Guilds and Motleys, Aislings and Mundanes: Temuair is interlocked

A Childhood Tale

<< by Facade Malenroh >>

*sits back and tells an old story, recalled from her childhood*

One day there was a man. A man of many talents, and one who could not find anything to keep himself occupied. Now, for all of us who know what its like, to feel determined, and yet have nothing to be determined about, it is rather confusing and depressing. Anyway, the man was just wandering through Rucesion and found a few bits of litter here and there. Deciding these were gifts fit fer the Mileth Begger, he put them in his pouch and continued walking. He collected a various amount of partchments, all torn and most illegible, but two seemed oddly preserved. Almost as if they had been just recently dropped, but from the weathering on the outside and back, it was obvious it had been on the ground fer some time. Everything but the images were eroded and faded.

As the man started his walk to the Mileth Begger, he placed the images together in many different ways, and all the many pieces of partchment seemed one large, elaborate puzzle. He sat down on one of the park benches near the fountain in Mileth and, since there was no wind, set the pieces on the bench. Spending many hours at work, and most very tedious and not producing anything but a failing outcome, he nearly gives up all hope. But someone had to have been with him that day, be it Deoch or Luathas, Cail or Gramail, but a strange wind, with an even stranger smell blew by, and all the bits went everywhere. The man, standing up and walking away, notices they formed a strange pattern outside the temple of choosing. *draws image in the dirt with a pointy stick*

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Now, the man looks at the picture, and cant seem to figure out the stange and cryptic symbol, for he wasnt very quick in the head. He looks at it from all different angles but cant figure it out. Then some flying thing catches him in the back of the head and he hears a strange voice in his head. "Its an arrow, you idiot." The man, confused, just shrugs and says, "ok", and walks inside the temple. He sees a peculiar little mass of lights, racing to hidden locations all over the place, but seeming to mass around the lady in pink. So he talks to her and gets sent down as if to guide someone. He follows the mass of lights all over, they seem to be going in all different directions, leading him nowhere, but eventually getting him lost. Tired and out of faith, he sits and nods off to sleep. He awakes to a sharp pain to his calf. Sitting up quickly, the man notices a sudden drop right before he plummets into a dark, and unthinkable area. Then the trap door closes and all is black. Except for a solitary candle way off in the distance. And there is a sign, in some sort of cryptic language, yet again. He strains to read it, then, as if his eyes focus all to quickly, the sign shoots forward and within seconds, it is right in front of his face. It reads...

*she sits back and sighs, and then takes in a deep breath and continues*

WELCOME TO THE FORBIDDEN SHRINE OF SGRIOCA.

Now, since this isnt the brightest man Temuair has ever known, he sits there dumbfounded for a few minutes, but then just shakes it off, thinking its just a misspelling or something. He looks around a bit and then pulls out a small lantern and it, as soon as he removes it from his pouch, ignites. He looks around, and it's an old, mossy area full of spider webs, spiders corpses and tumbled pillers. The whole ambiance of the setting is rather disterbing. He plays with the thoughts of why this place wasn't known. Could it be it was just accedentally hidden? What if it was a secret cult and he was trespassing? Now, just scared out of his whits, he looks around, trembling from head to toe, and walks around, very slowly. Then, as his adventerous side kicks in, he backs into a giant stone head. He turns slowly and screams louder then a Shrieker on fire. Then he calms himself and laughs, for only girly men scream like that, and for sure, he was no girly man. He pulls back the vines and the moss, like one thick, and very dirty tapestry and reveals half of the head, the face of a beautiful woman.

He falls inlove with this visage instantly, and cant wait to see the rest. He carelessly drops his lantern, and yet it doesnt break, nor go out, and rips the rest of the foliage off. As his eyes gaze upon the face he had just unmasked, a look of utter horror tears across his face, and brings his screams to an all new, unhearable pitch. The face, now completely uncovered, shows that of a very ugly, deformed, meloncholy, and... decaying face? This being the other half of that beauty he fell in love with? How could this be? What had he unmasked that could be this horendous? Then one word, or shall we say, name, echoed in his mind.

Sgrioca. Sgrioca. Sgrioca.

Then, right there, he understood exactly what he had uncovered. He had found the evil, the forbidden temple, shrine, and tomb of that abomination known as Sgrioca. He turned, after retreiving his discarded lantern, and could pick out where the brutal sacrafices used to be held. Where the mass worship was conducted. Even where she, or it, had been set to rest. A cold chill ran up his spine as he searched for a way to leave this place more evil then Sgrios himself.

And that is when he heard the slow grinding of stone. He turned slowly, and stood aghast at what lay before him. The stone head, now with a look of pleasure across its face, and its eyes glowing a deep red, its mouth wide open. But deep within the mouth, he saw the exit he had been seeking. He saw the one way out he could ever use. But something wasnt right. He took out a blank partchment, recorded all that had happened to him thus far, and tied it to an arrow, then shot it through the mouth. Now, we all know up to here, for he recorded his plans with the arrow, and then shot the arrow out through the whole in the back. But...

*takes a deep breath, and a drink of water, and concludes this story*

But, we never will know what happened to him after that. Many believe that he tried to crawl out through the mouth, but the mouth closed up on him. Others believe that he sat in there, trying to find another way out, until the very day he died. Even others believed that, still entranced by the beauty of one half of the face, he sacraficed himself to Sgrioca, to pay personage to that devine beauty. But, the only thing we do know, is that he never escaped Sgrioca's Tomb.

Facade Malenroh
Rucesion Guard Fourth Term
Unseelie Court

Abel Tavern Tales

 

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