2017 Charity Event 1: The Escape from Bartsport


#1

Part 1: The Escape from Bartsport

Ryuk sat in his offices. A fine woven basket sat next to him on his desk. A gift from Lord Mada.

Lord Mada, Kasanthian Noble in charge of Bartsport, had been negotiating with Leftenant Ryuk regarding Ryuk’s work here in the city. Bartsport had grown thanks to the funds generated by The Sierra Mada, a Casino that specialized in laundering money for the Olgog pirates along the coast. It had been Ryuk’s idea originally, but while he had suffered in EEF custody, his casino had been claimed by the government of Bartsport.

Ryuk didn’t like it, but the rules and laws of the Kasanthians allowed the aristocratic lord to claim such properties and Ryuk could do little except try and convince Lord Mada to relinquish it. Lord Mada had different plans, obvious from the letter that accompanied the woven basket and the bottle of wine.

It was a fine wine, an IceWyrm Wine created from Binber fruit by the IceWyrms of the Glacial Wastes. One of the many things that Lord Mada had returned with from his visit to the trans-government prison colony in the new kingdom of Jemison Post.

Ryuk enjoyed another draught and looked at the letter. Inviting him to take part in classes and training at Lord Mada’s expense in the highly regarded training program at Jemison Post. The letter was very clear that a carriage was being sent for him at a specific time and he was ordered to enter it.

Ryuk finished the bottle allowing the time to come and pass, and stood up when a knock came to his door.

He opened it, knowing many concerning things could be on the other side.

Instead was a member of the kasanthian lesser aristocracy, a Nightmare Slaver known as Hharmuuz, and at his side a beautiful seductress known as Leyana Coque, and the pair escorted one of the elite Knights of Orloc.

The Knight of Orloc was a true monster, a nightmare-kuliek, created en mass by Grand Magi Orloc Nightshade during the early days of the Kingdom of Kasanth. In these thousand years, Orloc had perfected the creations, and they served him loyally and without question.

The Knight introduced Hharmuuz and Leyana, and explained to Ryuk that Lord Mada wished him removed from these lands for not being able to follow orders. As was his right as an aristocrat. But Grand Magi Orloc did not yet wish to see Leftenant Ryuk in the collar of a prisoner of Jemison Post and sent these guards to help him escape.

Leyana immediately tried to seduce Ryuk but found the K’iorn seemed almost asexual. Despite her advances, and her incredible looks, the Leftenant seemed only amused by her.

Counting his lucky stars and wondering what favor the Grand Magi would eventually ask of him, Ryuk quickly gathered his belongings. Pre-planning was everything, and he had made sure his office was in sight of the roof of one of the dockyard buildings.

A simple shadow walk took him, and his two new bodyguards from the room. The Knight of Orloc stayed behind to delay the VLAD hydraulic knights who burst into the office. Ryuk’s last sight of the Knight was watching the Hydraulic Knights deliver a warrant to the Knight for Ryuk while the Knight held his ground.

Not wasting any time, another shadow took Ryuk and the pair down to his ship waiting by a stone dock. But as they popped out of a shadow on the deck, Ryuk was concerned to see fifteen armed and armored Kasanthian Mercs step from shadows cast by crates on the docks.

Hharmuuz alerted him they were surrounded, but Ryuk knew his rabble always kept the ship ready to set off. Creating a shadow ward to prevent the mercs from boarding his vessel, he signalled to the Rabble through his unity uplink. Leftenant Ryuk instantly coordinated his rabble and within seconds the ship was rapidly leaving Bartsport, with the writhing vampyr mercs still on the dock not sure what had happened.

Hharmuuz had been equally injured by the Shadow Ward, as it weakened and sickened his own cursed vampyr nature. Leyana Coque took the opportunity to torment the Vampyr Slaver, by using a trick of the Leyas to confuse his weakened mind. Making him think everything was better, Leyana reveled in watching him try and struggle against the weakness imparted by the Shadow Ward.

After a day’s travel out at sea, Hharmuuz and Leyana were shocked and terrified to see a wave crash against their vessel, and out of the depths of the sea rise a nightmare city. It resembled a nightmare turtle, as if someone had a turtle described to them, but never seen the true animal. Its armored shell extended up in buildings large enough for a full populace, and down deep into its body to form tunnels connecting them.

Its head turned towards the ship and its massive mouth, easily able to consume the largest cruise ship, came crashing down behind their small freighter.

Hharmuuz was freaking out but Ryuk simply laughed. It was after all, his own plan.

