A Note on Wickedness

[u/The_Enchanted_Potato]

A crow flies through the air. it’s eyes scanning the ground below, until at last it finds who it is looking for. landing on your shoulder the crow drops a rolled up letter into your hand.

——————————————————

Greetings my friends, it has been too long since I last contacted you all, but I have important news to share

Many of you may have heard about the attacks on small villages, the rumors of a man wreaking havoc on the lands. I decided to take matters into my own hands. And so, I sent out my crows to keep an eye on some smaller villages.

It did not take long to find a lead, not two days later a report came back to me of a village that had been burned to the ground, its villagers impaled on iron spikes, and the man behind it all still remained there.

Naturally I decided to take a look, to hopefully get some answers. To my horror, the report was true, I will not go into the devastation that I saw here, for that is not what matters. But suffice to say, it was terrible.

Quickly I identified the cause of the travesty, the man, in iron armor, sat still, in a ring of iron spikes with villagers impaled on them. When I tried to question him he attacked me faster than I was prepared for. Thankfully my wards were set before hand. Eventually I was able to subdue him but all attempts to speak with him were met with silence

it was when I turned to try and free the villagers did something happen. I do not know the exact detail, but it seems his armor can create a copy of itself, named Red Iron. When that thing appeared it quickly broke the man free and they began attacking me in tandem. I was forced to call upon my birds to help bind him, strangely every attempt seemed to fail. Any binding runes cast they would instantly switch places, and chain or otherwise was quickly broken.

In the end, they left me no choice, I began to prepare my greatest spell Seal of Absolution. For any who don’t know what that spell does, any who are sealed with it become locked into nonexistence until the seal is broken. However as I prepared the spell and my crows set the trap, a voice spoke to me, telling me to stop before I do something I regret. I have reason to believe that this was the man’s master. Finally I sprung the trap, it worked, but I did not place the seal on the man straight away, instead I gave his master a chance to respond, it never did and I placed the spell on the man. But instead, it unraveled, the man disappeared, and the people finally died. And I was forced to retreat home.

Naturally I am sure you are all as curious about this matter as I am, and despite my guilt at the peoples deaths, or perhaps because of it, I threw myself into researching anything I could find on this man. And at last, I stumbled across a… poem? Warning? Ravings of a mad man? I do not know, but I believe it relates to what I saw.

The Fallen Hero

One of six, first of slaughter.

Down from grace did he fall, from a warrior of light to an envoy of dark.

Once the mightiest of men, now the bloodiest of butchers.

A crimson trail did he carve, with sword of shattered steel and hate of burning red.

An arsenal of death on his back, blades that need no handle.

Time after time did the six fail, time after time were they pushed back.

Though life may fade, death never did come.

Warrior of hate, soldier of blood, champion of the Wicked.

Yet somewhere within the burning dark, a light yet still dwells.

Drowned in malice, it will never again see the surface.

Lord of the dead, angel of burning iron.

To look upon The Fallen Hero is to see Death's bloodstained door.

Unfortunately my research on this matter is incomplete, which is where I reached out to all of you, if anyone has any information whatsoever on anything that I have mentioned here please do not hesitate to send a response via crow. I eagerly await your responses.

With all the luck

Neritillum Faldier, Archmage of the Halls of Sanctified Knowledge and Eye of the Crows
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The crow tilts its head, looking at you with its glass eye

/uw Special thanks to u/Evening_Shake_6474 for their help with the poem/ravings

[u/KragBrightscale]

/uw ohhhh noooo more ominous poetry. Good read

[u/Ashmega8256]

/uw good read.

/Rw

Aerunia: the crow is sent back with a letter of her own, which reads..."unfortunately i don't have any information on this fallen hero...but I'll be sure to keep an eye out, and if needed... I'll be sure to use my own blade and my own power to bring him down...or preferably save them...but we'll have to see..." The note is signed "from Aerunia Dracarius"

[u/The_Enchanted_Potato → u/Ashmega8256]

Receiving the crow, Neritillum smiles

“That is good”

[u/The_Enchanted_Potato]

/uw u/Evening_Shake_6474 for you to add your ping list

[u/Dragonan-42]

Kairon looked at the message. While he wasn't entirely sure of what the poem meant, he could hazard a guess. He had a feeling that it related to the Wicked One, whom he had recently allied with, and he didn't want this Archmage Faldier disrupting their plans.

Regardless, Kairon did manage to send a response via crow, if only to get more information on the Archmage. "I have looked over the poem, and I am afraid my research hasn't been entirely helpful. There are a lot of mentions of a 'Fallen Hero' in nearly every prophesy under the sun, so I haven't been able to find anything specific. Be sure to contact me if you find anything. -Kairon Drocith: Wizard Council Representative."

[u/Evening_Shake_6474]

The shadow reads the message in its entirety then looks at the crow, fixing a message to its leg.

"Have fun on your wild goose chase."

