Kaibutsu Registered User
Posts: 2
(9/13/00 8:00 am)
Scuttle the Rogue
Everyone in the tavern heard the rapid, staccato pounding of small legs running towards the entrance. The door burst open and an excited halfling ran in. Every eye in the tavern seemed to roll in the air. Every expression in the room said "Oh no. Scuttle is here." Halfway through the entrance, he stopped and yelled "Hey everybody! I finally figured out how..." WHAP! His words were cut off as the door he had just thrown open came back and smacked him in the face. Uproarious laughter filled the room. One of the serving wenches bent over the dazed halfling.
"Ahh Scuttle. The same as always, aren't you? Are you okay little one?"
Scuttle shook his head to clear the stars and held a hand up to his throbbing forehead. "I'm okay Talia...TALIA! Hi!! Actually, I'm GREAT!" His body language transformed as he remembered what he was saying before the sneak attack by the front door. "As I was saying," he turned and glared at the offending door, "I just figured out how to poison a blade! Look!"
Talia deftly jumped back as Scuttle whipped out a small dagger, the length of the blade covered with a stain of viscous green liquid. "Whoa! Careful, Little One," Talia said as she patted him lightly on the head. "You can hurt someone with that thing." She smiled at him, turned around, and walked towards the bar.
"Wait Talia, look!" Scuttle ran towards her to show her his handiwork. His leg caught an end of a patron's chair, and sent him sprawling. As the ground came to meet him, he realized that he really should have put the blade away before running.
"Owie!" he yelped as he pierced himself in the shoulder while falling on the blade. "Oh no!" He crawled to his feet with a look of terror in his eye. "I'm gonna die now...I'm gonna die now! Oh no! Oh NO!"
Talia bent down to try and help the injured halfling. "Settle down Scuttle...settle down. Tell me where you got the poison."
"Oh the pain...the pain! I can feel the poison in my veins already!" Scuttle whimpered to his friend. "Oh Talia...I'm going to miss you!"
Talia grabbed his chin and looked him in the eye. "Scuttle, where did you get the poison?"
Scuttle seemed to forget where he was for a moment, his eyes unfocused as he looked around the room. He then looked directly at Talia and whispered something to her. He then fell back on the floor moaning in pain. He reached for a pouch on his belt and handed it to her. She ripped open the package and looked at the vial of green fluid. There were words written on the vial. "Sugar Poison"
Talia stood up and looked at him glaringly, with her hands on her hips. "You got it form the Candy vendor?!?! Scuttle, this isn't poison! It's a drink for children!"
Scuttle moaned again. "Oh, I can feel the poison in my veins. Ooooh!" His eyes clenched shut, he moaned and rolled on the floor, beginning to convulse, when suddenly he opened one eye and looked at Talia. "Candy? No. It's real, I KNOW it is." He crawled to his feet with some effort, careful not to injure his wounded shoulder. Suddenly his face lit up. "Hrmm. Well, that is odd. The poison has stopped working. Wow! I must be immune to it or something! Well, I better go to the healer for my shoulder! Bye now!" He walked out the door, glaring at the door as he walked out of the tavern.
"Same ol' Scuttle," Talia muttered as she began cleaning up after the whirlwind of chaos that the little halfling always seemed to create.
I swear, this is the type of thing that must happen to Scuttle when I am not playing him, considering all the things that happen when I DO play him.
Let me know what you think of this or if you are interested in hearing any more about Scuttle...it was my first attempt at writing anything like this. Thanks!
Edited by: Kaibutsu Edited by: 9/15/00 9:06:03 am
Sorowen Registered User
Posts: 5
(9/14/00 5:26 am)
Re: Scuttle the Rogue
Loved it! Definitely would love to hear (read) more!
Sorowen Rogue of the Shadows(Bertoxxulous Server) "Years I've spent learning just how to feel. No more can I tell what is or is not real..."
scaevola Registered User
Posts: 2
(9/14/00 5:32 am)
Re: Scuttle the Rogue
Excellent!
Scaevola Fallenangel
41st Level
Bertoxxulous
Kaibutsu Registered User
Posts: 3
(9/15/00 7:06 am)
Re: Scuttle the Rogue
The story continues...
A patron watched the disastrous rogue leave the tavern. A small, barely audible breath of laughter escaped from beneath the dark cowl hood of the patron’s cloak. This job was going to be ridiculously easy. He didn’t know why the dwarf wanted this little halfling dead, but he paid half in advance, and the cloaked patron wasn’t prone to ask questions. He drained the rest of his drink, threw a coin on the table, and rose from the chair in the back of the room. The chair groaned in relief as the huge figure lifted his weight from the tortured wood. He moved towards the door, towering over the other patrons, with a fluid grace that was not expected from a frame of his size.
