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| - In the delicate, fairytale tower of Oisement, some of Mousillon’s most notorious crimes were perpetrated. Many a Frogwife tell the tale of how the Lady of Oisement became the effective lord of her domain when her husband, a sickly and little-known knight, died of the Bloody Flux. Nicolete was at first a relatively bearable liege to her peasants, only demanding impalements for particularly severe crimes like pig theft or trespassing on the swamping grounds. Soon, however, she began to demand a new tithe from her peasants—their children.[1a]
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| - In the delicate, fairytale tower of Oisement, some of Mousillon’s most notorious crimes were perpetrated. Many a Frogwife tell the tale of how the Lady of Oisement became the effective lord of her domain when her husband, a sickly and little-known knight, died of the Bloody Flux. Nicolete was at first a relatively bearable liege to her peasants, only demanding impalements for particularly severe crimes like pig theft or trespassing on the swamping grounds. Soon, however, she began to demand a new tithe from her peasants—their children.[1a] There, the tales diverge. Most have Nicolete killing the children, usually to bathe in their blood and preserve her youthful looks or to use them in gruesome divinations. Many also mention a young daughter of the Duke of Lyonesse, who made an ill-advised journey into Mousillon to seek out a long-lost branch of the Duke’s family. The young girl disappeared and many Questing Knights set out to find her. One, Isander, followed her trail to Oisement and there became aware of the wickedness being done by the Lady in the Château. Whether Nicolete had anything to do with the missing girl is not known for she was never found. Isander, however, realised that the Lady had guided him to Oisement for a reason, and that reason had to be ending Nicolete’s villainous ways.[1a] The charges levelled against Nicolete by Isander were not specific, alluding only to murder and witchcraft. Isander and his small coterie of knights held a brief trial near Oisement, finding Nicolete guilty of all charges, as well as any charges that might yet be brought against her. The sentence was death. However, Isander’s adherence to the Knightly Code meant that he could not physically harm a lady of noble birth, and so he gathered a workforce of sturdy peasants to wall Nicolete up in her home. The doors and windows were bricked up, and Nicolete was left to starve.[1a] The truth about Nicolete’s crimes is, if anything, worse than mundane murder. Nicolete did indeed demand a tithe of children, and the children handed over were never seen again. But they were not killed, at least not straight away. Nicolete had another purpose in mind for them. She was obsessed with the unknown and the forbidden, and whiling away a dreary life in Mousillon, she had dabbled in the magical arts. Nicolete, however, was drawn to the darker forces of magic, the kind of magic that waxed great in Mousillon and seemed to feed off the land’s despair. With the death of her husband, Nicolete was free to turn Oisement into a laboratory of dark magic. The children she took from her peasants she raised as her own, as fellow acolytes in the dark arts, assisting her in her sinister research and often giving their very souls to power the spells she learned. Where most mages were weakened by repeated exposure to dark magic, Nicolete’s keen intellect and great dedication meant she only grew stronger and more vigorous, even as her adopted children became corrupted and died around her.[1a][1b] Isander knew nothing of Nicolete’s grander designs. Had he, he would surely have ensured Nicolete died instead of walling her up in her château and letting time deliver her punishment. Nicolete was interred with several of her servants, who by now were utterly devoted to their mistress and corrupted down to their souls by their exposure to forbidden sorcery. She siphoned off their life force to extend her own life and survive through the following decades, pursuing her magical studies with ever-greater intensity. She despatched her acolytes to bring her books of magical knowledge and even kidnap more peasant children to raise as her own. Indeed, it was simple for Nicolete to leave her prison home whenever she wanted, but as the years passed she did so less and less often. She simply spent all her waking hours experimenting on her drone-like acolytes to unlock knowledge that would let her become as one with the Winds of Magic.[1b] Nicolete still lives in Oisement, though from the outside the blocked-up windows show no sign of life. Nicolete is by now very old, but her constant exposure to dark magic has given her a sinisterly youthful appearance, hauntingly attractive until you get close enough to see the tight leathery skin of her face and the jet black of her eyes. She still dresses as a Lady should and conducts herself like one as best she can, but her lack of contact with other people has made her unable to muster anything more than cold politeness. She has a deep-seated dislike of other Humans and far prefers the company of her acolytes, who by now are dry, wizened drones respond instantly to her every wish and never speak. Though Nicolete has several acolytes at large in the Old World hunting down occult tomes and magical trinkets, she believes all knowledge ultimately comes from within, to be unlocked by introspection and experimentation.[1b] Though her real interests lie in scholarship, Nicolete is a powerful if unpredictable sorceress. Mallobaude contacted her through Aucassin, and she believed completely the bizarre and shocking “truth” he explained to her, since it scarcely seemed impossible compared to the esoteric knowledge she was seeking. Her role is to provide magical support to Mallobaude, and Nicolete is currently seeking the knowledge that will let her command an army of the dead that will fight alongside Mallobaude’s knights when the time comes to march on the city. Nicolete’s heraldry is a black castle and a black key on a white field—these are the arms of her late husband, and she has not seen it necessary to change them.[1b]
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