Winter is Coming
When we last left our heroes, they were embroiled in a nasty confrontation with Father
Winter, a Dauntain who believes that Glamour must be destroyed on Earth in order
to return it to Arcadia where it belongs. As he prepares to force the ensorceled
Lorien, a sidhe Dauntain hunter, into cutting apart a book charged with Glamour,
our heroes burst onto the scene.
...Just before the scissors touch the paper, Tourmaline says, in bold mockery of
Father Winter, "I can't believe you people are falling for this! Look around
you!" Her words, wrapped in an unknown cantrip, shake the entire audience. Lorien's
hands drop the scissors as his head comes up. He looks at Tourmaline and says "Thanks.
That's just what I needed". As his arms come up to push his two guards away
from him, Pensius and Edward also feel the chains of banality drop off them as they
too become free to act.
Tourmaline continues her efforts to break Winter’s hold over his cultists. She says
“Don’t you know what’s going on here? Are you going to let him steal all your glamour
and just get away with it?” The cultists look around in confusion as her words bring
them out of their stupor. Meanwhile, Lorien attempts to disengage himself from one
of his guards, as Pensius tries a Dictum cantrip on the cultists. Edward, awakened
from his lassitude, attempts to cast a Legerdemain cantrip on Father Winter, but
doesn’t quite succeed. Winter casts a Grandeur cantrip, enthralling those present
with his majesty. As he holds the rank of Baron, this cantrip has a powerful effect
indeed. Most of the cultists, along with Pensius, Edward, Lorien, and Tourmaline,
fall under Father Winter’s spell, and Pensius loses his chance to cast his Dictum
cantrip.
In the meantime, Franklin and Toby have dispatched Winter’s backyard guards and are
moving to force open the door. Between Toby’s gnashing teeth and Franklin’s mighty
thews, they manage to break the door down. Jenny and Chamone, having entered the
house via a Portal Passage cantrip, make their way through the house. Chamone heads
for the source of the noise she heard, while Jenny finds a room full of dross, personal
possessions, and treasures. She figures that this stash is really the possessions
of the cultists, given to Father Winter to dispose of. She decides to try to ask
for divine help to find something useful in the room. She turns around three times
and chants a bunk, reaching out for whatever comes to hand. She notices several potentially
useful items: a few weapons, a knife of cold iron, and a small animal burrowing into
a large mound of treasure. The small animal turns out to be Socrates. Mel’s chimerical
rat companion. Socrates says “ Yeah, I was on my way to help Mel get away from the
crazy sidhe guy, but then I ran into all this glamour. I thought it would be useful
in the battle, yeah, that’s the ticket!” Jenny scoops the delinquent glamour-covered
rat from the treasure mound, picks up the cold iron knife, sighs, and starts towards
the living room.
Chamone decides to take action as only she can. After asking the house (with her
Primal cantrip Willow-Whisper) where the living room is, she runs full tilt towards
the indicated room and launches herself into the midst of the stupefied cultists
screaming “hiii-yaaa!”. She uses this confusion to cast a Dictum cantrip on Father
Winter, and as she and he both hold the same rank (Baron/Baroness), it is possible
that she could succeed. Unfortunately, her youth and inexperience leave her with
little protection against Father Winter’s Grandeur cantrip and she retreats into
a state of stupor herself.
In the living room, Pensius, Edward, Mel, Lorien and Tourmaline try to resist Father
Winter’s cantrip, with little success. Lorien’s chimerical owl flies in the window
and proceeds to harass one of Lorien’s guards, but the guard is too stupefied to
give up or fight back. Jenny makes her way towards the living room and Franklin and
Toby run into her as they pelt up the hallway to join the fight. Chamone, still under
Winter’s spell, feels a cold presence attempt to insinuate itself into her spirit.
She tries to resist this invasion but does not yet succeed in pushing it off.
