Riddle

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): Stealth, Will
• Fair (+2): Burglary, Fight, Shoot
• Average (+1): Athletics, Deceive, Empathy, Investigate

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

Olric

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.