Prequel/Backstories
Apr 25, 2019 15:00:10 GMT -5
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Chris, dragonforgotten, and 2 more like this
Post by Aileen on Apr 25, 2019 15:00:10 GMT -5
Morning bread, stale. Water. Solitude. Silence. Drip.
Drip.
Footsteps. Keys.
Bread. Water. Drip. Drip.
"FIX THE BLOODY LEAK!"
Silence. Drip.
I close my eyes, fighting back tears, trying to fall asleep. Dreams are the only escape from this hellhole. Drip.
"GET ME OUT OF HERE!"
I scream until my throat is raw. No one answers. No one ever does.
"Why won't you help me?" I whisper. "I have served you well, have I not?"
She never answers me either.
Three. Goddamn. Years.
I lay on my cot, staring up at the stone ceiling. Runes and symbols carved over the surface spell my doom, trapped in this cell unable to use any of my powers. I've tried, only to feel horrendous pain.
I once tried to blast the cell door over and over again, rewarded with pain and a severe nose bleed. I thought I could escape somehow if I hurt myself enough. Woke up a couple days later, still in my cell. The guards warned me it would take my life if I kept trying. It wasn't worth it.
Drip.
More footsteps. One shuffling. Four guards. A cell door opening, then closing.
"Do not try anything. You will not succeed, and it will hurt. This one could tell you."
I see one of the guards standing in front of the cell across the way motion towards mine. I can't see who is in the opposing cell, but I am intrigued. I haven't had a neighbor in six months. Not since the wizard died of a heart attack. I missed him, the crazy old man. He had exploded a house full of people he claimed were cultists, killed them all. I somehow think it was good intentioned, but he had been here nonetheless.
"I could tell you to fix the f***ing leak too, but none of you will listen." I snap. My voice is nearly gone. I think I'm getting a cold.
One of the guards walks over to my door, and the others start to file out. His expression is neither cold nor friendly. I haven't seen him before.
"You're the one that killed that noble man's son, aren't you?"
I stand and walk over, standing back a foot from the door.
"Aye. That's me."
"Why would we do any favors for you, woman?"
"I am an officer of the Waterdeep Guard. I do not take lip from lowlifes such as you."
"You are a prisoner of Waterdeep Prison." He snarls. "You have no rank here. You have no voice. You have nothing."
He spins on his heel and walks away. Drip.
I lay back down, trying to peek into the other cell from my cot. Who ever is in there is just a shadow from this view. They do not speak.
They break their silence after a full day. The dripping stopped after the rains cleared up, I assumed. I couldn't see the outside, and hadn't in years. It was almost too quiet now.
"What is your name?" The voice speaks. It's a woman.
"Does it matter?" I laugh. "I lost who I am when I got in this place."
"No one can take your name from you, dear girl."
I stand up, walking to the cell door. My neighbor stands at her door, and I see her face for the first time. She is human, fully human it looks like. Older than me, and strikingly beautiful with steel gray hair. Her clothes are purple robes, making her look even more stately. I feel a warmth I haven't felt in a long time when my eyes meet her wise ones.
"Karsi. Just Karsi."
I haven't said or heard my name in so long it doesn't even sound right.
"A pleasure to meet you, Karsi. I am Sidran. Just Sidran. Half-elf?"
I'm a little taken aback by her question, especially since she finishes her sentence in my mother tongue. My ears are hidden by my messy hair, so how could she tell?
"Yes." I respond in elvish.
"Where are you from?"
"Here. Raised right in Waterdeep."
"But you were not born here. I can tell."
"I don't know," I'm starting to get the creeps from this woman, but I haven't had anyone to talk to in far too long. "How would you know?"
"I've been many places and met many people, dear. I see much from just looking at faces. I see you have been here a long time. I see you have great power, although it is repressed by our current circumstances."
"Enough about me," if she pried any further I would have a mental breakdown. "What brings you here? You seem like a decent person."
"We are all decent people, Karsi, depending on our audience." She takes a seat at her door, sitting cross legged with her hands folded in her lap. "I was arrested for practicing my beliefs. I defended myself, and some men died. They killed some of mine, so it was all fair in the end. And you, Karsilene?"
"I killed a boy. A child." It takes me a moment to realize she just- "I didn't tell you my full name."
"You did not have to, miss Stormwyk."
I grab the bars in a death grip, panicking.
"Can you read my thoughts?!"
She laughs lightly, a surprisingly pleasant sound.
"Alas, if we were not in here with these protections, I could. You were quite the talk of the town a few years ago, and that guard confirmed who you are. A war hero slaying a nobleman's child does not go unnoticed."
