Embedded Files
Summary
Summary
The 29th Ranging Squad has been reformed. The Pluvians have begun their open-gates policy, letting any commoners who bring coin or food under the Garrison’s shelter and protection. The weather outside has gotten quite wintery, only amplifying the already existent threats of the Wilderness.
The bodies of Gareth and Zeris were recovered. The Mystic Knight, Spice Knight, and Hylus Jonden remain in a prison cell. The new 29th Squad are mingling in the repurposed tavern (now a ration house). Florus, Jinx, Carl and Marvin side with Joanna Orlas, who wants to talk to the three knights and see the situation of their imprisonment from their point of view.
However, not all goes as planned. They try to push their way past the guards to talk to the prisoners unauthorized, and the Sunday Knight herself joins the fray. Marvin doesn’t hesitate from killing the guards, or even the Sunday Knight, and the focus of Queen Rhea shifts to subduing him. As Marvin battles the guards, the others retire to the Queen’s Tower and talk about the prisoner situation.
Jinx says that he could force the three of them to tell the truth, and then they could end the case today. The Sunday Knight protests, knowing secretly that this would turn the situation on its head for her.
A court hearing is held, with Marvin under the Zone of Truth as well. The three Knights are proven innocent, and Carl even finds the bag with a vial of poison in it. It is quickly proven that the Sunday Knight planted that vial in order to frame them. Then, as such, Queen Rhea sentences the Sunday Knight to death.
Florus has the honor to swing the executioner’s weapon, which he replaces with the Sunday Knight’s own halberd. However, just as the blow is being delivered, Jinx’s duplicate in disguise transports her outside the Garrison walls using magic. The crowd is aghast and Florus is devastated, as justice was not served that day.
A few days pass, and Kraboonie informs Jinx that he is leaving to “settle some old scores” with the True Foundation. The 29th Ranging Squad then gets a new mission: they are to follow Gareth’s research into the Wilderman by investigating the Heibach Mire, known also as the Eternal Obelisk or the Silent Tower. In place of Kraboonie is Opus Magnus, an acolyte of Zarkhin on a pilgrimage to find the Eternal Tomes and perhaps incite a reformation of the religion of Corrus.
On the way north to the Mire, their carriage is attacked by some lowly Hawks of the True Foundation, who are there to stop anyone from surpassing them on their investigation of the Mire. With Gareth’s notes, they find it.
Inside the Mire, they find a lift which lowers them down underground. They find themselves in a cavern, and there stands a great door inscribed with Draconic Runes. The very same door appeared in Gareth’s notes. Jinx and Florus transcribed it as Carl and Marvin fought off a clay golem which was summoned in protection of the door. Past the door was a great library, with vast knowledge about the previous occupants of the Tower and the Wilderman himself.
They discover that the Wilderman was, as Gareth predicted, a man who was cursed. He created this very Mire in a rage, sinking the Silent Tower underground. The Wilderman had just been grievously wounded by the Zornish Knight Blackyon Roy, leader of the Original Howl. While recovering, the Wilderman researched his curse’s effect on his physical body, and eventually learned of ways to enhance his abilities. First, he increased his stamina, physical strength and mind control abilities with the help of some concoctions left behind by Dragonborn hermits who previously occupied the Mire, which would definitely have been too strong for mortals. Later, he got the power to harness the wind by a wizard named Cornellius.
As the 29th Squad continues to explore the Mire, Ronvik activates a sign which causes the way they came in to collapse. In the laboratory chamber, he reveals to everyone that he is the Wilderman, and that he brought everyone here to kill them, since they are the only ones who know what Gareth had learned, and had even gotten further. In a tough fight, he changed form into the cursed beast he really is, and nearly killed Joanna, Florus and others. Jinx used a magical crystal which disrupts any magical abilities, but once enough of his companions were falling, he undid the effects of the crystal. He was able to save their lives, but the Wilderman was also able to assume the form of the wind, and leave through the drafts.
The group takes the next few days to clear out the cave-in Ronvik caused, and they eventually escape the Mire. Joanna convinces the group to go to Tulach, who she believes is in a village nearby. In this village, they learn that Tulach was aware for a while that Ronvik was the Wilderman, and that they made a magical pact: as long as there was a truce between the Howl and the Wilderman, he would not attack any Howl-controlled territory, but everywhere else was fair game. Tulach wishes for them not to think of him any differently, claiming that agreeing to the Wilderman’s terms was the best option available to him considering the circumstances. He then tells the group that they should go train with the Knights of Zorn, to one day be as strong as Blackyon Roy and perhaps defeat the Wilderman themselves.
Featured Locations
- The Howl: Third Garrison
- The Ration House (FKA The Hawkfeather Flagon)
- The Heibach Mire
- Tulach's Getaway Village
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