Otho's Children

Otho of Blackthorn sent his twisted minions to break into the covenant. Godwyn, Joseph, Randolph, and Bloody Bill tracked down the intruders. Along the way, Joseph got his first taste of battle, they rescued John the Pedlar from the clutches of evil, and Godwyn met an ancient ally of Stranggore who asked him to make a harrowing choice.

Time and Place

Late Summer 1201, at the covenant of Stranggore.

Dramatis Personae

In order of appearance:

• Joseph
• Randolph
• Godwyn
• Bloody Bill
• John the Pedlar
• Eustace

Intruders at the Door

The new kennel had been built the previous season and Randolph had bought two bitches to breed to Amadán. One night, late in the summer, Joseph the stable boy was sleeping in the hay-loft of the stable as usual when he was awakened by a clamor from the kennel. All three dogs were baying as if in alarm. Joseph climbed down to check on them, but he could neither calm the hounds nor see the cause of their dismay. A bleary-eyed Randolph joined him at the kennel a moment later.

While the grogs were searching near the kennel for the cause of the disturbance, Godwyn came down from his sanctum and out the front door, dressed in his enchanted leather clothes as always. Evidently, he sleeps in them. When the grogs could tell him nothing, Godwyn abruptly changed into wolf form. That startled Joseph, who had heard that Godwyn often turned into a wolf, but had never seen him do it.

Immediately, Godwyn smelled an unsettling scent on the wind. It was man-like, but neither beast nor man. His hackles went up and his lips curled in a snarl. The scent was still very fresh. He put his nose to the ground and quickly found a trail -- leading right up to the front door of the covenant!

Godwyn darted off to follow the trail. Seeing that the grogs did not follow, he looked back over his shoulder and barked, jerking his head in the direction the trail led. The grogs hesitated, but seemed to get the message. When the three reached the rampart around the covenant, Godwyn stopped. He turned around, snarled, and nodded his head back toward the covenant. This time, the grogs apprehended his meaning without delay, and went back to fetch their weapons. Joseph grabbed the staff he keeps in the stable for practice, and Randolph fetched his bow, arrows, and sword.

Godwyn easily followed the scent a mile north from the covenant, to the edge of the bishop's forest. There, he turned back into a man's shape. "We're following something supernatural that trespassed into our covenant to work some mischief. I want to find out what. We're getting close. It could be dangerous, so I'm going to cast a couple of spells on each of you." (The spells were Eyes of the Cat and Doublet of Impenetrable Silk.) Joseph marveled at how a moonless night was transformed into dusk; then his eyes chanced to meet Randolph's and he saw a pair of slit-pupiled cat's eyes gazing back at him. Then Godwyn returned to wolf form without another word.

Ambushed!

A few minutes into the woods, Randolph spied a pale figure darting amongst the trees up ahead. It was man-like, but smaller than a man. The two men and wolf stopped and began moving cautiously, stealthily, toward it. It was a tense moment. "This is why the grogs hate going out with the magi," Joseph thought to himself.

Without warning, a half-dozen twisted creatures leaped from the undergrowth and attacked them! They looked like pallid, grubby, naked children, but misshapen and gangling, with sharp claws, pointed teeth, and feral eyes. Boggarts, Godwyn later learned they were called.

Joseph was startled and momentarily confused, but he stood his ground. A horrid little creature leaped onto his back and clawed at his face. Another tried to seize his leg, but he kicked it away and fended it off with his staff. Randolph was pulled to the ground. Godwyn tried to get his teeth on one of Randolph's assailants, but the little creature nimbly evaded him and delivered a vicious series of punches and kicks.

Godwyn, bruised and winded, broke away from the fray. He saw that Joseph had regained his wits and driven off one boggart and pinned the other to the ground with his staff. Randolph was down and being dragged off into the undergrowth by three or four of the horrid creatures. One of the boggarts had stolen Randolph's sword and flung it away, so he was flailing about with his knife.

Godwyn realized he was in no condition for further hand-to-hand fighting, so willed himself back into two-legged form so he could cast spells. "Joseph! Give me your staff!" he cried. The boy released his squirming captive and tossed his staff to the wizard, who deftly caught it and cast Piercing Shaft of Wood. The staff, transformed into a heavy, barbed javelin, streaked toward one of Randolph's captors and pierced it through the throat. The boggart dropped to the ground, choking on blood, and promptly died. The other monsters released Randolph and scampered away into the woods, pausing only to carry away their fallen comrade.

"Joseph, you did great," Godwyn panted. "You stood your ground, you followed orders. You handled yourself all right." Randolph cast him a rueful glance, but didn't say anything.

Godwyn Leads the Counter-Attack

Randolph had suffered a nasty-looking gash in the fight, so Godwyn cast Bind Wound on him. The staff had fallen out of the dead boggart once its enchantment wore off, so Godwyn recovered it. He thought the blood on it might come in useful, but he didn't say that aloud. "Randolph, cut me some sticks about as long as your forearm. Get five or six, quickly. They don't have to be sharp. Then we're moving out."

