In the pale moonlight
We then decide to make all necessary preparations for the arrival of new refugees in Sawyer. So back to Sawyer it is. When we arrive at the main hall and ask for governor Roderick, we are told that she's currently in a meeting with Mr. Pemberton, so we'd have to wait a bit to see her. After a while, we see her and another man emerge from her office and hear Roderick call Pemberton a true friend of Sawyer. The two then bid each other farewell and both seem a bit surprised to see the two of us waiting there.
Roderick assumes that we just returned from Pallita, only to be even more surprised when we tell her that we already spoke to King Aodhan and told him about the issues in Sawyer. Pemberton, being a thin and angular man in his late forties, introduces himself as head of Pemberton Industries and claims he's happy to shake hands with the new knights of Risur and heroes of Flint and Sawyer sooner than he'd expected. Still, Carlyle senses that he's a bit uneasy about our presence here as if we're the last people he needs around him right now.
(Let's just hope he doesn't plan anything fishy now that he got the gratitude of Roderick...)
He leaves quickly afterward and we join governor Roderick in her office and tell her about our visit in Slate. She's quite happy about the prospect of working closer together with the mainland. We then tell her that we might just bring new refugees soon. Refugees who are to be officially rescues from King Vardanis' territory despite coming from “elsewhere”.
Roderick gets that the details about the refugees' origin are top secret, so she doesn't dig much deeper, but she seems concerned that there might be troubles ahead. We stress out that while this is top secret indeed, we are in close contact with the King, so no need to worry about betraying risuri interests.
(Walking the thin line between telling too much and raising suspicions...)
As we don't want her to get entangled in the specifics, we simply ask her to prepare shelter for roughly 20 eladrin, most likely only women and children, and to get them a counselor who'll help them get accustomed to life in the Covenant. Seems like Roderick can live with that.
As soon as this is settled, Carlyle uses a teleport spell to get us close to a town near Beaumont where the Avery Coast train stopped for the first time. There we take the guises of Monsieur Pompadour and his less linguistically talented manservant and buy tickets for the slow train that's stopping at all neighboring villages. Once aboard the train, handsome Mr. Pompadour starts chatting and flirting with quite a few elderly danoran women and finds out that the Traverses are a rather rich family of tiefling heritage who live in an estate near a town called Frojmont.
(In case you were asking who's playing who: Auryn clearly has a thing for posing as flamboyant men while Carlyle doesn't object to not talking every now and then)
So we get off the train in Frojmont and rent a room in a local inn, claiming to be on a trip to visit distant relatives of Pompadour who live in the countryside. There, we take quite some time to inconspicuously gather rumors and information about the Traverses and their estate. We then take an elongated stroll through the nearby farms and hamlets where we also pass by the Traverse estate. From outside, we can see a large mansion surrounded by vast lands. There is a well-tended garden in front of the mansion where a family is having a picnic. We also spot a couple of slaves working for said family and another building that appears to be an old castle and decide to take a closer look.
So we continue our stroll, turn invisible and return to said castle. We find a group of eladrin children inside, playing in the courtyard while being watched by female guards and one eunuch. We don't see any of the missing women or signs of imprisoned eladrin men, but we assume that they'd be inside the castle as well.
We withdraw from the Traverse estate to discuss our further proceedings. As the Traverses appear to have many employees, slaves and also kids of their own, we decide against eradicating them all. Which also means that we'd need a scapegoat to cover our strike. Fortunately, we just learned of one crazy individual who's also allegedly in the slave business and who could have even been the one who sold some women to the Traverses a few decades ago.
As our plan has to be flawless, we realize that we first need an authentic letter from King Vardanis. So we travel back to Elfaivar to get the fitting ink and paper and then ask one of the eladrin veterans to write a letter where King Vardanis, the Shining Light of Elfaivar demands to get back the women he gave the Traverse family back in the day or else. We then enhance the forgery by adding the King's historic crest and seal and go back to Beaumont.
When we take the train to Frojmont again, we are quite surprised to come across four well-armed eladrin men who, judging by their uniforms, are part of Danor's Red Tiger company. They appear quite organized and we manage to snatch a message they got from their quartermaster where they are promised “the usual benefits” for their good services. Seems like we just found Isobel's Nightelves.
We discuss taking their visit as an opportunity to cement King Vardanis' involvement in ending the Traverses' business and make the Nightelves pay for their crimes at the same time. So we wait until the four eladrin have entered the estate and sneak into the building later that evening. There, we wait patiently until the guests are brought to separate rooms in the guest wing of the house. We agree that we have to stop them before they can cause any more harm to their suspected unwilling partners, so each of us follows them to a different guest room.
While waiting for a perfect opportunity to strike, we are both quite surprised to see that the Nightelves actually do know common courtesy and that their encounter with the Traverse eladrin would probably be more akin to being respectful customers than to be ravishing beasts. So Auryn is a bit baffled when she sees “her” Nightelf bowing calmly before disrobing and it takes her quite a few moments to finally knock out the unsuspecting eladrin man. She then reveals herself to the woman and asks her to swallow her fear, calm down and stay quiet. She then explains that she's here to rescue her captive sisters which is why they'll have to leave immediately. The woman appears to be both glad and unsure, but she insists that she won't leave without her daughters.
