Kassarock

Blackguards!

@Kassarock I could have been more clear about this, my apologies. Weaves only mentions the Pyre by name in her Moonwalker language, though she does vaguely allude to it in her gibberish attempts at speaking the King's English. Up to you what to do with that, though it's worth noting that Weaves doesn't know Brandon's backstory or anything. Whether or not she's referring to the same "Pyre" is also left ambiguous~

@Emeth

Ah are the brackets supposed to imply a change in tongue in that case? I'll bear that in mind for the future. Also it doesn't really matter what Weaves does/doesn't know, Brandon's more than a little on edge and it doesn't take much to turn him into a wreck at this point.

Hell he could have just heard the word Pyre in what Weaves was saying and just started to freak out.

Blackguards!

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S I R B R A N D O N

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Reality distorted before Brandon's very eyes.

It was the sort of thing he had become used to in those seemingly never ending nightmares that he had faced these last few years. The only problem this time was that he was entirely sure he was completely awake. That might have horrified him at some point in the past, but he guessed he was beyond that now. Besides, it was the Warden that they were dealing with. He had heard enough rumours, seen her... well... It in the flesh a few times before. He had tried to discount them as fanciful, exaggerations of the powers of a mere sorceress in the employ of the King, but now he was starting to believe them in their entirety.

After all the evil shit you ended up doing for Tyronde, was it small wonder that the King would have gotten into bed with a monster such as this? No, easier to believe that than some of things you've done with thatblade... with your own hands. Easier to believe in evil like that than what you have allowed yourself t-

No. He stopped himself from pursuing that train of thought before it could lead him any further into a pit of black despair. He needed to keep what little of his wits he had left about him.

First of all, where the hell was he now?

Slowly the knight opened his eyes to... light. Real actual sunlight. He was outside, under open skies in a field of tall grass that was blowing gently in the breeze. The outside world... he had never thought he would live to see it again. The briefest echo of a smile flickered across his face. Shame about all the people who will never see this again because of you. It died again just as quickly.

He sat up, his armour gentling clinking around him as he did so. Brandon didn't recognise his surroundings, it was wilderness, presumably somewhere in Sulfrey or at least on the borders of it. There was a river bank to the right of him, to his left a wide plain that gave way to forests and white peaked mountains on the far horizon.

He could also see that he was not alone.

There was a group of other... creatures... near him. He could see several of them, and heard more down by the water's edge. A hulking barbarian giant with a massive blade, a slender man wearing tattered finery, a half-orc... and some monstrous woman who put him vaguely in mind of a giant spider. His grey gaze lingered on her longer than the others, his hand instinctively went for the blade at his side. She was strangely familiar... in fact...

Her words stopped him from drawing his sword any further. He froze at them, assaulted by the hidden meaning in them that was plain to him. What the fuck? How... how the hell could she possibly know about that? It couldn't be a coincidence. Not with those words... She knew about The Pyre. SHE KNEW ABOUT THE FUCKING PYRE!

He laughed out loud. It was not a pleasant sound. His voice was hoarse from disuse... it sounded like a dry rattle, like a dying man's last breath. He didn't finish for a long time. As he finally quieted he heard them on the wind, the sound of hoofbeats heading towards them.

You know what you need to do.

The knight wiped the tears from his eyes and pulled himself to his feet roughly.

"Sir Brandon of Bainbridge, honoured to make your acquaintances." He turned in the direction he could hear the horsemen approaching from. "Now... who wants to come and die with me?"

Blackguards!

Working on a follow up for Brandon should come today or tomorrow

What Are You Listening To?

Kass's Kharacters

Sir Brandon the Broken Blade

_{Art by A.B. Feemster}

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Name

Sir Brandon of Bainbridge, formerly Knight Captain of the Order of Saint Helios, Sworn Sword to Royal House of Vortigern, Champion of the Crown, Third Blade of the Kingdom, Knight Paragon of the Virtues of Duty and Vigilance. Now known as Sir Brandon the Broken Blade, Traitor and Apostate to the Crown and the Church.

