Grollus eyes Terflynn warily before sliding under the blanket. "Sadly, my whip and I are both exhausted from the battle. Sleep cannot come to quickly for me."
Diggy can't recall having cast so many spells in a day in quite some time. He only needs 2 hours to sleep, due to his ring, but he still needs to wait to ready his spells.
The night seems to pass by in a fleet as the heroes awoke to the scorching noon sun.
Time to awake My Lords. Lunch is ready and you must be famished.
Alferd bows before the heroes as they prepare for their lunch.
A sumptuous meal is already prepared and spread out on the dinning table consisting of meat of various poultry and fruits of various shapes and colors.
"Eh...??" Terflynn wakes ungracefully, stumbles around to prepare himself, and and makes for the table. He seems to wake up when he sees the plentiful food, and his eyes widen as a smile breaks across his face. "Aye, breakfast!" he says and starts for a place, then pauses.
"Did you say lunch?" he asks, puzzled.
"Lunch?" I must truly have been exhausted after last night's battle to have slept so long past dawn."
Not bothering with her armor just to eat, Embrianna pulls on a white over-tunic with embroidery about the edges in all of Shelyn's colors and puts on her boots. Once at the table, she helps herself to a plate full of food, says a prayer of thanks and then begins to eat.
Diggy doesn't have to eat. But he likes to!
Angrim straps back into his armor first thing, though he leaves the whip and shield in the bedroom. "Morning Alfred." He says, nodding to the bard on his way to the dining room. He sits down next to Embrianna greeting her, "Good morning Embrianna. Did you sleep well?" He eats only bread, poultry, and some cheese if there is any. He'll wash it down with milk or water. "Hey Alfred, why don't you come sit down with us. I'd like to ask you something." he calls out into the courtyard.
"Good morning Angrim. I must have slept too well since I only now woke up for lunch. How about yourself?"
Jade wakes at Alfred's call. She sits up quickly, striking to her side. But soon realizes that there is no danger, only lunch. She rises and makes her way over to the table. She says little, only mutters a prayer, before beginning to eat.
Grollus joins the others at the table, silently scarfing down food as part of his recovery from the battles of the day before.
That sounds rather odd to Embrianna, so she pauses in eating to ask: "Why can't you eat at the same table as us?"
Thak winces slightly and ceases eating. "I've never been a Lord my entire life, Alfred, and I will admit some queasiness as to starting now... Can you tell us what our new post as Peers means? What is our role and what are our responsibilities? And please do not answer in generalities such as 'stave off the Darkness', we are all men... and women of action and such vagueness does not become us. Finally, I suppose, I have to ask- a host of ten thousand soldiers welcomed us into the city. What is it we can or are expected to do which that army cannot?"
Terflynn cocks his head. "There's a question." he says, looking to Alfred for his response.
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Yes Lord Thak, the 7 Peers are divine weapons ordained by the Church in preventing the resurrection and release of the Whispering Tyrant specifically. While in the midst of this battle, the 7 peers are equipped with extraordinary abilities and resources to deal with unique circumstances that involve some form of heresy and witchcraft that an army cannot handle.
"Interesting... are you able to tell us more about these 'extraordinary abilities and resources'? I believe I know myself quite well and I do believe that an army would be better than I at stamping out witchcraft."
Thak gives a small smile and jerks a thumb towards the door to his left.
"If you don't know or can't tell us of these abilities, I will settle for a guided tour of that door intriguingly marked 'Armoury'. Blessings of the gods aside, I will admit that the fine workmanship of a well-designed death-dealing tool does set mine heart aflutter quite often."
To Embrianna he says, "Yes, I did thank you." Then to Alfred, "You will address me as Angrim, not m'lord. My question is what happened to the last set of peers? Who is the lycanthrope queen your brother spoke of? When will the Patriarch give us an assignment? Or are we free to choose our own targets?" Angrim pauses his string of inquiries, giving Alfred time to answer.
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Yes Lord Angrim. The last set of Peers have served their time and passed on releasing their divine calling back to the Hallowed Fountain. If you notice Lord Angrim, the years do not tally since 3828. For the first 550 years, the cycle was stable and 11 generations from the 1st generations was transited smoothly. However in the year 4415 AR, the 12th generation of the 7 Peers disappeared. It was not known what has happened and this matter was archived and not spoken about. Thus a 13th generation of 7 Peers was selected that in the year 4415AR....
Alferd pauses...
My Lords...the 12th generator peers did not disappear. The Patriach Kryptos Nightfall turned and influence them....they are now the 7 fiends and they seek to revive the Whispering Tyrant....the wolf queen is a deity embraced by Adimarus Ionacu, one of the 7 fiends whom embrace lycanthropy...
Aluria Nightfall, daughter of Thalessia Nightfall will address us later on your initiation quest after lunch.
"I see. Thank you Alfred." Angrim says chewing thoughtfully.
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When the heroes gathered, Aluria looks at them individually as if assessing them mentally.
