Chapter 1: Hope?

For those in chains or cages:

You've never known the sea quite like this. You hear the waves battering against the walls of the ship. Everything is wet and the iron holding you is cold. You can't see when the next wave picks you up and tosses you, turning your stomach. You see a human male a couple of rows in front of you lose grip on the oar.

Xugug's cruel face appears in the space above the hold. “Everyone must row! Row you worthless excuse for a rat or I will throw you to the sharks!” His whip snaps out across the air just as lightning illuminates his grinning face. The human crumples under the whipping and falls slumped over. A human girl sitting next to him screams and tries to pull the unconscious slave back up. Xugug yells at them to get up and row. Nobody else dares to stop rowing to help in fear of what might happen. Xugug jumps down into the hold, snarls, pushes the girl out of the way and picks up the unconscious slave.

Grinning savagely he looks around making eye contact with you. With his other hand he pulls out a dagger and slowly slits the slaves' throat. Blood sprays everywhere as Xugug lets go of the body. “A reminder to you all.” He climbs out of the hold. You glance down and see that the water at your feet has turned red. The girl is sobbing and clinging to the lifeless body.

Later, another Orc climbs down into the hold. You don't know her name but she looks different then Xugug. Maybe it's the color of her skin, or maybe it's her eyes. You can see her eyes are definitely different than Xugug's. While both are red, they lack the cruelty that's very evident in Xugug's. You can't quite hear what she's saying as she talks softly with the girl. The slave flinches at first but finds her seat and slowly picks up the oar. The Orc takes the body and carries it up, out of the hold. You hear a faint splash. At least he no longer needs to struggle.

Cold. You can hardly remember what it is like to have feeling in your toes and fingers. You’ve been at sea for months under the cruel whip of Xugug and his vicious crew. You remind yourself that you are alone in universe. Fellow slaves who you have sat beside have slowly died around you. Some from the whip, some from the cold. Hope doesn’t exist for you. There have been times when the ship has neared land and you could see it between the cracks in the ship boards, but you were not allowed off. Stale food is thrown down and the others scrabble for it, fighting like wild dogs. The months have blurred together.

Bump. A feeling that you haven’t felt in… You peer through a small crack and see that you have landed on a beach. You are confused. Maybe you have died during the night and this some place… after? Moments later you hear Xugug bellow, “All right you scum! Winter is coming and I need grog! I’mma going to sell you to whoever is willing to buy ya worthless lot!”

You fall on your face as your feet hit the sand. The sunlight reflecting off of it is blinding. What misery is next for you?

• Near fall, clear skies.
• The slaves were chained near a temporary encampment of Orcs. There were about 30 or slaves in total.
• Knurig, the slavemaster posted 4 guards to guard the prisoners.
• Sharn plotted with Meabh and Firia to dose the guards with sleeping potion during the night. Fog rolled in.
• Xugug appeared and started causing a commotion and was knocked down by Sharn.
• The party escaped to the woods to the north and traveled along a mostly dried up riverbed.
• They met an Orc party of 3 in the woods. Sharn talked to Tog and he seemed nicer than some of the other Orcs. She didn't tell them about the runaway slaves.
• They decided to double-back and head south until they got close to Smallwater.
• Just outside of Smallwater they met a few foresters. They were local peasants. The party talked with one of them who told them a little about Smallwater and the Orc invasion of Pelonia. Apparently Bucham and Sealeford have also been taken over.
• The party sneaked into a storeroom in Smallwater and recovered certain necessities like clothing and spent the night.
• The party overheard Orcs talking about an upcoming invasion to the south of a place called Soutley Fort. It's about 200 miles to the South but that is straight through the Ingerham Marsh, a place where the Orcs could not get through and never returned. Instead the Orcs would need to follow the road about 1000 miles around the marsh to attack.
• In the morning they got busy acquiring various items like tools and a horse and cart.
• They headed south and met a beet farmer. After talking with him they learned about the king of Pelonia, King Gerould the Devoted and about a god named Valor. He also told them about the strange people who live in the marsh called the Mambir and that it is very dangerous to travel there.
• They continued south until they reached the Wadesevain River, a fairly large river. Here they camped at night and were attacked by 6 wolves, after slaughtering their horse.
• The current plan is to turn the cart into a raft of some sort.

• Most of your starting items have been acquired, including some copper pieces.
• 20xp

• Why did Sharn help the slaves? I'm interested in a deeper reason why she would free them, and also follow them. (I know you “had” to for party reasons, but what's the narrative?)
• I'd really like to get to know your character's desires in this new land. It's true that very little is known at this point, but I'd like to get into their heads. Going home (wherever that is) seems almost impossible, at least at this point, so in light of that what are their goals? What are their short term goals? What are their reasons for sticking together?
• How serious would you like the campaign? I've been rewatching RWBY and like their combination of silly yet serious. I'd like to get this a bit more dialed in and to meet all y'all's expectations. What are your expectations regarding this?