More adventures, different narrator
Well, if you a looking back at this post you will notice that it suddenly tripled in size. I know retroactively editing on this scale kind of goes against the grain of a messageboard, but I thought it was
more important to put the events in chronological order for the sake of the folks trying to follow the storyline of Byzantium on the Shannon.
There was A LOT that went on between Keith’s last write-up and the ones that follow below by Sean. Jon and Jess Hanna have done a great job summarizing the action of ten play sessions below. (FYI: While the following are written from Gudlag and Aoelif's perceptions of the events, they are summaries, not stories or journal entries.)
By the time we catch you up you will find that most of the characters are 10th level. Theodorus, Nicasia, and Martaine have left the party, and three characters have died, but they got better. (Hey, it’s D&D!). Theon, Solvej, and Nyssa have joined the party.
So, here first are the summaries of adventures 31 – 39 by Jon and Jess Hanna, followed by the first narrative by Sean Holland’s new character, Nyssa. (There are references to earlier adventure write-ups, which can be found here:
http://webpages.charter.net/wpeacock/palaestra/a_logs.htm )
Before we go further, I want to thank Keith again for the first 30 adventure write-ups. That was a Herculean task. While he has lost his muse for the time being, I appreciate the great work he did and hope he decides to write up some of the following sometime soon (esp. Adventures 37-39 they were really exciting)! Thanks.
Now, on with the show…
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Summary of Adventures 31-40 by Aoelif and Gudlag
Trials of Kingship (Adventure 31)
We gathered Cimbri war bandleaders and awoke Brice. We told him ALL of what happened, regarding his father and Moriach. He took his father’s sword, and called us friends. He arranged to have a council circle and accept all challenges for kingship. There was an opposing faction present, mostly made up of a core of Moireach’s supporters. They were not eager to be led by a sorcerer. The Cimbri were a warrior people, and expected their king to also be a warrior. He was fought by Fia and her backer was a noble named Caldor and an ollave of Arawn. It seemed as if the opposition might win, but in a fluke misstep, the Young Brice won the kingship. (See epilogue) Brice accepted fealty of all landed Cimbri, and promised that after a year’s time, he would accept challenges again if they were dissatisfied with his rule.
He then had us up to his hall and offered rewards. Martaine preempted the group by stating “the goodness of your reign, and averting war with the humans will be reward enough” or some such nonsense. We left. He made our Cimbri friend Brion a landed noble and gave him Boars Hall.
We return to Tavia to discover that there was a huge Iconian army camped, and they were building palisades outside. They are under the command of Marius, an Alfar mercenary. The legion is Fae, but they are working for the humans. Aoelif met Donnal O Dare, a sidhe officer in Marius’ Army.
Shame of the Atrapes (Adventures 32-33)
We were asked by Nicasia to help discover why an old Cimbri woman’s body was left outside her home. We discovered after some investigation that a certain noble family, the Atrapes, who were the suppliers of the Baron’s wine, were involved. We knew that the family was going to be coming into town soon for a religious ceremony. During the religious ceremony, Nicasia dropped a baby’s lace scarf that had been clutched in the dead woman’s hands. It was pure drama. The accused nobles fell faint and quickly left! Gudlaug sent a rat in the carriage with the nobles and learned of their guilt in the murder. The nobles planned on having Nicasia killed since she obviously knew something of the murders. We did not learn, however, the whole story.
Aoelif and Boldolf were to throw an Alfar celebration party the same night and had hired bouncers that were known from previous parties at the Bad Pony (see Adv. # 9) – Namely the half-orc, Boris, know to have ties to the Thieves’ Guild. We learned, via the rat, that the assassin who was to kill Nicasia was Boris. Gudlaug and Ingolf spied on the assassin, and watched when he was contacted by his superior via magics in the room of a run down inn, called the Bit Tongue.
We were ready when he made his play on Nicasia, and we captured him, after a bombastic battle in the mean streets of Tavia. After telling all he knew, we let Boris go, which upon later reflection, seemed really stupid to Aoelif and Gudlaug at least.
