Tales from the Trails (Soulbound) - Ashes of Petram

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Gunmetal_Rainbow
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Re: Tales from the Trails (Soulbound) - Ashes of Petram

Post by Gunmetal_Rainbow »

Soon enough, it is getting late in the day and it's time to reconvene with Willow. It's easy enough to get directions and find their family home. Upon knocking, Willow answers the door after a moment and waves the group inside.

The home is modest, filled with bric-a-brak from a few generations and has a very cozy lived-in feeling, though the overall mood is brought down by an oppressive pall emanating from Willow as she returns to the small kitchen to sit at the table with her mother who looks pale, but taking the situation better than Willow.

Willow looks at the group. "So...what'dcha find in town?" she doesn't seem to want to broach the subject of her mother just yet, cutting to business, though seems understanding that it may well cut immediately to the situation with her mother by way of information about the warden.
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Gunmetal_Rainbow
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Re: Tales from the Trails (Soulbound) - Ashes of Petram

Post by Gunmetal_Rainbow »

LAST TIME ON ASHES OF PETRAM:

The intrepid band of wielders, along with a guide by the name of Willow Fletcher, arrived in Petram, a small village in Uhyre in the middle of what appears to be a celebration of naming this years Warden who turns out to be Willow's mother, Miriam. Willow and Miriam depart to catch up in private, leaving the group to investigate after Helmontra, following the cryptic words of the corrupted bandit, naming both Helmontra and the town of Old Petram.

The investigations turned up the following information;

Local hunter gatherers have seen singed beast prints, but are unable to confirm what caused them, or if there is corruption involved, though many assume it is.

A ritualistic pyre site was located to the north of the village, facing the direction of Old Petram. Lloyd partially defaced one of the stake platforms with his Fertile power before he and Dog were shooed off by the guards, but suffered no major reprocussion. Not yet anyways. Ericka was able to find out the site is used for the ceremony where the Warden will protect the village for another year.

Beyond the funeral piles lays the ashen lands. To this day, the old village and the forest around it have never recovered, now known as the Ashen Lands, and thought to be riddled with corruption or some kind of curse and thus is kept clear of by the villagers, more or less confirmed when no tracks are found going in or out of the ruined land.

The Mayor was a wellspring of information, having been around and witnessing the night Old Petram burned.

According to the mayor, a woman named Helmontra appeared one day, unarmed, yet travelling alone, and yet one day when the village was beset by a deceiver, Helmontra was discovered to be an Akuma.

While insisting she meant the village no harm and only wished to protect it, the villagers were terrified and cast her out. Instead of leaving, Helmontra turned her rage and powers on the village, burning it and most of the villagers. However, the mayor doesn't seem to know about Helmontra in the current day. He also gets extremely defensive when asked directly about what exactly the Warden does.

The village elects via lottery a single villager every year to be the 'Warden', what appears to be a ceremonial station to symbolically protect the village from sharing the same fate as Old Petram, but so far, no-one has really elaborated on what that protection entails.

Now the wielders have convened at the Fletcher family home to catch Willow up on their investigations.
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Vivid
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Re: Tales from the Trails (Soulbound) - Ashes of Petram

Post by Vivid »

Moira happily shares what she learned and eagerly listens to the others.

"So, Helmontra was a sympathetic but unstable akuma with abandonment issues. I wonder if there's a way we can use that. Willow, did they do Warden stuff when you were growing up here?"
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Re: Tales from the Trails (Soulbound) - Ashes of Petram

Post by Gunmetal_Rainbow »

Willow looks uncomfortable about the question, but eventually nods.
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Doctor Malsyn
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Re: Tales from the Trails (Soulbound) - Ashes of Petram

Post by Doctor Malsyn »

"When a powerful being like that says they want to protect you... It, to me at least, seems very... Silly, to try and make it go away." Erica fiddles with her blades. "If it truly wished to protect people however, it wouldn't have turned against them so readily either."
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Re: Tales from the Trails (Soulbound) - First journey

Post by Flynnarrel »

Lloyd Millhaus
AT: 4 || Wounds: 7/7 || Casting: 6D6

Everyone was dancing around the question and Lloyd was no good at dancing.

