The Round Table gathers

General Summary

We step back into the world and it is early spring. We left and it was fall. Sigh, time moves weirdly when you change planes of existence. As we exit, Herne the Huntsman  steps forward, "I left a flit flit to notify when me when you reappeared. I have news for you, my Lord," and he inclined his head to Marcus. Marcus waved his hand and indicated for the Huntsman to continue his speech. "Your raid into the outer night has riled up the outsiders. All of the fae are at the gates to the Outer Night fighting. I, along with 12 sidhe, and my warhounds have been tasked as your honor guard when you need it. The Rholdamese army has disappeared. They rode East, but have not been seen." He saw my raised eyebrow, "No, we have not led them astray. Nor did they go through our borders. In addition, the Alorian navy is gathering to oppose the seafolk who are gathering for their moot. You have only to call me when you need me, sir." He nodded at us, then bowed briefly to Marcus again, and disappeared.
"Now that we have a moment, let's figure out what is going on with the Lost Emperor," I said. "Do you have anything that might heal him Cap?" "Sorry, Addie. I do be not having that ability anymore," he said. "Wait," I looked intently at the Emperor, "There are two people near him." "Remove invisibility!" Marcus said quickly. He cast, and I almost felt something was there, but the spell wasn't dispelled. "Let me try with a bit of extra oomph," I said, "Remove invisibility," and I put more power into the spell than I normally would, concentrating on the invisible creature to the left of him. Briefly, I caught a glimpse of a winged warrior in a breastplate and sword, he winked at me and then disappeared again. "Well," I said, "I guess we don't have to worry about that. I think we might need to get him to a cathedral." "We do be needing to meet the Prism in a few days so we can make the moot," Cap said. "Where are we meeting them?" I asked. "We can tell them where to meet us," Cap said. "We need to get to the edge of Rholdam." I visualized the maps I had studied while in the army and thought of the edge of the Bennwald. We stepped into the fairy ring and appeared near the edge.

Verdad village

We hiked for a few miles and night fell while we approached the edge of the town. As we walked up a shrill voice demanded to know who we were. "Adventurers who have returned from rescuing a lost comrade. Looking for rest for the night." "We don't let people in after the gates are closed for the night," the shrill voice responded. "Is there a sally gate we could go in, perhaps go in through?" "Wait, yes there is!" We are directed to the side, and a small gate opens and we are confronted by a spear. "Identify yourselves." I went through and identified everyone with me. The gate opened and I saw a middle-aged woman and her two kids. "Where are the men?" "They went off with the army, we are all that is left," she gestured to the side and said, "The stables are over there," and Cap started to lead his horse off. "The inn is over here." The inn was mostly empty, and they had a thin gruel to share with us. I used what energy I had left to create some good berries that helped fill out the food present. "Do you have a boat we could buy?" Cap asked. "We have a shallow fishing boat," she replied. "We'll give you 100 gold," I said trying to quickly do the math for how much the boat would be worth and hoping this was more than enough. "It's a deal."
We sailed down the river towards the shore, at one point Cap steered us into a bit of rapids, and we had to repair it briefly, but it went well overall.

Esperanza Constanza

As we approached the town, we saw tents surrounding the city and started to pull over towards the edge to see what was going on, when a man on the edge of the river starts waving us over. "We are commandeering your boat for the Rholdamese army," the man said. "I'm sorry," I replied, as I still continue to be the only one in our party who speaks Rholdamese. "Why should we give you our boat?" "You are not Rholdamese," he said in surprise. "Why are you here and who is the noble who sponsors your travel?" "We are recently returned from rescuing a companion from great danger. We have previously worked with Baron de Silva." "Adventurers," he managed to look disgusted by the word while not changing his expression. "Be that as it may, I still require your vessel." "I need to see your writ," I responded. "You are Alorian," he said. "That's right." "You will see no writ. You do not need to see it. To say you need to see it is to doubt my honor. Do you doubt my honor?" "No, but when we worked with Baron de Silva, he had a writ saying he had the approval of his actions and that we were required to help. I see no such paper here." "You Alorians with your belief you need to see anything," he shook his head, "Here is what you need. You need to surrender your boat. You need to leave quietly. Or I will need to arrest you and put you in prison. I would hate to spoil what could be a lovely conversation." "Just to be clear. You are stealing my small boat, which barely holds 6 people for the navy?" "I am commandeering it yes." "Why? It barely holds us, why our boat? We just need it to get to our ship." "Ah, that will be a problem, because all ships docking here are also to be commandeered." "I see. Enjoy our boat, you will find it has a slight leak, and probably will not work well long term." We disembarked and left them with the skiff. "I'll tell the Prism to wait up," Cap said. "We can use me horse to ferry us out, or you can do that teleport thing you do. We need to do something about the Alorian navy."

