The Arcadian Gateway - Blood and Roses Ch 1

Wild flowers in the springtime
October we were wed
In winter time the roses died
Her blood ran cold and then she said
I want to live, but I don't belong
I close my eyes and I see blood and roses

- Blood and Roses, The Smithereens


The Eminence of Blades, Don Ferdinand de la Luna, known also as the Moonmaus, Eshu kinain, has been away from the County of Lion's Reach for some time, tending to matters in his homeland, the Arcadian Gateway. His ship, the Perilous, has recently returned, with a tale of intrigue and woe - Outlanders from the Wyrder parts of the Dream have slowly taken hold of various institutions at the Gateway, casting a spell on the natives, and begun changing the very foundations of the realm itself!

Ferdinand has been charged with forming a band of Maquis, to spark and support a resistance, and push back on the soft occupation of the Gateway by the Outlanders from the Land the Gods Refuse To See, The Place of Unreason - Isten Vak!

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CHAPTER 1: Journey to the Arcadian Gateway to investigate the occupation by the lords and ladies of Isten Vak

PROLOGUE!

The land is still hidden from the West by the Gateway Castle of Lord Lysander and the Terrible Goblin Wood, still hidden from the East by the Grim Fortress of Queen Marianna and the Dvergar Mountains. It is now also largely hidden from the Dream by the Dream’s own disgust at the new lord and lady of the realm - Lady Marianna now falls under the thrall of the Heart Queen of Castle Cachtice that has manifested in the North, and Lord Lysander now falls under the thrall of the Red King, in Castle Poenari that has manifested in the South. For not only has every kind of creation and creature been abused by the blasphemies and sorceries of the unfathomable war brought by these Outlanders from Isten Vak, but every force, law, lesson and explanation ever decreed by those above and those beneath. Meaning is meaningless and there are never any reasons. There are, however, now monsters. Previously kept in check by the Mercenary Company of the Last Garrison, a neutral holding along the river that runs between western wood and eastern mountains, these monsters now run amok.

There is a slow war taking place between West-South and East-North, utilizing the traditional tools of slow wars: sabotage, stealth, subterfuge, catspaw and intrigue, but in addition, both armies also make extensive use of networks of sorcerously linked interiors - tunnels and irrational portals brought over from their native realm of Isten Vak, moving from room to lonely room like rats in plumbing, eventually emerging miles away, ready to bring battle to the open gardens in the bleak red night. These linked interiors are of strategic importance, because the belligerent occupying monarchs and their thrall
armies are all seemingly unable to cross the rivers with which the Gateway is densely latticed.

In yet another sign of the fundamental encroaching erosion of the Gateway's identity? There are two other parties recently arrived - the Pale King and the Colorless Queen, poised to derive whatever advantage they can from the chaos of the war between the Red House and the House of Hearts. Both of these junior monarchs are distant cousins of the Red King and Heart Queen and as-yet-unaligned. They have come to see the War and the land for themselves, for the rumors that they have heard cannot be trusted.

The bent Pale King and his Hatter come from the green hills of Gilliam-Briarbraddock with gifts of pudding and sausage. He has four thousand two hundred seven soldiers of the Pale House, and knows the languages of animals.

The young Colorless Queen is amphibious, and rules Nephilidia, the Half-Drowned Isle. Why she’s left behind the discolored foam and torpor of her own land to tour the parlors of the Arcadian Gateway is as yet unknown. The immunity of her white-haired, black-armored knights to the Rule of Moving Water could make them invaluable allies to the forces of north or south.


THE ADVENTURE BEGINS!
The party starts their adventure at the Last Garrison, their ship coming up the river to the center of the realm where the ruins of the Garrison and the remnants of the Mercenary Company remain. There, they can gather information, and then decide on which direction the wish to journey, mostly from a makeshift public house and the mercenaries that linger.

RUMORS
Newly established points of interest include
the Garden of Pests
Tisza
the Spires of Zombor

The paths which can be followed lead in one of two directions:
NORTH, towards the the Heart Queen and Lady Marianna in Castle Cachtice
SOUTH, towards the Red King and Lord Lysander in Castle Poenari

(Should they attempt to head through the woods either WEST towards Gateway Castle, or EAST towards the Grim Fortress, they will wander the woods without making any progress and end up back at the Last Garrison by the end of the journey.)


ENCOUNTERS ALONG THE WAY!

1. BARELY NAVIGABLE WILDERNESS!
Attacks from trees
Attacks from insects
Attacks from bog gas

2. EVIL WOLVES!
Attacks from packs or single dire wolves

3. ANGRY BOARS!
Attacks by a stampede of tusked boars

4. WITCHES THAT WOULD MAKE BABA YAGA'S BLOOD RUN COLD!
Attacks by a trio of witches

5. DECAPITATED PETRIFIED KINGS/QUEENS GUARD!
A group of headless royal guard, they sit petrified, headless, unmoving and deposed. A mystery to be solved, an enigma to be pondered.


DESTINATION: ORB LOC
The Orb Loc (or “Blind Spots”) is a Gateway settlement deep in the Forest, hidden by occult ritual from the warring Houses. The village consists of dusty paths through clusters of arch-linked, angled roofed stone homes organized around fortified temples. The Orb Loc contains at least three bold youths whose erratically shaven faces seem to cling to the skulls beneath with a certain inebriated nonchalance unknown West of the Terrible Goblin Wood and one bent woman in black with sinkhole eyes, graveyard teeth and an alarmingly thorough knowledge of that which is likely best forgotten.

It is rumored that there exists an order of militant Clerics known as the Sisters of Merciful Fate dedicated to taking back the realm from its recently arrived parasitic lords, and that its members hide among the common folk of the Orb Loc, but this may be no more than wishful thinking.

FORECLUSIONS & THE SISTERS OF MERCIFUL FATE
Temporal distortions in the realm very occasionally result in situations where outcomes precede the actions that caused them by several days. For example, a Dragoon Lieutenant may find herself in command of mercenaries that have not yet been hired, or a man may be sick on account of a custard he has not yet eaten. These premature events are known as foreclusions and can be immediately identified as such because they are accompanied by a quick moist crackling sound, as of batter frying.

Once a foreclusion occurs, the foreclusion itself cannot usually be undone, but the presumed cause of the foreclusion (which will not yet have happened) can be prevented by making it impossible for the original presumed cause to occur and organizing a new causal event which would result in the same foreclusion - or at least one matching every observed property of the foreclusion.

ADVICE FROM THE SISTERS!
In general, remember: because everyone is so petty, the smallest actions have consequences. Dropping a plum pit on the Croquet Grounds at Castle Cachtice can ruin your whole year. Oftentime, the mountain you will face was built from the molehill you made in times past.


THE 7 RULES OF ENGAGEMENT W NPCS!
Visitors have noticed certain... patterns... to the conversation of creatures of Isten Vak. A caricaturist might say:
1. Offense taken is inversely proportional to offense meant.
2. (Corollary of 1) Real violence, oppression, and injustice are ignored or purposefully misunderstood (though inhabitants do fight back when directly attacked). Minor, accidental or imagined breaches of etiquette are met with violence, oppression, and injustice.
3. In all situations (including trials), tangents are treated as more important than the purported purpose of the
conversation.
4. Everyone is difficult.
5. No-one is unalterably hostile.
6. No-one can be made to understand anything.
7. Information creatures provide is usually accurate.