Writing &

Role Playing –

Narrative Workshop

By: Jamal Chandler

I find one of the greatest things in the world to aid one's writing (besides, obviously, writing and reading) and something one cannot recommend enough is role-playing. My own experiences with role-playing came primarily from Dungeons and Dragons. In D&D, one gathers with a group of friends and work together to craft and partially act out a story. There is one player called the Dungeon Master (DM) who creates the world (D&D is a fantasy setting) and populates the world with characters and history. The players explore this world through a single character (PC) they create for this express purpose. Whereas the DM creates the world's and it's history, the player creates the PC's history and personality.

In essence, the main benefits one gets from D&D are the same one would get from any other kind of improvisation, save that it is done in the company and safety of friends, who let go of any mistakes (although to this day there are some embarrassing things my friends will not let me forget – the nature of friends, sigh). This safety is priceless to developing confidence in one's creativity – the ability to take risks is necessary to being a writer, but having others accept the failures, allows one to move past them.

Okay, I'd rather avoid talking about my failures but in the spirit of acceptance and all...

Once, in the first campaign I was the DM of, set in a post apocalyptic future, my players were exploring ruins when they were attacked by a displacer beast (a panther-like cat with several tails, that blurs where it is through teleportation) being ridden by a mutant zombie baby... I'll just let that sink in... they were attacked by a mutated zombie baby ridding a teleporting panther. On the one hand it was distinct enough that they still remember it despite the years; on the other hand, it had nothing going for it despite its distinctness (read: strangeness), and no real reason, no history, no greater point for being there besides me randomly and arbitrarily thinking “cool, seems like fun”... If I were to do it again, I would either not include it, or tie it to the narrative better, by giving it more grounding in reality, maybe tease it out more; as it was, they were simply walking through the ruins, when out of nowhere it attacked them.

As a DM you experience story as a writer does, with complete control over all features, but the lack of control over the protagonists (i.e. players) teaches you how to let your characters lead the story rather than serving as mouth pieces for the story you planed and that, as both DM and writer, is invaluable for making one characters feel true. I remember once, I, as DM, had this long drawn out story in which the players were to be the guardians of their world, when upon meeting the villain, one of the players decided on becoming evil and helping him – this split up the PCs and convinced some to also become evil, working, not necessarily against the world, but at least for their own interests before all else – and in the end the world did end up destroyed but also some of the PCs managed to escape to other worlds.

The world you create, as a DM, and the features you populate it with must be given special care and attention, otherwise you take the players out of the fictive dream and the enjoyment of the experience. I have had many experiences where I failed in this regard. For example, I had a horror campaign in which the players were rarely scared. I had over-saturated it with 'scary' elements to the point where they were becoming more and more bored with it; I ramped up the difficulty to compensate – a poor choice. But, I learned from it regardless: one of my friend said, laughing, “It was like an abusive relationship: you keep hitting me and I keep coming back for more” and along the same lines another of my friends told me “You're not that good a DM, but your stories are awesome; I kept coming back to find out what would happen next.”

 As a player, you get a much more intimate experience, the opposite experience from the DM – you get to experience the character, focusing on developing the characteristics (personality, history, tone, voice, ect...) without having to worry about anything else, giving you the time to give the character the attention it deserves.

Although I cringe reading some parts of it I now dislike, to show an example of the player experience effecting writing, here is background information (i.e. backstory) for a character named Fate, whom I made as a player for a 2008 game (my friends think that I put too much effort):

THE MOTHER

The Following was found on the corpse of Flora Dean Cleric Ioun…

My hand trembles to write this but I suppose that only shows how important it is that this is written. My friends and family told me to write these thoughts down, to write all I remember of this entire sordid affair. In order to unlock the memories that lies hidden within my mind. All the known Magic of Ioun’s chosen have failed in that regard both arcane and divine alike, this is our final hope, my final hope.

From early childhood I hungered for knowledge and had a curious mind that was only matched by my inquisitive nature. I remember rushing every free moment to the temple of Ioun to learn from the libraries and the cleric’s teachings. It was no wonder to those who knew me when I joined the ranks of the clergy but it was much to my parent’s disappointment when I swore an oath of chastity to prove my dedication to Ioun. I look back at those times as the greatest of my life and look to them as the foundation of my mind, my shield from the insanity my life has become…

I suppose that it began when I was chosen to lead a party sent to retrieve sacred texts stolen by worshippers of Vecna. After three weeks of searching we found them and after a fierce battle that claimed the lives of half our company we recaptured the stolen books. In addition we found books that the vile worshippers of Vecna must have stolen previously and would have hidden away from the world. I decided to claim the books that were not stolen from the temple to see why they would have interested the cult of Vecna.

