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branwen-ferch-llyr · 6 years ago

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Grandfather Death

A fairly liberal retelling of the Grimm story "Godfather Death"

There was a woman who lived in a dusty village which gleamed like fools gold in the day, and she wept all night. She wept because she had too many children and no means to take care of them all, so one day she set along that dusky road through the mountains at nightfall, with her hat and her walking stick and a baby slung in her arms, determined to pass him off to the next decent fellow she met.

Night melted away and day came and as the sky turned a glassy blue, she met a young man whose hair gleamed with the light of all the candles in the world.

"I'll take your child," the man said, with a voice like summer, "I'll give him power and grace beyond all else."

"Who are you?" the women said.

"I am the Sun."

"Oh, no. I've worked too hard all my life and you've never helped me more than suited you perfectly. You've never done a charitable deed in your life, young man. You'll teach my boy to be mean and crude, and he'll never be happy like that.

And so she packed up her hat and her walking stick and slung the baby in her arms, and walked on through the mointaintops so high the sky pressed down against her and she could barely stand. Night came again, and she met a middle-aged man standing by a birch tree.

"I'll take your child," the man said. "I'll make sure he dreams so far he'll never touch the ground. I'll give him love to take his breath away."

"Who are you?" said the woman.

"I am the Moon."

"I don't want you looking after my boy. You're fickle and slippery and he'll never find peace. Go away, you blighter."

And so she packed up her hat and took out her walking stick and slung her baby across her chest and kept walking down the mountain, until the air cut her lungs like diamonds. There, at dusk, she found an elderly man gazing at the earth beside him.

"I'll take your child," he said. "I'll make him equal to all, and luckier than most. I'll make him happy."

"Who are you?"

"I am Death, and I give the same to all.”

“Thank you,” said the woman. “You’ll be the one to look after my boy.”

Then she kissed the baby on the forehead and left back to her dusty town.

Grandfather Death, as the boy came to know him, kept his word truly. When he became of age his grandfather took him out into the forest away from their cottage and showed him a particular herb that grew there, between patchworks of mosses and the blossoms of animal carcases.

“I’m going to make you a physician, young man, and I gift you this herb to do so. If you’re called to someone’s bedside, look around and I shall be there. If I’m standing by the patient’s head, tell the family that their rosemary may be spared, and feed the patient a little of this herb and they shall be well again.

However, if you spy be standing by the patient’s feet, then you must know that they will die, and the funeral pyre must be built. Do not disobey me, or else all will fail for you, young man.”

And so the young man became a physician, and soon one so famous he was called by strangers from all across the world to save those who were almost ghosts, and he did so as long as Grandfather Death was standing at the patient’s head.

Yet so it was that the king of the land fell ill, so sickly that his blood itself turned green with death. The young man was called for promptly, but as soon as he stepped foot in the royal chambers he saw his Grandfather standing at the King’s feet.

“Why, if I could only bend the rules one time,” he thought, “I could save the King! I’m sure he’d overlook such a minor infraction from his own grandson.”

So he turn the King’s bed around so that Grandfather Death was standing at the head of the bed rather than the foot, crushed some herbs into water and served it to the King. He gave a choke and a wheeze as his bones realigned themselves into living, and his blood ran red again. As he opened his eyes, he cried out and declared the man who’d saved him to be a medical genius and gave him a position in the royalhousehold.

However, as soon as the young man was alone, his grandfather’s face turned to steel and his fingers visibly itched.

“You tricked me!” he said.”That’s a crude and low thing, especially from m own grandson. I’ll overlook it this once for you, but try tha again and you’r done for.”

As the leaves withered and shivered and fell off the branches, the King’s daughter fell ill. There was nothing known that could revive her, and she fell into a long decay. The King wept until his eyes calcified, and declared that anyone who could save her would marry her and become heir to the kingdom.

Of course, the young man was desperate to try. He’d known the princess during his time there, and grown an affection towards her between her dew-light words and his scattering humour. When he entered the room, he lost himself at the sight of the princess’ face. Grandfather Death stood at her feet, but he hardly saw him for the radiance of her.

So he turned her around, gave her the herbs in water, and wept for joy as she returned to life.

Death, having been cheated twice, would not wait. With fingers sharp as barbed wire, he pulled the young man from the bedside.

He pulled him away from the bedside and the palace and the town, past the mountains and past the dusty town, until they reached a great cavern. The young man struggled and his muscles cracked with the effort, but Death is strong and doesn’t let go. The cavern was bleak and pale and cold, with endless candles reaching out away from view ntil they blurred into fierce waves of light. They were all of different sizes and shapes, and some had many inchesto go before going out, whereas some were left as dregs. Wheen one went out, others would spark up, as if the flames were dancing from one spot to another.

