Alas, Such Fates
"Bonds and Promises"
Episode One - 7th Sea
A carriage serves as the runaway vehicle of some bandits whom have targeted a bank! Unfortunately for the bandits, four individuals happened to be in the area (though their reasons vary from one another).
Maurice leBlanc, Montaigne former friend of the King (though he claims to STILL be)
Virtue: Sun (Glorious) Hubris: Prophet (Overzealous)
Known for his Panache and his tendency to leverage the King's favor in his direction.
Played by Rocky
Lady Cassandra, wandering Avalon Knight of Elaine.
Virtue: Hanged man (Altruistic) Hubris: Devil (Trusting)
Known for her Wits, Resolve and Panache, and her tendency to uphold a knightly ideal that gets her into trouble.
Played by Aina.
Hans Leopold Glick, monster hunter from Eisen.
Virtue: Reunion (Exemplary) Hubris: Reunion (Bitterness)
Known for his Finess, Wits and Resolve, and his tendency to get into harm's way in his pursuit for knowledge.
Played by Brian.
Astrid Ivardatter, young growing guild mistress of the Scarlet Stockings from Vestenmenavejar.
Virtue: Road (Friendly) Hubris: War (Loyal)
Known for her Wits and her tendency to call upon the Guild for help.
Astrid is down the road when the carriage breaks from the bank's shadow. With well thrown knives, she disables a number of the armed brutes on horseback flanking the carriage. Hans, who emerges from the nearby tavern, also brings down a horse rider. Lady Cassandra, on horseback, spurs her horse to close in and intercept. None expect Maurice already in the carriage, having secreted himself inside prior to the attempted escape. The group claims to serve a Vodacce Witch. When one of the riders attempts to escape by swinging away from some hanging cloth archways, Another well aimed knife thrown by Astrid severs that escape route. The bandit nearly bewitches Astrid, had it not been for Lady Cassandra who knocks the bandit unconscious with a blow to the head. Maurice and Hans meet Lozenzo Cavello, the bald muscular captain of the hamlet of Penitence who thanks them for their assistance in capturing the bandits.
Their actions cause them to be hailed for their actions and are invited by the Don to attend his sister's wedding. Senyora Angelika, the sister of the host meets them and turns out to be blind. The host, Crisostomo Felix, invites the four to stay for the coming midnight wedding. Given guest rooms to rest in, the group separates as they explore the grounds and interact with the variety of personalities in the land. Hans hears of stories of beasts abducting children in the lands (Part 1/3 of his Story to learn Hiding). Astrid learns that others still question the existence of her Guild (Part 1/3 of her Story to learn to be more Convincing).
The marriage, it turns out, is more than just a union between lovers. The group uncover the house to be covered in Glamour, and the marriage it turns out is a wager against the Fae in their desire to understand what love is. With the Sidhe using their magic to whip up the winds into a localized hurricane, Hans focuses on dealing with the fair one's servants while Maurice feigns stumbling into the circle of flowers that empowers their magic. Lady Cassandra and Astrid on the other than convince the Don to call off the wedding (which had been shifted to be between him and Astrid) by speaking freely of her being a jenny and successfully convince the fae to depart. Astrid gains a new member of her guild from the Don's staff, a maid who longs to live a new life. And the woman named Angela which Hans and Lady Cassandra met at the library turns out to merely be a construct created for the test. Maurice "accidentally" breaks the faerie ring surrounding the grounds for the marriage and forces the Fae to head back to whence they came from.
The tale ends with Hans deciding to head for the woods to search for the missing children, a task which Lady Cassandra opts to help him do. And Astrid finds herself with a new protege to train in the ways of her Guild - unaware that her path will lead to meeting more of the kind of people Maurice tends to hang around.
And at the distance, a man watches through a spyglass, satisfied that his scheme at the bank distracted the heroes from his bigger goals. Alas, such fates are but the beginning of worse things to come.
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