Fractions & Factions S12 Finale - 06/06/2023 - Kavel Persp..

Prologue

I went to New Hillborrow to get away from all of it…

When the ruckus started, I went outside. I encountered the tricksy elf man, Jasper - the one Archie told me about, and I now realise Mendal has met too. We got confirmation that Jasper is not on the side of those who wished to bring the Wild Hunt back. Jasper was keen to protect the locals, especially the children. Unfortunately, given what happened, we have to presume that Jasper is dead…

...

New Hillborrow

I thought a short stay in the countryside would be a good; change in scenery, and a break from responsibilities. The primary was kind of true, the latter wasn’t.

When the ruckus started, I left Timor with the innkeeper and went outside to see what was happening. I could hear distant howls from what sounded like ferocious dogs, and the wind was violently picking up in an abnormal manner. I soon saw fellow adventurers had done the same as I. Lolli, my harengon conjuror friend, was there. As was Zola, my half-drow holy sword master friend. Comrade Cechec, the dragonborn rapier man was with us too.

Jasper, the elf man that Archie told me about was there and knew what was happening. He urged us to get the children to their homes for their safety. The problem though, was that we could hear three groups of chilling howls around the village. So we split up; Cechec and Zola, Lolli was with me, and Jasper on his own.

When Lolli and I got to the northeastern part of New Hillborrow, we could see adults running around trying to find their children, desperate to bring them inside. We saw the cause of the terrible howls and violent weather; black, ghostly, huge wolfhounds and fog-like sylphes. They were terrorising the place. Shadow and mist obscured the enemy, but their fiery green eyes told us where they were in the mist.

Lolli used her magical talents, and magic items to help round up any child we saw outside. She had two pseudodragons help urge the children to their homes. I went for a more direct approach of picking children up in bunches and leap-flying them back to the nearest houses. Adults made sure the children got to their homes, while Lolli and I, hopping and leaping around in between the enemy, kept the enemy’s attention fixed on ourselves rather than the civilians. We both took some scrapes from the hounds and some scrapes from the sylphes’ chilling mist..

There was a harengon that led the wild animals and sylphes. The harengon led them in a sprint towards the centre of the village. We followed, and learned that Zola and Cechec were also heading that way, thanks to Lolli’s spell that telepathically bonded us all. The telepathy made me think of the soul bond I used to share with Nathalie. I had to push the thought from my head, and refocused on the present.

When we got to the village centre, a veteran firbolg druid was dealing with the enemy. As a result of the veteran’s arrival, the assembled pack from the three surrounding areas split into two,and headed in two separate directions, and then vanished. All we knew was one pack was heading east to Port Ffist, the other; west to Daring Heights.


Daring Heights

We made a team decision to head to the city, and hoped the swampy path to Port Ffirst proved treacherous for the pack that headed that way.

Jasper had a trick up his sleeve, one I was envious of, as it appeared to not just grant him access to anywhere he liked on this plane, but the Feywild too. The soul bond I once had enabled me limited access to the Feywild. Jasper is blessed with a truly magnificent magical gift.

The tricksy elf man made an underground tunnel network appear before us, by tapping his foot on the ground. We followed him in and it wasn’t long before we came out at the Adventurer's Rest, the adventurer’s graveyard in Daring Heights.

Inside the city, the pack had split up to cause havoc again. Keeping the same groups, Lolli and I headed northwest, just past the Dwarven Quarter. Attacks were happening near Thia’s Refuge. The howls were mind chilling at that point. My brain was beginning to be affected by its strange magic. Lolli had to guide me in the right direction, as if I had forgotten the way. She even had to convince me that the satyr we met, now commanding the hounds, was real. Lolli tried to magically deflect the satyr’s spell, but no luck. The satyr got me with one of Derthaad’s favourites, Psychic Lance. I felt the intense psychic pain ringing in my head. It hurt, of course. But I gathered that the satyr was more surprised by my counter offensive than I was hurt by his cowardly mind spell - no one expects psychic retaliation from a martial artist! My head rolled with the pain, and then as my head rolled back so that my stance was set again, I delivered a Stonehand Fighting psychic headbutt in the direction of the satyr and got them good with some psychic pain of their own making! The satyr wore a mask, but I didn’t need to see a face to know it hurt. The ringing of the head told me everything.

I became a little too eager to give the howling hounds some of their own medicine. It was foolish, but I finally took out my Horn of Blasting and blew on it in the direction of a group of the hounds. The horn did not explode, fortunately. However, I did not assess the surrounding environment and consequences of missing my target. The hounds avoided the oncoming thundering blast of the horn, and the thunder hit the building behind them, demolishing one of the walls. The satyr mocked me,thanking me for my help.

Lolli casted my favourite magic spell - on me, the Enlarge spell! I doubled to nearly fifteen feet tall. The satyr sought to undermine my comrade conjuror’s help by casting the Slow spell on me. Lolli again tried to deflect the satyr’s spell, but I was too big a target - it got through. Despite my slowed down, sticky movement, I still managed to land a couple of hammerfists on the satyr. The return psychic headbutt was fun, but the hammerfists were more my style.

The satyr vanished before I could follow up my hammerfists with a giant-sized suplex, and give the satyr some air-time before spiking its head and horns into the cobblestoned road.

The satyr was gone, but the pack of hounds and slyphes remained, and both Lolli and I had taken on more damage than we did in New Hillborrow. But, so too had Daring Heights. Two veteran adventurers from the Crimson Fists came to our aid, allowing us to regroup with Jasper back in Graveside.

