* Dan: “Why do I have this image of us all being like 70 years old and still acknowledging ...” *
Catherine the Bawd’s brothel.
Donal is being held by the neck by Catherine the Bawd. He pulls up his feet, kicks loose and does a back flip into the room.
Donal: “I believe that one is the demon.”
Laurens: “Well, that would have been nice to know.”
Donal: “All demons change shape.”
Now to Catherine, Donal says, “Your games are over here.”
Catherine: “What makes you say that?”
Laurens attacks immediately. He strikes to the face with his short sword. He strikes to the knee caps with his mace. Catherine is looking at Donal. The short sword breaks. Neither strike has a visible effect. Catherine doesn’t acknowledge the attack.
Donal sits down on the bed.
Donal: “That was impressive.”
Catherine: “Okay. What do you want here? Both of you? Other than to splatter my girls over the headboard.”
Donal: “I want you out of the city.”
Catherine: “That’s not going to happen.”
Donal: “And what makes you so certain of that.”
Catherine: “I like it here.”
Laurens is assessing the situation and considering the caliber of his swords.
Donal: “I am going to make it so that you don’t like it here.”
Catherine: “All right. I suppose I’ll have to do the same for you then. I don’t really have a need to do that though until you make one. I think live and let live is a more appropriate response here.”
Donal: “You’re messing with people’s minds.”
Catherine: “All right.”
Donal: “That’s not really a live and let live.”
Catherine: “Is there some aspect of the Duke’s business or your business that I have interfered with? I can try to stay out of your way.”
Donal: “That’s not good enough.”
Catherine: “All right, where do you want to go with this then?”
Donal: “How much would it cost for you to move to another city?”
Catherine: “I suppose I would have to think on that. Why is it so important that I leave?”
Donal: “You’re affecting the people of York.”
Catherine: “All right. I suppose. I’m not alone in that, certainly.”
Donal: “No. But, you’re doing it without their knowledge. You’re doing it to their detriment.”
Catherine: “I’m not alone in that either.”
* Makul: “I’m stalling. You know that I’m just stalling?” *
* Dan: “... I’ve got nothing.” *
Catherine: “Right now, I just know I have a dead girl and you two in the room. You’ve already cost me and as far as I know, I’ve done nothing to you.”
Donal: “I’m okay with the attention. Are you going to be.”
Catherine: “I think my business is well known at this point.”
Donal: “I think your business is well know, but I don’t think the manner in which you conduct your business is well known.”
Catherine: “I think you’ll find that difficult to prove.”
Donal: “I’m sure I have a few friends that might think otherwise.”
Catherine: “If they seek that kind of attention for themselves, excellent. I can find a new role more easily than they can I suspect.”
Donal: “Just how long have you been doing this?”
Catherine: “A long while.”
Laurens considers burning the brothel down and concludes it would damage other buildings.
Donal: “Nothing is going to sway you to move?”
Catherine: “I said I would think about your offer of money. But, I do like it here.”
Laurens leaves the room. Catherine steps out of the way. Laurens carries his bloody mace out the front of the brothel. He heads for the castle after confiscating a horse from a passing merchant.
Donal: “So, who was it that he actually killed?”
Catherine: “Judith.”
Donal: “Are you affecting all of the girls?”
Catherine: “I hope so.”
Donal: “I’m certainly not going to solve it like Laurens did. I would think of my offer.”
Catherine: “I will give it consideration. Think of mine.”
Donal walks out of the brothel. He heads for the castle as well. He sees a merchant lying in the gutter.
Sir Martin Owl is staking out the Wolf’s Head. He sees no sign of the body guards. He flies to each of the inns he saw Thomas go with the body guards. He watches and doesn’t see any of the guards. Finally, he goes in as Sir Martin and asks questions. The inn keeper remembers selling a room to one of the people Sir Martin describes.
Sir Martin: “What room?”
The inn keeper tells him. Sir Martin heads for the room and knocks at the door. No one answers. Sir Martin knocks louder and there is still no answer. He leaves, then changes to a crow and flies to the window sill. Sir Martin crow sees the room is empty of people and gear. He visits the other 3 inns and finds the same thing. Sir Martin crow flies back to the castle.
Sir Martin heads for his room. Along the way he sees Donal.
Sir Martin: “Good evening, Donal.”
Donal: “Martin. Have you seen Laurens?”
Sir Martin: “Uh no. I’ve just returned to the castle myself.”
Donal: “We should go see if Vivienne is back.”
Sir Martin: “Uh ... okay.”
Donal: “Yeah, yeah. Let’s just go find Vivienne.”
Sir Martin: “Well, Sire, lead on.”
Donal: “Oh, excuse me, my lordship.”
Donal and Sir Martin head for Quillius’ and find Laurens heading down the hallway.
