ZEITGEIST Tizbiz Zeitgeist Campaign

[Lylandra]

A dead boy's madness

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.

(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)

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.

(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.)

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?

(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)

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.

 

[Lylandra]

Gallo's school and the return of Gale

After her usual training routine and Isobel's lessons, Auryn meets up with Asrabey for breakfast. She tells him about their investigations in Cloudwood and their assumption that this might all point to Ekossigan hiding somewhere in that district. Asrabey reports on his own research in Partity Lake and other polluted areas where he thought Ekossigan might strike first. But he found nothing that could be remotely related to a Fey Lord. So he congratulates her for their quick thinking and asks her to join them should they eventually resume their investigation.

Auryn sees no reason to exclude Asrabey as this is the task he had been given by the Unseen Court. She then tries to explain the whole Nightelf debacle and adds that she made sure Isobel understands the difference between an Eladin man and those monsters who abused – and are presumably still abusing - her family. She adds that she'll make sure all of them, the Traverses and the Nightelves will be punished properly in time. Asrabey calls this a noble plan he'd love to join in was he not bound by his oath to Kasvarina.

Together, Auryn and Asrabey go to the RHC to meet up with Carlyle and fetch the results of Margit's pathological examination. She offers us a lengthy report which includes every little detail, but the most important information is that this boy is named John who's an orphan and that he got his cutting injuries before he died. His bones broke after death, however, and Margit is pretty sure that he must have fallen quite a distance. Oh and she totally dispelled the curse, so no need to worry about angry mobs anymore.

We thank Margit for her help (seriously, she's the best pathologist one could hope for) and then decide to return to Cloudwood. As we now know that John was an orphan, we kind of get why no one was missing him. But we do know that there is an orphanage somewhere in Cloudwood, so starting our search for Ekossigan or the fey there might not be the worst of ideas. Unfortunately, we don't know exactly where this orphanage is located, so we decide to ask the one who would have the best chances of knowing: Mayor Doyle Idylls.

As we come across Gale's meeting spot, we leave her a message, asking her for any news on Elik and stating our desire to talk to her about her mysterious benefactor.

Then, we meet the mayor in his house which is covered in yucky means of warding against fey. Mr. Idylls seems surprised to hear about a curse in his district, but from the looks of his house he's quite used to malicious fey attacks. He does know about an orphanage though, Gallo's school, that's being organized by a group of druids.

(So Lord Gallo's family went from being Dasseni aristocracy to building a school and becoming druids? Who would've thought that? )

The school is funded by all communities of Cloudwood, so our guess that this child might be just “everyone's child” might be true after all. Unfortunately, Mr. Idylls doesn't know much more about what's going on beyond his village and he doesn't seem to care too much either. So he cannot tell us where this school might be located and we'd be better off asking strangers down the road. Or so. Guess the only people voting for the seat of Mayor of Cloudwood are the ones living in this village...

So we kind of take the mayor's advice to heart and ask the people in the village about the location of the orphanage. Fortunately, we find one smith who is a “graduate” from that school as he's an orphan himself. For a fair payment, he agrees to drive us there in his old cart. We're glad for his offer and take a seat.

On our way, we are suddenly caught by a growing storm that quickly turns into a full-scale tempest. “How strange, usually the storm is on my side. At least in Flint...” Auryn mumbles just a split second before a lightning strikes down, almost hitting the smith's mule.

Then, we suddenly hear the familiar voice of Gale.

“Turn back. Please. I don't want to hurt you.”

We reply that we already assumed that she got her storm powers from Ekossigan, which means she might be bound to serve him. We also explain that we, which includes Asrabey, do not wish to fight her or Ekossigan as we'd like to understand what he's trying to achieve. We got his poem and believe that we might just share a common goal.

The storm calms down at once as Gale agrees to lead us to Ekossigan. She opens up a small path into the wilderness, so we thank the smith for his help and wish him good luck on his way home. We follow the path for a while and then finally meet dear Hana who's looking strangely upset. As she accompanies us, she tells us that Ekossigan of Summer is a very nice Fey Lord who did much to help her flee the Danorans and who granted her the powers of flight and storm. This is why he now returned to ask her to return the favor and help him. As she owes him her freedom, she's bound to do so, even if that could break her heart.

Auryn replies that she cannot allow anyone to force their will upon her sister again. Being forced to act against her will is nothing short but slavery, she insists. Also, “Ekossigan of Summer” might be a whole different person than the other Ekossigans, which is why it would be wrong to let any other Ekossigan incarnation have power over her. Gale turns silent after Auryn's open expression.

After a while, Auryn feels a strange draw towards the place we're heading. Asrabey realizes this and remembers this effect to be a part of Ekossigan's powers: The power to attract and command other fey. He fetches an amulet with enchanted turning cogs and hands it to her.

