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[Azthor]

"I suppose we are done here; though it still seems odd, the relative ease with which the so called Cabal was dispatched" Geldryn ponders to himself, hearing the High Inquisitor's reply and binding the set of books tightly with a leather strap, to then hide it in his rations backpack.

Geldryn approaches the High Inquisitor and mutters something silently so that the rest of those gathered cannot hear it, revealing the whereabouts of the books and asking whether they should be destroyed on the way to the Castle, or reserved for investigation.

Try and clean Oscia's wounds so that an infection doesn't settle in along the way, then attempt healing through the Smith.
Retire with the rest of the Inquisition to the Castle.

[Ardas]

Davian stood to attention of his lord, before moving away to the men. He barked out few orders and got to counting and clearing of the cave.

Help Lord Gustav, count the bodies and beds. Organize the soldiers for march, make litters for the wounded.

[Shootandrun]

Act I, Part Nine: Binding wounds

Gustav

You send Davian to make sure the amount of bodies match the number of beds, and then organize the troops to march off. Before leaving, you attempt to heal Ramsay again, knowing that without at least a wagon helping him on the road would be impossible, [2] but fail to do anything for him. This kind of thing always makes you worried that the gods are not satisfied somehow; perhaps prayer will be the best thing you can do for that man. He still hasn't woken up, [?] and in fact as far as you can tell he may be faintly paler now.

The bodies are carried out, the place is surveyed one last time, and the forces get moving. The peasants you found shuffle along, still tired and confused.

The travel back to the base is uneventful, but the arrival into town is quite a thing. Some of the peasants go ahead of you and tell a great tale about a battle between your forces and a large band of sorcerers, mentioning your heroic rescue and your cunning plan to infiltrate the base, and when you arrive you are welcomed as heroes. The townsfolk are impressed, and, through the crowd, you think you can see the Earl looking at your ranks with some newfound appreciation. The Inquisition is now Respected within the earldom of Hadvard, both by the earl and the populace.

When you return at the base, you hand over the wounded to Friedrich and find the workers building a new construction in the yard.

-----

Friedrich

The carpenters work quickly to make some simple beds (upraised planks, really) and torch holders for the sickbay - you should be able to see what you're doing and have a place for those in need, at least. In terms of medical facilities it's not much yet, but it's certainly better than doing it on some benches.

The attack force returns, and ten soldiers, amongst whom you recognize Oscia (who seems to be doing fine) and Ramsay (who might be comatose) are sent to the new sickbay. [3] You perform some basic healing on the recruiter, mending his wounds slightly, but don't quite manage to fully close them. You also manage to aid [6] six of the eight other wounded soldiers before you have to stop from sheer exhaustion. Most of their wounds were relatively light, however, and you're fairly certain none of them will be lost to infections.

The interrogation of the peasants goes very quickly: one moment they were in their village, and the next moment this old looking elfin fellow in Inquisitorial robes was shaking them awake. It seems the spell that teleported them involved some sort of measure included to knock them unconscious.

Tired and overworked, you don't find the time to read the books or to operate the beast - that last action, in particular, will probably be time intensive, as the things are rather massive and you're not quite sure how to start.

-----

Davian

Counting the beds, you find that there are eleven in total around the cavern network. Nine are in what seems to have been a crude dormitory; two were in some sort of storage area.

You start organizing the soldiers to march off, and they comply. Being relatively productive, they have already made litters for their wounded; they also help you make some more for the dead mages and the beasts, after some hesitation.

-----

Faran

[6] Your reading goes well, and you make good progress in your understanding of engineering. A few more sessions like this and you should have a fairly good grasp of the basics - not enough to build a cathedral yet, but you will at least grasp most of the concepts behind it.

You take the workers away from the castle, and to work on the shrine. They are surprised by the sudden change, but do not protest. [2] Arkran, on the other hand, does; he asks if you have Gustav's permission to move the workers around and interrupt the repairs on the castle. You inform him that you do not, but you believe it is necessary; he nods and goes to work.

[1-2] You begin trying to train two-handed fighting with a few men-at-arms, using practice swords. To put it lightly, it does not go well. You have heard of a few fighting styles that use a weapon in each hand, but have never seen any, especially not with a longsword included. The training is rough, and although the men-at-arms go easy on you (they fear the repercussions of accidentally harming an Inquisitor) you still have a very hard time. You have trouble putting weight behind your attacks correctly, either going too far or not hitting hard enough, and the soldiers dodge easily, doing simulated killing strikes dozens of times, trying very hard not to actually put any weight behind their own hits.