Donal: “What was that all about?”
Laurens: “He’s got a magic sword. Let’s go back.”
Donal: “Did you figure it ... tell me you were figuring that out.”
Laurens: “Yes.”
Sir Martin: “Uh, the rumors are untrue.”
Donal: “Were you able to learn anything more about Catherine?”
Laurens: “Who’s Catherine?”
Sir Martin: “My sister.”
Laurens: “In the amount of time it took me to ride back to the castle?”
Donal: “No, while I was standing there talking to her.”
Laurens: “Yeah.”
Donal: “Did you get anything from ... you’ve been working with Quillius haven’t you?”
Laurens: “I can sense it. I can’t tell you what it is.”
Donal: “Did you sense anything?”
Laurens: “Well, I know I hit her with a mace, and she didn’t move.”
Sir Martin: “My sister?”
Laurens: “No ...”
Donal: “Catherine the Bawd.”
Laurens: “Apparently there is a demon in charge of a bordello in York. We went to dispatch said demon. Apparently, this demon is immune to mortal arms.”
Sir Martin: “So?”
Laurens: “So, I remember the battle with our ogre where you succeeded very nicely at injuring it. And I was thinking that your magic sword would be of good use against the demon.”
Sir Martin: “What makes you think this woman is a demon. She’s been here in town for ...”
Laurens: “I’m just listening to that guy.”
Donal: “I heard a rumor that Edmund, the Captain of the Guard, was being a little more ... forceful than normal. And ... knew he had been spending a lot of time at the brothel, so I went to investigate it and ... found the girl that he had been spending a lot of time with. Said girl ... or something ... proceeded to try to scry me. And when I persisted the girl shifted into Vivienne’s form. I made my excuses and came back here to get a little help. Laurens and I returned to the brothel where Laurens proceeded to dispatch Judith the girl ...”
Laurens: “The demon.”
Donal: ” ... whereupon Catherine the Bawd lifted me into the air with one arm. As I broke free, Laurens attempted to attack her and was unsuccessful.”
Laurens: “Oh no, I attacked her. My weapons broke when I hit her.”
Donal: “Unsuccessfully.”
Laurens: “Oh they hit ...”
Sir Martin: “What did she want to know?”
Donal: “I’m not sure.”
Laurens: “It’s a demon, Martin. Hell spawn.”
Sir Martin: “I would have thought the same of Vivienne a fortnight ago.”
Laurens: “Well, she is. She’s just on our side.”
Sir Martin: “All right. So, what’s your plan of action?”
Donal: “I need someone who can tell me what Catherine is.”
Sir Martin: “Surreptitiously?”
Donal: “Not necessarily.”
Sir Martin: “Then, I would say that Quillius or Vivienne are better choices than I.”
Donal: “Neither Quillius, nor Vivienne are here.”
Sir Martin: “If you are interested in information initially, then maybe you should wait for their return, and watch this brothel in case anything else occurs. You don’t know what you’re fighting, right?”
Laurens: “We never do.”
Sir Martin: “Well, you got one of the demons.”
Laurens: “That’s true.”
Sir Martin: “Is the entire brothel ...”
Donal: “She looked pretty human.”
Sir Martin: “She may be. She may not be demonic at all.”
Laurens: “I say we go back and kill her.”
Sir Martin: “Why didn’t you kill Katherine’s hand maiden when you had the opportunity?”
Laurens: “You’re talking about your sister now?”
Sir Martin: “I mean– destroy this one, but leave the other one alive?”
Laurens: “The hand maiden, although she was spreading rumors, wasn’t directly harming the Duke. For all I know, the Duke may want to marry your sister or niece. Where as this person is influencing the Captain of the Guard which impacts the Duke.”
Sir Martin: “You have an interesting way of seeing what affects the Duke and what doesn’t.”
Laurens: “If the Duke wanted to do something about the rumors, he would have. We only alleviated the rumors.”
Sir Martin: “It seems like he did. Through you. It was a much more subtle hand.”
Laurens: “Well, I’ve been learning how.”
Sir Martin: “Maybe this is a case of that as well.”
Donal: “While you guys are talking about the hand maiden, I’m going to go see if anybody else is around.”
Donal leaves to find Gabriel.
Sir Martin: “All I am saying is that it may be better to have a little bit of intelligence before we make our next move.”
Laurens: “Okay.”
Laurens heads back to his room. Sir Martin enter Quillius’, sees no sign of either Quillius or Vivienne, takes a seat in the entry, and makes himself comfortable. He dozes off.
Thomas is working on his sketches.
Donal knocks on Gabriel’s door and gets no answer.
Sir Martin wakes to an explosion of sound and a flaming Vivienne landing in his lap, both falling to the ground. Sir Martin finds a bucket of water and douses her. Vivienne struggles to her feet as she struggles to get her bearings.
