just on the road... everywhere. As you look around you slowly begin to realize that half the countryside is littered here and there with members of these species, traveling east, southeast, or south. The further you travel northwest, the more of these you see, until as the afternoon approaches and you reach Marblebush itself and can see off into the distance towards the rolling hills and the foot of the Crater region, there are refugees literally unto the horizon.

Tab turns to the others
"I dont like that bit about Janwall we will need to look into that when we are done in marblebush"

And as they see more and more refugees
"Well it seams that my worst fears wornt true, to see this meny still alive is better than ied hoped but this is going to course problems for the aluvian government."

"Yeah, it will. I don't think any of the nations could absorb this many refugees. Damn Sho and Naverre for their pointless warmongering!"

Tia is looking around with a dawning look of dread in her eyes. She says nothing, but you can see the words written all over her face; this could literally be the end of Aluvia as a Nation. No one liked the idea of war, but to see merely one of its results first-hand is sobering. She clings a bit to her brother as the caravan continues its travel, words still failing to escape her lips, as if seeking some reassurance against the tide.

It is worth noting that no one else in your group has said anything either, their silence speaking louder then mere words.

Kolson reaches over and squeezes Tia's hand. He would never make promises about the future that he couldn't keep, but she wouldn't face it alone. Not so long as he had a say about it.

Unless anyone else has something to add or discuss during the journey this particular plot thread is basically on hold until Javan, Rory, and Snarg's threads are resolved at which point the group will arrive in Marblebush and be free to postinate.

Upon seeing the refugees, Zeiss's expression changes from boredom to uneasiness. He looks around and observe them. He remembers what the Scion device did to Araiguna. He tells himself he should hurry and get to the ruins as fast as he can. But there are too many refugees around him for his horse to gallop. He tightens the grasp on his reins, hoping the rest of the group blocked the entrance to the ruins.

"guys ill be back in a sec, Valwyn follow me"

Tabran heads off in the direction of one of the groups of refugees

Spoiler:

Tabran:
You find a rather worn and weary looking Gnoll family which is walking along through the woods that line the eastern edge of the main road. You learn about demon creatures with yellow eyes that came in the night, setting fire to buildings and rounding up people in the streets to be executed en masse. You learn about the never-ending thrumm of the Airships overhead, thundering constantly right down to their bones, causing them to quiver just at the memory. You learn about the fact that the entire attack began in the middle of the night, with no warning or notice, volleys of fire and thunder as the Airships struck judgement down upon the outlying towns like the demons of old.

"im sorry for your loss and wish there was more that i can do but here is the food and drink i promised you and also here is 200 gold, i have a feeling that before long that gold wont be worth much also be cairful there are bandits on the road ahead demanding a toll."

Tabran wish's them his best and heads back to the rest of the group.

Spoiler:

- 2 weeks of rations
- 6 waterskins
- 200 gold

Tabran:
If there's a race like that, Tabran isn't aware of it.

Tabran walks up to Zeiss and keeping his voice low so that only Zeiss can hear it.

"Aluvia cant handle this and we aren't in a position to help eave, if the Exchange was more established we may be able to help take some of the load but as it stands now we only have Holtberg and the news that Janwall has been taken by another one of there's so called warlords *Tab shakes his head mournfully* to make matters worse the story that the refugees told me back there has me thinking that, that thing that took Kezrinthka, there may be more that one of them the refugees talked of demons with Yellow Eye's attacking in the night while Airships scanned constantly and dropped fire and death from the sky and the only thing i can think of when i hear the term Yellow eye's and demons is that dammed thing."

*Tab is quiet for a second*

"im keeping this quiet as i don't want to upset Kolson's sister any more that this is already making her they started bombing them in the dead of night they weren't attack military targets, they were attacking the innocents...let me rephrase that they were attacking farmers and village people, i don't really know how so many made it out alive with that kind of force arranged aganced them but i think that whoever was behind the attack wanted there's refugees to come to Aluvia to help to start breaking it.

that brings me to the other reason im talking to just you.

when you were with the flock you did things that were unsightly for reasons that are your own and i don't quite know how to say this so ill be blunt and hope you don't take affiance at it as non is meant, so an organisation like the Exchange wont work if we have 20, 30, 40 small groups all vying for power they need to be run by one mind and while i would like for this to be done wholly by Diplomacy i want a back up to that, now i know we are planning to train fighters up but if we use fighters things will get bloody for both sides so im thinking we may need to do one of two things, now i don't know how the BF works fully i have never really looked into it but one option i was thinking of was that we hire a flock member to remove the Warlords that are not working for the good of the people like whichever Warlord put them bandits on the road back there, they are going to be ""asking for a Toll"" from every refugee group they can and i don't like the sound of that, the other option is we train our own men to bloody there hands.....now i have been thinking of this since i got back to Holtberg two days ago on our way back me and Kolson dodged a bandit gang extorting money from people for passage and i have been thinking of all the things wrong with this idea and also that if we go ahead with one of the plans that we may need to keep some of the group in the dark about it as they wont be able to bring themselves to let bad things happen even if its for the greater good, but i want your opinion on it and as im feeling slightly ill talking about it im kind of hoping you will think its going too far and talk me out of the idea."

