Colonizing the Dark Continent (For Weiss Ritter)

[Xatarias]

Shen'ri quickly gets to work, shifting boulders and stacking logs into a makeshift fox hole. How much of an impediment the barricade would prove to a feral beastman was yet to be seen, but it was better than nothing. Milly wedges her blunderbuss between two rocks, stabilizing the veritable hand cannon for better accuracy. If anything had a sure chance of dropping one of your adversaries, it would be that weapon. Protecting your marksman during this fight would be key to victory, you realize. 


It doesn't take long for the savage Hillfolk to recognize the situation. You can feel them watching, considering the best line of attack as your party does its best to fortify the landscape.


Then suddenly, the time of preparation is over. A feral series of discordant howls breaks upon the air and large, shadowy figures lumber towards you in the distance. The vanguard of the pack approaches from the land approach. None seem willing to brave the stream, but you couldn't count on that for long. Out of the corner of your eye, you see Claire slink off behind a boulder just as three massive dogmen burst out into the open. Milly's weapon belches a gout of smoke. One drops into a tangled ruin, and the captain begins the arduous task of reloading.

 

[Weiss Ritter]

For a moment, Nathaniel wondered if the Hillfolk would pull back. Though Agatha had tortured and psychically sculpted them until only a savage beast bound to her will remained, these monsters that composed her legacy were anything but mindless.There was softer prey to be found than four entrenched combatants.


The feral howls ended that notion as half their number rushed forward to end the lives of he and his comrades. Milly dropped one of them almost immediately, but Nathaniel held both his breath and his fire as he aimed down his musket's sight. He couldn't risk this shot missing. The Hillfolk may have been broad targets, but they were swift and in their rage would almost certainly shrug off a less than lethal or crippling shot.


He waited until they reached the water, gambling that the current would be mighty enough to make them vulnerable targets. A shot rang out and another ball of lead was discharged too swiftly for eyes to follow, hopefully to find terribly purchase in Nathaniel's target.

 

[Xatarias]

(Precision roll: 9)


The movements of the hillfolk prove hard to follow as they bound through the stream, causing massive sprays of water on all sides. You hear the crack of Telai's musket and soon after, you squeeze the trigger of your own musket, wincing as the flint hitting striker casts a spray of sparks and smoke in your face. Your target lets out a yelp and submerges. You almost make the mistake of taking your eyes off of him when the beast resurfaces, roaring with defiance and continuing its charge towards you. Blood flows freely from a wound in its side, and some cool-headed portion of your mind makes the estimation that it wouldn't take much for you to dispatch your enemy.


The same can't be said for Telai's target. The amazon's shot must have gone wide, because the third Hillfolk puts on burst of speed, unimpeded now that it was free from the clutching waters of the stream. Telai rises from cover to stand in front of the still-reloading Milly, bayoneted musket braced before her. 

 

[Weiss Ritter]

Nathaniel exhaled a relieved breath as the monstrous Hillfolk cried out and fell beneath the rushing water. He'd practiced with firearms before and even seemed to possess some natural talent with them, but the young scholar was no jaded veteran capable of cooly noting every hit and miss with disciplined indifference. He almost glanced fully towards Telai and her opponent when the wounded but still raging beast lunged back out of the water, jaws and claws eager to rip and tear into his comparatively soft flesh.


Nathaniel rushed to meet it.


A melee with such a rabid pillar of muscle would normally have been daunting, but its wound was severe and the reach his bayonet-equipped rifle afforded him was respectable. If he could strike while the murderous beast was still caught up in the rushing water, Nathaniel was confident the advantage would outweigh the risk.

 

[Xatarias]

(Speed roll: 11. Strength roll: 8)


You skip over a gap between two boulders and plant yourself just as the wounded Hillfolk leaps, clawed hand swinging for your throat. Equal parts luck and reflex removes you from the path of the wicked swing, but the movement puts you off balance and your counter thrust is feeble as a result. The rabid creature bats aside your weapon and tries again to crush you with its massive paws. Your weapon clatters to the ground as you dive to the side, narrowing avoiding a fatal blow to your head. Your hand encloses on the hilt of you trusty rapier just as the beast turns to face you, mouth open in a feral snarl.

 

[Weiss Ritter]

Adrenaline raced through Nathaniel's body and his heart pounded with every step as he surged toward the savage Hillfolk. His foe might have been wounded, perhaps even fatally so, but rage and sadism seemed to be the only things Agatha had left the broken native capable of feeling. Its claws were deadly blurs of black only narrowly cutting through the air rather than the young man's flesh. The first slash ruined both his stance and what should have been Nathaniel's finishing blow, the second sent his bayonet-equipped rifle hurtling to the ground. Another set of claws passed just over his head, close enough that he could feel the wind it left in its wake passing through his hair, just as he recovered and dove to the side.


The Hillfolk lunged after its prey in an instant. There was no time whatsoever for Nathaniel to think or analyze his environment for soem crucial edge. His tumble became a roll that left him slightly less exposed while his hand reflexively darted for the weapon he was proficient with. A flash of steel despite the forest's oppressive canopy heralded the thrust of the Brightland scion's personal blade towards the Hillfolk's throat in a single, well-practiced movement.

