Lamentations of the Flame Princess - Pale Lady [LFP0029_oef_2015].pdf

(2158 KB) Pobierz
the
pale
lady
by
zzarchov kowolski
The Pale Lady
an adventure for characters of levels
by
Zzarchov Kowolski
art and design by
Chris Huth
edited by
James Maliszewski
© 2015 Zzarchov Kowolski
Published under exclusive license by Lamentations of the Flame Princess
First Edition, First Printing 2015
LFP0029 • ISBN: Print: 978-952-5904-70-3 PDF: 978-952-5904-71-0
introduction
Deep in the woods—any woods and every
woods— lives a witch known as the Pale
Lady or the Flower Mistress. She isn’t a
witch, but a faerie queen—an evil faerie
queen. As you can imagine, the finer
points of that distinction are lost on the
peasant farmers who lose their children to
her malicious ways. Her domain is sealed
away most of the year, but every spring
the veil between worlds is thin enough that
the Pale Lady can send out her army of
emaciated animal thralls to steal the sons
of honest people.
Almost two years ago, one of those
sons made it back. He spoke of how many
of the children were taken away never to
be seen again. He spoke of his gruelling
labour as a slave, working her vast fields of
flowers. He spoke of emaciated rabbit men
who acted as mute overseers, able to make
no noise beyond a warbling scream. He
also spoke of a vast cube of stone, sealed
in the back chambers of the Great Hall,
of vast riches, and of visiting magicians
who made pacts with the Pale Lady for
training in the dark arts. He learned the
secret ways in and out of her domain. He
has told all who will listen, but only the
nuns of the abbey have ever believed him.
Now, the nuns are seeking bold men (and
women) of action to investigate.
the nuns
In a secluded hillside abbey, twenty nuns
live their lives in solitude. A year ago,
a raving man who could not remember
his name ended up on their grounds.
Something about his story struck a nerve
with the Mother Superior. She has taken
the unusual step of trying to find both
people of valour and people of ill-repute—
anyone who might be willing to investigate
the truth of this man’s words.
he was led through fields of white flowers
to her audience chamber in a large hall that
appeared to be constructed out of massive
briars ornamented by great white roses.
The tangled thorns that form the wall are
full of small holes through which one can
easily spy. It is drafty and cold inside the
building. Within the audience chamber,
beyond the main doors, the Pale Lady stares
out from a throne of flowing water. She is
a lithe woman with long hair, down to her
ankles. She wears no clothing, and has no
colour. Her skin, her hair, her eyes, her
gums: all are bone white.
The rabbit soldiers dragged him and
other children before her. The Pale Lady
would inhale deeply through her nose
and then say one of two words in a dry
monotone: “Fields” or “Pit.” He was sent
to the fields. He was made a eunuch and
lived in a cold reed hut, tormented by her
soldiers. He lived on a diet of seeds and
the raving man
The poor wretch now lives at the cloister.
The nuns do not consider this a problem as
they do not see any temporal (read: carnal)
temptation to be possible. The man is a
eunuch, the twig as well as the berries. If
asked, he will gladly tell all he knows of the
Pale Lady. She is callous and cold. When
he was first captured by her army of mangy
rabbit soldiers—a disorganized horde of
scrawny beastmen with patchy white fur—
2
meat of unknown origin. For untold years,
he toiled in the fields, watching others
die around him. He saw magicians and
elves come to call upon her. He saw the
magicians leave as old men. One of them
must have taken pity on him—or perhaps
spite on her—and revealed the secret of
getting in and out. When the sun first
begins to set on the vernal equinox, you
must find an opening barely bigger than
your waist in a hedge, oak root, or briar.
You must crawl through this opening
and say the phrase “Tóg dom ar fud an
mhurascaill mór leis an talamh ar an
aimsir cothrom.” You must leave the
same way before midnight (by saying
the phrase backwards).
This information is all quite true.
abbess ruth ford
Ruth is a dour older woman—or perhaps
she is just being dour with you. She is in
her late fifties and has a lean frame and
weathered face. The abbess is interested in
encouraging a band of adventurous sorts
to break into the Pale Lady’s estate, not
simply because she is a witch but because of
the stone cube the raving man mentioned.
Ruth believes the cube is a word of creation,
a legendary artifact. The abbess contends
that the words of creation are the source of
the miracles that pious individuals (clerics)
call upon to cast spells. After the fall of
man, the words of creation were sealed in
hollow cubes of adamant and cast from
the heavens to the earth. By supreme will,
these cubes were hidden away never to be
seen. Nothing can harm the adamant and
no magic in existence can open it. Based on
the behaviour of the Pale Lady in the man’s
3

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika:

Zgłoś jeśli naruszono regulamin