E05
Fazil approaches Pasquier who barely got on his feet.
- You've been tailing me for a year now.
- Remember my village ? The potion you made me drink transformed me in a monster.
- I was looking for someone who can survive my decoctions.
And Fazil shifts to the other sword (the one to kill monsters).
Cerridwen talks to the mayor while Marten sneaks behind him and knocks him out. He hands the rusty sword to Cerridwen who feels a pact power inside. She reaches out and sees an old damaged house. A red tree is reaching into the house. The sword is now brand new. She hears a nilfgaardien accent "you're surrounded. Tonight we kill all owls". The house starts burning. She realises that she's seeing through a memory from lord Claude. Someone from Nazair offers a pact with the owl. They would kill his enemies and let him rule the region until he stops protecting it and then all souls would be his.
Then Cerridwen shakes herself and drops the sword. Marten pings Pasquier to get news and rushes to help.
Meanwhile Pasquier is getting severely beaten by Fazil who uses curses, eldricht blasts and his silvery sword.
You're getting a bit too persistent for my liking. I don't have time for you right now.
When we join them, they seem to be fighting more defensively. Fazil dominates Pasquier and invites him to kill us. He hits once on Marten then Cerridwen dispels the curse.
Fazil disengages from Marten and blasts us with force damage. Cerridwen helps Pasquier to stabilize while Marten maintains contact. He uses a pepper bomb to blind us. Marten loses him near the church. The clouds form an eye of the storm around the church and we see the owl and a group of possessed guards trying to pass a magic barrier around it.
Marten finds Fazil in the backyard of the church and manages to get a bit closer without getting noticed. Then the others provoke him. Marcus tells us to stop and that he's on our side. Fazil seems to be protecting something. Marten approaches silently behind them and cuts a rope which was hanging Alice. Fazil closes a leather covered book he was holding and kills Marcus with one dagger (??).
We engage the fight with Fazil. Once Pasquier is in close range, Marten dips his dagger in the scolopender poison and hits him in the back. He notices Alice writing franticly in the leather tome. Fazil uses one of his tricks to slow down the fight. We finally understand (too late) that Alice was making the final touch to the ritual to declare him heir of the baronny. At that point the slow circle disappears and Pasquier butchers Fazil.
I'm taking you to hell with me Pasquier !
Marten kills Alice with a psychic dagger but misses Fazil. Cerridwen finishes Fazil with her pact blade while the owls lands directly on Fazil, pushing us back violently. A ghostly owl form appears above Fazil, which Pasquier swings at with his axe in an ultime sacrifice and frenzy. Once Fazil's body is dismembered, Marten cuts the remaining tendrils with his dagger creating an explosion but the mindless owl reforms and hacks with its claws and knocks him out. Cerridwen sucks some energy from the owl, maintaining her alive while Pasquier launches an ultimate attack dismembering the owl, both killing themselves. Cerridwen also sees that Marten will not wake up this time.
She convinces the guards that the witcher was sent by Nazair to steal the throne and they now have no one to rule and they should elect some one.
In the next weeks, as she slowly heals, knights from Beauclair take care of the region so it's not taken over again. Pasquier and Marten are buried with past heroes of the region.
She gets her hands on the journal of Fazier. He was attracted here by Marcus and used the bandits as a distraction to prepare the ritual without being noticed.