Author Archives: Dennis

Previously, Neamhan flew to the camp of the Beauclair delegation to deliver Quentin’s letter to Lord Dorian, to find that Highlord Gauthier was critically wounded, and Lord Dorian was suffering from burns sustained during an attack of the Cult of the Dark Queen. Epidemius reached out to the heroes through their dreams, arriving at the Careless Wanderer in the disguise of father Devon to persuade them not to seek out a confrontation with him.

Fourth Day, Second Ride, Autumn Twilight, 1262

(Silvermoon is waning, Bloodmoon is waning, Darkmoon is in low sanction)

Somewhere in the distance the bells rang five times as the heroes stood silently in the doorway of their respective rooms, looking out at each other through the dimly lit corridor. Astrid stood in the doorway of the common room she was staying at, wearing nothing but her small clothes and her new sword strapped to her back, seething with anger. Behind her several Morvrayne riders were snoring soundly, asleep in their cots, ignorant of what had just transpired for the Heroes of the White Eye.

Emrys quietly stepped into his luxurious room, leaving the door open, indicating that the rest were welcome to come inside to discuss their shared dream. Neamhan wanted to know who Pazuzu was, and Luca explained that it was a demon that was older than the Dark Queen herself. It was also the demon who slipped out of the abyss and freed Tharizdun from their chains. He explained it in a way that was supposed to mean something to Neamhan, but sadly she was as confused as before she had asked.

When Emrys mentioned that Epidemius would be a tougher opponent than Xamael, it was clear to some that Astrid was still deeply affected by the fight they had with the Dreadlord. Angry tears rolled down her cheeks. It was only when Quentin said it was important to check up on father Devon at the Temple of Pholtus that Astrid snapped out of her anger. Eager to focus on something else, she offered to accompany Quentin, and they got ready and made their way downstairs. They found that Lauryn was already awake and preparing the dimly lit tavern room for the coming day. She got a modest breakfast to take with them before they stepped out into the cold and quiet morning. They made their way to Steward’s Square while Kingsport lay under the tenaebrific blanket of a heavy darkness.

Meanwhile Emrys suggested that Neamhan make sure she got her rest, as she had not been back in Kingsport for more than two hours. They returned to their rooms to resume their rest. All except for Emrys, who had retired early and had enough sleep. Instead, he continued to commune with Toruviel to see if he could gain any insights into Epidemius.

Emrys learned that Epidemius, before his fall, was Epidemael, a messenger for Labolas Enoreth, an important Seldarine deity. He was charged with the protection of the realms in the astral sea, but like so many celestial warriors in that war, he became corrupted by his exposure to the abyssal forces. First he had been an agent of energy and movement, after his fall he became its opposite; an agent of entropy and decay.

Another thing that Emrys learned was that Toruviel was an aeromancer, and was used to flying, of soaring through the sky. This was the reason Toruviel felt a kinship to Epidemael. Emrys intimated that he feared falling to Epidemius, but Toruviel assured him that as long as he wielded the blade, he would never fall. “An aeromancer never falls,” the blade claimed. Toruviel took that moment to remind Emrys of an outstanding task of opposing a dark moonblade.

When Quentin and Astrid arrived at the clinic adjacent to the Temple of Light they found father Devon standing at the foot of the bed that Pip was laying in, her body broken and bruised. He explained that he had been roused by bad nightmares that evening, of burning rings of fire shooting across the sky. They spoke to him in a multitude of voices, and though he did not know what they were, or what they said, he knew that they frightened him.

Quentin explained that the heroes had dreams too, and explained what they had experienced and urged father Devon to leave the clinic and find shelter elsewhere. Reluctantly he agreed and planned to ask to rent a room at the Silver Cross.

Pip woke up and asked why Quentin had come. Quentin gave her a noncommittal answer, and asked what had happened to her. She explained that vandals had come to her shop to smash up its stock. She had tried to stop them, but was outnumbered. She claimed, wearily, that she had recognised one of the vandals, a young, handsome Daerlan lad who she had seen hanging around the butcher shop. She also claimed, but without much certainty, that they had brought some sort of monster to the shop. After inquiring after Céleste, who Quentin assured Pip was safe, Pip fell back sleep.

Back at the Careless Wanderer the smell of roasting boar came wafting through the tavern from the open kitchen door. It would not be ready in time for the heroes to depart, but should all go well it would be waiting for them when they would return. Emrys noticed that everyone was anxious in their own way.

When Quentin and Astrid returned, the Morvrayne riders greeted their lord with a Beauclair song of cheer, which Quentin felt somewhat uncomfortable with. He stoically accepted the greeting and joined the heroes. Emrys confessed his trust in the group’s ability to make it through the upcoming ordeal, and shared what he had learned about Epidemius.