Aoelif and Gudlaug wanted to use the information we had learned about how the assassins contacted each other to set a trap for the master assassin, but Theodorus and Ingolf argued against it. Gudlaug went back to the room where the assassin had been, where he saw Cyril, the warden of the part of the city where Nicasia lives, leave a note on the wall, and draw the same symbol on the wall that the assassin had. After the warden left, Gudlaug read the note, which basically said, “Not in my part of town!” Gudlaug turned into a bird, and waited on the windowsill to see what happened. After about 20 minutes, the master assassin stepped through the symbol. He saw the bird, and blasted it with a lightning bolt. Gudlaug flew off.
Theodorus assured the others that he had a means of getting the nobles to confess their crime to the Baron. His “plan”, which he didn’t let the others in on, was to fly invisibly into the Baron’s house and attempt to confront the murderers on his own. Unfortunately for him, the Baron’s house was warded against just such intrusions as these, and Brec, the Baron’s advisor, caught him who we had worked with before. She was really angry with Theodorous, but kept relatively cool. The others were called in, after Theodorous spilled his guts, and eventually the Baron sorted it all out.
The nobles were brought before the Baron, and confessed their crimes. The son of the family and his wife had had a baby, which was the source of all of the problems. We cast spells on the baby to show its true nature – it was Cimbri!
The young couple had consummated their wedding in an old Cimbri temple. We believe the Faerie spirits, unbeknownst to them, still had power and worked some of it on them. She gave birth 9 months later to a baby Cimbri, not a noble human! Faced with this scandal, the child’ grandmother hired a sorcerer to mask the baby’s race, and then had everyone killed who knew the truth. The dead Cimbri outside of Nicasia’s house was their nursemaid. The grandmother of the child was behind it all. The Baron sentenced her to stop at the druid Crossbyr’s grove, to receive Faerie’ punishment, then wander, banished from Tavia for the rest of her life. The son was now in charge of the family. He and his wife were not so punished, but had penalties placed on them by the Baron. Nicasia received part of their wine concession for their offense of planning on having her killed.
At some other point, Gudlaug and Aoelif entered the Unseelie World (Shadow Plane) to explore a bit and see the REAL TAVIA! Aoelif freaked out when she saw all of the dead of Tavia walking around. She ran off. Gudlaug went and got her. On another visit to the Shadow Plane, while out in the woods, they saw and fought a giant shadow umber hulk. It was driven off by Gudlaug’s magic and Aoelif’s fighting prowess.
Sorcerer’s Gambit (Adventure 34)
We rested for a bit, and discovered that Basil punished Theodorus for his breaking and entering the Baron’s house. He was banned from the Collegium and removed as the Keeper of the Libraries.
Theodorus was pissed, and blamed Brec for his downfall. We decided to adventure for a while till things settled down and use that time to finally start investigating Zaccara’s Eagon situation. (He had been “bodynapped” way back in adventure 23). A few spells and educated guesses later it was determined he was in the South, probably on the coast of the Old Country, near the borders of Sylva. As a cover we came up with the idea of a trade caravan — Theodorus wanted to get his revenge by coming back with “Wagons full of cash.”
After much preparation we set out with our horses and wagons and got about two days from Tavia. Suddenly, Basil showed up, his robes smoking, and stated that the Baron’s donjon had been demolished, and the Eagon Stone stolen!! (The stone had been encased in concrete, poured into a wine cask., and placed in on of the Baron’s cells – way back in Adventure # 8) Basil’s wards altered him to the theft, but were unable to prevent it. He teleported us back to Tavia, and then got after the murderous thieves.
We tracked them to a small copse outside the city, where discovered that the disemboweled shadow umber hulk -- the same one which had fought Aoelif and Gudlaug on the Shadow Plane! We realized the bugbears killed their Umber Hulk before we got caught up to them, to get the Eagon stone it had swallowed. They were just about to escape when we got to them. We killed a couple, but the others escaped with the stone back to the Shadow Plane.
We followed, and fought them, only to discover that they were under the command of the very sorcerer who had recaptured Zaccara in the Shadow Plane! A furious battle ensued. The Sorcerer, a Shadow Alfar named Arkyn, was handily beating us, since we were mostly blind and our spells were being severely hampered because were on the Shadow Plane. We managed to get the upper hand, however, when Martaine cast Hold Person on the sorcerer. Theodorus leapt forward and hacked the head off of the frozen, helpless sorcerer, which angered Aoelif. We also captured one of the bugbears for interrogation.
