Riddle

The Hound of Olric

Hound of Olric. He Who Walks Behind. The Chained Hunter. The Midnight Man. Stalking Shadow. Scar That Steals. The Mournful Highwayman. Blade in the Dark. The Bound Seeker.

Call him what you will. Name him, constrain him, invoke gods and powers against him. It will do you no good. If Olric the Rapacious covets something that belongs to you, it belongs to you no more. Olric will send his Hound, and once the Hound has a scent, he cannot be stopped. There is nowhere you can run that he cannot find you. There is no tower tall enough, no wall thick enough, no magic strong enough to protect what you cherish. Oh, you may pity the Hound as he pities you, but his will is not his own, and his pity has no power to sway him. So you mark my words, young braggart. Be proud if you must, but make it a quiet pride. Do not boast. Because the only way you are safe from the Hound of Olric is if his Master never hears of you.

Aspects

Skills

• Great (+4): Notice
• Good (+3): Fight, Will
• Fair (+2): Athletics, Physique, Stealth
• Average (+1): Burglary, Empathy, Shoot, Travel

Stress

• Physical: 3
• Mental: 4

Refresh

• 2

Aspects

• The Hound of Olric: High Concept
• My Own Man: Low Concept
• Marked by Magic: Trouble
• "I've Had Worse": From the Theft of the Music Box, with Jack
• The Strong Should Protect the Weak: From the Rescue of Helhet, part II, Inside the Prison
• Seething Cauldron of Rage: From the Tale of the Swanmay, with Corby

The Hound of Olric

Clay spent most of his life bound into service to Sorcerer-King Olric. He was forced to use his inborn talent to steal unique magicks from rich and poor alike, to abduct those unfortunate souls whose natural magic caught Olric’s covetous eye, and occasionally to act as assassin when Vorarl’s coffers ran low or Olric wanted to ingratiate himself to one of those few he considered allies.

Invoke: This aspect can be invoked to give Clay a bonus to intimidate, if he leverages his legend as a boogey-man of sorts. Or he might reassure, if he uses his reputation to offer hope of finding that which seems irrevocably lost. This aspect could also aid Clay in understanding and navigating the culture of whatever Realm he’s in. He traveled extensively throughout the Tapestry while in Olric’s thrall, though his knowledge may be out of date.

• “Don’t take that.”
  “She said it was a gift!”
  “It is, but you can’t accept it yet. You have to refuse a gift three times.”
  “Pfft, that’s ridiculous.”
  “Yes, but it’s the custom in this Realm. If you don’t do it, you’ll insult her, and we really need to stay on her good side.”
• “You’ve heard of me, haven’t you?"
  “Yes. You are He Who Walks Behind.”
  “Then you know what I can do. You know there is nothing and no one I cannot Find. So when I tell you I will bring your son home to you, you know I speak true.”

Compel: This aspect can be compelled if Clay encounters someone he wronged at Olric’s behest. There are those who won’t care that Clay was magically enslaved; it was his hands that did the deed, his face that they remember. Also, Clay’s guilt over his past can be used to manipulate him. In his desperation to atone for his crimes, he may throw caution to the wind.

• “You! You are Stalking Shadow. You stole my foremother’s enchanted sabre! For six generations, my family has suffered that shame. But no more. I will take your head and restore honor to all the mothers and sisters of my line.”
  “Please, I...I had no choice. I was under another’s thrall when I--”
  “Silence, villain! Defend yourself!”
• “Clay, this guy is playing you. Trust me, I know a con when I see one.”
  “And if he isn’t? I caused this problem. I need to make it right.”
  “Ack! You aren’t responsible. Olric was responsible. You were just his weapon.”
  “That’s not good enough for me. The blood is still on my hands.”

Applicability: This aspect applies primarily in scenarios where someone recognizes Clay as the Hound of Olric or has heard his legend. His knowledge of the various civilizations of the Tapestry, if still accurate, would be only the sort of shallow, basic information that a tourist might know.

