“Assassinate,” I said, immediately killing the archer I was behind. As he started falling, I looked at the other archer who still had his bow pointed towards the road, however, he was looking at me, stunned that I had just killed his partner. Quickly dashing over to him, I slashed at him as I performed Garrote. Using that momentum, I spun around him, my Assassinate still on cool down. Instead, I used Eviscerate, and saw the green and red glows surrounding him. He would be dead soon since he was now both poisoned, bleeding, and silenced, unable to call out for help.
Leaving the archer to die, I dashed through the trees so that I could get behind the bandit’s leaders, activating Stealth as I ran. I could hear the leader give the command to attack the mercenaries who were now in view. Since I was not in range to cast Mark of Death on any of the bandits, I could do nothing but watch, and wait.
From my current position, I could not see the battle between the bandits and mercenaries, however, I could hear several screams and the sounds of metal meeting flesh. I was confident that the mercenaries could handle the bandits though. I counted the sounds of the bodies falling.
“1… 2… 3… 4… 5… 6… 7,” and then silence. I heard the captain of the mercenaries call out, “Surrender now, or fall with the rest of this filth,” obviously speaking to the bandit’s leader.
Laughter. I heard laughter, but it was not joyful. No, this was the laughter of blood-lust and insanity. “You fools. It is no matter, I will claim your souls for myself and get the piece of the orb.”
This didn’t sound good, not at all. Only one type of enemy would say that, a demon. I could only hope that it was a low level demon such as an imp. Swallowing my own fear, I stalked towards the leader who either was unaware of my presence or didn’t care. I hoped for the first option. I could see the road now, four of the original six mercenaries in front of the leader, in almost what looked like a half circle.
The bandit leader raised his arm in the air and black tendrils started forming and wrapping around his arm. Just before I could get into range, he made a cutting motion with his raised hand dropping his arm across his chest. The black tendrils rushing from his arm to the closest mercenary who screamed in pain. The others rushed towards the leader, their swords, axes, and maces drawn.
For my part, I now stood up from my semi-crouched posture behind the demon. Luckily, it seemed not to have noticed me, so it truly was a low level demon. As it cast the black tendrils, the mercenaries blocking the attacks, I whispered in it’s human ear, “Assassinate.”
However, this didn’t kill him as I hoped. Instead, he turned to me, the black tendrils seemed to have a life of their own as they still fought with the other mercenaries. “Bitch, I will have your soul for that!” he yelled, as thick, black ooze fell from his wound.
I lunged forward, performing Eviscerate and Garrote in rapid succession, the familiar glows surrounding him. He reached to his side and a black, curved blade with jagged edges appeared in his hand. Just as he attacked, one of the mercenaries got into range and attacked him. The demon just gave a furious yell as it attacked me, trying to get rid of the worst threat. As his blade came closer, faster than any attack from a normal monster that I came across so far, I instinctively performed a Riposte, parrying his blow and further damaging him. A notification flashed from the side of my vision.
Grinning, I yelled, “Taunt him!”
“Taunting Blow!” a voice replied. It was the mercenary captain. The demon spun around towards the captain, now enraged that the mercenary had taunted him. It raised it’s demonic sword to attack the captain.
“Assassinate,” I whispered. The blade fell to the ground, turning into a disgusting, dark yellow smoke as it hit, disappearing. The demon fell to it’s knees, and fell to its side, now dead. I looked up and saw that there were now only three mercenaries, one of which was the captain.
“Well played Captain, though I’m sorry about your team,” I said as I looked at him.
He winced, turned around, and started walking. As he walked away, almost under his breath, he said, “It’s a part of the job.”
I nodded, even though he couldn’t see me, as I watched them return to the caravan. Looking down, I examined the demon. Now that it was dead, the illusion that it was maintaining to look human dissipated, revealing that it was an imp, one of the lowest classes of demons there was. Narrowing my eyes, I got down on a knee and rummaged through it’s pockets. I pulled out a letter which read:
Sayth, the piece of the orb that you’re looking for is held by the one who calls himself Trader Bartley of House Karline. No matter the cost, I want you to get it and return it to me. The Orb of Destruction must be completed before we are able to enter this realm enmasse. Failure is not an option.
The letter did not say who it was from which worried me. From the wording, it seemed that a greater demon was behind this attack, and what exactly was the Orb of Destruction? Supposedly, Bartley had a piece of it though. I also removed a small, ebony bracelet that the demon was wearing and viewed it’s stats. The bracelet was named, “The Bracelet of Demonic Power,” and it gave +5 to both agility and wisdom, and also +10 to vitality. It had a bonus effect of enhancing all fire-based attacks by 5%.
While not a bad item, it was more designed for mages, however, I could always use the stats for now. I slid the bracelet on my right arm, immediately feeling the effects that it gave. Other than the letter and the bracelet, the imp also had 1 gold and 55 silver on him, which I was in dire need of. Standing up, I went to salvage what I could from the rest of the bandits, finding an additional 35 silver, but nothing else.
