#◾ blood on the snow — faerun general

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Since it's Sunday. Send me in character responses to your muses walking upon this cake

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// @a-wild-rose-has-thorns because I have no self-control but you know this.

Werewolves were a dangerous sort, incredibly powerful, and damn fast. Taking on a pack of them? With dire wolves to boot? Raserei knew he should have been more careful, but he let his blood get the best of him and it was an all-out feeding and killing frenzy.

And he hadn't brought enough healing potions to compensate for the sheer damage he had taken. As he was under the impression it was only one werewolf. Even then, not like healing potions were easy to come by.

Nonetheless, the job was done and he was sure the small village along the road that went between Baldur's Gate and Waterdeep, was glad to be rid of him. People in small towns and villages were seldom welcoming of those who looked like him. Gods above a good number in large cities didn't approve of tieflings.

He rode into the village belly bloated with foul lycan meat and blood covering him. Gnarled gashes were in his body, though some healed by the two potions he had, or some made less severe. He could feel eyes on him, and whispers spreading like wildfire on a dry plain.

The mayor rushed to meet Raserei eager to pay him and send him on his way.

"I assume this state you are in means we are safe? No more animals and townsfolk being dragged away?" he asked, desperation in his voice.

Raserei nodded, "Yeah, you and yours are safe. You wouldn't happen to have a cleric here would you?" He doubted it, as clerics were few. Gods did not just give their divine grace to anyone, most healers were using the power of natural things and medical studies.

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"That is the problem! It isn't that I'm not interested! Or that I am! I don't know!" He said exasperated with himself, "I do not think of those things, best I don't. You are the first person to show interest in me like that and not be my own half-sister!"

His voice was getting louder, but there was no anger, just manic stimulation of him desperately wanting to explain. To be heard, truly for once one might guess.

"It is not that I do not want to be with people or love. But none have loved me and I am not sure it is even wise or safe for me to have such things. Gods know I shouldn't. I have never hoped or dreamed for decades"

Raserei gestured to her, "You are as beautiful as you are clever and deadly. Even if, I decided to be foolish and allowed myself something. What I desire I do not think you would want. You would find the desires I gave up long ago are quite boring."

The ranger watched as Raserei seemingly struggled with something for several minutes. Though the longer he battled himself the more her embarrassment turned towards a mixture of confusion and concern. She fully believed his response but after such a storm appeared on his face Dionisia couldn't help but wonder what he had stopped himself from sharing. If the furrow of his brow was any indicator; it was perhaps not a good or socially acceptable thing to say out loud.

Such thoughts and wants were not alien to the drow. As one raised in a Lolthite society with noble status, her hands were far from clean. Old wants, habits, and thrills often tickled the back of her mind. They whispered a call back to those old ways and perhaps at times even back into Lolth's fold as well. Though that was not the person she was anymore, that did not erase what she had done or that she had once liked it.

❝ You do not have to handle it if you do not want to. Merely tell me you are not interested in our friendship taking a more physical route and I will drop it, ❞ the drow replied, making sure to give him a way out of their conversation if he wanted it.

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He drew the symbols with the stick on the ground, careful how they were placed. There was something off about these symbols even looking at them gave a sense of dread and wickedness that was felt on a primal level. It pulled at the fight and flight senses. They looked angry if symbols could be such. They looked wrong.

"In this waking nightmare, where all dreams come true. The breaker of chains will come. All truths will be revealed. Our fates are tied. Your wakening is near. The tide will rise. Your sins are numberless and glorious. All alone in the depths; let go. Let me in. To these gods you cannot pray. I can break you. Even death won't keep you."

As his voice rumbled out the words like thunder broke over head. Deep and filling the air around; sound felt within bones.

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🔪

Raserei's good eye looked down at the blade, his expression even and unwavering. A deep sigh rolled out from far within his chest; he almost seemed bored.

"For your sake, I hope you plan to use it effectively. Because if you don't we're both over."

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// @aamusedly liked for a starter

Waterdeep was huge, the scope of this grand city was almost out of his scope. So many people piled on top of one another. One building collapsed and swaths of people would perish. It was an odd thing to think about, but all these walls didn't make him feel safer. Just caged.

But nonetheless, there he was in the heart of a city he could easily get lost in. In fact, he was lost. How did people know where they were going?! Well, at least the variety of people was so numerous and diverse that he wasn't getting too many stares. Gods above he thought he saw a few drow even, imagine that!

