Wednesday, September 7, 2022

The Life and Times of a Dead Man - Prologue

Oh for a muse of fire, that would ascend 

the brightest heaven of invention,

A kingdom for a stage inquisitives to act. 

And ghosts to behold the swelling scene. 

O, pardon! since a crooked figure may

Attest in little place a million;

And let us, ciphers to this great accompt,

On your imaginary forces work.

Suppose within the girdle of these walls

Are now confined, six novice adventurers

 

Sabrina seeking wealth. 

Hendra seeking justice,

Audrey Rose, seeking freedom 

Dols, seeking refuge 

Bosley seeking purpose 

and Zita seeking providence


Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;

Into a thousand parts divide on man,

And make imaginary might;

Think when we talk of horses, that you see them

Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth;

For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our heroes,

Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times,

Turning the accomplishment of many years

Into an hour-glass: for the which supply,

Admit me Chorus to this history;

Who prologue-like your humble patience pray,

Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.


Rain falls in Sharn, the city of towers.


Knowledge should not free the minds of men too much,

Before it has tamed their instincts

It has made us titans even before

We are worthy of being human.


Kill a man, and one is a murderer.

Kill a thousand, a conqueror.

Kill them all, a god!


Rain spills into the lamp-lit streets of power of Sharn, the Crown jewel of the kingdom of Breland. These locations were spared the worst in the last war. 


Nearly six years have passed, but death has far from spared Sharn’s towers. As proof this night a stately hearse carriage drawn by two proud horses winds a twisty path through the city to end at one of the necropoli on the outskirts.  The transparent coffin displays the reaper's latest claim to the gathered citizens lining the roads. Leaving no doubt as to the occupant’s pallid state.


Many days prior a call for security had gone up and the upper North Ridge ward of the Oak Towers district. It seems a silent killer is loose in the neighborhood. 


The entire city is afraid of a serial killer on the loose in the neighborhood, who the local paper, The Sharn Inquisitive, dubbed, The Sharn Slicer.

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