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[Sudurandom]

Just so that Glass isn't the only one to submit a coven.

The Circle of Silence.
Few people know anything about this secretive coven, and those who learn rarely live to pass it on. Even the name they are known by is just what people have chosen to call them.
Rumours abound among those who know of their existence. Some say they serve a dark god intent upon the obliteration of spoken language, others that it seeks ancient god weapons hidden in the mortal realms. The brave whisper that they can hear when someone speaks of them.
All that is truly known is that they kill any who learn their secrets, they often act on information they should have no way of knowing, and that every one has had their tongue cut out.

AD - We will go to war against the Aenians - but, we shall not be taking overt action yet. We may be personally powerful, but our greatest power is our ability to build. To go to true war immediately will not benefit us, not when another month or two may be spent consolidating many magnitudes more power with which to wage it. In the intervening time, we shall most certainly assist you and your forces in any manner we can, but we must be given time to prepare before we begin a full offensive.

+1

+1

+1

[Glass]

Darkness and Light

It is a commonly-accepted thing that light is good, and darkness is bad. Light is where you can see, and is what the sky is like during the time that your body wishes to be awake; darkness, meanwhile, is where any threats may be hidden, and is the time of sleeping - an activity commonly compared to death, and at the very least being one wherein the sleeper is much more vulnerable than usual. Of course, these views neglect to state that they are from a particular set of perspectives: apex predators, herd animals, and the like. Those with no need to hide. Those who watch.

In the modern day, nobility and cityfolk. Those who watch over all, and those who watch each other. Their religions reflect their views. It is Good to be seen, to be bright, to be watched; and because what is Evil stays in the dark, out of sight, away from reprisal, so it is that to be hidden, to keep privacy is a sign of sin.

There are other perspectives, however. Other ways of living, other ways of seeing.

For some, safety comes from being overlooked. Perhaps they are actively hiding; perhaps they merely take refuge in unimportance. What conqueror would take time to ravage tiny villages, barely a hundred souls strong? What rebel would stand in clear sight before they strike? And so there are some for whom the darkness is a refuge, a waiting place, somewhere to prepare or escape. The light, to these survivors in the outlands, means death, for their hunters may catch sight, or their prey escape ambush.

In contrast to the bright and illuminated religions of the cities, religion out here revolves around things more solid yet unknowable. The whims of the earth and sky, the mediations of water and flame, rule the spirits of these shadowed folks. And down in the bones of the earth, in the black of the night, in the depths of the waters and char of the flames are a dark promise - control us, but not too tight; respect us, but not too light; for our service and strength are equally potent, rage and revelry equally destructive. This is the land of fae pacts and blood bonds, of witches' covens and hedge mages, for that which knows the dark knows to respect that which shares it.

And if what shares it is a Lich King of dark places and piercing truths, a Lich King who will respect the traditions the cities eschew, a Lich King that has helped so much... why shouldn't they be respected?
It's not against their religions.
Not the old ones.

[chubby2man]

“I was born on a latifundia, you know.” The Red Fox says. Together you stand overlooking the rebel encampment in the dawn light, having discussed throughout the night the alliance you would make. Steam gently rises from the tea grasped in his hand. The other scratches at his grey stubble, eyes squinting as he adjusts to the light.
 
“I was picked up in a Leahorn raid, but by then I was already full of piss and vinegar. They called me troublesome, and they would either send me to their legions or kill me. Those raiders needed a guide, and I eagerly volunteered. We burned down a dozen villas in three days. They gave me a sword and brought me here to the Free Kingdoms,” he says, then stands quietly for a moment.
 
“I never made it back to my family.”
 



Amas Creahorn, outrider commander of the rebel forces, limps back into camp, followed by two others. He is met by the Fox and Sir Thaddington, with you standing behind them.
 
Creahorn, brown hair crusted with blood on one side, gulps down some water. “Ambush, sir. Took out my camp, we barely escaped.” To the commander’s surprise both the Fox and Thaddington turn to look at you. You step forward and shake your head.
 