Laurens reaches for his short sword, then changes to his axe.
Donal: “Gabriel’s gone!”
Sir Martin: “What happened?”
Vivienne: “I must get back there.”
Sir Martin: “Where?”
Vivienne: “To Egremont. And ... Quillius.”
Sir Martin: “Why? ... What’s the matter?”
Vivienne: “Something went wrong. We brought Vincent to be examined by ...”
Sir Martin: “A friend of his ...”
Vivienne: “More than one friend.”
Sir Martin: “Is it a tall tower? Drafty?”
Vivienne: “They were going to examine him since we couldn’t figure out what he was. Something went wrong. Quillius sent me here just in time. I don’t know what is happening back there. I don’t know if anyone survived.”
Sir Martin goes to get the others. He finds Donal and Laurens standing at the door. Vivienne fills them in.
Sir Martin: “We also have our issue here in York, but I think that ... may ... be a second priority. I don’t know.”
Vivienne: “Whatever they unleashed is more threatening and dangerous than whatever is here.”
Sir Martin: “Where is it?”
Vivienne: “On the coast. West of here. Days ride, but I think I can get us there faster.”
Sir Martin: “Who do we need?”
Vivienne: “As many people as we can take.”
Sir Martin: “I’ll go and get Thomas. You stay with them.”
Sir Martin leaves.
Donal: “Do you know anything about a demon witch brothel from Hell?”
Vivienne: “A what?”
Donal fills Vivienne on the events in the same way as he did Sir Martin. He leaves out that Judith shape changed to look like Vivienne.
Sir Martin knocks at Thomas’ door. He hears a cat meow at the door.
Sir Martin: “It’s not Laurens. Thomas! It’s Martin. Can I come in?”
Thomas: “Yeah, sure. Just watch the cat.”
Sir Martin opens the door.
Sir Martin: “I need you to get your book and whatever else you may need for a trip.”
Thomas: “Well, the book is the big prerequisite usually.”
Sir Martin: “I need you to also contact Gabriel and Gwynedd.”
Thomas: “Okay ... And what seems to be up?”
Sir Martin: “Vivienne has returned. It seems that she and Quillius took Vincent to some kind of council to have him examined and something went wrong.”
Thomas: “Vincent? Who’s Vincent, though?”
Sir Martin: “Vincent was her ... ward. Haste please.”
Thomas: “‘Kay. Let me get my stuff.”
Sir Martin: “Can you try contacting Gabriel at the moment?”
Thomas: “Yeah, I guess so. Wouldn’t it be easier to find out what was wrong and pull them there?”
Sir Martin: “Do you happen to have a sketch of Egremont?”
Thomas: “Is it anywhere near London.”
Sir Martin: “No.”
Thomas: “Then, no, I guess.”
Sir Martin: “Can you try contacting him?”
Thomas: “Yeah, sure.”
Thomas locates Gabriel’s image in the book.
Thomas: “Here, since you could probably give a more rational explanation to, ah, Gabriel of what the problem is and why he is needed so urgently and so I don’t have to keep relaying questions back and forth to him, you can have the honor of talking to Gabriel.”
Sir Martin: “Give me the damned book.”
Sir Martin concentrates on Gabriel’s picture.
Gabriel dosing gently in his room in Leeds hears Sir Martin’s voice.
Sir Martin: “Gabriel?”
Gabriel looks around the room.
Sir Martin: “Gabriel, I’m using Thomas’ book.”
Gabriel: “Yes.”
Sir Martin: “We need you to come back to York. Immediately. It seems that something has happened with Quillius. Vivienne just came back. I’ll explain more later. At least for now.”
Gabriel gathers his thoughts.
Sir Martin: “Can you come through?”
Gabriel: “There is the matter of the horse I brought here that is the Duke’s horse. I need to make arrangements for that if I’m going to leave it here.”
Sir Martin: “Do you have a drawing of Leeds?”
Thomas: “Of Leeds?”
Thomas shakes his head no.
Sir Martin: “Time is of the essence. I’ll contact you in a few minutes.”
Gabriel: “Okay.”
Sir Martin: “Oro, where’s the picture of ...”
Gabriel gets dress and goes to find the inn keeper.
Inn keeper: “Yes, sir.”
Gabriel: “It seems I’m in a bit of trouble, and I need to leave my horse here. I can pay for his upkeep for the next week if that’s okay.”
Inn keeper: “Of course.”
Gabriel: “It works out better for me if I leave my horse.”
Inn keeper: “Very well.”
Gabriel gives him the money. Then heads outside acting stealthy. Gabriel gets his stuff off his horse as well.
Sir Martin: (pointing to the picture of Gwynedd) “Where did this one come from?”
Thomas: “In there.”
