The Knights of Daleria Part 2: Lord Notfelde

The Patriarch of the Church of Westrun is rescued from the clutches of the evil Lord Leopold. And he informs the party that he has completed his penitential walkabout of the Eight Kingdoms. He has concluded that a dark evil stalks the land and has infected even the houses of the holy.

He has learned that the Continuous of the Circle will not help with this struggle. They agree with the Patriarch that all of humanity is at risk, but they also believe that the time of man might now be over. Interfering with the dawning of the new Eighth Age would not be in the best interests of the curates and druids of the world.

Brushing aside the suggestion of enlisting the magisters of the known realms, the Patriarch points out that Bigby, Mordenkainen, Otiluke and the rest mean to fight fire with fire. They have enlisted the help of dark and otherworldly forces to go back in time and strangle Vecna in the infancy of his power. This the church will not participate in. 

The solution is to fight fire with water. This struggle, the Patriarch believes, must unite the nobility and the church against the forces of evil. 

But matters have taken a fell turn indeed. In Leopold's death, a revelation is made of the Knights of Daleria -- an order of lordly knights dedicated to sowing evil and chaos. From Leopold's captured correspondence the Patriarch has the names of the other three members of that evil association. 

Three more Knights of Daleria to defeat... one at a time: Lord Notfelde, Lord Hasard and Lord Grymbalde.

The province of Lord Notfelde is as dead and dying as Lord Leopold's turned out to be. Additionally, goblinkind swarm over the land without fear. The peasants feel that some of them live beneath the lords own keep. The Church of Beredall has fallen into disrepair and has no shepherd to keep it.

The party holes up in the abandoned church and begins to repair it while Fr. Brendan begins tending to the flock. It isn't long before the goblinkind come. First a half dozen come, then two-score more. The party dispatches them swiftly and Brendan uses his faculties to summon woodland creatures and seek contact with the Druid of these parts.

Meanwhile, Sir Apollo goes with Fenris the Monk and challenges Baron Notfelde to a duel. A classic duel is held for the arms and armor of the vanquished and Apollo demands that of the lord. Under the accepted rules of honorable combat, the Lord could name a champion as Apollo is beneath his station, but does not. He does counter the duel by stipulating that the weapons used will be daggers. Apollo demands no magic be used and Notfelde accepts by stipulating that the duel will then be without armor. Apollo demands to have first pick of daggers offered, Notfelde agrees under the stipulation that the duel will be to unconsciousness and not unto death.

The duel is to occur 7 days hence. Apollo and Fenris withdraw to prepare, while the party awaits the coming Druid and continues to minister to the peasantry, round about.