Fantasy Republic of Desperadoes (Game lit / Colony building)

[AtlannianSpy]

--As for this so-called "Free Republic" your majesty need not concern themselves unduly with this small matter. Far from being a legitimate threat to the security of the colony, they are a mere rabble of malcontents and desperadoes with delusions of grandeur. The garrison I command at your pleasure is their superior in levels and good imperial steel will more than match whatever scraps and trinkets they have managed to dredge up from the Arkonan ruins they squat in. I anticipate writing to your Majesty again withing the year with confirmation of their demise--

-Surviving fragment of a letter from the Warden General Marrvis of the Arkonan Colonies to the Alcibard the Seventh, Emperor of Lysenna. Recovered from the wreck of the Lysennan fast courier ship HMLS Lady of Dawn....

---

A sudden stillness roused Karine from her uneasy sleep. The rocking of the ship had been a constant presence for the last four months, so much so that it had faded into the background of Karine's awareness, along with the damp, the salt in the air and the overwhelming odour of sweat and unwashed bodies kept in close proximity. Life as a "passenger" aboard an imperial prison ship was chiefly about coming to terms with a series of unpleasant, but unavoidable realities. Shitty food; shitty company; uncomfortable proximity to actual shit which the crew disposed of as infrequently as they could get away with and of course the constant, unceasing motion of a ship on the water.

Karine had enough [endurance] from her class and levels that sea sickness wasn't a concern for her, but she definitely felt no particular affinity or affection for the sea. When Karine had been furiously clawing her way out of the slums in her teens there had realistically been two legal options available to her: the Army or the Navy and she had never really given any serious consideration the latter, keeping her feet on solid ground had always seemed preferable to Karine even if everything else was equal, the Navy was supposed to have worse rations as well. Now of course Karine couldn't help but wonder if, as a sailor she would have avoided ended up where she was now: convicted of insubordination and dereliction of duty and shipped off to an unexplored and inhospitable continent to labour away the debt of her crimes. Logically the answer was no, the Navy was probably just as full of corrupt, self serving bastards as the army was, but those kind of questions had a way of refusing to accept logical answers.

Probably wouldn't have had a stupid horse to get so attached to in the Navy though.. Karine thought, feeling a strange ache

the empty slot of her [animal companion bond] skill. The priests always said that skills and traits and the like were built on top of your soul not inside of it, so damage or disruption to your skills couldn't actually harm your soul. It didn't always feel like that though.

"UP AND AT'EM DREGS!" Boomed a harsh voice from somewhere above Karine, interrupting her brooding. "BACKS UP AGAINST THE WALLS! THE MARINES WILL ESCORT YOU TO SHORE ONE CELL GROUP AT A TIME. OR ONE WRONG MOVE AND THEY'LL BEAT YOUR SORRY ASSES UNCONSCIOUS AND TOSS YOU INTO THE SHALLOWS INSTEAD!"

It was not an idle threat. Although the marine contingent of a prison ship was larger than standard for a ship of the line and the prisoners were suppressed by a series of enchantments carved into , they were still badly outnumbered by the prisoners aboard and consequently had been skittish and quick to resort to violence to reassert control the whole trip. With a soft grunt, Karine rolled off the sodden scrap of an old sack that she'd been issued as a sleeping mat. Karine stood against the back wall of the ship and then, when she realised she had unconsciously adopted the ramrod straight posture of a soldier at attention she forced herself to slump against the wall. If the Marines were going cell by cell then she was in for a long wait, hers was near the back of the ship, the...aft? What was it with sailors and all their weird terms anyway?

---

All told, Karine would have put it at somewhere over two hours of waiting before she and her cellmates were escorted, blinking, into the sunlight for the first time in months. The air of Port Alcibard hit Karine like a wall, hot and humid to the point that it seemed to drape over her like a thick blanket that did nothing to impede the sun's rays beating down on her.

Beats freezing my tits off in Hiberos at least Karine thought grimly, wiping sweat from her forehead as she waited in line with the other prisoners. The frigid Northern region had been Karine's first deployment out of basic training and still occupied a special place of loathing in her heart. Karine had nearly lost her long, pointed ears to frostbite in her first week until an older soldier had taught her how to pin them back with a second scarf under her hat. The tropical heat might be unpleasant in its own way, but at least Karine's ears were safe and the incredibly thin, ragged clothes she'd been issued as a prisoner would actually serve decently well in this heat.

