RP Session 1: "A Hart's Errand"

Jun 1, 2025 9:26 am

Breuddwyd sighed like a sad wind through the bare branches of a tree that wouldn't survive to see another spring.

"Subtlety first, if you please," he softly cautioned the bellicose lancer, looking hopefully to Aeric. He hoped the more cunning negotiator's wounds wouldn't keep him from a bit of healthy social manoeuvring. "Bloodshed benefits no one. We are a patrol now, remember, and nothing more. We belong here but they might also hold such a claim. Be assertive and alert but bored below that, as though you've faced just such a confrontation a hundred times before." He showed Lancaelad a smile that was meant to be encouraging but it seemed a caged and wounded thing instead, forced to entertain its enemies with its final breaths. "Think of it as a game. A ... tilt or a friendly duel. And you only win if you keep up the charade."

He glanced around at the vegetation and decided there was little risk in wielding his magic, if it came to that. Sadly, the horses ridden by the humans would likely risk broken joints if they sprinted off between the trees. He thought briefly of his middle sister Dyddanwy, of how decisively she might deal with errant wanderers through the woods, no matter what banner they bore.

"Flight is preferable to fight here. I shall cripple their wagon, if it comes to that," Breuddwyd assured the others, tugging his detestable hood down further to better conceal his fey features. "See that it doesn't."

**We will meet. With this caravan.** he told the druid. **Don't break character. Until you must.**

Jun 1, 2025 9:28 am

**Until I must,** Tovrunn silently agreed. Spurring her horse forward to Aeric's side, she gently laid a hand on his arm as her other formed a strange symbol. Speaking under her breath in her native language, a spell flared and then settled about the young nobleman like a barely visible mantle. "May Erik guide you as he guides the fox from the hunter's maw," she said, lifting her hand away. "For like the fox, guile and cunning are what will keep us unmarred. Seconded perhaps by speed."

Joining her betrothed, she gives the knight a soft smile and a shrug. "Who knows? Perhaps Aeric knows them. Not all who occupy this forest mean us harm," she reminded him.

Aeric Oerendiel

Jun 1, 2025 9:29 am

"My thanks, Torvunn." smiled Aeric cordially as he realised Torvunn's assistance. "Yet we have a long road ahead. Should guile and cunning fail us, have faith in your betrothed." he replied, before adding "Recent events have made us suspicious of our own shadows. With any luck, these may be simple villagers."

Nevertheless, Aeric remained uneasy behind his calm demeanor, and scanned the wagon and the villagers warily to check for any potential oddities - such as the villagers being unusually muscular or scarred, before making contact. He also tries to get a glimpse of the wagon, worried by the possibility of mercenaries waiting for ambush inside.

Jun 1, 2025 9:30 am

Holding their path with forced ease the trepidatious nobles drew to the side of the hard-packed road as first a pair of draft horses, and then a sturdy wagon with great slabs of wheels filled with stacked logs rounded the bend. A trio sat at the front on a crude bench, and a dozen more men walked alongside the vehicle and its groaning cargo. Snatches of their low song could be heard as they advanced.

"For the sake of her parents, the girl did assent
To smile at merchants and scholars and lords
But beneath all her smiling her sweet heart was bent
On the goodly young man who comes from the woods.
When the dancing was done, then she did hear his call
So without a candle she crept from her bed
There under the moonlight in his arms she did fall
And then by the morrow they knew they would wed."

The clink of harness and tread of hooves added an odd percussion to the song as the procession rattled and trudged toward the mounted party of nine, still in their common garb save for Lancaelad. As they drew closer the song ended, and a man whose grizzled beard reached to his belt buckle who walked in the lead, gently prodding the pair of horses, raised a rough hand in greeting.

"Good morrow, Haelyn's shield guard ye" he called in a voice like dragged hay, taking in the fine horseflesh and its hastily-dressed riders.

Ser Lancaelad Noelon

Jun 1, 2025 9:33 am

Lancaelad grimaced at Breuddwyn's unsought for advice. He did not have the measure of sidhelien sorcerer, and he chafed at his presumption to offer him counsel – yet the words were wise, and there was nothing to be gained in bickering in front of strangers. He merely nodded curtly, barely glancing at the elf before trotting forward.

His shoulders unknotted as Tovrunn joined him, stirrup to stirrup, and he smiled at her optimistic words. "You speak the truth and the hopeful warmth of spring, my lady. These woods hold more honest travellers than brigands, I am sure." As the song of the woodsmen approached his visibly winced, however, a harried. guilty expression passing across his features.