Upon Quentin’s arrival, Neamhan showed the letter which his father had given to her. He shared the news about the attack with the Morvrayne riders, and a wave of consternation went through the group. Quentin assured them that they did the right thing in riding for Kingsport, and all but Dame Pauline felt more at ease.

Luca suggested that the group move to the Cathedral of the Platinum Father on Steward’s Square to await the arrival of Epidemius. Before departure, Neamhan took the time to write a letter to her loved ones back in the mountains of Ard Thoradun, updating them on her travels and progress. With the help of Wojciech, Quentin retrieved his horse in order to take his place among Dame Pauline and the Morvrayne riders.

At the square, the heroes found that Ser Roderick Corbray, a knight stationed out of the Correntine ward of Kingsport, and a man the heroes only had the occasional interaction with, had positioned himself, together with Dame Madeline of Ashenvale, a squadron of knights, and a squadron of armsmen, in front of the cathedral. Réonan was there, as was Lady Commander Miranda together with two other griffon riders, eight squadrons of crownsguard, and two dozen auxiliary custodians. Dame Madeline greeted Emrys and told him about her joy of the return of Ser Florian Ironwood to the Order of the Lance, considering the heroes as directly responsible for that fact. Ser Roderick put a stop to the casual conversation, the tension in his voice palpable.

The square was quiet despite the number of troops in and around it. At the eleventh bell Chakuq climbed up the side of the cathedral to get a vantage point, just in time to see the arrival of Ser Uthred Locke, standing at the head of eight squadrons of knights. Through an intricate system of clarion trumpet calls, Lady Commander Miranda directed the forces on the ground, to man the barricades that shut off the square, and to patrol the main thoroughfares leading to it.

Tension filled the air, and dark clouds began to form overhead. Nerves and anxiety was palpable among the defenders as the time was nearing of Epidemius’ arrival. Slowly, snow started falling from above. Astrid seemed to be the only one that became more relaxed as she witnessed the storm brewing, a stillness coming over her.

As the bells struck twelve, the tension could be cut with a knife, and the sound of rushing air could be heard as a large, oval rift opened up to a black void in the middle of the square. The void was so dark that it sucked in all the light around it, causing a corona of menacing light along its edges. Simultaneously, hundreds of pairs of glowing, red eyes opened up on rooftops, in alleyways, in windows, and from lifted drain covers. A trumpet from above, sent troops wheeling in different directions, responding to the orders of the Lady Commander.

Epidemius had arrived.

Previously, the heroes had been anxiously awaiting the day of Epidemius’ arrival. Emrys had discovered that Pip had been hospitalised at the clinic with serious injuries sustained in an attack on the wine shop. Neamhan and Quentin had returned from the Seat of Friendship with Quentin’s memories restored after a confrontation with the Good Sisters. And Dame Pauline and the Morvrayne riders arrived at the Careless Wanderer, with news soon following that the delegation had been attacked, leaving Highlord Gauthier wounded.

Third Day, Second Ride, Autumn Twilight, 1262

(Silvermoon is waning, Bloodmoon is waning, Darkmoon is waning)

While the rest of the heroes remained at the Careless Wanderer, Neamhan took flight, soaring across the skies above the northern coast of the Lyrian gulf, heading west to deliver Quentin’s message to his father. Chakuq entertained the heroes, as well as the Morvrayne riders, with an exciting story of horse rustling. Quentin sat in quiet contemplation, Luca was considering breaking his bond with Blackstar, while Emrys prepared to spend the evening in communion with Toruviel.

Chakuq spent some time talking with Ramsey, the cook for the Careless Wanderer, and managed to convince him to prepare a lavish feast for the heroes. The cook explained that the recent events in the city, the ongoing curfew, and the coming winter meant that supplies were getting scarce, but Chakuq agreed on a price that allowed Ramsey to get excited. He promised a roasted boar, stuffed with apples and mushrooms, basted in ox fat.

After several hours of flying, Neamhan saw the camp of the Beauclair delegation come into view. She circled above the camp and observed that several carriages, supply wagons, and tents had been destroyed by fire. The different factions within the delegation were tending to their wounded, and that several of the horses and oxen had to be put down. Neamhan reckoned that one in five people were wounded, limping, walking on crutches, or were sporting bandages.

After Neamhan had landed she walked to the modest Morvrayne quarter of the camp, and found Lord Dorian’s large pavilion. She was recognised by the moustachioed guard who took her inside the lavishly decorated tent, where she found Ser Croy and Lord Dorian. Lord Dorian seemed to have some burn wounds on his hands and forearms, which had been coated in a thick layer of soothing salve. Despite his wounds, Lord Dorian was self-conscious for wearing a set of spectacles to read some important documents, which he quickly took off.

