Holy heck, it's been a while. Sorry about that, just been juggling a lot of mental health stuff, and there've been a number of little things that escaped my attention and had to be corralled.
Wow, that was a sloppy metaphor. See, this is why I have imposter syndrome, because I write shit like that and someone still occasionally pays me to write things.
Friggin' heck. Still, it could be worse. My group's been playtesting some material that I'm not gonna put up on the blog just yet because, well, playtesting. It's still secret. But that means it's not like I'm getting further and further behind on The Road Between Light and Dark.
Speaking of which...
So where we left off, the group attacked and slew their recent nemesis Rhion Bryn, and met a woman named Carmine -- a Getimian Exalt who knew them from her Origin, a 'storybook version of Creation' (in her words). They're not exactly all friends now, but they've at least got a bit of an understanding.
We jump ahead to that night, as Lecht has been planning to summon and bind Rhion's ghost into his own skull to pump for information.[0] They pull out two more skulls they have -- one belonging to Borek, the leader of the raid on Larkim on their previous visit, and one belonging to Misko, a Leaves enforcer from Silverpost. They explain to the others that they're actually a little embarrassed about how things went with Rhion and Misko such that they have the skulls at all, but Borek's head was already in their bag when it wound up in range of a Flesh-Sloughing Wave so all they had to do was clean out the meat and keep the skull.
They arrange the skills in a summoning circle and plant Grave Warden in the middle, the waning half-moon overhead like Luna's side-eyeing the ritual they have planned. Energy surges through the staff, flaring, and Lecht uses the spectral barrier the staff produces to harness the energy and hold it back. Their eyes flare while their silver hair and robe flutter in a wind the others can't feel, and a cloud of smoke and ash coalesces around Rhion's hellflame-scorched skull.
The cloud slowly shrinks and takes a humanoid shape, appearing like a hologram of Rhion lit in shades of gray.
"Well, shit," the man says, his normally-chipper tone of voice finally faltering as he processes his death.
Wandering Dawn just waves at him, like Vir on Babylon 5.[1]
"Yes, yes, hello, I see you. And you, too, Stray Dog," he says, as Stray Dog is also waving.
Lecht laughs at all of this, Rhion's disappointment most of all. "Did you really think it was going to be that easy?" they ask, referring to Rhion's previous encounter with them.
"You know, for a moment, I did."
"I could ask Stray Dog to blast you any time; you can keep coming back." Lecht laughs at the thought of that. "Ah, that's wonderful. Now, what the hell were you doing in this town?"
"I was trying to rebuild it after the recent attack. Trying to improve things for the people here."
"Okay, I was hoping we could do this the easy way," Lecht says, completely unsurprised at the evasive answer. "Rhion?"
"Yes?"
The necromancer's voice takes on an unnatural timbre. "I command you to cut the bullshit. And if you do not, I will make the remainder of your afterlife as miserable as I possibly can. And seeing what I have done here tonight, already, just to get you here, do not think for a second that I can't."
Rhion, flustered by Lecht's intimidation, gives a strained "Okay, what do you want to know?"
"Why are you here? What are your goals?"
The Guild merchant prince visibly struggles at having to give a straight answer. "I'm rebuilding the town with elements according to Elmorze's design. I don't care why, but he wants things a certain way, and we have an arrangement."
"Was that so hard?" Lecht asks, casually.
"Yes."
"Not we're getting somewhere. What did Elmorze want you to do? And if you know what his goals are, I'd very much like to know."
"I don't know what his ultimate goals are besides following his nature. He hungers for sensations and experiences, but most of all he hungers for hunger itself, and my ambition appealed to him."
"What did he want changed? Would a map help?"
"Nothing like that, it's very simple. He wanted a particular bell installed in the new hunting lodge."
"Is that bell installed?"
"As much as I paid, it damn well better be."
Lecht laughs at that. "You know, I think I'm going to enjoy having you around for a bit." They turn to the others. "Hey, Stray Dog? You're more of the demon expert than I am. Could you please... do you have any idea what that could be? Would you need to check out the bell itself?"
"Well, we should definitely investigate this bell, because that sounds interesting to me. My shield was made in part of a broken bell. In Malfeas. So if the demon's interested in a bell, there could be a connection."[2]
"That is..." Lecht thinks. "I believe that to be very relevant. But do you believe it's some sort of summoning ritual?"
"Or mind control, like those who hear it see or hear things?" Wandering Dawn offers.
"Or like in Silverpost," Lecht chimes in.
Stray Dog confirms he'd have to check to be sure.
Wandering Dawn, glancing at Rhion, asks Lecht "Would you like to do anything with your new pet?"
Rhion glares as Lecht responds. "Why would you say a horrible thing about me? When you call him a pet, you demean me. He's a person."
"Ah, so a slave?"
"Indentured servant."
"So you plan to let him go."
"Of course, and when the time comes I will reincarnate him myself."
"Not like you can trust the gods to do it," Stray Dog adds.