Meanwhile, Carlyle takes no time to knock out his Nightelf, but he fares much worse in calming down the eladrin as he's seen as a human invader. Luckily, he can fetch some alchemical anesthetics before her screams can alert the whole estate to the intruders. We then repeat the process with the other two Nightelves before we wake up the unconscious woman and explain her that we came to get her and her family out of this hell.
We leave through one of the windows and, once we feel safe, discuss how to proceed. The four women can give us directions and describe where their children are being held at night. They also tell us about the guard's routines and we get the expression that these guarding girls (and that eunuch) were treating them poorly and with much force.
“Then they'll deserve their fate” Auryn whispers before Carlyle explains that the servants of King Vardanis would leave no “enemy forces” alive. So we ask the four women to hide in the darkness while the two of us sneak into the old castle and stealthily assassinate all of the guards present. We then free the children and the two remaining women and lead them to the other four. Once the family is reunited, we tell them that they are free now and that we'll bring them to a place where they are actually welcome. We just have to make sure that this Traverse business ends here and now, so we ask them to wait a bit longer until our mission is fulfilled.
We then return to the main estate to find out more about the trafficking business of the Traverses. More precisely, we wish to find out who got their hands dirty and who's to be considered innocent.
“To make one thing crystal clear: I won't help you kill children, no matter how cruel they might have been to the eladrin.” Carlyle says sternly as they both scan through various documents and sales accounts. Auryn looks completely estranged in response just as if someone just claimed she loves torturing puppies.
“You know me. I would never harm a child. And even if they were cruel, they will still have more than enough opportunities to change and mature.”
Carlyle seems satisfied with that response and together we find our that there are currently six members of the Traverse family living in the estate: Lord and Lady Traverse, both tieflings, their juvenile son, their young daughter, the Lord's brother and his wife, being the sole human. Among the adults, this young woman seems to be the only one who never appeared in any sales document, contract or correspondence about the eladrin which is why we consider her to be innocent. This offers a bit of relief as she'll be the one to witness the strike of “Vardanis' men” and might act as caretaker for her niece and nephew afterward.
We then sneak into the private wing of the estate where Carlyle summons a wall of ice to block off any means of escape and muffle all sounds. He then points out that everything else is Auryn's business and her decision. However, when she openly muses whether it would be more humane to kill them in their sleep, Carlyle puts a hand on her shoulder and whispers:
“More humane for whom? It'd be easier for you, of that I am certain. But don't they deserve to know who came here to judge them and why? You're not an assassin, you're passing a sentence.”
Auryn nods silently. “You're right. I shall not tread lightly tonight.”
She then takes on her haunted, dark fey aspect and walks into the Traverses' bedroom with Carlyle following her trail. She then wakes them both, staring at them with glowing, violet eyes. Believing this to be some weird case of robbery, Monsieur Traverse offers the intruders all the money they wish in return for mercy. Seeing the twisted irony, Auryn finally raises her voice which sounds cold as ice.
“You ask for mercy when you gave none yourself. You and your family committed unforgivable crimes and cruelties against my sisters and my people. You bred them like cattle, imprisoned them, sacrificed them to soldiers and sold their children to slavery. Your never ending greed destroyed countless lives. But this ends tonight. Now you shall pay the just price for what you've done.”
She then pieces the man's heart with a swift thrust of her rapier. Madame Traverse faints a mere moment before Auryn's strike pierces hers as well. She then silently leaves the room and moves on to her last target where she first places a sleeping spell on the human woman and then goes on to judge the other Traverse brother.
She then turns to the sleeping woman and whispers “I'm sorry that you'll have to witness all of this.”. She then alters the woman's memory and implants the cruel memory of an eladrin raid on the Traverse estate into her mind where eladrin men in King Vardanis' colors storm into her bedchamber, kill her husband and tell her that this is what happens when you don't heed the one true King's orders.
We then place our forged letter in one of the writing chambers before Carlyle kills the remaining Nightelves. After that, we return to the group of eladrin women and children who are still waiting in the dark. We tell them that their nightmare is finally over and teleport them all to Sawyer. Roderick already expected our arrival and she promises us to take good care of the new arrivals. We make the eladrin swear to never tell anyone where they came from and leave the rest to Roderick and Kaealys.
When we finally return to Flint, Auryn is shaking all over her body and she confesses that she's feeling quite sick right now despite the fact that she's relieved that the Isobel's family is free at last. She says she never expected her judgement to take such a heavy toll on her, especially in a clear case like this.
“That's only natural because you are no assassin, no cold-blooded murderer.” Carlyle says softly.
“What you're feeling right now are two aspects of you who are in conflict with each other. You're shivering because they're struggling to find out which one is right. There is that part of you who knows what you've done was wrong, the part of you who values life and who seeks forgiveness. And then there's the part of you who knows you've simply done what's just and right. The part who wishes to protect and avenge your people at any cost.”
