Xavori
Long Night
I have noticed it getting harder and harder to find victims as
of late. It doth seem that people are less trusting than once
they were (which is good). However, they do spring up from time
to time...
I was travelling through Brittain trying to avoid the crowds
and especially the pickpockets that seem to thrive here. It still
amazes me how many young rogues try to make a life for themselves
within the reach of the murderous guards of the tyrant British.
It is even more so that once I too was a young rogue scraping a
meager existance on the streets. I made it a point to leave a few
coins in the top level of my pack for the few thieves who tried
to rob me, and "accidentally" dropped quite a few as
well.
Because I was in town, I was decked out in my finery with lots
of jewelry (tends to lend to the image of a being a nobleman no
matter what the truth might be). A fighter with a strange limp
approached me and asked an unusual question.
"Hey, does your jewelery work like armor?"
I had never been asked this before, but thinking quickly I
replied, "Yes, good sir, it doth work so."
"Can you wear it under regular armor?"
"Of course, young sir, of course. It even augments it
based on the quality of armor worn above."
"How much to ya want for it?" he asked.
I had no real idea of the value of any of the jewelry I wore
since I had found all of it just lying around on various corpses.
I had seen similiar things for sale in the shops, and so based
the price on what I saw there, plus an extra 50gp because he
thought they were magic.
"200gp for the lot of it, sir," I answered.
"Agreed!" he answered enthusiastically.
I immediately started giving him a set of jewlery, necklace,
ring, bracelet, and earrings. I made it a point to give him the
necklace first since it was the only truly magic item I had,
although it was only a necklace of cat eyes with a single charge.
I even placed the necklace on the trading block first and then
"struggled" getting the ring off so he would have
plenty of time to make sure the necklace really was magic
(although he couldn't tell exactly what kind). I then quickly
dumped the rest of the items out and he handed me the gold.
"A pleasure doing business with thee," I said and
then took off running and hid.
A moment later, I heard him running towards me cursing. I put
on a purple robe and a bone helm and started walking the other
direction. He bumped into me, but kept running. I smiled as I
watched him go, threating to kill me if I didn't give him back
his gold.
That was truly fun, but the night was young. So I started
wandering west towards Skara Brae. I travelled for quite a while
without seeing anything except a pair of mongbats. I even tried
making them a challenge by fighting with a dagger but
unfortunately, it still only took my hitting them once for them
to collapse dead. Fortunately, I came upon a pair of adventurers
who were busy sparring.
"We're okay," called out the first. "We're just
sparring."
"Aye, milords." I said as I sized them up.
"Doth thou mind if I watch. My skill with swords is very
poor and maybe I can learn something watching thee
practice."
"Kewl." said the second.
I noticed that one had more the look of a mage, and an
accomplished one at that, than a fighter. The other was a decent
swordsmen, prolly just having left his apprenticeship. They would
definitely prove worthy targets.
As they fought, I paid very close attention to the health of
the mage. He was definitely the more dangerous foe, and I decided
to take him out first. As they fought, they made very weak jibes
at each other.
"Come on you orc lover. Hit me." called out the
fighter.
Since I assumed they expected this to be entertaining, I
smiled to put them at ease. As they continued this mindless
prattle, I started hoping they would fight rather than surrender
willingly. 'Twas even more annoying than the able-bodied warriors
who line the streets begging for handouts.
"Thou art but a weak slayer of llamas," cried the
mage as he struck a blow.
Again, I smiled although I wanted nothing more than to cut out
both their tongues and feed them to the llamas. The mage was
taking the brunt of the hits in their match and he quickly wore
down. Just as he was about to collapse from exhaustion, they
paused. I didn't. I paralyzed the mage.
"Thy gold and reagents of thy life!" I called out.
The mage quickly threw his shield in his pack, obviously
freeing up his hands to cast a spell. Inside, I cheered his
decision to fight, and I quickly readied my war fork and shield
and charged him. Just as he started his incantation, I shoved my
fork into his chest. He fell immediately.
"Hey, what the hell did you do that for?" asked the
fighter.
I quickly dug in the corpse of the fallen mage and grabbed his
reagents. There were healers nearby and I didn't want him to be
an effective enemy when he returned. The fighter attacked me, and
I quickly turned and parried his first strike. My fork hit home
and left him near death. He ran. I dropped my shield and fork
into my pack and hurled a paralyze spell after him. I then
reequipped my weapons and approached him.
"Doth thou wish to die as well, or will thou willingly
hand over thy gold?" I asked hoping he would prove to be yet
another foolish hero. He was.
"F&*$ YOU!" he screamed.
So, I killed him. I then grabbed his valuables and wandered
off to the neareast armory to sell them.
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