Outlaw Life

[lithle]

Basics

If there's one thing you should consider before sending your characters off with the outlaws, it's how hard it's going to be for those who escape. While they'll have the rudiments of shelter and will be fairly safe from capture (at least at first) there's plenty they'll lack.

Food, for example. Order, for another. Also training, for those who impress. Unless they can convince a dragonrider to A. Join them and B. Explain things to them, they'll have no access to knowledge of things like 'how to between safely' and 'when it's safe to allow dragons to fly'. Their lives are going to be very difficult.

We promise not to kill your PCs. However, we do remind you that IC actions require IC consequences. Joining the outlaws is an action and their will be consequences which we expect to see played out. If you're playing your outlaw character as safe, happy, and well fed without suitable explanation, then yes, you're doing it wrong. And yes, we will be in contact with you on the subject. Your character is, of course, free to prefer outlaw life. But it needs to be understood that living in the jungle isn't going to be all candy and roses.

[lithle]

Details

Location: The outlaws will be living in a cave system a few days ride from Warden's Weyr. Jessan has pre-arranged stopping places along the way, with shelter for the whers. The cave system is invisible from the air, due to the thickness of the vegetation. It's large enough to safely house the humans and whers, but changes will have to be made if it's to shelter adult dragons.

The location has a natural hotspring, which, with modification, might be suitable for keeping eggs warm.

Leadership

Jessan is the closest that the Outlaws have to a leader but her power is tenuous at best. While she can take credit for freeing the prisoners, her power lays primarily in her connections to some of the most dangerous killers in the group. However, they're likely to have aims of their own and her ability to keep them in check is yet to be seen.

Power in the Outlaw camp is likely to have more to do with being dangerous than with tradition or obedience. Therefore, it's the wher handlers that currently have the greatest potential to sow order or chaos as they choose. They've got the biggest, baddest creatures around. At least, until the outlaws get their hands on dragons.

Culture

It's hard to say what life at the outlaw camp will be like. There's no law, no official leadership structure. That could be bad enough with normal people. But these are killers, druggies, and thieves for the most part. Deaths are quite likely to be a fairly regular occurrence, especially at first. The outlaw camp is likely to be quite the example of a canine eat canine environment.

Dangers

Other than the obvious dangers from within the camp, the Outlaws will face dangers from without. Wild whers aren't uncommon in the jungle, they run in packs and they're capable of causing damage. Felines lurk there too, and not just the smaller sorts that are kept as pets, large, hungry ones who are good at stalking and keeping to the shadows. Oh, and don't forget the huge, poisonous tunnelsnakes. Patrols will be necessary, if anyone can be talked into the duty.

Sickness is a threat as well. The jungle offers more than its fair share of parasites and virus carrying insects. Healers aren't exactly common in the group, which doesn't help matters.

Food Sources

The Outlaws won't have the time or space to bring food animals with them. The jungle provides plenty of fruits for those hungry and clever enough to tell the difference between something delicious and something deadly. But people can't live off fruit alone for long and whers can't live on fruit alone period. Those animals who threaten the camp will likely be its best source of nutrients. Felines and tunnelsnakes are both edible, though a bit tricky to find and hunt. Wher is far from a common dish, but one can hope the creatures to be edible. Firelizards too, could provide a food source, as could their tasty eggs. Wild wherries are around, but the wild birds are smaller, with less edible meat than the domestic varieties.