“Let's not allow him to gain power over your spirit as well. We're fey, after all.”

“And let's make sure he also doesn't get the opportunity to gain a hold onto me and use me as a weapon against you.” says Carlyle and then casts a mind-shielding spell on himself, just in case.

We finally arrive in front of a high tree house. To our horror, we also see the dead bodies of several adult druids hanging from its branches, who all appear to having been strangulated.

“Oh no, no, no. This is bad news.” Asrabey whispers while pointing at the tree. “This one is a one hundred years old oak. If Ekossigan really does wish to travel to the Bleak Gate, he might just have all means at hand. He'd only need to sacrifice thirty-one children. And a mortal's life is nothing for a Fey Lord, as you know.”

(That was the point where Carlyle asked himself why Asrabey would even care for human kids when he clearly had no problem mowing down everyone in his path at Axis island. I can only guess he either does care for innocents or they are simply on the “right side” of his target. Or maybe he fears that ritually sacrificed children might push his “little flower” over the edge.)

Gale closes her eyes in silence for a moment. Meanwhile, we suddenly understand why we didn't see any fey on our way as they are all here. An army. Ready to follow whoever commands them. They all look eerily bejinxed and unnatural, grinning at us with maliciously looking smiles. Some are even gnawing at the dead druid's bodies.

Gale ignores the fey and leads us up the tree to the house that must have been Gallo's school. Now twisted fey play their cruel games inside where we find even more dead adults, but no children. She leads us to one of the outer housings where we finally hear the sounds of living non-fey beings coming from the inside. But before we can open the door to see if there are any children inside, a pale, translucent figure manifests in front of us.

“Greetings, I am Ekossigan of Spring.”

 

[RangerWickett]

Gallo's school is a pun on gallows.

 

[Lylandra]

Ouch, okay. Dark, but fitting pun. Thought you were on a WotBS reference streak in adventure 5 with the Hurricane Violin and the Colossus

 

[Lylandra]

Ekossigan of Winter

To our surprise, the Fey Lord's voice is almost calm and aloof, his words clear despite his wooden mask.

After this sudden introduction, Ekossigan goes on to explain that he has seen a dark child growing in the Bleak Gate version of Cauldron Hill, a dark weed he plans to root out. He (or, his mask) then grins maliciously and turns to Asrabey as he tells him that it is his wife, the dear Kasvarina who had been the gardener of this weed. Oh, and she probably won't remember the dear husband who had been serving her at the Court for centuries.

Asrabey is both furious and confused. We try to let things not slip out of our hands, so we calm Asrabey down and tell him that Ekossigan might be the only one not in league with the conspirators who knows more about Kasvarina, so we need to listen to him a bit longer. We then introduce ourselves as agents of King Aodhan, rightful successor of King Kelland and explain that we basically want the same thing as Ekossigan: To find a way to the Bleak Gate to stop the Cauldron from shattering and prevent the dark child from being born. There are now far too many prophecies pointing at a catastrophe that might happen if no one intervenes. And King Aodhan will surely understand our reasons for teaming up with him.

Ekossigan smiles for a mere moment and then tells us his plan to get to the Bleak Gate: By sacrificing thirty-one young flowers, the younger the better, to use their bodies as a conduit for powerful magic. This and the century-old tree as a focus will then open up a portal to the Bleak Gate through which he will lead his army and annihilate all who seek to spill their dark forces into our realms.

We object to this plan as we cannot possibly stand by while Ekossigan murders these innocent children. As he is Lord of Seasons and protector of the Dreaming, we are protectors of Flint and all its citizens. On top of that, we're pretty close to finding another way to the Bleak Gate, so we could just all join forces against the dark powers. Aurn adds that she's a fey herself, daughter of Galadin and descendant of Kasvarina, infused with the energies of the Dreaming, so she'd like to request Ekossigan's help in finding a way to the Bleak Gate with a less cruel method.

Ekossigan answers that he doesn't have time for petty mortal feelings, so if we don't wish to join him, he'll consider us his opponents. His eyes flicker in an icy-bue hue while Auryn tries her best to change his mind:

“Don't you see, Lord Ekossigan? Only together can we prevent your vision from happening. Continue down this path and, we'll have to stop you. And all will be for naught.”

Then Ekossigan's whole appearance changes to an icy-blue being with gnarled, dead-looking arms, a coat of snow and blue glowing eyes.

“Greetings, I am Ekossigan of Winter. And you won't be able to stop me now.”

It seems as if the whole environment reacts to Ekossigan's change of seasons as the air turns frosty and ice begins to cover the tree's bark. The Fey Lord laughs manically while saying that everyone has to die when winter comes and then summons two ice-infused snow leopards. Meanwhile, the army of fey turns against us and starts throwing projectiles while the more melee-oriented fey begin to climb the tree.

