Bad Luck

[Dracon]

Six Months Ago....

A small city of ten thousand people...

It was late in the evening when an entity strolled right towards the city center, the old town square lined with scuffed white stone, with green shrubs making some sort of communal gathering area. Right in the center was a granite pillar that functioned as a kind of calendar for the city. Within the city center were five petty criminals with their ears nailed to a board for all to be seen, in the middle of a crowd hurling insults, and rotten food at the offenders.

The entity stood at just over seven feet tall, his skin was red scales, and he was cloaked in an emerald green cloak with clothed strangely with black trousers, and a thick whit top, and green vest. His chest was broad, each arm ending in a clawed three digit hand. On his hip there was a falchion, a curved sword, and in his hand was a slender about 3/4 of an inch thick, and near eight feet tall, with a silver-ish foot cap, and a strange helical twisting glass, and metal head piece on it.

The entity shouldered his way through the crowd, and without any fanfare announced in a voice far, far too deep for anything human "My lord, and patron has sent me to harvest twenty five... volunteers with strong backs, and broad shoulders for his own domain."

He looked over to the criminals, and stated matter-of-factly "These five are a fine start you have until the end of the week to supply the rest."

A man of middle age, with grimness, and care written in lines along his face stepped in front of the entity, and asked "may I ask whom your patron is, and for what reason he needs volunteers?" As three city guards wielding spears crept closer to the entities from behind.

The entity looked at the man, and replied "neither are your concern, your only concern in these matters is that you supply him with what he has demanded."

The man did not waver, and said "the citizens of this city ~are~ my concern, and you won't be allowed to leave until you explain yourself sir."

With out a word, the staff glowed, and in a flash all four of the civil servants were mere gore splatters on the ground. As the masses panicked, the entity gripped the entire board, and began dragging off the petty criminals back through town, stopping occasionally to flatten more guards that have gotten in his way.

[Dracon]

It was easy to gather the rest of the demanded "volunteers." There were plenty of worse criminals within the cells of the local stockade, murders, rapists, thieves, the dregs of the world. The worst of the worst were gathered, and chained tightly to the pillar acting like the calendar. Like clockwork the entity returned, and retrieved the other twenty prisoners, and the city breathed a great sigh of relief believing that now that the creature got what it wanted, it would leave.

WRONG!!!

Two days later the entity returned, and made the same demand for another twenty five able bodied men by the end of the week. To contend with the entity, a platoon of veteran city guards, led by the captain of the guard and an accomplished mage. The results were not pretty, with out a motion the guardsmen were again turned into paste, and the entity took great joy in pressing his staff into the mage until he popped like a tomato.

A valent effort.

Again murders, rapists, and thieves were conscripted to fill the quota. For weeks this happened, until the stockade turned empty. Then, petty theft was now just called theft, and man slaughter, was now murder. Citizens were no longer allowed to defend them selves from both the criminal, and the guards, and civil disobedience was soon called sedition, all to feed the grinder.

Five months ago....

The death of the reasonable constable, captain of the guard, and the most senior of the guardsmen left a powerful emptiness in the peace of the town, and the bad people took notice. Even though the punishment for even small crimes were beyond draconian, crime went up. Thieves ran rampant taking from those they could, and people were murdered, or were taken to dark parts of the town for unspeakable things. Soon people that disappeared in back allies found them selves chained to the pillar, and that's when people began leaving.

First the most wealthy types left, then the shop owners gathered their resources, and disappeared as well leaving the poorest to take the brunt of the newest abuses, or to take advantage of every hole opened up by the people who left.

Four months ago...

The "conscription" of the twenty five a week continued, as did the exodus, causing a deficit in the cities taxes to start showing. The pruned shrubs surrounding the city square fell into disrepair, and weeds began growing in the once manicured lawns. More citizen "criminals" were taken to maintain the city works, maintain the greenery, and ensure that the carriages ran on time on pain of being chained to the pillar.

Outside the city rumors began running about strange creatures on the edge of civilization; travelers, and families participating in the exodus disappearing, and the predators of the area becoming more aggressive. Farms were raided, and the fields were left fallow allowing weeds to grow tall, and less food found its way into the city proper...

People began to get hungry.

