After fifteen days, Shasta returned with the refugees and the two goblins who had been taught the dwarven nguage. I spent three days interviewing all the refugees with the help of Shasta as a transtor. Of the thirty-twees, six have det reasons for being here as refugees under Elloetta's guidance, and the remainder are direct family members of those six.
One olitical leader named Lu Armand who started spreading the rumors of The King and Baron's death at sea over a month before it could have happened. As far as I could tell from the versation I had with him, he awn for Elloetta. He had kept up some amount of es with the elves even after the majority of Rathnd's political elite had cut ties with them. He had gotten multiple 'tips' from elves that The King and Baron had died at sea right away, and so he had acted on that information in a way that he believed would stabilize his region in Rathnd. Needless to say, what it really resulted in was civil war breaking out far in advance of any actual problems for Rathnd's actual leadership.
As the civil war dragged on, his region was slowly taken over, and he fled the try with his wife, mother-in-w, and five kids, two of which are adults. The principality that is now in trol of the region has a bounty out for his family, and Elloetta wants to keep them hidden. Although Lu wouldn't reveal the exact details of the bargairuck with Elloetta, the basics of the situatiohat Elloetta seems ed about some informatioing out if he were to end up captured ba the ti. I'll keep that in mind when I talk to Elora about settling our debt to the dark elves.
Although Lu may not be the best example of a political leader, given how things turned out for him, I'm sure that he still has valuable skills when it es to managing rge numbers of people. I'll likely set him to work in city hall, though he won't have any direct power. Much like Elora, I'd like to get some goblins to work with them and learn their skills. Managing and deg on loerm jobs and pnning for crop ine and taxes aren't easy to do year over year. Until now our city has been small enough that we simply have a food surplus. We've also only retly started delegatiain expansion work out via Zeb. Ideally, Lu will be able to fill the role of pnning out certain needs like new marketpces and workshops before we hem rather than after.
The sed of the refugees of note was a harbormaster from Lu's territory. From what I gathered from him, he ed to report when elven ships used the harbor he oversaw, in exge for a kickback from the elves. From his testimony I'm starting to form an idea as to who exactly the elves wao move so far away from the mainnd. He also fled with his family. Despite the fact he's clearly willing to accept bribes, if we decide to attempt to build a full fledged harbor, it will be o have him around for information.
The hree refugees further reinforced that the refugees were elven colborators. All were individuals in Lu's territory who colborated with the elves in some way or ahat either directly or ily caused the civil war to break out earlier than it would have due to information spread by the elves. Two were merts who traded with the elves and gave them rides on carriages across Rathnd's territory. The st of the three ran a particurly rge inn that multiple elves used as a base of operations while they stayed in Rathnd.
Ultimately, of these five, Lu was the st to flee. For the rest of them, elves came fairly early into the civil war and enced them to flee the try for their safety. There were other individuals who were also waro flee, and those that didn't heed the warning ended up dying in one way or another. From the stories that were told, most of the is sound like brutal iions with local authorities, but based on the evidence, I 't rule out that the elves themselves were just sileng partits in their spirabsp; Though I'm not sure why they wouldn't just kill all their co-spirators if that was the case. I'll think on that theory and keep a for any other clues that might lead me one way or another.
Before Shasta brought i of the refugees, I was given multiple dots reted to them and she gave me a briefing on what Kao's group could figure out about them. The person iion is currently going by the iberius Lysandre, but it was clear in the dots that this wasn't their name before. Uhe other individuals who are here of their own free will to some degree, Tiberius was kidnapped initially befreeing to e here.
That was somewhat uling informatio was revealed. We aren't looking to bee a criminal state, and even hosting the individuals we have now could be seen as an unfriendly act towards the human tries who want them babsp; Kao's group aid a hefty sum not to look into who Tiberius actually was, but I aid no such fee, so I decided to pry.
From the versation we had, it was clear that Tiberius was some form of magical researcher in Rathnd. Further, they seemed to be an integral part of designing the steam on that was featured in the ship that Rathnd used to attack us. As the versatio on, it sounds like Rathnd reverse engineered an initial steam on from "the demon's pirate ship" ohey captured it, and then modified it to use Rathgore blood as a faster firing device.
I had assumed that the person who I saw studying our steam ons a few years ago in the middle of the night had already studied the blood powered on as well, but from what Tiberius says, things don't line up for that. I am impressed that oively short notice they seemed to vergently e up with the idea of usiain kinds of blood to boil liquid and create a steam powered on like ours. That teology was born from y for us, and once we had the means to make gunpowder, it started to go obsolete in light of rifled ons and mundane cartridges.
Tiberius wasn't too happy by hat we had fohe magical resear favor of rifled artillery though. He agreed to e here and hide his identity because he believed that there was insight into magical teologies that we have and he wao tinue his researto it. Apparently, the reason he's hiding his identity is that his actual name is well enough known that there is a det ce it would be reized and would cause problems for all parties involved if wot out that he was here.
Well, I've wao start researto magic for some time, but I've personally found myself g the time or jumping off point to do so. Tiberius ing here might be a good starting point for that, although his moral pass seems a bit dubious. More than that though, from what information Tiberius gave us, I think I've started to get a good picture of what happened in the past few years, and I think I o have a word with Elora.
If my hunch is correct, it seems like all of the events that have happened in the past few years probably be bmed on the elves. While it isn't impossible that Rathnd made the demon pirate ship, I'm starting to suspect that the elves may have do as a method foading Rathnd into war with us. I don't have any direct proof, and probably couldn't even prove it in a ving way, but I might be able to at least use the information to get our debt removed if I use these refugees as bargaining chips.
I'm thinking Elloetta moved all these particur refugees here so that everyoed to why Rathnd colpsed as a try is in one location with dubious reputation. At this point, if wot out that all these individuals who seemingly had a hand in the colpse of Rathnd were found on our isnd, most people would assume we were behind the whole event, rather than the elves. We could, however, threaten to immediately ship them back to the mainnd ahem testify that the elves were behind the whole thing, and that would cause political turmoil, which is probably why Elloetta left Elora to keep an eye on us.
That works two ways though, and I io use it. Sure, it might upset the elves somewhat if we do so, and I am still afraid of them, but if both us and Kao were used as pawns just so Elloetta could get rid of Rathnd, then I doly see it as fair that we're also paying them money after having so many individuals die. To what degree Kao is aware of the situation, I'm not sure, but I suspect that he has his own suspis.