Denizen's Curse

Near the walled town of Bassarisk stands an ancient tomb. Built almost two thousand years ago. Before the undead invasions when people didn't yet know they should always burn their dead. It and the dead laid inside remain undisturbed for centuries.


The locals have long ago decided to not destroy it. Out of fear they might disturb the dead and unleash another undead plague. Elders warn their children to never go near it. They tell stories of the place being cursed and haunted. Of course none of this is enough to keep rebellious teenagers from investigating it. Our story starts when two such young boys decide they aren't afraid of no ghosts.


The two boys arrive early in the morning. Even they aren't foolish enough to come here at night. As they approach the sun starts to rise behind them. They move along the grave stones and stop in front of the main tomb. A large building built with grey stone, overgrown with dark plants. There are still signs of the decorations that once covered it, however that's all that's left of them. They are only rubble now. A large stone door seems to be the only entrance.


The two boys nods to each other and start pushing open the large door. It takes them a few minutes to get it open enough for them to squeeze through. Once they're done they light the torches they brought and step inside.


One of them hesitates as he sees the winding stairs that lead down. The other boy turns to him.” You're not chickening out are you?”


“Course not.” The first boy replies nervously. “I was just thinking, what if the door slams shut behind us? We'd be trapped.”


The second boy rolls his eyes and grabs a large piece of debris. Putting it down between the doors. “There, problem solved. Let's go.”


They both nod and start descending the stairs into the darkness below. They are careful to avoid debris and dust webs that cover the entire place. It takes them a while to reach the bottom. There they find a large open room with a single stone coffin in the middle. The room is littered with rusted weapons and treasures.


The lid of the coffin is cracked. From the holy an eery green light shines. The boys move towards it. The wind roars above, spooking the boys for a moment. Then silence again. The boys look through the crack.


They see an eye looking back at them. Their torches go out covering the room in total darkness. They scream, the thing in the coffin shrieks.


After a long journey away from his homeland Delvet comes across a town protected by high walls. A welcome sight after days of traveling through the Shattered Realms. Where the only constant is mud and dead trees. The region was heavily scarred by the anti-magic war. Now twenty-five years later magic storms still pop up across the region randomly. Making life here very dangerous and unpredictable. Large towns like this are rare in this region.
A nearby sign reads: “Welcome to Bassarisk, population: 112”


A town this size probably has a place to sleep. The sun is already setting. It would be nice to sleep in a proper bed for once. So Delvet heads towards the town gate.


There he finds two guards who greet him. One of them a man, the other a woman. One of them speaks: “Hail, traveler. What brings you to our town?”

Both of the guards are wearing simple leather armor. Their iron swords are well maintained. The shields on their backs are mostly made of wood with a few scratches on them, clearly having been used before.

However it's clear that the best protection the town has is it's wall. Any enemy that would want to attack the town would need to be able to fly or at least bring a ladder.

Despite that the town's low amount of people living there suggests the wall has not been able to keep out all danger. Clearly this town once boasted a much higher population. As Delvet can see even from in front of the gate that many of the buildings inside are abandoned. Likely because there are simply not enough people around to occupy all of them anymore.

The man nods. "We have an inn here in town where you can rest for the night. Here's a map so you can find it easily." He hands Delvet a map.



The woman speaks next. "There is also currently a market set up if you wish to buy anything. We greatly appreciate any trade, we don't get much of it these days. We are required to warn you about the curfew. The two gates of our town are closed from just before sunset until dawn. So if you wish to leave you must wait until the morning guards open it up. Aside from that running around outside after midnight is greatly discouraged. Mostly because we simply don't have the manpower to protect people at night. We hope you understand." She nods and both guards stand aside to let Delvet enter the town.

Where will he go first?


(For reference I will post the link to your character sheet at the bottom of each post. Where you can also see how much money you have.)

Delvet CS

Delvet takes the map from the guard, nodding politely. "Thank you kindly."


The swordsman listened to the the guard as she exposited. "I'll be sure to do some spending, though I'm by no means a rich fellow. And thank you for telling me about the curfew, I'll be sure to stay inn." 


He waved farewell to the guards as he strolled into the town, looking to head straight to the inn by ways of the map he now had.

(colour = 993300)

Thanks to the map Delvet easily finds the Inn. The sign in front simply says "Travelers Inn". As Delvet enters he is greeted by a mostly empty building. There's some tables and a counter. Behind the counter sits the only person in this room.

A human woman with dark short hair, wearing a red dress. She has her feet up on the counter and looks bored. She takes a few seconds to notice someone has entered the building. Without moving she speaks. "Oh, a visitor. Are you a customer? It'd be really good if you were. I might be able to pay my bills this month if you were." She turns to look at Delvet, raising an eyebrow. "Well, are you?"


