Heroes of the Firth - 01 - Fey and Spells

 

Arwel, Gwestin and Eldrenor

Our heroes began their journey in a small village of the Kingdom of Northumbria. The year is 851 AD and the settlement they're at is named Hexham. They know each other, but they have not been friends for long. Arwel is an ex-soldier, now turned part-time guard, Gwestin is a druid and Eldrenor was thought to be just an elven musician, but in reality she is also a huntress. They are now leaving town to find a new home for a bunch of pixies. But how did they get in such a situation?

Some months ago, a raiding party from the newly founded Kingdom of Sodor went deeper than usual in the mainland, wreaking havoc even at Hexham. In this occasion, the three happened to fight together against the Viking invaders and developed a bond. When the battle was over, Eldrenor's lover was nowhere to be found, probably kidnapped by the raiders to become a slave. Arwel, who fought the Vikings many times in his youth, was enraged by the destruction they were able to bring even to a non-coastal village, a symptom of the army's ineptitude on the west shore of the Kingdom. And finally, Gwestin was scared. Scared by what would happen if the raiders were to stumble upon an old cairn, or a sanctuary, or any other place in Northumbria with a malicious past, a pernicious content, and fewer and fewer protectors. This land was old, the ruins dotting its surface only the tip of an iceberg against what still lied under the earth.

The three began doing odd jobs to help the population of Hexham, getting them what was needed to carry on and rebuild the village. One day in the woods, they encountered some pixies. The fey were very shy at first, but the presence of an elf encouraged them to speak. They lived around Hexham "since the time of the red-crested men from beyond the sea", but the recent events proved to be too much for them, so they needed a new home. They offered all the money they found in years, since they didn't use it anyway, an hefty sum (325 gp) for what could probably be a two/three days walk northwest.

And sure thing, it was a two days walk. In a marsh. Where they were attacked by halfling isolationists*  and a lot of vipers. But one night they saw a crumbling tower where during the day there was none. That was almost certainly a place shifting between the unseen world of fey and the gritty material reality, so they came back and informed the pixies, who were really excited by this discovery and left promptly the surroundings of Hexham. Now, a week of rest.

Or maybe not. Eldrenor stayed active, keeping her hunting skills honed and stocking rations, for they were going to leave Hexham for Luel, one of the three real cities in the region and the closest with an access to the sea. The trip was short, but on the way they noticed strange plants, spewing poison and rot. Gwestin was sure: Nature had no part in this horror, it was man-made. By who, though? The only way to know was to reach the city and ask around.

After a week of asking, they had some answers: the strange plants came from a valley down south and the priests were sure that someone was tampering with them. But there was something more sinister at work. One of the Hooded Men, the secretive order whose members consider themselves custodians of the woods, deserted their ranks, stole "something powerful" and fled to the north. The other Hooded Men approached the military officers of Luel, warning them of the danger and secretly hoping that they would do something about this renegade. Sure enough, our adventurers picked up the quest and departed right away. One night in the swamp, their encampment was visited by a lone Viking Berserker. He wasn't necessarily out for blood, but the party was still burning with hatred, so they didn't let him go free. It was a tough fight, one they almost lost.

They spent some days at the foot of the mountains, healing, then reached their destination: a hideout encased in the rocks of a hill, the entrance merely an illusionary metal door. The site was very old, built centuries ago by rebels who opposed the ruling tiranny, but the many traps were clearly a later addition to the structure. They were doing great, until...

A small group of goblinoids was standing guard in the third room. The party tried to convince them they were new recruits, but the goblinoids didn't believe them and attacked. The battle was furious. Eldrenor was struck down by an hobgoblin's mace, while a dire wolf and two goblins took care of Arwel and Gwestin. Just a moment before losing consciousness, they could clearly see that Eldrenor was actually dead.

Hours later they regained consciousness. They were tied together and someone was keeping them under watch. A female elf. Eldrenor. She was... alive? How could it be? And just why she had her bow ready to shoot them? They tried to talk sense into her, but she responded that it wasn't worth trying, now that she was free from the spell that the folks in Luel put upon them. Spell? Which spell? What was she talking about? But soon all was cleared, for Pan, the Hooded Man they were seeking, made his entrance. He had a book in his hands and as he talked, Arwel and Gwestin had to convene that he was in fact a reasonable person, that he had been persecuted and that they were sent to kill an honest man. At the end of his speech, the two were ashamed of their original intents and doubts. Eldrenor softened and asked Pan if they could be freed, for she was certain that they would do him no harm now. In fact, they offered themselves as guards for a time, as atonement for their transgression. Pan closed his book and accepted their offer with a big, overtly happy smile.

The next day they met again the two goblinoids who confronted them and laughed about their fight. But hey, wait a minute, weren't there three goblinoids? Ah, it didn't matter, Pan counted on them to keep guard outside his private chamber. He was quite savvy. He said that in that dungeon used to be buried a long forgotten hero, now horribly raised from the dead by dark powers, and that he was there only to stop it from breaking free and causing havoc to the weak and the innocents. That's why he had to take some arcane measures and borrow a certain spell... but he didn't say which one, surely because he didn't want to flaunt his deep arcane knowledge. It was also undeniable that he had eyes only for Eldrenor, and she noticed it. She was confused by it at first, because she still longed for her kidnapped lover, but as the days passed she began to think that after all she'd went through it would be understandable is she fell for such a charismatic and brilliant guy like Pan.

