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#Post#: 1263--------------------------------------------------
Ravenloft - Hoards of the Forgotten Gods
DIR By: guest6
Date: March 24, 2025, 2:27 am
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[glow=black,2,300][color=black][font=georgia]A Detour of Fate or
Fvckery In The Mists of Ravenloft
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[color=black][font=georgia][size=11pt]|| A House of Honored
Death ||
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[color=black][font=georgia]
Walking down the hallway, the house creaks under your feet.
Darius and Ashley follow loosely behind as you lead the way with
the twins, Gennifer and Laurie. Behind and in front of you, the
groups are lost in chatter. Maybe it's about something to do
with the rotting corpse that just attempted to kill all of you.
Maybe it's about what they were doing before they got sucked
into this mess, or what they hope to do after.
Maybe it's about you? How'd you hold up in that room back there?
Think they're whispering they're disproval with your skills? The
voice behind the thoughts was sharp, a bit bright, heavy on the
R's and hard A's, and lilting in a way that makes it hard to
judge if the melody is endearing or mockery, but it certainly is
not your own voice.
As you try to focus, finding it's source or shutting it out,
paying attention to what is being said in front and behind of
you, it's not just the conversations, but the creaking
floorboards and torrential rains outside that go quiet around
you. No, they're not going silent, they're going dark. And so is
the light. Just as the thought finishes running through your
mind, you stop...expecting Ashley or Darius to bump into you
from behind, but acutely aware that in this blackness, wherever
it is, you are no longer in the same hallway you were the last
time you breathed.
It's colder here. The first thing you begin to see is your own
breath hanging in the air as you exhale. A slow and deliberate
breath in. The air is a bit stale, but it tastes humid, a bit
metallic, and smells prominently of petrichor. Your darkvision
begins adapting and your field of view slowly grows. Stone
walls, cut and laid, smooth. Dirt floor. Hallway, a bit wider
than the one you were just in, but definitely more cluttered.
Beds on wheels. Something smells (Perception check DC14-
d20+WIS+proficiency = 12+4+2 = 18) of rot that has been
meticulously and habitually sterilized, but wherever you are,
it's too cold for the rot to grow.
"There there," the voice returns audibly this time, but nearly
impossible to pinpoint it's location for some reason. "I do
apologize you were pulled away unannounced or invited, but I had
about as much say in the matter as you. It would seem both of my
mistresses desired for us to meet..for you to learn."
You approach the closest corner in the room, a hallway, alcove,
recessed doorway, you're not entirely sure as the wall turns
away from you. It seems the prudent first place to look for this
individual. Whether you actually want to or not is another
matter, but either way, slowly approaching to check is better
than standing in a strange, open room and waiting to get stabbed
in the back.
"Ahhh. Taking some initiative I see. Good. Afterall, 'Courage is
not the absence of fear, but what you choose to do when you are
afraid' or some bullsh!t like that. I wouldn't know anymore
after the good doctor took my fear from me in Lamordia."
(Stealth check DC18 - d20+DEX+proficiency+expertise = 12+3+2+2 =
19)You carefully slide a small, extendable mirror passed the
corner near the floor, angling it just enough for you to get a
small glimpse up at whoever might be there. Rotating it a few
times to get a good look at the entirety of the alcove
(Perception check DC14/20- d20+WIS+proficiency = 17+3+2 = 23)
and at first it just looks like any alcove turned storage closet
in the dark. You can see a few shelving units filled with a
variety of items, cleaning supplies judging from the stronger
scent of chemicals, pine, and lemon lingering here, but there's
another scent that pulls you in for a closer look.
Sweat. Worn leather. Musk. Coffee? Toasted oak. Oud wood.
Vanilla Bean. You recognize the smell of worn leather armor that
has recently been warn somewhere far warmer than here from a few
of the friends that came by to visit family barbeques with your
brother. Thankfully your own armor has never gotten this bad
whether from lack of use or your meticulous cleaning. The rest
is definitely the deeper notes of a man's cologne. Looking a
second time and a bit slower, you rotate the mirror ever so
slightly over and over until you swear you can make out a vague
shape of what might be an aura? You're not entirely sure, but
the movement of the mirror creates enough parallax in the light
for you to tell there's something off about the way you're
seeing the objects on the shelves inside...no, behind the aura.