He stepped out into the crowded street. People busily hustled around him. He looked back and forth, trying to locate the little halfling. He saw the rogue across the street, walking away from him, oblivious that anyone would be looking for him. Scuttle stood at the door of a blacksmith’s shop, staring longingly at the assortment of shields. The man reached towards his belt with a small movement that verified that his dagger was easily within reach and loose in the sheath. He moved towards the small rogue, looking around to see if anyone was paying attention to him, or the halfling.
Scuttle’s injured shoulder pulled him out of his fascination with the blacksmith’s shields. He started walking again towards the healer’s hut. He scooted along the street, deftly avoiding being stepped on by all the larger city travelers.
In his peripheral vision, something caught his eye…something glittering on the ground in the alley. Always curious, he quickly moved to inspect. It was a small stone. Probably worthless, he thought to himself, but still picked it up and examined it as he continued on his journey to the healer’s.
The dark man looked around. There was no one watching either him or the halfling. In a one deft, quick movement, the dagger came out of the sheath and was sent flying towards the targeted rogue. The halfling, was still looking at the small, glittering stone, not paying attention to where he was walking. He walked across another tavern entrance, only to be bowled over by a flying gnome. The gnome had the unfortunate timing of being thrown into the path of the dagger. The blade sunk deep into his shoulder and he howled in agony. The projectile flying gnome was immediately followed out of the tavern by a huge ogre, obviously carrying on an argument that began inside the tavern. He was yelling something at the gnome when he walked out the door and noticed the screaming gnome and the dagger stuck in his shoulder. He looked around the street and his eyes fell on the cloaked assassin.
“You not kill Gnome! ME kill gnome! You try to kill him before he give me money? Me kill YOU!” The ogre charged the cloaked man, and they both went down in a cloud of dust.
The gnome began convulsing, as the poison began tearing through his veins. Scuttle crawled out from under the gnome, shaking his head in dismay. “Wow Mr. Gnome. You made someone really mad at you, didn’t you? You should be more careful! I’m going to the healer’s hut. Want to come along?”
The gnome continued to convulse, and began to choke on his own tongue.
“Hello? Are you listening to me?” Scuttle lightly tapped the twitching, convulsing gnome with his boot. “I guess he doesn’t want to go,” he said to no one in particular. He continued on his way to the healer’s hut without a second glance at the dying gnome.
When the dust settled, there was a groaning sound, and a large thud as the dark man rolled the ogre corpse from on top of him. He looked around to locate the mark. The halfling was gone. He shook his head in disgust, and began dusting off the dirt from his dark cloak. He reached down and pulled two dripping blades from the neck of the ogre’s corpse, and quickly disappeared down an alley, amidst stares from many curious, but un-surprised citizens. This was a violent city, and very little shocked the townsfolk. Still, there was no reason to have the town guard snooping around and finding him here.
The dark man cursed his poor luck, and the insane amount of luck of the halfling rogue. There is plenty of time, he thought to himself. The dwarf gave him a week to take out the mark. He had more than enough time to set up a precise hit. A hit that, this time, would not fail.
The only story in this forum that's actually ever been entertaining for me. Cripes, who'd have though it :-)
more!
Halen
Kaibutsu Registered User
Posts: 5
(9/20/00 12:55 pm)
Re: Scuttle the Rogue
Okay, this one isn't quite about Scuttle, but it will be soon.
Talia wiped the table with the stained bar rag. She contemplated the little halfling rogue that had left hours earlier. She didn’t know what it was, but something always made her want to check on the little troublemaker. She almost felt like a big sister to him. She laughed to herself. He really did try hard. She didn’t know if he would ever be able to successfully be the rogue he wanted to be, but he sure put a lot of effort into it.
She tossed the bar rag at the tavern keeper and bid him goodnight. He grumbled a farewell and waved her off. “Be back early tomorrow. We have a busy day with the new batch of brew!”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” she remarked with a sarcastic grin.
He gave her a mock scowl and made shooing motions with his hands. “Get outta here girl.”
She smirked and waved goodbye as she walked out the door.
Once outside, she thought she ought to check on her friend, see how he had faired at the healer hut. The streets were still bustling, even at this time of night, and the ruckus seemed even worse as the alcohol ran even more freely at night. There was the usual bar fights that ended up in the streets, and the occasional stumbling drunk, weaving their way down the street. Talia often thought about leaving this vermin-hole, but it was home to her, and she couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.
