A response to the recent Lycan killings.

Grace looks over the bodies of the mercenaries once again, but can't find any clue as to who sent them. But she suspects they are connected to who hired the wizard that was killing lycans with in the city. She's heard from a trusted source what happened. Poisoned milk being laid down, werecats being turned into malar panthers, dead cats and people  (Lycans and innocents, a voice inside her mind growls, one she is not sure is hers or the bears) turning up...

But this? Attacking the shrine of Nagaelai? This seems worse, if not on a moral scale but on a political one. Despite the treaty protecting lycans, so long as they followed the law like anyone else, lycan sentiment has not changed. But this was directly against the treaty, not to mention was an indirect assualt on a deity. She could only hope that the mercanaries had followed her to the shrine, and were not informed of it's location, and that who ever sent them was not part of the factions involved in the treaty: The Druid's circle, the Fey, the Hunter's Guild, the Chapter of the Shining Blade.

It did not appear to be the working of a druid, although she could admit she might be biased on that. But why would a druid wish lycans dead, or use a wizard and mercanaries to do their work? Unless they were upset with the treaty and wished to start a war between the factions. She had no idea if or why a Fey would want to target lycans or threaten the treaty, but they were a mixed bunch and the mercenaries were all elven. Still it didn't seem likely. An unhappy hunter or member of the chapter was a possibility. Maybe one who disagreed with the treaty, and was underhandedly trying to murder lycans.

However, until it was proven that it was a member of one of the factions involved who had broken the treaty, she would act as if it was still place.

Later, Grace would give Etrianna a note and leave it up to the Inn keeper if she wanted to pin it up or not, and leave to deliver more notes and messages.




Two notes are left with the priest of Deeproot, for the druids and fey.
A note is left with the Hunters.
After some confused hesitation, a note is left with the priest at the temple on Finshi, with a request to pass it on to the Chapter.


(( OOCLY))

I won't send PM's around, because other than Animayhem for Charia (The Fey representative), I'm not sure who to send them too. The Guild is typically played by DM Dekkar, but I haven't seen him recently, and I'm not sure what is going to happen to the Chapter without Vindalasur...

The letter would be:

(To those concerned)

News has reached me of a recent out break in Lycan killings. I have been informed that a Wizard was hired to leave poisoned milk around the city, killing many cats and werecats, as well as having captured other werecats to preform experiments on, turning some into malar panthers. Recently the shrine of Nagaelai was attacked. A band of elven mercenaries attacked myself and the  Priestess, but were ill prepared for us. Unfortunately, they carried no clue as to who hired them. This must be addressed now and quickly. Many lycans will respond violently to these events and the treaty is being threatened. I hope that we can work together to bring justice to those responsible. Please respond with haste, and if possible, discuss a time and place to meet on this.

-Grace Fennerset

As Charia approached Deeproot's temple on her way to her own, the priest handed her the letter from Grace. She frowned as she read it and decided to go back to the inn. She sat down and penned a note for Grace and asked Ertianna to give it to Grace. Charia then proceeded to feyview to alert the council.
Upon opening the letter it will read thus:

"Grace,

This is grave news indeed. I am going to show the council this letter and then let you know of the decision. I suggest leaving a message with either the priest at Deeproot or Etri.

Charia"
 
((OOC the Fey Council is also DM run so we would need DM Dekkar or another to advise Charia))

Grace sat, stretched out, in the branches of a tree in what many others would find an uncomfortable position. It was quite likely it was and she was simply used to such discomfort. The last few days and nights had been exhausting. First there were many things happening on a personal level, including chaotic friends running a muck and having to go through her first heat. She should have been expecting it, she knew animals had preferred seasons, but she just wasn't expecting herself to have one. It was a relief that werebears were so uncommon, for she had not been looking forward (Yes you were. Shut up) to meeting a male during such a time.

But on top of that there was the whole business with the demon and undead summoning necromancer that had taken over the goblin caves. Hopefully that was now done and dealt with, because the outcome would have been quite different if there wasn't a powerful mage like Zeff around to help. It was a little worrying how often people were tearing into other planes and dragging things through, never mind how much undead upset the Balance. And then there was that blade they found. The Were-Slayer... She suspected someone else, a male elf- though she didn't catch his name, had a similar blade that grew active when lycans were near by. She had wondered if it was somehow connected to the lycan killings in the city- both involved necromancers and objects designed to slay lycans. But it was a far fetch, and really it was worrying enough there were two known were-blades out there.

