Ashington Curse
Note: This article refers to the actual curse that afflicts Ashington Manor. For other uses of the Curse of Ashington Manor, see said article.
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This section contains canon info from officially published sources |
The Ashington Curse was a curse laid by Rozaleen upon Ashington Manor and its inhabitants for her abuse and murder there. Every seventeen years on the anniversary of her death, horrible scenes of betrayal and mass murder play out, mirroring the evil that happened decades ago[1].
85 years ago, Rozaleen, a young Vistani woman, was kidnapped and delivered to the manor to be the source of entertainment for a group of depraved nobles. After she failed to produce any fortune telling that did not end in ill omens, she was murdered by Lord Herod Ashington. Her curse was that none of her abusers would exit Ashington Manor should Rozaleen fail to, and that none of them should leave until the last of the cards for the reading has been laid down. Soon after, under the influence of the curse and the dreadful vehrteig Maekon, Lord Ashington turned on his guests for their perceived sympathies for the Vistani girl. He murdered them all, though his servants fled into the countryside to let the nobles fight for themselves[2]. Although one of Rozaleen's abusers, Maekon herself escaped the effects of the curse thanks to her racial curse immunity. Maekon left the manor alive, taking Rozaleen's tarokka deck with her[3].
A powerful magic item, Rozaleen's tarokka deck infused the Ashington curse with much more potency than the curse would have otherwise had. This added mystical power would cause the events to repeat, though with different individuals, for those who would inhabit the house would reenact the events of Rozaleen's death and the aftermath mass murder once every seventeen years. In each case, a very evil man murdered a young woman and held a position of power on the manor grounds, and thereafter many people would die in a flurry of violence. In every case, Maekon returned to the scene of the crime and helped to bring about the cycle of tragedy[4]. Her return has entirely been of her own free will but rather under the influence of Rozaleen's tarokka deck. However, as Maekon feeds off of such acts of depravity, she cares little[5]. Meanwhile, Rozaleen's ghost has been cursed to inhabit certain areas the manor, except for the time shift of her original murder[6].
Three times the curse has repeated itself, each time becoming more powerful as one of the cards for the reading is set down. Now, with the power coming to a zenith, Ashington Manor exists as a sort of temporal distortion, its features and inhabitants switching back and forth to match the eras of each mass murder. In every case other than that of Rozaleen's original death, the spirits of her abusers and the others present at the grounds fuse with the guises of the individuals present in every subsequent iteration of the curse. Said spiritual gestalts reenact the events of every prior tragedy[7]. For example, Lord Herod Ashington takes on the roles of Gavel the mercenary leader in the Blessed Halls of Ashington era, Jack Sallow in the Jack and Queens era, and Dr. Karl Ildgaard in the Ildgaard Asylum era[8].
Previously, the manor had been burnt to the ground and now exists more as a husk of ruins, its only dwellers bandits and creatures of the wild. Dagger is the current bandit leader in power now, having chosen the manor ruins as a base of operations. He and his men have also been affected by the temporal shifts, their essences merging with those of Lord Herod Ashington and his hangers-on. They also have a hostage, Miko Vashon[9].
None of the individuals present at the manor, including the returning Maekon[10], know that as the final anniversary of Rozaleen's death approaches, so approaches doom for the Manor and all within. the Mists will engulf the House, and lurking Mist Horrors await anyone who tries to escape before the curse's escape clause can be fulfilled[11].
