58. All For One

* Clan MacLeod, Northern Margraves of the Rumidian Empire, are connected to the Infernal House Alekto. Looking to thwart them in the name of her patrons, House Telphousila, in the hopes of gaining her house's direct aid in the fight against Madog in turn, Clwyd and the party have come to Dunvegan Keep on the island of Newwe Rumidia during the week-long Harvest Close festival. While enacting the first stages of their plan against Clan MacLeod, Aerendyl fell to a swarm of imps in the night, leaving no trace behind and the rest of the party unaware of the true nature of his fate.
* At 5am in the still-dark morning of Fallingleaf 4, Clwyd, Pyt, and Wilfred watch drunkards leaving the castle grounds -- some having to be transported into High Town proper by carriage where they're subsequently manhandled by castle guards. Their immediate concern is with Aerendyl's absence.
	+ Wilfred sends Poppy a message, asking if Aerendyl is with them for any reason. She's a little drunk, says the party's plan of stirring up the Low Town populace appears to be coming along, but no, Aerendyl is not with them.
	+ The trio go back to their ship, thinking that if he's not under duress, he'll know to return there.
	+ They arrive at their ship at half 6 in the morning and decide to forgo sleep.
	+ Calling the rest of their crew back to the ship as well, they learn that rather than just a few halflings, hundreds of people who have attended the revels in the castle have gone missing. It's gotten so bad now that most people in these parts at least know someone who has had someone close to them go missing. The notice boards that originally only held Alton's missing poster are now plastered with sketches of other missing people.
	+ Furthermore, the Dunvegan Gazetteer, while avoiding naming Cecilia MacLeod outright, is filled with accusations that a lot of the problems in town, from the missing people to problems with guards and other public services, are a result of 'occult dealings' within the castle.
	+ Reasoning it out, the crew of the Drunken Dragon conclude that Aerendyl wouldn't have left without a word for this long given the circumstances; he's either been captured or killed.
	+ Figuring that if he were captured they'd take his stuff, including hopefully his anti-scrying bracelet that was preventing the *Sending* spell for being able to target him, Wilfred sends Aerendyl a message. The spell works successfully, but Wilfred gets no reply: Aerendyl had been captured, might be unconscious or otherwise unable to talk, didn't have his magic items any more, and was likely going to be put to the question if he hadn't been already.
	+ This newly formed crew of followers all immediately start readying themselves for a fight -- Poe starts sharpening his and his sister's swords with a whetstone, Garret starts adjusting what little equipment he has. Even Taylor, so unsure of himself, nods to the group.
* The party also conclude that there's no longer any time for holding back. If they were going to storm the MacLeod castle, potentially full of devils and cultists both, then they'd call in whatever favours they could.
	+ Clwyd messaged Nix, briefly telling him the situation and asking for any aid he could offer. He replies that he will come himself, and bring the new weapon he's been cultivating with him, so long as Wilfred Seabottom agrees to join the household and sign the infernal contract on Nix's arrival. Selling his soul gets a resounding 'No!' from Wilfred.
	+ The only other person or thing they can think they might reach out to and seek aid from is the River King, who they hope to talk to when the phasing moon is full -- which it should be at about 1am that night.
* Thus, the group have one day to steer the events in town to their liking before their talk with the River King.
	+ Pyt takes the twins and Garret into town, planning on getting a riot going.
		- They see that the activity of the city guards has already been stepped up compared with the last few days in town, in direct response to the growing negative sentiment about the place.
		- Pyt sends the twins to go knocking on doors all day. They're to tell people not to go to the castle revels and to attend a protest in front of the castle that night instead. The twins are met with a mixed response -- a lot of people are loyalists or simply think they're trying to cut down the competition to make it into the revels themselves.
		- Pyt and Garret find a guard captain out on patrol with six other guards. Pyt uses Major Image to make them chase a 'murderer' into a series of alleyways. A pair go running around to flank, a pair stays at the entrance to corner the area off, and the captain takes two guards with him to pursue.
