RangerWickett
Legend
I was wondering how you and your game are going. I hope you're well.
ZEITGEIST Tizbiz Zeitgeist Campaign
Somehow, my notification didn't pop up that someone replied to my thread. Strange.
Thanks for the question! Our game has long finished, though I still plan to write the entire story. Covid struck my then-group hard (we had a lockdown and stopped meeting), then I found another one, switched to online until we all got too busy with work and uni. I still hope we'll get together again, as I really wanted to DM yet another round of WotBS with some story-tweaks to keep it interesting for me.
Regarding my recaps... the husband and I are currently in the process of building a house (or rather: have it be built while simultaneously learning a lot about building tech, the physical backgrounds like how to be energetically as independent as possible (saying FU to the big bad P) and all the procedural requirements), so I really need to find some time to write it all down
Thanks for the question! Our game has long finished, though I still plan to write the entire story. Covid struck my then-group hard (we had a lockdown and stopped meeting), then I found another one, switched to online until we all got too busy with work and uni. I still hope we'll get together again, as I really wanted to DM yet another round of WotBS with some story-tweaks to keep it interesting for me.
Regarding my recaps... the husband and I are currently in the process of building a house (or rather: have it be built while simultaneously learning a lot about building tech, the physical backgrounds like how to be energetically as independent as possible (saying FU to the big bad P) and all the procedural requirements), so I really need to find some time to write it all down
RangerWickett
Legend
I commend you for taking active efforts to reduce the leverage militant tyrants have over civilization. Stay warm this winter, and hopefully things will be stable enough for us both to get a lot of writing done.
Tour de Court
When we finally arrive in Clover, we don't waste too much time and ask for directions to the Unseen Court immediately. They Fey are actually helpful and guide us to a hill with a small grove. The path takes us to the Well of Drought and we see quite a few citizens who use this special place to sober up. We also notice that quite a lot of Cloverians appear to know us once we tell them that we are from the RHC of the Waking. It appears as if Rock has been talking quite a bit about us and the “Royal Homeland Congratulary”, which explains why several fey congratulate us randomly.
(that guy!)
Once we get to the palace, we present our request to the guards and are being let in. Binnivich, a Brownie, who is also the Court's Master of Ceremonies, we meet Azla of the Ice, one of the Fey-Ladies of the Unseen. She is pretty quiet and distant, but asks us to follow her. We try to explain our urgent need to return to the Waking as both our world and the Dreaming might be in imminent danger. And while we understand that there is tension between the two courts, there might be issues that go beyond that.
Azla doesn't really respond to our pleas, but she appears to be listening carefully and patiently. Once we pass by Karest “the Fire”, she leaves our company all of a sudden. Karest is quite the flirt and more than obviously interested in Azla, but she isn't into him at all. So we assume that Azla took the opportunity to have us deal with Karest while she is off the hook for now. Karest on the other hand doesn't mind too much and asks us all about the state of the battles. We tell him the little bits we know, but stress out that this is not our main field of interest.
Then he realizes that Auryn is an Eladrin and asks her where the “grand warrior Asrabey” might be hiding as he hasn't seen much of him lately. We explain that he will most likely be stranded in the Waking, unable to return to the Court. Just like us, who desperately need to return to our world. We stress out that those guys who shut down all our known portals are scheming to do much worse. Karest nods to all of our exposition, but we are not really sure whether he understood any of said consequences. During our chat with the Fey Lord, we also realize that he wasn't really fond of Rock Rackus, which makes Auryn jokingly question whether Asrabey and Rock would have formed a good team. Gabriel rolls his eyes as neither of the two are among his favorite company.
While we are still busy talking to “the Fire”, a smaller Fey Lord called Furg joins our small group. Furg is a bit smelly and appears to be home to several frogs and toads. He is curious though and gives us a rather large tome as a welcome gift. We thank Furg for his kindness. When looking at the book however, our eyes go wide as this tome is actually the original Book of Kelland – a relic that would be a national treasure for any Risuri. We carefully store the book in one of our magical backpacks and agree to read all of Kelland's stories once we got a bit time to spare.
(this came out of nowhere and had both of us baffled... just giving us the book without any kind of quest or so. It was quite a nice way of giving us more background information on Kelland and his family.)
Last but not least, we a greeted by a completely invisible person trailed by flowers growing in her footsteps. We assume that she, who goes by the name of Salinn and calls herself a dryad, must be completely “naked” as the flowers and her voice are the only indicators of her presence. Salinn is curious about our presence, but also makes it very clear that she abhors violence and the ongoing conflict between the two courts. Being a healer, this stance comes very natural for her. When she accuses us of being just two more warriors that either side would likely wish to conscript for their course, we reply that we don't wish to participate in any war as we just need to go home as quickly as possible. Auryn uses her enchanted boots to conjure a flower that she gives to Salinn as a gift and says she does hope though that the conflict will end soon and as peacefully as possible.
Salinn nods and appears to be satisfied with her impression. She leads the three of us to the oval throne room, where Thisraldion is already waiting for us. It is then that we realize that the fey lords and ladies had been walking circles with us as they enter the throne room one by one and take their seats next to Thisraldion. Still one seat remains empty: The one which originally belonged to Ekossigan. Thisraldion welcomes the agents of the RHC and their unknown friend (Andrei) to the Unseen Court and we are quite surprised to see the the leader of the Unseen knows so much about us. Also, we realize that Thisraldion is quite the master of appearances, as Auryn sees him as a man, while Carlyle sees her as a woman.
Thisraldion then asks us why we have come to the Court and the Dreaming, and we tell them that this was no voluntary journey, but rather a magical accident that brought us here. We also mention that, since all known portals to the Waking have ceased functioning, we had hoped that maybe one of the Lords or Ladies might have means to open a bridge. After all, we saw that King Aodhan was able to open up a portal to the Dreaming due to his pact with the fey, so maybe someone might be powerful enough for the reverse direction?
Thisraldion seems to understand our request, but interrupts the whole explanation and plea every now and then with reciting poems and inviting us for dinner, but we try to stay as persistent as politely possible as time is running short.
Thisraldion on the other hand laments the tragic death of beloved Rock Rackus, and that his murder was the spark that ignited the already smoldering conflict with the Hedgehog Court to a fully burning war. So to bring justice to both the Court and the late Rock, it would be of utmost importance to find the traitors and drag them to court.
“Lord Thisraldion, we, too, feel the loss of Rock Rackus, as he was our friend...” Auryn starts to explain, as Carlyle sighs silently at that name, “...but we do have to stress out that there will be much more tragedy for both our worlds if we close our eyes to the more dangerous threats looming ahead.”
“And before you dismiss our warning as strange Waking priorities, we would like to remind you that we do take matters of the Court very seriously and consider the Unseen as Risur's closest allys”, Carlyle adds while pointing at Ekossigan's empty seat.
While we then remind Thisraldion that we took care of the murderous renegade Fey Lord despite being on another mission of King Aodhan at the time. Still, Ekossigan most likely went rogue as he saw the truth in his many visions. The truth about the Colossus emerging from Cauldron Hill, the very same Colossus that trampled through the Dreaming not so long ago.
(yeah wasn't Borne some gigantic machine? He must have left a scene of massive destruction in the Dreaming...)
Ekossigan tried to warn all of us, we explain, but back then we couldn't understand him and he didn't wish to be reasoned with. We then tell Thisraldion and the Court about the fact that the people who secretly constructed the Colossus and betrayed us all have managed to infiltrate the Danoran government many centuries ago, and that these people are currently planning on invading Risur.
“And may I remind you that the Danorans don't have magic? They instead use machines and gunpowder for their warfare. Maybe Asrabey has told you tales about the Yerasol wars and the battles of Risur and Danor, and the giant war machines of the Danorans? This would be just like Yerasol, but with more machines and on Risuri land.”, Auryn explains.
“How did they put it? They'd raze all of Risur to the ground if they don't get what they want. And if they manage to do that, your part of the Dreaming will be blighted as well. I'll leave the rest up to your imagination, my dear Ladies and Lords”, Carlyle adds.
We then continue to warn the Fey about the Obscurati threat as the war against Risur is not all they plan on doing. No, they also wish to reshape the world as we know it by toying with the planar connections of the Waking world. We remind them that the Fall of the Dragons that happened 200 years ago was just one little experiment gone wrong, and they might just do something that could cut off the Dreaming from the Waking entirely. Something that might destroy the Dreaming altogether, and with it both warring factions of the Unseen Court and the Hedgehog Court.
And unfortunately, the only people who know about that plot, besides the Obscurati of course, are the three of us, and we are, as we said, trapped in the Dreaming with no means of warning the Risuri.
Thisraldion reflects on our plea for a while, but then states that, right now, they also don't have any way to travel to the Waking. However, they would offer us their help by giving us a team of researchers who may find an obscure or ancient path that has been long forgotten. In the meanwhile, it would be quite nice if we did offer our help in return by using our RHC skills to prove that Olazdor of the Hedgehog Court has murdered Rock Rackus.