Lord Dorian explained that the delegation had been attacked by agents of the Dark Queen, though he could not explain why the delegation was targeted. He mused that they must have followed the delegation for some time and jumped on the opportunity when the Lyrian knights rode for Kingsport. Several of the perpetrators were caught, and Monsieur Beauregard was in charge of their interrogation, and had learned that they belonged to the Cult of the Dark Queen.

Highlord Gauthier had been critically wounded in the attack, and was being cared for. Neamhan’s offer to care for the Highlord was declined. When she offered to help Lord Dorian, he accepted her aid after some hesitation. He intimated to her that the only time he had seen the healing abilities she displayed was when the Ladies of the Woods had attempted to heal his older brother. There was a bitterness in his voice.

After reading Quentin’s letter, Lord Dorian penned a response:

My beloved son,

I am well, the highlord is badly injured, we will make for Kingsport in the morning, but the injured and wounded will slow us down.

Your father,

Lord Dorian

When Neamhan asked Lord Dorian about the Ladies of the Woods and pressed the point when he refused to speak on the matter. Lord Dorian grew angry and scolded for forgetting her station. Lord Dorian presented Neamhan with the letter for Quentin and then promptly dismissed her.

After accepting the missive, Neamhan bid her farewell and departed from camp to the now familiar copse of trees where she transfigured into her eagle form and took off for Kingsport.

Back at the Careless Wanderer the heroes had remarked that Falka had not been seen all day, and that she had not returned to the inn for the evening.

Luca, preoccupied, went up to his room and attempted to break his bond with Blackstar, something which turned out to be more difficult than expected. The Senhadrim spirit inside the powerful staff refused to let Luca go. Luca threatened to bury the staff, but it did not seem intimidated. Luca insisted that he was his own man, with his own autonomy, which Blackstar thought laughable; Luca had not been his own man since he had consumed those mushrooms and fell under the influence of Aurion. Blackstar seemed open to complying with Luca’s wishes if Luca would vanquish a rival that it claimed could be found to the east. This rival used souls for its own gain, but was neither celestial, abyssal, nor infernal.

For Emrys, who always had a less adversarial relationship with Toruviel than Luca did with Blackstar, the evening was spent in quiet communion with the blade. Toruviel reassured that their relationship with Emrys would never be that of Luca’s with Blackstar, and shared what they could remember of Epidemius; a fallen angel who used to embody the very nature of movement, manifesting as a great, fiery wheel. Now, all of that energy had turned inward, resulting in a violent core of malevolent entropy.

All of the heroes found themselves seated at their table in the Careless Wanderer. It was quiet, and outside it was dark. Through the glow of the hearth, the candles and the lantern lit at the front door they could see snow falling down in the darkness outside. A barefoot man in simple grey robes entered the tavern, it was father Devon. He asked whether he could sit with the heroes and discuss the following day.

Father Devon reasoned that confrontation with Epidemius should be avoided, considering the amount of death and injury it would lead to. He begged the heroes to take a different approach. When asked what the alternative to confrontation would be, father Devon suggested negotiating. Epidemius, he reasoned, did not attack the first time he appeared to state his demands; it was the crownsguard and custodians that initiated the attack.

Everything beyond the people seated at the table fell away, as if a great distance separated the heroes from the staff and other guests at the Careless Wanderer. Father Devon seemed to lock the people at the table into the conversation and that disassociation was not an option. Neamhan tried to leave the table but found herself unable to.

Father Devon seemed to grow frustrated, barely contained anger overtaking him. He argued that confrontation is the death of possibility, that the Epidemius is fighting to prevent the great desolation. The more frustrated he got, the more he barked his retorts, blood spattering from his mouth. A buzzing noise started to grow in the back of the heroes’ minds, like the cacophony of a thousand insects.

The visage of father Devon continued to change, with skin thinning, cracking and horns bulging through the skin on his forehead. Stag-like antlers sprouted from his neck and shoulders. He continued to argue that a confrontation was not in the heroes’ interest, but this time switched to voicing the argument from the perspective of Epidemius. He claimed that death was not his goal, that his divine word was decay, and that his tool was pestilence. His goal was to study, so that they could arm themselves against oblivion, resist the great desolation.

He also claimed that he was talking to the heroes at great danger to himself by infiltrating dreams that Pazuzu, the Prince of the Aerial Kingdom, the Weaver of Dreams, had been feeding the heroes. He claimed it would not be long before Pazuzu would detect him and abjure him from the contact with the heroes. He wanted to bargain.

I am talking to you at great expense and danger to myself. Once I identified you as targets for the Prince of Aerial Kingdom, it was easy to stow myself away and enter my weave of dreams. It will not be long before I will be detected.

Chakuq’s first response was to mark Epidemius. Quentin unsheathed Róisín. Epidemius, through the guise of father Devon, laughed through bleeding gums and barked that Xamael had been weak compared to him. He possessed a divine word, after all. The likes of Xamael would be under his command.

