Session 106: A change in leadership is the playground of despots Report

General Summary

Roisin quickly looked back into the North tower, careful to look for additional threats, but found it empty. Both inner and outer gates were still lowered, something that contributed to the facility with which the remaining guards below were eliminated. As Roisin then stepped into the South tower from the overwatch floor and saw a horror with tentacles rising off its torso in place of a head. As Roisin looked on in terror, the bodies of the deceased guards around her, including some killed by earlier combat, suddenly rotted away to mere bones, which rose and began to attack. Insensitive to the princess' innocence, these undying things managed to strike several times. Further, Roisin felt some magical force attempting to grasp her soul and puppet her body, but resisted the effect. Boris rushed closer, and called upon holy power to destroy all but two of the skeletons. Unfortunately, the magic that defended this space tore his soul from its anchor. Roisin cried out just in time and Boris somehow found the strength to remain alive that his niece would not be without a defender. Jeeves leapt over the murder holes, and consumed a magical potion using mystic union to heal Roisin and Boris alike, but some interaction of the magic with the odd defensive magics of the space caused Boris to sense severe disfavor from The Source. The aberrant horror reached out to Roisin, and her bones quivered, reformed, and spikes of bone emerged from her flesh, severely injuring the princess and leaving her stunned. Bastion rushed forward, up to the unnatural horror, grabbing hold of a longsword in the process. Bastion managed to hit the creature, and lightly nicked it before calling for assistance. Boris rushed forward, threw his hammer at the horror, but failed to impact the thing. Jeeves rushed up, desperately squeezing through the doorway, and attacked with his warhammer, striking once and shattering one of the skeletons. The horror reached toward Jeeves, and Jeeves suddenly cried out in pain as his bones reformed into spikes that protruded from his flesh, leaving him stunned as well. Bastion attacked twice, struck once, and repositioned for better angle on the thing. Roisin stepped through the doorway, still bleeding from the bone protrusions, and ordered Boris to attack. Boris attacked a skeleton, striking powerfully and leaving nothing but shards falling to the ground. Boris then made his own attack, but missed, then stepped around the corner. Shaking off his confusion, Jeeves rushed up and slammed his warhammer into the aberration. The Aberration then lashed out at Jeeves, but only struck once with a claw. Bastion continued his less-than-effective assault, Roisin ordered Jeeves to attack, which also missed, and both Roisin and Jeeves continued to bleed from their spiked bones. Boris ducked around the corner, threw his hammer and struck true, then ducked back to cover. Jeeves attacked with his warhammer, then drank a potion to heal some of his injuries; unfortunately he also disappeared. The creature caused the bones on the floor to form spikes which struck Roisin, exacerbating her wounds. Bastion continued his, mostly ineffectual, attacks. Roisin called out to Jeeves, who suddenly reappeared, and attacked per Roisin's orders, striking the aberration, then continued to bleed around her spiked bones. Boris, ignoring Roisin's wounds, again stepped into the room, threw his hammer and missed, then stepped back out of the room. Jeeves continues to attack, with two strikes finding the mark and severely injuring the thing, and continued to bleed from his spiked bones. The creature attacked Jeeves, who used his inertial barrier to keep it's lamprey-like maws away. Bastion swung wildly and just missed stabbing Jeeves. Roisin again ordered Jeeves to attack; resulting in another impact to the creature, then bled further from her spiked bones and called out for help from Jeeves. Boris ignored the cry for help, stepped in, threw his hammer, impacting the creature, then stepped back around the corner. Jeeves struck the creature, then rushed to Roisin. As Jeeves reached Roisin, the creature leaned over and attacked with all eight maws, striking three times, nearly killing Jeeves. Jeeves quickly poured an alchemical draught down Roisin's throat, causing her bones to mostly return to normal. The creature stepped up to Jeeves, and Bastion took the opportunity to attack, laying it low. Jeeves then took more injury as his spiked bones continued to tear open. Bastion noticed the creature was still moving slightly, and began hacking it to bits. Roisin wept upon Jeeves massive hand, her magically infused tears partly restoring his bones to normal and healing his injuries, but everyone found they could not move, and fortunately saw the creature's form stop moving a few moments later. Roisin used a divine boon to release Jeeves, and heard in their minds, thanks to the telepathic link, Roy complain that he could not move, and the leader outside the city that nobody there could move either. Jeeves examined Roisin, and realized she was encased in some form of magic field holding her in place, and continued to bleed, but also came to the realization that healing in the gate house was causing wild surges. Climbing and squeezing out of the gatehouse tower, Jeeves bound up his wounds, but it was not helping due to the continuing growth and extension of the spikes on his bones. Jeeves pulled out the magical iridescent cream he had available to begin restoring his bones to normal, then used two magical potions, more spikes emerged from his head, he took more potions for healing, finally resorting to a much more powerful healing potion that restored his bones to normal.

