Antigentrification

[The Forgotten God]

Castle Wolfhaven sits in a pristine location, ruled over by its benevolent and popular Lord Maximillian, an adventurer par excellence, and Lady Sofia. Its fields are fertile and ringed by rivers teaming with trout and collecting into lakes stocked with breem, bass, and perch. Cows and chickens and goats dot the hillsides as farmers grow wheat and vegetables and sell them for healthy profits to the warriors of Bastion and Bryndamare. Wolfhaven’s towns provide a thousand warriors to the Empire’s service in addition to its own six hundred man force of men at arms who maintain order and root out the brigands and trolls and monstrosities the Kraken occasionally sends to the surface world. Finally, the extensive trade conducted with the nearby dwarves keeps the weapons and armor of the area in excellent functioning order. It is the envy of the peninsula in many ways.

Except, of course, one. A wise man once said ‘hell is other people’. That man must have been from Wolfhaven, for to the northwest sits the stronghold of House Lockhart and its foreboding Asylum. Eustace Lockhart’s sanitarium is infamous both for the questionable nature of many of its imprisonments to the mercurial nature of the resident family themselves. After the death of Lord Maximilian and Lady Sofia, reports coming from the north have grown stranger and stranger, as merchants and spies and traveling musicians report that many and more people are being committed, and fewer and fewer are ever released alive. It is a question any successful lord of Wolfhaven must find an answer to in order to ensure that his lands remain hale and prosperous for a new generation.

[The Forgotten God]

The woman knocked frantically on the keep’s gate about an hour after midnight, on a night when the twin moons of Innuria both had waned to their darkest point, resulting in an uncharacteristically pitch black night. Whatever desperate words she had screamed had had their desired effect, as the guards allowed her inside and summoned their captain, who after hearing her tale had summoned his lord. At least that was the accepted protocol for unexpected situations.

“My lord, a villager from Farsalis,” Captain Longinus said. “She says there’s been some sort of explosion in town. Said some wizard’s gone insane and is incinierating cattleman’s folk left and right.” He shook his head. “Probably another of them damned inmates they’ve turned into a madman. Say the word my lord and I’ll take two hundred men and our died guns and I’ll put that place back to rights.”

[Konrad of Wolfhaven]

As much as Konrad might wish to simply burn Lockhart asylum to the ground, that was not a course of action he could take. He had written repeatedly the imperial court to complain about the Asylum and its negative effects, as had his father before him. All responses were the same. “Very sorry for the inconvenience, we quite understand, but ultimately can’t be helped.”

“Ready some men to ride with me to the village,” he replied, “we must first see to our people.” He said, “while you prepare, I will speak to this villager and learn what can be learned.”

[The Forgotten God]

Longinus nodded and saluted then summoned the village woman as he went to get men. He was disappointed but even in memory the captain was unfailingly loyal. The woman came up escorted by two soldiers. She was in her early forties, likely, with the calluses hands of a farmer. “My lord,” she stammered, falling to a knee, “he...he came a few hours ago. Fire everywhere! Our barns burned with the fresh harvest inside! He’s a monster!”

Another man had come in about then, or perhaps right before...memories were fickle when one was short on sleep. “My lord, a paladin of the Order of Mythan is here with an imperial escort. She said she’s here to assist in response to your last missive.”

[Konrad of Wolfhaven]

"We will deal with him," He told her before approaching the woman, taking her hand and helping her to her feet, "but first tell me, when did he arrive in the village? Where was was he when you last saw him?" He could not remember what she had replied, but it had been enough.
When his guardsman entered, he turned sharply to address him, "Our visitors may ride with me to the village," he remembered himself replying, uncharacteristically curt with an important imperial visitor, "And they will see how serious our complaints are."

[The Forgotten God]

The guard nodded and the woman stammered an answer. “We had a wedding, after the day’s work was done. Miss Annie and a handsome boy from Bryndamare town. We had just given the gifts and were sitting to feast when the church went alight. Two of our men had bows but he burned them both and then went to igniting everything he saw. My husband took everyone to Reeve Eathorne’s house and gave me our best horse to ride here. The wizard was going southwest when I saw him last and making no effort at concealing his tracks.”

[Konrad of Wolfhaven]

"Thank you you have been very brave," he told her, "my men will see you and your horse well fed and given a place to rest. We will let you know when it is safe to return to your village."

