The Great Glass Mountain - Session Eight

The Knights made the most of the time between summer and autumn. 

• Auckland explored the southeast of the realm in search of the beast. He found no tracks but knew it was around somewhere, dormant for the time being. He did find the abode of the Screaming Seer, a shepherd's hut and a dune full of quicksand. 
• Tiber got lots in the woods to find the Goblin and his apprentice Kemp. The Goblin forgot how much energy twelve year olds had. Kemp could already be in two places at once and used this power to regale the Salt Knight from both sides with a list of lost items he collected. He could visit his family any time he wanted but was distracted with the new powers of Goblinhood. The Goblin admitted he would have tried to kidnap Valenta next, but didn't have to worry about that now. He had his succession secured and soon he would go down into the earth never to be seen again.
• Valenta went to Cuganscove in the Southwest and asked her daughter Gert to send caravans to Sparenot's orchard to buy her cider. When she visited the orchard she found the remaining family clearing the last fruit off the trees. A pear fell down and scared a kitten who was hiding among the roots. The animal assumed the green fruit was a snake. 

With all that handled they arrived at the Glass Mountain the night before the Feast of the Stars. Valenta remembered a patch of exterior wall that concealed a sally port. She hammered on it with the secret knock and a servant let her in. She asked him to take their horses around to the main gate while the Company went to talk with the King.

 

The King sat at the polished table in the council chamber, attended by Ada and the Captain of the Guard Paste as he picked over his food. The table was cut from an enormous onyx, beautiful shiny black stone with bright white rings. The King was overjoyed that his wife had returned but Ada was less thrilled. She slapped Valenta and told her that if she came back she needed to come back to stay, not leave in the dark so the Glass Knight worried she had been sucked down into the underworld again.

 

Valenta gave the Crown to the Glass Knight. He had never asked for such an artifact, the command to quest for it had come from somewhere else. But the Seers said he had to have it, so he put it on. It told Valenta it liked her better but when it touched the Glass Knight's head it shut up.

 

 

Nothing happened. The King asked that food be brought for his guests and sat down, looking as tired and despirited as ever. His squire Shoat, son of Boar, arrived with snacks and wine. Auckland asked if the Crown worked. The Glass Knight reported that the voice which used to compel him to action when he was ready to give up had returned. But it now sounded like someone else's voice rather than his own. Paste resumed explaining what was going on in the realm to the disinterested ruler. The Flying Swords had been sighted in the northwest, a mysterious citadel had been spotted briefly in the mountains beyond Castleview, and rumors told of a strange beast in the southeast of the realm. As he discussed the details with Ada and the Knights, the King leaned over and spoke in Valenta's ear. Either he accompany her down to the dungeon to fuck, or he'd ask her sister to do it.

 

He was back.

 

Valenta found some excuse to leave with him. Ada realized what was happening and was consumed by relief that her brother in law was back to his old self, jealousy that he was about to bang her sister, and shame that in all her years taking care of the Glass Knight she hadn't been able to save him but her sister did it in a week. Shoat got up to follow the boss and the Glass Knight told him to stay and take care of the guests. His Squire had seen him naked before, you couldn't avoid it if your job was to help a Knight get into and out of his armor, but what was about to happen was between him and his wife. Plus they were going to do it in complete darkness. Valenta recalled that she was the one who always wanted to do it underground, back in their adventuring days. In a canyon. In a cave. 

 

Ada left to drink somewhere else. The Knights invited Shoat to sit and eat. The kid was a typical sulking teenager when he wasn't waiting on the Glass Knight and gave canned responses about proper knightly behavior when queried by the Knights. Paste said the kid knew how to handle a weapon and would someday be able to take on Tiber. Especially if the Salt Knight was going to shout insults from the back line and count on other people protecting him. They gathered from conversation that Shoat was unhappy with his father for giving him up to the Glass Knight. He didn't want to end up like the King, mind rotting away trapped in his own body. He wanted to set ambushes and fight dirty and switch sides and get paid like his dad. Still, he was excited by the prospect of getting a custom superpower from the Seer who knighted him.