Three months ago...

In spite of the enforced servitude the city weeds began to grow tall, and the greenery began to turn brown. Lamps weren't maintained, and the city grew darker at night, and creatures of the night began to roam and prey on the vox populai in the dark, but the quota still needed to be filled, and most of the city was too afraid to fight the entity again, the rest were becoming too hungry. To make sure their bellies were full, the government made sure to collect all resources of the city, and redistribute them fairly to the citizens, with some citizens being more fair than others.

City buildings were abandoned, and fell into disrepair, windows were broken, doors kicked in, and taken over by squatters, fires were started inside for people to keep warm, got out of control, one building caught on fire, followed by the next, and the next until an entire section of the city was destroyed. Hungry, homeless people became sick, hungry homeless people, and were now fodder for the guards, criminals, and creatures of the night.

Two months ago....

The sick, hunger, and preyed upon gave ample opportunity for a plague to take hold, and spread through the city. This then gave the remains of the government to order its citizenry to shelter in place, or be put into the stockade. Everyone by this time knew just exactly what that really meant, it meant it would be easier to round up men, and women for the entity's quota.

Outside of town the neighboring cities, and other settlements began to notice that there was less, and less trade coming from the city, and thus less, and less trade went into the city causing everyone to get all that much more hungry.

Somewhere along the line the criminals became the guards, or the guards became the criminals, either way the only distinction between the two was the guards wielded spears, and the criminal element used clubs, or daggers.

To keep the people from form any kind of resistance against both the guards, and the entity the guards began fostering distrust between everyone by encouraging, and rewarding the act of snitching on ones neighbors.

Last month...

The once bustling city with where men, and women would gather in public spaces, that were covered in green shrubs, and beautiful greenery, where crime might have been a thing, but never more than what a reasonable authority figure could de-escalate, whos red brick building would house commerce, was now a depopulated, sick, crime ridden cesspool governed by corrupt officials, and lawless guards, which buildings are burned out husks, its parks are where people go to die, and were never green, with morer than enough blood, and other fluid stains on the once white stones of the parks.

The lord of the city, had long ago fallen to despair, and taken his own life, and no one ever noticed.

The worst, the absolute worst was that the citizens stopped caring! They weren't afraid of the entity anymore, they accepted their hunger, the didn't fight the corruption, and they let crime sweep the city. They were dead inside, and so was their home.

[drake]

Drake drew a deep breath, feeling the fresh meal in his bag against his back as he trekked away from the merchant.

Up until this point, his journey was solitary, and a lonesome one at that; however, the gentle breeze upon his face, and the liveliness of the crisp falling chill prepared a basin for the coming snowfall. Rocky, sandy silt from the coastlines shimmered in the descending evening light as the viewpoint toed his way through the rocky uneven terrain. Rolling hills from Salvar's elevating shelf slowly grew about the path as the principality entered a slightly plateaued basin for as far as the eye could see. The gentle mounds behind him dwarfed in comparison to the mountains visible far to his south. He followed the path through the dry tundra as the clouds overhead began to darken the night.

After trekking for several days with little rest, Drake found himself cold and exhausted. A short rest in the nearby wood rejuvenated him enough to find a traveling merchant from whom he purchased a dish of cold-smoked fish, seasoned with local herbs.

Farther along the road, he noticed a worn down, and abandoned temple. Just outside the main gates, a cemetery contained hundreds of headstones, marking the land's somber history.

Nothing to recount or regale, the principality bowed his head in respect of the resting, reverently scanning several names of those who had fallen in the past local wars.

The air was still and even his breath flowed silently as the viewpoint continued down the path.

[Dracon]

In a different, burned out ruin of a temple.

I had just dispatched the last wolf, its blood still glistening on my bastard sword. I grinned, and rested my sword on my shoulder as I started looking through the place for anything useful. Gold, a weapon would be nice, or anything that could be thought of as powerful. But I wasn't the first one to loot the temple. I found an old kris anathema used for mundane rituals that the gods ignored, broken bits of candelabra's on the altar, and the poor box didn't even have a single brass farthing. I know I smashed it open. My next trip was the temples larder...