Reclaiming My Destiny

Being a Seeker has caused Clay nothing but pain, but he cannot shake the belief that it is a gift, a calling, one that was thwarted by Olric and his greed. Even when he was under Olric’s thrall, he used his Seeking power to help people when he could, when it didn’t contradict Olric’s orders. Now that Clay is free of Olric, free of the Prison, he means to stay that way. Not only because his greatest fear is to be captured and imprisoned again, but also because he wants to find a way to reclaim the destiny that was stolen from him.

• Invoke: This aspect can be invoked to aid Clay in evading capture. He will not be a prisoner again. It can also be invoked to give Clay a morale boost in certain situations. He has a calling that is worth fighting for.
• Compel: This aspect can be compelled to make Clay compromise himself in order to maintain his freedom. It scares Clay to think what he’d be capable of to avoid recapture. Keeping company with the other PCs, for example. This aspect could also compel Clay to keep pushing his damaged Seeking power until it causes him debilitating pain or injury.
• Applicability: This aspect applies only when Clay’s freedom is directly threatened or his perceived duties as a Seeker are in play.

Marked by Magic

Clay has a multifaceted relationship with magic. He was marked by magic at birth when he was born a Seeker, gifted with unique magical abilities. He was marked by Olric when the sorcerer-king enhanced and bound him, though he wouldn't learn until the Prison that the magicks Olric cast on him left his own inborn magic damaged and painful to use. He was marked literally by the arcane scars left on his face and body after Olric's rituals and the strange way those symbols reacted in the presence of magic. Clay had a facility with magic that in some ways rivaled Olric's—not in raw power, but in finesse. Magic responded to Clay like it knew him.

• Invoke: This aspect can be invoked to allow Clay to boost a spell he's using or magicks being used near him. It could also aid him in understanding magical texts, learning new spells, or figuring out how to activate a magical object.
• Compel: This aspect can be compelled to make it difficult for Clay to hide or remain anonymous. Anyone who sees his scars flare with eldritch light will know they're witnessing magic and respond with anything from fascination to fear. Even if magic doesn't give him away, Clay's scarred face is very memorable. Some may recognize the nature of the symbols, while others might remember that detail from the legends of the Hound.
• Applicability: This aspect applies primarily to situations involving magic.

"I've Had Worse"

Clay stole a unique music box from Jack, unaware that Jack had changed its song to a bawdy tavern ballad mocking Olric. Olric sent Clay to Melchior to pay the price for his failure to deliver the box intact. Clay might have been angry at Jack for his trickery and its consequences, but he'd suffered such punishments many times before, sometimes for lesser offenses.

Clay has suffered a great deal of pain in the past, both physical and psychological. He can draw strength from it, knowing what he’s capable of surviving, but he can also be paralyzed by it if he’s forced to face something that hits too close to home.

Invoke: This aspect can be invoked to allow Clay to withstand dangers and threats that others might balk at.

• “You call this torture?” Slightly manic laughter. “You can’t even throw a decent punch.”

• “We should stop. You’re hurt.”
  “If we stop, we’re dead. Don’t worry, I can make it."

Compel: This aspect can be compelled to make it difficult or impossible for Clay to confront a task or image that triggers his more traumatic memories. It can also cause him to overreact to a perceived threat that mirrors an old hurt.

• “What’s wrong?”
  “N-nothing. It’s just...that smell... I-I’m sorry, I can’t, I can’t go in there...”

• “Clay, ah, don’t you think that was a little extreme?”
  “You heard what he said to me!”
  “He was bluffing!”

Applicability: This Aspect applies only in instances of extreme mental or physical duress that echo something Clay has already experienced.

The Strong Should Protect the Weak

Inside the Prison, Clay intervened on behalf of Helhet to keep him from being tormented and beaten by more aggressive inmates. During their incarceration, Clay often let other prisoners believe that Helhet "belonged" to him in order to keep Helhet safe.