Shadows and Water (Adventure 35)
We took the head, the Eagon stone, and the bugbear back to Tavia. Basil set up a place where the stone could hopefully be better guarded. We interrogated the bugbear, and the lifeless head, and learned of a portal that they used on the Shadow Plane to travel about.
We also learned that the Eagon that was in command of Z. body was called Lorcan the Gathererer. He was busy rounding up many of Balor’s scattered artifacts and allies and sending them to Dun Scaith, the Fortress of Shadow.
A creature named Nadezhda guarded the portal. The sorcerer’s head cackled when he spoke of this creature, but he wouldn’t give more details. We knew that there were other bugbears that were waiting for them at the portal. If we did not act soon, the ones that had sent them, namely the Eagon called Lorcan, would know that the mission Arkyn and the bugbears had been sent on was a failure.
We quickly prepared for travel on the Shadow Plane, and Gudlaug took us there. The Bugbear led us to the Gate/Pools of Nadezhda, where we killed the rest of the bugbears. We were led into a cave behind a waterfall, while chasing the last bugbear, where we encountered the creature. Nadezhda turned out to be a black shadow dragon!
We spoke with her. She told us the bad guys paid her to use her portals, and then she started noticing all the expensive stuff we were wearing. She trapped us and demanded all of Aoelif’s gold to “buy our leave.” Aoelif gave it up without a second thought We all to returned to Tavia. We decided to get better prepared, and then go back and kick some dragon ass. We went back to the portal, and had a huge fight with the Black Wyrm, chasing her all about the three pools that were in the cave. We finally killed her, retrieved her treasure, and regained Aoelif’s money. Gudlaug and Aoelif stayed and guarded the pools entrance as the others return to Tavia to get prepared to go search for Zaccara.
The Pools of Nadezhda (Adventure 36)
The others returned, and we determined that the portal was underwater. We learned that it took “activators” to trigger the portal, and that it could go to three places. The activators were objects taken from the locations the portal went to. One was where we now were. A second seemed to be a water-filled cavern where Theodorous had previously scryed the Eagon possessing Zaccara. The third was a weird place where there was an altar to Trianus, a Rolgulkan deity of Demons and Magic as well as Atavis, the
human Devil! There was a baby’s crib in the room as well as some kind of demoic looking ogre. We decided not to go there. Although Ingolf mused on the stories Carijzan told them of Lord Zakarij’s daughter and her human-summoned, devilish husband (see adv. #17).
We went to the cavern where Zaccara had been. Ingolf went first to scout around. Inside the cavern was a chained up chest, which Ingolf was unable to open. After finding a tunnel that led to the mountains above, he came and got the rest of us. The cavern had ocean water in it, and obviously filled up when the tide came in. We knew we were far south of Tavia, on the southern shore of Iconium. While scouting around some other caves under the surface of the ocean, Gudlaug who was swimming around as a porpoise was attacked by a Fomorian! He was stabbed, and he fled. He tried casting a spell against the Fomorian, who was chasing him, but it failed. He fled away, knowing that he had given himself away as a spell-casting porpoise. We climbed up out of the cavern, and soon made our way to the town of Lykia.
The Lykian Gauntlet (Adventure 37-39)
We spent a few days in the town scouting around, learning of the nobles, the Ptolus family and the lay of the land generally from a very inquisitive centaur named Jason. He explained that there was a religious festival going on, which made our being there easier to explain. This festival of St. Rustica had both a Logosian and Faerie counterpart. The former was a formal blessing of the crops, celebrated with flowers. The latter took place at night when flowers were given as an invitation to go out into the fields and…well take have a little blessing of your own.
Nicasia discovered that the Eagon possessed Zaccara (called Kastor in these parts) was posing as a ships captain who was very popular around town – supposedly a suitor to Count Ptolus youngest daughter, Catella. His ship was anchored around the coast near the caverns where the portal and the Fomorians were.
One morning Gudlaug turned into a seagull and flew out to get a look at the ship. There were some other seagulls flying around the ship, as well as a big shark in the water. Gudlaug cast Speak With Animals to talk with the seagulls, which was a mistake. They flew down to the ship, and then a big eagle flew up out of the ship and hit Gudlaug with a Flame strike. He turned and flew away at top speed, but not before a second Flame strike took him down to close to dead. He managed to escape with the eagle giving chase. He flew into some woods, and turned into s dog. Then he trotted back to town as the eagle and its minions flew overhead.
