And just like that she was gone, actually physically gone. I lay on the ground alone and weeping cradling a pile of mud. Whoever had killed my ethereal muse seemed to have no interest in me and had disappeared into the night.
I slept fitfully dreaming of strange beautiful men and even stranger lands. The next morning I headed into Edinburgh to visit my friend Gunnvaldr. I explained what happened. Surprisingly he believed every word and quickly set about trying to find help within the scrolls and parchments of the library.
Eventually he found an old parchment, written by a monk in an abbey my people had no doubt since pillaged, that detailed the various pagan legends of the Gaelic peoples. He described a number of creatures called “faeries” and one in particular, the “Leanan Sídhe.”
From what we read, the assassin had saved me from a terrible fate. Though the thought did not seem to settle the growing anxiety within me...
Game effects
New Experience
Gunnvaldr helps me research my new condition; though he seems convinced that I am now safe, I know something is still wrong.
I am Ráðúlfr Ásketillsson born in Iceland in the year 915 by the calendar of the Christians; I am a journeyman skald in the court of King Eiríkr “Blóðøx” Haraldsson of Norway, chronicalling his raids and subsequent rule of Northumbria.
2.
Ruined with a grief I can not identify, I haunt the outskirts of towns and feed indiscriminately, inflaming my victims with a desire to create so intense it consumes them entirely.
3.
When my father died his land was passed to me, his only son; it does not sit well with me that the land was earned through bloodshed.
I fix a rift between my friends Vivienne and Sadrabald using my business acumen; I find the drama of mortals amusing, if a little frustrating.
Vivienne and I move back to Northumbria and into my old family home. Things are good for a while, but the Normandy invasion forces us to flee North.
4.
Gunnvaldr first shows me to the library in Edinburgh and we spent the night engrossed in the histories of this land; I learn there is so much more to the people than their treasure.
Gunnvaldr helps me research my new condition; though he seems convinced that I am now safe, I know something is still wrong.
5.
An arrow pierces the Leanan Sídhe's breast when we meet in the woods. As she dies she begs me to profess my love for her, but I cannot, yet I also cannot reject her; something of her lives on in me now.
I discover my need and my ability to feed on people by inspiring a healer to continue his work; I am conflicted by this.
I run a brothel in Paris and make a lot of money and have access to many victims, but it is quickly reduced to ruin; I learn that I draw too much attention if I stay too long in one place
Diary
1.
My father killed Caitriona's parents in a raid, but I stayed his hand and saved her life; I worry she resents me and does not see it as a kindness, but a humiliation.
Caitrìona and I sit by the fire and I tell her about my latest poem; for a while I feel human again
Lost Memories
1.
I visit a Monastery and leave Cait in their care and learn to calm my hunger; I am sad to see her go, but hopeful for the future.
Viviene and I travel Scotland, living on the land, and from what I can take from the common folks' desires. I fear I am failing her like I failed Cait.
False Experience I passed Vivienne on to a passing hunter in order to save her life. It was winter and we were both so hungry and so desperate. I am alone now, as I should be.
Skills
Poetry comes naturally to me
I know many great secrets
I am a capable navigator
I am deft at business ✔
I control the beast
I can tap into peoples' driving desires ✔
I can appear in a form my victims find appealing
Resources
I have a small castle in Lothian (North Northumbria)
I have access to a great Library in Edinburgh
My father's old sword
A parchment on the nature of fairies
I have a stake in a small fencing operation in Paris
An ornate Diary
Characters
Eiríkr “Blóðøx” Haraldsson
He is my liege, but I fear him more than I respect him.
He must have died a long time ago
Dead
Gunnvaldr
My mentor and friend, though he loves the King more than I think is prudent
Dead
Caitrìona Ásketillsdóttir
A thrall taken into the family after my father killed her parents in a raid
Helps me learn to control my hunger
Spends her final years at a Christian Abbey
Dead
Vivienne Labelle
A prostitute and pickpocket who smuggles me out of the city of Paris
She knows something of my nature, but I trust her
She is my lover, or at least as close as she can be to something like me
She is sick and malnourished from a hard life on the road.
I refuse to believe that I consumed what little remained of her desires in order to save my own life.
Dead
Sadrabald
A fence in Paris, he runs a sloppy business, but I help him out
Mortal
The Leanan Sídhe
A strange and beautiful woman who promised me great stories if I gave my her my love, and my life.