The Pact with Gulthias
6 March. In-world, the 30th to the 32nd of Autumn. Kvothe, Agatha, Ubo, Dravona.
Dravona alone
The rest of the party were catatonic. Dravona — the only one who made the save — was left holding the camp, one day into knowing any of these people.
She dispersed some of the mist and found zombies walking the forest who made no move to attack. So she waited, and covered the unconscious party with debris to keep them hidden.
Four or five hours later, a man in noble attire was standing at the edge of the fog by a tree, watching. He began to walk slowly toward her, and stopped twenty feet away.
"You are of the Elk tribe, and you did not fall when all the others did."
He asked her to come out and parley.
Gulthias's proposition
He asked whether her friends had succumbed. He called the womp womp an inconvenience he had
not anticipated. Then he named himself: Gulthias, the Mist Lord.
He knew this party had come to thwart his designs. He pointed out that he was not killing any of them, and asked Dravona whether she found that curious.
Then he laid it out. The problem is the one below. The psychic attacks were disrupting his plans as much as anyone's, and he expected them to get more specific.
| He gives | He wants |
|---|---|
| Halts all his current dealings and attacks | The party goes below and finds out what is causing the womp womp |
| Returns the tribes' ancestors' bodies to the clans | Joint cause against whatever is down there |
| Withdraws his emissary from the council | |
| Loans them a lieutenant to guide and aid them |
Dravona took it back to the party. When they woke, they compared notes — Agatha, Kvothe and Ubo had all dreamed while catatonic — and then called Gulthias back.
He came out of the mist and said, "Do I have an answer?"
They took the deal.
Caldris
Gulthias summoned his man and instructed him to accompany the party and give them every
aid. Once they had their information, he said, Caldris would know how to make contact. He
did not say how.
Caldris is the wight who commanded the siege of Nenlast. He is not a recruit, a defector or a redeemed man. He is Gulthias's officer, seconded to the party under the terms of the truce.
The siege lifts
Walking to Nenlast, the party watched sixty or seventy undead fall in behind Caldris.
He told them to return to the tower, and they walked into the lake and were gone — marching the lake bottom back to Gulthias's seat at Fastormel.
At the inn the party found Leander and the surviving townsfolk and told them what had been agreed.
Nenlast held. It was never taken.
Back to the council
The council was meeting that day. Agatha sent ahead to Mira:
"On our way back. Delay if possible. Gulthias withdrawing so our group can address womp-womp before dealing with undead. Gulthias returning ancestors' bodies."
"Psychic attack levelled many people. Council delayed two days. Gulthias emissary withdrew, will verify rest. How did you do this?"
The womp womp had hit the Throne of Antlers too, hard enough to flatten a clearing full of chieftains and delay the council by two days.
The party made it back in a day and a half.
Mira's coaching
Dravona caught Mira's eye at dinner and brought Agatha to her yurt.
Mira's advice on how to present it: package the truce as Gulthias coming to negotiate after the confrontation that killed Jocelin. Present the terms as demands the party extracted, not a bargain they struck.
She was explicit that it would be unwise to lie — but they could decline to volunteer certain facts about the womp womp, and should not over-elaborate in front of the council.
Dravona asked her mentor for advice about going into the Underdark. Mira had almost no experience of it, and gave the only counsel she had: better to over-supply than under-supply.
The ruling
Agatha put it to the council. They deliberated in private. Valdris Oakheart delivered the verdict:
With Gulthias withdrawing as emissary, the tribes no longer feel the need to ally with the Mist Lord. They will not oppose him so long as he stays south, and they will not aid him.
They thanked the party for their courage and confirmed they would be welcome in tribal lands should they need to return.
What else came of it
- Vareth withdrew intact. Whatever leverage the tribes might have had on him was never used.
- Gulthias keeps Fastormel, keeps the river, and keeps the trade route. The tribes have formally agreed not to interfere so long as he stays south.
- The party are now in a working alliance with the vampire who took a town and dug up the tribes' ancestors — and were advised to phrase that carefully in front of the council.
- Jocelin was killed by Gulthias's undead on the 29th. The truce was struck on the 30th.
The party rested in the forest. Next objective: back to the keep, resupply, and go below.