A Loe Blow

**A Loe Blow** is the 17th Episode of the 2nd Season in Where Shades Rule. This episode sees the Six finally confront Wulf and the confront the curse that may have been growing in him since before their first arrival. Thereafter, they confront another likely suspect whom becomes all the more evident that he may have been the source of the corruption.

## Recap

After being infected, the parties attempts to cleanse themselves with the help of the Head-Abbott of Valour Haven have only partially succeeded. The Six is forced to leave some of its members to stay in jail while the remainder of the group go to recruit the Three Magickos to assist in the cleansing. This does not go easily as the Three Magickos in eccentricity are difficult to engage seriously and then press for a serious payment in return for their services.

## Summary

Impatiently awaiting the Three Magickos to actually move and honour their end of the bargain, the eccentric wizards inform Vandor, Tore and Tully that they will go and cleanse their friends at High Noon. This is seemingly wasteful to the trio who pester Ruqar in hopes of motivating the Magickos. They attempt to pry more information out of Ruqar into exactly what he needed their blood for. He tells them that merely it is a project he heads with the assistance of his other two colleagues and he will say no more. Ruqar tires of Vandor's attempts to insult Ruqar's pride to try and prompt him to act on the matter they agreed on and insists they should leave him be. However, the Second Magicko becomes intrigued by Dame Dagmar who shows a keen knowledge on what Ruqar is working with and an interest in learning more from him. The Gith tempts the thought of taking her as an apprentice but makes it conditional upon her seeing him after the coming attack from the Undead Hordes. But he is now suffiiciently intrigued that he agrees to collect his colleagues to journey to Castle Valour.

Upon arriving in the Castle Dungeons, the remaining infected Six members, Sir Davion and Tore are resting as they await their treatment. A guard in the rooms seems very nervous upon the entry of the Magickos due to their reputations. But with a mere glow of his arcane hands, Kravix successfully cleanses the two infected as Ruqar exacts his price and collects blood samples. Vandor mentions that Captain Vidal requires healing as well and Kravix gleefully makes his way to his containment chamber.

Now free again, the party had taken advantage of their stay in the Castle Dungeons to speak with Daniel, a smuggler misfit who is recurringly in jail due to misdemeanours committed allegedly in affiliation with the Barricade. Daniel's naturally chummy persona is easily lapped up by the party who take advantage of it to lure Daniel into promising to introduce the Party to his 'friends' who can secure 'rare goods' for them. They go to seek Gamreve to secure Daniel's release whilst also checking in to see where Wulf is currently so that Davion may check in on him.

The Knight-Commander agrees to release Daniel after being reminded who the outlaw was but is unable to tell them where Davion's squire is as he has not been seen since the previous night. Taking this as a bad sign, they immediately go on the hunt throughout the Castle searching for him and inquire of the soldiers who give only smatterings of confusing hints. However, Tully asks Basil whether he has seen Wulf who divulges that he had seen a figure matching Wulf standing on the Wall at the City's edge close to the Castle.

The Six race to meet Wulf where Davion spots his lost cousin standing upon the battlement overlooking the large drop to the grounds outside the City. Davion steps up behind his kin and grabs him by the shoulder and Wulf speaks calmly although in a manner very much unlike him. Wulf seems to warn that the 'time is almost upon us' and 'there is nothing left to be done'. Wulf attempts to fall from the wall but Davion resists by holding him. Wulf slips and falls but thanks to Davion's grasp he does not fall to his death. Dagmar casts sleep and forces the pre-teen to sleep with the Six securing the boy to take immediately to the Magickos Tower. But time was of the essence as the Sleep spell would only last for 1 minute. Vandor taking Wulf into his arms, sprouts his celestial wings and flies at speed toward the Tower to receive immediate cleansing.

Thanks to Vandor's efforts, Wulf is successfully healed and feels incredible guilt at what has happened believing that Sir Davion will never see him the same. With the Six eventually arriving at the Tower some time later, Wulf has had enough time to calm down and greets his cousin although still in guilt. Davion embraces him and Wulf hesitantly reciprocates it. Now with his mind back in order, Wulf reveals that he was able to infect officers at the Castle but tainting a Bottle of Wine with essence that he regurgitated once the curse had enough time to incubate. More than that, he remembers that it was not a Centaur that had infected him, but in fact was Knight-Captain Loe who slashed his leg with a cursed-laden dagger.

The Six recalls that Loe had requested to meet them days ago and determine that now may be the best time to see if he will still meet with them. They arrange to visit his choice of tavern to see if he still shows up and sure enough there he was. At first, Loe claims to only have been worried about Wulf's wellbeing. Despite the Six's convincing efforts that they accepted this explanation, Loe did not believe that they were truly not suspicious or aware of his true nature. He rose to attack the party as Vandor realized through his divine sense that all of the patrons of the Jealous Goat Bar were also infected.

## Featured Characters

### The Six

* Sir Davion Phylund
* Tore Wolfram
* Tully Tanglefoot and Basil
* Vandor Tah
* Dame Dagmar Woodfang

### Returning Characters

* Knight-Commander Gamreve
* Wulf Phylund
* Knight-Captain Loe
* The Three Magickos