At the end of the training, after having been 'killed' over and over again, you feel tired, embarrassed (the soldiers remain polite in your presence, but you know for sure you'll be the laughing stock of the barracks tonight) and, most importantly, hurt. It seems an attempt to hit a soldier on the shoulder with your longsword stretched your right shoulder in exactly the wrong way. The wound aches throughout the rest of the day. You have lost any progress you had made towards a recovery.

-----

Oscia

You rest for a while, before Geldryn comes to clean and bind your wounds. Showing perhaps a bit too much zeal, he weaves a tight bandage around your leg, leaving you unable to walk. Still, too much of a good thing can't hurt. You're placed on a litter and you make the travel to the base on your back, but your wound is recovering. You will have to limit your actions to things that don't involve walking too much, however, unless you wish to remove the bandages.

-----

Geldryn

[6] You clean up Oscia's wounds, and bind them tightly, working with the proficiency of a surgeon - and perhaps too much enthusiasm. By the time you're done, she can hardly walk, and will have to be carried to the castle. [4] You call the Smith's aid with relative ease, and close the wound almost completely under the bandages. Cleaned, closed and covered, it will heal cleanly. A job well done.

You covertly grab the books and hide them away without being seen and you mark a symbol on one of the bookcases to mark this place as cleansed by the Inquisition before leaving along with the others.

-----

Turn's events: [4+1] The workforce starts building the shrine commissioned at a good pace under the engineer's supervision. Shrine construction is at 25%.

[adwarf]

A day or two after the High Inquisitor and the others returned Faran made his way through the castle searching for the Loremaster, the knowledge of what was down in the dungeons nagging him at the back of his mind he couldn't help but wonder if perhaps there was a way to seal the node from outside influences so that wizards, sorcerers, and their ilk couldn't use it for darker purposes. It wasn't long before Faran finally managed to find the elf, after a few short greetings he launched into what it was he was looking for,

"With the discovery of this Cabal, and the presence of the node beneath our feet I've been wondering if perhaps we could devise a method through which to seal magic, and maybe even the nodes themselves. What I'm trying to ask is, is it possible for our holy powers to block magic, and possibly seal the nodes so that outside forces couldn't use them as sources of great power?"

Begin Research into ways to seal magic, and the leyline nodes.
Read the Engineering Books
Help the Dwarf oversee the workers building the shrine.

[Ghazkull]

Friedrich was incredibly exhausted yet the wounded had to be mended. The gaunt man looked paler than usual and the feverish look in his face had something outright disconcerting, yet there was no time for sleep, there was work to be done. He first reported to Gustav however


Lord Inquisitor, the Wounded have been stabilized and i interrogated the peasants. They know nothing, apparently the ritual which made them vanish also either took their memories or made them fall asleep. If you don't mind i'll go back to my Dungeons, there are wounded to be treated.

Get back to work, make a routine check on Oscia, try to further stabilize and heal Ramsay and make sure the Man-at-Arms are recovering. If Faran comes by fix him too.

[Ardas]

Return to the castle gave Davian ample time to think and refresh his mind with silent contemplation of the day's events. Much more work had to be done, and the injuries sustained by many a warrior showed how woefully under prepared they were. but a good deed had been done, an advantage had to be taken of it.

"My lord, I believe Ramsay is still injured, while I want to pursue a bit more active policing of the area. I shall recruit more men for us."

With that done, Davian went to see the peasants rescued form the lair.

"How many of you seek a way to return to your homes, or maybe make a new living? Or perhaps strike back at the unholy forces that plague these lands? Defend your fellow man, fight for the Trinity?  Join your lot with ours, build and fight with us and we can stave the evil away!"

Davian went from group to group and even extended his reach to the town. His shouts, callings and encouragements could be heard for hours at an end, his loud clear voice carrying itself throughout the castle and the town. But to organize men was one thing, to train them up and pick out the best was another. Ramsay was still injured, and someone had to take care of the troops in his absence.

Leave my armor with blacksmiths.
Rally and recruit freed peasants as servants, workers and soldiers. do the same in the town.
Keep an eye on the best of soldiers, pick them out to a separate unit for future paladin training.

