After Action Report
Expedition Alfa
Regarding Canissa, Jikaro, and Lofa
A party of adventurers with strong delegations from Blackwood and Chimeron answered my call for aid and assembled at a small tavern outside of Chimeron City. After reviewing the expedition briefing (with contributions from our Subtle Thread liaison on the technical aspects of the Void cascade) we all boarded the newly-upgrade Dreamliner Revenge. Being a sophisticated vessel, it took our party a little while to learn (or re-learn for some) the complex functions of the main systems, which included navigation, reconnaissance, power generation, energy distribution, and reality ward management. Fortunately, the Dreamliner comes equipped with an informative Spirit who is able to describe the operation of each of these systems in detail.
Once the crew was settled in at the various stations, we set a course for the water world Canissa. The voyage was quick and uneventful, to the credit of the crew. However once we stepped outside the Dreamliner things quickly became complicated. As predicted by the preliminary scrying reports, the entire surface of the world was submerged in water. It was not so deep that anyone burdened by heavy armor risked being lost to a watery abyss, but it was certainly deep enough that holding our breath long enough to dive to the bottom was a challenge. Luckily we had landed near a herd of aquatic animals (identified as Oobles) from which we could collect large bubbles of breathable air. The oobles swam alongside us as we looked for signs of civilization and after a bit of swimming and diving we came across a cave inhabited by a few of the locals. Some of these people were seaweed farmers, others were refugees from a nearby city which had been attacked by the Risen Kingdom. As we talked with them, we learned that the Void portal we sought was nearby, but it had appeared in a graveyard and the enemy had resurrected the buried dead and Corrupted them. The survivors in the cave were quite happy to hear that we had come to fight the invaders and led us to the location of the portal. The ensuing fight was not an easy one, and not just because we were fighting underwater. The Corrupted dead were powerful and constantly regenerated until we cut off the exposed Corruption from their bodies with silvered blades. When we finally were able to return these bodies to their proper graves, we made our first attempt at reversing the Void polarization of the Risen Kingdom’s portal. Waterlogged and battle weary, we struggled to remember the correct process for this, and by the time we completed the task the enemy had been alerted to our presence and closed the portal. While this was a setback for our long-term goals, it was still a victory for Canisssa. We handed over the corpse of the drowned enemy commander for distribution of local justice and returned to the Dreamliner.
The portal which was our second target was located in a world known as Jikaro. Our transit to this place was disturbed by a hostile horde of Dreaming creatures. We were also damaged by an explosion which may have been an attack from an enemy Dreamliner, though we were not able to confirm the identity of that particular anomaly. The one-eyed tentacle monsters however were dispatched with relative ease. With the Dreamliner secured, we emerged from the Dreaming and disembarked onto Jikaro. We knew that this world was teeming with magical potential and had not yet been substantially Corrupted by the enemy and the scrying reports suggested that any kind of hostile presence was extraordinarily unlikely, but we proceeded with caution nonetheless. Almost immediately we crossed paths with a pair of curious mages who were intrigued by our arrival in their world. One of them was identified as the Speaker, which seemed to be a title of local leadership. When we inquired about the Risen Kingdom, the pair told us that our common enemy had been easily driven out of Jikaro though their portal still remained. They were willing to lead us to its location in exchange for our assistance with problems which had befallen their town. In my eyes, the things that we were asked to do were remarkably mundane; perhaps the daily lives of these people were so entangled with the world’s magical potential that things which seemed simple to us were stunningly complex tasks for them. Regardless, we were pleased to offer our help and the locals were pleased to accept it. Our party split up to tackle the many tasks and Spirit called me back to the Dreamliner to inspect a system malfunction caused by the earlier explosion. The whole crew returned a while later and reported that the portal had been challenging to get to as it was centered in a field of complicated magical workings, but ultimately they had been successful in reversing the Void polarity of the portal.
By the time we were underway and moving towards Lofa, operations aboard the Dreamliner were so smooth that the vessel was practically piloting itself. We quickly arrived at the strange world, which was reported to be shaped like a narrow ribbon of land which spiraled downwards into nothingness. Once again, the scrying reports were spot-on. The surface was thirty or forty feet wide and would ripple in an unnerving manner when our party moved forward with heavy feet. There were no signs of a civilization here and all of the local wildlife we encountered were (unsurprisingly) capable of flight. Unfortunately they were also hostile towards us. As we progressed, one of our number was snatched up in the claws of several of these creatures and taken to a nest at the bottom of a cliff. Even though I could see it with my own eyes, the geometry of this particular region of Lofa was incomprehensible to me so I tried to not think about it too hard. Instead, I thoroughly enjoyed watching my companions scramble down–and then back up–the rock face. With a thick rope to support them, they seemed to practically slide down the cliff. All of the climbers seemed to have as much fun doing this as I did watching them. With some effort, everyone returned to the top of the cliff and we carried on towards the Void portal, which was just ahead of us. It too was guarded by hostile creatures. In the darkness, I had trouble determining if these were more of the same flying creatures we had already seen, but Corrupted by Void or if we were facing some kind of Void manifestations spun by the Risen Kingdom. Regardless, we were able to push them back and Jean Baptiste finished them off by calling on the Dark One and sending the creatures to the All as a one-man meat grinder. After that, we repolarized the enemy’s portal and returned home aboard the Dreamliner without additional complications.
Expedition Alfa was a field test of our new strategy against the Risen Kingdom, and in my opinion it was successful. We will need to conduct several more missions like it in order to trigger the Void Cascade and I do not expect every world we visit to be as welcoming as Canissa and Jikaro, but I know that we will be able to handle the unique challenges that each new world throws at us.
Prior to the start of this expedition, the Subtle Thread believed that the Risen Kingdom was unaware of the vulnerability in their portals. Following our contact with the enemy in Canissa and the subsequent closing of that portal, I believe we have lost some of the element of surprise. However, I doubt they are aware of our full intentions. At the very least, I expect the enemy to strengthen their garrisons around their newest portals which means that we will need to be prepared to fight hard. The Risen Kingdom is not going to stop trying to conquer other worlds until we can knock them down for good.
In service to all those who oppose the Risen Kingdom,
Captain Sir Orion
We shall not yield
We shall not fear
-Excerpt from a Resistance Hymn