Bonds of Forced Faith, pt. 1
After reliving the experience of one of Stanfield's many deaths, we suddenly find ourselves in different personalities than before. Among them are King Lorcan, inhabited by Carlyle, who is accompanied by Green Knight Dame Melissa, inhabited by Auryn, as well as Harkover Lee and a Godhand called Tomas Masarick. The four of them are on their way to the estate of the “Mayor” of Flint, who is actually Stanfield, reincarnated.
All four are welcomed by Stanfield who seems to be both desperate and relieved that the King is finally taking matters in his own hands. Lorcan promises that he has heard the cries of the citizens of Flint, which is why he came to fight the witches with his own hands. Carlyle however understands the King's inner workings and sees that Lorcan is tired of his job and seeking for a successor as well as the fact that the Kings feels the need to prove his worth one more time.
Stanfield ignores any subtle twitches of the King however as he has far more important matters at hand. He introduces himself as the representative of the desperate people of Flint who are currently being terrorized by a coven of witches. The witches, he explains, have established their domain atop the “green hill” which is now dubbed “Cauldron Hill” or “Witch Hill”. They had been in hiding for several decades at first, but became much bolder over time. He tried to take care of their looming presence, but had been killed thrice so far. So he is quite thankful that King Lorcan finally listened to his pleas for help.
The King replies that it is his job as Sovereign of Risur to take care of powerful, magical foes and that the brave citizens of Flint will be able to live in peace again soon. Tomas Masarick adds that he has joined the King's quest as Crisillyir has to take its responsibility this case of witch infestation as the “Comtessa”, one of the witches, is a former Crisillyiri who got exiled for her blasphemous acts. He adds that, had she been burned at the stake as usual and not treated with mercy, the people of Flint would have been safe from her heinous acts. Especially as he suspects that she is currently using magic that she stole from one of the most forbidden vaults of his home nation: The Crypta Heraeticorum.
(Oh my... this place is coming back again and again)
Tomas briefly explains that one of the rituals she stole is one that'd give her the ability to tie her own life force to that of others, thus making her really hard to kill. Stanfield confirms that the Comtessa is wielding strange magic unknown to Risuri mages and adds that she is also very capable in the field of Blood Magic per se. He then explains the abilities of her fellow witches Deliria, who is a skilled illusionist, and Pernicity, who can summon and command both Fey and Undead.
Lorcan is eager to get this job done, but Stanfield insists to wait for Rachel Lang, a Skyseer who would be their guide to the Hill and who appears to be running late. But before the woman arrives, the group witnesses one very unusual event: The arrival of a Danoran steam vessel in Flint Harbor.
As no one expected the Danoran's arrival, King Lorcan sends a slightly piqued Dame Melissa as his emissary to look for the Danoran's intentions and hail them while the rest continues their wait for Rachel Lang. Auryn senses that Dame Melissa is a bit torn by feeling a sense of pride to be chosen as Lorcan's emissary and her fear that King Lorcan and Harkover Lee might be discussing something important in her absence. She also gets a sense of rivalry from Melissa towards Lee, which she finds a bit amusing given the fact that she knows more about the true nature of the King's advisor.
When she arrives at the harbor, Dame Melissa is surprised to see a single Tiefling Lady leaving the enormous ship. She introduces herself in a very friendly and formal manner as Amielle Latimer, member of a scientific community which wishes to establish a collaboration with Risur and leave the nation's squabbles in the past. She adds that she knows about the King's mission to deal with the nasty witches and stresses out that she has important information that may be crucial to the mission's success. Dame Melissa is very much skeptical at first, and so are the risuri bystanders, but she is willing to listen to this information and share it with King Lorcan and the rest of the crew.
So Dame Melissa takes Amielle to the Mayor's estate where she introduces herself once again. She then quickly explains that she knows about the lunar eclipse that's taking place this evening, an event which is casually called as a “blood moon”. Amielle adds that on top of this bad omen, there are also various stellar and planetar constellations that would greatly empower any skilled wielder of blood magic.
