Clash of Kingslayers — Recaps

Clash for short, a mini campaign taking place in Varisia's dwarven city of Glimmerhold.

Main characters include:
★Leleis "Lily" Rakat★ — a tiefling Gunslinger-Magus, Lily was classically trained in magic for the Acadamae of Korvosa. As any victim of vicarious living and repressive noble status-hunting, she grew to hate it, preferring the freedom which her orphaned friend Rose offered to her outside. Rose's undeserved death at the hands of a respected guard one day, and the utter indifference of her family and the law, subsequently destroyed any chance of Lily following their path of corruption and decadence. The young woman waited patiently, talking up her dead friend's shotgun and enacting justice where there would be none — a purpose she now wanders the country to uphold.

★Shelen "Shel" Maralako★ — a changeling Shaman, Shel was switched at birth with the female half-elven child of a lowly Korvosan couple, and earned mediocre magic tutelage at Theumanexus Preparatory. Their childhood was peaceful, but very lonely, only tempered by the occasional company of whispers from the natural world they learned to reach out to. As Shel grew older and the sickening whisper of a hag began to drown out the others, more and more conflict arose in their home between different spirit-taught beliefs and the truth of their blood. They only escaped a plot to trade them back for the "true" Shelen with aid from the spirits, shielding Shel's mind in the form of a flying fox, Thrush.

★Quite alone together and vulnerable despite their greater access to magic, the two came upon Lily far outside the confines of Korvosa and struck a deal to cover her back as she'd cover theirs, traveling and working to enact justice as a partnership.
     *Lily holds a brashly burning hatred of injustice, especially as protected by corrupt law, and won't hesitate to bring it low via shotgun or scythe as a fearsome magical striker with the ability to freely dart through the air, taught to her by Shel's spirits. She's otherwise fairly affable but prefers to keep to herself, avoiding trouble (of the unkillable kind), attention (that might shed light on her vigilantism) and close relationships (that might hurt her once more).
     *Shel began as a shrinking violet but quickly blossomed into confidence and a deft touch with social matters (including Lily's privacy) once they were away from their oppressive home and with people who respected their identity. The teachings of spirits gave them a balanced outlook on matters of order and freedom, but no less passion for doing good, which they fight for through curses and support magic (sometimes taught to them by Lily).

★Reef Stoneham★ — a dwarven Barbarian, Reef came to Glimmerhold hoping to contain the furious sparks of his blood and earn a quiet living by working on his passion in life: engineering, particularly of the electrical kind, though he spends his days smithing in the field. While he keeps his head down, avoiding the sight of injustice for the sake of retaining his temper and position, the quiet man hasn't entirely turned his back on the downtrodden who once reached out to him.
     *Reef is quiet and mild-mannered but an utterly brutal combatant when angered, prone to tearing enemies apart with savage falchion blows and shrugging off all but the harshest of attacks, while terrifying all onlookers with his ability to surge through the air, electrified. There is a reason he avoids losing his cool whenever possible.

★Thrush★ is here too, believe it or not. Shel's spirit animal can't quite recall if he was a normal flying fox given thought by the whispers or a spirit which manifested in the living world to aid them, but either way, he is the spirits’ voice, and a faithful (if very timid and shy) companion. He enjoys fruit, scritches, quiet talks and helping Shel pick spells to prepare.


★Session 1: Rude Welcome★

The great stone bridge to the towering, monolith-like city of Glimmerhold is packed, a lovely evening approaching night and helping to assuage the weariness of travelers and traders, if only a bit. Many are already setting up their tents, unwilling to push on further to proper accommodations.

A ways behind the main crowd, walking more slowly after a long day of travel, a short half-elf with mismatched eyes is looking back and forth between a letter held in one hand and a miniature map in the other, unnaturally long nails keeping them from flapping in the wind and a small flying fox poking his head out of their pocket to enjoy the breeze. The taller tiefling beside them, glancing with worried eyes over the crowd ahead and the immense enclosed city beyond them, doesn't need to read the papers over to know the right way.

