Characters:
Granmarg The Striking Vanguard, The Boulderstruck, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate
Pomegranite The Treefallen, The Spymaster
Pomegranite The Treefallen, The Spymaster
Mielikki The Field Marshal, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate
Thicket The Grandmaster Terramorpher, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate
Death Throes
A glob of white flame shot up from the mirror Terra had dropped and exploded into a flaming eye above the treeline. As white flames scorched her attackers, Terra began to sing a sharp dissonant tune, then stamped her left leg hard on the ground. The earth surrounding her rose up in a wave and rolled into her attackers, knocking them back as a spherical shell of stone swirled up around her. Theren resumed his assault, furiously beating the shell until it began to buckle under the weight of his repeated blows. Thicket exploited this weakness with his own earthquake that shattered the shell, leaving Terra exposed. Granmarg turned to strike Pomegranite for his sudden betrayal, and a lightning-sheathed blow stunned the spymaster.
Halimath the elf wove a spell and a man-sized beam of pure void energy temporarily obscured Terra, but those on the far side could see that she had erected a narrow pillar of stone that, though it crumbled, had saved her. Terra retaliated by shattering the earth around her into brittle shards that erupted outwards; most suffered only minor scrapes but Prince Morkral of the dwarves had been impaled. Mielikki shot another beam of compressed water from his sea-sword, which pierced Terra's defenses, took an earthy chunk out of her left side, and knocked her onto her back.
The eye's gaze found Mielikki and a pillar of white flame descended, setting him alight and blackening his branches. A mighty poleaxe swing from the dwarf king Barrend carved away a chunk of Terra's leg, while his brother crashed into her with his twin shields. Terra stopped moving. The eye retaliated again, scorching the prince and setting his beard aflame. Before he could recover, he found himself in the maw of a greater wurm that had leapt out of the earth at his feet.
A second wurm attacked Theren, who managed to turn aside and evaded serious harm, though the beast's massive body pressing against his arm left unable to bring his sword to bear. Granmarg, for his part, continued to pummel Terra. She might be unconscious for now, but who was to say that she wouldn't recover somehow? This seemed to attract the attention of the closer wurm, which spat up a ball of magma that set a tree behind him on fire. Thicket followed Granmarg's lead, impaling the goddess with an earth spike, though it seemed to be partially absorbed by her earthen body, and Mielikki followed did the same, stepping forward as he unleashed another blast of water from the sea-sword.
Pomegranite leapt to his feet and stabbed Mielikki in the back, which prompted Thicket to bash him in the head with his staff. As Granmarg continued to whale away on Terra, he noticed a flash from her hand mirror which lay at her side. Reflected in the mirror, so bright it hurt to look at, was a brilliant white flame. He muttered that he knew what he must do, and continued punching Terra. Morkral and Barrend turned to fight off one of the greater wurms, but it surged past the prince's heavy shields to lunge at Granmarg instead.
Theren, meanwhile, beheaded the other wurm with a pair of strokes. Granmarg retreated from the wurm attacking him, then turned and shattered the mirror with a stomp. The eye of white flame began to flicker above them, launched one more thin pillar of flame, and then exploded into harmless embers that rained down and burned in the snow. The remaining wurm spat a gobbet of magma into Mielikki's chest; he didn't catch fire, but the impact of the molten stone knocked him unconscious.
Morkral joined him as he succumbed to his wounds, while King Barrend continued to press the wurm back with mighty swings of his poleaxe. He was joined by Theren and Granmarg, while Pomegranite threw his knives aside and ran away, shouting that he was being mind controlled by Baelynna. Theren was struck by the wurm's tail but rolled with the blow and leapt up with a decapitatory slash that sent its head flying through the air. A final blow from Barrend finished Terra. It was done.
Victory!
Uthemar ran out into the clearing and called for everyone to look at the moon, where they saw a giant white flaming eye gazing down, no doubt searching for them. Granmarg restrained Pomegranite (who went along with it semi-willingly, seemingly under his own control once more but still reticent to have his eyes and ears blocked) while Thicket buried Terra's remains underground so none would find the body. The triumvirate looked for their retinues who had been absent during the fight, and discovered that they and the others had slain another pair of wurms that had emerged at the rear of their lines.
The able gathered the wounded and they fled off toward the elven forests before the eye could find them. They were cautious for the next few nights as the eye continued to search, but after four days it vanished, and the next few weeks of travel in the dead of winter were uneventful. On the way, the earthlings debated what to do with Pomegranite. If he was under Baelynna's control, he was a liability, but they'd already tried and failed to find the compulsion.
Mielikki proposed asking Luana for help. She was a Magister of the Path of the Moon, which was supposed to find hidden things, and she had first hand experience of being controlled in a similar manner. She also owed them one for not killing her when they'd had the chance. Besides, they were going to have to go back to the League anyway to keep up appearances as a trade delegation, and her manor was near enough to Segreta for them to "visit". They said farewell to the elves and the dwarves (who would be staying in the forests until spring) and began another cross-country march through heavy snow drifts.