(Umm.... "Winter is coming!" Sorry, I had to )

“I'll hold them off. You take care of Ekossigan!” Asrabey shouts before he dives straight into the fey and releases the terrible dreadnaught powers we'd witnessed on Axis Island. Fortunately, Gale shakes her head and does... nothing. Well, nothing but hiding in the shadows.

Auryn charges at Ekossigan and his leopards and decides to take on the beasts first while Carlyle uses a teleporting maneuver to get to the Fey Lord's back. The gremlins (cursed gremlins!) fire their arrows at Ekossigan which are then redirected at Auryn. Fortunately, the arrows miss their mark (though that was a really clever trick) and she also manages to dodge Ekosigan's icy breath. Carlyle seizes the opportunity to stab Ekossigan from behind while the air, and especially the bark of the tree turn icy. We hear the cracking of wood as the wooden bridges connecting tree and housings begin to freeze.

Ekossigan realizes that Carlyle poses a serious threat and teleports away, down to the ground while Auryn fells the last leopard. Carlyle grabs Auryn's hand, asks her to come with him and then teleports the two of us directly in front of Ekossigan. Where we continue our coordinated attacks on the Fey Lord. As soon as she realizes that he's almost defeated, Auryn, remembering the story of King Kelland's fight against the Titans, decides to give Ekossigan a last chance:

“Lord Ekossigan, we're clearly stronger than you. You won't last much longer. Surrender and we'll find another way to the Bleak Gate. It doesn't have to end that way.”

Ekossigan laughs manically, then points at the slowly dying tree.

“Too late, too late. You think you've won, but they will all die. And then my army will conquer the darkness and root out the bad weed! Your attempts are futile, little agents of Kelland”

Then we hear a loud crack and see that parts of a bridge come crashing down. We now also hear the quiet weeping of children coming from the five outer housings above and can only guess what happens should the branches fall down as well.

“He's right, they will fall to their deaths should this tree die. Take care of this madman while I... try to keep this one from dying.”

Auryn then withdraws from Ekossigan, runs towards the tree and starts her ritual dance to call upon the Light of Srasama. Carlyle continues his fight with Ekossigan and manages to knock him out the moment the divine sunlight falls upon the tree. Plants grow quickly inside the radiance and Auryn directs them to entangle the bark of the giant tree, hoping to stabilize it. She then calls out to Gale to get the children to safety while Asrabey fends off the fey until they, too, lose their will to fight and scatter. Gale does as she was asked, thanking us for being released from her promise to “Ekossigan of Spring” who's gone now that Ekossigan turned into his winter incarnation.

(Yeah, you could have avoided this altogether had you realized that Ekossigan of Summer and Ekossigan of Spring are different incarnations with different characteristics... but we were quite happy that we didn't have to fight our friend.

And speaking of Gale/Hana, I only realized then that Hana could be translated to “flower”, which would make Asrabey's nickname for Auryn, “small flower”, or possibly “chibi Hana” in the elven tongue, sound quite funny while being around Gale.)

Fortunately, Auryn's desperate action and the return of the usual warmth are enough to keep the massive tree from dying, so Gale (and the rest of us) can successfully free the terrified children.

Then we turn to Ekossigan who's still unconscious. We tie him up and mage-cuff him before waking him up with all proper caution. We try to get some more information from him about his poem and what he might have seen in his vision, but this winter incarnation seems to be quite mad.

“She's in a cage, Asrabey! I've seen your pretty little gardener, placed in a cage, a beautifully decorated cage. Oh how she'll loathe and love her little, ugly weeds. But you, you... she'll never love you ever again!”

Needless to say that Asrabey has a hard time holding back, but he's still bound to his oath and, being a member of the Unseen Court, he doesn't have the right to take actions against the Fey Lord. Carlyle assesses the situation for a moment, then turns to Asrabey and Auryn and sighs.

“I'm sorry. He isn't of much help in this state. Still, we made a promise to Asrabey and the King that we'll punish Ekossigan according to the sentence of the Unseen. I know how much you despise taking lives, so I'll do it. You don't need to watch, if you don't want to.”

Auryn nods silently, her eyes wandering from Ekossigan to the tree and back.

“No, I'll watch. I have to see the consequences with my own eyes.”

(She didn't say it, but these “consequences” include both her perceived failure to convert Ekossigan to their own cause and stop him from trying to commit mass murder, and also the vision of a foreordained fate. Ekossigan's downfall cut another wound into her soul that threatened to shatter her belief in her own abilities. Especially in her ability to conquer her own fate, to change the path of history and to fight these prophecies of doom.)

