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Azen positions herself behind the prisoner while they question him, ready to perform a countersong if he tries anything funny.
"Please succinctly name and describe the person or people who laid this hostile geas or geas-like compulsion upon you, including where they can be found, to the best of your knowledge," Celebeth opens.
That will probably take up one entire duration of suppress charms and compulsions.
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"Reaford Vallersteil, an older human male with gray hair and a slight build, High Sorcerer of Pitax. He's likely at the palace." Grigori responds.
Nothing seems untoward about Grigori's answer, seemingly complying with your question without hesitation or attempt at deception.
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Rhiannon's eyes widen upon hearing the name, and more importantly, position of the fell spellcaster. It seemed that their growing Barony had acquired powerful enemies.
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Azen thinks she remembers Pitax being somewhere east...
but isn't sure and maybe that was a different place... hmm.
Wulfric tries to recall any details about Pitax...
The councilors put their collective head together to determine what exactly is known about Pitax.
Pitax is both a city and a nation that lies a couple hundred miles west of Greenbelt that is ruled by a River King known as Castruccio Irovetti. Irovetti is known to be a bit of tyrant, with a predilection for art, although to be fair art is in the eye of the beholder.
"Please name any other people who are imperiled who might be used as leverage against you, and describe their appearance and relationship to you."
"No one." Grigori says. "Irovetti wouldn't have indebted himself to Vallersteil otherwise."
"What specifically did Irovetti and Vallersteil compel you to do under the spell?"
Azen mumbles under her breath Art? I hope this isn't about art. Are they looking for that giant nude statue that we found?
"Sew discord and dissent among the townsfolk in order to break your fledgling kingdom. Irovetti has his eyes on expansion of Pitax." Grigori says.
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"Please describe any other agents, operatives, or plans that you might know of with regard to Irovetti or Vallersteil trying to undermine our nation."
"I...I...really don't know." Grigori says, sounding utterly dumbfounded.
As Tove's spell expires and the Geas returns, Wulfric looks thoughtful.
"He's not going to be able to answer anything else with the Geas back in place. I would suggest we place Grigori in custody until the spell can truly be broken."
He says no more while Grigori is present.
---
After Grigori is locked up somewhere, Wulfric will elaborate.
"I could tell we were up against an archmage by the spell that was used. It is an extremely powerful incantation. Yet, this Reaford Vallersteil did not move directly against us, but instead used a fairly weak intermediary.
So it's possible that he is unsure of our strength, and is being overly cautious. Probing our defenses. In which case we have time, but only until he realizes that our failure to launch a counter-attack means we are not all that strong.
But here's another possibility. Maybe he just doesn't care that much. Grigori said that Iovretti indebted himself to Vallersteil to enact this ploy. Maybe it isn't something Vallersteil is really interested in; he took payment (or the owing of a favor) to do this much and no more, without risking his own life. If that were the case, it's nothing personal from Vallersteil against us, and so maybe we don't make it personal against him in return.
Or he's just giving us a sporting chance.
Let me be clear. I am terrified of facing such a foe. We would stand only the barest chance of defeating a wizard capable of such powerful magic, and only if they were alone, unprepared, and stupid. A wizard powerful enough to cast Geas would also be powerful enough to magically spy on us, choose the right moment, make themselves nearly invulnerable, appear in the blink of an eye, and kill us all. That is the kind of power we are facing here.
Perhaps we need to gather information about the relationship between Vallersteil and Iovretti. Exploit any fractures between them."
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"Fearmongering about the possible power of whoever did this benefits us nothing." Rhiannon replies after taking a beat for Wulfric's words to sink in. "Even the strongest wizards have a hard time casting spells with six feet of steel in their guts. Assuming a fight is hopeless is a sure way to lose it before it is fought."
For all the bravado of her words, her expression makes it clear that she takes the threat of whoever controls Grigori extremely seriously.
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Azen nods at Rhiannon's reply.
Rhiannon is right. There is always hope, and if they felt like they could move openly to smash us, they would have. Apparently they don't want to attack us directly and be seen as the bad guys. Maybe that will keep them in check, temporarily at least. It gives us time.
All we can do is keep going, make our part of the world, and ourselves, stronger and better. We can make good alliances, make sure we're as prepared as possible... but other than that, useless to worry. We focus on making our people, our agreements, and our defense as strong as they can be, and then we face whatever comes. It's just another impossibility in the long list of impossibilities that we have faced, and put behind us, already.
Azen plays an invigorating tune to inspire everyone's courage.
"It is my obligation as Magister to accurately inform you of the arcane power we are up against. Perhaps if I had revealed that our foe were a dragon, a vampire, or a major demon you would agree that such a revelation should factor into our strategy.
Yes, there is a slim hope. But only if we are smart about it. Azen, when you speak of making sure we are as prepared as possible, I whole-heartedly agree. I specifically recommend:
If we can avoid fighting Vallersteil, I would recommend that. If there is no other way, and we become absolutely certain that we must fight him, we would need an extremely well-considered plan. We need information either way - to determine how we can avoid fighting him, or to determine how we could fight him if we had to."
Celebeth looks back and forth at the various counselors and then says slowly, "Wulfric, you're right to take this seriously. This is a level of magical skill beyond my mere dabblings."
"But... a wizard of that power could simply appear and annihilate us, if the whim took him. For whatever reason, it serves Vallersteil to simply send someone to interfere with our nation-building, in an inconvenient and socially manipulative way. If an archmage wanted to blow up our nascent state, he'd just teleport in and wipe us out, blow up some buildings, and fly away cackling. That he hasn't done that points to some other agenda. Off the top of my head, I can think of..."
She ticks off her fingers.
