"I'm not even really sure how long I've been walking this path..but I swear I passed that goblin corpse twice." Templez scratched his dark hair, crouching by the corpse to inspect it further.
"Yeah..yeah I took a few ingredients and a potion off this guy. Same..odd scar on his face." The scar he'd been referring to was a lightning strike that only ensnared a portion of his forehead. Puzzling to him, he didn't remember much mages aboard the nautiloid. This as a good sign, maybe more survived than he initially thought. His blue cloth and concealed chainmail scratched up against his tunic, creating small noises as he walked. He carried a dark steel katana found aboard, dug deep in the belly of a mind flayer.
Anointed by a higher power, he thought. That's when he grabbed it from such a gorey home and named it, "Veilbreaker". Fitting for what was to come and what has already transpired. For him, for this land..and so many people.
"Think..I see something up ahead. Finally another path." He climbed past rocks, rigid territory and lifted himself up onto a half ruined temple balcony. Templez rolled into it, breathing heavily.
"I feel out of shape...how long was I asleep on that damned thing?" He never once considered that. *When was he even snatched? Where was he? It felt like grasping at mist. Just barely within reach.
"Oi I told you no stealing until I get first grabs. Each find." A gnome wearing a bandana and a holding a dagger threatened a larger bandit elf. Despite the size difference, the elf began apologizing and forked over his loot.
"Now that's more like it." He grins underneath the mask. He couldn't exactly see it but the voice and stance said it all. The gnome was the brutish captain, best to take him out first if need be. Like Wolves, the bandits will feel less unified and prone to fleeing when that gnome goes down for the count.
"Ah, gems and daggers. Not such a bad haul, Miki'hel." The chuckle was as gutteral as the growl of a boar planning on trampling a rabbit. Swindler. Thief. Killer. With not a shred of remorse.
Templez, being a Paladin of Vengeance once...a force compelled him from beyond. *Take their heads..for they know not how to use them in this life..*
A deep unsettling feeling brushes past the certainty of a long held duty. Was this right? For all he knew, they were just as down on their luck as he is. Worse for him was that Templez could turn into a mind flayer any day now. Even though he hasn't, that lingering doom began pushing against his morality..his understanding of self. He held the blade close, unsheathing it slowly.
*They must perish, Templez. You know this.*
°Maybe I could talk to them..°
The voice within stills for a moment. Not confirming nor denying this path. It is Templez alone, making this decision. He moved forward with the weapon half drawn,
"Bandits! I come armed but calm. We can talk this out. I'm looking to get through these ruins to the other side of this cliff face. If -"
"Shut your bleating trap, you oaf." One bandit exclaims, unsteadily swaying.
"We could just kill ya for being this close." The gnome scratches his forehead with the tip of the blade.
Templez swallowed hard, a dry lump formed in his throat. A hard situation to deal with, maybe he could convince them. Although, the gnome seems more likely to use that backscratcher to tear off his flesh in one swoop.
"You could..yeah..or! Hear me out, don't..." Templez started off at a questionable pace, the cocked brows of the bandits suggested they were still listening. Albiet, probably more confused than a thunderstruck mouse in a ruined cheese shop,
YOU ARE READING
"Tempt of Fate" - A Baldur's Gate 3 Story
General FictionCome join Templez and his crew on the adventures that will span across many chapters. As they find themselves at odds with the new alien brain worm mindmate, they will be doing their best to get along and understand how to go about saving the world...
