Finally, I got some inspiration out of this short story... I hope it isn't too much, because it looks more like the half of it only.
Rino, if you want to alter something, tell it to me, I am open to it. Tell me if you like this.
To the other players, if you want to add your characters to my backstory, suggets me some idea, or if you want to make my character appear in your story, go on. If we are to be a EPIC team, most likely we have met each other before.
[SBLOCK=Story]I remember the first time I have spoken to that wanderer. It was a few months after he came to our small village. After a visit to my family, I left our village in direction of the north. I haven’t been cautious and I have fallen in a trap set by some bandits. They appeared out of no where. They were four, two on each side. The road was blocked. I had no way to escape except the forest. They seemed only interest to loot my death body, so I flee. I ran for an hour. I think the stopped to follow me long time before that, but I was too scared. When I finally stop to run, I found myself in the middle of a forest I didn't know anything about that place. I was lost.
I wandered during hours. I was losing hope to find my way. I was thinking that savage animals would feast on me during the night when I fall on a small shack lost in the wood. No trails lead to this house. I thought I could at least find shelter in it for the night. When I arrive next to it, I saw some light inside. I hesitate to approach. And if that was my bandit's hideout? The darkness was falling pretty fast, and the sky was covered by cloud, but if we could see the stars, the moon would be about to show it face. I had nothing much to lose now, so I knock. I heard a noise inside and then it was a complete silence. After a moment, I knocked again. No one answered. I pled to the door, I told I was scared and would surely die if he wouldn't at least give me shelter for the night.
The door opened. I was looking at a man in good help. My first thought was he was most likely a lumberjack. He was looking strong and healthy. A few scars could be seen on his hands, most likely from hard labor. His face was dirty. He was wearing simple clothing. His long black hairs were messy and dirty and attached in pony tail. But then I saw his eyes. Silver eyes! They were beautiful, but they were showing a mix of hatred, anger and fear. I made a step back. I wanted to present myself, to break the ice, but the words were stuck in my throat. It is him who spoke first.
"Leave, it is not safe here." he told me. His voice was deep. It was the voice of someone who is suffering.
"If I leave, I'll die under the claw of the wild beasts. My only hope is in your shelter." I answered.
"Leave!" he shouts. Suddenly, a faint silvery light pierce the clouds and light his face. His face had become red. It looks like I didn't exist anymore for the man. I was fascinated and scared to death by that man. I stood there and stared at him. He was fighting a battle that seems above my understanding. He suddenly slammed the door and then he starts to shout. A moment later, the silence was back. I was still standing there, trying to understand what I had seen. It is the cry of a wolf from some distance that reminds me where I was standing. I approach the door and slowly try to open it.
Inside the small shack was a simple bed, a chest, a fire pit with a lighted fire and the death body of a deer. The smell of the fresh meet was floating in the air. The man was kneeling in front of the fire. He seemed absorbed by some thing. I slowly close the door and sit down on the bed and wait. I think I have waited an hour before the man finally stood up.
"You'll be safe tonight. Tomorrow morning, I'll show you the way to road. From there, you should be able to find the nearest village. It is at a day of walk from here. You want some roasted deer?"
"Yes." I answered "Thank you for your help. I fled some bandits and lost my way. I was lucky to fall on you."
"Yes, you are lucky..." he repeats, but he seems to know something I didn't when he said that.
He opened the chest. I saw inside a beautiful mace. I didn't recognize it at first. He took a knife and closes the chest back. As he was preparing the meat, I wondered what a lumberjack could do with a heavy mace. As he was preparing the meat, I saw his face lighted by the fire. It is there I remember him. I remember to have seen him in the Inn a few months earlier at the Inn, by the fire pit. Because of that, I decided to break the silence.
"I'm Volindar. I am a storyteller."
He came back to his chest without answering me. I look again inside. He took two plates. I was still fascinated by the mace. It seems as if the edge of the mace had the form of the different phase of the moon. He closed the chest and stared at me. My eyes quickly flee and I stared at the fire. I felt like if I was caught at doing something forbidden. He places the roasted meat in the plate and gives me the best piece. I felt even guiltier. He was receiving me like a good host and I was spying over his privacy.
We start to eat. The meat was good. The man sat down on the ground. The man didn't seem hungry and barely touch his piece. He stood up once to put some wood in the fire. As he sat back down, he leaned his back on the wall.
