Locked runes

"What seems to be the problem?"

The Dawnish knight-errants voice cut through the morning mist, like a silver sword. Raised in a noble household, he spoke with the confidence of one well-used to having their orders followed without question.

"Er... I'm not entirely sure sir. There's someone... some thing... up ahead." The young retainer, by contrast, was nervous and unsure of themselves. Their fingers were clenched tight round the shaft of their spear, but still they kept it held upright, not willing to threaten whatever was ahead of them. Not until the would-be knight had given the order at least. Instead they pointed an unsteady hand towards the strange creature capering on the road ahead of them.

The golden-haired goodfellow twirled and bowed so low, it was almost a parody, the tips of his horns near touching the road. He straightened himself and grinned broadly. "The Lord of the Crossroads bids me stop you Cedric Delavin." He paused for a moment, to let the tension build before the continued. "Fear not! You need not tarry long, nor exchange more than pleasantries. Tis only that the Knight of the Long Road has a gift for thee, Cedric Delavin. An invitation to your and yours, to choose one amongst you to join the Nine in grand tourney at Anvil. My lord's words have been spun in blackened gold and hammered into a stolen beam of light. If indeed you be so-named, Cedric Delavin, then step forward, and receive this token of the Reeve's esteem."

His message complete, the herald bowed again, although this time he didn't bend quite so low. Instead he kept his eyes locked on those of the knight-errant, waiting for a response.

The taste of glory burned every drop of moisture from the Dawnish knight errant's mouth. Bitter thoughts of his Test of Mettle coursed through his mind like snakes. This was just a distraction - they still had three days left... But he knew it wasn't true. It had seemed so simple at first. A year to find the seeds of a single golden apple, plucked from the Tree of Wroth. But the road had eaten the weeks and devoured the months, and brought them no closer to their goal. And now, at the last, when all hope was gone... here was a chance to seize a different path to glory.

His thoughts consumed the minutes as he contemplated accepting the proffered treasure, but something held him back. "Glory must be seized, it can never be stolen". The words of Melusine, the old troubadour rung loud through his thoughts. His head dropped low, disconsolate, he stared at the ground wrestling with his desires.

Finally he raised his head, and in a wistful voice admitted the truth and accepted his fate. "Goodfellow, the truth compels me to confess. I am not Cedric Delavin. Though he and I, are equals in rank and nobility, I am not he. If you seek Cedric, I believe you will find him an hour or less behind me on the road."

The impish herald seem to take his foolish mistake entirely in his stride. Indeed he grinned again, almost as if this caper were of no concern at all.

"Then I must do as my lord bids me, and be away upon the road. But ere I take your leave, I offer you a parting thanks. Hugh of Brightway, verity is your armour, and fidelity your sword. When the hour is the darkest, and all hope has fled, put your hands to your hips, and trust that all is not lost."

And with that, the grinning goodfellow bid them fare well and took to the road once more. He moved with surprising speed, making such a rude beeline for the two travellers, that he forced them to step aside at the last moment to let him slip between them. So close did he pass, that the retainer never saw the heralds quick fingers slip the knot on the pouch hanging from his lord's belt, nor the knight notice as deft hands dropped a flicker of gold between the soft folds of leather.

Barien exemplifies meeting, setting, and overcoming challenges.

Overview

Each season the heralds of the Iron Duke present challenges to the mortals of the Empire. The Lord of the Crossroads is eager to test the skills and the wits of those brave enough to step forward, and each seasons challenges are intended to test different strengths of Imperial citizens.

Every person who has Challenge the Iron Duke cast upon them will be guaranteed entry to a challenge, though most challenges will have a limit of 10 participants. If a challenge is full then the ritual would sadly fail and the mana or vis refunded. Depending on the challenge, they may be able to bring a certain number of attendants with them to assist. The exact number will depend on the nature of the challenge and the number of challengers. The Civil Service will publish exact numbers in the Hub on Saturday morning for all to see.

Challengers will need to choose a reward from one of the items found in the Dragonforge. Challengers who have been victorious in the past year may not take part in another challenge until a year has passed. Notably, this means that those who were victorious in Winter 386 can now participate in another challenge again.