He pauses for a moment before mustering Auryn with quite the curiosity.
“I must admit I'm a bit surprised at your strong reaction though. I originally got the impression that you were actually looking forward to taking this mission. Anyway, I can only give you the advice to take some time to properly process what happened today. I can obviously understand your need to bring criminals to justice that cannot be persecuted officially, but please don't take these deeds too lightly.”
Auryn quietly admits that she was truly looking forward to freeing Isobel's family and bringing an end to the Traverse business was naturally going to be part of it. And after freeing and avenging herself in the arena of Nalaam and killing Elanor with her bare hands, she almost felt as if killing those who'd harm her people was truly satisfying. But striking down the Traverses was no pleasure, not even satisfaction, but a heavy duty instead. A duty that's to be expected from a matriarch judging criminals.
Carlyle reminds her that the Traverses will most likely not have seen themselves as criminals as danoran rights do not outlaw slavery, so, according to danoran law she'd actually be the criminal here.
“Curse that damn danoran law. A system that's encouraging amorality and a lack of empathy, that puts no value in life, and especially not in eladrin life, shouldn't be allowed to be called law.” Auryn hisses before adding that even with such a careless law, people should actually be able to live up to certain moral standards.
Carlyle adds that he doesn't need any explanation as he understands how she's feeling. All he wishes to ask of her is to carefully consider her decisions when she's about to take or spare lives as he had to do the same when he was acting as guardian of the Vantrys family. He then admits that this mission almost pushed him to his limits and that there are thresholds he has to actively avoid crossing lest he'd fall back to old habits.
Auryn tells him not to fear as she reminds him that she'd never take lives lightly. After all, life is most precious for an eladrin like herself.
(Okay, this was most likely the darkest episode so far. At least in terms of PC actions.
First, yeah we tried to delegate the mission to various Vekeshi but ended up doing it anyway. I really don't regret it as it pushed both characters to their limits. Going against the Traverses was a test for both of them for different reasons.
First, there is Carlyle who did similar stuff for the Vantrys family but left that path behind when he joined the RHC. If you remember his first adventures, he was even more uptight and rules-adhering. For example, in our very first mission he suspected Auryn to have an unregistered second job as bar singer and to use some of her plants as narcotics (which she obviously did for relaxation) and totally called her out on that. In reality, this was just his way to distance himself from his own vigilante past.
When he realized that he cared for the eladrin people as well, he allowed his old self to reappear, a process that truly started with Isobel's rescue. And I guess he fears that he might lose himself in returning to a “pro-active way of dealing with injustice” as he'd call it. Which is why I think that he's started to use Auryn as part of his moral compass as well. All while trying to help her navigate in this new territory as he doesn't want her to go through the same troubles he had to on his own.
Then there is Auryn who really wanted to help her people and who totally knows about her duty. But Carlyle hit the nail right on its head here: She's struggling with her perceived duty as strong protector, avenger and judge and her love for life and her need to induce change.
As for why this situation was so completely different from that one in Nalaam where she did indeed feel the heat of combat and even enjoyed killing Elanor? Because this was about herself and ultimately a power struggle. Elanor had rendered her helpless, a situation she could only stand because she had faith in her friends. After having been stripped of her power, she naturally felt that rush of power returning and a direct need to avenge herself and punish that woman who took her power away from her and who tried to sell her like an object.
On the other hand, the Traverses were totally defenseless compared to her. They didn't stand a chance and Auryn executed them while she was in total control of the situation. So even if they truly deserved it, this didn't feel completely right for her.
Also, this seems like a good spot to discuss alignment. Or rather the difficulties one can have in placing a simple measurement like alignment on characters like these. For Auryn, this works okay-ish because she is generally altruistic, has a lot of empathy and is a protector of the weak. Even if she does some morally grey actions and has pretty dark thoughts, especially when she's being disillusioned. She's equally a dutiful traditionalist and neurotic perfectionist as well as unconventional, emotional and creative, adhering to law (and enforcing it) while also being open to interpret it freely. And even if it might very well be her sense of duty towards Elfaivar that may break her eventually, I'd overall consider her neutral good.
For Carlyle, this is way harder and I found myself unable to give that character a concrete alignment. Then I talked to Carlyle's player, who didn't know either, picked up his character sheet and found that he had written no alignment on it at all.
Like Auryn, Carlyle is extremely dutiful and he's following strict rules. He's also utterly loyal to a point where he'd break said rules to serve those he loves or to do “what has to be done”. He's very orderly and follows risuri customs and traditions while also asking others to question their own traditions (hah, also like Auryn). He hates violence, but is the first to strike if he has to. He can be caring and is an empathetic protector of the innocents but can be utterly ruthless while doing so. Especially if he's frustrated or dealing with wannabe-tough guys. He's quite cruel when he calls out people who screwed up on their tasks – he absolutely loathes incompetence. And he tends to stick to what's his job when considering morals.
So all in all I'd place him as more lawful with a touch of good-ish. But I'm keen to hear about your opinions as well )