On one of your very well paid missions you were asked to assassinate the queen of a Halfling tribe. You completed the deed at night with swiftness and ease. But when you step away from the bed of the queen you notice a child hidden under the covers. She was small, even for a Halfling. You felt something deep within your very cold heart. The first time you've ever felt anything that you can remember. You memorized her face and couldn't let it go. An alarm was raised on the other side of the village; this was your escape plan. You hesitate a moment longer to stare at her beauty, when a soldier enters the tent and spots you and the dead queen. He is dead with a knife in his throat just after he yells alarm. This is odd to you, no one ever yells. Why did he yell? No time to think must move. You burst out of the back of the tent and are stopped by 10 spears facing you. With a flick of the wrist you down 3 with throwing daggers (your best ones, sad you'll never see them again) and stab 3 more as you slip past the soldiers. You escape the spears and retreat into the woods but not after you down 10 more guards. Just when you feel safe you find you have been headed off in your escape route and are forced back towards the village. You pick your way through houses (huts) killing anyone in sight. You turn into that dark creature bards have told legends about. You enter a trance of pure instinct like the black panther of the night stalks his prey without mercy. Soldier, after soldier fall as you skip across rooftops, tumble around buildings and slip past the guard tower. The rest becomes very hazy, as it has before.
You wake the next morning a league away lying next to a brook tucked under a ledge and covered in leaves and mud. Why the mud? Is someone still following you? Where are you? The water tastes clean, and your wounds are but scrapes and cuts. Nothing is immediately threatening your mortality and your blades are both cleaned and sharpened. Today they feel oddly heavy, as if filled from a festival dinner. Having eaten too much they threaten to retch. That's when the sickness hits. Flashes from the night before come in waves and so does everything in your stomach. It happened, your blades, your best friends, your only friends became extensions of yourself. They clouded your mind and fed on that tribe. You were sent to eliminate one and instead lost control. You fear more than you can imagine have lost their life by your hands, no your daggers stealing their light. You try to throw your blades but realize they are still in their holsters. You pull them out and drop them in the water. As you walk away you feel their presence by your side. Knowing they are where they always are you run back to the tribe to see the devastation. Not wanting to repeat last night you move swiftly and silently to the edge of their little village. It is a big hunting village with a black oak tree as the symbol on their flags and huts. The only movement you see is that of a few men and women moving from body to body trying to stay wounds and remove the dead. 3 Halflings are on the far side of the village digging. It looks as if they have dug a score of graves and do not look to stop soon. The royal tent is quiet. The hut door opens and out runs a child sobbing. She runs to the woods, towards you. She does not see you and falls to her knees as she nears. Only feet away she weeps, weeps for her lost mother and her lost tribe. She prays to her god Pelor, pleading, begging for mercy on her family, to bring back her mother and her tribe. She prays for the execution of the shadow that did this. She weeps and prays for a long time. You are too afraid to move. Fear, this is the first time you have ever felt fear, true fear. This child’s father (tribe leader) opens the hut door and moves slowly to his daughters’ side. He holds her for a long time, then picks her up and carries her back home.
You leave with haste. Only stopping to retch, and sob at times. You feel shame, not from what you did, but of what your daggers think of you. They must be thinking you weak. They must. It takes two weeks to travel back to the Kingdom of light. You meet Stel at the normal drop point and hand him the crest torn from the Queens robe. It marks your job complete. As you walk away, Stel grabs your hand and in a flash you have a dagger to his throat. He lets out a tiny yelp and says in a tiny voice he has another job to give you. You step back and silently sheath your blade. Stel wipes the blood from his neck and hands you a pouch. As you look up from staring at the pouch in protest to another job, Stel is gone. You open the pouch and all it says is two hairs from the blacksmith Rek. Your hands shake and you slam the pouch in a hidden pocket. At the first fire barrel you pass you swiftly drop the pouch inside to be destroyed. You drink the next two days away. You can’t stop the shaking in your hands. They tremble. Your daggers don't seem to hit the center of the bulls-eye as usual. People seem to notice you more. Your swords seem to talk to you now, telling you they are getting hungry. They tell you that you are worthless and weak. They convince you to do the job you promised to do by taking the pouch.