Treatment
To avoid being discovered, they were forced to travel by night and avoid roads and settlements, sleeping in rough burrows that Thicket dug each morning and filled each night before they left. They dropped of their retinues in the city of Segreta, then dispatched Pomegranite's retainer Berry to Luana's manor in advance. The triumvirate would follow a few days later, on their own, to be less noticeable.
The manor had belonged to the old empress, Luana's mother, and was a minor, rural holding. The guards manning the gatehouse didn't even know what an earthling was and were shocked to see Berry. When he declared that the Triumvirate of the Highland Forests sought a personal meeting with the lady of the manor, he was directed to stay at the big house in the village overnight. Under darkness, Dina, Luana's bodyguard, came to see him in the common area.
Both she and her lady were rather suspicious that the earthlings, who they were hardly on good terms with, were making a simple social call in the dead of winter. Berry insisted that there were no ulterior motives; they simply happened to be in the area. Ultimately Dina relented and granted the meeting, and Berry made sure to stay in the nice warm common area overnight.
By the time Berry made it back to them, the triumvirate were only a day from the holding, and proceeded to the manor where household guards ushered them into the dining hall before retreating, leaving them alone with Luana and Dina. First things first, the Triumvirate surveyed the food on offer and were disappointed that there was no rockflower. They were interrupted by Luana, who now seemed small and weak in the chair before them, asking what this "personal visit" was actually about.
Mielikki figured she was haunted by her past actions and would help them if it gave her some sort of redemption, and so told her the truth. The goddess Baelynna had taken over the College and had taken control of everyone there, including Pomegranite, who had been unaware he was being controlled at all until his body was suddenly taken over. Luana immediately clocked that she had been controlled by a masculine presence, so it couldn't be this Baelynna. Further, she had been puppetted from the start, whereas from their account, Pomegranite had been acting under his own accord for months.
Now roused, Luana continued. When Pomegranite turned on them, was it likely he'd be able to win? Had he been acting strange at all prior? Did he try to use the Paths of Blood or Thought in his attack? The answers to all of these questions were no, which she took as further confirmation that not only was this unrelated to the entity that had taken control of her, but Baelynna (if it was her) was far more skilled. With the consent of the Triumvirate, she then agreed to use her Path of the Moon to look for signs of compulsion.
Luana raised a hand over his forehead and a web of silvery tendrils leapt to encase Pomegranite's head, much finer than those produced by Uthemar's similar spell. After a short while, she opened her eyes and announced that there was a compulsion in place, hidden away in the deepest parts of his mind. She believed that the reason Pomegranite had seemed normal is that he hadn't actually been controlled until the decisive moment when he turned on them. As for removing it, she had a theory: this kind of subtle compulsion could be likened to a disease, and if they could induce a fever, he might sweat it out.
The fastest way to do this would be to use the Path of Blood to heat his blood, but that would obviously carry the risk of boiling him alive. Preferably, they'd have a magister, but given the College was compromised, they'd have to look elsewhere. There were a number of Bleeders, users of the Path of Blood who lacked College training, scattered throughout the countryside, mostly serving as midwives or barbers. The earthlings agreed to this plan (even Pomegranite, for what that was worth), and an hour or two later a wizened old witch and a young girl, entered the hall.
The witch hung back while the girl introduced herself as Adela, and stepped forward to take Pomegranite's hand. She closed her eyes and furrowed her brow for a moment before opening them again and stating that he was different from usual and didn't even really have blood. In a rather frank manner for a child, she said that she would do what they wanted, but there was no guarantee it would work. She would also need a knife. Granmarg handed over one of Pomegranite's knives, which she used to make a small cut in his neck.
Adela put her hand over the wound as dark sap trickled out. Over the next two minutes Pomegranite felt warm, then uncomfortably hot, and started to nod off. He was held in this state for a time until something snapped in his mind as a pressure he had never noticed was released. Adela then slowly cooled the "blood" back down and said her work was done. Luana again cast the silver web on Pomegranite and declared that either the compulsion had been removed or this was only a decoy and there was something even deeper, but in that case nothing could be done anyway.
Pomegranite corroborated that he also felt cured, for what it was worth, but nobody took him too seriously. Granmarg thanked Luana for her efforts, and asked if there was anything they could do to repay her. She shrugged her shoulders and asked only that, should they find the man who had controlled her, they put him down for good. It obviously wasn't much to go on, but she believed she had gleaned his name while her body had been his puppet: Sonveliss Doltoran.
Notes:
It's been a while and nobody's sure if we'd increased prices on FP to clear conditions so I will say it here: it is now 2FP to clear any status conditions.
Pomegranite rolled a 4 and 6 for damaging his allies, while they rolled two 1s. How unfortunate.
Halimath's "magic missile" is basically Comet Azur from Elden Ring, but white with a flickering black outline.
They're still unsure if this was actually Terra, given the lack of a glowing blue crystal that was supposed to be running through her entire body. She just looked like a tall elf woman.
Earthlings are terrible at telling how old humans are. Adela is not quite a teenager.
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