Lore/Story Yuko Of The Twin Scars

So first, I should give a little background. I've been participating in a roleplay in a Discord server, themed around D&D. My character, Treat, is a wandering mercenary and storyteller- this story is told by her. Dea, the boy who is her audience, is a sailor's boy- twelve years old, but knows his way around a ship. The vast majority of the roleplay takes place inside a magical Tavern in the city of Newhaven Landing.

Dea's player managed to pick the one topic I didn't have a story prepared for- ghosts. I remembered some vague lore from WynnCraft, and just... rolled with it. Now- in terms of Wynn lore, this is horribly inaccurate. The last time I played was before the Gavel update, and I never actually did the House of Twain quest, which this story is based on. Also, there's a line about "the seven Aspects of Corruption" that isn't canonical Wynn lore, but is taken from a roleplay I did here once, called Lost. With that out of the way, please do not tell me I have my lore wrong, because I am absolutely aware of that. Put the House in the wrong bloody continent.

While I made a majority of this up on the spot, I came back after and thought- hey, this is good enough to share. So I cut out the intervening messages from other players, made all the tenses match, and posted it here. Hope you enjoy! --Skelly

"Yeah... There are so many beautiful things in this world, and in this town too," says Dea.

"And plenty of stories, most of which you'll miss out on if you run around too fast," Treat agrees.

"Stories? Like what, ma'am?"

"Well, what do you want to hear about? There's all kinds. Every city usually has at least one."

"Hm... Tell me a scary one!"

"Hmm. I'm not good at scary stories, but I know a couple of large monsters..." She thinks for a moment. "What suits your fancy? Dragons?"

"Bah! Blight to dragons! All me mateys hate dragons!"

Treat raises an eyebrow. "They aren't all bad, you know. All right, pick a type of monster. Sea beasts? Ghosts?"

"Oooh! Ghosts!"

"All right, then. This story takes places in the long-forgotten province of Gavel..."

Dea listens intently.

"But first, some background. The neighboring province of Wynn had, for some time, been fighting off an extraplanar invasion they called the Corruption. They raised many heroes- all of which eventually fell, save one.

"They knew him as Bob. His true name was lost to history- Robert of Ragni was his title, but he was a friendly, kind man, and went around as Bob.

"The corruption was truly an invasion. Though it seemed as an illness, spreading across the land, it was led by seven Aspects of Corruption and their leader, the Corruptor of Worlds.

"In the final battle, Bob was finally able to defeat it, a purplish, destructive beast. But the battle claimed his life as well."

"H-How did he do that, miss?" the boy asks.

"Well, no being apart from the gods is truly unkillable. And Bob was the greatest hero of the realm- while others decided between being an archer, an assassin, a warrior, or a mage, as one of the colleges, he was all four. And he had uniquely powerful weapons to match each one, which are still passed between the greatest members of each school."

"In any case, with the Corruptor defeated, peace was eventually restored to Wynn. But our story begins in Gavel, a place part of the way between light and dark, life and death. Where ghosts of the past mingle with the spirits of the future, under the supervising of those living in the present.

"In the eastern reaches of Gavel, there lay a mansion, owned by the Twain family. Though they were once powerful nobles, one day the estate was abandoned. Seemingly overnight, the entire family disappeared, and the mansion was overgrown, decayed, rotting- as though a century had passed in the span of seconds. Nobody knows how it happened, and the mansion was eventually forgotten. But every now and then, an explorer would arrive, looking for the secret of the House of Twain, and never return.

"Gavel had, in the past, received many immigrants from Wynn- heroes overwhelmed by the monsters, fleeing the corruption. One after another, they eventually ventured to find the secrets of the new land. But the House of Twain was the only place that remained inviolate- if anyone ever went there, they disappeared. The strongest of heroes were busy in Wynn, with the remnants of the Corruption, and none of the Gavelian heroes managed to survive the Twain estate. Until a young boy named Yuko."

Treat takes a sip of her drink.

"Yuko was a relatively average young adventurer. Though he was not the strongest, he dreamt bigger than most- perhaps that was the reason he was able to survive.

"They say the House of Twain had been occupied for years by the souls of the adventurers it had captured in its depths. Screaming and howling at every turn, they was enough to drive the strongest men mad- if they were to survive the attacks of the zombies and skeletons, wearing and wielding the equipment of heroes. As was appropriate for its appearance of age, it would creak and groan in the slightest of winds, and spiders had claimed areas of the house as their own.