 

[Xatarias]

(Precision roll:10)


You lunge is a pure mockery of the elegant poses you so carefully studied in your father's library, but even as you slip over the slick stones, the point of your blade finds purchase, sliding into the Hillfolks maw and puncturing out the back of its neck. Its body goes limp and you barely manage yank your delicate weapon free before it is wrenched from your grasp.


"N-nathanial!"


Milly's cry for aid is accompanied by a staccato of pistol fire as the buxom buccaneer unleashes shot after shot into the back of the beastman Telai is currently grappling with. She points as the creature falls, directing your attention across the stream where yet another trio of Hillfolk are fording their way towards you. Your company has spent most of its loaded firearms and there would be precious little time to rearm the flinlocks.... Maybe enough for Milly's half-primed blunderbuss.


A howl of outrage draws your gaze behind you where a blazingly fast Claire swarms up the back of Shen'ri, only to leap off into the face of another feral interloper. Something metalic flashes and the beastman howls out in fury and pain. The assassin had your flank guarded, but she wouldn't be able to help on your end without compromising your current formation.


"Give me some time!" Milly spits the words around a powder charge as she resumes loading a double-load of shot into her bulky weapon.

 

[Weiss Ritter]

(I'll edit if it poses a problem, but I checked and while I don't think I made an explicit sentence about Nathaniel changing out his ammo, his reaction to Milly's firm "request" makes me think he did. At least in hindsight...not 100% what was going through my head at the exact time I wrote that. >.<; )


Nathaniel would have winced at the almost hilarious lack of grace in his desperate thrust if doing so wouldn't be tantamount to suicide. It seemed so much...smother when he imagined performing the stroke! Still, it was difficult to feel anything but relief as his sword pierced straight through the roaring Hillfolk's maw and left a hole and corpse twisted in impotent rage once he narrowly wrenched his rapier back out.


Whatever sense of triumph the young man felt between heavy breaths was wiped away by the sound of Milly's shouting. He'd already imagined the worst and was visibly relieved when he saw both she and Telai were unharmed. The three remaining Hillfolk forcing their way through the water were a concern, but in truth he was just glad they hadn't been able to get through the current swiftly enough to properly flank them. Numbers were on the side of he and his comrades now even if they were low on loaded guns now.


"I think we can handle that..." Nathaniel said with more calm than he felt as he drew his pistol. From the start, Milly had insisted that he replace the non-lethal chemical round with a proper lead ball. Now it seemed she had been right to do so.


The young man advanced towards The Nameless that wasn't occupied by Shen'ri or Claire. His pistol would have been discharged at the hulking monster's center of mass, re-holstered, and followed up with a series of lunges that would hopefully prove more elegant and effective than the flailing he'd performed on unstable ground.

 

[Xatarias]

(What, you don't like the idea of hitting these guys with an aphrodisiac?  )


(Precision roll: 8)


Your shot takes the nearest Hillfolk in the gut, and the feral horror crumples beneath the water while his companions lurk nearer. Telai engages one, leaving you the other to contend with while Milly finishes the loading process. With luck, the blunderbuss's spread of fire would be enough to take out both of them at once.


(Speed roll: 5)


You try to cut off the beast's attempt to flank around your side, but as you shift stances, the furry marauder pounces! It was all a feint. Your slight frame hits the ground with a sickening thud as your opponent bears you down and grapples you. You just manage to press the heel of your hand under its jaw before those teeth can go for your throat. You strain against his hold, but you can feel the fire leaving your muscles with each passing moment. 

 

[Weiss Ritter]

(Ruan alone represents plenty of waifu-stealing Hillfolk action, thank you very much )


Nathaniel barely had time to even mentally swear as the Hillfolk's body smashed his across the hard earth, much less do anything save thrusting his arms up in the nick of time to stop the rabid dog-man from locking its powerful jaws around his neck.


"Ngh,...!"


The young man grunted and strained, his arms visibly trembling from the effort it took to hold his opponent at bay. Then a point-blank blast of raw psionic power was discharged at the Hillfolk's mind.


The beast was right up in his face. There would be no hiding or dashing out of range. Perhaps the demented strength Agatha had knowingly or unknowingly instilled in her "pets'" minds would ensure the attack hurt Nathaniel as much as the renegade Hillfolk, but he'd take a mental contest over a physical one any day. It wasn't as if he needed the broken creature to drop dead either. Nathaniel just needed enough breathing room get out from under it, perhaps assisted with a swift kick to the genitals, so he could finish the (hopefully) reeling Hillfolk off with his blade!

 

[Xatarias]

(Intellect roll: 13... I hope I gave you enough hints to expect what comes next)


You harden your consciousness as much as you can, bracing yourself for the inevitable plunge into the Hillfolk's mind. Breaking into the beast's consciousness, you are overwhelmed by the seething chaos of its demented psyche. You have tangled with chaotic minds before, but nothing like this thorny amalgam composed of brutal sadism and immense suffering. It's hard to know what is vital to the creature's functioning and what isn't. You strike again and again, seeking to inflict some meaningful damage. In the physical world, you squirm and writhe trying to escape its restricting death hold.