		- They force their way past the two blocking the alley entrance, but the two guards pursue and Pyt shouts for Garret to stop them. Garret takes his gloves off, shrugs his shoulders, says 'sorry about this, lad,' then touches one of the guards in the chest. The ensuing lightning from Garret's touch fries the guard and blasts him backwards, smashing him into the alley's wall. The man was dead before he his the ground. Taken aback, the other guard can't react quick enough to stop another apology and a shoulder touch, sending him careening through a rain barrel and leaving him dead as well.
		- It was a little more permanent than what Pyt originally had in mind, but he figured they were in for a penny now and so drew Cormorant's sabre, killing one of the guards with the captain.
		- Garret catches up, as do the two guards that were flanking, and there's one hell of a scrum in the middle of this alleyway. The captain is a good fighter with his claymore, but Garret's killing his men at a touch and Pyt finishes the other guards off with a well placed spell.
		- Finally, Pyt uses *Modify Memory* on the guard captain: the captain is left believing that a mob killed his guards and that he received orders to quell the disturbance by forcing the populace to remain in their homes, effective immediately until further notice.
		- Garret and Pyt change into guard uniforms and Pyt blags them into the captain's entourage as new members of the city guard. They go along with him for the day to ensure that the enforcement is as totalitarian as possible.
	+ Meanwhile, Clwyd and Wilfred go the Maiden's Kiss to try and strike a deal with Siegfried, the mobster they'd encountered there before.
		- They divulge that the MacLeods are deep in cult activity and that citizens of Dunvegan Keep were going missing. The missing people, at least, the mobster was well aware of.
		- Siegfried, speaking through his gnome as ever, asks the group what they'd have him do. Their answer is simple: start a riot against MacLeod.
		- And the price? Siegfried says that he makes the group out to be capable people and he hopes they are people of their word also. All he asks if they do this is that the party bring irrefutable proof from the castle that the MacLeods are deep in their devilry.
		- Team Small agree to the terms and Siegfried tells them that they'll have their riot as soon as he can manage it (which, thanks to Pyt and the party's earlier efforts, turns out to be very soon indeed.)
* The group reconvenes on the Drunken Dragon at 5:30pm. They fill each other in on their activities and then get what sleep they can -- having not slept the night before -- readying themselves for the fight to come. They awake around 1am and ready themselves. The phasing moon was almost full.
	+ Wilfred, having some knowledge of the fey, thinks it likely the River King is watching the group. The gnome beseeches the archfey for a conversation, invoking his name three times.
	+ The moon waxes full and Wilfred's reflection in the lake water smiles back at him.
	+ The party know that on the night of a phasing moon, the moon would only remain full for 3 to 5 minutes, not leaving them with a lot of time for careful negotiation. The River King seems aware of this as well, and he certainly doesn't try and hurry the conversation along.
	+ He tells them that yes, he knows something of Aerendyl's current predicament and yes, he'd be able to offer help, for a price.
	+ He so loved those witches the party sent to him last, and so he wants some more. He reminds the party that they know of the coven of covens, and says he wants the five frozen maids that walk the ice-capped glade that make up one third of it. They're to get them to him within a year and a day, and if they don't manage that, then he'll take half of all their magic.
	+ Wilfred is ready to fight someone. He makes it clear that he hates dealing with these damn extra-planar entities.
	+ But the group is running out of time, and so, with the accent of the others, Wilfred agrees to the terms and feels the weight of the fey bargain settle on his shoulders immediately. The others feel it too.
	+ The River King, still wearing Wilfred's reflection as a guise, gives a smile and a bow, and tells them their help will come, they need only listen for bells in the morrow.
* Through the night, the tensions in Low Town were growing worse and worse. It all comes to a head at 4am, when the HQ of the Dunvegan Gazetteer is set on fire. Riots break out in earnest! Victimised members of the Low Town citizenry take up arms and fight with guards and the pockets of loyalists around town. They look to storm the castle, and so the gates to High Town are shut and a mini siege begins outside each one, crushing mob on one side, city guards on the other. People are trying to climb the walls and get hit with crossbows from the other sides. Homes and shops are burned, windows smashed, looting begins. As the hours press on, it just gets worse and worse. Merchants start setting sail, and many others in town look desperately for passage on their fleeing ships.