Reaching the caravan, I spoke briefly with the trader letting him know we could continue with our journey, and we continued our journey to Kinderfell while I was lost in my thoughts.
“Blood, so much blood. The air thick with a metallic smell. Not only was I a murderer, I was also a defiler of corpses, stealing them of their belongings. It was never like this before, it was always… less real, less… primal.”
I almost gagged as I remembered the battle against the bandits and the demonic imp. I had to steel myself against these emotions, against these thoughts, however hard. I made my decision to walk this path, to become an assassin. It was what I knew, it was what I was good at, however disturbing it might be.
“But did they need to die? Wasn’t there any other way? But they were just NPCs, right? They had to die for the quest, sure, but couldn’t I have just disabled them instead? It was just so easy…” I continued my thoughts.
“It doesn’t matter, this is my path, however hard it may be. I cannot afford to be weak, this is my new life.” I finally came to the conclusion, my resolve hardening the pits of my stomach.
“What is this orb that they were after? Is it an artifact? The name doesn’t give me any fluffy thoughts at all, I mean, the Orb of Destruction? Whoever, or whatever, controlled the imp said that they need the orb before they can come across the gates enmasse, so is it an artifact capable of opening a large gate instead of them needing to come across the plane one by one?”
“This is obviously apart of a campaign quest, the only question is what type of campaign quest. Obviously not the quest for the assassin class since I would have gotten it on Shadowblood, so that means it is either the Deity campaign quest or the Dark Elf campaign quest. If it is the former, then Noctis should have something to say about it soon. If it’s the latter, then I should get some information about it when we reach Kinderfell.”
“Whichever it is though, I’ll need to convince Bartley to hand over his piece. If it’s something he is trading, that will be easy. I’ll just need to negotiate with him so that I can purchase it. If it’s something else though…”
Getting my thoughts in order, I pondered the different ways I could get the piece from him.
“I really don’t want to assassinate him for the piece, which I’m sure I could do. If I did that, I would have more blood on my hands, innocent or not. Not too mention that if I did that, I wo
uld also have to engage the entire caravan, including the mercenaries. No, I don’t want to go that route.”
“Perhaps I could steal it? If I had any points in Pick Pocket, that would be an alternative. I suppose I could always just tell him what’s going on, perhaps he would just give it to me, since his life is on the line and all.” Smiling, I knew the what I needed to do.
The sun was starting to disappear behind the horizon, and soon, night would fall. It seemed that due to the ambush by the bandits, we lost quite a bit of time. I walked over to the wagon that Bartley was currently riding in and informed him that we should stop for the night, since it would be dangerous to keep going when it got darker out. He frowned, but he knew just as I did that I was right.
“You heard the little lady everyone,” he shouted. “Let’s pull this caravan over to the side of the road and let’s set up a camp for the evening. Captain, if you could, have your men set up shifts for the evening to keep watch. Pearson! Get your scrawny little ass up here and get a fire going.”
I was slightly in shock at the trader’s display of authority. Before, he seemed like he was just a meek little rabbit. Perhaps though, this was his element, since he must be making these types of runs often.
Shortly after we set up camp, a pot of stew cooking over the fire, one of the helpers in the caravan handed everyone a metal cup with a warm liquid that steamed, reminding me of those cups that people used in the old days. We were also all given a small pan, obviously for the stew that was currently being made.
While we waited, I sat down on a log next to the trader, who was sitting in a chair that could be broken down and stored. He looked over to me, the shadows of the fire flickering across his features. His regal clothing now wrinkled and dirty, he looked somewhat vulnerable out here in the wilderness. He didn’t look like he did at all when we were back in town.
“Raven, I just want to thank you for your help with those bandits. I heard the captain saying how tough of a battle it actually was, and that we all would have died if you weren’t here with us,” he said, his face fallen with grief, as he remembered the other mercenaries that he shared a table with. It was odd to see and my emotions threatened to rise up.
Suppressing my emotions before I spoke by closing my eyes and opening them again. “It was nothing Bartley, though, we do need to talk about the attack. I found this letter on the demon that we killed,” I said, handing him the letter. He looked down at it and started reading. After a few seconds, he handed the letter back to me, his hands shaking.
“There is something. It’s an artifact that has been in my family for generations. Supposedly, it’s why everyone in the House of Karline is such able traders. I’m sorry, but I cannot get rid of it.”
I looked at him and frowned. “That is just a fairy tale and you know it Bartley. Even if it wasn’t, is it truly worth your life? Let me ask you, what good of a trader would you be if you were dead? Do you have any children? You’re not wearing a ring, so I know you’re not married.”
He looked at me, his face solemn. “No, I’m not married yet, and no, I don’t have children. I was hoping to settle down after this run, once I get back to Rockfall. It’s in the human lands you know, need to take a ship to get there.”
His face grew haunted as he looked back into the fire. “But you’re right, you know. What good would it be having a lucky artifact if I was dead? Stay here, I’ll get it for you.”
