Day 27 (S16)

Started in Castle Frey, Ended in the Sprite Light coven.
Rina 22, 3

Kin woke early to watch the sunrise, and got a sending from Valentine: "Please get to the Sprite Light Coven as soon as possible - All of you. The Church of Luminus is on their way."
"Right away," he answered.
Kin then woke up Aurelius, Alice, and Rina. "We need to get to the coven today," he said, "let's get to the tree on the outskirts of town and head there with treestride."
They all packed up their things and headed to the coven.
"I wanna to it this time!" said Alice, "You always treestride us, but I wanna do it!"
"Ok, have at it" Kin said.
Alice climbed up to the top of the tree - the highest she could go and still have a wide enough area to use the spell.
"Okay, everybody up here!" she said.
They all climbed the tree - Kin and Aurelius doing it with very little issue, Rina could barely make it.
"Thought you were born in a tree" said Aurelius.
"I was, but I left that forest 200 years ago," She said, "You remember how do to things you learned 200 years ago?"
"I'm only 19, Rina" he answered as if he made a point.
Alice opened up the big oak tree, and they all walked in. The tree on the other side was a pine - one with many small branches instead of a few large ones. Immediately Alice, Aurelius, and Kin all fell from the tree - hitting branches on their way down. This time, Rina was prepared. She was able to slowly climb down the tree, the sap being cleaned from her Clothes of Mending only a moment after touching them.
"At least I didn't fall on my face and get covered in sap" she said to Aurelius once she got down.

Kin lead them to the coven from the tree, they noticed that much of the coven's area had been extended into Mistbrook.
"Oh!" Rina started, "They actually got Mistbrook!"
"Yeah," said Kin, "Valentine said a lot of them went to Riverbend like you suggested."
Rina smiled, she loved seeing that she'd made a difference in the world - even in a small way.
Abagail saw them before they saw her, and she approached them, "Hello, all of you," she started, "we don't have much time - let's go to Valentine."
She lead them to Valentine who had the entire Sprite Light coven of Witches lined up and she was giving them a pep talk.
"We all need to be ready," she said, "and we will all be okay."
She turned around to see the party, "Oh, thank goodness you four are here. A group of Pontain's soldiers from Vorovni are on their way here. We need to stall them until Rizvic gets here."
"They're on their way here for what, exactly?" Aurelius asked.
"They are planning on either fighting us or arresting us... something. I'm not sure. I only know that Rizvic is in a meeting right now to try to buy us time. So we need you to buy us time until they get here."

"Heh..." Aurelius scoffed, "I got this. I trained with these guys for years. I'll be able to plan a way to keep them occupied."
"Then I'm happy you're here" said Valentine, "Sisters!" she yelled to the girls of the coven, "Listen to Aurelius - he will be your leader for this plan!"
"What are your strengths, everyone?" he asked them, "Elemental magic? Time bending magic? Illusion magic?"
"We are all trained in illusion magic" one of the girls said.
"We can work with that," he said, "There's a path from Vorovni to here, correct?"
"Yes there's one path" she answered.
"Does it have trees on both sides?" he asked.
"Yes, it's basically just a dirt path through the Pixie Woods" she answered.
"Perfect," he said, "then here's what we do: when Pontain and his men are on their way, we will make them see a different path through the woods. One that takes them in circles, or around the coven instead. We will need to make sure we are careful that they don't run into any trees on the way."
"What if they see through the illusion?" Alice asked.
"We will talk to them" he said, "Rina and I are both good at talking."
"You especially," Rina said to Aurelius.
Alice giggled a little.
"I can wildshape to watch them" Alice said, "I can keep an eye out for if they go off track or anything."
"Aurelius and I both have command, also - we could use that if we need." said Kin.
"Well, I feel useless here" said Rina, "All I have is a scribe's pen and Illusory script. I guess I could write on a tree or something if needed."
"Just stand by in case we need anything, Rina" said Abagail, "you never know with these things, having someone free is just as valuable as someone having a specific job."
Rina nodded.

Alice Wildshaped into a bird and flew up towards Vorovni to spot the small group of soldiers heading toward the coven. She flew down to Rina who could understand her with Beastspeach.
"They're almost to the forest" Rina relayed to the group, "Time to get in line everyone!" Aurelius said to the group of roughly 100 witches.
50 witches lined up on each side of the path and cast their illusion magic. The group of soldiers fell for the fake path and began moving slightly more northward than the original path.
As the soldiers got past one area, the witches from the back would quietly run to the front and cast their illusion magic again.