[Azthor]

[Rest will be added at a later date]

Study the texts under relative secrecy.
Search the cultists' corpses for anything of interest, then ceremonially dispose of them.
Observe Friedrich's work on dissecting the creatures, recording all relevant discoveries as to their anatomy and nature

[Terenos]

-Meeting with Friedrich-
"I myself triggered their careless magic at one of the other villages, I was knocked unconscious by the spell. Thank you for questioning the peasants regardless, I did not believe they'd have any insight into matters.

I would appreciate it if you found somewhere cool for the bodies of those beasts we recovered, should you be unable to attend to them for a bit. They are clearly demonic in some way, and im not sure if they will decay in the same way. But without knowledge to that regard we must do what we know how to do. I want them studied, catalogued, and understood as best we can. So that we know where to strike, and how best to quickly bring them down."

-Meeting with Davian-
"An excellent idea again. In addition, I'd like you to run a lengthy patrol of the area at some point in the near future. Find out if there are any pressing concerns in outlying regions. Let the Inquisition's presence be known."

Meet with the Earl, attempt to secure more supplies for use by the Inquisition.
Prepare supplies for an Inquisitor and a group of soldiers to travel abroad for a few turns time

[Shootandrun]

Before we continue, a note: So, that took a while. Sorry about that. I was under some pretty serious stress for a week or two there. Updates will still be slow for a while, but it should start seriously improving from here on out. With that said and out of the way, enjoy the tenth part of our adventure.

Act I, Part Ten: Growth

Gustav

After talking with a few of the Inquisitors, you leave to have a discussion with the Earl. You receive a hero's welcome when you arrive at the nobleman's halls, with his soldiers smiling and making a few commentaries about your recent feats against the sorcerers. Talk is all over town already, as your men have not been told to keep silent, and celebrating soldiers are quick to boast.

The Earl himself, who goes by the name Sigmund Karhold, is significantly more enthusiastic than the last time you spoke with him. It is clear he is aware his decision to invite the Inquisition has paid off - so far, at no cost, you have rid him of a very serious problem. He talks a lot more than last time, [3] and you manage to grasp a few hints of the man behind the title this time, although he still hides his personal interests from you. You get the distinct impression that the earl is a soldier to the bone, and some of his comments also seem to hint that he has a dislike for politics - but few border lords have much love for the cloak and dagger affairs of those living in safer and richer lands.

He is less than overjoyed when you bring about the notion of supplying the order, but he has some good will for you left in him. He mentions that he has very little need for most of the taxes he collects, and that he is willing to contribute a percentage of his gains to supply the Inquisition. He is unwilling, however, to give you more than you are spending, and makes it clear his own needs will always come first. On that, he seems firm.

The Inquisition has gained a source of supplies. The first post has been updated with a supply tab.

-----

Friedrich

Oscia appears to still be doing fine. She changed her bandages, which you see no problem with, and is now fit to walk again. [5] When you go to attempt to heal Ramsay once more, at long last, the Smith answers fully. You close his wounds and reinvigorate him with energy, giving his skin some color back and making his breathing regular once more. When you're done with him, he looks like he's simply asleep, rather than comatose or sickly. [5] You then fully heal all of the remaining wounded, and make a checkup on the other soldiers. The health of the troops is excellent.

-----

Davian
You leave your armor at the blacksmiths' and then go watch the men-at-arms train in the yard for a while. [6] You note down the names of three who appear to be superior in martial skills to their brothers, as well as one who fought well in the battle, keeping his cool despite the Patriarch's magic warming his blood.

You gather around the peasants you freed and make a short speech encouraging them to join the Inquisition to be part of a greater thing. These folk come from rough parts; and although many of them have the iron in them to make good soldier - more than people from greater towns, you'd say - poverty and family prevent most of them from being freely able to join a military force. [3+1] With that being said, you do make an effect on them, being rather charismatic yourself, and a handful decide to join up with you.

In town, you get up to the same activity, trying to recruit folk in the town square. [3+1] It goes about the same; there are more present, so you convince a few more, but the majority of those present cannot in good conscience abandon their day-to-day life to join an army.

Since you have recently impressed these folks with your military actions, and since these aren't the kind of people who wish to spend their life working for someone else, all of those joining you wish to be soldiers. The Inquisition has gained fifteen militiamen.

