Another one ^^
This time, it's not so much characters and is in fact a little bit of action! This is the retelling of the Silverpines Curse quest, only available on the Limited Collector's Edition of Fable III. This story should pretty much sum it up.
Took a few liberties with the quest, as I can't remember the full dialogue or how you actually get the quest. I think it's one that just shows up on your Quest List and to start you open the tomb.
Disclaimer: don't own Fable, Silverpines, Balverines, Seth or Wolfsbane. Do, on the other hand, own Rosalyn and Dog.
Rosalyn frowned over the emerald, but she wasn't disturbed over the price – she was listening, hard, to the conversation of the two villagers behind her. They appeared to be arguing, and one, the terrified man with the high-pitched voice, kept squeaking a word that sounded like 'curse'. The other man seemed irritated.
"For the last time, Tim, there *is* no curse here! The only thing we have to worry about here are Mercenaries after the traders."
The smaller man shivered, his voice trembling.
"There is a curse! The Wolf Curse! And there's not just Mercenaries to deal with...I heard Balverines howling last night! And the rattle and hiss of Hollow Men – oh, we're all doomed!"
The other man sighed.
"Tim, have you been at Beth's barrel of Jack 'O Blades rum again? I mean, we drove off the Balverines! A whole group of us! And with the silver nitrate burning, they're not in a hurry to get back. You only ever get this insecure when-"
"I'm telling you! There's a curse on this forest!"
"Hey, what's going on over here? Tim, you frightenin' everyone again?"
It appeared their raised voices had attracted the attention of the town's self-appointed mayor. Rosalyn watched out of the corner of her eye as Tim and his companion turned to this newcomer, who was about a head taller than the pair of them. Tim latched onto his arm, gibbering, scared.
"I'm telling you, there's a curse! The Wolf's Curse – it's spirit haunts the tombs, howling and scratching from inside the coffins! Woe betide anyone who opens the Tomb!"
Tim's companion laughed.
"A moment ago you said the howling was Balverines!"
"That's different howlin', that is. I've been hearing both. As well as the hiss of-"
"Hollow Men, you said. You're off your rocker, Tim."
Tim, despite being the smallest person there, straightened up angrily.
"Listen to me! We are in danger in this forest! There is more than just Mercenaries out there! There are angry ghosts, and Balverines, and the curse of the wolf!"
The mayor scratched his blond beard and sighed.
"Come on Tim, that's just a folktale. Wolves were driven out of Silverpines back when this was a guard post. Come on, I'll get you back home, there's a good lad."
The Princess watched from behind her mask as Tim slumped against the man's arm, muttering about how everyone was crazy, and that they were all going to die. The Mayor sighed and half-guided, half-carried the young man towards a cabin across from the square. Tim's companion sighed, uttered something about bloody folktales and headed off after them.
Rosalyn paused, then looked down at Dog. The boxer blinked up at her, then looked at the gate, then back to her. She smiled.
"So, you think there really is a curse?"
The boxer whined softly, eyes flickering to the gates. Rose's gaze followed his.
"Hmm. You might be right. There's something off about these woods – and Tim's right about the Balverines. We killed a whole pack just to get to this settlement."
Dog barked once, an affirmative. The Princess smiled, then jumped out of her skin as the irritated shopkeeper behind her spoke.
"Are you going to buy tonight, or are you just gonna keep talking to that bloody dog?"
Rosalyn walked quietly along the mud-path, her eyes fixed on the graveyard coming up ahead. Her fingers twitched, aching to squeeze the trigger on her pistol which she held loosely at her side. After the events at Mourningwood, she was doubly suspicious of graveyards. They'd always unnerved her as a child – doubly so now, and with good reason.
Her eyes flickered around for any telltale blue wisps on the air, but the night was silent as she climbed the hill. Nervous at the quiet, she pushed her highwaywoman's hat back out of her eyes, glancing around the entrance, quickly calculating possible ambush points and escape routes when the Hollow Men arrived.
Dog was silent, padding along by her side, his ears upright, eyes fixed on the tomb ahead of them. Rose had asked around, subtly, at the settlement, but only the Mayor was of any real use, telling her the rumours of the curse – but no details on the actual 'curse' itself - surrounding this particular tomb. The tomb that stood ominously against the moonlit sky. Sweat slid from the nape of Rosalyn's neck as she stepped over the broken gate, half-flinching, expecting the whoosh of wisps-
Nothing. The graveyard was completely empty.
Actually, I think being attacked by Hollow Men would be slightly less unnerving.
She continued her slow, almost casual pace, but inside her chest her heart was beating rapidly. Hollow Men were her worst enemies – even the Balverines she'd seen in Reaver's Manor, and later in Millfields and these woods at night hadn't scared her to the extent that the glowing green eyes of the undead did. Nightmares about them haunted her when she camped in dark woods – now she always travelling via the Sanctuary when she was tired, always got a room at an inn rather than stay in the wilds.