The trip from the edge of the woods to the coven would typically take 2 hours while walking. The two hour mark was approaching, and Pontain began to wonder when they would start seeing signs of it. "It has been just about long enough" he said, "where is the coven? Are there not signs?"
Rina then used her Scribe's Pen to write on a tree, and the Illusory script to make it look official. "To the Sprite Light Coven" with an arrow pointing left.
"Ahh, I see," Pontain said, "I guess I just mis-estimated the time."
The illusion continued for yet another hour, and took Pontain and his men all the way around the coven itself, back in the direction of Vorovni - putting them at the entrance of the woods again.
"Gah, we must have gotten turned around in the woods!" he yelled, then turned to the head of his army, "You! How did we get turned around like this? You were supposed to navigate!"
"I... I don't know..." he said, "Maybe those witches did something!"

Alice let Rina know once again that they were onto them, and Rina relayed the information to Valentine.
"Ok, Rina, then you're up" she said.
"Up? Up to what?" Rina asked confused.
The witches then made an illusion of a giant shining woman, bright as the sun and covered in leaves, with a wall of thorns behind her.
"I'm going to project your voice" Valentine whispered, "Say something to get them out of here!"
"I am the mother spirit of the forest! Fey goddess of the Pixie woods!" Rina said, "Please leave this place or suffer the wrath of nature itself!"
"You had to say 'please'?" Alice in bird form asked her. It sounded like the scream of a great eagle, so it scared the men even more.
From behind the trees, Aurelius and Kin each used command on Pontain and the army commander respectively to command them to run away.
Both Pontain and the commander began to run, which also caused all of the other men to run in fear. Pontain slipped and fell in the mud and began to yell "Demons! Devils! The witches summoned evil!"
Just in the nick of time, Rizvic appeared between Pontain and the illusion, "Get out of here you nitwit" they said to him, "the coven has the protection of the Mother Witch until further notice now - you're no longer needed here."
Pontain got up, now covered in mud, and scrambled off in the direction of Vorovni with the rest of his men.

Rizvic then approached Valentine and the party members, "Forgive me for taking so long. I just got back from a meeting in the capitol" they said, "the Sprite Light coven and the Sprite's Lights have 2 weeks of diplomatic immunity to get things sorted out. You cannot be arrested or taken by anyone in Asmery for any reason. We must Get Sprite Light legitimized within this time."
"What do we need to do to get that done?" Kin asked.
"Much of it will be paperwork that we are working on" said Valentine, "but there will be Witch Trials that the members of the coven will need to complete."
"Your party will need to do with witch trials to become a members," Rizvic said, "but on top of that, we need the Sprite Light coven to have a good reputation within Asmery. Doing some quests in the coven's name may help."
"We will make sure to do so" Kin said, "and we will be changing our party name so this doesn't happen again."
"Good," said Rizvic, "I'm going back to Vorovni now to see what other paperwork I can get pushed for the coven. I'll see you all in 2 weeks or less." Rizvic then disappeared as fast as they appeared in the first place.
"For now," Valentine started, "Let's get you guys settled in here for the night."

Rina paused a moment and pulled out the Cylinder of Liquid, "I think I want to try and Scry on Gabrielle" she said.
"That would probably be a good idea," Alice responded, "We don't know if she's even still alive."
Rina used the Cylinder of Liquid to scry and looked for Gabrielle. She saw the inside of a great castle, in a room made of black stone. She could see Gabrielle hanging by her wrists in shackles, with her white clothes covered in blood.
She heard a voice yell at Gabrielle, "Tell us!" as she was whipped across the face.
She could see Gabrielle try to speak, but it was a language Rina could not understand.
She then saw the hands of another person heal Gabrielle, before the first man yelled at her again and whipped her again. She could see that this man had a huge sword - another one of the Finger's Weapons with the same inscriptions.
Then, the healer came into closer view, "Looks like we've got a curious cat here" they said before crushing the scry eye.
Rina snapped out of the scry vision, "One of the Fingers of Luminus is torturing her" she said to Alice, "The Church of Luminus is torturing her..."
Rina hung her head, remembering her choice to save Marie.
"At least she's still alive" said Alice, "I know you feel bad that she's in pain, but Marie would already be dead without you."
"Now I have to tell Kin about this..." said Rina, "I really don't want to have that conversation."
"Tell me what?" they heard Kin say from around the bend.
Rina told Kin everything she had seen, and he walked away from her without a word and went into the woods.
"That went about as well as expected..." Rina sighed.
"What else should we do?" Alice asked Rina and Aurelius.
"I'm heading to bed" Aurelius said as he walked off.

"Ladies," Abagail approached them, "all the sisters are gathering for drinks and food. We would love if you join us."
The girls smiled at each other and went with Abagail to eat, drink, and be merry.

Day 1 / 14 of the 2 weeks of diplomatic immunity

Next: Day 28 (S16)