Fevered Nightmare (Hazera)
From Toosigma
| Title | Fevered Nightmare |
|---|---|
| Author | Brandon Horn - Hazera |
| Campaign | Shattered Prisons |
| Session | Intersession - post The Burning Plague |
| Posted | April 6, 2007 |
| Game Date |
... the first night after receiving the Plague antidote
The wind whistles mournfully across the open barren plain, shrouded in mist. You can barely see the ground, and your footsteps crunch softly, as though walking through fresh snow. Though you can see nothing in the fog, you feel drawn toward something, walking purposefully in the darkness.
The mist clears slightly, and you can see the Cloisters ahead, and the familiar form of Father Natale in the garden, sitting quietly on a bench. Hearing your footsteps, he turns and smiles at you, and you feel your heart leap at how wonderful he looks, younger and more alive than ever – certainly better than his deathly pale and fevered face that last evening. You run to him and leap into his warm embrace as you have a thousand times before, feeling perfectly safe. He brushes the hair from your face, and you glance up to see him smiling warmly before hugging him even more tightly, afraid to ever let go.
His once warm body suddenly becomes chill to the touch, and you can feel your own body heat sapping quickly away. You look up in fear to see his face withering and rotting before you – his eyes sinking back in their sockets and the flesh peeling from his face like ancient paint peeling from a wall. His once warm and comforting arms turn bony and skeletal, digging sharply at you skin.
You pull away, horrified, and stumble in your haste. You glance down to see the ground is covered in human bones, wicked skulls leering up you. You look back to your father as he raises his arms, beckoning you back to him.
“Hazairah!” he calls to you, his voice so similar to the one you once knew, yet somehow otherworldly. “Guard your soul against the darkness, lest it consume you!”
You notice a skeletal hand gripping the Father's shoulder, adorned with a single black ring set with an impossibly large black diamond of crystal clarity. You can feel your gaze drawn into the gem, into the inky black depths, unable to tear your eyes away from it. You can hear Father Natale pleading with you, but cannot make out the words as the skeletal hand clenches forcefully, shattering the bony shoulder of your father and guardian into dust. You can feel yourself scream, but no sound escapes your lips as the rest of his body turns slowly to ash, raining softly to the macabre and dusty carpet of bones.
The dark skeletal figure seems to absorb all light as it walks toward you, the ringed hand outstretched, and eyes of burning blue flame. You try to turn and run, but skeletal hands break from the earth, grasping your ankles, your legs, climbing up your body to hold you fast. No matter how hard you try, you cannot tear your gaze from the black diamond – watching it as the hand slowly approaches your face, caressing your cheek as Father Natale had done so many times since your parents' death. But instead of the warmth of love, you feel only the burning cold of death, lancing its way into your very soul, as though sapping the life from your body.
“You will be mine...” the voice whispers softly.
You awake, screaming in the darkness, your body and your bedclothes drenched in sweat. You reach up to touch your cheek, and feel the smooth flesh of scar tissue where the hand had touched you.
