Years ago, there was a large warband known as the Frozen Lament that maurauded the northern Ironlands. They pillaged and plundered and took what they liked, but they thirsted for battle above any other pleasure and the greater the foe the greater the pride. Each man was a hand-picked, well-trained master of combat and for all their cruel debauchery there was a strong fraternal bond and ill-deserved semblance of nobility in their militaristic code.
Valeri and Artiga were war-brothers, as the Lament termed it - soldiers within a unit who had a particular trust in one another and always fought side-by-side. When the town of Green Brook fell to the Frozen Lament the two of them walked its streets executing the cowering survivors and setting fire to buildings. Valeri was taken with a particular young woman and chose to take her into his personal captivity for her to serve him in all ways wifely. Artiga was instantly jealous and felt a fraternal betrayal from Valeri in this act of self-involvement. But the resentment was left to fester unaddressed.
Until one night, some weeks later, Artiga and other soldiers of the Lament were drinking in the ruins of another town they'd razed. They'd found a deep pit with bars across it and a cave lion trapped within and were spending the night throwing livestock down and watching it get ripped to shreds. Artiga, drunk on ale and post-combat hedonism, got an idea to impress his fellow swordsmen. He went to the camp where Valeri and his slave-wife were sleeping and quietly snuck her out. He carried her to the pit and threw her in, then watched with grim satisfaction as she was torn asunder, her screams barely audible over the cheers and laughter of the other soldiers.
Valeri was incensed and demanded retribution. He insisted that the captain of the Lament expel Artiga for his treachery and malice towards a brother-in-arms, but the captain refused to value a slave so highly as to remove from Artiga the protective loyalty he felt towards all his men. Valeri gave the captain an ultimatum - either Artiga went or he did for the two could never again shed blood side-by-side. But this arrogance only angered the captain and Valeri was summarily expelled from the Frozen Lament.
Artiga would not be woken. His eyes were open and vacant and his body still. His breathing was shallow, erratic, but persistent. Kabeera sat with him whilst Williarth checked a nearby cave for spiders. Luiden had his hands full with Bjorn - the hallucinating man was off, scurrying and bounding through the tanglewood from rock to root, bow nocked and pointed at every shadow in mad, adrenaline-flooded panic. He was much faster than Luiden, but drawing a random path in circles and double-backs so the skirmisher caught-up with him soon enough. He calmly approached and enticed Bjorn to return to the others with him.
COMPEL - Miss with Complication (6)
PAY THE PRICE - Shot by Bjorn
ENDURE HARM - Strong Hit
Bjorn turned slowly to look upon his friend with a face full of urgent fear, but that fear immediately morphed into wide-eyed terror. "Look out!" cried the scout, raising his bow and loosing the arrow in a second at the monstrous shadow behind Luiden. The poorly-aimed shot struck Luiden in the upper arm and he span off his feet and hit the ground. He embraced the searing pain and angrily rising to his feet grabbed Bjorn and dragged him forcibly back to the others - Bjorn was suddenly calmer now and less resistant, sobered a little by the slowly-dawning realisation that his eyes could not be trusted. The three of them bundled Bjorn and Artiga into the small cave and Luiden set up a fire at the mouth to burn herbs the smoke of which would deter most wildlife. He then laid his spear upon the prostrate Artiga, quietly bidding his wife to aid him if she possibly could. She remained painfully silent to Luiden and he shed a momentary tear.
MAKE CAMP - Weak Hit
Kabeera, Luiden and Williarth - Recuperate
Bjorn - Focus
While the others rested and applied salves and the like, Bjorn huddled in the corner and nursed his sanity. The venom in his system was slowly abating and the visions relenting.
Artiga awoke.