"My name is Tabrin Silverfield." he told me. I interrupt my meal and look at him. He seemed disturb by some thought. He stayed silent a moment before he continue to speak to me. "I am born in a small village in the north. I am the son of a hunter, the eldest one. I was supposed to become one myself. I must tell I have become one, but it is not really the one I thought I would become. The gods have played me a strange trick."
I didn't know what to tell, so I took another bite. My piece of meat was growing cold, but I didn't care much. I felt like if that I didn't arrive here by luck, or bad luck, depending the way you see it. I felt I came here to be some kind of confident. Some god or the destiny has put me on his path to listen to him. He had changed since he opened the door. It was a broken man I was looking at, an empty shell. It seemed the battle he was fighting inside of him had exhausted him. So I kept listening.
"I was only ten years old when my destiny was revealed. A large man came to my town. He stayed there for a few days. He told he was seeking someone. On the third night, the man starts to wander outside the Inn, under the light of the full moon. I met him. It was in the middle of the night. I was with my father. Our cow was about to give birth to a veal. He heard the sounds and came to us. He offered us to help. My father accepted, the cow wasn't in good shape. The birth was difficult, but we saved both the veal and the cow. My father thanked him and offered him something to eat and drink. He refused, but he asked us to talk with him. My father is a good man and accepted to give him some time. He told us he was a follower of Selûne, and that's why he was wandering under the full moon. He was praying his goddess. But she had revealed him that he would find that night a kid that would give the gift of life to an animal, and that kid would be important to her.
My father only smiled. He respects a lot Selûne. My father had traveled a lot and asked her protection many times he had to sleep outside. She never failed him. But I don't think he had believed the man. He thanks him and the man left, but just before he turned to me and add 'Kid, Selûne have chosen you, you can't escape your destiny, you like it or not. The day after, I seek the man at the Inn to ask him more about Selûne, but he had left. My father told me not to bother about that, which he was a good man but I don't need to believe all that I hear."
The man paused. Something passes in his mind as he smiled for a moment but he told nothing about what it was. He just continued. "Three years after, the prediction of that man became true. I started to dream every full moon about a woman. She was a traveler that was stopping by our house. I was alone in it, so I offered her to stay for the night. She accepted. She entered our home and put a heavy mace shaped like the four moons. She sits at the table and we start to speak, and to speak about many thing. Each dream was different. She told me that I could become more than what I was. I would just need to put the will in it.
That summer, there was a drought. Our crops were barely surviving and our well didn't give enough water. The veal that was now a cow was suffering from the heat. I was taking care of her. I took the bucket and put some water in it and offered the cow to drink. It was far from enough. It would have barely quenched my thirst. I remembered what the woman in my dream told me, and what the large man told me. If Selûne had really chosen me, I thought she could surely offer me a little something. I wasn't asking much, simply a bucket of water. I wish it strongly. I didn't wanted that cow to die. I was there at her birth. I have taken care of her during three years, everyday. Selûne listen to my prayer. She filled the bucket. I was amazed. I quickly fetch my father and show him the feat I just did. It disturbs him. During all the summer, once per day, I was filling the bucket for cow. She stayed healthy while all was barely surviving under this heat. I was happy.
When the winter arrived, my father spoke to me. He told me that it would be a waste to use my gift here. He told me he knew a temple of Selûne. It was at one month of walk. I would have to go visit it and seek advice to the high priestess. But my father couldn't come with me, he had to take care of the farm and my brothers were too young to help. He told me that Herbert had to go in that direction, and would take me. Herbert was a trader that was born in our small town and because of that, he always stop in our town for a week before continuing his travel.
I was anxious of this departure. It was the first time I would leave the town, and it would be with a man I was considering almost a stranger. So I left and travel for over a month, as we had to stop to sell and buy an items here and there. After two weeks of discovery and interest, I start to miss my family. After a month, I wanted to come back home. After six week, I finally arrive at the temple. Herbert led be in there. I walk at his side, scared by everything. Missing so much my family, I had imagined that the people at the temple were ugly and evil cultist that would prevent me to see again my family. I just wanted to run. But if my father would have heard that i would have fled, after he sent me here, he would have been angry, so I kept my courage.
I met in the garden a beautiful woman. She was tall and lovely. She had blond hair like the golden wheat in the end of the summer, like the sun, and she had silver eyes, just like mine. I think I felt in love right there." A smile appeared on his face. He sighs and felt silent for a moment, absorbed by his thought.
