Melissa Etheridge

Equestria:  October 17th - 25th, Albanus 1

The band spent the next week preparing for the Equestria festival.  Marius and Severus scribed scrolls;  Severus spent all his remaining time planning and praticing (for the theft of his father's skull).  Corvina tried to come up with solutions to Lucellus' conundrum.

Leyna buried herself in the Golden House's libraries, researching inheritance law -- and whether or not there was any way to support the children of a paladin.  She found evidence that, historically, paladins used to marry on rare occasions.  Generally to noble women, whose doweries ensured that their children were raised in an aristocratic fashion.  The practice was discontinued a couple centuries ago because of corruption.  Paladins do not technically own their own possessions;  upon a paladin's death, his belongings theoretically return to the Order (or to the Emperor, if there's some complication).  Married paladins often tried to transfer some of "their" wealth to their children.  And, the priests argued, marriage made a man less holy.  A paladin's thoughts should be fixed on the Gods alone -- not divided between the Gods and his wife.

Gaius searched the Dearthwood during the day, looking for another pseudo-dragon.  And, at the end of the week, his efforts were rewarded.  A tiny golden female landed upon the set of magical armor he'd laid out in a clearing and announced that this was her lair now, and he should leave.  Much to her annoyance, the ranger packed up the armor -- though he left the backpack's flap open so that she could crawl in, if she wished.  After much cajoling, bribes of gold coins, and offers of beef jerky, the small dragon gave him her name (Regina, or "Queen") and agreed to accompany him.  (Or, rather, to allow him to carry her lair about.)

Titus, meanwhile, made an odd discovery.  The stable-boy at the Golden House inn recognized Severus -- and appeared to be deathly afraid of him.  He was carrying out the band's food one night and paled as soon as he saw Severus.  Then he scampered back into the kitchens.  When the paladin pointed this out, Severus explained that the boy was the youngest son of Sir Pelius, the man who murdered Brennus and Gaius' father.  He hadn't realized that the child recognized him, though.  While Severus urged him to leave the boy be, Titus got up and wandered into the kitchen.

There, he found the cook half hysterical.  That idiot stable-boy had cut himself, she said.  Now who was going to serve the meals?  Titus obligingly healed the boy's hand, which seemed to only upset the youngster more.  Then he explained, quietly, that he knew who he was and assured him that he was in no danger.  Titus was a paladin (the boy was dubious until he recollected how Titus healed him).  He swore that Severus meant the boy no harm.  Before he left, Titus told the waif to come to his room that night to talk.

The boy showed up, as ordered.  When Titus asked him how he'd gotten cut, he confessed that he'd slashed his own hand so that he didn't have to wait on "him" -- the man who came into his bedroom, that night when his brothers died.  Did he understand that his father was evil, the paladin asked.  The boy bit his lip and whispered, "He beat Mother until she died.  And he's killed people.  Lots of people."  His older brothers were evil too, Titus explained.  "They drowned Missy," the boy said sadly.  Missy, it turned out, was his puppy;  his brothers drowned her "because I loved her."

The more they talked, the clearer it become that this youngster was nothing like his father, or his brothers.  He was smart, well-educated, hard-working, obedient, kind... in short, exactly the type of child that would make a fine squire.  And the irony of taking Pelius' son as a squire wasn't lost on Titus.  Had the boy ever thought of being a paladin?  The child nodded, very excited.  "That's why mother called me..."  Embarassed, he trailed off -- though Titus was eventually able to figure out that the boy's name was "Cavallius", of all things.  At the end of the evening, Titus took Cavallius as his second squire.

Two days before Equestria, the party left the Golden House and travelled to Harrans.  There they found that Count Dignus had indeed locked up Lucellus and was willing to keep him incarcerated as long as necessary.  Lucellus was already climbing the walls from boredom.  Darius had left him a book on basic theology (insisting that a senior paladin ought to be able to list all the holy days of the year...).  Lucellus apparently had not touched it.  He cheerfully warned everyone that he was going to have to try to escape.  Corvina tried to trick him into swearing that he'd say goodbye to her before he left for the Fallen Lands, but Lucellus recognized the danger of conflicting oaths and refused.  

Severus took Count Harrans' oath of fealty, and the band visited with their uncle Larentius, who was as gloomy as always.  He did, however, talk to Marius about the various noble families and what he knew about them.  Cavallius couldn't come to Rostilla with the band, and so Titus arranged for him to stay in Harrans.  And he spoke to Tinnius, who promised to make sure another paladin took the boy as their squire, should something happen to Titus.  The Grand Master praised Titus for the fervor with which he fulfilled his duty to train squires.  (And made a couple pointed digs at Regulus, who hadn't had one in ages.  Yes, every one of Regulus' five squires had died in their first year after coming down from the Mounds.  But that was no reason to stop taking squires.  Why, it smacked of despair.)

With that, the band wind-walked to Rostilla, to the safe-house of Minda the Viridian spy they'd worked with when the kidnapped General Corresanti.  Minda gave them a quick summary of the city's mood (cheerfully drunk on free beer at the moment, but still restive).  The weather was miserable:  torrential down-pours and lightning that dampened everyone's mood.  She also told them that Sir Pelius was in town.  Drinking heavily because Count Robertus Tillaford had dismissed him from service.  Severus offered Minda 10,000 gp (for herself, not the Praetor) if she'd deliver him outside the city walls, bound and helpless.

