Session 34: Onward to Mancesham

Getting on the road Coming to from the prior day's investigation and drinking, the party gathers together and begins packing their things again to head out onto the road. Gathering the horses, they load up and begin the 2-day trek to Mancesham in the southeast. As they leave the hills surrounding Skipton, they see that Fading is in full swing, the winds blowing rapidly across the more open expanses and making for a chilly but comfortable ride across the countryside. The first day of travel is mostly uneventful, with small conversations and a bit of new knowledge into Brottor's past.   Near dusk, Thia spots some ruins hidden just off the path, and the party investigates it before setting up camp inside the decayed fort for the night. It seems to be a relic of some long-ago war, and though falling apart in places, it offers solid protection and a safe place to sleep. Getting a solid night of rest, they pack up and continue on for another day of calm riding. There is more chatter and with a bit of confusion on Thia's part, she recounts a time she saw a woodland spirit her village told stories about. They laugh and trek on, with Mancesham coming into view on the horizon.   It seems that the ride will be entirely uneventful until Thia stops to alert the others about something strange she can hear. The others don't notice at first, but suddenly a frail and dirty old man in tattered robes charges them from behind a tree, yelling incoherently and attempting to cast a spell at them. Melios and Therei spring into action to halt his movement and try to figure out what he's doing, tying him up to keep him under control. Therei finds almost nothing on him but a bag of strange spell components, and when looking around, finds words carved into the backside of the tree he'd been hiding behind in a mix of languages. Thia briefly joins them in an attempt to get him to talk about what he's trying to do, but he mostly rants and refuses to co-operate before finally surprising them by vanishing into nothingness.   Trying to understand what's happened, they chat for a brief moment before he reappears a small distance away and begins to flee, arms still bound to his sides with rope. His antics bother Melios a great deal and he tries multiple ways to get the man to relax and speak with them, ultimately threatening the tree he's carved words into with a lightning bolt. Bristling in response to this danger, the old man begins to distract him with fog and more moments of blinking out of existence, while Therei tries to write down what he can from the tree to understand it (and possibly protect the information). Finally piecing something together from the tree notes, Therei asks "who he hurt" and is trying to save, causing the old man to falter and flop to the ground, ending his spells, though he still makes little sense and seems disoriented. Making the connection between the notes and whatever is holding this man back, Melios offers him a chance to embrace change and let the past go, before finally striking the tree with a bolt of lightning, blowing it to pieces and destroying the notes it held.   Watching in confusion, the old man's eyes glaze over and he slumps sideways, refusing to speak or respond to them further. The question is, is he mad, or does he truly know forbidden magic? They may yet find out...