A Year of Stories

The Man By The Eastern River

You awake on the west side of the Eastern River.

Before you are twelve Knights, who at one time were King's men all, but no longer, these poor souls have been twisted into foul beasts by ancient magick, wielded by the foe you've come to slay.

You remember sleeping here the night before, betwixt the soft grass and the full moon, in the embrace of Carissa Stormcaller – cunning woman – one of the greatest Witches in the Western lands.

The Knights have broken your meditation, of the Seven Grand Arcana she taught you, you have only been able to master six. The other would require blood and time, neither of which you had.

You drew up to your full height, calling on the Twenty Names of the Divine, urging them to gird your loins and your back and your arm, and grant you the strength to return these demons to the hoary pit from which they spawned.

You strike, with magick and steel. Your enemies are quick, like pigs oiled in their own fat, but you are faster still – having imbibed both the linseed oil and the copper ring.

They fall, but only the armor, the once-men inside disappear like smoke – a foul miasma that pollutes the river's banks.

You carve the Sign of the Penitent into each of their breastplates, and pray to the Blind God that She will allow them into her halls.

"If that were my only days work!" you cry, beating your chest and calling down your trusty steed Heimalweiss from his perch far above.

2.

The baleful sun burns you to the core, beyond your core, as you ride Heimalweiss towards the Black Castle. You recall that this place was once known as Evanmore, but now, in all tongues, is referred to only as the Dread Palace Mordrid.

You have journeyed for months to reach here, slain countless men – lost endless friends. Even your lady love, the Countess Iainna, the one known to all the land as the Viper's Sweet Embrace – fell in your trials.

But you have arrived.

You will find your friend the King and his daughter, and rescue them from the vile Prince Sartine.

3.

As you near the gates, Heimalweiss loses the wind and screams towards the ground. Only by invoking the Third Grand Arcana are you saved.

You hop from his back, and draw your steel, knowing that foul sorcery is the cause of this landing.

In front of you is the bridge, leading into the Black Castle, but in front of that is a beast neither bird nor man. It stands on two legs, and has wings of scarlet and gold. On it's breastplate are carved runes and signs, ancient even in the time of the Great War. Ichor drips from its maw, and cerulean burns in it's eyes.