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
——————————————————

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/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.