All of the books save one were religious texts of Vecna and those I arranged to have sent to a more major temple to be used in the fight against the cult. The final book was obviously magical covered in arcane symbols that writhed and snaked all over the cover and back. I took the book to the most powerful clerics of Ioun but they, for all their power, failed to tell me anything of the book except the cryptic phrase “Dreams lights shatter the shields of ignorance, truth drives gods mad and free the mad from fate” the cleric whose spell casting revealed these word died after uttering them. Later when I opened the book I saw the phrase written in blood at the top of the first page.

Three years passed and every day I spent trying to unlock the secret of the book. Until one day, inspired a dream I had the previous night, I put the book near heat and the hotter the book became the more book began to show. The book was apparently resistant to fire and its pages only showed all it’s secrets when fire touched it. The secret symbols on the pages seemed so unnatural something no human could have ever conceived and as I watched the symbols began to whisper maddening secrets into my mind and I slipped into the sweet oblivion of unconsciousness.

The following is what I was told happened from that point on:

I was found screaming in a language that no one could understand and the book had disappeared. When I recovered, it became apparent that I had lost all my memories although I took pains to appear although I hadn’t. I had to relearn even the most basic things such as eating and drinking. I proved an exceptional learner I read the entire library of Ioun within two weeks a task that would take a normal person years. Curiously, the only thing I retained was my ability to speak and read although my speech seemed awkward and foreign as though I was still trying to master the basics of the language. Something in my speech and actions seemed to vaguely terrify every one around me even people I met only for the first time. I looked at everyone as though they were enemies and sometimes I looked at them as if laughing at some vile hidden joke. I broke off all the ties I had and left for unknown parts. Rumours were heard that I went to all the major centers of knowledge and spent time in the farthest and most remote corners of the world. I was reputed to have even been seen with leaders of vile cults and to have strange powers although I tried to keep it secret.

After a few months I returned obviously pregnant and claimed that I had returned to stay and raise my son. I spent the time of my pregnancy preparing for the coming of my son and avoiding talking of my time spent away. After giving birth I slipped into a coma and when I finally awakened I was myself again. I had no recollection of anything after seeing the hidden words in the book and I had to be told of my leaving and pregnancy.

After a few months I managed to return to my old routine although there was some distance between me and everyone I had known. I began to have nightmares that grew worse each night and I began to feel weary and sick. The only positive thing that came out of this was my handsome baby boy.

After a time, months and days began to blur together and eventually my illness became noticed by the general community. The highest clerics I met found themselves at a loss as to how to cure me but their divinations revealed that my illness, lost memories and nightmares were tied together. My finale hope is a ritual I have created and will attempt to use now.

I am going to try to channel Ioun’s divine power and my waning life-force into my mind while meditating on what I have written to attempt to find out what I am repressing. I am combining this with a ritual that I altered that will cause my thoughts to written on paper.

If the worse should happen I wish for my son to know that despite all that has occurred to me, I loved him from the first instant I saw him.

It worked my thoughts are writing themselves even at this moment…

KNOWLEDGE BRINGER help me the child born nine months after opening the book exactly nine months after opening the book Dreams lights shatter the shields of ignorance truth drives gods mad and free the mad from fate the book opens a gate way reality alters around them the laws of fate are broken I see beyond the Astral Sea and the Elemental Chaos the vow of chastity never broken. I see the FaR ReAlm no no something sees IT’s coming its entering me the tentacles are inside ME IT’s in my mind the dream of fire dreams lights IT was calling the child born nine months after opening the book IT’s son kill me kill IT kill the CHILD…

Nyarlathotep Shub-Niggurath is its son’s true name

Wielding truth is my son’s destiny

IOUN NAMES MY SON FATE

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THE SON

From since I was little I was told that I was exceptional because of the rate which I learned. I advanced at such a high rate that by the age of ten I was renowned among the intellectual community for my mental prowess. I humbly said to those who met me “The reason for my academic capabilities was due simply to being raised by clerics of Ioun after my mothers passing and her paying in advance for my schooling.”

