A Villain's Challenge

Historian: Caleb. Date: 06/16/2025

TLDR – Jericho formally meets the Necromancer, who is played by Keenan. The Necromancer tells him we’re all frauds and we’re gonna die if we go after Morgen. He convinces Jericho to go after Cracklebones instead, one of his rivals in collecting the Breezestones, in exchange for a favor. Jericho convinces the rest of us once he’s awake, and we all march off to confront Cracklebones. Gwyn does some dope artificing and we stock up a little, before heading off to find Cracklebones has already started a ritual… and she immediately spots us.

• Date: 27 Lionnir 777 AR.
• Jamie gives the recap!
• We begin with Jericho. He’s in a dream, talking to the Necromancer, who stands before him. Keenan joins VC – he’s the Necromancer!
  • “Jericho, of the Tatterocat Knights. It is a pleasure to speak with you. Such prophesied heroes are what you claim to be.”
  • “We’ve been doing our best. Results mixed.”
  • “I am aware.”
• Jericho asks if there’s a name to go with the Necromancer title.
  • “I don’t think that matters here. What do you want?”
  • “I wanted to speak to a friend, provide some reassurance. But that’s not happening tonight.”
  • “No. You’ve done what you’ve done.”
• Jericho summons a box of cigarettes, and offers one to the Necromancer. He declines. Jericho tells the Necromancer he doesn’t exactly look like he belongs here, and asks if he’s from the Rings.
  • “What does this have to do with here?”
  • “It’s a question. I haven’t seen many others, well… of our general appearance, except for those who come from the Rings.”
  • “Looks can be deceiving, Tattercoat Knight. [...] Tattercoat Knights… And how well is that going for you? The prophesized heroes? Are you living up to all the expectations?”
  • “Haha, no.”
  • “Maybe Newton is the only one fit to wear the Tattercoat.”
• The Necromancer asks if we still intend to go against Morgen.
  • “If you still want a chance to be a hero, I advise not. You won’t walk out of there.”
• He says he’ll be there to resurrect our corpses and bring us into the fold.
  • “However. You could avoid certain death, and take me up on a challenge. [...] Currently, my forces have amassed in the Ghostveil. We are starting a second front to engage Granny Cracklebones and Dr. Quasit. The challenge is simple. Push Granny Cracklebones out of the Tillages before us. Before me. If you manage to remove her, I will owe you a favor. However. If I push Granny Cracklebones out of the Tillages first, you’ll owe me a favor. And it’s only a simple request, but go after Quasit.”
• The Necromancer says Quasit has been spotted in several places looking for a Breezestone. He has control over the Forest Over Fonder, as well as a couple other places.
  • “It may be difficult, but you’ll live.”
  • “I hope you understand I am not a monolith. I will have to take this up with my compatriots.”
  • “I understand. I won’t lie to you. You see, the guise of the Tattercoat Knights that you are parading will fall soon. The world will figure out that you’re frauds.”
• He tells Jericho that the vacuum has already started – he, Cracklebones, and Quasit are all vying for the Breezestones, and all three of them are in control of at least three.
  • “Whatever wake you leave, I intend to fill it. Whether you die in a futile attempt today, or if you continue to fight these other enemies, it doesn’t matter. There is one Tattercoat Knight. He is safe, and he will hopefully bring the title back into the light. You are just pawns in a larger game. So, I advise that you make yourself worthwhile. Maybe, just maybe, you can pull it off and become the main characters.”
  • “I’ll take what you’ve said under very serious advisement.”
  • “Thank you. Any of the undead you come across, they won’t harm you. Like I said, the Ghostveil is about to be swarming with them. And from the lands of shadow we are moving northeast. We intend to push the two into fighting two separate fronts.”
• Jericho asks if Cracklebones and Quasit are allies. To the Necromancer’s knowledge, they aren’t, but he also doesn’t really care.
  • “They decided to be slow. But slow is my strength. I’ve beat them to it, and they don’t see the wave coming.”
• Jericho asks about his endgame, and he says control of the Breezestones.
  • “And the Skybound Lands with them?”
  • “Yes. I am a villain, aren’t I?”
  • “One of very few who defines himself as such.”
  • “I’m being honest.”
  • “Honesty is a virtue.”
• The Necromancer says he has control of three Breezestones right now.