Sir Martin: “It wasn’t in there before.”
Thomas: “It was in there. It was just hiding.”
Sir Martin focuses on Gwynedd.
Gwynedd is sleeping comfortably. She smells lilac and honeysuckle drifting in the room.
Sir Martin is unable to make any contact at all.
Sir Martin: “You try.”
Thomas tries. He also is unable to make contact.
Sir Martin: “Is it working for you?”
Thomas shakes his head no.
Thomas: “Well she’s either dead, blocking or someone else is blocking her.”
Sir Martin: “She’s dead?”
Thomas: “No. More likely she’s blocking. She’s difficult to contact.”
Sir Martin: “Why would she be blocking?”
Thomas: “Because her mind is strong? And ah ...”
Sir Martin: “Can she not distinguish when you or I are trying to contact her as opposed to anyone else?”
Thomas: “Well, the cards are ... more of mental contact and if she blocking all mental contact for her defense ... If you really need to get in contact with her, then you should probably talk to Vivienne.”
Sir Martin: “Hmm, we’ll deal with that in a moment.”
Sir Martin takes the book back and contacts Gabriel.
Gabriel: “Yes?”
Sir Martin: “Are you in a good place?”
Gabriel: “Yes.”
Sir Martin pulls him through.
Gabriel: “What’s up?”
Sir Martin: “Vivienne just returned from being away for a few days. Apparently she and Quillius took Vincent to some sort of council.”
Gabriel: “Who’s Vincent?”
Sir Martin: “Vincent is s young child that they brought back from some town who was apparently under the influence of something. They were both rather vague.”
Gabriel: “A demonic book.”
Sir Martin: “Under the influence of a demonic book?” (He hastily returns Thomas’ book to him.)
Gabriel: “Let’s go talk to Vivienne.”
Sir Martin: “Yes. We can’t get in touch with Gwynedd. But, Vivienne may have a way using Thomas’ book.”
The three head to Quillius’ chambers.
Vivienne has changed out of her smoldering clothes. (Does that mean something different to Donal?)
Sir Martin: “We can’t get a hold of Gwynedd.”
Gabriel: “Where are we going?”
Sir Martin: “We have two issues pressing. One of which is this matter with Quillius which may in fact be more important initially. But, we also have this other matter ...”
Laurens and Donal: “May?”
Sir Martin: “Well? It’s hard to say whether this is a feint for getting us all away from the castle.”
Vivienne: “A very powerful group of wizards was just destroyed, I think.”
Sir Martin: “Destroyed? And we are going to where a powerful group of wizards could not deal with this issue?”
Vivienne: “We have to do something.”
Laurens: “There’s a demon in a brothel.”
Sir Martin: “It seems that Catherine the Bawd is a demon.”
Gabriel: “Do you know where we’re going?”
Vivienne: “Where we are going? Yes I do.”
Gabriel: “Can you impart that on Thomas?”
Thomas: “Ouch.”
Vivienne: “I think I can get us there.”
Sir Martin: “How long will it take you to paint a location, a destination?”
Vivienne: “It’s a spell.”
Sir Martin: “You should also attempt to contact Gwynedd. Our attempts to do so did not work. It may be her doing, but ...”
Vivienne: “Okay.”
Thomas: “Just do not attempt to do it in this room.”
Sir Martin: “Why?”
Thomas: “Quillius has a ... safeguard setup. It makes it inconvenient.”
Laurens leaves to get some weapons. Vivienne is confident she can get around the safeguards.
Vivienne: “I can do it.”
Gabriel goes to change into proper clothing.
Vivienne concentrates on Gwynedd’s picture.
Gwynedd: “Hello?”
Vivienne: “Gwynedd, it’s Vivienne. We could use your help.”
Gwynedd: “That doesn’t sound good.”
Vivienne: “Do you think you can come back to York and join the rest of us?”
Gwynedd: “Where are we going?”
Vivienne: “Do you remember Vincent?”
Gwynedd: “Yes.”
Vivienne: “Well, he just destroyed a very powerful group of wizards that were trying to examine him. And Quillius managed to send me to safety in time. I don’t know what’s happened out there, but I think we need to go back and deal with it.”
Gwynedd: “Okay. I just have to leave a message for someone, then I can come. I’ll just be a moment.”
Vivienne: “I’ll contact you in a few minutes.”
Gwynedd leaves her room to contact the unicorn. She plays a song that calls him.
Gwynedd: “Good evening. I’ve just gotten a message from some friends in York that something has gone very much awry. Something involving wizards getting destroyed. So, it seems I must go back to deal with that.”
Unicorn: “I understand.”
Gwynedd: “I just thought it important to let you know that ...”
Unicorn: “We can travel together another time then.”
Gwynedd: “We’ll have to meet again.”