I always seemed to be calm, collected, and dispassionate because of this I was assumed to have either few emotions or tremendous self-control. Both assumptions were wrong. I felt intense emotions but internalized them almost completely. I never felt revulsion towards things everyone else disliked. I had no distaste for insects, serpents or worms, even when I found a man’s sun baked corpse in the local forest I didn’t pause before dragging it back. Later that same day, in exchange for access to some secret city files, I deduced who had killed him for the local law enforcement. If I believed in any way eating maggots would somehow help me I would not hesitate for even a second to do so.

By the age of twelve I was learning in classes beside people twice my age. By the age of fifteen I became a teacher at the very school I had attended. My rapid ascension to a prestigious position sparked admiration in some and jealously in others. After barely avoiding an assassin and dealing with the one who loosed him I quietly resigned my post. Unfortunately the assassin decided to give me chase but I lay a trap for him. After he had fallen into the pit I had dug I sent a barrage of crossbow bolts after him and was surprised to see him still barely alive. I nursed him back to health in exchange for his oath that he would teach me what he knew of the art of combat. As he was recuperating I informed him of his master’s death and that there would be no payment for killing me. I had always had a sixth sense about peoples’ motivations and knew I could let him train me without worrying about betrayal. It’s too bad that he didn’t have the same sense after burying the body and taking his gear I decided while a occasionally handy tool the martial path was far to archaic for my taste. Allowing myself a moment of pride over killing him with only one bolt I began to turn my horse toward home.

I would never have considered myself malicious since I never committed acts that others would have found evil simply for the sake of doing evil. I regarded myself as exempt from any notions of morality or decency. I would have argued that notions such as good and evil are simply relativistic, self-determined, and ultimately pointless exercises. I had no sense of justice to which anyone might hope to appeal although I might have pretended to. I generally thought that it’s a liability to keep anyone who once called themselves my enemies alive. I have always been clinical, detached, and brutally logical and I prided myself on my cunning.

By the age of sixteen I joined the clergy of Ioun. Being raised in the temple and my love for knowledge decided the issue. One night, when I was alone in the library making conjectures on the nature of fate, prophecy, and divinity and the lack of power in divinity to change destiny, I was attacked and left for dead by worshipper of Vecna. Crawling on the floor knowing that I would die any moment I simply said “Fear lives in ignorance I do not fear death for now I know it.” As I finished speaking my flesh completely healed in divine light. Over where my wound had been appeared the glowing supernal words:

“And those who bath in the light of knowledge fear not death ~Book of Truth 2:34”

For the month I spent all my time searching for information on the book of truth the following is what I found:

Reputedly held by Ioun, this book holds the true name of every creature created in our world, the astral sea and the elemental chaos and their prophesied place in the world. According to some sources, it also is the shield that keeps things that are nameless, creatures from beyond; from entering this universe, for the true names of the nameless are symbols that are the bane of the book. In addition, it is rumoured that the threads of fate held by the Raven Queen are somehow related to the book.

At the age of eighteen I was given by my dying grandfather a piece of parchment written by my mother. It was her last words and last thoughts before she died and the bottom was written using the common tongue for the spelling was “Nyarlathotep Shub-Niggurath” and somehow I knew without any training in Deep Speech it meant “The Cursed Nameless Who Grasps The Father”

At the age of twenty while travelling abroad I was captured by orcs. Although orcs eat meat raw they generally prefer meat cooked which is what they planned to do to me while I was still alive. They tied me up and threw me into the fire as I lay there in the fire I noticed my skin was not burning as it should have but changing into a deep black. After my flesh finished becoming almost as dark as the night sky above me, I saw ashes begin to land on me. The spots where the ashes landed almost seemed like tiny stars against the black skin and suddenly I realized I could see constellations in my flesh. The secret symbols in the darkness between the stars seemed so unnatural something no human could have ever conceived and as I watched the symbols began to whisper maddening secrets into my mind. As I screamed the fire went out. The orcs watched awed as I began slowly ascending into the air as if some invisible hand was pulling me into the heavens. Above me a shimmering portal appeared and I saw the indescribable monstrosity, so large that it blotted out the sky reaching out its tentacles and claws in an almost tender way and I knew, with the same knowledge I had when I first read deep speech, that this creature was my father. With that realization in my mind I felt the final vestiges of my humanity leave as I sprouted a tentacle and two horns that seemed just like two of the claws of Father.

