Age of Ice and Blood: A Pathfinder System Heroic Fantasy Quest

[DragonParadox]

Out of the Dark ​

Thirty Sixth Day of Elnu-Hamba (Elnu Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

Battle is joined in a moment amid the shouts of men men at war and the chants of sorcery called forth. By now your eye is not drawn to the flash of Esha's power and your feet know the way to avoid the threads that Inge lays. No amount of planning can prepare you or anyone else for when Zaia releases his devil's brew, you would swear the flames only grow higher and more hungry by the moment.

Silver does not balk and nor do you, no sooner had the flames parted that you charge right into the thick of the battle, Durendal hewing in wide arcs though the crowd of men. Sword of bronze, haft of wood and limb of flesh all fly about you in the melee as the weapons of your foes fall bruising in their sheer weight but nowhere near enough to slow the pair of you.

You take 6 Damage; Silver takes 3 Damage

"On, on to victory!" you hear Tom call encouragement that mingled with your own. Spears are not meant for a bawl, but armor serves well beside the armored coats of the Anwa warriors. The highborn of the lot marked by the silver in their beards and the tassels on their sandals fall into nets like fresh caught salmon... though their guard fights with a fury renewed.

There you see it out of the corner of your eye, a figure that may have been a man as tall as you once, not hunched and ragged, garbed seemingly in the refuse of the street. A beggar caught in the fight... you think and it is almost the last thought you have as it lunges as you, joints twisting and stretching as no man can. Eyes like dead stars look back at you and in your mind you hear as if in your own voice:

Do you fear death?

Spoiler: Dark Whisperer

It is only when Silver neighs in rage and strikes the black thing in the chest sending it flying, as though it weighs little more than a feather that you realize its claws had found their mark after all, tearing the quilting under the armor and the flesh of your neck all at once.

You take 11 Damage

A javelin almost strikes Inge, another lodges itself in Zaia's foot with a cry from the scholar, but it is Tom who has the worst of it, even as he and Wanderer between them manage to kill one of the axe wielding foes another hooks the spear out of his hands with a blade seemingly made for just that purpose and then the mankin dives in to grasp it and in a swirl of chocking shadows they are gone.

Zaia takes 4 Damage
Tom Lost Spear

Such pretty baubles, such pretty things... the mocking words echo on the air even in the midst of the sounds of war and death, but your ears turn then to Esha who bears news: "Veil!" she shouts and so it might be, but what eyes have you to see though that manner of trickery? Before you can call to her asking where to strike, before you can do more than raise your shield to cast aside another bruising strike Lina finally wakes from her trance and from her hand spins water, as swift as a river falling down the slopes of a river towards the sea, hitting a spot where none seemed to be... only to throw the mankin into the wall of the house nearby with a sound like dry wood breaking.

"You will rue the day you took power by the false iron Queen of Nothing," this time the figure speaks aloud in a voice that reminds you of old leaves crunching underfoot.

What do you do?

[] Write in battle plan

OOC: And done, late but still not a missed day at least. Also one of the disadvantages of not being magically savvy, poor Roland does not know what he is dealing with and so no links for now.

 

[DragonParadox]

Sea's Daughter ​

Thirty Sixth Day of Elnu-Hamba (Elnu Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

It had seemed like such an easy thing in the palaces of pearl where she had walked for a time under the power of the Formless and forgotten, it had been so simple to believe in herself when she was so near the beating heart of a a power older than the gods. Fascination, seduction even one could name it, though Lina knew little of such matters, less than she would have liked. Had they planned this she wondered in that moment of cold fear with the stink of her own death in her nostrils? Was she a pawn in the games of those who saw all living things as patterns to shift and to warp? Was she no more than a toy that had been cast from the mountaintop to see how it would break.

The power was still on her the thrum of blood in her veins moving with the tides... the world was so thin, so fragile. So of course she reached, so she called and the sea answered, a blast of water into the horrid shadow, the thing Unnamed, it would have been called in a tale like she had listened to by the roots of the Hearth Tree... but then what am I? Thief and liar...

The words bit deep even in the midst of battle, she had lied, she had fled, not once but twice, the first time from her mother's kin and the fate she did not want and the second in the company of one who had borne her, breaking her pact with the Formless and claiming her heritage by sorcery and trickery.

Where was Ohun? She wondered, needing to be cleansed in the waters of Ikomi so she could take the seat in the High Hall with honor, or at least so she would know at the last that she was damned.