Stanfield agrees to this assessment as his reports show hints that the witches would be working on some grand ritual which may be connected to the eclipse.
“Well isn't that great... the Crisillyiri and Danorans seem to know more about our local problems than the Risuri scholars.”, Lorcan remarks snarkily. “And where the bloody hell is this Skyseer? I don't remember that 'making the king wait' is a local Flintish custom, Mayor Stanfield...”
“I don't wish to add oil to the fire, my King, but the connection between a 'bood moon' and a 'blood witch' are quite obvious, don't you think?”, Dame Melissa adds with a sigh.
But before the Green Knight can add any more sass to her statement, she is interrupted by a loud explosion. Then the small group can see a grand column of smoke coming from the harbor and all of them hurry to the front door of the estate. From the front window, they can see that the smoke is actually coming from the Danoran ship and Amielle Latimer is horrified to see her beautiful vessel in flames.
She urges the party to rush to the harbor, but the moment they open the front door, they are confronted by a bunch of Flinter citizens. The murmur something about having a witch in a boat when suddenly one of them takes out a knife and slits his own throat.
As the group watches in terror as the man falls over and dies, the blood gushing from his neck takes on the form of a beautiful woman with lush locks. She calls herself the “Red Comtessa”, Lady of Cauldron Hill. The Comtessa explains that she came to congratulate King Lorcan to his birthday and adds that this birthday will mark the day of his retirement as he has never taken the needs of his citizens seriously, lest of all the citizens of Flint. People she deeply cares for. Which is why from now on, she will be Queen of Risur.
As she utters these words, Dame Melissa cuts off the blood-witches' head.
“Impertinent bitch should watch her bloody mouth”, she spits out and nods to King Lorcan. As the woman's figure dissolves to a puddle of blood again, Harkover Lee points out that there is indeed some ruckus coming from the direction of Parity Lake, which might be related to the “witch in the boat” the crazed people mentioned earlier. Lorcan agrees that all of this is troublesome news and that they should definitely look into this “witch” report. After all, order has to be restored and Parity Lake could be a good starting point.
(Dame Melissa pulling the same move on the Comtessa's image as Cuin and Tinu did on Pilus' clones during our WotBS campaign in adventure #11. Every time he tried to give a speech they just cut him in half
)
The group now consisting of King Lorcan, Dame Melissa, Harkover Lee, Roland Stanfield, Amielle Latimer and Brother Tomas hurries towards Parity Lake where they see a group of Flinter locals who are busy firing burning arrows at a boat. Stanfield is shocked to see that the person they are firing at is no one else but Rachel Lang, the missing Skyseer.
King Lorcan calls out to the citizens and states that, should there be a dangerous witch in this boat, it would be his job as King to deal with this mistress of the occult. Which is why they should take cover and leave everything else to him and his entourage. Some of them back down immediately, but several others, including husky Pete, have to be pushed by Dame Melissa to give their King the necessary attention.
One by one the people of Flint withdraw and the team boards one rather small ship to get closer to Rachel Lang. Just when everyone is ready to go, Pete turns into a witch and signals a group of trolls that were hiding among the other abandoned boats to attack the party. Tomas is the first to react. He instantly jumps at the witch and buries her in wild punches. To his horror, the still present crowd takes some bruises from his attacks despite being a good distance away. Few of them run away in panic, but almost twenty people appear to be frozen in awe despite being hurt.
Tomas remembers this effect as part of the ritual Bonds of Forced Faith and he informs the others that attacking the woman could be lethal to the innocent citizens she bound herself to. The witch, who calls herself sister Deliria, laughs in amusement and throws an anti-firemagic-curse at Harkover Lee, but Tomas redirects the curse at himself. Now it is Harkover who grins at the witch and releases a massive firebolt-volley at the trolls.
“You know what they say about these trolls... they burn quite well”, he says and signals the King and Dame Melissa that he has their backs. King Lorcan then jumps at one of the trolls and engages him in melee combat while Dame Melissa buries her spear in the head of another one. Meanwhile, Tomas tries to grapple the witch but isn't really successful. Amielle tries shooting at the trolls but doesn't do much harm while Stanfield duplicates and fires more magic at them.