Deciding that the daggers have sound advice and maybe another job is what you need to get out of this rut, you stop by the local alchemist before heading out of town. Karm greets you as you enter his shop and says “you are looking a little worn”. He offers you a metallic looking potion in a small vile. It is a stabilizer he says, and says the first one is free. You sip it down without much mind and continue to browse. In minutes your vision clears up, your head becomes less fuzzy, and you move without shaking. You ask him for all he has. Three more vials are all his stock and asks a hefty price of 1000 gold each. You give him 4000 and threaten him to have 6 more when he gets back.
You leave that night and make it to Karm's shop in 2 days. After you finish your business there you return to the city and meet up with Stel. This time he has a buddy waiting on the other side of the street, a big burly man named Jeck. You've seen him around, mostly in the middle of bar fights and scuffles in the street. You can tell he is favoring his left knee by the way he is leaning back and to the right. You are given two more jobs and complete them with easy. Several weeks pass by swiftly as you hop from job ot job. Every time you start to feel shaky, you stop at Karm's shop, usually during the night so no one sees. On the third week of working and taking this metallic potion, Stel says he has no more jobs for you. When you inquire why, he says his boss feels you are getting "sloppy". Angered by this you "take care of" Stel that night and give Jeck a reason to favor his right knee. It takes two days, but you slip into the royal guilds headquarters and wake the head thief Tilamon Ironfist. He laughs at you for you look hysteric. You haven't slept in a week and are slurping down potions as you stand before him daggers in hand. He tries talking you down and telling you to go "take a vacation", this angers you and your daggers scream for blood.
You come to consciousness’s two days later walking along a road. You don't recognize it because it is dark out and it is raining. You smell lavender but taste iron in your mouth. No amount of rain water seems to wash out the taste. You have nothing with you but your leather armor, boots, and your daggers. You wonder where you cloak and pack is. Your daggers are in your hands. Why are they not sheathed? Your sheaths have been slashed and do not hold nothing. So you walk.
And walk.
And walk.
And walk.
For four days you walk. The rain endless, and no sun to dry your clothes. You don't stop to rest or eat. The rain sustains your thirst. When you are finally compelled to stop, ahead you see a tree, black as night and bigger than words can describe. It is the Great Oak Tree.
As you come close to it you are compelled to kneel. With daggers in hand you pray to this tree. You plead for your life to end. You remember the child praying to Pelor, so you try praying to Pelor. The tree begins to sway, the ground begins to shake and in a moment your legs, torso, and hands are wrapped in the roots of the great oak. The tree forces your hands in front of you with daggers pointing up. And then there was light, a great light starting at a pinpoint at the base of the tree and growing big enough till a man could walk through. A man it was not that stepped out, but angel in the shape of a lion. As it steps out of the light and gracefully moves toward you, you are struck with fear. Fear fills your soul like never before. Wishing you had more of that silver potion to stabilize you . . . flashes of a potion shop just like Karm's shop being destroyed enters your mind . . . and you begin to weep. This being speaks and asks you your name. You tell him and he peers into your soul.
"Do you truly wish to be free from this life?" he asks with a low rumble. With tears flowing down your face you nod slowly.
"Then I ask you to release those daggers, I ask you to pledge an oath to me, PELOR, and none other. I ask you to never follow the path you now live and live on the path I offer you. If you do this and pledge to me I will grant you a new life. Do you pledge your oath to Pelor?"
With as much conviction as you can muster you speak "YES!"
