You have been taken by the Mists

Author Topic: A Plain Black Book. [Chimera's Journal]  (Read 1613 times)

Rubi

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A Plain Black Book. [Chimera's Journal]
« on: November 02, 2019, 11:48:00 AM »

(This book is immaculate and newly made, if a little unexciting. The first page is blank but the second is filled out in a steady hand in Elvish.)

Alright. Here this goes. Ron has prodded me endlessly about keeping a journal while I have so much free time thrust into my hands, but I suspect it is mostly because I am an expert in subject changing and she tires of battling my wit to tease out my past. So really, this is for you, Ron.

My name is Valenthe Tuann. I am one-hundred and nineteen years of age. I am a Moon Elf from the city of Neverwinter, from the realm known as Toril. I was brought through the Mists against my will...some months ago. To be honest I have lost track of how long it has been. Toril is no longer my home and I expect to never see it again. Barovia is where I live now and I have come to accept that as part of me.

It has not been an easy time. In Barovia I have found that I am considered an outcast, not just because of my heritage, but because of who I am. Barovians are a suspicious and superstitious folk that do not accept the work I have done to forge myself anew. If they discovered that the odd, outlandish elf that serves drinks at the Miner’s Merriment had begun this life as male they would not see anything else then on. Good fortune, then, would be if they only ignored me. They would not care about the amount of coin, time, and cunning it took in order to persuade a powerful enough wizard to enact the change upon me, only that I have been “twisted by vraja”.

But this is the past I write of. It is long since over.

Life now is finally pleasurable again. I smile and when I glance at it the mirror I no longer need to adjust it to look plausible. I feel...happy. This is in no small part due to the wonderful, kind, beautiful, exciting, ever-surprising woman I have met. The first time I saw her was long ago - I can still recall it perfectly. It was the most enchanting music I had ever heard. She played the violin and sang like some angelic being. It was at some Red Vardo auction, it does not matter. I never got her name, the crowd was so large.

Some time later I found myself working as a courier, lounging in the very tavern I would later be employed at. A gnome walked in and I was instantly attracted to her, though I could not place her face at the time and told her as much. She responded by unveiling the violin and played that song that had stuck with me since and it was then that I knew both who she was and that I had fallen madly in love with her.

That initial infatuation blossomed into a fast friendship, which then grew to more. That is why I smile as I write; cradled in expensive furs and holding a fine drink in this lovely city. For now, Barovia is elsewhere. I am happy.


(The bottom of the page is dated and signed with a flourish.)
« Last Edit: December 18, 2019, 09:35:08 AM by DaniKay »

Rubi

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Re: A Plain, Unadorned Black Book. [Valenthe Tuann's Journal]
« Reply #1 on: November 11, 2019, 01:28:54 PM »
Home sweet home! How does one write sarcasm into a journal? Perhaps there is some spell.

In any case, Barovia has lost much of its bleakness, I have found. Oh, there are still monsters and the cruel and everything in between, but I cannot bring myself to worry as I did. Ron has returned to her position managing the Gaping Wound and I have come back to the Merriment.

It is strangely pleasant to be back behind the bar, I have to admit. Perhaps habit has made me grow fond of the place, but I have had many friendships forged within its walls. Yet  there is still mystery that surrounds what had happened. I have yet to see Mistress Hlavek, or Arthur, or anyone so I have gently assumed that business is running as usual. We shall see what happens. I could not blame Dulkanzta for releasing me from her service for my sudden absence.

I shall be sorrowful if this happens, but luckily not destitute. At least I know that there is always a place for me at the Wound.

(The entry is signed with her name and has a lipstick mark of dark blue next to it.)
« Last Edit: November 18, 2019, 09:25:38 PM by DaniKay »

Rubi

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Re: A Plain, Unadorned Black Book. [Valenthe Tuann's Journal]
« Reply #2 on: November 18, 2019, 07:51:36 PM »
(Another entry in Elvish)

It feels like a lifetime since my last entry here. I have been quite, quite busy since I've returned; I've learned secrets that I should have known all along. I've rubbed shoulders with some of the most powerful people in Barovia and now my own shoulders are draped in red and black.

It makes me laugh, truly, when I consider all that has occured since I came here. If those fools I was forced to work with back in Beggar's Nest could see me now…

If Itero could see me now.

I wonder if my brother would approve of my new occupation. It had always been like him to see our operations as a means to an end. Accumulating enough wealth would've let us both live how we wished, but did he ever truly seek to retire? It is impossible to say now. I can only hope that he either approves or forgives me. Not that what I do has ever really mattered to the dead.

It is something to look at this place with all of its monsters and its mayhem and its horror and feel fond of it. I have more here than I've ever had before, there is no doubt about that. I have a future. I have love. I have a home.


What else could I possibly want for?


Rubi

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Re: A Plain, Unadorned Black Book. [Valenthe Tuann's Journal]
« Reply #3 on: November 22, 2019, 09:37:00 PM »
(This entry is scrawled in a dark red ink.)

Life moves on and things slide into habit, even in a place like this. Both my business and my personal life are going better than ever before, yet I find myself itching to wander still. Is it in my blood to never be satisfied? Or did I pick this up along the way? It is as if I crave change, even when things are perfect.

Perhaps that is why I so freely offered Thül as a distraction when the dealings with my Family came up. I had not even discussed it with him... yet I recklessly threw a chance to cause his death onto the table. Too late to retract now. Not only this, but I lied to them all, saying that I had known him before Caerylia had shown me how. Why did I do these things? Why am I so eager to gamble the lives of those I thought I loved? What's wrong with me?


