Superstar! and the Kingpin's Payout
The action below took place between April 9th and June 1st, 2193.
Theft-focused raids have been a longstanding problem in the Medegia region of Western Cromwell, but recently a group has abruptly started killing people, which has led Cromwell to feel it was worth of bringing them to the attention of outside bounty-hunters. “Sneak in and steal food” has turned into “sneak in and murder a whole farming family and their workers in their sleep, vanish with all their stuff”. They have been deftly avoiding engagement with actual security forces, and have been harder to spot and track. They are thought to flee into to the mountains to the southwest. Superstar! was hired by the government of Cromwell to look into these attacks and deal with the threat. With decent horses and carts, we expected the journey out to take just over a month.
Pheraguat decided to fly out to Medegia on his hippogriff for some advance scouting, actually doing this while Magic Lad was identifying items from the party’s prior encounter. He ran into someone he knew at the nearby Cromwellian military outpost (Saer Hills Depot), a “special forces” woman named “Spider”. It was noted that Jennifer Hookhill, a human fighter and Regent’s courtier, and Site Bowlength, an elven fighter/magic-user and Regent’s courtier, were about a week north of here fighting drug dealers**, and could be available for aid if needed.
[** = see also, the Ninth Telvar Open, taking place in Towlemere in the Salt Sea region of Western Cromwell, in which both of these figures appeared.]
Unfortunately, the aid was needed a little closer to home. While Pheraguat was waiting for the party to meet him in Medegia, the party got ambushed on the road halfway there, rendering his actions and most of this engaging backstory largely moot.