Volume I: The Defense of Zusidava

[Kavonde]

Metallus Caelius, the Golden Emperor of Lucen, marches upon Zusidava.

He seeks not just conquest, but revenge. For in a distant land, his dearest companion and consort, Legatus Fiducia Gemma, was slain by a pair of despicable and dishonorable assassins who ambushed her through treachery and deceit and slew her in cold blood. When he heard this dark and terrible news, he rode forth to take command of the fallen Legatus' forces and personally took his revenge against one of the blackguards. Now, he has begun a new campaign, seeking to conquer the assassins' homeland and see his beloved avenged.

Zusidava is a heavily forested peninsula jutting from the northeastern edge of the continent the Lucens call Terra Nebulae, the Land of Mists, though other cultures and nations have known it by other names. Much of the peninsula is rocky and mountainous, though the crags and ridges smooth away to gentle hills as one descends from the peaks that run through its center and reach the western shores. Its people are known to be fiercely independent and clannish; the sparsely-populated region does not have a central government to speak of, merely an informal alliance of villages and homesteads. Though the people of Zusidava are skilled warriors, and though the dense forests pose a great logistical challenge to the soldiers of the Lucen Empire, unless the peninsula is united against the coming threat, it will certainly fall like so many places before it.

But this land is not without hope. A band of unlikely heroes, assembled as a desperate gamble to check the Emperor's growing power, has been dispatched to Zusidava to rally its people and resist the tide of gleaming steel and shimmering gold. And now they have arrived at the peninsula's largest settlement, there to address a gathering of Zusidava's most powerful and influential leaders. Individually powerful yet untested as a group, it remains to be seen whether this motley band will make any difference against what many believe to be an inevitable conquest. Should they fail, the light of freedom may be snuffed out forever.
 

Salia and Seba

As instructed, you met up with the rest of the Fellowship on the road (or what passes for one here) two days ago, and have traveled with them to their destination. Tell us about the town you've arrived at. What's its name? How big is it? What are some of the local customs, cuisines, or celebrations?

Xie, Who Walks Again

Is this land one that you visited in the distant past? Was it a vast and untamed wilderness then, or has it changed? Did you perform any great and heroic deeds here? Was it part of your Shining Kingdom?

Rehyk the Ruined

While Zusidava was never a heavily populated area, at least in your long lifespan, you have been here before. Was it once home to an arcane library? Some great temple? The site of a terrible tragedy? Or did you come here for some other reason, perhaps one your peers would not have approved of?

Abbie Meadowcroft

This was your first time traveling such a great distance overland, and you encountered many new things and experiences. What were some of the interesting sights or people you came across? What hardships did you learn to endure or mitigate? What obstacle did you manage to overcome without help from Rehyk or Xie?

Edited August 2, 2023 by Kavonde (see edit history)

[Fletcher]

For two days on the road, Salia and Seba lead the Fellowship through darkened pine forests, around boulder-filled valleys, and across crystal-clear mountain springs. Treacherous snow-capped mountains of the Wolf's Fangs look down upon them, first from the north and then to the east as they traverse the range on paths more suitable for horses. The trails the Gaetes used through the mountains were dangerous and difficult, haunted by both creatures adapted to that environment and the lesser Clans who no longer answered the carnyx call to Gather. Even now, the kindred of the strange horn on Salia's back bellowed and wailed through the vales from a great distance, an unnerving cacophony of voices that served both to communicate and to intimidate. Now and again, they spied others in the veiled distance moving north through the more difficult ways, their brief wolf-like howls answered by Seba... but no longer by Salia.

From the moment the Gaetes had met the others, it was clear things were not well. Most notably, their third sister Sedra was absent and the remaining two did not offer explanation for it. The battles in Crobyzoi had left their marks on both of them, though the scorching of Salia's throat and jaw was most prominent. They had shrugged off all manner of hurt in the time they had traveled with Abidora, Xie, and Rehyk, their bodies seemingly good friends with pain, but this was different. Salia would not look Rehyk in the eye, nor utter a word - though it was easily presumed that she was now incapable. The eyeroll-inducing japes of Seba were missing as well.