A strong, cool wind blustered against him from the side bending the grasses all about him. He was standing in a flat, red-green tundra sloping gently away from him with hills in the distance everywhere he looked. The sky was night-black and moonless, but he could see this place clear as day. He wore his travelling clothes and cloak as before, but no pack or weapon or companion. Some way down the tundra he could make out a small village by a brook and he made his way towards it, appreciative of the even ground and sense of safety. As he neared the village it seemed more and more familiar, but he couldn't or wouldn't recognise it. The buildings were damaged by fire and brute force - roofs collapsed, walls charred, hunks of doors and furniture littering the streets.
Then he saw the body. It was fire-blackened and contorted, but definitely once-human. He mournfully went to approach it but then saw another. And another. And more and yet more - the streets were filled with the corpses of the burned and broken inhabitants and Artiga felt the gnawing familiarity start to chew away at him. A loud clang rang out, erasing the reverent silence and echoing off the houses and hills. Another sounded and another, striking a slow and portentous rhythm like a funeral bell. Artiga turned around and knew it could only be coming from the blacksmith he'd passed.
The old man ducked a fallen beam to enter the workshop - it was much larger on the inside, with grand furnaces and expansive workbenches. It smelled of sulphur. There was one occupant, sat at a huge anvil with a clawed hand resting upon it. The clangs were being rung by the striking of a single claw upon the metal surface. The occupant was a large-framed man, shirtless and as muscular as a demigod, but with a short and pale coat of fur. The hands were paws and the head leonine with glittering knife-like shards of metal tied into the mane, but the eyes and the voice were unmistakably Valeri's.
The lion-man stared at Artiga with eyes of mockery and judgement. He told the old priest only acceptance of his evil would free him from this place of death. Artiga walked the workshop slowly, keeping his distance and protesting that he knew he was dreaming. Valeri laughed and motioned to the bench before Artiga upon which rested his great bastard sword, then challenged him to prove himself.
SCENE CHALLENGE - Face your crimes (Formidable)
Artiga took up the sword and ran at Valeri.
SECURE AN ADVANTAGE - Strong Hit
FACE DANGER [0/10] [0/4] - Strong Hit [1/10] [0/4]
He leapt onto and springboarded off a workbench with sword arcing down from on high. With every step his foe seemed to enlarge and was three-times Atrtiga's height when he brought the flying blade down upon him. It cut through hide and flesh and the old priest felt sure it would prove fatal, but looking up at the lion-man from his landing he saw no wound.
Valeri purred with derisive satisfaction. He pointed to the windows of the workshop at which Artiga could now see huddled faces against the grimy glass - burned and scarred and silent - and called upon him to face them. He started to name each face and describe the fate of each one with solemn judgement.
FACE DANGER [1/10] [0/4] - Strong Hit [2/10] [0/4]
Artiga listened, transfixed, each charge striking like a chisel at his soul, but he clung to his devout purpose and devotion to atonement and cried out "I will pray for your souls - each and every one of you!". As weak a gesture as it was, he meant it deeply and the faces knew this. One by one they withdrew from sight.
He turned to Valeri and made a protestation of the man he was trying to be - a man of community, family and love.
FACE DANGER [2/10] [0/4] - Strong Hit (Burn) [3/10] [0/4]
Valeri listened, head cocked thoughtfully. "And what of your community? What of your family?" and suddenly visions began to block out the workshop around Artiga - a multitude of scenes all in Bleakfalls and all of terror, pain and deadly strife.
FACE DANGER [3/10] [0/4] - Weak Hit [4/10] [1/4]
Artiga concentrated and defied each one in turn, striking it down with his sword as he proclaimed it false. But one got away from him and grew in place of the others, swirling about him in a dizzying whirl until he found himself transported there. He stood at the edge of Bleakfalls amid screams as before him he watched his community being butchered by raiders. He ran as fast as he could through the chaos and carnage to his home and outside he he found his wife and children huddled in the shadow of a single assailant, sword raised high and the distinctive white cloak of the Frozen Lament billowing behind.
