GM NOTE: Time To Speed It Up A Smidge
Accursed Albion 5
"We will not force them if they refuse," Magnus said after a moment with an explosive exhale.
"All I ask is the chance," Carlotta bowed her head to him, her wet hair and the vines woven throughout dangled with the motion.
"Very well. Let us go, then," Magnus sighed before sticking his head back into the room. "Reinhardt? Mena? We're going to talk to Mardudd."
"Right," Mena nodded and stood up with a slap on her thighs. "I'll come with."
"Do you want me to come?" Reinhardt asked, looking between the two.
"Might as well," Magnus nodded.
"Okay."
The Fimir clearly required less lighting than human eyes, and much effort on the part of the Albionese had been spent in putting up torches in the passages between the larger intersections within the piled stone castle the Fimir had crafted. Nevertheless, despite the scale of the place, it was not difficult to find where the Albionese had set themselves up. After all, it was not necessarily impossible that one or two of the Fimir had hidden themselves away in the shadows, and all moved about solely in groups. As such, the Albionese and Imperials both had made sure to concentrate where they had taken up residence. There was a distinct foul smell to the air, but not one that was so awful as to repulse them from the castle entirely, but it did seem to go away in the pockets where the humans concentrated themselves. Which happened to include Mardudd and the impromptu council he was holding, the sound of laughter and the odd Ablish language flowing this way and that emanating out of a large taken hall with bright lights illuminating much of the corridor.
"Hail, Magnus," an Albionese noble said as they stood guard by the open passageway, the Fimir seemingly uncaring about actual doors. "Mardudd in talks. News?"
"Uh…discussion," Magnus said after a moment's hesitation. "I need to speak with Mardudd."
The noble pursed his lips and then shrugged.
"Okay," he waved them in.
On the other side, Mardudd and what looked like fifty of the highest nobles of the clan present had arranged themselves around an enormous slab of stone which might have been a Fimir-scale table before the legs got hacked down. Now it sat at a more comfortable human height, men and women dressed in kilts or for some even less luxuriating upon partially shaped stone in haphazard formation as a number of large fires burnt along the length of the table. It was not quite a feast, given the actual provisions on hand, but there was certainly a good amount available. At the head of them all, one-armed and smiling, was Mardudd. The Druids Lear and Iona were in a darkened corner nearby muttering with one another. Their arrival was easily noticeable, and Magnus' small party was received with a great series of joyous calls and smiles, though Carlotta seemed to get the least of any of it.
"Ah, Magnus! Welcome, welcome!" Marudd waved them over, wobbling where he sat as he unbalanced himself for a moment before he resettled.
He might have been conscious with the aid of the Druids, but he certainly was not used to simply lacking an arm.
"Night grows long, Empire man, should be getting ready to rest, eh?" The Chieftain said as they approached.
"True enough, Mardudd," Magnus said with a bit of forced cheer in his voice. "Still, I did want to bring up one thing before then?"
Mardudd opened his mouth for a moment before he glanced to Carlotta just behind Magnus, and the smile on his face curved downwards minutely.
"Oh, yeah? What about?" He said without moving from his seat.
"I don't know if you were ever properly introduced, but this," Magnus gestured to the Jade Wizard, "But this woman is Carlotta. She is a Jade Wizard Magister. A…master, of her magic."
"Caught name. Did not know master, eh," Mardudd said as he now scrutinized the woman. "Okay…?"
"I bring you a request on her behalf," Magnus said rapidly, trying to tear the bandage off as swift as possible. "Carlotta wishes to aid your many wounded, to save not just bodies, but lives."
The response was immediate, as both Lear and Iona tore out of their corner to begin ranting in Albish at Mardudd, gesticulating at Carlotta then at Magnus. Marudd weathered it, leaning his head away from them ever so slightly from the volume. The conversations from the rest of the assembled nobles immediately died out in the aftermath of their shouting, meals and drink forgotten. Carlotta simply placed her hands atop one another at her waist, while Mena dragged an untouched stone platter of smoked meat towards herself and began munching quietly on it.
