Flicker
Summary
The Redwood has more than it's share of strange occurrences. You would think that in a forest where the trees have been known to uproot themselves and attack loggers a figure moving quietly the woods would not be worth a story. But what if I tell you that this figure could be both there and not there. That they could walk through a wall like it wasn't there. And that they would kill anyone foolish enough to approach. Would that be worth a story? Of course it would, and tonight you are in luck for I am going to tell you the tale of Flicker.
The tale of Flicker begins in the early spring of 190 as the leaves were starting to make their appearance on the branches of the trees in Redwood. Things had been fairly peaceful in the forest for several years and while those entering Redwoof had to be wary of beasts and the occasional bandit there was no reason to expect anything more dangerous. That is until a group of hunters failed to return home. At first their families just laughed off their absence, assuming the hunters were either struggling to find game or were just avoiding work. But when a few days turned into a week, people began to suspect trouble.
The people living near Redwood are an independent lot so rather than ask the local garrison for aid they organised a search party themselves. In all likelihood the same people would have been hired by the garrison to lead soldiers through the forest, so why waste anyone's time they reasoned. A group of ten was carefully chosen for the search, with everyone chosen having skill in hunting or fighting. Several were former soldiers with experience in hunting bandits, though at the time none of them really believed there was that much a threat.
The search party set out at first light on a brisk Marday morning and made their way to a trail the lost hunters were known to be heading for. As they travelled through the trees, the group were alert for any sign of danger, but everything about the forest seemed normal, with a slight breeze blowing through the trees and the sounds of birds and other animals easy to make out. On reaching the start of the trail the searchers found ample signs that that the hunters had been this way so they picked up their pace.
After moving along the trail for about twenty minutes the search party noticed the sounds of he forest had changed. Now they could hear the sound of scavengers, and there was a faint smell in the air which told the experienced hunters that something had been killed nearby. Or rather someone. The searchers were making no effort to conceal their presence and the scavengers had fled by the time they reached the first corpse. Despite having been pulled apart by the scavengers, the equipment lying scattered around was distinctive enough to identify one of the lost hunters.
It was now clear to the searchers that the worst had happened. If this was down to an animal attack then the rest of the hunters would have dealt with it and returned to deal with their friends corpse. Despite a desire to rush to the other hunters' aid, this group were experienced enough to know that rushing in blind would not help anyone so they took a few minutes to check for any signs of what had killed the hunter. Unfortunately the scavengers had been busy and the body provided few clues, but a quick search of the area turned up a broken stone blade which had recently dried blood on it. No one from any of the nearby settlements would carry such an inferior blade so it was starting to look like an outsider might be responsible. There was no time to give the fallen hunter a proper send off, so the search party gathered up any equipment that could be returned to the family and set off to locate the rest of the hunters.
It wasn't long before they located the second victim. Another one of the hunters lying in a bush. A strong smell of alcohol was coming from a broken jug and it seemed this had kept away some of the predators as the corpse was mostly intact. The one wound on the body was a long cut across the throat. Strangely for having such a wound, it appeared that the dead hunter had had the time to draw an axe to defend himself. Two sets of tracks led away from the body in the direction of an old hut frequently used by the hunters. One set of prints looked like they were from someone running, of perhaps fleeing, while the other set seemed to be from someone moving at a more deliberate pace. Tiring of the patient and careful approach two of the search party, Cambet and Wallin, went running off in the direction of the hut with the others calling after them to wait. a scream warned the other eight that something had happened and the quickly followed. Within moments they had caught up and found Cambet was already dead, with a knife plunged into his back. Wallin was just standing there babbling about how a figure had walked out of a tree, catching them by surprise and stabbing Cambet before running off.
Three members of the search party were left with the mostly incoherent Wallin while the rest set off in pursuit of the killer. The tracks that had been left wiere easy to follow with seemingly no attempt being made to disguise the figure's passage. The group of trackers were therefore quite surprised when the tracks simply vanished. A brief hunt around the area revealed no further tracks so the group returned to join those with Wallin. The nine remaining members of the search party were more than a little disturbed by what had happened, and with night closing in they continued on to the hut, reasoning that it would be more defensible than camping outside. When they reached the hut they found that the door was barred from in the inside. After knocking failed to produce a response one of the group spent a bit of time using his knife to undo the latch on one of the shutters. The smallest of the searchers, Garid, climbed into the room in order to unbar the door, but as he made it inside he let out a yell of fear and surprise. The others rushed over to see if he was OK and saw the corpse in one corner of the hut which had surprised Garid.
