The Windy Road: Player Characters: Bearskin: History

Bearskin's Tale

Once upon a time there was a man -- a boy, really -- who loved to kill things.

Times begin what they were in those dark days, this boy became a soldier, and killed other soldiers. He rose through the military, until the wars ended and peace settled over Christendom. There was no further need of the soldier, and he was discharged from the army. Homeless, jobless, and penniless, the soldier became a brigand, accosting travelers for their money and then killing them if they didn't have any... or sometimes killing them even after they gave him money. Sometimes they tried to fight back, which the soldier liked, because it reminded him of the good old days when he was in an army fighting a war.

One day this soldier met the devil walking down the road, and the soldier (as was his habit) threatened the devil and demanded his purse.

"Son," the devil said, "I like you. I like the way you handle yourself. You"re doing good work here. I want to reward you."

When the soldier realized the devil wasn't going to fight him or give him money, he grew fearful. But then the devil reassured him, and he offered a deal.

The devil agreed to lend the soldier a magical bearskin coat. So long as the soldier wore that coat, he would be invulnerable. The pockets of the coat would always be full of gold.

The soldier agreed to wear the coat for seven years. He could not remove the coat without breaking the deal. He could not sleep in the same bed more than once while wearing the coat. He also promised not to bathe, not to tell anyone his name, and not to pray for the duration of the seven-year period.

At the end of the seven-year period, the devil would find the soldier and take the coat back, then wash and shave the soldier. After that, there would be no obligation on either side.

The soldier eagerly agreed to the bargain, for he rarely bathed or prayed anyway, he didn't give his name to the people he robbed, and the prospect of limitless wealth was too much to resist.

So the devil lent the soldier his coat and the soldier wore it and at first his life was unchanged. He continued to rob travelers of their purses, killing the ones who resisted and sometimes ones who didn't. The only difference was that he couldn't stay in one place any more, so he became a traveling highwayman instead of a stationary bandit.

After just a year of this, however, things began to grate on the soldier. Since he was indestructible, there was no challenge, no thrill to robbing. It was like playing a video game in god mode. And since he had inexhaustible wealth already, there was no point to the robbing. So he renounced his outlaw ways and took to traveling all across Christendom, up and down the roads of the world.

He soon ran into a problem, however. As he never took off his bearskin coat, and never bathed, he stunk horribly. Mud crusted his boots and trousers and coat, and his uncombed hair and ragged beard were wild and hairy. Whenever he tried to stay in an inn, the other guests complained so loudly and long that the innkeeper was forced to charge him exorbitant fees for a room. With every passing month he became wilder and hairier and fouler. Prices rose higher and higher, until he had to rent out the entire inn at double normal prices to get a room. And finally, when he was so foul he resembled an animal more than a man, he was refused service altogether, despite his infinite wealth.

"Bearskin! Bearskin!" children would chant as he went by, and throw rocks and fruit at him.

As he could reveal his name to no one, the soldier adopted Bearskin as an epithet, and, unable to purchase the fine things his money might buy, became little more than a homeless bum once again wandering all across Christendom.

Several years passed. Bearskin grew gruff and his voice hoarse, for he rarely spoke. He became so filthy he resembled a bear, and slept in fields and under bridges.

VERSION A

Then one day, four years into his seven-year bargain, as Bearskin was passing through a small town, he overheard a dispute between a traveling merchant and an innkeeper. The merchant had been robbed, and could not pay the innkeeper what he owed, but swore that he would return and make good on his debts as soon as he'd visited his him. The innkeeper, however, was having none of it, and demanded the merchant work off his bill.

Bearskin, whose pockets dripped with money, was struck by the merchant's plight. Suddenly aware of the many dozens of traveling merchants he had robbed and killed, he stepped forward and offered to pay the man's bill.

At first the innkeeper and merchant were repulsed by Bearskin's gruff ways and foul appearance, but after Bearskin produced several handfuls of gold (impressing them both), they agreed to let him settle the bill.

"I am in your debt," said the merchant to Bearskin. "I offer you therefore the most valuable thing that is mine to give, the hand of one of my three beautiful daughters in marriage."

Bearskin at first refused the merchant's offer, but the man insisted, and so agreed to accompany the merchant back to his home and at least meet his daughters.

VERSION B

Then one day, four years into his seven-year bargain, as Bearskin was passing through a dark forest at night, he overheard trouble on the road ahead of him. Creeping forward quietly, he soon came within sight of a trio of roughneck brigands in the process of robbing a poor traveling merchant. They jeered and laughed at the merchant, who quivered like jelly.

