Episode 19 - The Bells of Castle Cole

General Summary

2nd of Harvest, 1442

The painful ringing in Iryval Ayvir's head had yet to cease since her terrible injury, and when she came to again she was in the back of a wagon trundling through The Heartlands on their way towards the Barony of Cole. Her wounds were being tended by Bexley who sat beside her in the wagon while Jarvin Cadwalader and Roan Cordelaine walked along behind. The baleful summer heat was giving way to the cool breezes of autumn, and they had left the conflict-ridden border between the Baronies of Bridemare and Tatcher following the information given by "Baron" Lazarus Craytin. If what he spoke was true, Annabeth of Risevar and her daughter Mair Dillestone were being sequestered by Ravenna Durant, the Iron Warden of Castle Cole and House Oake's former Master of Laws. Jarvin had heard only rumours and hearsay about Baroness Ravenna, but what he had heard had truly shaken him; the roads to Ravenna's domain were adorned with the cadavers of thieves and spies, and the people of her domain were thought to be among the most law-abiding... and the most fearful.   While Drosta drove the wagon along and Bexley changed the bandages on Iryval's head, he remarked that their discrete entourage was continuing to grow... and not all the additions were good. Attempting to size Iryval up, he asked if she was a devotee of The Six Saints, and implied that they had a blasphemer among them that might imperil their mission to recover the missing heir, citing Roan specifically. Iryval tried to sway Bexley away from considering Roan to be a "loose end" to be severed, but her attempts fell on deaf ears. A short time later, the group arrived at Conall's Crossing, where they quickly sought out lodgings in one of the rowdy inns to get out of the rain. Within the crowded drinking hall, Iryval spied a fledgeling bard attempting to coax a melody out of a badly-tuned lyre and, despite her injuries, sought to offer him a few pointers. Arthur Riverborn was pleased to make her acquaintance and, after getting the lyre into proper tuning, invited her to play with him.   Meanwhile, Jarvin took a seat and sought to settle up his debts with his fell patron Pyx, and received an unusual ask; drink with two old ferrymen who regularly work the river routes and ensure they have the night of their lives, as tomorrow Pyx states they will capsize and drown in the deep waters. Enlisting the aid of Roan, they quickly made friends with the ferrymen and began buying round after round. Roan seemed happy to go along with Jarvin's socializing, until Iryval and Arthur began to play an achingly familiar tune; The Ballad of the Lioness. When the song's lyrics began to touch upon the brave knight who rode to Lowenna Benett Oake's rescue, Roan excused himself from the table relieve himself in the alley outside.   Out in the alley, Roan stumbled across the corpse of a diseased man that took on the voice of his patron Rottur. The cadaver warned Roan of dangers lurking in the shadows, and Roan beseeched his patron to forgive the debts he owed. Rottur asked that Roan foul the communal stewpot within the tavern, further spreading illness and disease through the Heartlands, an ask that Roan readily accepted. He also paused before departing, compelled to fish out a pointed shard of wood that lay near the filth of the dead man and pocket it. Roan had rarely ever held a weapon in his life, but Rottur's warning weighed heavily upon him. He quickly snuck into the kitchens and fouled the stew being served to dozens of patrons before slipping out unnoticed.    After finishing their performance, Arthur thanked Iryval and offered her a cut of his earnings, which she politely declined. Noting her injuries, he asked if anyone had ever taught her how to properly defend herself. Iryval admitted that that was one area of her education where she'd come up short, and a few moments later Arthur and Iryval were outside the tavern as he began walking her through an impromptu self-defence lesson. While Iryval's motivation was there, she still struggled to keep up due to her injuries, and the lesson was interrupted by the sudden appearance of Roan, who had been skulking nearby observing their interactions. Roan magnanimously offered to retain Arthur's services as a travelling bard, something the poor musician had never dreamed of before, and they two men shook on it before Roan, Arthur and Iryval set off towards the next tavern down the lane to continue the night's revelry.   Their conversation, however, was being observed from above by Jarvin through the window of his rented room. As he watched the trio ambling off down the muddy road, a knock came at his door; Drosta was there, who was quick to shut the door behind her as she laid out her concerns; the coalition of spies searching for Annabeth and Mair seemed to be growing exponentially now that Iryval and Semmian had been folded into their entourage, and now Roan was out recruiting bards into their company. Drosta reminded Jarvin of the seriousness of their mission, and that if word got out that Mair Dillestone was alive and well, a whole host of ambitious, morally bankrupt men would descend upon her location instantly. Jarvin tried his best to allay Drosta's worries but she insisted that, no matter what happened when they found her, she didn't want to see the child hurt in any way. Jarvin agreed, and the two parted with an understanding, although the tenuous alliance between the agents of Ildrafn and Sandoreale seemed weaker than it was before.  