As soon as the swampy creatures are dealt with, Dame Melissa summons her stag mount, teleports behind Sister Deliria and catches her with a net. She then nods to Tomas and points towards the lake. The Godhand then grabs the witch and drowns her in the lake. To everyone's relief this doesn't cause more harm to the enchanted citizens of Flint. Moreso, the enchantment wears off the moment the witch dies. King Lorcan calms them down and promises to take care of the whole witch problem for them so they can all go back to sleep.
Roland Stanfield then signals Rachel Lang that she may now safely return to the shore and meet up with the group. Rachel asks her company to row her back and is really grateful for this swift rescue. She apologizes for being late to the appointment, but y'know, there wasn't really much she could have done against this angry mob. She repays the rescue by healing Stanfield's wounds and then talks about the vision she had most recently: In this vision, she saw victory for the King, but that victory happened after the witches' ritual. Which is why they should wait till morning for their attack on the witche's lair atop Cauldron Hill... unless they want to risk a calamity that is.
Now this is a real quandary as the group is faced by two contradictory advices. King Lorcan tries to listen to his gut and feels that he'd rather go with the traditional Risuri Skyseer who had served her city for years than with the Danoran “scientist” and the foreign religious zealot. Dame Melissa, who seems to be opposing King Lorcan for nothing else than to stand out herself, argues that it might still be necessary to climb the mountain as soon as possible. After all, this is a “blood moon” and the witches will be able to draw power from their ritual.
Rachel Lang understands and agrees to their plan as long as the King orders her to lead them. King Lorcan finally agrees and Rachel offers them a protective ritual including blood, herbs and milk. They gratefully agree, but then Dame Melissa is overcome with a quick sting in her head. In what appears to be flashes of images scattered through time, she understands that these are also components of a witches' ritual.
(Tiz had it be Auryn's presence that acted as the catalyst for Dame Melissa to unlock the knowledge Auryn had previously gained from Mayor Macbannin. Wibbly woobly timey stuff of two people connected to the fey and bound by the Arc of Reida's planar magic. Which was way more awesome than the really well rolled nature check)
Dame Melissa takes Roland Stanfield aside and shares her fear that Rachel might somehow be bewitched or even in league with the witches and the Mayor discreetly checks the Skyseer for unusual magic. Unfortunately, he cannot find any illusions on the woman. So both Mayor and Green Knight are not really sure on how to act: Either they'd accuse an innocent woman of witchcraft or they might doom them all by letting a witch put a spell on them all.
Then, all of a sudden, an old fisherman walks by. He takes a curious look at Dame Melissa's stag and tries to pet the steed's head. And to Melissa's surprise, the stag rears his head towards the stranger.
“What a beautiful creature. Take good care of him”, the fisher man says and continues his walk. Without any warning, the stag then leaps at Rachel Lang and lowers its antlers, ready for attack. In return, Rachel Lang tries to throw a curse at King Lorcan, but Tomas is ready to intercept this curse once again.
“Careful, King Lorcan, she's a witch!” Dame Melissa shouts and charges towards Rachel. Tomas then trips Rachel with his hooked chain and King Lorcan hacks at the witch. Rachel understands that fighting here would be futile, so she transforms into a raven and tries to fly away. But she is stopped by a well-placed rapier stab from Amielle Latimer and a jab from Dame Melissa's lance.
After Rachel Lang's death, King Lorcan turns towards Roland Stanfield and demands an explanation why their trusted guide would turn out to be a traitor to Risur. Lorcan calls this a “conspiracy of witches” which has taken roots in the heart of Flint and through which the witches were able to gain information about Stanfield, his plans and his weaknesses. Stanfield is very much embarrassed by all of this and vows that he had no idea that his trusted Skyseer would be one of the coven.
Dame Melissa the ever sarcastic one points out that she now understands why the witches have had such an easy time killing the poor Mayor again and again. She then takes King Lorcan aside and whispers that, should every Danoran turn out to be as informed and clever as this Amielle Latimer, Risur would have a lot to catch up to.
