Shriekback

October 13th, Albanus 1

Stepping into a sitting room, Severus addressed the Counts Pelasgus and Largitas.  He explained, again, the evidence of corruption that the Surrexi had gathered.  He repeated the dire portents that Crescens gave them at the Harvest festival.  And he asked, could the counts afford to be without the Gods' protection?  Could they afford to do the rites of Equestria for themselves, since the King's sacrifice would be corrupt?  If not, then they should swear fealty to him and be covered by the blessing of the sacrifice he was about to perform.

Largitas grew glum and withdrawn, for he knew full well that his county could not afford the Equestria sacrifices.  Pelasgus teased him rather cruelly about this, reminding the old man that the Gods required four horses -- you couldn't race four goats, or four chickens, around your walls.  Largitas glowered back, impotently.  What was to become of Ossarius, he asked?  Severus refused to make any promises about the boy's future, or what would become of Ossarius.  In the end, Largitas agreed to swear fealty to Severus.  He showed no enthusiasm for this, but simply hoped to save his county from starvation.

Throughout this, Count Pelasgus was largely quiet -- except when he interrupted to add some disparaging comment about Ossarius and fools who married their daughters to slavers.  Once Largitas committed to their side, the band reminded Pelasgus that for all his gibes, he hadn't actually picked a side yet.  "Didn't I?"  Pelasgus grinned.  "Well, if the king really has let the Fundati be tainted, I guess that makes me a rebel.  As for the other matter... how many counts have sworn fealty to you?" he asked Severus.  Severus replied, "All the Dale-Lords are with us."  Which sounded like an answer to the question... but wasn't.  "Even Harrans?"  There, Severus could be truthful.  Harrans did not wish the throne, he told the young count.  With a shrug, Pelasgus admitted he couldn't do the Equestria sacrifices himself.  And with rumors of a Viridian army in Bendigroth, he desperately wanted Bella's protection.  So he was Severus' man.  

Once he gave his oath of fealty, Severus named him regent over Ossarius.  This upset Largitas.  Severus replied that Pelasgus was the only man around that he knew would clean the place up.  (An opinion with which the new regent agreed -- perhaps with more enthusiasm than necessary.)  Dull rebellion clouded Largitas' eyes.  And his grandson?  Was he to be dispossessed of his lands?   The Surrexi reminded the older count that both of his grandchildren would be dead right now, and his daughter too, if they had not saved them.  Unhappy but powerless, Largitas held his tongue.

With these political discussions finished, the Surrexi and the counts returned to the main hall for a small feast.  Mindful of the food-disorders that had afflicted the Ossarius family, Corvina checked their food for poison -- and noticed that Pelasgus had similar thoughts.  The count wore an amythist ring which had a small enchantment on it, which he waved over each dish as it was served.

The meal was unremarkable, for the most part.  The only thing unusual was that Pelasgus appeared to know a great deal about Insula Mollita (the Soft Isles).  Earlier that day, one of the burghers had offered them a delicacy:  Mollitan whitefish.  Which, to the party's shock and disgust, turned out to be nefas.  That night at dinner, they asked how mere fish could be nefas.  "It feeds on corpses.  Undead ones," Pelasgus told them.  "The Soft Isles are surrounded by mists and shoals, and the waters teem with things they call the Drowned.  Whitefish frequently feed on their flesh.  You can get clean whitefish farther out in the ocean.  But the ones harvested near the Isles are abominations."

How did Pelasgus come to know so much about the Isles of Necromancers, the band began to wonder.  "I've been there," Pelasgus replied.  "Went to one of their fairs.  Yes, even necromancers have fairs."  He explained that when he came of age, his father sent him to the Mollitan fairs one March.  So that he would see how foul their enemies were.  So that he'd know the Mollitans were not a people you could compromise with, or deal with, cleanly.  "Once you see what happens to those slaves Ossarius sends south," the old count said, "you'll know why we're enemies, and always will be."  Pelasgus told the band about the Isles' defenses.  They were perpetually cloaked in magical fog.  There was only one safe channel through the deadly shoals that surrounded the island.  And so, if you wished to visit, you had to stop at Waypoint, a rocky island just outside the mists.  There you hired an undead navigator to escort you to Insula Mollita herself.  (Yes, the creature was always undead;  Mollita figured that if you couldn't tolerate an undead helmsman, you were a trouble maker who didn't belong on their island, anyways.)  And Mollita, he assured them, was every bit as foul as the stories said.  Undead wandered the streets freely.  

After dinner, the band retired.  Since there were so many guests, even the nobles had to share rooms.  Pelasgus' men camped out in the great hall, sleeping on the benches "Viking"-style.  The band put extra guards on the dungeon which held Count Ossarius and had men patrolling the manor's grounds.

Just after midnight, a shout woke them.  "Wake!  Wake!" yelled one of the Pelasgan patrollers.  "Invisible intruder!"

