My True Beloved (House Item)

Book Text
Notes by Lord Rikantus Everling

My one true beloved has long been gone, but I have loved no other like I loved Alana. Though I have loved again, I can never forget. Theeral knows of her, but endures my emotions. She knows I have brought her wealth in coin and in offspring. She offers me much as well. This is why are one. But even a great love cannot bury another great love. I often pity myself for loving twice in a lifetime and it is at these times that I find my soul in pain and I must begin my march of solace to Alana's chambers.

At first Theeral could not accept the extent of my love. She learned this after one of my frequent bouts of extended melancholy. The first time she discovered the destination of my midnight walks in Freeport, she was terrified. As I walked the streets she and her servant Plimptos secretly followed me,darting and dashing in the shadows. I never liked that servant child of hers. There was something evil about him. I would learn that at a later date and see that he was bestowed with one of my most cursed trinkets.

Along the streets and alley Theeral followed me to a simple graveyard that was soon to be removed by order of the current chief constable, a boisterous paladin that was beginning to stir up trouble in Freeport. Within the humble graveyard I walked to my personal mausoleum. It was like a grand palace at the center of a timber village. I have ordered the construction of this tomb for my future family, but even though my present family was still alive and well, the mausoleum was not vacant.

Peering out from behind a twisted tree, Theeral watched as I opened the tomb with a special key that I held around my neck at all times. A torch was lit along the walls and I kneeled to weep in both sadness and joyous reflections. Just then, Theeral entered. She was in shock as she saw me weeping before three caskets. Demanding to know whose caskets were placed within the personal resting place of the family of Lord Rikantus Everling, I told her.

In my youth, after I took the seat of master merchant for the House of Everling upon the disappearance of my father, I met my first love on the road to a haggling festival in Rivervale. She was standing beside the road, near her cart and tent. She was clearly a fortune teller of sorts. I ordered my carriage to stop. I dismounted and approached. Her named was Alana and her beauty was matched by none. I could do no more than to fall in love with her forever and after my long fortune was told, I did just that.

Along with Alana came her meager belongings, mostly tricks of her trade. So to, came a personal servant sworn to serve her as a child. The was the wretched Plimptos. I was happy to not only curse the man, but strike his name from my castle. The ancient word for whelp would do nicely, pelleas. For all the chaos that servant caused this house, Theeral's gifts to me made them all worth while. From my true love came my first born, Maltus. Soon after he, came Ollix. The joy my family brought me veiled the curses of Everling, but unfortunately, they would rear their head to make themselves known.

There came a time when a mysterious illness overtook my beloved family. A fever overtook them and mad delusions soon followed. Like madmen, my loved ones could be found wandering the streets screaming of invisible creatures all about, slowing torturing them. Neither doctor nor mage of the great trade city could find a remedy for the odd illness. Even journeying to the Temple of Life in Qeynos was futile. The madness grew and I was forced to confine my loved one or see them sentenced to the Freeport Asylum where they would never return from.

Confining my loved ones until I could free them from their insanity would not last. There came a day when their prison chambers were unlocked. Someone had unlocked the doors and untied their restraints whilst I was away on business. Before I could return they had somehow flew into the sprawling maze of streets. One by one their madness led them into horrific accident I refuse to recall. My dreams of replacing a life of cursed curios with the joy of a family was tragically extinguished.

I could never prove it, but I felt the mischief of Plimptos.

The void created by the loss of my beloved family nearly sucked me into oblivion. I found myself incapacitated by sadness for many year. If not for the aid of a few friends within the Academy of Arcane Science, I too would be as lost as my family. When I was freed from my pit of despair I had the bodies of my family preserved and placed within my mausoleum. After this I swore to myself I would escape the curses that followed the House of Everling. Far from Freeport I would construct the most magnificent and impenetrable castle ever built. Not even an ancient curse would breach my walls.

I was a fool for thinking such things. No curse can be outrun or shielded, but perhaps it could be contained as the cursed curios had taught us over the ages. If a curse did follow me then it will stay with me and no more would I peddle such tragedy upon the world.. once I was finished financing my hidden fortress. Far from the great empires in the dense dark forestlands I will hide. Along with me shall come the evil trinkets, my servants and my beloved family.

When my refuge was complete, I placed my family within grand tombs inside the catacombs of my new manor. But, this was not enough. My house was theirs even after death, but if that were to be true they must have chambers just as I. I furnished three rooms, one for Marcus, one for Ollix and one for my Alana. When I wished to speak to them I would not face the sarcophagi in the cold depths of Nektropos Castle, NO! When I wish to console with my loved ones I would spend time within the chambers where their spirits played.

Here in Nektropos Castle I live with two loves, a family gone and family new. Theeral and my precious daughters accept my madness. Though they rarely visit the chambers of my past the know never to disturb them. My servants are told to tend to these chambers as they would any other. Even bowls and goblets are taken to these rooms and removed when mysterious emptied. They are here, I can feel them. These are the places where a cursed man goes to escape the prison he build for himself.