How much easier it had been to play the monster when she had been in the company of those who knew neither shame nor honor. Mother... Alloy as she had asked to be called had been no less willing to help her see her way to land and to the throne of Lirman than the Faceless had been to help her escape the island.

'There's a surprise waiting for you...' the giggle had been silvery as spring-melt on the mountainside. 'It's a secret.'

Smoke stained skies and bloody streets seemed to mock her with the very thing her ambition had most desired for even as she had not been able to let herself dream of, power. Her father's power, her brother's then. Now her brother was as dead as her father, lost to the sea now she would have to prove that she could do more than dream of it....

Another blast of water, but the shadow thing was already gone and the one who snared her also if one was to trust the pale witch.

"Fey of some kind?" the bearded scholar, Zaia she thought his name was, asked looking around at the carnage. "No friends of your kin I assume?"

Lina could not even tell who her kin even were anymore, yet she had to say something, queens did not sit silent as though struck dumb when asked a question so she nodded.

What do you do next?

[] Try to find Ohun

[] Continue on to the king's hall, it is still burning

[] Try to join up with other parties from the fleet so you can have more warriors at your back

[] Write in

OOC: At the end of the day I could not do the interlude justice without rolling the combat, but I did not focus on that since everyone important ran. BTW you can split up if you want.

 

[DragonParadox]

Queen's Path ​

Thirty Sixth Day of Elnu-Hamba (Elnu Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

Had the circumstances been less dire you might have stopped a moment to tease Tom over the flurry of curses he is tossing over the loss of his spear. Never a man to get too cozy with one weapon was Tom... but then this was no common weapon, but one that has lain a dragon. To be honest you are just glad that everyone came out of the fight alive.

"What in the devil was that?" a question you had found yourself asking far too many times of late

"Not all that is fey is of the sea and not all that seems of the Faceless is their get," Lina replied as the whole company moved away from the battle, taking with you only such small things as might identify the foe, now was not the time to look for spoils. "I think I fear that Ohun may have made even more of a mess than with... mother."

The way she says the word, still with a stutter on her lips makes you wonder if she believes it, it makes you wonder how the fey of the sea even play into this whole affair. Ah... how much easier it had been when you only had to contend yourself with the affairs of men and not spirits, you think, though given the obstinate character of the Anwa perhaps they would have been at war even so.

To rule in these lands is to have the respect of the highborn houses, but to be lord of one of those is to have the respect of the warriors so how then might an old man, or some fiend playing the part of an old man have gained and held the king's high hall.

As you look into the sky stained black with smoke and red with the tops of flames like spears fresh from the forge men gather on the shore and news finally reaches you on the lips of an exhausted rider of the Teranoa: "It's the spirits, the spirits have gone mad, they say we've broken faith with the Lonely Ones, they want... they want their land back, saying we lost the king and raised to kingship a despoiler of root and branch."

That Which Once was Shall Come Again
The Gift that has been Given was Lost ​

These words you do not hear with your ears, nor even in the mind echoing, you simply know them, as though you had just remembered them, though you have never heard their like before.

"I begin to wonder what bargains Ohun made when he called aid against the daemons and their ilk?" Esha's words, almost shockingly calm break the silence even as more and more armed men, though so far no lords crowd close , drawn by the sight of Silver to the company's aid.

"No... mother not like this," Lina half whispers in horror. "She said that I could be queen, but I would not be beholden to the petty trials and concerns of mortals, that I would rule as I was meant to my my own true nature."

"An immortal queen of a kingdom of ash..." Zaia at least says these words in Sicilian and not in Anwari, but still you throw him a dark look. It is clear to your eyes that the girl did not mean this to be, that the chaos had been born of the death of Ansefu... who had probably been killed by her mother to set off this very strife.

"We have to get the lady Lina to the palace, remove Alum while we still can and then make peace with the fey," you proclaim, but before you can lay out the plan in any more detail, before you can even think of that that might be the ground moves under your feet, near strong enough to toss you onto the cobbles and a great plume of dust rises where the fire had been.

The king's hall and his hearth tree was no more.

"I... I have to go... I have to stop this," Lina says, but she is not looking to the land but to the sea, perhaps hoping that she would be able to sway her mother to help and help she might, but if she is to be queen she will be needed here and seeing to her people. Mighty might the fey be, but you have not forgotten that every time you faced them they have used trickery and deception.

A city of thousands does not vanish from a fire and strange echoes in the mind... but it might just descent into utter chaos if someone does not take the reigns.

What do you counsel Lina?