“Pardon my Lady that I have to correct you, but investigative work does work a bit differently. I promise you that we will find the true murderer of Rock Rackus, be that Olazdor or someone else.”, Carlyle clarifies after clearing his throat. We then politely point out that this might be a novel concept to the Unseen, but in Risur we do our investigations unbiased and with an open result in mind. Azla reacts quite nervously at this correction, but Thisraldion seems pretty fine with our proposal.
(just want to add that I had a lot of fun with This' unspecified gender? This makes both Auryn's and Rock's story about how he had a relationship with the Fey Lord or Lady true at the same time)
When we finally arrive in Clover, we don't waste too much time and ask for directions to the Unseen Court immediately. They Fey are actually helpful and guide us to a hill with a small grove. The path takes us to the Well of Drought and we see quite a few citizens who use this special place to sober up. We also notice that quite a lot of Cloverians appear to know us once we tell them that we are from the RHC of the Waking. It appears as if Rock has been talking quite a bit about us and the “Royal Homeland Congratulary”, which explains why several fey congratulate us randomly.
(that guy!)
Once we get to the palace, we present our request to the guards and are being let in. Binnivich, a Brownie, who is also the Court's Master of Ceremonies, we meet Azla of the Ice, one of the Fey-Ladies of the Unseen. She is pretty quiet and distant, but asks us to follow her. We try to explain our urgent need to return to the Waking as both our world and the Dreaming might be in imminent danger. And while we understand that there is tension between the two courts, there might be issues that go beyond that.
Azla doesn't really respond to our pleas, but she appears to be listening carefully and patiently. Once we pass by Karest “the Fire”, she leaves our company all of a sudden. Karest is quite the flirt and more than obviously interested in Azla, but she isn't into him at all. So we assume that Azla took the opportunity to have us deal with Karest while she is off the hook for now. Karest on the other hand doesn't mind too much and asks us all about the state of the battles. We tell him the little bits we know, but stress out that this is not our main field of interest.
Then he realizes that Auryn is an Eladrin and asks her where the “grand warrior Asrabey” might be hiding as he hasn't seen much of him lately. We explain that he will most likely be stranded in the Waking, unable to return to the Court. Just like us, who desperately need to return to our world. We stress out that those guys who shut down all our known portals are scheming to do much worse. Karest nods to all of our exposition, but we are not really sure whether he understood any of said consequences. During our chat with the Fey Lord, we also realize that he wasn't really fond of Rock Rackus, which makes Auryn jokingly question whether Asrabey and Rock would have formed a good team. Gabriel rolls his eyes as neither of the two are among his favorite company.
While we are still busy talking to “the Fire”, a smaller Fey Lord called Furg joins our small group. Furg is a bit smelly and appears to be home to several frogs and toads. He is curious though and gives us a rather large tome as a welcome gift. We thank Furg for his kindness. When looking at the book however, our eyes go wide as this tome is actually the original Book of Kelland – a relic that would be a national treasure for any Risuri. We carefully store the book in one of our magical backpacks and agree to read all of Kelland's stories once we got a bit time to spare.
(this came out of nowhere and had both of us baffled... just giving us the book without any kind of quest or so. It was quite a nice way of giving us more background information on Kelland and his family.)
Last but not least, we a greeted by a completely invisible person trailed by flowers growing in her footsteps. We assume that she, who goes by the name of Salinn and calls herself a dryad, must be completely “naked” as the flowers and her voice are the only indicators of her presence. Salinn is curious about our presence, but also makes it very clear that she abhors violence and the ongoing conflict between the two courts. Being a healer, this stance comes very natural for her. When she accuses us of being just two more warriors that either side would likely wish to conscript for their course, we reply that we don't wish to participate in any war as we just need to go home as quickly as possible. Auryn uses her enchanted boots to conjure a flower that she gives to Salinn as a gift and says she does hope though that the conflict will end soon and as peacefully as possible.
Salinn nods and appears to be satisfied with her impression. She leads the three of us to the oval throne room, where Thisraldion is already waiting for us. It is then that we realize that the fey lords and ladies had been walking circles with us as they enter the throne room one by one and take their seats next to Thisraldion. Still one seat remains empty: The one which originally belonged to Ekossigan. Thisraldion welcomes the agents of the RHC and their unknown friend (Andrei) to the Unseen Court and we are quite surprised to see the the leader of the Unseen knows so much about us. Also, we realize that Thisraldion is quite the master of appearances, as Auryn sees him as a man, while Carlyle sees her as a woman.
Thisraldion then asks us why we have come to the Court and the Dreaming, and we tell them that this was no voluntary journey, but rather a magical accident that brought us here. We also mention that, since all known portals to the Waking have ceased functioning, we had hoped that maybe one of the Lords or Ladies might have means to open a bridge. After all, we saw that King Aodhan was able to open up a portal to the Dreaming due to his pact with the fey, so maybe someone might be powerful enough for the reverse direction?
Thisraldion seems to understand our request, but interrupts the whole explanation and plea every now and then with reciting poems and inviting us for dinner, but we try to stay as persistent as politely possible as time is running short.
Thisraldion on the other hand laments the tragic death of beloved Rock Rackus, and that his murder was the spark that ignited the already smoldering conflict with the Hedgehog Court to a fully burning war. So to bring justice to both the Court and the late Rock, it would be of utmost importance to find the traitors and drag them to court.
“Lord Thisraldion, we, too, feel the loss of Rock Rackus, as he was our friend...” Auryn starts to explain, as Carlyle sighs silently at that name, “...but we do have to stress out that there will be much more tragedy for both our worlds if we close our eyes to the more dangerous threats looming ahead.”
“And before you dismiss our warning as strange Waking priorities, we would like to remind you that we do take matters of the Court very seriously and consider the Unseen as Risur's closest allys”, Carlyle adds while pointing at Ekossigan's empty seat.
While we then remind Thisraldion that we took care of the murderous renegade Fey Lord despite being on another mission of King Aodhan at the time. Still, Ekossigan most likely went rogue as he saw the truth in his many visions. The truth about the Colossus emerging from Cauldron Hill, the very same Colossus that trampled through the Dreaming not so long ago.
(yeah wasn't Borne some gigantic machine? He must have left a scene of massive destruction in the Dreaming...)
Ekossigan tried to warn all of us, we explain, but back then we couldn't understand him and he didn't wish to be reasoned with. We then tell Thisraldion and the Court about the fact that the people who secretly constructed the Colossus and betrayed us all have managed to infiltrate the Danoran government many centuries ago, and that these people are currently planning on invading Risur.
“And may I remind you that the Danorans don't have magic? They instead use machines and gunpowder for their warfare. Maybe Asrabey has told you tales about the Yerasol wars and the battles of Risur and Danor, and the giant war machines of the Danorans? This would be just like Yerasol, but with more machines and on Risuri land.”, Auryn explains.
“How did they put it? They'd raze all of Risur to the ground if they don't get what they want. And if they manage to do that, your part of the Dreaming will be blighted as well. I'll leave the rest up to your imagination, my dear Ladies and Lords”, Carlyle adds.
We then continue to warn the Fey about the Obscurati threat as the war against Risur is not all they plan on doing. No, they also wish to reshape the world as we know it by toying with the planar connections of the Waking world. We remind them that the Fall of the Dragons that happened 200 years ago was just one little experiment gone wrong, and they might just do something that could cut off the Dreaming from the Waking entirely. Something that might destroy the Dreaming altogether, and with it both warring factions of the Unseen Court and the Hedgehog Court.
And unfortunately, the only people who know about that plot, besides the Obscurati of course, are the three of us, and we are, as we said, trapped in the Dreaming with no means of warning the Risuri.
Thisraldion reflects on our plea for a while, but then states that, right now, they also don't have any way to travel to the Waking. However, they would offer us their help by giving us a team of researchers who may find an obscure or ancient path that has been long forgotten. In the meanwhile, it would be quite nice if we did offer our help in return by using our RHC skills to prove that Olazdor of the Hedgehog Court has murdered Rock Rackus.
“Pardon my Lady that I have to correct you, but investigative work does work a bit differently. I promise you that we will find the true murderer of Rock Rackus, be that Olazdor or someone else.”, Carlyle clarifies after clearing his throat. We then politely point out that this might be a novel concept to the Unseen, but in Risur we do our investigations unbiased and with an open result in mind. Azla reacts quite nervously at this correction, but Thisraldion seems pretty fine with our proposal.
(just want to add that I had a lot of fun with This' unspecified gender? This makes both Auryn's and Rock's story about how he had a relationship with the Fey Lord or Lady true at the same time)
MrsMongoose
Explorer
Yes, we had the same assumption...
A rock solid mystery
We're just about to leave, when the Court announces the return of Riffian, leader of the Wild Hunt. The really tall warrior enters the throne room and greets us all with a loud “Huzzah!” before he apologizes to all the fey of the Court that he wasn't able to catch “that damn fox” yet. There is a very silent murmur, but before Riffian can realize that, and before we can ask what would be so special about that fox, the warrior turns to Auryn, Gabriel and Andrei.
“My apology for the incident on the chess fields. I hope that none of you were trampled by my horse.”
When we show Riffian that we are unharmed and managed to jump out of his way in time, he appears to be honestly relieved.
“Oh, and don't think that I would begrudge you for being friends with that idiot Rock. I can see that you are made out of a totally different kind of wood.”
