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<blockquote data-quote="Lylandra" data-source="post: 7488950" data-attributes="member: 6816692"><p><strong>A dead boy's madness</strong></p><p></p><p>When we return to Delft's office to tell him about the most recent complication, he's more than worried. We discuss whether these terrorist attacks might be connected to something the Obs got planned for the peace conference and that they might simply be another, yet utterly cruel, layer of distraction. Delft says that troublesome as that may sound, we now need to keep an eye open for these nihilistic terrorists as well. </p><p></p><p>However, he just got something that may aid us in getting us coordinated with the rest of the RHC and presents five magical feathers. A gift from Gale, he says, a sign of her goodwill. We take a closer look and find that these are messenger feathers that enable us to communicate with each other almost instantly. We decide to leave two with Delft (in case he needs to send out another team), get one delivered to the King (or Lee, should he feel the need to be Aodhan's secretary), hand one to Carlao and keep one for ourselves. </p><p></p><p>Then we travel towards the Nettles as we suspect that if anyone knows about a fey lord who's capable of commanding his kin that'd be other fey. Also, Auryn adds that Ekossigan won't be comfortable hiding in places with too much industry as that's making fey uncomfortable. She herself had to adapt to all the clicking and ticking and dirt and smell when she came to Flint and she's only an Eladrin, not a fey born in the heart of the Dreaming. </p><p></p><p>Unfortunately, we find no traces of fey at all. There are no signs of Dreaming energy as well, so this plan needs some serious adjustment. Still the absence of traces is a clue in itself, as there must be a reason why the fey disappeared. And as we know that Ekossigan can attract other fey with ease, we guess that he might be hiding somewhere nearby. So we decide to pay the old mansion of Macbannin a visit as we've heard that King Aodhan sent Dame Jillian, his Green Knight, to take care of Macbannin's barrier and Cauldron Hill. And if someone had knowledge of fey, then this would be the Green Knight. </p><p></p><p>On our way there we get the feeling that the citizens of the Nettles have not only returned in masses, but are also quite upset about the current absence of a mayor. With Macbannin, they say, they at least had someone who'd listen to their troubles. But the new people there are only interested in magical stuff. We're quite irritated about the fact that no one bothered to at least appoint an interim counselor or asked the Green Knight to take care of the locals as well. Also, we're a bit troubled by the amount of people who already returned as Nevard's vision made it clear that danger will arise twice, not once. But alas, people don't wish to follow mere visions and live in shelters for an unknown time span.</p><p><span style="color: #008000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #008000">(Now we know that the plan was to make Ethelyn mayor after her pardon, but leaving no one as official counselor? That just doesn't feel right)</span></p><p></p><p>So we head to the Mayor's manor, introduce ourselves and ask for any signs of unnatural fey activity. Dame Jillian didn't notice anything unusual though and says that the barrier is weakening, but still strong enough to withhold the dark forces while the seat of mayor is vacant. We tell Jillian about the peoples' troubles and ask her to maybe do some basic counseling hours so the citizens won't feel neglected, but she replies that this is simply not her job. She's tasked with the supernatural security and that's it. We also mention that the “second darkness” might be soon emerging from Cauldron Hill, so we might need to evacuate the people from the Nettles right now or at least make a proper evacuation plan, but fall on deaf ears again as she explains that she's exactly doing what the King wants her to do. </p><p></p><p>Auryn feels a sudden rush of anger and so she fetches her magical feather, presents it to Jillian and says that we can have a talk with King Aodhan right here, right now, as this item is directly connected to the one in the King's possession. </p><p></p><p>“You know we have protocols for transferring royal orders, my dear? Bring me an official appointment and I'll see what I can do.” Jillian says, pretty unnerved by the constables' insistence. She then says that she still got important work to do, so we might wish to start looking for our missing fey in the Cloudwood.