Report from the field

[Ivanna]

To Sir. Sebastian DeBataille:

Our numbers grow weak and weary. We travel far and wide each day, and each day, we cannot exorcise enough spirits. There are too many of them for us to respond to.

Spirits come out at night, in larger numbers as the weeks progress. More often than not they are finding their victims in the fields and forests – they seem easier targets, their bodies tired out by labour, and no skills to see them coming.

It is sheer terror to be here at night. Screams echo through the woods as people kill their own loved ones. We hear tell that two fae bards were burned alive by a rabid family. We ran into the scene just as twin girls ran into the fire with them, howling and brandishing clubs, intent on beating them to death despite the fire raging around them. We pulled them out, but their spirits were too weak. They were seven years old.

Madness.

All day and night you here the sounds of combat from every direction. Violence escalates everywhere. We fear for our own souls. Many of us have taken to apprenticing in basic mystical arts, but not many of us are capable or powerful, and so we do not always see the spirits coming. We have only lost two adherents so far – our shield-bearing Minotaur, due to his strength, could not be restrained, and so we were forced to beat him senseless. His spirit was weaker than expected, and our healer was not there when he finally broke from his restraints. He did not resurrect. The other was Cecilia.
We have heard that fights at the tavern, at the docks, on ships coming in break out readily. The Rose fights day and night to keep the Fox Spirits out of the peasantry, away from the small folk. But they creep in ever closer, despite the Rose’s valiant efforts in the fields.

Deep thuds boom in the night, sometimes sounding like distant thuds.

We have taken stock of what we know thus far to be the cause of this issue. I reiterate here, to ensure that communication is clear between us.

There are Fox-like spirits that can walk back from the deadlands. Their spirits can possess any living being, and can control their mind and actions. Apparently, more adept mystics can speak to them all the time, but the spirits can also speak through their bodies once the people are possessed. Only an exorcism will do away with the spirit... Or death.

The deadwalkers circle in the cannibals’ bayou has been destroyed. One cursed circle, gone!

One circle is locked away in the Mage’s Tower. It trickles forth the hungry dead. Lighting and fire has been seen shooting from the windows, so the Tower appears to be fighting that battle for us. Spirits are seen passing through its walls, however, so as yet, the circle appears intact and functional.

We have heard people say that these spirits are now coming in from the mountains and mines as well. We cannot verify this, however, as the spirits do not all come from one direction. They appear and disappear almost at will.

We swear to ever defend the common folk; the labourers and farmers, the poor and forgotten, those who cannot defend themselves. My fealty and allegiance is ever and only to the Blood Red Rose.

Yours to command, theirs to serve,

Bieatrix, Knight of the Sword