Session 3 (25. 01. 2020)

The still-mostly-abandoned town of Keld is quiet and eerie as the group splits into pairs, casing the town before reconvening at the chapel, doors still wide open. With nothing in the rest of the town and many of the villagers still missing, it is determined that they are likely hiding in a safe room in the chapel’s basement. Not knowing their current state of life, death, or undeath, the group decides to enter stealthily. Tactfully, they slip in and look around the long chamber. Pews have been disturbed, leaving drag marks on the wooden floor, but the lack of any significant stench or undead moans confirm that if the villagers are here, they are likely alive. Sophia recalls that the entrances to such chapels are warded with sigils against that kind of magic, finding them still intact further supports the possibility of life. In the confusion described by Cornell, the townsfolk probably made a mad dash for the chapel, pushing the pews to get by, and those that didn’t decided to risk it in the secondary, breached safe house in the barn. The portraits of the seven Founders of the Holy Covenant are also seen in their familiar places, mounted behind the pulpit, all also having statues constructed on the massive Gateway bridge, as well as the seven towers of the Ancestors’ Sanctum back in Merak being dedicated to them. Suspicions levied, John calls out to any survivors, informing loudly their status as guards from Merak and the defeat of all undead in the area. An elderly female voice responds, calling back from the priest’s chambers at the rear of the chapel. The group heads there, finding a staircase leading down against one wall. There is a small hallway at the bottom, ending in a heavyset door, through a slit in which an old woman dressed in priestly garb is peering. After confirming the group’s state of living and identifying John as an official, she opens the door to reveal hundreds of villagers huddled in a vast underground chamber, the safety bunker of the church. The woman is Sister Norma, Keld’s head priest, and she goes over the details of the attack with Vasya as John takes a rudimentary headcount of the skittish villagers, finding most of them accounted for. The party is thanked profusely for saving the village and getting rid of the undead scourge, and the townsfolk are told to return to their homes. Sister Norma provides the group with food and lodging for the night, and they tell her that they will have to move on in the morning, still having a ways to go to reach Vardona. Most of the party sit and relax within the guest quarters of the church, enjoying their first homecooked meal in a while. Agis decides to exercise in the late afternoon sun, finding a quiet grassy patch next to the town’s graveyard to go over elements of his martial training. Vasya wants to help the villagers further, and so walks around Keld trying to alleviate the fear and shock of the populace, and seeing if he can help with any repairs, though nothing was really damaged. Maverick trails him unseen, making sure none of his conversations turn suspicious. As night falls, the group gather in their provided room, intended for refugees from attacks more destructive than the one that befell Keld, but currently empty save for them. Vasya sleeps fitfully, tossing and turning in his cot. Something draws him into a nightmare, falling through blackness then stopping over and over. Falling, jerking to a stop, falling again. He eventually enters a space filled with a hazy grey light. A robed, bearded man approaches, speaking to him. He is informed that this man saved him when he fell into the Eternal River to escape the men who raided his boat, granted a vision of himself dying on the ship’s deck. Vasya is told that he has a job to do, assigned by the mysterious, towering figure of smoke that he had seen in the barn. He must finish the journey to Vardona, and find Alice. He will be given the tools to complete his task, and must make sure that Sophia knows of his mission. Not able to get any more information about the identity of the man, the figure, or Alice, he awakens in a cold sweat, grasping the haft of his fishing spear. He sits outside on the chapel steps for a while, before returning to sleep. Morning comes. The party is greeted with overcast, rainy skies, and breakfast provided by the church. Sister Norma wishes them well, and sends them on their way. They decide to check back in with Cornell and Nanette Kovacs, John informing them that the rest of the village is safe and Cornell, still as crazed as ever, thanking him for his contributions. Cornell also inquires after his daughter, growing angry when John confirms her by her description to be one of the three girls they had seen leaving for Merak the previous day. Vasya pulls Sophia aside to discuss his dream, and she expresses doubt in the mysterious man’s motivations, urging him not to follow orders blindly without knowing what they will result in. They confirm Alice to be the name etched on the back of the talisman that they pried from the fused-together zombie pile in Cornell’s storehouse, and rejoin the group for another day of travel. Most of the day passes uneventfully, the rain slowing to a drizzle, before petering out around noon. A few hours later, the party happens upon a crossroads between farms, with various farmhouses visible. One of them has