A Rat’s Due Diligence
As the group were making their way out of the capital, a pigeon wearing a bowler hat and smoking a wooden pipe flies down and stands beside Therat. "Hello Therat," The pigeon said in a british accent, "I have been told about your endeavors by… you know who." He says with a hushed tone. "Yes, I am great." Therat says while staring into the pigeons eyes, "Anyways, the boss told me to tell you that the arch priest shall be staging a speech in about three days." "Three days you say?" Therat asks. "And the boss man had me talk to some other of our folk over the last few days, we're planning an ambush." "So there will be others?" "Yes, I am not sure how many but I am sure at least a few will show up, unless they want a stern talking to. You know how he gets." The pigeon says with a chuckle.
"Yes, I do." Therat says, as if he has no clue who or what the pigeon is talking about. "But yes, in three days time we shall end Archpriest Franz Ferdinand and his reign of terror." "Ah, of course, the terror." Therat says, "Hey can I get some of that?" Therat continues, as he points at the pigeon's pipe. The pigeon gives Therat a smile as he takes a puff of his pipe and hands it to Therat. Therat proceeds to put the pipe to his lips and inhales far too much for his little rat body to handle and starts coughing loudly. The pigeon pats Therat's upper back, "That's how it's done boy, good work."
The pigeon then takes back the pipe and says, "I'll see you again Therat." "I'll see you again also, pigeon." Therat says, lowering his top hat to his chest, as the pigeon flies away with a grin. "W-what was that about uh, Therat?" Ebony says, and as Therat turns to her, he sees that Tzusun, Ebony, and even Monkey are looking at him oddly. "Oh that's right. Well, I have a proposition for you guys. I was told to kill someone named Ferdinand, he's like a priest or something. Anyway he's going to be doing a speech or something in about three days if you guys wanna do this before we leave." "S-sure! We'd love to!" Ebony says excitedly but a bit nervous. "If we must." Tzusun says as he begins to turn the cart around.
The group heads back to The Rusted Tap and head back inside. The group spends the rest of the day in their room talking, and playing chess, among other things. The next morning, after breakfast, Ebony turns to the group and says, "I'm probably going to go shopping, anyone want anything?" "Nah." Therat replies, "I'll get it myself." Tzusun says before standing up. "Get what?" Ebony asks, "It." Tzusun says as he turns around and walks out the front door of the tavern. Ebony sits confused for a second before turning to Therat and saying, "Uh, you wanna come with?" "Sure, but I'm tired, cause I'm like a rat right, so I'm going to sleep while you go shop or whatever." Therat says, crawling into Ebony's bag shortly after.
Ebony then gets up, puts a few coins on the bar, paying for the meal, and heads out. Ebony wanders the capital for a bit, eventually seeing numerous wanted posters depicting a vile looking demon woman with very similar looking horns and hair saying the name 'Ebony Malloy' below the depiction. She also notices the bounty is well over one hundred fifty gold, Ebony looks at these wanted posters with an equal balance of surprise, fright, and amazement. After Ebony realizes what being caught would entail, she quickly puts on her dark blue cloak and flips up the hood. She quickly looks around, but for the moment, she believes that no one has realised that she is the one who is wanted.
As she walks the streets cautiously with a bit of anxiousness growing in the pit of her stomach. She does, however, eventually find what she was looking for, a clothing store. As she walks inside the closest person she can see that looks like they work at the store is a bugbear wearing a tux with slicked back hair. "Hey uh," Ebony says, getting the attention of the bugbear, "D-do you guys have any dresses for sale? Mine's kinda dirty." She says as pulls her dress up a little bit, not even half way up her shins, pointing out the solid inch high layer of dirt and grime. "That is kind of worn isn't it? Come with me and we'll fix that right up." The bugbear says as he starts quickly walking away from Ebony.
Ebony begins to follow the bugbear as he turns into an isle with various dresses hanging on the two long racks that make up the isle. "Now," The bugbear says as he turns to face Ebony, "What kind of dress are we looking for? Or should I just leave you to it when you're finished?" The bugbear asks with a presentable smile. "Yeah ok! I'll uh, let you know when I'm done, I guess." "Wonderful, come find me once you've found everything you're looking for." The bugbear says with a smile as he begins to walk away and starts talking to another customer. Ebony looks for a while and picks out a few blue and purple dresses that are in her size, she throws them over her arm before walking up to the bugbear, who is simply standing around.