[] Take the path of the sea, find out what is happening with the fey, while you try to keep order in the city

[] Take the path of the land, the people need their queen

[] Write in

OOC: And done. I keep telling myself I will finish these earlier and end up chasing midnight and later anyway.

 

[DragonParadox]

A Dash and a Duel ​

Thirty Sixth Day of Elnu-Hamba (Elnu Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

Though you had seen already a city at war that was as nothing beside the chaos which gripped Apuku. You see men armed each with such crude weapons as could be gathered in the moment, clubs and stones, knives and hammers and the tools of various craft all join with the company of the young queen, a motley coterie though not one that goes unopposed. From the high windows and down the low streets chaos has come to Apuku and spirit or no it will not be lightly put back John is scorched by a pot of boiling water cast down from on high and you can only thank God that it was not oil, by the time Inge healed him it was too late to try to force yourself through the throng trying to make its way into the house.

Don't think of what they are after, don't think of it... Perhaps you are a coward, but the sight of a city on the edge of chaos, on the edge of sacking terrifies you in a way that has little to do with any fear of life and limb. If you do not get some semblance of order soon every man with a blade will think he can take his heart's desire and black are the hearts of men on such days as this.

Fires spread all around you, sometimes from the sparks among the sparks among the high roofs and the branches of the hearth trees, but mostly from the malice that would make a weapon of it. More than once it had fallen to Inge to stem the flames and stem the chaos. Few would deny a priestess of Ikomi even in such times once her power is shown. Perhaps especially in such days...

For her part Lina makes no claim to the favor of the Lady of the Deep and when she conjures water it is as much a weapon as a means of stemming the flames. It is when she knocks a man of the Iranea, a full-blooded son of the House, from his feet and into the gutter with the rest of the shit of the city that the lords who had come with you from Korman start to see her with other eyes and so they mark it. armed men with shields of boiled leather make for far surer passage though the narrow streets than just the mob hardened only by you and the men of the Fellowship as the point of the spear.

"On! On lads!" you shout, already horse from all the calls and challenges you had been giving... and never mind that some of these lads were of an age with your father.

So you make it until you come to an intersection before the Ekeshe market, the most lively, but also the most noisome in the city. The bleating of goats is in the air mingling with the grunts and grumblings of men who had not all the benefit of a healer and the scent of blood is not only of the slaughtering of beasts born to the fate, but of men and women who could have lived longer under the sun.

War is not the battle of banners clear upon the field, it is the hour when men are unsealed to every feud and petty gripe then may have had with neighbors, with kith and kin. No war is more dreadful than that between kin, you think as you lay eyes on Pokum, captain of the king's House... the dead king's house.

He calls out to the crowd and to the warriors to come under his banner and slay the traitors, seeming almost to let his gaze slip off Lina altogether. This is a man who would be king and you are not the only one who sees it. "As you followed my brother so I ask now that you follow me, the branches may now be gone, but from the old roots a new tree shall arise..." so starts the princess, but Pokum laughs

"You who abandoned the house of your fathers now ask for loyalty in its name, loyalty writ upon its ashes?" The man shakes his head, rings of every sort and metal clinking. "No... I shall not see this kingdom given to another sort of Lonely Spirit's get, just because she managed to steal the king's seed and birth of it a girl-child."

"Child!" rage flares in Lina's cheeks, bright as red flame. "Should you seek a challenge goodman then ask for it and to not cast these poisoned words into the air. As the Beastslayer did so shall I and thou shall prove a far lesser threat on the path to those who would bring ruin to the land of Lirman."

What do you do?

[] Let the challenge go ahead, it is clear Lina has some power of sorcery

[] Offer yourself as champion instead, sorceress or not you have seen too much of magicians falling to blades

[] Try to negotiate a peaceful resolution
-[] Write in

[] Write in

OOC: Still way too late, but at least I am stating to write these earlier. One of these days it will be early enough for two updates.

 

[DragonParadox]

Of Broken Oaths ​

Thirty Sixth Day of Elnu-Hamba (Elnu Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

"Did we sail so far and fight side by side only to spill each other's blood on the shores of home?" you ask, the words neither wholly a rebuke, nor wholly pleading but something in between than you hope might ring true if not in the ears of the ambitious Pokum than at least in those of his fellows. "There is war in the land and the voice of ruin in the air and here we are squabbling over the treasure already alight before our eyes.

"What do you know of this land and its laws traveler?" the warrior speaks with the cruel doubt kin to mockery poorly hidden. To sail far is not without honor in the Anwa way of seeing thing, but it is the path of the young, the inexperienced not of those who would rule over clan and land.

