Session 55 (November 11, 2012)
Skard 18
We meet with Baroness Castilia.
It is true that a large daemonic army marched on the Larnelam Hills some years ago; they took some of the hinterlands, and were then annihilated. We assumed it was some of the Eldar from the Steading of the Elven Lords.
A: The Noldar do not believe so.
Then it is almost surely an Eldron. A full tor of the faerie would be the only other group that could likely do that, and that is even less likely. [We discuss sending a united group—she suggests some Tarkenians to balance the Paranswarmians—perhaps 3 and 3.]
There is also a dwarven dig.
Ah yes. Batarak Dur. The dwarves there act very oddly—not like dwarves. They are very artistic. Dwarves are almost never artistic. And for generations on end? Unheard of. And the statue is not of a dwarf—the proportions are wrong, and there is no beard on the featureless face.
There are crazy people in those hills. Some of the dwarves go mad. Some are harmless, simply wandering off to eat roots and animals in the woods. But some are given a wide berth.
It is said that some of those who work on the face are those that go mad. But not all of them.
I believe that I have been told that those who are nulls show no such effect. [We discuss this—it could be an unintended side effect (maybe there’s a psionic artifact in the head?), that Eldron might not care, there might be something else going on.]
We should perhaps send either nulls or psions.
Kit says nulls—we can’t risk sending psions if they might be rendered insane. Baroness Castillia agrees, but says that they will have difficulty—the Grand Duchess does not favor nulls. But they will try to find 3.
The third site: the domed city of the elves: I can inquire of Tarsh, but I would caution you to not be as trusting of Tarsh as the rest of the Darkness.
We confirm that we understand this. It is still deeply unsettled.
I can provide you a base—my lands of Mandrath have ports, and I can find skilled sailors and a discreet warship. We will need to take a circuitous route to avoid the pirates. But we can also increase our patrols—we seek to avoid conflict, but we also maintain a clear line.
Two dioceses that I would suggest for recruiting people on Drucien. There is a diocese in Enclaves that is utterly loyal—devoted to the Weeping Woman mostly, but loyal. The other is the archdiocese of Masque. They are also loyal, but wilder.
We agree that the people from Enclaves would be best. (Unlike the Baroness, we are not concerned about the idea that the Weeping Woman might be heterodox.)
Kit contacts her agent on the fan in the Black Forest (the White Witch’s domain).
They have been working on Batarak Dur for 1000 years or more—1200 years or so. At first they would work to the point of death, without even eating. They have gotten better about personal maintenance over time-eating, bathing to deal with the lice. The Gray Covens keep an eye on them, there are only a few thousand. They appear no threat to the border. Two years ago, several small groups of four dwarves, better equipped than most, have headed out—at least six groups and possibly more, although if they went directly north, they would presumably have died, and if they went east, they would have gone straight into the Steading. They all headed out at the same time. We don’t know what they were looking for. They simultaneously left, precisely from the place of the statute on the twelfth bell of the fall equinox, two years ago. According to the official record, for the first several days (at least), they traveled precisely the same number of miles each day.
Have any psions traveled near to the statue? The Queen has ruled for many years—it is almost like she is not human. She commanded long ago—about two hundred years ago-- that none of the Gifted and none of the Covens are to approach the statue. We spy on them with flyers, but we do not approach them. They undoubtedly spy on us.
Kit: Was that when they started working on the face? Yes, and when the madmen started leaving the statue. They are immune to many spells, and extremely violent—at least some of them.
The first one took a great toll on the White Legions, and the White Legions are very well trained. They just kept coming until they were hacked into gobbets, as if they were propelled somehow. But they were not demonically active. They do not seem to have the same immunity to priestly magic.
It was the archbishop that brought the second one to a stop. He issued a rebuke against it, the way you might with undead?
She explains that she could investigate. It might be dangerous, but we kept our part of the bargain. We took her daughter, who was touched by the light—the daughter of a seraphim and her. And so she drove her lover forth, but begged for some way to save the child. And then within days a page of the court contacted her, and her predecessor’s predecessor offered to take in the child, raise it within a decent family within the light.
