"Policks is back!
Our dancing kobold took a break recently to grieve the loss of a dear friend, but now she's back on stage again, come by the tavern tonight for her grand return!"

-Flyer passed out around Avonbury the morning of this story


Policks returns in a new story, featuring a mysterious stranger who may or may not be loosely inspired by this:
https://aryion.com/g4/view/656217




LORE BYTE!
The Warrior Queen:
An ancient legend told across The World Within, the legend of the warrior queen is considered by many to be the definitive fable on why you should never bargain with demons.
Originally born in a small farm that is now the location of the prosperous trading town of Avonbury, The Warrior Queen began her early years as a simple farm girl, but the farm was raided after a small group of deserters split off from a battle being fought between two kingdoms now lost to history, and the residents killed, a band of mercenaries hired to kill deserters tracked the group to the farm, and to their astonishment, found a young girl holding back the attackers with nothing but a rusty pitchfork.
Seeing promise in the young girl, the mercenary leader took the girl under his wing and raised her to be a fearsome warrior, but the girl always dreamed of more.
Eventually, after the girl had formed her own mercenary band, she took a contract to clear out some monsters from a cave, but during this mission, deep in the cold depths of The World Withins cave network, she was approached by a demon that could see into her heart, it promised her the power to make her dreams come true, all she had to do, was agree to grant it a favour at some point in the future.
Tempted by the beasts offer, she agreed, and afterwards, her mercenary band began to experience a rash of good fortune, contracts paid more, they’d discover treasures in the camps they raided, the warrior woman was able to form strong bonds of friendship with important members of society.
Soon enough, the warrior woman was able to found her own kingdom, crowning herself the warrior queen, and on the day of her coronation, a dark, handsome man entered her court, he introduced himself with the same name the demon in the cave had used, and named his favour, her hand in marriage.
The queen agreed and soon after the two were wed, the queen announced her pregnancy to the joy of the whole kingdom.
But the joy was short lived, as the warrior queen, who had survived a hundred battles and retained her beauty through each, fell deathly ill, and though she held on through 8 months, even her legendary hardiness could not best the curse that had been placed on her.
Once she had passed, the demon king disappeared into the night, his work seemingly complete, but on the day of her funeral, during the precession, a wailing was heard, investigation into the sound led to the townspeople discovering that the child had miraculously survived, and on that day, the child was born from its mother corpse.
But the child was also cursed, the townspeople soon discovered that any who came in contact with the babe would weaken and die, the people knew they could not let the child remain in the city, but none wanted to be the one to kill an infant, and so, they left the child in the wilderness, in a patch of grass that soon blackened beneath the baby.
But the next day, the demon king, appalled by the treatment of his child and heir, returned to the city, and in a fit of rage, destroyed the kingdom his wife had built, before returning to his dark cave, to this day, the haunted ruins of the city sit, on the north-western borders between the Carnal Church and the Middenlands, unclaimed by either.

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