</p><p></p><p>Being unnaturally taciturn, Auryn almost spits out a sneering “Yeah, fine! We'll do that!” and marches out. </p><p><span style="color: #008000"></span></p><p><span style="color: #008000">(Ouch, that was a pretty bad start. Jillian probably thought we were just some nosy officers who think of themselves as being more important than they are while we thought of her as being a cold-hearted bitch who's just adhering to her protocol. Slowly slipping under Ekossigan's influence on top of all that terrorist stress didn't help as well.)</span></p><p></p><p>As soon as we leave the estate, Auryn vents her frustration about Dame Jillian's reluctance to be of any kind of help for them or the people of the Nettles. She says that they should be working towards a common goal: keeping Flint, its citizens and the peace conference safe and not blocking each other. Also, letting the people return to the Nettles was a highly irresponsible move by whoever made that call and she fears that whenever the second darkness hits Cauldron Hill, many might die this time. She goes on to rant that the King, more than anyone else, should know about the importance of the connection between the people and his own power, which is why losing the approval of the Nettles' citizens poses a danger in itself. Then, she curses Stanfield for not thinking about installing a liaison to his office for the period of vacancy. </p><p></p><p>"It seems as if everyone just forgot about the responsibilities of a position of authority and leadership!"</p><p></p><p>Carlyle tries to calm his colleague down. He says that while it is quite sad that the citizens of the Nettles have been abandoned like that, it wouldn't be right to forbid them from returning to their homes for an unknown period of time. Also, managing the city and governing the Nettles isn't our job. Finding Ekossigan is. Auryn reluctantly agrees, even if she, being taught to take on the responsibility of a community's leader one day, feels like this all is just one big, horrible mistake.</p><p></p><p>As we cannot find further clues on Ekossigan, we travel to Cloudwood, the only place in Flint that's even wilder than the Nettles. Here, we finally find older trails of fey, but no fey themselves. It almost seems as if the earth somehow swallowed them all whole. Hoping the the citizens of Cloudwood don't share the fate of their fey neighbors, we head to the biggest village of the district that's also the seat of the local mayor and hosting a small police station. </p><p></p><p>We are a bit surprised that this village is more crowded than usual as there is quite a mob that's formed around one of the police officers, a female tiefling. The people claim that there is a child murderer who's roaming freely in Cloudwood, stealing and killing their children. When we ask them what this fuss is all about, they claim that the police, namely this “devil lady” is doing nothing to help them with their woes. </p><p></p><p>Auryn straight up confronts the policewoman with these accusations, but the tiefling answers that there was simply one dead child that had been found ad there hasn't been any reports on missing children either, so the people are clearly making up stories based on pure assumptions and fear. Having heard enough of nonsense today, and realizing that the people do not tone down their aggression despite that perfectly clear situation, Auryn then turns to the people to give them a lesson on proper listening and thinking before acting. This backfires badly and now the people accuse her of siding with the policewoman who's clearly a witch and maybe in league with the killer. </p><p></p><p>Carlyle assesses the situation for a moment and then narrows his voice as he's got a clue on what's truly going on.</p><p></p><p>“Keep a clear mind, they are clearly not themselves right now. And whatever is influencing them and stirring their emotions seems to be getting a hold onto you as well.”</p><p></p><p>“You... you're right. Something isn't right here”</p><p></p><p>Auryn then concentrates on a spell that includes a soothing, calm melody to remove the urge of getting violent in all those present. She instantly snaps out of her own anger as well while the mob dissolves and the people return to their normal life. The policewoman thanks us for our intervention and adds that she really doesn't know what has gotten into them. </p><p></p><p>“Something that plays on negative emotions. Very subtle magic. And we really need to find the source for it.” Carlyle explains and asks her to see the dead child. </p><p></p><p>She warns us that the kid isn't a sight for feeble souls, but we assure her that we've seen worse. The woman leads us to a table with a naked boy who's all covered up in green runes. It seems as if he had been strangulated by a rope. What's even more unsettling is the fact that several of his bones are broken, as if he was hit by something massive. He also bears small cuts, probably from running through the undergrowth. </p><p></p><p>We assess the runes and find that these are fey runes, used to place an ancient curse on the family of the deceased child. The curse, we remember from ancient tomes about olden fey magic, is said to hex the child's family with discord, rage and growing hatred of each other. But while we are sure to have correctly identified the curse, we still don't know why this kid's curse if affecting so many people of Cloudwood in a rather subtle way instead of affecting a family the usual way. Maybe the child is related to many of Cloudwood's citizens, but who would be the closest family then?