Scene 2: The Worldwound – Dame Rebekah Destrier
I am told that War is Hell. That's not always quite so true, at least in the case of the Worldwound. There, War is the Abyss. Specifically, the Worldwound is an abyssal incursion where demons seep in to this world from their home plane to foment chaos and strife. Surrounded by such violence, evil, sin, and depravity, it is a wonder that anything beautiful could come out of it at all. Combat can bring soldiers together in a form of camaraderie, that can grow through friendship, to partnership to finally lovers. Such was the case for Bijon Swiftblade and Lucinda Miller, two Paladins of Iomedae that met at the front line and ultimately fell in love with each other. They made their vows and swore to wait until they had finished their tours at the front to try to bring a child into this world.
It appeared that Iomedae had other plans. Even though they used alchemical protection, Lucinda soon realized that she had become pregnant. Understanding the effects that the Worldwound could have on an unborn child they petitioned the company leader, a senior paladin of Shelyn, for leave to take the pregnant woman somewhere safe to have the baby. The paladin made arrangements and had the pair sent to Windsong Abbey, having known someone there who could look after the child. The pair made their way to Windsong Abbey and had their child there. After a few months, they knew they had to get back. The pair left their child in the custody of the Masked Abbess, and snapped the special token that brought them back to the front. At least this is what I was told had happened.
The Abbess had me brought up in the faith of her parents, Iomedae, according to my parents' wishes. It was their strident hope that their daughter would grow up to be a powerful paladin, like them. And, over the next quarter of a century, I was a resident at Windsong Abbey, learning from the various itinerant Priests, Paladins, and Clerics that would take their time there. While this led to a lot of viewpoints on the faith, and most of it was fairly shallow in that each new tutor would start from scratch with the explanations of what the faith believes and would have to leave before getting to teach me the more in-depth lore of the faith. However, a constant of the Abbey was the support staff, they were always there for me to associate with. Those who took care of the horses, and those who trained the animals. Some of them would come and go, but they never needed to try to reshape my vision of what taking care of the animals would entail. Once they knew that I was skilled in it to a certain degree, they would teach me more. So I took to that very well and I spent a lot of my time with the stable-hands and such.
It seemed like a lot of the Paladins that were trying to "teach" me thought of this as a good sign, because if I became a Paladin, one day I would likely have a celestial steed to partner with and having an early rapport with animals showed good promise. But, each one eventually would leave before teaching me much. Don't get me wrong, they all tried, but I guess that I never showed a lot of discipline, even while maintaining the tenants of the faith. So this continued on as I grew up and became an adult. The priest would change but the servants would stay the same. One day, a sick horse came wandering into the area, walking right up to the front door of the Abbey. None of the other horse tenders could get near it, but when I came out, it came directly to me. I was amazed at how bad of condition it was. It didn't have any indication that it was ever saddle-broken, and wasn't acting like it was tamed by anyone before us. It also had a festering gouge along it's flank that looked to have been from a ghoul, the sickness already weakening the poor animal.
Many of the clergy at the Abbey did not want to waste their divine powers on so low an animal, saving them for loftier uses, perhaps? Many more were too busy to help me, or I didn't have an "in" with them to even talk to them. I worried for the animal and day after day it was getting worse. I tried my best, gave it the best feed I could and even kept if isolated from the others. It wasn't too much of an avail. This horse, one that had picked me out of all of the other stable-hands would die. On its worst day, the day in which I knew would be it's last, and it would have to be destroyed the next night when it rose again, I prayed. I stayed by the horse's side and prayed to Iomedae to burn the illness from this poor being. I prayed for her to help this animal overcome the fever that had taken it so low. I prayed until I fell asleep next to the horse. In my dreams, Iomedae came to me. She told me that I would never be a paladin, that my unruly nature prevented it, but that I could become a Holy Warrior in her name and in doing so, do good deeds throughout the world. I told her that I would gladly accept if she could save this poor creature that I was working so hard to help. She told me that she had heard my prayers and that the beast would receive help, for as long as I prayed to help it, until it was cured.
When I awoke, the horse looked better! It wasn't that long before it fell ill, but even then, the horse was still in slightly better condition. So it was, that over the next week I prayed with the horse and stayed with it. Each day, the horse would have one or two good periods and I would use that to tend to the wounds and get its' stable cleaned out, and then the horse would fade back to sickness but being healthier after than before the good period. I didn't understand that I was summoning miracles from Iomedae, in the form of spells, until a priest overheard me in the stable and mistook me for a paladin, asking for Iomedae's Guidance in healing this animal, and asking for her to Remove the Sickness from it. When the Horse was finally got strong enough to start healing on its own, I was asked to go see the Abbess. The Abbess asked me to recount the tale, dream and all. Once I was finished, she told me that there would be a time when I had to leave from the Abbey, and that she is saddened that I could never be the Paladin that my parents hoped that I would be. I thanked her and continued my studies. It wasn't until a year later that the first incident at Windsong Abbey occurred that would change my life entirely.
I was having a tryst with a young paladin of Shelyn when we say a brilliant light shine down from the sky. It lasted for under a minute, and when the light was gone, a young monk appeared to be groggily waking up, with equipment around him. Needless to say that the tryst ended with that. I met with Jonathan and tried to help him along a little. Things happened around him that seemed like ghosts, but no undead or magic was ever detected. Now I am getting ready to leave a few weeks after that when an odd man showed up in an odder carriage. It seems like the interesting things have just begun to happen.