Session 13 - The Exodus from Brillig
General Summary
Wigand was taken to the Great Hall by the party. Baeleb left with the servants. In the Great Hall, Wigand began an interrogation asking about Helga. This led to a recounting of the events at the Margrave's castle, which included Sigisar's disclosure that he called out Helga’s name. Wigand then accused Sigisar of summoning the witch, and generally painted him as incompetent. He suggested this was an unsafe place for Winifred, a claim that garnered Manfred's agreement. He also mentioned he noticed that Winifred now walks with a limp. After learning his nephew was either indisposed or dead, he said that he should be the executor of the Bischoffsbaum Estate, and said Winifred should come with him. Winifred complained of the duties of being a noble, and announced plans to release her titles and name as part of this transfer, but Wigand ignored her. Narcissa tried to disrupt his plans with magical suggestion, but Winifred talked her down, and expressed her own desire to leave. She said that going with her uncle was the responsible thing to do, and that she also agreed with Manfred’s sentiment. She said goodbyes to the group, more affectionately toward some than others. Her last act before leaving the Citadel was kissing Sigisar on the cheek.
After Winifred’s departure, Manfred and Sigisar spoke about the upcoming errand of finding Ingrid. Manfred expressed concern about leaving Brillig entirely to the devices of the City Council, and offered to stay as a privy counsellor to Sigisar. But ultimately, he left the decision up to Sigisar where he would be most useful. In the meantime, Edmon took his frustrations out on a practice dummy. He was approached by the Majordomo Gismondo who said that Winifred’s uncle was bad news.
Narcissa went into the chapel and spoke with the A priest at Schloss Herbstfroh, telling him that she was looking for the heretical book Manfred had, and that Sigisar wanted it. In doing so, she possibly implicated the others in pursuing heretical knowledge as well. The priest told Narcissa that Sigisar would have to come and get the book himself. He also spoke ill of the spells that were used to strike down the Flagellants and suggested he might get laudanum to help Narcissa deal with her wild thoughts. Narcissa thought the priest was threatening her with his words, and told Baeleb he must be killed. Then she searched frantically in the chapel to find the book after the priest departed, to little avail. She then tried to desecrate the altar with evil runes and magical effects, but was injured by heavenly blowback. She also heard angels singing as she did this.
Unsupervised, Kaleb snuck out of the Citadel and followed Winifred and her uncle to the city gates, where he made his presence known. Winifred convinced Kaleb to go back in the city and find Manfred, at least temporarily. After the little man left, Winifred spoke to her uncle about her brother Kaspar, as well as about her shapechanging and magic. Wigand said that her brother was a fool in life, and that he was of a different mother, and that is why he did not share the gifts with Winifred. He promised to get her assistance, including from the seditious Matilda. Winifred seemed hesitant, but did not raise her voice in too much protest. Wigarnd, Winifred and their entourage then rode into the woods. Winifred noticed that her uncle's horse seemed anxious. This proved to be correct as the group was assaulted by an arrow volley. Wigand and Winifred galloped to try and escape the fighting, losing the rest of the entourage. An arrow struck Wigand, causing him to fall from his horse. Winifred then leapt from her horse voluntarily. Bandits appeared and began to take Winifred hostage. However, she successfully begged for the right to stabilize her injured uncle before being bound. Her uncle seemed to be breathing, and not bleeding out, so having ascertained he was still alive, Winifred consented to being tied to a tree.
Instead of returning to the castle, Kaleb took a scenic route through the city. In one plaza, he met a “festive” couple who were physically fighting. Kaleb told them they were fighting wrong. The man produced a knife and threatened Kaleb, telling him to leave. Kaleb agreed to leave, but was gleeful the fighters had learned how to fight better. Kaleb then decided he should follow Winifred after all. He returned to the gatehouse, going up in the tower. He found the crank, and tried to operate it alone, but could not. He also created an illusory version of himself to help, but the image was lazier than Kaleb himself. He then heard other people in the tower talking about biting heads off, which intrigued Kaleb. He stepped into the guardhouse and met two wererats, one whose name was Hartwig, who were hanging around caged birds. Kaleb said he needed to go to the other side of the gate. One of the wererats dangled Kaleb over the parapet, allowing him to see what was over there. Eventually, Kaleb talked them into letting him through the gatehouse by promising to say nothing about having ever been there. He decided to walk in the direction he thought Winifred went.
Back in the woods, Winifred was screaming in the night from her place of captivity. Then, her captors seemed to answer with their own screams. Eventually, a familiar face appeared after the commotion for Winifred - Boss Reinhard. Reinhard freed Winifred, and told her his people drove off the bandits. Winifred tried to find her injured uncle again, but could not. Kaleb managed to locate them, and all three of them sat down by the fire. It seemed to be a real party, with many people in states of undress, and kegs in the snow. There were several score people around. Kaleb drank liberally. Winifred tried to control his drinking, but this caused conflict with Boss Reinhard, who did not appreciate her telling Kaleb what to do. Kaleb drank, but Winifred did not, only mimicking that she did.
At the citadel, Manfred, Narcissa, Edmon and Sigisar retired for the night. Baeleb returned to Narcissa to tell her that the rectory had wards against him. The pair discussed using other actors to enter the church to fetch the book. Baeleb suggested Manfred might be easily manipulated, and a good political pawn. They spoke of how Kaleb might be able to break into the rectory. At night, Baeleb was antagonistic with Narcissa’s other raven.
In the morning at the citadel, the four there woke up, had breakfast, and went to attend to different tasks. Sigisar left to go to the Zwerghof to find Heinrich. The knight was waiting for him. He spoke with him about the Knights of the Tomb joining his new Brillig Council, but Heinrich seemed resistant to the idea, because the Order was persecuted, and the brothers did not operate in the open. He did agree to have them look after the Council from the shadows. Sigisar, in turn, showed his willingness to set his affairs in order to go to find Ingrid and to enter the Order. He did mention to him that he found his cousin Narcissa's behavior, inexplicable, and suspected she might be in league with fey powers. In the meantime, Narcissa, unsupervised, took the opportunity to case the rectory again, trying now with her familiar to find the book, and still coming up empty. Manfred and Edmon, for their part, went to go and find Kaleb. They decided to go to the poorhouse where Manfred and Kaleb had stayed previously. He spoke to one of the Brothers at the poorhouse, who told him he did not see Kaleb that night. However, he did say a great many of the vagrants who normally stayed in the poorhouse emptied out into the streets that night, and headed towards the woods. Manfred and Edmon decided to head that way, assuming Kaleb went with them.
In the morning in the woods, Winifred and Kaleb woke up, with Kaleb hungover. Still, there was no more word on Wigand. Reinhard suggested more drinking. Kaleb told Reinhard about his adventures to Niflheim. Winifred, meanwhile, expressed a need to gather supplies from the city and find her uncle. In response to all this, Reinhard went on a tirade about purifying fire, insinuating images of Winifred being burned alive. He then produced a piece of bark which could not be burned, and demonstrated it as such. As Winifred and Kaleb prepared to leave, Reinhard gave Kaleb this unburnt bark as a gift.
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