"The Druids, they say I should say no to this," Mardudd said seriously after the Druids had stopped talking in favor of glaring venomously at Carlotta, the Chieftain narrowing his eyes as well. "They say your 'wizards', their ways are strange, confusing. Dangerous. No control – the most dangerous thing of all."
"Begging your pardon, Chieftain Mardudd, but while a lack of control is indeed dangerous," Carlotta began with her chin raised up, "I have already used my magics to help heal Prince Hohenzollern's troops. When we first arrived we were bewildered, confused, and out of sorts."
And extremely hungover, it went without saying.
"But no longer. The Winds blow strong, but I
am a Magister. My control is strained, but not
lacking."
The Druids clearly did not understand much of what she was saying, going by how they began talking at Mardudd once more, causing the Chieftain to point at Carlotta and then at Magnus. Which, in turn, caused another round of rapid-fire Albish between the three that ended when Mardudd raised a hand that silenced both Lear and Iona.
"This is something that can be confirmed, eh," Mardudd nodded before cupping his chin in his one remaining hand. "Let me tell you story, eh? Aberfa!"
"Aye," the Chieftain's daughter said before she stood upright and then shoved the large stone column she'd been sitting on over. "Sit, Empire, ey? Be comfortable," she said before placing both of her hands on Reinhardt's shoulders and patting him on them once he'd gotten seated.
And then stood directly behind the Ostermarker, her arms crossed.
"Skin-takers, knife-ears, eh? Druchii, your people save me from them," Mardudd said, gesturing with his hand between himself and Magnus. "Their dark druids, they try to take the Ogham when they discover them. Want the power. Don't know how, eh? Die. Badly. Tear up their troops too. Happen more than once."
Magnus made to speak before the Chieftain raised his hand again.
"Not calling your wizard Druchii, eh? Explaining. Old days, before Boudicca, greenskin shamans try to command Ogham. Much danger. Death. Destruction. Bad for them, bad for us."
"There are greenskins in Albion?" Mena asked after swallowing another bite of meat.
"Not since Boudicca," Mardudd grinned toothily as other nearby nobles pounded heartily upon the stone with the flats of their hands or their crude metal cups. "First, the beasts," he raised one finger. "Then, the greenskins," he raised his second finger. "Then…the Fimir," he then lowered those three fingers into a tightly clenched fist before he cupped his chin again. "Ach, don't distract me, eh? Anyway," he huffed, "Bad. Every time, bad. Let outsiders near Ogham for too long, forbidden. Only the Xokh can declare otherwise. Touch? Worse. Has happened before."
"I am not intending to use the Ogham in any manner," Carlotta insisted. "Merely my own magic."
"Mmm," Mardudd grunted. "Druids," he waved at Lear and Iona, "Worry. When Druids worry, we listen, eh?"
Magnus closed his eyes for a moment as Carlotta debated the Chieftain, and through him, the Druids.
"What if we could prove it was viable?" Magnus said, interrupting all four.
"Eh?"
"Not on you. On me," Magnus stood as he spoke. "Mena?"
"Mmm?" The Nordlander said as she slightly choked on some meat, thumping at her chest. "Yeah?"
"Break my hand, please," he said as he offered his left hand out to her, flat against the table.
"Okay."
It was the last thing said by anyone present before Mena reared back the arm still wearing
Flammenfaust and then slammed down the enchanted gauntlet, knuckles first, directly atop Magnus' hand. All present heard the horrendous crunch and snap of bone and gristle, blood spurting a short distance outwards in many directions. Many of the Albionese jerked where they sat, some standing upright, hands falling to belt knives and the like. The Druids seemed just as shocked, while Mardudd's eyes had widened as far as they could physically go. Magnus, for his part, focused on the literal hundreds of spars, of sessions, spent in withstanding tremendous amounts of pain. Of combat, tactics, and more, against methods mundane and magical, in the blood-soaked courtyard of his home.
And did not even blink.
"That good?" Mena asked nonchalantly even as she pulled back her arm, the knuckles having actually cracked the table itself.
