Dolos
Minion: Luck Embodied
Fortunes Hall
The Traveling Man does exactly as he says; travel. There is no rhyme nor reason as to where he goes, why he goes there, or what he does when he arrives. He can be gone for eons, or be back before he left, though always with momentum and change in his eyes. Recently throughout these adventures, he has had a goal and with this direction he started to plot and plan. Since Fate has arrived, the world has been seized by stagnation, no free will can grow. The Traveling man put his energy into developing an army to fight back against the tyrant’s grasps. To do so, he had syphoned energies from the world and gods to develop a pocket dimension situated in the void. Through ceaseless rituals and rites, he was able to fly the realm beneath Fate's radar, and start his plan. By summoning groups of individuals from Tempress, the Traveling Man tested each one as to who would be worthy enough to fight alongside Sardonyx and the rest of the Gods to bring an end to Fate. Trails were set up to weed out the people he wished to mark with a blessing of chance, for later call to war. To help the groups along their tasks, to observe them complete or fail them, the Traveling Man needed eyes and ears to follow them. With the powers borrowed from Sardonyx, the Traveling Man created me; Dolos, luck personified.
I am pretty important around here. I follow the groups around and see how they perform. I reward them when I feel they deserve it, else I just talk to them. It’s nice to talk to them too. The Traveling Man doesn’t talk me all that much anymore, especially as Fate grows stronger. I’ve met some heroes, some villains, peasants and nobles. But today, I met a particularly interesting group, full of heroes and important people, who showed promise in fighting Fate beside us. They were interesting, handsome and downright smart individuals that worked well as a group, had their heads in the right directions and were lovely to talk to. But then they died and I had to follow a really hostile and uncaring group… They weren’t happy with some of my rewards and yet swooned over others. They attacked me at points and threatened me with a God-awful relic of an item from Garr… They wouldn’t play games with me, and even tried to steal some of my dice, only to return it to me with smiles on their faces like it was a good thing. At points they were happy to see me and have me around, only to flip their lids the second they saw me again. I was met with smiles and sighs, and I’m pretty sure they were lunatics. I was scared for my life.
They were carrying this stranger too. Almost scared me to Garr when he arrived. We have no idea how he got in, and no one seemed to know him… A portion of them even had the audacity to change time and wore it like a badge of honour! Excuse me, but we are in this mess because of you!
They complained the entire time they were there about having to do these trials, claiming they were “kidnapped” and they “had no choice”. Rubbish! This is the first time most of them had free will. But, as soon as there was a reward (except for my blessings) about a Mark of Chance, their faces lit right up…
So the first trial had them talking to the Alchemist to create a potion. A portion of them left me when they saw some women off over the hill, leaving me with some who thought they were smart enough to solve this. They weren’t. They failed, even after I warned them that the ingredients they chose were wrong. They thought that the answer to the mind of a slow beast was a sloth! Sloths don’t even have brains! It was clearly the Zombie brain… Around this time was also when I discovered their mental state clearly boarded insanity. I offered them some rewards, to which they graciously accepted, only to then be angry and ask me never to give them one again. Talk about looking at a gift sloth in the mouth…
Meanwhile, while the others tried to figure out the potion, I decided to make sure that the group that split off to the women caused no trouble. They did. The men barged into the hut of the hags, displaying their rude nature. Fortunately, the lady that accompanied them defused the situation and started charm them. The men caught on quickly that they weren’t important and left with their tails in between their legs. It was around about now, with their ego hurt, the guys decided to attack me. They claim it was because I hindered them, but I’m pretty sure it was because they were sad that ladies didn’t like them. It was also around this time that they became even more sporadic with wanting and not wanting the rewards, further showing their decent into madness. After attacking me, they seemed as if they understood why I was there. They simultaneously kept me at arms-length and palled around with me.
So we marched off to the next trail. The Trail of Strength. Seeing as most of these people were clad in armour and their testosterone was through the roof, it was about time they let off some steam (and not beat me up again). It was around about now when I rolled a fate die with them, which they proceeded to pick up and take. I don’t mind, they don’t like me so it made sense they would try to steal from me. But then, they walked away only to return to me smiling. In hush tones and with glee like they were the greatest masterminds in the realm, they handed me my die back? I don’t understand these people… During this transaction, they managed to beat up the demons that were locked in cages. Didn’t pay much attention, never been a fan of this challenge. Put at least it moved everyone along.
Now for my favourite companion; the screaming tree! Keeps me entertained on days with poor attitudes from groups. We talk into the night while the chosen lot attempt to figure something out. She was particularly loud today, which got their attention. But, one by one, they all decided to get poisoned. Some putting their hands in multiple times?! We might need to change the poison we are dousing them with, it might be addictive. Of course, once they got bit they came running to me for help. I told them that it was their trials, and I wouldn’t intervene (I did with one person since they offered me an apple, but that’s not the point. I don’t take bribes). They out witted me though and ask for the ability to heal using their own power. I rolled the dice, Sardonyx did not look favourably on them. They were bestowed with the power to actually accelerate the poison, not quell it. They thought they could cure it, for reasons I don’t understand, I am pretty sure I told them it wouldn’t work? Maybe I forgot. Anyway, they “helped” their “friends”, but since we were summoned by the Traveling Man they couldn’t help all of them.
Well its gone dark outside and its gone dark in the Traveling Man’s heart. He gets a little low at night time, he feels the full grasps of Fate at this time. He’s busy planning a war, overlooking what little freewill is around, even maintaining this realm. But the last thing he needed was a hostile group of adventurers who weren’t happy they were there. All he wanted to do was check in on them, see if they were okay and half the room exploded at him. I feel for him, even tried to speak up against them (But he told me to shut up). After a heated confrontation of threats and belittling, which I thought would come to blows, we were finally ushered to leave the hall and go to the last trial: the trial of stealth!
Now, being their great guide, I followed their map to the Stealth trial. The Fae were acting up again outside and stealing everyone’s stuff, but I took little notice of it. The trial itself was pretty straight forward it seemed. It looked like they had to sneak into some place and get some stuff while hiding from other things. I’ll be honest, I also didn’t pay much attention to that either. I periodically showed my face to the people actually trying the trial, just so they knew I hadn’t left them alone. There was one person amongst them who kept playing the game of chance. He was a good man, I hope he’s not in too much pain right now.
Horary! They did it! And the Traveling Man is over the moon too (If we had a moon in here)! I’ve not seen him jump on his tables before, he must have been ecstatic! They could return to their home (and even their time) and we could have our champions! But, the guardians are acting up again, they’ve been in the void too long. The Traveling Man opened the portal, but the guardians stood in a line in front of it. The last trial; get to the portal. Some made it, others didn’t, and we even picked up two friends to stay for a while. I don’t know what happened to those who got touched, maybe they still even have the mark. Those who did make it through however did get the mark and I will be seeing them again on the battle field of Fate. Or somewhere, I don’t know if the Traveling Man even knows himself…