Artiga ran to the attacker and pushed their sword-arm aside as it tried to strike. He squared up to the soldier and struck him in the face once, twice, thrice, pounding metal of into cartilage until the helmet was dislodged and flew away. The face that looked back at him was his own, bloodied and confused. "Why deny me this simple pleasure, my brother?" it asked.
FACE DANGER [4/10] [1/4] - Miss [4/10] [2/4]
Artiga tried to explain but the sounds of slaughter were too loud to hear his own words. He pulled his sword to fend off his doppelganger, but the more he swung and dodged the larger his foe grew and the smaller he shrank. Soon he was as a dwarf to a giant and losing all hope. His younger self laughed down at him - "Our way is the way of war, brother! Nothing shall be denied to the victor for as long as he is victorious. That is our way!" Artiga suddenly noticed a wetness to his garb and when he looked down he saw them stained with blood up to the knee, including his own white Frozen Lament cloak. As he stared the blood stain continued to rise up the fabrics towards his waist.
The old priest summoned up all the divine fury his heart could muster and yelled out a defiant proclamation at his other self - "YOUR EXISTENCE IS SOULLESS!"
FACE DANGER [4/10] [2/4] - Weak Hit [5/10] [3/4]
The proclamation cut through the noise and the scene like a hammer through glass and everything went still and quiet and black.
He was somewhere new now. He sensed walls nearby, heard a frightened sobbing and smelt warm flesh in the dank air. "Are you ready Artiga?" called Valeri from above him. Artiga looked up and saw he was in a large and deep hole. Valeri was fully human again, leering down at him with the familiar broad and bearded face. Others were with him, all laughing and pointing in exciting anticipation. "Are you ready to face your wickedness?"
Artiga started walking involuntarily towards the sobbing, but the articulation was all wrong. He was on all fours and the motion of muscles and skeletal frame was so alien it nauseated him. He realised he could actually see in the poor light and was approaching a figure huddled at the edge of the pit-floor. Only then did the horrible scene truly sink in and Artiga fought against the motion of his limbs in sheer panic.
FACE DANGER [5/10] [3/4] - Miss [5/10] [4/4]
PAY THE PRICE - Horror (3 Stress)
RESOLVE SCENE CHALLENGE [5/10] - Strong Hit
Artiga watched in horror as he mindlessly attacked the woman, clawing her open in deep red gouges, biting down on soft bare flesh and ripping it clear with his powerful neck muscles. He watched as the poor woman was reduced to a hideous carcass as his former-brethren cheered. Just one thought saved him from the brink of insanity. Over and over he told himself this was nature - cold, brutal, devouring and uncaring but that is all it was. All creatures know hunger, all creatures extol pain to further their existence. He was an animal most primal and others suffered for that primality, but the ethos of nature was immune to the judgements of man.
The darkness of the pit was replaced by the darkness of his own eyelids. He opened them to find himself back on the tundra in the cool breeze. The village was gone, but carried on the wind Valeri spoke to him once more. "It seems it is not your time, priest. So be it, for I am not vanquished yet and will see you again. until then, brother!"
There was nothing else for it - Artiga wasn't responding to any herbalism or invocation they could conceive of and so the party resolved to carry his body onwards until the situation changed one way or the other. Luiden unfurled his hammock and fashioned a large sling in which to bundle the old priest up and carry on his back. The others split his other baggage between them, for the priest was not a light burden.
CONDITION (Luiden) - Encumbered
ORACLE (Feature) - Dense thicket
Williarth led the party out of the cave and onward through the dark weald. The way became densely overgrown and they had a hard time hacking, pushing and scraping their way through vicious thorns and stubborn branches. Quoth fluttered from tree to tree high ahead as lookout.
DELVE THE DEPTHS [1/10] (Williarth, Wits) - Weak Hit (Mark Progress) [2/10]
Fortune was still with them even in this dark and corrupted place and they forged good progress through the expansive thicket without falling foul of some tree-dwelling predator.
