|
Alzar had been thinking about building an actual navy of his own to help patrol the entrance to the Great Bay and the trade routes that go right by his holdings. Now he has one vessel, taken at sea. That gives him an idea.
That night Alzar rests, and memorizes a slightly different set of spells. Over the next three days, Alzar scrys and locates 7 pirate vessels at sea, and captures them and brings them back to his March. Using Mass spells, Confusion, Chaos, Evard’s Black Tentacles, Water Elementals, Skulltrap, Wail of the Banshee, the Gem of Delusion and a lot more, Alzar has begun to wreak havoc on the pirate trade in the south, and simultaneously added 7 more vessels. One vessel he captured the first day by teleporting to the harbor, and meeting with a nasty pirate about to board the ship, and he cast Virus Charm on him. A day later he had charmed 80% of the crew.
In some cases, his friends are staying on board. Alzar orders a nice Drydocks to be built in Evenarrow (for 35000 gp) that will cost a few months to construct.
Soon, the pirate ships here are coming with a local wizard that has been hired out to cancel Alzar’s tactics of using Mass Charm or Domination, and they found out about the Virus Charm from one of the other people that got through.
As pirate ship after ship arrive, turn themselves over, and Alzar’s jails are crammed full or riff-raff of various sorts, Alzar’s popularity soars even more. As his herald points out, Alzar has done more to end piracy in the area in four days than the King did in four years. Clerics of the local temple are using their base detection spells to ensure that people who are tried are responsible, and folks who didn’t know, or were in the wrong circumstances or somesuch are freed and help to work the boats. For example, some people were captured by the pirates and forced to work the ship or be killed. Those aren’t in trouble, it’s the people that were willing accomplices and people who enjoyed it, people who pushed the laws.
More than a hundred guilty pirates from Landfall are executed that week. The Duke of Landfall has issued a formal complaint with Ericall over Alzar taking Landfall people and finding them responsible and executing them. But just as the King did nothing to stop the Duke’s people from raiding others, he’s not likely to do anything with Alzar either. He’s the Do-Nothing King.
(You think this is just Alzar’s impression of King Ericall? Here it is from a DM’s sourcebook:
“Ericall believes this string of events to be the result of bad luck, and doesn’t realize that he’s just not a very good king.”
The events are referring to Landfall, Oceansend, Leeha, people breaking off in the War, etc.
Here is the assessment of Ericall, a page later:
“His ambition is to be a great king. But he’s naïve, even after a decade of kingly rule. He doesn’t like paperwork and managerial duties and relegates them to subordinates of varying levels of ability; he doesn’t listen to criticism or advice, or admit to mistakes; and he still smarts because he feels he was his mother’s least favorite child (he may be right) and was the object of her ridicule and her magic-using children. He tries to be too perfect, and is doubly harsh on himself whenever he fails.”
There you are.
|