Fun fact temples doubled as butcheries, animal sacrifices wasted tons of meat, and the rot would have brought in tons of disease, and selling the choice cuts of meat brought in a good supply of funds for the temple itself.

I was just about to kick open the cellars door, when I heard "Vandal! Murderer!" I then heard a war cry as someone charged towards me! Crap, I was getting hungry, and was hoping the cupboard had some stores left in it, now I would have to wait a little longer.

My mind found my attackers throat, and gripped it, lifting him up by the neck. I heard my attackers weapon clatter to the ground, and I turned around, and faced my attacker he was a boy, not quite yet weened from his mentor, probably just barely sixteen. He was armored with chain mail, and a tabard with some holy symbol on it.

He was choking, and gagging but he wouldn't suffocate. Not for quite some time he'd just be uncomfortable. I strode towards him, and nearly shouted.

"Now listen here numb nuts! The only thing I kilt... this evening was those wolves. Also look around! This place had been ransacked long before I got here!" I spun my attacker around in a bit of sadistic fun, and heard another voice from the door...

"If you would mind" A high gothic accent asked "not choking my squire to death for his own stupidity. Maybe we could talk about why this temple is abandoned?" Out stepped an older gentleman wearing a well used chest plate, and a more tattered tabard with the same holy symbol. In one hand he was a sword, and in the other one a ball of light gleamed from his hand. I weighed my options, looked at the squire, and said "he'll be fine." Leaving the boy hanging in the air.

The light never left the knights hand, but he approached slowly, and introduced himself "I am Sir Cygnus, and my Squire if he could speak would introduce himself as M'llard."

"Nice to meet you." I replied feeling M'llard's sword with my mind ready to send it hurtling through Cygnus' body.

I moved the conversation along "A year ago this temple was bustling, and had value to me. Now it's a shit hole. What happened?"

Cygnus replied "That's what we're here to find out. Some dark entity..." He clarified "not you."

I rolled my eyes "obviously."

Cygnus continued "has brought about a curst upon this land, and our patron city has asked us it investigate why. Now why are you here?" he questioned.

I shrugged "There's power here, I'm looking to collect."

Cygnus nodded "that sounds appropriate dark things, attract more dark things."

I smirked at the fact that there was twice as many..."light" things here right now, than "dark" things.

"You're going to need more people, if this temple is ruined." I told Cygnus.

He nodded solemnly "I will keep that in mind during our investigation. Do you mind letting my squire go now?"

I raised a finger, and said "One moment." Before turning back to the squire "Next time read the freaking room before charging in. If you would have paid attention to your surroundings you would have known that I was not the culprit. Also, when attacking someone of unknown power don't announce yourself, you're just looking to get your ass kicked, just hit them as hard as you can while they're not prepared." I then let the squire go, and M'llard dropped to the ground gasping for air.

"Come numb nuts" Cygnus said, dragging his squire towards the door shouting back towards "hope we don't meet again."

I agreed, and went back to ransacking the temple.

[drake]

The principality still felt restless from having slept for several weeks, and felt little fatigue. The daylight had slept all evening, and accompanied Drake for most of the journey. The evening light began fading in two hours before sunset, and now the falling Salvarian day bathed the countryside in the golden light of the daysky's farewell bidding. Light, wheat colored grasses swayed as the icy gales swept the lands. The winds and the gusts kept the concept company as they trekked northwest, following the path parallel to the river which tall deciduous tree clusters enshrouded. After several hours worth of trek, the plains to their south began to sprout tall pines, which eventually melded into a thick, deciduous forest's engulfing of the path.

Some trees retained their green foliage as others gave way to rich oranges, and deep red colors; however, very few had completely changed to their final rich yellow shades. Unique or traditional, each tree’s perfectly natural expression faded into their familiar bluish gray silhouettes under the night’s beam. Drake and the winds that accompanied him still had the better part of an hour’s worth of journey until they reached the town; however, up ahead among the trees beside the path, towered the ruins of an old temple. Upon approaching the temple, the remains of a paved stone path began to scatter the road. Drake and the winds came to a halt within three meters of the temple entrance when out stepped a massive looking being.

Drake had never seen anything like him before, but he looked like a mix between a buff, strong man and a reptilian humanoid lizard. Perhaps his features had draconic roots. Either way, he might be hungry.