Race

Human

Gender

Male

Age

Forty Four

Appearance

Sir Brandon is a tall man, standing easily over six feet in height. His build is muscular but lean, Brandon's physical prowess always relying more upon his speed than his brawn. His skin is tanned from long hours riding under the sun and time spent pursuing outdoor activities. A lifetime of combat training and actual warfare has left him with a number of faded silvery scars that mostly cross his upper limbs and face.

Brandon's face would generally be considered handsome, if a little bit stern and brooding. It's are long, with an aquiline nose and high cheekbones. A pair of grey eyes stare out from under a dark furrowed brow. Similarly dark hair frames it, shot through with a scattering of grey, and a short beard hides his chiselled jaw.

Captivity has changed him somewhat however, he is thinner than he was before, paler, more dishevelled. Fresh scars and old bruises mark his face and body, the skin at his wrists are raw and bloody from long periods spent wearing irons. Where before his dark hair was merely lightly flecked with grey, it is now well and truly streaked with it, and almost completely silver at the temples. But more than just those external changes, something more fundamental has changed inside of Brandon. There's a look in his eyes what wasn't there before, an emptiness, a void of despair and self loathing even deeper than the prison they have cast him into.

Personality

Duty and diligence are the two ideals to which Brandon has organised his life. First to his father and family, later to his lord and liege, and finally unto the Crown itself. Always, he has put the desires and ambitions of others before his own. Always he has done what others have asked of him to the best of his abilities. Brandon was a man made to serve, much more comfortable following orders than being the person giving them out.

He is a man of few words. When he does talk, he speaks slowly in a careful and deliberate manner. His speech is far from coarse, but there is a degree of plainness to it. In fact there's a degree of plainness about Brandon in general. He dislikes ostentatious dress or drawing undue attention to himself. Despite his considerable martial prowess he was never considered much of tourney knight, only ever entering the lists at the command of his superiors.

A stern knight of few words could easily come over as a cold or unfeeling individual. But where he could Sir Brandon would always try to temper what he had to do with other ideals a knight was supposed to uphold. He tried to offer mercy where he could, he tried to be chivalric, defend the poor and the weak from the strong and the wicked. From behind his stony mask he tried to uphold both, his duty and his conscience.

Then it all went up in flames.

Brandon is a lost man. A broken blade. A mess of despair and self-loathing. He has committed crimes against his King and Country and even worse crimes against his own conscience. Sometimes he wishes he did not feel empathy, so he could have done what they asked of him without it destroying him. Other times he wishes he had plunged his sword into Tyronde's heart the first time he had laid eyes on him. Mostly he wishes that he was dead.

Background

You Weren't There

The tavern stank with the odour of stale ale and unwashed bodies. Three weeks the regiment had been on the march. Three weeks of rain, mud, and sore feet before they were finally back on a good Imperial road, one with actual inns that served proper beer, instead of the horsepiss the locals round here somehow drank.

Gav pushed his way through the crowd of soldiers at the bar to slam his coin down. He returned minutes later with several mugs of foaming ale to put before his drinking companions. There was Alf, the gangly archer, Old Drummond, the pikeman who'd spent more years on campaign than some men had in their god-given span, and Little Oller, a greenhorn on his first outing as a soldier of the Crown.

And, like most nights when they got the chance to sit down and get drinking, they were swapping war stories. Drummond was talking, banging on about how he almost shat himself when they had held the line against the Black Baron's cavalry charge back in '76. Oller was lapping it up like he did most of Drummond's bullshit.

"O'course we won the day in the end. Tyronde had the Baron's head on a pike by the end of the month, and I pulled a set of the nicest boots I ever did own off of a corpse on that field. Did I ever tell you about those boots Gav? Those boots wer-"

"Yeah but what was the time you was most afraid of anything?" Oller interjected before Drummond could finish his tangent about the dead man's boots.

"Most afraid yer say?" Drummond paused for a sip of his ale, stroked at the scraggly white beard that hung beneath his jaw. "That's easy..." He continued after his momentary hesitation. "Sir Brandon of Bainbridge, the Third Blade. The night he lost it and killed Inquisitor Thomond."

