Grave News, Max 10k Brief Options

[Onasuma]

(This post is made on Sunday morning)

To the Mercenary Community

Potent and discrete mercenaries are required with some urgency.

On the border of The Broken Lands, a number of small imperial settlements exist, with a moderate amount of military presence to dissuade raiders coming across. Admittedly, in recent years a lot of this has been a formality, but it remains important none the less.

Last night, one of these outposts with consumed in a great dome of deep purple and blue lightening. It continues to roll with power to the current moment, and those scouts who have tried to approach it have been forced to withdraw.

Mercenaries are requested to gather at Arnhead Hill. There is a small cottage atop there, which overlooks the site of the storm which I believe will be an acceptable staging point for the hire.

Thank you,

Junior Inquisitor Peveral
Mercenary Liason

[Patch]

Deep Purple Lightning you say... sounds like it could be the Stormbringer

Worry not I am a Child in Time and Soldier of Fortune, so I shall make my way there now... I was visiting Alguz because, turnips, but this sounds imporatnt so I will Cross this Bridge over troubled waters (I am assuming is the left over melt of the deathly snow that has the Alg so grumbly) and be there as soon as I can...

I could go on but I am likely to get horribly killed if I keep this up...

See you soon (Relatively Speaking)

Vrere

Ps. I will bring Da'Karte too as he is always handy when headed Into the Fire (sorry)
PPs. I have no idea who the stormbringer is... but is sounded cool, maybe its Qualesh but he is nice so probably not responsible for you lightening

[Iain]

(This post is made on Sunday morning)

To the Mercenary Community

Potent and discrete mercenaries are required with some urgency.

On the border of The Broken Lands, a number of small imperial settlements exist, with a moderate amount of military presence to dissuade raiders coming across. Admittedly, in recent years a lot of this has been a formality, but it remains important none the less.

Last night, one of these outposts with consumed in a great dome of deep purple and blue lightening. It continues to roll with power to the current moment, and those scouts who have tried to approach it have been forced to withdraw.

Mercenaries are requested to gather at Arnhead Hill. There is a small cottage atop there, which overlooks the site of the storm which I believe will be an acceptable staging point for the hire.

Thank you,

Junior Inquisitor Peveral
Mercenary Liason

Hi,

I am around, not busy, no employer. If you fancy employing me for the day, great.

Sorry, I should have mentioned, I am a little known bodyguard, who runs the little known bodyguard business 'Block and Tackle', who works for payment. I will defend you, throw myself in the way of attacks and do whatever I can to make sure you survive. Payment needs to be at the start of the day, but a full refund will be given if you do not make it back alive (but I will be dead also at this points, so refunds will be given if I get up again).

I work better if you are someone who doesn't vanish at the first sight of trouble and who can use those papery, scroll things or, even better, can make people feel better.

We can talk about prices, as additional pay is always welcome.

Tharansas

[TimTreadwell]

I would like to thoroughly endorse Tharansas as a choice for personal protection.

I have used his services on a number of occasions and would recommend him as a bodyguard without reservation.

Baron Yorso Dedd.
Doctor of Divinity.

[miles]

I will pay 5k for a full report of what is going on and what you managed to achieve.

Kurten Dtreal
Marcher Lord of the Broken Lands

[TimTreadwell]

I would also appreciate information on what is happening.

I will donate thee Talismans of the Druidic Heal invocation, or one scroll of the Total Heal prayer, as compensation for the effort of writing a summary of events.

Kurth Honeyman.
Magistrate of the Broken Lands.

[Whybover]

Lord D'Treal and Magistrate Honeyman,

I will endeavour to supply such a report. I understand how upsetting it can be to have your lands threatened.

Tharansas,

I believe you have already met Skitter. I am sure she would benefit from your care.

Baron Paskoje Von Bremen, Ohne Ritter
Baron of Dobroslav
Custodian of Greater Bremen

[Iain]

I would like to thoroughly endorse Tharansas as a choice for personal protection.

I have used his services on a number of occasions and would recommend him as a bodyguard without reservation.

Baron Yorso Dedd.
Doctor of Divinity.

Very nice of you to say sir.

T

[Iain]

I would like to thoroughly endorse Tharansas as a choice for personal protection.

I have used his services on a number of occasions and would recommend him as a bodyguard without reservation.

Baron Yorso Dedd.
Doctor of Divinity.

Very nice of you to say sir.

T

[Iain]

Lord D'Treal and Magistrate Honeyman,

I will endeavour to supply such a report. I understand how upsetting it can be to have your lands threatened.

Tharansas,

I believe you have already met Skitter. I am sure she would benefit from your care.

Baron Paskoje Von Bremen, Ohne Ritter
Baron of Dobroslav
Custodian of Greater Bremen

I think I remember her. 5k will secure the job.

T

[Patch]

I think I remember her. 5k will secure the job.

T

Skitter can have my share of any pay to help cover these costs Baron

Da’Karte

[ChrisAndrews]

Lord Dtreal, Magistrate Honeyman,

This report comes in two parts. Firstly what we achieved and secondly some thoughts and notes based on a large amount of divinations.

The summary is that we were successful however this was a deliberate assault on your Empire and not a stand-alone occurrence.

A small but competent group of mercenaries answered the summons of the Empire's Inquisition. The task was to ascertain what happened to the villagers, some Imperial soldiers (I think scouts but possibly the garrison) and then use best judgement on what we found. Ideally with resolving the situation.

We quickly approached the dome of force where the area around was weakening and becoming similar to the mittlenacht. A number of creatures similar to those found within the 'Nacht were defeated.

