Test of Spirit
Thirty Seventh Day of Elnu-eza (Elnu Ascendant), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)
John Loreson was not a happy man, not in the least as he looked the fire priest up and down with a measuring gaze. He didn't have anything against witches really, not good luck charms for those going on a journey, not poultices for wounds nor love potions, though those were for the game of men younger of more homely than him. Aye if you put a blade to his throat he would ever admit that he did not have much against the dark eyed 'lady' who had bespelled the the lord, mostly because unlike some others he could name John was sure the bespelling had all been the ordinary sort and not anything worse than that. He would not bear the name he did if the highborn were above thinking with the wrong head.
But it was not that witch who was offering to anoint him in 'holy' oils and wrap him in parchment and set him alight, good on the one hand, but on the other... well his pa hadn't raised no heathen. Men will judge you for your name, take they judge you better for your word under lord and God, that was what his father, Lord above rest his soul, had told him when he had left home to join with the lord's household and how here he was. Between a lord who wasn't doing as good a job of hiding what choice he thought John should take and a God who watches over all and judges all, no matter if the stars were changed, no matter how strange the seas and uncanny the lands.
In the end it was not a look towards the heavens not one towards Lord Verley that did it for John, it was the look in Young Hugh's eye, the one that said he desperately wanted to take the deal, but not if he was alone in the doing and known for it among the rest of the Fellowship. Now unless High was mistaken the Good Book had words for those that lead others into sin and they weren't kindly ones, but... well it seemed to John that none of them really knew the will of God, not having a man of the cloth among them and all they could do was guess. John was fine guessing for himself, but not for another.
"Aye... I'll do it." he said at last.
Just like you John my lad do pass out on fucking to be burned alive, he thought as the heavy darkness came over his eyes. The parchment did not look that thick from the outside, but from the inside not a glimmer of light showed.
And then there was too much light... light that was pain beyond pain, that scoured the flesh and the mind and though it all great roaring in his mind like a thousand voices calling out in tongues beyond mortal ken. the smell of burning flesh filled his nostrils.
Blackness crashed over him again deeper than night.
***
To say Hugh was terrified would have been an understatement of almost comical proportions, terrified would have been nearer the mark and even that did not account for all of it. It was not just that he was scared of dying, though that was part of it. For him the strange parchment from a land he would never seen, filled with a script he would never understand and still burning with the power of a god he did not wish to know was part of everything he hated on this journey.
When he was with Sacha he cold almost forget that he was in Another Place, not just another city speaking a foreign tongue but some place here was no coming back from... and there was not knowing what was out there. That was what the witch kept telling them when they talked about magic. 'this is what I know, but that is not the whole of it, eyes sharp and wits about you.'
But I don't want to live like that, Hugh almost wanted to wail. He knew they would call him craven. He had wanted in some small way to make things the way they were, sure the keep at Wayfarer's Respite was not Verley, but it was a little like it and if he could wed Sacha and have sons and daughters of his own to raise up right...
That was all dust beneath the cart wheels wasn't it.
The oil smelled funny it made him sneeze, it was dark under the parchment, it made him scared... then the pain came and it was as it his bones were afire and his blood boiling with it... an age of agony fit into an instant
The first thing he felt after that were the hands of the girl Inge on burned flesh that seemed to flow with soft soothing water than left behind untouched flesh... the first thing he heard was the fire priest saying: "I am sorry lad... it didn't take. Inoko has another purpose in mind for you."
John's curse removed; Hugh's cursed is not removed
What do you want to do next?
Day 5/5
[] Learn more about the people of Korman, you have played a diplomat once, perhaps you can do so again
-[] The Loyal Clans
-[] The Rebel Villages
[] Approach the king himself about the way in which the campaign will unfold and your place in it
[] Buy something at the market in Orinilu
-[] Write in what
[] Covertly approach the Iranea, now that they are no longer puppets perhaps you can restore some manner of goodwill, perhaps even strike the deal with their smiths again
[] Write in
OOC: Mechanically what happened was the CL check failed for Hugh even as it worked for John and the scroll does not allow one to just span rituals for the same target. 
