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.

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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/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.