Shaking himself, Lancaelad raised his voice. "Good morrow, yeoman. Haelyn guide your lord rightly and Cuiraécen hasten and harden your hand." Glancing askance at Tovrunn, he added: "And Aeric the Old Father of the Forests shelter us all beneath these boughs. How goes the harvest?"

Allowing the man to say his piece, Lancaelad then requested: "Draw your wagon to the side of the road, my good fellow. The way is too narrow for two parties such as ours to pass abreast."

Jun 1, 2025 9:34 am

The man adopted a more deferential air at Lancaelad's tone, but even so he frowned. "If I take her off the road she'll get stuck in the ditch m'lord. If you were to ride single file there's more than room enough here-" he gestured down the heavy wagon's flank "-for your party, surely?"

Following the man's direction down the narrow strip of hoof-trodden road offered Corson an opportunity to examine the wagon. It was ancient - likely serving for generations - but still sturdy as a fortress. Were they single file against the thing and am ambush came from the woods they'd be easy to surround and separate, but no ambusher from the wood could be mounted. But were these fifteen woodsmen to waylay them it might give time for a mounted ambush to come from ahead or behind.

As he pondered his eyes came to rest on an ancient wooden plaque affixed just below the seat. It was undoubtedly unusual for so simple a thing to bear any decoration, but this plaque was of fine, varnished heartwood and bore a device almost like a livery. In an instant, even through the grime and disrepair the wandering exile knew what this was, and knew these men were no ambushers.

Jun 1, 2025 9:35 am

Breuddwyd Niderfyn di-Ffael

Corson looked the driver dead in the eye and spoke in the old tongue recounting an old saying that his master used to use. "The life of the land is the life of its people."

Jun 1, 2025 9:36 am

Breuddwyd recognized that his even-tempered, weald-born mare was certainly best suited among their mounts to blaze an off-trail course. Agreeably, as Corson slipped ahead for a more private conference, the undercover Sidhe pushed forward to circumvent the heavy wagon. He did his best to overlook the crude methods the lumberjacks had employed in his woods, peering without expression past the boles stacked like gruesome trophies following some barbaric conquest. Breuddwyd said nothing at all, keen to maintain his simple disguise as he merely offered a congenial nod to the wayfarers from beneath his hood. He expected he might look a bit like a man still nursing the results of a prior night spent drinking, cloak pulled in tight to ward his senses from any unwanted excess of light or sound while on the move.

But if it came to a fight after all, he might catch them unawares from a new position to their rear. And Arglwyddes wasn't far, he knew, even if he could not see her. The almost spectral hound always seemed to be watching. In the Erebannien she was in her element, ready to be where she was needed, dutifully keeping her fragile charge from harm.

Ser Lancaelad Noelon

Jun 1, 2025 9:37 am

Lancaelad's brow snarled at such insubordination. Yes, there was room, but it was the principle of the thing! The man should show deference to a knight wishing passage, and he was damned if he would let the rest of the escort part see him back down in the face of this splinter-fingered churl.

The young knight flexed his shoulders as squire Corson spoke some foreign nonsense to the woodcutters. Making sure the blazon of his was clearly visible, he tightened his grip on the haft of his lance and said coldly: "Clear the road in the name of the baroness, man. I will not speak so kindly again."

Jun 1, 2025 9:38 am

The old lumber man's eyes widened in surprise as Corson spoke and for a moment he struggled to remember something, but the other knight's words cut across his recollection like a headsman's axe. "As you say m'lord" he replied with a bow, and averting his eyes he began turning the horses.

Jun 1, 2025 9:39 am

Corson nodded his appreciation as he spurred his horse to moving. He pulled a small bag of coin and tossed it to the woodsman. Without sparing another look, Corson's spirit was buoyed slightly knowing that some remember the old ways.

Ser Lancaelad Noelon

Jun 1, 2025 9:39 am

Lancaelad gave a harrumph of satisfaction, trying - and failing - not to look too smug that he had successfully inconvenienced some poor woodcutters. Twisting in the saddle, he made a sweeping gesture for the party to advance as the wagon waddled halfway into the ditch.

He glanced at Corson as he gathered up his reins, watching the man deliver alms. "Squire, have you knowledge of these folk? In what tongue were you speaking to them?" he asked with idle curiosity.