This season, Barien has only issued a single challenge as much of his time is taken up with preparing for the Drottningbjotha. As well as performing the ritual, however, there is a special opportunity for those covens that put forward two or more winning challengers in the previous year to present a single champion to take part in the tourney.

Challenging the Duke

• To formally enter, a challenger must be the recipient of the Challenge the Iron Duke ritual
• A challenger can only enter a single challenge each summit; if they win they may not enter again for a year

Last Season's Covens
Ashen Flame	Urizen
Phoenix Rising	Dawn
The Cabal of Nevezamzer	Dawn
The Coven of Golden Wings	Dawn
The Eternal Family	Navarr
The Glass Mantle	The Brass Coast
The Tempest Flame	The Brass Coast
Unicorn's Glorious Charge	Dawn
Voices of the Unbound Storm	Wintermark

To formally enter one of the Iron Duke's contests, a citizen must be the recipient of the Summer ritual Challenge the Iron Duke. The ritual is magnitude 30, and only a handful of covens have it mastered. It is possible to cast the ritual without it being mastered, but it is harder and more expensive, so anyone who is interested in entering a challenge would be best advised to seek out a coven who are known to be able to cast the ritual. According to the heralds of the Traveller, nine covens successfully performed the ritual last season. The heralds advise those interested in taking part to seek out these covens first.

Even for those covens who have the ritual mastered, it is expensive. Champions who seek to prove themselves will need to find some way to convince a coven to put them forward. Just being able to pay the ritual's cost might not be enough, though it is likely the minimum price that will be asked.

Challenge of the Runic Lock

• Barien has invited challengers to participate in a timed puzzle challenge their reasoning and wits
• Challengers will be paired up and given a timeslot between 1:00pm and 3:00pm on Saturday
• Every challenger will need to be able to enter a chamber
• Each pair will be given 26 tokens, each engraved with a single rune
• Challengers will need to place each rune into suitable slots based on cryptic clues
• When challengers wish to test their placement, a herald of Barien controlling the puzzle will reveal the number of correct runes in each slot
• The herald will not advise which runes are correct in each category, just the number of runes
• To be victorious, challengers will need to have all 26 runes in the correct slot within the time limit of 15 minutes

While the Summer realm is infamous for the constant battles, feasting and hunting roaming across its majestic landscapes, the heralds who inhabit the fields and forest sometimes yearn for a more sedate form of entertainment. The heralds of Barien and and the koboldi of Adamant especially, have a fondness for games and puzzles. In the spirit of the realm of summer, these are always competitive, and any victory lorded over their fellow heralds until the matter is settled in the next contest.

The Runic Lock is one such puzzle. It always involves a set of tokens corresponding to the 26 runes, and a set of cryptic "categories" (for example "Relating to Battle" or "The Mind"), each with a set number of slots, that all the runes are secretly divided between. Competitors will use the meaning of the runes, logic, and trial and error to try and get each rune into its correct category before a time limit runs out, or to try to be the fastest to solve the puzzle.

Barien has offered up a version of this challenge for Imperials to be able to test themselves against. The challenge will take place in a summer chamber accessed through the Hall of Worlds. Challengers will be paired up by Barien, part of the contest will be how well the two can work together to solve the riddle. The heralds warn that everyone who takes part must have a way to enter the Hall of Worlds, either be a magician, or benefit from a ritual like Ambassadorial Gatekeeper or have access to a Pauper's Key or similar magic item.

Each pair will have access to 26 runes, a book with all of the runes and their meaning, and a table with the categories and slots laid out. There are 7 categories in total, though what they are will not be revealed until the challenge starts. Of course, the categories and answers must not be shared with other challengers until the whole challenge is over!

The challengers have 15 minutes to complete the challenge from when they step into the chamber. The pair will place runes into the slots as they see fit; when they want to test a solution, they should call "set" and an attending herald will place green markers in each category for the number of runes that are correct. Note that it is only the number of runes that are correct that is revealed, not which runes are correct. Challengers may not touch the runes while the markers are being laid out. Once it's done the herald will call "ready" and the runes can be rearranged, if the solution was not correct. Either challenger may call "set" as many times as they wish, though the time limit discourages trying to brute force the encounter.