Carlyle then takes some time to link his spirit with his surroundings, the Dreaming, the Bleak Gate and Ekossigan. He tries to clear a path for Ekossigan's spirit and also tries to prepare the fey for his ultimate journey to those fey spirits who have passed on. He then executes Ekossigan with a clear strike, proclaiming the he acts according to the laws and judgement of the Unseen Court. In death, Ekossigan dissolves into a swirl of leaves that scatter in the wind.

Carlyle doesn't waste any time and immediately tries to make contact with the spirit of Ekossigan. He first apologizes for what he had to do, but Ekossigan seems to accept his fate as this was his decision and his failure. Carlyle explains that we'll still plan to go to the Bleak Gate to prevent Ekossigan's vision from coming true, so he asks him to tell him more about what he saw in his dream. Ekossigan touches Carlyle briefly and shows him images of countless souls, drowned in witchoil, seeping towards the Bleak Gate. He then shows him masses of tortured souls being used as food or fuel for a dark presence that's towering above them all. Last, he shows him the vision of an eladrin woman with black hair, the same woman Carlyle saw in Grappa's vision. She's looking much more alive first, directing workers in some sort of industrial complex. Then, the image shifts and she's suddenly apathetic, sitting in a cage that's decorated with elfaivaran tapestries.

Carlyle thanks Ekossigan for sharing his vision with him and then asks him about a person called Alexander Grappa and his connection to the “Cauldron Born”. The Fey Lord doesn't know anything about such a man though, but he insists that the Child must not be born and that they are all in grave danger. The court wouldn't understand, he says, as they don't care much for anything that's not directly related to the Dreaming. Carlyle promises to do whatever he can to prevent a catastrophe, thanks Ekossigan again and then guides him towards the afterlife of the fey spirits.

Carlyle then tells us about what he got from Ekossigan and Asrabey makes it clear that he wishes to go to the Bleak Gate as soon as possible and rescue his wife. As we share the same goal (well, we wish to prevent a catastrophe and gather more information about the OB on top of that), we agree to team up, but we carefully explain Asrabey that Kasvarina might have something to do with our enemy, so we hope that she might be able to help us once we get her out of her stupor. We also have enough reasons to believe that Leone Quintal might be in this complex as well, so we have to discuss possible means of defense against his metal-bending. We also discuss the possibility that Kasvarina might have been possessed by this Nicodemus spirit or whether she'd been split in three quite literally. Asrabey doesn't know anything about an unusual behavior of his wife prior to their separation, but that's centuries ago, so he doesn't really know much about her current state.

(For this "split in three" stuff: There is a popular character from the Warcraft setting who had been split into two different aspects of his personality in two different bodies by the foul magic of a black dragon. And he completely lost his memories in the process. So that, in combination with Nevard's vision, is where this theory came from.)

Before we join Hana in her efforts to get the children to safety, Auryn takes a final look at the place where Ekossigan had been sitting.

“I almost pity Ekossigan, even if I despise his methods. He's seen the warnings and he wanted to prevent a catastrophe. But he didn't listen and failed. Maybe... maybe fate is indeed inevitable.”

She then shakes her head and joins up with the others. Together, we gather the children and bring them to the next settlement. We take the rest of the day to cut loose the dead bodies of the druids and bring them to their brothers and sisters of the forest. Last, we head to the RHC to give a full report on our mission for the Unseen Court and to maybe make plans with the other team on how to proceed on our anti-Kell mission.

(Okay, that whole Ekossigan affair was pretty dark. We knew that fey and Risuri have different sets of morale, but murdering a whole school of children is on a different level of depraved. The whole chapter also had quite the horror feel to it and the stakes for failure were pretty high. One dead child and the dead druids were terrible enough to really disturb our two constables. Asrabey? Not so much. I guess he has seen worse.

Tiz told us that we were quite fast in terms of finding Ekossigan which is why the ritual would have taken 2 more days to complete and his last threat was more or less to spite us, not to actually bring his army through. And honestly, looking for a Fey Lord in the Nettles or Cloudwood was the most logical thing to do if you know a bit about fey and Flint.

And while we really despised Ekossigan's methods and his viewpoint of seeing mortals as assets and tools for his magic, we would have totally temporarily teamed up with him for a common goal. But not on his terms and not when the only option was killing or harming innocents.

As for Auryn, like I mentioned before, she started to doubt her own strength and abilities. After that really high note at the end of adventure 4, it felt as if reality came crashing down on her. And she started to project all of their successes of the past on Carlyle's powers, seeing that he's carrying a divine spark, having a quicker reaction time than her and mastering kinds of magic she couldn't, despite being born with the gift of magic. So she started to feel as if she was reaching the same limits here in Flint that she had felt before leaving Elfaivar.

