Bondbreaker
Summary
During a peaceful period in the Second age the city of Trem was gripped by fear of a criminal known as the Bondbreaker. This Individual would kidnap 2 or 3 people known to be close friends and lock them in a hidden chamber together. The Bondbreaker would leave his victims with a dagger and three days of water, along with a note.
There is but one way to leave this chamber alive. Ensure you are the last person still breathing and the door will open.
Looking around the chamber, the victims would find that there were no windows, and only one door, made of metal, leading out of the chamber. Light was provided by magical flames on three of the walls of the chamber. Some survived the ordeal by killing their friends. Others died together refusing to take each others' lives, and some were saved by their friend's sacrifice. Those that survived through one means or another found that the door would open onto a corridor stretching out into the darkness. After moving along this corridor for a short distance the survivor would find themselves in an alleyway in Trem, with no visible way back into the corridor. As the alleyway that the survivors reappeared in changed with each victim the authorities were left without any clues as to where the Bondbreaker's lair might be. It was therefore something of a relief when the kidnappings stopped after the 8th set of victims. The Bondbreaker would likely have been forgotten if it were not for the fact that the attacks started again 16 years later. Once again there were eight attacks before the Bondbreaker went silent again. This pattern of attacks went on for centuries, which led many to believe that the Bondbreaker must be an elf. The attacks stopped during the first Years of Darkness, but resumed several centuries into the third age when Trem was once again a bustling city. The attacks went on for so long that they exceeded even the lifetime of an elf, leading many to speculate that some spirit or dark power was behind the Bondbreaker.
This was written for Spooktober 2022 for the Door prompt. Other Spooktober articles can be found in the Tremanac Spooktober 2022 page.
The bodies of those who didn't survive this grisly trial would be found outside a guardhouse with no sign of how they had gotten there. Pinned to each body would be a note explaining the circumstances of the death. These would frequently contradict the stories told by survivors about their friend's noble sacrifice.
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