Entering Bloodfall

As we walked into Bloodfall the faintest breeze stirred a few ragged clouds across the midnight sky. The moons gave enough light to see by even without the everbright fountain in the town marketplace. Despite the muddy streets I felt at peace in this small town. Perhaps it had something to do with the scent of night bloomed jasmine that reminded me of home. The marble centrepiece of the town plaza was a bit overdone in my opinion. Obviously the town was doing well and they wanted to show off their wealth.

We spotted The Inn of Five Ravens opposite the fountain. It was larger than I imagined and looming tall against a backdrop of duskwood and oak trees that border the hamlet on its western edge. Just then the church bell rang out the hour of midnight. The spell must have been broken for I was becoming quite enraptured with the place. The toling of the traditional Sovereign Host bell peel for midnight mad me look up and I saw a corpse lying sprawled upon the stones.

As we moved forward to investigate our vision suddenly shifted and it seemed for a moment that we were looking through a window of a theatre:

She comes forward dressed in silken shadow, the illumination from the twin braziers either side of the archway revealing her in all her terrible beauty.

She is Sumara, the Scarlet Bitch, one-time handmaiden to The Daughters of Sora Kell, now ascended to a position at Incandevarus’ side.

“I hope for your sake that you bring more information on these four than the last lackey you sent to whine beneath me.” Incandevarus smiles, black lips peeling back over needle sharp teeth. “He carried a…bitter taste.”

“Nevertheless, you must enjoy the piquancy; he’s the fifth servant of mine you’ve eaten in a week.”

“You have a surfeit of messengers, Sumara.”

“But as their numbers dwindle, we lose the capacity to report on events of interest.” Sumara’s eyes narrow, she bites at her painted lip.

“You’ve no lessons for me to learn, woman.”

“Yet I have the information you wish to hear… dragon.”

Incandevarus rises in his great obsidian throne. “I could parley with you for a year and not tire of it. Truly…you are a bitch.”

Sumara shakes her head. “Correction: I’m the bitch.”

“Then tell me of the four; have they become the Bound Quartet?”

Sumara appears to hesitate momentarily, her eyes drifting to the floor. “The… binding is in progress, even as we speak.”

“Good, good,” Incandevarus murmurs. “…and do we now know their names; all their names?

The idiot who last graced my gullet knew too little, yet spoke to me as though he equalled my intellect.”

“Then he was truly a fool,” Sumara replies coolly, and then, on her next breath: “Their names are known to us; everything is coming together. The planes are aligned as written and the four have come forward. We must watch events closely.”

“They will come to us, in time,” Sumara says assuredly. “And we will pick the truth from between their bloodied bones.” For a moment only her delicate features slip, the perfect illusion of beauty flickering to reveal the canker beneath. In the next instant the beauteous smile is returned, a lure that has broken (and will continue to break) hearts, once witnessed…

We didn't have time to ponder this though...