</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #008000">(Okay, this was more than cruel. And while it is true thyt we've seen worse, Auryn loves children, so seeing this dead boy hurt her very much. If this was truly Ekossigan's doing - which was likely the case - then she'd have at least one big reason to despise him)</span></p><p></p><p>To get rid of the curse and free Cloudwood, we ask the police officer to take the child to the RHC where Margit, who's able to deal with diseases, curses and the like, will hopefully be able to bring the people back to normal. She first insists that this child is a murder victim in her own district, so the body needs to stay here until the culprit is found. We can change her mind though as soon as we show her the letter from King Aodhan and tell her that this might actually be a Fey Lord's doing. </p><p></p><p>As we are already in Cloudwood, we take a small detour to ask the druids in the artist's enclave about their opinion on the curse and the dead boy's parents. We find them in a heated debate on who has the rights to open a certain barrel of wine, so we use the same spell as before to stop this madness for now. The druids then confirm our assessment about the curse and agree that the people in Cloudwood are maybe all related by blood somehow. But even they know nothing about a missing child or a family that's gone mad. Or a rogue Fey Lord. </p><p></p><p>On our way back to the RHC, Carlyle takes the opportunity to talk a bit about Auryn's calming, magical influence. He admits that he's really impressed by her way of defusing an explosive situation and that he had feared he'd have to knock out a few commoners to keep them from attacking the policewoman. Auryn thanks him for the compliment but adds that it was actually him who realized that they had all fallen under a spell, including herself. For the spell, she explains that while she's a more than able fighter, she prefers to find a peaceful solution first. So using magic that is both soothing and showing its targets that violence will hurt themselves in the end seemed like a proper way of handling the situation. </p><p> </p><p>We then bring the child to the RHC and head back home.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lylandra, post: 7488950, member: 6816692"] [b]A dead boy's madness[/b] When we return to Delft's office to tell him about the most recent complication, he's more than worried. We discuss whether these terrorist attacks might be connected to something the Obs got planned for the peace conference and that they might simply be another, yet utterly cruel, layer of distraction. Delft says that troublesome as that may sound, we now need to keep an eye open for these nihilistic terrorists as well. However, he just got something that may aid us in getting us coordinated with the rest of the RHC and presents five magical feathers. A gift from Gale, he says, a sign of her goodwill. We take a closer look and find that these are messenger feathers that enable us to communicate with each other almost instantly. We decide to leave two with Delft (in case he needs to send out another team), get one delivered to the King (or Lee, should he feel the need to be Aodhan's secretary), hand one to Carlao and keep one for ourselves. Then we travel towards the Nettles as we suspect that if anyone knows about a fey lord who's capable of commanding his kin that'd be other fey. Also, Auryn adds that Ekossigan won't be comfortable hiding in places with too much industry as that's making fey uncomfortable. She herself had to adapt to all the clicking and ticking and dirt and smell when she came to Flint and she's only an Eladrin, not a fey born in the heart of the Dreaming. Unfortunately, we find no traces of fey at all. There are no signs of Dreaming energy as well, so this plan needs some serious adjustment. Still the absence of traces is a clue in itself, as there must be a reason why the fey disappeared. And as we know that Ekossigan can attract other fey with ease, we guess that he might be hiding somewhere nearby. So we decide to pay the old mansion of Macbannin a visit as we've heard that King Aodhan sent Dame Jillian, his Green Knight, to take care of Macbannin's barrier and Cauldron Hill. And if someone had knowledge of fey, then this would be the Green Knight. On our way there we get the feeling that