Hozenstadt

We sailed to Hozenstadt and Cap anchored the Prism just outside of the harbor we used the ring to enter right outside of the city and go into the town. "I'll find the Black Prince," I said. I headed to the cheapest bar in town. As I expected two men were standing outside. "I'm sorry, this is a private party," he said blocking me from coming inside. "I believe I'm allowed into this party," I said showing my unit tattoo on my forearm. He got sterner and pushed me back, "We don't take kindly to that being copied or stolen. I suggest you walk away right now before we remind you why that's a bad idea." "Are you saying I don't have the right to wear this?" I said quietly as I stepped closer. "I am," he said staring down at me. I smiled at him, "Let me show you just how much I deserve this." He smiled thinking I was going to be an easy fight.
I took it easy on him, toward the end of the very brief fight, there was quite a crowd outside cheering me on as I thoroughly trounced him. "No hard feelings?" I asked as I offered him a hand up. "None at all. You were correct, you wear that tattoo with honor. I'll buy you a drink." "I'll take that, and then buy a round for the house." After a few rounds, I had found the aide de camp and put a bug in his ear that I had important intel for the Black Prince. Within a few hours, I had an audience with Prince Edward and stood calmly in front of him wishing I still wore my uniform instead of this rather grubby civilian uniform.
"Sir, I don't know if you remember me, but I served under Captain McCallister during the war on the New Territories-" "Of course, I remember you, Sergeant, how is the Captain?" Prince Edward interrupted me. "He's well. I just saw him a few," I stopped and realized that was incorrect, "No, we lost time. It was over six months ago. He finally took up his barony to take command of Blackbird's Point as orcs were invading." The Prince looked worried, "It's okay, we drove them off, but my team and I had to do a few other things, so weren't able to stick around and make sure everything calmed down. I'm pretty sure he's cursing my name right now since I convinced him to take up the post." Prince Edward laughed, "Why do I think you're going to make me want to curse your name?" "Because I am, sir," I said seriously all levity gone from my face. "We have been adventuring and pulling together allies to fight the ghoul nation. The Lady in the Forest has been reborn. All of the fae fight the outsiders as they try to get through." Prince Edward waved a hand, "They always fight that." "Yes," I said, "But we have closed the hole they had found to get through, and they are united behind the Lady and her consort." "Enough buttering me up, what do you want?" I gulped, "I need you to not attack the seafolk fleet. They do not sail to attack Aloria, they have the Blade of Thanes-" "Did you give our enemy their weapon? They will raid us for sure!" "No, I have the information, I did not give it to them, but they sail to fight the ghouls." I took a deep breath and continued, "And I need you to meet them at the Holy Isles." "Just so I'm clear, you want me to go fight with our enemies? The very enemies you fought against who have killed more of my soldiers than I can count." "Sir, the ghouls have taken two duchies of the Empire. It has been pushed back all the way to Stone River. If we do not all unite together, the Empire will fall. If we do not act now, Blackbird Point will fall. The orcs only invaded because the ghouls have taken Orcberg. If we do not act now, the ghouls will be in Blackbird Point by the end of this year."  He sat back and ran his hand over his face, "What do you expect to happen?" I pulled an orb out of my bag, "We have been communicating with the Cassiomani and with our ally in the seafolk. We are fairly sure we will have a strong ally in the Empire when we arrive, I would like to leave this with you to communicate with you to coordinate the attack on the ghoul empire." He reached forward and took the orb, "I can do that."

