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    Assassination Contract: Warren Hawk

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    Emory Aldwyn

    Knight VIP Status- Regular VIP Status- VIP- Player 
    Lineage : Amos' Conciliator
    Position : None
    Faction : The Rune Knights
    Posts : 134
    Guild : Guildless
    Cosmic Coins : 25
    Dungeon Tokens : 0

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    Assassination Contract: Warren Hawk Empty Assassination Contract: Warren Hawk

    Post by Emory Aldwyn 30th April 2019, 1:58 am

    A gale wind tore through the western pass, bringing with it the frigid airs from high above. The mountain peaks were still covered in snow, even as spring had long since come to full bloom on the valleys and plains below the mountain. As the wind moved through the pass, owls sang their songs in the nighttime skies while small creatures danced between shadows, looking to avoid a terrible fate in their constant struggle. One such creature, a rather tiny long-eared leporid, stopped in its frantic scampering and cocked its head to one side in rapt, almost terrified attention.

    There was a lull in the music before a twig snapped underfoot. As the man crested the hill, the rabbit had fled back to its burrow; for the man's coming brought with it an even greater chill. Frost began to form at a most unnatural rate, covering the trees and boulders with a layer of ice. Rather than brilliantly reflect the star's light, the sheen from the ice seemed almost to absorb and consume the ice, causing everything it coated to take on a dull, almost flat appearance. Each footstep left behind a trail of ever-expanding ice, and the man seemed neither to notice nor care at the growing silence.

    Far above him, nearer the snow-covered peaks of the mountains, a veritable fortress loomed. Its thick walls jutted out from the rocky cliffside as if daring the world to try and take back this minuscule piece of land. Thick buttresses rose up along the wall's exterior, adding strength to the walls and furthering the formidable appearance of the fortress. Several towers rose from the interior, each stabbing into the air like a defiant fist against the gods. Windows dotted every tower and each one held the flickering light of fire and uttered the faintest songs of men, giving the faintest impression of life amidst a pallid landscape.

    Inside of the largest building within the fortress walls, a citadel in its own right, dozens of men were gathered within a great banquet hall. Fires roared and servants hurried to and fro, each ladened with enough food and drinks to feed whole families for days on end. Each of kept their eyes cast downward in a desperate attempt to avoid drawing attention. On occasion, one of them would be pulled into the lap of scoundrel while others roared in laughter. Similar displays occurred throughout the hall, but none were quite as depraved as those which occurred at the head table amidst vile cheers and desperate cries for help.

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    WC: 425 / 3,500


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    Emory Aldwyn

    Knight VIP Status- Regular VIP Status- VIP- Player 
    Lineage : Amos' Conciliator
    Position : None
    Faction : The Rune Knights
    Posts : 134
    Guild : Guildless
    Cosmic Coins : 25
    Dungeon Tokens : 0

    Character Sheet
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    Assassination Contract: Warren Hawk Empty Re: Assassination Contract: Warren Hawk

    Post by Emory Aldwyn 30th April 2019, 2:10 pm

    'Faal Anhiim do Unslaad Felniir..... Sahlag.' The voice within his mind spoke with such disdain that Ehoron briefly felt his own emotions turn towards disgust as he looked up at the looming fortress. After a moment passed, he reached a hand up to his head and pressed his palm against his temple; a futile gesture that did nothing to erase the lingering words in his mind. The first time he had heard that voice speak, he had nearly destroyed a town he was walking through. It had come from nowhere, yet there could be no mistaking its origin; every time it spoke, it was as if his every bone rattled within him.  Ehoron could not say for certain whether it was truly a part of him or some foreign entity that dwelled within him.

    All he knew for certain by now was that when the voice spoke, death followed.

    Sometimes the destruction could be postponed until he was beyond the reach of innocent lives, other times it began to erupt and lash out the moment it spoke. Ehoron felt somewhat fortunate that this time there were none within sight when those swirls of dark magic began to run down his arms. There was a low rushing noise as the already cold air became utterly frigid, driving away the last traces of warmth from the area. Any creatures unlucky enough to have left themselves exposed found themselves fatally encased in ice, none having even the chance to flee or retreat into their lairs.

    Mil dinok wah den sahlag jorre. Krii niin pah! Nust kroved daar rahnaar!'

    "Uughhh.... Get out of my head..." Ehoron grimaced in near-silent agitation as the voice screamed, mania and bloodlust dripping with every word. After a moment he simply sighed in resignation. "Not that you ever listen to me. Don't worry. They'll all get what's coming to them. But one man comes first. We kill him, then the others can follow." The wizard curled one hand into a fist, shaking off the last vestiges of his magicks outburst, and began to march forward as clouds began to rapidly form overhead and a new wind began to blow in from the east.