Knowing he was in no condition for another skirmish, Godwyn led his men back to the covenant. "Randolph, get your armor. And Amadán. Joseph, rouse Bloody Bill and tell him to make ready to bring Stranggore's vengeance to these intruders. You can come along, if you wish. If you do, get yourself some armor -- and a spear." He caught his breath while the grogs were helping one another into their armor, and fetched his wand and some vis before leading them back out. Godwyn remained in human form. "We cannot let this intrusion go unanswered," he told the men, "but the magi must find out why those creatures came here. Don't attack them unless I command it, or they attack you first."

Amadán followed the trail effortlessly, back to the ambush site and beyond. A half mile deeper into the forest, they came upon what looked like a tumbled-over cairn with some pieces of clothing and items strewn around it. Godwyn ordered the grogs to go investigate it while he stood back, watching for danger. As Joseph was approaching the cairn, he cried out, "That's John the Pedlar's cloak!" With their enchanted eyes, the grogs could see even in the dark that the cloak was torn and spotted with blood.

When Godwyn saw this, he gathered the men around and said, "Remember what I said about needing to know why these creatures came? We just found out. Forget about not attacking them. Your mission is now to rescue John, if we can find him alive. Use unnecessary violence to do it." Then, as an afterthought, he added, "Try to take at least one of them alive for questioning. I said 'alive,' not 'unharmed.'"

With Amadán's unerring help, they ran down the boggarts within a couple of hours. They caught up to them in an open pasture. There were five left -- evidently they had hidden the body of their fallen comrade along the way. As Godwyn and his grogs drew closer, they could see that one of them was carrying something that looked like a rag doll.

When they overtook the boggarts, a fierce battle ensued. Godwyn scored a couple of hits with Piercing Shaft of Wood but the smaller, wand-sized sticks only inflicted minor injuries. Joseph speared one of the boggarts and wounded it seriously. Bloody Bill wrought havoc with his battle-axe, first dealing another major wound to the boggart Joseph had hit, then cleaving the skull of another. Amadán and Randolph also rushed into the fray, but two boggarts badly clawed the faerie hound during the desperate struggle. Two of the creatures fled and Joseph chased after them without hesitation, while Bill and Randolph cut down the third boggart, which had so fiercely assailed Amadán.

Randolph had sustained another nasty cut during the fight. Amadán was too wounded to continue the chase, though his life did not appear to be in danger. Godwyn again used magic to bind Randoplh's wounds.

"What about Amadán?" Randolph asked anxiously.

"This spell doesn't work on beasts," Godwyn growled, annoyed at his powerlessness to help the faerie hound. "Someone is going to have to take him back to the covenant, right away. Since Joseph ran off, I'm afraid that will have to be you, Randolph." Without further discussion, Randolph regretfully led his faithful hound back home.

Meanwhile, the two boggarts had seen that Joseph was pursuing them alone. They turned and attacked him. Joseph again stood his ground, spearing one of the little horrors and fending the other one off. Then Bill caught up to them, and there was another brief mêlée. It ended with another boggart writhing wounded on the ground, and the last escaping into the distance.

During the second struggle, the boggarts had dropped the limp rag-doll-like object, which Joseph and Bill now saw to the be unconscious form of John the Pedlar, magically shrunk to the size of a cat, naked, and covered in scrapes and bruises. From his field experience as a mercenary, Bill could tell that John was badly beaten, but alive.

Otho's Children

Godwyn ordered Bill to question the two surviving captives. It did not take him long to get them to talk, for boggarts are cowards at heart. The twisted little monsters were soon blubbering and groveling for mercy. They claimed they were Otho's children, sent to rescue Thorn from Stranggore's dungeon. They had found John the Pedlar on the forest road, captured him, and tortured him for days until they learned all about Thorin's capture and where he was held.

Otho's children promised a reward if we returned them to their master, but Godwyn doubted that anything good would come of releasing such cruel minions. He ordered Bill to kill both captives to prevent them reporting back to their master -- he didn't want Otho to know Godwyn had learned who sent them, and he wanted to deny the wicked magus further use of these servants. Bill complied without hesitation, wringing the creatures' child-sized necks as if they were chickens. Joseph and Randolph winced as the boggarts' squeals were cut short.

Old Bryna

Note: This scene was improvised using a homemade Whimsy Card, "Mystical Location."

Godwyn ordered the grogs to gather up the boggarts' bodies and bury them in a shallow grave. From the site of the final battle, he could see a cave opening under a bluff on the hillside. Godwyn decided to lead his men to investigate the cave before heading home.

