”Wand me and let’s go.”
Brogol sneaks up to the door with his progressively less stealthy allies in tow. He puts his ear up against the door and hears the murmurs of hushed conversation. They cut off quickly, likely having heard the clanking and creaking of Eris making her way across the rope bridge. With both sides aware of each other, and the party healed and whole, Brogol opens the door to face the head of the snake.
The room within is large and mostly empty. Panes of frosted glass rise between the arms of thick, white aspen boughs. Across the room, a woodcarving of the goddess Iomedae raises her blade over a simple, candlelit altar. Candles around the perimeter of the room give the space a quiet, rustic grace.
The room's three occupants stand at a tense readiness. Two you recognize immediately: the hound who had faced you and almost stopped your advance several minutes earlier, and a were-boar by the name of Caggan. The ex-inn keeper looks hale and hearty, flaring his nostrils when he sees you all again. The hound on the other hand looks badly injured still, though he's managed to retrieve his greatsword.
Standing next to the statue of Iomedae is a skinny woman dressed in shining plate adorned with a set of 'wings' made of wood and bird's feathers. A silvery mask covers her face. She holds her shield and longsword at the ready. "The lapdogs of the Archbaron." the woman's voice is harsh and raspy, tinged with pain. "You follow that wicked man's whims, upholding his tyranny, and oppressing the townspeople of Longacre. Just to satisfy your own selfishness. The people of Longacre will no longer put up with your intervention - and they will not need to. Your foul mission will end here today." She points her longsword at your team. "The Angel Knight will make sure of that!"
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|||| INIT ||||
Ingrid
Brogol
Eris
The Hound
The Angel Knight
Caggan
|||| INIT ||||
Ingrid
Brogol
Eris
The Hound
The Angel Knight
Caggan
Ingrid moved up to stand before Eris and called out to Asmodeus for his blessing.
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Brogol snarls, rather lupine himself in appearance, and sprints forward towards the Hound, swinging his scarf above his head as he runs. Perhaps, if he was quick enough, he could finish off this enemy before it knew what hit it. The scarf snakes through the air, blades glinting in the room's dim light, and Brogol howls, an outsized off-putting undulation somewhere between the cries of a wolf and a beagle.
The Angel Knight steps carefully forward. "Hold on Aericad, I will restore you, or barring that, avenge you!" She points her longsword at Brogol "Iomedae acts through me. Your fate is sealed." Her blade brightens a moment before she delivers a powerful slash. It falls across Brogol's side while he's regaining his balance after the charge and cuts deep into his gut. The wound burns with holy light.
Caggan steps forward to tangle with Ingrid. He grunts "Just payback for what you were doin' in the town." He lowers his head and lunges forward. His tusks jab through weak spots in Ingrid's armor, stabbing into her chest.
|||| INIT ||||
Ingrid (13 dmg)
Brogol (18 dmg, smited)
Eris
The Angel Knight
Caggan
FOOK YES! Brogol thinks, smiling as the Hound falls to the floor. The driver's delight is short-lived, however, as the real battle commences. The pain is searing, the panic unsettling as Brogol watches his blood spill onto the floor. One hand gripping his gut, Brogol moves backwards towards Eris. "Help!"
Severely gored by Caggan, Ingrid could do little but cough up blood as she tried to pull herself free from his grip. Seeing how perilous the situation was, she spat out "I fear not death, for I know that I am in the right. Can ye say the same?"
Slow thanks to her heavy armor, the Angel Knight can't pursue Brogol. Instead, she strides for Ingrid and delivers a swift slash that cuts deep. Ingrid is left barely standing! Caggan follows a moment later by throwing himself at Ingrid and burying his tusks in her throat.
|||| INIT ||||
Ingrid (31 dmg, dying, prone)
Brogol (18 dmg, smited)
Eris
The Angel Knight
Caggan
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With a gurgle Ingrid fell to the ground. She tried to get up but found that she couldn’t. In that moment a thought came to her mind. Her parents. They hated her enough to name her Foedottir. But that was a lie. She was their daughter. She almost laughed, because she was dying and was still thinking about them. Almost, as there was too much blood in her throat to do that. She prayed that Asmodeus would be pleased with her, and that she had fulfilled the bargain made. Love wasn’t real. Loyalty, duty, honor…it all was only as strong as the terms of the agreement. Her only hope in life, and death, was in the contract. Feebly she tried to ride, to fight off the cold hand of death. Not out of any great desire to live, but rather because the contract demanded it. She had to give her all for Asmodeus. And that meant that even with death already reaching out it’s hand, she had to fight. She was so close to meeting the terms of the agreement…she couldn’t give up now.
Slipping a potion from his bandolier, Brogol grimaces as Ingrid goes down. "Hold the line!" Brogol yells, and waits for the potion to give him some life.
