The witnesses were two small children. They had told their mother they had seen the Ice Witch being taken by two men in dark clothing. Maddox knew this to be a local bandit leader, the leader of a rebel faction to the queen, however it seemed likely they were referring to Elsana, being taken by the two Black Cloaks. Captain Egusta was present at the scene and again spoke of her fear that the poisons had set this up and were probably lying in wait for the priestess and her captors.
The party followed the tracks out of town and after a short ride came across two huge catlike animals on the road, appearing to be sniffing at something on the floor. Maddox used magic to distract one into the bushes where they planned to ambush it, but then they heard whimpering from whatever the cat--now identified as a Kotka--was sniffing at. They ran forward to take on the beast, and after defeating it, faced the other one as it came back to the path.
Wulf saw that the things on the floor were bodies, and during the fight approached. It was the two Blackcloaks, and one appeared to still be alive, the one was clearly dead. He approached the one still alive, and attempted to staunch his bleeding but failed. Before he died, the man told him that the murderers came from "The Trout" and that they now had Elsana.
The fight was tough but the party prevailed. After, they investigated the scene. Both bodies had been garrotted, and it appeared that four people had been involved in the killing. Now two tracks (possibly a man and a woman) led back to Prios Pass, but into the undergrowth, and three went further along the path. It appeared to be two men and a woman. The dead woman had a bloody rag in her hand, and it didn't appear to be her own blood. Wolve seemed interested in the scent.
They decided to head back to town first, as it wasn't far, and they could go check out The Trout inn to see if it took them to the murderer. Wolve picked up on the scent and led them to a woman behind the bar, one of three people working there. There was also a shifty looking man with lots of scars. It was closing time now so most people had left. The woman refused to talk when questioned about what had happened on the road, but she didn't look shiftily at the other man, who told the party to leave. Wulf was not one to be intimidated, so punched the man. The man pulled out a knife and stabbed Wulf hard with it, however, the woman realised they wouldn't win a fight, not if Lanky got involved, and told her friend to put his knife away. Wulf still chose to stab him in the foot to make a point in revenge. The man rolled around the floor, writhing in pain.
The woman said she would tell everything she knew, if the party promised they wouldn't harm her. Maddox assured her they would not. She said her name was NAME, and that her and her associate Olly were agents for the Realm of Order (the country to the South West who's citizens chose no to come to Ambria, but to create another country as they still followed The Many). Her job was to send people to the Realm instead of Ambria, and sometimes to carry out assassinations. In this instance, one of the top men in the Realm, Father Orun, a warrior monk, had contacted her, giving her a location to setup an ambush on the road, to kill any blackcloaks and help liberate the prisoner. She also knew that Orun was responsible for the poison.
Her and Olly had assisted Orun and another monk with the murders and all had gone to plan. Orun and his friend had taken Elsana to the nearby rebel bandit camp to led by the Ice Witch, who was allowing them to stay due to their joint hatred of the queen. They would lie low there for a week or so before heading back to the Realm of Order, with the plan to instate Elsana as head of their church. She gave the party directions to the camp.
They were ready to hit the road, but before they did, Maddox informed the rangers of the two traitors at The Trout, and they were dragged out screaming and cursing Maddox. Maddox was paid 100 thaler on the spot. The gallows was all that awaited for them now. The party then spoke to the captain, who praised them for the findings, and reiterated that the poisoners had to be bought to justice--the 2 warrior monks. She was not bothered about Elsana; the party could do with her as they pleased. Egusta then gave them an eagle who could carry a message back to Prios Pass. She told them to scout out the rebel camp and come up with a plan. She was happy to lend support of the rangers once they were done with securing the town from the angry refugees who were now assaulting the gate. The party would need to send word back to her via the eagle, and she would reply. She said this would be a good excuse to get rid of the pesky camp once and for all (it was just one of many belonging to the Ice Queen, but the largest one one).
On the way back out of town they were approached by two other groups; both the fallen knights and Lestra of the Blackcloaks offered support. The knights offered themselves along with some hired soldiers, on the condition that they got to slaughter Elsana. Lestra offered a number of men from the Monastery of the Twilight Friars, if Elsana could be returned to their custody. The party decided it would be best to only rely on the rangers, and that a good plan would be to kill the monks for the rangers, then attempt to liberate Elsana. They weren't really sure if Elsana was happy to have been taken by the monks or not though, so the situation was not fully clear.
