After the din of the previous battle settles, Kristov and Jabari set about the grim work of rifling through the slain bandits’ clothes and armor to salvage what they can.
Jabbles sets off on Jango to scout the city ahead, but his companions noticing him taking a western path instead of the northeastern path the female bandit ran toward.
Faus was last seen still screaming about his ear that was sliced off and running into the forest.
The peddler and his wolfkin protector don’t find much value among the bodies or in the burnt-out homes surrounding them. That prompts them to turn toward the surviving bandit, still tied up and with eyes full of hate.
Noticing that “Boris” and his fallen friends are exceedingly thin, Kristov promises to trade the scoundrel to his boss for information. Boris agrees to lead the pair into the city in exchange for his freedom.
During the hike, Jabari makes a conscious effort to eat his jerky as loudly as possible while leading Boris at swordpoint.
The trio follows the path deeper for almost an hour before coming across a fork in the road. Boris says the way to “the Glaive” is to the right, but Jabari sniffs out a commotion to the left. Taking out Kristov’s spyglass, the wolfkin warrior is astounded at the sight before him.
Not far ahead, Jabari sees a warrior in resplendent silver armor fighting off the largest bear he had ever seen. The knight is armed with a long spear but handles it more deftly than a dagger. The warrior must have caught a glint of light from the spyglass as Jabari sees the man nod in his direction.
Moving closer, Kristov and Jabari shove Boris into a burned-out warehouse while they watch the fight unfold. Seeing the pair come just south of the battle, the warrior calls out to Jabari, saying, “Wolfkin, help me, I know your nature is pure. You’re not demon spawn like they say.”
Jabari itches to join in combat against the gray bear, but Kristov urges caution to his friend. “I’ve never seen a bear that size,” He says. “There’s something unnatural about it. Be careful.”
With a roar, Jabari launches into the fray. The warrior smiles slightly at the development and lashes out with his spear. All three men are locked in combat with the great beast as it strikes out with its giant paws and claws. Not long after dealing it many horrible wounds, the bear opts to return to its cave to lick its wounds.
Not allowing it to leave, Kristov throws a net about the creature to slow it down, as the gilded warrior dishes out a grievous wound to the demonic bear. The armored man drives his spear into the bear’s back, causing torrents of blood to splay over his brilliant armor.
Once confident the beast is dead, the warrior pulls out his spear and cleans himself and his weapon with fire. He turns to the other men and says, “One more is cleansed from this land. I thank you. My name is Priest; how can I assist you.”
Jabari growls, “You can get out of the way. It was a fine kill and shouldn’t go to spoil,” as he starts to eat the torn flesh of the bear.
“Do you not realize what you consume,” Priest says.
“Yes, meat from a fresh kill,” Jabari says between gulps. The wolfkin intimates that he is aware that gray bears might have a demonic origin, but he doesn’t care.
“We all need sustenance from something, I suppose,” Priest says. “Why are you here, and who do you serve?”
Kristov looks for Boris but sees that he is gone. He explains to Priest that they were attacked and took a prisoner.
“So you are bandits?” Priest asks.
“We are information seekers,” Kristov responds.
“Then I ask you again, whom do you serve,” Priest commands. “I serve myself,” the peddler says.
With a sneer, the masked warrior says, “The hedonism of man knows no bounds. Who is this Glaive the bandits told you of?”
After hearing more of the fight, Priest agrees that the people who attacked them were likely up to no good. He explains that gray bears are attracted to dark deeds and that he’d been tracking the beast for days in the area.
The warrior agrees to help the peddler and wolfkin but cautions that depending on the answer he gets in response to his question, the bandits may not live long.
Rejoining the conversation and energized at hearing Priest say he hunts demons, Jabari chimes in, hoping to outdo the warrior.
“I’ve killed a few demons in my time,” Jabari says. “In fact, just two days ago, I slew a sea serpent. Have you killed such a monster?”
Priest says, “I kill demons,” and begins to march to the city center with a grunt.
