Arelith SPOOKTOBER creative writing contest! (Add your own Eldritch Patron???)

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Eira
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Re: Arelith SPOOKTOBER creative writing contest! (Add your own Eldritch Patron???)

Post by Eira » Tue Oct 26, 2021 12:51 pm

“A visitor? How marvelous; come in, come in. Would you like something to drink? Tea or wine perhaps? Mind your head. Please, it’s no trouble at all. Sit, sit. May I have your name? Hah! You came prepared, I see. That is wise. Very wise. Then I shall call you my Honored Guest- and as for myself? You may call me the Breaker. I am sure you have heard that name before and you wish something broken. Why else does anyone come to me?

How kind of you to say, but this wine isn’t
that good.

Will you tell me what you wish broken, or shall I wheedle it from you? Honored Guest, I am no fool. I deal in impossibilities. And though you may have considered such a thing ridiculous, well, you did come here, did you not? Perhaps you told yourself you expected this house to be empty, or to not even be here at all... but it is here, it is not empty, and I wish to help you.

Oh... the heart. Such a fickle thing and such a powerful bond. I will let you in on a little secret of mine. I specialize in breaking bonds of the heart. So many tie themselves up in pain and heartache, and when they finally wish to be free, they hardly know at which knot to start! It takes an expert hand to slice straight through, and I can do so. For you.

Ah-ah-ah! So she did tell you of my price. And you did not believe it, perhaps, the same as you did not believe of my existence at all. But do not mistake my intentions, Honored Guest, for to name it a price to me implies I gain something from it. No, the price is for you. It’s the cost of healing, for once something is broken... well, one could always mend a bridge or re-knot a frayed rope. And where would we be if you just kept on forming bond after bond after bond? I can only free your heart so many times.

Precisely. And so, once you break this bond of the heart, you may never trap yourself in such a thing again. It is only healthy for you- do you want to keep on feeling this pain? Of course not. No one does. But other chains of feeling and words have a way of sneaking up on someone. It’s difficult to avoid them all.

Not impossible, Honored Guest. After all, I deal in impossibilities, and what sort of Breaker would I be if I couldn’t break chains of the future as well as the past? How? Hah! It is with irony, that is how. Make me a promise, and it shall be the last promise you will ever keep. The only promise. And merely... promise to never allow for chains. Break the bonds you see, the promises you witness, the chains both physical and not. Tie yourself to none, oblige none, and live only for your own freedom. You will see many others chaining themselves, but you will be free.

That is all. Is it not simple? Is it not precisely what you were looking for? No fuss, no more rules. Nothing tying you down. Yes, yes, I know. That is why I am here, after all. For visitors just like you.

A single promise, Honored Guest. Two simple words and you will be free.

Wonderful.