As the bugbear sees Ebony approaching, a smile instantly appears across his face as he says, "Ah, did you find everything to your liking?" "Uh yeah, is there like a changing room here or…" "Yes, it's just to my right," The bugbear says as he gestures to the closed velvet curtain he's leaning right beside, "But you'll have to wait unfortunately, there's someone already in there." "Oh ok, that's fine." The two sit in silence for a few moments, the bugbear waving and nodding with warm smiles to other customers as they pass by, Ebony looking down, being very awkward. "So uh, how'd you get a job here?" "I applied, the establishment was understaffed at the time, and I told them that my father made clothing for a living." "Oh that's cool," Ebony says awkwardly as they sit in silence a bit longer. "When did you come here?" "To the empire?" "Uh, yeah…"
"I was born here." "Really?" Ebony says, genuinely surprised. "Yep. Empire born and raised." "Cool." She says, still dazzled. Another period of silence hits before a very elegant looking elven woman comes out of the change room, turns to the bugbear and says, "I would like to buy these!" As she flaunts some fancy looking clothes in her hands and arms. "But of course," The bugbear says as he bows slightly before turning to Ebony, "The change room is free." He continues as he gives a hand toward the now open velvet curtain, before turning around and saying, "Let me get those for you." As he takes some of the elven woman's clothes.
Ebony tries on the various clothes before deciding that she only really likes one, not to mention that half of them are far too small even though they should have fit, according to the tags at least. As she leaves the changing room, she sees a large wooden pale with various clothes thrown into it. Ebony adds to the pile before quickly finding the bugbear, as he notices her approach, the bugbear says, "Hello again, did you find everything to your liking?" He says with a smile, bending down a bit to somewhat fit her height, though he would have to get on his knees to be the same height as Ebony. "Yeah I did, hey go you guys sell masks here?" She asks, wincing a bit. "Sure, follow me." The bugbear says as he turns around and begins to walk off again.
The bugbear leads her to a number of large wooden boxes with a full spectrum of items, "If you can't find what you're looking for in here, then I'm afraid I can't help you." "Alright, that's fine, thank you!" Ebony says as she turns to the boxes. The bugbear leaves within a few seconds as Ebony starts digging through the boxes of nic-nacs. After a few minutes of searching the boxes, she finds a plain sky blue mask with eye and mouth holes. Ebony walks to the front desk, she waits her turn as a green dragonborn as talking to a well dressed half elven man, who is currently behind the desk. After about a minute, coin is exchanged and the half-elf gives Ebony a smile as she approaches.
Ebony hands the dress and mask to the half-elf, "Is this everything?" He asks as he takes the items and begins to look at their tags. "Yep." Ebony with a smile, watching the half-elf inspect the items. After she pays for her dress and mask she leaves the store, not before giving the bugbear one final wave goodbye. Ebony ducks into an alleyway nearby, puts on her mask and quickly starts heading back to the Rusted Tap. She was stopped once more by the half-orc woman and elven man, "What brings you here?" The half-orc says with suspicion.
"Huh, you're kidding right?" Ebony says with genuine surprise, "You're kidding," The elf says as he points to the half-orc and begins to laugh. "Mask off." The half-orc says as she puts her hand on the hilt of her long sword. Ebony, seeing this act of aggression, immediately pulled off the mask and revealed her frightened expression. "Oh," The half-orc says as she takes her hand off of her blade, "It's you." "It is it is!" The elf says accompanied by a few small jumps, The elf then gives the half-orc a tug on her sleeve, "It is her isn't it? Isn't it?" "Calm yourself!" The half-orc snaps to the elf. "Calm calm. Sorry," The elf says with a nervous chuckle, "Calm yourself…" He continues as he looks into his folded hands.
"You may enter." The half-orc says as she opens the door and looks toward Ebony. "O-oh, right." Ebony says nervously as she speed walks into the tavern with her head down. Ebony walks back into her room, changes clothes, and then begins to think, letting the nervousness build. Meanwhile, Tzusun searched around town for a little while before coming across a general store labeled 'THE STORE'. As he entered he saw a goblin sitting behind a wooden desk currently inspecting a small trinket, and a large no-necked human man, who is still a few inches shorter than Tzusun. The man gives Tzusun a nod, and Tzusun returns the gesture as he begins to look around at the various shelves.