"To my misfortune this is not the first time I have seen with mine own eyes the war of brother against brother and aye this I know, no matter the land and no matter the prize you stand to gain it is not worth the cost, all the less so when there are foes at the gates..." you motion beyond the market to the pillar of smoke that still hangs over the center of the city, like a charred finger, accusing all in its shadow.

"Your words are fair, though I wonder if you know in whose service they are spoken. One who swims in dark waters, one who calls their power unhallowed..." He turns to his fellows, in the doing exposing his back to half a dozen different bows, whether bravery or folly you cannot say. "How did King Ansefu perish? Drowned, lost to the sea. she too has gone under the sea, but she was not lost, the waters opened themselves to her. How else did they serve you my lady?"

The words land, heavy as stones against Lina's cheek... and you are strangely glad to see the horror it evokes there. You had not been beyond wondering, beyond suspecting her of some part in the deed.

Perhaps it is that moment of relief that keeps you from speaking before her, the words that would seal her path. "Son of poxed lizard, say what you mean for here I will do so. I had no hand in the death of my bother, but you in your haste to become king with no claim of blood or deed, you I think craven and cunning enough to have pushed overboard that night!"

I know you are but what am I, you are suddenly reminded of the childish game of turning an accusation back on the one who spoke it. Had it not been for the gravity of the hour you might have laughed. Instead you look to Inge who shakes her head gravely, now that had been said in so many words there could be no talk of champions, not for the spilling of kin blood. Only one of the House of Osane could see the deed done.

You curse under your breath and slam your hand into the hilt of your blade, sending the palm of steel that you had already drawn ringing back into its sheath.

And it is in that moment that a most unlikely of voices speaks in your mind with a suggestion even even odder: "She could adopt you into the House, she is the last of the line right?" Swift Pebble says. Part of you wonders when she had been learning Anwa customs, but you do not have long to ponder that. "Do you want me to ask her?"

What do you reply?

[] No, you cannot take on such a responsibility, much less ask it of Lina

[] Yes, if it's mad and it works than it is not mad, you can deal with the details later, what matters now is not to see Lina dead on the point of a spear... and a man who is unlikely to be favorable to you made king

OOC: A bit of a roller coaster to write, but a fun one.

 

[DragonParadox]

Pride and Peril ​

Thirty Sixth Day of Elnu-Hamba (Elnu Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

For a moment, for a flash you are tempted, but something holds back the thought before you can push it outwards to Swift Pebble... and in a way it is Swift Pebble herself, it is the men to either side of you, willing no doubt to find and to die for you if they are called to. Yet you cannot ask of them to die for a royal prince of Lirman, the very notion sounds like a jape, if a black and bitter one. That is what it might come to it if you take the step and so you are silent... and so you are still. But that does not mean you can give no aid. No fair duel is this, that one armed and armored for war should face one who has naught but fickle sorcery for a weapon and no armor but cloth. Ward her if you can, you bid Esha by Swift Pebble's aid.

The sorceress starts, though you doubt anyone who does not know her well would have noticed the tensing of her shoulders. She quickly reaches out into a pouch for something, a dagger to hand to Lina, not for the sake of the weapon itself, but because it gives her a chance to touch her.

"A duelist aught to be armed..." she starts, speaking loudly and with purpose, like a thief at fair day trying to keep eyes off his fingers you realize.

Alas Pohum has sharper eyes than you might have hoped "What's that there? Bad enough that I have to spill the blood of a sea witch without corpse witchery!"

"Craven son of a tail eater, too scared to fight a woman with a blade bigger than your cock!" Lina mocks

You are not sure what it says of the crowd that had gathered that this is what gets the biggest cheer but no matter what the onlookers may think of language unbecoming of a princess that is a challenge Pokum cannot bear. He lunges, axe in hand even as Inge calls out the invocation of Ikomi in such haste the words almost trip over one another.

Yet no sooner had he made his first step that mist, rises from the very cobbles of the square.. not cold like Inge's magic, but so hot you can almost feel it scald your skin even six feet away. There is no almost about Pokum's fate... part of you wishes the mist were thinker so that you could not see his skin redden and start to peel as a cry of rage turns into one of agony.

Alas it does not stop the fall of his axe and no matter how skilled Lina is with her words and whatever powers she may wield it is clear as day that she is no warrior....

"Get the fuck out of there girl!" Tom shouts in English, as helpless as you.

Though Lina may not have understood the call she knows to follow it, diving under the blade and as it whistles over her head conjuring a pillar of water to blast his back into the wall of the nearest shop.

