Master and Aprentice
A Knight is heartbroken by the roadside because he feels responsible for his squire letting the void into him. Sir Michael had two students, Elias and Jonah. During a sparing session, Jonah lost control and succumbed to frustration, letting the void take over from within. Giving up control to his anger, Jonah struck Elias down. Michael acted out in wrath, screaming at Jonah while he mourned rather than being there for him. Michael now emphasizes he is extremely angry with himself for acting that way. And because of him he has now lost two sons instead of one.
Jonah has since ran away, feeling he had no one to turn to. To make things worse, desertion among the knights of the way is not only punishable by death but triggers a small inquisition to be sent out. Michael is waiting by the roadside because he has received a vision sent to him by his old student of an open area on an elevated cliffside. Through the vision he could feel his old student challenge him to a duel. So he has come here to honor the challenge, which he believes he has a responsibility to.
Michael still fights with the longsword (instead of the signature halberd) to remember Jonah by. It was Jonah's favored weapon. It just so happens it was Jonah's longsword that Michael keeps at his side at all times. It was the same longsword that Jonah killed Elias with.
Michael will tell them that Jonah was always too hard on himself, but Elias would always say "Love keeps no record of wrongs, and I love my brother."
The players can accompany the knight to a duel out on the cliff. As he needs someone to report back his death in case he loses the duel. However, there will be opportunities to talk the squire out of it as he will give some clear signs he is struggling internally with the darkness within him.
It is a full moon tonight, and when it ascends the highest point in the sky you realize at the emergence of a young man in black armor, that neither of those things are a coincidence. As he comes out of the concealment of the night, you see Sir Michael's breath leave his body and his face turn white. The sound the black knight's his dark plated boots clink against the stone of the barren plateau with a foreboding rhythm as he ambles center stage.
You look over and you see the fearful hesitation in Sir Michael as he drags out the words caught in his throat. "Jonah! I'm sorry... for everything! What happened was my fault...I- I-" the cold sound of unsheathing metal rings out to cut Michael off, as the only response from the challenger is his formation into a combat stance. Even with the black knight's visor still masking his face, the cold hatred barely contained rage the young man feels for his former master can be felt all the way from where you stand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBsHWwmXbcM
Michael tries to open his mouth to speak, but his words are caught in his throat again when a shadow-like blur rushes across the gap between them to drive forward a lunging thrust right toward Michael's throat. Your eyes hardly had anytime at all to follow the shadow's movement, as Michael unsheathes his longsword and parries the lunge in a flash of motion.
What unfolds before you seems like a black phantom and silver-armored haze rushing back and forth across the moonlit plateau as their their swords flash, parry and strike all in one fluid and never ending motion. In the brief moments in time where your eyes can catch up to their movement, you believe you can see Michael is constantly on the defensive. Whether it is because the teacher is now hopelessly outmatched or because he is still uncommitted to killing his former student you don't know.
The black-clad knight steadily gains ground on Michael, pushing him back toward the boarder of darkness beyond the moon's reach with a cascading flow of downward and sideward slashes. You think you can see Michael barely moving his sword in place to parry each strike only just as you are sure that the killing blow has just been dealt. But Sir Michael remains steadfast, though he is being tried for all his worth as a warrior he shows no signs of slowing down.
Time seems to stop as the two lock swords and grapple one another. Their feet slide around on the stone as each one fights for dominance. Suddenly Michael delivers a bone-crushing blow with his pummel up toward the dark knight's helm, sending him stumbling back with his helmet flying to the side. The two come to a halt as if frozen in time. And looking back at Michael is a young man, the power of the void has drained all the color that the man once had in his face and his eyes are shining forth with cold silver light.
1. The duelists come to a brief intermission. Michael will comment that he doesn't want to fight him, Jonah spits back that he can sense the anger that Michael has in himself, thus believes that anger is proof that Michael want to kill him.
If players respond with "the anger he feels toward himself for pushing you away," they will only need a 10. But if not they will have to roll a persuasion for 15. (Must score a 14 or Higher.) If the persuasion is a success Jonah will hesitate, Michael jumps in and starts to tell him that its true but Jonah will start to panic telling them to shut up. You will see the silver light in his eyes flicker back and forth back to brown. But it settles back on silver before Jonah resumes his assault.
The second intermission
The two come to another halt, when Jonah will sarcastically sneer "You think you can avenge Elias just because you're fighting me with the weapon I slew him with?" Michael looks down at his sword with wide eyes and insists that's not the reason he brought it. What will the players say?
If the players intervene and tell Jonah that Michael keeps the sword as a memento to remember Jonah by, only a persuasion of 10 is needed. If anything else 15 or higher.
Third intermission.
Michael implores Jonah to stop this and come home with him. Michael assures him that he has forgiven him. Jonah hesitates, saying that even if that was true, Elias would never forgive him. If the player correctly quotes Elias "Love keeps no record of wrongs, and I love my brother" then the persuasion roll will go down to 10. Anything else will need a 15 or above.
Less than two persuasions will result in Michaels death, with Jonah picking up his old longsword off his old teacher's body, smiling and disappearing back into the darkness. 5500XP
Two out of three successful rolls will convert Jonah back to his connection with serenity and his eyes will flicker and settle back to brown. The two will reconcile and award the players with Jonah's longsword as a black knight because Jonah can't bring himself to look at it anymore.
5500XP and the two-handed longsword of spell deflection. The defender inflects a roll of disadvantage against a projectile spell.
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