Suddenly something snaps inside the Hillfolk and it shudders, giving you the opportunity to slam a fist into its eye. The beast whimpers and you tumble from its grasp.


Springing to your feet, you brandish your rapier, but before you can go for the kill, the vision in your left eye clouds and an immense fatigue washes over you. Panic overtakes you as your movements become sluggish and half of your flickering eyesight blacks out all together!

 

[Weiss Ritter]

(I guess we will find out! Dun dun duuuuuuuuun!)


Nathaniel's expression tightened and he was only barely aware of the grunting and gnashing of teeth his body was subjected to while his mind grappled with the Hillfolk's on. He smashed through the beast-man's defenses just as planned, yet somehow his victory hurt worse than being repelled as he had minutes before! The young man felt his stomach twist and lurch even as he almost blindly lashed out at his enemy's exposed mind. Gods...everything in it was just...wrong. It wasn't even "just" a matter of the Hillfolk's mind being a warped and twisted parody of a once-noble creature that now existed solely to bombard him with as much hate and rage as possible. The snake he'd slain felt less utterly alien than this! What had Agatha done to these poor creatures...?!


The horror and questions it raised would have to wait, though. The desperate flurry of mental slashes finally seemed to hit enough of a nerve to force the Hillfolk back and expose its eye to his fist.


Nathaniel threw himself out from beneath the beast and rose semi-elegantly into a fighting stance with his rapier posed to deliver the coup de grace! The muscles in his arms tightened as he advanced a step and-


"Ngh...!" He twitched and then gasped as his vision clouded and invisible weights began to drag his body down. The disciplined stance he assumed faltered and cracked while the tip of his blade poked a slight trench through the ground rather than a gaping wound in the Hillfolk's chest and throat.


Oh gods...


Nathaniel's fully functioning eye widened and scanned over his opponent as quickly as his suddenly sluggish mind would allow. Agatha had bound these Hillfolk to her. He ended her life and thought he'd snapped the mental chains that bound them, but could such intricate psychic constructs really be discarded so easily? Had his flailing inside the broken Hillfolk's mind somehow reforged that demented connection at the worst possible time and in the worst possible way...?


"Kneel..." Nathaniel's command was both physically spoken and given psionically as he gestured with his rapier as threateningly as he could while blind in one eye and fighting to remain standing. He had to test this, he had to be sure...if he really was feeling everything the Hillfolk was, he didn't want to find out what would happen if he pressed his attack and tried to cut the creature down.


...Or worse: was stuck like this by the time Milly reloaded her blunderbass and rushed to "help" her struggling pretty boy...

 

[Xatarias]

You open the connection between your mind and that of the beast, seeking to impose your will on the creature. The command falls like a hammer blow and you feel the well-used mental circuitry of his conditioning flare to life. Slowly, jerkily the Hillfolk lowers himself into a kneeling position. Somewhere in the back of your mind, you hear Telai dispatch her opponent and Milly shouting for you to jump clear.


You sink deeper into Song, seizing upon the broken chains that previously bound Agatha's servent, marveling at their brutal efficiency, their intricacy. A link repaired here, and an adjustment there. What must only be milliseconds feels like hours as you revel in a mind utterly shaped for someone of your abilities to exert their dominance. The clumsiness with which you attacked Cynthia's goons now becomes apparent. Why settle for bursts of possession when there was this alternative? This was control, this was power!


Suddenly, something uncoils within the Hillfolk's mind and reaches out to you. So ensnared by Agatha's handiwork, you are unable to pull away, or maybe you don't want to. It slips inside and-


"Nathanial!"


Your vision snaps back into focus just as two rows of gaping teeth close towards your face. A massive explosion rocks you and the ferocious maw vanishes, the Hillfolk rendered nonexistent by the hellish hail of bullets discharged from Milly's weapon. The fighting must be over becomes Milly drops the firearm and wraps you in a tight embrace.


"Hells, pretty boy! What's wrong with you, standing there. My shot could have- hey, are you listening!?"


You register her words, fully realize the narrowness of your escape... But some part can't help feel but disappointed. Your control may have slipped for a moment, but you were actually doing it. The world was becoming a reflection of your mind's will! This was no paltry trick, but a supreme power just within your grasp. 

 

[Weiss Ritter]

Nathaniel exhaled a faint sight of relief as the savage Hillfolk knelt before him. He could feel the remnants of Agatha's conditioning stirring to life in the creature's consciousness. The physical world became more and more distant as the young man examined the false priestess's lingering handiwork in greater detail. Nathaniel thought he'd seen and understood the psychic bondage back in Agatha's lair, but only now did he realize that he had barely even scratched the surface of what she had done to her "pets"! When he "freed" the Hillfolk, he had only broken a few links in a magnificently depraved web of chains and fetters that seemed to spiderweb throughout every aspect of this one's consciousness.


...He could use this. Nathaniel would have to strip Agatha's techniques of the pointless cruelty he suspected they employed, but he could use this! No...needed to use. Even with Cynthia Lentani's tentative aid the force that could be marshaled behind him was likely the smallest in the known corners of the Dark Continent. Laughingwind had set the Forestfolk against him, Alestra made it clear that in the end she would rather kill him and throw his followers to the wolves before risking the Hillfolk, and the Syndicate's presence would be felt again in a matter of weeks...to say nothing of the ordeal Nathaniel would face once it was finally time to return to Avalon.


