Smuggling Wars

The Smuggling Wars was a conflict fought in River's Rest that began in 5018, M.E. and continues to this day

The Smuggling Wars began after the Great Cataclysm which struck the region of River's Rest in 5018. The earthquake raised land near the town through which the Tempest River flowed. As a result, it created the Tempest Falls, and destroyed any further chance of practical river navigation from River's Rest to destinations up river. This had a crushing affect on one of the local illicit professions, river piracy. While some pirates moved up river, others turned to smuggling to make their profits. This drove them into straight conflict with a pre-existing smuggling network.

The smuggling network had been in existence for decades and had developed its own rules and rituals in accordance to their profession. The pirates turned smugglers ignored them completely. This lead to a direct confrontation between the old and the new. The term war was applied loosely, as there were no battles or generals leading armies. Instead, it became a struggle between two groups which lead to back alley stabbings, mysterious disappearances, and further forms of violence and intimidation. It was not war as it is commonly considered. For the most part it took place in the narrow alleyways and in the back rooms of taverns, in the warehouses along the docks, and in the marshes and fens. It consisted of furtive stabbings and assassinations, boats vandalized or set ablaze, barrels and crates of smuggled goods destroyed or stolen. The fighting was mean-spirited, savage, brutal and conducted entirely without any consideration of honor or dignity. Only one pitched battle took place, although it would be more accurately described as a drunken brawl. Nonetheless, it resulted in more than a dozen deaths.

In the end there were no clear winners, only survivors. Smuggling ceased to be a grand tradition and became just another common crime. The animosities sparked by the smuggling wars continue to this day.

Recent Events

Hostilities had always lain underground between the pirates and the smugglers, but it wasn’t until recently that they boiled over out of the Warrens and into the streets. In an ambitious bid to increase his standing, Casler Huntington, took many promising Lefant smugglers in a daring seizure of a Royal Barge. Successful in his venture, Casler was sailing the barge back home when a violent storm took the lives of all aboard. The pirates, led by Valons and his ruthless Lieutenant, Messers took advantage of the weakened smugglers and began to assert themselves.

In the months ahead word reached the ears of the smugglers, pirates, and Imperials that Casler was still alive and headed for home. The Imperials dispatched a special investigator named, Haniks, to follow-up on the rumors and bring Casler to justice for his audacious crimes. The inspector, however, found very few allies amongst the adventurer population and his brutal reprisals earned him very few leads. It was Cerianna Lefante, the daughter of the patriarch of the Lefante organization that clued most of the populace in about Casler Huntington. A former lover of Casler’s, she let it be known that he was the disowned son of a Fairport noble family that rose through the ranks of the smugglers and became the adoptive son of her father’s.

The wanted River Rat made his presence known during a daring attempt to rescue some citizens from the clutches of the town’s most hated enemy: the Krolvin. Along with a number to the town leading adventurers, Casler led an attack on the carrack to free the enslaved citizens. With his presence known, the violence on all sides grew to a fever pitch with many folks choosing to side with the pirates, the smugglers, or Haniks. Some folks met with attackers in the night, while others were brutally tortured by Messers in the Warrens.

In the end, Messers was able to take Cerianna captive in hopes of driving Casler into folly. Despite her being held in Messers’ secret room in the Warrens, she was able to get word to Casler that she didn’t want him to come to her aid. She indicated that the pirates were ready to crush the smugglers and that she still, and always had, loved him. Shortly after, however, a hooded stranger began circulating amongst the population looking to give over his fell cargo to Casler. The stranger let slip that he delivered a second package to Messers, as well. It was Luukosian Deathwort, the same poison that had killed the Empress Mynal'lyanna Anodheles and sent the victim through the Ebon Gate never to return. The stage was set.

Messers loosed his thugs upon the town, taunting the defenders and Casler alike. It wasn’t long before he used his deadly poison on Cerianna. Enraged Casler convinced Messers to face him alone. The fight was quick. Messers was killed and the deathwort on Casler’s blade ensured the pirate’s fate.

Cerianna was buried in the River’s Rest Graveyard outside the town, but the hostilities remain. The death of Haniks, the imperial inspector, was also marked across the Bay. It remains to be seen whether or not the events will be enough to garner more Imperial attention the small outpost, but it seems very likely that the Smugger’s War is not yet over by a long shot.