She rounded the corner on the row of small houses where Scuttle lived. Her mind drifted and she wondered how on Norrath Scuttle was able to afford a house, even as small as the one he had. She struggled just to keep the small room above the tavern. Her thoughts occupied her mind a little too completely, and she ran head long into a tall man as she came around the corner. She looked up into a toothless, malevolent grin. The man wore solid black leather armor with small silver insignias on the shoulder. Two other similarly clad men looked around the man from behind. Both men were short and scrawny, almost rat-like in appearance.
“What do we have here Sergeant?” one of the rodent looking men asked the hulk in front of Talia. They peeked from around him like vipers, malice in their eyes.
“Where you shink yer goin’ little girl?” The man’s slurred speech reeked with alcohol.
Great, Talia thought to herself, the town guard on a drinking spree, and she has to run into them. “I’m going to check on a friend. They were injured today, I am sure you already know about the fight. I can see you are some of the city’s most diligent protectors.”
The weasel-like man on the left snapped forward and grabbed Talia by the collar. “What is that supposed to mean, huh? Are you mocking us wench?” Talia thought she might pass out from the stench of alcohol on the small man’s breath. Unlike the tall brute towering above her, there was intelligence in this man’s eyes.
Uh oh, she thought, this could be trouble. “No milord, I was just commenting on the fine job that you do in this city. How safe we all feel strolling around at night because of you.” She beamed a smile at the little guard holding her collar.
“Just how stupid do you think we are, girl?” His eyes flashed in anger. He spun Talia around and threw her against the wall. “Sergeant, I think we need to take this criminal in for…questioning.”
“Yesh, she is kinda purty. I think I should go…uhh…question her.” He turned towards her, looking her up and down. “Yes, definitely some…questioning…is in order.”
Talia realized that this had gone way too far. The rat-like guard had a tight hold on her collar, but had left her arms free. The man had assumed that she was defenseless because she was small, or more likely, because she was a woman.
“Questioning milord? Why I don’t see why you would want to question an innocent citizen like…” her left hand shot out, smashing in the nose of the man holding her collar. He went down screaming and holding his hands over his nose. She aimed a kick at the tall guard’s head, while reaching behind her to draw a small, thin blade from her belt. She slid the spinning kick in front of the tall man’s face, which succeeded in doing what she wanted. The man threw his hands up to protect his face, and lost his balance, stumbling backwards to get away from the kick. She continued with the momentum, crouching down as she spun. Her blade came around and she threw her arm up piercing the last guard in the front of the throat. His eyes widened in shock. He put his hands to his throat. He tried to scream, and fell down on his knees, a choking, gurgling sound the only noise he could make.
The large man had recovered and tried to come after her, charging at her like an angry bull. She side stepped his charge and brought the pommel of the dagger on the back of his skull. The behemoth guard collapsed to the ground with a thud. She turned back to deal with the remaining guard. He was on his feet running away, screaming for the guards.
“Murderer! Murderer! There is a murderer attacking the guards! Help! Guards!” The nasally scream could barely carry. His nose had been shattered by her strike to his face.
Talia muttered a curse. She better catch him before he could summon any more of the guards. She shot after the man, intent on catching him before he could slip away. She came within a few feet of the running guard, and pounced on him from behind. She slammed the dagger deep into the man’s back. He collapsed in a heap, a weak scream of agony stopping suddenly as he struck the ground.
She heard running feet from directly in front of her. Three more guardsmen had seen her strike down the man. In a moment’s thought she thought about explaining what had happened, why she had attacked the guards, but no one would believe her. She was merely a barmaid who was obviously something more than just a barmaid. She didn’t stand a chance of convincing anyone that she was the victim.
She threw the dagger towards the approaching guards. They scattered as the blade went flying over their heads. Talia wasn’t trying to kill them. They had done nothing to her, and she saw no reason to take them out. She just needed a distraction. She bolted as they hit the ground, falling for the feint. The guards jumped to their feet and resumed the chase, Talia already with a huge lead.
The guards saw her turn and disappear into an alley and quickly followed. They rounded the corner moments later, only to barrel into a wandering drunk coming out of the alley. They all went down in a pile. The guards immediately tossed the drunk off of them and started down the alley again, but they stopped. There was no sound of fleeing, and the woman was nowhere in sight. All the shuttered windows along the alley were shut tight. The alley ended just ahead of them, and there didn’t appear any way for the woman to escape. The walked side by side, trying to flush out their suspect. They continued to the end of the alleyway, and found no sign of the woman. Confused, they gave up on finding the woman, and went to question the drunk. He had been knocked unconscious by the impact, and was useless for interrigation. They quickly moved to check on their fallen comrades.
Talia watched them leave from the roof of the building that created one side of the alley, sure they had no suspicion that she could just about climb a sheer face if necessary. She had bounded around the corner, deftly avoiding the drunk. She had grabbed a window edge, leaping to the window above and throwing herself face down on the roof of the building.