     "Ah'm tellin' ya it’s a bad idea, Shel," she murmurs. "Nowhere t'get a good vantage, only one way out if things head south. Letter like that just *reeks* of an ambush waitin'..."
     Shel doesn't stir from their occupation, though they give their friend a reassuring look. "I've got a good feelin' about this, Lily. I believe 'em, and if you humor that, there's a lot of good we could do. ‘Sides, the spirits said it'll be fine...more or less."
     Lily just sighs at that, adjusts her hat. She knows better by now than to ask what the "less" could entail.

And just her luck, the suggestion to camp and prepare for the following day has scarcely left her lips when the heavens open up. As Shel swears, stuffing the papers into their satchel, and the flying fox takes cover, Lily looks up at the rain below her brim — a familiar habit with a new and shocking effect.

Suddenly she remembers that there hadn't been a cloud in the sky. The roiling heavens are red as blood, and she sees more than just droplets emerge from them.

Lily's warning is cut off by the sound of mass panic, everyone else on the bridge taking notice of the heavenly warriors bearing down on them atop snarling demonic rams. The crowd stampedes for the far end of the bridge as the closest warriors, all female, swoop through the rain and effortlessly cut down two unfortunate civilians. With a quick incantation and not even a moment's thought, Lily is borne up into the air to face them head-on, the young woman aiming her shotgun right at the nearest assailant while Shel recovers from their shock and summons the first retort they can think of, twin balls of lightning surging straight through two of the warriors. Though certainly not ineffective, it hardly slows them down, and as Shel tries to shout above the din of rain (now falling with such force it misfires Lily's gun) to draw the legion's attention away from the bystanders whose souls are being poached, they realize with a shock that these are no demons, but the soldiers of revered Torag, god of dwarves and honor. Doomguides.

As if to make the situation even worse, a terrifying roar *does* succeed in splitting through the din. But as Shel starts drafting backup plans and Lily steadily clears her gun, they see not a monster — at least not one they know of — but a dwarf emerging from the crowd which Shel almost mistakes for a third ball, tearing through the sky while wrapped in lightning and quickly smashing a rider into the waters below with a bellow of rage and a strangely ramshackle sword. Lily refocuses away from the sight just in time to shoot a fast-approaching doomguide clean through the shoulder, gritting her teeth as others recognize her threat and descend on her. Their sickles tear into her clothes and skin as she weaves through the assault as well as possible, feeling the incredibly unpleasant sensation of needing to keep her soul in place. But she manages with the help of one of Shel's spirits (was it "Kyoji"?), keeping her cool as she kites the assailants with a steady output of lead — after all, she wasn't alone in the sky.

A pulse of positive energy mends wounds throughout the beleaguered multitude as ball lightning dances with the raging, electrified dwarf, who after dropping and recovering his weapon as if unused to combat is now cutting entire warriors in two, one after another. While miscellaneous spells and crossbow bolts sing upwards from the crowd in concert with Lily's much more effective bullets, a doomguide towards the back of the legion suddenly falls asleep, dropping a considerable distance off her ram and plunging to a watery grave below the bridge, damned by the heavy armor of Torag. Shel begins to prepare another hex before realizing that the effort is unnecessary: the mysterious dwarf had carved a bloody path through the legion which Lily had been gunning down, and between them they'd reduced the group to a scattering of bodies resting in the deep.

Terrified rams gallop up into the clouds, following their few remaining brethren which still have riders, and after a moment, the midair battlefield is vacant save for the still-pouring rain, a weary gunwoman, and a dwarf who is now landing in a section of the bridge away from other people. Lily searches the ground for Shel, seeing them help a woman who had been pinned under an overturned merchant cart, and quickly moves to follow. The peace settling in the air and on the crowd is uncertain, uneasy.