"ATTENTION PRISONERS!" boomed a voice from the head of their queue, where a portly officer with a greenish tint to his skin stood with a scroll under one arm. THe officer was dressed in the crisp, full length naval officers uniform and was sweating profusely in the tropical sun, every few seconds he had to raise a little handkerchief to his forehead to mop it in a way that seemed so practiced he was no longer consciously aware he was doing it and Karine almost felt a pang of sympathy for the man. Almost.

"You will now be assigned your work postings! Your skills and class levels have been assessed as per your intake forms and taken into account for these assignments but priority has been given to those roles the colony needs filled. If your skills aren't suitable for any specialised roles the colony needs filled then you will be assigned to the general labour pool to assist in construction and transportation of material. If you don't like your labour assignment you can refuse it in favour of general labour but I don't recommend it! Specialists are entitled to a modest set of privileges and rations as long as they perform their duties competently and obediently. Remember that these privileges can and will be revoked at the first instance of misbehaviour so if you want to continue enjoying them you'd best mind yourself! Now step up one at a time! Look lively!"

Being at the back of the ship meant Karine was at the back of the queue as well, so it was hurry up and wait again while the other prisoners were processed ahead of her, it was almost like being back in the army again. By the time Karine was face to face with the officer the man was clearly bored out of his skull, but his expression livened up into a nasty sneer after he gave what was presumably her paperwork a cursory scan.

"Well well, fancy meeting one His Majesty's finest here," said the Officer, earning a snicker from one of the Marines behind him. Karine schooled her features into a flat mask of indifference. It wasn't hard, there'd been plenty of this already from the Marines in the early stages of the journey, before they'd gotten bored with her lack of reaction and moved onto softer targets. Karine was feeling pretty indifferent to most things these days anyway so it was hardly much of a leap for her.

"You've been assigned to the scavenging and exploration teams Corporal," said the Officer "Lucky you! Scavengers can shorten the duration of their sentences significantly by retrieving valuables from the Arkonan ruins dotting the jungle out there. Or by getting devoured by some horrible, tropical dungeon spawn of course. We always seem to have plenty of openings on the scav teams for some reason so we're glad to have you here!"

Karine nodded once. "Where do I go?" she asked flatly.

"Bah, you report to Sergeant Kilakkis, over there," said the Officer, scowling now that he was deprived of whatever reaction he'd been after. "Get the fuck out of my sight and go do everyone a favour by getting yourself killed out there,"

Karine turned and left, although once she was no longer making eye contact with the officer she rolled her eyes. Prick. Well he was right about one thing, one way or another her sentence had probably just gotten a lot shorter.

Skylord Nexus

 

[Skylord Nexus]

As the boat came to a halt Silas straightened up slightly from his current position leaning against one of the walls. He'd been on edge for days... weeks? In all honestly he wasn't sure any more the days seems to melt together in a maelstrom of tedium and horrible hygiene. On that subject actually the young noble was rather glad they'd come to a stop so he no longer had to face the threat of releasing his bowl onto the floor and having to live with it, something that had happened on multiple occasions during the journey. Alas it seemed Silas lacked the necessary endurance to deal with being on the seas, as well as the necessary constitution to stomach such... 'low class' meals.

All in all it had been a pretty miserable trip. And don't even get him started on the people! The people he was surrounded by were stinky, idiotic, raunchy and basically every other disgusting word in the dictionary! It honestly made him wonder if this cruel and unusual punishment was worth it rather than the alternative... then he remembered the alternative was death... so yeah, it probably was worth it, but it was still insane to him that his father arranged this for him and he was supposed to be grateful for the old man stepping in and getting his sentence reduced. He'd lost EVERYTHING! Like hells he was going to be grateful to anyone, especially not his father.

Everything really had gone wrong so fast and the worst thing was it had been dumb luck they had caught him! Someone had spread random rumours about him practising and researching evil and forbidden magic, except it was complete nonsense! None of the proof lined up, and he hadn't even began looking into the stuff he'd been specifically accused of! Unfortunately when he was dragged away to trial, his levels were looked into and the evil and forbidden magic he actually HAD been researching and practising became apparent. Normally a person would be killed for such transgressions, however his ever 'merciful' father had stepped in and used his considerable influence to get his heir exiled to the middle of the blood jungle instead!... although he probably wasn't the heir now was he? That was probably given to his brother the second he was chucked onto this accursed ship... and wasn't that a sobering thought?