The northern trail took them the full length of the range and now the jagged teeth of the Wolf's Fangs rose behind them, blazing in the orange light of the setting sun. To the west within sight of the dark waters of the sea was Zusi, the only true 'city' of the Gaetes and seat of what equated to their 'king', the Voievod. Zusi was a modest port town, though the Gaetes were not particularly known for their seafaring nor water trade. Some clans did their share of raiding, but most stuck to the lands south of Zusidava when they went abroad. The clans gathered in Zusi in times of great trouble or for changes of leadership, but the people served at the word of their own Voda (or colloquially, chief). The largest of these clans held the most sway and many of the smaller followed the current of their most powerful neighbors. The Crobidae dwelt in and around Zusi, even if the Voievod was not of their own people; the Napae claimed the darkened forests to the north and west of the Wolf's Fangs; the Scaugdae guarded the southern passages of Zusidava from incursion; the Sabokae held the southwestern forests and the shallows of the southwestern shores; and the Trixae ran the rivers of along the west coast of the peninsula. The peoples of the mountains and caves were, as a whole, referred to as the Troglodytae, and unwelcome in other Gaetes circles. And only outcasts or hunting parties ventured into the east.

All of these dynamics were shared in great detail as they journeyed through Zusidava, Seba's voice seeming to never tire from the tales of her people. The Fellowship may even have grown weary enough not to hear her when she finally announces, "Over that rise, ve are home," a scarred hand pointing toward the last rolling foothills they can see.

 

Edited August 3, 2023 by Fletcher (see edit history)

[BlackHat]

Rehyk the Ruined, Hand of Ansegdniss

Blood -1, Courage +0, Grace +0, Sense +1, Wisdom +2, Doom +2

---

If Rehyk noticed the change in Salia's behavior - including the reluctance to meet his gaze - he did not acknowledge it. In fact, his own gaze, which glowed with an eerie inner-light the same color as the green flames upon his magical ring, stared off into the distance - deep in thought or lost in painful memories.

This was not the first time that Rehyk had set foot in Zusidava. Several decades earlier, before Salia, Seba, or Sedra were born - before he had become known as 'Rehyk the Ruined' - he travelled through these mountains as part of his own apprenticeship. The Harbingers bore one of their sacred relics - the Hand of Saint Sedit, upon which the ring, Ansegdniss, had rested for centuries - to the site of great significance to their Order. In the darkest depths of the ancient forests to the west of the Wolf's Fangs, lies a cursed glade where it is said that nothing grows and nothing dies. This place has been known by many names but the Harbingers called it 'the Susurrate.' They say that, there, Saint Sedit sacrificed his own life to bind an ancient and terrible evil, and prevent it from spreading across the land.

In the center sits an ancient black obelisk - a monument to his martyrdom. Leafless white trees reach out from the ground like elongated skeletal fingers and produce a dark blood-like sap. Animals and men avoid this place. It is a place of unnatural silence, broken only by terrifying whispers that intrude upon the mind and erode one's sanity. Deep within the earth, they say, rests Melbidut, the Voiceless, a being of immense power trapped between life and death, bound to the earth by roots that drink of his blood and have contained his corruption for centuries.

The pilgrimage was an act of remembrance as well as one of penance for his Order. A reminder of the terrible cost of the power which they had been sworn to protect and to keep from those who would misuse it. A reminder that this power leaves scars upon the world, not merely upon those who dare wield it (or, more accurately, 'upon those whom that power chooses to wield').

On this day, Rehyk returns to Zusidava with his own apprentice - Abidora Meadowcroft. Once again, he bears the Hand of Saint Sedit, enclosed in its reliquary, wrapped in tattered cloth, stuffed into a saddlebag. This time, however, the holy remnant scratches feebly at the glass enclosure, muffled by the saddlebags as it helplessly grasps for its missing ring. Saint Sedit may have made the ultimate sacrifice at the Susurrate but could not entirely die there. Now, all that remains is a vestige that clings to the power of Ansegdniss - a power that Rehyk has now dared to wield (or, more accurately, which now chooses to wield him) in order to avert another evil which threatens to spread across the land.

