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The Bacchus held a meeting today, called by Remy Dayspring. It
appeared that Iggy had gone missing whilst investigating a treasure
map he inherited off his friend, the late Connall. According to a
sealed letter, and copy of the map that he left in case of this exact
circumstance, the area he had gone missing in is the same that Duke
Hawkeye has been calling for aid to suppress bandit activity within
it. It was supposed by Remy that Iggy was unaware of the extent of
the bandit activities, as he only took a mere 6 guards with him.
Due to Ulfius being away on other business, it was myself who was put
in charge of leading the mission to recover him (and help Duke
Hawkeye out at the same time). Various of the Bacchus present at the
meeting promised to give aid, but being what we are, you are always
unsure of exact numbers until they actually arrive.
Spent some time organising the expedition. After enquiring around
the court in Winchester I have discovered that Lady Lysandra and
Lords Hugo and Benedict will also be going to the area (known as
'Rutterkins Woods') to help Hawkeye. Despite some gentle advise from
several people (including myself) that this may be unwise they seemed
determined. The forward camp that Hawkeye has established is one
day's forced march from the nearest ritual circle, and his troops are
patrolling a so-called 'safe corridor' to allow people to join him
with little risk of attack. In order to decrease the risks still
further I offered to Hugo, Benedict and Lysandra that they join the
Bacchus when we marched. They agreed and we arranged to meet at the
Ritual Circle in Cornwall on Thursday 30th April, early
afternoon.
I had supplies (including holy water) sent forward in a heavily armed
supply train, so we didn't have to carry equipment with us when we
marched. The presence of alcohol at the journey's end would, I hoped,
enthuse the Bacchus and make the march that much quicker.
I arrived early at the Ritual Circle, and awaited the rest of the Bacchus to filter in from Londinium and Warwick. George transported us off to Cornwall, and gave us his blessing for Iggy's rescue before beating a hasty retreat back to the saftey of Londinium and his latest pursuit, the study of the stars. Counting those present, twelve Bacchus had joined the mission. They were Jac and Young John, Mai Ling, Ehlana and Xantalia of the Brothel, Dermot & Cpt. Kelly of the OSR, Sigon de'Barrel and Guillam, a pet/ companion/ whatever of Mai Ling's called Void, myself and a fellow whom I think was called Drass, who joined our number. At the circle in Cornwall we met up with the rest of our companions, Hugo, Lysandra, Benedict and their various bodyguards (from House Karlennon and the Slayers). We hiked off towards the camp, hoping to reach it before sundown the following day, after camping outside the bandits' known area of operations.
We set off in the morning after camping, and continued our march. Towards the end of the afternoon it was clear that we were not going to make the camp before sundown, but we were too far within the danger area to stop. Forming into closed ranks we marched through the night, being watchful for any attack. About a mile out of camp our forward guard notice a pair of crouched figures. When it was demanded that they identify ourselves we were suddenly attacked by about twelve bandits. Strangely, all those bandits seemed to possess magical ability of some soft or other, as they were resistant to our spells. Their massed charge and flagrant use of magic threw us back, and they singled out Hugo for special attention. Casting a spell of sleep on his bodyguard, Malthrax, they seized him and transported him away from out of our midst with teleportational magic.
Dismayed, we fell back into a loose perimeter around Lady Lysandra and the healers, who were questioning a bandit we had captured during the attack. The bandit seemed to have no useful knowledge, and meanwhile we were being harried from all sides by the bandits. One of them who, to my knowledge, cast at least 12 sleep spells in all, seemed intent at luring members of our group off into the woods to be slain. Benedict fell prey to one such attempt and was dragged away. Si was also captured, but the bandits gave up trying to ransom him when we pretended to be unconcerned over his fate. We recovered him and, unwilling to risk others, set off towards the camp in a "blob" formation.
By not succumbing to the temptation to run off
into the woods to try to slay our attackers we made progress with no
further losses. Just outside of camp we were joined by some of
Hawkeye's men, and those who had preceded us in stealthy fashion.
They formed a rear guard with some of our men while the rest of us
attained the camp. General Tarn (who was present in that guard) spent
his time trying to slay as many as possible, without regard for his
own safety, or that of those who felt compelled to remain with him.