See? It was simple as that. More wine?”



~~~~~~~


The Breaker shows themself to those in need, who are laboring under any sort of chain, whether physical, mental, or emotional. They will break these chains, under one condition- the one freed will never be able to shackle themselves in the same way again. So, one person suffering a broken heart may remove those painful feelings, but they will be unable to love any other again. Someone who trapped themselves in a debt or promise can have it wiped away... but they can never repeat similar actions that got them into that situation in the first place. Unhappy marriage? Family troubles? Want to travel? What can’t be solved through lost memory, murder, or making it impossible to settle in one place for too long!

The effects of this ‘Breaking’ is often difficult to realize by the one who made such a deal with The Breaker, as it is only marked in absence of whatever had ailed them before. However, those who actually make a promise to The Breaker, to forego any bond ever again, may be recognized by those who know them well, as it is characterized by never keeping their word, lack of punctuality, and disregard for any rules around them. Woe be to anyone who asks these pacted for romantic advice, as what they would say serves only to drive a wedge deeper into any relationships. They will feel compelled to do this to their own relationships as well, acting harshly or unnaturally as soon as any deeper connection threatens their ‘promised freedom’. Of course, this doesn’t mean that they have a complete personality change. They are still the same person as before, but occasionally will act in ways that prevent anything too closely resembling commitment.

The sight of chains, cages, collars, or shackles will also be physically revolting to the pacted, and they will attempt to avoid them. No pacted would ever imprison another, require a promise, or anything along those lines. It is very unlikely that they would willingly associate with any jailer or slave owner unless subtly working against them to ‘Break” said jailer’s own prisoners free. A pacted would rather die than be imprisoned in any way, as such a thing is agonizing.

The Breaker
Power Level: ???? Unseelie Fae
Symbol: Any kind of jagged shards or broken pieces. They do not have one recognizable symbol or pattern: rather anything that hints at destruction. Some followers will even wear the broken symbols of other patrons or gods.
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Pacts: Unseelie
Aspects: War and Destruction, Trickery and Deceit

I exist to describe the world around us.

Akorae

Keth'ym Evanara - wandering better paths
Veriel Xyrdan - married and happy
Reena Welkins - Dead

Discord: eighra


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Red Ropes
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Re: Arelith SPOOKTOBER creative writing contest! (Add your own Eldritch Patron???)

Post by Red Ropes » Sat Oct 30, 2021 4:02 am

Hello everyone!

The winners are at this time-

Titania's "Cackles" and Eira's "The Endless Frost" - though everyone participating was a joy of its own as seeing people write is always a fun exercise.

In addition to these two entries there will be a third, that of the mysterious `mother`, the Matron Claddath known to the esoteric, occult elite of House Claddath and those few unfortunate enough to have 'met' her.

Lore for these will be added to the wikis eventually.

Thanks for participating!

(Also I'd love to know if the community would like more things like this. If so, let me know, I was considering in my projects of letting people write an NPC where it is appropriate to do so.)
🤡

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MuffinMan
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Re: Arelith SPOOKTOBER creative writing contest! (Add your own Eldritch Patron???)

Post by MuffinMan » Mon Nov 01, 2021 10:15 am

It's November 1st so disregard this post for official entry but I promised someone I would post.

“And as the great city fell into the Trackless Sea it was few who would watch.”
-Rheordil Gheilcuimhne

On a small islet off the coast of Arelith, surrounded by labyrinthian currents and disorienting mists, a boy moved through life as if it had fuzzy edges. A prickling covered his body, like a foot you or I may have sat on too long, and a taste of rotting metal sat ever atop his tongue. On quiet nights he could smell the taste for what little sense that makes. Sleep, at least, robbed him of all these senses.

That night he would recall for the first time that he was not alone.

The boy's mother had left to search for food a week prior to this sleep. And for a week she found nothing. No fish in the endless waters, no crustaceans hiding in the sands, no mushroom rooted between the stones, and no rations forgotten by some other unfortunate soul. Yet survival was assured.

The boy would recall whispered words, “fight to the death for your right to survive. Grovel, cheat, lie, and live to see those who would rob you of this gift walk ever closer to their own demise.”

The boy would not starve and the life which had grown fuzzy around the edges would sharpen with every meal. The prickling which had covered his body turned to strength and the rotting metal which sat upon his tongue was replaced by that of flesh. But he was alive.

Months would pass until the boy was found and those aboard would not speak of the stew they found him eating nor of the black spot which now showed on the palm of his right hand. Tales would be told, none too pleasant, as the boy grew into his own aboard the ship. A man who sold out the ship's crew when caught by the Cordorian Navy. A man who then caught the traitor and offered up a dear friend to the Captain for punishment. A man who would live forever or die trying.

Years would pass until the man was brought back to the same isle from which he had been saved as a boy. His hands bound and mouth gagged his crew would push him onto the sandy shoal. And as the man turned back to look upon the ship a half-orc with a rapier at his hip would speak,