He needed this power. He needed the ability to turn the enemy's numbers against them. He needed to truly master the gift, not just settle for the scraps of knowledge fair-weather allies felt safe throwing him. Otherwise the Song would remain little more than a slight advantage for him, made novel only by the sheer power of his mind while enemies with years of proper training danced circles around him...


Nathaniel's grip on the psychic chains remained firm but some part of the intricate restraints slipped. It was almost too late by the time his body tensed and Nathaniel's grip on his rapier tightened before an explosion of lead shredded the lunging Hillfolk.


The young man blinked and stared with wide eyes, yet the world around him felt like a semi-lucid dream compared to the sharp detail of Agatha's mental masterpiece.


Milly's arms squeezing him tightly only barely shook Nathaniel out of his reverie. His first instinct was to place a hand over the eye that had failed him just before his forcible link with the Hillfolk. The experience had given him a better understanding of how such an impressive mental construct functioned, but it wasn't enough. Had his hypothesis been correct or not? Had his repairs to Agatha's fetters eliminated such an obvious downside to psychically conscripted soldiers? The young man certainly didn't feel like his body had just been riddled with the most powerful personal firearm available.


"I...yes, sorry..." Nathaniel looked up at Milly, his eyes still wide and a multitude of adrenaline-fueled emotions tugging on his expression. She could probably feel his heart beating like a drum against her breast. "Agatha's...handiwork was still in its mind. It came to life when I commanded the Hillfolk and...it was disorienting..."


He lied, in spirit at the very least. It probably wouldn't be possible to turn the Patron's private army against him, or even the Forestfolk and Hillfolk if either of their leaders pressed against him, without Telai and Milly knowing. Even if it was, Nathaniel didn't want to conceal something like that from them...but he remembered the horrified looks they gave him every time he used his powers in a meaningful way. The Lentani mercenaries, the snake...this wasn't a conversation he wanted to have with either of them now. Not until he was sure he could replicate Agatha's methods first...


"Is...everyone alright?"

 

[Xatarias]

A whimper draws your attention to Claire and Shen'ri. The odd duo have dispatched their opponents, but not without injury. Claire stares her dislocated arm with a detached evaluation for a few moments before wrenching the limb back in place with a sickening crack.


"They appear to have dispersed," Claire says, giving her arm few experimental rotations. A quick mental probe confirms her assessment. The remaining Hillfolk have fled the area rather than continue the fight. While you have thinned their ranks, from what you remember during the escape of Agatha's lair, the better part of a dozen remain. You get the eerie feeling that this won't be your last encounter with the savage beastmen.


Another whine draws your attention back to Shen'ri. You originally thought that his distress was out of concern for Claire, but one look at his fearful demeanor makes you reevaluate. A tentative psychic probe causes you to be rebuffed and the golden dogman slinks behind Claire, casting you an accusing stare. While you might be able to fool Milly and Telai with your explanation of what happened locking minds with Agatha's slaves, Shen'ri knows better and doesn't approve in the least. 

 

[Weiss Ritter]

Nathaniel glanced over Shen'ri and Claire with clinical concern. One of his hands reached down to his bag of medical supplies out of reflex, but one wince-worthy crack of bone later it seemed neither needed his assistance after all.


The golden furred native's wide eyes drew Nathaniel's gaze and warranted a slight but similarly concerned frown. He didn't seem to be significantly injured and Claire was...well, quietly horrifying as ever, but physically well. What was Shen'ri-?


The Hillfolk's psychic rebuff may as well have been a slap across the young Brightland's face. Nathaniel's head recoiled an inch or two and his eyes stared back into Shen'ri's. There was the faintest hint of surprise in his expression after the instant it took for him to connect the dots. Then the young man's jaw tightened and the movements he made as he turned back towards Newport more controlled and calculated.


"Let's get back to Newport before they regroup,"


He should have been feeling pride and relief right now. The momentary loss of control over the Hillfolk he'd linked with aside, Nathaniel thought he'd acquitted himself rather well during the battle. Perhaps even enough for Shen'ri to stop treating him like a fragile child in desperate need of a guardian...


Well, the imposing native wasn't looking at him like that now...and Nathaniel was hard-pressed to think of a worse way he could have achieved that. Yes, Shen'ri and his people had suffered terribly at Agatha's hands and it was probably a miracle as many of them retained their sense of self as they did once he freed them from her psychic fetters but...damnation, what did he want?! Surely he understood that Agatha was nothing more than the vanguard of what was to come! And now he was elevating a prized, utterly remorseless Lentani assassin over him?

 

[Xatarias]

Telai gives you and Shen'ri a funny look, clearly sensing something was amiss. She nods at your commmand and gathers her weapons. Everyone else soon follows suit and you make your way back to the coast.


The general mood of your party is low as you finally reach your fort on the outskirts of Newport. The men have obeyed orders and remained within its walls while you were gone and are eager to hear news of your venture. Shen'ri tumbles and tousles with the members of his pack while Telai confers with Drail and the rest of the company.