Inside there were docks to which the freighter were moored, and Ryuk and his two bodyguards disembarked the vessel. At the docks of Turtle City, they were met by some cheering members of Ryuk’s Rabble. Again Leyana was surprised by the loyalty of these strange ruffians. Among the Rabble was another Knight of Orloc, who had arrived by boat with what looked like an androgenous Unity Combat Clone.

The Knight introduced itself and introduced the Unity Combat Clone. Called Gami, the combat clone quickly assured Ryuk of its intentions to serve him and to specifically hunt down VLAD Agents. Ryuk found this a comfort considering Lord Mada had sided with VLAD agents in the past.

Ryuk found three of his Rabble had rose to the top. True subcommanders he could count on. The first was Haplo Stoneheart, an Earther. The second was Ocean Misugami, a k’iorn and she had been raised by Earthers. The Third was Rune Axehand, a brute of a man, who seemed to take a liking to Leyana.


#2

Part 2: The Undersea City of Coral

Weeks passed and Ryuk showed off his Turtle City, and revealed his plan to use it to begin a series of undersea cities. But many challenges presented themselves and so Ryuk had held off. But with Bartport and its resources now beyond his grasp, it was the perfect time to follow his dreams.

Leyana immediately saw some flaws in his plans, and Hharmuuz thought the Leftenant had gone quite insane. And yet the Rabble were full blown cheerleaders for the plan.

The worry came out about how to feed everyone, and that worry was genuine. As weeks passed they tried to figure out solutions but each time they came back to the need for trade, but Ryuk still kept thinking offworld supplies were the most efficient solution. Yet the political ramifications of erecting a Unity satellite in orbit, or trying to fly down supplies could start a war with the Iron Republic and the EEF. An event that would kill both his Turtle City and the new undersea domain he hoped to claim.

Discovering he no longer could call upon the many children of Bartsport to power his Nightmare creation, he sent out his agents with a singular goal. Collect and adopt as many colonial war orphans from Neo Vargas as he could gain over a month. Twenty official children went into the hands of his agents, without the orphanages ever knowing they were being handed over for child abuse at the hands of the Kasanthians.

But twenty children weren’t enough to fuel a Nightmare Factory that Leftenant Ryuk had planned. He needed more, and so the Turtle City swam north. Avoiding Hhar’na Yellows and other submersibles of the Northern Kingdoms, they reached the Tarrisian Free State. There at a Gornenham Keep and Harbor town, Ryuk was able to negotiate the purchase of forty adults and thirty children, all K’iorn enslaved from the Tribe of Kur’ai, refugees from the Legion overrun of Kur’ai.

The adults were secretly killed, while the children were taken by to Turtle City. To Hharmuuz and Leyana’s concern while 40 Adults were taken and killed and their bodies were brought back to Turtle City, only 38 bodies could be accounted for. Two bodies had gone missing, and could not be accounted for.

But Ryuk worried less about missing bodies of the dead, and more about designing terrifying virtual reality training that would result in the 50 children obsessing about undersea nightmare cities about to consume ships. This training, along with training by Hharmuuz in torture were turning the abused children into the perfect devoted child soldiers of Kasanth. Brutal, sociopathic, and without empathy, the children were being forged into the monsterous next generation of this Turtle City.

And as the Nightmare City of Coral formed off the coast of a forbidden isle along the Northern Kingdoms, Ryuk rejoiced because it could hold hundreds of thousands. But again, he faced the challenge how to feed them.

The City of Coral had a dark beauty to it, and at first Turtle City would go out into the deep oceans. It would open its mouth and swallow entire schools of fish. Bringing the fish back, they would feed the people of Turtle City, and the first thousand Rabble that inhabited the City of Coral were glad to have it. But food and supplies were still concerningly tight.


#3

Part 3: The Kasanthian Ways vs the K’iorn Ways

Leyana Coque had discovered two concerning problems while roaming Turtle City with Rune Axehand. The first problem had been found in the uninhabited portions of the city.

Two Vampires were prowling, not Kasanthians, but a male and female K’iorn who had been purchased along with the slaves. Two must have been Vampyrs and the headshots had killed them causing their bodies to rise as True Vampires when brought back. Leyana discovered the pair had kidnapped one of Ryuk’s Rabble. One of the ruffians was being held under a floor panel, and being used as a living blood bag. But Leyana had noted the Vamps had not killed the Rabble member, had not raised him as a Thrall Vampire yet. They were trying to keep the Rabble member alive.

The second problem revealed itself when Leyana tried to convince her lover Rune Axehand to simply keep this a secret from Ryuk for now to allow Leyana to negotiate with the vampires. Rune went nuts and charged Leyana trying to kill her for even thinking of hiding something from Ryuk.

