Chapter 1: Flamefade

If Thalen looks OK after he eats the goodberries, Beric will go to Norn and tend his wounds. With as little fanfare as possible, Beric lays his hands on Norn's wounds, causing the wounds to magically knit together somewhat.

Ophira smiles warmly at Thalen and says, "Thank you, Thalen! That either very brave or very foolish of you to run into danger like that! Either way, you were very impressive."

She turns to look at the others and asks, "Is everyone else OK? Not only here, but back in the village? In the fire?" She sees Beric uses his gift to help Norn, and she asks, "Will that do for you, Norn?"

If everyone else is in good shape and Norn is doing well, she finally turns her attentions to her own wounds. Dropping to her knees, she puts her hand on the bloody gash in her side and her palm comes away wet and red. She yelps a bit in pain, but waits to eat her last good berry until she knows that no one is truly on death's door.

Gaelan is atop the downed brigand before the man even sees him coming. Using the shovel, he pins the injured man down and glowers at him.

"What is all this?! The fire, attacking villagers -- you will pay for these crimes! Who else is involved in this heinous plan?!"

Lirann steps up next to Gaelan. She silently glares at the bandit, brandishing her staff.

In the distance, the flames flicker and falter. It seems the inn, whatever remains of it at least, has been saved. The people gathered there begin to spread out, haphazardly, in every direction. It won't be long before some of them come over to discover the grisly scene here as well.

Gaelan, Lirann & Thea


The man struggles as Gaelan pins him down, but the youth does not budge an inch. Looking uneasily at Lirann, staff in hand, and Thea, both flanking Gaelan, the fight seems to leave his body.

"Look, I didn't wanna come here in the first place. It was the chief, Bohdan, he gives the orders. Had to get weapons, valuables..." He hesitates for a moment. "People. Anything and anyone we could grab. For the tribute.

They said to move in when we saw the fire, when everyone was busy. We all had to bring someone back. Was gonna take one of those", he makes a motion with his head in the direction of Galthic and Judd, "But that old bastard got in the way. Freaked Finn right out, it all got way out of hand so fast. Didn't mean to kill 'em. You gotta believe me."Beric

Beric rests his hand briefly on the grizzled old man. That peculiar little magic of his, the one even Anathema has been at a loss to explain, begins to flow out of him. Norn's breathing eases, and with Beric's help he slowly gets to his feet.

"Ah, that's better. Knew the old witch had to keep you around for something besides feeding her pets." He gives a weak attempt at a smile, yet his eyes are distant. There's something strange in the way he looks over the gruesome battlefield surrounding them. For the past few years he's been in Arras, Norn has not shown himself to be a man of many complex emotions. Taciturn. Strict, certainly. Angry, at times, but it usually passes quickly. But this is something new, something Beric has never seen in the old man before. His hands tremble terribly, and the pain and blood loss might only be part of it.Ophira

Seeing that Norn has recovered, Ophira looks over to the bodies lying down in the muddy grass. Tragically, it seems that the bandit is telling the truth. Both Galthic and Judd are long gone, likely even before any of the group got here. The one-eyed man, struck by Lirann's potent spell, shows no sign of life. Nobody else here seems to be in dire need of healing, as of right now.

Thalen
Now that he has a chance to examine his attacker more closely, without fending for his life, Thalen quickly notices that Ulrich is much the same as when they left him, over a year ago. The same drab clothes and leather armour, stolen boots too fancy for a brigand, the empty knife sheath. The dagger itself is gone, and the sickle seems to be a simple farming implement, probably grabbed from somewhere around here. But beyond that, and the new wounds Thalen has added onto what Gaelan did last time, the only change is what time and weather has wrought.

By all appearances, Ulrich has simply lain in his shallow grave for the past year, slowly rotting away, until somehow, he got up and wandered away.

Still holding the man down, using the shovel handle as a staff, Gaelan glances at Lirann and asks, "Are you alright?"

If she nods or otherwise indicates that she is, he turns his attention back to his injured captive, gritting his teeth.

"What tribute? And where were they to be taken?"

"Yeah I'm fine." Lirann nods. "Unlike our friend here if he does not cut out the nonsense." She pokes his leg with her staff. "Just a little bit or arson and kidnapping, the murder was unplanned? Give me a break."

Ophira slowly pulls herself to a stand, gingerly applying some pressure to her wound, which fortunately has stopped bleeding. She approaches the corpse of Ulrich and says, "This is unnatural; some foul sorcery has done this..." She examines the corpse, looking for signs of lingering magic. She also sees if he carries anything of value, or that might give some clue as to who re-animated him.

Gaelan, Lirann & Thea


The man gives Lirann a venomous glare. "It was them or me, girl, that's just the way the world...—cripes, boy, easy on the ribs!" He groans in pain as the shovel presses down on him. "We set up camp over by that old tower-ruin, to the north. But they won't stay there now, not that they've got what they came for. They'll head for the Falls."