At the cave entrance, all four men could hear clear musical tones, as if from wind chimes deep within. Listening closely, they could tell this was only the sound of water dripping, but each droplet that fell struck a different, pure note like a silver bell.

Bill speculated aloud that nothing good could come of entering that cave, and they had just survived one battle only to be devoured or cursed by something horrible in there. Joseph was a bit curious, but not curious enough to argue with a prediction like that.

Godwyn was on the brink of decided to return home and investigate the cave another day when he decided to cast a spell to determine if there was any vis inside the cave. Sure enough, there was. "There's magic in that cave," he told his men. "We're going in. Cobble together some kind of torch or light source."

Lacking any pitch or oil, the best the grogs could do was tear up strips of John's cloak and bundle them around one of the sticks Godwyn was carrying for Piercing Shaft of Wood. This burned smokily and feebly, but with their Eyes of the Cat, it was enough. Bill led the way into the cave, with Joseph behind him and Godwyn, still carrying the inert and miniaturized John the Pedlar, in the rear.

A short and winding tunnel led to a wondrous cavern about the size of Stranggore's great hall. From the ceiling, fancifully shaped stalactites dripped water into a deep, clear pool that occupied most of the floor. On the far wall was a formation of flowstone that looked like a seven-foot-high portrait of an old crone.

As Bill moved into the cave, in the feeble, flickering torchlight, the face appeared to move! Joseph shrank back, muttering something about guarding the entrance. Godwyn grabbed his arm, though whether that was to hold him back, or for security, was not immediately clear. Bill resigned himself to his fate, stepped around the pool, and strode right up to the giant stone face.

Then the face did, indeed, move. First its eyes opened, then its mouth. "Who goes there?" it asked in a voice that seemed to echo up from the bowels of the earth.

"A mighty wizard and his servants," Bill replied. "I'm one of the servants."

"A wizard," remarked the crone. "It has been long since a wizard has come into my hall."

At that point, Godwyn worked up his nerve to introduce himself. He later learned that this was Old Bryna, some kind of genius loci. Old Bryna told him that the last wizard to visit her was Edmund Brightspear, and he had made a pact with her but not fulfilled his end. Old Bryna guarded a faerie trod and had promised to stop wicked creatures passing through, and in return Edmund had agreed to remove a nearby riverside shrine that weakened her power.

Godwyn dislike the idea of removing a holy shrine, but he disliked Stranggore failing to keep its end of a bargain even more. He agreed to fulfill the pact. As he was leaving, he thanked Old Bryna for her hospitality. She bade all of the visitors to drink from her pool before they left. Godwyn and Bill drank, but Joseph declined. They roused the diminutive John and helped him to drink, and when he did, his wounds were immediately healed.

Godwyn then returned to the covenant to take John the Pedlar to safety and report to the council what had happened so far. He urged his sodales not to speak of this affair at the upcoming Tribunal, and to try to conceal from Blackthorn that Stranggore knew who had sent the boggarts.

When the sun rose, the spell on John the Pedlar broke and he returned to his normal size.

Dilemma at the Bridge

Note: This scene was improvised using a homemade Whimsy Card, "Dilemma."

The next day, Godwyn brought John the Pedlar and Eustace with him to remove the shrine. Eustace, he thought, would be useful for his stonemason's experience.

The shrine was dedicated to Saint Christopher. It stood at the foot of a very old, narrow stone bridge not half a mile upstream from Old Bryna's cave. The water swirled and foamed beneath the bridge. Godwyn tried to time his arrival for the evening, but darkness had not yet settled when they arrived. He and Eustace went straight to work dismantling the shrine.

Just as they were getting started, an old man, apparently from the neighboring village, came hobbling by. "What are you doing?" he demanded.

Godwyn was annoyed at being disturbed and felt guilty for destroying a holy shrine. He fixed the old man with his piercing gaze. "This bridge has stood since ancient days," he told the old man. "Long before this shrine." He paused. "We're doing magic!" He thought to say more, but stopped his tongue. He knew he'd said too much already.

The old man looked away from Godwyn's gaze, but wasn't completely cowed. "This bridge is treacherous," he asserted. "Long ago, in my father's father's time, it was not uncommon for a man to fall from it, now and again. Back then, but no longer. What you're doing is not right. It's not right!"

Godwyn wrestled with himself for a moment and almost relented. Without further words, he went back to work dismantling the shrine. Eustace called out, "Begone old man!" and the old man turned away, shaking his head and muttering.

"John, come help," Godwyn said. "Let's get this done before someone comes along to stop us!"

John didn't move. "The old man is right," he said. "We shouldn't be doing this."

Godwyn turned his piercing gaze on John. "Do you think this is easy?" he shouted. "Do you think being a wizard, being in a covenant, is easy? There's a price! The Gift has its price!" John bowed his head, but stayed on the road. Eustace and Godwyn finished demolishing the shrine and then all three hurried home together in the darkness.