With that the daggers are ripped from your hands, pain shoots through your body and your insides feel as if they are trying to find escape. The daggers fall to the ground. Huge roots smash them and you hear a loud “BOOM” as if cannons were fired. As the daggers are smashed into a thousand pieces your mind is filled with screams of all the victims these daggers have touched. It feels as if eternity passes and you are stuck in a hell of searing pain and anguish. The screams are relentless and you feel your body hit ground.
When you awaken, first it feels as if light gathers around your couscous and a small spark lights in your chest. Next you feel your heart beat and blood fill your veins. These veins welcome the warm blood. After a minute you open your eyes and see the great oak tree in front of you. You lay there with nothing on but cloth wrapped around your waist.
When you look at your hands, one of them glows with the symbol of Pelor. You hear clearly in your mind his voice. It says "You have pledged your life to my service, you have been cleansed of all you once knew. This life is will be dedicated to my purpose and I ask you to heal all of the wrongs you have done. I will grant you the ability to heal others; I will grant you the ability to do good. Waver from your oath and you will lose these gifts. Step off this path and you will find nothing." The voice fades. You feel divinity in your blood. You feel love, kindness, and mercy. These you have never felt before.
Lastly before you leave the grove of the Great Oak, you see the face of the Halfling child in your mind. She is older and wiser, she has grown many years. She is now leading her tribe which has many new faces.
When this vision ends, you see your palm glowing brightly and then fade. You realize much has changed. This really is a new life.
As you come close to it you are compelled to kneel. With daggers in hand you pray to this tree. You plead for your life to end. You remember the child praying to Pelor, so you try praying to Pelor. The tree begins to sway, the ground begins to shake and in a moment your legs, torso, and hands are wrapped in the roots of the great oak. The tree forces your hands in front of you with daggers pointing up. And then there was light, a great light starting at a pinpoint at the base of the tree and growing big enough till a man could walk through. A man it was not that stepped out, but angel in the shape of a lion. As it steps out of the light and gracefully moves toward you, you are struck with fear. Fear fills your soul like never before. Wishing you had more of that silver potion to stabilize you . . . flashes of a potion shop just like Karm's shop being destroyed enters your mind . . . and you begin to weep. This being speaks and asks you your name. You tell him and he peers into your soul.
"Do you truly wish to be free from this life?" he asks with a low rumble. With tears flowing down your face you nod slowly.
"Then I ask you to release those daggers, I ask you to pledge an oath to me, PELOR, and none other. I ask you to never follow the path you now live and live on the path I offer you. If you do this and pledge to me I will grant you a new life. Do you pledge your oath to Pelor?"
With as much conviction as you can muster you speak "YES!"
With that the daggers are ripped from your hands, pain shoots through your body and your insides feel as if they are trying to find escape. The daggers fall to the ground. Huge roots smash them and you hear a loud “BOOM” as if cannons were fired. As the daggers are smashed into a thousand pieces your mind is filled with screams of all the victims these daggers have touched. It feels as if eternity passes and you are stuck in a hell of searing pain and anguish. The screams are relentless and you feel your body hit ground.
When you awaken, first it feels as if light gathers around your couscous and a small spark lights in your chest. Next you feel your heart beat and blood fill your veins. These veins welcome the warm blood. After a minute you open your eyes and see the great oak tree in front of you. You lay there with nothing on but cloth wrapped around your waist.
When you look at your hands, one of them glows with the symbol of Pelor. You hear clearly in your mind his voice. It says "You have pledged your life to my service, you have been cleansed of all you once knew. This life is will be dedicated to my purpose and I ask you to heal all of the wrongs you have done. I will grant you the ability to heal others; I will grant you the ability to do good. Waver from your oath and you will lose these gifts. Step off this path and you will find nothing." The voice fades. You feel divinity in your blood. You feel love, kindness, and mercy. These you have never felt before.
Lastly before you leave the grove of the Great Oak, you see the face of the Halfling child in your mind. She is older and wiser, she has grown many years. She is now leading her tribe which has many new faces.
When this vision ends, you see your palm glowing brightly and then fade. You realize much has changed. This really is a new life.