May got off to a rather thunderous start as the castle came under attack from
afar or so Blackthorn assumed as bolts of lightning hit the castle. from Gondolin.
When he angrily reciprocated, the mysterious Two came into the battle and only
LadyElspeth linking her power with Ian’s and Tyralor strengthening the wards
about the firehall prevented more damage.
An obnoxious noble named Charles Avers arrived in Camelot on a horse he’d
ridden to death. When told there was no horse for him to buy (for none in
Camelot will sell one to such a thoughtless rider) he held Sandra Anderson
hostage until he was overcome and jailed by Elasol and others.
Hand argued with Angelica over the translation she was working on of the
dwarven book “Travelling Mountain”
Tyralor brought Ravenscar in as a prisoner for the dungeons.
The same night that the prisoner arrived, all of Camelot was rocked by the fall
of the barrier around the Hook, the result of the rage of Kalaris. At the same
time an attempt by Stormchaser to kill Bayla was foiled by Mace and Ian. Even
as they fought Stormchaser, Palmer and Anki were waging a fight within Bayla’s
dreams to bring Bayla’s mind back to normalcy. They succeed but Ian was
wounded in the fight with Stormchaser.
Palmer and Anki’s efforts were successful. Returned to his usual self, Bayla left
Camelot to consult the tomes at an ancient Library of Wonders for some
answers
The reason for Kalaris’ anger became apparent with the return of Mixik, who had
lost an eye to the Monster.
Hand’s attempt to break Ravenscar out of the dungeons was thwarted by Mace
and the guards.
With the fall of the barrier, the Red Dragon Guard moves into the Hook to begin
the Rebuilding but pockets of resistance from mercenary remnants show that the
battle Is not quite over. Blackthorn has the children of the Hook stay with
families out in the country until it is safe for their return. Meanwhile, Ian did notice
that Tyralor seemed to be making himself scarce.
And with the use of so much magic in the area, the ancient forest known as The
Wyld and its denizens began to stir. Strange beings were sighted by the edge of
the forest.
Anki succeeded in decoding some of Bayla’s writings and told Ian about the
Prophecy of Twenty and the ingredients of the ritual.
The meaning becomes even clearer when Quincy’s courage is taken. During the
attack her sword is left behind in the Hook.
Ravenscar was given a stone that opened a portal in his cell wall, but the wards
on the cell against magic prevented an escape.
Kalaris’ plan to lure the beast out of Najitha went horribly awry and somehow
Najitha ‘s soul entered the form of a Lynx instead, leaving the Beast in control of
Najitha’s body. Eventually Najitha was freed but he still carried the Beast within.
With an empty golem handy, the soul of the old healer Mikal moved in and dealt
with leaving his old life behind.
Brigitte and Rhiana did some…er…redecorating of the hall and infirmary until
Elasol halted them and Ian unraveled the magic to return everything to normal.
Shale was found wounded and poisoned in The Hook, ironically a victim of the
Monster now himself. Faced with one of the killers that had plagued Camelot,
Ian chose to let the poison take its course and save the expense of a trial. Shale
was left locked in one of the infirmary rooms.
That same evening the being known as Angeraad broke into the dungeons.
What her intentions towards Ravenscar (whose real name is Thurston) were
unclear and Kalaris, Mixik and Ian fought her off. As she left she told
Thurston his sister would die.Thurston was moved to the infirmary to treat
his injuries.
Captain Mason Bower gave Nobly a rather pretty little dagger. Blackthorn
helped her pick out a sheathe to keep it in.
Hospitalized after her ordeal in The Hook, Quincy had some startling
transformations of her body until Kalaris put a limiter necklace around
Quincy’s neck.
Master Robinton and Yandora grew closer and Yandora began thinking of
the past while considering her future. They befriended a small furry girl
named Aetia.
Nobly’s new dagger turned out to be able to talk. Imprisoned inside it was
a rather nasty talking necromancer named Pinkus. Alarmed by this
development, she gave the dagger to Kalaris who was highly amused by
the necromancer’s ego and took pleasure in showing him the error of his
ways.
Tobias and brought a dwarven forge hammer to Camelot. The ghost of
the dwarf smithy Sa`gruund was contained within the hammer.
Nobly was upset by Najitha when he told her that her attacker, Shale, was
a prisoner in Camelot and no one had let her know he was there. Angry,
she stormed out of the hall followed by Najitha.
In a selfless act, Mixik somehow was able to loan Quincy his courage.