Jeeves worked his way back downstairs, and considered how to open the gate, as well as possibly trying to remove the paralysis from one of his friends, but came to the conclusion that his best option was to wait out the paralysis. Several minutes later, the paralysis ended as suddenly as it began. Boris told Bastion they should get started, but Bastion noted that Boris was probably too small. With Jeeves' help, however, Bastion was able to use the walking wheel to open the outer portcullis. Boris and Roisin had a much easier time of it and quickly opened the inner portcullis using a corpse for extra weight. The group cooperated and quickly got the gates open as well. As the rebel forces rushed into the city, they began to hear the sound of rams striking one of Boris' stone walls. Boris elected to fly up to the roof of a building and was about to leave alone, but Bastion reminded him that Roisin needed to be up on the walls too. Bastion also reminded Jeeves that Roisin could ride on his shoulder fairly easily, Jeeves could walk up the walls, and the other two could fly. Roy would remain behind in the fortification in the center of the square along with Bastion; Jonas would fly up as well and guard their flank. Roisin gathered with her guardians on one side of the street, as Jonas quietly landed opposite. Bastion also gave Roisin a metal cone to amplify her voice.

Once in place, Roisin stood atop Jeeves' shoulder, held the metal cone to her mouth, and began to speak. The sound carried throughout the city, as though spoken by someone a few feet away. Roisin gave a commanding speech, "Soldiers of Borelius Boast. I am princess Roisin, daughter of Alathius the first. I order you to lay down your arms. You are serving an unlawfully assembled council, who serve the unspeakable Corruption itself. They are hereby ordered to be brought before me for immediate trial and execution. If this is done there will be no other bloodshed. If it is not, all who serve Corruption will die." A wizard among the soldiers attempted to communicate with Roisin, enabling telepathic communication with close servants of Roisin's aunt and uncle. "Hello, Roisin, I haven't seen you in a while. Come now, we aren't corrupt or anything like that, we're just enjoying ourselves. Why don't you come down and join us; the soldiers will never stand down." A male voice, that of the Groom of the Stool, cut in. "Why bother, sister, she's all high and mighty, serving the Source and all that garbage. The creature serves us, and owns the minds of the soldiers. They won't listen." A third voice cut in. "Oh, the creature owns our minds, does it? I forgot to tell you, they killed the creature, Duke." Confusion arose "What?, wait, no, you can't, it can't be killed..." The third voice calmly spoke again. "I'm sending orders now, Roisin, I can't guarantee much, but we'll do what we can." Roisin recognized this as the Field Marshal, an old and well loved servant of Crwthis. Roisin asked what happened to the grand marshal. "Oh, he's here, well, the one you knew was killed by these two, I am not next to them, by the way. I don't think they even knew I was in this conversation." The female voice responded "No, we didn't, and you are hereby sentenced to immediate execution. Soldiers, kill the Field Marshal!" It was clear, from the tone, that the last statement was repeated aloud, a similar vocalization followed. "Grand Marshal, send soldiers to execute the Field Marshal for treason!" Roisin said "I can't believe this is happening." The Field Marshal responded with "Not to worry, Princess. The soldiers know the truth; the current Grand Marshal was appointed by those two, I can't get to them, I'm actually down here." Roisin saw a familiar soldier wave a sword from among the hundreds of soldiers in the street. "We'll soon see how many are loyal only to the usurpers and their perversions, and how many remain loyal to their city and The Source. Give me a few minutes to deal with this. You might want to duck behind those battlements for a bit, just in case." Roisin and her friends ducked behind the battlements for