Elmo Springfield (Pestilence)

Weight: 145

Apparent Age: 60

Archetype: Physical Adept: Circle Unknown

Preferred Weapon: Katana

Runner Song:

Bio: Well when one uncovers a secret order of men called simply the Keepers, their is bound to be a few that would be best if they were forgotten and unknown. This is the case with Pestilence, this man has been a thing of nightmares for many decades and spoken only as a ghost story to frighten young recruits during field training. He is as well only whispered about throughout the Native American Nations as ghost of a forgotten age, after surfing through the records I have uncovered about the fabled Library, I came across some documents that simply read Pestilence. I was curious and after reading the documents, I wish I had never allowed my eyes and mind to absorb the information. There is some things that once learned can never be unlearned and this is one of those cases. As a youngster I was told the legend of Pestilence by my Father and Grandfather as they would try to scare me around Halloween. Though as I got older I would just discredit the tales as the stories of two old men that where simply out of touch and where yanking my chain. Though as a child, those tales would terrify me and I would sleep with the light on or in my parents room to attempt to stave of the nightmares that would haunt my young mind. Though as I got older and entered my adult life, the tales of Pestilence no longer affected me and I would eventually grow to accept the stories as just that stories. Well when I saw those documents fall onto my desk, the paperwork old and yellowed, with the handwritten scrawl across the front with only one word “Pestilence”. My heart sank, my stomach quivered and I got a not in my throat. I was taken back to my childhood and the stories my elders would recall and suddenly my mind raised as I thumbed through the old documents.

         With every page I skimmed I felt myself being dragged even further back to those days as a child, and suddenly I really wished that I could crawl into my parents bed for protection from the nightmares that would once again haunt me. Then when I saw the pictures on the last page confirming that Pestilence was real, his overall appearance wasn’t what scared me and almost caused me to urinate at my desk. It was his eyes, those cold, dark and soulless orbs staring right back at me. Chills ran down my spine, I was frozen in fear as if something had just walked across my grave. I felt as if my very soul had been pierced and I couldn’t move as the terror coursed through my body as I could hear the sound of hooves galloping across the fields and smell the rancid sent of brimstone of the dreaded steed of Pestilence rode through my thoughts and for just a moment I could feel the warm breath of this soulless killer on the back of my neck. I couldn’t move, my body rebelled against me as I could fell the urine running down my leg and the raspy voice of Pestilence in my tortured ears. I still remember the words he spoke “Nothing much grows here anymore,  the birds do not sing, the plants will not grow, only death, only death will flourish here.” With that I let out a cry like a wounded child and ran out of the room and out of my home.

          It has been a few days since that night, and I have only recently been able to return to my office. I have been plagued by nightmares and haven’t been able to sleep during the night unless all the lights are on. Oh how I wish my wife was not away on a business trip, but I have a job to do and now that I have been plagued by the memories of Pestilence, I feel that it is my civic duty to warn others that this myth is a reality and to tell the tale of the soulless horseman to those that might never have heard of Pestilence. If any of my readers are to sensitive to the morbid tales, and would like to avoid the tormenting nightmares and sleepless nights please read no further otherwise consider yourself warned and read on.

         Well as the legend goes this man rides a ashen horse with burning coals for eyes and whatever life this steeds hooves touch begins to wither and die. Pestilence himself is clocked in darkness and wielding a barbed and twisted blade that glows a with a sickly green light, he speaks no words and moves through the darkness as if it’s his bride. This man truly owns the darkness and whatever he or his steed touch have the life drained from them and become ghastly and ill within an instant. The earth itself rejects this man, and wither’s and dies in his wake, Pestilence just moves through the camp stealing the life and spreading the sickness with his touch or if they are lucky he removes their heads allowing their bodies to be consumed by the many carrion that follow in his wake. It doesn’t take Pestilence long to remove all the life, and spread his plagues to those unlucky enough to survive. Almost as if the unlucky ones become the chosen ones to regale the tale of this killer, those who suffered under his blade are left as only a severed head that he scopes up and places carefully in a satchel draped over the saddle. He then leaves as casually as he arrived, leaving a macabre scene behind. This is only the early onset of his work, and the first scene is always a warning of things to come. For Pestilence doesn’t arrive often, but he will always appear once the summer has faded into fall and the landscape begins to die. He will make three appearances before vanishing once again till the next autumn, though with each one of his rides many suffer under his wake and many more will die from the illness that he spreads to those he chooses to be his victims. He might only arrive three times but his presence can be felt for many years as his plagues spread like wildfire through the rural camps that are ill equipped to handle the rare diseases he spreads and the countless carrion he unleashes into an infected region.

