Tales from the Bizarre Reappearance of House Dodger

[JDodger]

Greetings again, I return for the are pee. This thread will compile (hopefully) all my RPs from the new iteration of my account.

To catch yourself up on Dodger lore across the various iterations of my account (started in '07, restarted in '14 and again in '20 - ffs), please visit my original wiki at: http://wiki.battlemaster.org/wiki/Dodger_Family (this includes outdated information on current locations and other things that have since been retconned, and leaves out many things that have occurred since it was last updated - ie. much that is "non-canonical")

And the forum thread "Wolves of War: House Dodger" at https://forum.battlemaster.org/index.php/topic,7263.0.html ("canon")

As well as "The Continued Adventures of House Dodger" at https://forum.battlemaster.org/index.php/topic,8716.0.html ("canon")

Dramatis personae: (to be added later)

[JDodger]

1: The Death of the Imperator-King and the Rise of Kilhorn

Roleplay (Perdan):

A black sailed ship, ragged beyond belief, limps into the port of Aix.

Such a ship inevitably draws more attention than most.

A ghost ship, or so it seems. Old superstitions abound in the Golden City, and priests of all kinds emerge from their dens.

A crowd gathers and chants are heard, same old same old but different.

A new fervor. Bells toll. Bridges are raised. Guards and militia in the street. Looting in the poorer quarters, efficiently sequestered from the golder parts of the city.

The ship is allowed to dock against all regulations. Riots feared. Duke's orders or so they say.

The crowd numbers a thousand or more. Expectant and rabidly poor. They hiss and yowl like alley cats in the torchlit gloom before dawn.

Then from those in the good places a shout of jubilation. A hero's welcome.

Kellan Dodger emerges from the forecastle. Alive and well after all these years. The word goes up. The once lord, duke, king, imperator-king.

His eyes are wild and dark, his unkempt hair swinging behind him in the breeze. He calls out, "There is no God but the All-Creator -"

His throat opens, pouring blood. From behind him steps a shadow of malice. Yellow eyes set deep in barky brown skin, sharpened teeth bared for all to see.

The Imperator King is dead. The crowd melts in rancorous grief. The looting ceases. Fear laces the air from the water to the inner quarters.

Kilhorn and his killers walk the streets.

Public letters
(should be noted that the King of Perdan, Kay Peregrine, had just died)

Message sent to all nobles of Perdan (43 recipients) - 2020-06-01 09:19:01

The kings are dead

So is Perdan

Kilhorn

[JDodger]

2: The Sons of the Prodigal Warleader

Public letters

Message sent to all nobles of Avernus (12 recipients) - 2020-06-01 12:09:28

I am here brothers, I swear myself to the Khalkar in my father's name, I have been ever so sworn. My palms are scarred and my sword is ours.

Jonn Shintuk Dodger
Knight of Nifelheim

Message sent to all nobles of Avernus (12 recipients) - 2020-06-02 04:52:43

Travel is slow, where may I pay allegiance to my liege and swear the Steel Oath with him? I will make haste to recruit scouts and meet at a guildhouse of the Khalkar.

Jonn Shintuk Dodger
Knight of Nifelheim

(I won't include replies to these letters, but they would indicate that JS' father Jonn was once Warleader of the Khalkar and is well known to some of the Avernian nobles)

Roleplay
(re-enter Karl-Jagutu)

Strange to be in Avernus after all these years, JS thought as he wended his way toward Nifel.

Karl-Jagutu swaggered even on camelback, and he seemed to like the big two humped Fellish breed, which was really a Cathayan breed Jonn had brought over.

And of course Karl-Jagutu smoked and sang, and JS did not, but the Udorians liked them both.

And they were ready for war, whether there was war to be had or not.

Notes:

JS is Jonn Shintuk's preferred nickname.

Cathay was a realm on the Far East Island that Jonn led to victory in the Last War of the Far East over the forces of Sorraine, Myern, and the Grand Duchy of the Dragon. JS was an infant when FEI sank and Jonn returned to Dwilight, bringing Cathayan camels with him to Swordfell.

Udorians are natives of Garuck Udor, more properly known as 'Udur. Please see http://battlemaster.org/testing/RegionDetails.php?ID=143

[JDodger]

3: The Fallen Warleader's Loyal Captain (re-enter Heimar)

Public Letters

Message sent to all nobles of Sandalak (25 recipients) - 2020-06-01 19:24:06

Greetings, nobles of SAndalake

my master is inDisposed so be patient with me

I am merely a servant writing on behalf of a wounded and comtoes man

Heimar on behalf of

Jonn Dodger
Knight of Dwamon

Message sent to all nobles of Sandalak (25 recipients) - 2020-06-01 19:24:46

We will fllow orders as best as abel please instruckt

Heimar on behalf of

Jonn Dodger
Knight of Dwamon

(These letters are written by Captain Heimar who served both Jonn and Kilhorn previously. What is going on with Jonn will be explained somewhat in future RPs, but to all appearances he has reappeared as a much younger man, wounded and in a coma, attended by Heimar and some healers and guarded by Revenants - Kilhorn's strange and ghoulish servants and most lethal killers)

[JDodger]

4: The Secret World of House Dodger, Part 1
(these are interwoven RPs across multiple characters)

Kilhorn: Message sent to all nobles of Perdan (43 recipients) - 2020-06-02 05:04:54

The nine diabhalin guard the entrance to Kilhorn's mind, and they are the ones in control, or so they think.