After the door was unbarred and the other shutters opened, Garid and the others confirmed that this was the last of the hunters they were looking for. A long blade was lying next to corpse's hand and the body itself was positioned as if it had fallen while watching the door. A single wound was found on the body, what looked like a thrust up through the stomach. At this poitn the members of the search point were starting to get nervous. There'd been only a brief sighting of the attacker and it seemed that not even a locked door could stop them. Half the group, including Wallin, were in favour of making a break for it, leaving the forest as soon as possible. The others were convinced that trying to run through the night would end in disaster as they didn't know how many foes were waiting. Unable to agree the search party split in two, with Wallin leading 4 of the others back towards the forest edge, and Garid leading ihe rest in preparing to hunker down in the hut.
Wallin and his gropu had a long and terrifying night as they made their way through the forest. This wasn't the first time they any of them had been here when it was dark, but somehow every slight sound was amplified and the sound of a twig snapping was enough to send every hand reaching for a weapon. Unwilling to risk a light the group found themselves stumbling over rocks and roots, and every branch they pushed passed seemed like it was trying to grab them. Despite all this the sun was not yet up by the time they reached the forest's edge. In their rush they hadn't emerged quite where they had intended to, being somewhat further away from their villages than they wished. Though exhausted both metally and physically the group made their way to the nearest settlement, the village of Agarone.
Wallin and the others were in no mood to wait on the usual courtesies and woke the entire village as they clamoured for the loan of a horse or for a messenger to be sent to the local garrison. Eventually a horse was borrowed from a merchant's guard and Wallin rode the poor beast t oexhaustion in his rush to fetch aid. In many other places the appearance of a half-crazed man with a wild tale at the gates of a garrison would have seen him sent away or arrested, but the company stationed here had been warned of what could happen in the Redwwod so Wallin was given a fair hearing. Despite being nearly incoherent with both tiredness and worry, Wallin managed to comunicate the fact that there was a killer loose in Redwood an that there were still those in danger and the company captain, Riry Bluebottle, immediately made arrangements for the Redwood Spears to move out in force.
It was mid morning when the Spears set out for the forest. Though Wallin had been offered a bed he refused to rest and insisted on accompanying the spears. Word was sent to Agarone, and the rest of Wallin's companions travelled down to meet up with the spears also insisting on coming along. The trek through the forest to the hut took far too long in the opinion of the former search party, but Riry refused to move with too much haste lest her company rush headlong into an ambush. It was therefore late afternoon when the company reached the hut and discovered that the worst had happened. The bodies of Garid and his friends were found in and around the hut. It was clear that there had been a fight, with arrows lying around, and the broken pieces of a shutter hanging off it's hinges with an axe embedded in it. Riry ordered a perimeter set up while the bodies were inspected. it seemed like Garid and the others had managed more of a fight then the previous victims as there were several wounds on each of them. However, there were no signs that any of the attackers had fallen, and with no blood on any of the arrows it seemed like even the skilled archers in the search party had been unable to hit their targets.
Riry's scourts found only one set of tracks leading away deeper into the forest, but like with previous tracks these simply stopped after a time. With nothing else that could be done at the hut, Riry ordered her soldiers to collect the bodies, inlcuding those of he first hunting party, and led the company back home. The surviving members of the search party were escorted back to their villages, in some cases foreably as they refused to leave without finding the killers. Word was sent around the area that the deeper parts of the wood were to be avoided and for a time nothing else happened.
It was a few months later when the next incident occured. Wallin and his companions had been going into the woods on a regular basis in the hope of avenging their friends but had had no success, and many people had been trying to persuade them to give up their fruitless search. This changed when several guards galloped into Agarone calling for aid after being attacked. These guards had been escorting one of the merchants who made a circuit of the villages near Redwood when a human had appeared suddenly on their employer's wagon. This bearded man, with scraggly brown hair and crazy blue eyes hadn't been seen approaching. One moment he wasn't there, the next he was behind their employer and pulling a knife across their employer's throat. The guards claimed to have responded by charging the attacker but that he had just stood there as their blades passed through him. According to the guards it was like they could briefly see through him as he flickered in and out of existence. At first some thought the guards were making this up to cover their own murder, but Wallin who had been resupplying in Agerone at the time offered to inspect the site to confirm their story.
