Saving the world on a Sunday afternoon
The dark days have past, but this needs to be recorded should the trap fail and he be brought forth again. For the past 12 summers and 11 winters we have been ruled over by The Stealer in the form of his Avatar. This was a terrible time of death, pestilence, destruction and mistrust.
The Avatar took what he wanted, when he wanted and anyone who stood against him or got in his way was killed. Worse than that, after they were killed, they stood up again and were in his thrall and turned on us. He had henchmen, and occasionally one of them would be killed by an angry mob. They would also stand up, but would seem stronger, and would effortlessly kill the angry mob. The graves of those who had fallen were destroyed, those who were buried stood up, and creatures from another world appeared out of thin air, summoned by those who chose to throw their lot in with the Avatar of the Stealer.
Times were dark, no-one trusted anyone, whole families were wiped out, and those who remained were set to work in the fields growing the food that would be stolen for the Avatar, creating the skins and pelts that the avatar wore. Families were split up, anyone who appeared to be getting friendly with each other mysteriously disappeared. He sent the statues to watch over us and they would take whoever they wanted. We lost touch with ourselves, we become little more than sheep, too scared to join together to stand against him, no-one wanting to be the one who was his focus.
When the fields did not produce enough for his pleasure, he cursed the ground to keep the farmers there so they could not leave. They were forced to tend the land all hours of the day and night. They could see their homes, but could not reach them as the plants bound round their ankles.
When a settlement tried to band together, he caused all the stones within it to fly apart and attempt to trap those who lived there between them. Many died trapped within those stones.
When groups attempted to leave, he would cause great walls of fire to appear out of the ground and surround them, moving inwards all the time. It is said that he stood and watched those within burn to death
We were forced to his temples to worship him – the oldest and infirm of us were taken to his smallest temple, the strongest of body and those who had just reached the Adulthood Ceremony were taken to his largest and most powerful temple, whilst others were taken to
a temple, somewhat smaller than his most powerful one, but larger than the small one.
Tales were told of each temple – the Statues came from the smallest, the prisons were in the middle, and The Avatar’s Sanctum was in the most powerful temple. Those who went to the most powerful temple were changed when they came out. They were nastier, less human,
more prone to doing the Stealer’s work. Our former holy men were taken to the middle temple where they tell tales of having their link to the gods forcibly ripped out of them, and each time it happened to them, it came back weaker, until eventually they could not feel their gods at all.
But then one day, earlier this summer, things changed. A traveller from distant lands appeared. He was something we had not seen before. He glowed with an inner fire, exuding a radiance that lifted the darkness from around him. Whenever he stood near us, it was though a veil
had been lifted from our eyes and while we were still scared of The Avatar, we slowly began to believe that if we could work together, then we could start to do something about this. It was still very difficult to trust anyone when the traveller wasn’t there, but when he was there, we all felt a lot better about things, and we really believed.
Not long after he had arrived and had begun bringing us together, two statues suddenly appeared where none had been before and one of the Avatar’s henchmen was between them. He challenged the traveller to fight, and whilst at first the traveller’s strikes appeared to cause wounds to appear on the traveller himself, he was sturdy of body enough to take down the henchman. As before, the henchman rose again even stronger as one of the walking dead, but the traveller was not put off by this, and in point of fact his inner fire seemed to burn brighter as he laid into the remains of the henchman and took him down. This display of strength gave us such belief, it being the first time we had seen anyone put any of the walking
dead back in the floor. We all fell in behind the traveller and we started to make plans to bring down the Avatar and drive The Stealer out of our lives.
He spoke with our holy men, and whilst doing so, they felt their link with their gods coming back. He talked of a way of trapping The Stealer and pulling him out of the Avatar, and he would need certain things to build this trap. We found these items for him, and he led us all to the most powerful temple. Those of us who were not strong enough to fight waited outside whilst the traveller and 20 strong, brave heroes went inside. After what seemed an age, the darkness over the land suddenly lifted, we felt the evilness suddenly clear, and we saw each other in a new light. Those of us outside started to celebrate. The traveller and our brave heroes had been successful! Our celebrations were cut short a few moments later.
The heroes began to come out of the temple. First one, then a second, then a third. But after that, no more. The three of them had a very grim look on their face. They had been successful, but at a massive cost. 17 of their number had fallen, and had risen again as the walking dead. They refused to tell the fate of the traveller, except to say that he was not in the 17. They said that the trap had been successful and the Avatar was dead. The Stealer would no longer have sway over this land, and that we should head back to our homes and forget about the traveller. We were to not mention his name at all, and if anyone came looking for him, we were to deny ever seeing him. I never found out why.
We are now living happier than we have done for many summers, but part of me feels that this could happen again, and it is my solemn duty to watch for the signs, and to teach those who come after me to watch for them. We must never forget what happened here, and we must be prepared for it to happen again.
What are the signs of the return of the Stealer?
The Bedrock Will Walk Among Us
The Land Will Turn Against Those Who Walk It
The Thief Will Awaken
Weather Watcher Banister