Zeiss observes Tabran after he is finished talking, evaluating him. The news about airships bombarding towns full of civilians greatly perturbed him. While he wanted to make sure it was true, he had to answer Tabran. While making sure nobody else could hear him, he says :

"If diplomacy fails, the use of force may be necessary. As you said, the Bloodied Flock could take care of the Warlords for us. But I doubt this would be enough to rally the other factions. A new leader would most likely step up and the employees would oppose us. An assassination of their leadership would unify them against us. No, what we need to do is to show everyone it is better to work for the Exchange : less risks and a better pay. But we still have a problem."

Rainbow, her head out of his pocket, is looking with curiosity to all the refugees who are around them. She is emitting a few "Meeeeh" of sadness. Zeiss pets her.

"We still do not have enough gold. The Exchange is not large enough. And I just got us 18200gp in debt for that magical door that Archweaver is going to weave for us. We need to either help the Exchange expand as much as possible, or find another quick source of revenue that might help us on the short term."

He shows discreetly to Tabran the sack in which he is hiding the Leycite.

"But I doubt the others would agree to sell it. And we still have that to take care now."

Spoiler:

"Untill i heard what the refugees said about the attack i was consened that that the laycite and the other thing may shift the balance of power off but now that sho and Naverre (GM Spelling Fix) seam to have thrown that out the window it brings the option of maybe bringing Aluvia in on that find of ours thou that would need a vote as it would change the shape of the world for ever, as for selling the laycite it wont be easy it will take weeks if not months to set up and we may not have time with how fast things are snowballing"

"Months? I doubt that. We have Lady Holtburg's liaison. We send her a message and if she is interested, the only thing that will be left to do is gather the money and make the exchange. And this kind of person can move a great deal of money really fast if need be. Especially with the war that is probably coming on Aluvia."

*Z lounging in the wagon has said nothing, but when you draw near her, the anger vibrating through her body is like the wave of heat radiating from a fire.*

"your right if we are thinking of only one buyer then it wouldnt take to long at all i was thinking that you wanted more that one buyer, but you didnt say what you think of bringing the Aluvia government in on the airship? or maybe the Lady Aerfalle?

also i before we left Holtberg i sent a letter to Eldrytch addressed to Executor Gremlock to try and feel out if he was in on us been used or if he was given no choose in the matter."

message to Arch

Spoiler:

Zeiss stares at Tabran.

"I don't care about Gremlock. Nor the Order. Stop bothering me about it."

He stays silent for a few moments. After calming himself, he adds :

"As for the airship... I just brought an archweaver that will block the entrance of the ruins to anyone except us. You already know what I think about it : no one should have access to it. Even us. But someone needs to hide it, as long as possible."

"As angry as you are at the order for betraying us have you ever considered that Gremlock may have been trying to save us by telling us to get out of town and lay low, and if that is true then maybe he will be willing to carry on helping us?

We dont really know what happened back there and dont forget since then we have learned of no less than three groups that have untold power that no one seams to have any clue about, and who's to say there isnt more than the three we know about?"

"Listen closely."

Zeiss leans towards Tabran.

"Stop talking to me about ifs. Right now, there is an artifact of immense power that we must secure. And there are thousands of refugees that are passing near ancient ruins within which there are devices that transform everyone who approaches them into Tuskers. Worry about that for now."

He takes his normal position.

"Let's go."

Spoiler:

*Z suddenly gets up and jumps from the wagon landing somewhat ungracefully and having flipped her hood up and replaced her mask goes jogging off in front of it.*

When Zeiss sees Z going off on her own, he prepares his horse and goes after her, believing it would be useless to tell her to stop.

*Zeiss comes riding up beside Z, and in his usual way remains silent. Z looks up idly after a few minutes of jogging, that your horse has kept up with at a very disjointed half trot half walk.*

"Really need to get me one of those." *She grumbles.*

"...If what you're running for is really important, you can hop on."

Zeiss observes Z, trying to discern her true intentions.

"I'm not running for any purpose."

*She grumbles in a very surly tone.*