Being unable to reach perfection, threatened by the thought that her whole education and faith was based on a lie and also unable to reach her own goals, she became more and more frustrated and began to crave more personal power. Without realizing it she understood Fordren's path of power and personal strength, feeling weak for depending on others who seemed to grow much faster than she did. So she started to toy with the idea of following her own path once she knew Flint and King Aodhan were safe and the peace conference was over)

 

[RangerWickett]

Auryn was the one who saved the children from dying due to treefall. I hope her perfectionism doesn't cause her to see a victory as a failure, just because the villain was able to start hurting people before see ever could have known to get involved.

 

[Lylandra]

Investigating Soknik

Yeah, she knows that there's nothing she could have done to prevent Ekossigan from harming the druids or the orphan. It is more like some sort of fatalism she developed during this episode where she thought that either fate is inevitable (as every prophecy or vision she encountered came true somehow) or only to be contested by the extraordinarily strong and powerful.

But you know... it has to get worse before it can start to get better

Or as Tiz would put it... "poor Carlyle has to deal with his own internal struggles and his dearest amalgamation of neuroticism on top of it"

---

Meanwhile somewhere else in Flint...

The very same morning Team C teamed up with Asrabey, Team B tries to find out more about the dwarven terrorists. So Carlao, Dima, Serena and Gaethan head to Soknik's Repair and Renovations Services to ask the owner some tough questions about their employees and possible connections to the sect of Grandis Komanov.


However, once they reach the shop, they are disappointed to find only a youthful clerk looming behind the counter, looking incredibly bored at first. They tell him that they need someone to paint their office and the young man replies that he doesn't know whether he can help them right now as the company has a hard time working all their orders right now. They even had to hire subcontractor to fulfill all of their jobs, so he'll have to check with his boss first.



His mood changes quickly when he realizes that the four people who entered the shop are actually RHC agents. They question him about said subcontractors and their contacts. The boy tries to tell them far-fetched lies about knowing no names at all and he's also pointing to a book which is full of numbers and sums that make no sense.


Carlao doesn't want to spend more time with this obviously green “accountant” than necessary, so she orders him to either come with them to the RHC without showing resistance or expect to be arrested. The boy does as he's being asked. However, once they are halfway through the shop, he makes some strange signs and a few seconds later, a loud shot echoes through the street. The shop's window shatters and Gaethan falls to his knees, badly wounded by an ice bullet.


“Sharpshooter!” cries Serena and throws herself and the boy (who unsuccessfully tried to flee) to the ground. Dima makes a run for the shutters of the window and closes them as quickly as possible to cut off the line of sight for whoever is trying to shoot them. While the dwarf is doing her best to help them, Carlao takes a shot as well.


“Damn, this is bad. This isn't your usual ammo. Seems like they're dead serious.” Serena says, crawling towards the back door of the room.


Once Dima has all the shutters closed, they all make haste towards the back room of the shop where the cleric heals the wounds of her comrades. Once he's healed, Gaethan explains that he tried to spot the shooter, but couldn't see anyone. So whoever that might be, he or she is an absolute professional. Then they demand answers from the young clerk.


The shocked boy tells them in all honesty that he didn't know about the shooter. His boss, Soknik, told him to answer no questions, sit inside the shop and make it seem as if he's an accountant. He was paid good money for little work, he explains. Soknik also told him to make signs should he feel threatened or harassed, which is what he did when they were trying to press him.


“Should've known better than to mess with the RHC, boy” Carlyo says and uses her feather to deliver a message to Delft, telling him about their situation and asking for a backup team. While they can do little more than wait for relief, they decide to search the shop and find that this room is little more than a facade. However, they find a trap door hidden underneath a big carpet (“they're always underneath the carpet”, Serena says), take the boy with them and go downstairs.


The team is surprised to see not only a hidden cellar room, but also a long range of underground corridors. They decide to take a closer look and find themselves in the canal section of Flint before reaching dry ground again after a while. Dima is pretty impressed by the seeming labyrinth of corridors. Serena, on the other hand, is more impressed by the sheer amount of magical and mundane traps that someone has placed in these hallways. Fortunately, she's able to disarm and disable all of them so her team can pass safely.
After what seems like an eternity of walking through corridors, they come across a group of skeletons and ants, but can fend off both hazards. Last but not least they find a room containing a table with still warm meals. Assuming that whoever wanted to eat said meals might be still around, they cautiously continue searching through the next rooms where they find hints that something technical might have been built in one of the workshops. They find alchemical formulae and samples of strange matter in another laboratory and believe whoever worked here might have been developing some strange kind of explosive.