[cont'd]
Skard 18
We meet with Baroness Castilia.
It is true that a large daemonic army marched on the Larnelam Hills some years ago; they took some of the hinterlands, and were then annihilated. We assumed it was some of the Eldar from the Steading of the Elven Lords.
A: The Noldar do not believe so.
Then it is almost surely an Eldron. A full tor of the faerie would be the only other group that could likely do that, and that is even less likely. [We discuss sending a united group—she suggests some Tarkenians to balance the Paranswarmians—perhaps 3 and 3.]
There is also a dwarven dig.
Ah yes. Batarak Dur. The dwarves there act very oddly—not like dwarves. They are very artistic. Dwarves are almost never artistic. And for generations on end? Unheard of. And the statue is not of a dwarf—the proportions are wrong, and there is no beard on the featureless face.
There are crazy people in those hills. Some of the dwarves go mad. Some are harmless, simply wandering off to eat roots and animals in the woods. But some are given a wide berth.
It is said that some of those who work on the face are those that go mad. But not all of them.
I believe that I have been told that those who are nulls show no such effect. [We discuss this—it could be an unintended side effect (maybe there’s a psionic artifact in the head?), that Eldron might not care, there might be something else going on.]
We should perhaps send either nulls or psions.
Kit says nulls—we can’t risk sending psions if they might be rendered insane. Baroness Castillia agrees, but says that they will have difficulty—the Grand Duchess does not favor nulls. But they will try to find 3.
The third site: the domed city of the elves: I can inquire of Tarsh, but I would caution you to not be as trusting of Tarsh as the rest of the Darkness.
We confirm that we understand this. It is still deeply unsettled.
I can provide you a base—my lands of Mandrath have ports, and I can find skilled sailors and a discreet warship. We will need to take a circuitous route to avoid the pirates. But we can also increase our patrols—we seek to avoid conflict, but we also maintain a clear line.
Two dioceses that I would suggest for recruiting people on Drucien. There is a diocese in Enclaves that is utterly loyal—devoted to the Weeping Woman mostly, but loyal. The other is the archdiocese of Masque. They are also loyal, but wilder.
We agree that the people from Enclaves would be best. (Unlike the Baroness, we are not concerned about the idea that the Weeping Woman might be heterodox.)
Kit contacts her agent on the fan in the Black Forest (the White Witch’s domain).
They have been working on Batarak Dur for 1000 years or more—1200 years or so. At first they would work to the point of death, without even eating. They have gotten better about personal maintenance over time-eating, bathing to deal with the lice. The Gray Covens keep an eye on them, there are only a few thousand. They appear no threat to the border. Two years ago, several small groups of four dwarves, better equipped than most, have headed out—at least six groups and possibly more, although if they went directly north, they would presumably have died, and if they went east, they would have gone straight into the Steading. They all headed out at the same time. We don’t know what they were looking for. They simultaneously left, precisely from the place of the statute on the twelfth bell of the fall equinox, two years ago. According to the official record, for the first several days (at least), they traveled precisely the same number of miles each day.
Have any psions traveled near to the statue? The Queen has ruled for many years—it is almost like she is not human. She commanded long ago—about two hundred years ago-- that none of the Gifted and none of the Covens are to approach the statue. We spy on them with flyers, but we do not approach them. They undoubtedly spy on us.
Kit: Was that when they started working on the face? Yes, and when the madmen started leaving the statue. They are immune to many spells, and extremely violent—at least some of them.
The first one took a great toll on the White Legions, and the White Legions are very well trained. They just kept coming until they were hacked into gobbets, as if they were propelled somehow. But they were not demonically active. They do not seem to have the same immunity to priestly magic.
It was the archbishop that brought the second one to a stop. He issued a rebuke against it, the way you might with undead?
She explains that she could investigate. It might be dangerous, but we kept our part of the bargain. We took her daughter, who was touched by the light—the daughter of a seraphim and her. And so she drove her lover forth, but begged for some way to save the child. And then within days a page of the court contacted her, and her predecessor’s predecessor offered to take in the child, raise it within a decent family within the light.
[cont'd]