ORACLE (Feature) - Waterway
After a couple of hours the obstinate bushes suddenly gave way to a wide, slow river. Their torches cast an eerie glow across the languid currents and though the water was in motion the smell of it was still stagnant. All about them on the wet rocks of the banks red lichen glowed with a sickly phosphorescence.
DELVE THE DEPTHS [2/10] (Williarth, Wits) - Weak Hit (Opportunity) [2/10]
FIND AN OPPORTUNITY - You find a hidden path
Williarth spotted some current-flattened stones just below the surface and called down his raven. He set the bird upon one and bade it proceed. The bird half-hopped half-fluttered from one hidden stepping stone to the next and they followed cautiously in single file on a path that led them round a bend in the river and a good mile further before reaching the other bank, bypassing a lot more difficult going should they have made a simple perpendicular crossing.
ORACLE (Feature) - Mystic focus or conduit
The stepping stones dropped them at a welcome gap in the undergrowth and over the ridge of the bank they were met with the sight of a secluded temple. It was ancient and crumbling and almost completely buried under the myriad roots of neighbouring trees.
DELVE THE DEPTHS [2/10] (Bjorn, Opportunity) - Miss with Complication (9)
COMPLICATION - A magical foe
They entered the forsaken holy place with a sense of wonder, marveling at the wooden carvings of esoteric symbols and effigies. Little was still fully intact and everywhere was signs of destruction, both natural and otherwise. Whole sections of wall were caved in by thick, invasive tree roots and much of the wooden interior had been senselessly smashed or hacked at.
A horrible cracking sound broke the awe, followed by scraping and rustling that should not be. In the entryway, the ground itself rose up in large jagged and moss-decked clumps into a bulky and giant humanoid figure. This was a hollow - a dead elf killed unjustly and as a result unable to rest. It took a lumbering step forward, shedding soil and insects as it went, and a shrill voice cried out from behind a large eleven mask lodged where a face should have been in its misshapen head. "They came and they took and they hurt and they killed and now they return to face Erziya's judgement!"
Very soon after the cataclysmic final battle of the eleven war a temple was built on the fringe of the site. It was dedicated to the elven god Erziya - patron of peace and brotherhood. Many hoped it would aid remembrance of the tragic losses and keep elf-kind bound together in a promise never to repeat it. But as with men, some elves were selfish and ignorant of the wisdom in the principles of community and one day a band of thieves invaded the temple. They stole artifacts, damaged holy carvings and killed the defiant priest. They escaped with their ill-gotten gains but also with the wrath of Erziya which bestowed upon them a wicked curse that saw them grow sick and die without ever capitalising on their crime. The last of them made it out of the ancient forest and into the lands of men where they could be traded well. This was long before the most recent exodus from the Old World and the human civilisation was prosperous then. The tablets and icons of Erziya were found on the last thief's body outside a large city. They were studied, translated and replicated widely in a bastardised recognition of the old elven god that lasted beyond that age and into this one.
Artiga walked on down the tundra, feeling the loneliness of the place sapping his spirit, but the hills at the edge drew near faster than it seemed they should. He climbed a scree-strewn slope and crested a low hill to find a path leading from his feet down into a grand forest. Where the path disappeared beneath the canopy he saw a wooden structure and hastened towards it.
The structure was a temple and before it stood a masked elven priest in bright orange robes. Artiga stopped before him and enquired about the temple. The priest told him it was in devotion to the great god Erziya and that he may not pass into the forest without proving his worth to the deity. Artiga noticed that the elf had injuries to his head that looked fresh and bleeding.
SCENE CHALLENGE - Defeat the Hollow Priest (Extreme)
Bjorn turned to look back at the entryway and his mouth dropped open. He feared the spider venom was still tormenting him with demonic visions.