The unicorn bows and heads back into the woods.
Vivienne contacts Gwynedd and pulls her into Quillius’ room. Laurens comes back in decked out for war bristling with weapons. Gabriel arrives with a short sword, hand axe, 2 silver daggers and wearing dark leather. Thomas has a cat and a bird. Sir Martin is prepared for battle as well.
Laurens pulls Vivienne to the side.
Laurens: “Do you have any magic swords in here?”
Vivienne: “Not that I know of.”
Laurens: “There must be something.”
Vivienne: “No.”
Gwynedd: “So what is exactly going on?”
Donal: “There is a demon brothel in town.”
Gwynedd: “And what does this have to do with Vincent?”
Vivienne: “The brothel has nothing to do with Vincent. He’s preoccupied with the brothel. I’m afraid that the wizards might have unleashed something. I don’t know what other powers there might be to stop it.”
Laurens: “Did you guys ever figure out how the demon was trapped in the book? Is there anyway we can trap the demon again?”
Gwynedd: “Do you have the book?”
Vivienne: “No. We don’t.”
Sir Martin: “What was the story with this book? Where did you find it?”
Gabriel: “Where is the book?”
Vivienne: “In Leeds.”
Laurens: “It seemed as though the demon might have been contained in the book. It has now left the book and is in the child. My hope was that the demon could be sealed back in the book or another object instead of killing wizards ...”
Sir Martin: “And burn the book.”
Laurens: “But, then that might have freed the demon again. You can’t destroy a demon with fire. Although, I was contemplating it earlier. Although I felt that burning down half of York would have been a bad thing for the city.”
Sir Martin: “This would have been the brothel.”
Thomas: “Why do we keep coming back to the brothel?”
Sir Martin: “The brothel should wait. If you feel so strongly about the brothel, Laurens can send a contingent of guards to clear it out and have it locked down.”
Donal: “That will do no good.”
Sir Martin: “Locking it down will prevent customers from entering ...”
Laurens: “If she hasn’t controlled their minds. Which she did in the brothel.”
Sir Martin: “I see.”
Laurens: “Did the father ever show up?”
Gabriel: “He should arrive tomorrow.”
Laurens goes down to question again the bookseller already in the dungeon. Donal goes to get his gear. Thomas goes to get more of his gear.
Sir Martin: “Have you done this before? You did come back on fire.”
Donal: “How long are we going to be gone?”
Vivienne: “I don’t know.”
Laurens: “Forever if you die.”
Gabriel: “What do we know about what we will be facing?”
Vivienne: “Very little. Some sort of spirit was freed from the book and merged with Vincent. Something very powerful that neither Quillius nor I could tell what it was.”
Laurens: “So did it leave the boy or did he lash out?”
Vivienne: “They are one and the same.”
Laurens: “So, can we kill the host? And if we can do that will it be free to oppress in anyway it wants?”
Vivienne: “Your guess is as good as mind at this point.”
Laurens: “And considering that bad things usually happen, that’s probably what happened.”
Sir Martin: “This circle that you created on the ground before, was it some sort of containment?”
Vivienne: “Yes, but I don’t think it was trying very hard to get out.”
Sir Martin: “I was just wondering if we could somehow get him back into a similar one that you had prepared at our destination ... and then destroy it in the circle.”
Vivienne: “That might work. But, the council that was examining him didn’t free him from anything, But, they had protection ...”
Sir Martin: “Two circles?”
Gabriel: “Was he freed? Did he lash out?”
Vivienne: “I don’t know. I know that something started to go wrong, and Quillius sent me here. I couldn’t make any sense of what was going on.”
Sir Martin: “Can you scry the site before we teleport? Does Quillius have a crystal ball or bauble of some sort?”
Gabriel: “Thomas, can you make us special weapons for fighting demons?”
Thomas: “I don’t know how to use a ...”
Sir Martin: “We should see before we go ...”
Laurens: “Do you have that knife of yours?”
Thomas shakes his head no.
Laurens: “Can you get that knife?”
Thomas: “I could make a new knife.”
Sir Martin: “Wait. wait. What about the old knife?”
Thomas: “The old knife didn’t last. It’s not around anymore. It’s temporary.”
Sir Martin: “How long does it take for you to create such a thing?”
Thomas: “Ah ... I could whip it together ... one sort of temporary thing in about an hour.”
Gwynedd: “Well, if it is urgent for us to find out what this powerful spirit is doing that destroys wizards and towers ...”
Thomas sets about improving Laurens’ sword.
Vivienne spends the next hour preparing the spell.
Sir Martin asks again about scrying the area. Vivienne says it will take another hour.
Sir Martin: “Can you take us to a place near ...”
Vivienne: “I won’t take us exactly back. I can set us down outside the building.”
Sir Martin: “Maybe a little further?”
