thepicketfencecliche | d&d scenes } { of empty houses and past lives

Ric: [He pulls the car up the front driveway to the home that Lammel and Isabelle had last been at. He wasn't sure if Isabelle would be here, or what would happen if she was, but he felt the need to check on her. Something had happened from their last discussion in Shar's realm and their escape he didn't fully understand.

Leaving everything but a throwing knife and Lammel's wedding ring in the car, he made his way inside.] Isabelle?

Isabelle: [the guards and men they had posted are gone. The house, for all intents and purposes, seems abandoned. And there's no response when Ric calls out for her]

Ric: [he's going to move from room to room, trying to see what he could learn about her, and Lammel, from the times before he knew them.]

Isabelle: [make an investigation check]

Ric: [rolls Investigate 26 (green boxed)]

Isabelle: [most of the house is fairly untouched. you get the sense that this was a point to retreat to, rather than a home where they actually lived. Aside from one room in the house that seemed cared for and lived in - the bedroom. There, he finds changes of clothes, and spell components, at first but as he digs deeper and searches around the room, he realizes that one of the drawers has a false bottom]

Ric: [and well, that's not suspicious at all. He's totally going to open that false bottom]

Isabelle: [and in it, he'll find a small collection of leather journals]

Ric: [well, he's going to fish those out and go sit against the footboard, flipping the oldest one of them open to read]

Isabelle: [and they are essentially Isabelle chronicling her life. Ric will learn that she was raised in the Cult of Shar, with this peripheral awareness of what the goddess fed on and how the higher up cult members would bring things into their life for the sole reason that they would cause them despair and Isabelle was resistant to that, for the most part. That is, until she went to college to be a recruiter and fell in love with Nicholas. At first, he wasn't anything of note, a playboy and college was full of playboys. That is until the night of the car accident - the first time Nicholas died and Isabelle brought him back. From there, things seem to fall back into the cult, with Nicholas devoting himself to the cause with zeal. As time went on, Isabelle's distance began to return, with growing concern that Shar's aims - plunging the world into despair and darkness may not be what's best for the world. And that's where things cut off because the final journal is sitting at the Institute with Fie]

Ric: [When he closes the final journal, he sits back and just takes it in. Seeing Lammel through her eyes, as well as "watching" someone brought into the cult and going full zeal... it reminded him of his own last few years and the zeal he felt trying to please Shar. He still doesn't understand how the curse he was under when the team made their wished worked, and how much of the life he actually "live" versus what was implanted in his head, what were his choices and what was manipulation from Lammel, Shar, and the curse itself... but it is obvious to him now he is lucky to have gotten out now before he died while still loyal to Shar.]

Isabelle: [well, good, at least there's that]

Ric: [he debates a moment, unsure on what to do. Finally, he gets up and pulls out the wedding ring and ties it to the page ribbon of the journal where she mentions marrying Lammel. Finding a piece of paper, he write a note for her:]

Isabelle - Thank you for helping us escape. I tried to stop him, beg him to see reason, but I'm sure you already knew it wasn't going to happen. It isn't any easier to go through this a second time, but if it's any comfort, my friends assure me he won't be able to come back again.

I don't know if you're even alive, but I hope you made it out. If you need refuge from Shar, the doors of the Institute are always open. If I'm not there, show this letter to Fie so he knows I offered you sanctuary.

Maybe in another life, thing could be different. I understand now that he was manipulating me, but Lammel could have sacrificed me that night. I know he saw promise, but I do hope that in my decade with him, I helped remind him of his humanity. There was still a good man deep inside, and even with recent events, I'll always believe that, and hope that part of him is now at peace.

[he can't think of anything else to add, so he signs his name, tucks it into the page with the ribbon, and puts all the journals back in the false bottom.]