Rising to his feet the warrior does not charge again but draws from a hidden pouch under his chest a dart of bronze that shines in the fel light like blood and he tosses it at his foe. Had the day been clear with no veil between them he might have impaled Lina right through the heart, but the steam of her conjuring guards her.

Another blast of scalding steam... and this one finds its mark blowing the feathered helm off the warrior's face, to show a face that is red with rage and with heat, boiling alive as he fights. He curses Lina and he curses his own men, he curses you for watching and Ohun for his ill fated journey, but between the vitriol he can still bring a potion to his lips... only to see it shatter in a living wave of water.

"Still haven't touched me oh great king!" she taunts.

You do not know what malice or ill will gives him the strength, but in that moment the warrior throws not a dagger, but the heavy axe at his size... and this time it flies true. Neither conjured steam not armor of sorcery bar its way and Lina was surely not looking for it. You hear her scream and in the next moment she is clutching her left arm... the stump of her right arm.

Water forms in her left hand the and with one final desperate shove strikes Pokum in the face sending him sprawling.... not dead but unconscious. Lina does not outlast him my more than a heartbeat, the pain of her lost hand too much to bear.

What do you do?

[] Press on to the King's Hall
-[] Write in who you leave as guards

[] Protect Lina first of all

[] Try to take Pokum prisoner, he did lose the duel, but you doubt he would live by that once he wakes and is healed

[] Write in

OOC: The part with swallowing his own tail in the insult was Lina calling Pokum inbred, since this is not a culture where being a bastard or of uncertain heritage is that stigmatized, many of the great heroes of the Anwa were bastards with nothing but their boats and their wits, on the other hand sleeping with your cousins is seem at least among the highborn as a sign of failure and being unable to find prestige on the wide sea. I thought about putting all this in the update from Roland's PoV but it rather broke the flow.

 

[DragonParadox]

Of Blasphemy and Blaze ​

Thirty Sixth Day of Elnu-Hamba (Elnu Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

There is a part of you, and it is not a small part that would curse the lot of them for blind fools, to duel over a crown like dogs with a bloody bone while the realm is in peril. To come from war into a port you had thought safe and find instead some plot blooming into malice and men who had fought side by side with you now lying, bleeding in the dirt alongside the woman who by any measured judgement should be queen... It reminds you too much of a war you now regret.

"And there you have it, Lina Osane has narrowly defeated her challenger. She can decide his fate at her convenience. Now that this matter has been settled for the time being, perhaps we can see about preventing the traitors and spirits from destroying the city?" Your voice is even as you pass your gaze over the still gawking crowd. You are not the young knight who had followed along blindly in the footsteps of the greater barons. This time you will see the war though to more than a shameful peace, the battle done for more than a bucket-full of blood.

"Who the bloody fu..."

"I am Roland de Verley, captain by grace of god and pledges willingly made of the Company of Saint Nicholas!" you shout back before the bastard can get more wind in his sails, or the fellow who had been standing beside him gets to Pokum with the all too familiar horn of healing.

You nod to Mark and George, saying in English: "Take him...."

Though heavy words aplenty are spoken, enough to to have gained a whole new slew of curse words even after going to war in the company of Anwa ships it seems the crowd isn't quite willing to walk under arrows or to step forth under Durendal's fel light. God only knows if anything can be done about the arm, though from the look on Zaia's face you would not make any wager for it...

You never see the man raise the throwing spear, though you hear him drop with with a wail as Esha slaps him on the chest. "And the eyes of treason shall be blind!"

From the way the men around her recoil you guess the words have some greater meaning, a curse of the gods for those without honor... though in this hour it was no divine power that had seen it done. Inge looks uneasy in her own skin but does not speak up. Cowed by the show of power and fearful of impiety about half the warriors start to leave towards the north down the narrow alleys, but others seemingly decide then and there to throw their lot in with Lina and her cause.

"Paid for in flesh and blood..." the words are faint and far away as Lina rises from the ground beside Zaia, the ragged red of the stump had been covered with new skin as though it had weeks or months to heal. You know of men who would have counted that a miracle.... and you know just as well that it would be called a tragedy by those who had to bear it.

You would not have been surprised to hear her doubt her path, to turn aside, for a time perhaps forever from the ambition that had already cost her so much, but Lina Osane does nothing of the sort. Water conjured from the air floats around the palm of her left hand and with that hand she bids you follow.