 

  

It occurred to Valenta that fucking her husband might not be the wisest move. Didn't she initially die because the Wyvern's poison still lingered in his seed? The Glass Knight caught her cum-dodging and reassured her that it was Ada who poisoned her, not him. He didn't say anything when she came back because he was avoiding difficult conversations. It was up to her how she wanted to deal with it. If she didn't punish Ada she might do it again, but if she executed her for kinslaying she would also be a kinslayer. Valenta decided her sister had suffered enough, and the King supported her decision. Plus if something happened to Valenta he had a backup. His wife swatted him with a length of chain. When she lost her memory she forgot what a scoundrel he was.

After all that, Valenta found her sister on the big balcony, looking out through the mist at the distant light on the horizon. It shone no brighter than a star but Ada knew where to look because up until recently the Glass Knight stared at it whenever it was in line of sight. Valenta thanked Ada for taking care of her husband while she was dead. He would have forgotten to eat or just killed himself without her. Ada asked if Valenta was going to leave again. The Glass Knight would want her to stay but it was also possible he'd send her to investigate the light that had haunted him for all these years. The Chain Knight admitted she was a little scared of it, which astonished Ada. She hadn't seen her sister scared of anything since they were children playing with pillbugs on the straw floor of their hut. Ada shoved her cup of wine over the edge rather than finish it. Breaking things made her feel better.

 

The day after that was the Feast of the Stars. Delegations from across the realm arrived in the morning to greet their old friend. Gert Glass from Cuganscove in the southwest, wife of the late Pearl Knight, daughter of the Glass and Chain Knights. The mercenary Boar from Bravecrossing in the northwest. Alexander the War Knight from Castleview in the mountains to the east. As Auckland and Tiber descended to the courtyard the ancient bloodhound howled and ran ahead of them, flopping down the spiral stairs of the tower one at a time and running out ahead of them. The beast scampered out as fast as its arthritic legs could carry it and ran toward the mountain men from Castleview. A huntsman with a scarred face stumbled toward it. It was the guy from the funeral plain and he couldn't believe his eyes. His faithful hound had returned to him alive. He scooped the beast up and it slobbered asthmatically all over his face.

 

Phoebus

 

The huntsman Autolykos recognized Auckland as the Knight who asked about his missing animal back at the Funeral Plain. He told the Horn Knight that if he wasn't pledged to serve Alexander the War Knight he would swear fealty to him on the spot. The hound had saved his life and now the Knights had saved the hound, so by transitive property he owed his life to the Knights. Interested in recruiting a capable henchman, Auckland asked Valenta to intercede and she went to speak with Alexander. The fat old War Knight was talking with the King, happy that the Glass Knight was feeling better but clearly unsettled by the new crown on his head. Valenta asked if she could transfer the huntsman's vassalage to her. The War Knight asked if this was a royal decree from the Queen and Valenta said it was, forcing him to assent. Autolykos joined the Company, bringing with him his asthmatic bloodhound, his bow and boar spear and his buffcoat of green painted hide. His face was scarred with the blade of a hot knife, which his comrades had inflicted as punishment for striking the mourner. Technically the punishment was death or at the very least mutilation, but they had deliberately avoided any damage to his eyes or to the muscles that controlled his facial expressions.

 

Before the tournament came the feats of strength, an impossible challenge to demonstrate the participants' courage and creativity. The contest was open to anyone who wished to try and at the Seat of Power it was the same every year: climb the Great Glass Mountain. The towers of the fortress were clad in smooth white stone, not offering any handholds to attackers trying to scale it. At the top of the highest tower the Glass Knight placed the prize: a bottle of the best apple brandy he could steal from his wife's saddlebags. It would be unfair for him to participate in the challenge even with all his faculties restored, because he designed the fortress. If there was a hidden way up, he knew it.

