Blueblood Household : The Darkest Dungeon

17th of March, 996 post somnum lunam.

A new dawn is upon our old family's mansion, and with it comes the ceremony to put my beloved father to rest. Many of the estate's common folks came to be present at the funeral, most of them being ponies of advanced age who had known father for at least a decade. They came to pay respect to the dutiful and righteous stallion my father always was, the one who could still proudly represent our family's name. As for the few ponies who were present, while they had never knew who this dead stallion was before his fall of grace, they had come to help me getting over this tragedy.

To be truthful, I am quite torn between gratitude and shame when it comes to their sweet words of encouragement and the condolences offered to me. As the eldest child I should have been at father's side during his most difficult, last moments. He should have not be left alone to rot in this luxurious yet isolated place, while his sanity was withering away and he was falling pray to depravity. Aunt Celestia had told me herself that duties must never come before family unless very dire circonstance. she had herself payed dearly for making this very mistake.

Yet here I am, facing rightful guilty clawing at my heart after doing the exact same misstep. How pitiful. Now, I can only move forward knowing that in due time, I will know the tragic extend of my failings. As I was reading the condolence letters sent by my family, I could already hear them berating me for being too hard on myself, that drowning myself in responsibilities and always taking th full blame when failing was unhealthy. Preposterous ! Trying to smooth down the edges and downplaying your mistakes is nothing short of pure folly, it is asking for any scratchs to turn into open wounds !

... I, for once, appreciate having my mind plagued with distractive thoughts. The secret archive of ancient documents hidden behind father's office, are allowing me to not lost myself to much in self loathing. As hunting the implications of the scrolls content are, they provide me a great deal of mystery and academic interest that I had not know since my days back at the old Canterlot royal university. Alas, I cannot devote more of my time to this topic. Before I knew it the ceremony had ended, my father was berried, I was now officially duke Blueblood and there was considerable work to be done.

After all ponies except the guards and the Caretaker of our family's estate have left, the two of us made our way back to the manor escorted by the captain of the guard, to strategies and plan our restoration and development projects. I asked first and foremost a report of our financial report and the state of the estate's infrastructures. To my plaisent surprise father did not diminished our fortune too much, giving us with the wealth I brought back with me from the capital a very generous treasury. It seems that we will have more freedom than anticipated.

For now, the main priorities brought to my attention were the state of the roads as well as a lack of guards and ressources to maintain security. The captain even informed me that he and his fellow guards have become wherry of an infamous groupe of griffon bandits and pillagers, forming in the outskirts of the estate particularly in the forest around the old road. This new information brought me a mixture of revulsion and great concern for the well being of my subjects. Fortunately it seems that no attacks of this group have been reported yet.

As for the road problem, the caretaker made it quickly clear that we lacking in terms of workers. In fact, if it wasn't for his arrival being this early they would not even have a blacksmith anymore. Those problems it seems, will not be taken care of before I can request ressources to the princess. I have asked the captain to determine if those griffon ruffians can be bribed to stay low and unhealthful with money until we receive help from the capital. As for the old road, it can wait for now. Until we can make progress in those regards, we must concentrate on our more primal needs.

Water seems to not be a problem thanks to the lake coming down the mountains, bringing fresh water directly at the foot of the hamlet. I will still like to see if an access to an underground source through a well could be possible. As for the food, while we posses a farm near with wheat, hay and a few cereals fields, it seems that the farmers are also in need of workers. We can only hope that cleaning the mess father left behind and the news of my new leadership will bring to us new faces and hooves to work with.

For now, those problematic are more than enough to muster our full attention for the past month. I send the Caretaker and Captain away to deal with there respective tasks. The former will bring a report of all logistic dilemmas for the hamlet and all the needs my subjects may direly need. Meanwhile, the Captain will bring together all of the guard to start organisation on a much greater scale, seeing if potential new recrutes can be taken in and trained, as well as getting new information about those bandits. For me, there is a few letters that must be written and send away.

As I sat in front of my new working desk who before me belonged to our family leaders for generations, I realized that there was something still parasitizing my thoughts. With a new found immediate objective and many other important problematic at hooves, I would be able to centralize all my attention on the futur of the estate. But the more time passed with my mind working 100 miles an hour, the more I realize how those accursed secret documents hidden behind with their ominous content was relentlessly bugging me !

Before coming here, I swear on my honor and name that I would never fall in the same folly and paranoïa that Father fell victim to... But the more I try to ignore the oppressing presence of those artefacts and scrolls hidden behind me, trying to suppress my relentless curiosity about the tales they wish to communicate... I am more and more persuaded that they are whispering to me. Celestia, give your pour nephew the strength to overcome all darkness...