Edited August 4, 2023 by BlackHat (see edit history)

[Kyoh]

Abbie, The Squire

Blood +1, Courage +2, Grace -1, Sense +2, Wisdom -1

---

Abbie Meadowcroft is in many ways like the longsword belted at her waist: plain, unadorned, neither particularly sharp nor ineffectively dull, though still useful when properly applied. Where the two differ is in the transparency of their application: a sword is a weapon, useful for attacking others and defending oneself; Abbie is, on the other hand, a displaced orphan farm girl from a no-name village that no longer exists. She can carry a respectable weight over long distances and can wield said sword with a sort of clumsy effectiveness, leading an observer to correctly liken her to a mule if a mule could maybe stab someone.

If the Fellowship were to march into a settlement that expected them, the members may be heralded in any number of ways. The warrior sisters, Seba and Salia, might be ushered in by the cheers of fellow soldiers and comrades. Xie, Who Walks Again, might (if she were among her own long-gone people) be welcomed by the clarion call of silver trumpets. Rehyk the Ruined might be met with a crowd silenced by the ominous power that precedes him.

Abbie, on the other hand, would unintentionally herald her own coming with the clanking of the pots and pans that adorn her heavy pack, occasionally punctuating her presence with a loud crash whenever she trips over her sheathed sword, her most useful appendage.

But despite her limited and mundane applications, Abbie still found herself in the service of extraordinary people. Master Rehyk has, inexplicably, taken her as his apprentice, a twist of fate unimaginable to Abbie. Why would a sorcerer as powerful as Master Rehyk choose someone like her to be his apprentice? Abbie sometimes wonders if Rehyk confuses the word ‘apprentice’ for ‘servant’. That, at least, would make sense. But even so, he does spend time teaching her about magic and has even gotten her to be able to create light. That was an exciting breakthrough for Abbie both for the genuine novelty of using simple magic and because she could tell Master Rehyk was impressed.

Together with Master Rehyk, Abbie has journeyed further from home than she’d ever been. From lush valleys to sweeping peaks, sleepy homesteads to grand bastions, Abbie has seen many wonders and continues to find awe in the expanse of the world. One of the most interesting places Abbie visited was a pirate haven known as Scurvy Gulch. Scurvy Gulch is a collection of shanties built along the cliff faces of a narrow channel splitting a small, rocky island. Many of the dwellings are repurposed hulls or cobbled together from driftwood. Pirates, smugglers, and dock gangs from across the world flock to Scurvy Gulch for safe haven. Ruled by its own informal laws, Scurvy Gulch can be a remarkable shelter among a deadly den of cutthroats.

It can also be a very easy place to place to get into a lot of trouble, especially if one has a penchant for mouthing off the way Seba does. There isn’t a morning in Scruvy Gulch where at least one body is carried out through the channel by the tides. Lucky for Seba, she and her companions are all capable warriors, so when they inevitable ran afoul of the Bilge Rats gang, the Fellowship managed to swashbuckle their way out. Or rather, everyone except for Abbie did.

Abbie was busy securing provisions when the fight occurred and became separated from her companions. Lost in the vertical maze that is Scurvy’s Gulch and with a band of cutthroats chasing after her, Abbie had nearly lost hope of escaping alive. Lucky for her, a mute urchin boy she befriended by showing him her cool magical light guided her through unseen paths back to her ship where she reunited with her companions moments before they were forced to cast off.

 

[BlackHat]

Rehyk the Ruined, Hand of Ansegdniss

Blood -1, Courage +0, Grace +0, Sense +1, Wisdom +2, Doom +2

---

As they marched over the last rise, Rehyk's haunted eyes take in the sight of their long-awaited destination - the port-town of Zusi.

OOC

Okay, let's try to kick things off with someone Looking Closely. When you closely examine a situation or a location, roll +Sense. Because he got a 7 or higher, he can ask three questions (anyone can answer but the Overlord has final say) and because it is 9 or less, he learns one of these the hard way.

Let's go with:

- What is going on here? What do my senses tell me?

- Is something hidden or out of place? If so, what looks suspicious?

