Session 11 - Chaos and Order in Brillig
General Summary
Fires caused by the Black Flagellants begin to break out over the city. Seeing this, the party mobilizes to go and stop the spread of the fires. Sigisar and Edmon went looking for Jakob Böse, and Manfred and Kaleb left to put out fires. Winifred and Narcissa went to get horses for easier travel over the city. In practicality, this all would lead them to the same place, a nearby fire to the citadel where some of the flagellants and a mob of bystanders had assembled. This fire was taking place in a wealthy merchant district of the city. Sigisar, Edmon, Manfred and Kaleb arrived at this fire first, as Winifred and Narcissa struggled to obtain horses. A stablehand told Narcissa the horses could not be taken as they were property of the lord, and she accosted him, causing him to shrink away and leave. However, as they tried to mount the horses, they realized they had no saddles or other equipment, and Winifred could not control hers, so they left with them. At the fire, Manfred argued with a flagellant preacher, hoping to sway the crowd, but it was to little avail. The preacher spoke of sin, God’s judgment of the plague, and the need to cleanse oneself by burning one’s worldly attachments. Kaleb made it so the man seemed as if he was naked from the waist down in an attempt to humiliate him. Sigisar tried to speak with the preacher and demanded to know the location of Jakob Böse, but it also proved to have little utility. As tensions roiled, Narcissa and Winifried arrived. Soon after, a fight broke out between the party and the flagellants.
Narcissa caused a thunderous crack which weakened the group of flagellants. Kaleb created another illusory naked man. The preacher then revealed a skeletal visage which sent much of the party fleeing. Narcissa and Sigisar stood strong, but Kaleb and Edmon fled for a little bit before turning around. Manfred and Winifred ran back to the citadel. Several bystanders in the mob also fled. Sigisar and a returning Edmon chopped several of the flagellants in a melee. Narcissa caused another thunderous crack, and then called for her imp Baeleb. Kaleb tried to use his sling, but did not connect. After taking this assault, several of the flagellants were slain, and their preacher had to be carried away limply.
At the citadel, Manfred helped Winifred to her room, and with her permission, cast a spell to put her to sleep to dispel her fright and anxiety. Narcissa followed the flagellants through a raven, seeing them retreat into a building. On the street, Sigisar did his best to marshal a fire brigade to fight the fires. Kaleb tried to help by throwing cups of water at the fire. Edmon checked over the bodies of the flagellants (who had no personal belongings besides weapons, but who revealed signs of being chastised on their backs) and started the conversation of what to do with them. A burning of the bodies was considered, but after confusion from the fire brigade, it was decided they should be thrown in the river. The fire brigade was unable to put out the fires, and people lost resolve over time. Still, a grateful man thanked Sigisar for his efforts in suppressing the flagellants and the fires. Sigisar and Narcissa discussed ways to kill the flagellants - either through burning down their hideout, or by inviting them for an ambush in the citadel. The fires burned themselves out, doing a decent amount of damage and killing some people. The Zwerghof - the dwarf quarter - was among those damaged.
The next day, the town council came to the citadel to raise grievances and calls for assistance to Sigisar. Narcissa and Edmon left to visit the Zwerghof. Manfred and Kaleb went to attend to the burn victims. Winifred left to pray at a chapel. Receiving the town council alone, Sigisar chastised its members for asking for handouts in this time of emergency, and questioned why they had not raised the town guard. A syndic named Johann spoke the truth, and told Sigisar most of the town council had been bribed by his uncle. Sigisar praised Johann, then told the council he was disbanding it until he got control of the city back. Most of the councillors took umbrage at Johann, and left amid proclamations that they would seek to charge him with libel.
In the dwarf quarter, Narcissa and Edmon spoke to a dwarf named Annar, who was quite annoyed with Sigisar’s alleged failures during the night. He showed them a school which had been burned down, and said that at least five dwarves had been killed. He also accused the Flagellants of starting that fire. Narcissa promised Manfred would come by to look at the wounded. The two then encountered a “representative” of the mysterious H - a man who had requested Sigisar’s letter. Narcissa deduced that his unusual physique was not that of a dwarf, and further surmised that he was actually the mysterious man himself, not a representative. H questioned the pair about Sigisar and seemed disappointed at the lack of detail they gave. Narcissa tried to magically influence the man to come back to the citadel, but failed. After parting ways, she had her raven follow him to a building within the Zwerghof compound.
Manfred attended to the injured in the general part of town. He was mobbed by many requests, but soon encountered a messenger from Narcissa, who told him she had promised the dwarfs in the Zwerghof that he would come to their aid. He then left to go to the dwarf quarter. There, Manfred used healing prayers to miraculously heal some burned dwarf children, and had a candid conversation about Sigisar’s character and religion with Annar. Kaleb, meanwhile, was using his mysterious gifts to repair items that had been damaged in the fire, and was then seemingly abducted by a man asking him to fix things at a manor. The man seemed to know him for a gnome.
After praying, Winifred wandered around the city in a daze. She was enticed and then held at knifepoint by two adolescent muggers, Franz and Ignatz. Remaining friendly, Winifred was able to get them to back down by mentioning her uncle. The muggers seemed to have little food, aside from a wheel of cheese. Upon returning to the citadel, she made plans that night to take some food and carry it back to the muggers.
After returning to the citadel, Narcissa reported her findings about H back to Sigisar. She retired to her room for the night, and her imp Baeleb appeared. She wanted to command him to go kill the preacher and his flagellants, but Baeleb demanded payment for his work finding Winifred’s uncle first, which enraged Narcissa. As night grew close, Sigisar prepared to slink under cover of shadow and make contact with H himself.
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