Her mind flickered to Lieutenant Simmons, his huge and hideous rotting body galloping towards her, spraying wisps from his mouth, those enormous cleavers held awkwardly behind him. Fallen bodies all around her, her not knowing if the soldiers she was stumbling over as she ran were dead or alive, if the allies she was hoping for were alive, if Walter was alive. She shuddered, then forced her mind away from it.
Dog whined softly. They had reached the tomb. A little shocked, Rosalyn glanced around. Still no sign of a wisp.
With one decisive push, the doors to the tomb were open. No hideous beast dived out at her. She was staring at a stone room, tiny, empty but for a sarcophagus, only large enough for a child. Dog whimpered, walking forward, batting at the small stone container.
Rose swallowed.
"What is it boy? You smell something?"
Dog whined, batting his paw against the lid.
Okay, I can take a hint.
The lid of the stone coffin was heavy, but she managed to push it off. It clattered against the wall behind it, cracking from the impact. Rosalyn winced, but instead looked down at the contents of the coffin.
A skull. Not a human skull, she could tell. It belonged to some sort of animal, something with large teeth...
Her eyes wandered to Dog, who was staring at the skull sadly, and it clicked.
Her fingers reached out to pick up the wolf's skull, perhaps to destroy it – maybe it was the cause of the curse, or what everyone was so frightened of. But as her gloved fingers brushed the bone, a wisp flew out of the eye socket, past her into the moonlight-flooded graveyard.
With a yelp of panic, Rose span around, levelling her pistol at the apparition as it began to take form. Her fingers were shaking, but somehow she kept the gun level. She just hoped she'd be able to fight this thing – her imagination brought up Lieutenant Simmons again, before thinking of the Wolf's Curse and coming up with images of Balverines and Hollow Balverines and huge mutated undead wolves and-
A human soldier. The figure blinking at her was a human soldier, about her age, maybe older, with his face so full of expression – confusion, one eyebrow half-raised, mouth slightly open – that she could almost believe he were alive, if it were not for the fact he was glowing blue and translucent enough for her to see the trees through him.
Rose blinked. Then, partly out of relief and partly realising that this sprite was unlikely to be hostile, she lowered her gun.
"Sorry." She muttered, but the ghost merely blinked.
"Soldier? Are you a soldier, come to relieve – no. No, you don't look like a soldier to me. Alright then, new recruit, your mission is this: put that wolf skull on the altar over there. But don't anger the Captain – he's already killed Seth, he can't be trusted."
Rose blinked again.
"What? Your captain killed this 'Seth'?"
But before she even finished the question, the apparition in front of her dissolved into mist. The only thing to tell her that the ghost was even there in the first place was Dog, who was staring dumbly at the same spot she was. The Princess and boxer exchanged a glance, then the woman shrugged.
"Might as well do as he says. It might lift this curse. Seems that it's real after all."
She turned back to the tomb, lifting the hunk of bone out with one hand, her pistol ready in the other. She looked back at her trusty companion.
"So...any idea where this altar is, then?"
Dog barked, then ran off further up the hill. Rosalyn looked in that direction, seeing a collection of standing stones, stark black against the moon. She grinned.
"Good boy."
It was short work getting to the altar, but it felt rather awkward to lay down the skull.
"What, do I just lay it here, plonk it down like that? Do I have to stick it a certain way, or what?"
Eventually, and as the clouds covered the moon, she laid it carefully down on its side, as though the wolf it belonged to was lying down, idly looking out over the forest. As her fingers left the bone, they were tingling. She frowned.
"Find the body? I have to...find the rest of the body?"
She didn't know how she knew that, but she knew that there were three more pieces of this wolf to find and return here. She felt a little shivery as she left the altar, whistling for Dog to follow. She couldn't help feeling that someone, somewhere, was playing games with her.
The same sort of tingle started up in her hands again as she neared a pond in a hollow. Deciding to just trust her instincts, she followed the strange feeling until she was standing at the edge of the pond. A moment of silence, then a watery cry met her ears.
She squinted out across the water, just as the moon reappeared. A ghostly white figure was struggling in the deep, waving its arms in the air as it desperately tried to keep above the surface of the water.
Rosalyn didn't think twice. She dived into the cold, followed closely by Dog, and swam quickly over to the spot, with the idea to pull the poor unfortunate person back to shore. However, as she reached him, a hand held out to grab his, she saw the reach he looked so ghostly was because he was one – a drowning ghost soldier.
She paused, confused. Did ghosts re-enact their death? She wasn't sure.