ENTER THE FRAY - Hollow (Extreme)
... [Heart] (Kabeera) - Weak Hit (Initiative)
... [Heart] (Luiden) - Weak Hit (Momentum)
... [Heart] (Williarth) - Weak Hit (Momentum)
... [Wits] (Bjorn) - Weak Hit (Momentum)
The horror stomped towards the scout with gathering speed and brought a massive fist swinging round at him as he fumbled for his bow.
CLASH [0/10] - Weak Hit [1/10]
ENDURE HARM - Weak Hit
He released the arrow just in time and it thrummed into the muddy belly, but did nothing to prevent the incoming blow which caught him round the head and sent him flying sideways. The others braced themselves for a dire confrontation.
Artiga witnessed this - the scene was projected onto the starry sky as though illustrating the thoughts of the elf priest. He looked back at the man of god and saw that the masks matched in every detail. The horror had infiltrated the dream realm to punish him too. He blurted out Mayatanay's name and quickly described the perils he'd faced in service to an elf as an example of his affinity with the priest's own kind.
FACE DANGER [1/10] [0/4] - Strong Hit [1.5/10] [0/4]
The priest listened and nodded ever so slightly in acceptance, but offered no reward beyond this.
Kabeera had gone unnoticed by the horror, skulking in the shadows as she so often tended to, and made a lunge to try and topple it to the floor with the deft swipe of a blade.
SECURE AN ADVANTAGE - Weak Hit
She sliced through some thick roots and the hollow stumbled forwards, but it did not fall.
Williarth was next in its sights and the bard braced himself with staff held spearlike in the hopes the great momentum of the thing could be used against it.
CLASH [1.5/10] (Long-arm) - Weak Hit [2/10]
ENDURE HARM - Weak Hit
Some large chunk of mass shifted within the hollow when it struck the end of the staff, but again the being didn't take much notice and bashed him off his feet with a colossal swipe.
Luiden swiftly ditched his heavy burden and came up to the hollow with Artiga's great sword in hand, drawing its attention away from his prone comrades and ready to duck the rustling arms as they swung in his direction.
FACE DANGER - Strong Hit
STRIKE [2/10] - Weak Hit [3/10] (Burn)
He nimbly crouched his way out of a blow to the head and turned it into a roll past the thing's legs to then turn and strike. The blade cut through the mass of dead vegetation and soil severing a leg somewhere near where you'd expect to see a knee joint and it keeled over onto an alter, smashing sculptures and carvings in a crash of dust and splinters.
The dream version patiently awaited Artiga's next submission as the fight raged in the sky behind him. Artiga stood tall and proudly delivered the name of his god, Ursha of the Hard-won Peace, and rattled through her prime dogma and tenets as a display of his own holiness and devotion to the pantheon.
FACE DANGER [3/10] [0/4] - Miss [3/10] [1/4]
PAY THE PRICE - You are separated from someone or something
The priest started to chuckle, then laugh, then double-over in hysterics. When he regained some composure he said "A man of such piety can have no concerns of the flesh then," and in the vision above Artiga watched as his unguarded body, still cocooned in Luiden's hammock, was quickly and quietly enclosed by snaking tree roots and drawn out of the temple through one of the ruinous walls.
Bjorn clambered to his feet and drew another arrow with shaky hands. This was it. This was the time to stand up to all the fear that had been dogging him. This was the time to face insurmountable odds and surmount them anyway! His people were relying heavily on him and if they weren't to starve it was for him to survive and make it so. The mass of rot and decay was summoning up a whirlwind of mud and stone from the earth below to reform its damaged limb - the window was narrow.
TURN THE TIDE (Honourbound)
SECURE AN ADVANTAGE (Archer) - Strong Hit
STRIKE [3/10] - Strong Hit [4.5/10]
He made the shot count and with pinpoint accuracy and timing fired the missile directly through one of the mask's eye-holes. The horror rasped an ill sound like a cursed wind through dead leaves and during the recoil the scout fired two more into the mask. He felt more potent than ever before in his entire life.
The hollow was upon Luiden again in a matter of moments. He brandished the sword defensively like a porcupine spine and tried to keep it from landing a strike.
