So Hel pointed out that I'd misspelled Journal in my last entry, I graciously accepted the fact I'd made a mistake before she was called away by Neffarion again, probably to spit shine his armour while he engages in acts of bloody debauchery.
So a lot happened after we left the Hell-Knight den of iniquity, mostly the bloody and violent invasion of a major city with the aid of 10 Hell-Knights, 3 of them Signifers, that was aligned with their cause as far as I knew; I'll explain from the beginning.
Real Talk, I have no clue why we invaded this city and put it to the sword, they were planning on defecting because the royal court wasn't sending them any reinforcements to a problem that had showed up either 2/3 days prior, or 4 months ago, either way sensible story telling took it right in the logical progression of time. The lord, and his counsel including some fairly important city figures promised to not defect if the party dealt with the 2000+ strong army of Paladin's, Knights, Fighters and trained Griffins, which we did by crippling their command structure in a night of brutal and rapid assassinations, during this night the lord was killed by a member of Ramos's order, because reasons, and according to the campaigns DM, the moment a lord dies, the city loses it's entire command structure, and turns into a melting pot of stupidity, fear, and traitorous intent, any time I questioned this I was met with an answer that was essentially, "Because I want it to be so", and I have been incredibly displeased with the way the DM handled all of this, because he basically made a night of awesome rolls, stellar role-playing, intelligent usage of skills and excellent combat ability entirely pointless. Meta-rant over.
Turns out I'm not very good at horseback riding, as Neffarion gave the signal to halt our steeds some distance before the city gates, my Horse, You, didn't listen to my request to politely stop, and instead charged the city gates on his own initiative, with me still riding him. The guards shot at both You and I, prompting him to throw me from the saddle and dump me arse over teakettle on the ground before cantering away, and fading out of existence.
Taking the arrows as a sign of a fight about to break out, and knowing that if I stuck around I was going to see something that made me deeply and personally unhappy, maybe even enraged, I decided to fly to the castle hoping to persuade the idiot who was running the show to surrender, instead what I found was a bunch of palace servants and unofficials looting the place and taking as much money as they could.
After relieving what appeared to be a minor unofficial of some gold, I decided, rather on the spur of the moment to, empty the Castle's vault of all the gold I could find, for a purpose I shouldn't elaborate on until it comes to pass, that's a fun turn of phrase isn't it Journal? comes to pass.
Anyway, as part of my cunning ruse, I headed down to the castle jail, and busied myself with rummaging through the confiscated bin, pretending that I thought I could find something of rare value there.
I'm going to stop writing now, I think I can hear someone coming, I'm too deep in this plan to stop, and my success is entirely up to the winds of fate and the whims of the gods.
If you need reminding, Seltyiel. High-Haven was a den of traitors, Lord Emmon excommunicated himself from the Royalists, thus making him an enemy of the realm, and the Queen (and by affiliation; the Hell-Knight Cabal). When you arrived at High-Haven to assist this traitor; Emmon. He sent you out on a secret mission to disable the huge Von Heltzer siege army that had set up camp east of the wall. If this was done, then Lord Emmon vowed to serve the Royalists once again, except he never got the chance to tell the Royalists of your victory, because he was murdered the same night you ventured out (by a third party). You returned victorious, successfully dispatching the Von Heltzer commanders, and toppling the command structure of the invasion force (which was too large, and disorganized by this stage. They had no choice, but to withdraw, and reinstate new commanders). Lord Emmon's death not only caused widespread panic within the City of High-Haven, it also meant that his unspoken promise to the Royalists never reached them...Not that it would have pardoned his treason. Regardless, you all saved the city from the Von Heltzers, and made short work of those Von Heltzer Commanders. Lord Emmon couldn't reward you in person (for obvious reasons), and so the task went to the Captain of the Townsguard: Vissaeus. (who shortly after also met the same fate), the task would have then passed to Matheus (who had been made in charge of the City's Reformation and Stability), however he has gone AWOL. Rest assured, that (Seltyiel at least) claimed a good portion of the reward gold, and experience was dished out for the defeats of the Von Heltzer forces and bosses mustered against you.
ReplyDelete1.) The methods behind the Von Heltzers defeat were never revealed to the Royalists. (As Nefarion never told the Arch Lictor the full mission details, he only said that he had been the one to stop the Von Heltzers)
2.) As far as the Royalty knows, Lord Emmon was murdered by a Von Heltzer assassin.
3.) Previously, the Queen had expressed great disdain for Lord Emmon and House Hyegarl as a whole (for their treason). She never offered mercy, nor did she openly consider forgiving Emmon, should he come crawling back.