The spy's other news was bad:  Innocens Harrans, Count Dignus' brother and Marius' uncle, was scheduled to be executed at the games that followed the Equestria sacrifice.  He was scheduled to be chained up in the Arena with a ring of regeneration on his finger;  gutted and healed with his entrails outside of his body;  and then, "because he aided the rats that gnaw at Rostilla", he was to be slowly devoured by starving rats.  The ring of regeneration was to ensure that he survived as long as humanly possible.  The band was adamant that Innocens must be saved... though they weren't sure how to do it.

Severus also gave Minda the pickled head of Count Ossarius.  The spy giggled when he told her the head's identity, and gave it a polite curtsey.  "Oh, good evening your Grace!" she said (as Marius opined that he didn't think much about the woman's sense of humor...)  The skull had been ensorcelled with magic mouth -- could she make sure that it was placed somewhere where King Albanus would walk near it?  Minda said she most certainly could.

During these talks, there was a knock on the door and Minda excused herself "to get some news".  Uneasy, the band withdrew.  But Regina crept after her and determined that she was indeed talking to an informant.  Minda came back, puzzled.  The generals were in town, she said.  All of them.  Including General Martialis.  The king had summoned them to discuss the spring campaign.  What disturbed Minda was that she'd heard nothing about this.  Apparently Arch-Magister Avena had teleported them here, and they were being feted at the palace.  Giving the troupe yet another problem to worry about.

The night passed uneventfully.  Shortly before dawn, Corvina made Marius and Severus invisible.  Then the two brothers flew to the Bellic Stables, where the Equestria horses were kept.  Slipping in was simple, and Severus cast a cone of silence so that Marius could freely bless each horse.  (As a side note, the sponsors this year were Galens, Signarum, Tillaford, Benobles, and Aperte.)  Then the two whisked back to the family.

While the Surrexi waited in hiding, Severus flew to the Tower of Magi, where his aunt Surilla lived.  The invisible rogue shifted from wind-walk form on her window-sill then carefully removed one of the panes of glass.  Inside, the room was laid out just as his wife Catarina had described.  Much of the floor was taken up by an enormous bed, piled high with rumbled silk sheets -- and large enough to hold a half dozen people and/or demons at once.  With detect invisibility, Severus saw that an invisible imp lay curled up in the center of the bed, asleep.  Fine furs and silks were scattered about the room.  And, peeking out from under a couple pairs of dirty underwear, was what the rogue had come for:  a man's skull, carved into a chamber pot.

Count Arius' skull.

Severus had been honing his skills for this moment ever since Catarina's first report.  Silently, using his magical prestidigitation, he pulled his father's skull out of the mess and through the window.  The imp slept on, oblivious.  Once the skull was in his possession, the rogue slid a fake replacement through the window and eased it back into the dirty clothes.  On it was a curse:  "you will say what you really think."

Again, without a sound, Severus replaced the tiny pane of glass in the window.  Then he dumped the skull's stinking contents out onto the ground and kissed its begrimed face.

"I'm sorry father," he whispered.  "Please forgive me."

A half hour before noon, the Surrexi travelled up to the Shrine of the Fundati, arriving about the time that the Equestria races began.  The weather continued to be miserable;  a heavy downpour filled the streets with water.  In the distance, Gaius heard a sudden roar of laughter.  It came from the southern gate, about where the race was beginning.  No one could see what caused the fuss but clearly the crowd found something horribly amusing.

The alley that led to the Fundati shrine was still guarded.  Severus stepped up and informed the captain of the guards that the Surrexi had to get into the shrine, immediately.  Thanks to the suggestion spell the count cast, the captain found this to be an eminently reasonable demand.  Leaving his puzzled men at the alley mouth, the captain led them down beneath the city wall and unlocked the door to the Fundati.

At first glance, everything seemed in place.  The shrine was a large room decorated with mosaics of the women and men who gave their lives to defend Rostilla's walls.  One small alcove, blocked off by a curtain, was the only other exit.  (It is the blessed room in which the next Fundatus will be walled up, should the need arise.)  Candles burned on a small altar to the north -- before which a priest knelt.  The priest rose to his feet and snapped, "What is the meaning of this?" as the party entered.  The captain began stammering apologies, though he was clearly surprised to find anyone within.

That was the first glance.  At the second, the charade fell apart.  Leyna and Titus could sense five intense auras of evil:  one in each corner of the room and one on top of the altar.  The discrepancy between what she sensed and what she saw was enough to tip Leyna off to the presence of an illusion.  Concentrating, she managed to penetrate the spell laid over the room to see what was really there.

The first thing she noticed was the stench.  A thick, fetid stench of waste and feces roiled out of the doorway.  And as the illusion shredded, the paladin saw that the entire floor of the shrine was covered with about a half an inch of sewage.  The Fundati mosaics were defaced, smeared with shit and dirt.  The priest disappeared entirely.  But the demons did not appear -- clearly they were hidden by invisibility as well as illusion

Marius quickly read one of the scrolls of dispel magic that Abbot Micarius had prepared for them.  And, praying that that was enough, the party prepared to do battle...