Session 13

 Night of the 1^st Kinsday of Sprouts

A unnaturally warm wind plays with the campfire on a hill overgrown with brambles. Heldris and Anastasz join the Hooded Knight and hear the Jewelled Seer's question:”Have you seen The Child?" The Knights admit that they haven't seen it. They learn that the Seeker Knights search for the Child who holds the key to The City and are handed jewels that will allow the Seer to see through them. The next morning they leave westwards and at noon they reach the foot of the mountains. They search the area for a path that would lead them across when they notice smoke coming from a forge and see two gaunt figures in ornate bark armour emerging from a cave, dragging a struggling man between them. “Your blood will bring about the next season”, they declare with cold eyes and alien faces. The Hooded Knight slides into the shadows while Anastasz and Heldris draw their weapons and demand the release of the prisoner. The elves announce their names: Kilunar and Tasiviza and meet the Knights with their golden falxes. 

Kilunar

Kilunar inflicts a deep wound and breaks Heldris' spirit by matching every blow with one of their own until Lady Dragana skewers them with her glaive. The Salt Knight exchanges wild attacks with Tasiviza and the elf is finally struck down. The Knights ask the dying Season Destroyers for their goal but they only laugh. “Blood has been spilled, it is time for the tide of the seasons to rise.” Lady Dragana deals the final blow. The smith invites the Knights into his forge where he treats Heldris' wounds. He wears a wooden symbol around his neck, two crosses connected by a line (x-x) that symbolizes a cradle and he tells them about his faith: The Mother who will birth The Child. He promises to lead them over the mountains to the dried well that marks the place where the Feaster was slain.

Tasiviza

They follow the mountain path under a sky drained of all colours. When they reach the peak they see for a moment the beauty of the realm: a still lake to the west, ancient forests to the south and the fertile Ryba valley when suddenly a cold mist rises around them until all is hidden under a blanket of fog. They press on but soon get lost and if not for the Hooded Knight's foresight (to have Heldris mark their path with his glowing herbs smeared on the rock) they wouldn't have found their way back to a small copse of fir trees where they make camp for the night. Defeated by the mountain they return to the forge.

Mist covers the Realm