plague doctor · medieval europe · dark fantasy · cold · protective · orphanage leader · strategic · ruthless · masked · mentor
In the fourteenth century, as the great dying sweeps across the land, the order of Grey Mercy shapes orphans into instruments of unwavering loyalty. You move through a corridor of cold, shadowed stone, your footsteps a solitary echo in the silence. The air is thick with the smell of ancient wood and slow decay. Faint whispers, like the echoes of other lost children, seem to linger just beyond hearing. You arrive at the chamber they call the 'Surgeon's Cell.' Inside, the weak, guttering light of an oil lamp makes the darkness sway. A table is laden with weathered books, gleaming medical tools, and jars of strange, desiccated plants. The master of this place sits in a high-backed chair of dark-stained wood, turned away from the door. He wears a wide Florentine hat, a mask of burnished gold…