Session Date: 7/21/2023
We arrive at the castle and find the drawbridge sunk into the mud enough that the drawbridge likely hasn’t been raised in months or years. The moat itself doesn’t smell particularly pleasant. We ride up to the castle a little before sunset and the guard in the guardhouse calls out a challenge as we ride up - it’s bored and curious, asking who goes there is a genuine question.
Housekeeping:
- Priest Parvorthr — keeps the henge
- Chaplin of Draugala — keeps temple in castle armory
Normally there would be only one priest as a Chaplin for a castle, but because there is one inside the castle and one just outside it seems that the two both belong to the Baron in a non-standard setup. There’s not much to say if they are related or deal with each other.
So there should be two priests present, with Parvorthr would be the one that’s sassy,
Baron: Famous calvary knight. Cap’t in Order of Green Penance (elite calvary). Widowed and has one legit and many illegitimate kids. Also pretty veiny neck. 🙂
Languages: Elvish — Wethryni High Elvish — Celeviran Orcish — Nithlan or Thyrsean
I have Nithlan definitely not Thyrsean
There are three iron portcullises kept down between the drawbridge and the courtyard. The courtyard is very large and very loud. There are numerous stable and kennel enclosures around it. As we ride in the hounds will start barking at us. After about a minute an elf in a bright colored tunic with long rolling wheat-colored hair comes out of the double doors of the castle keep and greets us, asking why we are here. We explain that we are here to meet the Baron and other important people of his house as we are new to the Marquis’ court.
The herald, Tyrenic, asks for our names so that he can announce us. Sarras and Cal get the vibe that Tyrenic has already been at the wine a little before dinner. He’s not drunk but he’s definitely tipsy and that’s why he does not recall the details. We introduce ourselves and give our titles to Tyrenic so that he can recall. He rustles up some help to take our horses to the stable and take care of them, then leads us inside. He lets us know that there’s three tables in the main dining hall and we should take positions as near the head of the table on the left as we can as that is proper for distinguished guests.
There is an extremely large foyer with 2 doors off each side and a pair of staircases between, with a great hall beyond that is almost as big as the full courtyard was. At the head table is Baron Gilbert, an aging half-elfin priest in Parvorthrthine robes, a young human robes in the black tunic and mail of Draugala, and two human men - one late 20s, one 20 at most - who bear a strong resemblance to the Baron, with the older seated next to a woman who is likely his wife. She has dark hair and slightly ruddy skin. There are four children ranging in age: a tiefling somewhere in the middle of his teens. Finally, two human girls - one about 13, one about 6, and a child of indeterminate gender at the age of “walking upright but constantly having a running nose”. Below them at the other tables are ten or twelve people of varying social stations with the lowest ranks on the right and the highest ranks at the left.
Tyrenic announces us and will lead us to the left hand table where he is able to clear away the head of the table with a few discrete glowers so that we may sit. He then very quickly, under his breath, gives us a quick rundown of who everyone is.
- HIGH TABLE
- Baron Gilbert Aberly
- A very large man with very high blood pressure
- While he is fat, he is a walking slab of calvary muscle beneath
- Robert Baratheon but also not
- Rector Lucius More, half elf, cleric of Pomvorthr
- Vicar Bodwin, human, Chaplin of Draugala
- Hugh, human, Baron’s oldest natural son
- Schivabelle, Hugh’s wife, Midmirish noblewoman
- Midmirish is basically French
- Draconic is also common in Midmire
- Raoul, 20ish, the Baron’s son and heir
- Iago, tiefling, 16ish, Baron’s natural son
- Iolande, human, 13, Baron’s natural daughter
- E M P T Y
- Marie, human, 6, Baron’s natural daughter
- Aimes, human, 4, Hugh & Schivabele’s son
- Baron Gilbert Aberly
- LEFT TABLE
- Tyrenic, elfin Herald, tipsy
- Squire Theobald, human, butler, head of domestic service
- Carefully civil
- Squire Eldenald, red Dragonborn, constable, head of stables
- Not so particularly civil
- RIGHT TABLE
- Amalric, male elf, steward
- Agnes, fem high elf, bailiff
- Sibylla, fem half-elf, reeve
- Reeve: chief clerk; needs something done that isn’t law enforcement or about his house
- Sheriff was originally a shire reeve
- Philcan, male human, hound master
- Regin, gold dragonborn, jeweler
- Bastiana, Kornuese tiefling, chaplain’s clerk
- Azalais, silver Dragonborn, rector’s clerk
- Juno, white Dragonborn, arms woman
- NOT AT TABLES
- Bloody Bruce, very large gold, tan, and red dog
- Mudbelly, medium-sized curly-haired seal-brown dog
We are assured Bloody Bruce is actually very nice, but Mudbelly is aptly name so be aware of that before she leans against us. The tables have two deer, oat cakes, parsnips, the entire ordeal. The dogs are absolutely beggars for scraps.