Dog barked suddenly, startling her. She looked around to see him dive under the water a moment, then surface. Understanding, she took a deep breath and dived straight down. She saw it immediately, and hands reached out to grab every one of the bones. When she was sure she had them all, she kicked upwards and broke the surface, gasping.
The soldier was treading water beside her, his face appearing wet with ghostly tears.
"Seth was my only friend, and now he's gone! I'm sorry, Seth! I didn't mean it!"
Rose opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, the ghost dissolved just like the first. Her eyes went to dog.
"D'you think he was the Captain?"
Dog snuffled, and she nodded, considering.
"You're right, he was only wearing a footsoldier's uniform. So, he was Seth's friend, and he couldn't stop him from dying?"
She shrugged.
"I guess we need more pieces for this puzzle. Better get these back to the altar, and find the rest of the bones."
Although it was decidedly uncomfortable to walk through Silverpines with a soaking wet and heavy highway outfit on, unable to ready her pistol as her arms were full of bones, they met no enemies and the walk back up the hill and down again soon dried her off enough for her to no longer drip water from her hair and clothes. It was unnerving that no Hollow Men had arrived, even more so that not a single Merc had appeared from behind a rock or dropped out of a tree. They were utterly alone.
She followed the tingles without hesitation, this time, and before midnight she had found the rest of the bones – the legs and tail – as well as uncovered a few more clues to this mystery. The next few bones were also in small areas, buried under dirt and guarded by ghost soldiers, who mournfully told her of the Captain's killing of Seth before disappearing into the night.
It was only when the ghost soldier in the cave hissed angrily about a sword that things started to make sense. Rosalyn repeated his words aloud as they trudged back up to the stone circle for the fourth time that night.
"'This is where the Captain told me to bury it. He just wanted the sword! He didn't care about our pleas. He just wanted the Sword!' Hmm. So, Seth's the wolf, and he was their friend – mascot, maybe? I dunno – but the Captain needed him dead to get this Sword or whatever, so he ordered his men to shoot him. That about right, Dog?"
Dog huffed once, to which Rose understood meant yes. She smiled, then frowned in concentration as they reached the altar and she began to arrange the bones to form Seth's complete skeleton. It was tricky, and she was having trouble working out which rib bone went where, but eventually she managed it.
The tingling in her hands started up again, stronger than ever. Dog whined suddenly, and Rose looked up, then jumped backwards in alarm. The skeleton of the wolf had begun to shake, before it suddenly rose up onto its haunches and howled. Rose stared in shock, ears ringing as Dog joined in with the mournful cry – as right before her eyes, the skeleton transformed until she was no longer looking at bones, but the flesh and fur of a translucent, blue wolf – the ghost of Seth.
The howls ended, and Seth lowered his head to look directly at Rose. The phrase 'wolfish grin' jumped into her head at the expression he seemed to wear, before he jumped down from the stone. She stepped back, nervous, but Dog bounded forward, eagerly sniffing this other dog. Seth let him for a few moments, then he seemed to yip, and ran towards one side of the stone circle.
He stopped, looked back at the Princess, then yipped again. Then he bounded off down the hill.
Stunned, the Princess glanced at Dog.
"I guess that means we follow."
Seth led them to a small stone door that Rosalyn had passed earlier, but had never been able to open. The ghost wolf howled as he reached it, then bounded straight through the solid marble. There was the sound of stone grating against stone.
A blue light. There was a portal in front of her, glowing as brightly as those she had seen from opening the Demon Doors in the other regions. Musty air rushed out from it, making her cough. Her fingers gripped her pistol, the tingling feeling growing stronger with each step she took. Taking a deep breath, she stepped through, Dog at her side.
Once the whirling sensation was over, she glanced around. This room had clearly once been a very audacious tomb, but now there was rubble and debris scattered around, and part of the platform floor had crumbled to fall into the silvery-blue still water that ringed the inside of the room like a miniature moat.
Seth was stood at the other end of the room, and yipped excitedly as he waited by some crumbling grey stairs. Rosalyn and Dog joined him, and followed obediently as he bounded up them towards an ancient sarcophagus.
As Rosalyn reached it, her hands were tingling so much they were shaking. Her eyes wandered slightly nervously over the smooth grey stone, the coffin so much like the one that had housed Seth's skull.
How many wisps will fly out of this, I wonder?
Readying herself, she braced her arms against the lid and pushed, hard. The lid thundered onto the floor, but Rosalyn barely heard it, staring at the contents of the coffin.
A sword, clearly old but razor-sharp, lay glittering in the half-light. The hilt was carved bone, curved to the shape of a person's hand for better grip, the guard a curved pelvis bone. The blade was also carved, the metal flowing like water, and there were silver-blue runes all along its length, from shoulder to tip. Her fingers hesitated, then brought the sword out of the coffin.
