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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CleverName" data-source="post: 206968" data-attributes="member: 2591">Nyssa’s Journal, Part 4 (Adventure 43)Nyssa’s Journal: Maccara's Blessings7th April (Feast of Saint Ionna)- A beautiful spring day!  After breaking our fast we are off to a small natural pool for it is such that Druid use when they wish to scry.  Gudlaug seemed quite nervous and even a simple image of Annan for him to concentrate upon did not help the druid enough for him to find him with his magic.  Then back to the hall where King Brice had found an ancient silver mirror for my use, a little magic soon polished it back to shimmering beauty.  First, I attempted to locate the shadowy Maccara but my gaze would not focus upon him.  A cautious one he, he must either be warded or upon a different plane, but I suspect he has warded himself.Then it was my turn to scry Annan.  I had better luck.  Finding Annan speaking with a sickly fellow who was revealed to be Caldor.  Annan was being sent forth to visit the Lady Eidine, another Helvetti warlord whose lands border both Caldor’s and the King’s, and to check on the guard along the road to ‘the Pit’.  Annan rides forth to do so and I see that around Caldor’s hillfort a small army is encamped and along the road there is a new shrine to Arawn covered with fresh sacrifices of beast skulls and gold.Next we are introduced to Iscen, the King’s court sorcerer, advisor and teacher, he is an ancient Cimbri man who affected a most terrible pair of bright red pants!  It is his belief that we are better suited to find out what Caldor is up to, as the King cannot travel without his entourage which could trigger the confrontation we are trying to avoid.  We, with some reluctance, agree.  It is decided that we will travel with the King’s hunting party as far as the hall of his vassal Dillion, a bard, and from there head on.It seems that the western Helvetti lands are dotted with disused mines, called pits, left by the Saluri tribe who owned this land before the Helvetti drove them from it and one of them is on Caldor’s lands.  Though we do not know what he may be digging for.It comes as some surprise to Brice and Iscen that Caldor is ill, as he is a great hunter and renown for his endurance.  Further there is a sacred well to the Cimbri goddess Brigit that is known for its healing powers on the edge of his land and is tended by Firtha, an ollave to Brigit who is highly skilled with healing.  Very curious.That night another feast, without meat to remind us why we are hunting, with a dance for entertainment.  The dance tells the story of the Helvetti conquest of this land but is very laden with myth and legend, so it only conveys a small amount of information useful for our currant situation.  Then to bed, stepping over only a few drunken Cimbri warriors along the way.8th April (Saint Egon’s Day)- Travel begins, only us, the King and a hundred or so of his retainers!  The retinue winds itself to Lord Dillion’s Hall, which is only a half day or so away.  It and its small village are swamped with the numbers of the King’s retinue.  We, Brice and the cream of his bodyguards, feast with Dillion.  Dillion tell us a legend of the Saluri and the last son of their last King who was fostered by Arawn! (DM's Note: see Ronan's Tale, above.) Most intriguing.  The story ended with the son being taken by Arawn but not, perhaps, dead . . . Could Maccara be related to this Prince of the Saluri?  Perhaps even be him return by Arawn to complete some task?In return, Ingolf, with W playing accompaniment, tells of the slaying of a great white dragon in the ice fields of the far north by Aoelif and the heroes.  A most rousing tale and well told.  I wish that had brought some pieces back with them so I could investigate them for magical properties.  I suspect that white dragonbone would take to frost magic most easily.  I hope that someday I will have a chance to experiment with such.Gudlaug scryed upon Annan, only to find him asleep.  He simply seems to have no luck with such magic.  My scry upon the Lady Eidine was more successful, finding her in whispered conversation with her husband, Leith, a master of tattoos.  They are undecided on who to support in the coming conflict, wisely, it strikes me.  But they owe someone (Maccara?) for the health of their daughter who was sick.  But Eidine seems to think there is someone still wrong with her, saying that her daughter smells odd . . . I pass this information on to the others but they seem as flummoxed as I am about its meaning.9th April (Day of Saints David and Hadrian)- We slip away from the other hunters, heading into Lady Eidine’s lands towards the sacred well of Brigit.  Gudlaug uses his druidic magic to conceal our passage through the woods.  Fascinating.  It seems that it would be a difficult effect to duplicate through arcane means.  Otherwise, uneventful.10th April (Saint Judith’s Day)- We travel deeper into Eidine lands.  Shortly afternoon, who do we meet on the road but Annan leading a party of eight warriors.  Annan refuses to listen to reason, though I try to avoid conflict . . . He chooses to fight and Aoelif is happy to oblige.The fight ends remarkably quickly.  The Stephanite’s arrows quickly slay one of Annan’s liutenants while Aoelif leaps forward to engage Annan.  They trade blows with both drawing blood.  As I suspected, using the prism as a focus successfully enlarged the area of my colour spray enough to encompass them all.  The dazzling fan of colours strikes them all blind and dumb.  Between the Stepanite’s arrows and Aoelif’s swords, Annan is then cut down.  As the druid’s huge wolf tears one of the warriors down, it most gruesomely rips into him consuming much of him in bloody gulps.  I still shudder to remember it.  After a rain of ice called down by Gudlaug, the others wisely surrender, thankfully!We question them but learn little, we had already killed all of their leaders.  But they are our captives and we take them with us to the Lady Eidine’s Hall.  There we hand them over to Eidine’s keeping, though she berates the warriors for being defeated by a band only two thirds their number!  (Eidine is well covered with magically tattoos, quite beautiful work.)  Eidine invites us into her hall as her guests.  There we meet her daughter Tira, who I observe is under a strong necrourgic effect!  Unfortunately, I cannot identify it further than that.  Informing the others, we cannot immediately figure out what to do next.Eidine feasts us and we discuss the current situation with her.  And learn that Caldor had been seriously gored by a huge boar on a recent hunt and he too had been saved by Maccara.  We tell her that Caldor has become sick of late and that Maccara’s healing may be of a limited duration.  When we express our worries about Maccara and our fears about what he may have been doing, Tira become quiet upset and is excused from the room by her mother.Leith then joins us, he had been listening fro the next room, and the discussion continues.  (Leith being even more tattooed than his lady wife and all of his tattoo are magical as well.)  They tell us that Firtha went into Caldor’s lands to ransom her husband who had been caught hunting on Caldor’s lands and she never returned.  We learn that Tira was bitten by a poisonous snake and Maccara turned up shortly, suspiciously shortly, afterwards to save her.  It seems to me that this is far too convenient.  I voice my suspicions that Maccara is arranging these accidents to cause the local nobles to fall into his debt.We inspect Tira’s room looking to see if Maccara had left any charms or curses here, but sadly we do not find anything further that we can trace to him.  I wish we knew more of the man.  Eidine tells us that he wears a breastplate shaped into a death’s head decorated with human bones and carries a blackwood staff.  He sounds like a dark man filled with dark power.Leith offer to escort us to the Pit.  From which we are told that they are extracting lead to finance Caldor’s army.  But who knows what other things they may be digging up?  Strangely, Caldor is also buying a great deal of salt but for unknown reason.  W suggests as some form of magical protection.  But if so, against what?  We accept Leith’s offer to guide us on the morrow, perhaps then we can learn what is going on at the Pit.GlossaryNecrourgic- What is termed necromancy in common parlance, but necromancy is technically the art of divination by using the dead.  Tattoo Artists- A specialist in creating magical tattoos, a common temporary magic item among the Cimbri.</blockquote>

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