The Legend of Eri Silkenlands
Part 1
Eri was born in the High Confederacies, and grew up in the castle of Busyshank. Long ago the blight had swept through the region, and she often felt blessed to be protected by strong walls, and yet always felt the call of the wilds, to follow her patron goddess The Invisible, on her blue feathered wings through the wild lands, guided only by rainbows and the stars. Her wanderlust led her to take up hunting as a profession, though for all her youth she had been tied back to her home by duties to her elderly parents. They could not liver forever, however, and soon she was saying her goodbyes, and their last rites.
The day came many years later, when she had mourned enough, and the call of the wilds beckoned stronger than ever. She strode to her family's level in the tower, gathered her father's old axe and shield, his rucksack and flask, and announced to the only roommate present, "I'm going hunting. North, probably. Won't be back for a while."
"Sure, yeah," came his surprised response. "You expecting something?" His eyes were caught on the weapons strapped to her back.
"I'm going scouting, really. Just want to have a backup. Take care" she said over her shoulder as she headed down the ramp.
"Take care" he bellowed after her, before going back to his cleaning.
Outside the gates, the sky was starting to darken in the north, clouds rolling over the sea. A faint swathe of color could be seen just above the horizon. It was a good sign, from The Invisible. She followed it to the hamlet of Masteredgriffon. She stopped first at the mead hall, but found it abandoned, but each of its pedestals adorned with a single termite, running in circles in the center.
With noone else around, she decided to try the town proper. The village streets seemed deserted. On the ground at the center of town, in the middle of the intersection, lay a figure, unmoving. Cautiously, she drew her axe and readied her shield. Inside the nearby hut were two more corpses, and a single white-bearded dwarf sulking in the far corner.
"I didn't do it!" He blurted out unprompted, "I just got here. Someone else did this."
"They've been here a while," Eri said, noting the state of decomposition, the lack of blood. The dwarf was meticulously clean, himself. "Is there anyone else here?"
The dwarf was about to reply, when a thud could be heard from outside. Eri turned around to see the door to the neighboring building swing open, and a frightened old woman poke her face out and half-whispered, "Quiet! He might come back!"
"Who?" Eri almost-whispered back.
"The bear man!" she exclaimed, looking around like it would summon him. "He killed everyone. I'm the only one left. He raised my husband as a zombie!" Despite her apparent fear the woman bore the mark of a hearthperson, a warrior.
"Who do you serve? Who's your lord?" Eri demanded.
"Maloy. The wolf-man. He's at the keep in Incenseordered. He surely knows about the bear man already. I've been waiting for him to come all these years."
'Years?' Eri thought. The corpses weren't decayed to the bone and bleached. They looked like they'd been out under the sun only a few days. "I'll seek him out myself," she decided out loud.
"Thank you!" the woman bellowed, before clutching her mouth like she had cursed the gods. Eri didn't know what to make of her. Scared out of her wits? Old wits? Both? Sometimes her mother had been like that, thinking the blighted would come crawling over the walls if they were spoken of too loudly. She remembered where Incenseordered was supposed to be, by the sea. So she turned her attention back to the cottage on the corner, and stepped back through the threshhold. Inside, the dwarf was inspecting the corpses more closely, as if he'd been too afraid when he was alone. "Divine metal," he said, picking at a gauntlet, gingerly pulling out the severed hand of its former owner.
"What?"
"Divine metal!" he exclaimed loudly, "And masterful craftsdwarfship. More so than I'd expect from human smiths, but fitted for humans nonetheless. They're all wearing this. Their shields and pikes too. You should take a set, if youre the adventuring sort."
Eri looked down at the bodies. The light grayish metal on them was pock-marked, looking like the oozing sores on a sick animal. The corpses themselves had only just started to decay, such sores not yet opened. Untouched, perfect for a necromancer. "We need to destroy them, burn them maybe, at least hack them up. We can't leave bodies whole like this for the next necromancer." The dwarf nodded sullenly, but said nothing. Dwarves hid their dead in elaborate crypts, they didn't need to worry about cutting up or burning their loved ones, but this one clearly understood. "My name's Eri, by the way."