“You see these candles” said Grandfather Death. “All the living have one.The tall ones have a long life to lead yet, the shorter ones less so - the elderly. Mostly. Some young people have very short candles.”

“Which is mine?” said the young man, thinking it must be one of the taller ones.

Death pointed one long finger to a little stump of a candle where they could already see the flame choking out. The young man was horrified.

He cried out sharply and grabbed at his grandfather’s robes, begging him to just set it upon a new candle, to keep it burning just a little longer. His breath turned dusty in his lungs as he gasped and flailed with grief. He told him of his love for the princess, of her kindness and humour and beauty, and told him how he longed to marry her.

Death looked him deep in the eyes, and carefully picked up the candle. It’s light flutters warily and the glow turns cold on the young man's skin. Death reaches another candle, as if to continue the flame to it, then stops, air hovering around them.

The young man screams once and once only.

Grandfather Death watches the flame disappear and its dying smoke curl around his lips, then kneels down to wipe the tears from his grandson's still face and close his eyes.

He stands and steps away, the thrum of his unbeating heart echoing across the world.

#writing orpheus #song of orpheus #fairytale #i've had this in my drafts for a long while #as a fairytale this is told all wrong but as a story in general it's okay i think

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jones-friend · 7 years ago

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BECAUSE I GOT ASKED TO DO THEM ALL

1. A favorite character you have played.

Boyd Pengelly. He was a barbarian/rogue multiclass who used his Rage feature whenever he got angry enough. The unpredictability mixed with low expectations on his longevity was a great time.

2. Your favorite character that someone else has played.

This is a hard question to answer, and I don’t like playing favorites so here’s a top three:

@darien-king-of-synergy ‘s Trick, Gentleman Adventurer. Classy theif with the cane and suit to back it up.

@krakenattack ‘s Lieklo, the nerdiest dragon

@graspingeden ‘s Avery Holimon, the sweetest silver dragon to soar the friendly skies

3. Your favorite side quest.

Anytime Lord Baron Rikshaw, Kobold Nobleman kidnaps my players with the assistance of Mr McKemby and Pent, a winged kobold and kenku cleric of Pelor. Grand Budapest styled shenanigans ensue.

4. Your current campaign.

I’ve created a loose one shot system with a hub world called the University of Corcyra Isle. The idea is a sphinx teacher organizes a school of magic to learn through space and time with the assistance of all kinds of strange teachers. I can’t wait for them to meet my mindflayer humanist.

5. Favorite NPC.

That’s a tough question that changes day to day so I’m gonna talk about one of my favorites I haven’t before: Isarthi

Isarthi is a mindflayer humanist living in a colony deep in the underdark. She sees humanoid creatures like we would see a bunny or dog: adorable but also pretty dumb. She wants to uninslave the humanoids in the colony but its a radical idea that isn’t taking hold anytime soon. For now she ushers them about in secret, offering biology lessons where sometimes her papers mix with her Dungeons and Dryads character sheets (a game she is fully willing to play with your characters).

6. Favorite death (monster, player character, NPC, etc).

That’s hard because as I’ve continued, I don’t like death in my D&D. I used to let it happen pretty consistently but its a story telling element I don’t like using unless its really the best way to tell the story.

That being said, I do have one character planned. Tieflings have a Ritual of the Returned, you can petition to have a Tiefling returned from the hells under a specific contract. One tiefling thought he was clever and his contract states that he will only be returned if he plays a song so beautiful that it makes a dragon cry.

Avery is a silver dragon who will find him freezing on the mointaintops. Eventually he falls in love with her, and she persuades him to give up his grasp on this unlife, and elevates his soul to heaven. In his acceptance of this he plays a song to Avery, thanking her and coming to terms with his death, and that song brings Avery to tears completing his contract.

7. Your favorite downtime activity.

Making magic items yo

8. Your favorite fight/encounter.

I made a swamp on wooden catwalks and put a black dragon in the water beneath them, 10/10 would recommend.

9. Your favorite thing about D&D.

The interactive part. My players have such a sway over the story, I really just direct them and they lovingly contribute so much to the world they’re in.

10. Your favorite enemy and the enemy you hate the most.

I love myconids, their ressurrection spore makes any D&D creature into a clicker from last of us

My least favorite enemy is the zombie beholder from 5e. I’ve seen them outright kill two players in one shot (I was one of the two) and the level of power they have is extreme for the challenge rating they hold.