When he described the ship Theodorus recognized it as the ship that Carijzan had described. The one bringing the human devil worshippers to Zakarij’s land. Theodorus believed that it may have been owned by the Ptolus. Now he knew it to be true. These connotations were dire... there was an evil mix of Balor and Atavis agents holding some power here.
There was to be a service, which Zaccara was going to attend, so the humans went there. We witnessed the High Priest of the city attended by the Zaccara/Eagon. A great minotaur, Croesus, guarded the decrepit old Count Ptolus. We saw the nobles of the city, two of the three children of the old count, inclding his middle son, Arcadius, and his lady, Viviana and the counts youngest daughter, Catella.
Catella Ptolus was recognized by Gudlag as the woman he had seen months earlier when he scryed Zacarra’s body. In that vision he saw Z. place a ring containing an Eagon stone on the same young woman’s finger. He saw her jerk and then smile evilly at Z. She must be controlled by an Eagon as well!
We left church and decided to make our plan. Ingolf sweet talked his way into the best house of ill repute in town and convinced the Madam that he was an old rival/friend of Captain Kastor’s (Zacarra). He was able to purchase a girl to entertain Zaccara that night and find where he kept the stone on his person. The rest of us stayed in the City Park fending off folks with flowers, which were treated as invitations for lovemaking, celebrating the Faerie festival of Rustica. Aoelif was asked no less than 30 times!
The prostitute girl was successful in her task. She was a bit shaken as she was blindfolded, and felt the lord “grow bigger, colder, and clammier”. She did not find the stone, but felt a lump the size of the stone under his left nipple. All were well paid, and we decided on a course of action. We would send Nicasia and Theodorous out to scout the road which Zaccara traveled to and from the Lord’s house, and find a good place for an ambush. While they were out, Zaccara approached on horseback. Thanks to Nicasia’s great skill at hiding, they were not seen. They saw Zaccara talk to his horse, and send it to the southern gate of the town. Then he changed into a bird and flew towards the town. Nicasia and Theodorous rushed back to the city, and we all went out the southern gate to lay in wait.
After a while, Zaccara did come through the gate, looking for his horse. We attacked! Surprisingly, was caught completely off guard, and the combination of Aoelif’s mighty short swords and the Celestial Lion which Martaine summoned quickly killed him dead! He did NOT have the spear with him, much to Aoelif’s disgruntlement. The stone was cut from the flesh of his chest. And then we realized that we probably had a 10 hour walk trying to carry his body back to the portal!
We ran (as quickly as we could) down the road for an hour to put some distance between ourselves and the gurad, then searched for a good place in the woods for Gudlaug to start his resurrection spell. During the time of his spell, the city guard came out investigating the sounds of battle. We fought them while Gudlaug finished his spell, and luckily drove them off without killing them. Gudlaug raised Zaccara but his new body was that of an Ljosalfar!
Theodorus threw the Eagon stone into his Handy Haversack, and ignored its pull successfully since. Then and there it became a great chase to the portals. As the Eagon personality was a great Druid, all of the animal companions and wards he had set during his two year stay here left their posts. This alerted EVERY ALLY that he had that something was amiss.
We then had an encounter with the Sir Arcadius and Minoutar from the church and ten of the Ptolus calvalry. The humans were on horseback and Minotar was planning riding us down in his chariot! Martaine rushed up and got between the knight and the Minotaur to engage it. He was struck dead the next round by the Minotaur's huge bronze axe. The rest of the party fought the knight bravely, but did not kill him before a demon was sent to his aid. The demon raised Martaine as a ghast to fight for his cause, much to our horror. Gudlaug blinded the Minotaur, and it was cut down. Eventually, all our foes were killed – not before the knight called upon Atavis to aid him.We grabbed Martaine’s undead corpse, and kept running towards the cavern. Nicasia took tender care of the withered rotting husk, which was Martaine.