- Tell me about the Voievod . What are they doing? What will they do next?

 

Edited August 8, 2023 by BlackHat (see edit history)

[Kyoh]

Abbie, The Squire

Blood +1, Courage +2, Grace -1, Sense +2, Wisdom -1

---

Abbie sits astride her dappled mare, clanking with every lurching step from the kitchenware strapped to her pack. Her gaze is constantly moving around her surroundings, taking in the strange and new sights of each place they visit. The world is filled with such wonder and beauty, the kind that she could never have imagined back home on the farm. Even these simple woods are enchanting, with their pines taller than a ship's mast, and thick canopies that blot out the sky in some places.

Abbie's curiosity has always lent itself to her powers of observation, but she has keen eyes and a knack for understanding the natural world. Most of her friends are animals and she has a way with them, which is convenient considering she's in charge of the horses and mules in the Fellowship's company.

Today, though, it's both her curiosity and her affinity with nature that causes her to pick up on something strange. Abbie sits up in her saddle and does a survey. "Is it always so quiet around here?" she asks the Fellowship, her much more worldly companions. "I haven't heard a bird in quite some time."

[BlackHat]

Rehyk the Ruined, Hand of Ansegdniss

Blood -1, Courage +0, Grace +0, Sense +1, Wisdom +2, Doom +2

---

Rehyk nods slowly but he seems neither surprised nor alarmed by this eerie revelation. "Should the echoes of distant thoughts begin to dance within your mind, reveal their secrets to my waiting ears without delay."

[Fletcher]

The closer the Fellowship comes to Zusi, the louder the carnyx calls become, and their throaty voices return on the wind from high up the mountain peaks. In between these indecipherable songs, Abidora hears the eerie silence which smothers the forests around them. From the front, Seba turns about in her saddle and offers, "The volf's call is auspicious to our people and the vildlife of Zusidava heed it vith fear and trembling." The answer sounds more like something the Gaete had been taught as a child, chided for misremembering or forced to recite at a coming of age. Then the corner of her mouth quirks up in a smirk - a bare shred of her usual mood - and she adds, "The birds are scared sh**less." On top of the enchantment, the sheer density of the forest is so thick and muffled that the sisters aren't surprised at her words. But when Rehyk lends a further layer of doubt and fear to the observation, the Gaete huffs and offers him a bit of a scowl. Always bringing his doom and gloom up when there could be truly rational explanations.

While Salia continues on at the front, Seba's mount slows until she is riding alongside Abbie, legs almost touching as the horses are flank to flank. The blonde warrior leans over to the squire and continues almost conspiratorially, "Even now, the great fires are set to roast boar vhile the Clans bring tribute of their own gatherings to feed the Sedinta. The strongest varriors are challenging each other to feats of strength and the bullheaded are outdrinking each other vith mead. The storehouses open and huge cheeses are portioned vhile fruits and vegetables are brought from down the coast. Vhen the carnyx calls, the Clans know vhat is expected." Though Seba is still hurting, there is something of a glow that rises in her features as she speaks of the Gaetes' gathering. "You are in for a treat, pasarica. It is unlike anything."

Suddenly, a rush of air and the soft whistle of fletching pierces the narrow space between their faces, followed by the rustling and clambering of bodies. Salia's mount startles up before she reins it in, a protective arm outstretched as if she could shield the whole lot of them from the ambush. Twisting her back to turn, the burned sister gives widened eyes to Seba, unable to engage with the party before them. Already Seba is kicking her heels into the horse to rally to the front, yelling, "Astepta! Astepta! Prieteni! Noi suntem prieteni!" Where at first, her hand sought to draw her falx, it instead raises up high, open and unarmed. Seba skids to a halt in front of Salia, the horse turned across the path and likewise veiling her sister and those behind. "Prieteni, Gaetes. Voievodul ne asteapta."

