Ghost Archipelago

In the throes of Lorenthia’s agony, the Jungle Deep sent new shoots throughout the Known World. Among its many victims was the so-called Ghost Archipelago, a chain of six modestly sized islands not more than fifty leagues east of the Forest of Nar.

The native peoples of the Ghost Archipelago had, historically, shown no particular desire towards contact with the outside world. Conversely, the reefs that surrounded the islands had, on more than one occasion, proven deadly to navigators, and they learned the hard way to leave the place alone.

Hence it was with amazement that the King of Alladore learned of a delegation from the Ghost Archipelago that was making its way to his court. When they arrived, and a hooded figure amongst the delegates revealed her delicate, but entirely Hu-Man features, surprise turned to shock.

The archipelago’s ambassador explained that the Elain of his lands had always coexisted with the Atlanteans, as he called them. Except in their physical characteristics, they were not even vaguely comparable to the barely articulate Hu-Mans known elsewhere across the Continent. As it happens, this was not so far-fetched a claim as it might once have been, the struggle against the Jungle Deep having already revealed the existence of hitherto unknown Hu-Man civilisations. After the ambassador had asked permission of the assembly, the young Hu-Man woman addressed the assembly in the common tongue, with a hypnotising sing-song accent and precise, confident words of greeting and peace. She then proceeded to remove the wooden mask that covered her features, which all present instinctively understood to be a gesture of some considerable gravity and honour.

« We have come », announced the ambassador, « not to ask you for help, but to bring you hope ». An audible murmur ran through the assembly at that, which the King cut off with a polite but firm gesture.

« Hope is the most precious commodity of our times, ambassador », he replied wistfully, expecting in truth very little.

« We – the Atlanteans and the Elain of the Archipelago – are winning the war with the Jungle Deep », the ambassador said, his voice devoid of either pride or arrogance, but projecting the ring of truth. « In truth, we do need your help. To help us find out how ».

This time, even the King could not silence the background noise of his court.

The Jungle Deep had at first darkened the seas, with a foul-smelling blanket of algae spreading to the very horizon. It had choked all life beneath it, until the waves washed it ashore in great heaps. The gases of their decay made all efforts to clear them hopeless, and then the roots began to plunge into the agonising earth. Within the space of a moon, the two smallest islands were completely lost beneath it. The other four fought to stem the onslaught, but nearly failed when all manner of hideous creatures suddenly began to emerge. A third island was lost to boatloads of bloodthirsty Hu-Mans called forth from the Forest of Nar.

Elain and Atlanteans made offerings to their common gods, opened the vaults of their ancestors to bring forth relics of old, and made their stand. They were vastly outnumbered, assailed from land, sea and sky, waves of enemies as powerful as those that had always broken upon the archipelago’s shores. From that great battle, the defenders emerged victorious. Nobody really knew how. It was no military genius, for if they fought occasional skirmishes against the Hu-Mans of Nar, the peoples of the Archipelago were generally pacific. Those that had fought in the battle said that they had felt the strength of ten and an unbending will, all fear vanished. The many dead bore several wounds, a single one of which should have sufficed to lay them low. The survivors all suffered from a great exhaustion after the fighting, from which indeed not all had yet recovered.

« From that moment on, we have been able to push back the Jungle Deep », Ambassador Tepipotl continued, at which the Atlantean nodded agreement. Now that they dared to study her more closely, all could see the intricate scars of battle that traced a hundred pinkish lines across her pale skin. « It is no easy fight », he added, as if reading their minds. « We suffer for every yard we gain, but gain it we do. Even from the two islands that we believed forever lost, we have received news of small areas of resistance, which the enemy pitilessly strangles but cannot choke out ».

The Atlantean spoke, her melodic voice instantly claiming everyone’s attention. « Our islands have no tradition of magic. We know of it, and it is said that our distant ancestors knew to wield it, but that skill is long lost to us. We hope that whatever power it is that the land has gifted us, your magicians can find it. If you can discover it, perhaps we can harness it, or at the very least, avoid losing it, through our own deeds or those of the Enemy ».

« We have that most precious of commodities to offer you, Your Majesty. The great struggle of which Alladore is the beating heart is not unknown to us. We hope that what we will discover together, we can bestow upon you. A weapon or a force that you can wield to win this war ».

 

Nadya was filled with excitement. A young scholar of the magic arts such as herself would normally spend the first half of her adult life in the Cascades. It was the price to pay, to sample the endless tastes of the arcane, to discover which forces she was best attuned to, to make her choices and strive for mastery. The war with the Jungle Deep had at first accelerated that long distillation, but the losses on the front line of enthusiastic but inexperienced mages had been far too high, endangering the future of the kingdom.

Now a delegation had come from the mysterious Ghost Archipelago, and a dozen Masters were packing and unpacking frantically, trying to reduce the paraphernalia of their research down to a bare but functional minimum. Each of them had been allowed to choose an apprentice, and Master Shaiman had chosen Nadya.

Szarzeesi surveyed the chaos, and sighed inwardly. The twelve people that were at the heart of it may have been among the most powerful individuals in Alladore, they were still civilians, and civilians seemed to know nothing about marching. They were already two days late, and it had taken considerable persuasion from his officers, a lot of patient diplomacy from her second, Kiara, and a few harsh hisses from Szarzeesi herself to pry everybody from their laboratories and out into the mud. For in the mud they were, as horses and mules shied from the noise and confusion and trampled the earth into a clinging mess.

Her officers, after a knowing glance at the snake's rapidly stiffening coils, made it clear to their soldiers that they should wipe the smiles off their faces and start ordering the convoy. It was done with the usual efficiency that marked the Rangers of Alladore, and within an hour, the Cascades had already dropped out of view behind a rock outcrop.