As one of the fingers of Father finally touched me I knew the name Nyarlathotep Shub-Niggurath was the name he had given me and I knew in that name lay the power to change was must be. As I slipped into despair over what I had brought about I remembered my mothers writing “IOUN NAMES MY SON FATE” I saw the glowing supernal words, remembered that the words were from the book of Truth, remembered a magical theory I had devised and thought of a final desperate plan. Throwing caution to the wind I delved into the mind of Father. Using the power and knowledge my mind could barely contain, I tied the ritual of flesh into the power of the book of truth’s marking on my flesh this in turn resonated with the real book within Ioun’s realm and shielded the power of father and it held the last moment of the ritual of flesh at bay but if the ritual were to restart it would only take an instant for Father to get free. As the boundless power slipped away leaving behind a single droplet of what could have been I began to laugh because “The truth had set me free.”

The weight of my chosen duty has changed me. I now take everything seriously and have little sense of humour. I remain unfazed even in dire circumstances. I am relentless in the pursuit of anything that will let me stop my prophecy from coming true. Disturbingly I have begun to hear faint whisperings in deep speech from time to time and I somehow know it’s not Father. The voices speak too softly for me to understand and I can’t figure out who or what it is. At times I find myself wondering how much longer my sanity can last or if I have already lost it.

All creatures sense Father in me and it makes the protectors of nature and non-sentient creatures of nature fear and hate me instinctively. Strangers find me disquieting and mysterious. In addition to the memories I saw when I briefly dived into the ocean of Father’s mind; it appears I inherited a seed of racial memories that included a time before the creation of the known universe and memories that have not yet happened. Knowledge has lost much of its allure for me after the way it has warped and corrupted me. I find myself more and more musing that “Ignorance was bliss”.

I view each dream as a chance to learn something of the destruction to come; no two dreams are exactly alike in terms of angle of perception and moments in time viewed. If I have spare time without something of importance to do I use it to sleep. I always meditate on the thin line between light and dark before sleeping. I find meditation helps make the dreams clearer. When I wake up I am covered in sweat and told that eyes glowed while I slept. When looked at in askance I only ever say that I am of a cursed heritage and change the subject. I accept that I now longer can pretend to be a creature of light and belong in the shadows. I shall destroy the creatures that hide in darkness and protect the world that I am not truly part of. Father has called out my rage by using my mother and me as pawns. I will not be forced to bow to anyone or anything! Ioun saved me and for that I serve him… for now at least.

I now have one all encompassing goal; to protect reality. Father and other far-realm creatures, demons, and the gods Vecna and Tharizdun are my personal nemeses. I truly fear that opening the blood way may be the reason reality is destroyed in the future, I may have delayed the ritual but I did not stop it, Fathers power might be enough to break down the patchwork defences I made at any moment. If Father is not the end bringer then I must find out who is. In order to protect the universe (or take steps along that path) I would do anything but I already know that I will have to journey if I am to tap into the boundless power of father that lies hidden within me. I serve Ioun in order to gain the knowledge I need to change the destruction of universe from occurring. In fact I would harm the innocent if that’s the fastest way because I view it as necessary. I take no pleasure in it but view it as my grim duty. I justify it to myself by saying “The blood on my soul is worth it if I can save the future” and that “moral choices are irrelevant if death comes to all creatures.”

From the night I met Father on I went by the name Fate, a strange creature that could see the strands of time and change them, a creature who wields the power of his heritage, a creature who is the eldritch power stolen from a creature beyond the stars. Ioun sends me visions of where to go in order to avoid the horrid futures my dreams are plagued with. I see a world made of points of light and that it is destined to be extinguished. I now make a pact with this universe that I will protect it. My actions can change fate and now its time for to me to act.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Destroyed, it’s all destroyed,” muttered the guide shaking his head in shock of the corpse covered ruins, “What could have done this?”

He turned only to see me staring down wordlessly. “Alice, are you okay?”