"I will be reporting back to Cynthia now." Claire says abruptly from behind you.

 

[Weiss Ritter]

Nathaniel exhaled a soft breath as soon as they reached the safety of the fort. Well...relative safety. He hadn't forgotten Thornpaw's mixed warnings and advice.


The sight of Shen'ri and his pack joyfully rushing to greet each other was a pleasant diversion. One that nearly teased a faint smile from Nathaniel. The native was probably going to tell his comrades what had transpired in the feral Hillfolk's mind, and perhaps they would begin looking at him with the same mix of fear and betrayal...but at least they had this moment.


"Good," Nathaniel glanced back at Claire. "I'll need to bring my expedition up to speed as well and determine how secure our position here is in light of these...developments. I will be along shortly if Miss Lentani wishes to discuss coordinating our efforts further,"


He was certain Cynthia would be. Newport itself may have been compromised now, and with it her gambit to claim a private fiefdom and the independence she craved. For now, though, Nathaniel was trying to brace himself for being the bearer of bad news. He doubted the soldiers would be thrilled at the prospect of an army of Forestfolk eager to reclaim their lost territory on the move...and Milly was going to be even less amused at the mere suggestion that they relocate into Newport and risk putting themselves even more firmly under Cynthia's heel.

 

[Xatarias]

The disappointment is evident on your crew's face when you give your debriefing. The men have been through a lot supporting your efforts on the Dark Continent, but with recent events, all of your gains have been reversed. The discontented grumbling only grows when you finally conclude with the evacuation of the fort. Telai tries to salvage what little moral remains by putting them to work, but it's impossible not to notice their downtrodden demeanor and general foot-dragging.


"They'll come around," Telai says to you after the meeting. "Luck comes to those who persevere, eh?.. Just try looking a bit less dejected around the men."


The words are gentle, but come with the hard sense of and experienced officer. Regardless of your dismal circumstances, the men needed to see a positive vision of the future lest their composure completely shatter.


Restoration of confidence would have to wait, however. You still needed to report back to Cynthia.


An aching feeling of dread fills the bottom of your stomach as you climb the stairs to the second story of the Skittering Crab. Making your way down the hall to your former office, you hear the ceaseless of scratching of a quill and the occasional shuffling of papers. The Lentani crime mistress doesn't even spare you a glance as you enter, focusing instead on the stacks of forms and correspondence littering your-her desk. Claire stands dutifully behind her employer, hands clasped behind her. The atmosphere is positively glacial.

 

[Weiss Ritter]

Nathaniel tactfully nodded at Telai's words. The idea that a leader had to look strong and composed before their subordinates was not exactly a novel concept to him. It was a universal ideal, one that could apply just as much to an emperor's court, a meeting of investors, or a general in front of their army. His own efforts to maintain a stoic and dignified air were rooted in more than just personal pride.


Still, the mercenary's words weren't uncalled for. Right now the most Nathaniel could manage was a visage of grim determination. It was the look an especially collected soldier might have while awaiting the order to charge across a killing field. Not undignified per se, but it was far cry from the serene expression implying that the scion of the Brightland clan had a perfect plan that wouldn't end in a bloodbath even if everything went according to his designs that Telai was probably hoping for.


It would have been hard to argue that Nathaniel's expression was a wholly in appropriate one as he slowly advanced up the steps towards Cynthia's office. His gut twisted with every movement. Logically, there seemed to be relatively little to fear. They were in the same metaphorical boat despite the tensions between their families, with a legion of Forestfolk hating them for their shared humanity on one side and a shadowy cabal that was as demented as it was power with no desire to share power or tolerate rivals that could be broken into slaves instead. Just how much choice and opportunity to harm him did the Lentani forces really have?


That was where his less logical imagination ran rampant. Being somewhat reasonable hadn't stopped Laughingwind from offering he and his people up as a sacrificial offer to benefit her own agenda. From what the Song had shown him of the Patron's...hobbies, Cynthia and Claire risked suffering even more than he did if they fell under that monster's power. Would all of this be enough to compel even Cynthia to flee this frontier? Was it possible she might even offer him up to the Syndicate in some Machiavellian bid to maintain her position? Neither possibility seemed likely...but just how many unpleasant surprises that came within hairs of dooming him had he endured since he came to this dark continent?


"Miss Lentani," Nathaniel said with a polite nod. The silence was broken even if the tension and silence were not.

 

[Xatarias]

The scribbling continues for a few moments before Cynthia finishes her writing with a flourish and hands a stack of letters to Claire.


"Claire, I want these on the fastest schooner in harbor. Offer the Captain whatever it takes to get him to sail by next morning. We won't have the luxury of regular passage back East in the foreseeable future."


The maid leaves you and the silence resumes. Just when your self-control is almost at a breaking point, the Lentani sets aside her quill and eyes you over folded hands.


"You have some explaining to do," She says with a tone that holds the promise of violence. Cynthia has always appeared polished and composed, if deadly. But in this moment, you detect contained fury within the self-declared mayor of Newport. Claire no doubt briefed her on your recent run-in with Laughingwind and the closing of Forestfolk territory to all humans. You expected her to be disappointed, but this... This is frightening.