"Yuko, entering the mansion, had to deal immediately with all of these things at once. Knowing the sounds of the place would soon drive him insane, he quickly took a candle off of a nearby table, and stuffed bits of it into his ears. The wax blocked the sound, and he was able to continue forth."

"Clever Yuko..." said Dea, in admiration.

"Although it were able to keep him sane... the candle was a mistake. Unable to hear, the young man was unable to tell if anything was sneaking up on him. Looking around frantically, he progressed into the house..." The area around Dea and Treat appears to become more dark and shadowy as she speaks, lending itself to the mood. As she finishes the last word, Dea can feel a hand alight on his shoulder, and the shadows suddenly pulse black for a moment.

The boy looks behind him frantically. There's nothing there. The sensation of the hand disappears, and the shadows return to normal. "As one of the zombies snuck up upon him, the boy panicked, and ran further into the house. Dodging the bodies and spirits of past heroes, he charged blindly into the basement."

"Uh oh. The basement's bad... Usually." Dea looks back to Treat.

She winks at him, but doesn't break the flow of her story. "The basement was a refuge. None of the reanimated bodies, nor the spirits would follow him down there. Taking a moment to breathe, he removed the candlewax from his ears, and there was nothing to be heard. He sat down against a wall and took a while to calm himself."

Dea leaned forward, genuinely invested.

"Almost, Yuko slept. But as he was nodding off to sleep, he realized that sleeping here would likely send him to his final rest. Propping himself up with his sword, he looked up the stairs. The spirits and zombies were waiting for him- he couldn't escape that way. And so he set forth to explore the basement floor.

"For a while, it seemed much like the rest of the mansion- quiet, dark, overgrown. But there were no spirits, nor dead bodies to send him fleeing. But then, in the distance, he saw light. Dim, flickering, from the door of one of the rooms. His curiosity got the better of him, and he went to investigate."

Treat pauses to sip at her drink once more.

"The room was a bedroom. Unlike the rest of the mansion, it seemed... alive, untouched by whatever force had ravaged the rest of the building. The door barely creaked as he opened it, stepping in.

"The light he had seen peeking out into the hallway was candlelight."
The shadows around Treat and Dea brighten a little, and begin to flicker. "Crouching in front of a blue candle, a small girl in a plain white dress rocked side to side, arms around her knees, as if terrified. Yuko, being the noble soul he was, tried to speak to her, to help her, but there was no response.

"Eventually, he placed a hand on her shoulder, and her body suddenly crumbled to dust. All that remained was a skull, and a book. Horrified, the young hero picked up the book, intending to read it, and a horrible scream- louder than any from the spirits above- echoed through the mansion."
Dea can almost hear the scream, as if it were the tavern they occupied that was haunted instead of a long-dead manor.

"Turning towards the source, Yuko jumped. The ghost of a little girl lingered in the corner of the room, more terrifying than any of those previous. With red, glowing eyes, and a rippling, glowing form, he was instinctually terrified. This one was not like the others. This one could kill him- this one could speak."
"'Why... why can't you leave me alone?!' The spirit clutched at its head, as if hearing voices. 'So long... so long. Where do the demons end?!' the spirit screeched."

"Terrified, Yuko backed out of the room, habitually placing the book in his bag and laying his hand on his sword. The ghost made no moves. And then, a chill went through him-" A chill goes down Dea's spine- "and he whipped around suddenly, and saw the ghosts of the child's parents!"
Though Treat casts no illusion, Dea has an impression of a tall man in a suit, and a lady in an elegant, flowing crimson dress. Their clothes are torn and tattered, and their skin is white as marble. Their eyes glow, purple instead of red.
The shadows around Treat and Dea intensify, painting the two in darkness.

"The two figures reached out for the young hero, and he ran, further into the darkness, deeper into the basement." The shadows lighten, although Dea's heart is suddenly racing after the appearance of the two figures.
Treat lets the shadows relax, and sips at her drink. The mood lightens.
"Unbeknownst to him, the House of Twain had a parallel in Wynn. Though it was not discovered until much later, it was similarly haunted, with the spirits of adventurers and its owners. Afterwards, more powerful men than Yuko would discover that the two had created a spiritual link, and the numerous ghosts of Wynn had flooded into Gavel. But this was lost on the young boy," and the shadows grow deeper once more, "as he charged blindly once more into the depths. The rotting wood and walls of the floor slowly gave way to stone and earth, and he found himself in a cave. Continuing, hoping for a way out, he stumbled blindly along."

