FaradayCage
2017-11-11, 11:46 PM
Lord Tshad is young for a Lich, at 89 years old.
Born as Lord Benly of Frennet, he was the second-youngest son of a respectable Baron. Not quite a black sheep in the family...but an odd sheep.
He enjoyed reading tales of chivalrous knights and dragons, bold paladins and demons - but he was shy in his combat training, and deathly terrified of riding horses. He was much more interested in reading books, painting pictures, and playing with toy soldiers long past the typical age.
And during one banquet, when he was 15 years old, he fell madly in love with a fiery young girl the exact moment he first laid eyes on her. Sapphire eyes and hair like saffron spun with gold, "The Strawberry of Lansbury" they called her, but Lady Ella Castroy is how you should address her. Though she was only a girl of 10 at the banquet, she had already earned a reputation stopping betrothments before they even began.
It was she who would choose who she marries. But despite Lord Benly's persistent offers to cut her meat, pour her wine, hold her goblet, and sing her songs - she would barely give him more than a polite smile.
This continued for years. Lord Benly would see her at jousts and feasts and festivals and always offer his complete and unquestioning subservience. He was entirely oblivious to her eyes that kept wandering to Sir Braleth, a knight of a lower house that was clearly below her station and thus clearly not in competition for her favors.
And at the end of every festivity, Lord Benly would sulk and scream in the privacy of the Frennetwood.
His family were too proud and too busy to notice Lord Benly's growing frustrations.
But it is the Court Wizard's duty to notice the little details.
Magister Pelod turned Benly's dedication toward magic, with the blessing of Baron Frennet. More than once, Benly raised the question of whether he could use magic to make Ella love him. Pelod always replied that no charm could ever turn a person to love.
Benly disbelieved Pelod, so he studied his magicks with a ferocity. It was not rare for him to go a week or more without seeing the sun. For decades he listened to Pelod's lectures and pored over ancient tomes in the family library. Crops were sown and harvested. Lady Ella married Ser Braleth. A pox swept the land and two wars were fought. Cicadas emerged and retreated. And Benly read his tomes.
It was small surprise to House Frennet when Benly one day disappeared. He had withdrawn from his family so much that he had become something of a sore subject they were glad to be rid of.
The cover story was that he had gone off into the East to learn from other great wizards.
The true story is known only to Lord Benly.
Time flowed like a river, and Lord Benly was forgotten. The House of Frennet amassed a debt they could not repay and lost their manor, castle, and dignity. Sir Braleth became Count Braleth. And at 61 years old, Lady Ella became Our Dear Departed Lady Ella.
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And now, a bald man with a greasy mustache has been staying at the inn for weeks. He offers you an ale and says he has a proposition he would like to discuss in private. It involves retrieving the body of a certain deceased Lady of high standing from its tomb and delivering it to one Lord Tshad.
And high up in the Shrieking Mountains on the horizon, there is a cave. In that cave Lord Tshad sits on a simple wooden stool. Another bit of grey skin cracks off as he draws his paintbrush across the canvas. He pierces an iron spike into solid granite to hang the portrait of her with all the others in The Gallery.
"Who's to say a Zombie won't love it's master?"
Born as Lord Benly of Frennet, he was the second-youngest son of a respectable Baron. Not quite a black sheep in the family...but an odd sheep.
He enjoyed reading tales of chivalrous knights and dragons, bold paladins and demons - but he was shy in his combat training, and deathly terrified of riding horses. He was much more interested in reading books, painting pictures, and playing with toy soldiers long past the typical age.
And during one banquet, when he was 15 years old, he fell madly in love with a fiery young girl the exact moment he first laid eyes on her. Sapphire eyes and hair like saffron spun with gold, "The Strawberry of Lansbury" they called her, but Lady Ella Castroy is how you should address her. Though she was only a girl of 10 at the banquet, she had already earned a reputation stopping betrothments before they even began.
It was she who would choose who she marries. But despite Lord Benly's persistent offers to cut her meat, pour her wine, hold her goblet, and sing her songs - she would barely give him more than a polite smile.
This continued for years. Lord Benly would see her at jousts and feasts and festivals and always offer his complete and unquestioning subservience. He was entirely oblivious to her eyes that kept wandering to Sir Braleth, a knight of a lower house that was clearly below her station and thus clearly not in competition for her favors.
And at the end of every festivity, Lord Benly would sulk and scream in the privacy of the Frennetwood.
His family were too proud and too busy to notice Lord Benly's growing frustrations.
But it is the Court Wizard's duty to notice the little details.
Magister Pelod turned Benly's dedication toward magic, with the blessing of Baron Frennet. More than once, Benly raised the question of whether he could use magic to make Ella love him. Pelod always replied that no charm could ever turn a person to love.
Benly disbelieved Pelod, so he studied his magicks with a ferocity. It was not rare for him to go a week or more without seeing the sun. For decades he listened to Pelod's lectures and pored over ancient tomes in the family library. Crops were sown and harvested. Lady Ella married Ser Braleth. A pox swept the land and two wars were fought. Cicadas emerged and retreated. And Benly read his tomes.
It was small surprise to House Frennet when Benly one day disappeared. He had withdrawn from his family so much that he had become something of a sore subject they were glad to be rid of.
The cover story was that he had gone off into the East to learn from other great wizards.
The true story is known only to Lord Benly.
Time flowed like a river, and Lord Benly was forgotten. The House of Frennet amassed a debt they could not repay and lost their manor, castle, and dignity. Sir Braleth became Count Braleth. And at 61 years old, Lady Ella became Our Dear Departed Lady Ella.
------------------------------
And now, a bald man with a greasy mustache has been staying at the inn for weeks. He offers you an ale and says he has a proposition he would like to discuss in private. It involves retrieving the body of a certain deceased Lady of high standing from its tomb and delivering it to one Lord Tshad.
And high up in the Shrieking Mountains on the horizon, there is a cave. In that cave Lord Tshad sits on a simple wooden stool. Another bit of grey skin cracks off as he draws his paintbrush across the canvas. He pierces an iron spike into solid granite to hang the portrait of her with all the others in The Gallery.
"Who's to say a Zombie won't love it's master?"