He had little time to dwell on his destroyed life however, as a guard came through and ordered them get against the walls. For his part Silas obeyed, with the cuffs on he couldn't use a drop of his magic or skills, and even if he could he wouldn't. He remembered what happened early on into the voyage where one of his numerous cell mates decided he wanted out and attacked a guard... it didn't go well, the man had been beaten to a pulp and left in the room in the muck and filth... his wounds quickly became infected and he died. It was classed as an accident, a terrible, unforeseen accident that could happen to anyone, that's what they said... the message was pretty clear, even to the most moronic among them.

From what he could tell, his cell was around the middle, so with a sigh, Silas closed his eyes and tried to block out everything around him. He was probably still gonna be stuck waiting for an hour at least, so he needed to try and remain composed as much as possible... he was going to be here a long time after all...

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The Necromancer grimaced as the portly officer came forward and began telling them about their new lives. In a twisted way it was funny to see how similar things were here compared to back home, there seemed to always be some self important, fat old man who hadn't had a day of hard work for the last 20 years. In another life he supposed that could have been him eventually... probably not though, Father prided himself on the family's 'morale fibre' after all, he's never let his children turn out like that.

As the speech finished Silas snorted "'Look lively' He says! easy for him to say he's not the one going into bloody dungeon infested jungles or doing back breaking labour." Yet dispute his feelings on the matter Silas did as he was told and took his place with the others right in the middle and tried desperately to ignore the sun beating down on his back. What he wouldn't give for some shade right now.

Alas, as the line slowly moved shade ever came, only boredom and the feeling of slowly cooking within his own skin before FINALLY it was his turn! Of course, as was his luck, any relief he may have felt melted away as the officer smirked and began to speak.

"Well, well, well, look what we've got here lads, some big fancy pants noble, forced to live it up with the scum of the world. Make the most of the experience, from what i understand you're going to be hear for a long time." Him and what Silas assumed were his friends, laughed loudly at him, causing the noble to scowl. Of course the officer picked up on this right away and continued "Oh, what's wrong? Upset you have to slum it with the rest of us? Well get used to it, you're not the boss here, and i think we'll enjoy teaching you your place."

Silas took a deep, calming breath before smirking and leaning in closer to the man "Let me make one thing clear you pathetic piece of human excrement. While i may be here as a result of my own crimes, i am still of noble heritage, which does count for something, such as priority mail to my lord father, whom i imagine won't be too happy with you targetting his HEIR specifically." It was a lie, of course, his father hated strong arming people using their families position, but the guards didn't need to know that, and judging from the slightly paler look on the man's face, his words got through the man's thick skull.

"R-right... well.. You're to report to Sergeant Kilakkis... so y-you best hurry and not c-cause any t-trouble!"

Silas merely rolled his eyes and nodded, making his way to where this sergeant was supposed to be.

What the young man didn't expect however was the sight of a lumbering rock monster with a young girl sat in it's hand, standing next to the Sergeant. The girl upon seeing him seemed to look at him analytically with an intelligence that seemed to far exceed her apparent age, and it sent a chill down the man's spin.

"Hmm... seems to be healthy and in good condition. I can certainly work with this. A fit young body should be much more accepting of certain mixtures, especially compare to my previous group... Yes boy you'll certainly do."

Silas just stared and blinked a few times before sighing. "That execution feels much more appealing right about now..."

 

[AtlannianSpy]

Sergeant Kilakkis turned out be a bronze skinned, muscular man with a shiny, bald head and a mouthful of shiny, white teeth that he frequently displayed with wide, friendly smiles. It was disconcerting frankly, every Sergeant Karine had ever known had been a jaded, bitter shell of a person motivated chiefly by spite and the distant prospect of a military pension, Karine doubted marine sergeants were any different in that regard so what exactly was this Kilakkis so happy about?

But if Kilakkis was disconcerting he still had nothing on the motley collection of prisoners Karine was supposed to be "adventuring" alongside. The most striking was obviously the hulking, stone golem carting around a little girl. Nobody appeared to be freaking out about that so presumably some fucky mage shit was going on there. Fleshsculpting maybe? Karine had heard some nobles shelled out small fortunes to have flesh sculpter remodel their appearance to be younger, more beautiful or more in line with their supposed noble bloodlines. Sculpting someone all the way down to the body of a child seemed a bit extreme but Karine didn't know enough about the discipline to say for sure either way.