The tiefling looked down at the paper that brought him to this giant city in the first place. Some upstart wizard wanted someone brave enough to go get some magical trinket or something of the like for them to "study". Truth be told Raserei was sure it was just some stupid item they wanted to tout around that they have. A trophy of status because their magical capabilities weren't too great.

"Gods, how does one even find a place to piss in this city?!" he growled in frustration looking around because every damn tower in this city looked like a damn wizard's tower to him!

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"...And with my profane ascension to 'godhood', I would rule all the Abyss, devouring entire planes at the whim of my grandfather. Really, I would be replacing Demigorgon. It's all foolish Dagon truly thinks unleashing a sealed being older than Faerun's gods who was driven mad by him and his brethren can be controlled. Seems they failed once, and failed to control their creations."

Raserei sighed heavily and prodded the fire, "I can hear the chained god, his broken whispers. The madness he endures. I think it's Dagon's blood that stops me from falling to complete madness. But every time I lose control...When my rages are consumed by my blood, it becomes harder to not fall."

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// @devi1lute || Of Bards and Barbarians

The walls of the city were growing small again. Too much talking and interacting to last him for months. People were exhausting. It was not even their fault most the time. But the life he lived, he noticed much. The lilt in one's voice with getting nervous, the slight twitch of the upper lip.

Oh, and the noise, coupled with what he heard in his own mind, and Raserei felt like he was drowning in a cacophony of sound and it was maddening. And interacting, being civil he guessed, was hard. People wanted pleasantries though he did not know them.

Life in a city wore him out more than fighting a giant. Often he found the experience too stimulating and not in a way he would like. And to be honest the Siren's Song wasn't exactly the best place to be when one wanted to be alone, the place was crawling with nerdowells who wanted to fight, and workers looking to make coin off lonely men and women.

"Hey you're the tiefling that works here! How much?"

a voice jolted Raserei from his pint and he focused on the very drunk half-orc, from the looks, a pirate. Raserei sighed, "I do not work here." His words were tight and forced. He was not in the mood for drunken sailors.

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"Long before." he replied simply. His muscles a little tense as she moved her hand around his blind side. The face was a delicate place, and he didn't like her having her hand there like that.

But if she was a healer he would oblige her. For now at least.

"I think it has more to do with blood loss and not the medicine." he continued.

It was the lightheaded feeling that came with it, that made him feel it was from all the blood he lost and not some potion she had him place under his tongue. Could be both. He let her work and listened to her speak as she went along, not really paying attention at first. She wasn't saying anything he wasn't aware of, but then it occurred to him, that it sounded like she was saying she was going to be doing the changing of the bandages.

This suspicion was confirmed when she mentioned him resting there for a few days.

"Excuse me? Not going anywhere? I do not think your spouse will be too pleased to come home to me here. Just patch me up and I will be on my way."

Raserei grunted, "I am from Icewind Dale, why does it matter?"

he paused and frowned a little, "I see you are making conversation," he sighed, "I am from a barbarian tribe up in the far reaches of Icewind."

Her fingers traced near the milky, unseeing eye and she frowned a little. It looked too old to be a recent injury though. "I take it this happened before the fight?" She smiled and then laughed at his words. "Well you're welcome to, if you want to sleep, usually that medicine does knock people out after a bit. Best medicine if you ask me, sleep heals the body and the mind usually."

She let go of his chin and resumed her work, first focusing on his legs. "I'll stitch them up, then apply a poultice. It'll stop them from getting inflammed and infected, though I'll keep an eye on them for a day of two. I'll need to change your bandages anyway. The wounds on your chest are too deep for my liking, so you aren't going anywhere for at least a day or so."

Once the wounds were all stitched up, she began to work on the poultice, pouring some herbs into a pestle and mortar, adding some of the ointment and setting to work grinding them into a smooth paste.

"So where are you from originally, Raserei?" she asked, hoping he might end up sleeping or at least being distracted from the dull pain.

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// @wolfsbarbaren liked for a starter

Most jobs he'd done before, help a wizard get some trinket or lost tome for more power, escorting caravans; goblins. All standard fare, sometimes something more interesting would land in his lap. Sometimes he would spend weeks out in the open world just wandering like a ghost.

But as he nursed the dwarven ale in his mug a poster at the board some younger adventurers were going on about caught his attention. A madman from Chult was found shouting broken thoughts of doom and the end of the world. Apparently, despite the man not being well priests of Oghma seemed to take the ramblings to heart.