We're surprised to hear that even someone like Riffian would know about our “friendship” with Rock Rackus, but as the Docker appears to be a legitimately legend in Clover, we silently accept the fact that we'll most likely encounter many more people with strange misconceptions about us. Riffian then looks at Auryn for quite a few seconds before we can almost hear something click in his head.
“Oh! You must be the 'small flower lady' Asrabey spoke about. Tell me, do you know where my dear comrade would be? Is he doing well? I'd love to spar with him one more time.”
“This will be difficult, I fear.”, Auryn replies. “He's in the Waking, either still in Drakr, or maybe he has returned to Risur. But he is well, and while I believe that seeing an old comrade is just what he might need right now, the pathway to the Waking has been shot down.”
Riffian sighs almost theatrically, but nevertheless thanks Auryn for this information. Thisraldion on the other hand appears to be glad that Asrabey is nowhere near for now. Riffian then leaves the room and as soon as he is out of hearing range, the whole room bursts into laughter. When one of the fey becomes aware at our confusion, they explain that the whole “fox” story is just a decoy to get Riffian and his Wild Hunt onto the battlefield each day.
(I'm pretty sure Carlyle was as irritated by Riffian as he was by most of Asrabey's habits. And that's the reason why Auryn instantly had a soft spot for him despite not being family. Now I still don't know whether Carlyle would revel in Riffian's and his disdain for Rock or loathe his comraderie with Asrabey, but tend for the latter. Carlyle always finds a reason to not like brash people)
Thisraldion then tells us that they'd expect us to return with more information on Rock's murderer in two days. Salinn kindly offers us rooms to stay in during our time in Clover, and she also does hope that we're able to solve this mystery so maybe peace can return to the city once more. As she explains that this would be very close to the lazaret, we ask her whether we might see and examine the body of Rock Rackus. Salinn tells us that Rock has already been laid to rest, but we may exhume him if we get the permission from the moss cat mortuary.
Fortunately, getting permission is not too hard as it merely requires our participation in an appeasement ceremony. After the exhumation, we examine the still well intact and completely naked body of Rock and find that it has been magically preserved. Regarding the cause of his death, we see that Rock has been struck with an arrow, but also realize that he cannot have died from the arrow wound. This kind of exonerates Olazdor, as the arrow legitimately belongs to the leader of the Hedgehog Court.
We also see that Rock's head had been severed, but this must have taken place after his demise. Especially as the head was severed with two blows to the same spot. What is also quite weird is the fact that the body has lost surprisingly little blood. Carlyle senses that something is not right at all with the corpse, so he examines the remaining blood for unusual substances and finds traces of some kind of poison. Unfortunately, he cannot classify the substance and neither a magical examination of Rock's blood or the blood on the arrow gives him any results. He then turns Rock over back and forth an bites his lips in confusion.
“None of this makes sense...”, he murmurs. “It is as if Rock hasn't lived the life we knew he did. How do I put it... this body shows no signs of 'being used' at all. Just look at him: He is immaculate, besides the wound and the severed head of course”
“A simulacrum?” Auryn guesses, being eerily reminded of that time when Tyler Starke and Lord Byron-Saxby had forged a double of her to commit crime. But we have to dismiss this idea, as a simulacrum would have most likely dissolved already.
We then ask those present about what is known about the discovery of Rock's body and the kittens tell us that Rock was found dead in a bend in the Krogtunnel on the night of the 16th.
Rock probably used the tunnel quite often to get from the Unseen Court to the Hedgehog Court, which raised the suspicion that Thisraldion might have become jealous of Rock's connection to their rival Court, and possibly Olazdor.
(Going from the motive of political issues to a romantic rivalry in 5 seconds. That's just so like Rock Rackus)
From all that we've learned so far, we are now pretty sure this "corpse" does not really belong to Rock Rackus and decide to search for possible eye witnesses for the murder. Even if we don't know why and how someone would go to such lengths to fake an immaculate and believable dead body.
So we go back to the Court and ask if there might be any fey who have seen Rock Rackus after he left the Unseen Court that fateful night. We learn from the palace guards that Rock left the Court fully dressed that night, though presumably he must have been in Thisraldion's bed before that. So him still having had an affair with Thisraldion appears to be an open secret at Court.
Other fey hush about of more potential eyewitnesses, who are being held near an arena to fight each other in the arena during the “Purge”. One of them is said to be a homeless man named Baldur Norther. We ask the Fey about that Purge and lean about the fact that being homeless is a crime in Clover. We all, especially Andrei, think that this tradition is quite cruel, and that we should find the witnesses before it is too late. Still we first we want to look for traces at the crime scene.
(In hindsight, we all underused Andrei in this chapter as we often simply forgot that he was part of the party during the Dreaming episode. Which is a shame, as I really like him as a character and his concept is pretty unique. Should I ever re-write our tales in a novel version, I will definitely use him as a focal character here and flesh him out more. After all, he has all the reasons to try and return to Flint as quickly as possible, too)
We go to the tunnel where Rock's dead body had been found. To our surprise, we find the place decorated with flowers as they fey appear to mourn him quite intensely. Gabriel points out that he'd usually only seen this reverence when either someone truly innocent was killed in tragic way and sighs, being reminded of the many times he had seen this in Flint.
It doesn't take too much effort to find the right spot where Rock's body had fallen to the ground. We examine the place carefully and find some translucent eggshells as well as several spider-webs. Carlyle also manages to find Rock's tracks despite the time that has already passed. But once he follows the track back and forth, he raises his brows in confusion as he finds that Rock walked along his way, then collapsed and... disappeared.
“It appears as if someone duplicated Rock. But how... and why?”, he mumbles more to himself as he points to a second, barely visible Rock-sized imprint on the ground. We guess that maybe someone knocked Rock our, or killed him, duplicated him and then took the original with them.
“A weird trophy-hunter perhaps...?” Auryn guesses with a certain disgust in her voice.
We realize that guessing doesn't help us any further, so Carlyle touches the ground and asks the tunnel for its memories of Rock. The scene shifts and he sees a vision of Rock, being completely naked and without any expression in his eyes. He is then struck by an arrow and beheaded with two blows before falling over and bleeding very little despite having his major arteries severed.
Just as the vision ends and Gabriel is about to explain that this “dead Rock” would never ever have been the real one, we hear the sound of rushing water coming towards us. All of a sudden there is salty water raising quickly from the walkway and waves come crashing at us. To top this all, we can spot several Orca whales swimming in our general direction.
Before any of us can comment on the madness of the situation, Carlyle encases us all in a sphere of ice. Fortunately, the sphere is sturdier than the whales' headbutts and the creatures – obviously summoned – disappear after a few minutes. Meanwhile, we find ourselves fully submerged and thus still in danger.
(utilizing his wall of ice once more. I did tell you that he likes his wall spells, didn't I?)
Carlyle then takes the risk to teleport a short distance right outside of the tunnel. When we arrive, we happen to be a few feet in the air, so we stumble ungraciously to the ground. Seems like even short-distanced teleport is growing more and more dangerous in the Dreaming.
We take a quick thought on who might have just tried to kill us and why, but then quickly return to the matter of Rock Rackus. Since someone must have disappeared with Rock unseen and without leaving any traces, we can only think of two quite similar methods of removing him from reality: Either someone would have put Rock into a bag of holding and is now holding him in an anti-magic field, or someone has access to the same kind of Absurdist Web as we do. And since we know that the webs are connected, we agree to just try our luck with that one.
So we pull out our own Absurdist Web and think of removing Rock from it...
We're just about to leave, when the Court announces the return of Riffian, leader of the Wild Hunt. The really tall warrior enters the throne room and greets us all with a loud “Huzzah!” before he apologizes to all the fey of the Court that he wasn't able to catch “that damn fox” yet. There is a very silent murmur, but before Riffian can realize that, and before we can ask what would be so special about that fox, the warrior turns to Auryn, Gabriel and Andrei.
“My apology for the incident on the chess fields. I hope that none of you were trampled by my horse.”
When we show Riffian that we are unharmed and managed to jump out of his way in time, he appears to be honestly relieved.
“Oh, and don't think that I would begrudge you for being friends with that idiot Rock. I can see that you are made out of a totally different kind of wood.”
We're surprised to hear that even someone like Riffian would know about our “friendship” with Rock Rackus, but as the Docker appears to be a legitimately legend in Clover, we silently accept the fact that we'll most likely encounter many more people with strange misconceptions about us. Riffian then looks at Auryn for quite a few seconds before we can almost hear something click in his head.
“Oh! You must be the 'small flower lady' Asrabey spoke about. Tell me, do you know where my dear comrade would be? Is he doing well? I'd love to spar with him one more time.”
“This will be difficult, I fear.”, Auryn replies. “He's in the Waking, either still in Drakr, or maybe he has returned to Risur. But he is well, and while I believe that seeing an old comrade is just what he might need right now, the pathway to the Waking has been shot down.”
Riffian sighs almost theatrically, but nevertheless thanks Auryn for this information. Thisraldion on the other hand appears to be glad that Asrabey is nowhere near for now. Riffian then leaves the room and as soon as he is out of hearing range, the whole room bursts into laughter. When one of the fey becomes aware at our confusion, they explain that the whole “fox” story is just a decoy to get Riffian and his Wild Hunt onto the battlefield each day.
