Chapter LIX
in which a great many important people gather in Serosan
The Pursuit
The war party makes their way up the incline towards Serosan without incident until they reach the end of the tunnel when half of their night vision goggles go out. Frax and Glad make torches for those needing light and the party advances. As they near the exit, they see a man silhouetted against the bright sky. His whispers fill the cavern, warning the travelers to turn back. When they refuse, a large boulder begins to block out the sunlight. The whisperer means to crush them all to death. Everyone breaks into a run. Glad pushes back against the encroaching danger with his kinetic ability but is unable to fully halt the boulder's progress. He does, however, use his ability to help Haas as she shapechanges into a dragon to wedge herself into the entryway. Tirza transmutes the boulder to water, leaving the pair free to assess the situation. They've run into a group of eight Serosanians, one of whom was crushed to death due to Glad kinetically interference.
The wary Serosanian's draw blades and ignore Glad's calls to disarm themselves. Someone puts a magical barrier between the men and the Foxes. And a wyvern descends next to the men. The wyvern-rider is the whisperer from before. He ignores Haas entreaties to talk as his men load up on his mount. At this point, the rest of the Foxes party has escaped the tunnel. Glad continues to kinetically disarm those he can while he warns them not to flee. The wyvern takes flight. Glad follows along long enough to identify the rider as their target.
With Frax already on her, Haas picks up Glad and gives chase. As soon as they're close enough, Glad blinks onto the wyverns tail and shocks the wyvern into a frenzy. Two of the Serosanian riders plummet to their deaths in the thrashing. Glad blinks back to Haas as the wyvern nose dives. The trio land alongside their. Glad makes it clear to Whisperer that they are only their for him. There's no need for more of his men to die. He surrenders himself and his men are allowed to flee on his wyvern. He doesn't prove very cooperative, however, and has to be knocked out and dragged by to the rest of the posse.
Interrogation proves fruitless. They do find a few magical items of note on his person, though. One of these is a potion of unknown effect. FaceBook reveals that one of the ingredients is the blood of its master Vorshen. Therefore, the Whisperer must be a friend. He refuses to further help Glad and his friends if that help brings harm to this Whisperer who must be a friend or acolyte of his master. Although he refuses to provide confirmation one way or another, FaceBook implies that Vorshen is still alive. Or active, at the very least. This twist begins to greatly worry Glad who admits to the others that he's not sure how much help or protection he can provide against the person who wrote the book on blood magic that he's only somewhat begun to really understand. If Vorshen is connected to the Tusker incursion, then they could be facing an exceptionally skilled blood magic user. One who has survived to an indeterminate age, given that FaceBook itself is 87 years old.
And The Many Wars To Come
The group debates ways in which to ID the effect of the potion and learn more about their friend. Haas is only able to prod so far by spiritwalking. She can tell that he's devoted and believes himself to be directly of service to Serosan. She can also tell that he is hiding a great deal behind some innate spiritual defenses that aren't affected by the levels of revocation her comrades throw at him. Specifically, he is hiding something about his lineage. One of Glad's Chracioites volunteers. The blackscale consumes some of the potion. The group make camp as they wait for it to kick in. There is no outward manifestation of effect. All Haas can make out is some spiritual being attached to the volunteer and a vague change of motivation/devotion that seems permanent. It takes a trip to the pit and some quick work from Chracio to restore the volunteers connection to his pillar to what it was before the experiment. Glad's attempts to learn more about his friend through necromancy also prove fruitless. While he uses the Whisperers blood to call out to his deceased ancestors, something he's surprised to discover is quite possible, it seems they are too long dead to answer the call. And Tilly, who possesses the necessary alchemist skill to separate Vorshen's blood from the Whisperer's potion so that Glad can track down the source, is in Brenthia with the Foxes' airship.
This leaves the scouting party with little choice but to transport their prisoner to Brenthia and the academics there for further study. Before they return, Glad tries his hand at revocation one more time. He combines the power of Haas' net with his own revocation potion tipped arrows, which prompts a response from their terse captive. He warns them not to dig too deeply. Despite what they may think, they're not in control of this situation. Glad continues his attempt, but is interrupted by a sudden, bloody explosion from the Whisperer's throat. He collapses to the ground and is dead before any medical intervention can help him. Glad uses necromancy to leach anything of help from the recently dead prisoner. He sees that the Whisperer allowed himself to be captured so as to closely observe the party and look for ways in which they could be persuaded. He also believes that he can survive the situation here, even if he survives.
Haas confirms his belief is correct. His spirit lingers and is called somewhere. The Whisperer's body is burned as a precaution. Missives are sent to Brenthia High Command and the School of Thought. And a day later, High Commander Ricotta arrives on their airship. She's briefed on the situation. They have a dead witness, a possibly culpable nation, and a high level user of dark magic to contend with. They continue in a heading towards Vorshen that Glad was able to back-trace through the Whisperer's connection to him. Depending on the reception they get and Serosan's intentions, this could mean war. She's also appraised of the situation around the world. The Foxes tell her about the Heretic's mention of freeing LeShrac and impress upon her the need to take him seriously as a threat. They also discuss the meta-game between their dragons and what it could mean for the world.
Ricotta agrees to ask the Sentinel of Xisben for help. If he agrees, the posse would be a monumental gathering: 4 Sentinels, 2 Archons, a handful of decorated war heroes, and a small army.
The Circle
The Foxes' party is greeted at the entrance to the Serosan caves and taken to an audience with the Donuk, the Archon. The Sentinels are able to get permission to search Serosan for the criminal attempting to instigate a war between the tuskers and the Brenthians, but they are unable to persuade Donuk to make much of any commitment to looking into the devout Serosan actors involved in inciting a potential geopolitical conflict. Since Serosan is an independent and self-sufficient nation, there isn't anything they particular need, which means the Brenthians don't have any real bargaining power besides threatening war. While the party is mostly content with the results of the discussion and with Serosan, at least publicly, disavowing the actions of the Serosanian Spooker, Glad isn't. He reveals much of what they've learned about the Circle and outs Donuk's scribe as a member. However, Donuk refuses to let outsiders be part of his interrogation of the scribe.
While feasting on some local delicacy after their meeting with the Serosan political establishment, the Foxes table is visited by a man that Haas quickly deduces is Vorshen. He reveals that, similar to the Heretic, he aims to have a seat at the next table. And while he has no love for Shul and isn't behind the Spooker visions, one of his comrades from the Circle is committed to assisting Shul's efforts. Vorshen is bound to assist his comrade. He fishes for reasons to ally with the Foxes instead. However, no one is willing to enter into any blood contracts with him. Glad comes the closest, but is dissuaded by his dragon, who assures him that he is capable enough as he is to represent Chracio's might. Before he leaves, Vorshen demonstrates his blood magic by paralyzing Glad, Haas, and Maus, warning the three that the next time they meet will not be as friendly.