This later led to Lysandra forbidding him to leave the camp on his
own, lest he be taken the same way Hugo and Benedict were.
The camp itself was surrounded by a deep ditch and thick natural brush that left the only way of attack across a narrow bridge. This was to prove a useful defensive point against at least some of the enemies we fought. When all had settled for a while there was a council of war within the command tent. Myself, Lysandra and Hawkeye discussed how to respond to the bandits inevitable demands when they realised what prizes they had gained. We were not aided in this by demands from all sides that we simply slay the bandits. We eventually decided to sent out a notice with some of our scouts requesting a parley, who would nail the notice to a tree where the bandits might see it. Just as we were going to carry out this decision there was a commotion on the gates. Bandits had approached the bridge, and were under fire from one of the archers that had accompanied us. A group of warriors (including myself and Tarn) charged out of the camp into them. Most of the bandits were slain where they stood, but the attack faltered when we found the dead body of Hugo at the rear of their party. Dismayed and confused at this, we carried his body into the camp, and tried to decide what it all meant.
Upon my advice we asked Elmwood, a powerful Incantor who was with us, to attempt to speak with Hugo's pattern. I formulated the questions whilst Elmwood asked them. However, all was not as it seemed. Hugo's pattern did not respond to our questioning. This aroused our suspicions, and we checked the body for magic. Some sort of magical concealment was upon the body, but its nature remained a mystery. We now had hope however: possibly the body was not that of Hugo but someone else's concealed. The other possibility was that the magic concealed Hugos pattern from us. In either case we could not work out the motivation for doing it, but many theories were bandied about.
Messages captured during the attack spoke of a ritual that the bandits were going to perform that night to summon a powerful creature. Scouts out in the wood brought news that a ritual group had indeed arrived at the place mentioned. A group of warriors formed up and we set off in haste towards the "pit of fire", the place mentioned in the note. At this point I was armed with Excalibur, entrusted to me when Hawkeye had retired for the night. Unfortunately the bandits had somehow created a ritual circle, and it was sealed before we arrived. Unable to enter, we watched the ritual in hopes of gaining clues as to the nature of the bandits and their magical aid. The ritual succeeded to an extent, and a large demon appeared. Looking none too pleased it started slaying the ritualists within the circle. Beating a hasty retreat we left the area before the ritualist unsealed the circle. This was to no avail, as the creature proceeded to charge us. It was mighty and its blows smashed through armour and shields as if they weren't there, and had about the same effect on people.
Those of us armed with magical weapons (myself, Tarn and a knight of the Dark Sun who was referred to as variously "Scud" and "target") laid into the beast, with the rest of our group running interference. Despite its obvious power the creature seemed unable to land many telling blows upon its attackers. Eventually, after taking at least 100 blows it fled into the woods and vanished. We healed those who had been disabled and set off back to the camp with news of our victory. Most people then retired for the night, leaving a few of us (who included Jac and myself) to guard the tents.
We pulled back the guards from the bridge later that evening, as
the weather became bitterly cold. During the night we were almost
poisoned twice, the first time we were saved by s'Callion the
Beastman's nose, who detected the poison and rousted us out of the
tent. The second time I caught the bandits in the act as I went
outside to answer a call of nature. The bandits fled, but not before
managing to get the poison within the tent again. We spent a cold 10
minutes, and were quite worried when Jac collapsed while trying to
find the entry point of the poison smoke. One of us (Scud) ran to
fetch a healer, but as luck would have it Jac had not received a
lethal dose, and had recovered by the time she arrived.
People sent to check upon Hugo's body in the morning related that it had turned into someone else's during the night. This raised spirits within the camp, and gave us hope of still recovering him alive. At about 11am I decided that I needed some sleep (I had been on night watch), and retired for about 4 hours. Jac remained awake, and thus was involved (with the rest of the camp) in the events that I now relate second-hand.
