Arne Silverwing is not a social person by any stretch of the imagination (indeed, what sneak-thief truly is?), though she is hard-pressed to come up with any explanation for today’s encounters, and so she turns to the thing she dreads, though she does it in her own personal way.
She presses a letter, anonymous in signature, to the Bulletin Board before the Black Fox Inn, sneaking away, hiding in the shadows to see if anyone makes comment or leaves further information on the board itself.
"Strange Happenstances– please read and reply.
Today as I made my way toward a new dungeon I’d heard of in search of plunder, many strange things occurred, and I wish to know if others have found the similar situations in their travels.
This place is dragon-infested, South of the honored city of Britain and to the West of Trinsic. I understand it goes by the name "Destard" but I’m more of a visceral person; I tend to identify places by how they look and feel than by name. Though please excuse me, for I digress.
As I wandered my way down to the location aforementioned, I saw a poor noble being accosted by a group of orcs. Now, I’m not one to make assumptions, but it seemed this man was calling for help out into the woods for any kind soul who might assist him. I’m not very much a kind soul, but the orcs did seem to have some sort of treasure chest in their camp, and the man did seem in distress for his life, so I took it upon myself to save him.
Turns out, the orcs were paupers, and their only loot was the noble they had caged up. Disgruntled, I unlocked the door and opened it, allowing the fellow to wander as he seemed to have no destination in mind. After some time, he mentioned something about getting to town, to which I answered it would be simple enough, depending on which place he wished to go. This was all well.
But then quite suddenly a deamon burst forth from the cage from wence I’d released the poor fellow! I was not well-equipped to deal with such a beast, though I did my best at what I could. Just when it seemed fruitless, and I turned to slink away and care for my wounds, a man appeared out of nowhere in a burst of smoke. He was in dark shrouds with red highlights, upon a rather ugly steed of the same hues.
I should perhaps mention this was not my first encounter with this fellow. He also appeared before me the other day when I attempted to enter the dungeons of trolls and ettins to the North of Britain. When I could not piece together its puzzle the man cryptically stated he would let me into his safehaven, and lo, the door did open before him after which he silently disappeared just as soon as he’d come.
At any rate, back to the matter at hand– the man stated that he’d offered the noble a contract with the daemon in order to escape his imprisonment… that the noble had done nothing of his own, but agreed to that contract. After some general conversation, I did extract myself from his presence, though I know it prudent to neither under- nor over-stay my welcome.
I continued to the dungeon men call Destard, and found some oddities there as well. Most notable was most likely that fields of energy continually dogged my steps into the place, and some of the creatures below seemed furious at each other, so much so that they killed one another before my eyes! Well, and some of the things were more fortunate than others, for those encounters did allow me to skin a few more things than I probably would have been able to down alone.
I did return to town, and decided to set out a few hours later to do more of the same. The creatures inside seemed to notice me almost uncannily from afar, even moreso than normal. This was on top of their strange behavior earlier.
Then as I went back up to town again, I found some orcs had set up camp in the same place as earlier, this time having captured some fellow who had more rugged clothes like those of an adventurer. There were rather more of the orcs on this go, but I figured I may as well see if they had anything of better value than what the bums from before had on them.
This time, the fellow in the cage answered to me that he knew nothing of any contracts before I released the lock. When I looked into the cage as he exited however, there was a blue shimmer in the air. I asked the man if he saw it as well, and though at first he did not, when he neared it, he died so suddenly I know not even what it was that killed him! (ooc: client crash, lol)
Then a man… well, I was corrected at a later point, for he was indeed actually a half-orc, came and asked what I’d done to "his men." Naturally, I explained the current situation, but he went on to say that he would have to get more noble’s blood. This seemed a bit odd, so I probed further, and he mentioned something about a Lord of Lies needing nobles’ blood for blood-magic. Well… that was a bit much for me already, but then when I asked if the blood-magic had anything to do with daemons, he turned to me rather menacingly, and I’m afraid I may have high-tailed it from the area posthaste.
Forgive me the tiring read, but I must know– has anyone else had any similar or strange encounters of late?
I’ve no care for nobles nor pauper adventurers, though something otherworldly like this seems rather more threatening to the way of civilized life in general, and as such you find me writing this note.
–anonymous citizen"