As you advance the smoke grows thicker and the cries of of the deposessed ring in your ears as in the midst of war and as in those times you see scenes of grace and scenes of wickedness. Where some are moved to rush in to do all they can to put out the blazes or to save those caught within, be they children, elders or in one case a heavy coated dog of the sort that would be more at home herding goats than living in a city others take the chance to loot and to pillage. It is as you make an end to one of those sons of birches my means of an arrow in the knee that something moves among the flames, small and swift and cackling-bold, barely seen out of the corner of your eye, Yet you certainly do not miss the miasma of thick black smoke that rises from what had a moment before been low flames

All Spearmen except Tom take -4 to STR and DEX

"Fire Starters," the thought is shoved in your mind so fast it is almost dizzying, along with it the concepts that might have come to Swift Pebble from Zaia or from Esha you do not ask which... it does not matter. Two things are clear as day, these spirits rarely come along, no more than a tongue of fame rises alone from oil soaked kindling and they are craven, petty things who would not fight without the call of some greater master. No mere blooming of the chaos of the city this, but an ambush.

What do you do?

[] Try to put out the fire that is giving the petty fey cover

[] Keep an eye out for the hammer sure to come, you cannot let the flames distract you

[] Retreat, if this is indeed an ambush you do not wish to fight on the foe's chosen ground

[] Write in

OOC: And done, this is getting easier to get down in relatively good time again. Hope you guys enjoy.

 

[DragonParadox]

The Broken Chain ​

Thirty Sixth Day of Elnu-Hamba (Elnu Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

"Stay out of the smoke! Don't walk too close!" you shout over the din as men struggle to keep their feet, stumbling and reeking. Good advice mayhap, but hard to take when the street is only wide enough for four or five to walk abreast no mater how good friends they might be. Given the choice to fall behind among the press of the crowd or et Aubert, Peter and Jean fend for themselves you motion to Silver to slow. Some of the folk in the crowd look to Inge with almost accusing eyes, they see her as the herald of Ikomi first and last, not as a member some foreign fellowship.

Where is Ohun? you wonder not for the first time, but in this chaos what hope is there that he could find you even if he is able to come.

Suddenly the air rings with a sound like thunder in your ears, like the howls of beasts and the screams of dying men, stones start flying out of the fire and up ahead you hear men shout something about snakes of all damned things.

" T's snakes," Inge calls out. "I can see the magic, it's ropes..."

That does not prove much better as dozens of braided ropes wrap themselves around the warriors of Lina's company, as the flames and the smoke only grow. Men that had been ready to march to the hall just a few moments ago with drum of war and flute of peace now start to turn tail.

There's no room, you realize with mounting horror, there's no bloody room and dozens, scores of armed men trying to turn back and run from a foe they cannot see. "Hold! Hold! Men of Lirman hold your hearts!"

As if in answer to your words the shadows seem to sway and twist, spindly thinning on too many legs, gaping maws with too many fangs, eyes of embers, form of smoke and shadow begotten of the nightmares of men.

"Glamor and trickery!" you hear Zaia shout as he casts a vial of fire onto the cobbles and by its baleful might, gold as the new risen sun beside the smoldering flames you see them.

As children they seem at first, pale and wrapped in dark rags as they look out from the roofs of the nearer house, save only for their eyes. No child ever had eyes like that, cold and empty and black as polished stones. You glimpse them only for a moment and then in a shimmer of the hot air they are gone and in their place stands something you had never thought to see under the light of day nor ever wished to, great spiders as large as a man is tall scampering down the pitted stone wall.

"Shadow spinners..." the thought is comes not from any of your companions, but from the familiar weight of the blade you had already drawn, it does not hunger for battle as it had against the daemons, but seems instead to hold these foes in contempt, as the lion does the mouse that scampers over the field. Alas your company hears none of this... see none of this, all they bear witness to is the city of their birth turned foreign and fel, the above of spirits come down out of the hills and out of the woods to take back the city of the stone houses.

Stones are thrown and those men who had been wrapped in rope scream as if they had been bitten by snakes. It was all that you could do to keep your own men from falling pray to the trickery. Mayhap that would have been the end of 'Queen Lina' had it not been for the words of the woman herself.

"Come out then!" she shouts, and the roar of the sea is in her voice as the touch of the waves is in her hand. "Come out and face me if you would claim this land and do not seek to drive us like the hunter drives out his pray with hounds from the bush." And lo, there is a stillness on the air that just for a moment as if the elements held their breath and then out of the walk half a dozen men...or at least beings that are more like men than most of the fey, short in stature, such that they came up only to the chest of a full grown man, but with rich and heavy beards all adorned with rings and chains in the manner of the Anwa. Their eyes are wild as the shadows of the deep woods, and their limbs gnarled like old tree toots...

