Before settling in for the night, shortly after meeting the Crimson Calling, Rask finds Ethelred separately from the others and catches his attention.
“I can see it in your eyes Ethelred. Your first time?”
Rask looks into Ethelered’s eyes.
“Recently.” Rask nods,
“If you want to talk about with someone who’s been there, let me know. You’ll never forget, but it does get… easier.”
Rask’s thousand yard stare is sad and determined, but welcoming and hopeful too.
The night forest is shadowed in the soft glow of lamplight and Alexis’ magical light, revealing old trees, dead bodies, and pools of blood. In the center Alexis stands amidst his weary but resilient team. Their faces are etched with concern and anticipation. Gustav stands slightly apart, clutching a simple dagger with a look of stubborn defiance.
ALEXIS
(seriously, addressing the group)
“This isn’t just about a choice of weapons. It’s about understanding the weight of our decisions, especially when they put others at risk.”
Alexis looks over the group, capturing their post-battle adrenaline-state, Ethelred’s post-battle dread, and highlighting their reliance on each other for survival.
ALEXIS(CONT’D)
(firmly)
“We’re in this together. Choosing a dagger over a magic sword, in the face of bow-wielding orcs no less, it’s not just a personal mistake. It’s a risk to every single life in this camp.”
Alexis walks over to Ethelred, wiping off some of the blood running down Ethelred’s armor and looking at it on his fingers, his voice softening as he turns back to Gustav.
ALEXIS(CONT’D)
(softly)
“Gus, your bravery isn’t in question here. But bravery without wisdom is folly. We needed that sword, not just for its power, but for the protection it would offer us all.”
He steps closer to Gustav, looking into his eyes, searching for understanding.
ALEXIS(CONT’D)
(gently)
“Every choice we make in our crusade against the Dark Hand has consequences. Today, it was a close call. Tomorrow, it might not be.”
A moment of silence fills the room as Gustav stubbornly meets Alexis’ gaze.
ALEXIS(CONT’D)
(curiously, with a hint of something else)
“So, I have to ask… Gus, why? Why choose the dagger over the sword and put Red in dire peril? What was it that you saw in this choice that we didn’t?”
Gustav, looks down at the dagger in his hand, then back up at Alexis. The rest of the team looks on with curiosity.
Rask scanned: the horses’ and mule’s ears, the trees, the trails. After a few minutes, his eyes settled into a pattern and he started to think again.
His eyes slowed a bit as they swept across Gustav and the sword Alexis called “Dauntless,” Torr Bjorn’s sword, a gift from Ishtar, made of start metal, and re-forged by Torr himself. The sword had rejected Rask, chosen Gustav, but Gustav spurned the sword, wished to be rid of it. Gustav Raidensbless’d seemed disgusted and disturbed by the relic. They both needed protection from the Dark Hand.
Alexis Laelius, Ethelred, they were planners, engineers. What was the plan here? Were they really going to take the sword to Mage Eye and Ursill? Even if that is his plan, doing it while being hunted by the Dark Hand and their orcs?
It must be an elaborate ruse. We learned a bit more about the enemy. We could double back soon, push the logs over the trap door, and take on Shyeeni and her orcs. We killed three quickly, we could take out the slaver and her minions before going into the caves to rescue the refugees from the other slavers below… Yes that must be the plan.
Rask scans: the horses’ and mule’s ears, the trees, the trails…
A bit later, Rask clears his throat “A-huH-lex-IS.”
He looks at the Sutheroni sharply and jerks his head back towards the cave and enemy.
He whispers, “How much time are we going to give them?”
Rask scans: the horses’ and mule’s ears, the trees, the trails…
Ethelred waits for Gus to return from his morning ‘prayers’. As he approaches the trees Red stops him near on of the fallen trees outside of the Grove.
“Gustav, I have been thinking, studying.. pondering…”
Ethelred looks around walks a bit farther away from the Grove and indicates for Gustav to follow him. Red touches the fallen tree, ensures it is does not talk.. which as he does this seems crazy. But then talking trees, also crazy.
In a hushed tone.
“As I was saying I have been studying some ways to protect use in battle. While I have a path that is simple.. there is another path that would be more.. effective.”
Ethelred takes another few steps farther from the grove and indicated of Gus to follow. Even quieter he begins to talk again.
“But it would require a bit of a sacrifice.. and I would need your blessing to even start. This tree (indicates the a closest fallen tree) for example could be utilized to give a protective blessing of Raiden… could form a sort of armor… But it would require removing the bark from a fallen tree….”
Ethelred pause as waits to see what reaction Gustav has.
