Chapter LVI
in which the Foxes break bread with an old foe
Out of the Frying Pan
The Foxes wrap up the night by discussing their impending meeting with the Heretic. Kai offers them the possibility of a quick exit via Zojak in case shit hits the fan. And Sovelus feels uneasy about the entire affair. He notes that a lot of powerful people have spent years searching for the Heretic and come up short. Jacob has been far too cautious to suddenly expose himself like this. Sovelus also mentions, during their discussion of Cyax and Shul, that there is one way they could compel Cyax to reveal what happened during the end of the war. Apparently, the archon of Azzur is the official arbiter of Felspar. If convinced it was warranted, he could legally and magically compel Cyax to reveal the truth of whatever happened all those years ago.
The following morning, the Foxes meet the Heretic as planned in an out of the way tavern near the Felspar/Attria border. He had originally planned to come in person, i.e. come in his Jacob body, with all sorts of ill things planned for our heroes, like mind controlling them to influence their pillars. But the alliance Glad brokered between Chracio and Kalmer put a wrench in those plans. Ironically, that very alliance gave the Heretic what he wanted without him having to magically compel the Glad to do so. Instead, he shows up in possession of a noble named Oswald. If Attria had a king, Oswald would be the equivalent of a prince.
The Foxes discuss a variety of things with the Heretic, with him trying to convince them to see the world from his perspective and with them trying to convince him that he's culpable of some truly horrible things. Neither side gives much ground, although Frax is able to get the Heretic to at least admit he understands why people don't like him.
The Heretic used to be very faithful but he learned too much about the nature of the world
Den starts world cycles but never sticks around past the creation of them
This is the first such cycle where the dragons have so openly provoked one another
This is also the first cycle in which there were free individuals such as Cyax who don't need to source quasith from dragons to use quasith
When cycles reset, dragons who perform poorly don't have a seat at the table
Emeri likely won't have a seat at the table in the next cycle. It's influence was mostly faked due to Cyax sending the bulk of the war's refugees to Emeri
The world needs Den's barrier for a reason. There are other things out there besides dragon
Vormyll was from some such place before she arrived and became a dragon
Baishu is also from beyond
The Heretic has Westerner contacts
The West is a lot less united than you would assume based on the invading forces unity
Chracio and Kalmer have the most respect for one another
Kalmer could compel Glad to assassinate the Duke and/or Cadence
Glad would do so to honor the arrangement made between dragons
The Heretic knows what happened between Cyax and Shul and he plans on releasing that information in a month
Although he claims he could end the invasion right now and offers to do so if such a display could shake Haas' faith in the way things are, he settles for taking down a couple of legionnaires. After their discussion, Glad takes the Heretic to see Chracio, who is unable to much scare him and the Heretic later frees Imbri from his mind control. Even after being freed, Imbri is still committed to his change of heart and sides with the Heretic.
The Lord's Work
On the way to the First, where they plan to have Father Benjamin restore his blessing, the Foxes spy refugee caravans heading from Calarco to the First. They land their airship and both Glad and Red begin proselytizing about their respective pillars. Glad is able to generate some interest in attuning to Chracio and helps relocate some refugees to the desert via teleportation. He plans to have them put to work expanding the infrastructure of Encatus and expanding the standing army. He leaves a decree in the desert about mandatory weekly martial arts training for appropriately aged citizens. Red, meanwhile, is able to impress the gathered refugees with his healing prowess. After helping heal a deformed baby, he creates a clay building and sets up shop healing the masses while Glad and Phrax feed them and spread the Silver Fox brand name. Eventually, this draws the attention of some travelling priests of the First who share some optimal ways to help alleviate the burden the refugees are placing on the territories that have taken them in. The most pressing need is for land to house them in. To that end, most of the territories surrounding the First have done their fair share, but the Vormyllean Province is sitting on prime farmland that could be settled. Frax, Red, and Glad consider talking the Vorymll but decide they'd make a stronger case for resettlement after they finish their road clearing mission.
While at the First, they set up a meeting with Father Benjamin and help settle a bully problem at one of the teenage orphanages, though some judicious bullying of their own.
A Game of Shadows
On their way to see if Calarco can settle any more refugees, they decide to take a look into a recent multiple murder that has created tensions between the locals and refugees. They expected, from the rumors, to find a run of the mill homicide ... a burglary gone wrong and a dead family. What they find instead are a crime scene that looks staged and traces of occult energy. Red detects something he believes to be body magic. Glad can't quite place what he's picking up, but he is sure that someone versed in occult magic is keeping an eye on the scene. Convinced that this is not the simple drug deal gone wrong the guards think it is, they head to the morgue. There, the coroner reveals that the wounds that suggested a struggle seem to have occurred after the four victims were killed. Glad checks the room and definitely senses an occult presence with them that they can't detect through other means. After alerting the party, they all decide it's probably safest to remove the bodies from the room in order to revoke them but not affect the enchantments that allow the room to be used as a morgue. Phrax carries the first victim, who is covered in glass shard wounds, to the entry way. When Frax hears the body exhale, Red and Glad revoke it and the victim comes to life with freshly bleeding wounds. The coroner treats the injuries. They're unable to get anything much from the terrified guy except that he's afraid of some shadow thing.