(I'm pretty sure Carlyle was as irritated by Riffian as he was by most of Asrabey's habits. And that's the reason why Auryn instantly had a soft spot for him despite not being family. Now I still don't know whether Carlyle would revel in Riffian's and his disdain for Rock or loathe his comraderie with Asrabey, but tend for the latter. Carlyle always finds a reason to not like brash people)
Thisraldion then tells us that they'd expect us to return with more information on Rock's murderer in two days. Salinn kindly offers us rooms to stay in during our time in Clover, and she also does hope that we're able to solve this mystery so maybe peace can return to the city once more. As she explains that this would be very close to the lazaret, we ask her whether we might see and examine the body of Rock Rackus. Salinn tells us that Rock has already been laid to rest, but we may exhume him if we get the permission from the moss cat mortuary.
Fortunately, getting permission is not too hard as it merely requires our participation in an appeasement ceremony. After the exhumation, we examine the still well intact and completely naked body of Rock and find that it has been magically preserved. Regarding the cause of his death, we see that Rock has been struck with an arrow, but also realize that he cannot have died from the arrow wound. This kind of exonerates Olazdor, as the arrow legitimately belongs to the leader of the Hedgehog Court.
We also see that Rock's head had been severed, but this must have taken place after his demise. Especially as the head was severed with two blows to the same spot. What is also quite weird is the fact that the body has lost surprisingly little blood. Carlyle senses that something is not right at all with the corpse, so he examines the remaining blood for unusual substances and finds traces of some kind of poison. Unfortunately, he cannot classify the substance and neither a magical examination of Rock's blood or the blood on the arrow gives him any results. He then turns Rock over back and forth an bites his lips in confusion.
“None of this makes sense...”, he murmurs. “It is as if Rock hasn't lived the life we knew he did. How do I put it... this body shows no signs of 'being used' at all. Just look at him: He is immaculate, besides the wound and the severed head of course”
“A simulacrum?” Auryn guesses, being eerily reminded of that time when Tyler Starke and Lord Byron-Saxby had forged a double of her to commit crime. But we have to dismiss this idea, as a simulacrum would have most likely dissolved already.
We then ask those present about what is known about the discovery of Rock's body and the kittens tell us that Rock was found dead in a bend in the Krogtunnel on the night of the 16th.
Rock probably used the tunnel quite often to get from the Unseen Court to the Hedgehog Court, which raised the suspicion that Thisraldion might have become jealous of Rock's connection to their rival Court, and possibly Olazdor.
(Going from the motive of political issues to a romantic rivalry in 5 seconds. That's just so like Rock Rackus)
From all that we've learned so far, we are now pretty sure this "corpse" does not really belong to Rock Rackus and decide to search for possible eye witnesses for the murder. Even if we don't know why and how someone would go to such lengths to fake an immaculate and believable dead body.
So we go back to the Court and ask if there might be any fey who have seen Rock Rackus after he left the Unseen Court that fateful night. We learn from the palace guards that Rock left the Court fully dressed that night, though presumably he must have been in Thisraldion's bed before that. So him still having had an affair with Thisraldion appears to be an open secret at Court.
Other fey hush about of more potential eyewitnesses, who are being held near an arena to fight each other in the arena during the “Purge”. One of them is said to be a homeless man named Baldur Norther. We ask the Fey about that Purge and lean about the fact that being homeless is a crime in Clover. We all, especially Andrei, think that this tradition is quite cruel, and that we should find the witnesses before it is too late. Still we first we want to look for traces at the crime scene.
(In hindsight, we all underused Andrei in this chapter as we often simply forgot that he was part of the party during the Dreaming episode. Which is a shame, as I really like him as a character and his concept is pretty unique. Should I ever re-write our tales in a novel version, I will definitely use him as a focal character here and flesh him out more. After all, he has all the reasons to try and return to Flint as quickly as possible, too)
We go to the tunnel where Rock's dead body had been found. To our surprise, we find the place decorated with flowers as they fey appear to mourn him quite intensely. Gabriel points out that he'd usually only seen this reverence when either someone truly innocent was killed in tragic way and sighs, being reminded of the many times he had seen this in Flint.
It doesn't take too much effort to find the right spot where Rock's body had fallen to the ground. We examine the place carefully and find some translucent eggshells as well as several spider-webs. Carlyle also manages to find Rock's tracks despite the time that has already passed. But once he follows the track back and forth, he raises his brows in confusion as he finds that Rock walked along his way, then collapsed and... disappeared.
“It appears as if someone duplicated Rock. But how... and why?”, he mumbles more to himself as he points to a second, barely visible Rock-sized imprint on the ground. We guess that maybe someone knocked Rock our, or killed him, duplicated him and then took the original with them.
“A weird trophy-hunter perhaps...?” Auryn guesses with a certain disgust in her voice.
We realize that guessing doesn't help us any further, so Carlyle touches the ground and asks the tunnel for its memories of Rock. The scene shifts and he sees a vision of Rock, being completely naked and without any expression in his eyes. He is then struck by an arrow and beheaded with two blows before falling over and bleeding very little despite having his major arteries severed.
Just as the vision ends and Gabriel is about to explain that this “dead Rock” would never ever have been the real one, we hear the sound of rushing water coming towards us. All of a sudden there is salty water raising quickly from the walkway and waves come crashing at us. To top this all, we can spot several Orca whales swimming in our general direction.
Before any of us can comment on the madness of the situation, Carlyle encases us all in a sphere of ice. Fortunately, the sphere is sturdier than the whales' headbutts and the creatures – obviously summoned – disappear after a few minutes. Meanwhile, we find ourselves fully submerged and thus still in danger.
(utilizing his wall of ice once more. I did tell you that he likes his wall spells, didn't I?)
Carlyle then takes the risk to teleport a short distance right outside of the tunnel. When we arrive, we happen to be a few feet in the air, so we stumble ungraciously to the ground. Seems like even short-distanced teleport is growing more and more dangerous in the Dreaming.
We take a quick thought on who might have just tried to kill us and why, but then quickly return to the matter of Rock Rackus. Since someone must have disappeared with Rock unseen and without leaving any traces, we can only think of two quite similar methods of removing him from reality: Either someone would have put Rock into a bag of holding and is now holding him in an anti-magic field, or someone has access to the same kind of Absurdist Web as we do. And since we know that the webs are connected, we agree to just try our luck with that one.
So we pull out our own Absurdist Web and think of removing Rock from it...
RangerWickett
Legend
I think you are genuinely the first group to come up with that solution.
pulling out Rock or using an ice sphere to sit out the Orcas?
anyway, on to the next part:
Examining the Hedgehogs
We are very much amazed when we grab into the Web and actually manage to pull out a rather dazed Rock Rackus from it! Especially as this was merely a very wild guess, but it appears as if this is just what life on the Fey side of things is like.
(“Wait, what? Really!?” We were completely baffled when Tiz sternly proclaimed that we do indeed pull out the Rock. Totally fitting for the absurdist part of the web.)
We quickly examine Rock, fearing that he might be on the verge of death anyway and are quite relieved to find out that he is only mildly poisoned and much more intoxicated. Carlyle provides a potent antidote for his Rockiness and are happy (and annoyed – Carlyle ) to see that he is just the same guy he used to be.
“Callallaaah! And the men from the train! Good to see ya! What'cha all doin' in the Feyspace?”
Rock enthusiastically tries to hug Auryn, Andrei and Gabriel, with the latter managing to take one step back and stop him from invading too much personal space. We then quickly explain that we are stranded here and were being tasked with solving the case of his murder. When he protests that he's obviously very much alive, we tell him to him that he had been out of action for quite a while and been frozen in time in this Absurdist Webwork. Also, the two courts are now at war because of him and his presumed death. This shakes up Rock, who is very keen on stopping the needless violence between his lover Thisraldion and friend Olazdor immediately.
However, we also want to find the culprit for the "murder case”, so we ask his Rockness to stay hidden for the time being. Rock agrees and then casually tells us that, by the way, he found a bottle on his way through the tunnel, which he then drank. This... would explain both his intoxication and poisoned state, and is just such a Rock move that we find it feasible.
Regarding the culprit, we try to imagine who could have access to an Absurdist Web as well. Our fist suspect is of course Copperhat, the same Fey who once gifted us with our variant. The suspicion thickens when Rock casually injects that “the Cop” is a good friend of his. However, we do not wish to draw definite conclusions yet, as an acquaintance of the Fey could have learned about the Web and then stolen it from Copperhat. In any case, we agree that the true culprit must have had an interest in igniting the war without actually wanting to kill Rock.
So we decide to question the homeless witnesses, who are all currently in captivity. Unfortunately, we don't have specific written permission to do so (only the general warrant from This) and the guards appear to be too stubborn to let us ask the questions we need. As we don't wish to support the cruel tradition of the Purge either, Auryn decides to use a trick: She procures proof that the four witnesses were not actually homeless by acquiring a small flat in Baldur Norther's name, backdating it and including the other three as roommates/subtenants. The guards thus have to admit their mistake and release our witnesses, whom we lead to their new abode.