Not long after that, the trio finds themselves in front of the remains of a large chapel. In front of them is an array of armed men and women, two of which they recognize. At the forefront is their former prisoner, Boris, and near the group’s apparent leader is the female bandit from before.
“Welcome,” the leader bellows. “I am Orkral Glaive. We have been expecting you. I apologize for the unpleasantness from earlier today. Times are hard, and my followers thought you meant to take our claim.”
The man before them is quite tall. He wears dark red leather and carries a giant battleax. Orkral’s face is covered with a plague doctor’s mask, but he can still be heard clearly.
Priest whispers to Jabari, “He wears the trappings of a Rust Brother, but I can tell this fool is a poser.”
Glaive tells Kristov that he is willing to overlook his followers’ killing and intrusion into his territory if the trio can fulfill a task for him. He explains that his group is looking for information
on the famed sorcerer Pagoag. They managed to find and trap a demon that claimed to have information on Pagoag’s resting place. Still, they are too weak to fight it to force it to hand over its story.
None of the men had heard of Pagoag, so Glaive relishes in the opportunity to speak of the Mellified Mage legend.
The sorcerer Pagoag is a minor note in most histories, as his vanity, excesses, and medical prowess brought plenty of commentaries. Still, darker insinuations become more and more explicit – that his cult was insular, greedy, and lasciviously hedonistic. The darkest allegation is that Pagoag began experimenting with the creation of a mellified man – the candied flesh of which can restore any being to the apex of their vitality at the cost of a prolonged and torturous end to an individual. A single pound of mellified flesh can, by renew- ing the life of an individual or resurrecting the recently dead and restoring them to their physical peak, create devastating impacts and destabilize power relations. Anyone with even a decent amount of wealth would have a burning desire for it.
After sharing the legend, the bargain is struck. Glaive forces Boris to hand over his studded leather armor to Jabari as repayment for the earlier fight. Before they leave, Priest has a question for Glaive.
“Who do you serve,” the warrior asks.
“Why I serve the good of all the Forbidden Lands. Think of all we could accomplish with Pagoag’s knowledge,” Glaive responds. “You can keep whatever else you find, but bring me back the tome the demon claims to have.”
Once on their way, Priest says to Jabari and Kristov, “You two can do whatever you like, but when we get back, I’m killing that man.”
With a shrug, the peddler says, “I’m fine with that. He seems like a bad boy, definitely on my naughty list.”
No sooner had the words left his lips than the trio hear a terrifying squeak and see the hideous creature known as Mick E. Faus appear before their eyes. Faus is still crying about his torn ear and begs Kristov for help. The old man tries to sew the ear up as best he can while keeping Priest from attacking the wizard.
Calming down, Faus asks, “Who do you serve?”
The mouse-man responds, “The Faus only serves the Faus.”
“You all truly are a band of people with zero loyalty, it seems,” Priest says. “You may look like a demon, but we know there is a demon here and a Rust Brother to finish. You’re an abomination, but you’re low on my list, for now.”
“I’ve been called worse,” Faus says as he perks up at the mention of a mighty magic tome. “Evil is as evil does. Let me tell you about Walt Grisby. He’s stolen the souls of many.”
Quickly finding the abandoned shrine where Glaive claimed to have trapped the demon, Faus stops the group and warns them of the presence of powerful magic. Investigating, Faus determines that Glaive trapped the devil with a blood rune painted on the ground.
Kristov asks the mouse-man if he believes the rune can force the demon to appear. The sorcerer says that it can, but the rune is already unstable. He urges them to prepare for a dreadful fight.
As Faus prepares his magic, Jabari asks what would happen if he stands on the seal as it is. When Faus says he isn’t sure, the wolfkin strolls over and defecates on the blood magic rune.
Aghast at the sight and the audacity of the desecration, Kristov ponders aloud if sacrilege of evil magic is somehow… holy?
But there’s no time to ponder further as with a belch of sulfur and flame, the demon Gulgremath appears before them. Strangely, the demon doesn’t roar at the men and seems quite bored with the development.