“Better leave it to Carlyle to make sense of these... strange writings” Serena says, carefully picking up the samples. Meanwhile, Gaethan spots an envelope containing an invitation for Ms. Brigitte Coulson, reporter of the Flint Tribune, to the grand opening of the Sharon Baker Station. He also finds a coded message and curses his lack of understanding when it comes to chiffres.


“Tanya would've decoded this in no time. I really miss her...” he sighs and picks up the sheet.


Once they're sure they picked up all hints, they proceed to the last corridor. There, they are surprised by three dwarves who immediately start firing their rifles at the constables. Fortunately, they don't pose as much of a threat as the shooter and so they manage to subdue them quickly.


“We're lucky they didn't have special magic ammo on them as well.”


Shortly after Serena uttered that thought, Carlao blinks hastily and then has a sudden flash of insight. “Wait a minute... special magic ammunition. Shooter. Dwarf. Technology. I've read about this before. In Team C's report about the KATE. Could it be... Kvarty Gorbatiy?!”


The four discuss this thought for a while and then agree that their theory might not be too far off and they'll make sure to gather information about the big game hunter as soon as they got their evidence delivered. But first, they have to wait for reinforcements.


Fortunately, Delft arrives a couple minutes later with a team of well-armed rookies in tow. He explains that whoever has shot at them has vanished, but they'll make sure to pick up any clues on that rooftop. Together, they take the boy clerk back to the RHC and start making sense of their messages and the invitation.

(Phew, I'd have never thought it would be so hard to switch from writing pages with "Carlyle" to this chapter full of "Carlao". Danm these similarities)

 

[Lylandra]

Interrogation time

While we're still busy getting the orphans to the druid's community, we say goodbye to Gale. Auryn asks her to stay safe and to avoid getting indebted to someone who might force her to act against her beliefs.

“I really don't want to see you become a slave to someone else, you know? Should you ever need help, just ask us. Even if we cannot guarantee you that the RHC might be able to help, we're still kin and we know people who are trustworthy”

(Of course she was hinting at her Vekeshi contacts)

Auryn then turns to Asrabey and asks him whether there is some sort of resemblance between herself and Kasvarina as this is something she'd been thinking about since her encounter with the corrupted paladins in Odiem. He answers that yes, she's indeed very similar to a younger version of his wife, if you ignore the very differently colored hair and eyes. But that shouldn't trouble her too much as she is simply Kasvarina's descendant and children tend to look at least a bit like their parents.

Auryn nods in agreement and the quietly starts musing about fate, prophecy and causality. She, again, asks herself whether fate is inevitable and what kind of power could change or cut the threads of fate.

Before we say goodbye to Asrabey as well, we remind him that we have business to do on the morrow and that he promised to help us root out the Scoundrel's Theater. Asrabey agrees to team up against Kell, as he promised and also hints that he might wish to find Kasvarina as well. We say that we totally understand his wish and will ask the King about a team up for the expedition to the Bleak Gate.

We then head to the Aurum to tell his majesty that we've acted according to the tribute that's been asked of him as Kelland's successor. Ekossigan is dead and his threat to Cloudwood has been dissolved. When he asks us what happened, we tell Aodhan the whole story of the curse, the mobs, the dead kid and also Ekossigan's plan. The King is very much shocked to hear that the Fey Lord planned to kill so many children and adds that this entity must have been pretty desperate to use such methods. He thanks us for thwarting Ekossigan's plan and rescuing the children, even if he mourns the loss of so many lives.

We agree with his assessment of the situation and then remind him that Ekossigan was yet another hint at something dark going on in the Bleak Gate version of Cauldron Hill. We explain that the seal of Macbannin is getting weaker at an alarming rate and we don't know whether the Green Knight will be able to contain the dark magic on her own. King Aodhan says that he trusts Dame Jillian with his life and that he's pretty sure she'll be able to handle the situation.

We agree that she's a powerful person, but find her a bit lacking when it comes to interacting with people in need of her help. Also, the people of the Nettles need a Mayor r someone who's able to listen to their concerns. Otherwise, we fear that the poor citizens might lose their faith in the King himself, which would be the worst that could happen given the current situation. On top of that, we need someone to make a proper evacuation plan for the coming of the “Second Darkness”. Just in case.

King Aodhan sees wisdom in our words and he proceeds to write a letter to Dame Jillian. (“She's a bit oldschool, you know?”) We promise to bring her this letter as soon as possible, but also ask for another favor: We'd like to lend his Principal Minister for a few hours. When he asks us what we'd like to do with Lee, we explain that there is this Geas on everyone who's been involved in higher class Obscurati actions. And this Geas is keeping them from giving us the answers we need to get the upper hand in this conflict. Lee, being the most powerful and resourceful mage in all of Risur, could maybe dispel the Geas and solve a lot of problems.