Soon after I fell asleep Hugo and Benedict were found by scouts in the woods with a man called Constantine. Apparently he had been Baron of Cornwall under Jadvar of the Lions and, probably due to the confused command chains during the end of the civil war, had not heard of the Harts/Lions settlement. Thinking that he was now fighting the war in an occupied area he had employed the services of a mercenary commander to lead guerrilla-style strikes under the disguise of bandits. Unfortunately the mercenary commander had not considered the pay worthwhile, and had started raiding for real.
The forces that had captured Hugo and Benedict the night before had been his, and after discussion he had realised that the war was over. He had decided to pledge allegiance to the crown when the camp came under attack by a large force of bandits who had with them a magical were-beast of some sort, a mage capable of casting mage-bolts, another mage with a sword of mage-bolt and a druid (called Roygen) who could cast a mean "Venom-bolt", like a mage-bolt but it poisoned you instead. This force annihilated our defences and left almost all of our people (except Ehlana and Xantalia, who hid) on the ground unconscious or dying.
They grabbed Constantine and left, leaving his dead body for us to find further down the trail when the healers had finished getting everyone back on their feet. To my shame I managed to sleep right through all of this commotion, and it had to be related to me when I awoke. Unfortunately Void, Mai Ling's companion, was killed in this attack, leaving her angry. We burned Constantine's body on a pyre and buried Void in the woods. Having had quite enough of the bandits by now, and reasoning that they had cast most of their magic in the attack on us, we organised an assault. Leaving behind some guards on the camp with Lysandra, we headed to where the scouts had tracked the bandits to after the attack.
Elmwood and myself joined forces for the assault and when we came upon the bandits our combined confusion magics blasted right through the spell defences of their mages, leaving them helpless before our swords. The rest of the bandits went down about as easily, as we had become more organised and formed into small attack squads.
We recovered a note from the bandit chief detailing an arrangement to hand over Iggy to a man called Captain Staines of the Black Orc on the Monday (4th May) at one o'clock in the afternoon. A cache of magical potions was found in the encampment, as well as a bracelet and a scroll case. The bracelet was identified as having necromantic magics by Lysandra, whilst the scroll case contained a document written in strange runes, that Drass later translated as being some sort of pact with the Fey.
It was here that our real troubles started. Now that we
had dealt a telling blow to the bandits, we felt that we were finally
getting a hand on the situation. However, when we had returned to
camp, night had fallen and strange events were afoot.We were joined
by another companion, Quarrier, a healer/ scout, who arrived in the
late afternoon. I was, unfortunately, on guard at the bridge when
four huge shapes approached in the darkness. Failing to answer our
calls for identification we attacked them as they crossed the bridge.
Our swords had no effect upon them and we were forced to retreat. I
later discovered that they had been Ogre skeletons, thus accounting
for their large, thick bodied (for skeletons) frames.
Whilst this was happening there was a further commotion behind us. I could see the red glowing eyes of wraiths surrounding the command tent. I continued to back away before the skeletons only to find that the wraiths had unaccountably left off their attack on the tent and were retreating. One of them struck me a blow from behind that passed straight through my sturdy leather armour, wounding me in the back with the sheer cold of its touch. I fell to the ground unconscious.
I awoke some minutes later to find a healer standing over me. As I was getting to my feet there was further activity at the bridge. I quickly ran to reinforce the guard. A tall, black cloaked figure wearing a circlet, and six other creatures later identified as Death Knights had approached the bridge. The lead creature removed us from his path by some dark magics that repelled all living things, but as they passed I sought to stay them with my sword. One of them stuck at me and eventually landed a blow on my leg that again passed through my armour, wounding me beneath it. The Death Knight sdid not press the attack but continued along with their master.
I called upon the power of Bacchus to heal me, then carried on to the tent. A loud cry of "What will the people of Albion think of you now?" or some such came from the leader of the Death Knights, and they then marched off into the woods. Arriving at the tent I discovered that the reason the wraiths had left off the attack was that Hugo had handed the bracelet we had found over to them, mistakenly believing them to be Dark Fey. This was also the matter that the "Dark Prince" (or so he styled himself) had been shouting about. Apparently we had to recover the bracelet or things would be really bad. I truly wish that I had been at the command tent to identify the creatures as wraiths, so much grief would have been saved had I done so.