cover, and everyone could hear orders being shouted below. Roisin could hear a long series of wild orders from the false duke and duchess, directing that all and sundry be killed for failing to immediate execute the couple's wishes, eventually devolving into a long string of vile insults. The tirade eventually died down as the two corrupted "leaders" became distracted. Roisin focused on that, and quickly realized, from stray thoughts leaking into the telepathic link, that the two had become "distracted" with each other. The Field Marshal commented "Oh, really, again? That's the fifth time, today! Can you two not focus on anything else for even a short time? Your need to constantly reenact the corrupted nature of your evil is almost frightening in its intensity. Roisin, I'm sorry you had to notice that, I'll have the wizard end the link." Roisin responded, "I've seen worse, you can retain the link if it is tactically valuable." A clear image arose, one of acts far more vile than the princess had imagined, and the link suddenly ended. Another attempt to contact the Princess arrived, and Roisin allowed it without thinking; unfortunately this was a hostile effort to control her mind. Fortunately her insurmountable force of personality, combined with a divine boon, prevailed and she retained control of her own mind and avoid throwing herself off the roof with self destructive intent. Yet another attempt came in, and though Roisin resisted, she failed this time and the communication came in clear, the Field Marshal spoke. "What the heck? The wizard tells me you fought us this time, it's fortunate we succeeded." Roisin replied "I had a hostile force trying to control my mind." "Damnit, I wondered if that... OK. I have some orders to give. Stay down for a minute, there's going to be some fighting down here, and a stray arrow your direction could really screw this up. I think we'll manage, but give us a minute. Yahh, ugh.. What was that?" Roisin could tell much was going on, and the Field Marshal was injured.

A few minutes later, panting heavily, the Field Marshal spoke to Roisin again. "Patch up the wound. Roisin, most of the troops are with us. We've pretty much isolated the ones who are a problem. We cannot bring them to you, we can bring you to them, though. They have a good set of loyal troops with them. What forces do you have with you?" Roisin replied, "We have about 300 men, and over 50 trees." The Field Marshal responded with shock. "You have Trees? Moving Trees!" "Yes, courtesy of the great forest guardians." "Well, then. My men have fought trees once or twice, we usually back off in those cases because it means we're doing the wrong things. With trees you probably would have killed us all after all. I'm glad you chose diplomacy first. If you can send as few as 50 men and perhaps 4 or 5 trees, then we can handle this pretty quickly. Can you open that wall?" Roisin asked if the wall could be opened, and was informed it was permanent. Jeeves had a solution, however, and used a couple Helvina's Handy Helpers to manufacture cobblestones from the wall of stone. Moments later the troops and trees, 50 troops and 12 trees, approached. The Field Marshal said "That's handy, you made cobblestones, remove the wall and fix the streets at the same time... Ahhh, that's more than four... Oh my, how many trees do you have?" Roisin asked the rebel leader "I asked for four trees." The leader replied "We sent a unit of troops, and figured if four trees was good, twelve would be better." Roisin also noticed that one of the 12 trees was a bit different, and with a close look, realized one of the animate trees had "matured"; the rebel leader laughed. "Congratulations, Princess, it seems your troops have gained a brand new treant." The Field Marshal stuttered. "That's 64 troops, 11 animate trees, and a full treant. I doubt my troops could have handled even this much, let alone the rest of your army. Who's leading your troops?" Roisin replied with the name of the rebel leader. "Ahh, my old second in command. I thought the false duke had him killed for declining the 'favors' of the