The smell of sea brine had become clogged with something bitter. Life had returned to the sea that surrounded the Ghost Archipelago, Kiara could see that clearly enough, but there was still something unpleasant about the water. Under the expert guidance of a pilot that the ambassador had brought along, the little fleet of three ships – one from the Alladoran navy, the other two handsomely paid Tollonian merchantmen – had picked its way through the reefs without incident.  Aka Morumotto was stunned at the sheer violence of the war that had taken place here. He had seen his share of fighting, but since Alladore had always lost ground, he had never returned to a war zone. Thick plumes of roiling smoke rose from all six islands, and ash was constantly falling. Over the sea sat a sheen of oily grease, oblivious to the motions of the waves and amassing on the shoreline as a thick foam that, when the wind blew it about, clung to the vegetation and brought on decay. On a hilltop they saw a small village that had been methodically gutted, and some buildings seemed to have been deliberately dismantled, stone by stone. « Hate has unfurled here », Godric Drake thought, « and it is simmering, ever ready to burn bright ». He had become accustomed to pessimistic thoughts since his perceived failures in the Vale, but this one made even his skin suddenly creep. Looking around to see if anybody had noticed, he realised that the men and women of the company, warriors and mages alike, were equally dismayed, almost physically hurting by that hatred that bared its teeth before them.

He was seeking Szarzeesi with his eyes to suggest she issue some reassuring words when Seda walked on to the foredeck. The badge of the Rangers hung from her battle-axe. At first Szarzeesi, most uncharacteristically, had resented the King for granting such a boon, even if she understood the politics of it. Her opinion of her sovereign’s wisdom had changed during the journey. The Hu-Man exuded an aura of command, coupled with a calmness that, Szarzeesi noticed, other officers now sought to cultivate. Her fighting skills were considerable, theory and practice rounded off with an apparently unending supply of dirty battlefield tricks that proved that she was a seasoned fighter, although the scars already made that obvious.

Seda stretched with a feline grace that, Kiara noted, caught the attention of even those soldiers that still stubbornly clung to old prejudices. Her mask was at her belt, and she smiled. That smile seemed to light up the entire horizon. So glad was the warrior-woman to return to her homeland, that she looked past the devastation to the land she once knew, and would know again some day. It made everyone on board relax, with an almost audible sigh.

As the flotilla sought out its moorings in the fisherman’s port, Szarzeesi ran back over the orders her monarch had given her. The Rangers were to explore the archipelago, hunting for anything that could explain the islanders’ resistance. The magi would go with them whenever possible, and must be protected from any harm. The voluntary exiles from the Cascades would set up a laboratory wherever they could, which must be hidden from the enemy and kept safe at all costs. The Rangers should build a firm relationship with both the Elain here, and the Hu-Mans, and try to find out more about their history. They should assist in any way possible with keeping the Jungle Deep at bay, organise a search and rescue mission to the two beleaguered islands, and raid the Nar Hu-Mans whenever possible to keep them on edge and occupied.

The morning of the departure, the King, who had spent the night in deep discussion with the archipelago’s emissary, amended his orders, his face unusually flushed.

« We have been exchanging information about the Jungle Deep », began the King, and « Tepipotl tells me that they have been fighting a form of horror that we have not yet had to face. » He looked like he had bitten into something rotten. « They have made hybrids out of Mairen species, and Hu-Mans », he almost spat. « There are half-men, half-horse monstrosities that the islanders call Centaurs. Hu-Man bodies with goat hindlegs, snake hybrids. The islanders have faced an owl crossed with a bear. » The blood had drained from his face. « They have also, somehow, created new Elain species from those dinosaurs that they brought to our land, in open mockery of us ».

He hesitated, caught his breath. « I command you to also find out how they are doing this, and if you can, where. We must put a stop to it ».

« Right you are, your Majesty », one of the Companions replied, before Szarzees could open her jaw. « While we are at it, would you like us to bring you back any souvenirs of our excursion ? I think we can spare a man or two to hunt for some ».

For a brief moment, King Arethic II had looked startled, and Kiara feared they had overstepped a boundary. Then their sovereign guffawed with laughter. It was the most eloquent reminder of just how much he trusted his Rangers to get the job done.

Get the job done they would, and if the mages did their’s, they would return to Alladore with the key to defeating the Jungle Deep.

 

Organisation getting off the ships was a lot more sprightly than in had been back at the Cascades.  They had all had a few weeks to get used to each other.  Their strategy had already been planned out whilst on board, and the Emissary sent a beautiful, multi-coloured "Storm-Bird" ahead with those plans, to avoid any delays.

Two mornings later, everyone was setting off on the mission that had been assigned.  Olivia, a Red Panda fighting monk from the Archipelago, joined forces with Kiara, and together with their five companions, among whom a Cascades mage, they set off to look closer at a special tree which legends said had protective powers.

One of Seda's fellow Atlanteans was awaiting her arrival, sat astride an impressive panther.  Together they would assist Aka in rallying and uniting the resistance on the two islands in the Deep's clutches, and driving it back into the sea.

To Szarzeesi fell the task of finding out more about these Hybrids that could pose a terrible new threat.  She had chosen Godric as her lieutenant, figuring that his despair would be his strongest shield.  For the islanders intelligence had warned them that their quest would begin on the island that had fallen to the Hu-Mans of Nar, who were feared in the Great Forest for their perverted, dark and bloodthirsty ways.

Last of all, a secret location had been chosen for the Cascade mages to set up shop, study the ancient legends of the Archipelago, examine such artefacts as were presented to them or that the Rangers might find, and find a way to eradicate the Deep.  Its protection was entrusted to a local hero, Yotl, and a mixed band of Atlanteans and Alladorans.