Fantasy Terrorchild: Awakening

[Breadman]

2

 

[Damian0358]

4.

 

[dikdik]

222222222

 

[asphodelus]

1

 

[turtwigwins]

2

 

[K0mori]

2. Doubt - "What do you mean by 'our sisters?' ...Do they even know I'm coming?"

"They know," the driver replies. "I sent along a messenger - a crow. A reply came while you slept."

A moment passes as the cart rumbles along. You choose not to speak in order to give the woman a moment to formulate her response to your first question, although by this point you expect it to be just as mysterious as her other answers. You think harder about your question and the clues you've already been given; if the messenger was a crow, then the sisters this human witch speaks of must be witches as well. And if you're a witch as well, then the driver must simply refer to any fellow witch as a sister.

However, a moment later, she speaks again, and reveals the answer is more alarming than you would have thought.

"Syrith is the eldest sister. We are tracing Her footsteps - growing into our place in Her long and eternal shadow."

You know the name, and yet to hear it spoken so freely unnerves you. The church had spoken of Syrith in hushed tones throughout most of your upbringing; she was a figure of irredeemable vice, insatiable greed, and unbridled violence. You also know that she has worshippers, and your sister was one of them. The driver looks back at you, and you recognize the same dark and hungry look in her eyes that you saw before, in Rigatte's. Before you can react, she grabs onto your hand and squeezes, her skin cold against your furry digits. "I've witnessed your power, sister," she says urgently. "Before long, you will be my elder, if you can survive."

"Survive!?" you sputter. On one hand, you can't comprehend why these witches would want to put you through any trial when you've only just arrived, but on the other hand, your doubts as to their affiliation are as fleeting as a glowfly's breath. They are Lythrefang, the most feared dark magicians in all of Gondia - Syrith's devout servants.

The driver's eyes envelop you in a fathomless abyss as everything beside the road disappears into the night. All you can perceive are her next words: "When you reach Yan's Find, you will need to prove yourself worthy of your sisters' protection. If you can't do this, then any promise I have made to you is null and they will kill you. But I saw you kill a man with your magic, your pneuma is practically a gushing fountain. You will do this, and we will call you sister."

1. Accept Fate - "W-what will it take? How will I prove myself? ...Will I have to... kill... ...again...?" you ask as your voice dies in your throat. You realize you might be forced to murder an innocent to avoid being killed, yourself.

2. Reject Fate - "N-no. No!" you shout. "You've already had a 'sister' from my family. My sister, and she burned for all she did! I won't follow in her footsteps!"

3. Bargain - You hold your tongue for a moment as you process everything that was just thrown at your feet. Panicking is never the answer, but surrendering to the witches' will might be worse. You'll need to explore this carefully while you look for a way out. "...and what awaits us in that 'long and eternal shadow'?" you ask, playing along.

4. Deflect - "What? Pneuma?" you repeat as you shake your head, just looking for something to grasp onto in this wild ride of a conversation.

 

[joshuadim]

Gonna go with numba 3

 

[Infab]

Yeah, going for 3.

 

[archur]

3 most certainly.

 

[Breadman]

3

 

[Damian0358]

3

 

[asphodelus]

3

 

[turtwigwins]

2

 

[dikdik]

222222

 

[K0mori]

3. Bargain - You hold your tongue for a moment as you process everything that was just thrown at your feet. Panicking is never the answer, but surrendering to the witches' will might be worse. You'll need to explore this carefully while you look for a way out. "...and what awaits us in that 'long and eternal shadow'?" you ask, playing along.

The driver's eyes narrow as she smiles and releases your hand. "Many things... Many, wonderous things, little one."

You sit in uncomfortable silence, waiting for her to continue speaking. There's no point in rushing it; the ride ahead appears to be a long one, and the driver will divulge truths, or at least her own twisted yarn of a truth, in her own time. You settle in for the moment and keep your eyes on the shadows around the cart, hoping to see anything which might facilitate your escape. It suddenly occurs to you that the shadows appear to be retreating from the road, and the trees which lined the path you've traveled seem to be more scarce here. Moreover, there's a gentle, constant sound of water nearby. You realize that the cart is approaching a river.

A gnawing urge to escape grows in your belly. As the cart nears the water, you notice a steep drop-off in the land; the moon reflects off the river's inky surface in the distance, and you reckon that the river is wide and gentle. There's no telling how deep it is. Maybe, just maybe, you could leap from the bridge and float downriver to escape? If only you knew what river this was, and where it might take you. If, somehow, you're already at the border with Turadal, then this would be the Turus River, and you could let it carry you all the way to the cities of the coastline of the Sea of Cassia.

But if you're wrong, and this is merely a meandering Zuklanar blackwater river, then you might fall into shallow water and break your legs, or find yourself lost in a swamp somewhere, shivering and hungry in the cold.

"...Is this the Turus?" you ask, laying back down flat on the burlap bags in the cart. You hope that if the driver believes you're settling in, she'll regard your question as benign.

To your great surprise, the driver answers almost immediately. "That it is. We're still hours away from Yan's Find, but we're making good time."