We eventually segue into a conversation about Lecht keeping this a professional arrangement, that when they've gotten all they can get out of him they do plan to let Rhion pass on to Lethe. The ghost agrees it's in his best interest to give them all he can, then. Lecht insists that they can make this fun for him -- let him enjoy earthly pleasures, and such. Rhion says he can appreciate the arrangement. Lecht confirms that the mastermind doesn't actually know anything more about the current situation, so he can rest in his skull until they need him. They'll knock.
"At your leave, then," Rhion says with an exaggerated bow before he vanishes into the skull.
Lecht runs a cord through the skull so they can hang it from their belt, and they make plans with the others to check out the bell in the morning.
Cue the inn music.
Morning comes. Wandering Dawn wakes with the sun to find a nearby lake to jump in and wash off after everything as he wakes up. Lecht eventually wakes up from their meditative state, and clambers out of their wagon to find Wandering Dawn to be return, wearing just a loincloth. They decide it's too early and just decide to get on with their day without drawing the Solar's attention, but Wandering Dawn sees them and waves as he approaches. Lecht, desperate for a subject change, ignores him and makes a beeline for Stray Dog's tent as Wandering Dawn follows.
Stray Dog wakes up screaming for a few moments before he calms down. "Oh, hey, it's you guys."
"What the hell?" Wandering Dawn asks Lecht. "Did you not hear me?"
"I just thought we should get going to the bell as quickly as possible."
"Lecht, I agree," Stray Dog says, then turns to Wandering Dawn. "Put some clothes on."
We then go through a little spiel where Wandering Dawn's clothes were missing after his bath, and he's not sure what happened to them. Maybe a fan took them? Lecht wonders what they've done in a past life to earn this, and they slip out of their tent as Wandering Dawn ponders borrowing a pair of pants. Once things are sorted out and Stray Dog leaves his tent, one of his followers comes up and informs him that someone was watching the camp for about 10-20 minutes the previous night. It didn't seem like an immediate danger, but it was very strange -- the follower indicates the watcher came from the direction of the circus.
The group heads into town -- Wandering Dawn's dressed in his own clothes, though there were holes in them -- apparently Mollie the giant wolverine was messing with them, for reasons he can't quite fathom. He thinks she's mad at him over something. There's some banter among the others about this as they head into town.
Larkim is quiet when they arrive, and they get more than a few stares -- nobody knows the full details, but they know the trio were at the center of the sudden fight at the teahouse. On the way there, Carmine shows up, and says she heard they'd arrived and people were a little nervous, so she's escorting them. When asked, she says she doesn't know anything about the bell, but suspects that Rhion was keeping her extra-busy with tasks so she wouldn't have time to look into whatever he was doing. Wandering Dawn says the ghost suggested as such. Carmine's not surprised that Lecht got the summoning to work, but she is impressed.
The group explains they're going to look at the bell, and she comes along to put people at ease -- she's been doing what she could to smooth things over with the locals, and convincing people that there's a perfectly good reason for the battle and this wasn't some random attack on the Guild. Turns out a lot of people in Larkim are appreciative of the Guild's rebuilding efforts, so to have three heroes show up and attack the guy in charge of that seemingly out of nowhere was quite the shock. Lecht makes a note to drill the ghost more later.
They head up to a patio on the third floor of the new lodge building and have a look at the bell. Stray Dog doesn't find any specific connection between the Elmorze's bell and his shield beyond some literal surface similarities, but he is pretty sure the bell is meant to summon something. He asks for some tools so he can deface the runes to keep anyone from using the bell for its original purpose. He asks the others to run interference while he does so.
And it's good he did, because soon enough one of the town elders rushes out past Carmine, demanding answers. Wandering Dawn quickly walks up and all but drags the old woman out of there, trying to calm her down, using his natural Solar charm (and Charms) to do so. She's left confused, and asking him why all this is happening.
"Only the gods know," he sighs as she slumps before he goes back. He returns to find Carmine keeping a curious crowd at bay, and Carmine asks him if he calmed down Brona. He says he talked her down, and Carmine uses that to tell the people essentially that if Brona's fine with it, then there's nothing to worry about. Wandering Dawn apologizes to the group for the destruction and chaos at the teahouse, and reassures them that his only goal is to protect the people. This calms them down and they disperse.
Stray Dog finishes his alterations and Carmine asks for some reassurance that the bell isn't going to work as intended -- she trusts his abilities, she just wants to hear him say it. She confirms to the group that she's set up a meeting with Danica, Rhion's second-in-command (and successor, now), for the afternoon. Stray Dog talks about finding another teahouse, as the prior one was so flimsy, and she gives him a look so exasperated he can feel it, even through the mask. She offers to treat the group to something to eat or drink if they try to keep things peaceful, and we leave off with the group agreeing.
[0]-- So normally, it takes a couple of days for a ghost to fully form after the person's death. For the sake of moving the story along, I just factored that into the difficulty of Lecht's rolls to summon his ghost and bind it.
[1]-- If you know, you know.
[2]-- Just as a reminder, Stray Dog is carrying Irenio's Bell, from Arms of the Chosen. It's partially made of a demon prince's temple bell, to contain the Essence of the terribly cry of the Malignance of Castle Glass.
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