And then they'd caught a hired hunter. Triss. And it wasn't enough that they'd found out 'the people', masked and robed strangers, were paying people to capture lycons, supplying them with an impressive array of weapons that were enchanted and poisoned to detain. One set of arrows appeared to be coated with a form of basilisk venom. Triss had said it was to bring them back, in order to try and discover a cure, but Sasha had said the necromancer that had captured them was turning them into malar panthers...

But Triss was personal was well. To Nailo, certainly. Grace didn't want to dwell on it. Triss had been taken back to the fey lands and now ore than ever they needed to gather the council members of the treaty. Charia was already active and helping- she'd helped find and question Triss. But word from the Hunter's Guild was slow and the Chapter of the Shining Blade seemed to be in disarray now that Adrastia had gone missing. Now more than ever did they need the support from the other two factions- they were what was upholding that end of the treaty. The Fey and Druids were the protectors of lycans and the Guild and Chapter were the persecutors. Both sides needed to be balanced for justice to happen. And they needed them to help track down who was responsible for these murders...

She'd sent out messages saying as such, explaining all this and stressing the urgency of the meeting.

Druids could be notoriously hard to gather, but if need be she could represent them, but she needed the guidance and blessing of the Circle and the Arch-druids. She had no illusion that she was high enough in the pecking order to speak on behalf of them so boldly and with out their input.

The Fey were already where they needed to be and Grace was thankful for Charia's support and quickness to respond. At the very least she could rely on Charia's and the Fey's support.

The Guild... She hoped it was that they were busy dealing with this themselves and not that is was because somehow they were involved or didn't care.

And the Chapter... Well... she'd wait and see.

Now she just needed to find Sasha and get her to come to gathering when (if?) it was planned.


OOC:
Grace would have written letters explaining all of this (relevant to the factions) to the four factions (For the Fey she would have put in less information, seeing as Charia would have reported that to them, but would have mentioned trying to gather the others), So now we just need some DM input on this. The Druids and the Fey have been spoken for by a DM already? (Druids seems a haphazard bunch to me, but I know that a DM has spoken for them and I think Animayhem might have gotten some feed back from the fey?) The Chapter... I'm not sure how people want to roll with them... As for the Guild, Dekkar wrote some notes on them in his section, so if another DM wouldn't mind reading that over and standing in for him during this event, if of course he isn't available, that would be great)

After the slaying of a lycan in the aria of tivook, the assassin was found hiding in the cave nearby.

A woman by the name of Trisha (or Triss) had been persuaded to help in the act under the promise of a cure for Nailo who she had been told was infected and corrupted by the lyconic curse. She was taken to the fey lands for questioning though it seems little more was found besides what she had previously said on the issue.

The men she had seen wore robes and ball masks and she could not identify them. The only other person she could identify that did not have a disguise was an elven man in black robes that assured her he was working on "a cure for the lyconic problem". Despite the small amount of information given no deception was found in her responses and though perhaps misguided she seems to believe that this was all an effort to save her old friend.

All the while however things in the city of Doral have become even more vicious. Though the population had never been large, the few lycans left have all either vanished or simply fled as a new tactic of this mysterious group has shown itself. Simple fear...

The names of every city dwelling lyconic was posted in the open for the pesentry to see. Town criers had a field day spreading this news upon finding the notes and by the time of Trisha's capture in tivook a number of mobs had been formed within the city. What they lacked in silver the presents made up for in wiches pyres.

As no group has can be singled out the king has made no arrests among the peasantry however tensions have become high between the ruleing groups. Rumors of lord Esergo's ailing health have only made things worse by stirring the peasantry into wild theories and unnerving the fey counsel who back the protection of the lyconic treaty.

To those in high standing with either group rumors have begun to spread that the treaty may soon be revoked in order to prevent an inevitable war.