A man steps out from behind the broad trunk of a pine, raising a flattened hand to command the bows of the others to be lowered. All are alike to the sisters, being tall and blonde, sturdy and dangerous. Many wear wolf pelts - one even as an entire cloak with the head obscuring their own - and all bear the sort of curved blade. Their leader presses a fist to his chest and answers in a deep baritone. "Bine ati venit, Salia si Seba Scaugdae. Bun venit a fost oferit." A stunned silence passes between the sisters and the man, his words referring to the arrow - perhaps a warning shot - that was sailed through their Fellowship. There is anger in his eyes, but also fear. "Furma. Acum." He spins on a heel, soundless in the fallen needles of the forest floor and the whole group follows suit.

Seba looks to Salia, then back at the rest of them and forces a very unconvincing smile. The hitch in her throat betrays her. "The Voievod velcomes us, my friends. Ve follow to the Sedinta." The nervous smile remains for a moment before she snaps the reins and turns her horse to follow the ambush party, eyes lingering with worry on Salia.

 

---

* Sedinta - Gathering, Assembly
* "Wait, wait! Friends! We are friends!"
* "Friends, Gaetes. The Voievod is expecting us."
* "Welcome, Salia and Seba Scaugdae. His welcome has been offered."
* "Follow. Now."

Edited August 10, 2023 by Fletcher (see edit history)

[BlackHat]

Rehyk the Ruined, Hand of Ansegdniss

Blood -1, Courage +0, Grace +0, Sense +1, Wisdom +2, Doom +2

---

Rehyk hesitates but directs the horse that Abidora had secured for him forward. These were the Gaetes' People and Rheyk would follow Seba and Salia's lead but their sudden discomfort was not lost on the old man.

A voice whispers in his own mind. Ancient and enigmatic. In shadows veiled, arrows whisper truth. Eyes of wolves speak more than tongues of men.

Edited August 10, 2023 by BlackHat (see edit history)

[Kavonde]

The Gaete city of Zusi rises from one of the few approachable harbors along the peninsula's western coast. Though not large by the standards of "civilized" nations, the settlement sprawls across a series of hills that slope towards a central valley, which in turn runs down to the sandy beaches and the dozens of wooden piers jutting out into the sea. Though dozens of vessels are anchored at the harbor, only a few would properly be called "ships," all sporting designs obviously foreign to this largely isolationist and idiosyncratic people. A palisade of sharpened logs surrounds the entire city, running for miles as it encircles the hills and runs down to the sea, broken only by a few gates--each flanked by a pair of wooden towers from which Gaete archers watch the outside world warily.

The man who stepped forward and addressed Salia and Seba marches at the head of your small column, leading you towards a large, squat, circular keep that looms over the seaward slope. Salia and Seba know it as the Sedinta, seat of the Voievod, the grand council chamber in which matters of import to the realm are discussed and debated, and, eventually, acted upon. The most important leaders among the Gaetes are waiting there to meet them, and judging by the greeting they've received so far, perhaps not with the warm regards and showering of honors they might have hoped for.

As your party walks through the city streets--unpaved, but with wooden planks laid on top of (or into) the mud for some measure of solidity--one of the guards escorting you sidles a bit closer to Abbie, Rehyk and Xie. He's a young man, a bit younger even than Abbie. His long, blonde hair is a shade lighter than most of his fellow Gaetes', so pale as to almost be white, worn back in a long braid that hangs halfway down his back. "Hello," he says, his accent thick and grasp of the Common tongue halting. "My name is Nicu. You are here to fight? They are not telling us much, but many are frightened. Many speak of... " He trails off, trying to recall the word, but ultimately gives up. "Dropping bows. They say that the Emperor shows mercy if you drop bows. And ve vill need all the mercy he vill give us because they," he inclines his head towards Seba and Salia, "how is vord... poked the bear's eye. Some are very angry. Others say the Emperor vould have come for us this moonrise or the one after, or the one after that. Vhat think you?"

Up ahead, the man marching at the head of your group, a man Seba and Salia know well, glances over his shoulder at Salia. "She no longer speaks," he notes in the native tongue of the Gaetes, shifting his attention to Seba. "The gods struck the wrong of you silent. Others say you return at our hour of need, but I say you are only a pair of wounded dogs, crawling home to die on familiar ground. And now you put the Voievod between a wolf and a cliffside. Our only hope of survival is to surrender, but if Caelius considers it, it will only be in exchange for your heads. Your uncle will never do this. Your selfishness and stupidity dooms us all."

