Spring
In the morning the Duchess Mira Yvari (Played by Renee) joined us. We continued following the tracks. The tracks lead out of Gregor's Mountain and into one Count Kether's regions. The tracks lead to a village, Eriksburgor.
Things we know about the Village
Known for Silk
Direct trade route to Count Kether's Castle
Village is small
As we are on a bluff that over looks the village a carriage pulled by fine ponies exits the forest. They stop at the largest building of the village and a large man comes out to greet the carriage. Two people step out of the carriage a man and a woman. They enter the building.
We make our way into the village and the large man too greets us. He is Grunholt the headman of the village. He welcomes us to stay and rest. As he talks he makes wild exaggerated jesters. We explain the nature of our visit and Timus was called over to see to our needs as Grunholt flabbgasterly runs to make inquires.
We enter the building we see the woman from the earlier carriage. She’s Lady Shara Yvari from the Far, Far East and cousin to Duchess Mira. As we talk with Lady Shara, Crav comes in to the common room.
Things we know about Crav
Lady Shara's Swordsman
Bald and Shaved
Big as a Bear
Mountain Man
We speak with Lady Shara until Grunholt returns. He asks if the tracks were strange. The tracks were strange. The men were on horseback. Grunholt, Lysandra, and Crav for the stables. As the go to the stable Grunholt explains they breed horse for Count Kether. Pievu, the stable keeper, was called for. Pievu is short, and has little blue eyes. Crav and Lysandra examine the stables. The last stable was missing a horse. After further questioning and examining, they discover the missing horse was a mare, a bay coloring with star marking on her forehead and was here two days ago. Pievu was discovered to be lying about the horse presence earlier today. Pievu was then taken back to main house for further questioning. It was revealed that Pievu was lying and that Grunholt has the horse. Lady Shara looks to the headman and plainly says "Your in trouble." Grunholt confesses to having the horse. He was going to tell Count Kether that the horse was stolen. The man that took the horse was wearing a mask and threatened to kill everyone in the village if Grunholt report this to Count Kether. After he left, all the cattle started to bleed. The Masked Man was tall, strong and had the regalness of the blooded. When asked, Count Kether was described as Dark, Tall and Handsome, you don't want him to ever touch sort of way. After some discussion we decided to leave for Count Kether's castle.
Count Kether's Castle
Because of our hasty departure, we arrived to Count Kether's place well after dark. Torches light the path as we ride. Count Kether's Castle was built on top of the remains of the ruins of the Sorcerer-Kings. The castle gate rises and we enter into the courtyard. Which was designed for killing. Ernst, Count Kether’s Seneschal, greeted us. Ernst speaks with a high voice and informs us we are early for the party that is to take place to tomorrow night, but will arrange rooms for us in the east wing of the castle. We are shown to our room and give time to eat and wash up before meeting with Count Kether. During this time there was a knock at our door. There’s a young lady at the door, after some stammering, the young lady manages to invite us to a meeting with Lady Niassa. As the young lady leaves, Lady Shara enters. The Duchess MIra and Lady Shara discuss fashion that is to be worn at the party when a loud BANG interrupts the meeting. Our impulsive nature urges us to go investigate the noise, but Count Kether’s guards stop us. We tried to talk our away past the guards or at best look past them, when Ernst finds us. He informs us that Count Kether was ready to see us and we were escorted to a sitting room. After some time passes, Count Kether enters. Pleasantries were exchanged, an explanation as to the nature of the meeting was given. A quill was called for and brought in.
Grunholt was then asked to write, “My name is Tomas” .
Grunholt writes, “My name is… Grunholt”
He was then asked to write, “I am not responsible for the horse’s theft.”
Grunholt writes, “I am… responsible for the horse’s theft.”
Kether then asks Grunholt to write, “I do not know who threatened the village.”
Grunholt writes, “I… know who threatened the village.”
Grunholt was then asked to write the name of the man.
Grunholt writes, “Duke Dannon.”
After Grunholt was finish writing, Count Kether draws his sword and kills Grunholt. Count Kether then picks up the quill, asks Gregor to pay close attention, and then writes, “I am not responsible for poisoning your lands.”
Gregor replies with, “We now know who our common enemy is.”
Count Kether then places the quill back into the box and the Seneschal departs. Count Kether then says that he has a guest has violated his hospitality but wishes to speak with us tomorrow about the letter sent to Gregor. Count Kether then stands and leaves. Ernst then sees us back to our rooms. Before Ernst leaves, Duchess Mira tells him that we were ready to see Lady Niassa. To which Ernst gives her a surprised look and says, “Lady Niassa is not here.”