Grace visited Dohral regularly. She had family there and, when she and her friends had no use for the things she found on her travels, there were merchants to barter with. Nowadays she really only visited her mother and older sister, who lived together, and very rarely checked in with her younger brother and sister who now had families and lives of their own. Her mother might show hidden disapproval for her lifestyle, and open concern (and shame...) for her lycanthropy, and her older sister was always slightly nervy, but they still accepted her and (she hoped) loved her. But her younger siblings didn't need their strange, now lycanthropic, sister forcing her way into their and their families lives.

It was during one of these visits that she caught scent of it. An almost sweet scent on the air, of cooking flesh. Nothing to be worried about by itself, there was always some sort of meat cooking in Dohral. However, the thickness of the plumes of smoke rising from South Chonda and the way something inside her curled into a tight ball of fear and sickness, (People, Kin, Lycans, Death, Danger), made her work her way uneasily towards the source.

It was a massacre.

A haphazard stake and fire had been set up, broken furniture and old straw and hay used as fuel, and the fire was already beginning to die down after consuming the sacrifice offered it. The ropes binding the bodies to the stake had long since burnt away, but the charred remains were stiff and didn't fall far. Black, twisted bones of things now barely recognizable as people, some looking as if they had began to change while dying, half way between even hybrid form and humanoid. Inhuman. Monsters.

Another stake had been prepared, but more noticeable than that was the line of heads on pikes. Most were still humanoid, bloody and beaten. Some appeared to have been hacked from an already dead corpse, but a few showed signs of still being alive before being executed. A guard was watching nervously, but was doing nothing to calm the mob that had done this. He couldn't arrest them all, he explained. What could he do to stop them, he asked. Why should he risk his life, Grace thought.

Charia, Aria and Sasha were already there, along with a bystander who seemed neutral to it all, if disapproving. Charia was trying to reason with the mob. Aria was still cursed to speak only in animal tounges. Sasha was staring at the line of severed heads. Grace made her way to Sasha. She wasn't sure what she should do. Anger and rage was boiling, ice cold, with in her, but she couldn't unleash it. Sasha was likely feeling something similar. It was more likely that the lycans killed were cats, or even wolves. Sasha's kind. Something inside Grace kept insisting that they just needed to remain calm, that a fight would only make things worse, that if the treaty was to be salvaged they couldn't let the lycans retaliate in kind. (Salvaged? It had been ripped to shreds. No one cared. it was just a promise between four groups that the common people cared little for. Two of said groups weren't even speaking out against this and what did the people of Dohral care for the words of Druids and Fey?)


Sasha was angry. And Grace knew she wouldn't let this lay, even if she did not act right at that moment. Watching her walk away, Grace was no longer sure where she stood. Before, had Sasha turned vigilante and tried to take justice into her own hand, Grace's position on the treaty council meant she would have had to take Sasha before the council for trial. Now, though, Grace wasn't even sure if the council still existed. If it had returned, violently, back to lycans versus everyone else, and she could no longer visit her family, no longer enter the city. If Sasha had the right idea.

Charia was still trying to calm the mob, and Aria had migrated to Grace's side, ready to defend her. A better friend couldn't have been asked for, although Grace hated the idea of Aria being in danger because of her. The mob had caught her name, knew it was on the list. Grace didn't care. Let them know she was a werebear, now it seemed to make no difference. Charia would be targeted as a Lycan defender, and Aria too. Grace would have been targeted either way, and they already knew she was a lycan because of that damned list.

Someone had given them that list. Someone who knew the lycan community, probably from one of the groups on the treaty. Nothing was being narrowed down. It might not even be a single individual from one group, but a collaboration between many. Some druids disagreed with the treaty, and she knew of some who would like nothing more than an excuse to wage war on the city. With even knew with the Fey. The Chapter and the Guild, well, it wasn't hard to imagine a few of their members being set against protecting any lycan, innocent or not. For all they knew it was a lycan, angry with their curse and with those who infected them, and used their lycanthropy to gain information on their side...

The mob didn't dare attack them then and their, and the timely arrival of Vashan let them escape the city quickly. Vashan went to speak with the lord of the city, and Charia returned to the Fey. Grace and Aria would have to lay low. Aria's curse of only being able to speak in animal tongues would draw too much attention in the tense atmosphere and Grace was a known Lycan. Mobs were wandering as far as the inn, and Etrianna couldn't be seen taking sides.