After the prince left, the wraiths returned. Running ahead of them were two messengers from Winchester, bearing with them a box of earth from the sacred grove at Winchester that has the ability to stop the path of Unliving, and the healing cup, filled before they left. The two were Uther and Cyrix, a grey elf with the ability to enchant arrows. They had also brought a prophesy that had been spoken by Yorlanda that seemed to refer to our predicament, but this was typically cryptic. We quickly scattered the sacred earth upon the tent entranceway, and called in the outlying guards.
The rest of that night found us fighting off the wraiths and sundry other Undead from the doorway of the tent. None of the wraiths were killed, and indeed one of them proved to be immune even to Enchanted weapons. This wraith was wearing the bracelet that we had given to them earlier. During this time Elrathlian of the Hunters was slain. The attacks continued until about 2am, then the Dark Prince returned. He stated that he and his Death Knights would patrol the woods, keeping the wraiths and other Undead from us, as long as we bent our efforts to recovering the bracelet. Not having the ability to deny him after the long fight we let him do as he said.
His help, although useful, did disrupt the one plan that we had managed to devise. Hugo was to attack the wraith bearing the bracelet with his bare hands, protected by an endurance potion and the power of the ancestors in the form of a "Chant of Protection". Hugo would then attempt to rip the bracelet from the wraith's semi-incorporeal arm. Alas, the wraiths did not approach the camp between the formation of this plan and the offer of the Dark Prince.Hugo and some others remained on guard all night. I however had some well-earned sleep.
I awoke and, after breakfast, attended a council of war
within the command tent. The consensus of opinion was that it would
be best if we attempted to locate the place where the earthly remains
of the wraiths had been buried during the day, in the hope that they
would have returned there with the bracelet to sleep out the daylight
hours. This was approved by a emissary of the Dark Prince (one Lady
Gwendolyn, not an Undead), who reiterated his demand that we give the
bracelet to him when we recovered it. She also offered the Prince's
aid in keeping off the minor Undead whilst we did our investigations.
Another visitor, one Var (or Fuzz) of the Beastmen, arrived to give
us his aid.
It is a well known fact (to Incantors at least) that wraiths cannot abide the light of the day, so we hoped to avoid encountering the wraiths at all. I went out on patrol early in the morning, but we discovered no Barrow or burial ground. Undead attacks (mainly skeletons, zombies and ghouls) continued during the day, but we held them off with no great losses (I shudder to think what it would have been like if the Dark Prince hadn't been helping us, unless, of course, he hadn't...).
Eventually a scout returned with the location of a barrow that might be the one we sought. We sent out an expedition in force to investigate, again leaving a minor guard at the camp to protect Lady Lysandra and the equipment. We smashed through several groups on Unliving before coming across the barrow that the scout spoke of. We checked the barrow with magic but it appeared to contain no Unliving. This changed when Lord Hugo dug his way into it. When he had fully entered the barrow we heard a commotion inside, and Hugo became motionless. His bodyguard and Benedict started to pull him out when a wave of fear emanated from the barrow. It was so intense that even I, who am protected against such things, was forced to flee. We scattered before the blast like ashes on the wind.
Then, while we were scattered and disorganised, Unliving
attacked from the woods in force. An Unliving creature that had the
aspect of a woman, rose from the barrow and demanded retribution for
the violation of her tomb. I ducked and dodged my way past the
Undead, hoping to find companions to stand with. Unfortunately the
great majority of the Unliving were skeletal, and my mace had broken
in a fight earlier that afternoon. Luckily I spotted Hunter's hammer
discarded by a tree, so I borrowed it and laid into my attackers. I
held them off long enough for my comrades to come to my aid, and we
finished them. Then we had to fight the barrow-wight.
The creature was fearful in aspect and armed with a shield and
dagger. The dagger was surrounded by a black aura, and I could well
imagine the mortal blows that it could strike, like the one that laid
Hugo low. Earlier this afternoon Benedict had leant me his magic
dagger, so I was in fact able to strike the creature. Several others
attacked and taunted it from various directions whilst I and other
magically-armed people attacked its flanks and rear. I myself laid on
the last blow, severing the hand that held that fatal dagger. We
searched the body and the barrow, discovering money and a letter. The
letter, which I did not see myself, related that the barrow was that
of a Lady Rowena, and that she was a paladin of the Mother.
