The Vengeful Notes 2026-08-15

Summary

Road to Maiden’s Field

• Hellion Blanchimontt, Sir Erik Malmann, Oren Bell, and Klaus continued east by carriage, resting overnight near hills that may have been called the Shield.
• The party later found a recently overturned produce carriage after one of its draft horses broke free of its yoke and fled past them.
  • The other horse, a mare named Lacey, remained pinned beneath the yoke with her side punctured.
  • Hellion and Oren pulled the yoke away before Hellion used Hand of Healing to stop Lacey’s bleeding.
  • The carriage contained unmarked boxes of fresh produce but no occupants. The party gathered the goods with magic before they spoiled.
  • Blood, torn clothing, and tracks indicated that several people had attacked the carriage.
  • Four sets of footprints left the road. Someone tried to conceal the trail, after which only two sets remained.
• Klaus tracked the missing travelers through bramble-covered hills and into a ravine too narrow for the carriage.
  • A deliberately small plume of smoke revealed a concealed camp.
  • Sir Malmann brought the carriage as far as practical while Oren and Klaus approached on foot.

The Concealed Camp

• Four armed captors guarded two bound and gagged human traders in a wooden cage.
  • The prisoners appeared to be ordinary vegetable traders and lacked the yellow eyes associated with magical ability.
  • Their captors nevertheless believed moonlight had given the prisoners a blue cast, marking them as “chosen by the Lord.”
• Oren’s eyes turned bright yellow as glowing purplish-green, tentacle-like markings spread across his hands and upper body.
  • The display appeared strongly eldritch rather than necromantic.
  • Believing Oren was the Reformist acolyte they had been expecting, the captors lowered their weapons and knelt.
• Oren convinced the four captors to abandon the Reformists and release the traders.
  • The cage had apparently already been unlocked by an unknown person.
  • The injured traders received water and treatment before departing for their village.
  • One trader had lost several teeth but expected to recover.
  • The traders privately mentioned changelings but refused to explain what they knew.

Displaced Reformist Recruits

• The captors were displaced villagers who said Hicklanders had burned their settlement about a month earlier because they refused to join the rebellion.
• The Reformists had sheltered their families afterward, winning their trust through food, lodging, and promises of new homes.
  • The families were living at a small homestead called Goat’s Head on the edge of Maiden’s Field.
  • The recruits feared punishment for abandoning the Divine Masochist Church, although they disagreed over whether apostates were hanged or pilloried.
• Their apparent leader, Dean, was especially concerned for his daughter Carissa, who had gone away to “become a sister.”
  • Hellion warned Dean that Carissa faced sexual violence within the Reformists and urged him to save her.
  • A recruit said that the formerly reckless Carissa had become more obedient following Reformist instruction.
  • Hellion found the change alarming, interpreting it as the removal of her personality and suspecting brainwashing or implantation.
  • Oren ordered the recruits to help rescue Carissa rather than continue serving the Reformists.
• The recruits agreed to accompany the party toward Maiden’s Field, leaving their camp and cage behind.
  • The party explained that they had been hired to investigate and remove Reformist activity in Senera.
  • They could not promise an immediate rescue of the recruits’ families but offered to find and fund assistance, possibly by hiring mercenaries.
  • Sir Malmann silently prayed for Carissa and the other endangered relatives after the recruits asked him not to preach to them.

Reformist Initiation and Abuse

• A captured Reformist operative claimed that bandits, rather than Hicklanders, had destroyed the recruits’ village and that the Reformists had merely exploited the attack.
• The operative described the Reformists as the “pure” form of the Divine Masochist Church, stripped of its aristocratic trappings despite the continued involvement of nobles.
• One recruit described a Reformist “purity ritual” in which women, including his wife and possibly his daughters, entered a chapel unclothed and were whipped before a priest and witnesses.
• The operative said Carissa had not been replaced by a changeling or Face-Stealer and had not yet received a parasite.
  • He claimed she was being inducted through revelry similar to that used on youths in Kurtis.
  • His description presented Carissa’s sexual exploitation as proof of her obedience.
• Oren argued that the Reformists preyed upon desperation, restrictive customs, and suppressed desires, concealing abuse behind charity and teachings about transforming pain into pleasure.

Parasites and Biomancy

• Oren produced a flask containing a parasite and accused the Reformists of implanting eggs that grew into mind-altering worms.
  • The operative called the parasites “seeds” intended to advance humanity’s ascension.
  • The live parasite in the operative reacted to the captive parasite in Oren’s flask, causing its host to spasm whenever the flask approached.
• Oren found paralytic poison darts, a bone saw, a butcher’s knife, and another unidentified object on the operative.
• The party suspected that the operative served Crispin Mallow, whom they described as a hunted, high-ranking Reformist.
  • Hellion compared Mallow’s work with biomancy, a Feywild field of magical research that uses body parts to stitch together new biological forms.
  • They said Mallow kept victims alive and aware while harvesting their bodies for patchwork creations.