Delvet CS

She takes her feet off the counter. "My rooms are 9 copper. The deluxe room, which has a better bed and an actual window, is normally 16 copper. However we have a one time 'I-really-need-the-money-right-now' promotion today. So if you want that good bed it'll be 12 copper."

She gets up from her seat and walks over to Delvet. "Wouldn't be so sure about that. Your competition for that title isn't exactly fierce."

"Honey, you ARE the Rush hour." She replied to Delvet's joke with a chuckle.

"So what'll it be? Either way breakfast isn't included in the price." She stops in front of him and puts her hand on her waist.

"I'll add you to the leaderboard." She takes the money.

"The view of the wall outside is lovely this time of day. The main advantage of the window however is the ventilation, which the other rooms lack." She goes back behind the counter, rummages a bit and returns with a key in hand.

"Adara, a pleasure." She hands Delvet the key. "Your room is upstairs, first one to the left." She turns around and goes to sit back behind her counter.

--

Up in his Room Delvet notices that the window does indeed has a view of the large wall outside. From the fading light he can make out that the sun is setting and it will soon be dark out. Which means the gates are being locked right about now.

The soft and comfy bed is waiting for him. On the other hand it might be dark out but it's still early. The choice is his.

As Delvet headed outside he passed Adara at her counter. She was reading a book and didn't react to him as he left.

The town was quiet, empty. On his way Delvet encountered no people. By the time he reached the bar the sun had set almost completely. Only a slight red tinge remained in the sky above. Above the bar's entrance hung a sign that read: "Onyll's bar"

The door was wide open. A quick glance revealed to Delvet that this bar was the most active place he had seen in this town so far. A whopping three total people. One was a pudgy older man standing behind the bar, cleaning a glass. The second person was a slightly younger, more muscular man sitting near the bar chugging a mug of mead. The last one was a young woman sitting at a table in the corner writing on a piece of paper.

The young woman in the corner is too preoccupied with writing to notice Delvet come in. The other man gives Delvet a hostile glare.

The older man nods and greets Delvet. "Welcome sir, that'll be a glass of milk then. It's either that or water. I don't recommend the water if you value your health. Or you could try our house special, a spicy tea prepared with milk instead of water. Normal tea isn't recommended, the water around these parts isn't clean anymore."

(In case you're wondering, 1 silver=100 copper. So you're fine on money for now.)

"Three copper pieces for the house special." The old man replies as he starts heating up the milk.

"Our pipeline to the river was blown up in a magic storm. We have tried to fix it but every time we send somebody out there they get attacked by bandits or wild beasts. Of course by now the damage is beyond repair. Our only water source now is the well. But that's been contaminated because of a leak." Once he's finished explaining he puts a bag of tea leaves into the milk and let's it soak.

Suddenly Delvet feels a tap on his shoulder. When he turns around he sees the other man standing there with an angry look on his face. "Whats you asking all these questions for huh? You trying to fins our weaknesseses so you can report back to your bandit buddies? We won let your kind cause anymore trouble around here. Get the hel out!" His breath smells like alcohol.

The older man behind the bar sighs. "Nyal, please calm down. You can't keep doing this."

Delvet CS
(Keep forgetting to add this, sorry)

Delvet calmly listened to the man named Nyal, then addressed the older man. "I dont mind, he's just got the spirit. Cares about his community, nothing wrong with that."



"Listen, Nyal was it? I'm just a traveler passing through. I'd been treated no way but well since of been here and the last thing I'd want to do is cause trouble for you folks. If there's anything we need to go over we can talk it over, maybe over a drink on me of course." 


(like spirits, becos.. he's drunk.)

Nyal stumbles back for a bit, clearly having trouble staying on his feet. "Well, I.. sorry. I thought you were one of thems bandits. You're alrite tho. Drinks shoulds be on me. You know, to apologize for bein' rude."

Onyll shakes his head. "Nyal, you've had enough to drink. You should go home."

"Nah, I'm fine old man."

"You really aren't."

There's an awkward silence. The two men stare at each other. Nyal stumbles again.

"Fine, you win today Onyll." Nyal shuffles out of the bar. Before he leaves he yells: "Again, apologieses for tinking you were a bandit!"

Then Onyll grabs Delvet's drink and slides it over the counter to him. "Here you go, one House Special."

Delvet CS

"Well he seems like a nice enough fellow." Delvet picked up his tea with a nod of gratitude. 


"Are the bandits the reason for the curfew then?" He asked, then paused. "I really am asking a lot of questions, my apologies."