Clay isn’t sure if he’s a good person anymore, considering the things he’s done, however unwilling. But he believes the strong have a responsibility to look out for those weaker than them, rather than taking advantage. The fact that most of his experiences run counter to this belief only makes him cling to it harder.

Invoke: This belief can be invoked to give Clay an advantage in any conflict where he’s protecting someone who can’t protect himself. He could also use it to exhort others to stand up to a bully on behalf of the underdog.

• “Hey, you. Yeah, you, the one who smells like he bathed in horse piss this morning. Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?”

• “Don’t just stand there gawping, you sheep! Do something! You bow your heads and watch as he steals from the fishmonger, just relieved that it’s not you. But tomorrow it will be you! Tomorrow he’ll be stealing your apples or your bread or your finely made daggers. He steals the fruits of your labor, coin from your pockets, food from the mouths of your children. And you let him! There are twenty of you and only one of him. If you stand your ground, all of you together, what hope does he have against you?”

Compel: This belief can be compelled to make Clay act against his own best interests or that of his companions:

• “Clay, that is a minotaur, and you’re still recovering from being nearly disemboweled last week.”
  “You heard the same thing I did. That girl thinks he’s charming, but he means to kidnap and rape her. Maybe even kill her.”
  “This town has a constabulary. We will inform them, and they will take care of it.”
  “And what if they don’t believe us? What if they’re too slow? I’m staying. You go find a constable.”
  “Clay...”
  “Damn, they’re slipping out the side door. I’m going.”
  “Clay! Stop, curse you! Clay!”

• “Two Knights of the Lock and Key are in the tavern as we speak. We have to leave. Now.”
  “Then go. I’m not stopping you.”
  “You are, actually. We need you to Find us a new thread into Beldenshire.”
  “You have at least two days travel first. I’ll catch up to you. I can’t leave now. I have to Find that boy. He’ll freeze to death out there.”
  “That boy was missing for two days before we even arrived. He’s probably dead already. You don’t know if you’re being pulled toward a living person or a body, do you?”
  “No, but--” Crack. Thud.
  “He’s really not going to appreciate that when he wakes up.”
  “Had to be done. He’d have argued with you until Solstice otherwise. Now help me get him up on the horse.”

Applicability: This Aspect applies only when Clay is trying to protect someone weaker or less capable than him.

Seething Cauldron of Rage

Corby, who seemed to think that his and Olric's back-and-forth abductions of the swan maiden Wasiya were some sort of damned game, eventually tormented Clay by snatching up his sister, Summer Riddle, and offering Clay a choice between her and the swan maiden. Being under Olric's thrall, Clay didn't actually have a choice in the matter. His rage as he left Mistyholt with Wasiya was palpable.

Clay has witnessed and experienced a great deal of injustice in his life, and it makes him angry. Very angry. Especially since he so rarely sees those who perpetrate injustice get punished for it.

• Invoke: This aspect can be invoked to give Clay the advantage in a physical conflict against someone he’s trying to bring to justice. It can also give him a psychological edge to cow a villain into submission, or even repentance.
  • “I can’t believe you beat that guy. He was huge.”
    Shrug. “Well, I was angry.”
  • “I’ll be good, I swear, from now until the day I die. I swear, I swear...”
    “You’d better. If I hear differently, you know I can always Find you.”

• Compel: This aspect can be compelled to get Clay to make dangerous choices, his rage overcoming his common sense. He might also take the law into his own hands and do...questionable things to the guilty.
  • “Ow!”
    “We told you to not to get involved. We told you you’d get hurt.”
    “Was I just supposed to--ah! Careful! Those ribs are broken.”
    “We told you.”
  • “Oh, sweet stars, Clay. Wh-what have you done?”
    “He deserved it.”
    “That may well be, but--warp and weft! Is he still alive?”
    “Of course. If I killed him, his penance would be over, wouldn’t it?”
• Applicability: This aspect applies only when Clay is angry over a crime that has gone unpunished.