    --------

    Within Fortress Stone Soul, the wild party continued on unabated. While the dozens of men continued their debauchery, those few souls that had failed to perform on the latest raid or whom had earned the ire of their leader were left to patrol the battlements. Stone Soul's activities had led to the group taking on a rather infamous reputation; the local villages had long stopped cheering their arrival as monsters or foreign soldiers marched on their livelihoods. Even if they drove off bandits and creatures that would eagerly devour every last villager, the townspeople had learned that Stone Soul was little better. As 'payment' for their services they often took all the food and money they wanted, on good days. On bad ones, they took people for their amusement and to fill out their ranks. It was no wonder the mercenary group had become so reviled.

    On one of the western battlements stretched between two towers, one of the poor souls pressed into service stood shivering. His armor was ill-fitting, and none of the clothes given to him did much at all to keep out the stinging bite of the cold mountain air; all the warm clothes had long since been claimed by others, leaving men like him with the rags no one else wanted or had long since used up. Letting the spear rest against the stone parapet, the man desperately rubbed his upper arms in a vain attempt to generate a little bit of heat. He dared not ask for a torch or fire as he saw the last man do just that get run through by a foul-tempered mercenary and thrown over the wall.

    As he stood there doing what little he could to try and stave off a cold death, the man noticed something peculiar. Out west, where the rocky ledges and peaks opened up into the pass, a snowstorm seemed to be brewing. What made it odd to him was that rather than begin on high and let the snow fall as was natural, the snowstorm seemed to have been brewing lower on the mountain's side and was rushing up towards the mercenary's fortress. Even as he considered it, the blizzard rushed towards them with a frightening pace; more akin to an avalanche racing upwards than a proper snowstorm. The man never even considered raising an alarm. Instead, he grabbed his poorly made spear and rushed into one of the towers, one hand clinging to the thin cloak given to him. The heavy wooden door shut behind him with a thud just as the blizzard reached the fortress and turned everything outside white.

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    WC: 800
    TWC: 1,225 / 3,500


    _____________________________________________________________________________________

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    Emory Aldwyn

    Knight VIP Status- Regular VIP Status- VIP- Player 
    Lineage : Amos' Conciliator
    Position : None
    Faction : The Rune Knights
    Posts : 134
    Guild : Guildless
    Cosmic Coins : 25
    Dungeon Tokens : 0

    Character Sheet
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    Assassination Contract: Warren Hawk Empty Re: Assassination Contract: Warren Hawk

    Post by Emory Aldwyn 1st May 2019, 2:17 am

    The halls of the fortress were practically abandoned now with snowdrifts gathering in corners of the corridors and in rooms absent any significant source of heat. As the wind continued to howl, the drunken revelry rapidly disbanded and those who could returned to their rooms to sleep for the night. Many of those who had been forcibly conscripted or outright kidnapped were left to fend for themselves, often left to huddle together in broom closets and other confines to keep warm. A few of the more conscientious souls left within the mercenary group took a few wayward souls into their rooms to share warmth. Others who did has less-than-pure intentions, but for many, it was still preferable to the icy hell that had come over the fortress.

    No one who dwelled within the fortress' walls could bear to be outside of the fragile warmth of the rooms for even a moment, and thus none were around to see the outline of a figure leap over the western wall and land on the battlements without a sound. Between the near whiteout and the howling roar of the winds, few could have spotted him even had they stood outside and stared in his direction; exactly as he wanted it.

    Ehoron stood and straightened the collar of his coat before he began to glance every which way he could see, inspecting the place where the target of his contract lurked.

    'Zokroved... Frolok ahst vir nust rignivah daar rahnaar.' Even as the storm raged, fueled by the seemingly boundless fury of the voice within his head, Ehoron could not help but be caught off-guard by the sentiment. Looking around the fortress, he could see after a fashion how the Stone Soul had ruined the place. Tattered banners hung at seemingly random places while discarded bones and broken tools were left to gather wherever feet might kick them off to. The stonework had clearly been neglected as great cracks could be seen running through the larger structures, and there was barely a stone block in any of the ways that did not have some manner of chipped surface.

    "Didn't think you cared that much about stonecutting," Ehoron said aloud as he began to walk around the fortress. He wasn't worried about someone hearing him over the wind, quiet as his voice was in comparison. It also eased the pressure in his skull, not having two inner voices talking over one another. A part of him was gravely concerned about his apparently fractured sanity, taken aback at how the voice seemingly grew stronger at the same pace that his magic did. Months passed and there was no distinctive voice to be heard whenever that darkness manifested within him, only feelings. Now...

    'Daar staad los nizriid! Revak! Raald wah Ozorith.'

