One step along the endless path.

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Dreams
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One step along the endless path.

Post by Dreams » Wed Dec 27, 2017 10:01 pm

It stretched out before him, up and onwards as if it went forever. The thing about a mountain path is that you can often see the top, you know it will end somewhere. That wasn't so certain for most travellers of this area. As far as they could see, the path wound further around the mountain and may have extended on to other parts of the range.

The knowledge that it didn't kept this pilgrim's spirits high. He'd come so far to reach Shou Lung, and he'd gone through so much effort to find the location of this monastery in particular. It cost him a life. A little of his own soul, in fact, and the effort of slaying a skilled monk.

The pilgrim had been lucky. No monk from this monastery would usually have fallen in such circumstances. Unfortunately for the monk, there are limits to what an esoteric wisdom can protect the body from. It took nineteen expertly placed deadly traps of holy energies to bring him down. The monk had hit every one of them. Even then, the he'd almost survived.

He was finished by a blade thrust into the side of his throat. The monk wouldn't have ever given away the location of the monastery, not by any amount of pain, so his life meant nothing more to the pilgrim. Instead, the monk's amulet was ripped away for study. It had a map of sorts, complicated characters of the Eastern language of the Shou people.

The pilgrim looked down at the amulet and up toward the mountain ahead. He could see the very simple line that marked the shape of the mountain, and the small dot that noted where the path to the monastery would be found.

Every step brought him closer to what he needed, so the pilgrim closed his hand around the amulet and took another step along the endless path.

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Dreams
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Re: One step along the endless path.

Post by Dreams » Sun Dec 31, 2017 4:49 am

It was another step just like any other. You put your foot down lightly and check whether that part of the ground will support your weight. If it does, you slowly transfer your weight to it. Little by little, what was a probing step becomes a supporting foot. It takes your weight and holds you.

Then one of two things will happen. The trap will spring, or nothing. Is it nothing? Or is it just that this trap had a slight delay? Any moment now it could spring, but if you take the next step too quickly you might trigger something else. This might have been a trap. Every bit of wood in this monastery creaked, but every stone step was silent and cold.

"Go home," the enlightened monk said, "your master awaits you in the place you once lived."

This would mean to travel all of the way back to the docks of that city he came from. The opposite side of Faerûn. Was it a trick? Was it real? It was a very simple one if it was.

He was given a small signet ring. It had a very simple symbol of two forces in perfect balance. In the place of spots were small skulls. This would need to be shown to his master, and then he would have to hope for the best.

After only a single night spent in the monastery, the traveler began his journey home. Another step along the endless path.

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Dreams
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Re: One step along the endless path.

Post by Dreams » Sun Dec 31, 2017 5:03 am

"Good. Now kill her."

It was a very small, simple bit of praise, but it was received with a feeling of warmth. He'd done well! It had certainly taken a huge amount of effort this far.

A woman was trembling in his arms, she'd heard the instruction. There was nothing left to say, nothing left to do but end her life. She'd given up the trade secrets, the names that had been needed. She'd done everything that they asked, in fact. Nonetheless, the decision was his master's to make.

With a small movement, her throat was cut in an upwards motion. Blood blubbered out of the wound as the once beautiful woman drowned in her own lifeblood. He still wasn't used to killing, but this time there was a surprising emotion that came into his mind.

Sometimes he felt regret. Regret that he'd been unlucky enough to have grown up on the streets. Other times it was a rage. The rage came about for little to no reason that he could determine, something just fuelled it and made him feel terribly angry. But this time was different. It was something akin to lust. Nothing sexual, but a powerful hungering for more of whatever it was.

He took a moment to hold the woman until she'd completely stopped, then looked up to his master. The master gave a simple smile and nod, and they left behind the token that was left upon all victims.

Another step along an endless path.

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Dreams
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Re: One step along the endless path.

Post by Dreams » Sun Jan 07, 2018 10:02 pm

Larry was a friendly guy. I mean, when you put aside the theft and the murders, his constant thirst for alcohol or narcotics, or the way he treated people in general. Most people didn't think he was friendly, but he was a friendly guy. Friendly more in the sense that he made a lot of friends in his time on Arelith. That was how he figured it.

He was also a schemer. A less-than-dashing rogue with big dreams and big ideas. On coming to Arelith, it seemed the quickest way he could get ahead would be to steal, lie and cheat his way to a medium-sized retirement fund. That's exactly what he did, though it didn't turn out exactly as he had hoped. He'd learnt and developed and grown up until...

Larry died. He actually died a few times, as strange as that is. One tale told about how he had tried to push his way into the room of an experienced wizard, only to be struck down by a giant dragon. Another was a simple report of a mugging gone wrong, where Larry had been stabbed to death in an alley.

The worst yet was a story about some terrible magical torture. He had apparently been witness to a feat of amazing magic, only to be captured and horrifically malformed by the very forces he had been captivated in watching. It looked as if his whole body had been wasted away, muscles and all, and his head then removed.

It was a rather disgusting series of tales, Larry thought. Even as he put the last few shovels of dirt over Larry's body, Larry chuckled to himself,
"Ain't nothin' gonna keep us down friend."

Another shovel of dirt covered the past.

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