Leafiara (prime)/The Rone Resurgence

Events

Kragnack's Raids

Even during a time of relative peace, occasional threats cropped up such as fire giants rising from the volcano in Danjirland and, more notably, the krolvin warlord Kragnack leading a fleet of krolvin, undead, and demons in two raids against the Landing. Kragnack himself took to the shore on the second night and said he'd return in two months with a stronger offensive unless Mayor Lylia and the Landing supplied tribute of slaves.

However, since the raids had been repelled rather swiftly, including aid from Praxopius' ship loaded with unmanned pylons powered by plinite, Leafiara was among many in the crowd dismissing this as a hollow, low-level threat. She continued to focus on Larsya, Raznel, the Rooks, and Ta'Vaalor, even amidst strange occurrences like a surprise assault from the White Sparrows and the arrival of a new vigilante Rone making attacks against the house and warehouses of Stephos DeArchon.

[OOC interjection: The Rone Resurgence hadn't "officially" started by the time of Kragnack's attacks and even as a player I actually thought it was a minor event not tied to the main story, much like the fire giant invasion (which was a minor event). So this is the weirdest story summary I'll have to give for Leafi since we both mistook subplot for main plot and vice versa. What follows is Leafi's point of view.]

Rysus, King of the Rooks

After the Town Council and Empire accepted the Vaalorian agreement to build an outpost near the Elven Village by the Vipershroud, Leafiara welcomed private correspondence with others to prepare for the worst: a Vaalorian invasion. And, not two nights later, an unknown figure approached her and delivered a vial, claiming it was a cure for the witch's curse on the Rook leader Rysus.

Leafi hoped that it was a cure but suspected it was a trap. A cure would kill two birds with one stone: first, it would be invaluable in the future if someone had truly created a concoction to cure one of Raznel's curses, and second, Rysus and the Rooks would no doubt oppose Vaalorian advances against the Landing. However, the timing was suspicious with the recent arrival of Praxopius, who she didn't trust.

Making no immediate move to deliver the vial or letting on publicly that she had it, in hopes that the Rooks wouldn't find out until she'd had time to investigate, Leafi began privately consulting with allies. She couldn't detect anything amiss from her own knowledge of alchemy, and within one night consulted a ranger friend and bard friend--but their knowledge of herbal mixtures and loresinging turned up nothing.

On the second night, she got a reading from the seer Balley, who told her that a dark knight waited for its delivery and it wasn't what she thought. At this, Leafi paused and planned to seek out Goblyn for further inspection--as Goblyn had once been helpful to Kayse, supplying a cure for a poison that would eventually be used on Drandea. (Though circumstances prevented Kayse from administering the cure in time.)

This plan would never come to pass. On the third night, while Leafi was sitting in at a meeting on contingency plans about a possible Vaalorian invasion, a Rook approached the group with expectation of a delivery. She handed over the vial, but gave warning to inspect further and that it might not be what it seemed.

Mere days later, Rysus made his first public appearance in months, seeming to be well and declaring that the Rooks would oppose Ta'Vaalor's influence--soon going so far as to make demonstrations of protest against King Qalinor Vaalor.

However, within two weeks the Rooks returned to Leafi, saying they needed more of the solution. As she was obviously unable to provide, Rysus soon went mad and two weeks later ordered the Rooks to slaughter militiamen to lure out the new Rone. The lure worked, and after extensive battle in the streets and a brief, painless kidnapping of Leafi to demand that she bring Rysus more of a "cure," the Rooks withdrew.

Praxopius soon revealed that he'd set Leafi up to deliver the vial, having done some investigation to find that while she wasn't a member of the Brotherhood, they would listen to her before shooting. The vial was, indeed, a poison--with an unexpected side effect of making Rysus erratic and violent.

The Rooks continued attacking Rone, Praxopius' (ultimately empty) wagons, and even the Hendoran outpost over the next couple of weeks, but it came to a head on, ironically, Leafiara's birthday--when the Rooks, no longer able to follow Rysus, brought him forward to town defenders and supplied daggers to stab him to death.

Other Events

Amidst the other chaos surrounding the Landing at the time, the new Rone was eventually revealed to be former militia marshal Thrayzar--under the mind control of Praxopius, as Malluch had been before him. Between this revelation and the poison that drove Rysus mad, much of the Landing turned against the Alchemist, but needed him alive long enough to restore Larsya's youth and lead several warships and dozens of Landing adventurers in a battle against the krolvin. There, Praxopius drank the same poison he'd used on Rysus, restoring his own legs long enough to join the battle. Though he was killed by Kragnack, the mission ultimately succeeded. Thrayzar would eventually be returned to the Landing, though overuse of the Rone gauntlets caused temporal instabilities in him.

Aftermath

Unlike with the war against Chaston Griffin, the Kestrels' time in the outpost, or the battle to capture the previous Rone, not much changed about Leafiara's thoughts or perspectives following the attack on Glaoveln. Though Leafi always loved a good dustup, she hadn't been any more personally invested in a journey to invade the krolvin homeland than in killing everyday bandits... except for an investment in ensuring Praxopius' death.