* And in the midst of the anarchy that this has all grown into by mid-morning, the party aboard the Drunken Dragon hear the chiming of light bells.
	+ They are met by a white-haired, white-bearded, pale-skinned tundra dwarf: Rangrim, otherwise known as 'Frostbeard,' Aerendyl's old teacher.
	+ He's clad in animal pelts, with a beautiful, obviously magic buckler on one arm, and a white wooden staff held in the other -- with two little ball bells affixed to the top; strangely, they don't chime when the stick moves around.
* The group ready themselves for the fighting to come. The twins, Taylor, and Garret agree to come along too, and Rangrim tells them that he can get all of them into the castle grounds without issue when the time is right -- to him that means waiting until the riot has sufficiently worried the castle guard. He should also be able to pinpoint Aerendyl's exact location once they get close enough to him for the spell to work.
	+ Rangrim ensures them that Aerendyl can handle a bit of torture and that it's more important their rescue effort is successful rather than just speedy.
	+ Over a series of hours, Clwyd uses her eldrich blast and her expertise in destroying things to take down three of the gates between Low Town and High Town: Lady's Gate, Stone Gate, and Sword Gate. This lets the mob start pressing their way into High Town, closer to the castle.
	+ Periodically, Rangrim has been *wildshaping* into a snowy owl to observe the situation from the skies. After a pass over the castle grounds at 4pm, he comes back and tells the group that for whatever reason, there's obviously fighting there as well, even though the castle grounds are in lock down.
	+ Rangrim casts Wind Walk on all eight of them, making them as mist, easily allowing them all to fly over the walls and into the castle grounds.
	+ Thanks to Wilfred's Telepathic Bond, they are still able to communicate even as mist.
	+ They take some time to look through windows and watch the grounds to see if they can figure out what the fighting is about. They occasionally see people being dragged about the grounds by castle guards, most of them look like household servants but occasionally they appear to be highland warriors themselves, not too dissimilar to the guards. They are mostly being dragged from the castle's manor house to the castle's tower.
	+ The group mist over to a small garden nestled behind the castle's tower and take the time to assume their regular forms.
	+ Rangrim then casts *Locate Creature: Aerendyl*, learning that he is below ground, not too far from where they are.
	+ They go into the tower, following a group of guards going down a spiralling staircase into the castle's crypts, dragging some screaming captives with them as they go. The group hang back and don't meddle, not wanting to start a fight before finding Aerendyl.
	+ Wilfred sends Aerendyl a message with Sending, just on the off-chance he can reply. And yes, success! Aerendyl says that he's freed himself with the aid of a friend, but they're not in great shape and they're currently hiding out in the MacTavish crypts.
	+ The group descend into the crypts and meet up with Aerendyl on the first basement level -- it's very easy to find him thanks to Rangrim's spell still being in effect.
	+ Aerendyl has a short but powerfully build human man with him, a man obviously from the ice lands by his look and accent. The guy has manacles still attached to his wrists and ankles, and he's clearly been using the chains connected to them as weapons, judging by the blood dripping from them and the dead highlanders in the crypt. He gives his name as Alric, son of Eric son of Fjor.
	+ Aerendyl also has his three quicklings out and about, with the younger brother Teal amusing himself by stabbing one of the guard corpses in the room repeatedly.
	+ Rangrim cloaks the group in Faerie glamour so they can rest in the side crypt without disturbance; he tells the group most people will see the dome of magic he's conjured and not take note of what's inside. He heals up Aerendyl and gives him Rangrim's own vial of Faerie water, saying that he'll make do without.
	+ Aerendyl shares with the group some details from his captivity: he was tortured and put to the question, with them using his own mind-reading bracelet against him. He held out as best he could, but they know that Clwyd is from House Telphousila and that the party are in Dunvegan Keep to stop the ritual. He also tells them there are at least three succubi and a chain devil here, and that the MacLeods are conducting a blood rite that is making a gateway to the Hells stronger with each sacrifice -- it should be strong enough for Alekto to step through by the end of that day.