Gudlaug flew as an eagle forward to try and find where the tunnel was that led to the cavern. He saw roving bands of sailors searching for the “killers” of Lorcan. Time was running out for us. Close to the spot where he thought the tunnel entrance was, he saw a female, (noble) Fomorian, along with the demon they had fought, and other Hobgoblin warriors. It seems the female was Lorcan’s lover and was desperate to have her vengeance.
Dawn was approaching, so the group huddled in some bushes until spells were renewed. It was decided that the best course of action was to just move forward and fight. We killed some sailors, who turned out to be disguised hobgoblins as we moved forward. The fight was ferocious – especially when one of the hobgoblins turned into a Fomorian!
Then Aoelif was struck by a Hold Person spell, and surrounded by the Fomorions. As Nicasia broke the Hold Person spell, Aoelif was struck down dead. Luckily, Gudlaug had taken the Last Breath spell, and ran forward and immediately brought her back to life, although she was still unconscious. The party beat the rest of the villains, and headed for the tunnel. We heard riders from the town approaching as Nicaisa dimension doored the party into the tunnel, still dragging Martaine’s corpse.
Gudlaug turned into a bat and flew ahead. He saw two more Formarians in the tunnel. They received some kind of signal as he watched, and they went to the chained up chest and unlocked it. Immediately, chains and ichor oozed out of the chest into the water. Some type of creature moved about in the chains, which formed a web over the water. The portal was under the chains! Gudlaug flew back and reported this to the rest. Ingolf (damn glad he did not pick the lock on that chest’s lock in the first place) brought forth the folding boat, which Zaccara and Gudlaug rode in. The rest waded towards the Fomorians. The Fomorians charged the group and another battle began. Gudlaug turned into a shark, while the others dealt damage as they saw fit. Aoelif leapt forward to engage the chain-wielding creature, a Kyton. After the Fomorians were killed, the group turned its attention to the creature, but it was extremely hard to hit. It took a very magic weapon. Eventually, the creature was killed, and we dove through the portal, as others charged into the cavern.
When we emerged from the water of the portal near Tavia, we saw Lord Vihar and Crossbyr waiting for us. Crossbyr, who Gudlaug had called after the fight with The Black dragon, had in turn called on Vihar since the portal was in his land, albeit on the Shadow Plane. Vihar agreed to guard the portal. The heroes returned to Tavia, extremely tired, and/or dead.
Back on the material plane, Gudlaug began the ritual of resurrecting Martaine. Luckily, Martaine returned as a human, who looked essentially the same as he had before. The group staggered back into Tavia and took the Eagon stone to Basil, who put it with the other stone that was there. The party pondered what to do next with TWO Eagon!!
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Nyssa is being played by Sean Holland (Martaine's player). Her account begins during the transition between the two characters.
During this time Nicasia (Laura Heilman) also decided to retire her character (Nicasia) from adventuring. Her new character is Nyssa's bodyguard. Other, more startling changes are afoot as well.
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Nyssa’s Journal: Part 1 (Adventure 40)
March 21st (Fast of the Archangel Stephen)
It seems that I have chosen the right moment to start a new volume of my journal, today I was summon by the Collegium to the city of Tavia. (A small border-town on the edge of Empire, known for its wool of all things. It is close to both Rolgulka and several Cimbri tribes and is a nexus of the wool and slave trade, or so I am told.) Goodbye to Koresses for now.
Using mirror and slidestep, W. and I arrived in the Collegium Tower of Tavia. There we were met by Master Basil, Dean of the Tavian Collegium and an Evoker, and taken to an abandoned mansion that was bristling with guards, magical wards and even a Paladin-Captain of the Faith (whose name, I later learned was Amantius) and his squires.
The matter at hand was the containment of a rather unusual Fae artifact, a small black stone that contained the spiritual essence of a powerful dark Fae sorcerer. The being is able to possess those who are in contact with the stone and even force those nearby to grasp it. Curious to say the least, as I did not know that being other than demons were capable of possession. Perhaps it has to do with the reduction of the being to pure spirit? More research is needed, obviously. It was captured by a local group of heroes, some Fae and some Imperial, who are off on another task at the moment.