The church has sent this petition to the Nightfall Scion to look into. I thought it is a most unique and appropriate investigation for your initiation test. Now a certain town located near the Fangwood forest is in question. For many months caravans passed that town usually as a stop over before resuming their journey into Nirmathas. There have been reports made that members of the caravan disappeared and did not arrive at their destination. While it is usually a minor matter to invoke the church attention, the numbers of travellers that went missing has been increasing over the months to a suspected number of 100 at least went missing. What is more startling is that the church has sent priest to find out the mystery of the disappearing travellers, they too were not to be heard after a week...
We have managed to secure a merchant whom he claims that he disappeared for a few weeks before finding himself naked in the middle of Fangwood forest.
Quite curious, Angrim will finish up his meal quickly and head to this "War Room". He waits patiently for the others to gather, trying not to stare at Aluria's bountiful bosom, but not always succeeding. Once they arrive, he listens to her briefing with interest. "Is the merchant experiencing amnesia or does he remember anything that happened during those 'few weeks'?"
Embrianna finishes up her lunch and then follows into the War Room, quite curious to hear what Aluria has to say. "Is there any sort of pattern being followed as to when these disappearances are occurring? I find the man being found naked rather odd. I don't suppose they happened during any full moons? Also has the man been checked for any sign of lycanthropy?"
Last nights events are still fresh in Embrianna's mind as evident by her line of questioning.
Terflynn scoops up an armload of food and follows, trying to pay attention to the briefing more than his ongoing lunch.
"Sounds like something Fey would do to me. Or at least in the old fairy stories people always disappear for long time." Angrim speculates wildly.
"Are the orphans the children of the missing? Where is this man? Can we talk with him?"
"Shall we assume a thorough search was done of the area that he was found at and that nothing odd was found?"
"Were members of the caravan disappearing whilst in the town, or travelling to and from it?"
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All your questions are what we want to find out too
Aluria smiles.
The man unfortunately bit his own tongue and died after we captured him for 2 days...
It is now open for discussion how do you want to go about solving this mystery. I think the best way is to dressed as members of a travelling caravan of merchants and see if these rumors are true. If you detect or discover the reason for these disappearance, deal with it.
Thak nods in agreement. "I feel the need to ask; how many people outside the Scion know of our new... status? Is there any chance of others recognising us, either personally or because we are seven?"
"So all these thousands live here without anyone outside this place knowing of their existence? How are they kept fed? Though this place is beautiful it doesn't seem like there would be much farm land." Angrim asks
So, we're sponsored by the Church, and it takes care of itself. Very well.
Show us what maps you have, and we'll be the bait.
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Alferd will see to your preparations and the Hedgehog will be modified to make it look more...peasant. Also I will be throwing in 2 more hats of disguise in addition to the one in the carriage to help in your infiltration.
So take the time to discuss how you want to approach this and what personalities or characters you will take to enter the town. Remember it must be convincing and If i am not wrong if they ever discover your true purpose, the mission might be lost.
I look forward to your success 7 Peers..
Aluria nods at Alferd before walking out.
"Alferd, what will we be merchants of? We can't just claim to be them without any merchandise, so we will need something to sell or at least pretend to sell."
Thak nods. "Agreed. No merchant would be without goods; they sell their goods and use the money to buy new ones and then proceed along to the next town. We will need at least something."
"Hmm... I know of a favored guise of mine which should prove quite suitable to this ruse. As to what he and we will require, they include
-Some robes for me made of a rich material, slightly threadbare is fine.
-Some jewelry to match the robes, fake is fine as long as it is flashy, also slightly chipped is fine.
-Some goods to sell; I suggest we stock items for womenfolk so that men or bandits do not feel the need to waylay us. Fabrics, cooking tools, spices, toys for the children perhaps, whatever is available.
-Some means of hiding our armaments? We could possibly stow them in the Hedgehog but if you know of a simple means to hide our weapons on our persons that could be of great use."
"That is all I can think of to complete our ruse, does anyone else have any suggestions?"
"Hmm with three of those I suppose we should have enough to disguise those of us with the more... obvious weaponry." Thak absent-mindedly strokes the heft of the large black longbow strapped to his back.
"The three people with hats could disguise themselves as human peasants. Two drive the 'wagon', and one waits inside the back door/hatch. That person erects a wall of goods between them and the rest of us. So if someone looks in the front they see two peasants. If someone looks in the back they see a peasant and a bunch of trade goods."
Jade listens carefully as all the suggested. I was just going to suggest that myself. Jade finally speaks up. What merchant caravan doesn't come with a few guards. There're always bandits to deal with.
"Guards would be necessary, and a good part of the ruse."
"Alfred, would you have access to any stores of arrows of different metals? Those lycans seemed to shrug off my ammunition and some silver-tipped projectiles, or other metals should we face other enemies, would be of great use."
I suggest those of us with the most intimidating demeanor should pose as guards, Jade looks around, You and you I think. She points to Thak and Terflyn. While you two pose as drivers. Your whips will be ignored as such. She points out Angrim and Grollus.
Embrianna and I could pose as the merchants, with Dignus as our footman or sum such. The three of us would be wearing the hats of disguise, as we would need the most changing.