24XX Dying Sun: Minions of Sirboss

I was lying In a pool of blood and staring down at all the men who died before me as I gazed into this pool. And I turned to look up and saw myself standing over me preparing to finish me with a spear. I become aware of my own spear in my hand and have to choose between giving up and dying or incredible agony to cling to life.

Then I had another vision that I was serpent and had eaten the cosmos. And I could feel it burning within me and this imperative of live or die came again. It was not fair but I had consumed too much and would need to suffer to continue.

Then I realized that time had stopped I was the only thing moving. I could hear all the ocean of blood trickling through the cracks and it made this divine sounding choir of silence. I could feel everyone waiting on me to act. And in perverse ecstasy I refused to choose anything at all. The whole of the cosmos waited upon me. In animosity begging me to give up and die. But in my avarice I heard their begging as prayers and took succor from their lamentations. I was all and all alone at this, the very last moment of the universe.

There I saw it, the beautiful future, as my flesh rots and life begins anew in my spoiled cadaver. And I knew at once they waiting for my death sought merely to devour my corpse. So I endured that agony. Thinking long about my next move. Using the wound that I was on the continuum, I defied all the laws and drew upon this certainty of my demise. I corrupted it. Perverted it to my own ends. I had swallowed death itself. And it had swallowed me.

So I finally reached deep inside myself and grabbed the only light of life I could find and sat upright.I chose to live and in that moment I ran the spear through the me standing over myself and tried to get to my feet. But I was too weak from this bleeding hole in my stomach. So I fell back down on my face. On instinct I turned about and plunged my spear into the heart of the me that threatened the death blow. In burning agony I sat up. All the sudden time unwinds, I was no longer bleeding to death but restored, sitting up from a facedown position on my living room floor.

The town of Daygate was always known for its unusual happenings, sounds in the nearby woods that could not be explained, people disappearing and being found days later in the cold and snow; alive but without a shred of who they were remaining, or dead and mauled beyond the ability of any one beast on the ice sheets. The townspeople had been afraid, afraid for a very long time to the point that some considered it to be one of the most well-protected settlements along the Viridan Ice Sea.

These fears created opportunities for some, monster hunters, beast-slayers and wight-warders all vying for a piece of the town's bounty. Fell-Demons as they were known, were creatures of nightmares, lurking in the deepest recesses of people's minds, spawned by the Omenstones and their great fissures that leaked fell energies into the world. When the storm signs of a Ripple were present and the seers and sayers spoke of their discomfort, warriors sharpened their blades and honed their skills in the hopes of slaying an Omenbeast; brutal creatures larger than cave bears and as quick and violent as spear tooths, or harvesting the sought after parts of the smaller, more common Fellwights.

With his coin purse feeling light and his axe blade freshly honed, the bounty and opportunities the town provided were what lead Hastein Liutsson south from the Raven Downs. Nine days of gruelling travel through the ice sheets had been difficult, but with the gates of Daygate finally, in sight, his pace picked up and he wrapped his cloak tighter around his broad chest to stave off the worst of the brisk wind.

A few other travellers were converging on the gates themselves, torches flanking the giant wooden doors flickering through the snowfall ahead. Most carried heavy packs and weapons sheathed in leather and fur, protected from the elements giving away their professions and reasonings for seeking out the village.

"Hail brother," Hastein greeted one of the guards, who stamped his feet to try and beat some warmth into his frigid toes. The man just grunted and nudged his spear towards the gate. He had expected nothing less as he moved through the gates of the village. Inside was just as cold and gloomy, the winters wind sweeping snow down the packed streets, settlers huddled beneath leather canopies and in doorways, campfires burned in the alleys between buildings where men covered in furs, leather and chain, weapons hanging from their belts warmed their hands.

A sign half hanging from its chains read 'The Chalk Coat', a low and long building like most of the structures in Valonde. Heat rushed Hastein as he opened the door to the tavern, the patrons boisterous and loud as he muscled his way through, ale and food were in abundance and flowed freely, and barmaids and whores alike plied their business to the hunters and adventurers.

Hastein had a bowl of pottage and a mug of mead placed in front of him and dug in voraciously. His hunger had been gnawing at him for days and this was just what he needed. The talk around him was of course on the approaching Ripple, the seers and sages had been roused and their words of the Omenstones calling forth the Otherworld were like a meal bell to the adventurers and hunters currently swarming around the village, Hastein recognised some of them from other Ripples he had visited, others were new faces or perhaps accomplished hunters from other Guilds from parts of Valonde he had never visited.