Wilderlands: Session 19

 

This is part of an ongoing campaign. You can find the other sessions over on the sidebar.

This session was run on September 26, 2022.

17 Sweetrain

 

The first event of the session was Grant vs. the Dark Knight. Grant was representing Lady Sten, the Dark Knight’s identity was unknown and he had won his way into the tournament through the Low List. On the first pass, they both scored hits. On the second pass, the paladin of Mitra unseated the Dark Knight. The Dark Knight began leading his horse away and Grant called out to him that honor demanded that he reveal his identity. The Black Knight shrugged and kept walking. Grant spurred his raptor and ran the Black Knight down, knocking him to the ground. He jumped off the dinosaur and yanked his helmet off. A murmur went through the crowd as the assembled nobles seemed to recognize the defeated knight.

 

“Who are you?” Grant asked.

 

The Black Knight only sneered in reply, so Grant backhanded him with his gauntlet, causing the Black Knight to spit out a tooth. The paladin reared back to strike again, but Ingrid called out, “He is Armentgart, brother to the disgraced Lord Torval.”

 

“Never heard of him,” Grant said. He led his raptor away, leaving the knight laying on the ground.

 

Stranger and Duycken rushed to help Armentgart up. He thanked them but said that he needed to leave before Lady Rixia’s hospitality ran out and someone came to arrest him for his crimes. Gwythian was familiar with Lord Torval, he was a City State area noble who revolted in 4428 and was forced to flee when defeated. There are rumors that he and his brother set up somewhere to the southwest.

 

Next, Uggmar faced Juniper Redwood in a wrestling match. Before the match, Tulip told him that he was to win the match, but she needed him to cheat to make the crowd hate him. The match did not start well, Juniper blew a few spots, landed bad, and hurt her neck. In order to draw heat from the crowd, Uggmar began working her neck with cheap shots. Juniper tried to sell this by making the moves look more painful, but developed the hiccups.

 

Uggmar charged and rammed her in the stomach. Magnum yelled out, “That’s my mother’s cure!” and the crowd started laughing. Juniper fell to the ground clutching her midsection.

 

Uggmar climbed up on a hay bale and did a flying elbow drop onto the woman. To his surprise, the crowd started cheering him. Juniper tried to cut her forehead with a small knife but fumbled it and cut her hand instead. The crowd started booing her and chanting, “That was stupid!”

 

Uggmar finished her with a flying leg drop and a pin. The crowd went wild.

 

Tulip was not happy with the outcome but did not blame Uggmar, she felt that he did the best he could when Juniper kept messing up. This set up Vargr and Uggmar to face each other in the final. Tulip told them that she did not care which one of them won.

 

Next, Pelnor, the paladin of Mitra representing Townry, faced Axtris, the lizardman representing Lord Berk. In the first pass, Pelnor scored a hit on the lizardman’s shield and Axtris’s lance hit Pelnor’s chest plate, skidded up and caught him under the bottom of his helmet. His head snapped back with a devastating sounding crack, and he fell from his horse. He was dead when he hits the ground.

 

Grant ran out, yelling at Axtris, but he was quickly restrained by several other knights. As the mess was being cleaned up, Stranger cast detect neutral on the assembled nobles:

 

·      Lady Elizabeth did not detect as neutral

·      Axtris detected as chaotic neutral

·      Rixia as true neutral

·      Batten as lawful neutral

·      Blackwell as true neutral

·      Sir Mar did not detect as neutral

·      Athelnar did not detect as neutral

·      Celine as lawful neutral

·      Ingrid did not detect as neutral

·      Mok did not detect as neutral

 

Before the next match could start, Lord Trout walked out onto the field and called for Lord Boyter. He threw down his glove, complained that Robert struck and dishonored his son, and demanded satisfaction through a Duel of Forfeiture. Boyter accepted. Governor Hetalan rose to make sure that both were clear on the rules: 1) The duel is to the death; 2) The victor is granted the lands of the other; 3) Neither may accept aid or healing, magical or otherwise, until the next sunrise and; 4) Should neither still be alive in the morning, all lands revert to him as the liege lord. They both agreed. Lord Trout called for his mace and Lord Boyter his two-handed sword.