4th of Harvest, 1442

Several days later, the group arrived within the domain of Ravenna Durant, as the trees along the road soon gave way to to rusty gibbets holding the remains of thieves and brigands that dared to break the law in her lands. The Barony of Cole was everything Jarvin had heard in the tavern rumours; Ravenna's hold over her subjects was so great that shrines has been erected on the roadside in her honour. The city that had sprung up around the remains of Castle Cole was diligently patrolled, and watchtowers dotted the city streets allowing guards to maintain a vigilant eye over the commonfolk below. Bexley lead the group to a run-down boarding house on the rougher side of town after they successfully eluded the gate guards about their true purpose in visiting the town. The sitting room was full of rough sorts who paid the group little heed when they arrived. One among them, however, paid particular notice to Bexley's arrival... but none among the group noted the stranger's interest before they were ushered into their rooms. The group split in several destinations; while many among their party were content to rest, Jarvin took Iryval to seek out a proper apothecary to deal with her lingering injuries while Drosta and Roan went to the docks to see if anyone fitting Annabeth's description had been seen.   As Drosta and Roan walked along the waterfront, she remarked on the foreign flags flown by many of the merchant ships, musing about their various ports of call along the Continent. Taking Roan aside, she strongly urged him to get on one of those ships and vanish from Banteave completely; he was in over his head, and she suspected that the search for Mair was only going to get more dangerous as time went on. Roan, however, made her a counteroffer; abandon her patron Gethin Sandoreale and join House Ildrafn. Drosta seemed taken by the idea, but could not bring herself to commit to it; those that abandoned their service to House Sandoreale often found their lives dramatically shortened.    Erstwhile, Jarvin and Iryval found a respectable apothecary who was able to alleviate the swelling along her temple and soothe her pain. As the doctor worked, the church bells rang out across the city, and Jarvin noticed a swell of people headed for the nearest church of The Six Saints. The doctor stated that attendance was expected for all those within the city; Ravenna Durant was militantly faithful, and with House Luneste recently denounced by the Church of the Six Saints for their heretical practices, the fervour among the faithful here was growing stronger by the day. His work complete, the doctor began to close his shop and suggested that Jarvin and Iryval join him at the evening service.    The church was awe-inspiring, and remained one of the few buildings that had survived the siege during King Robern's Downfall. Jarvin and Iryval squeeze into the back rows amongst those who couldn't find a seat and watched as the clergy made way for Ravenna Durant herself, clad in her full harness and sporting a mask stylized after Galbraith, The Burned. As she spoke, it became clear that Baroness Ravenna has stylized herself the sole divine protector of the barony, and she warned of an ocean of conflict soon to come upon the lands that only she could protect them from.    Meanwhile, Drosta and Roan returned to the boarding house... only to be met with an unexpected sight in the sitting room. Bexley was there, flanked by a dozen men and women who had, up to that moment, been listening to him intently. They all turned to stare at Roan as soon as he walked in, and Bexley curtly informed Drosta that he had word sent ahead to agents of House Sandoreale to meet them in the Barony of Cole. The Ildrafn's, he reasoned, had outnumbered Sandoreale's interests in this venture for far too long, and in order to ensure the success of the mission, some adjustments to their personnel needed to occur... immediately.    Roan made a break for the door, but the Sandoreale cutthroat beat him to it. Roan was thrown to the floor and beaten despite Drosta's demands that Bexley call off his men. Hearing sounds of commotion upstairs, Bexley sent two of his men to keep anyone from interfereing while he and the others hauled Roan out into the alleys to dispose of him for good. Throwing Roan into a filthy back alley and cursing his heretical nature, Bexley raised his knife to end Roan's life... only to be suddenly faced with a surge of rats pouring forth from the walls and gutters in Roan's defence. Roan made a break for it, but could not twist his way past Bexley's knife, leaving him with a brutal, possibly fatal wound. Despite his injury, Roan still managed to leave the diseased wooden shard in Bexley's side as he made his daring escape, wriggling down into the nearby sewers as Bexley and the others tried to disperse the rats. Covered in filth and with his lifeblood ebbing away, Roan staggered deeper into the underbelley of the city as Bexley's agents began to tighten the noose...   *END OF EPISODE*