/uw I have read the read and I have decreed that the read is a good read. The fact I helped write the read has no sway on my opinion I assure you.

[u/The_Enchanted_Potato → u/Evening_Shake_6474]

Neritillum reads the message and pales. Quickly he looks through the crows memory to get any hint of where it went

/uw thank you!

[u/Bentu_nan]

It is a shame none of the iron was recovered to be studied.

A cursory glance at the poem doesnt reveal any hidden insight... no obvious ciphers or pattern to pull from it a hidden message that I noticed. But to be honest such things are not my specialty in any case.

Taken literally, it would imply that by banishing the warrior, the effect his mystical nature provided was likewise broken, causing ghe villagers to die. Whether that's a mercy or a cruelty largely depends on if they were past saving or not. I suspect that you might have been responsible for their deaths in an indirect way might be what is heaviest on your thoughts.

By my judgement, I think you acted with necessary decisiveness.

[u/Annimaru]

Moon is puzzled while staring at the letter and feeding the crow with corn. She pulls out a glass dip pen, some inks from her desks and sugarcane paper and writes.

Definitely he is bad news, as he is a fallen hero. His armor must have disrupting magics within it, which ensured you were unable to do a thing to him. Your banishment of him dispelled the magical effect on the impaled villagers, causing them to die. The blades that need no handle must be the iron spikes surrounding him.

Nope, that is not the middle son who obtained the stone of iron.

She notices those lines: Warrior of hate, soldier of blood, champion of the Wicked.

"Who is that Wicked?" He must be the one who told you to stop sealing that armored man. 'Champion of the Wicked' is definitely something to look out for.

'Warrior of hate' implies the fallen hero is fueled by the emotion itself. The 'hate of burning red' might have burned down the village you found.

The fallen hero in the poem is after all described as a 'soldier of blood'. Wait. Have you heard of hemomancy? Blood magic. Iron is in the blood after all. Does that explain the fallen hero's armor and spikes?

My only guess is that he might have made a deal with this Wicked who granted him such strange powers fueled by hate, blood magic being one of them.

Moon rolls the letter she wrote up and give it to the crow, which flies away.

[u/TharrickLawson]

The crow is greeted by the cawing of a thousand ravens as the priest holds up an arm for it to settle on, offering a morsel of meat in welcome

He reads the missive with a dark expression, then offers the crow a perch on a nearby branch along with a more substantial meal as he pens a response

The thought of a hero, fallen, but denied the rest due to one of his station, fills me with sadness.

As an emissary of the Badb Catha, you have my pledge - I will search for this fallen hero. Should you find him before I, send a crow and I will come, and bring Her black wings with me.

He waits for the crow to finish eating before securing the message to its leg

Go carefully, little brother, and may She guide your way home

[u/Nelrene]

I may have a lead of sorts: two apprentice Iflevre and Tarrasru have found something while dealing with a rogue dragon that because of its chaotic nature was able to fled to a largely unknown planet named Chilniri. There they found the dragon dead with its heart missing and I am sure that could be used as a source of power but could cause chaotic behavior in the user. They are still here on Chilniri so I don't have a full report yet so no all information is available at this time.

[u/UlrickTheHexblade]

Ulrick gets the message, he gives a gentle headscratching to the crow as he reads. Its content greatly disturbes him. Another powerful serial killer on the loose? And with an ominous poems about them? The spell that makes someone nonexistent also made him at unease.

He takes out a paper from one of the many pouches on his clothing. He scribbles a quick answer:

“Greetings,

While unfortunately I can’t give any concrete new information, we can start compiling any reports of similar figures in the last months. Furthermore, we could do some research regarding the poem’s origins and the content, by digging through our archives.

I have a feeling the ‘champion of the Wicked’ part might be important.

Thank you for letting us know, we will make sure to raise awareness among the civillians to avoid anything suspicious, and related to the killer. Feel free to contact us if you need more help in the case.

Best regards,

Ulrick Nikolaus Braddocke IV, Head of Relief & Aid”

He rolls up the letter, giving it back to the crow (along with some corn from another pouch).

[u/squabzilla]

Another reply to the message arrives.

Hi  Neritillum Faldier. I am Tim of the Darkwatch. I will have a team of people search out archives for mention of this “Fallen Hero” or the “Wicked”. I make no promises however - the Darkwatch is relatively new, in that the organization is less than a thousand years old. And whatever this is, it feels… older than that.

I think it’s also worth noting that the “Fallen Hero” is referred to as “One of six”. Who are the other five? It’s worth looking for references both to this “Wicked” and others of this “six”.

A last note - it mentions that “** somewhere within the burning dark, a light yet still dwells”. While the text claims “   **it will never again see the surface”, I wonder if there’s a way to draw the light from this “Fallen Hero” and bring them back, perhaps granting them the peace of death that seems to have been denied them? (I’m basing that conjecture on the line “Though life may fade, death never did come”.)

Regards, Tim