“Yes I’m fine Jacob, it’s just I hadn’t steeled myself for it, I mean isn’t this town reputedly renowned for its safety.” I said as I ran my fingers threw my long raven black hair for a moment.

“Yeah I guess so, this is overdue in a way it’s been safe since ancient times.”

“Well we had better head down and find out what happened.”

“Um… technically… I was only paid to get you here and,” He began hesitantly, “no amount of gold could be enough to get me into there.”

“I understand, thank you for helping me get here,” I said with disappointment dripping off my words, “Goodbye.”

Turning away without looking back, Jacob said simply, “I am sorry, I will tell the counsel what I saw,” and with that he rode back into the surrounding forest.

Once alone I tightened my scale armor and I descended from my high perch on the hill overlooking the town, I struggled to keep my face composed as I entered the town but I could not hide my disgust when I found some half eaten corpses and even occasionally lone organs and other body parts left behind with no hints of what happened to their owners.

For two days I did my best to gather and bury the dead. After I was done I began to search for information as to what happened to the town. By nightfall I had still had not found anything of importance and with a heavy heart I set camp planning to leave in the morning.

I was awakened in the middle of the night by the sounds of my horse panicking. I rose as quickly and quietly as I dared, I listened for a moment at the entrance to my tent and heard my horse suddenly collapse. Grasping my sword I leapt out of the tent. Heart racing I took quick stock of my surroundings. My horse was lying on the ground unconscious but alive with no sign of what knocked it out and with no strange tracks around the campsite.

Bending over the horse to see what was wrong I suddenly felt an aura of discomfort around me as I heard a soft yet strangely compelling voice whisper “Who are you?”

I looked around and pinpointed the sound as coming from the forest. The speaker was not bothering to hide but thanks to the darkness I could barely make him out.

“I am Alice Ravenroar martial seeker under the merchant counsel of Isomer and in their name I order you to announce yourself and step into the light.”

“Your foolish counsel of backstabbers has no power over me.”

“Insult the counsel I have pledged myself to at your own peril I ask again who are you.”

“I thought you wanted me to step into the light,” he said mockingly, “You may call me… Fate.”

“Why are you here, Fate?”

“Why you are here, Alice?”

“I asked you first.”

“True but a gentleman always lets a lady go first.”

“You will answer my questions.”

“Really I don’t think…look out behind you!”

Suddenly I felt a sharp pain on the back of my head and the ground rushed up to claim me.

************************

The first thing I noticed when I awoke was that my hands were bound, my head wound was tended and I was lying on the ground. The second thing I noticed was that a horned humanoid monster with long green hair was standing in front of me slowly walking towards me with its piercing blue eyes staring at me. I could feels power radiating from it in waves. I could not pull my eyes away and after a few minutes of staring it looked away and said “You’re finally awake; I can barely believe you were taken down by a single shot from a kobold scout.”

I recognized the voice as the one that came from the darkness of the forest. His black skin with white dots took me by surprise because I could almost see constellations on it. I wondered where this creature came by its tattered pants and leather armor. I found his scar on his forehead shaped like a third eye very disconcerting.

Ignoring my obvious discomfort he said “So to pick up where we left off, Alice, why have you come.”

“Right now I’m wondering that as well. I suppose since you saved me and as it’s not a secret, I can tell you. I was ordered by the counsel to find out the reason no one has been seen from the village of Blackwater for sometime. When I arrived my cousin Jacob went back to tell of the devastation that we found. I went down to bury the dead and search for answers but the truth eluded me. I was about to surrender and leave when you came. Now it’s you turn, tell me, what are you?”

“I am of a cursed heritage and trust me when I say that you are better off not knowing any more than that.”

“Alright I will accept that but why you are here?”

“I have it on good authority that something I need is here.”

“What?”

“I don’t know, perhaps some important knowledge or maybe a powerful magic item.”

“What led you to believe this?”

“You are very strange.”

“What?”

“What I mean is most people would have begun screaming if I was the first thing they saw upon regaining wakefulness.”

“You don’t scare me in the slightest,” I lied casually.

He raised a questioning eyebrow “and I really don’t understand why you just bothered to lie about something so trivial. Anyway, I obtained directions as to where the creatures that destroyed the village went from a kobold I captured. You may accompany me as long as you don’t slow me down.”

“Don’t worry I have travelled my fair share.”