     Lily hefts the cart off of the woman with a bit of guidance from another spirit, and as a loved one approaches to tend to the woman's emotional wounds, she slips away from the crowd with Shel in tow, giving them one of her Looks. "Ah've been tellin' you."
     Shel pulls their hood up, already soaked, and reciprocates by pointing sheepishly at the far end of the bridge, where an outraged crowd is only now rushing into the city as the guards lift their standard-procedure lockout.
     Lily's eyes narrow. "*Bad idea t'come, ah said.*"
     "Look, I know it's not great-"
     "But an *even worse* idea t'act like such fuckin' scum, if they think they're gettin' away w'*that* shit they have another storm comin'...!"

She stomps away towards the entrance to Glitterhold, muttering under her breath, and as Shel follows with a sigh of relief, they look to the corner of the bridge where they'd seen that dwarf land, wondering.

~

Reef really hadn't asked for much. He'd already known the meeting with his family would be intensely unpleasant. He'd known that he'd have to keep forging the falchion on the journey home and back to make the commission deadline, losing time to tinker with his most recent engineering idea. He'd even figured that the traveling conditions might worsen on the way, despite what the weather prognosticators said. But Reef was nothing if not a calm man, a patient man, a man of steady engagement with his long and quiet life. A man who didn't let others know of the storm inside of him. And *all of that*, he could abide.

But a legion of *Torag's angels,* coming down and slaughtering innocents...some combination of shock, self-preservation, and pure indignant fury had pushed him well over the edge. And he'd done all of that in front of *everyone*. And now he felt like he was gonna die, not because of his few remaining wounds but because of the sheer fear of reckoning with the people who knew him. His best efforts to stagger out of the way of everyone he could recognize didn't hold them off for long.

     "Reef, *holy shit*, man-"
     "Are you okay? Is something wrong with you!?"
     "What *was* that?"
     "You were on FIRE! Or LIGHTNING! WHATEVER!!"
     "I was really afraid that you were-"
     "-angry," he stammers. What was he supposed to say? "I was just angry."

He could see that he was developing his own miniature crowd. Nowhere to go unless he jumped over the railing and joined the charred doomguide chunks he'd very publicly created a few minutes ago. As the undercurrent of the wall of inquiries around him begins to thrash with suspicion, he seriously considers it, until a raised voice causes some of his acquaintances to turn.

     "-'cuse me! Hi! That's the dwarf that was helping t'fight them off, right?" More turn, Reef among them, seeing a young and androgynous half-elf nod towards him — distantly trailed by an uncomfortable tiefling he recognizes with astonishment as the gunslinger he'd fought alongside.
     A coworker snarls, "What's it t'you, kid? We're kinda busy with him!", and before Reef can intervene, the half-elf offers a clear and smooth reply that he almost can't believe the brazenness of.
     "I- he seemed like a capable enough fighter, so I cast a spell to help'im do all that. Obscure shamanic stuff. Right, Thrush?" On cue, a flying fox pokes its head out of the stranger's pocket, eliciting several gasps, and nods with a squeak — obviously some sort of familiar. "And I'm the person who cast that *ball lightning* spell too, and channeled that healing magic, so...y'know, I know my way around magic, you can trust me, I just need t'talk with him 'bout the effects if you don't mind...?"
     The young stranger comes closer, offers their hand — and before too much hullabaloo can arise over their story or their frighteningly long claws, he takes the lifeline with gratitude and starts to slip through the crowd after them. "Yeah. All that," he says with a wave. "I'll talk with you all later."

~

For just a moment, as they meet with the tiefling and take shelter under an awning, Reef wonders if there's any chance that the stranger might have had something to do with the lightning in his blood after all. If the long question, through serendipity, could be answered and put to rest.

     The half-elf smiles and clarifies that they have no idea who he is, as if to quash the hope before it swelled. "I jus' wanted t'thank you for all the help with those! And uh, maybe learn what that was all about?"
     "Ya *did* chop a couple o'em in half," adds the tiefling.
     "My friend's gun is pretty powerful but it can't do anything like *that!*" The flying fox, too, squeaks something which the half-elf tells him is admiration. "And, hey, d'ya have any idea why angels of Torag would attack travelers to a dwarven city like this...?"