I hate myself for my crime every day. Hearing that I'm famous for it makes it hurt more.
"Well now we are even, I know your sins and you know mine." She says.
"You wear purple... are you one of them?" I ask, speaking draconic.
She perks up, smiling.
"Very observant," she says back in draconic. "How do you know Draconic?"
"To know your enemy, you must speak their language."
"I assure you, my dear, I am not your enemy. We walk different paths, is all."
She was my neighbor for two more months, and then they took her away one day. My only friend in a very long time and she was a cultist. I was alone again with my thoughts. Thoughts of ending it all, sometimes. I couldn't serve my patron behind bars, what good was I to her? The only thing that kept me going was knowing I may get out one day. Maybe.
Drip.
F*** not again.
Drip.
Banging on my cell door woke me from dreamless sleep. Two guards at my door, but it wasn't meal time.
"Stormwyk, you are being released."
"What?"
"Get up, you're a free woman. Unless you want to stay in there."
The door swung open. They didn't have to ask me twice.
I was given my personal affects, a pretty good amount of coin, my bag with everything in it (shockingly), and my old clothes and armour. My sword I had poofed away as they took me away that fateful day, and i was eager to summon it back.
"Why am I being released early?" I ask the warden.
"The council of Waterdeep has deemed you innocent. There is a gnome woman here to collect you."
I don't know any gnomes, but I am lead to one standing outside the main entrance. I look down at her mischievous looking face, and don't know what to say. The guards leave me, and I am alone with her.
"Are you ready to go?" She asks. "Are you hungry? We can talk over a nice hot meal."
Jamna Gleamsilver she tells me her name is as we eat at an inn. I feel ill after the first few sips of ale, but this is the best food I've had in a long... long, long time. I am going to regret eating this later. She is one of the Harpers. I have worked with Harpers before, but they are pretty secretive.
"You never killed that nobleman's son. In fact, he is alive and well and happily serving in the Cult of the Dragon Queen."
"You're kidding me."
"I wish I was. The sorceror you were chasing, that was him. His father was in on it."
"Why frame me?"
"You were a dangerous person, Karsi. His only escape was a cruel trick."
"Why did it take so long to find this out? I've been rotting away in a cell for three years. THREE YEARS!"
Gleamsilver shushes me as heads turn our way.
"It took a lot to convince the council, and unfortunately your case was not our priority."
I roll my eyes, angry at the wasted years, but happy to be free at last.
"It doesn't matter now anyway. I'm a deserter now, and a criminal. I need to get out of Waterdeep."
"We are working on clearing your name entirely. Unfortunately we cannot control the spread of information, so it will take a while. Until then, I have a job offer for you."
"What is it?" I am in no mood to work for anyone or anything.
"Have you ever been up North?"
"Yes. We did a patrol outside Neverwinter. Got lost and went the wrong way."
"Good, so you're familiar with the area. There is a group of adventurers up in the Mere of Dead Men, and they are going to need backup. I think you are the right woman for the job."
"I'm a little old for adventuring."
"You're not even thirty yet, and you're half-elf." The gnome jibes. "I know you feel out of sorts, I can't imagine how bad the past three years have been. I think this could be good for you, and I think you could find some answers if you join them."
"What use am I to them? I don't think I even have powers anymore."
"Its a good opportunity to find that out. So what say you? Are you in?"
"Is there gold involved?"
"Oh yes."
I finish my ale, and feel the need to go find somewhere to get sick. Too much food and ale way too fast. I stand up and she gives me a knowing look as I run out the door. After puking in the alley, I come back in and stand over her.
"I will take your quest."
"Good," she smiles. "First stop is Neverwinter. We have a wizard to pick up."
---
I had expected a long trip up to Neverwinter, but it turns out the Harpers have connections upon connections. We took a teleportation circle to one of their buildings in Neverwinter, and Gleamsilver led me on a long walk through the city.
We come to a rather fancy building, Styxwell's Institute, and I follow her in. Marble floors, statues of scholarly looking old guys, and paintings of robed old men and ladies... definitely a wizard school.
"Pretentious, much?" I whisper to... Glimmerglaze? F*** I forgot her name already. She shoots me a silencing look.
A robed old man comes to us, looking down at the gnome and glancing at me with a suspicious look.
"May I help you?"
"Yes, sir, we are looking for a wizard to aid in an adventure."
"Ah, yes. Usually we have plenty of volunteers, however everyone is busy at the moment with exams."
"I see," She looks disappointed. "I was given a name in particular. A girl named Omen."
The man laughs.
"Unfortunately you just missed her," he says. "She dropped out a couple days ago. Said she was going into a swamp to find her friend."
