Tanta roba
Originally shared by Matt Horam
One of my players decided to Spout Lore between sessions and this is what happened over Hangouts this morning:
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Player:
Is that the same king Teothiar from the ancient Angiar texts, become Drazhu or “malice” in his native tongue
the king that never lived
GM:
I like it. A Spout Lore roll would tell us how accurate you are.
Player:
rolls for wisdom check, succeeds, 11
GM:
The King who Never Lived is very interesting.
I’d love to hear/discover how that situation arose.
Player:
many of us thought he was just a fairytale
the story goes that he was his father’s only son, born stillborn.
his first advisor pressed by threats of death used the darkest form of sorcery in the name of ensuring his lord had a heir, as the king’s wife had also passed in the birth
the boy was brought back to life, at a price. The king incumbent was destined to lose his soul so that his son may live. the fates deemed that this would not be until the king’s death.
knowing his fate, he sought to prolong his life using dark arts and sorcery much as he had done to save his son in the first instance,
I’m on a roll let me keep going
GM:
Of course
Player:
and so the king’s advisor an agent for darker powers, indulged his king, calling upon frightful energies to sustain him, sacrifices of his servants, exotic concoctions of rare beast and bush and finally after all others could sustain him no longer, a stone, so powerful that death itself was afraid of its presence.
but even the stone could not preserve his mind, slowly over the decades, the kind grew frightfully more and more mad
the stone sustains life, not mind, in the end the king wished for death, only a husk of his consciousness remained
and so the stone took away the life it gave, and the soul of the king with it. leaving naught but itself and a pile of wispy dust on the floor
the debt was paid in the end, the kings son became the king albeit 184 years after he was meant to be…or not, as the case may be
GM:
What a lovely story.
Player:
however… the son inherited the stone, its needs quelled its power renewed
he kept it as a bauble
GM:
I take it his kingdom didn’t fare too well beneath his rule. I should ask the Ranger what brought him so low…but that can wait until next session.
Player:
the boy’s mind fared better than his fathers
better yes, kinder no
GM:
In a way, the stone and he had much in common, and therefore less affected.
Player:
he knew the power and the corruption of the stone, he knew it would take thrice what it gave
GM:
They were both cold, still creatures of death.
Ageless, unfeeling.
Player:
indeed
where his father had passion, rage, fury, greed
GM:
So much water passing around the stone
Immovable, unmoved
barely even eroded
Player:
this man, was no man, an intelligent golem,
GM:
A clay thing shambling across the earth
when it should’ve been buried at birth
Player:
slowly the will from within the stone… moved to take this blank, this plain canvas so attuned to it
GM:
and add motivations, machinations
Player:
man
this is getting crazy
GM:
which the boy couldn’t discern from his own
It is playing the Long Game
and Drazhu a pawn
of many
long forgotten