“A lie. Here is the Baron’s spy, General.”

Though he sputters denials, the guards came for him anyways.
 

Despite your need to return to your tower soon to make preparations, you decide with the General to:
 
A-Strip all the valuable information from his mind. More intensive than your usual examinations, this will allow you to get deep reads on the Baron and his court, almost as if you were there yourself. However, the process is not gentle on the interrogee’s mind and will not be able to be used for anything else.
 
B-Turn him into your own agent. Modify his inner truth to be utterly loyal to the Red Fox, and have him send prepared messages back to the Baron. Depending on your own plans, can use him to lure the Baron into an ambush or attack a prepared target.
 
C-Send a Message. Make an example of him, send him to the Baron’s court as prophet announcing their doom with the ring of truth to his words.
 
D-Something Else? Note that you will be doing a basic scan for information in any case.
 
 

[Kashyyk]

B - Double Agents are valuable, and once flipped he can probably produce more information than we can rip from him now

[Glass]

Hmn...

One, I think we should go for a modified B. Specifically, we don’t need to modify the Truth of their selves; we just need to reinforce the Truth of their promise to the Red Fox, such that they can’t defy the loyalty that they previously professed.
EDIT: We may be able to simultaneously strengthen the Truth of their role as a double agent while disengaging that Truth’s connection to that of working for the Baron. This would make it so that he’s an even more useful double agent for us.
EDIT2: Switching to Sudo’s suggestion of giving them a choice.

Two, it has occurred to me that the gift from Command that makes such oaths of loyalty binding could very much be made a valid Truth gift. Alternatively, that gift from Faerie Queen that makes any contracts fully binding. Anything that makes sure that promises can’t be broken, you know the deal.

[King Zultan]

B

[Sudurandom]

I don't think we should get into the habit of changing who people are without their consent. So I suggest we give them the choice of interrogation and death (option a) or being made into an agent the Fox can trust (option b). That way we're not forcing them into it if they're working for the baron out of principle, but if they care more about survival then we get a useful asset.
   

[Glass]

I don't think we should get into the habit of changing who people are without their consent. So I suggest we give them the choice of interrogation and death (option a) or being made into an agent the Fox can trust (option b). That way we're not forcing them into it if they're working for the baron out of principle, but if they care more about survival then we get a useful asset.

Hmn, fair enough. +1 to D

[Fluffe9911]

D

[Madman198237]

I don't think we should get into the habit of changing who people are without their consent. So I suggest we give them the choice of interrogation and death (option a) or being made into an agent the Fox can trust (option b). That way we're not forcing them into it if they're working for the baron out of principle, but if they care more about survival then we get a useful asset.

Hmn, fair enough. +1 to D

+1 to unnecessary mercy I suppose

[Glass]

An opportunity

The Baron has eyes everywhere. Two less, now, of course, a fact for which the Red Fox is endlessly thankful, not that he has any intention of letting that show any more than needed. But still; while the infiltrator may have been rooted out, the Baron, and the Aenian Empire behind him, have scouts, scryers, people who just want some quick coin in exchange for information... there are plenty of ways for their location to be discovered. It's why they keep having to move camp.

But what if those methods couldn't find anything? Or at least, nothing helpful. The land was crawling with those rats... but that was the surface.
Their new benefactor had an idea, and the Red Fox thought he liked it.

See, the underground is a big place. A lot of it's packed solid, full of earth and stone, but not everywhere. There are caves and caverns, empty spaces, waiting to be filled. Sure, a lot of those were claimed by dwarves and drow, but not all of them. Some weren't even occupied by kobolds or goblins that had to be evicted. Some were just empty.

And, according to Magnimian, one such chamber lay vacant, not terribly distant from here. And with his magic, it wouldn't be terribly difficult to set up a tunnel there.