false duchess. That explains a lot of why the 'rebels' have been so well disciplined. Tell him his old commander says thank you, and if he ever rebels again I'll cut his throat myself." Roisin passed this on, and the rebel leader replied with a laugh "That sounds like the old bird. Not sure how he found out it was me. It's about time he retired, when is he going to retire to that estate like he keeps talking about. Ask him, tell him I said it, he'll laugh." Roisin passed this on, and the Field Marshal laughed "Yeah well, I'm pretty sure that estate is long gone, particularly as I never had a chance to build it. Get him up here, let's go deal with these corrupted servants of evil. Did your father really send you to do this?" Roisin replied "No." "I didn't think so. What's he going to do to you when he finds out?" "Continue to hunt me down and seek the eternal destruction of my soul." "You haven't been traveling about bringing cities to heel for him?" "No, I'm against him and his foul master." "Wait, what? We keep hearing about the things you've been doing. What was it, Schädelgräberhafen, you like, murdered a thousand people and drank the blood there, didn't you?" "No, he's spreading lies so people fear me and I cannot free them from his tyranny." "I didn't believe that for a second. Good. What's he really going to do to you?" "Something horrible." "Something like those two pretenders are doing?" "I don't even want to speak about that, but my Father will do far worse, and it will last forever if he succeeds." "I can say this, princess, you're braver than I am." "I'm just doing the best I can for the people." "You could say no..." "I can't say no to these people." "You'll have to learn how to, someday." "Perhaps."

With that, Roisin and Jeeves climbed down, while Boris returned to the fortification with Roy and Jonas to get a short rest. Roisin chose to ride on a tree, in fact the new Treant offered to carry her. Arriving at the city center, they found a full orgy, indiscriminate and corrupted, filling the area with only about 20 guards remaining on duty to protect the huge mass of participants. The Field Marshal mumbled "You have got to be kidding me.", the called out "Seriously, how can any of you think this something to defend!" The guards gathered, then leveled their spears and drew bows. The Marshal asked Roisin "I have some wizards here, they can destroy the ones beyond, Do we try to save these, or just burn them all?" Roisin replied "They are not recoverable, I have seen my father do things like this before, their minds and souls are lost." Regretfully, the wizards and priests in the force unleashed magical and holy fire that quickly destroyed the guards, then, as the attacking forces loosed flights of crossbow bolts into the orgiastic mass, the magical fire followed close behind burning the corpses and cleansing the ground. One of the priests noted that there might be a few victims among the mass, but death was the kinder fate for such. The Field Marshal asked Roisin "Can you stick around for a bit, perhaps a few days, to help us root out any remaining agents of Alathius?" Roisin replied "I must discuss this with my advisors, we must not remain overlong lest we become caught in a siege." As Roisin was about to return to her friends, an unrecognized very sleazy man was brought up in chains. The Field Marshal stepped up, shook his head, and ran his short sword through the man's skull, executing the chained man for whatever crimes he had committed, a rebel nearby commented to Jeeves "Good riddance for dark evil. I wish I could have thrust that sword myself, but I suppose the Field Marshal suffered worst than any of us. I hope the princess makes the Field Marshal the new Grand Marshal; he's the best leader we've ever had, and would have been Grand Marshal long ago if the former Grand Marshal, the one Alathius executed, hadn't been a close friend." A wizard stepped up and burned the corpse away, as the rebel explained to Jeeves "Have to burn the bodies, there has been a problem with the dead rising in the area since Alathius drove the rightful Duke away."