 

[Weiss Ritter]

Whatever faint curiosity Nathaniel felt towards Cynthia's scribbling faded the moment she looked at him. Was she really blaming him for this? The Lentani directing whatever violent urges she felt towards him would have been an utter disaster but the first emotion that stirred within him was anger rather than fear.


"Agatha-the Syndicate's agent- did more damage with her assassination than I thought," Nathaniel's stared right back at her, his tone stern and measured. He was not in the mood to prostrate himself literally or figuratively before  anyone else simply for being the bearer of bad news. "The Forestfolk are a relatively recently formed confederation of tribes, and some of them were displaced from the woods near the coastline when Newport was founded. The chieftain she murdered and mutilated was able to make them tolerate that enough to negotiate with us."


Nathaniel's jaw tightly in a barely noticeable way as he began to pace in front of Cynthia, his arms crossed over his chest. "I met his granddaughter and designated heir on one of my first expeditions into the forest. She led me to believe she wanted to soothe the tensions between our people. Instead, she had a...gifted elder conceal a small army of Forestfolk warriors from me while we spoke and marched us into her tribal address so she could maintain the confederation's unity by setting them against us. She has been enthusiastically accepted as their new chieftain and while she claims to not truly hate us, she wants us and the rest of Newport gone from this continent."


"The one silver lining is that their warchief seems to believe that Agatha was just one agent of a larger organization that is far from done with these lands. He was a contender for the position of chieftain before, but after the speech Laughingwind gave I'm not sure how much direct help he will be able to offer. He's advised that my expedition pull back from the fort to avoid provoking the Forestfolk. At least for the few weeks Agatha claimed it would take my "replacement" and whatever forces they bring to arrive."

 

[Xatarias]

"You failed to mention the part where instead of offering reassurances, you took some sort of noble stance of principle and refused to make nice. You might not realize this, boy, but without the jumpers, Newport is just a jumble of salty shacks infested with ruffians and whores. What sort of commodities will be exporting now that you've severed us from the only people with the means and knowledge to extract anything of valuable from this gods-forsaken place?"


Cynthia quivers in an uncharacteristically outward display of anger.


"Did it not occur to you to tell them what they wanted to hear? Gods, Nathanial, what do you think you do when faced with a superior faction that has something you want? Beg. Grovel. Kowtow! Who gives a damn if we have to hug some sacred tree so long as the silk gets traded and my ports grow rich?"


"All you had to do was retain the barest of relations with them and entropy would do the rest. Two years of trade and the jumpers would be utterly addicted to goods from the west. They'd be under our thumb and both of our fortunes would be made! Maybe if you focused less on this farcical notion of a psychic boogeyman, you'd spend less time beseeching savages and actually act like a gods-damned Avalonian!"


A violent flourish causes one of the numerous letters to fall on the floor. You recognize the brightland crest embossed in wax for a split second before Cynthia's foot snakes out and obscures the writing.


"We're done here. I'm evacuating all critical personnel to my fortress. I suggest you do the same. Fair warning, though, if you seek lodging on my island, expect the rent to be steep."

 

[Weiss Ritter]

For a moment, Cynthia's words gave Nathaniel genuine pause. Just what had been the opportunity cost of his refusal to truly submit to the authority of Laughingwind's council? Would it have really changed anything? The squirrel maiden probably arranged for those warriors and the psychic to be at their "negotiation" well before they actually started talking. At the very least, she probably would have made good on those demands for tribute/reparations, but even if she didn't believe his claims about the Patron, was it possible that Laughingwind just might have been more receptive to being convinced or at least heeding words that would make preparations easier?


The moment of introspection passed the moment Cynthia mentioned money being made in "her" ports. That was what all this was about?


The change in Nathaniel's expression was subtle at first, but it only grew tighter and more strained with each passing second. As far as he could tell, while he and his expedition had been risking their lives to explore the Dark Continent, she had been lounging in her well-furnished island fortress ordering shipments of beer. If she was so concerned for the deal, so eager to beg the Forestfolk for trade, perhaps she should have come along for the negotiations rather than sending an assassin whose best advice was "take hostages". It must have been so easy for her to talk about throwing aside notions of basic dignity and justice while she smugly counted the imaginary fortune his effort might have made her. 


That was all just gut-reaction. Relatively minor flares of irritation that the logical part of his brain recognized might have had little basis in reality. He wasn't kept appraised of her activities before or after discovering the Lentani presence in these lands, and Nathaniel knew better than most how much work the thoughts behind her near-constant writing could truly be.


But something broke in his eyes when she dismissed the Patron and the Syndicate as figments of his imagination. The woman with a psychic assassin at her right hand, one apparently conditioned to be an inhuman killing machine, did not believe it was possible for someone to use such gifts to amass power and influence...? Gods damn it! He thought she might have been reliable if only out of self-interest. But no...now that the chips were down, she was no better than the "savages" Laughingwind led.


