When Two Worlds Collide

Reports concerning The Green Man’s domination of the skathen and attacks upon The Conclave.

We didn’t make it to the Guild House.
We ended up in Teutonia trying to stop Calligar-supporting skathen from doing a ritual to strengthen him. We did this by supporting the Horned Rat followers and performing a ritual over 9 of the skull totems of the 12 Skathen clans.
We found the skull totems using a ritual performed by Fladher an old Skathen ritualist. Fladher took an eye from 10 people and both eyes from an 11th. At points during the day the removed eye would act as a focus and transport the one eyed person and those surrounding him to a location near the skull totem. then it was a question of following the direction your eye led you in.

The vipers eventually sided with us against Calligar followers after Calligar took control of almost all of the skathen council and led them to attack the other skathen present.

We found a Conclave research base and the combined Harts/Vipers force attacked it wiping out all who were there. We found information that one of the Council Of Eight would be arriving on the Sunday. We tried to set up an ambush and kill him. We destoyed all those who came with him but he got away.
Harts that died:

• Cuthbert – in the aftermarth of the ritual to the Horned Rat struck down by Calligar followers
• Robyn, Helfdan & Ray from the House of Glass – in the attempt to kill the member of the Conclave council of 8.

We are born of blood and in blood shall we die.
Yollo ap Carwyn Of The Children Of Cana, Summer 1106
Having learned of an attempt to bolster The Green Man by overthrowing The Horned Rat those of us who had expected to travel to the opening of the Armourers Guildhouse in Keswick found ourselves at a high council of skathen seers in Teutonia. An unexpected turn of events but it ensured that the will of The Hunter was served, and I believe there is a fraternity between Hunter and Horned Rat greater than merely enmity of The Green Man.
We were “welcomed” to Teutonia by skathen followers of The Green Man who opted for violence over diplomacy. Serious bloodshed was avoided only by the arrival of a Viper delegation under the command of Rath and Zhedan. Whilst there was a definate tension, we were escorted back to the Vipers encampment where Tom and Georgiana handled the diplomacy admirably. It seemed however that the Vipers intended to back The Green Man in this matter, in recognition of their alliance with the skathen Clan Ironfang.
Whilst we were engaged in negotiations, the traitor skathen attempted the ritual on their own. Thankfully they failed, but I could feel the distress that even their attempt had caused The Hunter. For the ritual to be successful would require totems from each of the skathen clans and it was agreed that Harts and Vipers would cooperate to gain possession of as many of the totems as possible and have the option of performing or presenting the ritual as required. The following day a ritual was performed to guide us to the totems. Our intent was to take them to the council of Grey Seers that would be meeting that afternoon, however at that time we were still unsure which ancestor the Vipers would support.
It later became clear that The Green Man’s intentions carried danger not only to Albion but to all younger races. An attack on a nearby Conclave encampment revealled suggestion that the Conclave intended to use the ascendent Green Man to restore the fast-breeding skathen to their original, Vermillion Elf form … a ready-made army of millions for The Conclave to deploy against us.
During the council of Grey Seers the followers of The Green Man abused “The Knotted Tail” – a powerful presence left by Baba Yaga so that the skathen might be controlled – to dominate the wills of the assembled skathen (including those amongst our own contingent). They then moved to destroy any Grey Seer who would not submit to The Green Man’s will but, upon Rath’s order, were met by the combined forces of Vipers and Harts who drove the attackers back.
Having collected 9 of the totems the decision was taken to dedicate them to The Horned Rat, so that The Green Man could no longer use them. Time to do so was fast running out as the traitor clans mounted a prolonged assault upon the walls of our compound, and healing began to run low. Warpfang, leader of the skathen Grey Seers, lead this ritual … accompanied by representatives of other loyalist clans, plus members of the Harts, Vipers and Jackals factions; all of whom lent their power. Marking a retreat from the circle however we came under renewed attack, and Deputy High Incantor Cuthbert Dalrymple gave his life in the fighting that followed.
With the ritual successful The Green Man’s plans were essentially defeated however the following morning he continued to throw the lives of every remaining skathen in the area at us. It is my belief that neither Harts nor Vipers have seen the last of this, and that The Green Man will seek further vengeance against both nations.
Once the attacks had subsided, we began to focus on The Conclave and the predicted arrival of one of their Council Of Eight to inspect their work amongst the skathen. Returning to the site of the encampment we had previously destroyed, we attempted to set an ambush for the arriving dignatory. When they came however their attacks were well planned and lethal; an imperial Dragon Knight and some of the Vipers lay dead from assassin’s poisons before the dignatory even arrived. When he did so however we managed to rally and overwhelm his intial line … forcing him into a rout and us into a hasty pursuit.
Whilst the head of our loose column engaged the target, Harts armour (focussed around the House Of Glass) fought a desparate rearguard action to keep the Conclave assassins from the Vipers’ backs. Against sorcery of that magnitude however armour has little value and it is a tribute to our healers and incantors that we lost no more lives than we did. For her part, Captain Robyn Fitzwilliam of the House Of Glass – given shared military responsibility for the mission by the Lord Provost a couple of days previously – personally held the centre of the line until she was slain; Helfdan Ketilsson and Raymond Lawford (also of the House Of Glass) beside her.
Whilst our losses were tragic, I believe the Vipers lost twice that number at the other side of the battle. When we rejoined them our massed numbers were sufficient to break what remained of the Conclave force, but not fast enough to slay the dignatory before he could flee. Even so, whilst we did not bring his death we did at least prove the capacity of the younger races to unite against The Conclave and defeat them.
Born out of the experience is a new understanding and respect for the Vipers, which I sincerely hope can be built upon. I believe both factions were surprised by the other, and our respective strengths compliment each other well. In addition I sincerely hope that word of this spreads outside our own factions, since the good men and women who gave their lives did so not just for Albion or Teutonia, but for all of us.