For Leyana it was confusing, especially since such a deception might allow them to convince the Vampires to become Ryuk’s allies in the end. It seemed short sighted and it deeply concerned Leyana. As she dodged him, Rune Axehand killed himself accidentally slipping on blood and impaling himself on one of the spikes that adorned the halls in typical Kasanthian style.

Looking at the wound in Rune Axehand’s head, suddenly it all clicked in place. Leyana could see the cybernetics that had been installed in the Rabble-member’s head, and assumed similar supplication tech had been installed in all the Rabble. They were enslaved to love and adore their master Ryuk with technology even the Unity considered illegal after the border wars.

Leyana put that knowledge away in the back of her head, and brought Rune’s body to Ryuk and explained both the death and the nature of the deception. Rune was converted back to life, by Ryuk, who seemed to genuinely care for his enslaved Rabble in the way only a psychopath truly could.

Hharmuuz was tasked with tracking down the Vampires and drawing them out. In typical Kasanthian fashion, the vampyr decided to butcher some of the children, using their blood to draw out the true vampires. But he drastically miscalculated.

As one of the vampires approached Hharmuuz’s platter of severed flesh, it lingered over one of the body parts as if recognizing a scent and then disappeared into the shadows with a howl.

Leyana, Gami and Hharmuuz watched as the Vampire slit the throat of the Rabble member they had been holding as a blood bag. Turning the Rabble to a Thrall, they sent it as a suicide soldier against the trio as they escaped back into the shadows and out of sight.

Hharmuuz was assaulted by the Thrall, and they twisted and turned, until finally the thrall drove his hand into the vampyr’s raider armor and it got caught. Stuck in nightmare hide and metal plates, the hand did not easily retract, and Gami used the opportunity to blast the Thrall from its feet with a technomantic weapon.

Dropped to the ground, Hharmuuz bound and trussed the Thrall, converting enough of his own cursed lifeforce for the Thrall to not die a final death from the artificed weapons of Gami. Hharmuuz had heard rumors that Gami had been one of General Kal’Shek’s personal bodyguards, but didn’t believe it until that moment. Not only had the shot been precise but the weapons concerningly familiar.

Leyana drew in the Leyas altering her form, making her so beautiful all in the room could barely keep themselves from loving her. She spoke deftly and compassioniately to the Vampires begging their aide against mutual enemies and offering a new life here among the Kasanthians.

The Vampires were not at first convinced, arguing that how could they trust someone who literally carved up their own child and served them up?
Both Gami and Leyana glared at Hharmuuz who shrugged sheepishly, “It is the way of this.”

The Vampires demanded to know, “How were these children chosen?”

Leyana explained it was Kasanthian rituals to make their children tougher and stronger. Rituals that would protect the children in the future even if they hurt them currently. She was convincing enough to stay the hands of the Vampires who instead promised to watch over Turtle City and see if it truly was a place of justice or just a place of evil.

The Vampires fled into the darkest corners of the city, with Gami hunting after them but she never did find them.

Ryuk knew they might come back to haunt him. It had seemed so easy to just shoot the adults and bring their bodies here, and convert them back to life once they had food to feed them. Unfortunately for these two, his plan had caused an irreparable change in their lives. And as the leader of the land they were now trapped in, they would hold him to a high standard.

The remaining 38 were already restored to life, and working happily in the City of Coral, maintaining kelp beds, and wondering when they would be reunited with their children.

The Turtle City was now making regular journeys to the deep seas where the most ancient aquatic nightmare remained, and passed through many of their territories without realizing it. What this would cause was yet unknown, but it was a required journey to feed the people of both Turtle City and the City of Coral.


#4

:cool:Rewards:cool:

Ryuk gains Turtle City returns to the Northern Kingdoms. Using the Turtle City, Ryuk has grown the first undersea Nightmare city of the Kasanthian Federation. Called City of Coral it is surrounded by a natural coral field currently being maintained by the K’iorn slaves taken from the tribe of Kur’ai.

Gami gains Relief in Turtle City. Gami finally is surrounded by Unity members and can take advantage of Gami’s Unity uplink to learn about Ryuk and the Rabble. She can also utilize Ryuk’s Rabble as Human shields using her Unity Uplink (1 Human shield per point of Charisma).

Leyana gains Concerns in Turtle City. Leyana gains an alliance with the Bruskti and can call upon them to pick her up if she ever gets trapped out at sea. She also gains the title of Bodyguard of Leftenant Ryuk.

Hharmuuz gains Respect in Turtle City. Hharmuuz is now officially recognized as a Professor of Torture and the Shadow Arts in the Kasanthian Federation. This gains him a weekly paycheck of 20 ghaz to spend as he chooses. He can only use this paycheck on the specific mission he is on, not sock them away when he is not on missions.