Thread: Grimoire of Myths

Scarlet Stalker What is that you say? Was the Dark beaten back with loss of their Raven Witch, and the lighting of the beacon? No. The Dark lands slumbered for many years, with no force truly great enough to threaten the people. And yet we waited. And yet we watched. A few attempts from the beasts to emerge were pushed back, after all, they were nearly mindless brutes. So we all believed. And so we were, all of us, deceived... A fierce attack left the Watchers depleted, and while more were coming to relieve them, something slipped through, something that had not been seen in the lighted world in an age. It walked amongst the people in the light of day without fear of wound, it braved the light cast from the beacon lit with the First Fire. And so it came that the people invited into their company a monster in guise of human. The first death shocked the people to silence. Pulled limb from limb with inhuman strength and power, eyes turned to the new comer among them. But they could not locate them. They had left the village. The following night, in the next village to the West, another death. And then another. Word began to spread among the people, to be wary of this Stalker of Men. The charade now destroyed, the Stalker did cast off any attempts at blending into the people, and indulged it's predatory nature. A life was taken from each village, and then the larger towns fell prey to the violence, all the while the people did scour the lands for the Stalker. As the hunt grew more intense, the deaths began to increase. From a life every night, it grew to two. And then three. And then five. Soon whole familes fell under the merciless rage and cruelty of the Stalker. A hunting party did fall upon the Stalker as it worked it's grisly trade on a victim, finding it Scarlet with blood both old and new. In the ensuing battle, but a single hunter escaped, his mind broken from the horror and violence he had witnessed. When the roused might of the people came, those who had girded themselves as warriors ringed the town, and prepared to sweep through it, to find and slay this Scarlet Stalker. When they moved in, what they found was not what they expected. The town was crimson with the blood of the folk who lived within, the Stalker having slain everyone. It sat upon a mound of dead, smiling to the advancing warriors, and all knew what she waited for. Without the Song-Sages to sing the dead home, the corpses began to move, to rise up and walk once more. The Stalker would bring about the ruination of the people once more, but this was not to pass. The warriors did pull back to the edge of town, firing the buildings as they moved, building a conflagration that none could survive, and waiting for the Scarlet Stalker to emerge. And emerge it did. Flames wreathing it's body, the Stalker did rush the warriors, rage and hate visible on it's face. Though it slew many in it's attempts to flee, the warriors were too many, and many sold their lives simply to keep it in place while more of their number arrived to overwhelm it. Slain on the field, the Stalker was cast back into the flames, consigned to the fire for all time. The town was never rebuilt. the land is still scorched, a new wasteland within the grounds. The fury unleashed had not been seen since the previous age, not since the Dusk Spirit had walked the lands. But we sing the tale of the Scarlet Stalker, so that we may remember that we must always remain vigilant against the Darkness.