Ghostbark Mask
Since you bought our lovely little bird we had here, I assume that you are a collector of things that come from the Yuggoth swamp.
(I don’t think they…)
So it’s only natural that you would like to look at other spooky things from that exciting place.
(The “literally everything tries to kill you” type of exciting)
And so I would like to show you a little gem of mine that we had found there among the strange lovely denizens of that land.
So this beautifully carved piece of glowing bark is one of the masks that was worn by some of the people there, I first thought that they were some kind of tree people, because their skin was of the same substance as the mask. But when one of them fell over and broke his neck as he was so anxious to welcome us in his swamp, the thing fell from his face and we could see that we were mistaken.
(Careful there Braxigor, if I hear the words “practical” or “demonstration” in the next sentence I’m shooting a crossbow bolt in your fuc…)
No need to get angry there Jenny, why would I do a practical demonstration…
*Crossbow Clang*
Now that was uncalled for, you know how much effort it is to file those horns.
(I warned you.)
As I was saying, I wouldn’t do a practical demonstration with Jenny here, because this mask is truly hard to remove, and judging by what the locals told us, it can have some severe mental side effects.
(A thought of reason from Mr. Ox here, unbelievable)
That’s why I am going to do this demonstration on myself.
*Facepalm*
(I should have seen that coming)
Now as you can see, my skin has turned into this very dense bark that is quite comfortable, warm and protective. Oh any by the way I can see ghosts of recently dead people. It looks however that it is malfunctioning a little bit now, because I’m quite certain that that fellow there died at least three months ago. And she is gone, probably some kind of quick after-image, nothing to worry about. The thing that caused this accident has been fixed for a while now.
(Was that the one with those magical magnifying lenses?)
Yes, they were more potent that I had thought, we had to add these light-blocking curtains into the shop since then.
(Don’t tell me, I had to sweep the ash for days)
But anyway, speaking with ghosts is quite neat, you can even draw some power from them, but I’ve heard that doing so is bad for business.
(Every demon will tell you that souls are addictive, why would one want to be addicted to souls when there are more fun substances.)
I think that is all about this mask, did I forget anything Jenny?
(Nope, nothing at all, no need to…)
How could I forget the best part?!
(And here he goes again.)
You need to hear the rest of the story!
So we were in the midst of the Yuggoth swamp and as I’ve already said, we encountered these folk that had worn these masks, and one of them got into our possession due to an unfortunate failure of the heart.
(Earlier you said he fell and broke his neck)
Well…he had the heart attack, causing him to fall and break his neck, a truly unfortunate set of accidents.
(Right…)
And I decided that I shall try this mask on as well, to see what it does. To my surprise I saw the ghost of the unfortunate man and I began to ask him what led him to greet us in such a ferocious manner.
He told me that he and his kin had been cursed by some creature deeper in the forest. A creature that collected souls of mortals and traded them with others, or simply stored them for further use. He said that this creature’s hexes were behind these masks and behind the corruption of parts of the swamp and its inhabitants.
I thanked the ghost and shaked his hand to show my appreciation for his final moments, but doing this caused him to disappear, that’s where I had realized that I shouldn’t probably interfere with the personal space of ghosts.
Jenny and I were intrigued with this soul collector and we had decided to pay them a visit. And in hindsight, it was a very profitable endeavour, because the mask isn’t the only thing we got from that journey.
Come with me please and I will continue on with the story.