Gabriel: “Do we have reason to hurry?”
Vivienne: “Well, Vincent could be rampaging ... I don’t know. I don’t know how to ...”
Laurens: “Is the circle ready?”
Vivienne: “The circle’s ready.”
Laurens draws his sword and moves to the center of the circle. Gabriel moves into the circle and faces out at the edge. Donal moves into the circle and tries to be in the middle of everyone.
The group appears on a nice hillside. The hill rolls down to what looks like it used to be a decent sized compound. It is now rubble. On the far side are cliffs down to the ocean.
Gabriel: “Ready?”
Donal: “Yup.”
Gabriel to Laurens: “You should stay here.”
Gabriel and Donal head down to the compound. Gwynedd looks at the compound as they make their way down. She sees a font of power shooting out of the ground. She feels like it is primal power. To the north she see glowing.
Gwynedd: “There’s primal power coming out of the center of the compound and it’s glowing to the north.”
Sir Martin changes into a night owl and takes to the air. He climbs to two hundred feet. He sees smoke to the north. Sir Martin lands.
Sir Martin: “There’s smoke to the north about a mile and a half. There’s nothing moving around here.”
Vivienne: “Did you see Quillius?”
Sir Martin: “There’s nothing that’s moving except us.
Gwynedd senses fires up to the north. “There’s lots of fire to the north.”
Gabriel and Donal arrive at the rubble and begin picking through it looking for signs. They find foot prints of people of all ages. They see that something exploded outward from the center. The outer walls seemed to have been blown outward, too, but by another blast.
Gabriel and Donal don’t find any bodies in the center. They find piles of ash. They begin sifting through the rumble at the epicenter. They find personal artifacts. It’s not clear whether they were being worn. Gabriel collects them. He feels some of the things are special.
Donal is digging through another section of the rubble and falls through. He hits a couple of times on the way down, but manages to land on his feet. He’s fallen 35’ to 45’. Donal is in a natural cavern with a stream running through it. It glows with a blue light. He sees a tunnel going off to the left.
Gabriel: “You okay down there?”
Donal: “I think so. It appears to be some underground cavern. It looks like there are stairs over there leading up. Can you see the blue glow”
Gabriel: “Barely.”
Donal begins examining the cavern. He sees a torch mount on the wall and lights it. He begins looking around. As he gets close to the stream, a figure rises out of the water. It looks like a warrior made of water.
Donal: “Greetings?”
Guardian: “You’ve come to pillage?”
Donal: “No. Only to find what happened.”
Guardian: “What happened? What do you speak of? Who are you, and why are you here?”
Donal: “My name is Donal. I’m looking for my friend Quillius.”
Guardian: “Quillius is known to me.”
Donal: “Do you know his location?”
Guardian: “No. It’s not my duty to keep track of Quillius.”
Donal: “May I ask what your duty is?”
Guardian: “To protect.”
Donal: “The fort?”
Guardian: “No. The font ...”
Donal: “Is the font safe?”
Guardian: “And the treasures of the font.”
Donal: “Did you sense what caused the destruction?”
Guardian: “What destruction?”
Donal: “The buildings above you have been destroyed?”
Guardian: “The buildings above have been destroyed? I know nothing of this. The font is safe. If the building is destroyed then the font runs untapped above.”
Donal: “Is that a problem?”
Guardian: “Only to those that harnessed it. They’ll have to rebuild.”
Donal: “The font is safe, and the treasure is safe, also.”
Guardian: “You’re saying that the cap on the font has been destroyed?”
Donal: “I’m saying the buildings above you have been destroyed. I don’t know of a cap or a font. And no ... You are certain that the font and the treasures are safe .. That no ... you’ve seen the font and the treasures?”
Guardian: “This is the font.”
Donal: “And the treasures?”
Guardian: “The treasures are here with me. Both of them are safe.”
Donal: “If I find Quillius, I will let him know that you continue to perform your duty. The stairs are likely blocked with rubble. Is there a way you could lift me to that exit?”
Guardian: “This has nothing to do with my duties.”
Donal: “It rids the cavern of an unwelcome guest.”
Guardian: “You’re not unwelcome.”
Thomas pulls Edmund the Axe out of his card. Laurens feels a tingling feeling from the rubble.
Gwynedd: “So is that good? That streaming of energy?”
Vivienne: “It’s a source of power.”
Laurens: “If I place my sword in the stream of power, will it do anything?”
Vivienne: “No. The energy will be undirected.”
Vivienne, Laurens and Gwynedd head down to the rubble. Sir Martin takes to the air and explores to the north. Thomas and his bodyguard head toward the rubble, also.
When they get there, they see Gabriel standing near a hole in the ground. Laurens goes and looks in the hole.
Donal: “It’s not part of your duty, but can you do it?”
