[Fiction] Ringwalker

Possibly inspired by a certain arcanaloth with fantastic writing skills, I've decided to try my hand at a bit of Planescape fiction. I consider this to be the introduction, hopefully it will become more interesting as the Ringwalker's travels proceed.

Ringwalker

I’ve finally left Sigil. I would have been out sooner, but the Tempest of Doors trapped me within. I hadn’t believed Factol Rhys when she insisted she needed to skip town, apparently she was right. One of the woman’s more aggravating qualities: she’s always right. Like Rhys, however, I depart the Cage out of necessity. Not fleeing the Lady’s judgment, thank the Powers. I follow the Cadence towards a different end. It draws me out, and I hope that the portal times still line up right for the journey. I’ve been feeling this urge for over a month and been unable to act on it – first helping Rhys and then the Tempest. I write this because I realise how dangerous my journey may be, and I hope that should I die my discoveries (such as they may be at such a point of termination) will be found by another some day. All I can say at this time is that there is something fundamentally wrong about the multiverse. I know not more, just that there is a wrongness, an error, that itches at the back of my mind, in a place even deeper than where I hear the Cadence. I know this is an unhelpful introduction, but I pray that if it comes to someone reading this journal that I will have discovered more by the time I am unable to write any further. I’m on the steps of Boccob’s library right now. The guardians won’t let me in, but that is no matter. The wisdom I seek is surely not inscribed in any tome. This is simply near where the portal brought me, and as far as I can tell is where my journey must begin. I did not expect to start in the Outlands, what I know is that I must walk the Great Road. Surely a gate town would have been a more logical starting point, but I trust the Cadence not to lead me astray. Perhaps I am only setting up my journey to eventually fulfil the Unity of Rings. That would be a fitting pattern to such a journey. In fact, I shall adopt that as my mantle. From this day forth, I shall call myself ‘Janus Aran’ no longer. The people will call me the Ringwalker.

Oric fidgeted nervously at the doorway. ‘C’mon already! The pikin’ death is on our tail!’ he shouted to the tiefling inside.

‘One moment longer, will ya?’ she replied irritatedly. ‘I’m almost done in here.’ She slipped a small journal into her coat pocket; she’d been a sucker for books ever since she was young.

‘We are out of bloody time!’ Oric shouted, and Sarial could hear him draw his sword. ‘This had better be the best sodding job we’ve done, or it’s your arse who’s gonna get it, hear me?’

Sarial was a smart young thief, and not one to lose an opportunity. Whispering a few words she disappeared, eliciting a curse from her companion. ‘Sarial! Sarial, don’t you bloody abandon me here! The guild’s gonna hear about this!’

Sarial slipped out a back window, letting the bulkier tiefling’s shouts disappear behind her, and soon engulfed in the sound of battle. In actuality, there wasn’t much worth stealing in the joint; she’d gotten more jink out of gambling at the Oarsmen. The book, though, that looked promising. It carried the look of a journal or diary, like a cutter would take with him out to the ring. It was bound in black leather, with ‘Ringwalker’ written on the front in silver. She pulled it out of her pocket and opened it up; the first page merely carried a simple paragraph introducing the man. He sounded like one of the bloody Ciphers from the way he wrote, but it also didn’t look like it was about the ex-faction’s philosophy. Sarial’s eyes grew slightly wider as she finished the introduction. The man had to be barmy. She hadn’t heard of anyone who walked the Great Road alone, and the chant she had on people who did it in groups was a bit dodgy. Settling herself down at the edge of the Ditch, she hoped it wouldn’t be a brief read – the book would be a lot more interesting if he didn’t get himself gakked early on.