The benefits were obvious. Without a surface location, the Aenians would have a bitch of a time trying to find them; it'd look like they'd disappeared into thin air. Which, wrong element, but fair. And with a permanent camp, they could really start building themselves up, no longer having to rely on subpar-but-moveable facilities. Gods, one time they'd moved just because the latrine's stink couldn't be borne anymore, and they couldn't get it properly washed out. He gagged just thinking about it.
Regardless. Scouts wouldn't find them, what rumors reached the surface would be worthless to the Aenians, and their pet wizards... well, Magnimian had a background in scrying, too. A good enough one to ward the entire camp from any but masters, and even if they can see the camp itself, figuring out where it is would be another mess entirely.

The downsides had to be considered, too, of course, but they were... mitigated, essentially, by the Lich King's involvement. It may normally have been difficult to strike out from a subterranean base of operations, or to gather information from there, but Magnimian's affinity for the underground evidently came with the ability to skillfully assist others in navigating it, and he could be of great assistance arranging for entrances and exits is useful locations - and even obscuring them when finished, while the Lich King's developing connections over the region would be a great boon to their intelligence network. Food and other resources wouldn't be an issue, either, with the legions of skeletons having taken over the region's manual labor in the fields and other spaces. The most pressing issue would honestly be the morale effect of staying underground and not seeing the sky, which was already being moderated by the news that the tide of the war would likely be turning in their favor soon, and could be managed with regular rotations to allow the folks who need it to go above.

Yes, this... this was a opportunity. This was an opportunity that the Red Fox quite liked.

[chubby2man]

You give the spy Creahorn a choice, between having his inner truths altered to make him a double agent for the rebels, or face interrogation and then death. He didn’t take too long to decide.

Creahorn’s values certainly are pliable ones. In this case you don’t need to add values, such as they were. Instead, you strengthen his loyalty to the General, which had almost withered away, taking away his over-indulged self interest. By the time you are finished with, you glean the Baron’s plan.

By suborning the rebel’s outrider commander, the Baron was planning on marching his army undetected and smashing the rebel encampment by surprise next month. Creahorn would keep the Baron updated on the rebel’s movements, and try to kidnap or kill  the Red Fox before the attack.

Now, however, you can choose to delay the attack, or guide the enemy forces into an ambush.


Lianna is waiting for you on your return, lounging causally by a fire blazing a merry purple. She raises a mug in acknowledgement.

“Welcome back, Magnimian! How fared your travels?”


You plop on the ground beside her. “Well, I think the surrounding villages have a favorable view of me now, I think I have a lot more skeleton laborers to raise for them. I have a village of smiths willing to work for me, blessed with the knowledge to work metal. Oh, and I recruited a rebel army and swore to wage war against the Aenian Empire.”


Lianna whistles in appreciation and drains her mug, and fills it back up from a flask in her robes.
“I made some progress on my end. I found a few girls who are in need of training, and a couple matrons who are in need of a coven. A little more convincing and I should be able to bring them here to meet you. Though it would be nice if you… cleaned the place up a bit.” She gestures at your rundown tower.


You chuckle, “Its perfectly suited for a Lich King of my status. I’ll see what I can do, but I have a busy month ahead of me.”


And now Lianna frowns, “That reminds me, we have witch hunters and paladins starting to trickle in. Right now they haven’t gone far from the towns, but they will be looking for you.”


You shrug. Let them come.



Results from Last Turn
-Smooth Things Over: Villages are happy now. As long as you promise prosperity and don’t bring too much misfortune and attention down, they won’t turn on you.
-Worker Retraining, Smithing: Through revelations of how to best melt down and then work metal, you have vastly accelerated their progress. While not forging masterworks yet, they are vary capable of making arms and armor given the right material.You figure your Investment will support around 10X as many smiths than the 80 you currently have.
-Lianna starts Recruiting a Coven: She has done some recruiting work, and found several potential new witches, and some veterans in need of a new coven. She will start bringing them by the tower next, and begin developing the coven structure.
-Reach Out to Rebels with Meaning: Alliance formed with the main rebel group, lead by the Red Fox.