She quietly leapt to the building across the alley, and stealthily made her way to her home above the tavern, using the rooftops of the close knit buildings. It was time to collect her things and leave the town she loved so much.
Kaibutsu Registered User
Posts: 7
(9/25/00 6:26 am)
Re: Scuttle the Rogue
Hehe!! Hiya!!!
Thank you! Tons!!!!
I just spent way too much time working on the real Scuttle instead of writing about him. Heh!!
More defintely coming!
Kaibutsu Registered User
Posts: 8
(9/25/00 6:55 am)
Re: Scuttle the Rogue
Hehe! Good point Halen!! I actually did think about doing that. That is why the drunk was there in the first place. But then I thought...you know...there was no way she could pull that off so quickly, guards chasing her, and where would she get the different clothes? So...I didn't do it.
But if you have an alley, you gotta have a drunk, so I left 'im in there! Hehe!
Thanks all! More coming soon!
Kaibutsu Registered User
Posts: 16
(10/13/00 5:29 am)
Re: Scuttle the Rogue
Talia carefully made her way towards her home. She knew it was time to leave her home town that she loved so much. It was one thing to kill someone. It was entirely something else to kill a guard – let alone multiple guards. Even worse, she knew there was something strangely familiar about the two men that she had killed. In her heart, she knew that she should recognize the faces. She had seen them somewhere before, but her mind was racing too quickly to clarify her thoughts.
She quickly rounded a corner and made her way into an alley that contained the stairway to her tiny room above the tavern she worked at. If she was leaving this town, she wasn’t going empty handed. Being a fugitive was bad enough. Being a fugitive with no money was unthinkable.
The noise from the tavern below her drifted up as she unlocked the door at the top of the stairs and hurried into the room to gather her possessions, not even bothering to close the door behind her. She ran to her bed and shoved it out of the way. Reaching for the small knife she kept at the nightstand next to her bed. She began prying at the floorboards and removed panels from the floor that covered a gap between the floor and the ceiling of the tavern below her. Purposefully she grabbed a belt from the niche that had two wicked looking daggers in sheaths attached to it. She strapped on the belt and reached into the floor again. A small coin purse was pulled from the darkness. She quickly shoved that inside her jerkin and stuck her hand deep inside the floor for the final possession.
She quietly grunted and she heaved the pack out of the gaping hole in the floor. The items rattled against each other as she unlatched the buckles on the pack. Inside the huge pack was a collection of dark, flexible armor and a travelling cloak with a deep hood. She began strapping on the armor, the metal making small shifting noises as she strapped it on.
Perhaps the noise of the armor, and the cacophony from the busy tavern below dulled her senses, but she snapped a sharp intake of breath as the cool metal touched the tender skin of her neck. She stiffened and did not flinch. She could feel the hot breath of the attacker on the back of her neck.
“Going somewhere?” The voice was a harsh whisper in the common tongue. It was an accent she didn’t recognize.
She choked down the lump in her throat and took a small calming breath. “What’s it to you? Who are you?” she snapped, despite the blade pressing against her neck.
She felt the blade bite into her flesh as the intruder pressed the blade harder against her skin. He whispered to her again in a raspy, venomous breath, “Who I am means nothing to you. Nothing will have any meaning to you unless you tell me what I want to know.” He twisted around and whispered into her other ear. “I know you know where he is. I saw you talking to him in the tavern. Where is Scuttle?” He increased the pressure of the razor sharp blade against her skin.
Scuttle? Oh gods…what has he done now? She was afraid to swallow, for fear that the blade would cut deeper into her skin. She could lie, trying to protect him, but what good would it do. He apparently had seen her helping the little halfling at the tavern. “Look, I don’t know where he is. I haven’t seen him since he left the tavern. He’s probably running around the town somewhere.”
He grabbed the back of her hair with his free hand and spun her towards the door. “You are taking me to where he lives,” he glanced at the remainder of the armor and the cloak she had not yet donned, “then you can continue with your...travel plans. Don’t try anything either. You are obviously more than a serving wench, but whatever you are, you aren’t fast enough to stop me from sticking this blade in your spine. So be a good girl and take me to where the halfling lives.”
He stepped up behind her and they started to move towards the open door. From the street came the sound of someone quickly climbing the stairway to her apartment. He shoved her towards the door, “Greet your visitor, and remember that I’m watching you.” She still had not had a good look at the man. He followed close behind her and stood just to the side of the door as she stood in the open doorway.
She peeked around the corner to see who was coming up the stairs. Oh no...
