• Now talking on #sorcerer

<Sorc_GM> Moments ago, Hanno the mercenary leaped from the bower window of a queen gone mad with horror. As the palace guards carry word that Selene has lost her wits, Hanno fought a shadowy battle against a faceless, monstrous, undead infant... finally wrapping the hellspawn up in his cloak.

<Sorc_GM> This cloak--the remnants of foreign necromancy, stitched from corpse-faces--has quieted the hellion. But what to do now? The precious circlet is still locked away, Prince Tam raises an army outside the gates, and Caedhwal had wanted Hanno's ear for scheming.

<Hanno> Feh, what am I going to do with this thing? Should have wrung its neck when I had the chance. Ogdabert's playing on my mind! "Well, time to leave this place if I can. But who raised the child-demon?"

<Sorc_GM> The night sky, overcast, gives no answers. If the gods know, they are silent and uncaring.

<Hanno> (OK, so the circlet is well guarded and somewhere near Rhiannon's chambers - Selene suggested earlier that Hanno should take her daughter from Pictland, perhaps to Marsilia)

<Sorc_GM> (Yet Ogoun, the King of Swords, demanded the circlet's destruction. And Regent Caedhwal wished to solidify his reign, either through the circlet or through marrying his niece Rhiannon, despite Selene's protests.)

<Sorc_GM> As Hanno ponders his options, the guardsmen lead Selene out of the tower, across the courtyard. She murmurs... "The cloak... my father's face was within the cloak..."

<Sorc_GM> (scene shift)

<Sorc_GM> It is two hours before dawn, the darkest part of the night. It is a time where the owl stalks its prey, and unclean spirits prowl among dreams--some, indeed, have already been seen this night.

<Hanno> Hanno seeks a private place to deal with the demon creature. Hanno It seems quiescent, this might be the best time to try to banish it. Hanno tries to remember any fragments about demons and the things that discomfort them or drive them away from Earth. Maybe the direction of dawn, and a place open to the dark sky where the thing can fly away?

<Sorc_GM> Yes: Hanno's time skulking among the druids, waiting to assassinate Ogdabert, was not spent in vain. In the druidic catechism, the soul is likened to a bird. The soul of this creature--if it has one--has been trapped, and through dark magic may be set free.

<Sorc_GM> Hanno mounts the wall and ascends into a guard tower. He sets his sword down close by. Tam has gathered an impressive host. How many of them are loyal to the non-combatant Caedhwal?

<Sorc_GM> But as Hanno spreads out the cloak, the demon thrashes from within. It seems to be trying to push through, taking part of the cloak as its own face, and snaps ferociously at Hanno's fingers! Hanno's sword is in his hands in an instant, and has cleaved the demon-child's skull a second later.

<Hanno> He quickly rolls the thing off his cloak, shaking away its cold unnatural gore, and listens for any disturbance. If nobody seems to have noticed he'll shove the demon's body off the battlement and make his way back towards the Treasury.

<Sorc_GM> Only the whistle of the wind, the noises of horses, boots, and steel shifting in half-wakefulness beyond the wall.

<Sorc_GM> (scene shift)

<Sorc_GM> The treasury vault of the Picts! Gold and plunder lay scattered about, as two guards lay unconscious at Hanno's feet. He can feel the awful stirring of Ogoun as he gazes at the circlet: the loa demands that it be destroyed, and feels furious that Hanno will take it.

<Hanno> "My Lord, there will be great slaughter before the dawn, then what of this trinket?"

<Sorc_GM> The awful, burning rage that is the King of Swords twists and bellows in the depths of Hanno's soul. The circlet appalls and infuriates Him. The demon-god Ogoun will not settle for sophistries, and demands satiation.

<Hanno> "Ogoun, here is your earnest!" Drawing his sword he cleaves left and right to sever the unconscious guards' heads, playing on the demon-god's bloodlust.

<Hanno> He slips the circlet out of sight as if to hide it from the god's view, and looks appraisingly around: some coin will help his passage away from here.

<Sorc_GM> Simply touching the circlet again gives Hanno a feeling of confidence and ease. Without realizing it, his breathing had become constricted, his pulse sluggish. He feels like a new man already.

<Sorc_GM> The Picts, as a whole, are pig-farmers with no currency to speak of. But Lugh's hoard contains fine-wrought armors of shining rings, goblets, and sparkling jewels. A sea captain would be delighted to receive any such treasure.

<Hanno> Hanno grabs a handful of small valuables, stained with blood, and hastens away.

<Sorc_GM> As Hanno exits the treasury with lucre in hand, he stumbles into another guardsman, coming to relieve the other two. He takes one look at the blood-stained floor and lowers his spear.

<Hanno> Nothing will hold him here. Hanno swings to beat aside the guard's spear and close with him quickly.

