The Fouled Stream

by Tycho Ralesh

I was cutting a swath through my foes, ecstatic in berserker trance. The frogmen, the ogre...all fallen to my blades. Now I was stepping over one cultist to strike down another; no thought of my own mortality. And in an instant, my own mortality became my one and only thought. First one cultist struck me, then another. I dropped to a knee in disbelief, brought back to reality as I was being brought low.

I collapsed; the shades of pain and shame stomping my skull into the cold stone my cheek now lay pressed upon. As the cultist stepped over my body, all was fading to black. “No...I’m to be the Maelstrom Blade...what a feeble last thought...how could I...” A deep silence was overtaking me; even my last thoughts were slipping away when the divine weight of Kastran’s incantation shattered the void. The silver cord I had just noticed passing through me pulled taught, slowing, but not halting my decent.

“No,” came a voice, “That half-man and his trixsy God won’t steal you from me.”

I had heard that voice before...what was the name? “Sylvexen?”

“How charming, you remember.”

An old memory flashed fresh on the canvas of my mind. Some fools in a trade cog had slammed into our raft. A crate had broken loose and tumbled into Ilias, knocking him unconscious and into the water. We couldn’t have been but five or six; our parents focused on insulting the crew of the cog. I jumped in, but the current was strong, Ilias sinking, dragging me down with him.

Just as now, I heard that voice; the Fey Lord Sylvexen, as close as my family has to an ancestral patron. “Would you like to live? Be a hero for saving your brother?”

Though my lungs had already filled with water, my very soul was screaming “YES!”

“Alright then; we’ll make a Pact, but you’re far too young to make good on your end. There is always time...nothing but time, and I can’t pass up on you...a man with a destiny. We’ll met again in time, when your old enough to be of some use.”

I hadn’t remembered that until I was being shocked back into consciousness by the pungent, iodine taste of Borogrove’s acorn. As I came to, I looked toward my brother, and behind him stood the towering, shadowy form of the Fey Lord. No one else seemed to notice her. She pointed toward me, “Our Pact begins. I’ll visit you again. Until then, enjoy the boons of my favor.” And with that she faded back into the Faerie.

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Background
1st of Readying

The Fouled Stream
20th of Readying

Words with Lord Summerford
21st of Readying

I Believe You Mean Warlock
23rd of Readying

Miner Difficulties
27th of Readying

A Victory Celebration
28th of Readying

In response to Ilias
1st of Coldeven

The Winged God.
14th of Coldeven

A Patron's Favor
15th of Coldeven

A Traitor to the Folk
16th of Coldeven

The Scions of Elemental Evil
11th of Planting

A Gift to Palor
24th of Planting

First Conversations with Morley
25th of Planting

Roots of the Humble Ogre
26th of Planting

At the Temple's Steps
24th of Flocktime

Trapped in the Labyrinth
25th of Flocktime

Warmth of the Light
27th of Flocktime

The Horizons of Mind
1st of Wealsun

A Whoelsome Diversion
3rd of Wealsun

Pursuing Derider
4th of Wealsun

Rising Filth
4th of Wealsun

A Winged Shadow Flees
5th of Wealsun

The Slumbering Ogre
7th of Wealsun

Paradise Defiled
22nd of Wealsun

One Man's Salt
23rd of Wealsun

A Song of Whispers
28th of Wealsun

Lost No Longer
3rd of Richfest

Revelry and Memory
4th of Richfest

Many are the Guards who Wait
28th of Reaping

Lament
2nd of Goodmonth

The Maelstrom Blade
16th of Goodmonth

The Fouled Stream

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