It happened in a moment, in the blink of an eye. The mask slid on like the embrace of familiar mistress. The comfortable, hollow, cold promises of my first love patiently waiting to reunite. Dwelling just below the surface to rise up.
Had the mask really slid back on? Or have I just been playing the fool all of this bloody damn time. Was it just another layer? Or was the face I presented each day just a sodding mask itself, hiding what dwelt further below? I had grown tired of the many masks but somewhere along the way I had mistaken a mask for my very own sodding skin. I had become what I pretended to be. Now it was clear, I tried, I cannot change. I will always be the same.
If that is true it means they are still here as well. I had tried to run and hide but it was futile. Of course it was bloody well futile, how in the nine do you run from yourself.
Aye, I can feel the madness now, lurking and waiting. Lying in wait just beyond perception to get to me, to have me slip and pull me into its grasp. Blast it...
Luke Darius - Clansman of House Darius, Noble of Baldur's Gate
I thought perhaps I could join the dance with a familiar mask, the one I used to dance with the Serpent. Yet I fear my wound bled too crimson, too quick. The wolf, the old Luskan dog, it smelled the blood and came rushing to the surface. Vicious, brutal, angry it raged to be released, to strike and devour like only it was trained to do. I spent years after leaving Luskan taming the dog, pushing it down.
Yet by this candlelight my mind is drawn to wonder, is the wolf truly the mask or is this face the mask and the wolf is truly what I am. That once again I've confused my skin for masks, that I've began to become what I've pretended to be.
I had always found a certain peace alongside the man in the Firewolf mask. I still remember the night I read from Frulop. "Be away. Beware their face. Now hidden, stalking free. Themselves will follow with their teeth and eaten dead you'll be." Blast! The madness it laid a trap in my mind and now I ...
My mind slips but never seems to fall or catch itself. Why does it insist on drawing my mind to the prophet? It is getting closer...
Luke Darius - Clansman of House Darius, Noble of Baldur's Gate
My thoughts often drift back to Connor. My father never took the time to teach me what it was to be a man. He was always far too busy seeking the bottom of bottles and chasing skirts. My role models when I was but a child were the lads in my neighborhood before we moved out into the country. If they were Luskan wolves then Connor was the alpha. He had made time to talk to me, took an interest in me. His lessons were jewels given to a child, teachings about loyalty and respect. He taught how to survive in Luskan and the necessity of violence and aggression. Gave me my first bow, showed me how to drink.
I learned early that ye cannot live like that for long without consequence. I remember the day he died. I do not think my heart has ever grown so cold. They killed him over what I do not even remember. It didn’t matter; it was eye for an eye. Someone had to die.
We gathered once darkness fell on the cold Luskan street. I remember clearly the cool fall air, the smell of wood smoke in the air. Wraith masks in hand. There were three in the house, the one upstairs was the mark. I slipped up a tree and into a nearby window. Another behind me. I heard them coming in downstairs, loudly. The bed began to stir and we rushed across and landed on top of him before had chance to rise. My daggers descended down heavily into the sleeping form. I felt the lads land behind me, daggers biting. He moved a bit like an angry cow under us but we were many, we were wraith. I stared into his eyes through the wraith mask. I saw terror and then only lifelessness. I felt nothing.
I had come to wear the wraith when the dance with the Serpent was coming to an end. I gripped her in my arms while my dagger sunk in. I felt her squirm and my memories flashed back to that first day I wore it. But my grip was not the same and the Serpent slithered away.
Luke Darius - Clansman of House Darius, Noble of Baldur's Gate
“We all wear masks concealing who we truly are. The mask we wear disguises much more than the face underneath it, but it hides who we truly are inside and protects our soul from being tainted and torn in shreds by the harsh judgement of others. It turns us into the greatest of actors, dancing gracefully with others with their own masks, presenting the face they wish you to see. This is the masquerade Luke, you must always remember this.”
-Halaema
Halaema’s greatest lesson and somehow along the way I thought it no longer applied. Or I had forgotten. I am not really sure how it got to this. Why I had let it. Learning to see the beautiful stranger mask was perhaps the most important moment of my life. A stranger because you truly do not know what lays beneath it, how many others there are. It changed how I viewed everything from others to myself and the interactions between them. It is the first mask one often sees and the recognition that there's more. Of course I was lost when I had somehow forgotten my traditions, those that had helped me figure out who I was in the first place.
Luke Darius - Clansman of House Darius, Noble of Baldur's Gate
I sit here in the dark, a candle barely burning, surrounded by these six walls closing in. I can’t sleep, paranoid; I know I haven’t lived right. But I am not going out like this. Someone is after my life. I am not sure which it is this time. I’ve seen him, watching me, following me. He’s got a hat just like me, clothes too. He’s mocking me, provoking me to chase him.
I need to sleep but blast it I cannot. It lurks just beyond perception. Why does it call out to me, wearing masks as I do in my mind. I see it when I close my eyes, beckoning me like the sweet embrace of a lover. Yet there is nothing beautiful, there is only madness. It wants to consume me. It’s not safe, it’s never safe. What just touched my shoulder...
Luke Darius - Clansman of House Darius, Noble of Baldur's Gate
I couldn’t sleep again. Everytime I close my eyes it lurks. Finally I managed to drift off. Then it happened, I never thought I’d live the masquerade in my own mind. But here I was. I had been alone at first, swallowed by darkness while I chased after a distant light. As I grew closer I saw him, the man in the firewolf mask, the unwilling prophet. The man who’s fear I shared. He was pointing at me. His hand directed to the sky. Fear crept into his expression as his hand slowly descended to point at me again, pointing past me. I spun on my heels to come face to face with the Lurker, waiting just behind me in the darkness. Absolute terror and fear engulfed me like I was sinking into the depths as I stared at it in full clarity for perhaps the first time. I came face to face with my madness and it terrified me. Then I awoke.