“HI TALIA!!!” Scuttle came bounding up the last few stairs. “What are you doing out here? Hey your door’s open! You really should close that so all the cold air doesn’t get in! Here, let me get that for you!” Scuttle reached for the door and Talia grabbed his arm. Suddenly Talia was pulled backwards into the room by a strong grasp on her shoulder. She tumbled into her room as the dark man stepped into the doorway.
A high-pitched squeal came from the doorway and a sound of something tumbling down the stairs while Talia tried to find her feet as she fell backwards into the room. She curled into a ball and rolled to her feet, immediately bounding towards the door. The man was not standing at the doorway.
She reached the doorway and quickly stepped onto the landing. At the bottom of the stairs, there was a small groaning sound coming from a sprawling pile of tall cloaked figure and small halfling. She bolted down the stairs to check on the little rogue.
At the bottom of the stairs, a clearly unconscious man was sprawled on top a small halfling struggling to crawl out from under him. Talia shoved the man off of Scuttle and helped the groaning halfling to his feet. He put a hand on his head and flinched.
“Ow! I hit my head coming down those stairs! Boy Talia, your friend is sure clumsy. He really should be more careful! I think he’s an assassin too! Did you know your friend is an assassin? I saw him kill a gnome earlier today. I wonder what that silly gnome did. You really gotta be careful around here. It’s easy to get people mad at you! So, what is with your clumsy friend here?”
“My friend?! Scuttle...I...oh nevermind! Get up the stairs and talk to me while I get a few things. We have to talk. First though, what happened to him?” She nodded at the unconscious man lying at the bottom of the stairs. She quickly made her way back to her room above the tavern with Scuttle following quickly at her feet.
“I dunno really. I think he was trying to introduce himself to me. He jumped out to say “hi,” and he startled me. Then I think he wanted to shake my hand, but he must have forgotten that he had a dagger in his hand. When he reached to shake my hand, that dagger almost hit me. So I fell back, and lost my balance. I think he realized he scared me and was going to try and help, because he threw his hand out again for me to catch it. He still must have forgotten that he had that dagger in his hand, because he almost stabbed me when he was trying to reach out and save me from falling. Fortunately, I grabbed his wrist, which slowed me down a bit, but then he fell right behind me! Boy was he lucky he didn’t stab himself on the way down!”
Talia was strapping on the remainder of her armor as Scuttle continued his recap of what happened on the stairway. She stopped what she was doing for a moment, and gaped at him. “Scuttle, I have no idea how you get so lucky.” She shook her head and strapped the last piece of armor on, and put the dark cloak about her shoulders and grabbing the pack from the floor.
“Lucky?? What do you mean lucky? I just fell down some stairs with your clumsy friend back there. That is hardly good luck if you ask me. HEY! Where did you get all that armor. Wait a minute. Are you going some where? Where are you going? Can I come? I wanna come! Please!”
“Scuttle,” Talia sighed exasperatedly, “listen, you don’t want to come with me. I have to leave. I have to. I don’t want to, but there was some trouble with the guards, and I have to leave now.”
“But you need me Talia! You know how much trouble you will get into without me! You need me to watch your back!”
Talia headed towards the door and then down the stairway to the alley below. “No Scuttle you can’t come with me.” She stopped short. She saw the still unconscious man at the bottom of the stairs. Whoever he was, he was sure to try and get to Scuttle again, for whatever reason. She couldn’t leave the little halfling to his own devices. She was sure Scuttle would be dead by the next day. He seemed to have incredible luck, but someday that luck would run out.
With a sigh, she turned to the halfling and got down on one knee to talk to him at eye level. “Scuttle, listen to me. I have to go now. It will be dangerous to come with me, but you can come. You are right. I need you to watch my back.”
Scuttle did a small bouncing movement of enthusiasm. “That is best! Yes! You definitely need me Talia! Okay, I have to go get my pack and my cloak and my weapons, but I will meet you at the front gates, okay?!” His eyes widened enthusiastically as he nodded his head, waiting for her response.
“No Scuttle, meet me half a league beyond the north gates at the twisted oak tree at the top of the hill. I can’t let the guards at the gate question me. It is a long story and I will tell you later. Now GO! And hurry! I can’t waste another moment. You know where to meet me now, right?”
Scuttle nodded his agreement and bounded down the alleyway. She left the alleyway and made her way to the city walls. She couldn’t leave through the main gate because of the guards. She couldn’t risk showing her face. What have I done? I can not believe I am taking Scuttle with me! Ah well. I can’t leave him here.
Talia melted into the shadows of the buildings, slowly making her way out of the city.
EDIT: Corrected a missing word.
