by The Kingpin » Mon Mar 14, 2011 10:32 pm
As Jack continued onwards, he headed upstairs, thinking that perhaps, if anyone was in their rooms, asleep, they would be the best bet at an answer. he ascended, walking down a corridor that seemed to jump out from between two walls, unseen from below. he continued down the corridor, knocking on one of the doors firmly. no answer. he had half expected it. moving on to the next door, he knocked. again. no answer. this was getting irritating. he continued towards the third door, knocking firmly against it, a sudden chill running down his spine as his knuckles struck the door, an overwhelming sense of dread gripping the man so tightly it defied reality. as quickly as it had struck, it was gone, leaving Jack confused, looking at his hand and then at the door. he backed away from it, wary. he noted a crack in the central plank, in the middle of a knot in the wood. the crack was somewhat wider than most he had seen, and past visits to this inn had made him familiar enough with it to recognise that the crack was wider than he remembered it last. he shrugged it off as his imagination, as his own subconscious trying to pin whatever reason it could find on the sense of dread, no matter how ridiculous. as he continued on to the final door, he noted it was ajar, a small flickering light visible within. a candle exposed to wind. he also felt a draft. an open window, perhaps? but with the cold that gripped the village the last few days that made no sense. he reached for the door, pulling it aside to investigate. this room was probably the smallest in the inn. it was a room barely larger than 2 meters by 2 meters. a bed took up most of the room, a small sidetable placed next to the head of the bed, the other side of the bed pinned against the wall to help make use of what little space there was. the window of the room was opened, the window hinges running smoothly and silently on the frame. aside from the open window and a lantern on the window ledge, there was nothing to hint this room had been used. the bed was perfectly made. not a crease disfiguring the grey, soft blanket or the cream sheets beneath. no clothes were draped over the foot of the bed. no shoes on the floor by the sidetable. Jack walked forward, closing the window, as a reflection in it revealed a pair of eerie white glowing orbs floating just above the height of his massive 6'6'' frame. turning around, he drew his sword, only to find......nothing. unnerved, Jack walked forward, sword in hand, as he walked towards the door to the room, grabbing the lantern and taking it with him, noting a break in the glass on one side. hence the flickering he thought briefly as he left the disturbingly pristine room, closing the door behind him, not daring to take his eyes off the area ahead...
"My Lord, we must make haste. The Kingdom has no ruler, and we may very well be on the brink of war!" said Rufus, a senior Silver Knight, as he stood before Sebastian Archer, his expression alarmed. "I told you NO! I left the castle as a lad for a reason! Power poisons the mind. It did it to my father, my grandfather before him. It was my brothers and I living humbler lives among our people and providing them with what they needed that kept the Kingdom in check, not my father's rule!" responded Sebastian furiously. "My Lord, be that as it may. Your entire family lay dead. The Silver Order and your people fought the traitor and his minions in order to keep you and the Archer rule intact. Will you deny your people their right after such hardship?" questioned Rufus. Sebastian sighed. Rufus had struck a very valid point, and had backed him into a figurative corner in the argument. "I will not abandon the people of this village. They need me now more than the rest of the Kingdom. Alexander can watch over the Kingdom until this is resolved" he answered with a sigh. "The people will not be abandoned, My liege. We will have 3 Silver Knights and half the Escort remain here in order to protect them and retrieve those missing. But you MUST return with us to the Palace. The decisions that will have to be made in the next couple of days may decide the course of Valenhad's relations amongst the other nations of Aster. We may be on the brink of war with the Kingdom of Draxon. The situation surrounding that matter is too dire to leave to the Regent. We need a King, now more than ever before. and only a King who despises the effects power has on him, can resist those effects and rule truly. That is how your father ruled, and that is how the first ruler of Valenhad, King Remus Archer, ruled" responded Rufus. "Might i remind you that King Remus Valenhad Archer named the Kingdom after himself? He was in the grips of the poison of Power even before he formed our nation" responded Sebastian. "My Lord. If that 'poison' was as bad as you thought, Valenhad would have collapsed centuries ago. You fear that power. That is enough to make you act responsibly with it. Now please, my Lord....The people of Valenhad need you" responded Rufus finally, Sebastian sighing as he considered it, glancing at the other elders of the village thoughtfully in the inn's main hall. as he saw several of them nod, he brought his thumb and fingers to his temples, before finally responding. "Very well....But I need your word. your WORD, Rufus....that you will recover the missing people, or at least find out what happened to them. And once it's over, we need to rebuild the trade business that used to come through this town. It was a major source of income a few years ago. If we're going to war, we'll need that trade route" said Sebastian firmly. Rufus nodded, kneeling before his King. "I vow to recover the missing citizens, My Lord. If it costs me my life, I will see it done" said Rufus. "Then let's get moving. Have your men split up adequately. You will accompany me back to the palace, and return here as soon as you have re-equipped" said Sebastian, Rufus nodding obediently, before heading out of the inn and moving to give the order...they would move at dawn...
As Jack walked by the door, he felt another wave of fear run through him, a cold sweat soaking him in his armour, the hair down his back standing on end. looking at the door, he noted that the crack had widened since he passed it, now forming a web-like series of cracks across the centre of the door. he backed away from the door, rushing towards the stairs. the kitchen. it was the only place he hadn't looked. the answers to his questions would be there. though what kind of answers awaited him, was anyone's guess...
As Bairn descended the stairs, he began to hear what seemed like whispers. he couldn't pinpoint the source, but it seemed to be coming from the kitchen. a sign of life! at last! thought the aging Village Leader as he rushed towards it, though his pace rapidly dropped to a fearful, nearly immobile shuffle, as the most powerful pang of terror yet struck him. by now, it felt as if for brief moments, he feared death was merely split seconds, milimetres, from claiming him. as he finally reached, he found a sight worthy of any satanic accusation. metal rods protruded from the walls, corpses impaled on them, their heads, hands and feet removed, a horrific stench filling the room. the stench of burning flesh. glancing towards the kilns and fire over which food was usually cooked, he spotted the severed bodyparts, arranged almost as if with attentive precision, the body parts of various villagers organised into family groups. Trype's oversized face lay sizzling on the fire, as did Sebastian's, a look of mixed fury and terror on his slowly disfiguring features. In the midst of the room....a large black entity, hunched over. It was easily 7 feet tall, and seemed almost partially humanoid, although it's features were oddly elongated and slender. as the creature stood, a rustle of tree branches seemed to echo in the room. no. not echo. attempt to echo. as the creature turned, still seemingly unaware of him, Jack bolted for the door. he had to leave this building. whatever it was, it was too powerful to fight alone. he had to find others. to gather a militia. but in an instant, those plans faded, as darkness befell Jack once more, the familiar piercing, mind-numbing screech filling his ears as darkness engulfed him, the last thing he saw being the creature hooking large, curved claws round the front of his armour, lifting him to face height, it's eerie gaze looking into his soul as it thrashed violently, darkness engulfing Jack as he felt as if his very soul was being torn apart, blackness engulfing his mind in a single fell swoop...
"Ah yes, organised chaos. the sign of a clever but ever-busy mind. To the perpetrator, a carefully woven web of belongings and intrigue, but to the bystander? Madness!"
–William Beckett, Lore of Leyuna RPG