The Turus is deep enough. You would survive the drop if you chose to jump, you think. For now, you take a deep breath and then sigh, your heart beating harder as you think about how you might approach it.

But before you can come to that decision, the driver speaks again, suddenly answering your earlier question more directly: "Freedom from guilt," she says quietly, almost reverently, "freedom to do and take as you please... Syrith releases her sisters from the shackles of others' designs. The elder sisters go where they choose, no borders may contain them - neither physical, nor spiritual."

You gaze at the stars above as the words wash over you. They seem meaningless for the moment, until the driver makes one final comment:

"Her servants are linked in life and death. To speak to them - any one of them - is our choice to invoke. To walk among the dead and return, a trivial task. But some who die - those most beloved among us - may again walk among the living."

A distant cry from some wading bird echoes from the waterfront: a scream. Perhaps a warning? You feel as if Rigatte is staring at you, calling out to you from whatever afterlife her service has earned her. The deepest fear and loathing you have ever felt takes hold of you.

1. Daring - This is the moment; you can take this no longer. The driver is playing with your mind and your emotions. She probably knows about Rigatte and is teasing you purposefully. But you won't allow any solemn cry on the night to weaken your resolve to survive and escape this deadly trap. You decide to leap out of the cart and dive off the bridge, now, while you still have the chance to escape!

2. Captivation - Her message seems to resonate within you, and you find yourself afraid in equal measure of Lythrefang's cult as you are of not knowing what secrets they possess! You can't help but sit up, catching the driver by surprise by your sudden attentiveness. "And what else? What would I have to give in exchange for these abilities?" you demand.

3. Cowardice - Try as you might, you cannot will yourself to move, and as you shut your eyes and try not to think of such wicked temptation, you feel something brush against your hand before taking hold, interlocking its fingers with your own. You open your eyes and find nothing is there. You gasp; this is simply too much, too much! "My sister!" you blurt out the thought of seeing Rigatte again wringing your heart out with grief. "M-My sister, Rigatte, was one of you. One of us... Please..."

 

[dikdik]

1

 

[turtwigwins]

1 river gang

 

[asphodelus]

1

 

[joshuadim]

2

 

[Infab]

3.

 

[Damian0358]

1

 

[Breadman]

2

 

[K0mori]

1. Daring - This is the moment; you can take this no longer. The driver is playing with your mind and your emotions. She probably knows about Rigatte and is teasing you purposefully. But you won't allow any solemn cry on the night to weaken your resolve to survive and escape this deadly trap. You decide to leap out of the cart and dive off the bridge, now, while you still have the chance to escape!

By the time the driver realizes what you're about to do, it's already too late- thanks to your tabaxi physique, you easily bound out of the cart and reach the railing, hurtling yourself off the bridge.

The fall lasts longer than you expected it too. You hear the driver shouting after you as you tumble into a black expanse, over-rotating before you hit the water with a slap and sink. You don't know how to swim, not really, but you've bathed in a pond before and you know that floating is mostly about keeping air in your lungs. Despite the pain, you grab onto your nose to keep the water from rushing in beyond the stinging at your nostrils, and you wait.

Seconds pass as you're silent and weightless in the water, and you feel the slimy wooden supports of the bridge brush past your leg as you try to orient yourself. For only a moment, you wonder whether this was a mistake, until you finally bob to the surface and feel the cold air on your skin. But once there, you marvel at the height of the bridge and how far you dropped from - its silhouette was painted against the starry sky above - and how bold you were to try this. You hear the driver calling after you.

"SISTER! SISTER...!"

Her voice trails off as you drift away from the bridge and into the night, occasionally pushing the water around with your feet and hands to stay afloat. The last thing you think you hear is "don't run- Lythrefang is everywhere," but you're already committed. You couldn't swim back to the bridge even if you wanted to. It isn't long before you begin to shiver, however. Your clothes feel heavy and offer no protection from the cold, and there's no telling how far you'd need to float before you'd begin to see settlements again.

You float for as long as you can bear it. Before the sun has even begun to rise, you encounter a shallow run in the river between two large boulders, which you suspect may have been one large boulder many ages ago before the Taurus cut its way through. You feel your feet bump against the rocks, and then your hands, and automatically, frantically, you pull yourself out of the water and into the air.

It's freezing. Not literally so, of course, but it may as well have been. You're tempted to get back into the water just to get the air off your skin.

1. West - You can't help but feel that if you go back in the water, you might die of exposure before sunrise. To your right is west, which means a long walk back into Zuklanar. You aren't fond of it, but at least it's home. It's a big country, too; you don't have to go back to your village right away...

2. East - As the water drips off of you, you look to your left, at the unknown land of Turadal. Maybe if what the driver said was right, and that the witches of Lythrefang will be looking for you, then maybe it would be smarter not to make a bee line for your home village, or even to Zuklanar at all.

3. South - The cold is unbearable, and you're just a girl. Putting whatever the driver said about your "pneuma" aside, you doubt you have the strength or the willpower to trek overland. There must be a village further downstream, and at least you think you can make it there if you keep floating.

 

[Breadman]

2

 

[joshuadim]

3!