Let me recount you the story of a wee lad. Alan Poe was but a young man fresh out of the nest. He just started working with his parents in their fields. He did not make much, but he was humble, honest, and hardworking, the kind of man the great church loved to talk about and how they were the ‘true servants of god’ for being so humble and doing nothing but prayer and work, practically rotting their lives away. Alan was kind of tall, with caved-in cheeks and dirty short blond hair. Alan worked from a young age to sustain his family. His mother was sickly, suffered from an uncurbable disease, and he had three little brothers and sisters to feed, as the years went on it got harder and harder to sustain this family. The sun shun less bright every year, the land yielded less fruit. Life was hard, as if the light of god were leaving this place. Alan had no choice but to look for more work while he was waiting for his land to grow fruit. He had heard that the lord of the land nearby needed more servants though he was not sure who the lord was or how he treated those under him. The last time he saw him was during his early childhood and he was a man of a few words. Alan recalled this man, despite his lack of words, was extremely menacing, as if Alan’s body and instincts were all telling him to stay away from him. He remembered little of the reason why he came for a visit but Alan remembered it was the same winter when his mother fell to her illness. As much as he lamented the idea of working under that ‘man,’ he had little choice but to ask to serve under him as he could not sustain his family otherwise.
He packed what little rags he had left, kissed his mother goodbye, and left at dawn before his brothers woke up. It took him a little bit over half a day to reach the castle gates on foot. Upon arriving to the castle he realized, despite being mid-day, the cloudy weather made everything darker than usual. The castle itself seems to have an odd aura around it even more threatening with the fact that the castle was absolutely huge, looming over this dark and gloomy scenery. Every part of the greenery is dead and shriveled; there were no wild animals around the road he was taking to get here. And yet despite the lack of visual life around this castle, it reeked of the smell of mold and fish, despite not there being any place to get fish say less walking a few days away from this land. Upon looking up, Alan could see some sort observatorium at the top of the castle, an open roof peeking at the stars. An odd glow emits from the room almost like a moonlight glow.
Distant thunder could be heard. It seems like it would rain soon, this is no time to hesitate he thought to himself. Three gentle knocks on the old castle wooden front door, a pause, a peek, then a long creak of the rotting wood. Three servants reveal themselves from behind the gargantuan door, probably the amount of people it takes to open this damn thing. They were wearing red silk ceremonial robes, I might finally get some new clothes! He thought to himself. Upon closer inspection he notices that the robes seem to mostly cover the faces of the servants, a sinister sight that sends shivers down Alan’s spine. One of the servants comes forth and takes off the hood of his robes to reveal his faces. Alan’s tries not to look away as to not offend the servant, it was a hunchback with a disfigured face, almost giving him the impression that his face was about to rot off. The hunchback introduces himself:
“Hello and welcome to lord Ash castle, I am Ulric , what business brings you here?”
“Hey, I am Alan Poe, I am but a humble farmer in dire need of a job. I have heard rumors around town that the lord is looking for a new ‘servant’, though I am unsu- ”. He is cut off by the hunchback
“Ah yes a new servant, please enter the castle we will guide you to your room, everything shall make sense in due time”
“oh o- ok?” Alan says confused
The two other servants watch the whole conversation with great interest, as if watching an animal. During this interaction, Alan is freaked out how these two ‘presumably’ men have yet to talk or even reveal their faces.
Upon entering the castle and stepping on the red carpet a cold wind blows past him carrying a whisper. Alan breaks into a cold sweat, his body, and every instinct within him is telling him to leave, alas he has gone too far, and he cannot give up yet. He grabs his cross-necklace a bit tighter and keeps following the servants down to the chambers. Along the halls he notices a few strange things about this castle in particular; the air seems stagnant, thick, and almost suffocating with an extreme reek of mold and rotting fish. The walls are decorated with paintings of unknown symbols, they have a clear pattern almost like that language from the south, but not quite the same language.
It feels like what seems to be hours that he has been walking this straight path down to his chambers. It’s odd, almost like the passage of time has slowed down to a crawl inside these dead gray walls. Not much time could have passed since the sun is still breaking the clouds from the same spot. Finally after turning a few turns and walking down a set of stone stairs, one of the two twist the rusty doorknob and gestures to Alan to signal “go inside.” Alan follows suit and plops down his bag on the straw bed, it was starting to bore down his back. Alan had just started to grow accustomed to the dark when the hunchback comes forth and exclaims:
“Tell me Alan have you-” he notices the silver cross hanging from his neck “have you been following god’s teachings?”
“why certainly” exclaims Alan proudly with a hint of naivety “I have always followed god’s teaching and I always pray before going to bed”
“EXCELLENT!” Shouts the hunchback before regaining himself “*ahem* you see we have been looking for a man of god for a long time to-” the hunchback smiles and stops.
“well, you’ll see soon enough, please by all means make yourself at home and relax, I am sure the walk here was not short”
“…”Alan at a loss for words, as much as he wants to forsake this place and run away, he has no choice but to stick around.
The men promptly leave.
An hour or so passes, Alan finally gets accustomed to the general atmosphere and the dark of his room. It seems like the lord was not so generous as to leave some candles for his underlings. Initially, Alan felt more at ease now that the men have left, but the silence and dark is starting to eat away at him. It always is quieter in the dark it seems. Not being able to bear with the loneliness and the dark, Alan leaves his room and starts to walk around the castle along the path the men took him in. He remembers what seemed like a kitchen on the way and was wondering if he could ‘test’ the quality of the food, lest the lord eat something rotten. As he walks down the halls, it almost feels like there is no end, just like earlier he finally catches the glimpse of a torchlight and a silhouette. He heads to the kitchen, to see what the chef is eating and to ask for a meal; however there was no chef. Only a dead body of the priest that went missing a few days ago, there are visible claw and bite marks on his cold and gray body. There is a presence there, it is whispering an unknown language that Alan cannot determine for he has never heard it before. He cannot see what that ‘thing’ is only the general almost humanoid form it has taken and the red robes it was wearing, almost like his mind is protecting him from knowing whatever that thing is. Alan stars running away to the exit, he sees light at the end of the hall, but it is not getting closer, even though he is running as hard as he can the light is still as far away as it has always been. And despite how hard he is running the screeching behind is getting closer and the shadows following him are less and less human.
Some sort of tentacle hits Alan’s legs and he falls face first to the ground. He turns around and is greeted by Al’vkiro. He can finally see it, its face. In an act of desperation he screams for god to help him and have mercy on him. Alas the light of god has long forsaken this place.
