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The plot thickens...
Distrust, Betrayal and Oathbreaking Part 3: Rumblings
The late afternoon saw the arrival of the heads of the various castellans who sat upon the Glynden Council. Nan's was once again cleared of the regular townsfolk and the party (sans Rhys) was brought inside to speak about what had transpired at Aquae Sulis.
The events were related factually without embellishment with Speaks doing most of the talking (a role he did not desire in the least). The retelling lacked any of the flair that had accompanied Rhys' tales about the Winter War and, as it included the deaths of both Krase and Rhys was rather somber in any event. Council members interrupted occasionally to ask for clarifications.
Boss Brathwaite appeared especially incredulous at the tales of how troublesome the Kobolds had proved to be. As a long time miner, he was vaguely familiar with tales of the usually pathetic creatures but had never heard of them using magic to such a large degree. Nonetheless, he did not dispute the story as told.
Although Rhys had asked Speaks to keep the details of his recent reincarnation as an elf to himself, Speaks was never a good liar. Unable to concoct some kind of prevarication in the retelling of their tale, he simply stated what had actually happened to Rhys. This caused many a shocked look around the table. All of the Councilors had heard tales of people being brought back from the dead, but it had never occurred to them that Speaks might have this capability. This immediately sparked questions of why he hadn't done the same thing for Krase. Speaks replied that Krase was simply too far gone for him to aid with his magic. The Councilors didn't really understand that explanation, but there was a lot about the Druid that they didn't really understand so they let the matter drop.
Speaks concluded with the information revealed by Frakir that some kind of walking dead were driving the Gnolls out of the Darkwood. There was some concern about this among the Council, but given how the Gnolls had been brutally put to flight by the Druid, they felt there was little to fear from them. As for the "walking dead", the Darkwood had always been a place of foreboding and evil and they saw little reason to be too worried about such distant events. The walls of Glynden had always held and with her two main foes (the barbarians and the Gnolls) apparently out of the picture, the future looked bright indeed.
Just as the meeting seemed about to conclude, Scar intoned deeply, "What about the money?"
Eyebrows around the table raised and regarded the half-orc.
"The silver bars. Who gets them?" Scar reiterated.
Nacalius and Jucadius both quickly asserted that the silver ingots were the property of the mine of Aquae Sulis (a claim supported by the A.S. stamp on each bar of silver) and as such should transfer to the town of Glynden who had absorbed the people who previously owned it. Boss Brathwaite somewhat supported this argument, offering that ownership belonged to the individuals and families that had fled Aquae Sulis and its mines when the Gnolls invaded.
Kyndalyn, Father Tomas, Cassuvius and Octorus both held any opinions to themselves for the moment. Speaks spoke up on behalf of the party and asserted that they had a claim on the silver since it would never have been found and returned had they not cleared Aquae Sulis of the Gnolls, defeated the Kobolds and cajoled the location of the silver from the Kobold leader. He also mentioned that the town could now reoccupy the town and the mines, again, thanks to the party, and that the rich veins of silver in the mine would soon yield far more wealth than the silver ingots they had brought back to town.
Cassuvius allowed that this was a fair point for consideration. Nacalius and Jucadius both went back on the attack at that point and made some veiled accusations of Speaks' greed. He was already getting a portion of the profits from the mines as reward for his service during the Winter War and he was not due the property that had come from the sweat and blood of the townsfolk of Aquae Sulis who now resided in Glynden. They also made some remarks that tried to cast suspicion on the fact that Rhys and Krase had not returned intact from the expedition.
At this, Speaks grew angry and flatly told the Council that it might be ill advised to question the motives of those who had just defeated their enemies for them. He strongly implied that if Glynden was too weak to defeat the Gnolls and Kobolds, but the party was not, that might indicate that the party was strong enough to defy the will of the Glynden Council.
Seeing that these thinly veiled threats were right on the verge of getting out of hand, Kyndalyn called a hasty end to the meeting and informed the party that the Council would further discuss the dispensation of the silver bars and inform them of their decision the following day. The party was shown the door of the tavern and the three of them left and parted ways within moments.