[BlackHat]

Rehyk the Ruined, Hand of Ansegdniss

Blood -1, Courage +0, Grace +0, Sense +1, Wisdom +2, Doom +2

---

In the midst of the young man's words, a whisper of Ansegdniss's voice weaves through Rehyk's thoughts, guiding his response. "We tread upon uncertain ground, young Nicu, but know this:... The provocation lies not in the wounding of the bear but it the revelation that it can be wounded." He pauses for a moment to allow the young man to process his words, cryptic even to those who speak the common tongue fluently.

"Behind veils of vengeance, lies a deeper yearning... but to silence every tongue, every breath, would be a task, even for the Emperor. A truth uncovered cannot be erased by the blade alone."

"... nor shall it be erased by mercy."

[Fletcher]

The elder sister's hand falls to the ragged, leather-bound grip of her falx, prepared to spill the blood of kith over a slight to the two of them, considering what they've been through... what they've lost. But the younger's hand reaches out and takes her wrist, quickly but gently. Wordlessly, Seba stays Salia's wrath, eyes lingering and reading each other. White knuckles relax and release, clasping the comforter's fingers for a moment before returning to the horn of her mount. "It's a shame the gods haven't struck the boils off your cock, else there'd be an army more've bastards here to help. This one of yours? Nicu! Who's your Father?" Seba calls back at the lad, head lilted backwards and native tongue rolling over the conversation Rehyk is having with him. She does not wait for an answer.

"Uncle put himself against the rock when he wouldn't let us take an army of Scaugdae with us to Crobyzoi. We killed a Legatus, Vasile. A sorceress, to boot. While you f***ed your sister and drank your mead, We. Beat. Them. Only reason Caelius razed the country is because she was his favorite whore. We could have ended this, Vasile. A dozen Gaetes could have shoved his golden sword up his arse and ended this." Now it's Seba's knuckles that are white, clutching the reins. "We chose our Destiny and you chose yours. The gods just have a sick sense of humor to make us suffer our ends together."

The great, twin fortifications of Zisu loom above them and the Fellowship passes through to meet a whole throng of stares, some friendly and some suspicious. None are, yet, outright hostile. But perhaps most of these are not in the know. The Sisters smile, albeit tiredly, at the sight and sound and smell of their home, a hardy stock of people who might each call themselves a hero in the midst of lesser men. Some say the blood of old gods runs in the Gaetes veins, others that it's the Great Wolf's. But certainly it is the disciplined and difficult lifestyle that keeps each honed the way they are. One might think the Gaetes to be dour, unwelcoming because of this 'set apartness' and yet they are approached - each one of them, from Abidora to Xie, Rehyk to the Sisters - with offerings of ripe apples, lengths of jerky, and other sundry gifts of welcome. Vasile accepts this begrudgingly, though it's likely he thinks not a single one of them truly deserves to be given such a welcome.

"The true Gaetes offer their velcomes," Seba turns in the saddle to their companions behind, referring to the generosity received as they trudge through mucky "roads" up towards the Sedinta. "Ve shall see vhat the Important Gaetes choose to offer," she adds, gesturing ahead. "Pasarica, stay close to Salia. Just because they are leaders does not mean they are not handsy. She vill remove them, if you ask. Their hands." She offers Abbie a wink, and Salia simultaneously turns and offers a much more serious nod. None will harass the squire.

"Master Harbinger - Mistress Xie, Who Valks Again," Seba adds, her tone noticeably respectful when speaking to the two elders. "I do not know how much you have treated vith the Gaetes, in this era or one bygone, but your visdom is velcome even as outsiders. The Voievod is our Father's Brother and he vill treat us as such-" Vasile snorts an interruption. "-but he is not so deaf to the Council of those of the outside vorld... Just us."

[Kyoh]

Abbie, The Squire

Blood +1, Courage +2, Grace -1, Sense +2, Wisdom -1

---

Treating with the Gaetes feels like wandering into a pack of wolves. Danger is ever present and one wrong step feels like it may be your last. At the same time, the camaraderie of the pack is obvious. These are a people that stick together through thick and thin.

