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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gideonpepys" data-source="post: 7235657" data-attributes="member: 79141">Session 23 (146) - Ritual of the Red MoonAt the western edge of the peak they see dark figures dancing around a pyre.  Harkover uses clairvoyance and sees many witches, including Sister Pernicity, led by the Red Contessa; a huge fey serpent-maned lion; a bubbling cauldron of blood. One of Stanfield’s incarnations can use clairvoyance too, and he checks out the eastern peak.  There he finds the missing captives, guarded by undying spirits.Stanfield and Dame Melissa spot patrolling dark fey bearing lanterns.  The group considers how best to approach, when Dame Melissa grows tired of talking and attacks. Tomas heads to rescue the prisoners, but his blows fail to land on the spirits.  He does, however, resist their fearful aura.The others follow suit and take out the dark fey patrol, but they have been noticed!Sister Pernicity flies out above them and casts a spell.  The King shoots her with his silent bow, (“No gloating from you!”) but Amielle’s guns misfire again. (Seriously, that’s four 1s in two sessions; some tech demo this is turning out to be.)  It is left to Harkover Lee to blow Pernicity out of the air with a fireball.  She lands, singed, but still giggling. (Again, inaudibly.)The Red Contessa monologues as her witches join the attack.  She announces the treachery of Rachel Lang, who she calls Sister Languor.  Languor steps from the shadows and strikes Harkover with her staff, making herself invisible to him.  The Contessa also causes two huge henge stones and the bubbling cauldron to animate and attack.King Lorcan creates steps so his retinue can easily reach the peak.  He climbs them to face off against the Contessa, trading insults.  To his astonishment, she proposes marriage! Down below, Dame Melissa responds, “We don’t negotiate with terrorists!”  She hurls her returning spear at Pernicity, hits, and then hurls it again the instant it returns, killing the witch at last.The Red Contessa and her coven all hurl curses at the king.  They land, and he cannot exert himself without suffering serious wounds.  All of his defences are lowered at once.The Stanfields take out most of the lesser witches between them.The serpent-maned lion attacks the Green Knight.  She draws her cold iron dagger and fights back.Both Harkover and Malthus have been studying he nature of the ritual protecting the Red Contessa. (Harkover manages to do so while simultaneously fending off blows from Rachel Lang.)  While Tomas was fighting desperately to free the prisoners on the eastern peak, it would appear that the Contessa’s bond was with the whole of Flint!  If the ritual completed, it would be permanent.King Lorcan ran up the steps he had formed and came face-to-face with the Red Contessa.  Alongside him was one of Stanfield’s incarnations.  They were set upon by the Contessa’s animated allies, although King Lorcan raised an earth wall, so one of the huge henges had to plod right the way round the ring of stones in order to get at them.  The bubbling cauldron attacked by splashing them with its scalding contents. Stanfield’s incarnation lashed out with his magical dagger and to his surprise actually damaged the cauldron. [Opportune 20 there.]  The Red Contessa gave a shriek of alarm, alerting her foes to the importance of the cauldron.Harkover Lee stepped away from Rachel Lang and opened a portal on the western peak.  He stepped through and immediately cast dispel magic on the bloody cauldron.  Sadly, even Harkover could not cause the Red Contessa’s wicked bond to falter.By now, Tomas was beginning to fail in his fight against the spirits.  Stanfield’s warrior incarnation stepped up to fight alongside him.  Rachel Lang turned her attention to Malthus, who was surprisingly adept at blocking her blows.  (One of his previous incarnations had also been a godhand.)The Red Contessa began to utter more terrible curses.Dame Melissa felled the fey lion.  Then she drew her sword, focused all the might of her fey power and swung it at the cauldron, striking another blow just where Stanfield had damaged it.  The cauldron cracked! The Red Contessa screamed in anger as the cauldron dashed about the peak like a headless chicken, sloshing its contents all over the place.The king’s retinue then renewed their assault on the Contessa, only to discover the full extent of Rachel Lang’s treachery: they were personally bound in a second ritual to the red witch.  Any damage they did to her was spread among them – all save Amielle.  This would be a much tougher fight than they had realised!It is at this point that a detailed account of what transpired becomes impossible.  The memory fades…History records that Stanfield died once again upon the mountain, but was restored to his old life and position soon after.  King Lorcan almost died too, but when he returned to consciousness, he named Dame Melissa Galhot as his successor.Dame Melissa went on to become one of the longest reigning monarchs in Risur’s history, prosecuting the Third Yerasol War against Danor with some success.  Eventually, in her dotage, she handed the crown to King Aodhan (whom she often referred to as her 'noble stag'). Only when Aodhan took the throne was Stanfield able to take full advantage of what he had learned from Amielle Latimer and develop modern technology in Flint, turning the little town into a hive of industry.  Amielle Latimer had long since departed, returning to her life as an inventor and adventurer.Tomas Masaryk remained in Flint and introduced the clergy faith to Risur, right here, where the taint of evil was at its strongest.  His original church at the foot of Cauldron Hill was only abandoned after it was rendered unsafe by earthquakes.Harkover Lee still serves the kings of Risur in an advisory capacity.But what happened to Malthus...?</blockquote>

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