Victory Against Fallow!

People of Travance,

This past Feast, despite our severely reduced numbers due to the ice storm, Travance persevered against an old enemy and emerged victorious.

Not only did we thwart Nathaniel Fallow's plans, but we dealt him a major counter-blow and destroyed one of his phylacteries!

To all those who braved the extreme weather to aid Travance - from those of you who suffered through the undead curse to get us the information we needed and destroyed the blightwind, to those who knew they would have to fight their friends and brought the fight to the Tiller anyway, to everyone who helped in a myriad of different ways - I thank you. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you.

I was also pleased with how well everyone responded to our non-traditional choice for Warlord for the evening. This gives me hope that in the future we can have more people who are not just warriors leading our battles. Thank you for stepping up, Warlord Starling!

I look forward to seeing all of you again soon.

I may be a bit biased in praising your choice of leadership for the battle, however I do note that when everyone was at mass I mentioned how I put my faith in people, I put my faith in Travance. I suppose I got to put my money where my mouth is, since I could only muster the strength to go on the field, and once again become... that, because I believed all of you would fix it.

For those of us who can't tell a phylactery from a feather... if 1 of those things was destroyed, can another 1 be made?

We smashed 1, so this may have weakened Fallow somewhat... can he make another 1 to replace it?

Yes, he can, but at great cost. It will take him quite some time & resources to do so; this buys us a reprieve from his machinations during which we may yet discover a way to more permanently deal with him.

Do we know the number of, or locations of any more of his phylacteries?

So then, should we not press the advantage? Fallow is still quite powerful. Time for a being like him is nothing. Resources is another matter.

Can we not undertake efforts to hinder his progress at least? There is a distinct advantage between a brief respite and gaining strong foothold.

I am currently looking into avenues of hindering him. It's taking me some time but I am working on something as I write this.

Fallow is the kind of long term problem that you have to take care to remove, and if you pushed it'd escalate. It took killing a bunch of our own and building a ritual just to get rid of this one, and it was kindly popped outside of the Inn for us. Hunting down the others would encourage him to make more and start pushing back. While this is not a bad plan overall, doing it while also fighting a war on multiple fronts against what is essentially three other nations, and prepping from an imminent attack from religious extremists might stretch us too thin.

If we want to press the advantage perhaps the best way to do so is not through direct action which'll mean he'll feel less need to make new phylacteries now, and instead work together to find a way to destroy all of them in one go. We don't want to be expending anywhere near the effort to destroy as he does to create.

Fallow has been a problem before I (and many others) ever came to Travance. To still think of him as a "long term problem" is a problem in itself. Yes, we are besieged on multiple fronts. This is Travance... if the apocalypse is coming, then it must be Tuesday.

The mindset of not resolving our weaknesses and taking what little victories that we can have caused us many problems in our past. Many of you have had these occur to yourselves.

Still, if the Baron and our Lords and Ladies state they wish to focus on other items, then I trust that there is good reason.

As a whole, the leadership of Travance must focus on the immediate life-threatening issues which plague us (such as, right now, the several settlements we must reclaim from New Gaaldron, this small army of heretics who are literally coming with pitchforks and torches for us, and Duke Balliol's forces). We cannot leave our people alone and adrift against threats that are here at this very moment.

This does not preclude individuals such as yourself from working on more long-term problems like Fallow; in fact I wholeheartedly encourage you to do so. This is a town of heroes, not soldiers; you need not wait for orders to pursue something like this. Ser Nesterin has already stated he is working on something, and Jackdaw has a good idea with looking for a way to destroy all his phylacteries at once. It may take years to make that work, but that does not mean you cannot join them in their efforts while others work on holding back the armies at our gates.

Lois and Jackdaw are both correct. Right now is the time to plan and plot against Fallow but not the time to move against him. Those who destroyed his phylactery did it at great personal cost. And while it was a blow against him, I am certain that he will be holding his other phylacteries close to him; he won't send one out in the open again, at least not right away.

Nesterin, if you would like, I would be more than willing to assist you in what you are working on. At the very least, I'll pass along information about how we destroyed this phylactery.

Take heart, young souls.

Yet in three years we have seen two polyphylactic liches wiped from existence.
Death of the Grim Cabal
Hepharius the Corpsewalker, Arcane Son and Arcanum.

Death had an abbreviated deak of 16 major arcana as phylacteries. All 16 were each borne by a member of its Cabal, a collection of unique powerful chaotic retainers. All 16 were found and destroyed within 24 hours.
Hepharius, 10 vials, all of which allowed him to shift physical forms. All 10 were scattered like needles in the haystack of our Proper woodlands. All 10 were found and destroyed within 82 hours. Meanwhile we sniffed out double that number in other precious artifacts in the woods, all for the purpose of seeing that Son of a Lich's end.

In both cases, the phylacteries came to us, yes. But even with that amicable favor from our adversaries, finding and destroying even one phylactery in such a short time is a feat for our enemies to fear.

You are the bearers of the mantle of Mortality. And you are so generous and cunning at returning that Divine Gift to those who would run from its blessing.

It will be in this generation that we will finally sew those Fields left so long Fallow. I will be blessed if I am to see it.

--Mantel Warrane