PLOT SUMMARY (recap of story)

[atpollard]

January 2019 to July 2021

Cycle 1062, Day 33 to Cycle 1063, Day 11

As the game opened, the sun was setting to begin 20 days of darkness before the next sunrise and 20 days of continuous light. Like all sunrise and sunsets, it brought low tide that exposed the rocks dangerous to the ships. A large side-wheel passenger steamer was traveling dangerously fast towards the safety of the port at Gwynedd with a small, fast Privateer with an excess of sails in pursuit firing cannon shots at long range in hopes of a lucky shot to disable the ship. The steamer outran the Privateer, but was lost on the rocks off the coast of the small island of Gwynedd. Fishing boats from the community rescued most of the passengers and a salvage barge recovered the valuable engines from the sinking ship. With the onset of darkness, the survivors would be trapped in Gwynedd until ships arrived again sometime after sunrise (in 20 days).

While in Gwynedd, a party formed from a group of survivors forced together and drawn into local trouble. Even before the shipwreck, Gwynedd was suffering from a worsening crime spree that was tearing apart the social fabric of the small community. At the core was the rumors and suspicions that Gottard Hass and the new Inn he had built was responsible for the crime. This pitted the old Mayor against the young Lord of the Manor, Gottard against the owners of the old Inns, and split the merchants down the middle. The crime also pried open old wounds between different communities within the town of Gwynedd … Company Town vs Industry Park vs Old Town vs The Landings. As the crimes turned from thefts of property to more violence against people, it became impossible to not get involved. Questions led to suspicions that some political motivation was behind the crime and things became personal when strangers started shooting at the group. As the Town Council met for a critical vote on whether to expel Gottard from Gwynedd, the heroes interrupted to expose the plot of one of the council members to carve out a private fief for himself by creating the crisis and exploiting it to gain complete control of Gwynedd.

Having resolved the immediate threat from the local crisis, the group can now turn its attention to bigger things that are afoot. They have recovered an abandoned steamboat and restored transportation for themselves. They have discovered information that State Governments may be behind the sinking of the steamship and agents are willing to do a great deal more to recover a book that holds a secret to the crown of a nation … and the group may have recovered the book everyone wants from the corpse of a man drown in the shipwreck.

There are important decisions to be made and less than a week until sunrise.

[atpollard]

THE EMERALD NECKLACE
Cycle 1063, Day 13-15
Jacques acquired an emerald necklace from a woman captured on Cycle 1062: Day 38 and identified the necklace and its wearer as a member of Britannia Royalty on Cycle 1063: Day 13. The group immediately steamed forth on the semi-restored ‘Hemisphere Dancer’ to rescue the ‘princess’ from slavers before she could be sold off.
The ship stopped briefly at the Antley Knob Light to acquire maps and again at the Poage Fleet to arm the boat with a 7cm Bronze Howitzer.