One of my players decided to Spout Lore between sessions and this is what happened over Hangouts this morning:

One of my players decided to Spout Lore between sessions and this is what happened over Hangouts this morning:

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Player:

Is that the same king Teothiar from the ancient Angiar texts, become Drazhu or “malice” in his native tongue

the king that never lived

GM:

I like it. A Spout Lore roll would tell us how accurate you are.

Player:

rolls for wisdom check, succeeds, 11

GM:

The King who Never Lived is very interesting.

I’d love to hear/discover how that situation arose.

Player:

many of us thought he was just a fairytale

the story goes that he was his father’s only son, born stillborn.

his first advisor pressed by threats of death used the darkest form of sorcery in the name of ensuring his lord had a heir, as the king’s wife had also passed in the birth

the boy was brought back to life, at a price. The king incumbent was destined to lose his soul so that his son may live. the fates deemed that this would not be until the king’s death.

knowing his fate, he sought to prolong his life using dark arts and sorcery much as he had done to save his son in the first instance,

I’m on a roll let me keep going

GM:

Of course

Player:

and so the king’s advisor an agent for darker powers, indulged his king, calling upon frightful energies to sustain him, sacrifices of his servants, exotic concoctions of rare beast and bush and finally after all others could sustain him no longer, a stone, so powerful that death itself was afraid of its presence.

but even the stone could not preserve his mind, slowly over the decades, the kind grew frightfully more and more mad

the stone sustains life, not mind, in the end the king wished for death, only a husk of his consciousness remained

and so the stone took away the life it gave, and the soul of the king with it. leaving naught but itself and a pile of wispy dust on the floor

the debt was paid in the end, the kings son became the king albeit 184 years after he was meant to be…or not, as the case may be

GM:

What a lovely story.

Player:

however… the son inherited the stone, its needs quelled its power renewed

he kept it as a bauble

GM:

I take it his kingdom didn’t fare too well beneath his rule. I should ask the Ranger what brought him so low…but that can wait until next session.

Player:

the boy’s mind fared better than his fathers

better yes, kinder no

GM:

In a way, the stone and he had much in common, and therefore less affected.

Player:

he knew the power and the corruption of the stone, he knew it would take thrice what it gave

GM:

They were both cold, still creatures of death.

Ageless, unfeeling.

Player:

indeed

where his father had passion, rage, fury, greed

GM:

So much water passing around the stone

Immovable, unmoved

barely even eroded

Player:

this man, was no man, an intelligent golem,

GM:

A clay thing shambling across the earth

when it should’ve been buried at birth

Player:

slowly the will from within the stone… moved to take this blank, this plain canvas so attuned to it

GM:

and add motivations, machinations

Player:

man

this is getting crazy

GM:

which the boy couldn’t discern from his own

It is playing the Long Game

and Drazhu a pawn

of many

long forgotten