The veterans of the group glanced at which other and all shifted uncomfortable in their seats. Some of the noise and laughter in the groups around them also began to die down.

"Just one knight? I thought you fought monsters and mages and heretics and all that?" Oller joked, seemingly obvious to the change in atmosphere that his question had created.

"Aye we have and more. But still... Bainbridge. You hope you never see anything like it. I seen him fight before that night, knew how quick he was, how that plain ole' sword of his could slice and man up three ways before he had a chance to sneeze. But... it was... the fucking savagery of it. He gutted anyone who got within a stones throw of him. Only reason I'm alive is told the sergeant to go fuck himself when he told us to form up against him."

"He killed near a hundred men that night. Fifty more on the road to Port Imalys the way I hear it told." Alf spoke quietly from the other side of the table.

"And not a drop of monster blood or magic about him. Just steel, and anger, and fucking madness." Drummond shook his head. "Always was a buttoned up prick, barely ever raised his voice. Not good for a man like, bottling all that in."

"But... why'd he do it?" Oller asked the question they'd all been dreading.

It was bad enough remembering that night. Remembering the fucking demon that Bainbridge had turned into once he had hacked off the Inquisitor's head. But it was worse remembering what had come before. What had made Sir Brandon snap. What he had done, what they had all done.

His mind filled with the flames. The screams.

They didn't talk about it, but there was one thing Gav was sure about. All the men at the table who had been there, none of them blamed Bainbridge for what he did. None of the regretted the hole he made through that fucking bastard Thomond's chest.

"Shut the fuck up kid." Gav finally said. "You weren't there."

Talents

Third Blade of the Kingdom: At one point in time Sir Brandon was considered one of the greatest knights of the Westerlands. Particularly skilled with a blade, there few other than the most elite of swordsmen could stand up to him in single combat.

Knight Paragon: Sir Brandon was once a member of the nobility, and served in the Royal Court for many years. He understands court politics, heraldry, the history of the great houses of the Westerlands, and how to conduct oneself amongst the aristocracy.

Knight Captain: Sir Brandon was once a military commander as well as a champion. He knows how to command and discipline men, how to plan a campaign, how to employ military strategy. Some of his former subordinates might even still have a degree of loyalty to their old commander...

Flaws

Broken Blade: Sir Brandon is not the disciplined and dutiful knight he once was. He is broken man, his convictions shaken, his faith shattered. He despises himself for what he has done both for and against the Crown. Sometimes he thinks it would have been better if he had let himself fall in battle than endure the despair he lives with every day.

Traitor and Apostate: When he killed an Inquisitor of the Sun Temple and forsook his vows to the King, Sir Brandon became more loathsome in the eyes of many than those monsters and heretics the Inquisition dealt with. After all, many were born evil or did not know any better than to believe in evil demons and spirits, but Brandon was raised good true in the Faith and yet still chose heresy and treachery.

The Pyre of Children: He still sees it his dreams. Still hears the screams. He cannot face it again, not in the waking world. Brandon loathes fire, and there is nothing in this world than could compel him to raise his blade against an innocent child again. He would rather die.

Equipment

Though he mostly discarded his knightly regalia during his attempted flight to exile. Sir Brandon retains a serviceable set of steel chainmail, along with a breastplate, pauldrons, vambraces, greaves, and an open faced helmet. His shield is oak banded with iron, and his sword, although exceptional fine, is unenchanted and largely unadorned. A dark hooded cloak helped to hide his identity before he was finally apprehended.

Adventure Awaits! - Prompt Voting CYOA (Always Open)

>"All right, I'll help."

Blackguards!

Kass posting an extended dream sequence for an opening post? It's more likely than you think.

Blackguards!

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T H E B R O K E N B L A D E

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The evening air was cool and crisp. Dusk had not long fallen, a thin band of baleful crimson still rimmed the western horizon, casting long shadows of a deep bruised purple. It would be night soon.

