With the Lothar 3000 mile march having just started, the first group to act were Emile Velkov, Severus Verlaine, Faust Mothcrow, Kabili, Loveday, Shloka, and Tarkona. The group split into two, an overwatch team led by Emile, and an infiltrant team led by Shloka. Originally the intent had been for the infiltration group to “conjure a shade from the Beyond of a recently deceased Lothar Knight whose death had yet to be documented or witnessed”. Coming to realize that the Beyond is not an obituary browsing website, and having no insight on recent deaths among the Lothar Order that weren’t published yet, the group decided to nab a straggling Knight before he joined the baggage train, knock him out, and then use a mixture of disguises and Slizzar shapeshifting to mimic the Darkwald, and some of his squires, thus joining the baggage train, and leaving the Darkwald behind in some stable under a pile of hay. Both groups came with certain notions and assumptions on what the Lothar were going to do, overwatch Abilities and skills at the ready to both scout ahead and behind the baggage trains, as well as healing spells and potions for the wounded, there was a certain assumption that the Lothar were planning to go on a rampage from province to province to murder mage babies, but quite the opposite was true in fact. Having been cooped up in the capital for so long with Lothar bordering on the bloodthirsty and/or insane, it became almost difficult to believe, that people in the provinces and the wider Order, were perhaps somewhat different. For sure, the gloom and dogmatic proverbial storm clouds gathered over the Lothar commanders and the Elders, silent and with resolute expressions on their faces. Behind them however were many various sets of jovial Knights and squires who were just “shooting the shit”, as it were, making jokes and generally appearing very normal. The trip was rather uneventful in Tirgunn alone, while Emile’s group did see some Vampires moving around in the shadows from their far-away overlook, the Vampires knew better than to approach the full might of the Lothar Order while outnumbered, and they in turn seemed content to just watch the train leave the province into Osteiermark. In Osteiermark, the population seemed largely ambivalent, though they had gotten some more positive reception from those living in Lienzenland and Tyrollenwald, provinces where just months before various groups tried to screw with the Leyline network, causing severe earthquakes that were blamed on the Dragon Occult afterwards. The baggage train eventually reached Genevaud, at this point Emile’s group already having grown exceedingly bored because literally nothing was happening, the baggage train was just moving at a fairly slow pace through forests and mountains from town to town to pick up supplies, spend the night, and move on. They didn’t attack anyone, they didn’t shout, scream, or foam at the mouth at the slightest sight of an Elf (though many would opt to stay clear of the baggage train). By the time it reached Genevaud, the group took a rest-stop at the border city of Bergenfells, where a crowd of Genevaud nobles were expected to be picked up. As the Elders moved on into Schloss Bergenfells to meet with the local Baron and his entourage, the Knights and their squires retreated to the Weinstübl, a decently sized boarding house in the small village of Hippach-am-Schwendau. Loveday, Shloka, and Tarkaona, against better judgment, decided to join them, in the hopes of discovering nefarious plots or intentions of the Lothar Order. Instead they were exposed to the rather sobering reality that Lothar Order members weren’t really comically evil inflatable doll antagonists that one could prop up to feel good about one’s own actions, but rather that every person is a complex and nuanced individual with motivations and intentions. Many of the Knights shared tables together, and while weaving into the crowd, the infiltration team could pick up a few of their tales and conversations shared over beer and Vienta Schnitzel with cranberry jam. One Knight whose surname was Berkenwald, hailed from the province of Rosendale, supposedly related to the small barony of Birchenfieldhe, which was owned by his family. He regaled that his family was a long serving and loyal member of the Empire’s military, and that originally they had been fairly affluent in the region, but fell on hard times in the 260’s due to the severely straining taxation that the Ducal house van Scherburne had installed in the region. He further told of the Bloodbath of Inner Drachenwald, where his father and oldest uncle were killed by van Sherburne’s agents for daring to beg on their knees for a relief on the taxes at his court. Worse yet, the van Sherburne agents were Mages, who left little to recognize or bury after they were done. He said his family was proud to join the Dragenthal rebellion after, where yet another uncle died in the Battle of Lausitze, which cemented their family’s hate for House Kade, as Norn Kade sided with van Scherburne despite his, and Norn’s grandfather’s history with the abuse of Magic. The final surviving uncle of Berkenwald gave all of his surviving nephews, including this now Darkwald, over to the Darkwald Order, because he had anticipated the magical rot in the Empire decades before it would even show itself, according to the knight. He ended the tale, by regaling that his losses were far from done. In 306 AC, the cherry on the cake was Emperor Cedromar cracking down on the Barons who escaped the Battle of Lausitze untouched, by beheading them all for resisting crown authority being forced on them instead of compromised with. The Knight sneered, expressing his intense hatred for House Kade and their Dragon worshiping and magic-performing allies, for essentially killing off three quarters of his family, and so he brought a toast to the removal of the Dragon magic users. One Knight Szegezy, from Baldmark, held up his old and faded Viridian dogtags, revealing a story that was quite unusual. The Knight was once a Viridian, who proudly served in the Chrysant War, as well as the Ranger Crisis, and said he upheld honor and charity, and even defended those who would now be classified as the Afflicted in Baldmark, without really specifying what this meant. He remarked that one day, upon returning from his deployment as a Viridian, he was charged by his moral compass