lydamorehouse | A Change of Heart? (Reply)

As a player I am now facing the Big Bad without any rages left! It should be fun next time. I will probably die! Wish me luck.

But, the story continues, thusly, with Idyril having yet another complication to his Big FEELINGS around the war brewing with the Fey.

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February 1

Beneath the Sloshing Boot

Brendelfort, Kingdom of Shira

Dear Ave, my sister,

I have exhausted my rage.

I would have thought that this wellspring of anger was bottomless, but it seems not so. As my blade clove through the last of the hideous, malformed Fey-Infernal hybrids, the Soul Suckers, I felt the white hot ire leave me. I feel nothing now--nothing beyond a cold and empty soberness. I couldn’t summon even a drop of the battle madness when we accidentally awoke the Soul Spinner. Nay, I faced that creature clear-eyed and without the strange Fey powers I’ve been manifesting around me. And so it seems, I must continue this way.

Perhaps the blinding fury will return to me no more.

Maybe that’s a good thing.

Let me explain.

After our near-arrest, we brought eight of the City Guard to the Sloshing Boot. A deep and thorough investigation of the premises commenced. A hidden escape hatch was found in Riccardius’s chambers that led to the roof--most likely his means of escape, as it overlooked an alleyway behind the tavern.

Leaving the guard to the tavern proper, the majority of the party continued to explore. In the cellar, Grigor found a corked bottle containing a clawed finger and an eyeball, which Papa Bernard later identified as being of an Infernal nature. Whether it is a potion or a weapon, we still don’t know, though Grigor keeps it upon his person, even now. Papa hisses at it and exclaims, “Witch!” whenever he sees it, but I am beginning to suspect this simply means “bad,” just as “squirrel,” seems to have many meanings.

A hidden staircase led us deeper underground. Going deeper and deeper below ground, we discovered some clerical robes of some kind. It seems the Queen Below is gathering members for some kind of cult worship. That we found enough for all of us to go in disguise is perhaps a bad sign, as it may be an indication of numbers.

In another chamber we met up with two former friends. At least, we recognized Jackson, one of the bouncers from the Sloshing Boot. I was not close to Jackson, as I preferred the company of Aiyu, but he was a familiar enough face ~~though I would have sworn his name was Bob.~~ Friends became enemies as they rushed to battle us, but we managed to defeat them without killing them. We took the time to remand them to the custody of the guardsmen that stayed at the tavern above. As we hauled them out, Nerys and Grigor asked Jackson why he would betray the Prime Material. He had only one answer: “There’s no point. She will be victorious.”

The Queen Below.

Now, in my newly sobered state, these words haunt me. Initially, while still in the thrall of the blood madness, I didn’t fear this outcome. However, that was before we met the Soul Suckers and the like. These creatures I mentioned above, Ave, they were once Fey. I can only presume Bedeview the Black, at the behest of his Queen, mutated and perverted them into the hideous, pitiful things with which we grappled.

As you know, I am of a very divided mind when it comes to an UnSeelie Queen’s desire to rule some portion of the Prime Material.

For my money, the Fey have as much right to do so as any army has to hold a colony in a foreign land. UnSeelie or Seelie, it matters not to one such as I, raised in a court of secrets and twilight. But those thoughts, even complicated as they were by my friendships and loyalties to this land, were easier to entertain before I saw these creatures who were once Fey.

It makes me angry to see anything Fey twisted so.

I knew that some of the previous fey folk we fought had been experimented on, but the turning point for me was when Papa Bernard called upon his Ancient Gods to give him visions of undead or infernal… and he could not see these creatures. Despite the awful experimentation, they were more Fey than anything else. That was the moment I had an epiphany.

Now that I have the ability to think clearly, I realize that what I am loyal to above all else is the Fey.

A Queen who would pervert the Fey is no Queen of mine.

If Bedeview is acting on his own, the Queen Below could still hold my favor. But, if she sanctions this in any way, I can not brook with it.

Your no longer raging, but still angry brother,

Idyril