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Status: Fox, blessed but also plagued by his foe and rival
Dion d'Vine
A long time ago, Bacch d'Ivy was a successful apothecary in the city of
Clarion. He was respected by the people
there, earned a good living, and enjoyed his work. He had a happy family life,
with two cubs and a wonderful wife, whom he loved far beyond the scope of
what mere words can convey.
As stories go, there is invariably something that goes awry at this point, and
certainly, something did. Horribly.
One day when Bacch had been gathering some rare herbs for a special potion that
would cure inconvenient lack of love, he was struck by the oddest of feelings,
cold and tingling, spreading through his every nerve, making him rush home,
discarding his herbs. What he found there, not only added to his worry....
His house was a mess, there were signs of fighting and struggling everywhere.
His wife, this loving and devoutful vixen was there no more. His cubs were gone.
There was blood at several places, and also more than one broken wine bottle.
The entire place was reeking with the red gold, a smell that burned into
Bacchs memory forever.
With total abandon, our apothecary launched a search for his lost family, but
it yielded little success. There was no trace of the criminals, who, in their
wine-intoxicated state had fought and 'napped the three unfortunate vulpines.
As time went, Bacch grew more desperate. He left his home (which only inspired
painful memories) and commenced a trek across large parts of Calabria.
Needless to say, he never found a clue.
Only once during his many journies, he found peace for a while. Somewhere he
found an elderly boar, who taught him the wisdom of Lutara. Bacch
learned there that he still might have a future, if he listened to nature
around him, and to his inner self. The boar also taught him the Path of Ivy,
which proved in the end to be a crucial mistake.
Bacch never realized that such wisdom as he was learning didn't come without a
price. In this case, the price was temptation. The fox learned about the wonders
Lutara somtimes granted for him, and his clever mind leapt at the conclusion;
these wonders might not give him back his family, but they might give him the
bittersweet satisfaction of revenge. At this point, he grimly set himself a
goal: To eradicate all evil done by the red devil: the wine.
Eventually, returning to his former home near Clarion, he found to his immense
horror that a rabbit had taken residence in the same valley, and that rich,
flowing vineyards were covering almost the entire valley. Bacch immediately saw
his enemy, and promised himself to destroy the rabbit and the evil of the wine.
This proved to be impossible. Not only had the rabbit, Dion d'Vine, established
himself near Bacch's home, but the lapine also possessed strange powers, linked
to that of the vine. A struggle of power ensued, during which Bacch's eyesight
was regrettably cancelled by flying shrapnel. This did in no way stop the
hostilities, and the violent dispute has now been raging for many years.
It is likely that if you enter this valley, you will encounter these foes and
their eternal battle. Bacch will certainly be trying to convince any adventurer
that the evil of wine will cause great harm, and freely give a potion that will
neutralize this evil, of course to be dispatched in direct contact with the
rabbit who's behind this. The potion is naturally a very powerful poison that
will have the little side effect that Dion falls into a coma, something which
Bacch is not completely likely to reveal.
But as it looks, up to now, the battle is likely to continue for many years to come...
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