"Vucar. I was a merchant, decided to retire, but everywhere's gone mad. Thought a quiet human hamlet might be better." He helped Eri pile the corpses into the street, where she started a fire. More bodies were scattered around the hamlet, and these she simply hacked to pieces in place. She went back, then, having reconsidered the suggestion to take their equipment. She realized, in this world, she would need it, and it was surprisingly lightweight. She had no experience with the pike, but the dwarf insisted it would pierce anything but "adamantine," which he'd said with a bizarre sort of reverence. Eri decided to take her leave, and head for the city.
The next hamlet north was completely abandoned. The one after that, the village was abandoned, but the mead hall was filled with stuffy-looking nobles. All white hairs and wrinkled visages, and old wounds. "Soldier!" One scarred old woman shouted at Eri as she entered, "How was the patrol?" Eri only pointed at herself. "Yes, you. What did you encounter? Were you not on patrol?"
Not sure whether to out herself as a looter, Eri responded "Uh, the hamlet of Masteredgriffon has been attacked, by a bear-man necromancer reportedly. Only one survivor. They said it happened years ago."
"Necromancers," the woman mumbled to herself before turning back to Eri, "Report it to the Wolf Lord, Necromancy is his domain. No sign of the enemies?"
"Uhm, no. The other village was abandoned, noone there."
"Good. Dismissed." The woman turned back to her pedestal where she was working. The other nobles ignored Eri. She strode up to one old man and asked him, "Who all were we at war with, again?"
"The Girlish Quills, the Imperial Lenses, the Venerable Showers, a dozen others. All over so-called animal abuse," the old man retorted almost angrily. Eri decided not to pry further. Instead she headed to the back of the hall, where a book was left on a pedestal in one corner. Curious, she lifted the tome and read the cover. "Do We Understand Immortality." She was about to open it when someone souted across the room "No! You must not read from the book!" Suddenly everyone was staring her down. Eri Placed the book back on the pedestal. "It's a necromancers' tome," a woman clarified, "You'll be cursed. Like them."
"Ah, okay. Ive had enough reading today anyway, I suppose." Eri turned and walked out the door instead.
North again, and Eri was on the outskirts of the city. The fields were criss-crossed with trenches. Where buildings started, most were ruined. One had an overgrown garden, and inside were three dwarves. One wore the same sort of blistered metal armor Eri had taken, and a bronze mask. None of them were interested in conversing with her. Further down the street was a toppled statue of a dwarf, a fallen pedestal, and a shiny stone die. Eri absentmindedly picked up the die, then decided to leave it and dropped it again. A horrible feeling came over her, an impending sense of doom. She looked down at the die, and on it in tiny lettering was inscribed the word "Torch." The pedestal displayed prayers to "Kezat," and the meanings of the words inscribed on the divination die. Beside the word "Torch" was "Bad luck." It would be a wonderful evening.
Eri turned around and headed towards the castle. Inside the keep, she met the wolf-lord Maloy. He was a short, wiry being with the head and fur of a gray wolf, and he was obviously frustrated about something. Eri addressed him anyway, "Maloy? I was sent to inform you about an attack on the hamlet of Masteredgriffon some years ago, by a necromancer bear-man. The only survivor says he butchered everyone and raised her husband as a zombie."
Maloy glared at her unhappily before responding, "Thank you for your time. I will handle it. You are dismissed." Perhaps he also believed her to be part of his army. He certainly wasn't in the mood to talk. Eri walked back out, and headed west down the road. Some of the shops here were occupied, although seemingly not selling anything. One such building had a small army of gangsters and city militia intermingling. She stayed there a while to chat, and noticed something strange. Seven of the wrestlers there were identical. When she started talking to them, she learned they all shared the same name as well. Nobody else wanted to discuss this.
(Too Many Zar Evenchirped???)
She left, and visited other hovels, and discovered even more of the strange duplicated man. She decided to leave this town before it got any weirder.
Author
Topic: Museum III, adventure succession game (DF 0.47.05) (Read 409963 times)