Theobald requests to know how long we are to be staying and what our business would be. We explain that we are here to meet the lord and see the area. He then explains that the lord will be going on a hunt in a few days time and we are more than welcome to join on the trip. The Baron also would have horses for us.
Sarras is not a great hunter and asks to stay back in order to see how the guards are stationed and work out of professional curiosity. The Baron has 8 household knights that are concerned with greater security. He also explains that Eldenald is interested in training the local militia and also points out Vicar Bodwin and while he shall not speak for Bodwin, he can’t imagine Bodwin is busy as Draugala’s mass is 4 months away.
We are given time to meet everyone and get acquainted. When the Baron lumbers by and finally greets us he explains the hunt. Sarras and Calthel decide not to go on the hunt, while Kerran and Ships will go on the hunt (which causes the Baron to thaw). This hunt is a bit out of season but given the fresh venison and given the Baron’s upcoming hunt it is not hard to conclude that the Baron goes hunting quite often. He humphs at Calthel’s mention of being more of a books man, saying the climate is awful for it.
Sarras goes up to the game’s room and plays chess against the Baron, losing quite readily. The Baron waves her off and plays against his daughter in law, just barely beating her. The Baron’s chess strategy is rather aggressive. The game’s room itself has its own fireplace and is decorated with racks of antlers, and there is an ample supply of spiced wine. Most of the men are playing cards though the teenaged tiefling is in the corner reading a book. He’s reading a 300 year old book on High Elfin calvary tactics - it’s the Arimath calvary equivalent of Sun Zhu’s Art of War.
Sarras approaches the teenager reading and asks about the book and tries to strike up a conversation. He’s nervous, feeling she might be making fun of him, and it grows clear that the typical crowd around the Baron are not those that have casual scholarly conversations. He avoids directly saying that he’s reading the book because there’s about 10 books in the whole castle and he’s read them all 3-4 times at least, but he manages to not say it clearly enough that Sarras pieces it together. He talks about it but it’s clear that it’s just the book next int he cycle. Sarras explains that she grew up in a monastery and she’d be happy to answer any questions he might have. He asks all sorts of questions and she answers them.
Books in the Castle
- The Codex Regis
- Includes the Odes, portions of the Takings & the Sayings, several written records of Oracles, biographies of early mages
- The Green Book of Arms
- Genealogies and heraldic coats of arms of Trewethryn, Server, Curachis, Caviness, and Lindrad
- The Gray Book of Charges
- A bestiary about the beasts which appear in heraldry
- The Book of the Surgeon’s Table
- A bestiary of exploratory dissections of “beasts” as opposed to “monstrosities”
- Ars Grammatica
- A Celeviran grammar manual used to teach students in Arimath the basics of the language through helpful marginalia
- Ars Notoria
- A Celeviran book on learning eidetic memory and basic primer for a collegiate or monastery wizard’s curriculum
- The Epitome Red Military’s of Rents
- The definitive Celeviran text on 6th-century military science
- The Introduction to Categorical Logic
- As translated by Severinus
- The Green Book of Drocaster
- A bestiary modeled after the real-life Rochester Bestiary
- Correspondence of Aberly and Hengiston
- Record of official correspondence with the Duchess
- Essentially an accounting book over the years, spanning a couple generations
Towards the end of the evening as people are starting to trickle out of the gaming room and toward bed, the door opens at one point and the 13 year old girl with the springy blonde curls who is one of the Baron’s natural daughters comes in and gravitates almost immediately toward the conversation happening with Sarras and Iago. It really only takes a moment before she starts telling Iago how dumb he is and that of course he wouldn’t ever be allowed to just run away to a monastery and even if they did take him he’s not brave enough to make the journey. There’s nothing particularly amazing in this conversation, but the way she escalates from nothing to “you’re stupid” is remarkable. Sarras comments that she thinks Iago is rather intelligent and whoever enters the Abbey are up for who runs the monastery rather than anything else.