When we got there, Jasper had just received a message via a magical sending - he now knew where Drusilia was performing a ritual to bring back the Lord of the Hunt. Jasper informed us that Nathalie had gotten the information for them, no doubt via the Spirit Road. I was proud to see her connection to the damphenite stone was still very strong with our soul bond no longer in place. She was getting on with her responsibilities admirably. I on the other hand had ruined someone’s wall.


The Feyverge

Jasper’s giant fox-like tunnel brought us to the Feywild. We were in a weird location that bordered the Feywild and the Material Plane. It was very feywild - colours everywhere were bold, the trees glistened with a silver and blue vein. Magic glowed in the sky far ahead of us. In front of us for the moment were two harengons - they looked identical. One of them was the one I saw in New Hillborrow. The masked satyr was there, and another masked person with a bow - this mask had the bird-like symbol on it.

We learned that Jasper was once an ally to the Lord of the Wild Hunt. The Wildlings before us pointed this out. Jasper must be very, very old then. I believe the concept of the Wild Hunt predates many current fey. Jasper is secretive in his ways, but good.

Once again, the Wildlings vanished. We gave chase.

I collided with the trees as I jumped from one to the other in an attempt to catch up to one of the Wildlings and ram one over.

We eventually arrived at a clearing, and saw Drusilia mid chanting. Oriniax, in her human form, stood with a giant’s spear, a golden spear. Drusilia had the horn attached to her belt.

The horn Drusilia had, was the hunting horn we foolishly brought to her from the Temple For All Seasons. The spear, I presumed, was the weapon I had heard about, and Oriniax, when not in her human form, was a giant fey hind. Horn, weapon and mount. Drusilia had all three. She needed all three for her ritual. She was close to bringing back the Lord of the Hunt.

The Wildlings stood between us and the ritual. I lept towards the satyr, I didn’t want this magician countering Lolli’s magic, and I also wanted to bury the satyr in the ground with suplexes. I softened the satyr up with a cross-hook-cross combination. Before I could lock up though, Zola was on her way, mounted on Corr’Vandor. The satyr managed to cast a spell mid pummeling, and dispelled Corr’Vandor. This didn’t stop Zola though, which was too bad for the satyr as she thrust her duel swords empowered with radiant energy into the satyr’s chest.

We were one Wildling down. It was good progress. But it was too slow. Oriniax drove the spear into the ground. Drusilia blew the horn. We all succumbed to the horrible sound for a second. As we regained our senses, we saw the spear that Orianix plunged into a focal point of the ritual get taken by a giant humanoid’s hands. The spear then flew towards us at an aggressive speed, thumping and piercing Jasper square in the chest. Jasper gushed blood out of his mouth and from where the spear plunged into him. He could barely control his movement, but when he first saw the giant hands, he began tapping his foot on the ground to open a tunnel. Jasper fell into the tunnel, the golden spear had vanished. As his body entirely fell into the tunnel, the tunnel closed behind him. We were all alone in the Feyverge, with no one to get us out.

The giant man was fully outside of his feyverge prison. Orianix was overjoyed and turned into her hind form. Drusilia gave the horn to the twenty-five feet tall man. The Lord of the Hunt blew the horn this time, and we couldn’t resist. We were all enthralled.


The Winter Palace?

From what we pieced together in New Hillborrow afterwards, it seemed we ended up in the Winter Court’s palace in front of Queen Morinn, the ruler there. We discovered that the Lord of the Hunt and Morinn are together. Morinn was not pleased to see Dawnland adventurers, even those under the thrall of the hunt. She had us dismissed. The lord obliged, Drusilia made it happen.


Back in the Dawnlands

We discussed matters back in New Hillborrow, where we awoke from the thrall. We had failed immeasurably. Some of us felt more responsible than others. I was torn for my involvement with the horn, Zola too. Zola, it turned out, was also partly responsible for Orianix’s memories returning. It was, however, good to discover that no one was hurt from the attack on New Hillborrow.

I used my sending stone to get a message to Nathalie. I suspected she would learn soon enough what had happened. But, if I could be useful in any way, it felt right to get news to her immediately. So, returning to the inn, hugging Timor, who was safe and sound, I wrote down a message for Nathalie, and then held the sending stone to send the message:

"Natalie... Jasper - elf? Presumed dead... Drusilia Hunt ritual... was too late. Saw Hunt Lord - enthralled us... Morinn and Lord - Winter Court? ... Safe now... Love you."

A few seconds later, I received her reply:

"Kavel! Finally, I couldn't reach you! The Hunt's return, we felt it. You were enthralled? Are you okay? I hope you're okay... Love you too."

I did not know what to expect. There had been a pattern of failures leading towards what sounds like a looming catastrophe for the Feywild… maybe even here? But, amidst this defeat, and looming horror - it was warming to hear Nathalie’s voice. It felt good to tell her that I love her, and to hear her say it back again. The soul bond was gone. It was all the more important now to say how we feel.

While I had my moment of comfort. I’m not sure Zola got one? I told her that Mendal had finally been out adventuring with the adamantine splint armour she gave him. I think she enjoyed hearing that.

I went back to Daring Heights the next day. Mendal had sent me a Sending message, so I knew he and Archie were fine. When I got back to the residence, I soon went straight out again to lend a hand to the city repair team, and helped put the building wall back up - the one my actions with the Horn of Blasting tore down. Daring Heights was fine for now.