"Fantastic, do you know which way she went?"
It takes us two days to find Omen, and luckily someone saw her going off in the wrong direction, otherwise we never would have found her. When we did, she was hiding in a tiny magic hut of some sort, and came out when she heard the two of us complaining about black flies. Truth be told, we were not very stealthy, and could have been killed if any enemies were nearby, but it was fortunate we ran into the wizard instead.
Omen was tall and very thin, with long black hair and cheery yellow robes. She looked like she had been crying, but put on a stern face when she confronted us.
"You must be Omen," Glittergleam says. "I am in need of a wizard, and your friend Ard recommended you."
"I was looking for her," Omen says. "I saw her in a swamp, but i haven't found her. She is in trouble, they all are."
"How do you know?" I ask.
"I'm a divination wizard." she says.
"Oh. I don't know what that means."
The girl gives me a look of annoyance, and turns her attention back to the gnome.
"Do you know where they are?"
"Yes, they are in the Mere of Dead Men. It's going to take you a while to get there."
Omen agrees to join me in trudging through the swamp to get to the right one, and the gnome leaves us the next day. The wizard barely talks to me, and looks a bit nervous when she sees my sword.
"What are you?" She asks the first night of just the two of us as we make camp.
"I'm half-elf."
"No, I mean... your sword."
"Its a sword." I say, drawing it. She looks at the blade suspiciously. A slight shadowy light shimmers over the blade. I smile. "Do not worry. I made a pact years ago. I'm harmless."
We travel through the miserable swamp until finally we see what looks like the adventurers we are looking for on another bank along a river. I wave, making sure they are friendly, and a half-orc looking guy waves back. We join them on the other side.
"Oh no, I'm too late!" Omen falls to her knees beside the body of a dragonborn woman. So that's the friend she was looking for. "I couldn't save her."
"We were attacked by lizardmen," the half-orc tells me. "Did the Harpers send you?"
"Yes. I'm Karsi. This is Omen."
"Kovatch, folk hero of the people for the people."
I shake his hand. Firm grip, very impressive.
The two bodies are being prepared for burning, and I help them get dry wood to do so. I notice the other one is a young half-elf, rather beautiful even in death. My heart pangs for her life cut out so soon, and I pray to my patron to guide her soul on.
"Her name is Romiel. She was a bard." Kovatch tells me. He seems hit hard by her loss.
Everyones attention is diverted over to Omen, who now has a severed finger from Ard in her hand. What have I gotten myself into?
Drip.
Footsteps. Keys.
Bread. Water. Drip. Drip.
"FIX THE BLOODY LEAK!"
Silence. Drip.
I close my eyes, fighting back tears, trying to fall asleep. Dreams are the only escape from this hellhole. Drip.
"GET ME OUT OF HERE!"
I scream until my throat is raw. No one answers. No one ever does.
"Why won't you help me?" I whisper. "I have served you well, have I not?"
She never answers me either.
Three. Goddamn. Years.
I lay on my cot, staring up at the stone ceiling. Runes and symbols carved over the surface spell my doom, trapped in this cell unable to use any of my powers. I've tried, only to feel horrendous pain.
I once tried to blast the cell door over and over again, rewarded with pain and a severe nose bleed. I thought I could escape somehow if I hurt myself enough. Woke up a couple days later, still in my cell. The guards warned me it would take my life if I kept trying. It wasn't worth it.
Drip.
More footsteps. One shuffling. Four guards. A cell door opening, then closing.
"Do not try anything. You will not succeed, and it will hurt. This one could tell you."
I see one of the guards standing in front of the cell across the way motion towards mine. I can't see who is in the opposing cell, but I am intrigued. I haven't had a neighbor in six months. Not since the wizard died of a heart attack. I missed him, the crazy old man. He had exploded a house full of people he claimed were cultists, killed them all. I somehow think it was good intentioned, but he had been here nonetheless.
"I could tell you to fix the f***ing leak too, but none of you will listen." I snap. My voice is nearly gone. I think I'm getting a cold.
One of the guards walks over to my door, and the others start to file out. His expression is neither cold nor friendly. I haven't seen him before.
"You're the one that killed that noble man's son, aren't you?"
I stand and walk over, standing back a foot from the door.
"Aye. That's me."
"Why would we do any favors for you, woman?"
"I am an officer of the Waterdeep Guard. I do not take lip from lowlifes such as you."
"You are a prisoner of Waterdeep Prison." He snarls. "You have no rank here. You have no voice. You have nothing."
He spins on his heel and walks away. Drip.
I lay back down, trying to peek into the other cell from my cot. Who ever is in there is just a shadow from this view. They do not speak.