They found the camp easily enough. It was in a basin between mountains on all side, approached through a ravine that headed through a cave, then up to a stone wall that was manned by five guards at all time. The rest of the camp was surrounded by mountains and cliffs. They decided it was better to get on the mountains rather than approach the main gate, and Maddox used his magic again to help everyone get up safely. They saw the following things:
- About 25 armed bandits, and 8 jaakars patrolling
- Several older people and children
- A number of makeshift tents
- More permanent wooden structures, including a larger one that appeared to be for some sort of chief man
- A round wooden structure by a lake, with two men in robes (presumably the monks) taking it in turns to guard
- By the wooden structures, a man spitting in some food before taking it to the monks
- Farming areas crops
- A stables
- A mountain goat pen
They came up with a plan. They would tell the rangers to attack at dawn in two days' time. Lanky and Maddox would support the attack by firing into the backs of the defenders as they manned the gate. Wulf would fire on the monks at the same time. The eagle was sent with the plan and the next morning it came back. The rangers agreed, but said they wouldn't need help at the gate, however the party thought this would still be prudent.
At dawn, the rangers came on time and as they charged at the gate, the bandits rushed to defend it. Lanky fired arrows into the defender's backs, whilst Maddox used his magical powers. It was a good strategy, and they managed to do a lot of damage whilst remaining undetected. The ranger attack was going well.
At the same time, on seeing the attack, the two monks--and Elsana who now came out of the building--started running towards Wulf's vantage point, even though they hadn't appeared to have seen him. He managed to hit one of the monks a couple of times, revealing himself, but then they were climbing up the cliff at great speed, the elderly Elsana surprisingly not far behind. Wulf threw some rocks down to slow them, and even sent the eagle, but before he knew it, they were upon him with the large double-headed battle axes. Maddox and Wulf rushed back to support their friend.
Elsana was a powerful mystic, and created a spectral guardian to protect her and the monks, which did some nasty damage to Lanky. She had a few other offensive spells (spiritual weapon was used first) as well as healing magic. In order to stop her, after all but killing one of the monks, Wulf--who was close to going down--grabbed her and dived of the cliff, using her as a protective shield. He ended up unconscious, but it proved critical as she struggled to climb back up the slope to help the monks. Meanwhile, Lanky was getting a pasting from Father Orun, and after a massive hit went down himself, though not after he'd dealt some damage himself.
With both his friends down, fortunately Maddox managed to slay Father Orun. This was enough to cause Elsana to surrender. She was upset and angry at the death of the monks. It appeared she had agreed to go to the Realm of Order with them--in fact it was her will to do this. Maddox said their deaths were necessary as they were murderers; they had caused the deaths of many back at the refugee camp. Elsana argued that it was for the greater good, but she knew it was a poor excuse for their actions.
The party agreed to let her go to the Realm, but mentioned to her the plans of Father Sarvola to reform the church and the role of Prios that they'd learned from Huberdo. She was intrigued by this and interested. She agreed to meet with Huberdo to see what exactly he the Reformists were planning on doing.
The battle that had been raging down in the camp was now over. In the end, the forty rangers had proved too strong for the rebels and it had been a brutal massacre. Egusta thanked the party once more and gave them their reward money. She was happy that the murderers had been brought to justice.
In the days that followed, Elsana spoke with Huberdo and agreed to join with the Reformists. He convinced her that Queen Korinthia would ultimately support their reforms, and that secretly, it was what she wanted. The party had therefore made good friends with the Reformists, and had put themselves into the queen's good books as well. They were also well liked by Egusta and her rangers.
However, they had made a few enemies in the process too. The Black Cloaks had another reason to oppose the party after they had not handed Elsana back into their custody. The Realm of Order would not be happy losing their potential new figurehead, however it was too far away to likely have an impact on the party. The Ice Witch now harbours a large grudge against those who participated in the destruction of her largest rebel camp. But worst of all, the Fallen Templars now swore an oath to kill Lanky, Wulf, and Maddox, who they now saw as traitors to Dead Prios, for not killing Elsana when they had the chance.
Back at Thistle Hold Hurst showed his appreciation for all the party's hard-work by getting The Returners master artificer to create a piece of magical equipment for each of them.