"Perfect," Magnus said calmly before holding up his hand, the blood now trickling down his arm. "Carlotta?"
"Of course, Prince Hohenzollern," she said, her own voice as unfettered as Mena's, possibly even more so given her own experiences at Castle Wulfenburg.
Dexterous but calloused green hands wrapped around his own. The Druids and Mardudd were still too shocked to react before Carlotta inhaled deeply and then began to channel.
(Ogham Effects: 1d6=3! Stable)
(Earthblood: 36+Healing Specialist(15)+Magister(10)+Stable Winds(5)=66/100)
Then, in front of them all, greenery bloomed out of the many impacted crevices within Magnus' hand and wrist. From within the pulped mass of bone, tendon, and muscle the tendrils of miniscule vines reached out and connected with one another. A warm green glow surrounded the entire hand as the wound was mended. It was not particularly fast, but neither was it slow and stuttering in its progress. In the end, by the time the spell finished, it was as if the wound had never been save for some faint white scars on the top of the hand where Mena's knuckles had first impacted before driving through to the table beneath.
"Back home," Reinhardt spoke up, calmly sipping from a water flask on his belt, "Magister Carlotta is one of the most experienced and dedicated healers of the Jade College. She is regarded as such by the Wizard Lord Wolfgang due to her intensive focus after many years of service to the House Hohenzollern."
"I get it. Foreign magic. It's weird, it's scary," Mena added as she shook her hand out and splattered some of Magnus' blood onto the ground. "But they're exceedingly well trained."
"I would not be opposed to having the Druids watch over my efforts, ready to step in at a moment's notice, should they wish. I would abide by such a thing," Carlotta said as she withdrew her hands and lifted her chin. "But what I
cannot do, is simply stand by and let folk die when I might be able to aid them. At least…," she said before raising both hands up, beseeching. "Can you not let me
try to ease their pain?"
"We are not of your lands," Magnus said, bowing his head somewhat before lifting his eyes enough to look at both Druids and then Mardudd in the eyes. "This is true. Our ways are strange to you. Dangerous, even. But we cannot even think of going home without aiding you. We are
trying to help."
Mardudd squinted and then held out his hand, looking pointedly at Magnus' own, grabbing and looking over it more closely the moment Magnus allowed him to do so. He held it up, waggling it almost, at the Druids, who began babbling in Albish once more. Lear reached out tentatively, as if afraid that Magnus hand would suddenly explode or something similar. Iona, on the other hand, muttered something beneath her breath before gazing over his hand with eyes that now burned a bright but intermingled white and green. This lasted for only a few seconds before both Druids shoved the hand away and spoke at length at Mardudd, who simply closed his eyes in thought until they both slowly ran out of steam.
"Lear and Iona," he said eventually, "They are Etlikin. Defenders. Attackers.
Fighters," he enunciated slowly. "Not Atlikin, like you say this one is," he pointed at Carlotta. "The Oracles are all gone into hiding, them and their Maidenguard. Can't ask
them. Erngh," he grunted and looked at Magnus again and rubbed at his face.
(Earnest Diplomacy: 56+Example(10)+Vital Contributions(20)=86/100)
"You say you are Atlikin, eh? Healer?" He said, standing and thus looming over them all save Magnus. "This," he gestured at his stump. "Can you do this?"
A storm of presumable objections exploded out of the Druids, with numerous other nobles doing the same. Aberfa also started shouting, one shovel head sized hand chopping at the air. Mardudd shouted, once, and the room was silent once more. He glared at a number of people before looking back to Carlotta.
"Can you?"
"I have healed such wounds in the past," Carlotta says stiffly.
"Mmm. One chance," he says, patting at the stump. "Aberfa? If she twists me…,"
Aberfa's response in Albish is stoic as she picks up her claymore and hefts it in a ready position over her shoulder before walking to stand directly behind her father.
"Come on, Empire wizard. Heal me, eh?" He says with a grim smile.
Carlotta glanced at Magnus and then back at Mardudd before inhaling deeply and stepping forward. With one hand she stripped the semi-dry bandages off of the stump before with the other she clamped a hand around it directly.
