This Terrible Night
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πhe road to Hell is paved with good intentions, and haunted by its share of ghosts. The Hound earned quite the reputation in distant lands, with rumors springing up all over the countryside. Stories spun a tale of a monster that haunted a lonely stretch of road.
Little could they have imagined the history behind the man responsible for the bloodshed they spoke of.
A hunter of monsters trained by his church, Hound was set to work with much the same careless brutality that a nobleman lets a dog from its leash. Vicious, shrewd and clever, the Hound teeters on the brink of madness, having witnessed horrors in the infernal wars that no mortal man ought ken.
In his earlier years, the Hound was esteemed, part of a group of bloodthirsty zealot templars that slaughtered demons, lycanthropes and vampires alike. A past no longer spoken of.
Death and sickness ravaged his homeland, and the grand city was burning all around them. Coffins piled up in the streets, and there wasn't enough dirt to cover the bodies. In the moonlight, the streets shimmered with slick wetness as blood flowed as freely as rainwater. Tragedy was promised with a blood curse, entire lineages struck dead and gone. The Hound left it all behind.
What befalls a man with nothing left to anchor him?
Old habits still live in his blood, and the Hound is drawn to the hunt whenever monsters come knocking. But more often than not, he makes his coin safeguarding travelers under the guise of a retired templar who's turned from cloth to crime. -
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πome say that beneath the sheen of the pale bloodmoon, you can see the glimmers of the beast he truly is; in flickers of ghastly light, the yawn of monstrous jaws casts shadows across candle-lit halls.
But one need look no further than the traits and haunts of the highwayman to discern this well enough.
For what other creature hunts travelers on lonely stretches of road at night? And what man's eyes shine like a dog's in the dark, harbors such teeth in his jaw and sees without use of eyes?
For the Hound, it made a clever guise, in hopes that none might know the hunt's true purpose. The danger lurks not in his waking hours, but those between.
To wake in sleep and walk in dream...
When the man sleeps, the hound shall hunt.
Parted from its vessel, the spectral dog can possess, cause madness and inflict grievous wounds. But its nature as a ghost leaves it vulnerable to holy arcana and the rites of clergy. Thankfully, it is easily banished back into its vessel.
For now. -
