Background hook #1
Hook: You are somehow connected to Zellera, a Varisian fortune teller in her mid-forties who runs a harrow-reading shop from her small home in the Midland district, near the Gold Market. Less than a year ago, Zellera lost her harrow deck (a valuable family heirloom rumored to be magical) to pickpockets. When her only child and teenage son, Eran, took it upon himself to recover the harrow deck, he was murdered. His head and hands were sent back to his mother in a box as a warning. Zellera has been a wreck ever since. We begin the adventure as you find yourself in front of Zellera's shop...
The door is slightly ajar, so you knock and walk in. The front room is empty. You call out, but get no reply. You quickly search the rest of the house, but find no one. Nothing seems amiss. You return to the front room, and notice a harrow deck on the table. A feeling of uneasiness washes over you; you don't remember noticing it as you walked in. The cards are decorated with hand-painted images, the frames gilt in silver. They are worn, but the images on the faces are so vibrant they seem to move when viewed out of the corner of your eye. It dawns on you; this is Zellera's harrow deck, the one that was stolen from her. How did it get here? You step forward, unable to resist. Your fingers brush the top card. A surge of awareness rushes through you. Your mind's eye sees a burning city, a mob, mounds of decaying bodies, a tarnished crown held high by a rusty pitchfork.
You wake from your reverie as you hear a noise behind you. Standing in the doorway to the kitchen is Zellera, tears stream down her face.
"I've found him, the man who hurt my Eran. It took...so long...so much...but now he is revealed to me. He is terrible, a monster who preys on children. The things he does to them...unspeakable things...wounds that can never heal. You know of whom I speak...it is not chance that you have made your way here to me. He hurt you too, not so long ago. I can sense your pain...and...your desire for vengeance. The nightmare that is Gaedren Lamm must end."
Zellera goes on to tell you that she believes you are the one who must engineer the demise of Gaedren Lamm; you and three others who suffered like you. She tells you of the three, hints that will help you find them. As you leave Zellera's, you feel as if you have just awakened from a dream...