Jonn: Message sent to all nobles of Sandalak (25 recipients) - 2020-06-02 05:05:49

Jonn guards the 3imaad with a sword of light

Jonn Shintuk:Message sent to all nobles of Avernus (12 recipients) - 2020-06-02 05:06:51

The shadowless sword is a sword with no shadow

Jonn:Message sent to all nobles of Sandalak (25 recipients) - 2020-06-02 05:12:17

The brim of his hat is wide, and the nine diabhalin sit in anger upon it, and within Kilhorn lies torn and bleeding, but he bleeds upon himself alone

Kilhorn:Message sent to all nobles of Perdan (43 recipients) - 2020-06-02 05:13:19

In Aix, Kilhorn's eyes leak blood in tiny drops unseen by any but himself

JS: Message sent to all nobles of Avernus (12 recipients) - 2020-06-02 05:13:56

Jonn walks with his sons though they see him not except in dream

Message sent to all nobles of Avernus (12 recipients) - 2020-06-02 05:15:34

The Fellish camel is more properly a Cathayan camel, originally used in the high and hot places, but used now to the high and cold.

Glossary:

Diabhalin: Darkish (Dark Isle of FEI native) word for "devils"

3imaad: (Transliterated) Arabic for "pillars (3 or more)"

Shadowless Sword: Ultimate sword style of the Khalkar, the pinnacle of achievement in swordsmanship in the Darkish tradition

[JDodger]

5: Kilhorn (or is it Jonn?) Plays Politics, or: The Secret World of House Dodger, Part 2

Roleplay (Perdan):

The nine thousand nine hundred ninety nine diabhalin are cast down to the seventh earth

Jonn's hat is repopulated by other creations

Kilhorn cries and not for the last time



Message sent to all nobles of Perdan (43 recipients) - 2020-06-02 14:05:18

Did you not receive word that Kellan is dead killer

He was famous once

But I am more famous

Kilhorn

[JDodger]

6. Shadow of Malice

Roleplay:

The hubbub caused by the appearance of the creature known as Kilhorn Dodger - and especially his merciless slaughter of his own brother, the former Imperator-King Kellan - had died down quickly, as it seemed as though the hooded shadow of malice had arrived, sent a bunch of seemingly disjointed letters, killed a few people in the streets of Aix, and then simply disappeared.

But those who had paid attention at the new King's coronation may well have noticed a cloaked figure, half-hidden by shadow, standing still and silent against one of the pillars in the back. And if they had taken the time to look closer, they would have seen in the flickering torchlight the flash of sharpened teeth in a savage grimace, and a clawed, rough-skinned hand convulsively gripping upon the hilt of a longknife.

No one had paid enough attention to notice this figure's disappearance or to where it had disappeared.

Some days later, mangled and dismembered bodies begin to appear on the road between Perdan and Perdan Mines, their limbs and smaller appendages arranged in grotesque but geometrically precise patterns, and the rumors begin again...

[JDodger]

7. Death in the House (Part 1)

(Note: This picks up essentially where JS' last letters/RPs left off, though it was written and sent two weeks later RL time)

Jonn Shintuk and his Udorians marched back toward Nifelheim, their new scouts riding ahead to learn any news, and also to distribute food among the commonfolk. JS' father, the Warleader Jonn, had taught him that new men should be given simple missions that would increase their loyalty, and JS hoped that allowing the new men to be the instrument of their young, foreign lord's magnanimity to their own people would do just that. Indeed, most of their faces had lit up when the bags of grain had been passed around, and they all rode off quickly to do his bidding - most likely back to their own homes and neighborhoods throughout Nifel, but that was just as well.

Most had come riding back smiling, even if some brought word of slow roads. But the last one to return had a face of ash, and when pressed for news, he could only say that the young lord should follow him, and quickly.

JS looked around with some misgivings. Karl-Jagutu, his elder half-brother and self-proclaimed "advisor", had disappeared in the night and could not be found. It was possible that Karl-Jagutu, the wild Abakan swamprunner, the former Khan of Aren who comported himself without an ounce of royal bearing, had run off with some girl of the streets under the influence of the noxious narcotic mixture he called "Tiger's Blood" - a mix of the infamous Arenese Babar elixir, Bloodmoon fruit, Udorian raaha, ikrif, and a lesser-known substance called "mogweed" - a mixture known to send him into bizarre, raving frenzies from which no man could calm him. Was he somewhere sleeping off his ecstasies? Or had he perhaps been led into some trap? Was that the reason for the scout's blood-drained countenance? Was the scout leading JS himself into a similar trap? There was too much he had yet to learn of these northern lands.

