A Small Fragment of Hope

A Small Fragment of Hope
Date	4/3/26
Storyteller	Slayzo
Tier	Expert/Master
Player Characters	Quill, Navrae
Rewards	300 exp, Hellhusk Shroud, Devilwing Badge (Greater), Token of Salt and Earth, Charlatan's Gloves (Greater), Smuggler's Padlock, Smuggler's Sack Type 1
Author	Quill
Downtime	20

A pair of associates sneaks into the depths of the Old Country to retrieve a package.

Log

With a newfound portal to the oni-infested battlefields, requests can now be more easily delivered to capable associate hands. They are lucky I was there to hear the call. They were unlucky there were few available - only a weak wizard robot came to the call. The New Heavenly Council had a spy deep within the Man Slayer's forces who managed to retrieve an important package. Unfortunately for them, they were made and were being tracked down.

The wastelands in this old country were infested with the fiendish right hands of the usurper of war. Our first encounter with them had way too many to deal with, and so we engaged in duplicitous tactics to evade their notice. Neither I nor the robot were well suited to long overland travel in unfamiliar terrain, but with Arazni's grace we were able to find shelter to avoid their notice. By the next day, the area had thinned out, and we continued our search for the spy.

We eventually heard it before we saw anything - one of the so-called Blood Knights had cornered a native human woman, with a conspicuous sack. We could not understand the dialogue between the two, but we sprung into action nonetheless. That she was the spy we were looking for was another blessing, the robot conjured a barricade between the woman and the knight, which would have given her enough time to make a getaway. Unfortunately, we had less time than expected when a rift in space opened in our vicinity, and out walked an oni and a horse wreathed in flames. The logs had made it clear from prior engagements that this was the horse of the horseman of war. Which meant this was the usurper.

He commanded quite a presence. While I do not recognize his place among the gods, whether it is where the Lord in Iron once resided, or the seat of power the Angel of Desolation, I granted him the respect befitting a general of his army. He seemed to find this amusing. I noted that his horse appeared to be asleep. For a lord of murderous daemons, he seemed... more interested in witnessing combat, like the general he is overseeing a siege line. He granted us the opportunity - if we could best his blood knight, we could leave with the ill-gotten goods. The alternative was death. Hardly a choice, but he then made a curious display - to make things interesting, he offered the three of us each a weapon from his personal armory. A powerful rapier for the spy, a potent staff for the automaton, and a sword to channel elements for myself.

The automaton attempted to create the opportunity to unleash its most powerful spell upon the blood knight, but panicked when it broke through a barrier of ice instead of waiting for me to debilitate the monstrosity, causing the spell to fizzle out in a spectacularly ineffective manner. Luckily, the spy and I kept our wits and with our coordination managed to in place, and right as it appeared ready to unleash a powerful spell, I took the opportunity to drive my blade through the weakpoint in its armor and sever its arm, ending its life. With the battle won, the oni kept its promise - we were free to return. We relinquished our weapons back to the warlord and went on our way back to the village.

Along the way, we examined the contents and engaged with the spy. They managed to abscond from the Man Slayer's camp with a freshly collected shard of divinity. As we made sure we were all in one piece, we noticed that while there was no sort of tracking or scrying magics placed upon the shard, the spy herself had been affected by a Status spell, which the automaton assures me can only be placed upon a willing creature. We decided to make an exchange and send off the Spy elsewhere while we returned to the village. Our contact there shared our confusion about the status spell. But we returned with a monumental treasure, plundered from the Man Slayer's camp.

The thing that concerns me about these events is, after separating from the spy, I seemed to be plagued by visions of a silhouette in the distance. A large figure on a horse. They may be able to track this shard's location regardless... I believe I could not have picked a better place to keep it safe.