It is there I risked a question. "Is it the same which you spoke with by the well in a small town south of here?" Once I finish asking the question, I knew I made a mistake. His sight was on me. I could see the knife in his eyes. I had spied on him that night, I had been curious to know what he was doing outside. I should have spied on him. But today, my curiosity had made me revealed the only secret I knew about him. I had gone too far by spying him. I thought a moment he would just throw me out of his shelter.
"How do you know that?"
"I live in that small town. I spied on you. I was curious to know what a man who spends a week in his room could seek outside the Inn in the middle of the night."
"What have you seen?"
I hesitated, but I thought the truth would be the only acceptable answer. "All. I have seen all but heard nothing, I was too far. I saw both you talking, I saw you hitting her and I saw her giving you a silver object..." The man had closed his eyes. He seemed but angry and sad. What could torment a man like that? I was wondering. He stood up and open his chest again. When I saw the heavy mace again, I knew why it was familiar. The mace was the symbol of all the warriors of Selûne. So my lumberjack, the same farm boy have spoken about, the wanderer who visit my town was a follower of Selûne.
He took a silver circlet out of his chest. It was a simpel item, decorated with a simple waxing moon. "The moon of hope.” He told me as he stared at the circlet. He put it on his head and he closed his eyes. He seemed like he was released of some weight. A peacfull emotion filled him and he stayed like that a moment. He returned to his place and sit back on the ground. I look back into the chest he had left open but I quickly turn back my attention to him, as if I was guilty of some crime. He smiled and asks me to close it. I obeyed. I didn't want to contradict him.
He then, he answered my question just as if our conversation hadn’t been interrupt. "Yes, it is her. She is an elven maiden dedicated to Selûne, the high priestess of the temple I was received in. When she first saw me, she looked at me like as if I was some kind of sacred artifact. She ignored Herbert for a moment. I felt uneasy as she was staring at me, but at the same time, I like to be the center of her attention. I had forgotten all the idea I made of the cult of Selûne. How could such beautiful creature do any harm..." Something was sarcastic in this last sentence. I felt it. But I had to agree. How could she do anything harmful? "She told Herbert she would take care of my education. That I would return to the farm on the first day of the seed-time and I would come back here by the last day of the crop, and it would be herself that would take care of that. Herbert bowed and left me there. I felt sad to know I wouldn’t be with my father for all the winter, but I thought it would be even worst to be away from her during the summer.
I spent the next 10 years in this temple. On my 7th year, I stop to travel back to my farm. I pass the last three years to train and learn to focus my powers. At first, I was happy to be there, but it isn't her who took care of my teaching, it was the large men who took care of my education. His name is Barton. He is a Lycanthrope, a werebear and a great healer. He is a kind man and took great care of me. He thought me how to channel the gifts of Selûne and how to fight with a mace and how to use my speed against his strength. But even then, I was happy to come back home, as I found it boring after a few months. It is the great priestess who carry me to my home and back to the temple by the mean of magical travel.
With the time passing, I felt that m love wasn't returned by the high priestess. So I start to lose interest in my training. I was training only for my father, so I could show him my progress. He was honored to have his son chosen by Selûne, but as the time pass, I felt I wasn't quite in my place in the temple and I started to lose contact with my family. After the three last years, I never felt so lonely. The big Barton couldn't do anything. He was a nice man, but he was my mentor. I never really made a friend at the temple. I felt like if I was wasting my life there. At least, my training was finished, so I decide to come back home, by my own mean. I needed to think before I arrive back to my home town. I left the temple the day before the high priestess was supposed to send me back home.
I walked the same road I did with Herbert. I wondered where he was now. I didn't saw it in the last five years. I also asked myself what I could do with my gift. Selûne gave it to me, but never told me why, so I was guessing it would be to my own judgment to use it. But what could I do with it? I was imagining myself opening a small chapel in my home town and welcome the travelers. I was thinking my father would be proud of that idea." Something was troubling him. He seems attached to his father. Each time he speaks of him is with emotion. But I feel in his voice that he speak in the past... what has happen to his father I asked myself?