When they go to retrieve a second body, they notice a dark shadow crawling on the walls, on the very edge of the candle light. They book it with the second guy and get much the same reaction when reviving him. At this point, they wait for the guards that the coroner has sent for and watch as an impenetrable darkness overtakes the hallway leading to the morgue. Glad tests his lightning against it. The bolt cracks when it hits the wall but the impact is unseen. The flash is swallowed by the curtain. When the guards arrive, the assembled posse moves in. Frax leads the charge with a bundle of flaming wood. He sees the shadow creature feasting on one of the remaining bodies. Alerted to this and fearing whatever power it gains from the blood magic, Glad charges in with fire breath and roasts the corpse, significantly advanced in decays in the minutes that have passed, and the creature alike. The guards jab the shadows with torches as it crawls along the ceiling and Glad uses his kinetic magic to scrape at the shadows with Red's burning robe. When the room is secured, they tend to the remaining two corpses.
The decayed and burned one is deemed beyond any reasonable ability to heal. Indeed, when the stasis effect is revoked, he dies quickly. The other, whose throat is cut, is taken to a temple of the first for healing. They're able to revive and heal. They interrogate this man, Remy, together with Captain A of the guards and the knowledgeable mage, Sophia. The initial belief is that the four were enjoying a dice game when they were set upon by this creature. There was no drug deal. The drugs just happened to belong to Remy, who is a bit of a fuck up. From the magical trace Glad captured, Sophia and Captain A think this might be related to a pain cult called Morthana that's plagued the area for a couple of decades. Most of it is small time stuff, but recently it seems they may have been able to actually petition a godlike creature ... something that isn't a dragon. When Sophia looks into Remy's mind to verify his story, she freaks out. She thinks he may have actually traded with the creature and she knows she's on its radar now.
Bad Cop, Worse Cop
Frax, Red, and Glad decide to have another go at interrogating Remy. Glad and Captain A decide on a bad cap, worse cop routine and use the threat of decreased guard protection and the impending nightfall to coerce more information out of Remy. He opens up about his dealings with the Cult of Morthuna in the catacombs under the Temple of the First when Glad offers him quick travel to the desert, far away from whoever might be after him. They learn that he was unwittingly involved in an occult ritual that he believed to be cultish bunk but which obviously was real and nightmarish. Remy still claims, though, not to have had any direct hand in the attack. Neither Captain A or Glad buy this. Glad channels the ghost of Remy's slain friend and witnesses his last moments, which certainly look like Remy being in control of himself, getting amped up on drugs for something scary. Captain A and Glad, who makes uses of his fear inducing sword, are able to intimidate Remy into admitting he was given specific instructions and told to follow them when the time was right. Remy knew the time was right when the shadow thing started whispering to him.
In light of Remy's confessed guilt in the attempted murder, Glad is less inclined to give him the easy amnesty he was promised. If he remains, Remy would be executed for his crimes. So Glad then asks Remy if he'd rather attempt reattunement than die. Remy accepts. With Captain A's blessing, he and the Foxes teleport to the desert. Glad gets the gathered crowd stoked for a new attunee and has some warriors toss Remy into the pit before he really has a chance to take in what's happening. Red, Frax, and Glad watch as Remy manages to tread sand but fails to make much of forward momentum towards the shore. He starts making a guttural whisper sound that unnerves some of the gathered crowd. Glad tells the crowd to let it play out. He senses a thing being called out to and trying to access the pit from underground. This causes Chracio to snap awake.
Chracio palms Remy into the sand. The outside presence that Glad sensed disappears and Chracio returns to his practiced indifference. Remy surfaces for air and begins making the mad scramble to shore under his own power. Miraculously, he survives attunement to Chracio. The Foxes note that Remy seems to be fully exorcised of the occult presence. His tattoo/mark has completely disappeared. They leave him in care of the Chracioites.
The Unquiet Dead
The Foxes return to Calarco and get some rest while Captain A prepares his men for a morning raid to clear the catacombs. His 60 men scour the tunnels along with a handful of Chracioite, Calarco, and priest volunteers. Glad and Red fairly quickly happen upon eight suspicious caskets. The guards haul them topside and dissipate the shadow things inside. They're unable to safely take a sample of the shadow to study. The priest in charge mentions that the catacombs are divided into public and private lots and that sometimes bodies are received already prepped and ready for burial, so there's no need to check inside these caskets.