Luke Darius - Clansman of House Darius, Noble of Baldur's Gate
“Luke! Luke! It’s time to wake up! It is time to rise up my dear and come to the dance. You must find your masks and join in the Masquerade! It is time Luke, it’s time to wake, time to live! You must stop daydreaming, you cannot sleep anymore! Find your masks Luke, you must live! Find your feet now, find your way to dance! You must wake up sweet daydreamer; we cannot afford to sleep any longer! Find your masks so you know where you’ve been! Only then can appreciate the moment and know where to head!”
She danced around me in a swirl of colors and patterns, her form moving with majesty and grace. The sound of her words the sweetest of melodies as she sang me out of my slumber. She smiled ever so brightly behind her mask. The mysteriousness only added to her beauty. Her words were cryptic, always cryptic. I had been asleep but that was not the sleep she referred to. It was a battle cry for freedom, to wake up and fight.
Luke Darius - Clansman of House Darius, Noble of Baldur's Gate
I've felt the wolf more often these past days, so much closer to the surface than before, the viciousness a haunting memory.
The last time I remember clearly, by the time I caught up to them the Masquerade was in full swing. There was blood everywhere and over-sized frame of a man bent at odd angles to fit into a crate. The blood, the gore and the sheer carnage only awoke the Wolf. This was too close to home. This would not due. Others may have shielded away from the carnage but not the wolf, this was the environment it was bred and raised.
The fool was not taking the gravity of the situation seriously, so he needed to be confronted by it. Literally. So I pulled that disfigured corpse out of the crate, dragged it across the room and showed him exactly what the problem was.
Later on the one responsible was found and captured. I slipped in and pounced atop my prey. Teeth bit into flesh as blood began to pool. A reminder that answers were mine and I would have what was mine. That this was the end of it. I was a problem he did not want.
Luke Darius - Clansman of House Darius, Noble of Baldur's Gate
I was in the middle of speaking surrounded by several factions when suddenly Teris, the Firewolf, the Unwilling Prophet, was made manifest suddenly before me, running around wildly in the room. I thought perhaps I was hallucinating as I blinked, gripping onto the back of the chair. It was then I saw the Lurker there, waiting for me behind my eye lids. It took everything I had in that moment to just hold on. Others acknowledged Teris, I wasn't hallucinating.
When the meeting was over I rushed out to find solitude. I went up the Chionthar to sit by myself, chasing the wyvern to the bottom of the bottle. In hindsight, this was a mistake. It came on like the winter's storm into port, raining heavily in my mind. It pounded and pounded relentlessly until inevitably the levee broke. It all came racing back to my mind, all the text reciting again and again as my mind slipped.
I remember looking up to the moon and to my horror it was swallowed by the sky then the sky swallowed by the shadows, hiding their glow. I became terrified that it was coming to swallow me up next. I cringed in horror, all my muscles contracted. The bottle went flying, I think I threw it. A fitting fate for a wyvern, I remember musing, as I ran off into the night fleeing as fast as my legs would take me, dodging through trees.
I remember screaming as I ran, though I don't remember what. The voices dancing in my ears a melody filled with fear. I hit a branch and spun through the air into a bush. I was swinging then, the wolf coming on in my defense. Snapping and growling, I swung at least three times before I hit the ground again, another branch. I spotted the distant light from Wyrms Crossing, I was close now. It would chase off the shadows. I ran as hard as I could.
I made it to the farmlands, breathing heavily, looking over my shoulder. I changed the wolf pelt for the bear, it was cleaner. I quickly headed to the gates of the Eastern District. I remember feeling my blood pumping through me at a furious rate, trying to get control of myself, trying to finally get control of my mind. It was then I saw the vigil and slipped once more, a spiraling descent.
Luke Darius - Clansman of House Darius, Noble of Baldur's Gate
What mask do I wear? Which mask personifies the mix of anger and rage at you for knowingly leaving then sending babysitters in your wake? Which mask do I wear to hide this pain? Not even the masks of strangers, parading as another help. Only in the wolf will I be able to move forward. I feel it rising anyway, smelling the blood. It stalked close, responding to the betrayal quickly. Perhaps it knew, anticipated it. What choice do I have, the Masquerade continues, everyone looks to me to dance.
I can hear her voice in moments like this: It is time Luke, it’s time to wake, time to live!
Luke Darius - Clansman of House Darius, Noble of Baldur's Gate
How easily those masks rose. I didn't realize how close to the surface they were. Then again, I didn't realize other things had awoken within either. It wasn't a mask I had felt in awhile.
We had just moved out to the farm, been a few tenday. I was laughing, playing with Dahlia, she had me by the hand and we ran into the hearth room. We were greeted by a spray of fresh blood as my mother split a man's skull wide open with a frying pan. "Lucas, grab his foot with your sister... Lucas!"
I remember watching as he tumbled down the stairs thinking, "At least he won't feel it." We were down there for what seems like two nights. Pa came home some time around dawn, he had bought a bunch of hogs. I loved pigs, not as much as cows, but pigs were fun to have, fun to eat. Fun to feed.
Almost as fun as sharks.
Luke Darius - Clansman of House Darius, Noble of Baldur's Gate