"One night, I met four men on the side of the road. The darkness was coming. I decided to stop and ask them if I could joint them for teh night. As I asked that, I saw there weapons. One of them was wounded. They were mercenaries. Probably they got into a fight during the veening and they were resting, unable to come back in time to some village because of there wounded companion. One of them look at me with suspicion. He stared at me, as if he wanted to evaluate me. He told me that I was welcome if I could offer something. I told them I could heal there wounded friend. They weren't convinced, but they told nothing, I just felt it. Suspicions were floating in the air. As no one had made any protest, I approach the wounded and put my hand on his wound. He never react to the pain. I asked Selûne to heal the man, what she has done. The atmosphere changed at that moment, and there leader welcome me for the night. His name was Darion. The day after, he offered me to join them on there road to the city.
I've never been to the city, and I told myself I would have to stay in my town to take care of the chapel I want to build, so the chance might not present itself before a long time. I choosed to follow them to city. I never thought it could be so big, so I stayed with them. They were amused by my reaction. They report to some trader about a group of bandits they got rid of. After that, they spend a week relaxing. For me, I was discovering the city. I completly forgot I was going back home. But I run out of gold. Darion offer me some and I accepted. I didn't knew what I did. A few day later, he came to see me. He told me I was in debt. They had a new contract. A ravaging band of orcs where raiding a mine for some ore. They were killing the miners. They had been hired to get rid of them, but his men wanted a healer. I followed them, Darion gave me little choice.
The live of a mercenary isn't what I wanted, but I was stuck with them. When I arrived at the mine, the orc had done a new raid the day before. I start to help with my healing but Darion stop me. He told to keep some for his men and to prepare for the day after. We left the miners, some on the edge of death, and we start to hunt the orcs. Darion had recruited four more men, so we were nine in total. After a few days, we found there camp. It was hidden in teh mountain, and they were climbing down once in a while. Under the cover of the night, they attacked. I was behind and I had to take the falen out of the fight and make sure they doesn't die. Three men felt, on of them beheaded. His head rolled to my feat. I was sure I would faint at that moment, but somehow, I stayed couscious, but an orc attacked me, so I had to defend myself. Barton had showed me how, but training and real life wasn't the same. I was pityfull. I survived, because Darion came to my help. I pull out the two fallen that was still alive and healed them. It was my first contract.
I made a few more with Darion. It was my way of living. Between each contract, I came back to the city. I finally decided to visit teh temple of Selûne in it. I found it bigger than the one where I was trained. I was well received. What I didn't expect, it is to see Loren, the high priestess my temple. I pay my repsect to her, but the love I had for her was long gone. That was I thought, but I was so naive. She asked me to see her later tonight, after the prayer. As she asked, I came to her room. She told me whe was now based in this temple, that Barton have taken the lead of the other temple. I told her my few adventures I had during the month I didn't saw her. She finally reveal me that she was liking the man I had became. During our conversation, my memories was awaking and it only needed that to light up the fire in me. I felt in love, again, with her, but that time, she gives it back.
The next month, I was continuing my job with Darion, always coming back to Loren. I was in paradise. She had been my first love and it became true. Two years like that until I came back from another contract. It was my final, I told Darion I didn't wanted to continue. I decided to come back directly after the contract and not with the group. I wanted to see Loren as soon as possible..." In his voice, there was anger. He tigthen his fist. He was containing his rage. "I'll never forget when I found her in the arms of Elias. He was an elven diplomat establish in teh city. I was a fool to think an elf could fall in love with a human. I must have been a little adventure. Two years in the life of an elf, it is nothing. I found them in the garden of the temple. She saw me. She looked at me, and only saw pity. I tured around and I left." His head down, his eyes closed, his fist was open again. I felt some pity for him. I tried ot hide it, I don't think it would have been the best thing to do.
"I came back to my village" he continued. "I was broken, teared apart. I remember to have thought nothing worst could happen to me. I was wrong, it was just the start. When I arrived in my home town, people didn't recognize me at first. They thought I was a traveler. I stop by the Inn. I found Tobias there, a friend I had when I was young, the son of teh Innkeeper. He had taken the establishment as his father was starting to be old. When he saw me, his eyes became wide and his face fall apart. I thought he had seen a ghost. I asked him if he was alright. He asked me to sit down and he offered me a mug of ale. He then told me. A wolf was hunting the countryside for a month. It was strange, as he was alone. One person had seen it, and he had told he was as large as a veal. Some footprint was found and confirm that. He first only hunt beef and cows, but last week, he have attacked a farm. He killed all the family. As he told this, understood what he meant. He killed all MY family. I didn't let him finish and I ran out of the place. I ran up to my home.