Scar returned to the Abbey of St. Cutbert and got some leftover dinner. Raven sought out Jaffray, the local blacksmith and made arrangements to share his forge for the next several days for a fee. Speaks returned to the market where he, Tadius and Tarsheeva departed to Speaks home a couple miles northwest of town.
There, he and Tarsheeva spent some more time talking while Tadius and Rhys took a walk in the woods. Rhys had a lot of questions about being an elf and Tadius had many answers.
Tadius was sympathetic to his predicament. He indicated that Rhys would probably not fit in well with the elves since he lacked any of their customs, history or even language. But on the other hand, he was unlikely to fit in easily with the folk of the northlands either. With the possible exception of Tadius, almost none of them had ever even seen an elf. Tadius told Rhys that there was a reason for this and proceeded to tell him a sad tale known to few:
(This is cut almost verbatim from the e-mail that I sent Rhys' player so forgive me if it wanders in and out of tense a bit)
A long time ago (for the humans, not the elves) before the founding of Glynden, the "Darkwood" (then called the Greatwood) was inhabited largely by elves. Then, about 300 years ago, the Empire began to tighten its grip around the northern povinces. The barbarians who lived in the lands south of the forest came under attack by the legions. Many were killed or taken as slaves.
The elves figured that, the way things were going, they would be next (Tadius concedes that given the sizable population of elves in Sythia [then a portion of the Empire] this probably wouldn't have happened due to political pressures.). So the elves entered the war on the side of the barbarians.
The legions were good at what they did (which was kill and capture light fighting, loosely organized troops like the barbarians and elves) and they were backed up by the highly organized and well trained Imperial Magi attached to the legions. (Uncle Claudius would later become one such mage although he wasn't born until hundreds of years later.) In response, the elves were pressed to use thier own magics and to seek more powerful ways of using that magic.
As inevitably happens whenever anyone seeks powerful magic quickly, they ran afoul of dark forces (the precise nature of these forces is unknown, largely because nobody really wants to talk about it and a lot of the elves who do know are dead) who seemed to offer a great deal of power and offer it quickly. Suddenly, most of the powerful spellcasters of the elves had been corrupted by these evil forces and cast aside their war against the Empire, turning on their brothers. To call this civil war bitter and bloody would be a considerable understatement. Large sections of the Greatwood were devastated by the magics unleashed.
This, of course left the Imperial Legions free reign south of the forest and now the barbarians couldn't even retreat back into the forest for fear of being caught up in the elven war (knowing what Tadius knows now about the nature of the barbarians and their "totem ties" to the land, he thinks they wouldn't have retreated into the forest anyway). The end result is well known: The barbarians east of the Fodor were wiped out, most having been killed or taken into slavery and the remainder were intermarried with the imperials who settled the region. As you know, they would later get revenge on the Empire during the Slave Wars when they escaped, sacked the northern coast of the Empire and escaped to the north where they formed the core of the Corritani Tribe.
As far as the elven war goes, a stop was put to it eventually. Almost the entirety of both sides were wiped out when the little known Cult of Bane intervened (for unknown reasons) and the fight got really ugly. The corrupt elves were driven from the Greatwood (then starting to be called "The Darkwood") and the surviving uncorrupted elves retreated to the south and were given refuge in Sythia. Most of them died quickly after that from the despondency of separation from their homeland and the sadness of knowing that their beloved wood had become a place of horror and devastation. Very few of them remain alive today and almost all of them are hermits waiting to die.
Not long after the elven civil war, The Cult of Bane was uncovered as the evil horror that it was and was eradicated throughout the Empire by a ruthless crusade of the holy warriors of St. Cuthbert and Pelor. In the rugged northlands, the Druids were instrumental in purging the Cult from the less civilized areas which helped cement the druidic worship of "nature" as a legitimate faith back in the Empire. That of course culminated in the death of Bane himself, burned out of existence by the holy fire of Pelor (Tadius mentions this like everybody knows it, but Rhys had never heard of Bane before).
All in all, a fairly nasty time in the history of the world. Thankfully, Tadius himself wasn't even born until a hundred years after this all happened. But leave it to the elves and their long lives and memories to still shy away from the northlands after so many years have gone by. Apparently, most of the elves of Sythia still think that the northlands are somehow "cursed" as far as elves are concerned. That is what puts Tadius in the position of being one of the only elves most of the folk of Glynden ever see.
