Hope in the Darkness
Posted on Fri Jun 7th, 2024 @ 2:25pm by Wizard (Level 2) Hope Divari
Mission:
The Missing
Location: The road between Runswick and Larksdale
Timeline: Three Years Ago
The journey from the city back to Larksdale usually took about a week by horseback, longer by foot or accompanied by an ox-drawn wagon weighed down by goods traded for in Runswick. Rek was a trader first and a warrior second, his wife Melody was a talented bard, and together with their three children – the nine-year-old twins Yarn and Fable and their fifteen-year-old sister Vignette, the family were pleasant traveling companions.
The sky was clear and the road through the partially forested countryside was dry. At the end of the third day of travel, they'd be making camp soon.
Hope walked alongside her aging mother Delnoch, who sat astride their donkey. Hope's thoughts kept returning to that moment only a few days ago at the temple of Torn in Runswick when the Priests of Torn had rejected her. They didn't give her a reason, but she knew why. She'd overheard what they said to Delnoch, and what they thought of a Paladin of Torn adopting a tiefling.
Delnoch leaned over and patted Hope's shoulder. "Everything happens for a reason, child. You'll find another purpose."
Hope covered Delnoch's hand with her own, acknowledging the comforting intention of her mother's words, then changed the subject to Delnoch's worsening arthritis. "How're your joints?"
"Looking forward to a good night's rest." Delnoch raised her voice and called out to Rek, walking with his wife Melody and the twins, while their oldest daughter Vignette drove the wagon. "Rek! We've only got an hour or two of daylight."
"Tonight's camp is just ahead," Rek replied.
With a squeal of renewed energy, the twins ran ahead. Hope jogged after them. The site was little more than an open area next to the road surrounded by forest, with flat soft earth for pitching tents, and a fire pit. The burbling of running water suggested the worn footpath among the trees led to a stream.
Delnoch dismounted stiffly from the donkey, and stood there staring at their surroundings. Her adopted mother was no longer the mighty Paladin from Hope's first conscious memory. But even old and afflicted with arthritis, Delnoch was a formidable swordswoman.
"Mother, is something wrong?"
Delnoch blinked, her gaze settling on Hope. "This is where I found you, all those years ago."
Hope regarded their surroundings with renewed interest. Then she recalled how adopting a tiefling child had changed Delnoch's life and affected her standing at the Temple of Torn, and bowed her head. "I'm sorry-"
"I'm not sorry," said Delnoch in her most authoritative tone. "Finding you, making you my daughter, was the best thing I ever did. It was Torn's will." She drew Hope into a brusque embrace, then pulled back and lifted Hope's chin so their eyes met. "Enough of that, let's make camp."
Soon the ox and donkey were chewing their fodder, a fire crackled in the pit, Rek and Delnoch were preparing the evening meal, while Melody and Vignette set up the tents. Hope went with the twins Yarn and Fable into the forest to gather more firewood.
The twins ran past a thick tangle of bramble and vines that Hope at first took for the side of a hill. Something familiar and strange drew Hope to look closer. She followed the remains of a path around to the other side.
"What is it?" asked Fable and Yarn in unison from behind.
Hope shifted her armload of firewood and pulled a handful of vines aside to reveal an opening in a stone wall. "Remains of a stone cottage, maybe?"
The two youngsters hurried past Hope and went in before she could stop them, and Hope followed. Inside it was completely dark except for the light filtering in from the entrance, and the interior was much larger than Hope expected, built deep into the hillside. In shades of gray Hope could discern with darkvision, she made out an alter surrounded by half a dozen humanoid skeletons. Thank Torn, Yarn and Fable were human and couldn't see that.
An unseen force urged Hope to go deeper, but she had the children to consider. "I think it's some kind of forgotten shrine. We should, uh… get back to camp."
"But we want to explore."
Privately, Hope agreed. Instead she insisted, "Maybe in the morning. If your parents say it's okay." She ushered them out before she could change her mind.
They started to head back, but the twins' mother Melody and older sister Vignette came running up the trail toward them. "Bandits in the camp," gasped Vignette.
"We were at the stream, getting water," said Melody. With grim determination she added, "Rek and Delnoch told them to take whatever goods they want and leave us in peace. But if…" she didn't finish that thought. "We all need to hide."
Whilst the twins showed their mother and sister the shrine entrance, Hope's first thought was to rush back to join Delnoch and Rek. But then Hope realized she left her daggers in camp. She'd seen weapons among the bodies in the shrine.