11. How often do you play and how often would you ideally like to play?

In person? Rarely. Its mostly over text and even then its not as much as I’d like to with job searching.

12. Your in game inside jokes/memes/catchphrases and where they came from.

So in one session we split the party to break into a house. Me and my friend Tanner were roof team: our job was to wait on the roof for the party could come up so I could polymorph into a dragon and fly us away (something I didn’t realize you couldn’t do).

Instead of staying on the roof, roof team went to the first floor, drank poisoned alcohol, and vomited everywhere escaping as a drunken dragon.

ROOF TEAM

13. Introduce your current party.

I have a lot of students but I can introduce my antihero party! Its my Suicide Squad of morally gray characters

Boyd Pengelly: angry criminal from the city. Acting on impulse got him here and it sure isn’t bringing him anywhere else so why not.

Henrietta Lynch: in Barlowe Landing, her werewolf sister fatally wounded a boy she was seeing. A witch in the woods gave her a bad spell and now she has a zombie ex boyfriend she’s lugging around. At first she thought he was alive incorrectly. As he rots away shes slowly coming to terms with what she did.

Brass: Ex soldier of Vollenth’s military, Brass defected during a war march and works as a hitman or hired muscle. His aim with a crossbow is remarkable and he’s sure to let you know that. He defected from Vollenth’s army to be a free man only to realize there was nothing of him left.

Tiamir: A dragonborn who grew up a servant of red dragons, she stole the rite of being Tiamat’s Paladin from the family’s hatchling, and enforced Tiamat’s ideaology of might makes right wherever she goes.

14. Introduce any other parties you have played in or DM-ed.

One time I played in a session where we had:

Bird police (me)

Russian dwarf cleric

Necromancer

Barbarian vampire person who hisses a lot

15. Do you have snacks during game times?

Oh for sure. Clean snacks that don’t make crumbs are best. Frozen pizzas work great, you can make a bunch and cut them up into squares.

16. Do you play online or in person? Which do you prefer?

I’ve really been enjoying the amount of control playing over text gives me, though that has its limits when it comes to complex combat

17. What are some house rules that your group has?

Don’t be rude

No rape. Find a different way to tell your story.

18. Does your party keep any pets?

Once they had a gryphon hatchling

19. Do you or your party have any dice superstitions?

There’s a set of pink dice @darien-king-of-synergy owns that have killed two PC’s and a whole campaign but give him nothing but high rolls

20. How did you get into D&D? How long have you been playing?

I’ve been playing for 6 years now, my friends in college got me into it. I made a gnome atheist who disowned the gods when his gelatinous ooze cube was slaughtered.

21. Have you ever regretted something your character has done?

Once Boyd alerted the entire area with a nat 1 on stealth I RP’d by getting spooked and punching a man in the face. I probably should’ve let the DM decide what happened there

22. What color was your first dragon?

Crudak! My copper baby. A desert shopkeep who’s quite excitable and quite a fast talker.

23. Do you use premade modules or original campaigns?

Nope! I make all my own.

24. How much planning/preparation do you do for a game?

Usually 3-4 hours for one shots. Over text I make an outline and follow through as necessary.

For DMs

25. What have your players done that you never could have planned for?

One of my players romanced a dragon NPC and that changed everything

26. What was your favorite scene to write and show your characters.

The hatching of a baby gold dragon in the middle of a city, which the players had to smuggle through said city

27. Do you allow homebrew content?

Yes as long as its to have fun not to break the game

28. How often do you use NPCs in a party?

In online or in person? Almost never. In one on one I pair you with an NPC that rounds you out.

29. Do you prefer RP heavy sessions or combat sessions?

RP heavy for sure!

30. Are your players diplomatic or murder hobos?

They better not be murder hobos

For Players

31. What is your favorite class? Favorite race?

Warlock has the coolest options

Human, funny enough. I find human PC’s bring out their character more than other races do.

Under that is dragonborn for fire breathing.

32. What role do you like to play the most? (Tank/healer/etc?)

Magic support or heavy beater. Once I had paladin’s divine smite, barbarian’s reckless attack, and fighter’s improved critical all on the same attack

33. How do you write your backstory, or do you even write a backstory?

I make the character and whatever backstory is necessary to understand the character! I used to write long backstories but now I’m more involved with the role playing aspect.

34. Do you tend pick weapons/spells for being useful or for flavor?

FLaVoR

35. How much roleplay do you like to do?

All roleplaying all the time

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