The rest of the group were less eye catching but not necessarily less sinister looking to Karine's eye. There was a large, squinty eyed man with the kind of round but solid build certain strength based classes tended to develop if they aged up before getting into the high levels. To go by the man's calloused, swollen knuckles and his misshapen nose he was probably some variety of [brawler] or maybe a [bouncer]. There was a tall, curvy woman with long, dark hair and icey blue eyes who would probably have looked stunning if she wasn't wearing the same ratty rags as the rest of them and her hair wasn't a tangled, sweaty mess just like Karine's was. As it was she was merely beautiful and Karine had to suppress a twinge of envy when she thought about how her own rags hung off her leaner frame like laundry hung up to dry. It wasn't immediately obvious what the woman's class was, though Karine thought maybe some kind of [agility] build was likely and when the woman muttered something under her breath Karine caught the trace of a Vorenskiyan accent.

Standing in the back, trying to look unobtrusive was a skinny man who shared Karine's pointed, wide set ears who Karine pegged almost certainly as a [poacher] or something similar. Her first posting had been bandit suppression out in the boonies and the line between [hunter], [poacher] and [bandit archer] was always fluid and blurry, with folks alternating between all three as the winds of opportunity dictated. Assuming any of the man's skillset translated to the thick jungle of the new world he might actually come in rather handy.

Last of all...

Ah fuck me... Karine thought

Most people in the lower classes think Nobles walk around like they have a stick up their asses, but this is not correct or rather, it is imprecise. Soldiers walk around with sticks in their asses, because if a bitter, jaded shell of a person motivated chiefly by spite kicks the shit out of you every time you slouch you learn to stand up straight and the habit sticks. Nobles have an upright posture, but its more fluid and casual: rather than having a stick up their asses Karine has always thought of nobles as having a string attached to their head that lifts them ever so slightly off the ground. Nobles glide around as though not deigning to dirty the bottom of their feet with the same Earth everyone else walks on. The dark haired, horned young man was wearing the same rags as the rest of the group, but his posture screamed noble at the top of its lungs and that was a huge fucking problem.

It was because of a noble that Karine was in this mess to begin with after all.

Unaware, or perhaps simply uncaring of the simmering tension in the air, Sergeant Kilakkis rubbed his hands together, smiling enthusiastically.

"Looks like the gang's all here, capital! How'sabout you all follow me on a little stroll and I'll give you the rundown on how all this works?"

---

Port Alcibard was not exactly picturesque strolling material. There were a few solid, stone buildings on the skyline, mainly a manor that probably belonged to the governor and a squat, imposing building that looked like a barracks to Karine's eye, but the vast majority of the construction was hastily assembled, wooden structures little better than shacks with canvas roofs. The road wasn't paved and the heavy, tropical rains had turned it into a slurry of mud and, to judge by the smell, not a little horseshit. Frankly the smell of horseshit was probably preferable to the smell of human shit coming from the open sewage ditches lining the road. Thankfully someone had taken some time to lay down planks of wood to form a rough, crooked walking path between the two shit abysses but it was a narrow thing and the planks weren't secured by anything more than the suction action of the mud and fervent hope.

Everywhere there were prisoners engaged in labor of some kind, mainly hauling cargo or construction materials it seemed like, but plenty seemed to have gotten permission to set up stalls hawking services or cobbled together goods and extremely dubious food.

"The Governor has established a rather innovative system for managing the colony as both a punitive and money making enterprise," said Sergeant Kilakkis as the group walked past a greasy looking man who tried to tempt them with grilled sausages of wholly mysterious provenance. "Everything runs on these vouchers called 'certificates of merit' or just merits' which the Governor issues in limited quantities. As long as you work and don't cause trouble you'll be paid merits' according to the value of your work and you can use them to pay for lodgings, food and pay off your sentence. After you've paid off your sentence you can even asve them up and pay for passage back to Lysenna. You can even trade them amongst yourselves for goods and services like these enterprising fellows are doing. As part of the Scavenging and Exploration team, you lot are tasked with venturing out beyond the Port walls to look for valuables from the ruins and useful components from the monsters in the jungle. Then you bring them back here to one of the quartermaster posts and exchange them for merits. Simple no?"