In short, Rhys was in a bit of a bind. Tadius assured him that, although they were slow to accept him at first, the folk of Glynden now find nothing odd about his "elvenness". If Rhys gave them time (and Tadius assured him that he had plenty of that), they would likely come around eventually. In the mean time, Tadius was more than happy to help him out however he could. He even offered for Rhys to join his caravan and travel with him if he liked.
The following day, the group gathered in town for a memorial service to be held in Krase's honor at the Church of St. Cuthbert. When the party arrived, Kyndalyn intercepted them and apologetically explained that the Council had decided that the silver bars were the rightful property of those who used to own the mine. The party was going to be given a quarter of the bars as a "finders fee" for their recovery. It was quickly decide that they would split the bars five ways and give an equal share to Krase's family. With that, they entered the Abbey for the memorial service.
The news of Krase's death hit the town very hard as he was the one among the "Heroes of the Winter War" whom the townsfolk most identified with. The service was solemn and moving for all and concluded with the choir singing a haunting rendition of Celestials Bear Me Away.
As people drifted away from the ceremony, Krase's father approached the group. He quietly apologized for his outburst the previous day and told them that he wanted them to keep the magical sword and mithral armor Krase had worn. As a tanner and leatherworker, he had no need of such things and wanted the party to keep them to do with as they saw fit. The party in turn handed over the silver bars that amounted to Krase's share of the treasure.
(Actually, they gave a bit more than his fair share - when they divided the bars up, there was an uneven remainder and they donated this to Krase's parents. For the record, each party member got approximately 550 GP worth of silver bars. They also arranged to sell Heartneedle and the mithral breastplate to Tadius who thought he could get a decent price for them when he ventured to the barbarian lands later in the summer.).
The next several days saw much activity for the party. Raven was hard at work at the forge enchanting several of the groups assorted weapons and armor. Father Tomas had Scar going around town making purchases for the expedition that would venture to reoccupy Aquae Sulis. A great deal of material was going to be needed for this and apparently, some of the silver bars were being used to fund this expedition.
Rhys did venture into town and found that, as expected, people had a hard time relating to him in a different skin. His parents made their best effort at welcoming him back but they were clearly unsure of how to handle him. Isabeau was also having a very hard time making the adjustment, not only to relating to Rhys, but also the attention among the other townsfolk that it caused.
Oddly, it was those who knew him least that related the best to Rhys. He spent most of his time talking to Tadius and Tarsheeva. During this time, he arranged to purchase a magic item from Tadius that he felt could solve many of his problems. It was a hat that allowed the wearer to assume any appearance he desired. But once he had it, he felt even less comfortable assuming his original form around friends and family. It may have been his original form, but it was no longer his natural one.
Speaks spent most of his time at his home in the wolf cave outside Glynden. He continued to commune with nature daily and awaken new powers within himself. But he also began to experience an odd sensation. He kept thinking that he saw something out of the corner of his eye but when he turned, there was nothing there. He spoke with the wolves and various other animals around him but all professed to seeing nothing out of the ordinary.
In Speaks' absence from town, rumors began to circulate. Suspicions began to crop up about him. No accusations were made outwardly, but the fact that the Druid had been the only one of the three heroes to return intact from Aquae Sulis did not sit well with some of the townspeople. Jucadius and Nacalius were clearly fanning the flames of these rumors, claiming that Speaks threatened the Council with violence if not given a share of the silver bars the party recovered. Scar and Raven both caught wind of these rumblings, but neither was well connected enough or skilled in argument to counter any of these accusations.
(The overall "Charisma Deficit" of the party became painfully apparent at this point. It underscored how much they had relied on Rhys to be their mouthpiece in previous interactions. But now he has become almost as much of a hermit as Speaks has.)
One night, Speaks had a disturbing dream. In it, Raven was standing at a forge. Speaks willingly but regretfully handed his stoneworking tools to Raven who cast them into the coals. As Speaks watched, Raven took the metal portions of the tools and began to reforge them into a new shape. The shape was that of a blade.
