Okay, you want to follow me down this rabbit hole. Awesome! And if you want, feel free to leave me your thoughts on what you read here. I’d gladly see comments and would love to interact with anyone reading this.

So.

First off, some logistics–I have a few basic ideas for the character and the world that I need to clarify before some points can make sense.

There’s a group of witch hunters–an elite group of inquisitors sent out by the magic-hating alchemy cast (which happens to be in charge of the mainland in a political sense). They hunt down anything supernatural (and are good at accusing people of it, whether true or not). This story is meant to feature them, so the reader has a good sense as to what they’re about in future works (as there is a story centred around witch trails later on).

Áleifr is an undead, and while he doesn’t exactly age, his body does rot away. As the years pass, his body dries out, decays, his rotten flesh barely holding on to his bones by the same curse that keeps him walking the earth. He literally wears the mask of death as his face. But, he’s in possession of an enchanted object that gives him the illusion to appear human. Right now that object is a ring, but that might change. There might be other ways for him to look or be more human, but that’s for some other time.

He’s being followed by a crow. Thought of it being a raven, but crow’s a lot more likely to be found in all sorts of places, which I prefer for this one. Far as Áleifr knows, it has nothing magical about it, nor can it talk. He doesn’t even give it a name. But it follows him everywhere, maybe watches over him. There are many traditions featuring crows and ravens to be related to the recently deceased, from messangers to gods. Whatever this crow is for the undead warrior, he lets the little guy follow him wherever he goes.

Lastly, any names for place or people are subject to change and might just be placeholders at this point.

Okay, that’s done. Let’s dive into the first bullet points of the story, Swansong of the Countess.

• Áleifr overhears people talking about rumours of the old estate being haunted.
• Find out about haunted estate.
• Investigate source of rumour.
• Negotiate to help.
• Investigate estate.
• Wait for ghost to show itself.
• Deal with hunters breaking in.
• Witness ghost killing one of thugs.
• Fight with ghost; draw.
• Find out some secret.
• Confront Grandson.
• Be backstabbed, handed over to witch hunters.
• Escape with style. >>Get a token of sorts tied to Ghost
• Return to house to given token and befriend Ghost.
• Use own ring to give Ghost human appearance.
• Confront Grandson and Old man with human-like Ghost.
• Break curse.
• Deliver Grandson to hunters for witchcraft.
• Release Ghost.
• Restore honour for old man.

So far so good. Now, as we go back over this, adding some details, some of the original points may change.

If you had enough spoilers for one day, stop here. Thanks for reading.

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