She vowed to find and return his eye to him to repay his gift.
Shea O` Riley returned and was reunited with her fiancée Sir Elasol.
A vegetarian elf named Castor arrived in Camelot and those pursuing
him were scared off by Mace’s companion Thunder.
Ian was displeased when Mace let Thurston go in order to follow him.
Aetia asked Quincy to tell her a story and was treated to the cautionary
tale of the iIl fated rabbit Hopper.
Kildrummy used a strange deck of cards to read Quincy’s fortune.
Lucent was frightened half out of his wits by his first encounter with
Sa`gruund the ghost.
Lady Selia of Stormdragon and cloak both returned in time to help
Blackthorn with a rescue. Boggans from the Wyld had stolen an infant and
left a changeling in its place.The parents came to Camelot for help, and Ian
led a search party into the Wyld.With him rode Mace, Palmer, Elasol,
Selia, and cloak. The baby had been taken to the court of a Faery Lord
named Beron, and in exchange for a pledge by Ian to grant a boon to
Beron when it is asked, the baby was released and the party returned it to
the parents.
Bayla returned to Camelot still seemingly normal except for periods of
shivering. He told Blackthorn what he’d learned, including why the
Monster had seized the Hook in the first place. It was there that the
Monster intends to carry out the final Ritual of the Twenty, in a location
somewhere by the docks.
Quincy asked Ian to cut the limiter necklace off her neck because
she had an itch When he declined because he felt it was too dangerous
to risk, Mace was able to use her gift to expand the necklace and loosen
it a bit.
Despite the fact that Mornaur’s assistance had little to do with the fall
of the barrier around the Hook, Blackthorn felt honor bound to fulfill
his end of the bargain and find the Hundredth Tear to reunite Mornaur
with the soul of his dead mate. He set out with a group of friends for
the manor of Glynebwy, travelling by way of the Faery Road.
Accompanying Blackthorn were Jera, Bayla, Taralon Phoenix, Mace
Daniels, Quincy Randall, LoreMistress (in the form of a Great Cat),
Veryl, Squire Lyrick, Anki, and Sa`Gruund the dwarven forgemage
ghost.They overcame an attack by ShadowWarriors and then climbed
a mystical path to the summit of the mountain Licat Amr where they
found the bespelled grave of Arthur’s son Amr which contained the
shield with the Hundredth Tear. Mornaur joined them there, and
eventually they puzzled out that the water from a nearby pool would
open the grave. Mornaur was given the Hundredth Tear and reunited
with his love, disappeared in a flight of flame.
Upon their return to Camelot, there was bad news. Kalaris had
accepted a proposed truce with the Monster and had gone to meet
him for “tea”. She’d done this in order to recover Mixik’s lost eye,
but the meeting ended badly and on the way out of the Hook she was
stabbed with a poisoned knife by one of the Monster’s henchman.
She had recovered the eye but it had not been returned to Mixik as the
month drew to a close. Kalaris’ injuries include burns involving her
magical abilities and the backlash was such as to cause Dame Kyrie
to collapse in reaction to Kalaris’ magical spasms. Kalaris must be
made to sleep while Kyrie must be awakened long enough for her to
drink some of the special herbal tea that lessened the effects of the
attacks.The latter involved the judicious application of a small pair
of tongs to the nose.
Bayla Vin administered a rather unique medicine to help slow the
spread of the poison through Kalaris: polishing oil from the armory.
A woman named Ariana turned up at the firehall wounded and was
tended to by Quincy and Bayla
Shortly after Ian urged Anki to try again to get along with Bayla,
Stormchaser kidnapped young Sia Vin, once more setting Anki and
Bayla at odds as they traded recriminations. But as Ian pointed out,
there was nothing that could have been done to stop it. Sia’s presence
at the end of the Prophecy was already preordained. All they could
do now was wait and try to stop the Ritual when it begins and they’ll
know where to go to find Sia. Anki needed a bit more convincing
and Ian was able to keep him from going off looking for Sia on his
own.
Quincy did a bit more than wait, however. She wrote a pithy letter to
the Monster going into great detail exactly what each of Camelot’s
leading warriors would do to him.
And on the final day of May, Lady Rhianna returned to Camelot and
was warmly greeted by Blade the Black Knight.
Spring is nearly over, and now the Monster seemed to hold all the
cards.
Will Camelot still stand to greet the start of Summer?
© 6/2006 B. West
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