Chapter 2: The Battle of Flatware Meadow

Tasked by the Summer Queen to address the issue of invaders inside the Freehold Keep, Flint dragged his Motley into the conflict with him. Their first stop was a trip to the Fermi Market, a bazaar held to the west of Chicago at the Fermi facility in Indiana.

Searching through the Market, the motley stumbled their way to the the stall of Victor Menagerie, a collector and purveyor of odd and assorted entities. Declining to purchase a child from him, the group unwisely separated, with Flint finding a cart owned by Rack, one of the most elongated Changelings yet encountered. After inspecting a magical bestiary that describes all manner of mundane creatures, she displayed a small book, the contents only partially available before purchase. By trading one unspoken secret, Flint was able to obtain the tome, a compendium of physiological knowledge related to werewolves that disclosed all manner of intriguing fact, but importantly that any form of silver that damages their flesh will cause searing wounds.

On his way back, Flint felt his pouch suddenly lighter, a deft thief darting off through the crowd. The motley converged on him, discovering it to be a young hobgoblin with vulpine features.

The crew terrified the child, relenting when it promised to return what it had stolen, which included Flint's symbol of Summer. The creature's mother, carrying a basket of needles and thread, was understandably distressed by the treatment of her child, and was little mollified by their explanation of his thieving from newcomers. While she was distracted, Jaydee slipped behind her and removed several objects from her basket, a spindle of blue thread and a puff of exceedingly sharp needles. Before leaving, the motley obtained a silvered blade from a rotund hob, the weapons merchant Ulna by Promise of the heart of a werewolf within four days time.

Ten and Jaydee went into Chicago to pick through antique stores, finding forks, butter knives, plates and a serving platter after a great deal of searching. Armed and ready, the motley set out from their Hollow down the Trod towards the walls of the Freehold. Finding it abandoned and silent, they made their way into the gatehouse past the cracked and smashed doors, hearing several echoing howls break the stillness of the Hedge. One werewolf appeared above with a snarl upon the battlements and was distracted as Flint attempted to toss a molotov cocktail directly upwards towards it, showering himself in flames as it exploded.

Flint, in a fit of Ogre-spawned rage, ran up the access stairs and shoved the wounded lupine over a bulwark of the Keep, following it down through the air and dealing grave injury to it and himself in an attempt to destroy the creature. A second monster leaped from it's own shadow upon seeing Flint finish the first beast and dealt him a savage blow. Jaydee performed a heroic long-distance throw of a silver dinner-plate across the Freehold's field, defying Fate itself to save his compatriot from the monstrous beast. Broken and bleeding on the turf, Flint was brought back from the brink by Ten through dexterous battlefield surgery, making use of the needle and thread stolen from the Goblin Market earlier that day.

The corpses of the beasts were quick to be dismembered, Ten developing a potent pharmaceutical from the blood of the wolves, Jaydee crafting a maul of fangs and the cauterized heart going to repay Ulna of the Market for the purchase of a silvered blade. During their return to the Market, Flint asked around for one knowledgeable in fibers to determine the effects of the thread he had been stitched with, swollen by some cause under his skin, but found that he was directed to a familiar face. Miss Spider, the vulpine crone, enjoyed gales of laughter at his expense upon finding the use her thread had been put, and he left, somewhat distraught. Sugarplum called Canon, the Autumn vizier and Edict, the representative of Summer together at Le Fem Dissimulé to explain the situation and give both Queens an update via proxy.