The difficulty is containing such an item. Master Basil informed me that it was responsible for the death of the former dean of Tavia and his chief apprentice. Not only did it need to be contained but it was being actively sought by dark powers so it needed to be hidden from them. It took some thought, but a solution presented itself. A box was needed, its exterior to be of bronze bound lead with a clasp lock, hinges and a handle wrapped with silver wire, while its interior is to be of mirror polished silver. Between the silver and the lead shall be inserted appropriate verses against evil from the Logothium. The lead shall symbolically shield the contents while the purity of the silver and the mirror facings shall keep the evil spirit from reaching beyond its prison with the verses as an added level of protection. (I wish we had more time, properly the box should be bound and faced with steel to protect it from damage and the verses of the Logothium should have been engraved onto the back of the silver mirrors so that do not disintegrate with age.) Time constraints aside, I was very pleased with this solution and Master Basil was most complimentary.
We immediately set to work to build and invest such a box with the needed wards. Decian be praised that the local metal guilds were capable of building the physical parts of my ward box quickly while the local Bishop was happy to provide a few freshly scribed pages of verses from the Logothium.
The day was hurried and busy, but the investing has begun and so far no problems have emerged. The smiths delivered the actual box just after midnight, spectacular work for such a short period, and our initial round of investing did not end until almost dawn. Perhaps tomorrow I will have a chance to see some of the town between the investment periods.
Though I must say I find such exercises in practical problem solving much more satisfying that cataloging the wonders of Faerie and interviewing Fae sorcerers who try to seduce me.
March 22nd (Saint Martin’s Day)
No rest for the weary. Up before noon to a large breakfast. Tavian hospitality is good even if the house is in rather ill repair. W. seems less than impressed with our surroundings.
We return to the investment soon after breakfast. Master Basil is easy to work with and seems to have no difficulty in following my lead in this matter. How refreshing! Surprisingly, for a new project, everything followed plan. W. does make sure we have enough to eat and drink as she knows I would forget otherwise. She is such a savior.
That evening, as the investment nears completion, the local Tavian heroes arrive at the mansion. According to Master Basil, they are quite accomplished having achieved many tasks for the Baron, the local Cimbi Kings and even Lord Vihar of Rolgulka! They are the ones who captured the dark fae spirit before. As we can afford to take a break, we do so and I am formally introduced to them. They are indeed a mixed group, three Iconians, three fae and another . . . They do not seem to have a leader as such, acting as a democracy in the best Sylvan tradition; that is, rather disorganized with each speaking their turn and occasionally over each other.
They are:
Theodorus Commenos Alexius, member of the Colligium and scion of the Commenos. A skilled wizard, I am told, but he seems to be one of the political wizards. That could well lead to trouble.
Ingolf Egilson, an Alfar bard, rather roguish in appearance but he seemed confident enough. Though I did not like the way he looked me over.
Gudlaug, a dwarf, dekkalfar as they call themselves, and a Druid. A very unkempt and dour person. I had heard that dwarves were argumentative and he is no exception.
Martaine, a Priest of Logos, and a Valerian I gathered. He seemed thoughtful but also uncomfortable with his face. Most odd.
Aeolif Snorrisdottir, another elf and one of the legendary Fianna. What she lacks in height, she makes up for in fierceness! She seems very forthright but a little rash. I will have to ask W. to tell me more of the Fianna as Aeolif is the first one that I have met.
Nicasia Valeria Xerecian, a very beautiful young noblewoman, even W. noticed her. She seems out of place among the others. She understands the art of investment but no woman of the Xerician line is part of the Collegium. I wonder what her story is? Master Basil was rather evasive about her talents.
Zaccara, also an elf, but he was once a human. It seems that the druid reincarnated him and he came back in his current form. How peculiar! I wonder what it is like to suddenly change one’s race? However, he does not seem overly pleased with his transformation.
They talked of their recent adventure, of Atavists and Fomorians. The Fomorians are a race of evil Fae giants, the “opposite of the Sidhe” said Aeolif. It was also said that they were thought to have been destroyed at the hands of the High King Finvarra and the Sidhe. (Find out more about the Fomorians.)
Names of import were mentioned as Atavists, including most terrible accusations. If they are true, this is most worrying. Darkness at the heart of the Empire. With the blessing of the Saints, and the aid of the Church and Collegium, these evil men shall be swept away.