After reliving the experience of one of Stanfield's many deaths, we suddenly find ourselves in different personalities than before. Among them are King Lorcan, inhabited by Carlyle, who is accompanied by Green Knight Dame Melissa, inhabited by Auryn, as well as Harkover Lee and a Godhand called Tomas Masarick. The four of them are on their way to the estate of the “Mayor” of Flint, who is actually Stanfield, reincarnated.
All four are welcomed by Stanfield who seems to be both desperate and relieved that the King is finally taking matters in his own hands. Lorcan promises that he has heard the cries of the citizens of Flint, which is why he came to fight the witches with his own hands. Carlyle however understands the King's inner workings and sees that Lorcan is tired of his job and seeking for a successor as well as the fact that the Kings feels the need to prove his worth one more time.
Stanfield ignores any subtle twitches of the King however as he has far more important matters at hand. He introduces himself as the representative of the desperate people of Flint who are currently being terrorized by a coven of witches. The witches, he explains, have established their domain atop the “green hill” which is now dubbed “Cauldron Hill” or “Witch Hill”. They had been in hiding for several decades at first, but became much bolder over time. He tried to take care of their looming presence, but had been killed thrice so far. So he is quite thankful that King Lorcan finally listened to his pleas for help.
The King replies that it is his job as Sovereign of Risur to take care of powerful, magical foes and that the brave citizens of Flint will be able to live in peace again soon. Tomas Masarick adds that he has joined the King's quest as Crisillyir has to take its responsibility this case of witch infestation as the “Comtessa”, one of the witches, is a former Crisillyiri who got exiled for her blasphemous acts. He adds that, had she been burned at the stake as usual and not treated with mercy, the people of Flint would have been safe from her heinous acts. Especially as he suspects that she is currently using magic that she stole from one of the most forbidden vaults of his home nation: The Crypta Heraeticorum.
(Oh my... this place is coming back again and again)
Tomas briefly explains that one of the rituals she stole is one that'd give her the ability to tie her own life force to that of others, thus making her really hard to kill. Stanfield confirms that the Comtessa is wielding strange magic unknown to Risuri mages and adds that she is also very capable in the field of Blood Magic per se. He then explains the abilities of her fellow witches Deliria, who is a skilled illusionist, and Pernicity, who can summon and command both Fey and Undead.
Lorcan is eager to get this job done, but Stanfield insists to wait for Rachel Lang, a Skyseer who would be their guide to the Hill and who appears to be running late. But before the woman arrives, the group witnesses one very unusual event: The arrival of a Danoran steam vessel in Flint Harbor.
As no one expected the Danoran's arrival, King Lorcan sends a slightly piqued Dame Melissa as his emissary to look for the Danoran's intentions and hail them while the rest continues their wait for Rachel Lang. Auryn senses that Dame Melissa is a bit torn by feeling a sense of pride to be chosen as Lorcan's emissary and her fear that King Lorcan and Harkover Lee might be discussing something important in her absence. She also gets a sense of rivalry from Melissa towards Lee, which she finds a bit amusing given the fact that she knows more about the true nature of the King's advisor.
When she arrives at the harbor, Dame Melissa is surprised to see a single Tiefling Lady leaving the enormous ship. She introduces herself in a very friendly and formal manner as Amielle Latimer, member of a scientific community which wishes to establish a collaboration with Risur and leave the nation's squabbles in the past. She adds that she knows about the King's mission to deal with the nasty witches and stresses out that she has important information that may be crucial to the mission's success. Dame Melissa is very much skeptical at first, and so are the risuri bystanders, but she is willing to listen to this information and share it with King Lorcan and the rest of the crew.
So Dame Melissa takes Amielle to the Mayor's estate where she introduces herself once again. She then quickly explains that she knows about the lunar eclipse that's taking place this evening, an event which is casually called as a “blood moon”. Amielle adds that on top of this bad omen, there are also various stellar and planetar constellations that would greatly empower any skilled wielder of blood magic.
Stanfield agrees to this assessment as his reports show hints that the witches would be working on some grand ritual which may be connected to the eclipse.