Raserei couldn't explain it, but hearing that made a knot in his stomach. The giant tiefling rose and walked over to the board and grabbed the flyer. Wondering what the priests were going to even ask of any adventurers who showed.

"Oi! We were looking at it!" one of the young adventurers barked, "Back off it Horns!"

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❝ wait,  i know you! ❞ (Faerûn, she likely saw him at the grove)

Raserei was moving through Rivington, about to try and make his way into the city, many people were calling out and talking, and the ambient white noise of chatter was almost a little too much. But a welcome distraction from what was inside his head.

He didn't notice one of the many calls for someone to wait was for him until he noticed the normal stares had turned into people waiting for him to react. As he turned he recognized the woman looking right at him, though vaguely.

"Oh? Are you sure you are not mistaking me for another tiefling?"

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"Well aren't you a big, handsome, tiefling." @dvilsdesire

@dvilsdesire

Raserei looked at the....he sniffed around. Incubus? Hmph, they looked a great deal like a half-devil. But when it came to the workings of those who lived in the lower planes he tried to not think on it too much.

"Save your lies. I am not interested."

Gods being near the other made his skin burn and his blood roil. He wondered if newer or more diluted tieflings felt this?

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Raserei snorted, "Oh I am sure it is." he remarked sarcasm dripping from his words like thick molasses.

He watched as the drow produced some coin and spoke of payment. A standard deal on payment, nothing he wasn't used to. So he just nodded and sipped on his tea. Though part of him wanted to demand higher pay, coin always ended up not being something he overly needed much of, as he often avoided staying long in towns and cities.

The tiefling took the payment and placed it in a bag of his own. Laughter came from him as he rose to his feet too. Oh, gods this man was walking into something so dangerous and it was if he didn't do more than surface-level research. Though to also be fair, perhaps what he knew wasn't something one could just simply learn. Raserei himself was unsure because he couldn't read common so he had no idea how much could be learned from even obscure tomes. Still, this felt like someone woefully unprepared for what they sought.

"Knowing the demon lords you might be pissing on is generally a good idea before seeking something out that is Abyssal in nature, or tied to it, yeah? The things I mentioned before hand are worshipers of Dagon, the demon lord whom you would be pissing on. And out of all of them one of the ones you don't want his attention. He is more scheming than most, and not quick to show his hand. If he has notice of this thing and cares enough to protect it, I am not moving further."

Elezar couldn't help but pull a face at Raserai's assertion. Undoubtedly a tiefling of his nature had a berth of knowledge on the subject, but Elezar wasn't exactly used to being checked on this sort of thing. He wasn't used to people really talking to him at all. Pride was an ugly color on him, but he wore it nonetheless.

"Your charm is intoxicating," he mumbled into his tea. But the wizard set his cup down and reached into one of the drawers of his desk to produce a coin purse. He spilled a few of them into his open palm, and then set them on the desk in front of Raserei. "Payment upfront. The rest upon our safe return. If you choose to leave at any point, the payment is forfeit."

The remainder of the coin was placed back in the drawer and locked. But stiff as Elezar had become from the bristling attitude... he couldn't help a mote of curiosity when he rose to his feet. "It sounds as if you have some personal knowledge here. Is it anything you'd care to share, for the sake of safety?"

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// @killngfloor continued from here

Well, that was an answer he understood quite well. He'd given it so many times one would think he would learn to just lie. At least about something.

"I understand. As long as you are doing well, then." The mercenary looked around. They were getting close to the marsh. He could feel the damp and dank of thair deep within. Cold dark and wet places called to him. The water called him. What could be buried under even the shallow waters of a marsh?

"We should camp here. From here out it might get tricky, and much more dangerous."

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Cassian just walks over and face plants into Raserei's chest. Wrapping his arms around him as he did. He must have had a bad day.

Raserei looks down at Cassian. The other man was taller, even by only an inch or two, so seeing him bend so he could rest square on his chest was a little amusing. And he knew Cassian could be a bit dramatic at times.

Still, dramatic or not, something was bothering him.

"What is wrong? Long day?" he asks running his large clawed fingers through Cassian's hair and over his scalp, "Did you realize you ate the last of the cookies last night?"

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"📜" for Ras saying something about him in prose.

"He is vibrant like butterflies that if you are lucky to see fluttering about in a grove. Colors swirling around you that inspire wonder, and a joy often buried from the weight of life. But his tongue gives his infernal heritage credit. Bathed in honey, and offers kisses even sweeter than his words. I am sure the succubi of the infernal realms are jealous."