Sir Brandon hefted the longsword in his hand. It was his own blade, plain but serviceable, it had been given to him by his brother in arms Sir Hyrwine the Gallant, in recompense for the one he had broken against his fellow knight's shield during the great tourney at Meadowview. It was a good blade, nimble in the hand, well balanced, and honed to a razor edge.

His resolve tightened. He knew what he had to do. He twirled the blade once more, hoping the motion would steady his hands. They continued to trembled.

The knight turned away from the fading light and walked towards the pavilion behind him. He was girded in his mail, the armour gently shifted around him, a reassuring cascade of metal clinking against metal, letting him know that he was well protected.

Tonight, it would be tonight. He would put an end to this wretched folly once and for all. He pulled aside the curtain, and stepped into the tent.

The room he found was not what he was expecting. Inquisitor Thomond's personal pavilion was filled with expensive furniture, lined with plush silks. Instead Brandon found himself standing in a very different sort of room. It was made of bare stone, roughly dressed in places, seemingly hewn into natural rock in others. Light came from a single guttering torch from a metal sconce upon the wall. It was empty save for a kneeling figure.

They were a pitiful sight, whoever they were. Thin and dressed in rags, with long, greasy, tangled, greying hair. A chain snaked its way from the wall they knelt beside to join to a pair of irons affixed upon their wrists and ankles.

This was some kind of cell. And this was its prisoner.

But where was the Inquisitor? It was Thomond that had to find, had to stop, before... before he could do something unspeakable. Unforgivable. Brandon's head began to spin, he felt dazed, confused. He had been looking for the Inquisitor. Why was he here? How had he ended up here?

"You there, wretch! Where is Inquisitor Thomond?" He tried to steady himself, barked an order at the kneeling prisoner. He would find the Inquisitor. He would put a stop to this.

The man on the floor did not answer. Brandon took a step closer.

As he drew closer, he could not help but think that this man seemed familiar somehow. Like he should know who this was. He had faced many enemies and fell foes over his years of service to the crown. Doubtless many of them were housed in cells such as this. But somehow he didn't think that was where he knew this person from. They felt so much more... intimate...

"Look up." Brandon spoke in a hoarse whisper.

Slowly the prisoner stirred, uncoiling themselves from the ball they had cowered in. The rats nest of dirty hair and sackcloth unravelled to reveal a pale face staring back up at him, grey eyes wide, trembling with desperate tears.

Sir Brandon stared in horrified disbelief at his own face.

"Too late." A voice spoke from behind him, it sounded like glass being shattered. "Too late to save anyone, little knight."

And then it all came flooding back. The memory of what he had done. Of what he had failed to do. The horror of it all. The rage, the shame, the hatred, the despair.

Suddenly he wasn't the knight standing over the broken prisoner. He was the kneeling figure, bound by chains, unable to move. Forced to watch as the terrible tableau was played out again once more. The knight before him stepped forward and lifted the guttering torch from out of the the wall sconce.

They weren't in the cell anymore. Oh gods they were there. The Pyre. The Pyre!

He saw himself. Torch in hand. The Pyre already stacked.

Oh Gods. Oh Gods why didn't anyone stop him? Why couldn't he stop himself? But he could not move, he could not even cry out. The light from the torch grew brighter and brighter. Until it was a blazing inferno. Redder than the setting sun. Hotter than the flames of hell.

The world shifted again and suddenly he was not the Brandon stood frozen at the side lines, watching the horror before him unfold. No, now he was the one holding the torch.

He lit the pyre.

And the screaming began.

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With a stifled scream Sir Brandon awoke from the nightmare, eyes wide with panic. Slowly he managed to get his breathing under control enough to realise that he had not awoken in his cell. He was in a darkened room, surrounded by other individuals, held by some kind of unseen force.

It did not matter.

Nothing mattered anymore. And anywhere was better than being trapped inside of his own head.

Blackguards!

@Red Wizard Sorry busier than expected, should have something up either tonight or tomorrow

Adventure Awaits! - Prompt Voting CYOA (Always Open)

>Follow her onto the platform.