The Bladelands Chronicles
Volume 2, Chapter 1: The Trials of the Rose
Let those who read this know the deeds of men are not always for ill or for self or for pride.
So to the beginning. The Triplex, an object of enormous power which had threatened to usher in a new era of darkness for the world, had been tamed its power separated, and the land was safe.
Those who had completed this task now wanted to find a way to become of the land, to live not in conflict with the Keltoi, the fierce indigenous people of the Bladelands, but achieve a level of harmony. With brave Lord Montoya at their head the supplicants who would break from Saltwash travelled to the Keltoi Moot ground to petition the wise ones who led the Keltoi for land of their own.
They chose as their symbol a black rose on a red background; the rose to signify a hard journey overcome and the red for the blood that would surely be split in the future
According to Keltoi custom anyone wishing to establish a new tribe in their lands must undergo a series of tests, over seen by a council of five. And so it was, a council of wise ones was formed with a Brehon, or judge, called Cullain who approved the tasks and determined success, Dollan, a changeling with psychic powers, a mighty Witch called Shannon who despite his pony tail was every inch a man, and a Bard by the name of Dempsy who had been a mighty warrior but had foresworn the sword and one other
In the dead of night the three most powerful mages of the new tribe; Cornelius the Olican, Kraken the Navigator and Kiril the Xadamodian performed a linking ritual to connect Kiril to an item, a spell book recovered from Skullport, but although the link was successful, it triggered a magical trap spreading disease to Kiril and unleashing an Outsider who was eventually fought off by Friar Luca.
Suddenly, when all appeared to be well Sirius, the healer, accidentally picked up the book and triggered the trap again forcing the conspirators to beg the Brehon for help. Cullain duly treated the dying men but realised there was a hole in the fabric of reality caused by the appearance of the Outsider. Kraken was able to close the rift but severe damage had already been done to the fragile relations between the Black Rose and the Keltoi wise ones.
On the first morning then the tests began with a trial of arms, to determine if the tribe stood any chance of success against the foul creatures that roam the Bladelands. Lord Montoya led his party into the woods to find and kill goblins, Orcs and Trolls. They fought hard and well, cutting down foulspawn like sheaves of wheat in harvest, and triumphed over their enemies
Then came the test of the supplicant’s ability to perform rituals, but Cornelius was unable to link his Eog sword to Honor, knight of Elektra and the chosen champion. It seemed that all was lost, and despite Kraken’s minor ritual the Keltoi were unimpressed.
And so in the afternoon the tribe was instructed to find an unusual and unique beast in the forest, and remove a trinket from its back. Easy enough in theory but the practice was very different. So the party set out, divided into two groups, one to fight off foulspawn and the other to track and hunt the beast itself. When it came at Lord Montoya and the others they realised this was no ordinary creature. At ten feet tall, and armed with vicious poisoned claws it was virtually impervious to their weapons and capable of killing a man in a single blow; its only weakness was an inability to see men if they stood still. With 30 stone of muscle, blood and hate running at them and tearing apart anything in its path, this was an extreme test of courage. Some tried to flee, some to kill it and others still to lead it away from the Moot ground. Lord Montoya himself stepped forward and took the trinket, whilst Kiril lead it a merry dance around the forest before silently slipping back to the Moot ground and leaving the beast to carve a swath through the foulspawn of the forest.
As evening approached the supplicants headed back and ate a hearty supper, drinking and toasting one another and the days success, when suddenly The Cult of the Dragon, lead by The Voice of the Children of the Dragon, Balion, appeared in the camp. They attempted to provoke the outlanders into fighting them, there on neutral ground. The Brehon himself had to step in to quash the chance of violence, eventually allowing a trial by single combat to take place between the fearless and renowned warrior Sir Ulrich, known throughout the world as “The Fist of Thales”, and the Cult’s champion a fearsome warrior with a blade nearly 6 feet long, and carved with patterns and runes.
Fearing trickery the supplicants did everything in their power to prevent damage, with the faithful lead by Sylvie, the Priestess of Rhiannon, blessing Sir Ulrich, and Kraken performing a ritual with the aid of the Dorandon mage to protect against magical attacks. But quietly Sirius, one of the supplicants’ healers, had been continuing an experiment shown to him by the Brehon and was able to enhance Ulrich’s already mighty abilities using secrets known, until then, only to Keltoi wise ones.
The Bard declared a fight to three blood-drawing blows; and immediately the Cult’s champion unleashed a powerful psychic attack stripping Sir Ulrich of his magical protections, but could do nothing to stop the force of the Powers guiding Sir Ulrich’s blows, nor the potion from Sirius from enhancing his abilities.
In the flickering torch light, surrounded by cheering and jeering onlookers the two men fought, the Dragon Child hefting his sword in mighty arcs, crashing down on Sir Ulrich’s shield. Blows that would have sent another man reeling had no affect and Ulrich was able, slowly but surely to gain the upper hand, landing a telling blow on the Champion’s arm, where blood fell freely onto the soil. The Champion was enraged, and bellowing a curse, leapt back to his feet raining blows quick and fast, trying to batter Sir Ulrich into dropping his guard. In an instant he had destroyed Sir Ulrich’s shield, but it didn’t matter, as Sir Ulrich was guided by the hand of Thales, and fought back, dropping the Champion to his knees. For a moment it seemed that surely Sir Ulrich would kill the man, just as the Champion would certainly have done if the roles had been reversed, but instead, Sir Ulrich made the third and final blow on the champions battered sword arm and the fight was over, the Black Rose had won, justice had been served.