Returning underground, they meet up with Captain A who has gathered his men at the door of a private crypt belong to the wealthy Coran family. The room is filled with darkness. Red and Glad revoke the shadow nearest the door. A light mage sends in an orb of light. And the posse charges inside. When they're all inside, the darkness consumes the room completely. Even though the group knows their fires are still burning, they're unable to see anything in front of them. The only source of light is the light behind them from the corridor. A retreat order is given and the group scrambles to get out. Glad, who waited outside with the mage in order to buff up his magics, sees that Red and a guard both stumble and lose their lights. He kinetically yanks both out of the room. When Frax makes it out, the group notices that the captain is still inside. Glad ties a chain to his waist and hands the end to Frax. Then, he goes in for the captain. He finds Captain A being choked against the back wall by a four armed shadow thing and cuts through its arm with firebreath. It grabs at Glad in return, able to hold his waist with its giant hands. Glad's Chracio claw seems to injure it, but he has a hard time breaking free with his magics. He and Captain A end up trapped on a stone table in the room, surrounded by shadow hands reaching for their position.
Red uses his earth evocation to create a corridor for them to flee through once its lit. They seal the room when they escape and give Captain A some emergency aid for his crushed throat. Once he's recovered, Glad pours alcohol into the room through a small opening Red makes in the sealed door. Red also summons up some oil from deep in the Earth. They set fire to everything and wait until the screaming shadow seems weakened enough to survey. Glad enters the burning wreckage and decapitates a human shaped, four-armed creature that is visible only by the flames around it. They investigate what's left of the crypt and notice strange sigils in a couple of the coffins. Captain A tells the group that this is likely to become political if the Corans are related to this cult and so he can't officially sanction any further investigation they do, although he would be happy to know what they discover.
After the ordeal, the Foxes pay a visit to the Coran family estate to investigate the family under the guise of apologizing for all the damage caused to their family crypt. Glad is unable to get any sort of read on whether Mr. Coran or the estate have lingering traces of occult energy. The estate is screened and Mr. Coran gives off a magical signature that Glad doesn't recognize. Frax, Red, and Glad try to subtly assess Mr. Coran's possible involvement in the cult but don't make much headway. He isn't very forthcoming and only becomes truly invested in the news when they mention that his daughter, Emily Coran, may have been targeted by the creature or its masters. They leave his estate with a pledge to keep in contact and an offer of reward if they find this shadowcaster and bring him to Mr. Coran alive. Red thinks its a good idea to check in on Remy and see if Mr. Coran, who has a son, matches the description of the father and son cultist who coerced Remy into completing an occult ritual.
The Exorcists
Frax, Glad, and Red catch Haas up on everything that's happened when she returns from the Marsh. After collecting more samples of the slain shadow, the group heads to the First with Sophie in tow. With some time to kill, Red ends up providing more medical aid to the masses. Glad, meanwhile, continues to proselytize. He ends up with some 25 recruits to Chracio that he blinks over and tosses into the pit. Seventeen of them survive the ordeal and he welcomes them to the desert with a hearty anti-Shul speech. Haas has a quick word with Chracio in order to impress upon him the need for their alliance with Irik. He won't concede that Irik is as important as he thinks itself to be because Irik only takes. Irik doesn't know how to build. He does concede, however, that Irik will be useful, which puts Haas at ease.
After the adrenaline rush of indoctrinating new acoyltes, Glad is brought back down to earth when Haas suggests that the re-attunement might be a big factor in why the Westerners had to wait so long to destroy the Mercayen. Just that day, Glad himself recruited seven former followers of Emeri. He sends a write-up of this theory to the School of Thought which provokes a polarizing argument in the sage's tomes. In their later meeting with Father Benjamin, he confirms that, at the very least, mass re-attunement would significantly weaken a pillar and its dragon's influence. He also believes that Mercayen's pitiable fate might cause some of the dragons to leave of their own accord out of fear that this is happening again with Emeri and could happen to any of them. After updating Father Benjamin with the latest about their Kalmer alliance and the Heretic's motivations, the Foxes continue on their way.
They meet up with Dalton, the priest they left Sophia in care of. He brings them to his laboratory, a room hidden somewhere beneath the temple in thorugh which the light of the First's pillar runs. Believing that a strong message should be sent to the creatures invading their world from beyond, he pulls a shadow from Sophia. Frax, Haas, and Glad damage the creature with their evocation magics and Red delivers the decisive blow by caving the ceiling on the shadow once Sophia makes it take the shape of a man. Unable to get any answers out of the captured shadow, Red uses the power of the First to revoke the creature's possession. They find the newly freed man, Calvin, more willing to talk. Calvin is a follower of a gold and teal dragon who came across ancient scrolls of the first that allowed him to make a contract with an entity named Thune. Fearing that Thune will try to repossess him, the Foxes ponder what to do. Glad botches an attempt at replicating the exorcism Chracio did, but the effort is salvaged by Red and Haas. They decide to seek out Remy in order to better know whether the exorcism will stay.