The hilt was ice-cold, she could feel it even through her gloves and gauntlets, but it wasn't painful in her grip. She balanced the sword in her hand, marvelling at how it seemed the perfect length and weight for her, like an extension of her arm. Her eyes flickered to tiny black runes along the flat of the blade.
Wolfsbane.
A bark brought her out of her trance. She blinked, then jumped back hurriedly as Seth leapt towards her. But rather than attacking, Seth landed neatly in the coffin and curled up, looking for all the world as though he had just gone to sleep.
As quickly as at the altar, Seth transformed back into bones, finally at rest. But Rose was far from peaceful herself as no less than five wisps rose out of the sarcophagus and landed on the platform, rapidly forming human figures.
The Captain glared up at her through the eyeslits of his silver helmet.
"I have sworn death to all who touches that sword. Soldiers! Your Captain needs you!"
As one, the five soldiers drew their weapons and yelled a battle cry. Rose blinked in shock, recognising the four subordinates as the men guarding Seth's bones.
"Wait!"
She held her hands up – Wolfsbane gleamed in the torchlight.
"Wait, men, you don't need to obey your Captain! He killed Seth – Seth was your friend! He made you kill your best – Eeek!"
She yelped as a bullet streaked past her ear, ripping into the stone wall behind her and leaving an ugly crater in the wall. The ghosts and their weapons might not be corporeal, but it seemed they could still cause damage.
Another bullet thudded into the coffin, jogging Seth's bones slightly. Dog growled, and Rose scowled.
"Fine, if you want to play it that way..."
With a single bound, she leapt over the coffin and banister to land on the platform in front of her five foes. Ghosts. At least they weren't Hollow Men.
The mournful, scared face of the drowning soldier stared at her as he advanced, his cheeks still wet with otherworld tears. Rose managed to half-smile back.
"Go to Seth, friend."
So saying, she swung Wolfsbane. The blade cleaved through the ghost's form, and the soldier gasped as he dissolved into nothing, this time for good. Three quick strokes finished off the other soldiers, leaving Rose both amazed at her new weapon and facing a very angry Captain.
The man roared again, calling allies that would not come, and charged her, swinging his blade as he ran. Rose sidestepped, and attempted a quick kill, a stab to the back, but her blade clattered off of the silver breastplate he wore over the translucent dress shirt that must've been purple, once, the colour of the Royal Elite.
The Captain spun, and Rose was forced to dive backwards to avoid his retaliating thrust that would've skewered her heart. He struck again, forcing Rose to block – sparks flew as ghost sword met legendary sword. The Princess shoved with all her might, breaking the contact, then attacked with a furious succession of thrusts and slashes, all of which were easily parried by the ghost in armour.
She jumped back, panting hard, angry. This man was the elite, trained to the highest level. But she was a Hero.
Bracing her legs, Rose tilted her sword and focused, waiting for the Captain to come to her. He did so, snarling, and she sidestepped before releasing the flourish she'd been waiting to strike. Her blade slashed through his neck, and for a second ghost head toppled from ghost shoulders before the entire form dissolved as his comrades had before him.
Breathing heavily, Rose straightened, looking around her for Dog. The boxer jumped down from the coffin, having remained by its side the entire time, and padded to her side, a goofy dog-grin on his face. She smiled, exhausted.
"I think we deserve a good night's sleep, for that, eh, Dog?"
The boxer barked, heading back for the portal. The Princess followed, but before reaching it glanced back at the coffin. A small smile touched her lips.
"Thanks, Seth."
Outside in Silverpines, the moon was bright, the clouds having long since passed. Rosalyn was about to head back to the hamlet, when she realised that Wolfsbane was glowing – barely perceptible, but definitely a silver-blue, like the light of the moon itself.
Her smile widened.
"I get the feeling this is going to be a good blade."
:D Wolfsbane was my favourite weapon, because you get 40% extra damage vs Balverines, and an extra 40% extra at night, meaning fighting Balverines at night is a doddle. Shame it's pretty useless compared to other weapons at higher levels, though.
Also took a little liberty with Rose here - the tingling sensation is basically the breadcrumb trail that we see, meaning that instead of seeing a gold trail leading where she has to go, Rose can sense where she's supposed to be going and the feeling gets stronger as she gets closer. Thought it was more believeable then a gold trail or having her blunder around.
Rose has a fear of Hollow Men. I hate the whole zombie thing, personally, to the point that Balverines make me go 'Meh' or 'Cool', whereas a Hollow Men attack ' Gah! Kill them kill them kill them!' Hence why poor Rose is scared of 'em.
Also, she uses Dog as an excuse to talk to herself. (I use it as an excuse to explain situations as she sees it :P)