(sorry about posting delays, been getting all caught up at a new job)

"Yes, partially. We've just lost a lot of people over the years." Onyll pauses, a sadness appears in his eyes. "First we got caught up in the anti-magic war about 24 years ago. Then the undead plague that came at the end of that war. Before the war this town had about four thousand people. After the undead were gone there were maybe a thousand of us left."

His gaze shifts away from Delvet towards the window. "Those numbers went back up when all the refugees arrived. Other towns didn't have our walls so we were the safest place around. We let them in, after all we had the space. That's when the plague struck. Some say the refugees brought it with them. Doesn't matter where it came from though. When it was finally over only 600 of us were left." He sighs.

"We had heard about the magic storms that plague this land. They started during the war and haven't ended. However when the first one hit here we weren't prepared. Sixty people died that day when suddenly a pool of water just fell out of the sky and a lightning blast electrocuted them all. Then a second magic storm hit our water pipeline. Which as I've told you before is why we no longer have clean water."

"Since our lord and his son died in the war it was his wife who lead us through this harrowing time. After it became clear we weren't going to be able to fix the water pipes she decided we couldn't stay here. So she prepared for an exodus out of this region. About four hundred towns people agreed to go with her. The rest of us stayed behind. At first things seemed to go well. Then suddenly a few months after they left they stopped sending letters back to us. We have no idea what happened to them. With only a bit more than a hundred people left we were sitting ducks for the bandits. They keep trying to breach our walls. So far they've failed."

He turns his attention back to Delvet. "Sorry for the info dump. It's just hard to explain why we're all so on edge without the whole story. It's the general fear and unease that we're feeling that caused us to set the curfew. It helps against the bandits and the wild beasts. It does nothing against the diseases and magic storms though. But at least we have some degree of control over something. I'm not sure how much longer we'll last though."

Just as Onyll finishes his story the young woman in the corner gets up and runs over to the counter. "Dad, I finished my letter. I'm going to deliver it to the post bird office."

Onyll frowns. "Morivella, you know the rules. No going out after the sun sets."

"But dad! There's still a few minutes of light left. I'll be back before it's dark!" She protests.

"The answer is no. You can send it tomorrow. Waiting one day won't be the end of the world."

Morivella pouts.

Onyll turns to Delvet again. "Sorry about that. You should probably get going as well. You seem like you can handle yourself but better to be safe than sorry, right? We'll be closing up in a bit anyway."

Delvet CS

Morivella perks up at hearing that. "You would do that? Thank you!"

"Mori you can't just saddle a stranger with these things." Onyll frowned.

"Oh come on dad! It's not that far and he's the one who offered!"

"I guess. Fine."

"Yes!" Morivella turns to Delvet and hands him the letter. "You got a map from the guards right? They give those to anyone who enters. I'll mark the post office on it for you."

Delvet hands her the map and she quickly draws a circle on it. Then she hands the map back to him.



"There's a box just next to the door, you can put the letter in there." Morivella says. "Also, thanks again!" She politely bows.

"Absolutely no problem. I'll be sure to come back before I head out on the road again." Delvet waved a farewell at Morivella and thanked Onyll again for the tea before he headed out, being sure to double check the map to make sure he knew where he was going.

Once he was outside he looked around, taking in his surroundings, just better safe than sorry.

Both of them wave back at Delvet as he leaves.

As he looks around he notices the whole area is even more quiet than before. The only sound around is the wind as it blows by. There's still some light out but not much. On one side the sky is dark red, the last rays of the sun lighting up the sky. On the other side dark clouds are rolling in. This night will be a darker one than normal. Delvet does not perceive any threats nearby.

He quickly finds his way to the post office. A sign outside marks the right building. Just as Morrivella said there is a wooden box next to the entrance. In the box is an opening where he can slide the letter in.

As the sky above him grows dark he hears the shuffling of feet over the cracked road a few meters behind him.


Delvet CS

Delvet gently pushes the letter through the opening in the box, he made sure not to cause any scrunching or tearing of the letter as he did so. 

As he heard the sound of shuffling feet he looked behind him calmly, he was curious to see who might be out at this time.

(Posting letter gets you 1 exp in Heart? Y/N )

At first Delvet has trouble seeing the figure clearly. All he notices at first is that their movement is irregular and slow. It groans with every step.

It isn't until they step out of the shadows and the last sliver of daylight hits them when it becomes clear there's something very wrong. The figure is a teenage boy with blonde hair covered in blood. His mouth hangs wide open, one of his eyes is missing from its socket and a chunk is missing from his leg.

Suddenly the boy lunges at Delvet with his bloody hands outstretched.

Delvet CS