NEXT: Distrust, Betrayal and Oathbreaking Part 4: Questions and Answers
Distrust, Betrayal and Oathbreaking Part 3: Rumblings
The late afternoon saw the arrival of the heads of the various castellans who sat upon the Glynden Council. Nan's was once again cleared of the regular townsfolk and the party (sans Rhys) was brought inside to speak about what had transpired at Aquae Sulis.
The events were related factually without embellishment with Speaks doing most of the talking (a role he did not desire in the least). The retelling lacked any of the flair that had accompanied Rhys' tales about the Winter War and, as it included the deaths of both Krase and Rhys was rather somber in any event. Council members interrupted occasionally to ask for clarifications.
Boss Brathwaite appeared especially incredulous at the tales of how troublesome the Kobolds had proved to be. As a long time miner, he was vaguely familiar with tales of the usually pathetic creatures but had never heard of them using magic to such a large degree. Nonetheless, he did not dispute the story as told.
Although Rhys had asked Speaks to keep the details of his recent reincarnation as an elf to himself, Speaks was never a good liar. Unable to concoct some kind of prevarication in the retelling of their tale, he simply stated what had actually happened to Rhys. This caused many a shocked look around the table. All of the Councilors had heard tales of people being brought back from the dead, but it had never occurred to them that Speaks might have this capability. This immediately sparked questions of why he hadn't done the same thing for Krase. Speaks replied that Krase was simply too far gone for him to aid with his magic. The Councilors didn't really understand that explanation, but there was a lot about the Druid that they didn't really understand so they let the matter drop.
Speaks concluded with the information revealed by Frakir that some kind of walking dead were driving the Gnolls out of the Darkwood. There was some concern about this among the Council, but given how the Gnolls had been brutally put to flight by the Druid, they felt there was little to fear from them. As for the "walking dead", the Darkwood had always been a place of foreboding and evil and they saw little reason to be too worried about such distant events. The walls of Glynden had always held and with her two main foes (the barbarians and the Gnolls) apparently out of the picture, the future looked bright indeed.
Just as the meeting seemed about to conclude, Scar intoned deeply, "What about the money?"
Eyebrows around the table raised and regarded the half-orc.
"The silver bars. Who gets them?" Scar reiterated.
Nacalius and Jucadius both quickly asserted that the silver ingots were the property of the mine of Aquae Sulis (a claim supported by the A.S. stamp on each bar of silver) and as such should transfer to the town of Glynden who had absorbed the people who previously owned it. Boss Brathwaite somewhat supported this argument, offering that ownership belonged to the individuals and families that had fled Aquae Sulis and its mines when the Gnolls invaded.
Kyndalyn, Father Tomas, Cassuvius and Octorus both held any opinions to themselves for the moment. Speaks spoke up on behalf of the party and asserted that they had a claim on the silver since it would never have been found and returned had they not cleared Aquae Sulis of the Gnolls, defeated the Kobolds and cajoled the location of the silver from the Kobold leader. He also mentioned that the town could now reoccupy the town and the mines, again, thanks to the party, and that the rich veins of silver in the mine would soon yield far more wealth than the silver ingots they had brought back to town.
Cassuvius allowed that this was a fair point for consideration. Nacalius and Jucadius both went back on the attack at that point and made some veiled accusations of Speaks' greed. He was already getting a portion of the profits from the mines as reward for his service during the Winter War and he was not due the property that had come from the sweat and blood of the townsfolk of Aquae Sulis who now resided in Glynden. They also made some remarks that tried to cast suspicion on the fact that Rhys and Krase had not returned intact from the expedition.
At this, Speaks grew angry and flatly told the Council that it might be ill advised to question the motives of those who had just defeated their enemies for them. He strongly implied that if Glynden was too weak to defeat the Gnolls and Kobolds, but the party was not, that might indicate that the party was strong enough to defy the will of the Glynden Council.
Seeing that these thinly veiled threats were right on the verge of getting out of hand, Kyndalyn called a hasty end to the meeting and informed the party that the Council would further discuss the dispensation of the silver bars and inform them of their decision the following day. The party was shown the door of the tavern and the three of them left and parted ways within moments.