    Ehoron froze mid-step as that name echoed in his mind. A chill ran down his spine that had nothing at all to do with the fell winds that whipped around him. It was a name that meant nothing to him at all, came from no pit of knowledge he had, and all the same, it evoked a powerful feeling of terror; as if uttering that name was enough to bring ruin upon his head. Whoever belonged to that name.... whatever it meant, Ehoron wanted nothing to do with it. "Enough babbling... We have a person to kill."

    'Vir skemaal... Hin hesk los voriid. Viim zu'u, mal rahkriid, fos nii seikaht wah hi. Skem zu'u.' A contemptuous laugh rang in his ears, but Ehoron did his best to focus on other matters. He was not impeded by the snow or the winds, and so he ran through the fortress, doing his best to ascertain the location of his target. Although the wind made any sound he made trivial, it also meant he could not track his target by scent. He'd have to do his search the old fashioned way. So he explored the fortress, careful to avoid opening any doors that held warmth or the sounds of life within them. Occasionally he would press one ear to the door and listen. Often he was greeted with the sound of talking or the occasional snore from within.

    As he journeyed throughout the abandoned, frigid halls, Ehoron abruptly skidded to a stop and backtracked several steps. On the wall was what had at one point in time been some manner of portrait, carved intricately from marble and set within the mountain's natural stone. Time, erosion, and ill-keeping at chipped most of it away, but it still clearly depicted a rather large figure bequeathing something to a much smaller figure. Where the two sets of hands came close to one another there was an empty socket, as if something had once been inlaid within it.

    It was many long minutes of staring at it before Ehoron realized that the voice in his head was laughing, cackling even. 'Ok Vostahdim Kenaar! Nust los volg! Ok Vostahdim Kenaar lost kosaan volg!' It fell into continued bouts of near insane laughter, an act that caused Ehoron's stomach to roil and pitch about like he was about to be sick. The raging blizzard abruptly stilled as the laughing faded away into the furthest corners of his mind. Snow began to gently float down towards the earth where only moments earlier it had flurried with a fury.

    A creaky hinge was all the warning Ehoron had before a man cautiously stepped out into the dimly lit corridor. He carried with him a torch and peered about as if unsure as to the reality of this respite from the sudden storm. The passing clouds obscuring the waning moon and the still fresh snowdrifts were the only testament to the vicious storm that had blown in. Turning to return back to the warmth of his room, the man never saw Ehoron step out from behind a pillar and rush deeper into the fortress, now pressed for time with his cover gone. If he wanted to kill Warren Hawk without a witness, it had to be done soon.

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    WC: 1,000
    TWC: 2,225 / 3,500


    _____________________________________________________________________________________

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    Emory Aldwyn

    Knight VIP Status- Regular VIP Status- VIP- Player 
    Lineage : Amos' Conciliator
    Position : None
    Faction : The Rune Knights
    Posts : 134
    Guild : Guildless
    Cosmic Coins : 25
    Dungeon Tokens : 0

    Character Sheet
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    Assassination Contract: Warren Hawk Empty Re: Assassination Contract: Warren Hawk

    Post by Emory Aldwyn 10th May 2019, 2:01 pm

    With the dispersal of the blizzard, signs of life returned to the ancient fortress. Torches were passed around, relighting braziers and standing torches. Men and woman came crawling out of shelters and closets, each looking to resume their meals or head off to find a proper bed. None seem particularly concerned with the weather and its sudden, abrupt shifts; after all, such blizzards were common on the mountain peaks. This wasn't the first, though perhaps the shortest. Others would come, it wasn't enough to give any serious concern over. And so it was that the guard never cared enough to resume their posts, the sentries preferring to warm fingers by fires and finish off half-cold meals.

    Ehoron hid behind one of the wide stone pillars that prevented the rocky mountain roof from collapsing as the fortress-temple was carved into its side. The increasing levels of light were going to become a problem, and even without a proper patrol there were still dozens of people within the walls that could spot him and ring the alarm. There was a growing part of him that considered discarding the notion of silently killing Warren and simply unleash his fury upon every soul inside the fortress. After all, he intended on killing them all anyways, what did it matter the order?

    'Nikriin. Lor daar hesk lost nizraad.' The voice inside of his head whispered darkly, practically sneering in contempt at the wizard's thoughts. It seemed as though it had calmed down from its near-hysterics at seeing the stone mural. That it continued to speak to him, and seemingly knew his thoughts without Ehoron saying them aloud in his head did not make him feel at ease about the situation at all. 'Hi los aan nikriin waan daar jul los ganog mura hi drey gemaar!' The scorn was so palpable that Ehoron was forced to stop and dwell on that thought.

