CHAPTER XLVII
in which some yet to be determined shit happens
The Vormyllean
Almost immediately after meddling with the box of severed fingers, Haas and Ra'jira's sense an incredible amount of danger and take off. Undeterred, Glad continues to revoke the fingers until all the magic is gone from them. Then he takes a cue from his fleeing friends and flees with Fraxinus, leaving behind the now burning box of appendages. Unfortunately for Fraxinus, Glad is invisible when they flee, making Frax the obvious patsy. He gets noticed pretty quickly as a large, running, tree person. Frax buys himself a large cloak to rectify that, but it's too late. When they return to their inn, they're interrupted during their meal by a citizen looking for a conspicuous tree person. He asks after Frax, and Glad attempts to spin a lie about a second tree person who was in their party and so happened to leave town in haste just an hour ago, headed north to Carseca. The citizen doesn't quite buy the lie, not helped by Frax not picking up on what Glad's trying to do. So when he leaves, Glad and Frax book it out of town. When the rest of the Silver Foxes catch up with them, Phrixus mentions that the Vormyllean was causing a scene at the tavern, searching for Fraxinus and now Glad. Before the gang can fully leave, they notice that the Vormyllean are giving them chase on foot. Glad stages energy but feels it being stolen from him, so he sets it all off in a warning shot meant to slow down the pursuers. Glad definitely catches the Vormyllean's eye. The Vormyllean is very visibly angry, but Glad just winks tauntingly before the Foxes spirit away on Doug. Though not before the Vormyllean enchants Glad with an unknown effect that Phrixus has to revoke.
A Charitable Cause
As they make their way to Thisius, the Silver Foxes stop in at little towns on the way to rest and relax. After stopping in the first town, they realize that much of the latest news hasn't hit the outlying regions and are pressed to share everything that's happened with Chracio, the Sentinel, and the invaders. They do this from town to town, gaining some renown for taking down Ixidor. Glad impresses on the people he speaks with the need for new recruits to Chracio so that it can recover from its injuries and stand better defended. The message sinks in and the worried populace agree that it'd be best not to wait the six months for the annual attunement event and instead have one much sooner.
In the town of Leltis, which is a good deal larger than the small towns they stopped in on the way, Glad shares the same message to the city's council. During the town hall session, a warrior, X, from a neighboring town, sought help from Leltis. It turns out that X's town was beset by bandits that they were barely holding off and X was sent to seek aid. Leltis, however, was reluctant to provide help, so Glad volunteers, seemingly out of altruism, but really because this news matches up with rumors about bandit treasure he heard earlier in the day. He convinces Fraxinus to help him clear out these bandits while the Silver Foxes stay behind to advise the council in a more in depth meeting.
Glad, Frax, X, Ryla, and Yeeli take Doug to X's town, some four hours away where they pick up 4 more fighters. Then the posse begins searching suspected hiding spots for the bandits. The first hunch ends up a bust, but at the second, they find their targets. At this cliff, there are two bandits keeping watch on the high ground while ten or so are camped out at the base of the cliff. Glad flies in invisibly and pushes the guard-bandits from the cliff. When they fall and cause a commotion, Fraxinus coats them with a sheet of water in the confusion, and Glad gives them a light frying. The townspeople, Fraxinus, and Glad's mercenaries engage the bandits in a brawl, which is surprisingly even matched. Fraxinus provides a lot of support by tangling targets in roots and using his large frame to shield vulnerable townsmen. Meanwhile, Glad targets the leader of the group, a large, not-quite-human-seeming berserker bandit. This berserker bites the throat off one of his fallen comrades and quite obviously uses blood magic, which allows him to survive many heavy hits from Glad. In the end, Glad is forced to retreat after taking massive hypothermia like damage, giving the berserker time to recover by consuming more of his fallen comrade. Luckily, Fraxinus has finished helping the townspeople mop up the other bandit fodder. So he uses his strength to check the berserker and seperate him from any replenishing meal. And the townspeople stab the berserker to death. When glad wakes up after passing out, he investigates and determines that the berserker was using some kind of necromantic effect on himself. Glad takes the necromancer's body back with him for study.