I learn more about the sprit in the stone, it is an Eagon, one of the elite of Balor, the King of the Fomorians who was slain by Finvarra centuries past. (Learn about Balor.) The Eagons, however, have cheated death and seek to restore their fallen lord. It seems they will pose a great threat in the future especially as they have allied with the Atavists in the Empire and other dark powers in Rolgulka. All these evils joined in a dark pact to overthrow the forces of light, both Logosian and Fae. Once that is done, then they can fight among themselves to determine who will rule all. But until then they have a shared interest in pulling down what exists now. A most dangerous situation.
Their adventure was told in great detail to Brec, a bard in high service as advisor to the Baron of Tavia, Severus Dukas Aprenos, while Master Basil, W. and I listen on. Many dangers overcome and fierce foes defeated. Including travel to and from Terra Umbra. If only I could have seen that!
It seems the priest was slain by a minotaur, how tragic to think of one of Alhaia’s people turned to evil. Perhaps he was misguided; the Taureans can be blind in their loyalty. I do hope so, I hate to think that one of the brave Taureans could fall so far. Martaine was only recently reincarnated, though he remained human, perhaps that explains why he is uncomfortable with his face.
A discussion of what to be done with the Eagons that they had captured followed. There was much acrimony on both sides of the debate, between Fae and Imperial interests. Gudlug and Commenos on the far ends of their respective sides, I should add. It strikes me as strange for a group that has been through so much together to be so combative among them. Perhaps it is the strain of the recent events?
Two of the heroes, Commenus and Xerecian, are to construct a second ward box under my instruction while Master Basil and I finish the first as we now have two Eagon to contain. The smiths will be busy again tonight! I hope that the Baron sees that they are properly compensated. Commenus was most complimentary towards my design for the ward box. At least he has good manners.
March 23rd (Saint Arion’s Day)
Exhausting day. Finished investing the first ward box with Master Basil and assisted Commenus and Xerecian with theirs. They work efficiently, but Xerician especially is a quick study, she has obviously invested items before. I am almost certain that several of the magical items that she wears were invested by her own hand.
A very full day with little time to rest. At least we are brought good meals! Thank Saint Theophania for W.
March 24th (Saint Susanna’s Day)
Done and done. The second ward box is completed! Xerecian does good work, and, though it was Commenus who cast the actual spells, it was Xerecian who prepared the final matrix for investment. She does not work with chants and holy symbolism, so she does not seem to be a mystic of the faith. The flows around her are arcane almost without a doubt. Could she be a sorceress? Among one of the oldest family of Iconium? I must find out more.
A final testing of the ward boxes was performed and the second stone was transferred without mishaps. Thank Logos. I am glad to see such cruel items safely locked away. Now, a meal, a bath and some rest.
My, much needed, sleep was interrupted in the middle of the night by the warning horns from the north gate. Fearing attack, W. and I gathered our arms and armours and hurried to the gate. We arrived in time to watch the gates being opened and the Lady Brec, mounted, and the heroes, on foot, step through to confront three charioteers and perhaps a score of riders, all glowing with power and the very essence of faerie. Was this the shining host that was spoken of? Brec and the others talked with the leader of the glowing fae, a beautiful and terrible woman with streaming clouds of black hair that twisted in some phantom wind. Some agreement was reached and Brec made haste back towards the citadel to prepare and audience for the Sidhe. After some small altercation at the gate, the fae were welcomed by Martaine and the others into the Bad Pony (a local inn) to await the Baron’s pleasure. Seeing that the city, and ourselves, were safe, W. and I withdrew to the mansion.
We had just settled in again when word came from the Baron summoning us to his court. We made our way to the citadel directly; such an order is not to be refused! We arrived to find a confrontational situation, the Baron, Brec and others sat across a fine table from the powerful fae woman, who was introduced as Rhanalt, in service to the High King Finvarra as high captain of the Glimmerglas (the High King’s royal guard) and a sorceress of some power, I surmise. Three oddly handsome young warriors, who deferred to Rhanalt, stood behind her chair. The heroes were off to one side, the fae towards the Glimmerglas and the Iconians more toward the Baron’s side of the table. (Zaccara was absent. I later learned that he had returned home to say goodbye to his family.)
It seemed that the Glimmerglas host had been sent to retrieve the imprisoned Eagons. I was asked to explain how the ward boxes worked. I did so and Rhanalt seem to quickly grasp the magic involved and seemed pleased with the solution. High praise indeed!
