“Serault's soil is loamed with sorcery. Hedge mages bloom here, and they are roses, not weeds - I'll not uproot them on the Chantry's say-so.” ―the Shame of Serault
The Baron says "My western villagers blame the woods-folk. They swap children for sickly changelings, it's said, and boil up storms in a copper kettle when the moon is black. I'd call it peasant superstition, but last week a farmer brought a calf to my hall. The thing was born with two heads - one of them endlessly sleeping, the other mad as your great-grandfather, Maker spare his damned soul."
“Serault's soil is loamed with sorcery. Hedge mages bloom here, and they are roses, not weeds - I'll not uproot them on the Chantry's say-so.”
- The Shame of Serault
Untrained mages, the Chantry say, are a danger. A beacon for the demons that slink and hunger behind the Veil.
Available actions[]
1.
Investigate the accusations and drive off the culprits. The Shame's appetite for forbidden magic was his end, and almost Serault's.
Difficulty: Scholarship*6/5
Success: Secrets pour from blood like a vein Tongues loosen under your interrogation. You unravel the knot of lies. There is no apostacy here. Only gullibility, suspicion and spite.
-4-6 Twilight, +2-3 Clues
Failure: The forest for the trees They stand before you and they lie. From fear, from malice, because they think it's the truth - lie layered on lie layered on lie. The witnesses are as bad as the suspects. You condemn a few to the cells. Perhaps it will improve their memory. In the morning you leave in disgust. If there are any apostates here, they are hidden in the tangle of accusations. Pins in the haystack.
-3-4 Freedom, +2 Clues
2.
Ignore the allegations Nine times out of ten, accusations like this are motivated by jealousy. Why raise your own hand to your enemy when the Chantry's is clad in mail, and holds a sword?
Difficulty: Rulership*2
Success: A waste of time An investigation would only grant credence to whisperers and gossip-mongers. You make clear that there will be no further accusations without evidence to support them. Starved of your attention, the rumors of apostacy give way to excitement about the Divine's arrival. Will she bless the sick? What will you serve at the feast? Will Serault's shame finally be lifted?
+10 Dignity
Failure: Darker truths Despite your admonition the rumors persist. Now there are tales of sibilant voices whispering on the rooftops at night, and blue lights burning in the wood. A young man goes missing. A garland of skulls is found hanging from a miller's gate. The miller goes mad. Some say it's not the work of a single apostate, but a whole coven.
+10 Twilight