Spoiler: Dominion and Influence Expenditures (click to show/hide)

Dominion Available: 2
-1 Dominion Invested in Undead Laberors of Saunder’s Vale
-1 Dominion Invested in Smiths (80/1000 recruited)


Influence 2/3
-1 Influence in keeping the Friar honest.
-1 Influence invested in double agent of the Baron.

Gain 2 Experience. Current Value: 5
Gain 1 Dominion. Current Value: 2 (Does not include individual Voter- write up dominion gains.)
Next Level (3) Requires: 6 Experience and 4 Dominion spent. (Current Spent Dominion: 2)
(Advancing down the path to Lich-Godhood requires not only experience, but exercise of power and will. )


TURN THREE: Year 1433 of the Aenian Calendar: Month 3

   

Spoiler: Character Creation/Sheet (click to show/hide)

Name: Magnimian the Unholy
Level: 2
Appearance: Pale cold flesh, blood but does not circulate.

Resources
Effort: 4/4(Example 2/2 if you are not using any, ½ if you are currently spending 1 Effort)
Influence: 2/3
Dominion: 2
Wealth:4


Attributes
Attribute: Score/+Modifier/Check
Strength:15/ +1/ 6
Dexterity:16/ +2/ 5
Constitution:16/ +2/ 5
Wisdom:16/ +2/ 5
Intelligence:15/ +1/ 6
Charisma:16/ +2/ 5
(Lich King boosts Constitution to 16)
(Truth boosts Wisdom to 16)

Saving Throws
Hardiness:15-3=12
Evasion:15-3=12
Spirit:15-3=12

Hit Points: 15/15
Attack bonus: +4

Armor:Robes (Natural AC of 3-2=1
Weapons:1d10



Facts
-You are a Lich King in Truth.
-You have Seen the Truth and it is broken.

Words:
-Lich King( Natural AC of 3, no need for food/sleep/breath, Constitution Boost)
-Truth (Gain Truthsense, always believed to be telling the truth,  Wisdom Boost)
-Underworld (Gain Spaitial awareness, no need for air/food/water, invulnerable defense against harm from stone, earth, or environmental hazards underground.)

Greater Gifts:
A Heart Apart: You possess a phylactery, excised heart, or other locus for your life, one which can be destroyed by ordinary violence. Unless this phylactery is destroyed, you cannot be permanently killed, and will regenerate from death in 24 hours from your largest remaining fragment. If the phylactery is destroyed, you can remake it, but it will not become effective for six months. You are instantly aware of any destruction of your phylactery, and while you can hide it or guard it, you cannot enchant it specifically to be protected from harm.

Lesser Gifts:
-Ageless Erudition:
 Commit Effort for the scene to know any fact or piece of knowledge, or pass an intellectual attribute check, that a ingenius mortal sage could conceivably do or know.

-Dread Lord
Lesser foe undead in your presence are absolutely obedient to your commands and cannot intentionally harm you. Commands you give them will be obeyed with human intelligence and necro-suicidal devotion until they are out of your presence for at least 24 hours, after which they revert to their usual behaviors. You may attempt to likewise enslave an undead worthy foe as an Action, but the target gets a save versus Spirit to become immune to the gift for the scene.

-Borer Beneath:
You can pass through unworked stone or earth as if it were empty space. If you wish, you leave behind a self-supporting tunnel with a diameter slightly wider than you are tall; as an Instant action, you can withdraw your support of any such tunnel you have made and let the natural environment collapse it.

-Treasures of the Earth
Commit Effort to intuitively sense the location of any metals, gemstones, water, or other substances found below the earth within a radius of 100 feet per character level. You can conjure up to your character level in Wealth points of these things each day. These Wealth points
are not considered natural for purposes of fueling theotechnology or
other magics. Water or other non-precious substances are limited to
a ten-foot cube per level per day.