Pity for the merchant, so like the hundreds of men Bearskin himself had terrorized or slaughtered, overtook him. Charging the brigands, he renewed his violent ways and tore them limb from limb, fighting like a mad thing. They screamed and tried to fight back, but there was no contest, for Bearskin was a master of killing.

The merchant was grateful, for though his clothing was torn and his goods were in tatters, he was still alive. He thanked his benefactor, whom he could not see in the darkness of the woods, and swore to repay him with the most valuable thing that was his to give, the hand of one of his beautiful daughters in marriage.

Bearskin was very lonely, and so accepted the merchant's offer. When he stepped into the light, his appearance so repulsed the merchant that the merchant considered retracting his offer, but realized that to break an oath to one so filthy (and who had saved his life besides) would be unchristian. And so the merchant swallowed his pride and took Bearskin back to his home, there to meet his daughters.

Bearskin and the merchant traveled together for only a few hours before reaching the merchant's home. The merchant introduced Bearskin to his three daughters, and told them of the oath he had sworn.

"Which of you will marry Bearskin?" the merchant asked.

"I will not marry him," said the eldest daughter, and turned up her nose. "He looks terrible and smells worse."

"I will not marry him," said the middle daughter, and shook her head. "He is hairy, vile, and uncouth."

"Woe is me," said the merchant, and beat his breast. "For I swore to God and the heavens that I would marry one of my daughters to Bearskin. Youngest daughter, will you not fulfill my oath and marry him?"

The youngest daughter looked at her father, and at Bearskin, and sighed. "I will marry him," she agreed. "Because you swore your oath, father, and because he saved your life and I love you. Perhaps I can learn to love him."

The merchant clapped his hands. "You will be wed tomorrow, then."

"That cannot be," said Bearskin. "For I am oathsworn not to pray, and cannot set foot inside a church. I must travel for three more years before my obligation is completed."

"That is a terrible oath," said the youngest daughter. "Why do all the men in my life swear such intemperate oaths?"

"Do not worry," said Bearskin. "In three years my bargain will be completed, and I will return for you. Wait for me."

Upon hearing these words, the two elder daughters laughed at their younger sister's misfortune, until the merchant shook his head at them to stop. "I will wait for you," the youngest daughter agreed, "because I love my father. But tell me your name, so that I will know you when you come."

"I cannot tell you my name," Bearskin said. "The oath, again."

"Darn it."

"Here," said Bearskin, and took from his pocket a gold coin. He bent it in his powerful hands until it snapped in two. "Take one half of this coin, and I will carry the other half, and by this sign you will know me."

"Very well," said the youngest daughter, somewhat testily. "Is there anything else you need me to do?"

"There is one thing," Bearskin said. "I cannot pray for myself, so you must pray for both of us."

"Very well," the youngest daughter said. "I will pray for you every day, until you return, Bearskin."

And so Bearskin left the merchant's house, and for three years he traveled up and down the roads of Christendom. For three years the youngest daughter held the broken coin Bearskin had given her, and prayed for them both every night. For three years her two sisters mocked her and laughed at her misfortune, calling her Mrs. Bearskin and beastlover and skank and worse.

And then the seven years were up, and as Bearskin was walking on the road, he met the devil once more. True to his word, the devil took Bearskin to a fine bathhouse, and washed him, and then to a barber who shaved him, and a tailor who provided him with a fine set of clothes. The devil even allowed Bearskin to keep the bearskin coat, with its inexhaustible pockets full of gold, and thanked him for carrying out his end of the bargain politely, before leaving on his way.

And so the soldier, who no longer needed to go by the name Bearskin, rode in a carriage and in style back to the merchant's house, where he met the merchant's three daughters. They did not recognize him, and the two elder sisters were quite put out when the soldier without preamble demanded the youngest daughter's hand in marriage.

"Milord," the merchant told him, "were she mine to give, you could wed her this very evening. But she is promised to another, and I swore an oath before the Lord in his heaven, one I cannot break."

And the youngest daughter showed the broken coin, which she kept on a chain around her neck. At the sight of it, her two older sisters broke out yet again into raucous insults and mockery... only to fall silent when the soldier pulled from his pocket the half-coin's mate.

"I was Bearskin," the soldier explained, "and now I am free from my oath. I am free to wed you, and pamper you in tremendous luxury, thanks to my bottomless pockets full of gold."

The youngest daughter squealed in joy, and she and the soldier were wed that very evening. The elder daughters howled in agony at the dramatic irony of it all, and that night together committed suicide by jumping down a well.

On that, their wedding night, there came a knock on the door of the soldier and his bride's fine new home. The soldier answered the door, and on his stoop stood the devil.

"I just wanted to thank you again for holding up your end of the bargain," the devil said. "You see, you won one of the daughters, and I won two."