Upon a Pale Steed, Part II
Melkis, Prince of Velka, Lord of Death
The Party:
- Gavon, the Mirror Mage
- Taurebon, the Tankard Knight
- Lady Adelaide, the Dusk Knight
After witnessing Melkis's ascension to the position of Death, the party traveled to Grandseld to find a young man whom the prince had been traveling with. In Grandseld they met the Duchess Blanchel, who gave them a very cold shoulder, and didn't even invite them to stay at the palace, despite their royal connections.
The party found the prince's young companion in a sculptor's shop, actively destroying a sculpture of Melkis, who had spurned him in favor of becoming Death. "To ride as Death may be a new cage for the prince, but do not wonder at it, for his whole life had been a cage thus far. I thought it a fairy tale, but perhaps it was truly a devil's bargain..."
Upon returning to their inn, a messenger from the Duchess informed the knights of a plague springing up away to the south, and asked them to investigate the suffering of the queen's people. Gavon was offended by this, to be dismissed out of hand, then sent away in conflict to the queen's bidding, but the knights traveled south anyway.
There they found a fox being pursued by hunters who saw the fox as an emissary of death. The party defended the fox, but was assaulted by the hunters, slaying one in the process. Gavon befriended the fox, who smelled "a new death, not like the old one..." The fox agreed to help the travelers find this new death.
The villagers apologized for their young men's folly, and showed Gavon, Adelaide, and Taurebon to the "bodies" which were yet breathing, but in slow breaths, one after another. The fox smelled out Melkis, and the Prince appeared, now wielding the black knife of death. "I could swing out, sever these cords, and put these spirits to rest. But... isn't that a waste? I feel another urge, another choice. It is, certainly, more interesting..."
Melkis reached out a hand, and tied a knot in the invisible strands of life. The bodies lurched to unlife and assaulted the knights. The fight was short lived and bloody, but beyond the tent, screams sounded out...
Referee Notes: Mythic Bastionland doesn't really promote the idea of a game following a particular thread, but it does keep bringing threads up as the party explores: some from far off, but most from nearby. An interesting thing happened here, where the party found a new thread, and my brain immediately saw an obvious connection to the old thread.
Chivalric Zombies wasn't at all what I had in mind when I started this campaign, but by the Pope, we're going to play it out.