Try as he might, JS could get no more news from the Avernian native. "Fine," he said at length, "lead me where you will. My sword and my heart belong to the All-Creator, and upon Him I will rely." This last comment earned some confused looks from the local scouts, but his Udorians nodded in approval. "Lord Uncle," he continued in the Udorian dialect, addressing his Captain, Telos men Fabri, his mother's brother. "I will lead the way, but let your killeen* guard my right flank, and keep your falcon-eyes open."

"By the Will of the All-Creator," Telos replied in the same tongue, "let it be done, my Lord Nephew. Udorians! For the love of your God, your people and land, and your Lord, Jonn Shintuk, son of Jonn, may all their deeds be accepted! Ride with care, for we ride to ill news or ill fortune. Mark the face of this scout, and if he betrays us, take his head first!"

JS shook his head, smiling - he had no need to tell his uncle of his suspicions for the elder Udorian warrior to know them in full. Telos men Fabri was the son of the greatest of the Udorian merchant-princes, JS' grandfather Fabri men Bolkos, who had bound his house to that of the Dodgers of the Dark Isle when he married his daughter Talea to Jonn Dodger, who had been at the time the Lurian Lord of Garuck Udor. That marriage had led to the birth of Jonn Shintuk himself, and Telos had been fighting wars and shadow wars already at that time. Even now, in his fiftieth or so Springtide, his long beard and hair growing grayer year on year, Telos sat straight and strong in his saddle, and was known to be able to shoot a sparrow out of the sky from a thousand yards with a single arrow. He had been ordered to guard his nephew with his life, and had done so since the disappearance of Lord Jonn (the elder), leaving his beloved homeland and travelling to the frozen north out of honor and loyalty. JS was gladder to have him than ever, now that he had come of age and would go a-warring under his own banner.

But even faith in the All-Creator and a Guard-Captain of the caliber of Telos the son of Fabri was not enough to cure the misgivings in JS' heart as he and his Udorian Guard wended their way toward the gates of Nifelheim, following a scout whose face and frame slumped with sorrow and agitation.

*killeen - a curved Udorian saber, used both for mounted and dismounted fighting in close quarters. 

[JDodger]

Dodgers of Dwilight Dramatis Personae

Jonn Shintuk Dodger - main character, young knight, son of Jonn Dodger

Jonn Dodger - father of JS Dodger, former Khalkar Warleader, King of the Dark Isle, veteran General/Marshal of multiple realms on multiple continents, former Lurian Lord of Garuck Udor, last seen in Swordfell, but disappeared for years (currently on South Island, unbeknownst to the DWI characters)

Karl-Jagutu Dodger - JS' elder half-brother, son of Jonn Dodger by a tribal chieftainess of the natives of Abaka in the Colonies. Former Khan of Aren. Known for his bizarre speech and behavior, as well as copious drug use, but also for many victories in the Colonies during the Aren-Oritolon war

Fabri men Bolkos - Merchant prince of the native Udorian people, considered minor nobility under colonial Lurian rule, but now head of the Majalsi-'Udur (Udorian Council) which rules Garuck Udor independently in the post-Lurian era. Married his daughter Talea to Jonn Dodger during the latter's lordship there under the Lurian banner

Talea men Fabri - JS' mother, wife of Jonn Dodger, currently in residence in her father's court in Garuck Udor

Telos men Fabri - JS' uncle, Fabri's son, Talea's brother, Captain of JS' Udorian Guard, veteran of many wars and shadow wars on behalf of his father and his brother-in-law Jonn

For more information on the Udorian people please visit: http://battlemaster.org/testing/RegionDetails.php?ID=143

Many of these characters are originally introduced here: https://forum.battlemaster.org/index.php/topic,7263.0/msg,160066.html

[JDodger]

7. Death in the House (part 2)

As JS and the Udorians drew within sight of the city gates, JS' heart sank into the pit of his stomach. He shot Telos a wild and wide-eyed glance, found his uncle already looking back at him, trying his best to look calm and failing utterly.

At the gates of the city, a train of camels - not the two-humped variety JS and his men rode, but the one-humped kind, the Palm Sea camel. Some of them bore richly decorated hawdahs, from within which could be heard the quiet weeping and chanting of Udorian women. Among and in front of the camel train stood Udorian men armed and armored in the traditional spear, killeen, buckler, iron cap and scale mail of the warriors of the 'Udur. Raising their hands to the sky, they chanted loud enough for JS to know if not really hear the words - the chant of mourning.

An Udorian mourning party, come all the way from Garuck Udor across the Bridge of Ciarin and miles unnumbered on camelback. This party was not sent with word of some warrior's wife - that would have been sent by seagull. No, a party at this distance, with this number of people and richness of dress and arms could mean only thing.

Death in the House of Fabri.


*hawdah - a carriage used on camelback or elephantback by the Udorians for the comfort and safety of women, children, the elderly, or sometimes men of high rank