Petra Ashford

Petra Ashford is a Light Warden of the Order of the Lantern, and captain over Harwick Stoll and Devyn Marsh.¹

Biography

Session 5

Ashford was one of three Light Wardens riding south from Thornwatch whom the party met on the Old Road, six hours north of Argentum. She drove their cart of crates and barrels under a tarp, and Devyn Marsh and Harwick Stoll rode.² When Stoll complained to her that standards were plummeting, over the lantern Iva wore off duty, Ashford asked Iva’s name and was given her Warden name, D’Aquino. Iva was told to take the lantern off her belt, and did.²

Session 6

The three of them overtook the party at a gallop on the road north on 27 Coldrise, 1714 PSF, riding hard enough that they could only have come from Argentum on fresh horses. They passed Iva standing in the open without a second glance.¹

That night the party found them in a forest clearing two miles north of the Standing Stone, standing over a gaunt man in a straw hat by lantern light and telling him the woods were full of corruption and that they would take him back to town. When the man’s arms stretched out towards them, Ashford named him a Sorrowsworn and called for blades.¹

Session 7

The Sorrowsworn went for Ashford first. It cut the lantern off her belt, drove a bladed arm through her thigh and dragged her fifteen feet into the dark. She did not try to break the hold. She raised her sword, silver fire wrapped the blade, and she swung twice and missed both times. “Kill this thing!” she shouted out of the darkness.³ Its wail caught her twice, and by the end of the fight she was bleeding from her side, her nose, her mouth and one ear.³

With the creature dead she sheathed her sword to lean on it and turned on the party. She listened to Harwick Stoll demand that they be arrested, and caught two lies about the missing off-duty Warden, Rhysaene’s and then Iva’s. She told Rhysaene she is trained to take in the details of a dangerous situation.³ Temerity’s account got her off the subject without convincing her.³ She asked Devyn Marsh what he thought and listened to his answer. Then she told Harwick Stoll to be quiet.³

She let the party go. The Sorrowsworn was the more important report, she said, and nobody had seen one this close to Argentum in years. Her official report would say that some strangers helped in the chaos and no more than that, and the others could say what they liked.³ She told the party that she could not arrest them even if she wanted to, that a censor, a purifier or a dragoon could handle that kind of power and she could not, wounded as she was, and that they should consider themselves lucky. Then she pointed at the charred body and told them why that kind of magic is illegal.³

She ate Luma’s goodberry after all. The Wardens’ horses had run off during the fight, so the three of them walked out south and a little west toward Silverthorn, with Stoll and Marsh carrying her between them.³

Session 15

By 2 Nightdeep, 1714 PSF, Ashford had so far talked Harwick Stoll out of filing an official report on the mages the squad had met up north, though he still wanted to.⁴

Appearances and Mentions

References

Session 6 ↩ ↩² ↩³
Session 5 ↩ ↩²
Session 7 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸
Session 15 ↩