"What IS Warden? How ‘protect village’? How does it involve pyre?," Loyd asks in firm tones.
"Something pithy this way comes."
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Re: Tales from the Trails (Soulbound) - Ashes of Petram

Post by Gunmetal_Rainbow »

Willow looks hesitant, but before she can start speaking, Miriam comes in from the other room. "The Warden is sacrificed in tribute to protect the village by preventing the return of the Pyre Witch."

Willow rounds on her mother, her voiced raised, pleading. "Mom, you can't! Please, leave the village with us!" Miriam shakes her head in disapproval. "You know how it is, Willow, and I can't do that. I'm honored to face this duty, if it means protecting our home. Your home."

Willow seems to have no retort for this, or a tleast, can't find the words.
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Doctor Malsyn
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Re: Tales from the Trails (Soulbound) - Ashes of Petram

Post by Doctor Malsyn »

Ericka Akcire

"I was... thinking that, for a while." Ericka couldn't help but shrug, "I didn't know how to bring it up. Erhm... What, what are we going to do next, here? Maybe we should try to focus on things that'll lead us to the Akuma? Or..."
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Re: Tales from the Trails (Soulbound) - First journey

Post by Arkrite »

Grigor "Dog" Geddings
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"So you say sacrifice. That mean you go off and fight monsters, or they burn you at the stake," Dog asks, "Because if it's the first I think we have a better option. If it's the last one, I'm in agreement with why an Akuma tried to burn down your town."
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Re: Tales from the Trails (Soulbound) - First journey

Post by Flynnarrel »

Lloyd Millhaus
AT: 4 || Wounds: 7/7 || Casting: 6D6

"Yes, or does Helmontra come for Warden personally, if so, when she come?" Loyd asks.
"Something pithy this way comes."
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Re: Tales from the Trails (Soulbound) - Ashes of Petram

Post by Prof Weird »

Sashura Vlasova

"They probably summon Helmontra by burning something - why else have three pyres when you only need one for the Warden ?" she noted to Lloyd, "Setting stuff on fire seems to be what Helmontra's followers do. Like that arsonist we dealt with."
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Re: Tales from the Trails (Soulbound) - Ashes of Petram

Post by Flynnarrel »

Lloyd nods at Sashura's words.
"Something pithy this way comes."
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Re: Tales from the Trails (Soulbound) - Ashes of Petram

Post by Gunmetal_Rainbow »

Miriam speaks up, with Willow seeming to be too aggitated by the situation to offer a proper explanation. "The three stakes are for three sacrifices. The Warden, an offering of food, and an offering of valuables to be burned. As for this Helmontra, I don't know who that is. Perhaps the name of the Pyre Witch? That is what we know her as, but for her part, no-one has seen more than a passing glimpse of her. The offerings are set ablaze by the mayor traditionally. Sometimes there is a beast, but most folk believe that's just a trick of the flames, but some folk call it Emberhide, as though it were some kind of guardian."
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Vivid
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Re: Tales from the Trails (Soulbound) - Ashes of Petram

Post by Vivid »

Lady Moira Sterling
Moira AT:
Raptage AT (prime):

Moira gasped. "So there's no assurances it's even doing anything? I mean, I can say I have a wolf repelling coin and look around and... no wolves so I sell you the coin for 1000 silver. Except they're actually killing people." Moira furrows her brow. "How long has this been going on?"
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Gunmetal_Rainbow
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Re: Tales from the Trails (Soulbound) - Ashes of Petram

Post by Gunmetal_Rainbow »

Miriam shrugs."As long as the town has been around I reckon. The mayor would know the answer to that better than me."
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