"The line of kings is failed girl," the one in the lead says. "Go back to the sea and come this way no more, for we will take back what is ours..."

"Yours?" Lina laughs and the sound is sharp as broken glass, filled with sorrow and with rage. "Look around you and see the work of men's hands. Do you think they are going to give that up because you asked them to? Do you think they will all let their children starve in the wilds because you scared them with shadows? If not I then there will be another and another... they will have not the blood, but they will have that which the blood was born of, the will to take land and live and see their children live under green leaf and red branch. I do not know what pact you made, nor which you count fulfilled, but men will keep coming back. We are not bound in word and deed and we will fight!"

The more she speaks the more the men around her take heart. with voice and with spear on shield banging. Some of those who had called her powers blasphemy not so long ago now had changed their tune as from midnight to morn.

"Your kin took the island from the old one because your gonefathers slew the beasts and drove back those that wanted the land to be wild and dark between sea and star and only those that made a bargain with him and his stayed of the Lonely Folk. So said he that he was mighty and we were weak and so he would rule for as long as he could keep the peace of the land and we would have no choice in the doing. So said we of the fields and of the mountains..." A chill runs down your spine as you can feel more than see a thousand pinpricks, a thousand times again all looking down at you... at Lina out of the dark.

Tis more than mortals bearing witness, that much is sure.

"So we made the bargain and sealed it in blood and sap, so long as the line of kings was strong and unbroken we would not take back what was ours, but lo we have been asked for aid against that which the kings could not fight and then the king was lost, though no artifice of ours so we take back what is ours..."

"Lost?" Lina cuts in wide eyed. "Lost not dead?" Then her face darkens like the sun when dark clouds coming. "She took him, she took him and she lied!"

"I should not... I should not have said that...." the little man shoot in his boots, like leaf on the wind save that leaves don't jangle with gold.

Most of the folk here present likely did not understand what Lina meant, no one who had not been on the journey, perhaps no one who had no swam in the dark waters could have known at once... but you did and you do know, or guess at least. Lina's mother had taken King Ansefu captive, she had not killed him, and in so doing made him 'weak' in a way that mere death could not do. Kings died every few decades... but how many were found under the sea?

What do you do?

[] Try to negotiate some kind of a settlement, at least enough that the city will not descend into utter chaos
-[] Write in proposed terms

[] Point out that the sea fey had tricked everyone present, the spirits of the land to fight men and even her own daughter into thinking her brother was killed

[] Write in

OOC: Well this took a lot longer to write than I would have liked. In my defense it is kind of the culmination of the arc as well as an almost battle in the streets so I was juggling sheets as much as narrative, though the latter were not as relevant in the end.

 

[DragonParadox]

The Lady Fair ​

Thirty Sixth Day of Elnu-Hamba (Elnu Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

The tale of conquest is old as the hills, before the Norman came the Saxon had ruled in England, who had thrown the heathen Norsemen into the sea... but before even he had been the Roman whose ruins white as bone still rises from wooded hills and before him the Bryton, those stubborn folk who still dwell in the western lands. Who did the speartips belong to that farmers still turn over with their plows? What wars had they been borne in before they lay down in the dirt to be found by careless strangers?

"What do you think will happen once your will here is done? That when you will have driven the last man into the sea no others will come, for vengeance, for land, for the future of their children and the graves of their fathers?" your words ring out not with anger, to your surprise not even with defiance, but with sorrow. "Lo, this i your hour and perhaps in this place and in this moment you can prevail by the machinations of the bitter sea, but what shall be when other kindreds of the Anwa come to this island with fire and sword as they have brought to the shores of Korman?"

Anger grows in the shadows like the whispers of growing flames, like the rustle of the wind though dead grass, but none speak, even the mortal watchers spellbound... or mayhap shocked still at the news that their young king might yet live. You send a quick prayer not for a tongue of silver, but of fire for only such light would keep war from the door this late in the day .

"A man alone will act by his own judgement and yo you we may seem dreadfully fickle, but take many of us together under a king or banner and it does not take a prophet to judge what we shall seek. You come here with spells and dread and powers arcane, to you I say beware, not be me and mine for we are strangers here, but of all those whom the tide will bring."

"She... she will keep them away, you cannot travel over the unshackled seas..." one of the spirits jeers, though voice and shadow alive shake in the speaking.

