The Great Glass Mountain - Session Five

Chain Knight Valenta, Horn Knight Auckland and the Squire Reme rode back to the orchard. They got there at sunset and caught Sparenot and her kids putting away their tools for the day. She invited them inside for dinner and a drink. Valenta sent Kemp and Kana outside to go get grandpa Crucifer, what she had to say wasn't suitable for children. Sparenot wouldn't have tolerated anyone except the queen of the realm issuing direct orders to her children. She feared the worst.

Valenta broke the news. Severin was alive and not in the clutches of any spirit, but had run off with a cheesemaker's daughter and paid for it with the brandy he was supposed to trade. The Company had secured a shipment of exotic liquor to replace it, along with a piece of lost technology to ensure she survived the birth of her next child. But in order to placate the spirit who was harassing her family, and to help the Company recover their missing Knight, she would have to send one of her children to be an apprentice Goblin. The child she gave up would be free to return once he mastered the Goblin's mysteries, and would become a great Lord among the fairies when the Goblin died.

 

Sparenot asked if Valenta was ordering her, as her queen, to surrender a child. Valenta thought about it for a moment and said she was. The distiller inadvertently crushed the thin horn of weak cider in her clenched fist. She asked which kid the queen wanted. Valenta let her choose and she was about to give up Kana when Kemp forced his way back into the house. He was ready to go. He had already outsmarted the Goblin once and he would never forget his family. No matter what happened he'd return to them. The Horn Knight recognized that going into the earth to become a fairy lord was a fantasy the kid had sometimes. Being a prince of a fairy realm instead of performing backbreaking agricultural labor alongside his family. He remembered thinking the same thing as a boy.

 

They opened a bottle of the strange clear spirits to celebrate. Sparenot had only a few drops. She had very little to celebrate. The others indulged themselves. It was bitter and smelled like medicine, but it was stronger than anything they'd ever tasted and after a glass or two the taste agreed with them. Something squirmed in Valenta's sabretache. The queen produced the pregnant cat Pipsqueak, her final gift alongside the liquor and obstetrical foreceps. The beast was well socialized enough that she didn't bite and scratch when Kana picked her up and hugged her, the first cat she'd ever seen in her life.

 

In the Goblin's underground realm, Tiber the Salt Knight woke up atop the tomb effigy where he had slept, pulling the old hound up out of reach of the lost animals. The Goblin sat on a protruding fire poker and explained the score. He had been looking forward to kidnapping Reme and threatening to kill him so the Salt Knight gave him up as the Goblin's squire. But the Knights upstairs had hammered out an agreement, so he was sending the Knight home. He gave Tiber his dagger back, and even let him keep the skull and sword like he promised. Tiber asked why the skull was still alive, what was the deal with the Legion? The Goblin recited a couplet

 

Pitly ranks, fought and fell, returning stronger still
Their scars nae fade, their fear but grow, their war their only will  

 

as though that explained anything. Then Tiber sat up on the bier and the effigy on top shattered, sending him plummeting through the coffin below.

 

The Company woke to the sound of a howling dog. Outside, a crusty old bloodhound snuffled and yelped at the Salt Knight, who dangled from the branches of an apple tree like a scarecrow. Reme retrieved a ladder and got his boss down. He was disappointed to hear that Tiber had made a deal with the Goblin to restore his lost clarity, and that Valenta had given up a kid to get rid of the little spirit. The Goblin, sitting in the tree above Tiber, was happy to be of service.

Sparenot and her family came out of the hut. The Goblin reached into the earth and opened a door. Kemp was apprehensive until he saw what was inside, and he eagerly descended the hole. He emerged a moment later to say goodbye to his family. He hugged his mother and said something nobody heard to his sister and caught his grandfather when he fell. Then he went down the hole, and the Goblin went after him. He enjoyed doing business with the Company and if they ever needed to find something they lost, they knew where to find him. Sparenot watched the Company leave, deprived of her husband and, thanks to the Knights, her child.

With Tiber retrieved and the myth thus resolved, the Company ventured north into the woods, following the flying tent. They wandered into the woods, a sparse forest of ancient Scots pine that made up for its lack of canopy with a layer of thick mist that made the trees seem more densely packed than they really were. The land was tilted downward to the west, where a geologic fault made a cliff out of the terrain.

 

A coronet blasted from somewhere in the mist. Auckland blew his horn in response and the trumpeter sounded again. He found his way up onto a rock where he could see the top of the cliff rising out of the mist. An elderly herald clad in the white and gold vestments of the Great Glass Mountain called out to him. He spread word that the Glass Knight condemned the false Crown, and promised a vague reward for the one who brought it to the Great Glass Mountain for destruction. The Horn Knight promised he would spread the word. The herald departed into the mist.

Afternoon saw the Knights a league to the north, still in the forest when they heard the horn again. The Horn Knight answered with a blast of his own and tracked down the old herald. This time he spread word that the Glass Knight sought the Crown, and promised a vague reward for the one who brought it to the Great Glass Mountain for his coronation. The herald had no memory of the previous proclamation. He apologized to the Knights for any confusion, but he just read what was on the parchment.

 

The forest opened up into a clearing. An old jousting ground, with splintered lances and scabbards and the overgrown remains of a tiltyard. The trees were hung with colored cloth, including the gold and white livery of the Glass Knight. Whatever hastilude had been fought here had long since ended. Beyond that was a heap of burnt wood and smashed jugs, overgrown with heather and flowers. Beyond that, an abandoned tavern.