Baldur and the others are very thankful for their rescue and they are happy to help us. The fey explains that he saw Rock enter the tunnel that night, and that he was fully clothed. Two of the other witnesses report that they had seen Thisraldion and Olazdor come out of the tunnel respectively, even though neither had seen them coming in first.
(one man walks in, two men walk out, eh?)
Finally, the one witness who had found Rock's body also remembered seeing the bottle Rock talked about earlier, and says that it had been taken to the moss kittens. So it's time to visit that place again, too.
But before we do that, we also want to hear the Hedgehog Court's point of view on the crime, as after more questions it becomes clear that Olazdor had indeed been on his way to the tunnel that night, he appears to be a friend of Rock, and we don't know the extent of his capabilities yet. So we ask Rock to stay hidden and in disguise inside Baldur's new home until we come back with more information. To our surprise, Rock doesn't seem to have a problem with that. As we go back and move towards the other side of the palace we realize that we are being observed by a couple of ice sprites. Auryn stops them briefly and tells them with an icy voice that her mistress can be glad she is not in Elfaivar after the after the murder attempt in the tunnel.
(they were Azla's servants, but we didn't know whether the Orcas were sent by Beshela or Azla, and so she just decided to intimidate whoever crossed her path from either of the two or their servants)
So we go to the Hedgehog Court, where we first run into a n oddly visible elven warrior named Laryna, who has fallen out with Thisraldion over her dislike of King Aodhan. She seems interested in the coming battles and admits that Rock's death is a welcome, convenient opportunity for her and her cause. Even though she has never had any problems with the man and he might simply be the victim of a bad company with Copper Hat and the Borenbog, another dark fey. We haven't heard of the Borenbog before, and agree to place him on the list of our suspects as well.
The next lord of the Hedgehog's court we encounter is an old satyr named Darbony, whose favour with his soldiers seems to be falling. Auryn is able to prevent him and one of the survivors of the battles from going at each other's throats, but this doesn't appear to touch that much. We get the impression that the guy is at most interested in gold and women and would rather see the conflict end despite the fact that he is somehow akin to a commander. We also try to assess whether he might know something about the Satyr trailing us in Elfaivar or the bunch who were employed by the Stag of the Winter Meadow, but he pretty much is not in touch with each and every member of his company.
We are next being approached by a gremlin, who, to our dismay, speaks almost exclusively goblin. And we're not that fluent in this language. He politely asks us for something for him to break and when we give him a magic shotgun he gives us the boon of his Titan mistress. Gradually we get that he and his “Granny” are pissed that some humans - who turned out to be Obs - have been manipulating the Gremlins for their own purposes. We explain to him that we are also enemies of these people, and that the Obs also threaten both our home and the whole Dreaming.
Last but not least, we enter the throne room of the Hedgehog Court where we see a person who must be Olazdor sitting next to a familiar figure: Beshela. We quickly realize that the two seem to have some form of relationship as they are pretty close to each other. We greet them both formally at first, but when Beshela alludes to our last encounter on the Impossible, Auryn accuses her of apparently being so jealous afterwards that she had wanted to drown us with her flash flood and added orcas on top just to be sure that we're dead by all means.
(firing the next round of shots)
Beshela's eyes widen in surprise to this accusation and we get the impression that she is honestly confused about the incident we've been talking about.
“You... really don't know what happened? Pardon me then, but we had to be sure who would be desperate enough to send both a tidal wave and orcas at us”, says Auryn and then expresses the suspicion that someone wanted to dispose of the last evidence and at the same time let the suspect fall on Beshela. We in turn warn the two of them that Thisraldion is very obviously convinced of Olazdor being the murderer, but we want to do our job thoroughly and not accuse or even condemn him without any evidence. We muster Beshela through this conversation and get the impression that she, too, appears to be convinced of Olazdor being the murderer. While also very heavily trying her best to dissolve any suspicion that could fall onto him. So we directly ask Olazdor for the reason why he was heading towards the Krog tunnel the night Rock died and he, with a sigh, explains that he simply wanted to prevent Rock from getting lost again. Especially since everyone knows that Rock has no sense of orientation.
This leads to the two of us having a good laugh at this honest and utterly believable explanation. We accept this explanation from the Lord and in return tell him and Beshela about the what could happen to the Dreaming and all the Fey should the Obscurati be able to implement their plan. Olazdor, in turn, states that he is above all concerned with keeping the Dream a place worth living in, whereupon we in turn tell him about the impending invasion by the Danorans. He too seems to want to help us with our journey to the Waking World, but doesn't quite know how one would open up a portal.
As we haven't found any new suspect so far, we leave the Court for a further discussion and speculation about who might be a possible culprit besides Copperhat. Especially since, apart from the Web and his relationship with Rock, we still have no proof for his guilt.
During our conversation, one of Thisraldion's servants named Paprika approaches us and hands us a blood-stained shirt of Rock, which, according to her master, she should have burned, but wanted to show to us first. We are being quite wary right now, but thank her and promise to check the shirt for its authenticity. When we test the blood, we also get the "appropriate" (but unfortunately wrong) result that this is indeed Rock's blood, so we take the opportunity to look for more of Rock's possessions at the Unseen Court. And to our surprise we find Rock's golden pistol in a secret drawer of Thisraldion. A place only a few, first and foremost Binnivich, have access to.
With a long sigh, we suspect that someone had, again, tried to create an "obvious evidence" that would lead us to yet another of Rock's wannabe-murderers. So we ignore both the shirt and the gun for the time being. Instead, we go to the moss kitten cemetery and ask for the bottle that had been found right besides Rock's body. The kittens are quite helpful and hand us the required object. In it we find the same strange substance that we found in the body of both Rock and fake Rock, which turns out to be the secretion of the Borenbog. So it appears to be about time to pay said Bog a visit.
(At this point we were very much both confused and amused by the myriad of evidences that were being thrown at us, and which we knew were all fabricated in very fine detail to lead us to the preferred suspect. It just became more and more absurd with each and every piece, especially as we had Rock hiding in Baldur's home the whole time)
anyway, on to the next part:
Examining the Hedgehogs
We are very much amazed when we grab into the Web and actually manage to pull out a rather dazed Rock Rackus from it! Especially as this was merely a very wild guess, but it appears as if this is just what life on the Fey side of things is like.
(“Wait, what? Really!?” We were completely baffled when Tiz sternly proclaimed that we do indeed pull out the Rock. Totally fitting for the absurdist part of the web.)
We quickly examine Rock, fearing that he might be on the verge of death anyway and are quite relieved to find out that he is only mildly poisoned and much more intoxicated. Carlyle provides a potent antidote for his Rockiness and are happy (and annoyed – Carlyle ) to see that he is just the same guy he used to be.
“Callallaaah! And the men from the train! Good to see ya! What'cha all doin' in the Feyspace?”
Rock enthusiastically tries to hug Auryn, Andrei and Gabriel, with the latter managing to take one step back and stop him from invading too much personal space. We then quickly explain that we are stranded here and were being tasked with solving the case of his murder. When he protests that he's obviously very much alive, we tell him to him that he had been out of action for quite a while and been frozen in time in this Absurdist Webwork. Also, the two courts are now at war because of him and his presumed death. This shakes up Rock, who is very keen on stopping the needless violence between his lover Thisraldion and friend Olazdor immediately.
However, we also want to find the culprit for the "murder case”, so we ask his Rockness to stay hidden for the time being. Rock agrees and then casually tells us that, by the way, he found a bottle on his way through the tunnel, which he then drank. This... would explain both his intoxication and poisoned state, and is just such a Rock move that we find it feasible.
Regarding the culprit, we try to imagine who could have access to an Absurdist Web as well. Our fist suspect is of course Copperhat, the same Fey who once gifted us with our variant. The suspicion thickens when Rock casually injects that “the Cop” is a good friend of his. However, we do not wish to draw definite conclusions yet, as an acquaintance of the Fey could have learned about the Web and then stolen it from Copperhat. In any case, we agree that the true culprit must have had an interest in igniting the war without actually wanting to kill Rock.
So we decide to question the homeless witnesses, who are all currently in captivity. Unfortunately, we don't have specific written permission to do so (only the general warrant from This) and the guards appear to be too stubborn to let us ask the questions we need. As we don't wish to support the cruel tradition of the Purge either, Auryn decides to use a trick: She procures proof that the four witnesses were not actually homeless by acquiring a small flat in Baldur Norther's name, backdating it and including the other three as roommates/subtenants. The guards thus have to admit their mistake and release our witnesses, whom we lead to their new abode.
Baldur and the others are very thankful for their rescue and they are happy to help us. The fey explains that he saw Rock enter the tunnel that night, and that he was fully clothed. Two of the other witnesses report that they had seen Thisraldion and Olazdor come out of the tunnel respectively, even though neither had seen them coming in first.
(one man walks in, two men walk out, eh?
)Finally, the one witness who had found Rock's body also remembered seeing the bottle Rock talked about earlier, and says that it had been taken to the moss kittens. So it's time to visit that place again, too.