  • “Within the next few days, I expect to control a fourth, and possibly a fifth. We’re in the endgame.”
  • “We’re getting here late, then.”
  • “Oh, no, you had quite the head start. You just finally turned our attention. [...] Do you know your prophecies, Jericho?”
  • “I know many prophecies, but not my own.”
  • “I would suggest you learn them. You’re awfully close to the darkest one.”
• Jericho says he’ll bring his offer to the others and try to convince them.
  • “For your own lives, I hope you do.”
• Jericho wants to use the gossip power to have the Necromancer to reveal a secret to him. What does he say to help provoke a secret out of him?
  • “You call yourself a villain. As I said, many who fill that role don’t recognize their place in it. You say you’re honest, and I appreciate that. But is this always the answer you would’ve given?”
  • “I feel that you may see me as a villain. What you may be opposed to morally. There… are much worse things than I. I may want control of the Skybound Lands, but I don’t seek to ruin it, at least not in the sense of others. I don’t want to crumble the pieces more than they are and scatter them across the lands. I simply seek control and order.”
  • “You seek dominion in the name of defense?”
  • “I… am forming a contingency, something to stop, since the elder blood has been released. I don’t want all that to come to pass, so. I’m moving how I can. And if that means upturning the dead, taking control to ensure a unified front, a strong speartip, then so be it. I expect you to reject that. I expect most to reject it, but it is a necessary evil. And with a Tattercoat Knight alongside us, I do believe that we have what it takes now, or at the very least soon will be.”
  • “So your true Tattercoat Knight, that’s your ace in the hole?”
  • “If need be. It remains to be seen what other tricks the otter and the witch might have up their sleeves, but I don’t expect much.”
  • “So far in our brief encounters with the otter, his plans have been scatterbrained. Easily defeated. Is that his true mind, or just a show?”
  • “We had a brief truce to focus on the witch, but he hasn’t been moving. You see, the thing is is that he’s scatterbrained, but he’s quick. He can build up forces, amass them quickly. But he hasn’t. Cracklebones takes things at a stride. She can be powerful, but she’s not as quick as the otter.”
• He tells Jericho Cracklebones has aggravated Morgen.
  • “Ever since once of your members gave up a dagger, the otter and I have seen it fit to remove her to level the playing field a bit. But that was weeks ago. [...] Morgen has reasoned with us. We are – I am – simply extending my job as a challenge to you. Perhaps you’ll find some grace if you at least seem to aid us.”
  • “Suppose we’ll see.”
• He once again implores Jericho not to engage Morgen. Jericho says it’ll be a difficult argument, and the Necromancer says our lives depend on it.
  • “I believe you. I trust that. But it’ll still be an argument. Morgen holds something we’re trying to get back.”
  • “Very well. Good luck, then. I have nothing more for you. It’s time for you to wake up. Goodbye.”
• With a swipe of his fingers, Jericho feels himself thrust out of the dream. He finds himself sitting around a familiar campfire, waking up in the morning… the others are just beginning to stir, and we all congregate. Anja asks how Newton was, and Jericho says he doesn’t know, but we need to talk.
• Jericho recounts his encounter with the Necromancer. We agree to fulfill his challenge, hoping we can use the favor to get the Gibbit back. We decide to look for Cracklebones at her old camp, and teleport just outside of it. Anja makes a potion that grants superhuman senses for 1 hour. She wants to use the mind-erasing potion on Cracklebones, but Astranna insists that will just make Cracklebones unpredictable and even more dangerous. After a group vote, we decide against using it, though Gwyn will make a syringe for it as a back-up. She’ll also try to make us some wards.
• Gwyn teleports us to Fairfield, and once again, we fall into the sky. Gwyn makes a spirit check to see how well she can control our flight (0 successes). As we begin falling through the sky, we notice the clouds start to darken, thunder crashing. There are clouds now over Fairfield, and we tumble through massive thunderclasts with no control. Gwyn activates anti-crash. She already has Jericho, and grabs Astranna by the ankle, yelling at everyone to grab onto her.
• Alphie tries to swim their way over, and gets to make a phys check at B1 because they can ignore weather effects. They successfully grab onto Astranna. Anja grabs at Gwyn, making a flat phys check (1 success), but as Jericho’s fingertips touch hers, he hears a BAAA! as Fishing Pole slams into Anja, and they go tumbling off into the clouds.
