~8pm, 22nd of June, 5th Era 1486 RE (Day 10)
Captain Vissaeus' House, City of High-Haven
After dispatching the High-Haven Captain of the Towns-guard...Ramos (along with Wolfgang and Mack) head off in search of the Hell-Knight Fugitive; Matheus. On their way to the castle, they pass through the central plaza (where Lord Emmon Hyegarl and Sij's dead bodies had been laid out on stone plinths), this time however, it seems that Sij's body is missing, and a puzzled guard looks around the empty plinth in confusion. He questions Ramos and the others when they pass but they haven't a clue either. Ramos then convinces the puzzled guard to escort them to the castle where they have urgent business with Matheus, who has been assigned residence within on account of his new position of power within High-Haven's running. As they approach the stately castle (High-Haven's capital building, and former residence of the late Lord Emmon.) Ramos can make out two distinct, tall towers standing at either side of the building, each one ascending five hundred feet vertically. To his surpise, the front gate of the castle is wide open, with only two guards stationed in the area. But more surprisingly, he can see a man with a fine purple doublet, seemingly searching for something. On closer inspection, the man is identified as Matheus. He notices the party, but seems too preoccupied with his search to give them any longer than a disdainful glance. In truth, he seems quite distressed. And shouts out across the plaza. He calls out the name 'Severine' several times, she seems to have run away. In his hand he has a strip of emerald green silk. Ramos changes the subject by requesting a private audience with Matheus to discuss some things. Matheus obliges him and does not think much of it (Ramos is still disguised as Qith; the town's Eel Vendor.)
When the four of them are in Matheus' office within the castle, Mack closes the door behind them, and Ramos starts to interrogate Matheus. Wolfgang stands close to Matheus intimidatingly, ready to cause pain, at Ramos' command. Ramos questions Matheus on how he came to riches when he had arrived at the city in rags. Matheus pleas that his actions and intentions were honorable, and that the methods in his acquisition of power and riches were honest, but Ramos doesn't believe him. He instructs Wolfgang to cut off Matheus' little finger, and he does so immediately. Matheus' muffled shriek can be heard behind Wolfgang's hand. Matheus gives in, and tells them that he may have stolen gold and riches from the city's townfolk. When Ramos mentions his own gold and provisions (which had been stolen from previously him when they left in the hollowed-out log by the Windmill east of town), Matheus indicates that he may have been the one responsible, and so Ramos then asks him where the gold was? Matheus strolled to the corner of the room, and opened a large ornate chest, and the contents of which were gold, jewellery, crystals, and other valuables. Pleased with the veritable treasure-trove they had found, Ramos then instructed Wolfgang to bind Matheus up, but when he lunged forward to grapple the old man, Matheus wriggled out violently...he had a blood-tipped dagger in his hand, and Wolfgang dropped to one knee, cursing in pain. Matheus backs away quickly, Mack comes forward from the door to help, he swings hard with the ceremonial mace, but Matheus performs an impressive back flip to avoid the hit. He darts out of his office, and out of the castle, and across the street, pursued by Mack and Wolfgang. Ramos takes a moment to collect the gold and valuables from the chest, before following the others.
Outside, Matheus sprints towards the nearest building, and like a panther, he leaps onto the wall, climbing up it with amazing speed and power. He waits at the top of the house, looking down on his three pursuers with arrogant contempt. Mack pursues him, climbing up a ladder, and Wolfgang and Ramos follow him at ground level. Just as Mack reaches the top of the ladder, Matheus sprints off along the rooftops of a row of houses. The chase lasts for a few minutes, and Matheus it seems can easily outrun them, at a couple of intervals, he even waits for them to catch up to him, before running away again. They continue to chase him until he leaps across a street from one building to another (an impossible jump for an ordinary human) closely behind him, Mack attempts the same jump, but he fails, and falls 30 feet head-first onto solid stone. He is killed instantly on the impact, and Wolfgang and Ramos witness the horror first hand. Matheus looks down from above, and let's out a grin before sprinting off again. Defeated in their attempts to catch Matheus, the sound of a war horn fills the night air. Shortly afterwards, you can see a number of guardsmen sprinting by, adorning helmets and readying weapons as they do so. In the distance they are running, you can hear the echoes of panicked voices, and you can see the