 

As they were arming up, Duycken approached Lady Rixia and told her that they had learned that these two had been part of some demon-worshipping cult when they were younger and that he was afraid that they were acting under some malevolent influence. While she believed that the drake was sincere, she said that she needed stronger evidence than just his word to stop a duel like this. She allowed the duel to proceed.

 

The two older lords charged at each other and Boyter missed. Trout hits him on the side of the head with his mace, knocking his helm off. Boyter fell to the ground and dropped his sword. Trout rushed over tried to bring his mace down on Boyter’s head but Boyter grabbed it, pulled him closer and tore out Trout’s left eye with his thumb. Trout fell backwards, blood streaming down his face. Boyter retrieved his sword, wiped the blood from his eyes, and severed Trout’s head. He fell to his knees and then staggered back to his tent refusing the offered arm of his son.

 

Following the duel and suspecting that the previous history in the demon cult might somehow be involved, Gwythian, Duycken, and Uggmar went to talk to Lord Skel. They find him in his tent, sitting with Arne and Ingrid. They asked if they could speak with him in private, and he dismissed his children. Once they were alone, the told him that they thought that Lord Ander’s fire, the attack on Arne, and the duel between Boyter and Trout might be related to the events of forty years ago. At first, he pretended to not know what they were talking about, but when it became obvious that they knew about the cult, he admitted that he had been part of it.

 

Lord Skel told them that they had been a bunch if dumb kids dabbling in something that they did not really understand. Lady Elizabeth Montu had done most of the research on how to summon a demon and they thought that they could bargain with a summoned demon to improve their future prospects.

 

They summoned an imp a week before the fateful accident at the tournament, but it was too weak to bargain for anything powerful enough to interest them. Lady Montu was spooked by the incident with the imp and refused to take part in any more summonings. The rest of them felt that they just needed to summon a stronger demon.

 

They performed another ritual during the tournament and summoned a stronger demon in his tent. It got away from them and it burned his tent and the nearby dining tent. Many people were killed in the dining tent fire and Lady Montu suffered her terrible injury. They vowed to never speak of it again.

 

When the characters asked him about the mysterious Lady Elizabeth present at this tournament and the fact that she had the same name as Lady Montu, he told them that they did not really look alike and that Lady Montu had been a brunette in her youth, while Lady Elizabeth is blond.

 

As the discussion ended, Lord Skel indicated that, in light of their suspicions, he was going to leave the tournament early and take his children with him.

 

While the others were speaking with Lord Skel, Vargr and Stranger enter the Boyter tent where they found Robert watching over his father. Lord Boyter was unconscious but moaning and tossing fitfully. They talked with Robert who explained that, while he wanted to help his father, the terms of the duel prohibited him from accepting help before dawn.

 

Stranger offered him a few goodberries and told them that he could mix them in water for his father if he wanted to save him, otherwise he would die. The young man protested, and Vargr raised the point that his father would certainly die without help, so they would lose their claim to their lands either way. Robert thought on it and decided to give his father the drink. He asked them to wait, entered his father’s room in the tent briefly, and the reemerged. He told them that his father drank the juice and had already improved notably. He then asked them to accompany him to speak with Governor Hetalan.

 

When they reached Hetalan, Robert admitted that he saved his father’s life with druidic magic. Hetalan praised him for both saving his father and being honest but told him that the rules of the duel were clear. He was saddened by the loss of three lords in as many days and told Robert that he planned to summon him to the keep shortly after the tournament to discuss the next steps. Robert was clear that while Stranger provided the berries, the decision to use them was his own. He thanked the druid, “Love required me to do it, honor required me to admit it, but nothing required you to help. You have my thanks and my gratitude.”

 

The first match of the semifinals was Duycken versus Dar. Before the match, Vargr cast shield of faith on Duycken and Stranger cast calm animal on Dar’s mount. He was pretty sure that Mok, the strange priest, noticed him.

 

On the first pass, Duycken missed and Dar broke his lance on Duycken’s shield. On the second pass, Duycken missed and Dar unturkeyed the drake knight.