to defend a baron who was being accosted by Darkwalds in Baldmark, defending him from being attacked unarmed. He succeeded in pushing the Darkwalds away, and sheltering the Baron at his estate so that the rule of law and due process could be followed. In turn for his service, this Baron who was later revealed to be a Vampire in the Slumberwood Court, turned his whole household into a thrall circle, first by thralling the servants, then by killing his wife, and then by turning his children into blood cattle before killing them too, while the Knight was away to fulfill the bureaucratic paperwork obligations and contact local authorities to investigate the Darkwald attack. The Baron made off, leaving behind a carnage and blood-soaked walls. In exasperation and desperation, the Knight contacted the highest inquest at Metropolitan in the capital, duly replying that the Baron would be captured and processed for curing, as recent legislation had made him innocent of his crimes due to lack of mental accountability caused by the sanguine plague. The Knight felt so deeply betrayed by the state, and a misguided sense of moral correctness on every level of the peerage and the orders, that he begged the Darkwalds to let him join them, and take matters into his own hands, spending the remainder of his days rooting out Slumberwood’s Void-worshiping Vampire court in Baldmark. The final story they picked up was more obviously financially and selfishly motivated, but at least made some sort of sense. It was by one female Lothar by the name of Suzanna d’Aubrixois, whose family she told was one of the first gem booming families to migrate to Regalia following the gemboom of Vixhall. She said her family made a name for itself carving some of the finest jewels of Vixhall, and was even invited to the Imperial Court a couple of times for a showcasing of wares to sell to the highest Dukes of the land. Her family was, however, made completely destitute when an Elven family used magic twofold, once to pry the mind of her father to learn all the secrets of the trade and his techniques, and second to perform his labors, that he would spend hours and days perfecting, into a mass-production assembly line where workers were not required, because Arcane tricks could automate the whole process. The family later discovered that these Elven gem cuts inadvertently had so much magic pumped into them due to their production process, that they formed invaded Spirits, who would drive their wearer insane. The Elven family then didn’t set their own gems, and just sold them to whole-salers to be set in jewelry in the capital. When the whole scandal came out, the Elven family was unapologetic, they just did not care about the consequences for either the d’Aubrixois family which had been put out of business, and her father ruined into alcoholism after he had to fire all of his workers, and the various now Spirit-possessed citizens in the Empire who had been lulled into buying their jewelry. She raged against the policies of the state which were so disregarding of the depravity that Mages were engaging in, and how there was no protections for the working people of the Empire, yet Mages had a whole ministry devoted to campaigning for their rights and privileges to do as they pleased. The image in the capital is often created that Lothar Knights don’t have deeply personal, or sensible reasons to commit the hate crimes that they commit, but their dogma did not simply appear out of nowhere, or so the infiltrant group now thought, for nearly each Knight or squire they overheard, had deeply personal reasons for why they felt this way that almost seemed just as valid as a desire to exist on the part of the Occult. There was absolutely a lot of ignorance and racism in their ideologue, but to imply that was the whole story seemed to be doing the same ignorant disservice as they were accused of in turn. Content that nothing was really being talked about with regards to their actual plan though, the group detached and returned to Emile and the others, passing on the things they had heard, and speculating that the intent never was to actually hurt anyone, but to present a very large interest group at the Palace to lobby for certain policies, though the exact policies eluded them. As the Lothar moved on to Ivenna, the group returned to Regalia. In Ivenna, the Lothar Order made court with Parzival Ravenstad, who curiously had Nikola Boskovic close by, being somewhat out of place in the very Leutz-Vixe Court. Parzival Ravenstad made little room for ceremony and pomp, and immediately agreed to join the baggage train and declare his support for the Lothar movement, remarking that he too knew the pain of the invasive Occult attempting to seduce the fine and virtuous daughters of the Empire, remarking on a tale that perhaps only some knew the details of. Parzival joined the baggage train, and it moved on to Nordmark, to Schloss Drachenburg. In Schloss Drachenburg, Llorvaie Oribekian arrived before the Lothar did. She had sped her way to Ravenstad’s court also, but arrived too late and was unable to make any statements before the Duke already supported the Lothar Order. She raced ahead of the Lothar Order to meet with Dietrich von Drachenburg, who despite showing some reservedness of her being a woman-elf Viridian, still permitted a meeting with her. Llorvaie remarked concerns about the ongoings in the capital aimed against the Lothar, to which von Drachenburg replied that these matters were best brought up with the Viridian Order itself, but that it was to be expected that “Those expected with highest virtue among us, are cornered in fright of a coming storm they do not comprehend, to press on those they see as enemies, in the hopes they might make a mistake to their advantage.” He would bristle his mustache before adding “Sometimes, discretion is the better part of valor”, before the gates swung open and the Lothar Elders arrived. While the initial meeting was cordial, the Lothar quickly demanded that von Drachenburg dismiss the “elfling-pretend-knight” from his standing court. Von Drachenburg refused, time and time again, until he bid the Lothar depart from his court, as “none but the heirs of Cadar could command the honor of these halls”. The Lothar left in an angry hurry, failing to secure the support of von Drachenburg, continuing on to the second out of three legs of their journey.