She immediately theologically deconstructs Sarras’ assertions and she’s incredibly good at it for some god-awful fucking reason. While she is technically correct, she is making no allowance for the human factor at all. Sarras is impressed and asks if she was studying to enter monastery, and she brushes Sarras off saying of course not as there are better things to do with one’s life, but she has the Codex Regis memorized. Hugh calls her over to play cards and she does.
The rooms here are large and nicely appointed, but there is a lot of empty space. It’s clear when the castle was built that they expected far more people than there actually was so they just made everything really big. Servants come in the morning to wake us and let us know breakfast is being made downstairs, and if we follow the hall to the NW there is a bath house we can take real baths, the type where you can fully submerge if you would like.
Commonly recognized genders: sword for mascs, distaff for femme, tree for neutral, wind/cloud for mind your own fucking business.
We bathe, then head down to breakfast. The Baron had said the previous evening that if we needed someone he would put them at our disposal but did not set anything up to begin with. Sarras and Calthel wish to see Eldenald to talk with him before the hunt tomorrow. Eldenald is not particularly sociable and he is either very shy or misanthropic, or possibly has a speech impediment - he mutters, doesn’t make eye contact, and actively tries to avoid us. It’s not us it’s him.
Sarras and Calthel follow him as he goes about his business. There are twice as many horses as there are important people (not commoners) in the stables here. It’s obvious that it is one for war horses, one for hunting horses, and one for riding horses. 8 Dogs: Bloody Bruce, Mudbelly, Neckbiter (Mudbelly’s mate; tan and gold and curly; extremely aggressive), five other dogs with a more elongated build closer to a hound but on the scale and frame of a large mastiff. The hound master specifically describes the three different breeds of dogs to us: Alaunts (the non-named dogs, hunting or war dogs, sighthounds), Limer (Bloody Bruce, a scent hound but not for hunting - locates but doesn’t chase), Snakehounds (Neckbiter & Mudbelly, waterdogs and retrievers to hunt snakes).
When I ask if the snakes are a problem here, the hound master and Eldenald begin an almost religious litany complaint of the snakes here. Apparently adders are a very big problem around the castle in particular. The snakes are not a new problem by any means and they get into an argument between the two of them about how new it is or isn’t, with Eldenald saying it’s only the last 20 or 30 years since the moat was dug, while Philcan gestures at the willow trees to the north as a demonstration that the ground around here has been swampy for centuries. This is less of a hill and more of a raised moor.
Calthel catches onto this:
Generally speaking, a Baron’s court is primarily people above a certain level of distinguished birth and now that we’ve been around a few times and have listened to the accents and people talk… I can tell that the table for the more important social people was just three people and by their accents, Theobald and Eldenald are actually high born - they were made squires probably because they served under the Baron in the calvary. This is a very commoner-heavy court. Whether that’s an issue of finding talent or the Baron is rather democratic I can’t tell, but it is a surprisingly blue-collar castle.
Sarras and Calthel formally thank Eldenald for showing them around before taking their leave.
Ships borrows the copy of the Ars Notoria and goes out to take the air. Ships notices that one of the bastard children is his heir. Ships just takes his time to study the Ars Notoria until lunch.
After lunch, Bodwin and Lucius and their clerks are found in the armory - which is clearly more of a church space than an armory, really, thanks to Draugala. They are all within working on paperwork and whatnot. Sarras and Calthel go to speak with them, politely interrupting them and asking if now was a good time to interrupt. Lucius goes through a huge display of welcoming us and that he is glad to help us. Sarras asks how it is working under the Baron and if everything is going well lately.
Sarras notices that Bodwin glances at the clerks before Lucius answers Sarras’ question - he looks a little lost and the clerks both smile and give him a go on gesture. He says yes, everything in the parish is well, everything is going swimmingly. He explains that Baron Rickbert is very keen and everything is rather easy because of him and they speak highly of him. They have been in his employ for 70 years and came under employ of his grandmother (initially saying grandfather). The other clerk - the tiefling - puts her face in her hands for a moment. The Dragonborn clerk is being helpful in as much as she can be by giving prompts.
Calthel gets the sense that Lucius seems to be successfully tracking the present and the conversation we’re having pretty well but he’s losing words and misremembering details and I noticed that he’s mixing up details such as the name of the Baron (Rickbert rather than Gilbert), as well as misgendering the Baron he originally came under.
Sarras’ divine sense figures out that the chapel is still hallowed, but just barely: there is corruption that is here that is wearing the consecration down. Sarras gets a strong feeling of good off of Lucius himself, while everyone else is not pinging as good or evil - the low end of expected.
