Discord
10-11-2019, 01:36 AM
DN-1-4 (COSMO/CLARICE)
The museum has closed and the children have gone home. While we clean up and prepare for tomorrow, the staff members have been telling scary stories. I will recount a summary of the one that appeal to me most. It goes similarly to this:
There is a small village deep in the swamps of Hoopla that experienced a haunting of will-o'-the wisps during this time of year. The lights danced at the edges of the village, luring passersby into the swamps where they would become lost and never be seen again. (Such apparitions can be attributed to swamp gas, but I suppose ghosts do make for a better story.) Eventually, the villagers grew so desperate that they hired a travelling sword to track the wisps back to their source. The adventurer journeyed deep into the swamp and after a time, the villagers believed that the swamp had claimed another victim and that they would never see the adventurer again. Only one of those assumptions were true.
A youth in the village claimed that they had spotted something vaguely person sized and shaped looming in the marsh, though it had vanished back into the mists before they could get a closer look. At first the villagers believed that the youth was making it up, but soon more and more sightings were reported. The villagers worked themselves into a frenzy, but before they could decide what to do, it appeared before them. It was the adventurer from before, but they were changed, horribly so. Vines snaked around their legs, twisting up their armor, down their arms, and around their sword. Their armor was weathered and rusted, as though they had been subject to the swamp's harshness for years and years instead of a few weeks. Worst of all, their head was gone. In it's place, there was a carved pumpkin, with malevolent eyes that glowed with an eerie light. Then it disappeared, seemingly for good, though the very sight of it had caused many of the townsfolk to fall ill with shock. Though some say that the undead sword still wanders the swamps of Hoopla to this day...
This tale is majorly unrealistic, of course. But I feel that perhaps it is against of the spirit of Darkest Night to ask that these tales adhere to realism. Regardless, it certainly captures the imagination. I have included a drawing I did of the Headless Swordsman. Usually I limit myself to sketching only for research purposes but I could not get the images the story conjured in my mind out of my head. Drawing it helped, so I thought I might as well include it.
![[Image: Zx3uynk.png]](https://i.imgur.com/Zx3uynk.png)
The museum has closed and the children have gone home. While we clean up and prepare for tomorrow, the staff members have been telling scary stories. I will recount a summary of the one that appeal to me most. It goes similarly to this:
There is a small village deep in the swamps of Hoopla that experienced a haunting of will-o'-the wisps during this time of year. The lights danced at the edges of the village, luring passersby into the swamps where they would become lost and never be seen again. (Such apparitions can be attributed to swamp gas, but I suppose ghosts do make for a better story.) Eventually, the villagers grew so desperate that they hired a travelling sword to track the wisps back to their source. The adventurer journeyed deep into the swamp and after a time, the villagers believed that the swamp had claimed another victim and that they would never see the adventurer again. Only one of those assumptions were true.
A youth in the village claimed that they had spotted something vaguely person sized and shaped looming in the marsh, though it had vanished back into the mists before they could get a closer look. At first the villagers believed that the youth was making it up, but soon more and more sightings were reported. The villagers worked themselves into a frenzy, but before they could decide what to do, it appeared before them. It was the adventurer from before, but they were changed, horribly so. Vines snaked around their legs, twisting up their armor, down their arms, and around their sword. Their armor was weathered and rusted, as though they had been subject to the swamp's harshness for years and years instead of a few weeks. Worst of all, their head was gone. In it's place, there was a carved pumpkin, with malevolent eyes that glowed with an eerie light. Then it disappeared, seemingly for good, though the very sight of it had caused many of the townsfolk to fall ill with shock. Though some say that the undead sword still wanders the swamps of Hoopla to this day...
This tale is majorly unrealistic, of course. But I feel that perhaps it is against of the spirit of Darkest Night to ask that these tales adhere to realism. Regardless, it certainly captures the imagination. I have included a drawing I did of the Headless Swordsman. Usually I limit myself to sketching only for research purposes but I could not get the images the story conjured in my mind out of my head. Drawing it helped, so I thought I might as well include it.
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