They break their silence after a full day. The dripping stopped after the rains cleared up, I assumed. I couldn't see the outside, and hadn't in years. It was almost too quiet now.
"What is your name?" The voice speaks. It's a woman.
"Does it matter?" I laugh. "I lost who I am when I got in this place."
"No one can take your name from you, dear girl."
I stand up, walking to the cell door. My neighbor stands at her door, and I see her face for the first time. She is human, fully human it looks like. Older than me, and strikingly beautiful with steel gray hair. Her clothes are purple robes, making her look even more stately. I feel a warmth I haven't felt in a long time when my eyes meet her wise ones.
"Karsi. Just Karsi."
I haven't said or heard my name in so long it doesn't even sound right.
"A pleasure to meet you, Karsi. I am Sidran. Just Sidran. Half-elf?"
I'm a little taken aback by her question, especially since she finishes her sentence in my mother tongue. My ears are hidden by my messy hair, so how could she tell?
"Yes." I respond in elvish.
"Where are you from?"
"Here. Raised right in Waterdeep."
"But you were not born here. I can tell."
"I don't know," I'm starting to get the creeps from this woman, but I haven't had anyone to talk to in far too long. "How would you know?"
"I've been many places and met many people, dear. I see much from just looking at faces. I see you have been here a long time. I see you have great power, although it is repressed by our current circumstances."
"Enough about me," if she pried any further I would have a mental breakdown. "What brings you here? You seem like a decent person."
"We are all decent people, Karsi, depending on our audience." She takes a seat at her door, sitting cross legged with her hands folded in her lap. "I was arrested for practicing my beliefs. I defended myself, and some men died. They killed some of mine, so it was all fair in the end. And you, Karsilene?"
"I killed a boy. A child." It takes me a moment to realize she just- "I didn't tell you my full name."
"You did not have to, miss Stormwyk."
I grab the bars in a death grip, panicking.
"Can you read my thoughts?!"
She laughs lightly, a surprisingly pleasant sound.
"Alas, if we were not in here with these protections, I could. You were quite the talk of the town a few years ago, and that guard confirmed who you are. A war hero slaying a nobleman's child does not go unnoticed."
I hate myself for my crime every day. Hearing that I'm famous for it makes it hurt more.
"Well now we are even, I know your sins and you know mine." She says.
"You wear purple... are you one of them?" I ask, speaking draconic.
She perks up, smiling.
"Very observant," she says back in draconic. "How do you know Draconic?"
"To know your enemy, you must speak their language."
"I assure you, my dear, I am not your enemy. We walk different paths, is all."
She was my neighbor for two more months, and then they took her away one day. My only friend in a very long time and she was a cultist. I was alone again with my thoughts. Thoughts of ending it all, sometimes. I couldn't serve my patron behind bars, what good was I to her? The only thing that kept me going was knowing I may get out one day. Maybe.
Drip.
F*** not again.
Drip.
Banging on my cell door woke me from dreamless sleep. Two guards at my door, but it wasn't meal time.
"Stormwyk, you are being released."
"What?"
"Get up, you're a free woman. Unless you want to stay in there."
The door swung open. They didn't have to ask me twice.
I was given my personal affects, a pretty good amount of coin, my bag with everything in it (shockingly), and my old clothes and armour. My sword I had poofed away as they took me away that fateful day, and i was eager to summon it back.
"Why am I being released early?" I ask the warden.
"The council of Waterdeep has deemed you innocent. There is a gnome woman here to collect you."
I don't know any gnomes, but I am lead to one standing outside the main entrance. I look down at her mischievous looking face, and don't know what to say. The guards leave me, and I am alone with her.
"Are you ready to go?" She asks. "Are you hungry? We can talk over a nice hot meal."
Jamna Gleamsilver she tells me her name is as we eat at an inn. I feel ill after the first few sips of ale, but this is the best food I've had in a long... long, long time. I am going to regret eating this later. She is one of the Harpers. I have worked with Harpers before, but they are pretty secretive.
"You never killed that nobleman's son. In fact, he is alive and well and happily serving in the Cult of the Dragon Queen."
"You're kidding me."
"I wish I was. The sorceror you were chasing, that was him. His father was in on it."
"Why frame me?"
"You were a dangerous person, Karsi. His only escape was a cruel trick."
"Why did it take so long to find this out? I've been rotting away in a cell for three years. THREE YEARS!"
Gleamsilver shushes me as heads turn our way.
"It took a lot to convince the council, and unfortunately your case was not our priority."
I roll my eyes, angry at the wasted years, but happy to be free at last.
"It doesn't matter now anyway. I'm a deserter now, and a criminal. I need to get out of Waterdeep."