(Ogham Effects: 1d6=4! Blowing Stronger)
(Regrowth: 45+15+10+Unexpected Strengthen(1d2=2=+10)=80/100)
Mardudd grunted and then stared, as many of the other Albionese did, as bone and gristle jutted out of the stump. Small emeraldine beads of sweat dripped along Carlotta's face as she worked, her eyes widening fractionally as the regrowing flesh abruptly accelerated in its pace at one point. The Druids made wordless noises of threat as they stepped closer before a barked word from Mardudd stopped them. And the Magister went to work. So many years of mending broken and severed limbs, of resetting entire rib cages, of realigning spinal columns and vertebrae, taking the Green Wind with the mastery she'd won with sweat, tears, and so very much blood. Until, finally, she stepped back, the glow fading and leaving a flexing limb glistening with sweat.
Magnus had yet to master Albish, but he was generally certain that he knew the tone of someone swearing by their Gods in almost any language.
"Well…," Mardudd said after a deep inhale. "Good, eh?"
"May I
please heal your dying men and women?" Carlotta said, her nose flaring in anger.
"…Mmm. Aberfa, show her, eh?" He looked to his daughter before looking back at the wizard. "Druids going to keep a close eye though."
"That's fine, can we
go?" Carlotta half-turned and pointed towards the doorway.
============================================================
(Healing Efforts: 78+15+10-Fluctuating Winds(10)=93/100)
The next morning was a rainy one. Magnus was coming to realize that such a thing was actually the norm. Conversations with the rest of the Albionese in the night before all had retired save for the guards pulling night watch had told him that much.
"Prince Hohenzollern?"
"Hmm?"
Magnus and Reinhardt looked over to a now thoroughly exhausted looking Carlotta, the two of them pausing in their efforts to help each other into their respective sets of plate armor. Mena, by contrast, had already dressed and was currently outside in the pouring rain alongside the rest of the Blue Wolves, trying to whip the groggy Nordland fighters into proper shape again.
"Yes, Magister?"
The green skinned woman bowed deeply at the waist to Magnus.
"A few hundred men and women are now able to fight once more and are no longer crippled. Even more are no longer in danger of death," she said as she rose, exhaustion clinging heavily to her frame. "Chieftain Mardudd says that those that cannot come with us on the move will remain, and hold the castle. I wanted to give you my thanks," she bowed her head. "Thank you for convincing him. I do not have the same skill and breadth at combat as Karl, but…," she trailed off and shrugged. "Thank you. I may not have cut it in the Cult of Shallya as a priestess, but…," she stopped and sighed. "Just…thank you. For letting me save them."
Her part said, the Magister turned and left rather swiftly.
"She was in the Cult of Shallya?" Magnus said quizzically. "I never knew."
"Really?" Reinhardt said as he tightened some of the leather straps on Magnus and slid some of the armor into proper place. "All done."
"It never came up," Magnus shrugged, turning around to help Reinhardt. "Carlotta was a leader to the others, but she never really talked much about their past. Then again, few of the wizards do."
"Hmm," Reinhardt grunted as he grabbed his helmet. "Well. It makes sense. Some of the Jade Wizards today were former Druids as we knew them, on the fringes. But others were not. Patriarch Tarnus used to be in the Carroburg Greatswords, you know?"
"So I've heard."
"It's not like he
wanted to leave them. Some…many, I'd argue, had no other choice than the College. Regardless of whatever else they might have wished in their life."
"Mmm."
=========================================================================
"So, where are we heading next, Mardudd?" Magnus had to shout once more to be heard over the rain.
"Next Ogham, eh!" Mardudd shouted back. "The Druids, very disturbed by what Fimir were doing. Remember the…," he pantomimed a large sphere. "The…thing, eh?"
"The sphere?"