In the Surrexus men's bedroom, Severus dropped a "see invisible" on Gaius, who promptly scrambled out a window on the north side of the manor, where the alarm came from.  The ranger saw three guards throwing handfuls of pebbles -- trying, it seemed, to get some idea of where the invisible foe was.  Gaius saw two important things.  First, the intruder was the dirge singer -- the corrupt bard who'd tried to abduct the Contessa.  The dirge singer was carrying something that looked like a melon-sized globule of pustulent flesh.  The blob pulsed  faintly, and dangled long tendrils of stringy slime.  Moving quietly, the Bad Guy(s) was moving east, towards the front of the manor.  The second disturbing sight was a dense fog bank moving, slowly but inexorably, against the wind, towards the manor.  It was still some distance away, but its unnatural behavior worried Gaius.

As Gaius left, Marius leaped out the western window (in the corner bedroom).  Severus hurried after Gaius.  Corvina, who had been awake praying, rushed out to ensure that Count Ossarius was still locked up safely -- which he was.

Meanwhile, the great hall was a scene of orderly pandemonium as Pelasgus' men hastily grabbed their weapons and sprinted for the door.  Leyna and Titus were with them.  They threw open the doors just as the (invisible) dirge singer sprinted by.  Skittering to a halt, the startled bard sang a fear spell -- with devastating effect.  Most of Pelasgus' men succumbed to the spell, and their charge dissolved into chaos as the soldiers fled, crawling over each other in their terror.  Titus, shielded by the Gods, was immune to this.  But Leyna was hit by the fear too, and the young paladin turned and ran with the other warriors.

Alas, this bald-faced assault did not destroy the bard's greater invisibility spell.  However Gaius shouted his location -- and put a couple arrows into him, just to be helpful.  Corvina dispelled magic and the horrified dirge singer suddenly appeared... directly in front of his buddy Titus.  The paladin was quick to resume the "discussion" they'd had the day before, and gave the necromancer a couple solid whacks.  As he did, the pustule tried to wrap its slimey appendages around him, but the glutinous tendrils couldn't find a gap in the knight's armor.  The few guards that resisted the spell concentrated their attacks on the cyst.  (Nobody knew what it was, but DAMN it was ugly.)  And, to everyone's relief, it proved quiet fragile, exploding in a puff of bloody phlegm after a few blows.

Clearly the gig was up.  The staggering dirge singer reached for an amulet of recall again, as he had the day before.  "This isn't finished yet," he hissed at Titus. "We...."  He never got to finish that sentence, because Gaius had been waiting for this precise thing.  The ranger sank three arrows into the bard's back, and he sank to the ground with a look of stunned surprise on his face.  "Yes, it is done," Titus corrected him.

As this battle raged, another took place on the far side of the manor.  Another patrol of guards shouted that there were undead by the south-western corner of the estate.  Most of the Surrexi were pursuing the dirge singer, but Marius hurried out to help the western guards.  He saw four creatures.  Two were ghostly female figures bearing lyres;  crypt singers, the young cleric thought.  Banshee-like creatures that sang their victims into a stupor.  The other two were more frightening.  They were Drowned, the animated corpses of sailors who died at sea.  Drowned were incredibly strong.  Worse, they could turn the air to water around them and quickly drown any living creature.

Summoning the power of Legis, Marius held up his holy symbol and commanded the abominations to be gone.  One crypt singer did flee, but the other three rushed forward.  "Get behind me," Marius told the fearful guards.  "I can handle this for a bit."  Once more he shouted a command;  once more a crypt singer fled.  Now, however, the two Drowned had reached him.  The cleric managed to keep his breath in the steadily thickening air.  But the Drowned pounded the youngster with bone-breaking force.  After only a few blows, Marius was staggering.  The guards, meanwhile, were having trouble breathing and were trying to scramble away from the undead monstrosities.

Clearly all was not well on the western front.  Severus managed to blind one of the Drowned and it promptly punched a couple holes in the manor, rather than in Marius.  And, as the last Drowned battered the cleric more, the cavalry arrived.  Titus summoned Sinister and came charging around the corner towards the undead.  Count Pelasgus joined him -- though the Count dropped to his knees as soon as he hit the watery aura surrounding the Drowned.  Corvina, meanwhile, hurried into the manor where she found the feared soldiers packed into a great scrum in the hallway.  It took several dispell magics to end their panic.  But when it did, Leyna charged into a nearby bedroom and leaped through the window, landing close to Marius.

After a hard, slogging battle, the Surrexi managed to pull down the last two of the undead.  (Sorry, it was late and I don't recall all the details...  If anyone does, e-mail me and I'll spiff up this ending.)

Once the dust settled, they saw that the odd mist was still there, hanging over the harbor and half the town.  But it was no longer advancing towards them.