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The Diary of Ariadne Traduceri (TS Noon Oct 16)
#1
"Posted below, with permission of her family, is the diary of Ariadne Traduceri. I post this not in some petty attempt at vengeance, but instead so that you may understand the kind of people that we are dealing with. Ariadne is charged with multiple counts of Treason, several counts of Obstruction of Justice, several hundred counts of Obviating the free will of others, and while she cast no magic herself, her vast enabling of wytchcraft is worthy of punishment as well. Keep this in mind as you read.

-Regent Hector Turnbull


  Entry 1 - December 16

It has been a month and a half since Mama and Papa died. They told me it would get easier. It hasn’t. I just get angrier and angrier every time I remember standing there, useless. Powerless. Why would it get better when this could happen again any moment? If not undead, demons. If not demons, Brood. The Empire and the Alliance, the gods themselves say they will protect us, but it has been years and we are not better off. We are losing.

I am tired of waiting for others to save me and my family. We all are. I have spent much time with Mr. and Mrs. G, Vedario, Caleb, Janos and Archibald lately. Moallie feels the failure against the Brood like I feel the release of the undead. We are all sick and tired of waiting for saviours who never come. We can do better. We will do better. It’s time to take matters into our own hands.

Entry 2 - January 3

My family are hosting a peace talk. We trade. We mediate. Nothing is changed. We have gone back to the way life was before Hallows. It feels like everyone has forgotten. My parents died. How could things ever be the same again?

I’ve been speaking with the others. Each of us had something we could contribute… except me. Janos and Mr. G - he still won’t tell us his first name - and Caleb cast rituals. Moallie is a masterful chemist. Archibald has a small army of bandits. Vedario is a werespider and his brother can summon and bind demons. And I… am a seamstress... and a singer. Janos and I have spoken much about this. He told me I am strong too, simply in a different way. They say my voice is captivating. I will use it to make myself an army. And I know exactly where to start.

Entry 3 - April 18
Capturing the orcs was perhaps the most terrifying thing I have ever done, but it went better than I could ever have imagined. The orcs I enthralled were an offshoot of the Bloodbringers that had apparently broken off from that tribe when they came at odds with the townsfolk of Ralinwood. I had expected to capture the Bloodbringers, but this is so much better. Their tribe is full of wytches. They showed me a ritual I could have them cast to make my enslavement permanent. I had them all cast it on one another and now… they are all mine.

They also told me of a tribe of cannibal wild elves, also wytches; the Witherwing. Something of a bogeyman in these parts. All it took was sacrificing a few orcs as bait and I infiltrated them too. My army is now larger than all the rest of the Cosantoiri’s. My body may be weak, but I no longer am.

It is a bloody business, but they are orcs and cannibals and wytches. They are not innocent. The Traduceri are. They need never know what I’ve done to protect them.

Entry 4 - June 25

The ancestors would be laughing at me if they were not crying. The enslavement does not last past resurrection. The orcs who die resurrect free, and they seek my blood. I never told them who I am, of course, so they have been raiding everywhere looking for me. They raid the Ajaunti… and the Traduceri. They killed Katya and Danii. I don’t know what to do. This isn’t what I wanted.

Entry 5 - July 17

Vedario is dead. We were trying to summon a demon, one to finally free his brother, but the townsfolk of Ralinwood learned of it and interrupted the ritual. Caleb was secondarying the ritual, but somehow managed to convince them that he was not involved. He is now part of their Mage’s Collective. So that… well, anyway. The night before we performed the Wyvern ritual. I feel bad for that wood fae woman, but we needed her heart. We needed to protect the ritual - and even that failed. Caleb killed Vedario’s brother to cover our tracks. One of the benefits of being a Sidhe; killing in plain sight. There is so much death on this path. But we knew it would not be easy.

We weren’t sure who was going to be the Wyvern. It was either going to be me or Moallie. We are the two least physically powerful. Moallie volunteered to protect the ritual as the Wyvern. Ralinwood killed her. She resurrected, but Mr. G is furious. I have never seen him so angry. Perhaps he will finally start making genuine progress instead of just playing at being a merchant. Creating a mercantile monopoly is just a step, not the goal, but it is all they seem to want to do. Still, I thank the ancestors and Moallie that she was more brave than I. I do not know if my spirit would be strong enough to resurrect. I feel so… untethered to anything here.

Entry 6 - August 18
I think I have known this would come for some time, but I didn’t think it would feel like this.

Riven Shadowlight, the fucking Captain of the Wardens, got away. I have never let slip anyone I was trying to enslave before - besides resurrection - but he got away and told everyone what I did. He would have been such a useful spy. But now I have had to leave the Traduceri, my family, the only home I have ever known. They will come for me soon enough, if I stay there. And perhaps it is better for them if I am not associated with them any more.

I knew eventually I would have to leave. Eventually it would get dangerous for me to be near them. But I did not expect it to feel easy. In truth, I have felt like a ghost in the caravan for months now. I barely speak to anyone, and they barely speak to me. It feels like they have nothing in common. They live such small, happy lives. I do not know what sort of life I live any more.

Entry 7 - August 20

Two more of us are dead. Caleb attempted his final rite to become an Aether of all four elements, but he was killed in the process. His ritual was interrupted, despite everything Mr. G and Janos sent to protect it. He was so close. He could have done such amazing things with that power, that power that no living being has ever held. Now he will do nothing. I miss his silly way of speaking already.

Archibald is gone too, but through our doing. He betrayed us. I did not foresee that. He betrayed us, so Janos killed him and raised him as a slave. He would never betray us again. He could not. Three of us are dead, now. It is only me, Janos and the Gilthanuses.

Entry 8 - September 4

It is only myself, Janos and the Gilthanuses that remain, and today it doesn’t even feel like that. We have increasingly separated into the Gilthanuses and Janos and I. All Moallie and Mr. G seem to want to do is build a merchant empire. What are they playing at? We aren’t going to change the world playing petty commerce. Their commitment is wavering. I think they are too soft for this. They cannot make the hard choices that we need to if we are to succeed, if we are to gather enough power to truly change things. Janos and I have been working on contingency plans for if they, too, betray us. They need to prove their hearts are still in this.

So then it is only Janos and I. He is nearing the completion of his path. He’s barely human any more, and he feels more and more cold, less and less human. But then, so do I. I cannot tell if we remain together out of practical necessity or out of the friendship we once had.

So then there is me. I have been living full time with the Withering and the Orcs since I had to flee the Traduceri encampment. The only reason they do not rip me to shreds as I know they so desperately crave is because they are slaves. Thank the ancestors for the ritual that ensures that they cannot find our camp again if they are not invested in the circles.

It is strange to live in a bustling tribe, and yet completely alone. The Elves and Orcs are more like animals than people, really. Out here, alone, it is hard to remember why we started all of this. To stop Ga’more. To protect those who the gods and kings have failed. But why? They are too weak to do it themselves. Why should they profit from our painful work? We alone deserve it. Even the Traduceri… they have not searched for me. They have denounced me. Everything I did was for them and they care as much for me as they did for my parents’ deaths. I feel unmoored in a stormy sea. I feel nothing.

Entry 9 - September 28

Janos’s final ritual is tomorrow. Tomorrow he becomes a lich."
Will Apostolos shaper account

Contact me via the shaper email, and tag the email (Will A). Do not contact me via facebook.
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