But before we do that, we also want to hear the Hedgehog Court's point of view on the crime, as after more questions it becomes clear that Olazdor had indeed been on his way to the tunnel that night, he appears to be a friend of Rock, and we don't know the extent of his capabilities yet. So we ask Rock to stay hidden and in disguise inside Baldur's new home until we come back with more information. To our surprise, Rock doesn't seem to have a problem with that. As we go back and move towards the other side of the palace we realize that we are being observed by a couple of ice sprites. Auryn stops them briefly and tells them with an icy voice that her mistress can be glad she is not in Elfaivar after the after the murder attempt in the tunnel.
(they were Azla's servants, but we didn't know whether the Orcas were sent by Beshela or Azla, and so she just decided to intimidate whoever crossed her path from either of the two or their servants)
So we go to the Hedgehog Court, where we first run into a n oddly visible elven warrior named Laryna, who has fallen out with Thisraldion over her dislike of King Aodhan. She seems interested in the coming battles and admits that Rock's death is a welcome, convenient opportunity for her and her cause. Even though she has never had any problems with the man and he might simply be the victim of a bad company with Copper Hat and the Borenbog, another dark fey. We haven't heard of the Borenbog before, and agree to place him on the list of our suspects as well.
The next lord of the Hedgehog's court we encounter is an old satyr named Darbony, whose favour with his soldiers seems to be falling. Auryn is able to prevent him and one of the survivors of the battles from going at each other's throats, but this doesn't appear to touch that much. We get the impression that the guy is at most interested in gold and women and would rather see the conflict end despite the fact that he is somehow akin to a commander. We also try to assess whether he might know something about the Satyr trailing us in Elfaivar or the bunch who were employed by the Stag of the Winter Meadow, but he pretty much is not in touch with each and every member of his company.
We are next being approached by a gremlin, who, to our dismay, speaks almost exclusively goblin. And we're not that fluent in this language. He politely asks us for something for him to break and when we give him a magic shotgun he gives us the boon of his Titan mistress. Gradually we get that he and his “Granny” are pissed that some humans - who turned out to be Obs - have been manipulating the Gremlins for their own purposes. We explain to him that we are also enemies of these people, and that the Obs also threaten both our home and the whole Dreaming.
Last but not least, we enter the throne room of the Hedgehog Court where we see a person who must be Olazdor sitting next to a familiar figure: Beshela. We quickly realize that the two seem to have some form of relationship as they are pretty close to each other. We greet them both formally at first, but when Beshela alludes to our last encounter on the Impossible, Auryn accuses her of apparently being so jealous afterwards that she had wanted to drown us with her flash flood and added orcas on top just to be sure that we're dead by all means.
(firing the next round of shots)
Beshela's eyes widen in surprise to this accusation and we get the impression that she is honestly confused about the incident we've been talking about.
“You... really don't know what happened? Pardon me then, but we had to be sure who would be desperate enough to send both a tidal wave and orcas at us”, says Auryn and then expresses the suspicion that someone wanted to dispose of the last evidence and at the same time let the suspect fall on Beshela. We in turn warn the two of them that Thisraldion is very obviously convinced of Olazdor being the murderer, but we want to do our job thoroughly and not accuse or even condemn him without any evidence. We muster Beshela through this conversation and get the impression that she, too, appears to be convinced of Olazdor being the murderer. While also very heavily trying her best to dissolve any suspicion that could fall onto him. So we directly ask Olazdor for the reason why he was heading towards the Krog tunnel the night Rock died and he, with a sigh, explains that he simply wanted to prevent Rock from getting lost again. Especially since everyone knows that Rock has no sense of orientation.
This leads to the two of us having a good laugh at this honest and utterly believable explanation. We accept this explanation from the Lord and in return tell him and Beshela about the what could happen to the Dreaming and all the Fey should the Obscurati be able to implement their plan. Olazdor, in turn, states that he is above all concerned with keeping the Dream a place worth living in, whereupon we in turn tell him about the impending invasion by the Danorans. He too seems to want to help us with our journey to the Waking World, but doesn't quite know how one would open up a portal.
As we haven't found any new suspect so far, we leave the Court for a further discussion and speculation about who might be a possible culprit besides Copperhat. Especially since, apart from the Web and his relationship with Rock, we still have no proof for his guilt.
During our conversation, one of Thisraldion's servants named Paprika approaches us and hands us a blood-stained shirt of Rock, which, according to her master, she should have burned, but wanted to show to us first. We are being quite wary right now, but thank her and promise to check the shirt for its authenticity. When we test the blood, we also get the "appropriate" (but unfortunately wrong) result that this is indeed Rock's blood, so we take the opportunity to look for more of Rock's possessions at the Unseen Court. And to our surprise we find Rock's golden pistol in a secret drawer of Thisraldion. A place only a few, first and foremost Binnivich, have access to.
With a long sigh, we suspect that someone had, again, tried to create an "obvious evidence" that would lead us to yet another of Rock's wannabe-murderers. So we ignore both the shirt and the gun for the time being. Instead, we go to the moss kitten cemetery and ask for the bottle that had been found right besides Rock's body. The kittens are quite helpful and hand us the required object. In it we find the same strange substance that we found in the body of both Rock and fake Rock, which turns out to be the secretion of the Borenbog. So it appears to be about time to pay said Bog a visit.
(At this point we were very much both confused and amused by the myriad of evidences that were being thrown at us, and which we knew were all fabricated in very fine detail to lead us to the preferred suspect. It just became more and more absurd with each and every piece, especially as we had Rock hiding in Baldur's home the whole time)
A Rock-solid case solved
So we leave the mosskittens behind and head for the tavern where the Borenbog is said to haing around regularly. We do not come that far before we are attacked by quite a veritable army of satyrs. Carlyle is quick to react, as usual, and takes care of the majority of the satyrs, while Auryn deals with the remaining ones. As we are quite fed up by yet another fey distraction, we question them quickly and learn that they were hired by Dorlax Deathmask, an assassin of Darbony, to take us out of the equation. By now, we see this as another attempt to name a new culprit and send the satyrs on their way, telling them they should be glad Asrabey isn't here to behead them for trying to assassinate Kasvarina's descendant.
Afterwards, we disguise ourselves as inconspicuous fey and head to the tavern at the Krogtunnel, the favorite place of Copperhat, Rock, and the Borenbog. We are pleasantly surprised to find not one, but two of them silently drinking in the taverns. A quick glance around shows us that most visitors keep their distance to the pair as they appear to be either afraid of Borenbog and/or only have one hand left. We watch the two of them for a while and eventually notice that of all fey Mista Nyves enters the tavern and joins them. To our surprise, he nods to the pair and then reports on his employment as our guide and that he left us with the dragon Aluriel, unsure whether we're still with that scary scaly lady
(That sneaky, backstabbing bastard! Why do the nice ones always have to be traitors? But then again, this explains so much of the mishaps that happened along the way to Clover).
Copperhat seems satisfied with the information and then turns back to his drink. It only takes this very faint gust of air to have Carlyle pick up the odor of Copperhat with his fine nose. And at this moment, he realizes that Mista Nyves and invisible Copperhat give off a very similar smell and are very likely both members of the same species: ettercaps.
When Nyves leaves the tavern, we follow and confront him about his betrayal and his true master. It takes some intimidation, but he finally reveals that Copperhat is one who "speaks for the serpent" and that all ettercaps have respect for him. We let him go under the premise that he leaves and never crosses our paths again. Then we turn back to our two suspects. After a while, we see them go to bed and Carlyle follows them silently. He quickly realizes that Copperhat does not sleep in a bed, but has withdrawn into a kind of cocoon (similar to what Mista Nyves had done before). He closes up to the cocoon and deduces that, since he hears no sound of a sleeping or breathing ettercap, Copperhat is most likely not present. Carlyle manages to enter the cocoon and thus the ettercap network of webs, finding himself in a labyrinth of spider passages, which he quickly leaves again before getting lost or found by ettercaps. Before returning to the room, he takes a sample of the cocoon with him.
Meanwhile, Auryn talks to the hag who runs the tavern. From the old hag, she learns that Copperhat and Borenbog regularly drink here. She actually doesn't like having the Borenbog here, as he massacres and scares off the clientele on a regular basis. However, she cannot simply get rid of him, as Borenbog is dangerous and can only be wounded once by any kind of weapon. Hearing this, Auryn's spirit brightens up and she shows a confident smile, knowing that she might have the perfect anti-Bog-measure available should the need arise. She doesn't tell the hag though, and furthermore learns that Rock and Copperhat were apparently good friends and that Copperhat had mourned for quite a while after Rock's death.
Carlyle returns from Copperhat's room. We exchange informations before we decide to follow up on the last clue: the eggshell and the missing illusiory eggs. So we head to the corresponding farm and talk to the now very paranoid farmer, show him the eggshell from the tunnel, and get confirmation that it matches his missing eggs. Then we have him show us the stable where the chickens were "hypnotized by a snake" and Auryn proceeds to talk to the feathered creatures herself. By the chickens' description of the snake, we realize that it could very well have been an illusion and Carlyle finds more spider webs that match Copperhat's network.
So all in all the final clues add up nicely.