The others gathered just inside the shrine entrance, where Fable and Yarn were trying to light a torch. Hope dropped her firewood bundle next to where the twins had left theirs and hurried into the darkness to find a weapon.
She counted six long-dead corpses, four rusted swords and a huge axe with a splintered haft among them. One skeleton in particular caught Hope's attention – a skull with horns. It didn't seem to have a weapon, though a silver gauntlet with an inset gemstone on the skeleton's forearm glittered in the flickering light of the fire that Yarn and Fable managed to kindle.
Footsteps and the warm glow of a torch approached Hope from behind, adding color to the gruesome scene. "What's back here?" Vignette asked. Then she saw for herself and let out a piercing scream.
The bandits would hear that. Hope grabbed one of the rusted swords. Then without really thinking, her other hand closed around the gauntlet.
A brilliant white light flashed, and abruptly Hope was in a place both different and the same. Lanterns illuminated the shrine. A tiefling woman lay at Hope's feet, dead from numerous wounds. Five warrior women and men lay on the floor around her, all dead. A tiefling child with blue skin, crawled out from under the alter and ran toward the shrine entrance.
A rich, resonant voice spoke inside Hope's head. "You seek help to vanquish your enemies and save your friends. Serve me, and I will make that possible."
"What… Who are you?"
"I am Snaga. Nadir, your mother, once served me. She died here, saving you. Accept my offer and live, or refuse and perish."
Muffled in the vision as if through a tunnel, Hope could hear Melody say, "They're coming. The bandits are coming."
Hope would do anything to save her friends and Delnoch. "I accept."
The vision cleared as abruptly as it started. The gauntlet was on Hope's forearm, though she didn't remember putting it on. Before her eyes, it transformed into a sword with the clear gemstone in the handle. Lifting the sword over her head, Hope ran out into the sunlight to meet the bandits.
# # #
"I don't remember what happened," Hope lied. Again. She remembered every moment. What she didn't want to remember was the satisfying crunch of ribs breaking as she plunged Snaga into a bandit's chest. Or the pleasure she felt as Snaga's razor-sharp edge caressed another bandit's throat and blood poured out.
Delnoch stared at Hope's forearm, her expression grim, but did not call out the lie. The two of them stood together at the edge of the campfire light, while the others put the camp back in order. "And that thing on your arm?"
Snaga had transformed again into a thick silver bracelet, and the gemstone was now a deep crimson red. Try as she might, Hope couldn't get it off her arm. "It was in the shrine."
Delnoch sighed heavily. In the initial camp encounter, Rek had wounded one bandit but was knocked unconscious. Delnoch was badly injured but managed to kill another bandit. That was when Rek's adversary and the other two bandits went searching for more victims and found a hexblade. Afterwards Hope had searched the bodies of the dead bandits and found a magic potion she used to heal her mother. "We'll discuss this later," said Delnoch.
Melody and Vignette wouldn't meet Hope's gaze, and Hope overheard Melody tell Fable and Yarn to keep their distance from 'that tiefling.' They had seen how she dispatched those two bandits and the wounded one. They knew what she had become.
A monster.
Three years later, Hope found herself in the Fairfell town square, listening to the song of a talented bard accompanied by a magicked flute. The sun was near its zenith, not even midday, but Hope yawned. She had not slept well at the Dire Melon Inn. A couple in the room adjacent to hers had kept her awake with their lovemaking late into the night. Then she'd been awakened early that morning by yet a different pair at it in what sounded like the same room.
Hope stepped back as a Pegasus landed in the town square. She openly eavesdropped along with everyone else in the vicinity as the Captain of the Clearcoast Guard outlined the threat facing the region.
"Kidnapped children." Snaga intruded into her thoughts. "Sounds like these kidnappers deserve to have their blood spilled."
Since when do you care about whether or not your victims deserve to die? Hope asked rhetorically.
"Oh, I don't care. But you, unfortunately, do. And it's so much more satisfying for me when you let yourself enjoy it."
I do not enjoy killing. Hope checked Snaga's gemstone, it was only pale red.
Snaga's tone was annoyingly smug. "Of course you don't."
Hope closed off her thoughts to the spirit just as the blonde Genasi hopped to the edge of the fountain and made a plea for volunteers to join the investigation, recruiting a halfling and a human magic user. When the party leader told them to meet at the main gate, Hope planned to join them.
-----