• Anja convinces Jericho to just grab Maple – we get within 50 ft of Anja, and Jericho reaches out with his psionics. Maple hates being levitated, but as Maple goes into Jericho’s arms, Anja’s coat shimmers with a bright iridescence, and then she’s clutching onto Jericho, having teleported to Maple’s location.
• Alphie gives Fishing Pole a shield rating of 10. He gives one last BAAA! In that moment, there’s impact, and we watch as the ground bends, going down and up, and he’s launched back up into the sky like a trampoline. The ground is like rubber at this point, with the power of the Breezestone. Fishing Pole still loses a health block, but he’s not killed.
• Fairfield is completely empty – there’s nobody inside. It’s completely and utterly deserted, and as we stand under these dark, thunder-filled skies, the rain begins to fall. As we look around, it looks like everyone, for the most part, just all of a sudden up and ran. There’s the body of a large creature, with black, decayed, almost rotten flesh, a body that’s kind of like a fungal bloom at the top. The creature Alphie saw in their vision. As Anja’s looking at the black desiccation, something triggers in the back of her mind… she remembers someone mentioning a disease like this long ago. This was what Willis had gone to cure when he left all those years ago, at least based on the description. Looking at the flesh, it seems so close to what was mentioned.
  • “Oh, god, it’s… it’s here. [...] All the signs are here… how is it here in the Skybound… Skybound Lands…? My… my stepparent went to go and investigate this disease, this arcanophage… This ravaged the Primordial Ring.”
• We decide to investigate that later, because we’re running out of time – Gwyn tries to make the backup syringe out of lead (4 successes). It takes a few hours, and is crude, but it’ll work. Then she tries to create our wards. She wants to give a vision of us traveling somewhere. Just something innocuous. We think about a good magical source, and figure out Jericho’s dragon teeth would help a whole lot.
• With 12 successes, Gwyn works through the hours, until about 8pm, and creates Gwyn’s Amulet Against Detection, Dragons, and Divination – it makes us unable to be perceived by scrying or by dragons.
• Gwyn then looks for extra resources, and finds a false wall, where someone has hidden a few nuggets of mithril, maybe 1/8th of a pound. There are also some nonmagical weapons and armors, and several of us take some armor. We also find two Heal I potions.
• Jericho wants to repair his gun… he finds some materials, but still needs half of Gwyn’s mithril and a heat source that can be fit into the gun. Alphie hands over all of their remaining sunfire resin (3 oz), and Gwyn fixes it (3 successes). It gets Sharp I.
• Alphie asks Gwyn to improve Beadie’s necklace with the rest of the mithril. Gwyn does so (4 successes). This is ghetto artificing, but she takes her tools, and it’s long, precise work. She stays up through the night, and as the sun is rising the next morning, she takes a step back. She’s upgraded it to a level three necklace, with basically the equivalent of a paperclip and some dust.
• We head out. As we progress, we see farther out the torches of caravans. These people look tired and haggard, dirt covering their fur. We have a constant glimpse of fear and paranoia as we trudge to where the hut was. As we go, one step before the other, the rain seems to quell for just a moment as we continue to push into the ever-darkening sky. It’s like we’re entering the eye of the storm now.
• Henrietta begins to speak. She’s very nervous out here – Astranna asks her to speak up if she senses something dangerous, and she immediately speaks up. Astranna asks her where it is, and gets the impression it’s all around us. She relays this to the others.
• Ahead of us is a hill that wasn’t really there before, black and barren. The occasional bolt strikes down on it, and a slight red light tinges the sky drifting off of it. From here, Anja feels powerful magic. A witch’s ritual taking place, spreading out like a plume over the landscape.
• We absolutely fucking bomb our stealth checks. As we all move forward, drifting slowly, carefully, we begin to approach a ritual circle with a massive dead boar. Blood-red crystals rise from black, almost obsidian ground, as magic spreads in all directions. Granny has her eyes closed, and is chanting a vile incantation that makes Jericho’s stomach churn, a violation of magic and divination.
• Anja feels as the curse spreads out, more and more magic spreads into the air. As we progress, Astranna takes a step and slips, rocks sliding down the hill after her.
  • “Hello there.”
• We end here for today. Everyone gets +3 hp, and Gwyn gets an additional +3 for her artificing.