Scuttle - Professional Natural Disaster - Tarew Marr
Halen Registered User
Posts: 1310
(10/13/00 5:33 am)
Re: Scuttle the Rogue
As always, brilliant =)
<--------- wishes he was a publisher
Halen
Kaibutsu Registered User
Posts: 30
(10/16/00 1:08 pm)
Re: Scuttle the Rogue
The small man angrily slapped the burly guardsman that sat in the chair cowering in front of the desk of the official. It was a strange sight to see. A short, rotund man, not much taller than a halfling, glowered at the gigantic guardsmen that sat in the chair in front of him. The guardsman was obviously terrified of the man, despite the difference in stature.
“What exactly are you telling me sergeant? And stop babbling. I can still smell the alcohol on you, you sorry excuse for a guardsman. I trust you have sobered up since then. You will be sorely punished if you have come here for no reason. For your sake, you have come here, I assume, to tell me something highly important, considering the hour. Let me just say that it had better be -very- important to have bothered me at this time of night.”
The tall man winced and looked directly at the small man, his hand rubbing the growing red mark on his face from the slap he received. He swallowed the lump in his throat and tried to find his voice. “I-I-I came to tell y-y-you about your nephews Mr. M-M-Mayor.”
“Oh grand. What have the little miscreants done now? I have told my sister repeatedly that I would take care of them, but honestly, those two are more criminals than anything. Placing them in the guards was certainly more than they deserved. What have they done? Where are they? Sober up and stop dribbling! Speak!”
The sergeant grimaced and continued with the story. “Well, your Honor, the three of us w-w-were looking into a brawl that was happening over at Thulak’s Tavern. We broke up the fight, but…uhh…some alcohol got spilled on me, so…uhh…that is why I smell like alcohol sir.”
The Mayor scowled at the man. Almost seeming to look down upon him, though he still had to look up at the man seated in front of him. “Do NOT insult my intelligence, you driveling monkey! Tell me why you are here!”
The guardsman flinched, visibly terrified. “Y-yes sir. The reason I came to you is about your nephews.” He paused again, trying to find the words.
The Mayor’s eyes narrowed to small slits. “Sergeant…we have been over this. What have they done?”
“Sir, it’s not that they have done anything…it’s that…that…they are dead sir.” The sergeant’s shoulders collapsed, and he looked towards the mayor with apprehension.
The Mayor stared at him for a moment. His expression was shocked, and then he turned white. He reached back for the chair, fumbling with his hands to try and find the chair behind him before he fell onto the ground. “They are dead?”
“Y-y-yes sir.”
The mayor pressed the palms of his hands to his eyes and rubbed. This can’t be happening. No. Oh gods. What am I going to do? Theophilia is going to have me strung up for this...or probably worse. He sobered quickly, with the skill of a seasoned politician. “All right sergeant. They are dead. Tell me what happened. Leave nothing out. I want every detail. Remember who they are…or more accurately were, and remember who will be here questioning YOU if she is unhappy enough to come out here herself.”
The guardsman looked directly at the Mayor and then his shoulders collapsed even further. He put his head to his knees, and began sobbing. “I know sir! I know! It wasn’t my fault I tell you! Please! I was watching them like you told me to! I was! Please don’t let her question me! Please!”
The Mayor knew of the rumors that flowed about his sister. He knew that her name was well known among the city…the entire continent in fact. The rumors were that his sister dealt in things that were best not to talk about. The rumors were in fact true, and probably worse than most even guessed. Theophilia dealt in the dark arts of necromancy. No one wanted to have to talk to her. The Mayor purposely came to a city as far away from her as possible. He was highly annoyed when Theophilia told him that he was to watch her two sons while she continued her studies. It was no wonder that those two ended up being such monsters, considering their mother. The Mayor never knew who the father was, and certainly didn’t care to know.
“All right sergeant,” the Mayor began, “there is nothing that can be done about it now. Either she will come here or she won’t. It will depend on what else you have to tell me. What happened.”
“Well, your Honor, we were walking the streets, keeping an eye out for the troublemakers, when suddenly, out of nowhere, this woman jumped us. She was all over us like a banshee. She attacked us completely unprovoked. I quickly drew my sword and fought her off as well as I could. Your nephews tried to fend her off, but we were no match for her. As she struck one of them down, I tried to throw myself in front of her, but she knocked me away. I don’t know what she hit me with…perhaps she was one of those vile Shadowknights. She might have cast a spell on me. All I know, is when I woke up, I was laying on the ground with a pain in my head like I have never felt, and one of your nephews was lying dead next to me. Some of the other guards saw the woman kill the other by driving a knife in his back. Apparently she attacked them as well, and somehow escaped. We have been scouring the entire city but we can’t find her anywhere.”