The Duchess insists that she must be, because she had spoken to her lady. Ernst assures her that she isn't and then departs. As we prepare to bed down for the night. Alyss, Lady Niassa's lady was found hiding in the wardrobe. She asks for our help in hiding her. Alyss says, Count Kether has kidnapped her brother. He is being used as leverage so that Alyss will spy on Lady Niassa. Alyss plans on killing Count Kether before Lady Niassa arrives to the party. As we are discussing what to do with Alyss, there comes a knock at the door. It's Kether's guards and they are asking to search the rooms. When Alyss hears this she takes off running. Gregor's gives chase, but loses her. As Alyss was sneaking away, she runs into Lady Shara. Lady Shara exclaims "Alyss!" which causes the guards to run after Alyss. The guards catch her and beat her up and drag her away. Lady Shara was on her way to speak with us. Our conversation causes us to explore the castle further.
Secret Library
Lady Shara leads us to the library. Entering was a bit unnerving but we manage to summon up the courage to enter. As we explore the library Iver finds a book from the Sorcerer-King containing ritual that very few ven know about. Lysandra finds a hidden door and opens it. Hidden behind the door was a corridor, which has a slight decline and leads into a room. The room was filled with iron instruments. Each item was about 2 feet long and was used as a torturing devise. It's humming because it's been used recently. The item seems to be drawn towards the black table in the room. Just then Count Kether enters the room. He then locks us in the room as he leaves with Lady Shara. Lady Lysandra tries the door, its locked. Gregor looks for another hidden door. He finds one, the black table moves to reveal a ladder leading down and Count Kether doesn't know about it. We all climb down and Lady Lysandra covers the entrance. As she does, the table catches on something making it difficult to reopen. Then the humming instruments of torture fall silent. About midway down, the ladder stops. After some jumping down, some falling, we all make it too the bottom. Some better off then others. The room at the bottom was cooled and wet. A small stream of water flows down the path the leads up and out of here. Before heading up the path we tried healing ourselves as best as possible. The path twists and turns as we walk up the path. It leads to wrought iron spiral staircase that end at a landing. We are once again in Count Kether’s castles, standing in a corridor. As we walk down the corridor we see tiny pinholes. The pinholes look into a bedroom. We continue down the corridor peering through each new set of pinholes. As we move further we hear voices, the voices of Count Kether and Lady Shara. We peer into another pinhole and we see them in a bedroom.
”Do I please you my Lord?” Lady Shara asks
”More then that vacuous slutty whore.” Count Kether replies.
Lady Shara smiles, ”You are far too kind my Lord.”
”Put it away.”
Lady Shara flirts and teases him, ”Very well.”, she then pulls back a hood. Lady Shara appearance changes to that of Lady No.
3 Things we know about Lady No
Multiple Widow
Small, Petite, & Demure (So cute you just want hug her)
Houses of the Elk
Duchess Mira gasps then quickly covers her mouth. Count Kether and Lady No look towards the wall. Lady Lysandra takes the torch and quickly runs down the corridor leaving the rest of us in darkness.
”Did you hear that?” Count Kether asks Lady No.
”I did.”
Lady No then gets up and walks towards the wall. She then turns back to Count Kether. ”My Lord, is there a secret panel here?”
”There are many secrets panels in my castle. The Sorcerer-Kings have left me with a cache of secrets.”
Lady No asks how the secret panel works. As Count Kether explains how it works, Gregor and Drustan run away without being heard by Lady No. Iver uses his Greater Suaven ability to make him look like one of Kether’s guards. Lady Mira comes and stands next to him. As the panel opens Lady No stumbles. Iver goes to help but was quickly dismissed. Count Kether is called over. After some questioning he orders Iver to take the Duchess to the tower. As Iver escorts the Duchess to the tower, he rounds a corner, breaks off from the route, and backtracks towards where the others hopefully will be. As the others argued as too what their next move will be. Iver, still looking as a guard, rounds the corner. Lady Lysandra jumps on him. The disguise he was wearing fades to reveal Iver’s true appearance. Lady Lysandra stands in shock, then apologies and helps him up as the Duchess finishes rounding the corner.
FIRE
Back together again, we plotted about either going and rescuing Alyss or escaping. We decided to set fire to Count Kether’s bedroom as a distraction for our escape. On our way out, we enter the courtyard. Across from the courtyard are the stables. We tell the stable boy that Count Kether wants to release the horses so they will not be harmed but the fire. The stable boy releases the horses as Gregor raised the gate. Once outside the castle, Iver shot an arrow to close the gate as the others collected the horses. We then rode towards Lady Niassa’s lands to tell her that Count Kether has Alyss.
