Episode 7

Episode Seven lasted from early August until early November of 2434 - several weeks of training are scheduled to follow.

Our Heroes were very busy:

• They claimed land along the Brown River east of Brown's Ferry that was undeveloped. They began to establish a horse ranch, East Point. It is overseen by their partner, the Bexari warrior, Samson.
• They learned that their benefactor, Miss Macon, was in fact dead, killed at the Treachery on the Brown, seven years before. This will lead her to say the quote which becomes the theme for this Episode, "There's dying, and then there's dying."
• They met with her, nonetheless, and made plans go to the haunted tent city across the river and give the bodies, including Miss Macon, a proper funeral. She gave them the gift of a treasure chest they would find in the baggage train.
• The Funeral on the Brown and discovered The Chest of Longing.
• Faolan and Tanner received powerful gifts of swords, a leadership banner for Tanner and a necklace that allows Faolan to read the hearts and minds of those nearby from the Chest. Miss Macon gives them horses for their ranch and Samson has hired a serving girl/healer - who Faolan recognizes as a disgraced Tazzo/Bexar (but Tanner does not).
• Met with Miss Macon and agreed to accompany Councillor(?) Ahnah Macon and Council President Branwell on a diplomatic mission to discover the status of the struggle for the crown in North Anglia. Our Heroes learned than Queen Anne probably does not know that she is the late Miss Macon's daughter and Ahnah's mother.
• Spent a day at a Bardstown Fair where Faolan won a bardic singing competition, triumphing over another bard he'd once humiliated in Greensburg. Tanner struggled to victory in a wrestling competition. Faolan won 400sp betting on Tanner, whom he had incorrectly assumed was faking his difficulty.
• They decoded a message passed to Ahnah that said it was from Lord Gahanna and revealed that King Grey was alive and hold up with Anne's ostensible family, the Waynes. It asked her to bring Grey to Lebanon the seat of the Davies, Grey's family.
• Our Heroes and Ahnah skirted the chaos of Anglia City (where Branwell and his men stayed) and headed north along the Tarstone Road, where they were attacked by eight Evans men posing as Redlegs. Our Heroes prevailed, with the aid of their newly acquired blades and Councilor Macon's tactical magic. Faolan cut the enemy captain into roughly equal halves, and each swordsman did a fine job of guarding the other's back. They protected the healer, and she healed the one wounded survivor, they'd picked his brain. Faolan couldn't resist leaving a witness to spread the tale.
• Moving north they passed through Lebanon in the lands of the Davies and towards Anne and King Grey in Fort Wayne. They encountered Lord Gahanna, who was charismatic and clearly preferred war to politics. Gahanna did not express love for Anne or politics. He headed south to Lebanon to await the delivery of Grey and Anne.
• Our Heroes meet with Grey and Anne at the Wayne's. On the trip south Faolan entertains Grey and tries, when able through his own (literal) enchantment, to convince Anne that her life would be better in the south on a horse ranch. Ahnah struggles with the idea that Anne is her birth mother. Anne's servants unsuccessfully pursue Tanner.
• The Royals are delivered to Gahanna, who offers to take our heroes into his armed host. Tanner is sorely tempted, but they decline and head home.
• The ranch, under Samson's guidance and the able hands of Checotah horsemen, is a combination of Frontier and Borderland influences with longhouses and split-rail fences. Everyone but Tanner can see Bexar's hard-edged affection for Tanner.
• Our Heroes plan to train for the winter, initiate a new Festival tradition, and get Tanner into Tazzo's trousers.

Tags: Adventures