“Brothers! Brothers!” Percy Pinklebottom the novice calls out hastily,
shaking you from your sleep. “The Abbot wants to see you immediately!”
It’s a cold morning in the dormitory at the Brice Black
Feather Monastery, and there’s a fair amount of grumbling as you dress amongst
your brothers. The more martially minded amongst the faithful – yourself included
– strap on weapons, holy symbols that crackle with the divine power of the lady
of death, and armour carved with devotions to Her name, standing out amongst
the more scholarly minded fellows who dress in simple habits of jet black
hessian.
You ascend the stone steps to the main hall, bones weary
from a night spent on a plain wooden pallet. All the brothers have been
gathered in the main hall, and the abbot stands at the lectern waiting to
speak.
“In her name!” Father Jacob Cobblestone, the Abbot of Brice’s
chapter of the Brothers of the Black Feather, cries shrilly, and after you and
your brothers reply in kind, a hush descends on the room. “I have called you
here because grave news has arrived at the monastery. A letter just reached me
from the head chapter, and two of our brothers have recently disappeared. They
were believed to be journeying into Ostergardt, and we are the nearest brethren
to their last known location. We have been asked to send out a delegation of
the faithful to try to locate our lost brothers. I need volunteers – the journey
will be difficult and dangerous…”
As the Abbot talks on your head begins to swim, and suddenly
your ears are filled with the sound of beating wings. In amongst the noise you
hear a woman’s voice, hollow as the grave, call your name. “I choose you” she
says. As the room swims back into view, you find yourself stood up, alongside a
few others, saying “I shall go”.
The abbot surveys the dozen or so of you – mostly novices
like yourself – and says “So be it. In her name!”
You and your newly selected companions roar back the
response, and set about making preparations.