Scar returned to the Abbey of St. Cutbert and got some leftover dinner. Raven sought out Jaffray, the local blacksmith and made arrangements to share his forge for the next several days for a fee. Speaks returned to the market where he, Tadius and Tarsheeva departed to Speaks home a couple miles northwest of town.
There, he and Tarsheeva spent some more time talking while Tadius and Rhys took a walk in the woods. Rhys had a lot of questions about being an elf and Tadius had many answers.
Tadius was sympathetic to his predicament. He indicated that Rhys would probably not fit in well with the elves since he lacked any of their customs, history or even language. But on the other hand, he was unlikely to fit in easily with the folk of the northlands either. With the possible exception of Tadius, almost none of them had ever even seen an elf. Tadius told Rhys that there was a reason for this and proceeded to tell him a sad tale known to few:
(This is cut almost verbatim from the e-mail that I sent Rhys' player so forgive me if it wanders in and out of tense a bit)
A long time ago (for the humans, not the elves) before the founding of Glynden, the "Darkwood" (then called the Greatwood) was inhabited largely by elves. Then, about 300 years ago, the Empire began to tighten its grip around the northern povinces. The barbarians who lived in the lands south of the forest came under attack by the legions. Many were killed or taken as slaves.
The elves figured that, the way things were going, they would be next (Tadius concedes that given the sizable population of elves in Sythia [then a portion of the Empire] this probably wouldn't have happened due to political pressures.). So the elves entered the war on the side of the barbarians.
The legions were good at what they did (which was kill and capture light fighting, loosely organized troops like the barbarians and elves) and they were backed up by the highly organized and well trained Imperial Magi attached to the legions. (Uncle Claudius would later become one such mage although he wasn't born until hundreds of years later.) In response, the elves were pressed to use thier own magics and to seek more powerful ways of using that magic.
As inevitably happens whenever anyone seeks powerful magic quickly, they ran afoul of dark forces (the precise nature of these forces is unknown, largely because nobody really wants to talk about it and a lot of the elves who do know are dead) who seemed to offer a great deal of power and offer it quickly. Suddenly, most of the powerful spellcasters of the elves had been corrupted by these evil forces and cast aside their war against the Empire, turning on their brothers. To call this civil war bitter and bloody would be a considerable understatement. Large sections of the Greatwood were devastated by the magics unleashed.
This, of course left the Imperial Legions free reign south of the forest and now the barbarians couldn't even retreat back into the forest for fear of being caught up in the elven war (knowing what Tadius knows now about the nature of the barbarians and their "totem ties" to the land, he thinks they wouldn't have retreated into the forest anyway). The end result is well known: The barbarians east of the Fodor were wiped out, most having been killed or taken into slavery and the remainder were intermarried with the imperials who settled the region. As you know, they would later get revenge on the Empire during the Slave Wars when they escaped, sacked the northern coast of the Empire and escaped to the north where they formed the core of the Corritani Tribe.
As far as the elven war goes, a stop was put to it eventually. Almost the entirety of both sides were wiped out when the little known Cult of Bane intervened (for unknown reasons) and the fight got really ugly. The corrupt elves were driven from the Greatwood (then starting to be called "The Darkwood") and the surviving uncorrupted elves retreated to the south and were given refuge in Sythia. Most of them died quickly after that from the despondency of separation from their homeland and the sadness of knowing that their beloved wood had become a place of horror and devastation. Very few of them remain alive today and almost all of them are hermits waiting to die.
Not long after the elven civil war, The Cult of Bane was uncovered as the evil horror that it was and was eradicated throughout the Empire by a ruthless crusade of the holy warriors of St. Cuthbert and Pelor. In the rugged northlands, the Druids were instrumental in purging the Cult from the less civilized areas which helped cement the druidic worship of "nature" as a legitimate faith back in the Empire. That of course culminated in the death of Bane himself, burned out of existence by the holy fire of Pelor (Tadius mentions this like everybody knows it, but Rhys had never heard of Bane before).
All in all, a fairly nasty time in the history of the world. Thankfully, Tadius himself wasn't even born until a hundred years after this all happened. But leave it to the elves and their long lives and memories to still shy away from the northlands after so many years have gone by. Apparently, most of the elves of Sythia still think that the northlands are somehow "cursed" as far as elves are concerned. That is what puts Tadius in the position of being one of the only elves most of the folk of Glynden ever see.