FACE DANGER - Weak Hit
ENDURE HARM - Weak Hit
The hollow's lumbering slowness was at a disadvantage and it couldn't get past the skirmisher's reach, so grabbed the blade and thrust it backwards into Luiden's chest. He lost his footing and landed in a heap, just barely maintaining his grip on the sword.
Meanwhile Kabeera attempted to get out of its view to prepare a sneak attack.
FACE DANGER - Weak Hit
ENDURE STRESS - Strong Hit
STRIKE [4.5/10] (Cutthroat) - Strong Hit [6/10]
She managed to duck round just in time, but the stench of the thing so close threatened to discourage her. She was having none of it and plunged her dagger deep into its lower back, ripping out huge chunks of soil and rotted plant matter.
Bjorn went for higher ground, clambouring up some tree roots.
SECURE AN ADVANTAGE - Weak Hit
He didn't get far - the roots were brittle, dry and weak and many came away in his hand.
Williarth scrabbled backwards, desperate to put some breathing room between him and the horror.
FACE DANGER - Weak Hit (Burn)
He got some way before bumping up against some nameless piece of furniture and struggled awkwardly to get vertical.
The dream-priest had stopped laughing now and returned his religious declaration with an espousing of his own deity's name and credo. He ended abruptly and expectantly, as if having just posed a riddle. And it was puzzling Artiga. Why did everything about Erziya seem so familiar to him? So ... comforting?
FACE DANGER [6/10] [1/4] - Miss [6/10] [2/4]
PAY THE PRICE - You are put in harm's way
He couldn't do it. He just couldn't piece together that Erziya and Ursha were one and the same god, separated only by mistranslation and amateurish inferences over decades. The dream priest scorned him and decried his servitude to their god and Artiga felt the ground rumble and crack beneath him. He had failed in his devotion to Ursha and must be punished for his hubris. The earth opened up around him and pulled apart with frightening speed. He made to dive to safety ...
FACE DANGER [6/10] [2/4] - Miss [6/10] [3/4]
PAY THE PRICE - Fall
...but was too slow off his feet and the ground supporting him gave way just a moment too soon. He threw his arms out to grab at the grass and prevent his descent, but the blades cruelly broke under his weight and he slid and fell into the unfathomable black depths below.
Back in the temple, Kabeera moved to distract the hollow and give Luiden space to strike.
FACE DANGER - Miss
PAY THE PRICE - Surprised and horrified (-2 Momentum, -2 Spirit)
ENDURE STRESS - Strong Hit with Opportunity (7)
STRIKE [6/10] (Cutthroat) - Weak Hit [7/10]
The thing was not to be duped so easily. It turned its head and brought its mask right up to her, staring at her wickedly with empty eye-sockets, and blasted her with a howl from some murky depths of hell. She faced that hell and let it wash over her like a summer breeze, before seizing the opportunity to drive a dagger in deep behind the mask. The howl turned to frustration from the horror and it reared back, just as Luiden launched himself airborne from the floor, Artiga's sword poised.
TURN THE TIDE
STRIKE [7/10] - Strong Hit [8/10]
END THE FIGHT [8/10] - Miss with Complication (9)
COMPLICATION - Face Death
The mask turned to watch the point of the sword fly towards it before driving straight through its centre halfway to the hilt. Luiden's bodily momentum drove the hollow's head and shoulders backwards and for a couple of moments he was perched on its chest. The mask cracked in two and from the cavity within exploded a terrific force that shot Luiden forcefully into the temple wall. The hollow staggered backwards and in a thick, wet puff of mud and vegetable detritus. The resulting mound of rot shifted slowly and seemed poised for resurgence, but the voice spoke out once more - "Vengeance has been served, for now." Bjorn, Kabeera and Williarth then watched the mass dissipate, flowing apart like sand in a strong breeze.
Luiden wasn't moving.