Blood, Lace, Steel, Honor and the Outer Dark - Musketeers 3

Etienne L'Fleche examines the clock in the great hall of Castle Bois De Coeur.

The Clock in the Hall

Soon after the disappearance of Lady Adele the clock in the great hall began running backwards, as did several maids and pages who tried to touch the hands of the ancient timepiece. Lord Anglais, the husband of Lady Adele, sealed off the hall and summoned the musketeers immediately.

An investigation of the clock found the workings to be carved from bone and woven braids of hair. Within the body of the clock an entrance to a foul tunnel was found; A circular passage that twisted down into the bedrock below the castle itself.

The musketeer Etienne sent word to his partner Leon, a theologian, alchemist and master of white magic and back to the chapter house in the provincial capital.

As with the pit beneath the floor of the castle's cellar, a foul and musty odor issued forth from the winding tunnel. Using great caution and a number of peasants bearing torches, Etienne and Leon wormed their way down into the dank whole. At the bottom the found a wide chamber littered with rounded stones and a black stream that disappeared in either direction through a water-carved passage of stone.

When the pair approached the sluggish and viscid liquid the sound of stone rubbing against stone erupted all around them.

" Vipera Seoanei," moaned Leon."It would have to be Vipera Seoanei."

"Looks like snakes to me," said one of the peasants before Etienne slapped him in the head.

Blood, Lace, Steel, Honor and the Outer Dark - Musketeers 2

The Hole in the Floor

A maid of Lady Adele D... and the Musketeer Etienne discover a hidden chamber beneath the cellar floor.

The Lady Adele D... of Bois De Coeur disappeared in the middle of a Fete during Midsummer's day and has not been seen since. Unbeknownst to any in the castle, except for the chief groom, Lady Adele was a worshiper of the Old Ones from beyond space. Every dozen years during the summer solstice the Lady sacrifices to the One Who Speaks With Fire allowing her access to powerful magicks of a particularly destructive nature. She intended to lead her fellow worshipers in the start of the ceremony, a great bonfire at the center of an ancient grove.

The chief groom of Bois De Coeur had other plans. While he had no objection to the terrible fate of the young village maiden who was to be the central figure in the horrific summer rite lead by Lady Adele, he, as a worshiper of the Horse Goddess, could not allow the burning and transformation of the young stallion the cult was also preparing to sacrifice to their fiery deity.

With the subtle preparation of the grove, a dilution of several essential elements in the ritual and the help of a particular noxious green stone revealed to him by his equine goddess, he managed to change the focus of Lady Adele's sacrifice onto herself and her followers.

Now the Musketeers and their theological brethren have been called in to investigate. Divination has pointed to the local forest and the bowels of Castle Bois De Coeur.  

Blood, Lace, Steel, Honor and the Outer Dark - Musketeers 1

Blood, Lace, Steel, Honor and the Outer Dark - Musketeers 1

In the province of A... the enemies of the Gaelic nation are more than just swordsmen or soldiers, for in that deeply forested realm the merely mortal evils of the world are outmatched by the ancient, the unearthly and the infernal.  As always it falls upon the musketeers, protectors of Gael, to rout out all that threatens their blessed realm with steel blade, lead shot, or stone talisman.

Here can be seen a young musketeer and his theologian companion struggling with a corrupted swordsmen, once of the imperial guard, but now in the service of warlock (being throttled by the learned hands of the theologian). The warlock's servants are many and few are human, though the former guardsman was the most visible of those that guarded his body. The musketeer and theologian have caught them along the forest road linking the provincial capital with the port of N...

A Noise That Seemed Afraid Of Silence

A Noise That Seemed Afraid Of Silence

Beyond the coasts of Sange is an island in the Sea of Twilight. The sea itself is a place of beauty and terror, but the island, which has no name, is a place of ending. When the people of Sange weary of all things they seek this island for there is no true ending in Sange only life followed by life.

The Sea of Twilight can only be sailed by Death and finding the dead in Sange is a hard thing. To kill a man or a woman, an animal or thing that is not quite any or none is possible but death lasts only an instant and the spirit of those of Sange flys free like a gleam of silver moonlight before it is gone to find life again.

The spirit of the dead must be caught in a cage of mirrors baited with a dream; A dream of power of love, anger, tears, betrayal, revenge or remorse. The cage is capped with the frozen eye of a mage and the breath of despair. Then the body of the dead will be at the command of the holder of the cage and the journey to the island can begin.

There is a fear that has come to Sange. Dreams have become nightmares and the land, though always hard and often cruel, has lost the wonder, pleasure and enchantment that made unending life a joy instead of a wearisome burden or horrific punishment. The soothsayers, the oracles and the prophets speak of the island on the Sea of Twilight and say that only there can the answer to this curse be found.

Someone or some group of someones must make this journey, find Death to sail the ship, cross the Sea of Twilight and walk upon the island from which no one has returned. Great dreamers are called to this quest from all of Sange, dreamers brave and strong, of the mind and arm, heart and spirit before the darkness which has settled upon the land has ended every song, silenced every voice, broken the spirits of those who have lived a thousand lives and made Sange into a prison of nightmare and torment.