<Sorc_GM> This guard is not like his peers, who went down so easily. He keeps his spear point in line with Hanno's stomach, ready to gut him at a moment's notice. He glances nervously over his shoulder, wondering if he can cry for help.

<Hanno> Hanno stops short of the keen point, but he's determined to press the attack and raises his blade to cut through the spear-shaft.

<Sorc_GM> The guard is about to cry out for help, when Hanno bats the spear aside and appears poised to strike. The guard backpedals and almost trips over himself, unable to summon aid.

<Hanno> Hanno thinks he sees his chance and thrusts fiercely through the man's defence. As the guard ducks away Hanno can't get a clean hit, but a slice along the guard's leg sends him staggering and Hanno follows up with a slam to the temple with the flat of the sword.

<Hanno> He pulls the stunned man into the treasury with the staring heads of his companions looking on and closes the door on him. Now to fulfill his promise to Selene: abduct Rhiannon and leave this place forthwith!

<Hanno> Hanno pulls his cloak around him (he's noticed that people don't like to look too closely at it) and walks swiftly towards Rhiannon's room, preparing to breeze through confidently.

<Sorc_GM> The guards posted outside say that Rhiannon woke suddenly some time ago, distraught from a nightmare and asking for her mother. The guards, unsure, sent her to the throne room, where Regent Caedhwal has kept vigil.

<Hanno> The guards look inclined to object, but they avoid the necessity of arguing with the dangerous mercenary by pointing out that the queen has left.

<Sorc_GM> (scene shift)

<Sorc_GM> The throne room at night. Caedhwal sits on the throne--he can only do so at night, not being the rightful king. He looks tired. Rhiannon sits on his lap, crying.

<Sorc_GM> Rhiannon: "There was a creature in my room... it was a child, a child with teeth but no eyes or nose or face.... It was coming for me..."

<Sorc_GM> Caedhwal: "Do not stain your face with tears, my girl. There are no such creatures on this earth. You are well protected."

<Sorc_GM> Rhiannon: "There are! There are indeed such creatures!" She groans. "Where is my mother?"

<Sorc_GM> Caedhwal: "Your mother is... not well. She cannot be disturbed. But come, child. I shall be your protector and your helpmate soon."

<Hanno> "An evil dream, my lady," though he wonders how much she really saw.

<Sorc_GM> As Hanno speaks, Caedhwal and Rhiannon turn to regard him --- Hanno had never noticed how similar they look. Their eyes are almost identical.

<Sorc_GM> Caedhwal: "Hanno. You are abroad late indeed. What brings you here." It's not a question--he is smart enough to read the mercenary's grim bearing. "My queen, I would speak to Hanno alone."

<Sorc_GM> Rhiannon: "Nothing in this kingdom shall be kept from me, Regent. Hanno, speak. Tell us why you have come to the throne room at this hour?"

<Hanno> Hanno seems to pick up something from Caedhwal's speech. "Enough dissembling! You know well there are no such creatures on this Earth, for you have called the thing from Hell to do your bidding!" He only wishes he'd kept the demon to prove it.

<Sorc_GM> Rhiannon gasps.

<Sorc_GM> Caedhwal shrugs. "Tam swore they were under his control. But you are a fine one to cast blame upon me for scaring the child, when you drove her mother to madness. Did you seek to force yourself upon Selene, you scarred, mutilated brute? I marvel it was necessary--she was eager enough when she first arrived here as Lugh's war-tribute. But perhaps she feared your alcoholic rages, like when you slaughtered her brother Diarmid in a drunken stupor."

<Hanno> "You speak like the pig you are! Selene was right to keep Rhiannon from your ambitions!"

<Sorc_GM> Caedhwal: "Lugh was too self-regarding to consider the necessities of governance. Diarmid was an ambitious, belligerent fool. Tam was raised by the necromantic druids, murdered Lugh, and placed the blame on his own brother. You chastise me? All I seek is a clear path to the throne--denied me due to this accursed stump of a foot, and the order of my birth!"

<Hanno> "You have spoken truly! Caedhwal, you plot for the throne, but your weakness can never hold it!"

<Sorc_GM> Caedhwal: "Rhiannon shall hold it for me, won't you my dear? And I shall advise her."

<Hanno> "Queen Rhiannon, Tam prepares his army to take this place and this weakling will not stop him. Come away, and save your life from the doom that must fall here."

<Sorc_GM> Rhiannon stands, shocked, unsure what's being said or whom to believe.

<Hanno> But Hanno is clearly tongue-tied in debate with the sly counsellor.

<Sorc_GM> Rhiannon: "I am frightened! Help me. Help me, father." She clings to Caedhwal, who takes the child under his arm.

TO BE CONCLUDED...