The Lore of Aeromancer Astrid of the Valley

The wind howled through the trees, rustling the leaves, which was a comforting sound. The tall grass swayed in the breeze, but it remained tall enough to hide her from view. She could still see the wavy, extensive beard of her father, which was why she had found this spot to lurk.

Earlier in the day, her father had seemed pensive. He was not the happy-go-lucky father she was used to seeing day after day. A cordial GM was met with a “Not now, Astrid.” When her father had walked down the road and into the valley, she decided to follow at a distance, remaining out of sight for the length of the walk, which lasted for a good hour. What happened next would shape the rest of her life.

The first thing she noticed was an overwhelming sense of terror. Not just a fear of something terrible happening, but a deep-seated belief that evil was at hand. The sky turned dark – not from rain clouds, or the sun setting, but the blue of the sky faded into a raven-esque darkness despite the sun remaining completely visible. It was a horrifying sight, and Astrid sunk a little closer to the ground in reaction. The scent of the mid-day was gone, the wind which she felt so close to was still, and she heard plodding hoofs which echoed across the valley. She heard her father’s voice, which had a slight tremor and was high pitched. This was possibly more terrifying than the changes in the environment – her father was her rock and he had never appeared scared before. She considered running, but was frozen in fear, and like in a nightmare she forced herself to look up.

A figure was standing next to her father in a gray tunic – it’s skin darker than pitch black; so much so, that it was as if it was sucking in the color around it like a black hole. It was completely void of all color, except for a marking on it’s forehead, it’s tunic, and a yellow-orange snail perched on it’s shoulder. Something about the tunic and the snail seemed off in Astrid’s subconscious, but she was too transfixed on the conversation this being and her father were having to give it much thought. The being’s presence had seemingly warped the air in the near vicinity as the conversation was muffled, so Astrid decided to slink a little closer to hear. She moved slowly, with the air, nary making a sound which she had learned growing up. Not a soul was ever able to hear her sneaking up on them and she had won many a game of seek and find this way. As she approached the ominous figure from behind, she began to hear some of the muffled conversation,

“… agreement was …”

“I understand, however … daughter ..”

“Irrelevant. … Goblin … tomorrow”

Just like that, it seemed the conversation was over. The figure stopped talking and pivoted in place. As it turned to face where she was hiding in the grass, closer this time, she peered into the void. The figure seemed to stare directly at her, and in that moment, time felt as if it had frozen. Astrid initially felt pure dread and hopelessness, but as this moment of near forever continued, the feeling dissipated into an equilibrium of terror and joy, hopelessness, and hope. The moment seemed to be unending, but simultaneously was over instantly.

It was incredibly ethereal. Astrid came back to the present and the color had returned to the sky, the aroma of a sweet summer’s afternoon infiltrated her nostrils again and the birds were chirping. Most alarming, however, was the absence of any figure – especially her father’s. There was no sign of what had just occurred. She rushed over to where her father had been standing, and the tall grass hadn’t a single bend, and not a trail leaving the scene. She ran to where she had seen the figure standing and before she knew it, she was face down in the grass with a face-full of dirt – her foot had contacted a large rock. She looked down and saw two marks that almost seemed burned into the rock – one that looked like a horseshoe and one that looked a left-facing ribbon. She screamed “PAPA!” as loud as her voice would allow, using the wind to carry the sound even farther, but there was no response. She tried it again, and again, and there was no response.

“He must have gone home”, she thought to herself. She raced home on the wind that had resumed blowing and got back in record time. She burst through the door of their modest abode and screamed “PAPA” again as loud as she could. There was no response this time, but her eagerness and wind had sent a scroll which was on the table soaring into the air. She snatched it up and opened it – inside were the words,

“Find your sister in Aldo’s Isle”

“Things aren’t always as they seem”

“-A”

Entered by: 0x66cE…8745 and preserved on chain (see transaction)