Abbie has always been enchanted and bewildered by Seba and Salia. They're so different from anyone she's ever met and always stick out even in the strange lands they journeyed through. Now she's in a land full of people just like them and it's more than a little off putting. She's had an arrow shot at her and gifts of welcome offered to her all in the span of a couple of minutes. So when Seba advises that Abbie stay close to Salia for protection from wandering hands, Abbie doesn't hesitate to nudge her horse closer to her falx-armed guardian.

Abbie listens to Master Rehyk's response to the young guard. Ah, Rehyk is so wise. His every response bears careful consideration. A thought suddenly strikes her and Abbie can't help but blurt out, "Master Rehyk, have you ever composed poetry?" In response to his piercing and indiscernable look, Abbie clarifies, "I think you would be quite good at it!"

[BlackHat]

Rehyk the Ruined, Hand of Ansegdniss

Blood -1, Courage +0, Grace +0, Sense +1, Wisdom +2, Doom +2

---

"In the days of youth, I did dabble in the art of verse." Rehyk confides in his apprentice, after her clarification. In their time traveling together, it is uncommon that the man talks of his past before becoming a Harbinger. "Yet, as the years wove their intricate patterns, the call of other arts grew stronger, and my pursuits led me down paths that required all my focus." His chosen art required sacrifice.

Edited August 25, 2023 by BlackHat (see edit history)

[Kavonde]

Nicu turns to Salia when she calls his name, surprised and confused by her question about his father. "Grigor," he says. A moment later, the joke registers, and he musters a nervous little laugh as he looks between the famed warrior and the man accompanying them. The other man glowers at him before turning his disapproving expression back to Seba.

"You do not seem to realize to whom you speak," the man says imperiously. "I am Kar, son of Tor, Voda of the Scaugdae. My people will pay the greatest price for your actions, daughters of Crobidae. We will see our homes burned and our fields pillaged by the coming horde, and those who do not die fighting will face starvation come the winter. So let me offer you this last warning: silence your tongue, or we will match blades and I will cut it out."

The group enters the city's marketplace, a wide, circular court occupied with wooden stalls and vendors hawking their mundane wares like fish, nets, and warm socks. Kar opens his mouth to continue lecturing Seba when there's a sudden cry of alarm from nearby.

You turn to see a skinny, older man staring at your group in shock. A fallen crate of apples lies broken at his feet. "Y-you!" he stammers. Oddly, he seems to be staring directly at Rehyk.

Without another word, the man turns and flees into the crowd, knocking a woman aside so hard that she tumbles into a cabbage vendor's cart and knocks the whole thing over.

At nearly the same time, drawn by the man's cry of recognition, a few rough faces emerge from the crowd. They're foreign folk from lands somewhere to the south, their dark hair and green eyes making them distinct from the blonde shades of the Gaetes. Two men and a woman, all scarred and weather-worn, clad in boiled leather armor beneath their fur cloaks and bearing swords.

Their apparent leader, a woman with her hair in a multitude of braids pulled back and bound together with a thick leather ribbon, draws a sword from within the folds of her cloak and throws the heavy furs back to free her arm. "I know you two," she hisses, looking at Salia and Seba. "The Golden Emperor himself wants your heads. You see that, Mirro? Good things do come to the patient."

One of the men with her, a hulking brute with long, ragged black hair and an incongruously well-trimmed beard, frowns. "They aren't alone, Lana."

The other man, a skinny, wiry thing, all sharp angles and pointy elbows, nods in agreement. "Can't collect if we're dead."

The woman, Lana, gives her companions a disgusted look. She turns from them to regard Salia and Seba. "Could save your people some trouble, you know. Everyone here knows the Emperor's coming to kill them, and going by the size of the bounty on you, I think you're the reason why. Come with us peacefully, and maybe I ask His Glory to spare your people as part of our reward."

Kar gives the woman a thoughtful look, rubbing his chin.

Edited August 29, 2023 by Kavonde (see edit history)