The Children of the Dragon were livid, claiming all manner of reasons why they had failed to humiliate Lord Thomas and his men. In the ensuing stand off one of the Cult described Electra, most revered Power of passion, statesmanship and war as a “whore”. Unfortunately for the Cult member in question, he did it to the face of Honor, sworn knight of Electra. She wasn’t going to break the Moot terms but under other circumstances would have killed the man where he stood and so a staring match ensued that went on for so long that most of the camp turned in the for the night, leaving Balion, his Champion, Honor and Lord Montoya alone to sort it out amongst themselves.
Kraken, Von Schneller, a priest of Thales known as “he-who-will-not-die” and Sir Ulrich were having a quite drink together before heading bed when suddenly word came that Honor and Lord Montoya had been abducted. Hurriedly the three, by now quite inebriated men, donned armour, grabbed ritual materials and talismans and headed out to try and find them. Eventually they tracked down the Champion and found Lord Montoya and Honor had gone, apparently of their own volition, with the war witch. The Brehon, horrified at the action of his own people, informed Jack and the powerful Sidhe, Hunter, and asked for their help but neither could find any trace of the Witch, Honor or Lord Montoya. Von Schneller appealed to his power, Thales, lord of travellers and justice, for aid. But Thales himself could not find them, and so the three returned, dejected and afraid to see what morning brought.
The Brehon, Cullain, could not stop the trails but without their leaders the supplicants had to complete both the tasks set and find their Lord and his companion. Kraken performed a ritual of the All Seeing Eye, using Lord Montoya’s sword and found them to be close at hand, and with Von Schneller’s aid the supplicants went down the Dragon paths and found Honor and Lord Montoya, lying in the forest apparently unharmed except for a puncture wound in the back of the neck and little memory of the previous evening.
For the first Test of the day, the Brehon wished to see items crafted by the supplicants to prove culture and capability for trade. Friar Luca created a beautiful sculpture and presented it as a gift to the Keltoi nation, whilst Cornelius was able to show off a sword forged of pure Eog a magical material so tough that no mortal should be able to work it, as well as a staff he’d given to Kraken that was imbued with spiritual magics, and the Keltoi wise ones were truly impressed.
And so the trials continued, this time with a task to work as a team to take and then hold an area of ground. Unbeknown to the supplicants, they would face, not just foulspawn but magically enhanced trolls as well, and would have to sacrifice their spirit’s strength and magical abilities to a stone that would change colour as the task progressed.
In the fight that followed all members of the party fought, bled and suffered, with the Justrian Marlina and Dorondan mages both fighting creatures they could not hope to destroy to block foulspawn attacks, whilst Alisandro, a knight of Rhianos lead a troll off using only a staff to distract it long enough for the rest of the party to complete their tasks. The medics worked to keep everyone on their feet, Lord Montoya and his warriors fought hard and bravely and although all looked lost, and Montoya was close to conceding defeat, the attacks suddenly broke off and the test was passed.
Although bruised and battered, and all of them injured, the supplicants returned to camp, believing all to be well and the trials over.
But they were not, for one of the Druids, who had little love for the Black Rose and even less for all other Outlanders, had a final trial, this time of subterfuge – he tasked two of the supplicants, a fighter named Kalib and a tracker named Darak, to lure a Harangdon mage from the Ebone Kabal to the camp and kill him.
Before they could act however, Hunter, appeared through the Dragon Path and called Lord Montoya and his council together. He explained that the wise ones were still not happy with the mages, but that he had seen the fight in the take and hold victory, and was satisfied that they needed no further testing, and as such was struggling to find a suitable test when suddenly he became aware of a disturbance in the energy and declared that the shrine to the Sidhe outside the Moot ground was being desecrated and commanded that they should kill those responsible. Without hesitation they stormed out to the shrine, to find a group of men from School Town, who were followers of Rhiannon, or so they claimed, had tried to bless the Shrine and re-dedicate it to Rhiannon. Hunter cut into them, killing several including one dressed all in Black, whose robes had flames up it, and who, moments before being cut down, had screamed that Hunter was an Outsider to his men, commanding them to kill the “abomination”. Eventually peace was restored and the shrine re-dedicated to the Sidhe of the land, air and water but as atonement Hunter promised the spirits of 100 people from School Town.
Meanwhile Lord Montoya, not wishing to fight a war with School Town had travelled back with the surviving men. In his absence a second group of fanatics appeared, demanding the return of their dead. In the ensuing melee, Kraken was stabbed in the back repeatedly. Hunter subdued, but did not kill the others, and once Kraken was back on his feet, he conveyed a message to the School Towners that an attack on a Navigator would be met with force, unless he got an apology to the Sidhe for the initial act of desecration. Much of what happened next is lost in the fog of war but eventually Lord Montoya and his retinue re-appeared saying that the School Towners would leave a week for cooling off before acting but would not apologies for the damage they had caused. Eventually Hunter agreed to lessen his price and simply take those directly responsible for the attack, which he duly did after midnight, and as a result of which the Fife found itself at war with its new neighbour before it had even properly formed.
That night Kalib and his companion found their target and killed him, but in the process blew up the hut of justice in the moot ground which Friar Luca had to repair.
As the tasks were complete Lord Montoya turned his attention to recovering one of his servants, a man named Raoul, who had been tainted by the Outsiders and killed in a previous mission. Montoya wanted to go on a spirit quest to recover his spirit and send it to the powers, but accidentally found himself with far more people than he needed on the quest. Worse still Kraken, who was negotiating with the guardian of shadow spirits, Magda, managed to recover the spirit not send it on, meaning Raoul was restored to life, along with his taint.
On the final morning then the Wise Ones met to deliver their verdict, and by a vote of 3 to 2 allowed the tribe of the Black Rose to join the Keltoi nation and so, the first people from the mainland ever to successfully pass the Seven Trials.
With Montoya at their head the Tribe of the Black Rose set out to their new lands, already at war with their neighbours and with little to back them up except a stoic self confidence and their prayers