The Roses reconvened in the fortification Roy conjured at the center of Mercantile Square. Roisin noted that she needed to choose and install a new Duke. Boris asked why she hadn't used the earrings to communicate, to which Roisin noted she was a bit distracted and needed the walk back to think. As Roisin asked about a new Duke, the Rebel leader mentioned "I might have a couple who would do well." Roisin replied "Bring them forward." The rebel leader brought forward a very dirty and ragged pair of soldiers, a halfling and a Lizardfolk. Roisin, immediately realizing who this might be, jumped with excitement and said "Yes, bring them forth." As the two approached, they removed the hats and extra head coverings that covered their identities, and wiped off the extra dirt. The lizardfolk said "It'ssss good to ssseee you Roisssin, it'ssss been a while." As the halfling male pulled his hat off, he said "Well, you poked my brother in the eye pretty good with that one, I knew you were my favorite niece; come and give me a hug." Jeeves commented that this seemed awfully convenient, to which he received a few minutes of education as to the history of the region from the rebel leader, explaining how Roisin's family had ruled the region for some time, and most had gone into hiding to get away from Alathius after Thraebeig was murdered. Roisin pulled back, and said "Sooo, I have some good news." Sstherfaen stepped up, and hugged Roisin as she said "Good news? We could use some of that." Roisin said "Guess who is alive." Sstherfaen said "Your mother?" Roisin said "No, Thraebeig." Crwthis said "He wasn't dead?" "We brought him back." Crwthis turned to Boris "You can bring back the dead!" Boris replied "Just the one time." Roisin said "It was a miracle." Crwthis turned to Boris, and bowed low, "Priests who can call upon true miracles are rare indeed, I am in your debt." Crwthis then noted "All I can say is it's a good thing Thraebeig was a bachelor, I can't imagine..." Roisin went "Eeep", and Crwthis turned to her "No, he's been a bachelor for 400 years, he was never going to get married." "Ehhh, he's married." "That was quick." "It's actually been a while." "Wait, he was married and he hid it?" "Yeah..." "Why would he do that?" "Because he knew his court would never accept the union." "what? Every member of his court has been after him to choose a wife for centuries. You have to explain this, who is his wife?" Roisin thought for a moment, to consider if it would be safe to say, then said "She's a fairy, and they have two kids!" "Wait, my brother married a fairy! Wow." "Oh yeah, and there's actually a third on the way." "How long have they been married?" "About thirty years..." "What the.... You'll have to tell me all about it when you get a chance." "Oh yeah, there is a lot you missed." "Wow, my 'bachelor' brother has three children." Crwthis turned to Sstherfaen, and a look passed between the two. Sstherfaen said "You want another litter, don't you." Crwthis answered "Well, I rather adore the three we've had..." "Not exactly the best time, but I should probably tell you." "Tell me what?" Roisin interjected "Wait, you're already?" Sstherfaen said "Yes, already expecting more..." Roisin replied "Oh my word, what is in the water for this family." Sstherfaen answered "well, we haven't really had a lot to do the past few months, and we were back among the tribe, where it's kind of a thing to have more litters.... My younger sister already produced six litters, so she has thirty something pups, and I was feeling a little jealous of that. We lizardfolk don't have one at a time, usually, we have litters." Roisin started to explain something, fumbling with words. "In our adventures, well, we spent some time, well it was this weird time thing, and well we will, or kind of we did..." Sstherfaen cut in, "Hold on, Roisin, are you about to tell me about something that will happen, already happened from your perspective, but will happen from the current perspective?" "Yes." "Don't tell, anyone, ever." "What, why?" "I can guess what you want to tell me, and all of that becomes at risk if you tell anyone. It can be undone if it becomes known before it comes to pass." "It's so hard!" Sstherfaen pulled Roisin into a hug, kneeling to do so; "I know it's hard, but you have to protect what you are so excited to share." Sstherfaen then whispered very quietly "And congratulations, but you mustn't lose them." Roisin whispered back "I know, I don't want to, but it's just really hard." Sstherfaen pulled back, and said "I understand", then gestured magically, cleaning Roisin's tears. Sstherfaen held a finger to her snout and said "That's