-Fist of the Grave
 Your unholy, eldritch power grants you a 1d10 magical attack with a 200 foot range. On a successful hit, you may Commit Effort for the scene as an Instant action to gain twice the attack's damage as hit points of personal healing, up to your usual hit point maximum.

-Illimitable Darkness:
Commit Effort for the scene to utterly darken all non-divine lights within one hundred feet per character level for the rest of the scene, creating a zone of perfect blackness. Fires still burn, but they emit absolutely no light, and no new illumination can be created while this gift holds. This radius of darkness moves with you. Worthy foes can save versus Spirit to intentionally create light, but only they can see the light they create. Blind creatures are usually unable to use ranged attacks and roll melee attacks twice, taking the worse hit roll.

You have Actions equal to your Influence, which is currently 3, and then 1 Adventure Action, which you can use to go on quests or pursue your own goals. You can also hire advisors who can take additional actions per their category.



Cult: Well it's not so much dead, as it hasn’t really started yet.

Spoiler: Cult (click to show/hide)

-No Cult leader

-Got To Start Somewhere: Spend some time thinking and writing down what you want your cult to be. Maybe you just want an easy going cult that is very chill and all about personal development, or maybe you want something a little more demanding, make them really earn their place by your side! Either way it's better to start now. 1 Action

Diplomacy: Getting rather popular around town, you have to say.

Spoiler: Diplomacy (click to show/hide)

-No Councilor

- Send a letter to the Necromancer’s Guild: Well, you have to announce and register yourself eventually. They are not huge fans of Liches, but you may get some interest from them. 1 Action

-Talk of Farrow Town: As the closest town, this will be the host of many merchants looking for deals, and many holy parties looking to end you. It might be good to build some descrete contacts here. 1 Action.

Military: Well, you may eventually raise a tireless legion of undead, but for now you have a tired band of rebels.

Spoiler: Military (click to show/hide)

-General Red Fox, skilled in unconventional warfare and a hatred for elves. +1 Military Action (indicate which they are assigned to.)

-Raise Skeleton Regiment: They aren’t much, just moldy skeletons dredged from the lake and armed with whatever junk you had lying around. But they will have to do! Raise 1,000 skeletons to start your military! 1 Action, 1 Dominion/Influence

-Raise Skeleton Army: Begin your horde! It might take awhile to gather all the corpses, but you can already raise a concerning amount of skeletons! They may be as capable as an average peasant, but quantity is a quality all of its own. Raise up to 100,000 skeletons, and will raise more as you acquire more. 1 Action, 2 Dominion/Influence

-Raise Elite Skeleton Guard: Sometimes you actually do need quality. Raise and equip an honor guard of Skeleton warriors, garbed in the finest funerary gear of a dozen cultures. 1000 elite warrior undead. 1 Action, 2 Dominion/Influence

-Move the Rebels into a nice Cave (Glass Opportunity). 1 Action, (1-1=0) Dominion Cost

-Send Army against Baron: The baron is encroaching on your territory, send your forces to deal with them.

-Training your Rebels: With access to more resources, the Red Fox is confident he can get his forces into better shape. 1 Action.
-Pathfinders. Train a specialized group adept at guerrilla warfare, ambushes, and scouting.(Elite variant for 1 Dominion.)
-Vanguard. Suit them up in heavy armor and weapons, and they will take the fight to anyone. (Elite variant for 1 Domion.)

-Recruit more Rebels. Find the disaffected and oppressed and raise them up. 1 Action

Economy: The sinews of war is coin, which is good because your skeletons lack the regular kind.

Spoiler: Economy (click to show/hide)

-No steward

-And They Call it a Mine: Using your Underworld gifts, locate and build a mine nearby. Will attract economic interest. Staff will primarily be undead laborers you scrounge up, but eventually humans can come and work as overseers. Lich King’s choice on what it is mining. 1 Action, 1 Dominion/Influence (will need to keep maintaining influence lest the mine dry up.)
   -2 Dominion: Filled with a wide variety of raw ores and gemstones. Alternatively, an incredible rich vein of one type of ore or gemstone.