 

[Skylord Nexus]

Being the first there Herta had the advantage of getting a good look at all of her new test subjects... or 'team mates' she supposed. Apparently being called test subjects seemed to make people feel uncomfortable, she had no idea why though, logically it should be an honour to help a genius such as herself better her research. Regardless though, even before they turned up she was sure they would be better than those sentient pieces of rubbish she'd been paired with before, and when they finally began turning up she certainly wasn't disappointed.

The first to turn up had been a boy with mostly elven features, the only distinctly not elven part were the horns on his head, alas plenty of races had possessed horns and nowadays it was impossible to tell exactly which race the feature descended from without other signifiers. Honestly though it was of little concern, what interested her more was that the boy seemed to be of noble decent judging by his mannerisms, and that had her wondering about the alchemical properties of his blood, and if his presumable stronger elven heritage would yield any different results compared to a regular person... of course that was rather dependent on if he actually was mostly pure, she knew how the nobles liked to lie about such things after all.

The next few to turn up were, while not as interesting as the noble boy, still promising. The bulky man seemed like he'd likely have decent [Endurance] or [Constitution] which would hopefully help him withstand the effects of some of her stronger potions.

Then was the curvy woman which Herta couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy towards.Not for something as stupidly superficial as he looks of course, but because her body seemed to be at the age Herta was hoping to revert to before becoming a level-less child with non-functional legs. Personal feeling aside however the woman looked healthy enough, and seeing as how her previous subjects had all been men, the genius certainly wouldn't say no to having a subject closer to her own physiology.

Next was perhaps the most disappointing of the group, a skinny man who seemed intend of avoiding attention. By all counts he seemed perfectly average and his skills were likely just as average as well. She certainly wouldn't dismiss healthy test subjects TEAM MATES, but she didn't have high hopes for his impact on her research.

And finally a young, lean elven woman appeared. At a glance Herta couldn't really pick out anything of particular note, however the girl did seem observant which seemed promising, plus given her general body shape and physique the young/old woman was willing to bet the girl had been some kind of solider, she'd have to wait and observe to be sure though.

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Unlike Herta, Silas didn't really have any strong opinions on his partners. In his opinion they were probably dying out in the jungle anyway so there was little point in getting too invested in them. No the person Silas was more concerned about was the Sergeant. As a member of a prominent family the necromancer was used to facades and false emotions and at first that's what he thought Kilakkis' deal was as well, but the longer it went on the harder it was to tell. The man was creepy to Silas, no doubt about that, but as the nobleman became less and less sure exactly what the sergeant's deal was the more disconcerting the man became.

However Kilakkis soon became the least of Silas' concern as he realised exactly how foul this place was. Their was little infrastructure worth a damn that wasn't the barracks or the governor's manor house, and at the sight of that he had to fight own a remark about how his own home was MUCH larger. Then there was the swage in the gods damned street! The only thing covering it up was no pieces of wood for crying out loud! And the smell... he could hardly bare it! As someone who was born and raised inside a well off part of a developed city Silas could barely wrap his head around it! The closest he'd come was reading watered down accounts of such places and it had seemed like a novelty more than anything else, especially when he wasn't traipsing around there himself.

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Both Herta and Silas seemed to contemplate the Sergeant's description of the Governor's 'innovative' system, both coming to similar conclusions on the corruption of it, conclusions both of them seemed intent on voicing, Silas seeming to get the ball rolling first, his voice taking on an overly happy and obviously sarcastic tone.

"Oh yes! We get to work ourselves to the bone, and almost certainly die just to get certificates who's value is controlled entirely by a governor who's soul interests are keeping order and pumping out as many resources as possible. We are ever so lucky to have the value of out work decided on at a whim. And then as an EXTRA special reward after we've worked off our crimes we get to work MORE just for the privilege of getting home from the middle of nowhere that we were forceable taken to! Truly so innovative and generous!"

His expression then dropped down to a dead pan and his voice lost all semblance of joy.

"Please don't baby us Sergeant. We all know we're here to be worked to death. I for one would rather you spoke honestly rather than trying to frame this as some overly generous or ingenious idea we should be happy about."

Herta hummed in agreement.

"Indeed, I agree with the boy. The corruption of the system is painfully relevant from having to work to get out passage home after our sentence is done, to the fact that the value of these merits and what they can get us is entirely at the mercy of a Governor who cares little for us and everything about what our labour can produce."