“Then we leave at dusk,” he began as he freed my hands from their restraints, “Rest up.”

With those soft words scarcely of his lips he turned and left the tent but not before I was shocked to notice a long tentacle protruding from just above his rear end.

************************

After three days of journeying we came across an ancient ruin worked by decrepit shambling skeletons being overseen by some sort of hovering wraithlike creature. The skeletons were searching for something and had obviously been digging for days. After a brief discussion we decided to watch to see what they were looking for. After three hours of watching, the skeletons unearthed a large glowing crystal orb six feet in diameter.

The wraithlike creature telepathically screamed “Success! Finally I will gain a new body and the world shall tremble at the name Ackatoss once again! Negative energies come unto me!!”

The skeletons began to crumble and an orb of dark purple energy began building above him. He then reached up and began to absorb the energy.

Fate reacted first by whispering urgently, “you keep the few remaining skeletons busy and I’ll try to stop its plan.”

“You better have a good plan or neither of us is walking away from this,” I quickly stated as I ran out and forced the skeletons to surround me.

Even the hovering monster turned and said “An intruder! You are too late! All I need do is enter the amplifying forging crystal!”

He then collapsed the skeletons around me sending the negative energy into me burning my flesh and holding me aloft, paralysed and awaiting my death. He flew at the crystal but just before he could reach it, a fist-sized orb of energy flew around him sending painful rays at him, preventing him from moving. Fate then ran out from part of the forest closest to the crystal and leapt, shrouded in supernatural darkness, on to it.

“You really should not yell out your plans Ackatoss” Fate began with a grin, “Fear lives in ignorance! I do not fear death for now I know it!”

Silvery light rushed down from his chest into his finger tips and then into the crystal. A maelstrom of pure silvery energy exploded from within consuming the entire battlefield.

When I awoke I could hardly believe my eyes. The ruins were covered in green plant life and my wounds and flesh were miraculously healed. Fate was sitting watching me nearby beside him was a floating humanoid construct appearing to be composed of silvery energy.

“Good, you’re awake,” Fate said

“What happened?”

“I sent some of my soul and some holy energy into the crystal, which in turn amplified it, expelled the excess positive energy, and in turn destroyed Ackatoss, because he was composed of negative energy, and also healed our wounds. In addition it did its main function and created this creature, the child of my spirit if you will,” He turned to look into my eyes “and this is, my dear, is where we part ways. You must report to your …merchant counsel, of what has occurred, but as a favour may I ask that omit me and the construct from your tale.”

“I will” I said visibly stunned

“You can tell them that after being destroyed in ancient times Ackatoss, the undead monstrosity, partially manifested again thanks to a strange wave of energy of aberrant origin and destroyed the town founded by its slayer. When the power trickled out it tried to find a body to live in but you stopped it in time.”

“Thank you”

“It is I who should be thanking you” Fate said as he bowed

I stayed the night with Fate and left in the morning shaking my head.

“Fate, the holy monster,” I mused aloud to myself as I left him behind. Fate, I decided, was someone I would never understand.

************************

Two years passed quickly since the day I met Fate. I retired soon after I returned and opened an Inn with Jacob. One day I was awakened by screaming. I drew my sword and ran to the window and saw Fate hovering outside my window and hordes of monstrous minions in the street killing everything they could reach. The town was obviously doomed. Fate looked into my eyes and shoved himself in my mind, rending it until I found I could not move.

“Watch,” Fate said as he grabbed me and ascended into the sky while forcing painful energy into my body and soul, “Bare witness”

I could see that there had not even been time to begin fleeing and that everyone I had ever known was dead or would be in a few moments. I gave in to the seducing madness Fate had left in my mind, anything to stop the pain. As my sanity slipped away I heard Fate say “I have a message to Fate I want you to deliver. In this world at least, for every action there is a reaction and an echo, for every good there is an evil. I am the echo of what you would have become had you embraced Father and served as you should have, I will destroy this world as you should have.”

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BONUS

“How dare you could steal from the Spider Queen!” The undead drow screamed, “You shall be devoured utterly by Lolth!”

“I think that listening to you monologue is worse then being in your bug queen’s gullet,” I yelled in return as I slipped into the forest.