-----

Faran

[5] When you ask him, the Loremaster gets into a long discussion about how this problem has been considered several times since the Alliance's foundation, and why it is difficult to seal magic. He explains to you that just like air cannot block light, two kinds of magic generally have a difficulty cutting each other off from their source. He goes on to talk about how sorcerers and wizards are pulling their magic from the plane of the arcane, where holy magic has no influence, and why that makes it impossible to seal a node without using heretical magic yourself.

[6] Once more, you make considerable progress when reading the books on engineering, amazing yourself with how quick you are learning. You now have a full understanding of forces and the physical characteristics of different materials. You're very close to a mental breakthrough.

[5] Arkran seems surprised by your following along as he works, but he proves to be more than willing to talk about his knowledge. Soon enough he's commenting everything he does, giving you practical information both on engineering and on an engineer's work - managing workers, which tasks need oversight, what takes the most time, and so on. He seems to be genuinely pleased to have someone to share his expertise with... And you now have the knowledge necessary to understand it and put it to use. You are now a novice engineer.

-----

Oscia

You spend more time resting, slowly getting better. After a few more long afternoons, you grow confident that your wound has closed and replace your obstructive bandages with simple linens to cover the injury. You can now walk around without fear of opening it.

-----

Geldryn

The texts are written in a language unknown to you. However, they use the standard letter system found in most allied territories. [6+1] A brief study of the pages reveals that it is not a language, but in fact a code - for which you do not have a key. You start the long and monotonous process of trying to crack it - [1+1] making little to no progress as you first begin.

[3] You search the corpses and find little of note - a few coins and personal trinkets, none of which reek of magic or seem magical in nature. They are not carrying any written documents, or something that could help you along with your decryption. Finally, since the only good heretic would be an ashen one if there were good heretics, you burn the corpses when you're done with them.

-----

Turn's events: [1+1] There's a hiccup with supplies and for a while the work teams are unable to find any beams worth a damn - little progress gets done with the shrine.

At long last, the priest whom Geldryn spoke with some weeks ago sends a boy to inform the Inquisition that he has found [6] six souls capable of reading and worthy of being educated by paladins.

[Ghazkull]

go on with the dissecting of the beasts. Make extensive notes about their physiology, characteristics, if they are of a magical nature or not and if they were once human or not. Try to find weaknesses and strengths.

[adwarf]

Continue to study the Engineering Books.
Assist Arkan in his work once more.
Go to the church and pray to the Warrior for guidance on how to further my holy magic.

[Terenos]

Assess the priests potential recruits, put them through their paces in arms training.

Head to town, speak with the locals about any local herbs. Acquire samples. Plant in the castle.

[Azthor]

Observe the beasts' dissection, taking notes on the procedure and discoveries.
Politely request that Aurion teach the four recruits who remain illiterate, leaving them under his care.

[Ardas]

Take the three warriors and talk to them about becoming paladins initates under my wing. Begin training with them if they are ready to become initates.
Requsition 10 soldiers/scout for a far out patrol.
Depart for the ranging with the scouts once they are assembled.

[Shootandrun]

Act I, Part Eleven: Carve it Up

Gustav

You meet the town priest, a man as tiny and shy as a mouse, at his temple. He seems nervous when you arrive, and if you had to take a guess he had a very hard time finding people capable of reading in the region. The six men he found - or rather, the two boys and the four men - seem like rather simple folk. One of the boys is a merchant's son, and a man speaks with a northern accent - but the others all seem to be from the region, and have learned to read because their parents bothered to teach them. They strike you as smallfolk - educated, but still smallfolk - and you doubt any of them have steel in their spines yet. [1] None are trained with weaponry or horse-riding. It's time to change that.

You bring them out to the yard, where you give them all a training sword under the amused looks of the men-at-arms. [5] Although you've never really trained men before, you have worked with a few masters-at-arms, and you do your best to imitate their own work. First, you teach them how to hold a sword, and you show them a few simple positions to parry and attack - and then you set them to running around the castle for an hour, holding the weapons all the while. The process of carving these men into fighters will be long and slow, but it can be done.

Next, you head into town to visit the local herbalists. [2] You have some trouble finding whole plants rather than just roots or leaves, as the herbalists do not grow their own stuff but rather collect it in the woods and the plains. [4+1] Still, a few are more than willing to talk to you about the local plants and their effects, and your own knowledge fills some of the gaps for them. You're fairly confident you could recognize most of the common plants if you went out there yourself, or you could sketch them for someone else.