Everything Wallin found indicated that the guards were telling the truth and he became convinced that this attacker was the same as the one that had killed his friends. With evidence of a fresh attack Walling persuaded Riry to launch another expedition into the forest in hopes of locating the killer. The need for this expedition was reinforced a few days later when a report came in of another merchant who had killed while journeying between villages. Although Wallin was keen for lots of small parties to be sent to scour the woods, Riry decided that her company would move as one large group. The unnatural abilities described by the survivors of the merchant attacks convinced her that sending out small groups was a recipe for disaster. Having grown frustrated with Riry's caution Wallin decided to take his friends on their own rather than joining the soldiers. It was a decision he would not live to regret. A few days into their expedition into the forest the Redwood Spears found the bodies of Wallin and his companions. Two of them had been shot with arrows, while the others had fallen to what looked like knife wounds.
Riry's second expedition into the woods proved no more fruitful than the first one, and ended up being cut short when word came that there had been a further attack. This time in Agerone. The spears rushed to the village and learned that the mayor had been murdered in his own home. Like with the incident at the hut, it seemed that mayor's home had been locked from the inside and, that his wife had heard nothing until she had gone to investigate a large crash from her husband's workroom. Running to the room she had seen a beared human in tattered leather armour standing over her husbands body and holding a bloody knife. He had seemed to flicker in the candelight and then had stepped up to and through the closed window of the room.
This latest incident convinced Riry that stopping Flicker (as her soldiers were starting to call him) was beyond her capabilities so she sent word to Filishar for aid. The aid that was sent was in an unexpected form. Rather than soldiers, or mages or even a team from Explorer company, it was a single elderly man who gave his name simply as Sabin. Sabin claimed to be an investigator who specialised in countering the powers of the fey, and rather than trying to hunt down the killer he spent considerable time questioning all of the witnesses. While he was taking his time with this, Riry was frantically stationing her guards across the local villages as the leader of a second one had been killed in similar circumstances. The people living near Redwood were getting restless and with Sabin providing little help Riry was forced to send word to Bellcross begging for help before the incidents caused a revolt.
The help that arrived a few weeks later was of a much more tangible form. A squad of the Bellcross Badgers accompanied the adventurer Cal Threson and the royal mage Rachel Fairchild to Redwood. After checking in with Riry and getting a report for Sabin, the Badgers were assigned to help guard the village leaders while Cal and Rachel ventured into the woods. A week or so later, they emerged claiming to have dealt with the problem. There had certainly been no attacks during that week and as a week turned into a month and then several months it seemed like the problem of Flicker had been settled.
But that might not be the end of the story. Several years after the incident in Redwood there was another murder, this time in Filishar. A wealthy merchant was killed by a single intruder who seemed able to pass through walls, and flicker out of existence when attacked. A few months after that the same sort of thing happened in Bellcross, and then Trem. Did Cal and Rachel fail? Did they simply drive Flicker out of Redwood rather than dealing with him? Is anyone safe from this magical assassin who can bypass barriers and ignore guards. I'll leave it fo you to decide, but make sure you lock up well tonight. If you think it will help.
Historical Basis
Flicker did exist and he could do much of what was said about him. Before becoming Flicker this figure was mostly known as Roke, and was once a member of Frostburn company. Roke was lost in Redwood when he foolishly stepped into a glowing portal. This transported him to the feywild and while the remaining members of Frostburn struck a deal to try to get him back it was many years before Roke was able to see his native Caresnas again.
While in the feywild Roke was captured by the worst sort of fey creatures. They tortured him for years before he was rescued by the being that had struck a deal with the rest of Frostburn. Roke was returned to Caresnas but the torture had damaged his mind and the strange energies of the feywild had affected his body.
Believing that he was still in the wilds and that this was yet another form of torture by his captors Roke took to hunting anyone who looked important or vulnerable in the hope that one of them was one of his captors. He took his ability to avoid blows and pass through objects to be proof that this was some grand illusion.
Roke was eventually brought in by Cal Threson and Rachel Fairchild. Publically all that was said was that Flicker had been stopped but behind the scenes Roke was treated and put to back work as an agent for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Date of Setting
190th year since the years of darkness (fourth age)
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"He walked right into a tree!"The story of Flicker has been retold many times in the decades since it was first recorded. It has grown over time and the character is now used in various horror stories that have little relation to the original tale. Flicker is usually cast as an unstoppable assassin out to right some past wrong. Sometime he is described as a spirit, other times he is a creature summoned by the elves. If there is a murder that seems supernatural or unsolvable it is almost guaranteed that rumours will circulate that it was down to Flicker.
"So he wasn't looking at where he was going?"
"No. He walked into a tree and then walked back out again."
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