Dea shivers slightly.

"The ground underfoot slowly turned soft, and soggy. Almost like flesh. The walls opened up, and the young man, blind in the darkness, could hear the clashing of two fighters in the distance. Lighting a match, it appeared that the tunnel around him was made of a purple, firm but gooey substance, and he was in a massive cavern. Across the way, though he saw it not, the two fighters paused, locked in their eternal struggle, and turned to face him.

"The sudden lack of silence was almost as intimidating as the ringing sounds of combat before. The cavern slowly began to glow, becoming brighter, as if lit by the light of a thousand invisible suns. And out of the darkness, a titanic, skeletal purple figure loomed over the boy. With an orb, dark as night, glowing in its chest, and a flaming purple skull, it was an intimidating sight.

"And it was even more so when the orb shattered, the body crumbled, and a figure stepped out."

The shadows grow more intense, and Dea can almost picture the scene.

The boy narrows his eyes.

"Similar in details, though much smaller in scale, this figure held a weapon of purple flame in each hand. Walking slowly towards the unfortunate boy, it levelled its arms at him. Suddenly, the flames of purple shot towards him!" and two cold lines trace themselves along Dea's forehead, all of a sudden. "Ducking, the boy barely survived- the flame burned through his hair, leaving two long, cursed purple scars along his scalp. Sure it was the end, Yuko ran as fast as he could towards a tunnel at the other end of the cavern- but he surely would not have made it if not for the timely intervention of a figure in blue, a sword in one hand and a dagger in the other, and a bow and a staff strapped to its back. Re-engaging the figure, it bought time for the young boy to run."
Once again, the shadows lighten slightly, and Dea can all but see the two combatants, sword locked against flame.

"From that point, all Yuko remembered was stumbling blindly through the opposite tunnel, praying for light. When they found him, he was unconscious in the woods, an hour away from the mansion."
Treat sips her drink, and the story halts, as if she is waiting for her audience to ask questions. The shadows relax and disappear.

"How the heck did he get out! That seemed so confusing!" Dea exclaims.

"Well," Treat smiles. "You recall that there was some portions of the story that did not take place within Yuko's time?"

"Uh... Yeah?"

"Well, that was the origin of the cave. Gavel, if you recall, is... 'a place part of the way between light and dark, life and death. Where ghosts of the past mingle with the spirits of the future.' And Twain's Mansion and its parallel in Wynn had created a link between the two. What else do you remember I told you about Wynn?"

"Uh... They fought off the Corruption. But they were also running from it. Oh! And Bob!"

"That's right! The two figures Yuko saw in that cave were the spirits of Robert of Ragni and the Corruptor of Worlds. Though they both fell in their battle, their spirits continued their battle into the spirit realm."

"As for the House of Twain... The reason it became so old and decrepit all of a sudden were because of the man and woman in the story. The last leaders of the Twain family, they made deals with spirits and devils in order to increase their standing in the world- however, after they'd built up a powerful estate, they grew overconfident, and reneged on their promises. The entire mansion, apart from the room of their own child, aged a century in a heartbeat, with the combined power of the entities they'd angered.

"None of this would have come to light if not for the brave Yuko of the Twin Scars.

"That book he found was the girl's diary. It documented her parents' 'business' and her own life. With the necessary information about the House of Twain, adventurers were eventually able to rid it of its powerful curse. However, the cave still exists, to the best of my knowledge."

Treat finishes her drink. "And that is the story." She smiles. "Any good?"

"That. Was... AWESOME!"

Treat grins. "Glad you appreciated it."

"You're rather good at that! I felt like I was right there!"

Treat laughs. "That's my edge on other storytellers- I use magic effects to give the stories an impact. Let me guess- you could almost see the pictures in your mind?"

"Yeah! Spooky images! All the best Bards do that!"

Treat looks at Dea. "Not a bard!" She grins. "I'm a psychic- as I tell the story, I broadcast my own thoughts. The more invested you are in the story, the easier it is to feel it, because you're more open to receiving them."

"I've got plenty of others, if you'd like to hear one another time. But I only do one a night," Treat says to the awestruck Dea.​

 

I like it, you have put time and thought into it

 

The Twain mansion in Gavel could possibly be Caritat Manor, as it is full of ghosts and stuff. They look similar as well.