Sarras requests the blessing and opportunity to leave an offering to Pomvorthr. Lucius is rather delighted at the prospect and Azalais comes over to take Lucius’ arm and acts as if explaining to us, but also explaining to him, that until he goes to distribute the alms given to the temple in the city this evening, he has no pressing engagements. He will be happy to escort us to the henge and Azalais will stay with him at his elbow, helping him as he walks with his cane. His joints are a little stiff.
We take a moment to break away and Ships and Kerran wish to go with us. Pomvorthr prefers agricultural goods or things that benefit plants or animals for offerings. Money is also okay - at the level of silver, a gold piece is giving handsomely.
Pomvorthr is the world tree, the god of nature itself.
We all get together and head up to the henge. Even before we walk through the outer circle, Kerran and Sarras can get a sense of wrongness. It’s not incredibly strong - it’s not nausea or fear, but more of a lingering nagging feeling, quiet distraction and anxiety. We stand there for a few moments too long, awkward, until the clerk gently nudges him so that he starts. He goes through his blessings.
We gain +15 temp hit points, advantage on WIS saves.
Sarras does her divine sense here now that we’re in the stone henge. The sewage smell is an overwhelming choking miasma, the grass feels as if it’s infested with worms, and she gets a heavy sense of vertigo. This place is very wrong. The whole henge is not only not dedicated to Pomvorthr, it’s dedicated to something evil now. She can feel the foulness of it welling up from beneath her. Sarras can tell that Lucius is good, his blessing and words are good, but she gets a sense of some small evil just behind him.
Sarras goes up and clasps his hands and casts protection from evil/good. Lucius staggers and puts a hand on her shoulder and leans on her a moment. He asks how we got out here. Sarras recommends we go back to the castle, and Lucius confused as to what’s happened to the henge, as to what happened to get us here. We get Lucius to the castle and to his room while Calthel retrieves glass of BEVERAGE for him to hold and sip on. Lucius sinks into a comfortable chair.
Lucius doesn’t recall who we are and Ships explains our titles, and introduces Sarras. The last thing he recalls is the mass of Draugala last fall, and he knows it is now spring. He explains that he recognizes that there is something terribly wrong with the henge, he almost didn’t recognize it as his. He demands to know what is happening and Sarras explains that we’re trying to find it out. Sarras explains that she cast protection from evil on him in an attempt to clear his mind but we have no idea what may be influencing him or what is influencing his henge. The protection wears off and he shrinks as if a weight were on his shoulders and says he must write to the Bishop to have someone sent out to remove the curse and to re-consecrate things.
Sarras recommends that Lucius stays away from Bodwin just in case he is the cause of all of this. Lucius recommends he write the letter with Azalais and Sarras present. Azalais can check for voice and tone, Sarras can check for all of the necessary information required to convey what they need and ensure that the evil isn’t affecting the letter. Sarras knows she can charge someone from one of the Rahovite lighthouses to send a letter off.
Ships ultimately stays to keep Lucius company and conversation. Lucius does much better keeping the plot after all of this.
Calthel and Kerran goes back to Bodwin’s and gently asks how long Lucius has seemed to be scatterbrained. Bastiana’s only been employed for about 6 months, and he’s been like this for as long as she’s been working here. She has gathered that it’s a fairly recent development and that they think he had what they call a “brain storm” and what we would call a stroke sometime last summer or fall but he is so charming and good at making the people around him forget their cares and feel light and happy that nobody noticed at first what happened. He would never trouble others around him by asking that they take care of him. Bastiana seems more annoyed describing the way that Lucius doesn’t trouble anyone else or acknowledge that he might need taking care of and she, at one point, says the reason that nobody has tried to relieve him of his duties is because he’s not just a good man, he’s a great man - she makes it sound like a character flaw. Everything that needs tending to is still being tended to, it’s just him that’s lost. It’s also more work than she was hired for, but not in a way that she’s gonna quit.
Bastiana does ask what Lucius will do about the alms. Calthel explains that they had not established this and he will go ask if the Rector. He does go and ask the Rector about the alms and at first Lucius says he will, of course, then he realizes that he probably should not if his mind has been so addled. He recommends Bodwin, then realizes that may not be a good idea either. He then carefully recommends that Bastiana do it, as she should be a neutral party. Calthel goes back and explains to Bastiana that he is not feeling well enough to collect tonight, and asked that Bastiana does it. She sighs and says sure, then walks off.
Sarras delivers the notes she wants to send off with the courier, then goes to help Bastiana with the alms collection.