She was in some way connected with the five wraiths, who had betrayed a trust of some kind and been bound into the bracelet as punishment. She had thrown her sword into a druid's grove when she was mortally wounded, and that weapon was thought to have power over the wraiths. We did some more scouting and discovered the grove. A small troupe of scouts investigated before we returned to camp to discuss matters and send a more thorough investigative team. When we reached camp I changed into my heavy armour, as all my spells had been expended in the fight with the barrow-wight. A small group of us, including Hawkeye and Lysandra, set off to the grove to see if we could discover the location of the weapon. After several searches around the grove with the liberal use of detect magic spells we concluded that the sword was missing or what ever enchantment had been upon it had worn out. We returned to camp in time to aid in repelling an assault by the Unliving, including an exploding skeletal warrior of some sort.
Darkness now fell, and we received several visitations. Firstly, the Dark Prince arrived. He berated us for the desecration of the barrow, and told us that, contrary to Hugo's beliefs (that the barrow-wight would be laid to rest if its goods were scattered), we should return the grave goods to the barrow and re-seal it. After a heated exchange upon the merits of sharing information the Dark Prince left in a huff, declaring that we could fight the wraiths by ourselves. We quickly assembled a scouting team to return the grave goods, with a backup squad of warriors to aid them in case of resistance. I remained at the camp on guard, but the warriors successfully smashed their way through the Undead ranks and returned the items to the barrow.
This led to us receiving our second visit of the evening. This was by the spirit of Lady Rowena herself, who was now at rest due to the return of the grave goods. She told us that her sword did indeed lie within the grove, and that two of our number had actually touched it (Scallion and Var). Comparing notes Scallion and Var declared that they now knew where to find the sword, and set off with a small group of people to recover it. They returned, successful this time, bearing the sword before them. As always with ancient artefacts, the weapon was about half the size of a decent sized sword. People must have been very small in those days.
At that point the wraiths appeared in the distance around the camp, but seemed hesitant to approach. We speculated that they knew the sword was within the camp, and that it could destroy them. The sword appeared to have am in of its own, and dragged its users towards the woods where the wraiths were. Hugo, who had touched the weapon briefly, became possessed of a sudden urge to grab the sword and charge into the woods. Any who tried to stop him had their minds changed, and all of those warriors that followed him became enamoured of the idea of running into the dark woods to fight the wraiths (including myself).
So in we charge, Hugo at the head. He and the other warriors outdistanced me when I fell badly crossing the bridge, so I entered the woods alone. The moon light created shadows under every bush, and it was difficult to tell where threats were coming from. Suddenly a dark, hissing, figure emerged from under a bush to my right and charged me. Not knowing if it was a wraith or not, and certainly unwilling to face it on my own if it was, I retreated towards a group of my comrades. They were in the thick of battle with a wraith themselves, and several people had gone down. I pulled forth the magic dagger (Benedict's one) and started laying into the wraith. Obviously I was the only one in the group capable of harming the wraith, as it turned on ne, swiping its semi-incorporeal blows against my shield as it rushed towards me. I desperately parried but it eventually reached around the shield, striking me on me right arm, and then full upon my chest with those chilling blows that pass straight through armour. I collapsed, and the world went dark.
I awoke some time later with Quarrier, the healer/scout, crouched over me. I must take some time here to congratulate him on his bravery. Quarrier went on to heal another man who had collapsed beside me whilst I was unconscious, and I took a look at my surroundings. To my horror, what I saw was the cold, still bodies of Hawkeye and Malthrax lying not two paces from where I stood. They had bled to death from mortal blows that had been inflicted in the same battle I had been laid low in. Quarrier got the other fellow (a member of the Slayers whose name escapes me) conscious, but was out of healing, so the fellow's leg remained inoperative.