In short, Rhys was in a bit of a bind. Tadius assured him that, although they were slow to accept him at first, the folk of Glynden now find nothing odd about his "elvenness". If Rhys gave them time (and Tadius assured him that he had plenty of that), they would likely come around eventually. In the mean time, Tadius was more than happy to help him out however he could. He even offered for Rhys to join his caravan and travel with him if he liked.
The following day, the group gathered in town for a memorial service to be held in Krase's honor at the Church of St. Cuthbert. When the party arrived, Kyndalyn intercepted them and apologetically explained that the Council had decided that the silver bars were the rightful property of those who used to own the mine. The party was going to be given a quarter of the bars as a "finders fee" for their recovery. It was quickly decide that they would split the bars five ways and give an equal share to Krase's family. With that, they entered the Abbey for the memorial service.
The news of Krase's death hit the town very hard as he was the one among the "Heroes of the Winter War" whom the townsfolk most identified with. The service was solemn and moving for all and concluded with the choir singing a haunting rendition of Celestials Bear Me Away.
As people drifted away from the ceremony, Krase's father approached the group. He quietly apologized for his outburst the previous day and told them that he wanted them to keep the magical sword and mithral armor Krase had worn. As a tanner and leatherworker, he had no need of such things and wanted the party to keep them to do with as they saw fit. The party in turn handed over the silver bars that amounted to Krase's share of the treasure.
(Actually, they gave a bit more than his fair share - when they divided the bars up, there was an uneven remainder and they donated this to Krase's parents. For the record, each party member got approximately 550 GP worth of silver bars. They also arranged to sell Heartneedle and the mithral breastplate to Tadius who thought he could get a decent price for them when he ventured to the barbarian lands later in the summer.).
The next several days saw much activity for the party. Raven was hard at work at the forge enchanting several of the groups assorted weapons and armor. Father Tomas had Scar going around town making purchases for the expedition that would venture to reoccupy Aquae Sulis. A great deal of material was going to be needed for this and apparently, some of the silver bars were being used to fund this expedition.
Rhys did venture into town and found that, as expected, people had a hard time relating to him in a different skin. His parents made their best effort at welcoming him back but they were clearly unsure of how to handle him. Isabeau was also having a very hard time making the adjustment, not only to relating to Rhys, but also the attention among the other townsfolk that it caused.
Oddly, it was those who knew him least that related the best to Rhys. He spent most of his time talking to Tadius and Tarsheeva. During this time, he arranged to purchase a magic item from Tadius that he felt could solve many of his problems. It was a hat that allowed the wearer to assume any appearance he desired. But once he had it, he felt even less comfortable assuming his original form around friends and family. It may have been his original form, but it was no longer his natural one.
Speaks spent most of his time at his home in the wolf cave outside Glynden. He continued to commune with nature daily and awaken new powers within himself. But he also began to experience an odd sensation. He kept thinking that he saw something out of the corner of his eye but when he turned, there was nothing there. He spoke with the wolves and various other animals around him but all professed to seeing nothing out of the ordinary.
In Speaks' absence from town, rumors began to circulate. Suspicions began to crop up about him. No accusations were made outwardly, but the fact that the Druid had been the only one of the three heroes to return intact from Aquae Sulis did not sit well with some of the townspeople. Jucadius and Nacalius were clearly fanning the flames of these rumors, claiming that Speaks threatened the Council with violence if not given a share of the silver bars the party recovered. Scar and Raven both caught wind of these rumblings, but neither was well connected enough or skilled in argument to counter any of these accusations.
(The overall "Charisma Deficit" of the party became painfully apparent at this point. It underscored how much they had relied on Rhys to be their mouthpiece in previous interactions. But now he has become almost as much of a hermit as Speaks has.)
One night, Speaks had a disturbing dream. In it, Raven was standing at a forge. Speaks willingly but regretfully handed his stoneworking tools to Raven who cast them into the coals. As Speaks watched, Raven took the metal portions of the tools and began to reforge them into a new shape. The shape was that of a blade.
NEXT: Distrust, Betrayal and Oathbreaking Part 4: Questions and Answers
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