A Devil's Tale

A 48-post collection

Challenge #04759-M010: Seeds of Downfall

I do not normally approve of holding one in chains and forcing them to work against their will. However, you held many in that condition, so your sentence is 10 years living as your slaves did. Don't worry, you won't be killed, or be allowed to die. You can't learn if you're dead. -- Anon Guest

There were some crimes so enormous that the perpetrator simply must suffer as an example to others. Especially the others who think they can get away with it longer. Such as this lord who sincerely believed that ze could get away with not being noticed by hiding all hir slave houses and sweatshops literally underground.

There was plenty more underground than ze imagined. Such as randomly tunneling Kobolds, Gnomes, Deep D'varuv, Dark Elves, and, of course, the Order of Couriers. Who have close ties to the Lutemen. Who arrange very carefully for wrongs to be righted by plucking the correct strings.

Of fucking course hir crimes found him being weighed in the balance and wanting.

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Challenge #04756-M007: Waifs and Strays

"Okay, what happened?"/ "I tried to sneak off with one of the large cheese-baskets."

"Da, I see that, I mean the bruises."/ "The big goat butted me, and wouldn't let me leave my corner until you showed up."

"Come, let's get you cleaned up, fed, then you can learn skills so you don't need to try to steal from an old devil's wife. My husband's having a nap, he can meet you when he wakes." -- Anon Guest

Delia sighed as she

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Challenge #04754-M005: The Better Decision

King Kormwind, tenth of that name. Looked upon the kid that had tried to drive a blade into him.

"What lord sent you?"

The kid shook their head, eyes wide with terror, their thin hands still grasping at a blade long since removed from them.

"Alright, first food, then medical care, then a bath and rest. Then I find out what idiot needs correcting this time." -- Lessons

His dad had warned him about shit like this. He told it as the

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Challenge #04748-L361: Lesson for a Lifetime

Courage isn't the absence of fear. It's being able to do what's necessary, even if you're terrified. -- Anon Guest

Ageratum had heard of the Hellkin in the dojo. Everyone had seen him from a distance and few dared to get close. Now he was closer than she had ever seen him. He was wearing Adept Black and kneeling where any other class teacher might kneel. Waiting for the class to assemble, in peaceful meditation. Hide as blue as a clear spring

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Challenge #04722-L338: Not the Best Laid Plan

When the conspirators are trapped, their plans come to ruin, someone has to be responsible and that one will have to pay the ultimate price for stupidity… -- Deathshead419

It had been a simple enough plan of sorts. Assassinate the new Earl, gain the favour of the old Earl, and perhaps that of the favoured son. It may even gain them the favour of their liege lord for removing an obvious problem. Others who knew of their plot insisted that no good

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Challenge #04716-L332: The Devil in the Rain

"Please... tell me the story of one of the most difficult guests who had found this place to rest?"

~"Oh that would be Kormwind Arachis Felbourne Whitekeep, ninth of his name. Poor paranoid soul. Justifiably so. He'd been poisoned in a place he believed himself safe and did not handle the betrayal very well..." Rezzie furnished Wraithvine with a tankard of light cider and settled one of herselves nearby to relay the story of taking in a storm-bedraggled Hellkin with the disposition

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Challenge #04681-L297: Sage's Advice

They begged the old hellkin to teach them to fight. True the apprentices were no masters and could teach as well, but he had been the first to actually be KIND to them. He didn't exactly teach them to fight.. as much as he did teach them how to accept life. -- Anon Guest

Everyone knew the daft old cheesemonger with a goat he called a dog. To be fair, the Hellkin's miniature goat certainly believed she was a dog and nothing

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Challenge #04644-L260: Good Things and Trouble

The storm raged, the roads were almost impassible, the farmers invited Kormwind and his party to stay for the night. The house was small, but warm and pleasant. Everything was very plain, but very well loved. Horses safe in the barn, everyone spending time with the poor farmers, but this relaxing place, cramped as it was, was more peaceful that then strains of "upper crust" society at the Inns of the elite. -- Anon Guest

[AN: This could be an expansion-pack chapter

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Challenge #04568-L184: Soft Justice

King Kormwind, tenth of that name, is invited to a quiet picnic by the local orphanage. True the food is meager, and the fare is plain, but the companionship is honest, the laughter is genuine, and the children are having fun in the beautiful, open, summer-warmed field. -- Anon Guest

There's nothing like the news of a royal visit to make the authorities do a lightning round of shaping things up. His Majesty, King Kormwind Arachis Felbourne Whitekeep, tenth of the name,

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Challenge #04542-L158: All Due Respect

Careful to whom you speak, and the tone of use. Just remember insult is rarely forgotten, and not all retribution is swift. -- Anon Guest

Night Watch, ten years before the significant event...

Officer Druempf almost missed the moving shadow in the half-light of dawn. "Halt! Who goes there?"

The shadow slowed, sighed and straightened, revealing itself as that double-damned devilborn. The alleged lordling who was the most infamous student of that Elf's school in the landscaping place. "It's only me, Officer,

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Challenge #04531-L147: Oh, the Deprivation!

Poor, poor, pitiful me. -- Anon Guest

This had to be the worst day. She couldn't find any of her servants. There was nobody to dress her and she'd been wearing the same nightgown all day. Nobody had fed her breakfast. None of her tutors had come to give her any of her lessons, and she was well overdue for Elementary Dressage.

She had had the rudest awakening with a slave grabbing her out of her bed and setting her loose -barefoot!

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Challenge #04499-L115: Application For Adviser

They are poor, they are ragged, they are tired. They manage to sneak into the kitchens of whitekeep castle, steal some leftover soup and bread, and are found curled up on the floor by the fireplace fast asleep. -- Anon Guest

[AN: Whitekeep has laws to protect its citizens from that level of poverty. It's in the starting tenets of the realm. So... to make this work, it's A Whitekeep castle. Not THE Whitekeep castle. In this case, one of the freshly-conquered

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Challenge #04479-L095: A Safe Space

Some children were playing hide and seek and one ended up in the king's private offices without permission by mistake. But the king, despite the child's fear, didn't get mad. He did suggest safer areas to play though. -- Anon Guest

Whitekeep Castle was large, labyrinthine, and full of secrets. It was also full of staff taking care of it. Some lived there, true, but their accommodations were much less impressive than the King's. The one thing they all had in common

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Challenge #04336-K318: A New Challenger

So, kid, you want to fight this old devil to see if I still have skills? You sure? Well I'm slowed with age, but sure I'll humor you. But remember, you did challenge me, not the other way around. Still, you did ask politely, so I won't be - too - rough. -- Anon Guest

After he turned one hundred and seven, Kosh routinely wore his hakama because it was easier to don. His ageing hands were tired of buckles and his

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Challenge #04287-K269: Truly Heroic

Tell me, my student.... what is the difference between a TRUE Hero, and the person many just call a hero?

"I don't know, sir."

It is their heart. For a True Hero does not seek fame or fortune. They do not seek to harm others, no matter what they appear. Their only desire is to aid others whenever possible, and the knowledge they could help be their only reward.

The ones far too many tend to call 'hero'.... are usually far too

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