Gwynedd: “Are you okay Donal?”
Donal: “Yes, just trying to get up.”
Laurens: “What did you find?”
Donal: “There’s a protector down here protecting the font.”
Guardian: “Who are you speaking with?”
Donal: “My companions above. They are also helping me look for Quillius.”
Guardian: “Some of them I sense even from here.”
Donal: “Some of them are very powerful.”
Laurens: “What’s the guardian doing down there?
Donal: “He’s protecting the font.”
Guardian: “So a covenant has come to check on this one?”
Donal: “Something has happened to this covenant.”
Guardian: “So you said.”
Donal: “I know it is not within your duties. I would appreciate it if you would assist me in helping me find Quillius, by lifting me out of this cavern.”
Guardian: “I’d like to meet the rest of you covenant.”
Donal: “To what end?”
Guardian: “To understand your motives in this.”
Donal: “If you can assist me in getting out of this cavern, I will convey your request.”
Guardian: “Very well.”
The guardian gestures outward, and a stream of water hits Donal. It carries him out of the hole, and he lands solidly on his feet.
Donal: “The protector of this font wishes to meet the covenant.”
Gwynedd: “What’s a covenant?”
Donal: “I think he is referring to you folks. It’s the first I’ve heard of it.”
Laurens: “How far down is it?”
Donal: “Thirty, thirty-five feet. He didn’t know what happened up here. I told him I would convey the request. That was the limit of the bargain.”
Laurens drops down into the hole. Gwynedd jumps down as well.
Gabriel pulls the trinkets out of the pouch and hands them to Vivienne.
Gabriel: “These are what I found.”
Vivienne examines the trinkets. Some are minor magical items.
Vivienne: “Some of the wizards were wearing these.”
Gabriel: “We didn’t find any bodies.”
Vivienne: “I don’t know if I’m relieved or more worried for Quillius.”
Gabriel decides to go down.
Gabriel: “Do you wish to go down? I can get you down. Thomas, you don’t want to go down?”
Thomas: “I don’t want to, but I don’t want to stay up here either.”
Gabriel: “Contact me, and I’ll pull you down.”
Thomas: “Actually, that’s damn clever.”
Gabriel: “Can you bring Vivienne with you?”
Thomas: “Yeah, I should be able to. Or I could pull down Vivienne also with her card.”
Gabriel climbs down.
Sir Martin flies north. He finds a town that is on fire in various places. He sees people running in the town. It looks like they are running from the center of the town. Sir Martin circles down to get a look at what is at the center. He is careful to not get too close. When he’s done looking, he flies back south. He sees only Donal and lands on his shoulder. Sir Martin jumps off and changes back.
Sir Martin: “Where is everyone?”
Donal: “Talking to the protector of the font.”
Sir Martin: “The what?”
Donal: “The protector of the font.”
Sir Martin: “I would have thought no one would survive. Do they need help?”
Laurens approaches the stream. The guardian forms out of the water. Laurens gives him a warrior salute.
Vivienne: “Please, sir, do you know what happened to Quillius?”
The place and the guardian seem familiar to Vivienne. She was down here when she was little.
Guardian: “Your friend was down here saying you were looking for him. I don’t know what happened to any of those above.”
Vivienne: “Donal said you wanted to meet us?”
Guardian: “I sensed a powerful covenant standing above me. I wanted to meet it.”
Gwynedd: “What’s a covenant?”
Guardian: “Merely a collection of people like yourself that found a bond together.”
Gwynedd: “Greetings, my name is Gwynedd.”
Guardian: “Greetings.”
Laurens: “I’m Laurens of Rocque.”
The guardian returns the warrior’s salute to Laurens.
Laurens: “What is your name?”
Guardian: “I am Olta.”
Gwynedd: “If you don’t mind me asking, what are you?”
Guardian: “I’m the guardian of the font and the treasures.”
Laurens: “What treasures are those?”
Guardian: “The Blades of Light and Dark.”
Sir Martin: “So what are you doing standing above?”
Donal: “They’re down there talking to the guardian of the font.”
Sir Martin: “Why aren’t you down?”
Donal: “I’ve talked to the protector of the font. Go ahead down. I’ll keep looking to see if there’s anything else up here.”
Sir Martin Bird flies down to the cavern.
Guardian: “I protect them for the covenant. I was placed here to protect the font and to protect the blades.”
Gabriel: “Do the blades have a purpose.”
Guardian: “I assume so. I don’t know what that is.”
Laurens: “Did the covenant leave any guidelines for you if something were to happen to them, what you were to do with the blades?”
Guardian: “I’m here to protect them. That’s all.”
Laurens: “And what if a new covenant might need the blades to help save the old covenant?”
Guardian: “They merely have to tell me so and use the right words.”