Drake, figured it best to offer a sign of friendship to hopefully make a good impression.

“Hello,” Drake said.

The surrounding winds howled in response.

Drake opened his mouth, but waited until the lengthy intermittent gusts whispered in breezes.

“Um, excuse me. Are you hungry?” Drake called out to the being. “We have some smoked fish, and tomatoes.”

“I mean, we also have some rather disgusting vegetables, but, I’m not sure if you’re into that.” Drake quickly added, remembering his dried food from his previous town.

Drake felt awkward, waiting for a response.

"Um, I mean-" Drake began one final time, "I have food that I would be willing to share. Just me. Me and the wind."

[Dracon]

I had found the larder, and to my surprise there was still salted pork, a huge slab of salted pork belly, and sacramental wine. The dregs of humanity that had ransacked the place, before he ransacked the place were ignorant as to the secondary function of a temple, but time had taken its toll on most of the fresh stuff.

I had cut off a nice slab, and was in the process of soaking some more of the salt out before frying it when I heard "Hello? Um, excuse me. Are you hungry? We have some smoked fish, seasoned with basil and tomato. I mean, we also have some rather disgusting vegetables, but, I’m not sure if you’re into that."

I chuckled, and stood "oh her manners are quite a bit better then my last young visitor. I had to choke him with my mind so he would learn something." I said extending my arm "I'm Dracon" I introduced my self "and I would be happy to eat your food." That didn't exactly come out right he didn't mean for it to sound all that threatening. I presented my own small stores of food, and asked "so what brings you around here?"

[drake]

The wind gusted, tossing the viewpoint's hair.

“I'm just passing through.” Drake said.

He looked at the small store of food that the figure in front of him presented.

"Is there any meat?" Drake asked, "Do you have something to safely cook it in?"

Drake pulled out the traveling plate that he had purchased from the merchant, presenting it to the stranger in kind.

[Dracon]

I indicated a repurposed sacrificial brazier that I was going to use to grill the salted pork. My nose though, and my awareness developed by years of meditation told me they had grilled fish, I sniffed, and smiled "You have fish, and tomatoes" I said gripping stuff to make a table, and chares from the flotsam, and jetsam around in the temple with my mind.

"There, is a... thing" I said placing the pork to roast "There is a dark creature haunting a near by city. But that is the lesser of the dangers around here." I continued letting the meat heat up. I wondered how to make sense of what the real threat was. "Have you ever tried to explain the color green to a blind guy?" I finally asked.

Ok I could understand just how crazy someone explaining the things I hunt to regular folk could sound.

[drake]

Drake presented the food in his hand, as the breeze gently blew around him.

"I see," Drake said noticing the traveler's methods. He grew hesitant of the situation

"A thing, you say?" Drake said to the man or dragon. "A haunting thing."

He mulled the situation over for a second.

"No, I've never tried to explain that." Drake addressed the second question. "But I'd imagine it's difficult, almost like trying to describe what the sunrise smells like. Or what the taste of blueberries sounds like. It's too complicated to put into words."

Drake hesitated for a final moment, before placing the dish on a nearby pedastool.

"I'd prefer just to be on my way. Please feel free to keep the salmon. But it was nice to meet you."

Off he went on his way as even the breeze began to rest.

[Dracon]

I let the gentleman take my salted pork, and acknowledged the child milling about with a nod.

"Not so much a haunting thing, I attribute hauntings to ghosts, maybe a weak daemon. No, this thing was around before the beginning. It knew gods before they were gods, and is as far beyond immortals, as we are to mortals. Do not be mistaken either they are powerful with even lesser deities, and most arch daemons seeking their counsel." I explained, purposely neglecting to mention any names as even thinking of them could get their attention.

I continued my explanation "mind you they're not evil in the strictest sense that would require them recognizing our morality, which would require them recognizing us at all beyond how we would recognize a mosquito."

And that was being generous!

"I believe this... thing is waking up."

I smiled, and blinked the haze from my mind "I'm Aribus Wren." I finally introduced as I found a comfortable place to sit.

"Now, I'm not about to go tussle with that thing. Best let sleeping dogs lie, but it did conjure, or attract a servant. Now that thing, that I will test."