>>5571057“I have researched this… Last Yosef. He is a traveling warrior of some renown. Not a mere ‘adventurer’, one of those glorified hikers or tomb-raiders playing tourist in places where OTHERS have made the way safe. He has spent the last thirty years honing his skills-is swordplay, in magic, and more. He is reputed to be skilled at annihilating demon-cults of the Near East, and slaying great monsters.”
The Green Knight. You stare into her eyes, and she stares back.
“To face him MIGHT mean losing you… Or you, losing me. I love you, but I wonder… When I am dead, what will you become?”
Before you, your mother’s face warps, twists, shifts into that of her soul-bound, lovesick demon-servant, now looking at you with a predatory curiosity.
“I guess well find out, huh, my naughty little nephew?” she giggles.
You take a step back, but it is into nothingness. Whatever ‘floor’ existed in this formless, misty realm of thoughts, imaginings, and dread portents, it can no longer support you. Irinnile leans down and waves while you fall, and fall, and fall, and fall, and…
You wake with a start, gasping aloud. You are embarrassed to find you aren’t the first to rise—your biological father, pureblood and stalwart soldier that he is, has already donned his attire and made himself a simple meal of cooked eggs, some surface-mammal meat arrayed in strips, and a glass of faintly-yellow water.
“It’s just the iron from the well,” he says of the water, and gestures with his head and neck to the back door. “Set up a pan over the forge. Get some food for yourself.”
“You made enough for the Archer as well, I trust?”
“The Degenerate?” he scoffs, then grumbles. “Yeah. Knew you’d demand it, for whatever reason. He eats LAST, though. IF you give them an inch, those mudblooded scum take a mile, and years off your life besides that.”
You rouse Olu and, ignoring the Infiltrator called Roth for a moment, you gather your meal and his. Together, the there of you eat in silence. You contemplate your father, your mother, this… Demon-woman… And the strange circumstances of their time together, and of your conception and birth.
What will you do?
>Ask about this ‘Irinnile’, and of your mother’s occult dealings>Ask about the Green Knight—where has he been staying, and what ahs he been doing in Hawksong?>Ask about the royals—has Roth had any dealings with them, or does he know anyone who has?>Ask about the Archmage-can Roth make an introduction to her? She was a pawn once, and may still be a connection to highs society here…>Take Olu and explore around the city—there is no substitute for direct observation when gathering intelligence, and anyway… Hawksong is sort of amazing!>Write-in 