Challengers will be paired up by Barien - each pair will be given a timeslot to participate between 1:00pm and 3:00pm. The names and times will be posted in the hub on Saturday morning.

Nine Covens and the Drottningbjotha

Coven	Representative
The Coven of Golden Wings	Lady Isolde Gildaryn
The Tempest Flame	Vivar i Moreno i Guerra
The Eternal Family	Ylona Silverfletch
The Glass Mantle	Martha i Guerra
Voices of the Unbound Storm	Sigrun Wildborne
Phoenix Rising	Mona Laval
The Cabal of Nevezamzer	Olias Orzel
The Golden Grove	Roland Royce d'Ours
Unicorn's Glorious Charge	Cedric Delavin

• Barien has invited nine favoured covens to choose a champion to take part in the grand tourney of the Drottningbjotha
• Those chosen will join a single team that will participate in the grand melee in the final round of the tournament
• Enchanter Vesper Lucentia, leader of The Coven of Golden Wings is invited to lead the team into the arena
• If fewer than 9 champions present themselves, Vesper will be free to choose additional champions to bring the total up to 10
• All the champions will be considered successful if the team win the grand melee
• The Drottningbjotha will take place on 4pm on the Saturday of the summit, at the arena

A few months ago, the eternals Barien and Adamant brought forth the tournament ground of Camock from it's home in the summer realm to its new mortal home in Anvil. To celebrate this, the eternals of Summer have called the Drottningbjotha, a grand tourney not seen in the Empire for eight years.

As ever, the burden of arranging the contest has fallen on the Keeper of the Revels and his heralds. For that reason, this season, the Iron Duke has thrown down only a single challenge for Imperial challengers to test their skills against. However the crafty Host of Hosts has found a way to make room for his favourites in the contest.

The Iron Duke has selected nine covens that have won his favour over the last year by sending heroic, skilful heroes who have been victorious in their chllenges more than once. To each of these covens he has sent an invitation to take part in the Drottningbjotha. His heralds have chosen a single member of the covens in question and waylaid them on their way to Anvil to press on them a thin sheet of gold with Barien's personal invitation written in black letters hammered into the foil.

The coven are free to pick one of their own, or to choose a champion from anywhere in Anvil. All they need do is hand the invitation to their chosen hero and they can then take part in the Drottningbjotha on the coven's behalf. The Iron Duke assumes the coven will pick someone together, but if they can't agree then he is happy for whoever his heralds handed the invitation to, to make the final call. The whimsical hand of fate plays a role in any hero's story!

Each of the ten nations has been invited to send a team to the tourney ground - there they will be joined by a single team formed of the heroes selected by the nine covens. The coven's heroes will fight in the final round of the tournament only, against the three teams who remain after the initial rounds. If they are the last ones standing, the entire team will be considered victorious and receive the Iron Owls. If another team wins, then each of the challengers will receive the consolation prize.

To lead the team in battle, Barien has asked Enchanter Vesper Lucentia of Dawn, leader of The Golden Wings Coven. In the last year, their coven has sent forth the most successful challengers; as such, Vesper is offered a personal place in the tournament to lead the team of heroes chosen by the nine covens. If fewer than nine heroes present themselves, Vesper will be free to choose additional champions to add to their team in order to bring the total up to ten.

Just in case it needed to be made clear, a competitor cannot be a member of the coven's heroes and a member of a national team. A champion may only enter the Drottningbjotha once.

Further Reading

• Barien
• Challenge the Iron Duke

• An iron feast - Autumn 387YE wind of fortune detailing the challenges for the summit
• Build it up - Summer 387YE wind of fortune detailing the challenges for the summit
• Doing it - Spring 387YE wind of fortune detailing the challenges for the summit
• The long road - Winter 386YE wind of fortune introducing the new Challenge the Iron Duke

• Game Design - a few notes discussing the new version of Challenge the Iron Duke