Edward, his willpower well honed through years of adversity, manages to shake off
the Grandeur cantrip and readies a Legerdemain cantrip of his own. He casts Gimmix
at Father Winter’s long white cape, which flips over Winter’s head and blinds him.
Winter takes some time out to deal with this annoyance as Franklin and Toby arrive
on the scene. Both fall under Winter’s spell as Jenny, more cautious than her companions,
sends Socrates ahead to peek into the living room and run back to tell her what he
sees. Erendil, racing to the scene after a warning from his antelope companion, bursts
into the house with Giselle. They make their way though the house, following the
sounds of fighting until they reach the living room.
After hearing Socrates, report, Jenny decides to join the fight. She takes an enchanted
guitar from the treasure room and marches towards the living room playing and singing
the Irish war song “Follow Me Up To Carlow”. When she reaches the battle, she drops
her guitar and throws the cold iron knife at Winter, using a legerdemain cantrip.
She hits him fair and square, slicing open his right arm. She drops the knife and
turns to run, knowing that she had better get out of there as fast as possible.
Winter reacts in panic to his wounding by Jenny. He seizes two of his followers and
tells to defend him, reinforcing his orders with a Dictum cantrip. He also tries
to disentangle himself from his cloak. In the meantime, Pensius, Lorien, and Tourmaline
have shaken off the effects of Winter’s spell and prepare to fight back. Edward,
still resisting the Grandeur spell, tries to kick Father Winter in the balls and,
when that does not succeed, tries to hit him with a Three Stooges eye-poking maneuver
which also fails. Chamone, still feeling the effect of the cantrip, again feels a
cold presence try to reach her. She fights it off and manages to win herself free
of Winter’s spell. Pensius casts a successful Dictum cantrip at the still-enthralled,
Franklin, telling him to go kill Father Winter, which frees Franklin to act.
Erendil and Giselle reach the living room and attempt to slip in unnoticed during
the fighting. Socrates scuttles over to Mel and tries to wake him out of his fog.
Sensing the Grandeur that was being imposed by Winter, Erendil knows that he probably
doesn't stand a chance going head to head with someone who most likely outranked
and outclassed him. However, he decides to use guile and the Pixie Dust given to
them by the Duke in thanks for defeating Elektra. He moves silently over to Tourmaline
and looks deep into her eyes and begins his bunk.
"As I kiss you with Passion and Lust
I do so to enchant this Pixie Dust
That as the throng are enthralled in bliss
I shall have Grandeur that Far Exceeds His"
pointing to Father Winter as he sprinkles the Pixie Dust over himself and kisses
Tourmaline passionately. When their lips part she responds flatly, "Now, why
don't you do something useful?"
Lorien reaches for his hidden skean dhu and uses it on the guard. Rather than stabbing
the guard with it, Lorien uses its magical ability to bring a faerie into his fae
seeming to revive the guard and get him out of Winter’s grasp. Winter, noticing that
Franklin has his sword out and looks ready to use it, hits Franklin with a Dictum
cantrip, telling him to “hold!”. Tourmaline immediately counters with her own Dictum
cantrip to Franklin, “go!”, sending Franklin back on his way to Winter. Chamone attempts
to hit Winter, but does not do him any damage. Edward, finding his physical confrontations
with Winter ineffective, searches the room for his magical backpack, which Winter
never got around to confiscating. In the meantime, Jenny runs back to the treasure
room and barricades herself inside.
Once Erendil has the attention of many of the childlings with his enhanced
presence, he uses a Dictum on them, "Now is the time for you all to go
out and play, while the rest remain here to keep evil at bay." While still
rapt, the cultists and childlings begin filing orderly to go outside and leave
the melee to the rest of the group.
In the meantime, Franklin reaches Winter and deals him a nasty blow with his sword.
Winter, now on his last legs, cries “Ashadar! Protect me! Keep your bargain!” As
he does so, a strange swirling mist coalesces around him. The room grows cold as
Chamone recognizes the entity that tried to force its way inside her soul. Winter
seems to be welcoming it to take him over and protect him from further harm. As a
chill settles in the room, our heroes turn pale at the thought of battling this fearful
chimera.