 

The Knights explored the abandoned building as the sun went down. The walls were covered with faded posters advertising a tournament, starring a knight in a suit of brass armor that concealed his entire body, riding a horse encased in a full barding. The stables were empty but there was fresh straw and it smelled like shit. Some of the benches and tables in the yard had been cut for firewood and stacked in the kitchen, where some of the crockery had been used and washed. The stairs up to the second floor were collapsed and the entrance to the cellar below was filled in. Tiber and Auckland climbed on top of the stables to access the second floor while Valenta and Reme took care of the animals. The second floor was abandoned with no signs of recent habitation. The mattresses were moldy and gnawed by vermin. A strange shaft led down into the basement. Auckland tied a rope and descended with the Salt Knight. 

 

 

 

The cellar under the tavern had a trashed workshop. The floor was covered with gears and springs and broken glass. The stairs to the level above were collapsed but there was also a heavy bronze door leading deeper into the cellar. It was dented where someone hit it but the big wheel on the door still worked. Tiber turned it and it swung open.

 

Upstairs, Valenta went out of the stable to join her brother Knights. Someone spoke in the darkness beyond the fire. She couldn't see but she could hear the swish of chainmail and the rattle of weapons. The stranger said the Queen was welcome to enjoy their stable and their hospitality, if they told her what she knew of the Crown. They were operating on her husband's authority and once she shared the location of the artifact they would happily escort her back to the capitol. The unfriendly nature of the encounter wasn't lost on Reme, still in the stable, who readied himself for a fight. She could see their weapons and armor reflecting the firelight. Red mail and poleaxes. Two of them climbed onto the stables from the opposite side, moving to surround her.

 

Downstairs, the Salt and Horn Knights went through the bronze door. They thought for a moment they were one floor up, because it opened into a stable. But this one was unused and didn't smell like animals. There was a row of stalls and a ramp at the opposite end, leading up into the ceiling. They crossed the room to investigate and found a horse in one of the stalls. Or rather a horse barding, because no horse could have survived sealed in the room for so long. A suit of horse armor on a stand. Drawing closer, Tiber noticed that several pieces of armor were missing, or had been beaten out of shape in a previous combat. Part of the helmet was missing and there was a complex assembly of springs where the head would normally go.

They went to check out the ramp. The horse's head turned to follow them.

Terese Nielsen

Upstairs, Valenta realized the bandits meant to take her hostage. She ran back into the stable, where Reme had prepared her horse and was saddling his own pony for a speedy getaway. She mounted the Tired Steed as the mercenaries encircled the building, blocking both exits. She kicked the beast into a gallop and thundered out of the door, whipping her chain to clear the path ahead. Behind her the halberd wielding mercenaries rushed in and blocked Reme's egress, hacking at him with their weapons. The leader of the band bellowed at his inept henchmen. 

 

"ALIVE, YOU IDIOTS! ALIVE!"

  

Incensed at the assault on the Squire, Valenta turned and charged the crowd of soldiers as the ones on the stable jumped down to join the fray.  She snapped her chain and lashed out with her jagged sword and wounded the crowd of mercenaries but their leader steadied them. One soldier struck the Tired Steed, another hooked Valenta with the rear spike of his poleaxe and unhorsed her, a third hacked away with the front ax blade. 

 

Meanwhile, in the basement, the bronze horse cantered out of its stall. It made no sound as its dainty metal hooves skated across the floor but the mechanisms in its skull made a clicking sound. The Salt Knight worked the crank to open the ceiling hatch at the top of the escape ramp while the Horn Knight held off the mechanical monster. He struck the exposed components in the side of the head with his shield, jamming them. The horse kicked and thrashed but the Knights' armor absorbed the brunt of the damage. A piece flew out and it seized up, then reared to attack again. The Salt Knight got the hatch open and the Horn Knight ran up and out, luring the mechanical steed out of the underground stable. The Salt Knight followed.

The Knights gained the surface and found themselves outside the tavern. They heard the mercenary leader's cry and saw Valenta yanked off her horse. The clockwork horse charged and gored Valenta's horse to death before running off into the woods. The Horn Knight shot the bandit chief with his hunting bow, the Salt Knight tossed his javelin and rushed into melee. He slashed with the wicked sword taken from the legionary and stabbed with his wave bladed dagger. Valenta regained her footing and rejoined the fray. The searing onslaught of the Knights dropped the leader and two of his henchmen and sent the other two fleeing for their horses, not attempting to recover the wounded. The Horn Knight downed one with his hunting bow, the other escaped into the night.

 
Valenta and the Horn Knight policed up the dropped weapons and rounded up the wounded mercenaries while Tiber went into the stable to get Reme. He was dead, hacked to death along with his pony. He prioritized getting the queen out before him and the mercenaries killed him before their leader could impress on them that they were supposed to be taking hostages here. 

All four bandits had actually survived the Knights' onslaught, grievously wounded but not dead. That was about to change. Knights were entitled to dispense the King's justice and the death of the squire did not put them in a forgiving mood. Two of the mercenaries begged for their lives. They were working on the monarch's orders to secure the realm against the influence of the crown, enforcing the curfew and escorting the Knights back to the safety of their holdings. The red haired leader laughed. There was no royal decree. He made that all up. He just wanted the crown. Four bandits dead for one squire was a lopsided exchange, but he didn't get into this business expecting a fair fight. He wished the Knights best of luck finding the crown, hopefully one of them would have it when he saw them in hell. Probably they'd kill each other over it. The Salt Knight beheaded all four brigands.

The haul was four poleaxes, four coats of mail, a coat of plates, and four horses left behind by the departed footpads. Poor recompense for the loss of the squire.

 

Schenck