Fourth Day, Second Ride, Autumn Twilight, 1262

(Silvermoon is waning, Bloodmoon is waning, Darkmoon is in low sanction)

The connection was broken shortly after, and each of the heroes woke up, bathed in sweat, with their heart racing, bolt upright in their own beds. It was the middle of the night. Neamhan had just slipped into her reverie only an hour or so previously, having returned from her flight back to Kingsport. Each of them tentatively got out of bed and opened the door to the hallway, only to find each of them standing in their doorways, looking at each other. They immediately realised that this had been a shared dream.

Previously, the heroes were preparing for the arrival of Epidemius, gathering support, and rallying a defence of the city. Quentin wrote a letter, bound by steel, to his father, which was delivered by Neamhan. Céleste, the socialite wine merchant, came to the Careless Wanderer to buy up any surplus wine stock, but the heroes had no time to find out what had happened. And Quentin and Neamhan visited the Seat of Friendship, at Neamhan’s insistence, and attempted to restore Quentin’s memory of his betrothed, which was taken from him by the Sisters of the Grove. They were confronted by the sisters, but were at least partially successful. But at what cost?

Third Day, Second Ride, Autumn Twilight, 1262

(Silvermoon is waning, Bloodmoon is waning, Darkmoon is waning)

It was the late morning when the heroes were nervously awaiting the confrontation with Epidemius they expected to happen the next day. Chakuq returned to Steward Square once more to investigate its layout and find any helpful vantage points.

Luca attempted to read Aurion’s tome, but found that the pages were blank. He turned to Blackstar, knowing this to be the source of Aurion’s disapproval, and tried to break his bond with the weapon. To Luca’s surprise and further disappointment he found that Blackstar refused to break the bond. Frustrated by being caught between the weapon and his master, Luca pivoted and started to prepare a ritual of protection ahead of the confrontation with Epidemius, for which he needed the true names of his companions. He knew it to be a gamble, considering his master had forsaken him, but Luca tried anyway.

And Emrys checked and double checked his belongings, more to keep himself occupied than anything else. He found some letters the crusaders had written while they were in Old Llygad. The heroes had them translated by an elf that was among the crusaders and it had given them insight into the Silver Crusade during the Age of Fear. Emrys stumbled upon a letter which wrote about how to treat certain wounds with a demonic origin and he decided to pay a visit to father Devon at the Temple of Pholtus to share the knowledge ahead of the confrontation with Epidemius.

At the clinic, Emrys found that the beds were full, and the patients were afflicted by the burden that Epidemius had put on the city. The patient that father Devon was tending to was the almost unrecognisable form of Pip, the halfling accomplice to Céleste. Father Devon explained that he had been the victim of a brutal attack on her wine shop. Looking over the notes, Emrys found that she was horribly wounded, and that the burden of Epidemius was making her recovery even more unlikely than it had been under normal circumstances.

Emrys returned to the Careless Wanderer after sharing the treatments with father Devon and found that Quentin and Neamhan had returned from their trip to the Seat of Friendship. Quentin was sullen and morose after the confrontation with the Good Sisters and after Neamhan had restored his memory of his betrothed, being left with a feeling that something had been returned to him which he had willingly parted with, and for Neamhan to pay the price for that, one way or another.

Quentin and Neamhan have a falling out, and Neamhan goes to cool off upstairs. Quentin admits feeling overwhelmed and betrayed. Emrys assured him that he has friends that will help him carry the burden. Astrid, tired of watching Quentin’s frustration, told him that if he wanted to determine the course of his own life, he should stop letting others direct it for him, giving a pointed look at Neamhan walking away.

Dame Pauline and the Morvrayne riders arrived at the Careless Wanderer, and were reunited with Quentin, their lord and commander. Dame Pauline was given a room, while the Morvrayne riders found beds in the common room. Wojciech, the stablemaster, took the Morvrayne mounts to be cared for and bumped into Chakuq on his way across Steward’s Square. Chakuq joined the stablemaster and helped him with the horses at The Bridle, north of the square. The two Silesians found a kinship in their common heritage, despite Chakuq being a mountain tribesman and Wojciech a plainsman.

A message was delivered to Quentin by a courier from the rookery. It was a letter from Lord Dorian:

My son, there was an attack on the camp last night. Highlord in critical condition. Your father, Lord Dorian.

Quentin wrote a hasty reply, indicating that he was unable to send help due to the impending arrival of Epidemius. Neamhan took the letter and promised to deliver to the hands of Lord Dorian. As she is set to depart, Dame Pauline wishes her a swift and safe trip.

While the heroes continued to wait for tomorrow with some trepidation, Chakuq shared a story, with some measure of pride, about stealing the horses from an enemy encampment. All the while, Luca was wondering where his friend Falka had been all day.