Year 1 - Winter

With the damage from the flood still evident in the fresh patches on still new wooden rafts, Asper and Caete find themselves without a turtle and no Family raft of their own. In these bleak circumstances, their fellow elves come to their rescue. Specifically, the Bufonidae Family takes the newlyweds in, honoring the sacrifice of their Grandfather, who was lost. With the weather changing, the family members huddle close in their shelter in the late evening. Most have already gone to sleep, but three are up eating late.

“Mais, it’s not our nature to follow water in winter,” Adenomus, the Bufonidae Oarsman remarks darkly as Asper serves thick slabs of catfish around the squat little table. “We ought be somewhere safe, somewhere hidden, by now.”

Caete looks up from the peg she’d been whittling, concern in her dark eyes.

“We’ll get there, weh.” Asper’s response is not a question. “An we ain’t unsafe here tho - we got friends on dem walls.” The gathered elves briefly look in the direction of Fort Alfyr, distant enough to not yet be visible.

Determined, Caete goes back to her whittling. The new houseboat won’t hold itself together without fasteners, and they don’t craft themselves on their own.

“But our friends, they need help, no?” Adenomus looks worried. “We all here out on our own, an is a big space ta fill, ta protect.”

Caete nods, drops a finished peg into her bucket, selects another short length of wood and begins anew.

“Mais, we ken help.” Asper takes a big bite of his catfish, chews thoughtfully on it and his next words. “We built da hopper. Mebee we ken set erselves up ta tame tha rivers en help our frens that way.”

Caete looks at her bucket of pegs. She looks up at her river bonded husband, and a thought crosses her mind. She carefully puts the knife down, and places her webbed hand on his knee.

“Nous ferons de notre radeau un outil pour construire.We’ll make our raft a tool to build.”

“Oh, sha, of course,” Asper softly kisses his love on her forehead, “we ken build anythin we want, if’n we build it together.”

Economic: Due to the need to build additional rafts to house those made homeless by the flood anway, the river elves of Partager take it on themselves to specialize. The new construction efforts go into barges designed with portable cranes, workshops for woodworkers, and tools for raftsmiths.

This attempts to add the aspect, “Construction Rafts,” to Partager, using the Investment trapping of Infrastructure, putting to use the bonus for inspired engineers and acts of the average river elf. This uses 2 Ability, 1 Proficiency, and 2 Boost dice: 4 advantage, 2 successes, 0 triumphs.

Meanwhile, Staurois recalls that their Fire Elf cousins have settled on the river headed away from the swamp to the North, and they desired wood. Unaware of the unorganized attempt by the common elves to add an aspect to their settlement, he spends a Fate point to motivate the Economic branch to a second action this season. Using the Merchants trapping of Trade, Staurois gets help carefully harvesting wood from the forested swamp to bring with them on the upriver journey.

This picks up the Territory Aspect: Forest, for later trade. They roll: 2 Ability, 1 Proficiency: 3 advantage, 1 successes, 0 triumphs.

Political: The sea is close enough that when the wind blows from the correct direction, Staurois can smell it. The salty tang of it reeks of a shriveling death by suffocation. But it also promises great fortune to those brave enough to risk it. And risk it they do. Defying conventional norms, Smilisca follows Staurois’s determined guidance instead. In the early weeks of winter, they float their river barges through the shallows of the sea toward what the map suggests will be the best place to spend future winters.

“Winter ain’t meant for wandering,” Staruois confides to his wife, Ny, alone for the moment. “They’re meant for maintenance, for repairs, for fixin all the tings da need fixin afer a summer on the river. We should be spendin dis season a quiet.”

“Ah, sha, no,” Ny whispers to him softly, “these are unknown waters. Mais, we’ll find the right place, and we’ll learn a new routine.”

“Weh,” the Oarmaster nods, “weh, we’ll figure it ou’ in the long run. But now?”

“Litoria counseled caution before,” Ny suggests, “follow it again’.” Staurois stops and considers the problem from a fresh angle.

“It’s not ‘nough fer us to rely on them in the fort to guard our progress.” He mulls it over aloud. “We’ll need guards, real ones, to watch for those that’ll harm us while in these strange places.”

Staurois again taps the most alert and observant of river elves, asking a few if they’d be willing to take permanent roles as the flotilla’s Eyes in the Dark. He warns them against sea elves again, but in consideration of their assistance in alerting the flotilla to the flash flood, defers to their best judgment for anything they notice that may be dangerous. This uses the Cloak and Dagger trapping of Spycraft and rolls 1 Ability die: 1 advantage, 0 successes, 0 triumphs

Military: With everyone expressing so much concern over locating the perfect location for their future Winter Quarters, Litoria dispatches Pathfinders using the Reconnaissance skill in the swamp to the northwest of Fort Alfyr (-2,3). This uses 2 Ability dice: 0 advantage, 2 successes, 0 triumphs.

Mental: Eina and Smilisca get to arguing about which would be more useful, a magical way to flesh out horribly undetailed maps, or a magical way to predict the weather. Smilisca goes to find Acris to break the tie, but the apprentice is hip-deep in the shells of last night’s oysters, peeling the mother-of-pearl from their insides to keep for material components, and he smells terribly fishy.

Eina takes her default victory while Smilisca is distracted by his apprentice, and attempts to research methods for magically predicting the weather. This uses the Magic trapping of Spirituality with 1 shiny Proficiency die: 2 advantage, 0 successes, 0 triumphs.

Partager slowly makes its way along the coast and parks for the rest of the season in the swamp between two yet unnamed rivers. They stop somewhat inland. (-3,3) Messengers to Fort Alfyr ask if they have any requests for next year’s upriver journey.

