Legend of the Silver Berry
Many tales and legends speak of what happens to your soul after death. Some believe it is whisk away to face judgement of Laror & Daroo. Others believe that it passes from one body into another. And some believe that if you can return to life, for a cost. The legend of the Silver Berry is one that many people in the South Plains describe when they face a near death experience.
The Similarities:
There are various rumours of sorcerers and Alum who have looked at death in the face and returned to the land of the living. Each story describing similar events that repeat too much to be considered coincidence. The survivors speak of a stranger appearing before them in the face of death, offering some kind of fruit, a beryy perhaps. It is small, almost pearl like in shape. In a shade of drained that is shared by ghouls and spirits, with the feintest tint of blue. The skin is spongy and fleshy and gives off the aroma of sweet peaches mixed with the stench of blood. Those who remember taking the offering, seemingly come back from the brink of death, now cursed with a sense that they have forgotten something important.
The Stories:
Some say there was a woman in Sianwood who lost her daughter many years ago. From what locals recall, she saw was her little girl fall from a nearby tree. The mother rushed over only to find a stranger standing above the little girl, holding something glistening in their hand. She stopped in her tracks and watched them gently place the object into the mouth of her daughter, before vanishing out of existence. Motherly instincts kicked in as she her daughter began to toss and turn with a cold sweat. Body shaking and her hands twitching as if trying to write something. Before stillness consumed the child. Her body lay limp and lifeless. The mother distraught over the loss of her daughter and yet determined to find out what happened to her all those years ago. Setting her up on a life long quest. To find the creature that lurked above her daughter's body, to figure out what was placed in her mouth and how to get her back. Hunting high and low for answers, becoming a priestess of the Church of Hodall, infiltrating the Curse Healers and doing business in the Shrouded Valley for surviving texts of the Realm Rangers. Locals of the city give her several titles, the obsessive mother, the woman with no name, lady of a dozen names. Whatever she has become, she is now a shadow in the city. Still looking for answers to get back her lost child.
A veteran who resides in one of the many quiet towns scattered across the South Plains speaks about his time during the Cytal Civil War. Running across the battlefield and being blown away from a powerful impacting spell. Lying on the ground, covered in dirt and blood, the man remembers a stranger approaching him. Dressed in a fine suit and crouching down to offer him a fruit made of pure silver. He felt compelled to take whatever it was and just as he was about to take a bite, his allies dragged him away. Rushing the Alum to the nearest med bay and treating his wounds. When asking his fellow soldiers if they too had seen the man and the shining berry, they called him mad. For they had not seen anything or anyone near him.
Comments