(Scars do not appear to be cause of death –shock ... - Bad Request

Hargrimm caught my gaze. "You are most perceptive. I do not trust the
ghouls either, or their matriarch, Acaste. They watch us with hungry eyes,
and would doubtless devour us all if our numbers and the word of the Silent
King were not a shield against them." It paused, as if thinking. "They are
forever ravenous; without us holding them in check, they would run
rampant in the Buried Village and the warrens of the cranium rats, killing all,
then return to devour all that is here. And Acaste... she is the matriarch of
the ghoul pack that has come to our halls. She is strong and extremely
cunning."
There had been a thought nagging me in the back of my mind, a long-buried
instinct ever since Hargrimm mentioned it. It was the predatory pair of eyes
in the dark that glanced over your shoulder, the hidden sin that you had
nearly forgotten and was flitting at the edge of your memory with fangs of
regret. It was the fear a lone stag had of hungry wolves at night.
But I had to ask, "What of the shadows?"
Hargrimm shook its head, "We know not. It may be that they wander
elsewhere. We rarely leave this place." It paused, as if unsure whether to go
on. "Once, many shadows dwelled among us, but they come to our halls no
more. They left long ago - and we know not where they went. Some say they
wander the planes."
A chill ran down my spine, "They wander the planes?"
Hargrimm ran a bony finger along its jaw in thought, "I asked about it once.
Mary says that she has seen their fate in visions. She claims they have all
been drawn to a wrecked fortress that drifts within the Negative Material
Plane, a graveyard of regrets from where they cannot escape."
A fortress... a prison crafted of sorrow and regrets. I blinked. "Mary... Stale
Mary?"
Hargrimm nodded. "Yes, Stale Mary, may the Silent King watch over her. She
was a seer in life, ages past, and still receives visions, at times."
"A fortress on the Negative Material Plane?"
"Yes." The skeleton priest shook its head. "Sheer foolishness."
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