The Holy Isles

Marcus used his family connections to get us through the sea to the Holy Isles. This time (Some people just don't want to be found ), we landed on the other side of the Holy Isles, a bit more centrally located. When we docked, the whole island was abuzz with rumors of the higher-ups in the church are in a closed-door meeting and no one is allowed in the Cathedral, and as soon as someone brings that up, someone else brings up how the Senate is also in a closed-door meeting and on one is allowed to get in.
A short discussion later, we decided we needed to sneak the Lost Emperor into the cathedral to heal his mind. Athea led the way, stealthily unlocking the doors in the sewer to let us in. Yes, we snuck the future emperor of the empire into the cathedral from the sewers, there was no better way.
Athea snuck ahead, darting into alcoves as she saw people ahead. When she dodged into an alcove a quavering voice said, "Who's there?" Athea had a panicked moment but then she felt an absolute certainty she should reveal to him the true purpose for coming. She stepped forward and saw an older man gazing upon her with his blind eyes. "We have come to return the Lost Emperor!" The man's face lit up, "I've waited for this day. I had been promised it would come. Come, lead me to him." Athea took his arm and led him back to us. As they walked back to our hiding place curious guards would start to try and stop Athea but would see he was with the Father and would wave away. When he arrived, he introduced himself to us, Father Patrice, and we all introduced ourselves. He led us through all sorts of corridors until we arrived at the cathedral where the choir sang.

The healing of the emperor

As we entered the sanctuary, the emperor wandered forward drawn to the singing. He started singing and the lights drew into focus around him. The Song changed like a new player was adding to the music. As he sang, a high-level priest came in and reached forward to slap the emperor, but one of his angels appeared and stopped him from slapping the emperor, cutting off his hand. Cap stepped forward and stabilized the wound. As the emperor continued singing, slowly everyone in town trickled into the sanctuary as the song came to a crescendo a voice spoke, "You are my people, you are remembered, and I watch over you." The glow focused on the emperor. He stood proudly, his form was no longer emaciated, instead, he was a strong young man. He turned to those around him and started to lay hands on them, healing them of their injuries. He turned to the priest who tried to stop him and said, "You are forgiven son," and his hand was healed.
As I watched, I realized the Emperor was bringing forth the purest version of the song I have ever heard. The two angels that were behind him are now visible.
He walked to the Senate, and there he called them to the task. His tone was not quite so kind as it was when he helped the hurt in the cathedral. He reminded the nobles how they were tasked with serving, not enriching themselves. He took their private legions and reorganized it all.

Organizing the forces

The Emperor, Scipio Augustus,  was given a briefing of all the forces available, and what was currently going on.

• The ghouls are brute-forcing their way toward Stone River, and no matter how many are killed, they keep coming.
• Our fallen dead are raised the next day as soldiers for the enemy.
• Traitors are opening gates and attacking friends, many are wary of being possessed.
• Ghouls have strange champions that appear to be tied to elements
• They have some form of champion that reforms after dying, but recently they have taken longer to reform, and that is theorized why they have slowed their rate of advance.
• The Children of the Wind, seeing the Empire as weak and on the verge of collapse is amassing its armies to invade.
• Brandenheim is permanently dark, and the sun never rises.

We brief the Emperor privately on the information we have, offering the Andremani support in the war effort, but warn once they are called they will need a land to settle on. We also tell him of the fae fighting, and how they are holding back the outsiders.
After all of the allies meet, much of which we cannot take part in, and are not always able to meet together, because some do not know of the existence of others, the end results:

• The seafolk will raid the Children of the Wind, to keep them from attacking the Empire.
• The Alorians will reinforce the Empire's legions at Stone River.
• The Emperor is returning to the core of the Empire and will consolidate the legions and convince the noble families they are called to serve if they want to keep their position.
• The Cassiomani will go up the river and attack from that side.
• We will go to Brandenheim and figure out how to counteract the work of the Dark One. If we are able to successfully solve that, he will cede Brandenheim to the Andremani.

Report Date

19 Mar 2023