Rhanalt and the Glimmerglas are also told the stories by Ingolf of how the heroes first encountered and later fought the two Eagons (on separate occasions). A tale of much magic, adventure, danger and bravery. They truly are heroes, even if only half the tales are true! (Some of what the bard sang was obviously exaggeration.) Even Rhanalt was impressed with their adventures and daring and promised that their songs would be sung and their tales told at the High King’s court. Lucky heroes! I wonder what the High King will make of a heroic priest and wizard.
There was some conflict over if the Glimmerglas should be allowed to take the Eagon. The Glimmerglas have no doubt that only they have to right to guard the Eagon and keep them from the world. The Baron argued, quite reasonably, that as his lands and peoples had been attacked, it was his duty to do all that he could to understand the threat to his people and learn how to fight it. The debate ranged on with Commenos vocally supporting the Baron, though I am not sure if that was a benefit to his position. Again tensions within the band of heroes are revealed as they advised on what should be done, the Fae supporting the Glimmerglas and the Iconians, the Baron. It seems that the heroes remain divided on this matter, even a day of rest did not lead to any relaxation of Commenos’ or the Druid’s position. I was impressed, however, that the Baron did not wilt or waver in front of Rhanalt’s obvious strength and force of will, he held his ground and defended his honour and that of Empire.
Rhanalt claims that only the Glimmerglas know how to contain the Eagon. Further, she said that they couldn’t be destroyed except by touching them to the bones of their creator, a sorcerous lich whose name (to add to the confusion) is Eagon. It seems that the Glimmerglas have known of these Eagon for some time but these are the only Eagon in captivity. (They evaded the question when asked how many other stones they had. Which among the boastful Fae must mean that either they had none or they lost them!) It also seems that there are thirteen of the Eagon of which only four or five have hosts at the moment. Where the others might be was not discussed.
Finally, Martaine stepped forward and proposed that the Glimmerglas take the Eagon that was a druid, while the Church and Collegium contained the Eagon that was a sorcerer. Rhanalt and Gudlaug, the Druid, were not pleased about this. Indeed, Gudlaug was downright insulting, speaking to us as if we were idiot children. “We know more than you will ever learn,” indeed! Rhanalt was more accommodating, agreeing with the following caveats: That each group would send two observers to monitor that the precautions of the other and that Rhanalt would return in a year and a day to see what progress we had made and revisit the issue. Still rather arrogant, but not as bad as the Druid’s comments!
The Baron intends to send a churchman and another to be decided with the Glimmerglas, while I assume two of the Glimmerglas will accompany the stone into Empire. Neither side seems entirely happy with the solution but at least honor is satisfied. For a brief moment it looked likely to spark a bloody conflict that would have only been of benefit to the dark powers. At least in the end everyone seemed to realize that we share the same goals in defeating the Eagon and their allies. Pride should not blind us to the need to work together.
Tomorrow at noon, we will meet to finalize all this. Which should allow me to catch at least another few hours of rest.
Glossary
Alhaia - Nyssa’s Taurean (minotaur) bodyguard during her two years in Sylva.
Invest - To make an item magical by transferring part of your own essence into it (i.e. creating a magic item).
Saint Theophania - Patron Saint of cooks and bakers. A martyr from the war with Rolgulka who was burned alive in her own ovens when she refused to reveal where the city’s grain stores had been hidden. She called upon Logos as the flames consumed her. Logos answered her call and Theophania was drawn into heaven and the flames of the ovens leapt out to consume her tormentors, chasing the Rolgulkans through the very streets and from the town. Later a Church in her honor was built on the sight of her ascension where the ovens still bake bread for the faithful.
Taurean - A citizen of the Sylvan polis Taurus on the Taurus, a city of minotaurs.
Terra Umbra- “shadow earth” (i.e. the plane of shadow).
“Using mirror and slidestep”- Here Nyssa is referring to using a scrye spell (through a mirror) to learn a new location and then slidestep (teleport) to that location - a common practice among more powerful members of the Collegium. Special easily memorized rooms are set up in most Collegium towers to facilitate such travel.
W. - Nyssa’s abbreviation for her bodyguard and traveling companion — Solvej, known in the human tongue as Winter.
Thanks for obliging!