“You think she was a Shadowknight?” The Mayor thought pondered this new information for a moment. “No sergeant, that is not likely. You would have seen her casting something on you, providing you weren’t too inebriated to truly see anything.” The Mayor stood up and walked over to the guardsman, inches from his face, the Mayor asked the man, “Sergeant, do you think I am stupid?”
The guardsman looked shocked. “No sir! No! Not at all!”
The Mayor c ocked an eyebrow at the guard. “Look, I know that is not exactly what happened. I am not one of the moron subordinates that you have cowering under your bully-like iron fist. I know better than that, you cowering troglodyte.”
The sergeant’s eyes widened in terror. He tried to swallow, knowing that something terrible was about to happen to him.
“However, sergeant, the story is good enough that we will use that as what really happened. Do not deceive yourself sergeant. I know that is not what happened, but that is what we will tell Theophilia. I emphasize ‘we’ sergeant, because if she comes here, you will talk to her as well. I told you to keep them safe, and you get them killed on one of your drunken sprees.”
All the blood drained from the sergeant’s face, he started to stammer a response, but swallowed hard and sat there, waiting for the Mayor to continue. He knew there was nothing he could say to say the Mayor’s mind, once it had been made up. “Yes sir,” he said as he looked at the ground in resolve.
“Now,” the Mayor continued, “I want you to go see the scribe right now...” The guardsman looked at the Mayor uneasily. “Yes sergeant, I know what time it is, and I know how pompous that scrawny little fool can be, but you go now and have him make bounty posters of this woman. I want them posted over the entire city, and I want every guard, bounty hunter, every common street thug, I want them all looking for this woman. If the little worm of a scribe has any complaints, tell him to come talk to me.”
The guardsman nodded, visibly relieved. The Mayor wondered how this pitiful bully was ever able to make his way to the top of the ranks of guardsmen when he was terrified of anyone with a smattering of intelligence. Ahh well. Sometimes bullying the criminals will do the same job as a real town guard.
The guardsman scurried out of the Mayor’s office and made his way to the scribe. He knew he had better find this woman. He couldn’t remember exactly what happened with the Mayor’s nephews. He assembled the story from the pieces of the story he got from the other town guards that found him lying on the street, unconscious, with a nasty knot on the back of his head. He knew his headache was more than the crack on the skull he assumed he had received. His head was pounding with the hangover from that nasty stuff he had drank at the tavern…he couldn’t even remember which tavern anymore. All he knew was that there was no way he wanted the Mayor’s sister to talk to him directly. He knew if he caught the woman then they could publicly execute her and hopefully appease Theophilia from a distance. The only thing he knew, was that he did not want to face that woman alone. Not again.
Edit: I noticed that the mayor actually "@#%$ed an eyebrow" due to the filter...so added a space. I couldn't figure out what I had used that would set off the filter until I looked at the original text. Ahh...language filters are so silly sometimes.
Scuttle - Professional Natural Disaster - Tarew Marr
Re: Scuttle the Rogue
oy! write some more, or, or, I'll er, beg, or summat.
please? ;-)
Halen Sleet,
Kiltless Rogue,
Bristlebane and Tholuxe Paells
whycantIusedren Registered User
Posts: 54
(11/22/00 1:24 pm)
Re: Scuttle the Rogue
MOOOORRRRRE WE WANT MORE WE WANT MORE WE WANT MORE-ORE /EM BOUNCES UP AND DOWN LIKE A CRAZED LUNATIC, MORE OR I WILL POST THE LIFE STORY OF A CAT THAT I HAD IN MY CHILDHOOD ON EVERY PAGE HERE!!!!!!! Oh wait, you could just not read... Never mind, WE WANT MORE WE WANT MORE...
Dren, Level 14 Halfling rogue
Inny server
Soon to be guild master of " the denizens of death"
The greatest truth in the world of norrath is that it is #### or be killed. Thats where I step in and **** up the order of things. Peace of mind for profit, I quote from Zato, I shall deliver death, and make a coin or two as well.
Kaibutsu Registered User
Posts: 49
(12/7/00 7:28 am)
Re: Scuttle the Rogue
Dark clouds, heavy with rain, moved over the city’s night sky. Stark white flashes of lighting lit every dark corner. The city’s usual plague of vermin scurried into gaps in doors and walls of the buildings to find shelter, their instincts telling them to take cover from the storm that pressed it’s way overhead. The downpour that hit the town came in a sudden explosion of water, the rumble of the rain so heavy that it covered the bursts of thunder as the storm slowly took siege of the city’s inhabitants.