All the memories game surging back to Nathaniel at once. His head pounded as if someone had just taken a hammer to it. Living through the Patron's atrocities, waking up night after night terrified that it wouldn't be him in his own body anymore if the Song struck just a bit harder, nearly losing Telai to Agatha's sadistic madness, nearly being kidnapped and...broken into something like the false priestess, watching every thing he'd tried to build here fall apart while her specter laughed from beyond the grave...


He wanted to shove it all into Cynthia's mind. To see how keen she was to lecture him when she had to actually live through it all, to make her and everyone else who just dismissed him as a weak, stupid child who stuck his nose into too many books to understand...!


Nathaniel audibly grunted and twitched as the pain intensified. The young man wasn't sure how much of it was mundane stress and how much of it was actually the song at work, but for a moment he could see the memories play out before him all at once and feel his consciousness churning like a cauldron about to boil over.


Nathaniel's eyes flickered over the letter marked with his family's crest. They narrowed in suspicion, but he said nothing.


"I'll take my chances in Newport," His tone was strained. All those thoughts were still raging in his mind. There was so much more he wanted to say, but...if he wouldn't beg or kowtow, the least the Brightland scion could do was not burn bridges behind him.


"Goodbye and good luck, Cynthia," Nathaniel was eager to leave. He wouldn't have pressed a hand to his pounding forehead until he was out of the Lentani and her agents' sights. He had...preparations of his own to begin making. The confrontation with Laughingwind had already pushed him this far, but this...chat with Cynthia erased the lingering doubts. He'd had enough negotiating from positions of weakness. From crawling to Alestra in the hopes she would help him master the Song rather than kill him, to Cynthia taking Newport and future tribute from him as "taxes", and finally seemingly everyone on this frontier knowing more about the Song and the powers it offered than him...

 

[Xatarias]

"H-hey! Watch where your truckin' or I'll put a bullet in your arse!"


You exit the inn to find Milly in the street dodging around a stream of traffic. Carts, livestock, and travelers of all kinds are moving towards the coast in a milling, chaotic mass. The pirate captain fights her way through the tangle, finally reaching you on the Skittering Crab's porch.


"What in hells is going on? I came to check up on you and this lot just started breaking for the docks. You'd think someone lit a fire in town... You alright?"

 

[Weiss Ritter]

The pounding in his head died down by the time Nathaniel stood in the streets of Newport and he'd composed himself accordingly. The raw anger was fading now that he was no longer stuck in the room Cynthia had taken from him at gunpoint and giving him a thorough dressing down.


...Poor choice of words.


Regardless, he had plans to make now.Milly had berated him the last time he let the seemingly impossible situation they were in overwhelm him. She had been right to do so. Nathaniel had yet to meet a mind that could surpass his in raw potential. It was just a matter of securing the right tools for the job and being willing to make the right sacrifices...


The young man jumped a bit when he heard the buxom buccaneer call out to him. He wanted to look happy to see her, but couldn't quite manage it with such heavy thoughts running through his mind.


"I'm fine," It was an obvious white lie. "Cynthia is relocating all of her 'critical' personnel to her fortress now that she's learned how the...negotiation with the Forestfolk went. She's even willing to let us come along...for a steep rent,"


Nathaniel gave Milly a chance to react. He suspected she would be even more leery of the idea than he.


"I'm not inclined to accept if we can help it, but we'll need to speak with Telai and the soldiers before we can do anything,"


Nathaniel had ample reason other than pride to be reluctant to relocate to Cynthia's fortress. It would put them thoroughly under her heel, almost certainly bleed dry what resources the expedition still had, would allow whatever forces his Syndicate replacement brought along to occupy Newport without struggle, and any attempt to retreat from the island would be utterly dependent on whatever ships were docked at the time. He could only Telai and the soldiers under her command would both agree with the logic and be similarly leery of allowing the mercenaries they had traded fire with only a few days ago lord over them.

 

[Xatarias]

Milly frowns, clearly not taking your assurances at face value. Your assessment of shacking up with Cynthia, however, she embraces wholeheartedly.


"I'll take a thousand rabid jumpers over that bitch any day," She says with customary bravado. "But when she said "necessary" personnel, I doubt she meant half of the blasted town. There are going to be a lot of desperate people looking for passage out of here and they're not likely to get it. We might want to make ourselves scarce."


The crack of a discharging musket punctuates the captain's assessment of the situation. Milly unholsters two of her numerous pistols and jerks her head in the direction of your fort.


"No time like the present, pretty boy."


People seem to be too preoccupied with the hectic circumstances to pay you much notice. Either that, or Milly's brandishing of weaponry persuades them to steer clear. You arrive back at the fort in short order where Telai stands addressing the crew, many of whom carry bulging haversacks.


"-don't make me bring your contracts into this. You know what will happen with desertion on your records. You won't find honest work again with my word against you. Don't do this Drail."


The grizzled mercenary looks pained addressing his superior, but stands his ground all the same.


"We didn't sign on for a war, Lieutenant. You and the Master have done right by us, but staying here is suicide. I'm no coward, but I'm not staying onto an expedition that promises naught but weeks of battle."

 

[Weiss Ritter]

Milly's endorsement of his decision managed to make one of his lips twitch upward in the faintest hint of a smile. It didn't last as a musket discharged in the air and the entirety of Newport trembled from the chaos.