"You count upon a liar and s cheat to keep you safe in times of peril," Lina's voice is faint and far away, but you would swear than in her eyes shine tears. Not born of smoke or even pain of a lost arm those... "I will make a new bargain, a batter bargain, sealed in blood and oaths to be a true friend to those who are friends of ours and foes to those who lie... be they by words clear spoken or in cunning guise. If you wish for honor for truth then do not seek it in splitting meanings and sculpting words. My mother said that I was fated for life unbending at her side, that the blood in my veins would compel it as the warblers come in the spring to make their nests, but if I must be spirit than it will not be at the right of her throne, another prize that he had claimed from the shore, like a bauble shining in the sand. As by brother shall be returned to the throne of our gonefathers so I shall be beside him and his sons and their sons after them to advise in matter of spirits and be sure that your voice is never silenced by the clenched fist of a conqueror. This I vow to try to be best of my powers. More I cannot do."

And with that Lina Osane bows her head, he pride of the line of kings humbled. For a moment you fear that the fey of dark and wild places should take the chance t strike like wolves on a wounded doe or even that those who had taken to her cause should not renege it at the show of weakness.

Yet nothing of that happens, there is no battle and no bloodshed... the fey fade back into the shadows saying neither yeah nor nay... and the way to the king's hall is open, though it had been paid with a mighty oath.

What does Roland think of the vow that Lina made?

[] It is a noble one and you shall do what you can to help her fulfill it

[] It was a foolish thing, you would rather draw the Fellowship from this place now so that you can return to Orinilu without the sea turning against you

[] Write in

OOC: And here we are, what might be the last significant vote of the arc, it has bee a while, but hopefully it has some weight.

 

[DragonParadox]

In a Place that Isn't There ​

Thirty Sixth Day of Elnu-Hamba (Elnu Descendent), 1349 A. L. (After Landfall)

A noble vow, a nobler heart than most of the lords you have served, but nobility alone cannot sway you, not when the wide sea waits and in it perils you can scarce fight with a blade. "On, on to the hall of the king!" you call and you feel yourself a charlatan for knowing you will walk no step farther than that. Perhaps if fate is kind and Ohun still among the living there will come a time when they can recover Ansefu from the depths, but you will not be here that day, another vow calls you... a tower of stone far to the west and north.

Thus it is with sure steps and uncertain will that you make your way beyond the burning corridor, deeper into the city, where other darker things lurk. You do not feet the darkling fey, the snatchers and the bloody handed, you do not even fear those among your company who until a few breaths ago were traitors to Lina's cause, for you have been such a man before, no what you fear the most is a task left undone and to the vagaries of fate unwound. Perhaps it is pride speaking, you think as blade in hand you run our eyes across the broken stones in search of foes and skulkers. You have faced by the scores spirits that were once the stuff of ancient parable and each time you have come out the victor, parting ways with allies if not yet on their feet than at least with them rising from their knees.

It hurts to see the city aflame and its people milling about in fear and rage, knowing not who to turn to... this is the place you have first found safe harbor, perhaps that girl trying to hastily pack up a market stall to the sound of clanking pots and jangling beads was one of those who first watched the coming of the strangers from 'far Normandy' all those months ago, perhaps that smith dazed ad bearing a bloody hammer had been one of those who helped to shoe the horses of the company despite never having known their like...

When you come at last to the king's hall and find... it is no more, as though the hand of some giant had plucked it up and devoured it, from foundations to its roof.

"I'Sakar," you hear Esha murmur in a tongue you know not and you feel a cold wind at the back of your neck as though someone had stepped on your grave the old men would say and the priest would scoff, but there are no priests here, none save Inge who translates, her voice grave beyond her years: "Unmaking, it's like the place fell into the Otherlands, look at the ground, no mark of men's hands and those rocks weren't there before, but they look like they've been there a long time..."

"So I hear that I'm not getting my spear back," Tom's words come into the dead silence almost shocking you into a most ill timed laugh.

"We will rebuild, we will make a better city, a fairer city... and we will being back the rightful king," Lina vows again, but before the hollow at the heart of the city, it rings more of ambition than truth. There is no one to fight, not here, no scion of the Iranea, no fey thief... just the chaos of a broken city

What do you do next?

[] Investigate the strange fey who stole Tom's spear, you do have contacts among the local fey

[] Try to hire on tradesmen for Wayfarer's Rest, if ever there was a time for even a solid craftsman to pull up stakes and move across the wise seas this is it
-[] Write in what you are looking for

[] Seek out bargains at the market

[] Lina wants your help in finding Ohun, perhaps you can do her one last favor

[] Write in

OOC: Each one of these will take three days to attempt, you can take as many as you like.