Shalana Merchant's page

About Shalana Merchant

I grew up as a shopkeeper’s daughter. I spent my days helping to outfit the adventurers that came through. I felt comfortable in my role in the defense of Kenabres and the world. I was doing my part, making sure the incoming adventurers had the best supplies.
One day while walking around the marketplace and looking for ways to make our shop better, I was kidnapped by a group of cultists. They wanted to create a conduit in Kenabres to get demons out of the World Scar and into the rest of the world.
The cultists took me back to their compound and started their ritual to turn me into the conduit. I was scared and frantically looked for a way out. As the ritual continued I felt increasingly panicked and feared losing my mind as foreign ideas and thoughts invaded my consciousness. In an effort to maintain my grip on reality and my own thoughts I turned to my memories.
I started replaying conversations I had had with the adventurers visiting our shop. I remembered their tales of bravery, recalling their plans for victory. I realized that in all the stories, the victors were always brave and acted no matter the odds for survival. I knew I would have to fight if I were going to survive.
I struggled against my bonds. I cursed my captors. I railed against the foreign invaders in my mind. I started noticing the details, started using those against the cultists. I saw the knots in the ropes holding me were tied wrong, so I took advantage. I noticed the raggedness of the robes they were wearing and realized these cultists were not high-level. This weakness could be exploited. The invading thoughts that were not my own did not look at my own thoughts, so I actively took the information they were giving me. I saw the source of my own power, the source the cultists were trying to corrupt for their use.
As I struggled and fought, I followed the invading thoughts down to the source of my soul. I listened in on their plans and knew I could counter them. I decided the best time to act would be just before the corrupting presence touched my essence.
As the tendrils of black intent reached towards the core of me, I lashed out. I fought with everything I had. It wasn’t enough! I couldn’t hold them back! In desperation, I reached into my own soul, my own essence, with the intent to drain it away before the demons could take control and turn me into their salvation.
As I reached my core, I knew I could never drain it away, never let it just disappear. I knew how to keep control and discovered how to use my own power to blow away the invading presence. No part of this battle was visible to the cultists, and after pushing the invader out of my own mind, I concentrated on loosening the ropes holding me. The cultists were deep into their now useless ritual as I finally freed myself. I grabbed the closest weapon, a dagger left near the table I was laying on, and killed every cultist I could reach. Most were able to get away, and in the chaos I was able to escape.
I now had conscious control of my own soul and access to the power that granted me, and I knew that being a shopkeeper would be a betrayal to my own internal strength. I had to bring the fight to the demons who once tried to steal that power. And I had to show others how to take control of their own power.