• Tiber and Shoat climbed with their hands, not using any tricks. They got as high as it was possible to get before the handholds ran out. The cladding was chipped and worn away closer to the ground but higher up the tower exterior was smooth.
• Paste ran his horse up the base of the tower and down again, more interested in looking good in front of the audience than seriously climbing.
• Alexander used a grappling hook and reached higher than Tiber and Shoat and got a little higher, able to haul himself up to a narrow window. 
• Valenta got an enormous chain that she could control with her Knight powers. She slung it around the entire building and used it to inch her way up. As the slope of the tower became vertical the weight of the chain was too great to support itself.
• Auckland climbed with the spider silk taken from the tiger spiders guarding the Crown. He got even higher but his sticky gloves eventually pulled away so much of the tower's exterior cladding that they couldn't stick to anything.
• Boar used a pole with a hook and crank mechanism to lift himself up the castle. He was fat but he was strong and the length of the pole let him hook it into arrow slits, haul himself up and then reach to hook it again. He got most of the way up but his weight actually broke off a piece of the top balcony when he tested it, forcing him to admit defeat and climb inside through a window.

Master of the Housebook

Boar was entitled to the prize, but generously offered the brandy to the Company (who the Glass Knight had snatched it from initially). He hoped they'd get drunk before the hastilude that followed the feats of strength. They were wise to his tricks and assembled at the field for the melee.

 

Without enough Knights for a proper four on four, both sides filled out their ranks with common soldiers. The lists were drawn up as such:

• DEFENDERS OF THE REALM
• The Glass Knight, Ruler of the Realm
• The War Knight Alexander, Ruler of Castleview
• The Mercenary Boar, Ruler of Bravecrossing
• The Captain of the Guard Paste, Leader of the Companion Cavalry
• SEEKERS OF THE MYTH
• The Chain Knight Valenta, Queen of the Realm
• The Salt Knight Tiber
• The Horn Knight Auckland
• The Huntsman Autolykos 

The battle would be fought on foot to avoid inevitable injury to the group's horses. The castle armorers worked up blunt versions of everyone's weapons to keep injury and death to a minimum. The battlefield was a fenced yard scattered with crisp autumn leaves.  

 

The mock battle commenced. Autolykos let fly with his bow and the Defenders surged forward to attack the Salt Knight in concert. Paste had warned them about his abilities and they wanted to remove him as a threat before his taunts could sap their spirits. The War Knight emboldened his party and they struck hard with devastating gambits that put Tiber on the back foot. Too bad for them the other three Seekers hit them just as hard in return. The Knights' thick armor and shields swallowed most of the blows as they smote one another and fended off return attacks.

 

Tiber became the crowd favorite, holding his own against four attackers, but went down to the Glass Knight's trident. The Seekers focused Alexander and took the War Knight out of the fight. The Defenders were better equipped and more experienced but three of them were middle aged and lacked the Seekers' endurance. Valenta swung her chain, Auckland pushed with his shield, Autolykos jabbed away opportunistically with his boar spear. The King and his Mercenary companion went down, leaving the younger Captain of the Gard still up. Outnumbered three to one he didn't last much longer than his veteran allies, leaving the Seekers in control of the field.

 

Octave Penguilly L'Haridon

 

The Defenders were vanquished. The crowd went wild. So what if their King had been vanquished? He had fought! He had roused from his stupor and fought alongside his old friends. With the King's sanity restored and with such capable Knights protecting the realm, they had nothing to be afraid of. Not bandits or monsters or natural disasters. 

 

The King struggled to his feet alongside the Defenders and coughed up a mouthful of phlegm. He hadn't been hit that hard since he slew the Wyvern, and by an ordinary peasant with a spear no less. Paste was impressed with the Salt Knight's commitment to drawing attacks away from the Company, but noticed an obvious consequence of the strategy: he got hit a lot.

The victorious Seekers received prizes from across the realm. From Bravecrossing, a rug with an image of a dragon, taken in tribute off merchants from a foreign land. From Cuganscove, an enormous conch shell (whose acoustics proved inferior to Auckland's horn). From Castleview, an ornate fossil of a huge bug with a curled shell, and a wheel of aged sheep cheese full of delicious crystals. 

 

All that remained was to enjoy the feast itself.