It had been a horrendous battle that had claimed the lives of all my adventuring colleagues but I had done it, I had escaped with my life and amulet of cosmic deception. According to legend while worn it would hide my aberrant nature. I ran through the forest bloody and weak until I found a clearing and slipped the amulet on. Abruptly I transformed into my old human self. I then attempted to call on my powers but found that only the weakest of my abilities worked. When I was done I left the clearing intent on finding the elven village of Sheirnalar. A vague vision sent from Ioun made it clear that something I needed was there. I had gathered adventurers and plumbed the depths of the dungeon of Webs to obtain the amulet of cosmic deception so I could enter the treetop village. I did this because the elves would have sensed father in me and bared me entrance.

After three hours of travel I heard sounds of orcs cheering, the sound of which reminded me of my own capture and drew me near. Two orcs had captured a young elven girl who had obviously wandered from the village. As one of the orcs raised its club to crush the child I shot it through the head with a crossbow bolt before it even knew I was there. The second orc then choose to charge into melee but I slipped under its swinging club and buried a dagger into its neck. The elf child stood shivering in fear as I drew near.

“It’s okay little one I’m here now” I said with caring dripping off my words as I held her “you’re safe with me”

When I felt her calm down I released her and said “if you show me the way I’ll take you home”

She nodded and led me in silence to the village. When we arrived the child fled from me into her parents’ arms. The elves welcomed me with open arms and I spent the night in their beautiful village that morning I spent the day being led through the village by the little child. In the center of the treetop village was wooden archway covered in fey symbols, and with a little nudging my enthusiastic guide launched into telling me the history of the archway.

According to her, the archway is an artifact created by the fey druid lords to protect the legendary first tree, from which all fey and nature itself was born. The artifact itself is indestructible. All the fey lords save one merged with the tree. The final druid and all his descendants were the only ones who could open the gateway and draw the power of nature from the tree. Unfortunately one thousand years ago, the final descendant upset the queen of the Unseelie Court and was killed horribly. The queen gave the village the archway to protect but warned them if the archway was ever opened she would destroy them.

She had just finished her story when we arrived in front of it. She gave me a moment of silence to look the archway over. As I gazed upon it I felt a vision well up and wash over me. The King secretly had a son with a human woman. The son fled to his mother’s village when his father died. He lived the rest of his life in the small village and so did his child and his child’s child and so forth until one child, who had no fey features and was ignorant her heritage, went into the service of Ioun. She was my mother. I came out of the vision reeling in the shock and surprise of learning I have fey blood. Without any hesitation I opened the archway, even though I knew all the elves in the village would die, and stepped within.

I was floating. It felt like an eternity until I sensed others floating around me.

“Who are you” They said as one

“I am the final descendant. I have come for the power of nature. All worlds and all life will be destroyed soon, I am the only who can stop it.”

“Swear an oath before us and the seed of power shall be planted within the fertile ground of your fey soul”

“I swear before you, druid lords, to protect creation, all I need is power.”

“We sense the determination in your essence, the seed of power is yours.”

When I awoke in the shattered wreckage of the Sheirnalar the amulet of cosmic deception and archway were missing and the only body left behind was that of the child I had saved.

As I buried the body I swore a promise to the corpse and somehow that promise was more important to me that any other. I left the village with renewed purpose.

***********

Unnoticed by Fate as he walked away a single green rose arose from the grave

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APPEARANCE

A horned man with long dark green hair walks into the room; he appears to have a four foot long tentacle come out from just above his rear end. His skin is of a black that almost matches the night sky and he has tiny white specks on his flesh that almost seem like stars. If anyone focuses on his skin they may fancy they can make out constellations on his flesh. On his forehead there is a distinct scar shaped like a third eye. Both his pants and his leather armor have holes and large rips in them. His small well kept grey backpack is casually slung over one of his shoulders. Diminutive red writing is on the back of his hands and on his chest there is a diminutive white glowing writing. He holds a warped metal rod with the symbol of Ioun engraved (a book with an arcane symbol on it). His ever vigilant blue eyes scan the room lingering on every face so quickly that most would account it to their imaginations. Any who match eyes with him feels corrupt power radiating from him in waves. He walks with the poise and grace that is not indicated by his monstrous appearance. He carries himself in a carefully controlled and purposeful way that invites no conversation and carries a faint malice for any who would dare to… at least this is how he appears to an average observer.