flickering light of torches. As two guards pass by, you can hear one of them speaking in a kind of desperate tone. "They're attacking! By the gods, they're attacking!" he says. Wolfgang urges Ramos to leave Mack's body, and insists that they need to leave the city at once. Ramos agrees, and the two of them head towards the northern gate, it takes them a few minutes until the gate is in sight, a bizarre and crooked tower stands, further east along the City wall. Alongside the gate, they can make out a Horse-Drawn Caravan, setting up to depart, a cloaked individual is seen shaking hands with a Townsguard, and the Northern gate opens shortly afterwards. As Ramos and Wolfgang approach the caravan, the cloaked figure adresses them, recognising both of them as fellow Brothers of the Order of Libertorius. Relieved, the duo climb aboard the caravan and settle in for the ride out of town. Moments later, three more cloaked men appear, they are escorting a rather peculiar little man towards the caravan. The escorted man is a halfling, wearing a white coat, and goggles around his neck...strangely he's only wearing one sock, and no shoes. His bearded face darts around in a most erratic and unusual manner. His voice is high pitched when he asks you if you will be joining him on the voyage. When everyone is on board, the caravan spurs off and out of the City, towards the Order's Headquarters, Ascentium (Ramos' home)
NEFARION Furyborn, Hell-Knight Commander of the Cabal of Vigilum
SELTYIEL Garrott, a Maniacal, heavily Mutated Tiefling Alchemist
CYNTHIA of Ostenheim, a Vampire Curse-Weaver in Hell-Knight Custody
HEL, the White Necromancer and Apprentice of Nefarion
~9pm, 22nd of June, 5th Era 1486 RE (Day 10)
Western Gates, City of High-Haven
Under the Arch Lictor's orders. Nefarion, Seltyiel, Cynthia and Hel gallop towards High Haven with a small regiment of Cabal Knights and Signifers on Ethereal-Horseback. They have come to take the city, root out rebel forces within and claim it in the name of the Royalists. As they approach the city, in the distance, they can see that the gates have been shut, and the High-Haven towns-guard have mustered a defense force. (albeit an unprepared and disorganized one, and it seems they are without the aid of their guard captain; Vissaeus) After an awkwardly brief parley, Nefarion learns this information from them, realizing that he and his own troupe have been given a distinct advantage. They advance closer to the gate, and the High-Haven Towns-guard release a volley of arrows at them. The two Signifers with them cast a fireball spell, combining their powers together to make one collossal and deadly inferno, which they launch at the iron portcullis of the City Gate. Hell-Knights with Tower shields protect them from arrows while this is happening, and the gates begin to melt under the intense heat of the blaze, some of the fire spills through the gaps in the gate, it seems to flow into the courtyard within, immolating and burning Towns-guard behind the gates. The Hell-Knights form a tortoise formation, and advance through the gap in the gates which had melted away. They pour into the city and slay the ram-shackled guards within. Nefarion leads the charge, aided by Lt. Gabriel Salvo, Cynthia and Hel. Seltyiel takes flight and heads straight for the castle
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| Gabriel Salvo Hell-Knight Lieutenant |
By this point, Seltyiel had arrived at the Castle to find two guards at the front door. Still in flight, he decides to smash through a window on one of the higher floors, to better infiltrate the castle. When he comes crashing through a window into a hallway, his coffin lands flat on the carpet and he lies atop it in a most dramatic fashion. There is one plump guard in the hallway with him, except this guard has obviously decided to plunder the Lord's castle, rather than defend it. Seltyiel shrieks at him intimidatingly and demands to know where the castle's treasury is. The guard drops his haul of ornate vases and gold jewellery, and bolts the way he came. Seltyiel follows him momentarily for more answers, but the guard seems too cowardly and out-of-breath to be of any help. He heads down to the throne room, expecting to meet resistance within, but to his surprise, when he opens the doors, there is only one person inside. Sprawled on the throne, is a servant, who is enjoying a delusion of grandeur, when Seltyiel warns him of the encroaching army. The servant seems unperturbed, instead relishing in his self-appointed position as 'king of the castle', when Seltyiel explains that Hell-Knights are behind the attack, he curses immediately, and sprints out of the throne room, passing Seltyiel. Seltyiel takes a moment to explore the throneroom and the two adjoining back rooms (one being an office, and one being the treasury). He takes all of the gold he finds, as well as some valuable books before searching for more treasures in the castle's dungeon.
