Joshua and the witch

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A tale recounted by Quinalin to the Silverwalkers when discussing the topic of unbreakable willpower after their battle against the Bandit King of Wa which was nearly disastrous for Quin due to a failed will save:

"I recall one of the stories my uncle told me when I was a youth of the Pirate Prince of Celstia, Joshua Pryce. By coincidence, he is the one who requisitioned the crafting of my cherished weapon, the Ebony Reaver. He was born in Ianian, which is not too far from my home town, and this story was of a time before Joshua became deeply involved in the revolution that gave Celstia its independence.


The story goes that Joshua had just successfully overrun a wealthy keep situated on a small island in the Heretic Bay owned by a foul Odessan lord who treated his serfs like slaves, with callous disregard and sometimes vicious cruelty. That night, Joshua's crew threw a victory party in his honor, held in the banquet hall of the keep, and many of the former serfs and even a few of the ex-employees attended the revelry as well.

One woman in particular caught Joshua's eye, and he noticed that she was spending considerable time looking at him across the feasthall. He asked one of the locals about her and learned she was the mistress of the lord, although not by her choice.


Joshua went to her and introduced himself. She was quite receptive to his attention, and after a few hours and many glasses of ale and wine, as the party crowd was beginning to thin out, she whispered in his ear that she would love to continue spending time with him, someplace more private.


She led Joshua from the feasthall, and then gave a quick impish look back at him and ran into the bedroom of the deposed lord. Joshua swayed a bit from the drink, and he entered the room, but rather than her inviting embrace, he discovered her in the middle of casting a spell of enchantment upon him. It quickly took hold and he found himself no longer in control of his body. She then led him down into the dungeon and instructed him to go in and tell the guards that he was taking the lord and two of his loyal henchmen to one of Joshua¹s ships to take him to stand trial for his actions.


Joshua entered the room, and the lord caught sight through the door of the mistress waiting in the hall and smiled an evil smile as he knew his rescue had come.


However, Joshua was not simply a rough and untrained pirate. He had worked all his life on honing his physical fortitude as well as his mental resolve. In the few minutes of their walk from the lord's bedroom to the dungeon, Joshua's body had completely fought off the effects of his inebriation, and at that moment, he focused his thoughts and shattered the mental shackles the witch had placed upon him. He immediately drew his sword and yelled to the guards that there was a witch in the hall attempting to free the lord.


As the guards closest to the door charged it, she shouted words of power with an evil snarl. The group of guards approaching the door suddenly froze in place, paralyzed. The second group of guards drew their swords, but then turned on Joshua with blank be-spelled looks upon their faces. Neither compulsion was able to break through the walls Joshua had erected in his mind to keep the witch out however. Before the guards whose will she had crushed were able to engage with him, Joshua sprang forward and thrust his sword through her chest. She crumpled to the ground, and Joshua turned, bracing himself in the hallway against the rush of the be-spelled guards. He fended them off for minutes, receiving a few nasty wounds, but managing to slay none of them, then finally, the spell dissipated, and they came to their senses.


As for the wicked lord.. well, many of his serfs had spent years experiencing the horrors of the torture devices in his dungeon, and they were more than happy to share those experiences for him in the weeks remaining in his life."