“Well isn't that great... the Crisillyiri and Danorans seem to know more about our local problems than the Risuri scholars.”, Lorcan remarks snarkily. “And where the bloody hell is this Skyseer? I don't remember that 'making the king wait' is a local Flintish custom, Mayor Stanfield...”
“I don't wish to add oil to the fire, my King, but the connection between a 'bood moon' and a 'blood witch' are quite obvious, don't you think?”, Dame Melissa adds with a sigh.
But before the Green Knight can add any more sass to her statement, she is interrupted by a loud explosion. Then the small group can see a grand column of smoke coming from the harbor and all of them hurry to the front door of the estate. From the front window, they can see that the smoke is actually coming from the Danoran ship and Amielle Latimer is horrified to see her beautiful vessel in flames.
She urges the party to rush to the harbor, but the moment they open the front door, they are confronted by a bunch of Flinter citizens. The murmur something about having a witch in a boat when suddenly one of them takes out a knife and slits his own throat.
As the group watches in terror as the man falls over and dies, the blood gushing from his neck takes on the form of a beautiful woman with lush locks. She calls herself the “Red Comtessa”, Lady of Cauldron Hill. The Comtessa explains that she came to congratulate King Lorcan to his birthday and adds that this birthday will mark the day of his retirement as he has never taken the needs of his citizens seriously, lest of all the citizens of Flint. People she deeply cares for. Which is why from now on, she will be Queen of Risur.
As she utters these words, Dame Melissa cuts off the blood-witches' head.
“Impertinent bitch should watch her bloody mouth”, she spits out and nods to King Lorcan. As the woman's figure dissolves to a puddle of blood again, Harkover Lee points out that there is indeed some ruckus coming from the direction of Parity Lake, which might be related to the “witch in the boat” the crazed people mentioned earlier. Lorcan agrees that all of this is troublesome news and that they should definitely look into this “witch” report. After all, order has to be restored and Parity Lake could be a good starting point.
(Dame Melissa pulling the same move on the Comtessa's image as Cuin and Tinu did on Pilus' clones during our WotBS campaign in adventure #11. Every time he tried to give a speech they just cut him in half
) The group now consisting of King Lorcan, Dame Melissa, Harkover Lee, Roland Stanfield, Amielle Latimer and Brother Tomas hurries towards Parity Lake where they see a group of Flinter locals who are busy firing burning arrows at a boat. Stanfield is shocked to see that the person they are firing at is no one else but Rachel Lang, the missing Skyseer.
King Lorcan calls out to the citizens and states that, should there be a dangerous witch in this boat, it would be his job as King to deal with this mistress of the occult. Which is why they should take cover and leave everything else to him and his entourage. Some of them back down immediately, but several others, including husky Pete, have to be pushed by Dame Melissa to give their King the necessary attention.
One by one the people of Flint withdraw and the team boards one rather small ship to get closer to Rachel Lang. Just when everyone is ready to go, Pete turns into a witch and signals a group of trolls that were hiding among the other abandoned boats to attack the party. Tomas is the first to react. He instantly jumps at the witch and buries her in wild punches. To his horror, the still present crowd takes some bruises from his attacks despite being a good distance away. Few of them run away in panic, but almost twenty people appear to be frozen in awe despite being hurt.
Tomas remembers this effect as part of the ritual Bonds of Forced Faith and he informs the others that attacking the woman could be lethal to the innocent citizens she bound herself to. The witch, who calls herself sister Deliria, laughs in amusement and throws an anti-firemagic-curse at Harkover Lee, but Tomas redirects the curse at himself. Now it is Harkover who grins at the witch and releases a massive firebolt-volley at the trolls.
“You know what they say about these trolls... they burn quite well”, he says and signals the King and Dame Melissa that he has their backs. King Lorcan then jumps at one of the trolls and engages him in melee combat while Dame Melissa buries her spear in the head of another one. Meanwhile, Tomas tries to grapple the witch but isn't really successful. Amielle tries shooting at the trolls but doesn't do much harm while Stanfield duplicates and fires more magic at them.