Itero. I am sorry.

V.

Rubi

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Re: A Plain, Unadorned Black Book. [Valenthe Tuann's Journal]
« Reply #4 on: November 28, 2019, 08:25:36 PM »
I hardly know what to put in here any longer. I try so hard to keep the language vague, my dealings secret even from these pages, lest I betray my Family.

Whomever coined that bit about no honor among us must have been meeting the entirely wrong sort, for certain. Truly I have never known kinder and more loyal people than these, my closest friends, my family, my love. They have taken me into their fold with open arms and have already shown me how to more than double what coin I own. I swim in luxury and I breathe the finest life has to offer!

Everything comes with a price, however, but the cost is one I pay gladly. After all...it was a week off to spend with Ron.

Perhaps "price" is not the correct word here?

My heart leaps further than I thought possible still at the return of my dear kin, Caerylia and Eruheran. The news of her father’s death nearly killed her and forced them both into solitude. I have come to think of her as the elvish mother I never had and I am so pleased that they both have come back to me.

Truly things could not be any better for me.

(The page is signed V. and bears a black lipstick kiss mark.)

Rubi

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Re: A Plain Black Book. [Valenthe Tuann's Journal]
« Reply #5 on: December 08, 2019, 06:26:41 PM »
I have finally arrived in Port-a-Lucine with a heart strangely lightened of sorrow- at least for now. The Family has a task for me that appears fairly straight forward and pulls from the moving jobs that I've worked in the past, but I am wary still. My only experience with this city is still ages ago when Ron and Evandra took me here for the first time. The culture, the luxury, all of it is marred by what I know of this place. Despite the finery, I find myself eager to be back in the cold dark of Barovia.

Who could possibly wish such ill upon Ron's head? All my contacts from the Drain seem to be fled- even the Dragon Boss himself is no where to be found. Any messages I leave in order to try and suss out this fool go unheeded. I have been feeling utterly helpless, so I thank Mask that the Captain had approached me with this job.

The story I was told...I was so ridiculously unaware of all that has been going on in my new home. A people so oppressed as them, it hardly seems possible. If it is true then perhaps the writings I have seen were not the ravings of some mad man...perhaps this Count is a devil indeed. Most troubling.

It does not immediately concern me, I suppose. But it does give me pause about my purposes in all of this. What am I building my wealth for? Do I even have any plans to ever retire? I have not thought of it since Faerun...it feels as if I am simply doing what Itero and I have always done.


What is this future that I am building?

Rubi

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Re: A Plain Black Book. [Valenthe Tuann's Journal]
« Reply #6 on: December 12, 2019, 06:26:58 PM »
(A limerick is scrawled at the top, stained by teardrops)

There once was an elf maiden from Cormyr
Who was infamous from Daggerdale to here
Her legs would she spread
And took anyone to bed
But Gods, could she hold her beer.


I was sleeping. Just now. Not in Reverie and not due to the exhaustion brought on by those I bring to my bed. Sleeping. I suppose that I have been exhausted in another way; having to upkeep this ruse for Ron's sake has been more tiring than I've let on. It is the exhaustion of another two deaths and rebirths, each more horrifying than the last. It is the exhaustion of the harrowed. The exhaustion of this weakened state, of what these shadowy blades do to me.

It is the exhaustion of those left behind.

 And now..(the ink is smudged by moisture at the end of the sentence)

I dreamt as I slept. I was in Degannwy- though there was not a soul in sight. Where the remnants of the shattered tree was supposed to be was instead a mighty chimera, nearly exactly as I had read in stories with the exception of its faces. The bestial necks did not end in monstrous faces, but instead bore the likenesses of people I have known. Caerylia and Eruheran, Ron and Evandra. And upon the tail...the glaring face of my twin brother. The creature stood tall and roared at me and I knew it to be the accusation it was. As the claws came to descend down upon me, putting me from my misery, I woke.

My hand was clutching the guitar that Ron had given me. Veronika's instrument. Scattered about me are the pages of sheet music that she has left. "Her legacy." What does she mean carry this on?


Why does this feel like goodbye?
« Last Edit: December 12, 2019, 06:29:48 PM by DaniKay »

Rubi

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Re: A Plain Black Book. [Valenthe Tuann's Journal]
« Reply #7 on: December 16, 2019, 06:08:59 PM »

My music has gone.


These snakes will regret what they have done.


It is war.

Rubi

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Re: A Plain Black Book. [Valenthe Tuann's Journal]
« Reply #8 on: December 18, 2019, 09:33:03 AM »
It has been days since they killed her. I have barely slept, barely ate. Every shadow writhes with those seeking my head. No where is safe for me. I cannot trust anyone any longer.


There are those within the Red Vardo that are like how I was. Naive. Self-centered. Undeserving of the destruction that I have planned. I can only hope that they will see this false family for what they truly are and leave before I bring it all down. Creighton may. I hope he does.


Maiwenn is unrepentant. She knows where Ron is kept. She knows where Orsolya is kept. She does nothing for either. I believe she would have killed me too if it were not for the intervention of fate that allowed my escape. Death would be too good for her. I would see her rotting away for the remainder of her days in some small, dark room.


I can do nothing now. I am not strong enough. But there are forces, beings in this land that can make me stronger. I no longer care of any price. I would gladly pay.



Valenthe Tuann is dead. Chimera will have her revenge.