the citizens of the Nettles have not only returned in masses, but are also quite upset about the current absence of a mayor. With Macbannin, they say, they at least had someone who'd listen to their troubles. But the new people there are only interested in magical stuff. We're quite irritated about the fact that no one bothered to at least appoint an interim counselor or asked the Green Knight to take care of the locals as well. Also, we're a bit troubled by the amount of people who already returned as Nevard's vision made it clear that danger will arise twice, not once. But alas, people don't wish to follow mere visions and live in shelters for an unknown time span. [COLOR="#008000"] (Now we know that the plan was to make Ethelyn mayor after her pardon, but leaving no one as official counselor? That just doesn't feel right)[/COLOR] So we head to the Mayor's manor, introduce ourselves and ask for any signs of unnatural fey activity. Dame Jillian didn't notice anything unusual though and says that the barrier is weakening, but still strong enough to withhold the dark forces while the seat of mayor is vacant. We tell Jillian about the peoples' troubles and ask her to maybe do some basic counseling hours so the citizens won't feel neglected, but she replies that this is simply not her job. She's tasked with the supernatural security and that's it. We also mention that the “second darkness” might be soon emerging from Cauldron Hill, so we might need to evacuate the people from the Nettles right now or at least make a proper evacuation plan, but fall on deaf ears again as she explains that she's exactly doing what the King wants her to do. Auryn feels a sudden rush of anger and so she fetches her magical feather, presents it to Jillian and says that we can have a talk with King Aodhan right here, right now, as this item is directly connected to the one in the King's possession. “You know we have protocols for transferring royal orders, my dear? Bring me an official appointment and I'll see what I can do.” Jillian says, pretty unnerved by the constables' insistence. She then says that she still got important work to do, so we might wish to start looking for our missing fey in the Cloudwood. Being unnaturally taciturn, Auryn almost spits out a sneering “Yeah, fine! We'll do that!” and marches out. [COLOR="#008000"] (Ouch, that was a pretty bad start. Jillian probably thought we were just some nosy officers who think of themselves as being more important than they are while we thought of her as being a cold-hearted bitch who's just adhering to her protocol. Slowly slipping under Ekossigan's influence on top of all that terrorist stress didn't help as well.)[/COLOR] As soon as we leave the estate, Auryn vents her frustration about Dame Jillian's reluctance to be of any kind of help for them or the people of the Nettles. She says that they should be working towards a common goal: keeping Flint, its citizens and the peace conference safe and not blocking each other. Also, letting the people return to the Nettles was a highly irresponsible move by whoever made that call and she fears that whenever the second darkness hits Cauldron Hill, many might die this time. She goes on to rant that the King, more than anyone else, should know about the importance of the connection between the people and his own power, which is why losing the approval of the Nettles' citizens poses a danger in itself. Then, she curses Stanfield for not thinking about installing a liaison to his office for the period of vacancy. "It seems as if everyone just forgot about the responsibilities of a position of authority and leadership!" Carlyle tries to calm his colleague down. He says that while it is quite sad that the citizens of the Nettles have been abandoned like that, it wouldn't be right to forbid them from returning to their homes for an unknown period of time. Also, managing the city and governing the Nettles isn't our job. Finding Ekossigan is. Auryn reluctantly agrees, even if she, being taught to take on the responsibility of a community's leader one day, feels like this all is just one big, horrible mistake. As we cannot find further clues on Ekossigan, we travel to Cloudwood, the only place in Flint that's even wilder than the Nettles. Here, we finally find older trails of fey, but no fey themselves. It almost seems as if the earth somehow swallowed them all whole. Hoping the the citizens of Cloudwood don't share the fate of their fey neighbors, we head to the biggest village of the district that's also the seat of the local mayor and hosting a small police station. We are a bit surprised that this village is more crowded than usual as there is quite a mob that's formed around one of the police officers, a female tiefling. The people claim that there is a child murderer who's roaming freely in Cloudwood, stealing and killing