He approached the Paladin and her escort on his way out, while his attendant handed him his sword and began strapping on his armor.

"My lady Paladin, well met," he said, "Thank you for coming."

[The Forgotten God]

She looked every inch a holy warrior, in life and in dreams; tall and strong and regal, with red-gold hair and shiny grey armor dented from battle. She put her right foot behind her left and swung her arm in a wide arc as she bowed respectfully. “Lord Konrad, I’m Cassandra Niphoris. The Emperor sends his apologies at the late response; Lord Lockhart’s overseas political connections make any interactions...delicate.” She had handed him a letter she had written but signed by the Emperor himself. He’d never forget; somehow she had found pink ink. “But Lord Lockhart’s nephew was found abed with Lord Vittoria’s...elder son and as such the political conditions are prime for reining our prodigal warden.” She hadn’t said anything more he recalled before they had mounted up to ride northwest.

[Konrad of Wolfhaven]

Konrad members clutching that letter in his hand, with such... relish. It was like having justice handed down to you in physical form, that you could grip it in your hand. He remembered a feeling of panic coming on, as if he had suddenly lost it, only to have the letter reappear in his hand, twice the size it was in real life.

The sigil too burned in his memory, in a way he had not noticed it before.

They had road swiftly to the village- first, and in any case it had been on the way. He had no memory of the ride, but he remembered dismounting, the smell of acrid smoke in the air.

[The Forgotten God]

The smoke has a greenish tint to it, unnatural. Cassandra dismounted and looked about in the low predawn light. There is more property damage than loss of life fortunately. “He sure isn’t trying to hide,” she had said with evident surprise. “Strange.” One of her men had pulled out a small vial and put some of the ash into it then sealed it up.

Longinus has spoken next, “form a perimeter! Start searching for him!” Cassandra archer an eyebrow and raised her sword - no, she had a spear, not the usual longsword, and the top glowed golden, light like the sun illuminating everything for hundreds of meters.

“I smell the corruption,” she said to Konrad. “Past the general carnage. This is no mere sorcerer here.”

[Konrad of Wolfhaven]

"What is he then?" Konrad had replied, "We had presumed him yet another escapee from that accursed Asylum of which I have repeatedly warned," the smell tickled his nostrils as well, but he could not place it. He was so young then, ignorant, despite the tales, his father had shielded him from the worst... of what was out there.

[The Forgotten God]

“I’m not sure,” Cassandra admitted. One of Konrad’s men waved.

“This way!” He called out. “There’s a trail leading to the mill!” The paladin dimmed her spear and got back on her horse.

“Best to handle this now,” she said. “If it is Lockhart’s doing, we will have more nails to sink into his coffin.”

[Konrad of Wolfhaven]

Konrad liked the sound of that. He remounted his horse and led on. He knew the way to the mill, and could direct his horse by memory... ironically perhaps.

[The Forgotten God]

They arrived to the mill within forty five minutes or so, the ride a blur. The orange light greeting them made it easy to find the mad sorcerer, a tall man, naked, fifty or more years old, with a green light projecting from his eyes. Cassandra had pulled her horse to dismount and she had her spear. “I’m the name of the Edyssian Order of Justice, stand down, sorcerer!” She had said something like that anyway. The man turned to face Konrad and even at a distance he could see he was gleeful, manic.

“Praise our lords below!” He cheered. “My lord! I have been looking for you, but I kept getting...distracted. Yes, distracted. Did you know everything is flammable if you get it hot enough?”

[Konrad of Wolfhaven]

Jul 10, 2020 19:28:09 GMT The Forgotten God said:

They arrived to the mill within forty five minutes or so, the ride a blur. The orange light greeting them made it easy to find the mad sorcerer, a tall man, naked, fifty or more years old, with a green light projecting from his eyes. Cassandra had pulled her horse to dismount and she had her spear. “I’m the name of the Edyssian Order of Justice, stand down, sorcerer!” She had said something like that anyway. The man turned to face Konrad and even at a distance he could see he was gleeful, manic.

“Praise our lords below!” He cheered. “My lord! I have been looking for you, but I kept getting...distracted. Yes, distracted. Did you know everything is flammable if you get it hot enough?”

“I have heard it said,” Konrad agreed, loosening his sword in its sheath. “Why are you looking for me?”