Reef sizes them up, takes a breath, and decides after a moment that they're earnest enough for obvious adventurer types. Outsiders who could perhaps be trusted to keep a lid on a subject. What more could he really say, anyway?

     "I just, got angry," he tells them. "Angry at the idea that a god like Torag could do such a thing. That's what happens. I'd rather they not know."
     "When ah get angry, *ah* can't cut people'n half," mutters the tiefling. "But hey, ah respect it. Ya don't know why a god would go all aggro on 'is followers either, then?"
     He thinks a moment. "Thing is," he says slowly, "Glimmerhold's no pious place. Public worship's outlawed. Reason's to keep things equal 'round these parts."
     "Even more'va shithole than I thought," she mutters.
     "*Lily.* Come on, that's an okay reason," the half-elf chides. (He only now starts to realize, between the claws and the eyes and the barely visible gills under their clothes, that they're probably not *only* a half-elf.) "So, what you're sayin' is that mighta been divine retribution o' some kind?"
     "I don't wanna think so, but aye," he allows. Then, rebounding into more familiar and comfortable territory, "I saw you're pretty capable yourselves. What brings you folk to Glimmerhold?"
     "Oh, y'know," Lily stammers, "just comin' t'see th'sights..."

She fails to come up with something else before seeing her partner pull out a letter to show him.

     "Shel, c'*mon*...!" she says between gritted teeth. Her tail begins to sway out of anxiety or impatience, but the half-elf simply responds with something reassuring about his "vibes" and "the weal part of the augury" which he fails to catch as he reads, expressionless.

The rain-spattered letter is familiar, bringing back a rush of bittersweet memories. He had been sent a similar one once, a long time ago.

     "-'s why we're around," Shel tells him. "And, y'know, you did really well back there, maybe you could help-"
     "I could show you to this pub you were told to go to," he says suddenly. "Seein' as you're new to the city and all." There's a silence behind Reef's words that they can't discern the meaning of, and really, he doesn't know what he'd fill it with either. He isn't sure what to think yet.
     After a moment's consideration, the tiefling at last tells him "That'd be mighty kind o'ya, sir," still clearly ill at ease, but extending a firm hand to him which he shakes. "Ah'm fixin' to get outta this rain, so how's about we start there, mm?"
     Reef nods. "Think you two could use a drink, and I can recommend a little something..."

As they start to make their way to the great gate of Glitterhold, Shel looks up at the rain, and the cloudy, unnaturally blood red sky it comes from. They feel Thrush digging deeper into their pocket for safety, and let out a breath they hadn't known they'd been holding.

     "Yeah, I could use a drink about now."

~

★Session 2: Coming Soonish★






















In their own words:
    Leleis was born to a rich family in Korvosa, fairly recent residents of South Shore and eager to prove their status as more deserving than the gutter trash of Old Korvosa. To that end, they employed the finest tutors they could afford to oversee Leleis' education from an early age, aiming to gain further prestige by entering her into The Acadamae.

    The constant pressure to not only maintain the standing her parents achieved but to push them higher chafed heavily, and Leleis rebelled in one of the few ways available to a girl whose life was so strictly regimented: She would take to the streets the moment she could distract her tutors, clambering around The Shingles and losing them swiftly amidst the twisting walkways and lean-tos.

     It was there she met Rose, an orphan of the shingles a few years older than her, who had been fending for herself from a young age and had "found" a working model of an early firearm that she used like a natural when she was in danger. She was everything Leleis wanted to be, and despite the differing backgrounds, the two became fast friends. Rose scoffed at the suffocating nature of Leleis' status, and Leleis was more than eager to agree with her, preferring the name Lily after Rose decided her original one was "too formal." She even took on Rose's rough way of speaking to her parents dismay, discarding the refined tones of the noble quarters for the speech of the streets.

