Evil Rumors

No, despite certain rumors being spread about the Red Cloud and his threat to Cothon-Gadeed and the Ten Cities' League, this report has nothing to do with such developments.

Rather, it concerns Durham of the Ringing Anvil and his continued association with renyu, and the opinions of certain people in regard to such associations.

To wit:

A gathering crowd within Cothon have begun to gather day after day in protest outside the Ringing Anvil--a crowd known to contain a number of supporters of the Souffet Fadhlan as well as certain supporters of the Barcidae. They tell all who will listen that Durham and his Ringing Anvil are involved with foreign elements--non-human renyu in particular, who are supposed to have been involved with pirates and rogue-alchemists in the Ocean's Throat sea-caves--and that these non-humans and their sympathizers will no doubt be happy to see the Red Cloud successful in war against Cothon-Gadeed! Not a few people point out Durham's continued association with the foreign Hanse of the Kantor Kabljauhof, further calling into question his right to do business in the precincts of Cothon.

Though the crowd seemed largely ineffectual when first they gathered, they have continued to grow in number, especially as rumor of the Red Cloud and his evils grow ... as of this week (ending 30 April), the crowd has grown large enough to dissuade most people from approaching the Ringing Anvil for any work whatsoever, other than those who know Durham as a friend / know the value of the work done at the Anvil (regardless of political bullshit).

Durham will lose 500 dinars this week, and each week subsequently that the issue is not dealt with, in order to support his employees at the Anvil through this shortage of work. If he can weather these costs up to 2500 dinars (five weeks), the furor may well blow over. If he wishes to meet the challenge Durham will have to come up with some means of demonstrating the harmlessness of his associations / or his loyalty to Cothon / or just his own innocence ... perhaps he could approach some citizen to sue his enemies on his behalf in the Courts of the Moon?

Developments with the Wasgo

Adventurer-tinkerer Durham has made no secret of his general appreciation for the renyu poeple, between his long association with his ever-loyal renyu-servant Pako and his spearheading the effort for freedom for and alliance with the Wasgo Tribe of renyu in the Ocean's Throat sea caves.

He has even called on the Wasgo to help garrison the one-time secret pirate fortress in those same caves, and named the place Fort Doghouse (whatever its historical name might once have been), to secure it against the interests of sakkra dwelling in the caves, as well as against the return of any pirates.

So it should be no surprise that he has now invested further in the Wasgo and the Doghouse fort:

Durham spends 3000 dinars on the Wasgo tribe. Mainly to help secure and grow Fort Dog House with some development for the tribe itself. The money is roughly split three ways; defence, infrastructure and education.

For defence Durham will hire men-at-arms (bowmen and spearmen) to help reinforce the garrison of Renyu there. As well as the purchasing of another ballista and lumber to construct another defensive platform on the other side of the cave. Durham would also like to hire Sslaan the Shen to be commander of Fort Doghouse for the time being, for who better to defend against pirates and sakkra than a seafaring sakkra warrior.

For infrastructure, Durham will hire fishermen and trappers. To help supply the fort with a source of fresh food by setting up crab traps, fishing nets and snares

For education Durham would like to hire a martial artist (perphas Bridne Murcada) to help train a few elite warriors to master their claw weapons through advanced hand to hand combat. Furthering his plan of developing a ninja unit of Wasgo warriors, numbering nine strong. Also sending a select few who wish to see if they can have magical power to Lord Althis of Crag keep.

Fort Doghouse

About two months ago, a company of barbarian-adventurers (though including citizen Sesel in their midst) entered into the Ocean's Throat sea-caves and thence returned to Cothon on the decks of the captured pirate galley Darkwing, to much admiring excitement by the Cothoni crowds and the Hansemänner of the Kantor Kabljauhof.

Immediately following his interview with the Hansemänner that very evening, Durham of the Ringing Anvil, accompanied by his renyu servant Pako, gathered several boatloads of supplies into the Darkwing and (with its skeleton crew of about 10 rugged seamen pulling the oars) returned to the Ocean's Throat. What he later reported was that he had secured the secret fort out of which the pirates had been operating--a fort carved into the living rock of the caverns themselves!

How had he secured it? With the assistance of the Wasgo Tribe, a group of renyu he and others had freed not long ago from the tyrannical leadership of the rogue alchemist Yramrag. The Wasgo continue to dwell in the Ocean's Throat, not far from the fort, and so rallying them to garrison the secret fort--now christened "the Doghouse"--was not difficult.

Not exactly accurate, but this gets the general layout of the place; there
should actually be room for two ships, one one either side, and the loading
beach on the left hand side (which would be north) is bigger ...

Holding onto Fort Doghouse may be another matter, however ...

Durham and Pako have both reported, on their return to Cothon, that the Sakkra of the Hsi-Hsiyya tribe who dwell in the caverns nearby came sneaking into the caves around the Fort to see if they might claim it for themselves.

Admittedly, the Sakkras' case was not entirely without merit ... the Sakkra Kaa having assisted in the defeat of the pirates before succumbing to the fortunes (the misfortunes) of battle. And their appearance not unwarranted for subjects wishing to know what had become of their fallen Kaa.

Well, according to Durham, he gave them a stern warning that the Kaa had fallen in battle with his warriors--to a lizard!--and that such was the fate of those who did such evil to supplicants they hold at their mercy. For, when they had had their initial dealings with the Kaa, a company had left Kalon, a proselyte of the Sakkra prophet Zh'kar the Blind, in the court of the Kaa--and when they returned to seek the Kaa's aid in defeating the pirates, they found that Kalon had been imprisoned!

And so Durham pointed out that indignity to the Sakkra scout-envoys, and enjoined them to consider that perhaps Zh'kar had indeed laid up vengeance against them in his stores, and that perhaps they had better look to their own house before attempting to expand into others--or something to the effects of those words. Who remembers what exactly is said in such a heated moment?

Well, it has been two months since the Sakkra came sneaking around the outskirts of the new Fort Doghouse, and word among the renyu is that some kind of internal disturbance continues to distract the reptilian creatures. But such cannot last forever--and the Sakkra are decidedly not the only ones with eyes on the Ocean's Throat caves ... a base so close to major lines of trade will surely have been a sore thing to lose for the Luwian Pirates; might they not also be mustering a force to reclaim their former holding?

Time will surely tell ...

Claws and Armor

But Durham has not been idle in the meantime. He has sent his servants out for supplies--some to the Souk in Cothon for suitable metals, some to the Great Spire of the Attine Klackons for the true-black carapaces of the dlakolel-beetles they sell in the market there.

Between these purchases, Durham has embarked on a mission to arm the renyu of the Wasgo well, with "claws" or "tines" to augment their own natural weapons, alongside dark "chitinothorax" armor of dlakolel-black to aid in their natural tendencies of stealth.

These arms are just beginning to be completed en masse at the Anvil, and to be delivered to the Wasgo, so it is not yet clear just how effective they may be, but they certainly promise much!