Barony of the Starless Lodge/The Omen

Carolyn stares into the bowl as it clouds over, the water and soil disappearing into images of the distant past. She watches, leaning forward to look, as the story begins to unfold.

The Baron pulls a a delicate silver knife from their ritual robe and pricks their thumb. A few drops of blood mix with the soil, "By the blood of the lord and dust of the earth, all secrets are revealed."

Within the seer's glass the following images appear: A dark haired woman with the glowing sigil of House Eiluned above her head. She throws her head back and laugh. As she laughs, all the stars go out. They fall into her hand. Around her, eleven apprentices watch in awe all wearing ritual robes. Masks are affixed to their faces and each one is given a star in the center of the forehead of the mask. The light in the eyes of the wearers goes out and is replaced with the emptiness of the void. That void is filled with something else. From these, like a miasma, the otherworldly taint spreads, thus the toll keeper is born. A dark curtain is drawn.

There are three possible futures here:

• A mask shatters but the apprentices fades away.
• The autumn world comes to to Freehold. It grows sterile, shrivels, glamour fades and everything within it is Undone.
• The White Baron is sacrificed upon the altar in some ritual chamber within the Lodge. Later, he is reborn and emerges from the Lodge victorious but with blood stained hands. The air that hangs around him seethes with shadowy energies. The Toll Keeper robed takes his place upon the road.