    Her life, if rather fragmented, may still have been a happy one were it not for a day in the late autumn when Rose declared the two of them would explore the merchant district of Midland. Rose had given Lily her gun to hold, with the promise she'd teach her to shoot later that night. They'd barely begun their adventure when they ran afoul of a guard captain in the area. He threatened them for skulking around the merchants, and Rose spat in his face. The guard casually cut her down, Rose choking out a desperate plea for Lily to flee as she fell. She ran, and no one pursued her. Despite what she'd seen, her family name meant that even someone as powerful as the captain could not risk silencing her, but he needn't have bothered.

    Lily went to her parents with what she'd seen, begging for justice, offering to do whatever they asked, but they had no interest in justice for the orphan they already blamed for Leleis' corruption. Besides, it was the word of a young, frightened girl, even a noble girl, against a respected captain of the guard. The case would never make it through the courts.They told her to take this as a lesson on the consequences of hanging out with the wrong sort, and bade her return to her studies.

    Lily took her time. She was her parents model student. She stopped running from her tutors, and even was accepted into the Acadame, to start the following year. And every night, she watched the guard's route, and found out when he was alone. It was quick, and it was far from clean. The walls were still ringing with the echoes of the shots she fired, the gun finally jamming as the heat warped the barrel, and the mass of blood and viscera that had once been the guard toppled to the stones of the city. She walked out of the city as the screams rang out, the barrel scalding her leg where she had it hidden beneath her cloak. No one looked twice at her. After all, who would stop one of the nobles from coming and going as they please?

     Her life since that day has been one constantly on the fringes. Self taught, seeking out any new trick to keep her alive another day, keep herself going. With every city she stops in, she finds new corruption to root out, a new foe whom the law protects from consequence. And each time, Lily seeks them out, and reminds them, the world, and herself: No one is truly invulnerable.
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[TO BE UPDATED] Shel is a changeling who grew up in a corrupt, selfish city. Their childhood was decent, but relations started to break down as they got older for...various reasons. Definitely just the whole magic and Hag Call thing. Definitely not gender or political disagreements. It came to a head when their parents started trying to convince them their hag mom was worth meeting/going back to, and after a scary encounter with that idea they ran away, being found by a spirit named Thrush that took pity on them, helping to block out the call with his presence. With the spiritual help giving them much better magical abilities, but lacking experience and fortitude, they happened to run into Lily in her own exile and the two decided to cover each other's backs, traveling and fighting injustices together.
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Reef Stoneham is a dwarf hailing from the Stoneham clan; He's always had an affinity for electricity, given that it literally lives in his blood, so he dedicated his life to engineering. He's quite good at general mechanics, so much so that he was allowed a place under the oppressive thumb of Glimmerhold to produce parts to keep the well-oiled production line going, most of his time spent in the boiling hot smithing district, hammering away.

He experiments with electric engineering in his off time (which cuts into some of his alotted sleep time), however he lacks the finesse to make any real discoveries; His elemental blood showed up suddenly from a recessive gene, and there was no time in his training to dedicate to this wild aspect of him besides forcing him to tamp it down. It comes back up along with feelings of stress and anger, and he doesn't know how to bring it out without the rage associated with the blood itself coming along for the ride.

Reef is a stoic, quiet figure who spends most of his time hammering and very little talking. He is used to following orders, but knows that not all orders are just; A lifetime of being told to hide his wild blood has left him with a muted, but strong, moral compass. Interacting with injustice brings out his rage, and thus, his blood, so he tends to keep to himself just to avoid outing himself as the strange, dangerous, lightning-eyed dwarf he is.
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[TO BE UPDATED] A nature spirit who happened upon Shel, alone in the wilderness, and heard their plea for help. Thrush is very timid, but has a good heart, and though he's the gateway to the many spirits Shel has consulted since, he's still their closest companion.