been burnt to the ground, with no warmth but fresh scorch marks, not yet washed away by the rain, indicating the recentness of the fire. Investigation of the ruin reveals the badly burnt body of a young woman, mostly still-intact bones. Vasya and John cut it down from where it had been bound at the wrists and ankles to a wooden beam, a common method for the execution of witches. Cadfan finds fading footprints in the mud, in the direction that the group was going. When Vasya tries to pick up the bones so that they can be disposed of more elegantly, rocks begin to fly through the air, moved by an invisible force. Sophia is hit right in the forehead by one, as is John when he tries to protect Vasya. Maverick and Agis see a faint apparition of the woman, her spirit still tied to the Material Plane because of her violent and unexpected death. Rocks continue to fly as the poltergeist, now agitated, rushes through members of the party, attempting to possess them. She succeeds with Vasya, and the bones clatter to the ground as he suddenly stands, his posture changing and his face going slack. The spirit, speaking through Vasya with her own voice in an unsettling display, tells the group between bouts of wailing that her name was Kristina, and she was burnt for a crime that she did not commit, knowing nothing of witchcraft. John embraces Vasya to prevent Kristina from moving him to attack anyone, and slowly guides the spirit outside so that the bones can be properly consecrated by Sophia, who also sings to Kristina in Celestial, further calming her. The bones are brought outside, and after a brief discussion over whether they should be buried or burned, and a few failed attempts to dig a suitable grave without a shovel, are placed in the small ditch. Kristina-Vasya catches wind of this, breaking free of John’s grasp with surprising strength. Sophia and John are to convince her that this is for her own good, and fully burning her remains will release her into the afterlife. Still howling with relived pain, the spirit guides Vasya’s body back to the well at the center of the crossroads, which she gazes down sorrowfully. Prayers are said and the bones are consecrated. Vasya snaps back into himself as the spirit moves on, having been unaware of any of the events that progressed while he was possessed. John discovers the remains of a child at the bottom of the well, presumably Kristina’s, also murdered for being the spawn of a suspected witch. That body is also prayed over, with Vasya assisting Sophia in reciting the rite. Both potential spirits dealt with, the group moves on from the depressing scene. The party stops for the night, setting up camp. John talks to Agis, both expressing their feelings about the events of the day. John wants to call the group together for something, but Cadfan goes hunting for fresh meat, returning with a few rabbits and a bird to extend their rations. She draws blood from them with vine-like growths protruding from her arms, sucking it into her body as sustenance, given that the day had been cloudy. With everyone gathered, John goes about the business of deputizing Vasya, Cadfan, and Maverick into the Merak guard for the duration of their mission, having to help Vasya almost word-by-word through the long verbal pledge. Cadfan expresses some discomfort at being deputized, mumbling her way through the pledge and skipping the parts about praising Kalash. Some tension arising between the gathered group, John begins to bark commands at the new deputies like a drill sergeant, getting them straight on who’s in charge, Vasya’s magic and lapses of attention in combat, and the importance of following orders. The Ferryman in particular is especially intimidated, for which John gives a brief apology, his fiery oratory performance something that he himself had to endure months of when he was training to be a guard. The conversation moves on to talk about magic. John expresses his belief that it is a curse upon whoever has it, both because of the personal danger it could pose and because of the reactions that other people have to it- as evidenced by the witch hunt and Kristina’s murder. Cadfan disagrees wholeheartedly, and after another tense few minutes of discussion, wherein Agis accuses Maverick of also using magic, the group heads to sleep. The night’s watches pass peacefully after initial troubles with organization, and some of the pairs spy campfire smoke further down the road; other people are traveling in the same direction as them. The group awakens in the morning, the previous day’s rain having cleared up. They will reach the larger town of Landow later that day, their last stop on the long trip to Vardona. Without much commotion, they get back on the road. After a whole day of traveling with no interruptions, the party reaches Landow- a large town with high walls encircling it, much better defended than the small village they had left. They are stopped at the gate, which is being kept closed in light of recent events, by a couple of guards, but after John states their identities and business the portcullis is raised. Crossing over a bridge that spans a small river running along the edge of town inside the wall, the group comes upon a pretty normal afternoon scene. The horses and cart are stabled, and John buys the group rooms for the night at The Dancing Grape Inn with Captain Hanak’s provided money.