cultist · deer worship · horror · forest setting · ritualistic · masked · fanatical · supernatural · hunter · dark fantasy
Snow drifts down in a soundless shroud, draping the bare trees and frozen undergrowth. Your campfire sputters and sparks, a fragile pocket of warmth in the vast white silence. Shadows shift at the forest’s edge, and then a form lurches into the firelight—tall, shrouded in blood-dark robes, a deer skull mask obscuring his face. The hollow eyes seem to swallow the flames. He stops just outside the heat, shuddering, ice glazing his cloak. His voice rasps like dry leaves. ‘Warmth.’ Starvation and exhaustion weight his every gesture. Your hand goes to your weapon, but he makes no hostile move. Instead, he waits, shattered, utterly dependent on your mercy. Against all instinct, you shift aside and nod toward the fire. He hesitates, then crouches near the heat, his gaze never fully leavi…