-----

Friedrich
[All roll results lessened by lack of medical and surgical experience]

You lead everyone who doesn't need to be in your operation center out, and you ask for the bodies of the beasts to be brought to you for an autopsy. Luckily, they haven't truly started rotting yet, so you believe there is still much you can learn from this.

[3] You open up the first one hesitantly, taking your time to avoid damaging any organs. It has been severely wounded: there are five cuts on its arms, one of its fists is heavily bruised, a deep gash has been carved into its left leg, its chest was pierced all the way through under the right lung, and a part of its neck has been hacked off. The Paladins did their work with zeal. Looking inside, you find organs which are mostly analogous to humans, although you are under the impression that there are too many. [4] Geldryn, who is standing by and has some knowledge of medicine, confirms that it has some of its organs doubled. The creature has two hearts, four lungs, three livers, two kidneys, and perhaps a few other things which neither of you can identify. Most  organs are either where or close to where they would be in humans; the doubles are generally diametrically opposed. [1] You find yourself unable to open the skull with delicate instruments, and show too much zeal with the saw; when you're done, the brain is too damaged to show anything to your untrained eyes. [1] You are unable to find any more information, [5] though Geldryn notes that the beast's eyes look very much like a feline's, which he believes might indicate some sort of night vision - coinciding with the reports that the beasts charged out of the darkness.

[6] You get rid of the previous creature and open up the second beast. This one has only a single wound: a cut, straight through its chest, between hearts and lungs - where Gustav's blade found its mark. All around the cut, the flesh looks black and burned; you find both hearts and all four lungs incredibly damaged. The strike's splendid accuracy and the blessings on Gustav's sword, it seems (for you assume the Holy Light of the Smith is responsible for the burnings), were responsible for killing it in one blow. However, the burns mean you can glean little more information on the creature's organs. You do note that its hide is very thick, forming a small but present protection against harm. [5] This time, wary after your first failure, you open the creature's skull carefully and examine its brain. It looks remarkably similar to a human one, as far as you and Geldryn can tell, both in terms of size and shape. [4] You note that its hands are almost identical to a human's, apart from claws at their ends, [2] and Geldryn fails to spot anything else on this one.

-----

Davian

Although you wish to go train the men who were singled out, you won't have time for that if you go on patrol - besides, the Loremaster somehow got the notion in his head to teach them to read, so you leave them be for now.

You take ten men with you and depart for the countryside. You begin your journey by travelling to the hamlets lying north of the town. They are all surrounded by wooden walls, and there you are welcomed by the peasantry as heroes. [?] Upon being asked if they have any troubles, they do not volunteer any; except for a few men gathered in the center of one of the villages, who mutter that every year in the summer they spot great fires lying across the mountains when they go hunting in the passes, and that raids from the other side tend to either come during that season or in the middle of winter. While they don't feel too threatened, they wonder if you can find out the reason for it.

Eventually, to the north you arrive at the shores of a lake, which you've been told by the locals marks the earldom's northern border; you then start heading south and west, to fully explore the Earl's territory.

-----

Faran

[6] [Sixes will now reduce training as in the former days, because training was going too fast] Full of your new knowledge, you go back to avidly reading the books for further information, skimming through several chapters as you seek new details. For some reason, you don't seem to find many, despite covering almost three times as many pages as you can read in that period of time!

You then go to Arkran, to "help" him in overseeing the construction. In truth, he does not need any of your help, nor will he ever, you suspect; few men, elves or dwarves will reach that fellow's skill within his lifetime. [3] Still, his oversight does allow you to gain a little information - a little. He is rather busy today, and is a little too distracted to teach you much.

[?] You go to the church, and you pray before the Warrior's altar, and you think you feel his light shining upon you - but he sends no words to lead you to further training in holy magic.

-----

Oscia

Having seemingly no idea what to do, you spend the next few days resting and wandering through the yard, with your head filled with old memories of a homeland long gone.

-----

Geldryn

You go to oversee Friedrich's operation, and take notes throughout, assisting Friedrich with noting down details. Afterwards, everything is recorded and added to the archives.

Aurion says that he has no problem with taking up the recruits' education, and gets to work on teaching them their letters.

-----

Turn's events: [3+1] Arkran sets the workers back on track after finding good wood, and the structure for the shrine is completely put down. Shrine progress it at 40%.

Spring fades from the land to let Summer stand in its place.