As the group began its introductions, awaiting for the lord that had summoned them without so much as an explanation, the feeling of dread that came upon them all began to intensify. The fog that had been blocked away from sight, had come back as the crimson curtains slowly began to withdraw to reveal the eerie nature of the darkened outside. The rings that held up those curtains scraped alongside the bar, letting out a small, yet noticeable, noise. The two servants in the room were nowhere close to the window, and they looked at each other in confusion before one stepped forward to inspect the window.  He stepped with caution, only looking to the group before continuing towards the damned window. 

As he neared, his eyes widened as he saw something that brought fright and fear into a mortal man, as if he saw the embodiment of evil itself. His lip quivered as he took one frightful step back before collapsing to his knees and letting out a wail worse than even a dying man could muster gripping the sides of his head. The other servant, an orc with short hair and tusks filed down, turned to try and retreat from the room grasping the door handle of the great wooden walls that refused to open despite even the power of an orc. The orcish servant pulled with all the might such a beast could muster without even so much of a budge before he too collapsed and began screaming. 

The screams echoed through the room, amplifying the screams further as the two servants cried their anguish and fear. The candles that once lit the room blew out one by one until they reached the doorway opposite of either of the servants. Amidst the screams, a door creeped open slowly and deliberately as a decrepit, skeletal hand appeared to grip the side of the door and push it  ever so gently. Thus appeared a being beyond what any of the group had encountered, a floating specter shrouded in darkness and madness. In its left hand it held aloft a noose, dragged along the floor. The hooded figure did not move, making no sound.

A hand crept to the blackened head, and held up a singular finger before both the servants stopped their screams in a sudden fashion. Then their eyes rolled back and they slumped to the floor bringing a damned silence to the room beyond what a normal man could bare. Was this the Hanged Man? Was this the cursed being they had tasked to kill?

A being of complete darkness beyond whose power overflowed into the minds of these mortals, bringing a sense of primal fear. A true fear. 

The symbols of the maker clattered to the floor, an unknown force breaking them to splinters or melting them down. Only then did the being enter the room to look down upon the group, who had not yet suffered the same fate as the servants had only moments ago. 

[i]“Ye will all die,”[/i] a withered voice spoke directly into their minds, leaning down to first look to the paladin.

[i]“A being of righteous violence, soon to lose faith and be damned”[/i]

Then to the elf. 

[i]“A mother of the dead, defying my wishes and bearing the scars of those I have yet to claim.”[/i]

The dwarf.

[i]“A man of the abandoned, attempting to be friends to all only to be friend to the dead.”[/i] 

The white-haired one.

[i]“A hunter whose emotions blind him, death following for each he kills.”[/i]

Then finally, the taran. 

[i]“A heretic, far from home and in a land of damnation.”[/i]

The cloaked figure straighten its posture before spreading its arms, holding the noose forward where each of the group would see their own form swaying there gently. It held the noose high for all to see, darkness coming from it before the rope dropped onto the table they were seated at. The table disintegrated as it decayed into mere sawdust, the nooses then rest gently on the tiled floor of the dining room. 

[i]“A perilous journey ye shall take. 
Faith and heresy be one in the same.
Look forth, past the lake.
See who takes aim,
Upon the rolling hills,
That which kills.”[/i] 

It recited its word before once more looking on the group. 

[i]“I fear, ye not be chosen for this quest. Though, ye try and fail. All that will be found, is ye’s own mortality.”[/i]