-The Lich King’s Road: Begin building a safe trade route to your tower. Patrolled by your military and occasionally you, this will make coming to your Tower much easier. 1 Action, 1 Dominion/Influence

-The Finest Forges: Build either a network of forges or a great forge at your tower, to equip your armies with the best mundane equipment you can make. 1 Action. 2 Dominion (scale 2, plausible 1)

-Laboring Bones Plus: Provide several villages with laboring skeletons to work their fields, and in return retrain the farmers into differently skilled laborers. They will probably be willing to wait for a few months before expecting any progress though. 1 Action, 1 Dominion to increase the scope of the Saunder's Vale working.

Defenses/Construction: Well hopefully we will have some laborers to help build these. Your back isn't made for work like this.

Spoiler: Defenses/Construction (click to show/hide)

-No Guardian.

-Build a Wall:Build a defensive wall around your tower and settlement. Can either be made to focus on fortifying further, or improving your grandeur. 1 Action, 1 Dominion.

-Tower Stage One: Your Tower is a bit of a wreck. Improve the outer appearence, and begin excavating down (A lord of the Underground is of course going to have an underground Tower!) Choose a focus of either defense or grandeur. 1Action, 1 Dominion.

-Improve Defenses of your Phylactery. Use your cunning and powers to hide it far underground, surrounded by all the devious traps and defenses you can muster. 1 Action/ 1 Dominion/Influence

Magic Reliant on the living for now, maybe you could see about raising up some undead sorcerers or something someday.

Spoiler: Magic (click to show/hide)

-Lead by Lianna (1 additional Magic Action, indicate which they are assigned to.)

-Build a Witching Facility: Full of tools and cauldrons, and quiet nooks for research and casting spells. 1 Action and 1 Dominion/Influence, or 3 wealth.

-Recruit a Coven: Search and recruit witches and those with the potential to be witches. 2/3 Actions to complete (cost can be spread over multiple turns)

-Become a Patron. Lianna thinks that you can become a source of power that witches and other magic users can call upon. 3 actions, 4 Dominion (action cost can be spread over multiple turns.)

Spoiler: Special/Quests (click to show/hide)

Special/Quests:

-Explore the Complex at the bottom of the Lake. Probably something you want to do before you get too settled here. You sense something down there. 1 Adventure Action.

-Deal with the Baron. Best to confront him head on, maybe you can avoid the situation getting messier than it already is.1 Adventure Action.

-Clear out the holy investigators. While currently they are not about to spring upon your tower, it might be best to clear them out now. However, you suspect that they or others like them will be back in time. 1 Adventure Action.

The Truth of Words Through meditations deep and long, you may find a way to crystallize the truth of a person into a Word of Power. 5 Actions.



-Recruit an Advisor! Track down a candidate and recruit them to your cause. Candidates will probably pop up in the course of your adventures, but you can speed the process along if you like. 1 Adventure Action.

Remember you can always go more free form with actions if you like. Going into depth with options can result in a discounted cost for a particular action.

[Glass]

Plan: The tower isn't necessary, right?