Lorien, seeing that this battle is now out of control, tells the others to run. Franklin
finds the cold iron dagger on the ground and arms himself with it. Chamone, knowing
when she’s out of her league, obeys and flees from the room. Pensius turns to do
so but notices that Mel is not leaving. He tries to pull Mel out of the room. Socrates
bites at the tendril, trying to free his friend. Giselle screams (brays?) in anger
and kicks at Winter and the thing surrounding him. She tells Erendil “Fight! Do anything
you can to stop this!”. Toby follows her advice and attempts to take a chunk out
of Winter with his teeth. He succeeds, but doesn’t like the taste very much.
Franklin, now holding the cold iron dagger, hits Ashadar and severs a tentacle. Ashadar
manages to wrap a tentacle around Franklin now and sends an additional tentacle flowing
through the door towards the room full of glamour. Edward, having retrieved his backpack,
makes a wish for a fire weapon and reaches inside. He pulls out an Acme Combination
Glass-Cutter, Citrus Squeezer, and Blowtorch and proceeds to use the third option
on Ashadar. The strange mist creature now wraps a tentacle around the legs of Mel,
as Pensius continues to try to drag Mel out of the room. Tourmaline, no fighter herself,
nonetheless grabs one of Franklin’s dropped weapons and hacks at Ashadar.
Erendil finds a dagger of his own and joins Tourmaline in stabbing at the thing.
Franklin continues to hit Ashadar with cold iron, severing the tentacle around him
and weakening the creature, halting its attempts to heal Winter’s wounds with its
icy touch. Lorien, using his magical dagger as a focus, casts a spell of Eldritch
Fire around the weakening Ashadar to cage him in. In the meantime Jenny, barricaded
in the treasure room, is frantically using any weapon she can get a hold of to make
Ashadar’s tendrils retreat from its quest to get through the door and use all that
glamour.
Edward turns his Acme device on Ashadar. While he deals the monster some damage,
he also sets fire to the drapes. Pensius uses all his might (admittedly, not much)
to pull Mel away from Winter and Ashadar, who still has a tentacle around Mel’s legs.
The others continue their attacks, weakening to monster and giving Lorien time to
complete his cage. Edward looks into his backpack to find some way to extinguish
the growing blaze. He pulls out a fishtank and uses the water to put out the fire.
Toby expresses an interest in the crispy-fried goldfish.
Tourmaline goes off to summon help, after Lorien tells them that the cage won’t last
forever. Count Tormentil’s retainers Sir Ferdinand and Lady Isabeau, no friends of
our heroes, arrive too late to render much aid or to humiliate any of the Starry
Wisdom Temple crowd by having to rescue them. Our heroes take a break to rest and
heal up as the Duke’s sorcerers arrive to take control of the situation. Jenny and
Edward sneak off together to the secret storeroom to carry off a few “souvenirs”
before the Duke’s people can take charge of the room.
Edward gives Toby a complement, saying "Kid, you must have eyes in the sides
of your head." To which Erendil asks if Edward has a mirror in his backpack,
winking at him slyly. Edward pulls out a mirror and Erendil casts a Fuddle cantrip
on Toby so that he actually sees eyes in the sides of his head in his reflection.
Toby begins whirling about frantically, trying to figure out why he can't see out
of them. He collapses in a heap to the amusement of Edward and Erendil. Of course,
Erendil noticeably checks his reflection and puts a few stray hairs back in place
before the mirror goes back into Edward’s backpack.
Sir Pensius calls in Chamone to see if her necklace could help revive Mel from his
stupor (it doesn’t).Tourmaline and Pensius discuss how to rehabilitate the former
cultists. The Duke thanks our heroes for once again serving the Dreaming by taking
out the nasty Dauntain, as another story comes to a close.
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