their children. When we ask them what this fuss is all about, they claim that the police, namely this “devil lady” is doing nothing to help them with their woes. Auryn straight up confronts the policewoman with these accusations, but the tiefling answers that there was simply one dead child that had been found ad there hasn't been any reports on missing children either, so the people are clearly making up stories based on pure assumptions and fear. Having heard enough of nonsense today, and realizing that the people do not tone down their aggression despite that perfectly clear situation, Auryn then turns to the people to give them a lesson on proper listening and thinking before acting. This backfires badly and now the people accuse her of siding with the policewoman who's clearly a witch and maybe in league with the killer. Carlyle assesses the situation for a moment and then narrows his voice as he's got a clue on what's truly going on. “Keep a clear mind, they are clearly not themselves right now. And whatever is influencing them and stirring their emotions seems to be getting a hold onto you as well.” “You... you're right. Something isn't right here” Auryn then concentrates on a spell that includes a soothing, calm melody to remove the urge of getting violent in all those present. She instantly snaps out of her own anger as well while the mob dissolves and the people return to their normal life. The policewoman thanks us for our intervention and adds that she really doesn't know what has gotten into them. “Something that plays on negative emotions. Very subtle magic. And we really need to find the source for it.” Carlyle explains and asks her to see the dead child. She warns us that the kid isn't a sight for feeble souls, but we assure her that we've seen worse. The woman leads us to a table with a naked boy who's all covered up in green runes. It seems as if he had been strangulated by a rope. What's even more unsettling is the fact that several of his bones are broken, as if he was hit by something massive. He also bears small cuts, probably from running through the undergrowth. We assess the runes and find that these are fey runes, used to place an ancient curse on the family of the deceased child. The curse, we remember from ancient tomes about olden fey magic, is said to hex the child's family with discord, rage and growing hatred of each other. But while we are sure to have correctly identified the curse, we still don't know why this kid's curse if affecting so many people of Cloudwood in a rather subtle way instead of affecting a family the usual way. Maybe the child is related to many of Cloudwood's citizens, but who would be the closest family then? [COLOR="#008000"](Okay, this was more than cruel. And while it is true thyt we've seen worse, Auryn loves children, so seeing this dead boy hurt her very much. If this was truly Ekossigan's doing - which was likely the case - then she'd have at least one big reason to despise him)[/COLOR] To get rid of the curse and free Cloudwood, we ask the police officer to take the child to the RHC where Margit, who's able to deal with diseases, curses and the like, will hopefully be able to bring the people back to normal. She first insists that this child is a murder victim in her own district, so the body needs to stay here until the culprit is found. We can change her mind though as soon as we show her the letter from King Aodhan and tell her that this might actually be a Fey Lord's doing. As we are already in Cloudwood, we take a small detour to ask the druids in the artist's enclave about their opinion on the curse and the dead boy's parents. We find them in a heated debate on who has the rights to open a certain barrel of wine, so we use the same spell as before to stop this madness for now. The druids then confirm our assessment about the curse and agree that the people in Cloudwood are maybe all related by blood somehow. But even they know nothing about a missing child or a family that's gone mad. Or a rogue Fey Lord. On our way back to the RHC, Carlyle takes the opportunity to talk a bit about Auryn's calming, magical influence. He admits that he's really impressed by her way of defusing an explosive situation and that he had feared he'd have to knock out a few commoners to keep them from attacking the policewoman. Auryn thanks him for the compliment but adds that it was actually him who realized that they had all fallen under a spell, including herself. For the spell, she explains that while she's a more than able fighter, she prefers to find a peaceful solution first. So using magic that is both soothing and showing its targets that violence will hurt themselves in the end seemed like a proper way of handling the situation. We then bring the child to the RHC and head back home. [/QUOTE]
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