It happened after the first week. Arwel and Eldrenor were patrolling the dungeon, while Gwestin was guarding their new master. Pan never told them where the resurrected hero was, just that the access to his tomb was protected with spells. He couldn't possibly know that both of them had a knack for illusions. The first to notice something was Arwel. When he was young, he saved his family thanks to his unexplained sixth-sense for reality-altering magic. He noticed that the wall had a repetitive pattern: the same stone was replicated over and over and over, sometimes turned around to fool the eye. Arwel stood still and Eldrenor noticed his hesitation, curious of what was happening. Since she was an elf, as soon as she understood that something wasn't right the illusion disappeared to her eyes, and she could see that the room was much bigger and that there were two more, mysterious doors. All around them, corpses. Corpses in really peculiar poses, ritual like, with their arms stretched out. Corpses of goblinoids. And sure enough, there was the corpse of the missing goblin! Yeah, he was there during the fight... but they didn't even touch him... so how could he have died?

The truth of what happened hit Eldrenor like a spiked flail to the face. She recognized the room, she had been here a week ago. She remembered drawing a great breath and opening her eyes, the disappeared goblin engulfed in dimming arcane energy falling down like a puppet with its strings cut, holding something in his hands, the arms rigid. She remembered she was tied, and that in front of here was Pan, who quickly took whatever the goblin was holding and then opened a book. He said something, he sounded reasonable, but she was very tired and fell asleep. This stream of memories inundated her mind, until something broke silently. An invisible silvery thread had just snapped, freeing here of the charm spell she was under. She died, but somehow the goblin restored her to life. She fell to her knees, silent tears running down her cheeks.

Arwel too was on his knees, holding his head, the frown covered in sweat. When he and Gwestin came to, what Eldrenor said made no sense... yeah he had doubts, he found it strange that she sided with Pan and then that book he was reading from... It was after that that he felt that profound remorse, that he looked at Pan as a friend, even if he didn't knew him at all. Suddenly, his insides had a little revolution and before he knew he was on all fours, puking away the charm that Pan put upon him.

They were free now. Ironically the illusion helped them to win their minds back, but it also meant that they probably wouldn't be able to free Gwestin in the same way: the druid didn't really have a knack for detecting illusions; in fact, he frequently talked about things that only he saw. The toll of being an herborist, they supposed. No, they had to kill Pan for their friend to be free. He usually stayed in his chamber all day and night, occasionally going out for a couple of minutes to just breathe in some fresh air. He studied tomes of magic all the time, allegedly to "overcome" the terrible wight who was awaken in the dungeon, and he usually didn't want to be disturbed. But would he really turn down an intimacy offer from Eldrenor? They didn't think so. She could gain access to his chamber and try to assassinate him when he was in the most defenseless of situations, while Arwel could keep an eye on Gwestin, blocking him if he ever was going to intervene on the behalf of his charmer.

That night, Eldrenor knocked at Pan's door and gained entrance to the room. At some point, Arwel heard Pan scream in pain and Gwestin, alarmed, tried to gain entrance to the chamber. The two friends were locked in a tight grapple for a minute, then suddenly the eyes of Gwestin cleared and he stopped throwing hands at Arwel. Stupefied, he look at his friend, visibly questioning everything that happened in the last week and mumbling words. Then the door opened and Eldrenor, blade covered in blood, exited the room. "It is done" she said. Pan laid on his bed, multiple wounds pitched his half-naked body, while his head had rolled into a corner. "Defeated by the desires of the flesh" commented Gwestin. "Doesn't it happen to us all?" said Arwel, laconic.

They searched his possessions. An hefty sum of gold, some gems, some rations and just three spellbooks. The infamous Charm spell, the subtle Hypnotize and the forbidden Ultimate Sacrifice. That was the spell he used to revive Eldrenor, by making a goblin cast it as it transferred the caster's life force to the target. Utilizing this spell in that way was a perversion of its meaning, through and through. Probably, judging by the amount of goblin corpses, he used it many times. The wight almost certainly was one. But the others? Failed experiments? Unfortunately the living goblins were no longer in the dungeon, as they probably were under Pan's charm too and as soon as it lifted they booked for the exit.

There was not time to waste, though. They didn't know if Pan had made other enchantments on the wight's prison, but that abomination could be already free for all they knew. The illusions were gone and they easily located the door leading to the wight's tomb. They knew it was upon them to right this wrong, so they thought of a plan. They would open the wight's cell, then lure him and his skeletal minions in a room with a trap: if activated, a metal cage would drop upon them from the ceiling.

It went all according to the plan, until the minions evaded the trap and had to be fought hand to hand by Arwel and Gwestin, while Eldrenor took care of the wight with her bow. The ancient warrior was a mighty figure, so at some point it freed itself from the cage and began swinging its rusted sword at them. In the end the undead was destroyed, but Arwel and Gwestin received some curse that made their wounds not heal properly. They looted the lair (more than 2000 gp) and headed back to Luel, to announce their victory and to seek medical (and magical) help. For thawing out this menace before it became too malicious, the folks in the know began referring to them as the Heroes of the Firth.

*basically a mash-up between Shrek and the Florida Man meme, with hunting dogs though.