         Each time he returns it’s to a new camp and he will once again remove the life as he wades into the frightened soldiers that are frozen in fear and unable to even defend themselves as he strikes them down with his blade or he waves his other hand causing the soldiers to break out in boils and vesturing wounds become infected instantly. As if his presence was’t frightful enough, the survivors are left to feel the ground tremble as hordes of rats swarm the camp and begin consuming the dead leaving only gnawed bone as a grim reminder of what had just occurred. He again collects the heads of the dead and rides off into the night leaving only charred and dead earth in his wake from the fire that burns from his steeds hooves.

        He will return only one more time that year and with the final strike he, will choose a village or small town connected to the base he was striking and this is the most gruesome of all his prior strikes. For this is a civilian location and these are the families of his prior victims and those that where able to escape unscathed but will soon become his next victim. During the final strike he rides down the main street with his horde of rats and other vermin behind him, all with deep green glowing eyes and ravenously hunger. any resistance is quickly beheaded and Pestilence unleashes the carrion and vermin into the village to spread his disease and consume the flesh of the dead. Not one soul is spared and as the moon burns red in the sky, Pestilence begins to collect the souls of those that are lucky enough to perish quickly, others though will suffer a slow and painful death as they spread the disease to those that will come to aid these helpless victims and so the cycle continues till the next season. Pestilence strikes quickly and is gone just as fast leaving death and despair in his wake, he turns a once thriving region into a cesspool of disease and decay where only death will flourish.

       His strikes are seemingly random and their is no pattern that can be followed, one year he will strike in Ohio and the next he targets Mexico and so on. So protecting against Pestilence is nigh imposable and once the strike begin, their is no time to protect the victims from his campaign of terror and death. Many souls will be lost, and the only thing the UCAS and other governments can hope to do is avoid direct contact with his victims and leave them in the woodlands and wastelands to die a slow and painful death hoping they have zero contact with anyone else. Though when Pestilence strikes the civilians the targeted government forces are left no choice but to attempt to aid the fallen and cure the sick. This unfortunately is all part of his plan and they allow themselves to become victims to Pestilence and keep the vicious cycle going long throughout the year as many more perish from the exposer to his plague. Though if the government did nothing the citizens of the nation would cry out, and attempt to aid these victims themselves and create an even worse scenario with far more casualties. According to survivors of Pestilence, his vermin seem to consume everything they can and then vanish as if they where never their, though the region will be infested with rodents and other vermin that come in after Pestilence and his rats leave.

     This my readers is the condensed version and I have left allot out and left it for your imagination and your own mind to fill in the blanks here. I am still to frighted to regale you with the entire version. This is the legend of Pestilence, and these regions can be verified and there are plenty of medical documents to prove that his is not just a wives tale or ghost story. The infected regions have since been burned and the earth salted leaving the dead where they lie and the UCAS and NAN have recently authorised the use of napalm on any camp that becomes a victim of Pestilence. They will no longer take the risk of a epidemic, by offering aid. All survivors will be burned alive and the ground salted, they would rather deal with the negative press then the risk of infecting further citizens. Though what I fear is that this will only force Pestilence to adapt his approach and once again force the UCAS and NAN’s hand. This man is pure evil and he will not rest, Pestilence has been active for many a generation and he hasn’t been able to be stopped, he just adapts to the new technology and advances in medical science, this man is what nightmares are made off and the government is basically saying yes he exists, but no we are going to do nothing about him. my readers if you have family in the military warn them about Pestilence and whatever you do, do not accept the free housing from the military. This could just be your demise, if Pestilence chooses your military village to be his next target. Your own government will not help you and they will actually murder you to spare the masses, and bury this legend even deeper into the ground. Remember this, Pestilence is always on the prowl and you might become his next of many victims, those words he spoke to me on that faithful night still haunt my dreams and I suspect that he is the one who gave me the information that has since traumatized me, so I can tell you about him as a subtle warning of things to come. Please heed my warning for it might just save your life one day, don’t allow your loved ones to volunteer for the military for Pestilence lurks near and is stalking our boys in uniform.

Page Written By: Shadow Writer

<<words whispered in my mind by Pestilence>>