"Yes! Very dangerous, eh? Bad! Much panic, when they looked close! Iona, she is gone, eh? Gone to talk to other Druids!" Mardudd pointed to where Lear now stood alone, the Druid now busy staring at Carlotta and the rest of the Imperial Wizards. "Mists been changing, Fimir taking it, eh! Not…," he mimed weighing something in his hands. "They did not take the one Ogham and then bang," he clapped his hands. "Mists go bad, eh? Not so simple. Bad. But…you," he waved at the entire assembled Imperial force. "Maybe we take back all the Oghams, eh? In my Clan's lands,. At least. Maybe the others? We'll see, eh?"
Magnus frowned. It wasn't the most pleasant news to get, certainly. At the same time, it certainly would be too easy if it was a simple matter of numerical ownership.
"So…the Mists might not go back to normal even if we reclaim all of the Oghams in your lands?" Reinhardt called out as he walked over.
"Yeah, what about all the Oghams? Like, all of them?" Mena added as she wiped her wet hair out of her eyes.
"Mmm, maybe yes, maybe no," Mardudd shrugged. "I am no Druid. I do not know the workings. So long as Caerniwlatgas stands, though, we will never take them all," he spat on the ground as he said it.
"There's an Ogham circle in the Fimir city?" Magnus asked, appalled.
"Yes, Empire man. The Great Ogham," Mardudd nodded before hanging his head and shaking it. "Very bad. Is why Boudicca fell, eh?"
"What do you mean?" Mena tilted her head to the side. "Because they had the magic from it?"
"No," Mardudd shook his head. "Dhar-Meargh, eh? Queen bitch Fimir," he spat to the side again. "Was doing big ritual, long ago. Bad stuff. The Xokh. Many High Druids. They go to Great Ogham during fight, eh? Great working. Change ritual. Break, maybe. No one knows," he shook his head again. "But…because all gone deeper in at Great Ogham, Boudicca left alone, eh? No defense against Fimir magic. From Dirachs and lesser Meargh left behind. Bad. The Druids say they protect Great Ogham, eh? But not Boudicca."
"That's…I'm sorry to hear that, Mardudd," Magnus eventually said. "Do you think that has something to do with it? The Great Ogham, I mean?"
"Maybe, eh?
Many Fimir die that day. Many of us. So much death, both sides, couldn't even finish each other off," Mardudd smiled then, though it was not as wide and earnest as those in the past. "Even now, less Fimir and less of us than before, many generations later, eh? Then knife-ears come," he growled.
For all that Mardudd held what was clearly a generational hatred for the Fimir, it was the norm for all of the Albioense. That much, Magnus had been able to tell early on. But being captured, enslaved, no matter how short the period had been, had engendered quite a furious distaste for the Druchii. Magnus hesitated whenever his thoughts swirled around to trying to ease into the fact that the wizards of the Empire had had their curriculum set down by an elf. As far as he could tell, the Asur had never stepped foot on Albion. Or, if they had, Mardudd was clearly unaware of it.
"Druid talk. For now, we head out to other Oghams, eh?"
"…right. What can you tell me about the next ones?"
"Some, Fimir took only short time ago, eh? Others, longer. Castles, at those."
It would take some time to get all of the details on the march, to be sure, but it didn't take forever.
There Remain More Oghams To Be Reclaimed In Clan Glyldŵrlyr's Lands, How Shall The Imperials Aid In Reclaiming Them?
6 Hour Voting Moratorium
[] Remain In Original Deployment, I.E. Reinhardt with infantry, Mena with cavalry, and Magnus aiding in direct Ogham reclamation
[] Switch It Up (Write-In)
In the meantime, from one place to the next, there is finally,
finally time for questions after the whirlwind of the past twenty four hours. Magnus was taught by his father to ask questions, to seek out information, to better grasp the battlefield, the land, etc. What questions does he ask in this moment?
(Choose 3)
[] More On Queen Boudicca, the Last Queen of Albion
[] More on Lugh, Who Was Taught By The Sun
[] The Giants of Albion
[] The Gods of Albion
[] Other Tribes/Clans Of Albion Beyond the Glyldŵrlyr, Matholwyr, and Nudd
[] The Druids of Albion
[] The Oracles of Albion
[] Major Landmarks of Albion
[] Something Else (Write-In)
