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Monologue of Azrim Talm and the Curse Upon Mendenton
This encounter was run as Therod, Tadhg, and Brome were returning to Mendenton after being away for several months treking
through mountains. Azrim Talm is one of the city leaders of Mendenton, but the city has fallen under a mysterious curse, it's people disappeared
evil creatures lurking in the shadows of buildings.
You hear a rustling in the bushes and a ragged beggar stumbles forth and out from them. His face is badly scarred, burned skin peels from it, and his back hunched. His hair droops in ragged white strands as if he was of great age. You feel bile and revulsion rise in your throat as you see him and he lurches towards you.
"Wait, have mercy. Do not draw your swords on me travelers. More still, do not enter therein. Mendenton…. It is….. Therod? Gods, you look to traveled I scarce recognized you and your companions. It is I, Azrim. You know me!"
"It started the day the black carriage ran through our town. Many saw it enter, but none saw it depart, truly, none saw to where it disappeared. Save that it rode through the front gates. Through them! The guard who stood in the path of its way as the driver did not acknowledge him - he stood right in its path and the entire carriage passed right through him."
"He was taken in my Sir Nossant, and as far as I know he is still there, recovering and under the care of Nossant's personal healer, Master Chandwyn. But nothing has been seen of Nossant. Shortly afterwards his gates were closed and a few days later the flock of crows had settled upon his mantle as they had upon the walls of Mendenton."
"The people of the town seem normal at first glance, but you feel them watching you, as if they know you are not part of some secret that they only barely know themselves. The town hall has become a temple of sorts. Chanting and rituals can be heard from within there. The wails and screams…. I can hear them at nights from out here through the gates."
"Your man, Bathan, bravely entered into the city with a troupe of men at his command, to see what was being done. They opened the gates for him, as they do for those who enter but not those who wish to leave…. He did not return but I saw several fires blaze in the city that night… that night…. The screams were so much louder than before."
"Some others have escaped from the town. I fled when a murder of wraiths came to my doorway. I would not let them in, I would not open the door for fear that I would recognize someone among their number from the village. They set my home ablaze, but I used a scroll from my ancient master to take myself out here. It as been too long since I traveled from Mendenton, I could not go so far as to find help. I am cursed and badly wounded. A disease, perhaps from the chill nights, makes me walk so stooped it hurts so to stand straight, and a cough keeps me awake through the night."
"You must help. Something evil brews beyond those walls and the folk of Mendenton suffer beneath it. Tell me you have heard of our trouble and have come to save your town from this evil.
"I saved what I could from my home before it burned. I can give some potions to you to help you. Perhaps it will enable you to enter without notice, to find out what goes on within the walls of our city."
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