At some point during their two weeks at the grove before heading to Barra’s pool the three treasure hunters are all having an evening meal together. After some logistics Alexis turns to his companions.
“I’ve been thinking about our battle with the Red Cloaks under the fort, and how much easier it might have been if you’d both accepted the ‘blessings’ of the symbol/archtype you both refer to as ‘Avv’. And the thing that has me confused is the ‘blessings’ you’re willing to accept and the ones you’re not. And I speak as someone who is happy to accept boons and blessings from almost any ‘god’. Obviously Nurgle would be hard for me because the slime, the spores, etc.” Alexis gives a shudder of revulsion. “And I wouldn’t trust a gift/boon from the Arril-Noroth since I expect it would contain a barb of some sort. But back to the subject at hand…”
“You both willingly accepted a ‘blessing’ from Bora Bloodfist, servant of She-Who-Is-Fierce, and from that ‘blessing’ we were taken on a journey together and now better understand the Path of the Peacemakers. Great. But that started because you both accepted magics from a priest of the goddess of the gnolls. That was acceptable, but ‘blessings’ from ‘Avv’ are not.”
“And you both willingly accepted the task to break Dauntless for a boon from She-Who-Is-Fierce. And I was, and still could be, excited to see what sort of boon that would be. But my point is that getting a boon from that goddess whom many consider evil and hostile to humanity, Raiden, etc was acceptable, but blessings from Avv are not.”
“Red, you can I carried the Eyes of Maglubiyet accepting the risks and rewards therein. But somehow a blessing from a matriarch of humanity is not.”
“Gus, you wear bracers of the VahnYir, who pledged themselves to the Arru-Noroth. And you accept the magics I learned from those bracers to further help you in your aim. Magics that also come from the VahnYir. This is all acceptable to you, but blessings of Avv are not.”
“Please help me understand how you are both willing to accept the magics of forces so antithetical to humanity and Raiden, and so hostile to accepting help from the human magics of ‘Avv’, who defended humanity at one of the points when humanity needed it most.”
Alexis looks between Gustav and Ethelred.
A day or two down the road to the Greyfax estate, as the Crimson Calling has just finished setting up camp and is starting their evening chores, a lone man approaches leading a horse.
The man is wearing a heavy winter cloak, and a simple undyed tabard. Under the cloak and tabard, the observant make out dark-red, almost black chain mail and the hilt of odd shaped, dark-handled sword. It reminds those that remember of the blade Ethelred called “Bushwacker,” but longer.
The man raises his arms confidently in the universal gesture of peace,
“Hail, I am Rask Felmar, of Thater that Was. You must be the Crimson Calling.” He calls out confidently.
As the group is about to leave their two week spot after getting Dauntless, Alexis muses to his companions “I can only imagine Leer’s troll powder supply is getting pretty damn depleted. Even though we haven’t seen eye-to-eye with Leer, and he poisoned us, nobody deserves whatever fate is about to befall him.
“I’ve made a little progress with scrying magics, but if I’d studied more at the Collegium I might be able to know Leer’s fate now.”
It had taken over a month to reach Thater. Careful talk, careful movement. Rask wasn’t sure what to do after The Incident, and after a few days of aimless wandering, Thater seemed like the right place to go.
Thater was gone. Rask had barely been able to cobble together a lean to with his tarp and the poles he was able to salvage from the old stable. Practice kept him warm more than the fire. Rask tried to remember what had happened to Yon and Brude, Sten and Myrsky. There had been goblins and orcs with deep red scars on their faces. Three red stripes. Then so many goblins. Thater survived that onslaught, but not this one.
Two nights ago, or was it three? No, it had been a week or maybe fortnight since the road wardens had told Rask that Thater had been overrun, destroyed roughly a year ago, a full turn of the seasons and then some. Rask vaguely recalled the rumors, savage creatures from the Horde. According to the road wardens, there were some refugees from Thater at the Copper Hills Fort, others had been with the army closer to Middlebar, and some of the survivors had been taken by slavers, the Dark Hand.
Rask had wandered through the ruins of Thater, of his childhood home. Joining the Raidensblud, Aedelfrid’s Army, Aegir’s Army, Raiden’s Army, had seemed like the right thing to do after the goblin attack. The best way to protect Thater, his mother, Papa Fellmar, and the other from the savage beasts of the Horde. Myrsky had his… forest connections, and Rask had his connections in the army. It may have technically have been re-joining, but the commitment was more… real. More solid. It wasn’t about his father, it was about his family. His homeland. Thater had been attacked, and there would be payment in kind for the transgression.
