#dark charade

[corvidexoskeleton]

Rishloo lyrics as they were meant to be enjoyed

[idrawtooslow]

Yksen Darkfang: (yells) "I have not stolen one acre of your lands since your ridiculous civil war began! Not one!"

Lady Mylrith: (quietly) "How many head of cattle and sheep have you stolen since then?"

Yksen Darkfang: (suddenly much calmer) "That's different…"

[idrawtooslow]

The Direwolves allowed a settlement of puny, weak, mortal Humans to take root in their wild land of Laistra for one simple reason:

Smoked salmon.

[idrawtooslow]

POV: You are an adventurer who's come to an inn, after a long journey.

As you enter the inn's public room, you take a moment to let your eyes adjust to the dim light, and to wipe your dusty boots on the doormat. You let the sounds tell you about the room: low conversation, the clink of glass, the clatter of dice, the splash of a dipper in the water barrel, a single flute playing a soft, low melody...

And a rasping sound that alerts you to your quarry. There he is, in the darkest corner of the room, a black hood obscuring his face. With his back against the wall, he is sharpening a small dagger with a whetstone. Without fear, you cross the room and walk right up to him, ignoring the stares of the common folk.

The hooded man looks up as you approach, alerted, no doubt, by the clink of your armor and sword belt. The light catches his face as he sits up straight. A young lad of about eighteen, with greenish eyes and a missing front tooth.

"How much for a longsword, son?" you ask the itinerant knife-sharpener.

"Euh... I'd have to unpack me grindstone in the courtyard for that," he says. "Call it thirty mark, an' meet me outside the stables, an hour after dinner."

He drives a hard bargain, and in spite of yourself, it makes you smile. "Perhaps you can do it for twenty-five marks," you suggest.

"If'n she don't have any bad nicks, I could manage for twenty-eight," he replies.

"Nah, she just needs a little care," you say, patting the sword lovingly.

"Twenty-eight mark, then, 'venturer," the knife-sharpener says. "An hour after dinner." He grips the dagger, now fully sharpened, by its pommel, and waggles it at one of the tables. A merchant gets up and waddles over, ready to receive back his knife.

Nobody really knows why itinerant knife-sharpeners, in Ethia and Orania, advertise by wearing their hoods up indoors, and sitting in the darkest corners of inns and taverns... but everybody knows that's what you look for, when you need their services. To most people, it's just part of the way the world works.

[idrawtooslow]

"I used to be an adventurer just like you, until..." (list)

...I fell off a roof during a wild post-delve carouse, and ruined my back.

...my wife threatened to divorce me.

...I realized my kid was growing up without me.

...I found out I have a kid!

...I got turned into a frog. Never again.

...I realized that adventuring is an exploitative practice used by the mercantile class, to maintain their stranglehold on the wealth that rightfully belongs to the masses.

...a mime ate off half my face.

...my Party went in without me, and got themselves all killed.

...my Party and I got ambushed by about thirty Wotayrar warriors, and I was the only one who made it out alive.

...a monster mind-controlled me, and I killed one of my best friends.

...I ran out of gold to spend on potions and spikes and ropes and stuff like that.

...I lost an arm to dungeon rot.

...I go' hi' onna hed 'oo menny 'imes.

...I discovered Toresian cannabis. You got anything to eat?

...I realized there were safer ways of making a living. <leans on shovel>

...another adventuring Party stole all my loot, gear, and money, and left me naked on the mountain. I've had this cough ever since.

...I got the bends while exploring the ruins under the Pink Sea.

...I got killed. People aren't supposed to die more than once.

...I lost a leg at the battle of Kiit Deel.

...I got better! Baw haw haw haw!

...I made myself a ludicrous sum of money, and bought myself a peerage.

...they caught me. I spent five whole years in prison. Five!