Stunts

Seeking

1 Rules Exception - Riddle can Find anything if he knows its full, true name; has seen it with his own eyes; or is asked to find it by its rightful owner. Once he is Finding something, he can check the direction that it lies once per scene. He can also hold open his Finding sense, reading it like a compass, rather than simply checking it occasionally, but it hurts him to do so -- it costs him one mild consequence (or a moderate or severe if a lower-level consequence is not available). For a Fate Point (spent at the initiating of the Finding), Riddle can apply this to less specific concepts, such as "a one-armed man," which will lead him to nearest such specimen available. This latter ability can also be applied to finding threads between realms (e.g., "Find the nearest thread" or "Find the shortest way to Northern Sarbenia.") While actively Finding, Riddle is easier to scry, but he is otherwise more difficult to find. +1 bonus to rolls to scry him while he has an active object of his Seeking, -1 otherwise.

Heal

1 Rules Exception - With the expenditure of a Fate Point, Riddle can downgrade the severity of a consequence by one step (if the lesser consequence slot is open), or immediately remove a mild consequence entirely. This assumes that he has the time to cast the healing spell (i.e., are not under time duress).

Mage Armor

1 Action Bonus - Riddle knows a Word of Power that will summon a magical shield, giving him the equivalent of Armor: 2 (see the entry on Weapon and Armor Ratings on p. 277 of Fate Core) against one attack per conflict (using the word of power is draining and requires him to rest a bit before speaking it again). This can be applied after the hit has been rolled.

Summon Tools

1 Rules Exception - Assuming the time needed to cast the spell is available (essentially assuming that time pressure is not a factor -- we can be fiddly about the actual amount of time required), Riddle always has access to any simple, non-mechanical tools he might need and in said circumstance does not need to roll to find them.

History

How I dreaded the coming of the Hound of Olric. Once a year, sometimes as often as once a season, our game played itself out. I came to the Menagerie of Olric to steal away his lovely swanmay, and she dwelt with us a season until Olric noticed her absence, and sent his Hound to retrieve her.

I fancy that he and I looked forward to our encounters one with the other, in our own way. Although, he did not seem to appreciate it the last time we saw one another, when I offered him a choice: he might take one of two away with him. Which would he have - the swanmay, or his own dear sister Summer Riddle? His agony was delectable.
- The Raven King

Clay

Clay remembers very little of his life before Olric. Time in service to the Sorcerer-King, time in the prison where they were both taken, have worn away much of who he was before. He knows he had family. Mother and father, brothers and sisters. They didn’t want him to go, he thinks. But he also remembers coin changing hands, the glimmer and clink of it. So maybe he is wrong. Maybe he was merely chattel even then.

He remembers his first meeting with Olric clearly. The pain and the scars on his body make sure of it. He remembers defiance. At least, he hopes he was defiant, before the magic and the despair made that all but impossible. Sometimes he wishes that Olric’s sorcery had taken his mind as well as his will. Sometimes he’s grateful he was able to keep something that was his.

He was well cowed in those early years of training, when he was still more boy than man. He was an attentive student, out of equal parts fear and interest, and he sometimes learned more than Olric meant to teach. He learned that spells have limits, even terrifying, powerful spells like those Olric wielded. The geas that bound him was unbreakable, to be sure, and it let Olric work him like a puppet . . . but only Olric and only when the sorcerer thought to give very specific orders.

He didn’t really test the limits of the geas until later. He was too young, too fearful. He almost forgot he should. But some of the orders Olric gave him, some of the things he was forced to do . . . He still hates the feel of blood on his hands.

He started to push against the boundaries of the spell, to rebel in whatever small ways he could. For a while Olric didn’t notice, and later he ignored it, but eventually his patience wore thin. That’s when he introduced Clay to Melchior.