Rain poured off the roofs of the buildings, sending small waterfalls cascading to the streets and alleys below. The water splashing down onto the street revived the unconscious man lying in a heap at the bottom of a stairwell. He groaned and put his hand to his head. There was a huge lump on the back of his head, but he was not bleeding. He crawled up and made his way up the stairs in front of him. The door was still open and the room was dark. Well, at least he could see if there was any clue in the woman’s room as to where the halfling might live while he waited out the storm.
He shook his head in mild disgust and he closed the door behind him, shutting out the barrage of rain and stopping the pool of water that was creeping its way into the room. He was in utter awe that the halfling could have escaped him once, let alone twice. He certainly could use that kind of luck at the gambling tables. Still, he had time. The dwarf’s deadline for the job still gave him three days to complete the assassination. He wondered if the dwarf had actually lost at the gambling tables against that damnable halfling, and that was the reason for the contract.
He wandered through the room, looking through the small closet. Finding nothing, he continued the search, examining the hole in the floorboards and still coming up with nothing. He had to find something about the halfling. He had never had so much trouble with a mark. This was starting to get annoying.
As he continued to search the room, the cascade of rain slowly began to dwindle.
Resolved that he would find nothing of use in the room, he walked out to the landing and closed the door behind him. He couldn’t lock the door, but he had no intention of making it look as if the room had been examined. His search was not one of the typical burgler. Anyone that came into the room would never know he had been there. He knew not to leave any mark of his passing. You never knew when someone might notice that an item had been moved. That could make a person more cautious, and the man preferred his marks to be as careless as possible.
Pulling his cloak tighter around him, and burying his head deeper inside the hood, be trudged his way into the city streets. He took an immediate left out of the alley, and went into the noisy tavern below the room he was just searching. As he walked in the door, a few heads turned to look at the new patron in the tavern, but all turned away disinterestedly, continuing their conversations or staring into their glasses.
He saw a couple getting up to leave, and he moved to take their table. Ah good. The table was in the back corner of the room. He preferred to be against the walls. It was a lot easier to watch your back when a nice solid wall was against it.
He ordered a meal and ale from the roving serving girl and glanced around at the patrons. He didn’t recognize any of them from his earlier visit when he was first following the halfling, but he was sure he would find what information he needed.
The girl brought him his food and stared at him for a moment. He glanced up at her and handed her a few gold coins. She never took his eyes from his as she absently stuffed the coins in her apron. She backed away from the table, still watching him and started as she clumsily backed into the bar. She looked back and forth embarrassed, and made her way into the kitchen, blushing.
Great, he thought. I don’t need a serving girl with a crush on me to get in my way tonight. I don’t want any other distractions. I have got to find where that halfling lives. He continued his meal, with the serving girl repeatedly coming to check on him.
He watched her as she tripped over a patron’s chair as she backed away from his table again. He glanced at her as she bustled her way into the kitchen, trying to steal glances at him as she worked.
On second thought, this could be advantageous after all.
* * *
Hours later, the tall man silently closed the door of the serving girl’s small room. He let out a breath of relief to have escaped. He gave a mild shudder and walked down the stairs to the now empty tavern. The girl had been somewhat annoying with her relentless, ongoing talking. It was a wonder he was able to ask her any questions at all. But eventually, he was finally able to get the information that he needed from her. She had offered to take him up to her room. He accepted and ordered a bottle of elven wine and two glasses. He fell in behind her as they made their way to her room. While out of her view, the man deftly reached into a small pouch at his belt, dipped his finger into the pouch, and ran it across the edge of the girl’s glass. The girl turned back and shyly smiled at him as they went into her room. There, the conversation was far from interesting, and much too much for the quiet assassin. It was all he could take to occasionally nod and smile as she continued to talk to him about everything under the sun. Oh, I pity the poor soul that marries that girl. They will be deaf in no time…probably on purpose.
He still couldn’t figure out why the drug had not knocked the girl out. She apparently had some immunity to it. Regardless, the elven wine worked where the drug had not. She eventually drunkenly answered all of his questions to the best of her inebriated ability, as she slowly made her way to an alcohol-induced sleep. That was when he made his way out of her room.
He left the tavern and stepped out into the freezing drizzle of the stormy night. He pulled his dark cloak tightly about his shoulders and made his way to the merchant district. From the girl, he had found out that Scuttle had a house somewhere in that area. That was all she knew, but at least it was a start. Now he was even more curious about the relation between the dwarf and this halfling. The halfling had seemed like a bumbling, clumsy oaf, but to have a home in the wealthiest part of the town… Ahh well, it hardly mattered. He had a job to do and couldn’t spend time wondering about the social status of his target.
EDIT: Corrected a missing word.
Scuttle - Professional Natural Disaster - Now causing destruction for over 16 seasons.
- Tarew Marr
at: 10/18/00 1:33:52 pm
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