Results

As you pass through Fort Alfyr, the blade elves welcome you! They have heard of the difficulties you faced, and are quite proud of how triumphantly you overcame them. They invite you to stay for at least a few days to a week to enjoy the company.

For Alfyr appears to be steadily improving, and they’re even building a port for their fishing vessels.

Economic - Part 1, Rafts: Congratulations! The Aspect Construction Rafts has been added to Partager! These rafts are relatively simple affairs for now, mostly being simple workshops with cranes and portable scaffolding. However, the river elves have taken full advantage of the lessons learned from the rapid construction of the fall hopper and have set up the rafts to be as efficient and useful as possible. Though the rafts appear simple in nature, many of the engineers and construction workers who assisted in the construction of the fall hopper decide to make this their permanent career. Partager now has a wealth of experienced and clever construction crews to assist in building projects.

The Construction Rafts can be invoked as an aspect to assist in Infrastructure checks to build settlements or aspects. In addition whenever Partager assists in a construction project (whether invoked or not) they automatically add one advantage to the results thanks to the experience of the engineers and construction workers in the settlement. This trait will persist even if the Aspect is improved later.

Part 2, Trade: Gathering wood is simple enough. The newly constructed rafts appear well up to the task, as well as able to carry a significant amount of heavy supplies. Thankfully, where you are closer to the coast has older and denser trees allowing you to harvest some quite sturdy timber.

Partager now has the Lumber Shipment temporary aspect. This aspect doesn’t count towards the settlement’s total, but cannot be invoked in your favor without spending a fate point. It can, however, be traded freely. In addition, due to the quality of lumber you were able to find, the check to trade this lumber will have the difficulty reduced by 1.

Political: Your recruitment drive is relatively successful. The watchers you have recruited thus far are more than happy to continue their task of keeping an eye out for spies and interlopers. This turn, things seem relatively quiet. A few blade elves visit the settlement as you pass by and are more than happy to enjoy your hospitality, but all seem genuine and nobody snoops around.

Your call for Eyes in the Dark definitely finds some of your watchers who are more than willing to make their current extra duties a permanent career. Many even speak of making a specific group for watching over the river elves, though it’s all just talk - for now. Your next Spycraft: Espionage check will have a boost die.

Military: Your Pathfinders return successful from their scouting mission for Winter Quarters. Indeed, the area seems like it may be excellent. It is a mostly brackish tidal swamp, with a mangrove forest along the coast itself. The mangrove forest is particularly interesting, as it’s extremely rare to find one this far north. The mangroves shield the rest of the coastal swamps from saltwater and harsh weather, making the more inland portions of the wetlands far more habitable for river elves and meaning that the territory is a mixture of saltwater, brackish, and freshwater wetlands.

This mixture of environments mean that the territory is wildly abundant in marine life. Then mangroves provide an excellent environment for small marine life, and the shielding effect of the mangrove mean it contains both breeding grounds for deeper saltwater creatures as well as freshwater. From smaller creatures such as shellfish, crustaceans, bivalves, and insects to basically anything that preys on them, such as birds, reptiles, amphibians, and a wide variety of fish. Perhaps alarmingly, your pathfinders report seeing both alligators and crocodiles in the territory.

Perhaps most interesting, your pathfinders return with a type of wood that they have never seen before. This wood has bone white bark, slightly whiter sapwood, and nearly pure white heartwood. They report it comes from a large species of mangrove tree that is nearly pure white, with golden colored leaves.

The wood itself is incredibly lightweight. Smilisca’s initial examination of it makes him believe that the wood is full of extremely tiny pockets of air, or perhaps a gas lighter than air. It is almost certainly magical in origin, somehow. Further research would be necessary to understand this strange tree, but for now the properties of the wood itself are readily apparent. It is massively lighter than other types of wood (even darkwood,) and seems extremely water resistant to the point that it nearly repels water. It is, however, softer and weaker than other woods. Raftbuilders who examine it believe it may be possible to exploit those traits to make extremely fast, if fragile, boats. As far as exploiting it large scale, that may be difficult as the trees appear rather rare.

The territory has the following aspects:

• Coastal Wetlands - The square has a mix of freshwater, saltwater, and brackish tidal swamps, as well as a large mangrove forest
• Vibrant Ecosystem - The mangroves provide a perfect habitat for large amounts of marine life, both fresh and saltwater.
• Mysterious Mangroves - This previously unknown and unnamed white mangrove tree grows in this area, though it is rare enough that large scale use of it may require careful planning to be sustainable.

The unnamed mangrove wood has the following stats as a special material:

Any item made from this rare wood is considered mastercraft and weights 25% of a normal wooden item of that type. Items not made of wood gain no benefit from this. Any item crafted from this material has the DC of any strength checks to break it reduced by 2. Armor, Shields, and Weapons may be made of this material, but have the fragile quality unless they have an enhancement bonus of at least +1. Armor and Shields made of this material reduce their armor check penalty by 2.

Boats made of this material move at double their normal speed as they cut through the water with alarming ease.

Excited about the find of exotic wood, it is immediately declared Bois ClairBright wood, in obvious opposition to Darkwood.

Mental: Creating a ritual to predict the weather turns out to be considerably more difficult than expected, and the ritual is not created successfully on this turn. Predicting the weather within a few days is a relatively easy divination, but expanding that to both a scale and duration that could be beneficial to your long term planning proves difficult. The number of factors that come into play in prediction that complex of a system that far out prove to increase the difficulty exponentially.

That said, it’s not a total failure and progress is made. Using the Spirituality trapping side steps a lot of the complexity by lumping it onto pure faith, and your diviners are able to make some progress at least in creating a framework for the ritual. The progress made determines that it will indeed be possible to create such a ritual, and your next check to develop the ritual will get a boost die.