It's at about this time that Nefarion, Cynthia, and the Hell-Knights reach the castle, they search the rooms of the castle for resistance or survivors. Nefarion orders his men to locate a girl in a green dress, and ensure that no harm comes to her. Unbeknownst to the Knights, this little girl was Severine, a former prisoner of the Hell-Knight Bastion. Nefarion was counting on them not recognising her should they find her. They return a moment later, unsuccessful in their search attempts. They did however find Seltyiel rooting through a chest in the castle's dungeon and prison block, and so he returned with them to meet an unimpressed Nefarion. Shortly afterwards, they venture outside of the castle to gather the Hell-Knight survivors at the plaza, and muster any nearby citizens of the City for questioning. Nefarion seems hell-bent on finding Severine, but the citizens insist that they haven't seen her for a while, and that she was always with Matheus; who had been in charge of the City's Reformation (following the Von Heltzer siege). When Nefarion asks them if they have seen Matheus, they respond with equal uncertainty. One of the citizens mentions that he saw a person running across the rooftops, and he thought that this was unusual and noteworthy. Frustrated, Nefarion dismisses the citizens, ordering them to start clearing up rubble, and dead bodies. Moments later he sees a familiar body being dragged by, many of his bones visibly shattered and mangled. On closer inspection, Nefarion identifies the dead man as a previous member of his own company; Mack! Distraught, he orders Hel to 'speak' to the body of Mack using her Necromancy, to learn the details of his death. She performs this unholy ritual, and asks three questions to him.
HEL: "How did you die?"
MACK: "I was falling...it all happened so fast."
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HEL: "Who did this to you?"
MACK: "I was chasing someone....Matheus...he was so fast."
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HEL: "Who else was there with you?"
MACK: "Ramos...he was going to initiate me into his Order. The Order of Libertorius"
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And so that was it, Nefarion vowed to find both Matheus and Ramos, to bring them both to justice for the death of Mack, and the disappearance of his beloved Severine. He sent word to the Bastion, to inform the Arch Lictor of their success in taking the City. Before he returned to the castle, something caught his eye. In the plaza, there had been two bodies, laid out on stone slabs in memorial (Lord Emmon Hyegarl, and Sij; the Samsaran Monk), only one remained, and it was the blue-skinned pacifist monk that was gone without a trace. Although Nefarion had noticed this, in light of the carnage that had just befell the City, it didn't seem all that strange to him.
YSERA Furyborn, Hell-Knight Signifer of the Cabal of Vigilum
~8.30pm, 22nd of June, 5th Era 1486 RE (Day 10)
Foyer, Glyph's Tower, City of High-Haven
Moments before the attack took place on the city. Ysera continues to root through the books in the foyer of Glyph's Tower after successfully gaining access. She puts a few books aside that she deems in some way useful, before venturing upstairs, as she ascends, she hears hurried footsteps stomping franticly from the chamber above. The dusty chandelier on the foyer ceiling swings and judders, and then there is silence again. At the top of the spiralling staircase, she finds a large wooden door, which she knocks on, calling out the Professor's name. When she finds no answer, she opens it to see a pitch-black room.
She lights a torch and begins to search the room. But before she can make out anything, she sees a creature clumsily striding towards her from the darkness...although not human, it seems to have been made to look like one, except it's body has been stitched together by swatches of sack cloth and rough linens (much like a scarecrow, or a mannequin). The horrible creature extends it's stumped arms out and a set of crude iron claws exists where the hands should have been. It makes no noise from it's purposeless mouth, and it's stitched face seems to gesture a scream of hatred. Startled, she backs away and out of the room, she casts a Dispel Magic spell in order to halt this creature, which works...for a moment. Panicked, she flees down the stairs and out of the tower completely, where the creature follows her all the way to the front door, and no further. It stares at her as she waits outside of the tower. Ysera plucks up the courage to sprint past it, realizing that the creature is much slower than her. It slices her with it's crude iron claw as she rips past it, and she runs upstairs into the dark room once again, where she seals the door behind her. A moment later, she can hear a sickening scraping noise as the creature tries in vain to enter the room. She looks around for furniture to help reinforce the door, and finds an old armoire. She attempts to push it, but something moves inside it. To her horror, an iron claw bursts through the door of the armoire, and it seems she is now facing two of these monstrosities. While she has time, Ysera tries desperately to escape, drawing the curtains of the room, and pulling down wooden planks that have barred the only window. The creature eventually manages to burst out of the armoire, and slumps towards her with claws extended. She backs away towards a desk, where she knocks some books to the floor.
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| Tobias Glyph Scholar and Professor |
"The Seven....the Malefic Seven....they've been here all along you know...among us....waiting....watching....with the Eye....who knows how long?"
He goes on to say that he is expecting some other guests to arrive shortly. Moments later, a knock can be heard on the door of the study, voices shortly follow, calling out his name. Glyph seems excited that the new guests' have 'returned' for him.
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