(I hope Lee didn't mind that we kind of objectified him. But he's the most resourceful mage in all of Risur and he's quite handy. Even if we basically broke the Prestige rules with this request.)

The king turns to Lee and ask him for his own opinion. As he doesn't see any reason why he shouldn't give it a try (and as he can also be sure that his King is in good, albeit draconic, claws), he agrees to meet us at the RHC HQ in a few hours.

So we head to Dame Jillian to bring her the king's letter and it seems as this would suffice. She agrees to work with us, but she still has important stuff to do, so we shouldn't waste too much of her precious time. We tell her about what happened with Macbannin's witchoil factory and share our fears that the other facility might be even bigger and more dangerous. We then discuss means of evacuating the people of the Nettles ( even if we all hope that we'd never have to make use of it) and she also agrees to a few “counseling hours”, even if she hopes that the King will appoint a new mayor soon.

We then return to the RHC in the evening where Team B has been waiting for us the whole time. They tell us about their investigation at Soknik's and show us all the evidence they've collected. From the looks of it, we assume that these terrorists plan to strike against the grand opening ceremony of the Sharon Baker Station. Considering the fact that governor Stanfield will be the guest of honor, we think that this is quite the interesting target, even if they should know that a Deva can simply reincarnate and Stanfield is quite notorious for dying every now and then.

(yeah, he's basically the opposite of Carlyle in this regard. Don't know if this stems from the original, but “our” Stanfield sees death as less than a small setback and he has died numerous times during his centuries-long governorship)

Carlyle instantly examines the components that Team B found in the workshops and labs and is pretty surprised and then worried about the results. He analyzes Fiery Humor, Aether, Phlogiston Witchoil, bloody ambergris, strands of chronosomia and scales of Ouroboros that are infused with poison, as well as Frostburn.

(I really had a good laugh when Tiz told us about these alchemical ingredients. Aether and Phlogiston were both theoretical entities that were popular in the 19th century, but both got ultimately disproven with the dawn of modern physics and chemistry. I thought that Chronosomia could be a pun to chromosomes and also a hint at the String Theory. Ouroboros is a mythical snake creature from ancient Greece which is eating its own tail, but it is also symbolic for a full alchemical circle. The Humor theory is another aspect that was popular, so the “fiery” one might be a sanguine.)

Carlyle explains that while all these ingredients are quite fascinating on their own, the dwarves' plan to make a bomb out of them does sound quite terrifying as this bomb might be powerful enough to blast a while block to dust.

Meanwhile, Auryn decodes the letter from the dwarves and finds out that there will be a ship, the Bezna, which is scheduled to arrive the next evening. As the ship is coming from Drakr and the terrorists were looking forward to this event, we decide to better not let this thing enter the harbor without a proper searching.

She then heads to the holding cells to interrogate the dwarves. She picks the most intelligent-looking of them all and begins a conversation about philosophy and fate. She asks the dwarf whether he believes in fate and whether this fate is inevitable. The dwarf agrees to both statements and adds that the world will end in ice and that it is the prophet Grandis Komanov's goal to accelerate the coming of the icy end of the world. She then asks whether he believes that their mission will be successful as they are fated to “win” and the dwarf agrees again, saying that soon Flint will know terror it has never seen before. Auryn grins and then tries to perform a rhetorical trick:

“So, if fate is indeed inevitable and all of your explosives are fated to explode as you wish, then surely telling us where they can be found will change nothing, right? Wouldn't it bring even more despair to know that we tried our best and were still defeated?”

The dwarf looks at her with wide open eyes at first, then shakes his head and declares that he'll not fall for this as he has sworn to do everything he can to make sure we'll know terror. Auryn sighs and then says that she doesn't believe that bombs are a part of the world's fate and that he will soon know what it means to mess with Flint and the RHC.

As she's been frustrated again, she decides to make another try on the less-fanatic inmate that is Hammerton. As he's been isolated all the time, the Guild lieutenant is quite happy to see that the one paying him a visit is the cute “tamer of the Beast”, so he instantly starts a conversation and asks her what she's doing.

“Hoping to talk to people with more sanity in their brains than dwarves who tried to kill themselves with poison, I guess.” she answers and proceeds to ask him whether he made up his mind regarding his cooperation. She adds that she could order the guards to make his life a bit more comfortable, then takes a closer look at him and mutters a short incantation.

“I see. I guess I could get you one. And then we'll talk like civilized people.”