Melchior maintained discipline and order in Olric’s household. Olric couldn’t expend the time and energy it would take to magically bind all of his servants and bondsmen. He reserved such treatment for only the most powerful of his thralls; all others were Melchior’s responsibility. Olric called Melchior a seneschal, but no seneschal should have such a taste for cruelty and pain.

Melchior was in Olric’s employ voluntarily, and there were those who claimed he was a demon or a ghul. None truly knew what manner of beast Melchior was, but they did know that pain and fear were sustenance for him, as bread and meat are for normal men.

Melchior was a connoisseur of suffering--physical, emotional, sexual, psychological. He once told Clay that each act of sadism produced its own unique flavor. A beating was simple but filling, like a breakfast of cheese and warm bread. Berating a servant until he cried was like biting into a perfectly ripened apple. Rape was as sweet and rich as chocolate mousse. A prolonged bout of torture was a decadent, multi-course feast. Olric allowed Melchior to indulge his tastes however he liked so long as order reigned, no one escaped, and no permanent harm came to his property.

Clay became a favorite target of Melchior’s. If Melchior couldn’t find an indiscretion to punish Clay for, then he created one. Later, Clay realized that Melchior almost did him a service. Subservience never protected him from pain, submission never shielded him from horror, so he never embraced them. Obedience was always a thing that was forced on him, a chain around his neck, a mask that hid his rage. The spark of defiance in his heart never truly died out.

So the day the Jailers came, Clay helped them. Olric was too busy with the invaders to notice what Clay was doing, to remember that he knew all the castle’s secrets. Clay revealed the fortress’s hidden entrances, tore down its defenses where he could. He opened the doors of the Menagerie, allowing those beasts and beings who weren’t bound as he was to escape in the chaos. He sabotaged the door to the Vault, preventing Olric and those loyal to him from getting at the magical weapons inside. He laughed to himself that Olric’s greed might be his undoing, that he guarded his prizes so well he could not reach them when he finally had need of them.

When Clay had done all he could, he went to Olric’s cavernous throne room and waited. Waited for the fighting to reach him. Waited to be killed or rescued, whichever came first. One way or another, he thought, I will finally be free. He was wrong.

The battle spilled into the throne room, loud and tumultuous and savage. Clay got lost in it. When he came back to himself, he was . . . elsewhere. No longer in the Tapestry. And he was in pain.

There are healers, of a sort, in the prison. They tell him that Olric’s magic is broken now; the geas is gone. As are all the other enchantments Olric had laid upon him. That’s where the pain comes from. He had powerful magicks inside him for years, pushing at him, distending and distorting him, straining his mind and soul. And like a waterskin filled almost to bursting or a muscle stretching until it tears, he is damaged now. But he’ll get better. They’re almost sure.

The pain fades, eventually. Mostly. He is no longer a slave, but he’s still a prisoner. Trapped with Olric, his captor. With Melchior, his tormentor. And others from Olric’s castle. Some victims like him, but most like Melchior, who served Olric because they enjoyed it. They need someone to blame. They blame him.

He has to get out.

Olric

Old Man Olric of the wandering eye
will steal your malt and make you cry

Your ball and jacks
and your thumbtacks
and sit on them — who knows why?

He'll take your favorite deck of cards
pen-knife and boots — be on your guard!

He'll send his hound
to sniff around
and dig bones from your yard

— Sung by an altered music box retrieved by the Hound

Even before he acquired his Hound, Sorcerer-King Olric of Vorarl was famed throughout the lands of the Tapestry. He was descended from a long line of powerful sorcerer-monarchs, and that power had reached its pinnacle in him. A magical prodigy, he’d mastered the magicks of his ancestors by the time he reached the age of majority and, legend has it, all the known magicks of all the known lands by the time he was crowned King.

Olric developed his own knowledge and power as far as he could, then turned his sights outward. He began collecting magical objects; the more rare and powerful, the better, but if an object had any magic at all, he wanted it. His obsession spread to magical creatures great and small, and eventually even to people. Some souls were born into the Tapestry with innate gifts, magicks unlearned and unlearnable. If Olric could not himself acquire the power that these rare few were born with, then he would acquire them.