"...What did Cynthia tell them?" Nathaniel suddenly frown, his eyes narrowing a bit. If he and his expedition were suddenly scapegoats for all of this...that was going to complicate things. He wouldn't have put it past the Lentani to try and force his hand like that, as much out of pragmatism as spite given how their last discussion went.


Whatever had transpired, the people of Newport paid them mercifully little mind. The trip back to the fort was so uneventful Nathaniel almost made the mistake of getting his hopes up.


The soldiers waiting at his for were a more disciplined picture of Newport. Many, perhaps even most, of them stood with their belongings packed. Telai couldn't cow them. He couldn't blame them...not really. Nothing on this gods-forsaken continent had gone according to the plans made back in Avalon. Even if he could guaranteed that a war and weeks of battle would not happen if they followed him, Nathaniel would still be asking them to cross swords with at least one gifted individual, the forces that they brought with them, and whatever wrath the Syndicate was inclined to muster even after that.


"Lieutenant, Drail, gentlemen," Nathaniel offered each of them a polite nod as he took his place at Telai's side. "Newport is in chaos, the Lentani are pulling back to their island and will be charging a heavy rent from those of us they allow to stay there, and I suspect the townspeople are fighting over what room remains on the ships currently docked if that gunfire is any indication,"


Nathaniel paused to take a breath and let his words sink in, possibly backed up by a few conveniently timed muskets discharging.


"You're correct that when your contracts were signed none of us imagined things getting this dire in our darkest dreams. A war may not be as certain as you believe, however. The Forestfolk chieftain wants us gone, not dead. She made it clear she understands that a proper evacuation will take time, which she is willing to give us. The assassin who started all of this gave me reason to believe she expects reinforcements loyal to her employer will arrive here in a few weeks. At least one of them will likely have abilities similar to my own. I intend to remain here to face them. I doubt they will give me any other option."


"Right now, it seems to me that your choices are to fight your way through Newport and hope everyone there isn't desperate enough to overwhelm you for you place on the ships and accept whatever repercussions this will have on your careers if you survive that, or you can hold our position in either this fort or Newport long enough to deal those reinforcements. If their force is relatively small, then we may engage them on even footing. If they are large, then they will be living proof of everything I tried to warn the natives about and the bulk of whatever fighting transpires is unlikely to fall upon you...assuming there is nothing stopping you from evacuating by that point as well. It may take time, but there should be other ships coming than those currently docked. Word will not spread across the seas of Newport's current state overnight."

 

[Xatarias]

(Charisma roll... I guess?: 8)


"Says you! Seems to me like that Lentani woman would give first passage to those handy with a musket."


The shout comes from the back. When everyone looks at the speaker, he shies back.


"Just saying, is all," the mercenary mutters, "I didn't come here for a war with squirrels an' magicians."


Many of the other men murmur their ascent. It's clear that your employees are at a breaking point. Your alliance with Cynthia, tenuous as it may have been, was a major factor in the company's confidence in persisting on the mainland. It doesn't take a psychic to recognize the worry and fear present in each of these hardened soldiers. Battle was something they all had faced, certain death was what they were trying to avoid now. As more than half of them push past you, it becomes clear that your appealing to logic and reason wasn't inspiring anyone.


"Drail, I swear to the gods above..."


The conviction has left Telai's voice at this point. Drail and a handful of others remain at the fort's entrance, still agonizing over the choice at hand. A skilled orator might salvage the situation... And if that failed, the threat of crushing their careers might induce some motivation. A few letters home would be all it took to ensure these men were never employed in Avalon again.

 

[Weiss Ritter]

(It was worth a shot! )


Nathaniel's jaw subtly clenched a the bulk of his expedition abandoned him as well. The appeal to logic in the face of such demoralizing adversity was a desperate one, but it had seemed the only card he had left. What else was there? Patriotism? Not with mercenaries. A big payday at some nebulous point in the future? They didn't need Madam Lentani's business savvy to guess at what the Forestfolk just did to his profit margins barring some hypothetical future where he won this private war with the psychic "magicians" in such a way that Laughingwind changed her mind. Really, he'd half-expected the soldiers to desert him anyway...and between the Forestfolk and Alestra's confession, the young man was starting to get used to such things.


"Drail, you know I'm not an armchair general asking you and your comrades to do something I don't have the courage to do myself," Nathaniel turned to face the few remaining mercenaries. They could either look him in the eye or avert their gaze while they mumbled their excuses. "If I fail here, this entire continent is going to become the personal property of a psychic psychopath, and if I'm lucky I will 'merely' be killed. If not...they almost certainly intend to break me into being a replacement for Agatha."


The young man took a slight and barely noticeable breath to steady himself. "I can't allow my family to be blindsided this 'Syndicate' if they haven't already begun moving against the Brightlands in retribution. I will have to write home, Drail..."


The note of apology in Nathaniel's tone was a sincere one. Destroying these men's careers would have been a useless and spiteful gesture if the threat of it failed to intimidate them. It might have even been worse than that, if the Syndicate was ready to receive their talent and intelligence regarding his position with open arms. But if these men valued their lives so much more than his that they were willing to desert in spite of his assurances, what right did they have him to risk his family?