But other than that, Grace didn't know. She could warn the packs and the sanctuary to be on guard and to lay low, not to agitate the situation further, but there were no answers forth coming, no solutions visible. It had gone back to lycans needing to hide away, only now they couldn't hide in plain sight...

*As a Mob prepared to burn more lycons in Mid Chonda again, 2 silver Golems came and attacked the mob, knocking people over, breaking the burning posts and freeing the lycons in the process, amidst the Chaos on top of the baths, a robed figure would be seen, a ball mask under his hood clearly visible as he dissapears, clearly seen afterwards*

The City was tearing itself apart. Grace could guess how it happened- the paranoia and fear had led to the proverbial witch hunt, and they had began killing non-lycans as well. Maybe because they were lycan sympathizers, maybe they were bitten or maybe somebody just didn't like them. The tension finally snapped and people were turning against each other, tired of the fear and persecution, maybe just using the chaos as an excuse to riot and pillage.

Grace had gone there with Aria and Ashanti, looking for Sasha. They'd been helping Sasha supply her mix-matched pack (Pride? Colony? Mischief? what did you call a group of cat and rat lycans) when Sasha had decided to go prowl the city to find any surviving lycans hiding away. Grace was wary of the whole thing. The lycans in the camp weren't warriors, just refugees wanting a safe place. Grace was half worried that Sasha would try to lead them against the city in retaliation, but trusted her to put their safety first.

Soon, Aria was having headaches again, and after the last time Aria lost focus, things set on fire. It was subtly suggested by the lycan in charge maybe Aria should take a walk to clear her head, and Grace and Ashanti decided to join her and the trio decided they may as well use the excursion to follow Sasha. It soon became clear that things had become even more dangerous as the sides of the roads were peppered in corpses, lycan and not. Aria was growing more and more worried for Sasha and Ashanti was growing more and more enraged for the murdered lycans. Grace was feeling angry, hollow. She wasn't exactly worried for Sasha. It wasn't that she wasn't friends with the cat, no, Sasha could be said to be an old friend. They were Jail-buddies. But part of her knew Sasha could handle herself and worry was better spent on the other poor lycan sods... Another colder part muttered that if she was caught it was her own stupid fault for not being more cautious. Grace shoved that part down.

As they'd approached the sound of fighting and the city alarm bells filled the air. Grace honestly didn't want to enter. It seemed a stupid thing to do- enter a city that was currently after her head while it tried to kill itself. But the other two were insistent on finding Sasha and Grace wasn't about to abandon any of them.

Mercenaries, guards, commoners, even rouges and bandits taking advantage of the confusion, everywhere they turned someone was trying to stick a knife between someone else's ribs. They had no idea whether Sasha was even still in the city and at this point Grace just wanted to get out. After running into Vashan, as well as Kendrick Silverstone and Zeff (what ever his last name is) Grace recalled that they had more information, and after informing Vashan of the name of a noble responsible, Vashan suggested that they make use of this opportunity to find him. Aria, bless her chaotic mind, knew enough tidbits of the city to point them in the direction of the Prince of Parasowel Inn.

The three men helped distract the mobs while Grace and the ladies tried to track down the noble: Barron Alfons Darvonson, Also known as 'The Hawk', due to his crest. Grace felt guilty for intimidating the poor innkeeper, but they needed to find the nobleman. The other three joined them in time to help take down the silver golem defending the noble's room. Questioning the Barron, however, was chaotic. Ashanti, Vashan and Aria resorted to threats. Zeff, ever calm and level headed, stood aside and Kendrick was openly in disapproval of the techniques. Grace wasn't approving of them either. The man was a monster in the true sense, and deserved death. But it would go against the meaning of the treaty they were defending- that lycans were to be put on trial for any accused crime, and not murdered unjustly. This man had to be taken before a court- even if she knew that the law had difficulty catching those saturated in wealth and power.

They managed to get the names of the other two: Lord Ervington and Duke Vermile. A Foreigner and some one from Humfoodale. The Goat and the Wolf. She didn't know who was who yet, and could not afford to stay- she left the noble in the men's hands and used the summoned portal to escape back to Tivook.