Monster

[Vendrin]

A successful inspiration of fear is like a successful tavern: ninety percent of it is about location.

Three men in dirty leathers and brown sacks covering their heads knelt on the stone floor in the cells of Templar's Hold, their wrists and ankles tied with heavy rope. There was little light, except that of flickering torches.

I nodded to Drake Veneshuel, who took the hood off the first man then stood clear. The man was young, and surprisingly good-looking. He had tasteless jewelry among his dirty leathers, covering what was once fine clothing.

"Where are you from?" I asked him.

He sneered at me. "What's it to y-"

My morningstar hit him in the head as soon as I heard the bravado in his voice. The body fell heavily to the floor.

The other two jumped and cursed, their voices angry and terrified. I took the hood off the second man. His suit was a close cousin of the dead man's, and I thought I recognized a symbol. "Amn?" I asked him.

"You can't do this to us," he said more angry then frightened. "Do you know how we are?"

Once I heard the nasal quality of the word "are", I smashed his skull in with my morningstar.

I took off the third man's hood. He screamed and fell away from me. "Amn," I said, nodding and put bloodied morningstar on his shoulder. He stared at me, showing the whites of his eyes. "I am Barid Mosinel, Priest of Bane. I will not tolerate the thieves of Amn in what will be my Lord's domain. Do you understand?"

His body shook in what might have been a nod. His lips formed the word "yes", though no sound came out.

"I am glad you can answer a simple question," I told him and handed the morningstar to a squire to be cleaned. "I want you to tell your master that I won't be this lenient the next time his people work against those who are under my protection." I looked at Drake. "Put the three of them in a sealed crate and have a wagon tame them back to Baldur's Gate."

Drake was a lithe, trustworthy man, his hair let to grow slightly longer then I approved. He nodded in the slight motion that he used when he disapproved one of my actions but would do his duty anyway.

I walked outside of the cells and headed for the Shrine dedicated to my god Bane, in the most secure area of the Hold. My acolyte, Tarquin - a tall bald man without any pretense of kindness - fell into step behind me. "Two?"

"They could not be troubled to answer a question in a civil manner."

"No, that was not it I think my lord," Tarquin spoke as he opened the door to the shrine.

"It was intimidation," I paused to look at the acolyte.

"And the fact that one of them was selling lotus to young girls, and the other was pimping them out had nothing to do with it, while the one left alive simply did the books was a simple coincidence," Tarquin said with a raised eyebrow.

"True Justice can often seem as such." I closed the door and entered the shrine without him and went to pray before the altar of Bane, God of Tyranny and Hatred.

My name is Barid Mosinel. I am a monster.

It sounds arrogant. After all, I'm not some undead corpse risen to consume the living. No giant reptile that cares only for destruction and gold. No demon.

But they will never be what I am. One and all, those beings were born to be what they are.

I made a choice. I still believe it to be the right one, despite the cost.

[NESchampion]

((I like it! Nothing seems quite so engrossing as a character who is horrifying to normal folk and knows and accepts it.))

[kid]

Very nice. really like that approach.

[PensivesWetness]

i still like the other titler 'Monster' (the one with the selunite & puppy) THAT was chilly & horrifying... and awesome reads