Rask practiced his forms in the old militia gathering space. In the yard where he and Sten used to practice together. Ursill, the First Eye, had given Rask the Blade of the Betrayers, an honor and priceless gift from the Greatest Warrior of Aegir, and leader of Aedelfrid’s most powerful army. Rask had become one of Aegir’s finest weapons. One hundred enemies of Aegir had fallen to his blade. How many hundreds more had fallen since? Thousands?
When Ursill bestowed the ancient elven blade upon on Rask, the First Eye had Intoned that Rask, the soldier, the death commando, could wield the terrible relic against the enemies of humankind who had forged it. Enemies fell to the blade, that was certain, hundreds more, perhaps even thousands. But no elves.
The Fire set Rask free. It had been easy to take orders, easier than thinking about who’s brother, who’s son, who’s lover was on the other end of his sword, dying. It had been easy to to enjoy the challenge of the fight, the thrill of winning. Accepting the accolades was easier than thinking about the humanity of his victims.
Rask couldn’t really remember what happened. He didn’t want to. There had been flames, but nothing actually burned. There was fighting. He had taken a blow to the head, and some minor cuts. In the end, the officers, his handlers, in their small encampment were all dead and Rask was done fighting for Aedelfrid. Done killing because someone ordered him to. Everything had changed, it was not longer easy not to think about It.
It had taken over a month to reach Thater. Careful talk, careful movement. Rask wasn’t sure what to do after The Incident, and after a few days of aimless wandering, Thater seemed like the right place to go. Thater was gone. Its people taken by the Dark Hand.
After Alexis has examined the wooden rings and found out
He addresses his companions “I would like to test the nature of these rings. The one time we experimented with them, my nausea was amplified because of what Red was feeling? Or I got his feeling of nausea?”
“Over the next while I’d like us to run some tests, and I want us to come up with a plan for these tests. Red and I will be ‘conducting’ the tests. Ezrin, you’ll be studying the effects from the outside, and possibly working on trying to save us if things go very badly. Gus, you will do your best to protect us. I leave it to you to decide how best to do that.”
“Some of my thoughts on the rings:
“I would like to figure out what makes these rings ‘abjuration’ in nature. What sort of protection was the intent?”
“The ‘blank canvas’ nature of the rings made me think that perhaps we could put magics within the rings and they could be released at a later time. And this might be the case, but perhaps only protections can be ‘painted on the blank canvas’?”
“I didn’t notice any particular warren flavor while studying the rings, which is interesting of itself. Especially interesting given the material of the rings.”
Alexis looks at the group “everyone understand the plan? Any questions, or other feedback?”
After Vagram and Teldon have left the tent of the Crimson Calling, Alexis consults his notebook and then addresses the group.
“Depending on how things go up north we might be able to answer some of our outstanding questions, mostly from our time at the Greyfax estate.” Alexis looks at his companions, and through his look conveys that this is a good time to bring Ezrin up to speed on anything that might have been missed previously.
“Some of the questions that have been on my mind” Alexis pats his notebook
“What really happened on the night we witnessed?”
“What was the nature of the donkey cart with all the monies that went into the woods?”
“Who was the girl chased by the wolves? It would be nice to make sure her name is sent to the Hoodites for a proper ‘rememberance’.”
“Where were the people taken? What were the swirls in the mist?”
“What happened to Torrin, and why was he the anchor for Utiog?”
“Were they aware of Avv’s involvement? Can they tell me more about that?”
“What happened to Lady Sofia that night? Where was she?”
“Who was the girl Ty-Lin girl that haunted Telosh? … and who was eventually… um… banished to the undead city?”
“What is the name of the undead city? Is it Kobos? Do they happen to know anything about Kobos? Now that I think about it, I should ask Vagram and Teldon on our hike north, on the very-remote chance.”
“How much interaction did they have with the Dark Hand? My understanding was that the ‘night-of-the-mists’ resulted in the people at the Greyfax estate being taken away into slavery. If so, it seems reasonable that they could have had a ‘relationship’ with the Dark Hand.”
“Much to do with Barra’s cave. Did they know it was Barra’s cave? What do they know about the pool? What do they know about the Eyes?”
“Based on how much Torrin hated Arri, it seems reasonable that they might know about Arri. I would be curious to know more.”
“Do they happen to know any more about the Saggi or the Akkil?”
“Obviously, all the mysteries around the twice-broken?”
And there are some additional questions I have since we will be going north.
“What is the nature of the bell?”
“What other treasures do they know about at the undead city? Do they know more about the nature of the undead city?”
“Have they heard about lost treasures north of Middlebar?”
“What was the effect within Middlebar when the villagers came out and confronted the Aegirian army?”
Alexis looks between his companions, mutely asking for additional questions, or ready to answer questions they have about his questions.