"We are working on clearing your name entirely. Unfortunately we cannot control the spread of information, so it will take a while. Until then, I have a job offer for you."
"What is it?" I am in no mood to work for anyone or anything.
"Have you ever been up North?"
"Yes. We did a patrol outside Neverwinter. Got lost and went the wrong way."
"Good, so you're familiar with the area. There is a group of adventurers up in the Mere of Dead Men, and they are going to need backup. I think you are the right woman for the job."
"I'm a little old for adventuring."
"You're not even thirty yet, and you're half-elf." The gnome jibes. "I know you feel out of sorts, I can't imagine how bad the past three years have been. I think this could be good for you, and I think you could find some answers if you join them."
"What use am I to them? I don't think I even have powers anymore."
"Its a good opportunity to find that out. So what say you? Are you in?"
"Is there gold involved?"
"Oh yes."
I finish my ale, and feel the need to go find somewhere to get sick. Too much food and ale way too fast. I stand up and she gives me a knowing look as I run out the door. After puking in the alley, I come back in and stand over her.
"I will take your quest."
"Good," she smiles. "First stop is Neverwinter. We have a wizard to pick up."
---
I had expected a long trip up to Neverwinter, but it turns out the Harpers have connections upon connections. We took a teleportation circle to one of their buildings in Neverwinter, and Gleamsilver led me on a long walk through the city.
We come to a rather fancy building, Styxwell's Institute, and I follow her in. Marble floors, statues of scholarly looking old guys, and paintings of robed old men and ladies... definitely a wizard school.
"Pretentious, much?" I whisper to... Glimmerglaze? F*** I forgot her name already. She shoots me a silencing look.
A robed old man comes to us, looking down at the gnome and glancing at me with a suspicious look.
"May I help you?"
"Yes, sir, we are looking for a wizard to aid in an adventure."
"Ah, yes. Usually we have plenty of volunteers, however everyone is busy at the moment with exams."
"I see," She looks disappointed. "I was given a name in particular. A girl named Omen."
The man laughs.
"Unfortunately you just missed her," he says. "She dropped out a couple days ago. Said she was going into a swamp to find her friend."
"Fantastic, do you know which way she went?"
It takes us two days to find Omen, and luckily someone saw her going off in the wrong direction, otherwise we never would have found her. When we did, she was hiding in a tiny magic hut of some sort, and came out when she heard the two of us complaining about black flies. Truth be told, we were not very stealthy, and could have been killed if any enemies were nearby, but it was fortunate we ran into the wizard instead.
Omen was tall and very thin, with long black hair and cheery yellow robes. She looked like she had been crying, but put on a stern face when she confronted us.
"You must be Omen," Glittergleam says. "I am in need of a wizard, and your friend Ard recommended you."
"I was looking for her," Omen says. "I saw her in a swamp, but i haven't found her. She is in trouble, they all are."
"How do you know?" I ask.
"I'm a divination wizard." she says.
"Oh. I don't know what that means."
The girl gives me a look of annoyance, and turns her attention back to the gnome.
"Do you know where they are?"
"Yes, they are in the Mere of Dead Men. It's going to take you a while to get there."
Omen agrees to join me in trudging through the swamp to get to the right one, and the gnome leaves us the next day. The wizard barely talks to me, and looks a bit nervous when she sees my sword.
"What are you?" She asks the first night of just the two of us as we make camp.
"I'm half-elf."
"No, I mean... your sword."
"Its a sword." I say, drawing it. She looks at the blade suspiciously. A slight shadowy light shimmers over the blade. I smile. "Do not worry. I made a pact years ago. I'm harmless."
We travel through the miserable swamp until finally we see what looks like the adventurers we are looking for on another bank along a river. I wave, making sure they are friendly, and a half-orc looking guy waves back. We join them on the other side.
"Oh no, I'm too late!" Omen falls to her knees beside the body of a dragonborn woman. So that's the friend she was looking for. "I couldn't save her."
"We were attacked by lizardmen," the half-orc tells me. "Did the Harpers send you?"
"Yes. I'm Karsi. This is Omen."
"Kovatch, folk hero of the people for the people."
I shake his hand. Firm grip, very impressive.
The two bodies are being prepared for burning, and I help them get dry wood to do so. I notice the other one is a young half-elf, rather beautiful even in death. My heart pangs for her life cut out so soon, and I pray to my patron to guide her soul on.
"Her name is Romiel. She was a bard." Kovatch tells me. He seems hit hard by her loss.
Everyones attention is diverted over to Omen, who now has a severed finger from Ard in her hand. What have I gotten myself into?