I supported him and we joined Quarrier and Tarn (who had bodyguarded Quarrier through the wood) in a bid for the camp. As we left I could hear Benedict in the darkness behind us laying into the wraiths with Excalibur. We were about half-way there when we were charged from behind by a dark figure. Unable to make good speed due to the injured leg of my colleague, he demanded that we leave him behind and get to safety. I let him have his way, and followed Tarn towards the camp. It later turned out that the figure was not a wraith, but instead a ghoul that the Slayer defeated easily, even with a wounded leg. I must complement him upon his courage, as he obviously though he was doomed
I joined Tarn and Quarrier not 10 yards from the camp entrance. I was just asking Tarn how the battle was proceeding when a wraith stepped out of the shadows right next to Tarn and struck me in the chest. I collapsed into Tarn's arms as darkness came over me (again). The wraith had apparently left it at that and made good its escape (probably unwilling to face Tarn in combat!). Quarrier again healed me, this time with the healing cup which still possessed a small amount of power. He game me a bottle of healing potions, and asked me to take them to injured people within the woods. Summoning up my courage I went back into that dark forest to seek my friends. Not far within I discovered a group of Harts surrounding several comatose, paralysed and heavily wounded people. While I was trying to find who was organising the healing efforts we were attacked by (yet) another wraith! I again wielded the magic dagger and assaulted it. I managed to strike a couple of blows before it rounded on me and put me down , again wounded to the chest.
I recovered consciousness to find Xantalia leaning over me (a welcome sight at any time). I gave over the healing potion I had into her keeping, then took stock of the situation. Being informed that the wraiths were almost defeated, I picked up Young John from where he lay unconscious, and bore him to the camp with aid from one of my fellow warriors. When we reached the camp we were informed that we had retrieved the bracelet from the wraiths, and were only waiting the return of Hugo. He duly arrived a few minutes later, bearing the glad tidings that the last of the wraiths were dead. The rest of those within the woods returned as well, bearing with them the bodies of Hawkeye, Malthrax and Stomp (who had died from bleeding when someone overlooked his wounds during the confusion).
After a period of mourning Hugo declared that he assumed command of the mission, and that he was going to hand over the bracelet to the waiting emissary of the Dark Prince. He asked for people to declare their support for this action. Most agreed of stood silent, only Benedict, a few other members of House Karlennon and the Beastmen opposed him. They stood aside as Hugo gave the bracelet into the care of Lady Gwendolyn.
It turned out to be the right decision, as she returned 30 minutes later with the bracelet, this time with its power removed. The threat ended, we discussed the sad but necessary issue of burial rites for Hawkeye ,Malthrax and Stomp. The Beastmen asked to be allowed to dispose of the bodies in their own, special, way. This was agreed for Hawkeye, whilst Malthrax and Stomp were, I believe, buried. Hugo and others said a few appropriate words.
We then held a quick council of war over the rescue attempt for the following day, when we would try to retrieve Iggy from the clutches of the mercenaries before he was handed over to Captain Staines. I then retired for the night, after some brief worshipping. It was bitterly cold, and the encampment tents even had frost on them.
After a cold and uncomfortable night I awoke and
joined the rest at the command tent. We had estimated the time when
we would have to set off as being 11.30, so after a quick breakfast
we formed into ranks and marched the whole of our forces off to the
cove where the exchange was going to take place. We left no guards at
the camp for everyone had come with us, and no equipment of
importance was left behind. Upon reaching the cove it transpired that
we had arrived just at the time the exchange was taking place. A
group of us charged forward to retrieve and guard Iggy, whilst the
rest of us took care of the mercenaries and then the pirates (who
arrived mere moments into the battle).
We easily defeated the disorganised rabble (Elmwood and I proved a potent team once again) and spent some time healing Iggy while singing victory songs (at least the Bacchus did). I discovered a ship's log on one of the bodies that detailed the various nefarious activities of Captain Staines and his crew. This I passed into the care of Hugo, for the attention of the Albion militia. It also contained other information that will have to be investigated, but may prove useful.
Having achieved our goals we headed back to camp without further ado. We struck camp and headed off for the Ritual Circle later that day, carrying with us a sense of both victory and sorrow as we remembered those that had fallen.