The door was broken and wide open. I entered the place and saw the trace of blood, the sign of fight. I fall on my knee and I cried. cried all my tears. I stayed like that for 2 hours at least. The night had fallen. I stood up and saw the waning moon in the sky. I prayed Selûne and left to hunt. I remembered a few things my father told me about hunting. I put them to good use. I was so eager to find him that i even cut myself, in hope the blood would attract him to me. In my search, I fall on a stranger. He was looking like a beggar. He told me he was lost and wanted my help. I told him to walk in a direction, that he would find the road and I ignore him. That was a mistake, I was attcked by him as soon as I turned my back. As I face him, I saw a large devilish wolf. The warm blood was slowly flowing in my back. I attacked him with all my rage and despair. I've been lucky and knock him unconscious on a lucky strike. Harmless, I quickly killed him.
I thought it would at least bring me some confort, but no, I was even more desesperate. During a week I stayed in my old house, but I finally left. I travel south. I am not sure where I was heading. It is there I make an halt in your village. A messenger found me. He was carrying a letter from Loren. She only told me she wanted to speak to me, it was very important. And that she will be coming soon, to wait for her. How did she knew I would be there, I didn't knew, but after what she did to me, I let my wrath go on the table next to me. I broke it and I confine myself to my room, eating some dry ration and drinking the water I create myself. I await a whole week for her. On one night, my dreams was disturb. I didn't knew why, so I decided to walk out some fresh air. The moon was full, and for teh first time, i found it disturbing. I rest a moment at the well and someone approach. When she started to spoke, I knew it was Loren. I wanted to confront her. She said she was sorry but that love isn't something people can control. I couldn't control myself. I hit her. She fall on her back. I saw her face. She was cold. I just broke her heart there. Maybe we could have been friend but now it was too late. She stood up and told me that it wasn't for that she was here, but to give me a gift from Selûne. I have been afflicted by Lycanthropie. Selûne decided I wouldn't be cured, but she was giving me a circlet that would help me to control myself."
As he explain it to me his situation, I undertsood why he had received me like he did. He wasn't cured, he could have killed me if he had turned. The moon was full tonight. And then I was scared again. I was scared to see him turn into a wolf and kill me. I imagine him feasting on my death body. He perceived my thought. "You have nothing to scare for tonight. If I had to turn into a wolf, it would already have been made."
"I was borken. I had lost my love, I had lost my family and now I lost my freedom. I didn't knew what to do. The only thing I knew, it is I couldn't stay any longer here. Loren told me Selûne was preventing my transformation for thsi full moon, but ti wouldn't be the case the month. She left me there. I finally go back to my room. I left the village, leaving all my money to the Innkeeper, as I wouldn't need it anymore. I came here, at a day of walk of any civilization. Too far to do any harm to anyone. Selûne have turned her back to me and I am today without any power. I built that small house and I live form the hunt. Every full moon, I bring a fresh deer here to feast on it if I ever transform, to reduce the temptation to wander away..." And then he felt silent.
The fire was almost death, but the sky was dark blue. One more hour and the day would be there. I didn't beleived I had spent the night with a werewolf. I didn't know what to tell him either, so I stayed silent. I stayed like that and stared at him. He was still looking at the ground. He finally stood up and he opened the door. The sun was entering the room. "Come on, I lead you to the road."
As we walked in the forest, he told me "Thanks to have listened. I was forgetting how it was to have company."
"Thanks to you, to have received me. I will keep your secret with me. But now, what will you do?"
He stop and looked at me. He was confused. "Stay here..." he finally answered me.
"You look like a good man. Why couldn't you do something good with that curse? Or maybe get rid of it yourself." I suggested.
"It is too dangerous. I shouldn't have told you that finally." And he led me. We stay silent for anotehr hour. We finally reach the road. "The nearest village is a few hours north. You'll reach it a bit after noon. Good luck." And he left me without another word. I think I've stayed a good half an hour there thinking. And then, I start to walk, south. I had a temple to find, and a werebear to question. If someone could help Silverfield, it was Barton.[/SBLOCK]
The concept that is drawn out od that story is a human Favored Soul of Selûne that has been afflicted by Lycanthropie. To control his state, he has become a SilverStar (PrC found in Faith and Pantheon) That should cover the 20 first level...
After that I would have like to continue with SilverStar in Epic Level, but it has never been develloped in Epic Level, so I might just come back to Favored Soul.