    "Fine," Ehoron said nothing else as he resumed his hunt. The longer he dwelled within the fortress, the more certain he grew of where things were. Details that should have been impossible to know seemed like well-worn memories and he had no trouble navigating the labyrinthian corridors. Were he in a different state of mind, that knowledge might be disconcerting, but now it was simply something to leverage towards his current goal. Stepping into the mountain properly, the stars disappeared and Ehoron was left with tunnels of rock and cut stone to make his way through.

    --------

    Warren sat at one of the desks in his room, pouring over scouting and raid reports. The minutia of running a mercenary group were boring and tedious to many, but it was a skill he had forced himself to acquire. He had seen firsthand what happened when there was a gap between the men and the commanders and details fell between the cracks. It was part of why he held such a fiercely loyal group together, in spite of the work they did sometimes.

    On occasion, he considered the past actions he had done; atrocities and outright slaughter. In the beginning, he had never considered those sorts of actions to be things he would condone, much less participate in, but he had grown harder over the years. Seeing first hand how the rich robbed the poor, how the ignorant flocked to the liars and the puppeteers. The whole experience had darkened his perception of the work and the people in it. A fundamentally broken world was not one that could be saved and would have to be brought low before it could be built back up right.

    The man jumped in alarm, hand darting to his hip for a dagger when the door to his room suddenly blew open with a frigid gust of wind. Cautiously he moved to the doorway and, after a moments consideration, peered out into the hallway to examine things. Several of the braziers were out, and there was a faint draft that chilled the hallway air. Someone must have opened a few doors, he thought to himself and shut the door to his room with a sigh.

    "You know..." Warren's eyes widened in shock and he spun around, baring the dagger in defense as he spotted the figure standing in the farthest corner of the room. "I'm sure there was a benefit to setting up your little camp of bastards in an ancient temple dedicated to a demon of unimaginable wrath and destruction... But I'm just not seeing it now." The way the intruder spoke sent shivers down Warren's spine that had nothing to do with the temperature. To a man as experienced in battle and death as he was, he knew how to size a man up; what to look for when determining just how truly dangerous a man was. And now every fiber of his being was screaming at him to get out of there.

    "I could have waited, you know." The figure pushed off of the wall and began to pace along the far wall, rarely bothering to even look at Warren. "Taken your head in your sleep. It would have been easy, really. But then I thought to myself... How boring that would be. How unfair. To kill a man and not even given him the courtesy of knowing just why his life is about to end seemed distasteful." The figure chuckled and turned to look at Warren, giving the mercenary his first clear look at the other man. He was young, far younger than he expected, but there was no mistaking the ominous air and dangerous glint in his eyes. "But then again, you would know all about that, wouldn't you?"

    "So you snuck by a few drunkards and cowards who couldn't stand a little cold. Bravo." Warren spoke easily, too experienced to let any betrayal of fear or emotion in his words. He projected a calmness, a certainty, that he did not feel. "I'm sure you think yourself some grand avenger come to save the people. All you've done now is given me warning enough to prepare for the future. You'll never get a second chance at this, and you won't walk out of here alive, boy. Even if you somehow manage to kill me, the mercenaries in this fortress will rip you to pieces."

    The man chuckled, a rather dark and unsettling noise, and shook his head. "Meyus jul..." Uttering those two words caused the temperature to plummet. The fire flickered wildly and visibly dimmed. Warren could not help but shudder in terror and take a step back, his dagger falling impotently to the floor. When the man looked back up and locked eyes with Warren, his eyes were an unnaturally vibrant and icy blue. "What makes you think that I'm going to let even a single one of you live?" He held out a hand and Warren watched with silent panic as black ice began to swirl around him.

    "What are you?"

    ----------

    Dawn broke over the sleepy village and many woke to the usual sounds of roosters cawing and cattle braying. The first intrepid soul to brave the morning chill was stunned to see a pike shoved into the ground in the center of town. Fixed upon it was clearly the head of a man. The skin was almost blue and had large ice crystals throughout the hair and over the cold skin. A look of pure terror was the last etched expression upon the man's face. Soon all of the town's elders had gathered around the head of Warren Hawk.

    Each of them turned, one by one, and looked up at the peaks of the Phoenix Mountains. It was no secret where Warren had made his base, and the fortress was visible from the plains below at the base of the mountain. Or, at least it normally was. A large blizzard, unusual for this time of year but not unheard of, was busy ravaging the peaks of the mountains and obscured all traces of the fortress. Only a few held lineages and records long enough to even hint at the truth of the fortress' past. And they were secretly glad, as they took this as a sign that perhaps there was still some justice in the world. None of them could hear, through distance or howling gale, the screams that echoed from the fortress.

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    WC: 1,400
    TWC: 3,625 / 3,500


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