"1. He doesn't really care about us, and only did this because Irovetti asked him to, paid him to, or leveraged a favor to get him to do so. In such a case he may not really care about us at all.
2. He is unsure of our true level of power, or thinks that we may have a hidden benefactor against which he isn't prepared to move. For someone with the scrying capabilities of a powerful wizard, that would mean he's exercising extreme caution, perhaps suspecting that we are agents of another mighty wizard, a deity, or a demon lord. Costs us nothing to let him believe that, if so.
3. He finds this kind of interplay entertaining and amusing. He likes kicking over ant nests and it's more fun to him to cause inconveniences than it is to just blow things up.
Any of these motivations are something we can work with. We just need to make sure that we are careful about tipping our hand with regard to our true resources. Let him wonder what we're on about. If he isn't invested, if it's situation #1, he may just not care. Otherwise, he may continue to play cautious, and then as we learn more, we try to figure out a way to force a stalemate, or if we're lucky, a confrontation that we can win that'll force him to back down.
It might be something else I haven't envisioned, but that's what I've got right now."
"So... while we're all here, any other problems we can solve in the meantime?"
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Tove exhales slowly, taking in everything that's been said. Her gaze lingers on Grigori as he's taken away, and she instructs the guards to ensure that he is kept comfortable until the day they can rid him of his Geus.
"Pitax may be powerful, but for now our borders are far from theirs, and are buffered by the fey-blighted woods. Elkmark is under no immediate threat from Irovetti's expansionist ideas," she says at last. "In any case, it seems they're not prepared to move openly against us, at least for now."
"Even so, we should remain vigilant. I'll talk to Celeste and Kesten about keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. If any more newcomers arrive with unclear intentions, we should know before it becomes a problem."
Tove looks to Celebeth, "in the meantime, we deal with what's in front of us. The trolls are still out there. We know where they're based, there's no reason to delay any longer. We have to finish what we started and wipe them out before they can do any more harm. That’s our next step."
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Rhiannon nods. "While we need to prepare for the future and gather all the information we can, I'm all for dealing with an enemy I can actually fight."
"Then let's go deal with the trolls!"
"Hear, hear! We'll deal with Pitax when the time comes. Till then, we have lands to secure from other dangers. Besides, trolls make for good target practice."
With Grigori questioned and taken away someplace within the keep that he can be kept safe, comfortable, and perhaps most importantly, kept under watch, the council begins its planning to take out the remaining troll menace.
"What do we know about trolls? How should we prepare? I feel like it's a big wilderness out there and we better be ready to be out camping for a few days and scouting the region until we find their patrols."
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”Well, let’s see, they're insanely strong, with incredibly sharp claws that let them tear their enemies apart, and prefer to eat those they’ve beaten in battle. They can regenerate from almost any wound and are single-minded berserkers in combat. They attack the nearest foe without hesitation and don’t stop until that foe is down. Because of their regenerative abilities, trolls are fearless. Even flames or the presence of acid don’t slow them down—they always fight to the death.” Rhiannon responds, rehashing the details of the enemy they face.
”A troll’s appetite and its regenerative powers make it a fearless combatant, ever prepared to charge headlong at the nearest living creature and attack with all of its fury. Only fire and acid seem to cause a troll to hesitate, but even this is not enough to stop a troll’s advance. In fact, you need to locate and burn any pieces of a slain troll after a fight, Even the smallest scrap of flesh can regrow a full-size troll given enough time. Fortunately, only the largest part of a troll regrows in this way if there are multiple pieces.”
” All trolls spend most of their time hunting for food, as they must consume vast amounts each day or face starvation. Due to this need, most trolls stake out large territories as their own, and fights between rivals are quite common. While these are usually nonlethal, trolls know each others’ weaknesses and will use such knowledge to kill their own kind if food is scarce. So by this many of them working together, they’re likely to be working to take over as much territory as possible, and would slaughter anything in their way for food.”
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Do we know how many there are? Unless it is a small amount, we should try picking them off in small groups as we did before. We don't want to get overwhelmed by going right into the middle of them.
... Maybe put ourselves in the way of their hunting parties, so that whenever a group goes out to forage, there we are to kill them? Could we starve them out that way... taking them down as they are forced to go find food?
Perhaps we could even bring food with us as bait, so that if we need to, we start cooking something and draw them to us with the smell?
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"They prefer their food freshly killed by their own claws, so anything that alerts them to our presence is likely to draw them." Rhiannon replies.
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"Well, now that we're equipped with alchemist's fire, taking them on directly might make more sense than before. However, drawing out groups, if possible, before pushing into their stronghold would make good tactical sense." Rhiannon says, considering their approach.
"Taking on this dragon's lair may be the smarter move first, otherwise the trolls may be able to call on it for aid if we attack their stronghold."
Azen looks a little frightened.
A... Dragon? I've never fought one. Are you sure we can take it? The thought kind of scares me.
"Jubilost referred to it as a "forest dragon". Whether that means a Forest Drake or a Green Dragon is pretty up in the air though." Rhiannon replies.
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"I believe our chances are better if we know what we are fighting and can prepare for it. I can prepare a spell to ward against dragon's breath."
"Azen, as our best archer, I think we would depend heavily on you. I would use what spells I could to support you in such a battle."
The second day of scouting begins much the same as the first, being largly uneventful until doing his best to skirt the dragon's lair. The hunter does his best to look like the innocuous bird he has taken the form of, but he does see something that truly disheartens him - it would seem the troll forces were strong enough to dispatch the dragon of the forest as he sees two trolls standing guard outside of dragon's cave - then the truly disheartening vison was seen, the dragon slithering out of the cave, paying little attention to the trolls - it would seem that the trolls and the dragon had made an alliance.
"Garethane, you laid eyes on the beast. Can you tell us what you remember about its form?"