With these results, we (and Rock in disguise) first go to Thisraldion and explain to him that we have found the "culprit" for the Rock Rackus case and that it is neither Olazdor nor any other member of the Unseen Court. Therefore, we can convene the meeting as soon as possible and report back. No sooner said than done.
Both courts finally come together to have our findings presented to them.
“This case has been quite a hard nut to crack, especially with all of the misinformation and sabotages during our investigations...”, Carlyle starts, looking at all of the present fey.
“To be honest, I've never seen any murder case with such an accumulation of false evidences and mislead, not even when we went after the Ragman himself! Which lead us to the primary conclusion that the death of Rock Rackus served one major goal: To fuel the conflict between the two courts.”
Several fey release theatrical gasps at this mid-way revelation, but both Olazdor and Thisraldion stay perfectly still.
Auryn then picks up the thread of Carlyle: “Nevertheless, we suceeded in picking up the right pieces of this puzzle, even though the culprit had repeatedly tried to divert suspicion to Olazdor by placing a false arrow, Thisraldion by leaving a decapitated Rock and having his servant Paprika bring us a bloody shirt, Azla and Beshela by attacking us in the tunnel, and ultimately Darbony, by trying to have us assassinated satyrs.”
We realize that several fey lords and ladies react quite nervously during the enumeration of some of the "false evidence" and suspect that Copperhat might be actually innocent of some of these distractions after all. We act as if we appear to have seen no reaction though but we don't go further into that matter.
(we know that they know that we know^^).
“But all of this false evidence could not hide the truth from us: That the murderer of Rock Rackus is no one! Because where could be a murderer without a victim?”
With this revelation, Rock takes off his disguise and presents himself to the crowd. Several fey go wild as they see “dead” Rock being alive and kicking among them. We try to calm them down as much as possible as our presentation is far from over. We then explain that Copperhat had merely kidnapped his friend with the help of Borenbog's secretions and created a duplicate of Rock with the help of illusory eggs, which he then had "killed" by further illusions. As evidence we present the eggshells, the bottle of Borenbog and the various spider webs of Copperhat, while revealing that Copperhat's true form is that of an Ettercap.
“And there is more: Copperhat is not only a member of this court, but also an agent of the Voice of Rot. And it appears as if this withering Titan has an interest in keeping both of your courts busy”, Auryn adds.
When those present then react somewhat embarrassed and shocked at the revelation of Copperhat as an agent of the Voice, Carlyle takes a deep breath.
“Apparently, all of you had longed so much for this conflict that you all could have fallen for the manipulations of one individual and were ultimately led around by the nose by an adherent of the Voice. What a pity.”
“But the past oversights don't matter. For now it is time for you to open your eyes to the real threats to the Dreaming and perhaps begin to look for a way to overcome that what separates the Dreaming and the Waking World, the Unseen and the Hedgehog Courts.”, Auryn adds.
Thisraldion thanks us for our work and calls on the others to consult within the circle of Feylords on how to proceed. Furthermore, everyone seems truly happy that their beloved Rock Rackus is alive and well. But it is in this moment of joy, that Thisraldion seems to have a vision in which they notice dark shadows settling over Slate and Torfield Palace.
“Oh...” they say. “Oh, I am so sorry, you two. I didn't wish for these things to happen, but who am I to change fate?” Thisraldion then turns to Carlyle specifically before stating “But there is light among darkness and I am sure that you and I will work well together over the next few centuries”
(Speaking of ominous foreshadowing...
this had Auryn really worried and curious at the same time, as Gabriel wasn't the one to meddle in fey affairs although the “centuries” of good work would be natural for an otherwise long-lived deva. She was thinking the safe route that maybe King Aodhan would choose for him to become the next Green Knight and wouldn't dare let her thoughts stray any further than that.)
We are very concerned about these news, but Thisraldion cannot explain the vision any further. So we try to urge them to expedite the parley among the fey as best we can. In the meantime, we read about Kelland in the book and learn how he and his family ended up in Risur at the time. And we also learn that it was ultimately his daughter who "defeated" the Titans.
(Who, unfortunately, seems to be lacking a name and a proper further story development. Tiz imagined that she became Queen after her father, but there also must have been a reason to why the system of monarchical dynasty never clicked in Risur then. Anyway, this girl rocks!)
We also talk to Nathan Jierre, who is still held captive at court, albeit in quite comfortable conditions. He unfortunately knows nothing about the Obscurati and is horrified that apparently his whole family is involved in a centuries-old conspiracy. He himself had only gathered information about the planes, being a scientist at heart, and had nothing to do with the military research of Axis Island. However, he suspects that the Fall of the Dragons might be responsible for the strange planar effects on the island. We tell Nathan about Luc and Lya and think that he might probably be safest in the dream for now, especially as he wants to avoid being caught up in the upcoming conflict.
After what feels like an eternity, Thisraldion and Olazdor finally announce that the two courts have agreed on a temporary truce and that they both want to support us in our mission. However, this would require some research, as Olazdor and Thisraldion cannot open a portal to our world, even with their powers combined.
(Now this is scary... )
Thisraldion also asks us for our opinion on a plan to get hold of the Borenbog, as subduing him will prove to be extremely tough and they'd really want to hold him responsible for his part in the Rock conspiracy. Auryn suggests taking the Borenbog to the Well of Drought to drain his fluids. Carlyle in turn voices the idea of wrestling him down together, tying him up and then imprisoning him. Thisraldion thanks us for our suggestions, but understands that we will most likely wish to go back to the Waking as soon as possible.
Then both Olazdor and Thisraldion summon fey scholars and researchers to the archives to search for a solution to our problem. In the end, the old library pixies and Salinn form a theory that the Voice of Rot could be made to banish us to our world via a challenge and the sword of King Dukain, since only the Titans exist in both worlds of Dreaming and Waking at the same time.
Finally, Thisraldion opens the last result of the negotiations with the hedgehog court: He offers Auryn to become the court's envoy and thus take Ekossigan's place as well. Ultimately, he explains, the court (or rather both courts) needs a bridge and a connection to the king of Risur. To this end, the courts have agreed to allow her, as the first member of the court, to put on and take off her mask at will, depending on the situational needs. Auryn accepts the honor and is admitted to the Unseen Court.
(That turn was really unexpected. Story-wise, it was a very sweet complementary to what was yet to come. On a larger scale, the Court unfortunately became redundant until that one section of adventure 12, and the involvement wasn't large/long enough to leave a true feeling of loss after adventure 10. Which is a shame, since the adventure put so much effort into creating all of these vibrant characters and expanding the world into a whole new plane and society.
From Auryn's point of view, the nomination was a true honor, but she quickly understood Thisraldion's wisdom and cunning. They must have already known about both her and Gabriel, as this would explain why they knew Auryn to be a bridge between worlds and why it would be essential to have her keep her “mortal face” when needed while also equipping her with the visage of a fey lady. And whatever they had seen in their vision regarding Gabriel would make sure to have yet another connection to this “thread of fate”. Even though she had this really complex relationship with “fate”, she couldn't stop secretly complimenting Thisraldion for this move)
So now all that remains to do is to convince a Titan of our banishment before the two worlds become so separate that that the last hope of transitioning is lost forever.
So we leave the mosskittens behind and head for the tavern where the Borenbog is said to haing around regularly. We do not come that far before we are attacked by quite a veritable army of satyrs. Carlyle is quick to react, as usual, and takes care of the majority of the satyrs, while Auryn deals with the remaining ones. As we are quite fed up by yet another fey distraction, we question them quickly and learn that they were hired by Dorlax Deathmask, an assassin of Darbony, to take us out of the equation. By now, we see this as another attempt to name a new culprit and send the satyrs on their way, telling them they should be glad Asrabey isn't here to behead them for trying to assassinate Kasvarina's descendant.
Afterwards, we disguise ourselves as inconspicuous fey and head to the tavern at the Krogtunnel, the favorite place of Copperhat, Rock, and the Borenbog. We are pleasantly surprised to find not one, but two of them silently drinking in the taverns. A quick glance around shows us that most visitors keep their distance to the pair as they appear to be either afraid of Borenbog and/or only have one hand left. We watch the two of them for a while and eventually notice that of all fey Mista Nyves enters the tavern and joins them. To our surprise, he nods to the pair and then reports on his employment as our guide and that he left us with the dragon Aluriel, unsure whether we're still with that scary scaly lady
(That sneaky, backstabbing bastard! Why do the nice ones always have to be traitors? But then again, this explains so much of the mishaps that happened along the way to Clover).
Copperhat seems satisfied with the information and then turns back to his drink. It only takes this very faint gust of air to have Carlyle pick up the odor of Copperhat with his fine nose. And at this moment, he realizes that Mista Nyves and invisible Copperhat give off a very similar smell and are very likely both members of the same species: ettercaps.
When Nyves leaves the tavern, we follow and confront him about his betrayal and his true master. It takes some intimidation, but he finally reveals that Copperhat is one who "speaks for the serpent" and that all ettercaps have respect for him. We let him go under the premise that he leaves and never crosses our paths again. Then we turn back to our two suspects. After a while, we see them go to bed and Carlyle follows them silently. He quickly realizes that Copperhat does not sleep in a bed, but has withdrawn into a kind of cocoon (similar to what Mista Nyves had done before). He closes up to the cocoon and deduces that, since he hears no sound of a sleeping or breathing ettercap, Copperhat is most likely not present. Carlyle manages to enter the cocoon and thus the ettercap network of webs, finding himself in a labyrinth of spider passages, which he quickly leaves again before getting lost or found by ettercaps. Before returning to the room, he takes a sample of the cocoon with him.