I only nodded and faced the fire, patiently waiting for him. I heard him walk back to the wagons and dig through his belongings, fetching out the piece of the artifact that he had. Once he had what he wanted, he returned and sat back down.
“Like I said Raven, this has been in my family for generations. Take good care of it, okay” he said, as he handed me what looked like a curved, wooden carving. I turned it over and looked at it. It had a hole on one of the ends, clearly something else was supposed to be attached on it. However, what was most striking, was the engravings.
It was an alphabet of sorts and ancient. Even though I couldn’t read what they said, the carving hummed with power in my hands. The engravings themselves had a slight, infernal glow to them. Yes, this was definitely of demonic origin. Carefully, I opened my inventory and stashed it before closing the inventory window.
“It’s in good hands Bartley, thank you.” I said before going to my tent so that I could train before I went to sleep for the night, hoping that my dreams would not be of blood and death.
As I laid down in my tent, I brought up my stats, solemnly added the two points into agility and strength. The final point was added into dexterity. I also pulled up my ability list increasing Apply Poison to level 3 and Assassin’s Mark to level 5 before falling into a deep sleep, anxious to finally get to Kinderfell in the morning.
CHAPTER EIGHT
The City Of Kinderfell
After awakening the next morning, the trader informed me over the morning meal that we should reach the main road leading from the City of Kinderfell by the time that the sun reached overhead, which at that point, we could pick up the speed of the caravan and reach the city shortly thereafter. I only nodded at his information, still feeling subdued after yesterday’s events.
I packed my belongings and the tent that I borrowed within one of the wagons of the caravan, and went to my place in front. Even though I was still not feeling well, I maintained my vigilance and silently watched for anything that would prevent our arrival to the city. One of the guards attempted to make conversation, asking about my chosen profession, and asked if I was planning on joining the Guild of the Velg’larn. I only raised my eyebrow at that information, as I only knew of the guilds and not their specific names, or even the value of joining one.
In my time playing the game before this, I knew that there was one guild for each player class that was ran by NPCs, and each race had their own names for the guilds. Since I was not a Dark Elf previously, I never payed attention to the Dark Elf guilds, and with my current plans for my future, I probably should find out more information about them.
I asked the guard for more information about the Guild of the Velg’larn and what he thought of that particular guild. He then told me that he had a brother which joined the guild and trained as an assassin, and also informed me that I should speak with Youssef Tarrokh, who was the guild’s headmaster, if I wanted to join. I gave a slight nod, acknowledging that I would take his advice.
The journey after my conversation with the guard was fairly dull, and around mid-day, we arrived to a highway of sorts. This road was much larger than the path that we were on, and was definitely more traveled. We guided the caravan to the right, and since this road was more adequate for travel, we almost doubled our speed.
It was roughly two hours later when the city came into view. Even from this distance, I could tell just by looking at this city that it was extremely large, as I could see black, twisted towers that seemed to touch the clouds in the sky.
Four more hours of traveling, and we arrived at the massive gates, which now I could tell that they were made of something that was a cross between obsidian and stone. Atop the gate and walls were spikes that curved outwards about 15 meters high, and guard towers seemed to be placed evenly along the walls about 500 meters between. Dark elvish towns were usually circular, but from my viewpoint, it looked as if it was a straight line into the horizon.
The gate itself was open, with a number of other caravans, wagons, and people in line to get into the city. It took our caravan an hour just to make it to the checkpoint when a city guard came over. I eyed the guard warily, as I didn’t think I could even come close to scratching him, let alone protect the leader of this now ragtag group. I couldn’t hear what the guard and Bartley were discussing, so I just kept one eye on the others that were around us, looking for anything out of the ordinary. A few minutes later, the guard let us pass, and we entered the city.
Seeing the bustling crowd, to say this city was busy would be a massive understatement. There were
literally hundreds of people, both NPCs and players alike, all along the road, with outdoor merchants selling wares, and large, black buildings behind them. It looked like the buildings were made of the same obsidian stone that the walls were made from, with large gothic windows with designs that showed what type business occupied each building. Over their large doors, each had signs engraved in lacquered oak.
The caravan pulled next to a building which showed that it was a trade hall by the name of Duskryn's Mei'q, which if my Drowish language was accurate, would mean Duskryn’s Trade. Once the caravan was stopped, Bartley took a minute to eye the wagons, obviously counting them to ensure that none of them got lost “accidentally.” He then looked at me and gave me a wide grin, and opened his arms, thinking that I might actually hug him? I’m not entirely sure about that, but after I eyed him curiously, I did see his smile falter slightly as he put his arms down.
“Thank you Raven! You have kept your word, and even though we lost a few mercenaries and guards, we arrived safely to the grand city of Kinderfell. As I promised, you’re reward,” he said grandly, after which he bowed and a notification appeared in my view letting me know that I completed the caravan quest and adding the 10 gold into inventory.
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