Olric didn’t care whether or not someone wished to part with their property or their pets or their children. If sentient creatures or talented people did not want to come to him willingly, there were other means of persuasion. When he could not purchase what he wanted, he stole it. When he could not steal, he threatened. When he could not threaten, he killed. And on those occasions when even Olric’s vast and powerful magicks did not get him what he wanted, he went into a rage that lasted for days, and his subjects suffered for it.

Thus Olric was elated when one of his agents brought him news of a Seeker living in a neighboring kingdom. Seekers were exceedingly rare, born with an innate ability to find anything or anyone. At the height of their powers, not only would they know where the object of their search was, they could also follow it anywhere--through walls, through magical barriers, even into other dimensions. If Olric had a Seeker in his thrall, then anything he wanted, anywhere in the Tapestry, would be his.

The Seeker was a farm boy called Clay Riddle, a peasant name if ever there was one. Olric made arrangements to purchase the boy from his parents. They were . . . reluctant, but Olric’s agents convinced them that giving up their eldest son in exchange for Olric’s gold and the lives of their remaining four children was quite a fair bargain.

Clay was barely fourteen, his Seeker powers in their infancy, but Olric did not have to wait for Clay’s ability to mature on its own. Olric put the boy through several grueling days of rites and rituals. First he bound the boy’s will to his own, insuring that Clay would be compelled to obey his every command. Then he amplified Clay’s power, forcing it to its apex with a complex and dangerous enchantment that pushed the boy to the limits of his endurance. Olric was quite pleased that Clay survived. He was also fascinated to discover that the arcane symbols he had drawn on Clay during the spellcasting were now seared into the boy’s flesh. Olric theorized that the mystical energies of the rituals interacted with Clay’s inborn magic to cause this intriguing side effect.

Olric set about augmenting his Seeker in other ways as well. He laid further enchantments on Clay, making him stronger, faster, more resilient, veiled to the eye and the ear. By the time Olric was done, black occult brands flowed down Clay’s body, starting on his forehead, trailing past his right eye and down to his throat, continuing along his collarbone and across his chest, circling his torso twice before spiraling down his left leg to the ankle. Olric would discover later, to his delight and puzzlement, that when Clay used his Seeking ability, the scars reacted with a brief, cascading flare of blue-gold light.

Olric hired the finest tutors he could buy, blackmail, or threaten to train Clay in swordplay, archery, woodcraft, burglary, espionage, and diplomacy. Olric himself trained Clay in spellcraft. Clay’s Seeker powers would open any doors and negate any magicks designed to keep him from his goal, but they wouldn’t get him across a raging river or protect him from an armed guard. Olric wanted his Seeker to be unstoppable, and his efforts did not go unrewarded.

His greed unchecked and a Seeker at his beck and call, Olric became a scourge to the peoples of the Tapestry. There was nothing that couldn’t be stolen, nobody who couldn’t be kidnapped, and no one who couldn’t be murdered. Mothers warned their children to be good, to be humble, lest the Hound of Olric come and claim them in the night. The greedy and the powerful cut out the tongues of their guards and their maids and their bookkeepers to prevent Olric from ever hearing of their riches. Cities closed down their borders, kingdoms wrapped themselves in obfuscating magicks, and entire lands disappeared from the Tapestry to hide themselves from Olric’s covetous eye.

Thus Olric’s legend and power and menace grew too great and caught the eye of the Jailers. They saw what he had built--his trove of powerful artifacts, his menagerie of mystical beasts, his stable of magical bondsmen--and they tore it down. The lesser relics were scattered; the greater destroyed, or perhaps confiscated. Most of the creatures were freed, and those slaves who posed no threat. Others, Clay among them, were taken along with Olric. Their guilt or innocence was irrelevant. They were dangerous, and they were taken.