Meanwhile, Auryn talks to the hag who runs the tavern. From the old hag, she learns that Copperhat and Borenbog regularly drink here. She actually doesn't like having the Borenbog here, as he massacres and scares off the clientele on a regular basis. However, she cannot simply get rid of him, as Borenbog is dangerous and can only be wounded once by any kind of weapon. Hearing this, Auryn's spirit brightens up and she shows a confident smile, knowing that she might have the perfect anti-Bog-measure available should the need arise. She doesn't tell the hag though, and furthermore learns that Rock and Copperhat were apparently good friends and that Copperhat had mourned for quite a while after Rock's death.
Carlyle returns from Copperhat's room. We exchange informations before we decide to follow up on the last clue: the eggshell and the missing illusiory eggs. So we head to the corresponding farm and talk to the now very paranoid farmer, show him the eggshell from the tunnel, and get confirmation that it matches his missing eggs. Then we have him show us the stable where the chickens were "hypnotized by a snake" and Auryn proceeds to talk to the feathered creatures herself. By the chickens' description of the snake, we realize that it could very well have been an illusion and Carlyle finds more spider webs that match Copperhat's network.
So all in all the final clues add up nicely.
With these results, we (and Rock in disguise) first go to Thisraldion and explain to him that we have found the "culprit" for the Rock Rackus case and that it is neither Olazdor nor any other member of the Unseen Court. Therefore, we can convene the meeting as soon as possible and report back. No sooner said than done.
Both courts finally come together to have our findings presented to them.
“This case has been quite a hard nut to crack, especially with all of the misinformation and sabotages during our investigations...”, Carlyle starts, looking at all of the present fey.
“To be honest, I've never seen any murder case with such an accumulation of false evidences and mislead, not even when we went after the Ragman himself! Which lead us to the primary conclusion that the death of Rock Rackus served one major goal: To fuel the conflict between the two courts.”
Several fey release theatrical gasps at this mid-way revelation, but both Olazdor and Thisraldion stay perfectly still.
Auryn then picks up the thread of Carlyle: “Nevertheless, we suceeded in picking up the right pieces of this puzzle, even though the culprit had repeatedly tried to divert suspicion to Olazdor by placing a false arrow, Thisraldion by leaving a decapitated Rock and having his servant Paprika bring us a bloody shirt, Azla and Beshela by attacking us in the tunnel, and ultimately Darbony, by trying to have us assassinated satyrs.”
We realize that several fey lords and ladies react quite nervously during the enumeration of some of the "false evidence" and suspect that Copperhat might be actually innocent of some of these distractions after all. We act as if we appear to have seen no reaction though but we don't go further into that matter.
(we know that they know that we know^^).
“But all of this false evidence could not hide the truth from us: That the murderer of Rock Rackus is no one! Because where could be a murderer without a victim?”
With this revelation, Rock takes off his disguise and presents himself to the crowd. Several fey go wild as they see “dead” Rock being alive and kicking among them. We try to calm them down as much as possible as our presentation is far from over. We then explain that Copperhat had merely kidnapped his friend with the help of Borenbog's secretions and created a duplicate of Rock with the help of illusory eggs, which he then had "killed" by further illusions. As evidence we present the eggshells, the bottle of Borenbog and the various spider webs of Copperhat, while revealing that Copperhat's true form is that of an Ettercap.
“And there is more: Copperhat is not only a member of this court, but also an agent of the Voice of Rot. And it appears as if this withering Titan has an interest in keeping both of your courts busy”, Auryn adds.
When those present then react somewhat embarrassed and shocked at the revelation of Copperhat as an agent of the Voice, Carlyle takes a deep breath.
“Apparently, all of you had longed so much for this conflict that you all could have fallen for the manipulations of one individual and were ultimately led around by the nose by an adherent of the Voice. What a pity.”
“But the past oversights don't matter. For now it is time for you to open your eyes to the real threats to the Dreaming and perhaps begin to look for a way to overcome that what separates the Dreaming and the Waking World, the Unseen and the Hedgehog Courts.”, Auryn adds.
Thisraldion thanks us for our work and calls on the others to consult within the circle of Feylords on how to proceed. Furthermore, everyone seems truly happy that their beloved Rock Rackus is alive and well. But it is in this moment of joy, that Thisraldion seems to have a vision in which they notice dark shadows settling over Slate and Torfield Palace.
“Oh...” they say. “Oh, I am so sorry, you two. I didn't wish for these things to happen, but who am I to change fate?” Thisraldion then turns to Carlyle specifically before stating “But there is light among darkness and I am sure that you and I will work well together over the next few centuries”
(Speaking of ominous foreshadowing...
this had Auryn really worried and curious at the same time, as Gabriel wasn't the one to meddle in fey affairs although the “centuries” of good work would be natural for an otherwise long-lived deva. She was thinking the safe route that maybe King Aodhan would choose for him to become the next Green Knight and wouldn't dare let her thoughts stray any further than that.)
We are very concerned about these news, but Thisraldion cannot explain the vision any further. So we try to urge them to expedite the parley among the fey as best we can. In the meantime, we read about Kelland in the book and learn how he and his family ended up in Risur at the time. And we also learn that it was ultimately his daughter who "defeated" the Titans.
(Who, unfortunately, seems to be lacking a name and a proper further story development. Tiz imagined that she became Queen after her father, but there also must have been a reason to why the system of monarchical dynasty never clicked in Risur then. Anyway, this girl rocks!)
We also talk to Nathan Jierre, who is still held captive at court, albeit in quite comfortable conditions. He unfortunately knows nothing about the Obscurati and is horrified that apparently his whole family is involved in a centuries-old conspiracy. He himself had only gathered information about the planes, being a scientist at heart, and had nothing to do with the military research of Axis Island. However, he suspects that the Fall of the Dragons might be responsible for the strange planar effects on the island. We tell Nathan about Luc and Lya and think that he might probably be safest in the dream for now, especially as he wants to avoid being caught up in the upcoming conflict.
After what feels like an eternity, Thisraldion and Olazdor finally announce that the two courts have agreed on a temporary truce and that they both want to support us in our mission. However, this would require some research, as Olazdor and Thisraldion cannot open a portal to our world, even with their powers combined.
(Now this is scary... )
Thisraldion also asks us for our opinion on a plan to get hold of the Borenbog, as subduing him will prove to be extremely tough and they'd really want to hold him responsible for his part in the Rock conspiracy. Auryn suggests taking the Borenbog to the Well of Drought to drain his fluids. Carlyle in turn voices the idea of wrestling him down together, tying him up and then imprisoning him. Thisraldion thanks us for our suggestions, but understands that we will most likely wish to go back to the Waking as soon as possible.
Then both Olazdor and Thisraldion summon fey scholars and researchers to the archives to search for a solution to our problem. In the end, the old library pixies and Salinn form a theory that the Voice of Rot could be made to banish us to our world via a challenge and the sword of King Dukain, since only the Titans exist in both worlds of Dreaming and Waking at the same time.
Finally, Thisraldion opens the last result of the negotiations with the hedgehog court: He offers Auryn to become the court's envoy and thus take Ekossigan's place as well. Ultimately, he explains, the court (or rather both courts) needs a bridge and a connection to the king of Risur. To this end, the courts have agreed to allow her, as the first member of the court, to put on and take off her mask at will, depending on the situational needs. Auryn accepts the honor and is admitted to the Unseen Court.
(That turn was really unexpected. Story-wise, it was a very sweet complementary to what was yet to come. On a larger scale, the Court unfortunately became redundant until that one section of adventure 12, and the involvement wasn't large/long enough to leave a true feeling of loss after adventure 10. Which is a shame, since the adventure put so much effort into creating all of these vibrant characters and expanding the world into a whole new plane and society.
From Auryn's point of view, the nomination was a true honor, but she quickly understood Thisraldion's wisdom and cunning. They must have already known about both her and Gabriel, as this would explain why they knew Auryn to be a bridge between worlds and why it would be essential to have her keep her “mortal face” when needed while also equipping her with the visage of a fey lady. And whatever they had seen in their vision regarding Gabriel would make sure to have yet another connection to this “thread of fate”. Even though she had this really complex relationship with “fate”, she couldn't stop secretly complimenting Thisraldion for this move)
So now all that remains to do is to convince a Titan of our banishment before the two worlds become so separate that that the last hope of transitioning is lost forever.
Last edited:
RangerWickett
Legend
I'd missed the previous update, so getting a double dose is an excellent treat!
I'll say, I had a lot of fun writing the murder investigation part of this adventure. And yeah, I agree in hindsight the fey courts don't get enough screen time in the campaign's third act.
I'll say, I had a lot of fun writing the murder investigation part of this adventure. And yeah, I agree in hindsight the fey courts don't get enough screen time in the campaign's third act.
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