-And They Call it a Mine (2 dominion variant): With a wide variety of metals and gemstones, we get a lot of opportunities from industrial, economic, and arcane perspectives, especially after beind paired with our growing number of blacksmiths (though we may want to invest in also spreading the gemcutting industry).
-Talk of Farrow Town: First off, this happens after the mine. Why? Because merchants are much easier to make friends with once you have some goods to show them. Anyway, getting the people here friendlier with us grants us a more populated location from which to spread influence, as well as granting us further protection by dint of the shield of a positive public perception.
-Move the Rebels into a nice Cave: I explained why this would be helpful in An Opportunity, but the key is that by functionally removing the rebels from any visible location, we buy a ton more time and can also help them become better faster. Building off of that...
-Red Fox: Training your Rebels (Pathfinder variant): Guerilla warfare meshes wonderfully with the ability to get around underground. The Baron's army won't know what hit them.
-Lianna: Recruit a Coven: There's no reason not to keep working on this. Perhaps they can't be brought to our tower yet, but we could work on having them integrated with the rebels; magic support would be a great boon to them.
-Adventure: Explore the Complex at the bottom of the Lake: Come on, we have to. Besides, there's little reason to confront the Baron right now since we're having the rebels hidden and specialize into guerilla combat, while the holy investigators shouldn't become much of a problem when our home location is relatively secret and unassuming and the people like us.

Total Dominion cost: 3
I can pay for all of that, and also making Creahorn's recalibration permanent, which would come out to 4. [This has been explicitly stated to be a waste of a Dominion point.]

Also, what's the cost for giving the other villages nearby the skeleton workers?

[chubby2man]

Also, what's the cost for giving the other villages nearby the skeleton workers?

I'll go back and add that option, but 1 action and 1 additional dominion to improve the scale up.


Also, granting both Glass and Sudurandom +1 dominion for completing the bounty on the Witches Coven write-ins.

[Glass]

The Grey Pact

There are those who fear the night. There are those who stalk the night. There are those who wield the night. There are those who do all three.

Some are born weyrs. Any child of two always will be; a child of one might, though only if born on the night of a full moon. Some become weyrs at a later age; imbibing at least a cup of a weyr's undiluted blood will grant one the transformation, while some curses may inflict the condition. (Despite rumors, victims of a weyr bite are not "infected".)

The transformation of a weyr, despite what the old wives' tales say, are not universally tied to the full moon; some transform at the half moons, others at the new moon. Some transform every night, leading to perpetual insomnia. And although a transformed weyr is not as dumb as a beast, neither are they quite as intelligent as the men and women they typically are, with emotions and instinct reigning above their reason. Therefore, for obvious reasons, many (though, of course, not all) weyrs take efforts to prevent themselves from doing anything foolhardy during their nocturnal transformations; however, there is only so much that an otherwise-nonmagical person can to to ensure a weyr cannot do something.

Enter the Grey Pact.

Like weyrs, many witches attempt to live among "normal" people, be they independent or members of "hearth covens" (as opposed to "wild covens", who keep themselves separate from villages and towns), and prefer that life continue peaceably, if only so that the folks around them do not target them as a scapegoat. As such, witches - skilled potionbrewers and arcanists that they are - generaly agree to provide assistance to their local weyrs to control the animal inside, though the particular means vary from witch to witch. Calming draughts are common, as are wards that prevent the transformed weyr from wandering too far from a safe location. Less common, but frequently more desired, are means to ensure that one keeps their mind during the afflicting nights, while those with nightly transformations frequently seek out those who can provide sleeping potions. Typically, these potions and services will be provided at lower prices than would typically be acceptable; in exchange, weyrs often provide more mundane assistance and favors to their local witches, such as procuring useful ingredients or providing services that, while nonmagical, may raise eyebrows among others, such as the repair and replacement of various brewing tools.

At the same time, there is a mutual understanding of nondefense. Witches and weyrs will help each other, but attention from inquisitors and witchhunters is death; if a witch or weyr wants others to assist them in fighting them off, they will need their own agreement. The Grey Pact is an agreement to avoid such attention being garnered in the first place; once it has been, the most that may be granted is assistance to the unhunted in relocating to quieter ground. There is only so much that can be done to escape the reach of those who would hunt the denizens of the darkness.

Or at least, that is how things stand for now.


In case it wasn't clear, "weyr" is how I decided to refer to generalized were-beasts. Werewolves, werebears, weremongeese, weregorillas, the works. Although they'd be weyrwolves et al here.