“I, Captain Fragdish, sentence ye, Davis, to death as should have been yer fate all them years past. Cursed was us the day we brought ye upon our ship. Cursed again each time we's let ye stay. No more! May those with power see ye for what ye are, a coward, and let thems befit yer punishment so that we's might live another day untainted by yer soul.”

And unbeknownst to all, save It that revels in the struggle for survival, a black spot would begin to form on the right palm of Captain Fragdish as It kept Its promise to both men.


On a small islet off the coast of Arelith, surrounded by labyrinthian currents and disorienting mists, a man moved through life as if it had fuzzy edges. Unlike before there was no prickling in his body and no foul taste upon his tongue; he did not have those anymore. And in the depths of sleep a man, now chicken, remembered whispered words,

“fight to the death for your right to survive. Grovel, cheat, lie, and live to see those who would rob you of this gift walk ever closer to their own demise.”

The Black Spot
Alternate names: Sailor's Judgement
Power Level: Planar Power (Obyrith)
Symbol: A Black Whirlpool on One's Right Palm
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Pacts: Fathomless/Undying
Aspects: Hearth and Home, War and Destruction
"This looks like a job for inadvisably applied magic if ever I saw one."
-Terry Pratchett, Making Money

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RedGiant
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Re: Arelith SPOOKTOBER creative writing contest! (Add your own Eldritch Patron???)

Post by RedGiant » Fri Nov 12, 2021 6:01 pm

Mini_Goblet wrote:
Fri Sep 24, 2021 9:10 pm
It has been said, many a time before, in voiceless words spoken by none in particular-
That when described, when restrained by the confines of language, The memory of a locale may become-- Warped. Changed. Lost. For by affixing the endless complexity of a city or village onto a simple set of words, one is, in a sense, undoing said depth. Unravelling at the very ethos of what once was, and burning away at the infinite edges of perspective. To describe something is, in essence, to rob it of itself. A crime without peer, in magnitude and savagery.

There it stands, beneath the underdark, beneath the Deep Wells, and beneath all that is beneath. The oldest settlement. An indescribable form, shaped by an endless stream of appendages from an endless stream of creatures from an endless stream of worlds. Slaves, to the shapeless mortar and impossible halls. Some are chosen. Custodians, given shackled freedom, and spat whence they came to carve doorways back home.

A Godless city, for there were no Gods to speak of, and no humanoids to grovel and worship when it was first birthed. Nameless, described and spoken and mauled by untold words for uncountable millennia and plunged into endless darkness, it is an infinite sprawl of meaningless, furious architecture.

The First City.
Power Level: Planar Power
Symbol: A Door
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Portfolio: Subjugation, Entrapment, architecture
Worshipers: Explorers, Travellers, Enslaved sentients, Seekers of forbidden knowledge
Domains: Time, Space, Metal and Stone
Arelith worshippers’ alignments: LN, TN, CN, LE, NE, CE

***
Many thanks to Hadals (Drad An'ash) for helping me flesh this concept out!
At the rick of Threadomancy, I find this one particularly creepy. It sticks with you. Well done!
The GrumpyCat wrote:I CLICK THE HOSTIBLE BUTTON NOW U ARE DED!
Irongron wrote:The slaughter, i am afraid, will not abate.

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RedGiant
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Re: Arelith SPOOKTOBER creative writing contest! (Add your own Eldritch Patron???)

Post by RedGiant » Fri Nov 12, 2021 6:12 pm

Doh, just made a new one by accident/typo. Started to correct it, but think I'll just run with it.


Rick of Threadomancy
Power Level: Demigod
Symbol:
Nitro wrote:
Tue Nov 02, 2021 5:58 pm
Image
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Portfolio: Chaos, Resurrection, Chronomancy
Worshippers: Trolls, Troglodytes, Forum Junkies
Domains: Time, Trickery, Death, Undeath, Air (hot)
Arelith worshippers’ alignments: CG, TN, CN, NE, CE
Demense: Demi-plane of Feedback
The GrumpyCat wrote:I CLICK THE HOSTIBLE BUTTON NOW U ARE DED!
Irongron wrote:The slaughter, i am afraid, will not abate.

Void
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Re: Arelith SPOOKTOBER creative writing contest! (Add your own Eldritch Patron???)

Post by Void » Mon Nov 29, 2021 7:32 pm

Red Ropes wrote:
Sat Oct 30, 2021 4:02 am
Hello everyone!

The winners are at this time-

Titania's "Cackles" and Eira's "The Endless Frost" - though everyone participating was a joy of its own as seeing people write is always a fun exercise.

In addition to these two entries there will be a third, that of the mysterious `mother`, the Matron Claddath known to the esoteric, occult elite of House Claddath and those few unfortunate enough to have 'met' her.

Lore for these will be added to the wikis eventually.

Thanks for participating!

(Also I'd love to know if the community would like more things like this. If so, let me know, I was considering in my projects of letting people write an NPC where it is appropriate to do so.)
I've missed the contest entirely (and was unable to post when ti was active). Do you still accept eldritch patron suggestions?
Another forum ban, here we go again.

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Red Ropes
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Re: Arelith SPOOKTOBER creative writing contest! (Add your own Eldritch Patron???)

Post by Red Ropes » Tue Dec 07, 2021 9:10 am

Sorry for late response- the contest is over but another may happen, eventually. I do plan to do other kinds of similar contests however.
🤡

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