Jenni’s Lament
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Excerpt Exposition from 15 July Session 4:
Location: Old Ravencleft
NPC: Jenni, Spirit Girl who Remembers
Setting: Surrounded by lush forest, Old Ravencleft is a swampland of ruined home, now seeded with deadly plants from Lord Solitaire's Solarium.
Jenni appears, still blind. Singing softly. She tells of how the little town had a handsome young Cleric, on she dearly loved. But as kind as was , he was obsessed with gaining spiritual strength to prevent Lord Solitaire's evil from rising again. His lineage was legend after all. In his training a small boy was brought to him, a servant from the Black Fang Lodge, who had been taken ill. The Cleric attempted and exorcism and it was believed successful, for he had the spiritual power to drive the wicked creature from the boy. In his hubris, he had not prepared the proper protections. The demon, known as Manos the Claw, insinuated itself into the cleric. There, undetected in his body, it whispered into his mind.
The cleric’s next task:
The Vampire cannot cross moving water unharmed and is burned by holy water. Surely, a Cleric of his raw power could bless the water, and divert the stream into a holy sigil, warding the town! He reached out to a local adventurer to acquire an enchanted ring to shape the earth. Donning the ring, he took to the edge of the spring and dug out the earth, lashing out furrows to shape the swirling mystic form. Suddenly, he shuddered and spasmed.. eye rolling back… collapsing to his knees.. only one hand held aloft. The hand producing sounds, the sigil changing and shifted.
As villagers rushed to aid him, red blades of light lashed out cutting them down. The old adventurer… a man named Fenris (Session 1, one-legged “jerkified meat” vendor with rat issue) leapt forward, tackling the Cleric. The evil bands severed Fenris’ leg, toppling him into the spring. Manos (the hand) was attempting to push out THROUGH the Cleric, but was trapped within him.
The air grew heavy and a chill fell over the town, the sigil completed. Instead of a ward… it was a Door. Someone impossibly tall. Jenni related: “I heard his soft footfalls. I felt this… pressure and could smell the scent of books, and dust, and dried coppery blood.” The impossibly tall man, with a rich predatory voice, whispered “Blood of my enemy… for your impudence.. forget… and Be FORGOTTEN." Jenni continued, “As he finished the words, the Air grew colder and I felt intense pain as my life flowed out... as he fell over me. I awoke like this. Loving a man I can't even remember…"
Her story complete, Jenni then disappeared.