As soon as the swampy creatures are dealt with, Dame Melissa summons her stag mount, teleports behind Sister Deliria and catches her with a net. She then nods to Tomas and points towards the lake. The Godhand then grabs the witch and drowns her in the lake. To everyone's relief this doesn't cause more harm to the enchanted citizens of Flint. Moreso, the enchantment wears off the moment the witch dies. King Lorcan calms them down and promises to take care of the whole witch problem for them so they can all go back to sleep.
Roland Stanfield then signals Rachel Lang that she may now safely return to the shore and meet up with the group. Rachel asks her company to row her back and is really grateful for this swift rescue. She apologizes for being late to the appointment, but y'know, there wasn't really much she could have done against this angry mob. She repays the rescue by healing Stanfield's wounds and then talks about the vision she had most recently: In this vision, she saw victory for the King, but that victory happened after the witches' ritual. Which is why they should wait till morning for their attack on the witche's lair atop Cauldron Hill... unless they want to risk a calamity that is.
Now this is a real quandary as the group is faced by two contradictory advices. King Lorcan tries to listen to his gut and feels that he'd rather go with the traditional Risuri Skyseer who had served her city for years than with the Danoran “scientist” and the foreign religious zealot. Dame Melissa, who seems to be opposing King Lorcan for nothing else than to stand out herself, argues that it might still be necessary to climb the mountain as soon as possible. After all, this is a “blood moon” and the witches will be able to draw power from their ritual.
Rachel Lang understands and agrees to their plan as long as the King orders her to lead them. King Lorcan finally agrees and Rachel offers them a protective ritual including blood, herbs and milk. They gratefully agree, but then Dame Melissa is overcome with a quick sting in her head. In what appears to be flashes of images scattered through time, she understands that these are also components of a witches' ritual.
(Tiz had it be Auryn's presence that acted as the catalyst for Dame Melissa to unlock the knowledge Auryn had previously gained from Mayor Macbannin. Wibbly woobly timey stuff of two people connected to the fey and bound by the Arc of Reida's planar magic. Which was way more awesome than the really well rolled nature check)
Dame Melissa takes Roland Stanfield aside and shares her fear that Rachel might somehow be bewitched or even in league with the witches and the Mayor discreetly checks the Skyseer for unusual magic. Unfortunately, he cannot find any illusions on the woman. So both Mayor and Green Knight are not really sure on how to act: Either they'd accuse an innocent woman of witchcraft or they might doom them all by letting a witch put a spell on them all.
Then, all of a sudden, an old fisherman walks by. He takes a curious look at Dame Melissa's stag and tries to pet the steed's head. And to Melissa's surprise, the stag rears his head towards the stranger.
“What a beautiful creature. Take good care of him”, the fisher man says and continues his walk. Without any warning, the stag then leaps at Rachel Lang and lowers its antlers, ready for attack. In return, Rachel Lang tries to throw a curse at King Lorcan, but Tomas is ready to intercept this curse once again.
“Careful, King Lorcan, she's a witch!” Dame Melissa shouts and charges towards Rachel. Tomas then trips Rachel with his hooked chain and King Lorcan hacks at the witch. Rachel understands that fighting here would be futile, so she transforms into a raven and tries to fly away. But she is stopped by a well-placed rapier stab from Amielle Latimer and a jab from Dame Melissa's lance.
After Rachel Lang's death, King Lorcan turns towards Roland Stanfield and demands an explanation why their trusted guide would turn out to be a traitor to Risur. Lorcan calls this a “conspiracy of witches” which has taken roots in the heart of Flint and through which the witches were able to gain information about Stanfield, his plans and his weaknesses. Stanfield is very much embarrassed by all of this and vows that he had no idea that his trusted Skyseer would be one of the coven.
Dame Melissa the ever sarcastic one points out that she now understands why the witches have had such an easy time killing the poor Mayor again and again. She then takes King Lorcan aside and whispers that, should every Danoran turn out to be as informed and clever as this Amielle Latimer, Risur would have a lot to catch up to.