The dome itself would harm those crossing with a few spells (Lightning Bolt and the like) and then would form a solid wall and ritual bar spirit variant to stop your exit. We quickly passed into the dome. We were confronted with a Tower of glass ahead of us and the ruins of the village about us.

A small amount of scrying revealed this was a deliberate ritual strike to weaken the Primal Stability of the area and the Empire as a whole and that the Split Jaw Tribe was involved.

We found the 18 villagers. Their skin was covered in glass and they were undead - 4th rank Glass Dead.
Once defeated they were slowly resummoned more potent than before. They remained 4th rank however. Dismissing them would remove all empowerments. The glass skin meant they were very resilient to physical weapons.

Moving to the entrance of the tower we found the way inside was warded. A focus for each element. There were accompanying rites with foci we had to recover. This caused us some issue due to lack of a "generalist wizard" - Each was defended by some variant of elemental which required the opposite magic to kill. We had a number of people able to defeat the magical wardings and backlashes to retrieve the foci.

The warding to the Tower was unwoven. A brief amount of scrying revealed that there were three stories. The bottom filled with raw ritual power and entropy. The middle with spiritual power and the final with the people responsible for the rite including the Shaman and Witchdoctor of the Split Jaw Tribe.

Moving through the entropic layer was reasonably simple. We eventually came to a cursed and shattered mirror. A surviving villager was there in a great deal of distress pierced by many shards of glass. We started to escort them out but unfortunately a warding had been left in place and slew them.
The mirror was cursed and could have been repaired by removing the curse. The Priest of Heroes, Skitter, determined that doing this would allow the Shaman of the Split Jaw Tribe to scry about us. We left the mirror as it was and carefully passed it.

This brought us to the Spiritual layer of the Tower. A number of foci enacting causing miracles were dispatched and then some of the Tribe fought us. These were Orcs who were happy to throw themselves onto our blades for the smallest advantage - they quickly called on the power of the Dawn to resurrect themselves much as the Nightsoil.

A ritual was discovered empowering this. We were unable to remove the rite and so we held them in place forever instead. We later discovered this rite contained the remains of one of the soldiers who, as a minor noble, was a conduit to the Throne and the power of the Nightsoil.

A few more villagers were met - some fled us due to a warding of fear. However we were able to ascertain that a Barbarian had dominated them and seemed to be the mastermind.

Beyond were some Hurdle of all things. This led us to discover the Split Jaw Tribe will take in all sorts.

Finally we found the Barbarian with a couple of defenders. He may have been a threat however we quickly incapacitated him. I will share more of his motives later.

Just after him was the central rite. Two shrunken heads, the Shaman and the Witchdoctor, on a rite that was tearing a rift in Primus. The heads were the full soul of each condensed down into just the head.

Anyone scrying about the rite or the heads had that knowledge stripped from them. We believed this was due to the Witchdoctor being an Ebony wizard.
The Shaman was ritually freed from its domination releasing the power within.
The Witchdoctor was beyond our skill to remove so the power was sundered.
Finally the rite was filled with natural power and the focal point removed.

With the rite unwoven we were gathering ourselves to leave when a number of the Children of Oll appeared. They were not the Trolls of Primus but wore elaborate ritual robes.
We had a short discourse where not much was said before combat ensued.

Their leader was very potent - able to regenerate from death unless slain with fire. He was a powerful priest as well who cast the Spiritual Invisibility bound with magic which meant we just had to wait for him to run out of power. He knew the pure force miracle.
He was also a potent blademaster and all the creatures had powerful ritual-woven blades.

We then finally gathered to return to Junior Inquisitor Peveral which is where the scrying began.

Firstly we confirmed that one of the Soldiers we were looking to retrieve was dead and in the rite of the Nightsoil. The other three are in locations unknown.

We then scried as to who was behind all of this and why. This is where it gets a bit more complex. There were two distinct groups helping each other here and now. Their goals are different but aligned in this place.

Firstly the Barbarian was a member of the Bliss of Ignorance. This is a cult of Thanatar who seek to resurrect him. They act as "Sleeper" agents who have infiltrated many organisations - they have all knowledge of membership stripped from them until they are activated. The cult has a Head and a Body of dead gods already and to achieve their goals.
They are supported by another cult, The Cult of Knowing, who are all about knowing what they are doing and the horrors they are causing. Eventually their members are rewarded with membership of the Bliss of Ignorance.
Many members of the Nobility, Inquisition and Imperial Legions are sleepers. They are very hard to find out about. The only "Tell" we could ascertain is that they can never be warded from the Forget spell.
Anyone scrying, at least about these cults, has their memory of the answers stripped from them.

The "Trolls" were the second faction. These are the Children of Oll who shortly after leaving our home struck out on a different path to those more common to this place. Their long-term goal is to merge all planes within the Exostance into one plane where they will have some measure of power. To do this a single member managed to get to Primus and has been seeking to get more to join him. Originally this was using a Nagrech Blade to cut through Primus but now he is seeking rites that would weaken Primus and allow for larger numbers to come to us.
A number are now here - At the end of last year some mercenaries allowed them through (the exact details are unclear to me - the Nagrech Blade was involved.)
They were supported by half dozen tribes who wish to see a world ruled by trolls. I did not scry their particular names.

These are two groups who are part of a wider whole. Each group has different aims but they aid each other for mutual gain knowing that eventually the favours will be repaid by another group.

Uhtred
Blackwood Company

[TimTreadwell]

Thank you Utred.

That was extremely interesting.

Please let me know which of the two reward options you would prefer.

Kurth Honeyman.