Something is magically obscured from view inside this alcove.
(History check DC17- d20+INT = 17+2 = 21) You recall stories in
books and at family barbeques with Uriah and his friends that
mentioned rangers and assassins who were so wholly devoted to
stalking their prey that the very weave of magic coalesced
around them, allowing them to shape and bend the very shadows
themselves as a cloak to remain all but invisible so long as
they didn't move. Fanciful, but hard to tell what type of magics
could be real and what's simply made up as a story to add a bit
more fear into the day to day life in Ravenloft. It was
certainly fun to imagine it could be real while growing up and
playing hide and seek or pretending you were hunting the zombies
that occasionally attacked from the mists outside Rivalis in the
middle of the night, but less fun as you now watch the veil of
shadows dissipate around an unknowing mouth, "Go ahead, come
find me if you can."
Strange. Even watching the mouth emerge out of nothing as it
spoke the words, you still could not pinpoint the mouth as the
source of the sound. More alarming is that the face is mere
inches from your own, if not an inch or two shorter.
(Constitution Save DC14- d20+CON = 3+1 = 4) The suddenness of
the mouth appearing and it's closeness to you catch you by
surprise; startling more so than actual fear, but enough to keep
your heart racing for the next minute or so. The combination
sending the response through your body before you even think,
three steps backward and weapons drawn, ready...if not a bit off
balance.
An amused laugh begins to reveal the shape of the figure in
front of you from their chest upward. As they lift their hands
to the sides of their head and take a casual step back, the rest
of the body becomes visible to you in the dark. A somewhat
shorter elven looking man clad in leather armor and the hood of
a mantle with some fur around the edges hides his hair though
you can see a bit poking out around his neck from the hood
pushing it forward. Scars mar his otherwise youthful looking
face, although that could be deceiving if he is truly an elf
while some sort of tattoo or other marking looks as if blood has
stained his face beneath his right eye. A large bow and quiver
are strung to his back while a sword sides comfortably in its
sheath at his side and the handle of what must be a dagger
sticks out from his back very slightly from the angle you can
see him at. Despite a fairly rough appearance, he clearly looks
to be seasoned and experienced in just whatever it is he does.
Except for the teddy bear on his hip opposite the sword. That is
more tattered and worn than anything else on him and is
painfully out of place considering the rest of what you can see.
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A bit of light would be nice right about now. Being able to see
color would probably make this...better? Worse? I don't know,
but it would be clearer. The thought barely has time to form
while you take in his appearance and laugh.
"Well well. It seems you're already better skilled than I was
led to believe. Most wouldn't have been able to find me even
when I get a bit careless and let some clues slip. I'll make
this easy for ya. The name's Caolán. No, I'm not going to hurt
you. Yes, I will do what I can to keep you safe. No, I'm not a
good person, and other than my honesty about these things, it's
better that you don't trust me or try to be my friend.
Lastly I'm going to get this out of the way since it's come up
in the past; no I'm not going to sleep with you. I have a simple
rule. If I can't kill you in the night or forget you in the
morning, I won't fvck you. And since someone else has dictated
that I need to help train you and keep you alive, that rules out
fvcking, killing, or forgetting you. Good? Good. Now....I'm sure
you have some questions for me."
(Insight check DC17- d20+WIS+proficiency = 16+4+2 = 22)
You can tell that despite his forthright honesty being true,
there's certainly much more to the why behind his words and that
you should believe him when he says not to put your trust in him
beyond the few things he has been honest about here and now.
You're fairly certain that any answers to your questions will be
honest so far as it serves keeping you alive and achieving
whatever it is this someone else needs from you, but anything he
might say that sheds insight on himself, or even the specifics
and truth of what is going on here are likely going to be
intentionally obscure, confusing, or misleading, but for the
moment, he seems willing to let you speak and ask.
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|| The only thing to fear is everything ||
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