Picaroon: Tredow Folquin

[Badelaire]

Loose threads

With Laila and Lilly under the care of Tarinyar, some loose ends needed to be tied off. The traveling sates that wanderlust that all outsiders who endure in this demi-plane become afflicted with. So back to that place he goes, the first time since the meeting with Inajira. Thankfully though, there are no demons waiting this time, only the ghosts of the past. Old secrets are not best left forgotten, so Tredow recovers the ones he left buried under the watch tower's ruins. Some things you just don't leave to chance. The satchel, fat with its contents, was knowledge enough to make even a concerted scholar's efforts look like the crawling of a swaddled child in comparison. Just under half a decade's worth of compiled notes, diagrams, maps, theories, accounts, writings and musings. The most valuable of which taken from Avernus's libraries, the copied almanacs of those who tread before him or even the demonic manuscripts and hedge magic written down from Nicoletta Von Zeklos' own personal repository.


Old secrets are not best left forgotten. Because you never know who might unwittingly uncover them....

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R67Xhv6U02Y&feature=player_detailpage[/youtube]

[Badelaire]

"But I don't want to go among mad people." Alice remarked.
"Oh you can't help that." said the Cat. "We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad."
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be" said the cat "Or you wouldn't have come here."


~ Lewis Carroll

[Badelaire]

The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.

~ Earnest Hemingway

[Badelaire]

Full circle

Laila had bolted and barricaded the door behind Tredow as he set out. She had come back from her nocturnal meanderings earlier than usual and wanted time with Lilly. Tredow was feeling restless. Withdrawing from public life, as it were, did that to a man who spent it embroiled in conflict, crime, politics and intrigue. Sometimes you just needed to get a feel for what was going on in the world and the Blood was a good place to hear its comings and goings from adventurers.

It had been questioned several times why they chose to settle near the Village of Barovia of all places. It was simple; a lot had happened here for them. Here was where Tredow fought alongside outlander and Barovian alike against Adere's forces and their Falkovnian mercenary allies at the Tser pools. Here was where the Folquins had become infused with the shadows that sought to take them over and replace them in this plane. Where a restless spirit's entreaty was met in recovering its dead daughters remains and giving them proper burial. Where two very important jobs were carried out in their Red Vardo days, jobs that would have meant their deaths if they had failed or were discovered. Yes, a lot happened to them this side of the gates.

Hands in pockets, sauntering along the road towards the Village, Tredow intended to spend a couple of hours with a few drinks of wine at the Blood and see what news was current. After that, it was straight back home with no diversions. This was something done not enough to be routine or predictable but still stay in the know. It was a typical dark Barovian night with the howls of wolves baying in the air while swarms of bats darted over head. As usual the shadows played and danced as things moved within them but something on the road ahead was getting closer. A rider...

[Badelaire]

"Domn Folquin..."



Embarkation



Advance



Charge



Hold ground



The approach



Family plot



The Manor



Inside



Shadows rule



Family reunion



Eyes in the dark



Captive



Victims and minions



The Patriarch



Never give up



Darkness descends



Sanctuary of the Beast



Death Knell



The Beast defeated



This house is cleansed



Into the light



Hello my little friend



Farewells



History

I guess it's hard for"bad" guys like us to die. The real heroes always manage to die first. But guys like us? We live the rest of our lives in hell. But then again , being alive is proof that we were good.
~ Dominic Zubov

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=m2Q_fT3WtTc[/youtube]

[Badelaire]

All the world will be your enemy, Prince of a Thousand enemies. And when they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you; digger, listener, runner, Prince with the swift warning. Be cunning, and full of tricks, and your people will never be destroyed.

~The Narrator, Watership Down.

[Badelaire]

He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.

~Friedrich Nietzsche

[Badelaire]

Loose ends

It had been a few days now since talking to the Ana and members of the Fourth Sect who had taken up residence in Von Zeklos keep. Tredow sat twirling his sour local red wine in its glass as he pondered his plans for the coming days. He had still not gone to the orphanage yet to pick take the child he and Alexias saved three years ago. It had nagged at him since Lily was born, that sense of duty and honour that wouldn't let it rest. He saved the girl's life, she was his responsibility and he could provide a better life now he had retreated into the shadows.

But this development in Vallaki nagged even more. Nicolai Ionelus was an ambitious man but he and Tredow had always had a fair working relationship in the past when he had Captained the RVT. When Masame was put on trial it was that somewhat mutual respect that swayed opinions even with Viktor Ruza's glowering observing events. His son though, there was someone rotten to the core. A "Jumped up little shit hiding behind Daddy's position and money to do what he wants without reproach." as Tredow always put it. Now he was king of the castle, a sad little man with sad little methods racking up a long list of crimes and people wanting to murder him.

Draining the rest of his glass and pulling a face at the quality, Tredow mused even further. Vladimir had crossed him when he pursued Livia with his Zarcoft paid cronies in what felt a lifetime ago. Tredow didn't like leaving old debts unpaid and now? Perhaps he'd be able to stick it to Vladimir in some way, even if he didn't have a direct hand in it. Gods only knows he had done enough for this accursed demi-plane and its ungrateful people...

[Badelaire]

Certainly there is no hunting like the hunting of man and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never really care for anything else thereafter. You will meet them doing various things with resolve, but their interest rarely holds because after the other thing ordinary life is as flat as the taste of wine when the taste buds have been burned off your tongue.

~Ernest Hemingway

[Badelaire]

Dead men's words have no meaning.

~Tredow Folquin