She then quickly disappears to fetch a bottle of wine and two glasses and offers Hammerton one of them. It seems like that guy is warming up after all and he finally agrees to help the RHC with information should we manage to keep him from being executed. Or from being thrown in a cell with the beast. Auryn replies that she'll do her best and Hammerton tells her all about the names of Kell's messengers and the location of some of the more secret hideouts of Kell. He also explains that Spinning Wheel is the logistics expert of the Guild and that it is him who's responsible for getting masses of marked crates through Stanfield canal. He doesn't know how this trick works, but these crates somehow empty themselves in the process or so.

(Detect desires is a great, but a bit niche spell. Unfortunately, the dwarves only desired death, destruction and the icy end of he world)

Auryn thanks Hammerton for this info and guesses that this might just be the path to the Bleak Gate they were looking for. Last, she asks Hammerton whether he knows anything about an attack on the Vantrys family that happened four years ago as they still didn't manage to close that case and the Kells are among the prime suspects. But either Hammerton doesn't know or the Guild is truly innocent of this incident.

Auryn, Carlyle and Team B meet up after their investigation and plan how to proceed from there. We agree to inform Dawkins about the ship from Drakr as soon as possible so we might get a ship to intercept the Bezna. Auryn volunteers to meet with the Rear Admiral and tell him about the terrorists.

Before she can leave the RHC, she almost bumps into Harkover Lee who came here as promised. He asks us about our work so far and we tell him all about these terrorist dwarves and their refusal to tell us anything.

“I tried everything. From persuasion to philosophy to rhetorical tricks to charms. I'm frustrated enough to wish I'd be able to force them to spill everything”

“You know there's a spell for that, young lady?”

Auryn sighs again, indicating that she already knows this, but also hinting that domination isn't really her specialty. Nor her style.

“Hm. In that case I might have a leftover scroll in my case in the Aurum. If you don't mind, then I'll give it a try tomorrow”

Now that lightens up her mood immediately and she gives the Principal Minister a heartfelt smile, thanking him for all his effort. They then venture down to Grappa's intermediate golem workshop where said Alexander Grappa is still busy building a body for Dr. Meredith. We introduce the two men to each other and then tell Grappa that Lee might be able to remove his Geas. Grappa is instantly on board and Lee proceeds to cast some magic identification spells and then draws a lot of intricate ritual circles. He then performs spell after spell (many of which we haven't yet seen) for his ritual and it seems as if he's getting more and more strained every minute.

After an unusually long time, Lee's ritual circle collapses completely, leaving the mightiest arcane caster in Risur both shocked and utterly clueless. When he regains his posture, the Principal Minister can only guess that the Geas itself has to be be fueled by some kind of powerful, ongoing ritual. When we ask whether a wizard of the ranks of Kasvarina could have once cast such a spell, he shakes his head, implying that only multiple mages can call forth magic of this magnitude.

He's a bit embarrassed that he couldn't help to free Grappa, but we try to comfort Harkover Lee by saying that this Nicodemus guy alone wielded magic in a frequency that was beyond our known limits of what a mortal can do, so maybe the higher-ups of the Obscurati are all insanely powerful.

We then talk a bit about Cauldron Hill and the dangers that could stem from there. Lee agrees that this place is really dangerous as there's always been a natural closeness to the Bleak Gate as the borders between our two planes are rather weak there. In his opinion, the witches who made the Hill their home a century ago simply utilized that fact to fuel their foul magic with Bleak Gate energy. We then talk a bit about the witches and the remnants of their magic that we found on our expedition. Lee says that while this is all very intriguing, this was also long before his time, even if it would have been terribly fascinating to study the witches' magic.

Lee then takes a peek outside, sees that it is already nighttime and bids us farewell. Once he left, Auryn looks strangely intrigued and also a bit confused.

“I wonder why he didn't tell the truth when he was talking about the witches”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I'm pretty sure Harkover Lee lied when he told us that these events happened before his time. And now I'm wondering even more about who this man truly is.”

Carlyle takes a moment to think about the situation and then agrees with Auryn. They both agree to keep an eye on the Principal Minister, even if they are pretty sure that his longevity is not necessarily a sign of danger and that he is a trustworthy person, even if he'll surely have his secrets.

 

[RangerWickett]

Lee says that while this is all very intriguing, this was also long before his time, even if it would have been terribly fascinating to study the witches' magic.

“Well, I'm pretty sure Harkover Lee lied when he told us that these events happened before his time. And now I'm wondering even more about who this man truly is.”

Ah, good. For a second I was about to say that somebody's GM hadn't read the appendices of the Act Two hardcover.

 

[Tizbiz]

We just finished "Relevations from the Mouth of a Madman". My players had their big "omg" moment when all things suddenly just made sense as they were informed about the King Boyle Agreement.

I dont want to spoil the fun but am looking forward to that scene when we get to read it. I think that in my campaign this scene will be one of the most memorable for Lylandras Character Auryn.