Laurens: “Is there a riddle?”
Guardian: “No.”
Gwynedd sees that the guardian is made from the primal energy and is using it to shape the water.
Laurens: “Vivienne, what do you remember?”
Vivienne: “I remember this place. It seems familiar. That ... Quillius taking me down here before. I don’t remember much beyond that. I was only three or four.”
* Brad: “That has to be like 5 or 6 years ago.” *
Laurens: “Can you sense the other covenant? Do you know if they all still live?”
Guardian: “I don’t know.”
Sir Martin: “Do you know what that is?”
Gwynedd: “A guardian.”
Sir Martin: “A guardian? A construct?”
Gwynedd: “He’s magical.”
Laurens: “I feel that we need to help the other covenant fight something that destroyed some of them, and I don’t know the words to gain us the use of weapons that may save them. Is there some manner that I may learn the words other than from a covenant that may well be dead?”
Guardian: “If you’re truly a covenant, then you should know the words.”
* Dan: “By the power of Greyskull?” *
Gwynedd: “What do you know about covenants?”
Vivienne: “A covenant is a group of beings that come together with collective purpose. They take an oath to each other. I’m trying to recall the words.”
Vivienne remembers the words of the oath and explains the words to the rest. It is an oath to protect one another, to work together, to do good in the world. It is an oath of fealty to one another and to do good in the world.
Laurens: “Get down here, Donal.”
Donal: “What’s going on down there?”
Laurens: “You need to come down here and take an oath.”
Gabriel: “I’ll go up there and explain it to him.”
Gabriel climbs up the hole.
Gabriel: “So, the guardian told us what the treasure is. It’s the Blades of Light and Dark. We don’t know what it is exactly, but we’re hoping it is a weapon we can use against Vincent. In order to get the weapon, we have to swear an oath. The gist is that we’ll protect each other, learn from each other and do good in the world. The oath is in Latin. I suspect that we need non-mortal weapons to take care of this issue. More than Thomas can do on the spur of the moment.”
Donal heard some hesitation in Gabriel’s voice as he explained it.
Donal: “I’m good with oaths. Let’s go.”
Donal climbs down. Gabriel follows.
Gabriel: “We’ll take the oath.”
Vivienne starts the chanting. Everyone joins into the chant. The words seem to take on energy of their own. The air starts tingling. In between everyone, a unicorn image appears and then fades.
The guardian bows down to the group.
Guardian: “You’re a covenant true. How may I help you?”
Laurens: “I think we could use the weapons, that would be great.”
Gabriel: “I think we need the treasure.”
Guardian: “Sure. Of course.”
Sir Martin: “Vincent or something that maybe causing the situation is in the village to the north. I believe in an inn. The villagers are all running.”
Laurens: “Well, let’s go do some good.”
* Makul: “I want to learn.” *
Up out of the water behind the guardian, rise 2 blades. They don’t seem to have color or shape. One is pure black. The other is pure white.
Laurens: “What should we know about the blades. Why do they have no color or shape?”
Guardians: “I know very little about them. They’re ancient even in the time of Rome. They’ve always been paired and always been used by a covenant.”
Gabriel: “Always been used by one person at a time?”
Guardian: “No, never by one person at a time.”
Laurens: “Why is one light and the other dark?”
Guardian: “I believe they were forged together. I think they share their energy somehow. But, I’m merely here to protect it.”
Gwynedd sees that they are both glowing pure white like the font, but even brighter.
Laurens walks over and takes the black blade. It doesn’t feel like anything. It has know weight. He knows his fingers are gripping something, but otherwise he feels nothing. Gabriel takes the white one. Laurens repeats the oath to the sword. Laurens takes a swing at a rock on the floor. The sword passes through, but doesn’t feel like it contacted. The rock is split in two.
Laurens tosses the Thomas enchanted sword to Donal. It is a broadsword.
Sir Martin: “Is the water fresh?”
Guardian: “Of course. The covenant came down regularly to drink from the font.”
Sir Martin drinks from the font and blesses himself with the holy water. He feels a little tingle on his forehead. Thomas and Gwynedd also take a drink.
Sir Martin: “Do you require the swords back?”
Guardian: “If you wish them to be returned. I will go back to protecting them if you require it.”
Sir Martin: “We thank you for entrusting us with these gifts.
Guardian: “You’re a covenant true. You spoke the words.”
Ultimately everyone drinks from the font.
The group climbs out of the hole through various means that do not require a description. The group marches north. They arrive at the town. There are bodies in the town that seem burned or melted. Thomas pulls out Arthur and Frederick. The group makes their way through town towards the inn, and step inside.
They see a hooded figure sitting at the table with its back to the group.
Gabriel: “Vincent?”
The hooded figure stands and turns. It is Quillius. “Yes?”