The Gardener in Maiden’s Field

• Oren interrogated the bound operative after removing a poison-filled false tooth, briefly placing a Bag of Holding over his head.
• In exchange for a promised death, the operative revealed that an unnamed male superior was in Maiden’s Field, “playing the gardener again.”
  • The wording echoed Crispin Mallow’s first appearance at Castle Malthrek, where he posed as an outsourced gardener and flower contractor, suggesting that he might be using a similar cover.
  • The operative begged to die before his cooperation was discovered.
  • He feared being transformed into something he called “that patchwork.”
• A party member cut the operative’s throat beside a hollow dead willow and placed his body inside.
  • The recruits, who had surrendered without violence, recoiled from the execution.

Word from Castle Rannek

• During an apparent Sending exchange, Sister Pira told Hellion that her group had safely reached Castle Rannek.
  • Stacy remained unconscious but was breathing better, which Pira attributed to exhaustion.
  • Gwyniviere was shocked and sleep-deprived after seeing the limbs and other material removed from Stacy.
  • Lord Branrum was speaking with Gwyniviere and had offered to pose nude for her anatomical studies.
• Hellion warned Pira that an exact duplicate of him might reach the castle.
  • Trajan had already alerted Pira, the Marchioness, Lady Angel, and others nearby.
• Hellion asked Pira to cast Locate Object as often as her spell slots allowed, using his piece of the Urdefolcin heart.
  • Her previous casting continued to indicate the same direction.
  • Hellion requested an immediate warning if the target’s distance changed suddenly or substantially.
• Pira asked Hellion to tell Sir Malmann that she missed him.

Sapphire and Andrew

• Around dawn in Kurtis, the inn filled with the familiar smell of fried meat or bacon.
• Andrew remained asleep beside Sapphire, who returned to sleep before their planned departure later that morning.

The Missing

• Of the forty-eight people known to be missing, one was confirmed dead and forty-seven remained unaccounted for.
  • The missing included the party’s friends and the court wizards.
  • Those involved were being summoned to consolidate what they knew about the disappearances.
• The group believed Mallow was exploiting their suffering, although they often referred to him indirectly rather than by name.
  • They agreed that he had to be stopped, although they did not yet understand his motives or how much he knew about their circumstances.

Open Hooks

• Find the Reformist superior in Maiden’s Field and determine whether Mallow is reusing his gardener and flower-contractor cover there.
• Identify the acolyte whom the camp’s recruits had been expecting.
• Find Carissa and the recruits’ other relatives, determine whether the Reformists secured Carissa’s obedience through brainwashing, coercion, magical influence, or another method, and learn whether any of them have received parasites.
• Determine who destroyed the recruits’ settlement and whether the Reformists were involved in the attack or only exploited its survivors.
• Learn who opened the traders’ cage, why the traders mentioned changelings, and whether their reported blue coloration had any significance.
• Learn what the Reformists mean when they claim that their “seeds” advance humanity’s ascension.
• Protect Castle Rannek from Hellion’s duplicate and continue monitoring the Urdefolcin heart.
• Find the forty-seven missing people and determine how Mallow is exploiting the group’s suffering.

Confirmations Needed

• Identify the companion who disappeared from Oren’s sight during the approach to the camp.
• Establish the referents of “the clothes,” “the catch,” and the unidentified prince who supposedly allowed only dogs inside.
• Confirm whether Hellion relayed Sister Pira’s message to Sir Malmann.

Boundaries

• Preserve the competing accounts of the recruits’ displacement: the villagers blamed Hicklanders, while the captured operative blamed bandits and said the Reformists merely exploited the attack. Neither account has been verified.
• Do not treat Carissa as a confirmed changeling, Face-Stealer, or parasite host. Brainwashing or other conditioning remains possible, but the cause of her altered behavior is unresolved.
• Treat claims about Carissa’s exploitation and the Reformists’ initiation practices as testimony from the operative and recruits, not independently established fact.
• The Reformists present themselves as a purified form of the Divine Masochist Church, but they are not interchangeable with every member or institution of that church.
• Crispin Mallow is only a suspected referent for the superior in Maiden’s Field; the operative did not name him. “Playing the gardener again” points toward Mallow’s earlier flower-contractor cover without confirming that he is the superior or revealing what he is doing under that cover. Biomancy was Hellion’s comparative framework for Mallow’s methods, not proof that Mallow belongs to that Feywild field. Bearer of the Candle is the office he projects; neither comparison nor title establishes his actual rank.