Jun 1, 2025 9:40 am

At the sound of a familiar language, Tovrunn blinked. She hadn't been surprised at Lancaelad's bull-headedness, but what had been unexpected was Corson's code. Looking at the knight (or knight-in-training, as she understood squirehood) she said, in the same language he had spoken, "I should have known you could speak Giantish. Of the Evergreen, you said? Who were those people? What message did you give them?"

Jun 1, 2025 9:41 am

"Aye, I noticed that they venerated the Old Ways. The ancient words of the Formoraigh, the giants that once roamed these wodes. 'The life of the land resides in its people.'" Corson said with an even tone, not making eye contact with the noble, perhaps out of shame?

"They will not betray us."

Jun 1, 2025 9:50 am

"You are certain? Hmmm."

Tovrunn looked at Corson with fresh eyes, reevaluating the man with a more critical and appraising gaze. "Tell me more of this order you were a member of," she said, inviting the man to share some of his story. "You seem familiar with these woods."

Jun 1, 2025 9:51 am

Breuddwyd Niderfyn di-Ffael

Corson nodded. "Of that, I am certain. A wodesman such as he and his ilk would honor the old ways. My Order once roamed the wode all through Anuire. It was our duty to keep the wilds at bay, while keeping civilization from destroying that which it needs for resources. Maintaining the balance for the betterment of Man and Wild, until..."

The squire seemed overcome with emotion for a moment before continuing. "...until we didn't, we couldn't any longer."

Jun 1, 2025 9:53 am

Breuddwyd was listening in with a neutral expression, not understanding the old tongue either and only half-following the explanation. Much to the chagrin of his eldest mentors, he was no student of history with little skill for retaining esoteric details from time long past. Even so, it never hurt to keep score. This subject would merit further exploration later on.

"Your humble woodchoppers will surely have no reason to forget us anytime soon. Nor will they raise much resistance, I should expect, to passing on our location and descriptions to all who might gently inquire in our wake." His black-ice gaze was on Lancaelad but he was equally irritated with the others who could have reined in the fool's destructive, grandiose impulses. Were all humans such shameless, small-minded clods at their core? It was a wonder anything they did escaped judicious Sidhelien scrutiny. "What has such pride ever truly won you, lordling-at-large? Beyond scant moments of smug satisfaction? How much heavier will that expansive ego you continually polish feel when we're forced to flee through this forest much sooner than we'd like?"

Breuddwyd turned his attention back to the trail, scowling bitterly and quite unaware he was almost certainly the last one among their number who should be offering such a criticism. If nothing else, it had sickened him to see the seemingly capable woodsman cowed by an upjumped stranger and instantly reduced in the eyes of his own confederates. Elves did not play such games with emotional currency.

Jun 1, 2025 9:57 am

Corson didn't need to explain the details for the fate of his order to become clear. "How tragic," Tovrunn said softly, kindly. "Such an order has a divinely guided purpose. I will pray to Erik that it may be born again one day, soon."

Breuddwyd's frustration brought the young druidess back to their more immediate surroundings, causing her to grimace slightly. She could hear the scorn in his voice, and could feel that it wasn't only directed at her arrogant husband-to-be. Did he not understand the bindings that been placed on her due to her position and her gender? That challenging Lancaelad directly as he seemed to believe should have been done is only something another man or knight could do without fear of consequence? She was but a rider atop a mammoth, convincing him of the best way forward, but ultimately if he chose to push through the thickest part of the trees there was little she could do but hold on. "You were more than welcome to step in at any time, A Flawless and Infinite Dream," she said to the sidhe in his own language, an obvious rebuke in any language while subtly bringing to light his own arrogance. "Of all of us you perhaps could do so the most directly. And yet you didn't."

Leveling Lancaelad a look chat could chill ice, she continued in Anuirean. "And yet he has a point. If those woodsmen were friends of Corson's old order, they might have proven to be a boon on this suddenly hostile road. Leant shelter, provide distraction. Even perhaps disguise that we might slip our hunters snares. Now, thanks to your insistence on reaping the minor benefits of heraldry, we must at best hope that they not assist them in their hunt with our description."

Sighing in muted frustration, she averted her eyes, letting them slip to the heraldry emblazoned across his shield. Heraldry that he was so very proud of. "We must be careful from here on out," she said somewhat more calmly, urging her horse forward with a click of the tongue and tap of the heel.

Children. Both of them.

Jun 1, 2025 9:59 am