The Angel Knight focuses herself... and manages to shake off the paralysis.
|||| INIT ||||
Ingrid (32 dmg, dying, prone)
Brogol (7 dmg, smited)
Eris
The Angel Knight
Caggan
With a gurgle Ingrid put a hand on the ground and tried to push herself up…without success.
Brogol skirts the side of the room, circling around the Angel Knight, and flicks his scarf out, winding it around her legs. Grunting as he tugs, Brogol waits to see if the woman falls.
Caggan tries to gore the Angel Knight, but her armor protects her. He starts shaking his head, clearly confused by events even as he's participating. The Angel Knight, seeing her ally starting to regain his senses, focuses on attacking Brogol. She suddenly lunges, blade aimed for his heart. He turns it aside at the last moment, but still takes a serious wound to his chest.
|||| INIT ||||
Ingrid (33 dmg, dying, prone)
Brogol (24 dmg, smited)
Eris
The Angel Knight
Caggan
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Brogol's face scrunches together, pinched tight, like no doubt the a@***&&* of the damnable angel knight. Pain? Disbelief? There would be no clarification, no knighthood, no penny dreadfuls written about the driver. Just this look, then a glassy stare, as Brogol Stokl slumps to the ground, all his ambition seeping out the hole in his chest.
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Eris looks at Brogol and erupts in laughter.
"Ha! Good one, Brogol! You and Ingrid are my best friends!" she exclaims. Her father's skull continues to float above her left shoulder, shedding eerie green light. She turns to it with a smile.
"I finally get it, Dad! I get the joke! It's on all of these righteous goodie two-shoes! They would never accept me. But you did. And Ingrid and Brogol did. So if they win--that's on them. They have to live with that. They think they're the heroes, but the villains treated me the best. That's the joke, isn't it? They have to live with that! HAHAHAAAAA!"
Eris winks at Ingrid and Brogol one last time, then turns toward Caggan and the Angel Knight.
"Try to laugh a little. I got to do whatever I wanted. You're just bringing a new kind of tyranny--one that leaves all the people like me in the shadows. HAHAAAAAA! Live with THAT joke! Ha!"
With that, Eris steps to the rope bridge and raises her arms in the air. The victors watch as the mad cleric falls over backward toward the forest floor. The skull stares on passively, then turns to face the ground, where Eris lies with her neck at an odd angle and her eyes staring upward.
Then the skull clatters to the forest floor, and it's almost as if Eris's mad laughter echoes through the forest one last time.
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A few seconds after Eris' father's skull finally falls to the forest floor, the Angel Knight steps out onto the bridge to watch the broken body below. Solemnly, she cleans and sheaths her longsword, then raises a fist to her chest. She offers a prayer for the souls of these villains, for Pharasma to judge them favorably, and for Iomedae to see their valor in combat if nothing else.
Once her prayers are done, she instructs Caggan to go searching for survivors and then settles to lean against the wall of the temple. Slowly, and only when Caggan is far away, she removes her helm. The face behind the mask is a wretched mess of scars and deformations, her original features long ago lost. That mess of scars marks her as a denatsate, one of the lowest of the beggar-classes within the Chelaxian capital city of Egorian. All across Cheliax, all marked in such a way are shunned and scorned.
But the people of Longacre may never learn their "savior's" true identity. The agents of Archbaron Fex who sought to unmask and defeat her lie dead in the forest.
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In the days that follow, rumors that the Angel Knight triumphed over the Archbaron's meddling thugs spread and grow well out of proportion. While many of the townsfolk more loyal to Cheliax refuse to believe the rumors, it becomes more clear by the day that the Archbaron's chosen few are no longer around. Those already predisposed towards rebellion grow more bold in absence of enforcement and support for the Glorious Reclamation grows with each of their deeds.
The Archbaron finds other agents, but none are as effective as the team that initially tracked down the rebellion's secret forest fort. Agitation among the townsfolk rises, until it suddenly erupts one night into violent rebellion, with dozens of villagers marching upon the Archbaron's manor, torches and pitchforks in hand. The clash quickly grows bloody as loyalists, aided by Fex's guards, turn up to battle the rebels. Neighbor kills neighbor, and Fex's summoned devils impose Cheliax's justice upon all whose paths they cross.
By the time dawn arrives, the rebellion has been quashed, but Longacre is a husk of its former self. A town lost to chaos. A town in ruin. The morning sun's rays cast long shadows through the empty streets.
In the coming weeks, news will come of the survivors of the Longacre rebellion - the Angel Knight and her closest allies - as they appear in other towns nearby. Their failure in Longacre is cast as success, as proof that revolution is possible. That the law and might of Cheliax are not absolute. That it can be challenged. And that maybe, it can be overthrown.
And so, the flame of rebellion has begun to spread... though that is a story for another time.
END.