"Look, that tribute was all Bohdan's idea. Those were harsh year, after Sigwald died. We were all scattered. I barely made it through last winter. But Bohdan, he rounded us up, gave us purpose, made us a force to be reckon'd with again. Said we wouldn't have to run and hide no more, now folks would run from us!"

The name Bohdan might not ring any bells, but Sigwald? The former bandit leader of the Red Men, there are few names in Arras that would inspire as many spiteful curses.
As for the Falls? Likely a reference to the Queensfalls, where the village river originates.

The man hesitates again. "Only, Bohdan's not the same anymore. Back in the day, when he was Sigwald's lapdog, he never could've brought us all together like this. But he's got power now. Real power. You saw Ulrich over there, right? Used to run with us too, back in Sigwald's day. But Bodhan says power like that comes with a price, and whoever gave it to him... well, that's what the tribute's for."

"Didn't sit right with me, with a lot of us. But what's a man to do, starve?"
Ophira & Thalen

As Ophira crouches over the body, at first it is hard to tell that it ever was anything other than just that; a still, lifeless corpse. It's fingers are as cold as any one might find in the village graveyard. But then she notices small shifts beneath the weathered skin, hears faint clicks as bone and joints shift and lock up, the stiffness of death violently reasserting itself in moments rather than hours.

Whatever magic this is, it is clearly the complete opposite of everything Anathema has taught her. And so it takes a while to understand what exactly she is looking for. But when she does, her senses expand, just as she has been taught, and she picks up the telltale sign of magic still lingering.

Obvious to her eyes now, flickers of sickly green light rise like smoke from the corpse, lingering briefly in the air like breath on a wintry morning. And something else, a thin cord of the same light, emanating from Ulrich's chest. Even with her full focus, it's barely perceptible and appears to be unraveling now that Ulrich is slain. It stretches out into the darkness, in a westward direction.

"You've no honor," Gaelan says quietly as he keeps up the pressure. Shaking his head, he adds, "None at all. These are innocent people. They've done nothing to you!"

Then, regaining his head somewhat, he asks, "How many does this Bohdan command? And tribute to who?"

Of Sigwald he says nothing. Gaelan crossed swords with the man once, when Sir Vanion allowed him to accompany his small company. It had not gone well for the villager who dreamed of knighthood. Only his helm had saved him that day from a blow that would otherwise have taken his head off...

"Well at least you got your sob-story all lined up and ready to go." Lirann chuckles. "Though it is hardly enough to move me to tears. Maybe next time work in how your daddy never loved you or something." She smirks at the bandit.


Turning to Gaelan she says: "Maybe best to take him in to the village now. I'm sure everyone is eager to have a word with him as well. He can answer any questions we still have far away from the edge of the forest."

Ophira stands, woozily, and shakes her head to clear it. She turns to the others as they begins to return to the village and shares what she has learned. "Someone conjured life--or a sick semblance--back into Ulrich's body with foul and unnatural magics. The necromancer that did this was connected to Ulrich until we destroyed him and returned his body to its final rest. It is possible the person controlling it was aware of what happened here. And, I send that the one who endows Ulrich with unlife is due West from here."

Thalen listens to Ophira, nods, and looks to the West. He scours his mind for a thread, a story, a reference that might help them uncover the evil that returned Ulrich to life.

Beric sends Nok to do a quick scouting of the woods. Not very deep, but just enough to see if anyone might be hiding just out of view.

While his friend does that, Beric listens to the others. He doesn't have anything useful to add, but he pays attention.

Thea listens to the bandit's words with grim determination, her grip tight on the haft of her axe. She keeps looking off to the west, as if ready to immediately rush off to try to put a stop to this Bohdan's wicked depradations!

"There's dozens of us. Ten of us came here, but this place is just the first. Every village is gonna pay the tribute, so Bohdan says." It's hard to tell whether Lirann's mocking or Gaelan's judgement gets to him more, but now some bitter rancor creeps into his tone. He spits blood on the ground and attempt to sneer through the pain. "They'll come back here, don't think they won't! Again and again, until there's nothing left but ruins and empty graves."

"There's people over here, someone's hurt!" A shout is heard as other villagers close in. In short order, the place is swarmed by others from the village. Someone rushes over to Beric and Norn, others check to make sure the other young characters are unharmed. A horrified scream, as Kayleigh finds her uncle lying in the dirt. Angry eyes turn towards the surviving bandit, and Harl the blacksmith motions to Gaelan to let him take over.

Amid the activity of everyone else showing up, Beric walks over to Ophira. Keeling his voice low, he says "I sent Nok to alert Ana. I would have expected him back by now. Maybe we should go check on her."

Ophira finally puts two and two together and replies, "Oh no, Ana! She's out there all alone with these bandits prowling the forest! Let's hurry!" She turns to the others and lets them know, saying, "Beric and I must check on Ana, make sure she is OK!" She then turns back to Beric, nods, and follows him into the woods.

Relinquishing the bandit to Harl the Blacksmith, Gaelan seeks out a weapon (perhaps dropped by a bandit), then hurries after Ophira and Beric.

"Wait!" he calls to them as he jogs to catch up. "I'm coming! Ophira, are you hurt?"