After the fight, Glad gives the loot, a hefty 250 gold, to the grateful townsmen, sans 10 gold each for himself, Fraxinus, and his two bodyguards. Then they drop off the townsmen, their one dead comrade, and the two captured bandits. Glad and Frax take the one heavily injured townsman back with them for treatment in Leltis.
Thisiatus
Glad and Fraxinus catch up with the Silver Foxes and Red is able to heal some of Glad's hypothermia damage. They drop off the blood magic bandit's body with the City's guards and relate what information they were able to learn. Then they post up in a tavern and catch up on what's been going on. During their conversation, Haas is able to break past the confidentiality enchantment Duke Okmark had placed on her. She's able to reveal that the Duke has a null army and that the Duke himself is a null, making him the only null they can think of who definitely precedes the Western Invasion and Mercayen's destruction. Haas is also introduced to a local Blackscale drink she's never tried before and loads up on the libation while she has a chance. Likewise, Fraxinus does some searching for a way to have others heals him. While he doesn't succeed, he does make friends with a herbologist who concocts a tasty nutrient drink for him. Glad helps him handle the transaction. Red tries to get news of Attria at the local temple of the First but finds that his own info is more up to date.
When the Foxes reach their destination, Thisiatus, Glad does picks out a seedy looking bar and tries to get information about Imbri's employer before their meeting. His and Haas' best efforts are able to garner a name, Kimic, and the knowledge that Imbri and his people are well established in the city. But there are upstarts challenging his rule. When they meet up, they let Imbri know of the tension between Attria and Felspar. They share their plan: using their privilege to infiltrate the Heretic's organization and depose him. And they offer Imbri a chance to take him down himself if they can get intel on his location. Imbri shares his own intel about the hideout he couldn't scout and promises to acquire explosives for their operation.
Contraband
The Foxes charter an airship to Kingsport that's worked by a suspiciously busy crew. Ra'jira investigates and discovers that the crew is fine combing their cargo in search of something they have orders to look for but can't seem to find. On deck, the group talks about the miscellany of magic and nulls and ways of operating magically inside of null fields. There shared experience and some passages in the Sage's tomes leads to them investigating how exactly quasith works. Through a combined effort of Glad donating blood and attempting magic, Red using revocation, and Haas providing commentary from the spirit world, they learn that blood is a receptacle for quasith and magic can probably be pulled from stores of it while inside a null field, although that seems an impractical way to counter a null army. They also learn that quasith from another's blood can be willing used, though if permission is not granted, it would definitely feel like a noticeable violation to the donnee. Putting aside blood magic, they then focus on the recondite skill of pulling quasith from further areas than your immediate area, which is possible but harder to accomplish.
Ra'jira's investigation finds him tailing a busy crewmember who stumbles upon a pink (probably blood stained) thread of cotton in a cargo box that instantly puts him under suppression. Ra'jira subdues him and brings the others down to witness. Glad tries handling the object kinetically to examine but even that puts him under suppression, forcing Ra'jira to knock him out with a dart. Haas to tries to examine the object and almost falls prey to suppression before the effect is revoked. Another crewmember stumbles upon the scene and brings the lot to the Captain. They explain what happened and share their magical knowledge to come up with a game plan about this dangerous contraband, which the Captain brought from a rival trader of Imbri's against Imbri's advisement. They find five more boxes of enchanted cargo, which were themselves enchanted to conceal the fact they contained enchanted items. The Foxes work to revoke and then destroy the lot save for a piece or two to keep for evidence. Glad informs Imbri about the severity of the situation and Haas does the same with Sovelus and Cadence.
A day from Kingsport, the Captain gathers everyone on decks and shares news that Kingsport is under some kind of attack. Haas corroborates his story and the group and crew decide how best to proceed since Westerners have begun their second invasion of the continent. The foxes strategize an air drop and bombing run as close to the battle as they can get.