“Woe and toil to you who would dare disturb the slumber of Gulgremath,” the demon says. Glancing down at the quartet, the demon sighs after seeing it is clear they mean to try to kill him. Gulgremath then grows to a towering height and whips out his tentacle arms from underneath his grimy cloak.
“Before we do this, you should know that Glaive will try to kill you when you return,” the demon says. “I’ll give you one of my books if you just break the spell seal. He won’t be able to tell the difference anyway. I’m not sure he really knows how to read.”
Priest spits in the direction of the massive monster and roars, “I refuse to allow any demon to live. I’ll kill you and lift the cursed tome from your corpse!”
Finally realizing the gravity of the threat before him, Gulgremath unleashes a terrifying blast of energy at the four men. The arcane power pierces each of them to the depths of their very souls. Only Priest shakes off the beam, as the others nearly succumb to madness.
Rallying his new allies to him, Priest launches a flurry of attacks against the demon. Jabari and Kristov each lash out with their weapons as Faus throws every rock he can at the “giant demon bastard.”
Gulgremath is torn to ribbons in the attack, and Kristov just barely manages to salvage a wicked- looking book from the demon’s body before Priest alights it in flame. Jabari finds a fiendish ceremonial dagger in the ashes of Gulgremath once the fire is out.
While excited at the thought of reading the magic tome, Faus comments that he’s dismayed they couldn’t salvage the demon’s skull for his collection. Intrigued, Priest asks the sorcerer what he needs all the skulls for. The mouse-man takes out his skull puppets and gapes at the gleaming warrior.
Turning to Jabari and Kristov, Priest says, “I take back my words. I don’t think your friend is evil; I think he’s unwell.”
With a nod, Kristov responds, “But effective.”
Resting before heading back to the would-be bandit king, the party decides to confront the killers at dark. They agree that such desperate people shouldn’t get their hands on such magical power, let alone be allowed to attack random travelers.
Later, Priest strides boldly into Glaive’s camp while the others hide in the shadows. The warrior throws a worn book at Glaive’s feet and yells, “There’s your cursed book, you malevolent demon spawn.”
Smiling ear to ear, Glaive quips back, “Demon spawn? I don’t know of what you speak. I serve the good of the Raven Lands and her people.”
His eyes full of fury, Priest retorts, “Do you still serve Zytera and the church, or have you moved past the Rust Brothers?”
Glaive smiles wickedly and says, “I have no use for masters. The Rust Brothers know much but jealously guard their secrets. I have no time for that.”
“It doesn’t matter now,” Priest roars. “Because you’re dead!”
With that, Jabari, Kristov, and Faus launch their attacks from the shadows. A furious fight ensues as the four men take on twice their number. Priest locks Glaive in single combat while the rest of the party makes short work of many bandits.
Knocking Glaive’s ax out of his hands, Priest lunges at the blood mage one last time, the tip of his spear cleanly separating the evildoer’s head from its shoulders. Picking up his trophy, Priest tosses it at Faus and says, “Here, you can have this skull for your collection.”
“It better be in one piece!” Faus cries happily.
As Jabari walks by Priest, he says to the bandits with a growl, “Do you all want to be next?”
Seeing an opportunity to prevent further violence, Kristov steps forward and says to the surviving bandits, “It seems as though you all need a higher purpose. I would like to offer you employment that would give you that higher purpose. Clearly, Ok-Rall wasn’t your higher purpose, so would not his vanquisher be more worthy?”
Completely ignoring the speech, Preist begins to rifle through Glaive’s belongings before finding a scrap of paper. Faus notices that it’s a list of names before Priest folds it into a pouch.
The armored warrior turns to Faus and says, “I’ve got business to attend to mutant. But don’t worry, I’ll find you again soon enough.”
“OK, I’ll be here,” Faus says without a cause for concern.
Priest chuckles at the bravado of the mouse-man, “I bid you all adieu and give you a final warning. Be careful, this tome may not be demonic, but you’re dealing with old magic. I like you all, don’t make me have to hunt you down.”
Shortly after fading into the darkness and walking away, Priest pulls out the list once more and writes a note in blood-red ink… “Maus Man?”
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