a secret too" as Roisin realized her aunt was a wizard of some skill. Roisin then said "I need to introduce you to one other relative, my uncle on my mother's side. Sir Boris Bigfoot." Sstherfaen replied "oh, you might not know this. It's a bit unfortunate, and we only found out quite recently.... Siobahn is your mother, I'm so sorry to have to tell you that." Roisin replied "No, she's not." Crwthis head whipped around toward Roisin, "What? Rionna isn't your mother, we're certain of that; Rionna was never able to have children. Siobahn and Alathius produced all the children Riona claimed." Roisin looked at him, "Not all of them, I, and Shay, had other mothers. My mother is someone you never knew." "Try me." "Theressa Bigfoot." Crwthis considered for a moment. "I was pretty young, but I remember, your father. I don't know if you knew this, but Alathius used to introduce mistresses to people while Rionna was standing right next to them. I think it was a way to be even more cruel and vicious to Rionna, because, as we learned recently, Rionna could never have children. I never understood why she put up with it, but I guess we know now; she was not able to do otherwise. I think I might have met your mother, how is she?" "Dead." "Oh, I'm sorry." Crwthis then looked at Boris, "So this would have been your sister?" "Yes." "I'm impressed, you brought Roisin's uncle back instead of trying to restore your sister." "It was the right thing to do, she's been gone for a long time, and Thraebeig was needed." After this bit of reunion, Roisin called upon some officials to witness the restoration of the Duke to his throne. Crwthis addressed their departure. "If you need to move on, I understand. Maybe wait until morning, and then... Wait, it is morning. If you're running short on time, then you all should just go. We can pack up the city. If whatever you did that makes the city disappear holds, we're just gone, the army that's coming won't find us." Everyone had been able to catch their breath while waiting for the witnesses and formalities, so Roisin decided they would leave immediately. "We must leave, as soon as possible. My father may divert troops or other resources to follow us, so we had best be far from here." "Sorry you can't stay, but I understand the need, and appreciate the purpose." The Rebel leader spoke up, "I have to go see my boss anyway, and face the consequences for what I've done. I'll let him know you had to leave immediately." Crwthis spoke up at that, "You're to be elevated to Field Marshal, as that position is about to become vacant." The rebel leader looked back in confusion "The Field Marshal saved the city, how can you..." Crwthis interrupted "I need a new Grand Marshal, it's about time I elevated the best damn soldier this city has seen since Borelius." The Rebel leader's eyes grew wide, and he bowed his head before gathering troops as an honor guard.

Roy spoke up. "We need to get to the Korth Wall, and we need to get there quick; we already lost critical time getting involved here, so it's even odds whether we can stay ahead of Alathius agents at our best possible speed. We've been holding a Windborne Penant for a long time. Now might be a good time to use it." Roisin answered, "Let's use it." Roy continued "Jeeves, Boris, what are your thoughts." Boris said "Let's use it." Jeeves rambled "We've had it for a long time? I don't know what it does, but uhhh." Roy interrupted "It turns an entire troop, up to a whole army, into mist and they can then move at incredible speed for a half a day." Jeeves mumbled "We didn't do this today? OK, whatever." Roy replied nonetheless, "we had to go in ahead, and the army wasn't going to join us, how would it have helped..." Roy cast Telepathic Bond again, then retrieved the penant, and held it high waving it about. The group transformed into mist, and began to rise. As they did, Boris thought "I'm sad we had to leave so soon." Bastion asked "Why are you sad?" Boris replied "I wanted to awaken a tree or two." Bastion responded "The treant was doing that as we left. The Tree Lords have that ability. I think they are bringing all of the trees out of the city to strengthen the swamps and create even greater numbers to harass Alathius troops as long as they stay in the region. Perhaps they will even leave a few in the city to support the defenses there." With that the group flew up and away from the city, traveling at ten times faster than a warrior could run. It was just under an hour later that they approached the immense cliff face of the Korth Wall in this area, and slowed to a stop as they began to see slight shimmers in the air around the cliffs.