After about 15 minutes of Tzusun looking around and not quite finding what he's looking for, he feels a hand on his shoulder. Tzusun straightened himself and turned around to see the large human man, who removes his hand as Tzusun stands. "Do you need help finding anything?" The human asks, "I'm looking for a component pouch. Do you know where I can find one?" "Uh… you'll have to ask the boss for that." The human says as he points to the goblin behind the desk, clearly not understanding what Tzusun just said. "Thanks." Tzusun says as he walks over to the front desk.
Tzusun stands in silence and waits for the goblin, which takes a few seconds. The goblin looks up at Tzusun with a wide smile of long and sharp teeth as he puts the trinket into one of his back pockets. "Hello sir, what can I do for you?" The goblin says as he clasps his hands together, "Need a component pouch." "Ah right, I'm sure I have something in the back, wait right here." The goblin says as he heads into a backroom. Tzusun waits for a few minutes until the goblin returns with a smile and a thick leather belt with various small pouches attached by small metal pins. The goblin puts the belt on the table, "Is this to your liking?"
"Yes. How much is it?" "Let's call it nine silver." The goblin says with a smile as he leans over the desk. "Alright." Tzusun says as he puts nine silver into the goblins hand. The goblin cups his hands and puts the coins into another back pocket. He pushes the belt toward Tzusun, "It's all yours," Tzusun takes the belt, "Ok, thank you." Tzusun says as he walks out. "Have a nice night sir." The goblin says as Tzusun disappears from eye line. After a couple minutes of wandering, Tzusun put on the component belt and began searching for a wide array of seemingly common and useless items and nic-naks.
Tzusun spends the whole day going from store to store, before finally heading back to The Rusted Tap. The next day, Ebony stays inside with Therat to keep her company, and Tzusun heads out to buy more oddities. Halfway through the day Tzusun comes back, his belt a little more full than when he left and finds Therat, "I need money, and you have all of it." A large grin creeps across Therat's face, "What do we say?" Therat says as he puts his hands on his hips. Tzusun's face immediately turns sour as his eyes narrow on Therat, "Please…" Tzusun says, ready to drop Therat. "Alright kids, here's your allowance." Therat says as he hands out thirty gold to Tzusun and Ebony.
Ebony takes the gold, "Wow, uh, thanks Therat." Tzusun snatches the gold and storms out of the room. Tzusun continues his shopping until night hits, then the group rests, knowing what tomorrow will entail. The next day, Therat, Ebony, and Tzusun head out at around noon to begin their trek toward the archpriest. A short time after they leave, the same pigeon flies down and starts to walk alongside Therat. "Follow me." The pigeon says as he continues to walk. "Of course." Therat says before turning his head toward the group, "We're going to follow, the bird, and he'll take us to the priest guy I think."
"Y-you think? Alright I guess, you're the boss." Ebony says nervously, while Tzusun keeps his head forward but his eyes look over to Therat and the pigeon, silently judging them. As they continue, the group eventually comes across the man in question, a high elven man dressed in white and gold robes talking to some of the fully armored Order members. After hanging around for about half an hour they see many people arrive as he begins to speak. As Ebony takes a look around, near the back of the forming crowd, she notices that she is the only 'monstrous' blood here, as the Order calls them. Tzusun starts to slowly walk toward the front of the crowd, readying himself as much as he can without giving out his true motives.
Therat begins to spot a few dressed up birds, all with different hats who are eyeing both Archpriest Ferdinand and Therat, and a few dozen rats, all with their various rat sized clothing and weapons. "Hello my kin! Brothers and sisters of this holy land!" The Archpriest says as he stands atop a platform and extends his arms out. As the Archpriest begins to talk about all that is wrong with the world, primarily the monster bloods and them taking the good folks jobs and all that. Ebony looks down at Therat as the speech continues, keeping her hood up and mask on, "What's the plan?" "Oh yeah, I guess we didn't talk about this beforehand. Here, I have the best idea to ever exist, you ready? So when I tell you to, throw me at the guy."
"Oh uh, ok…" Ebony says as she reaches down and picks up Therat as he begins to vibrate slightly as his hair begins to stand, desperately trying to contain his encroaching power. After another minute of the Archpriest singing his praises to the crowd before Therat says, "Ight throw me." "Uh yeah ok, here!" She says as she throws Therat right at the Archpriest. Therat rockets towards the Archpriest, the two of them meeting eye to eye before a large flash of blue light flashes from Therat. The crowd immediately dispearses with screams and shouts as the group looks upon the Archpriest, who is still standing. The Archpriest's clothes begin to rip and tear as he grows a few inches, his skin rapidly growing hair across his body and his mouth and head being pushed forward.
The Order members draw their various weapons as the werewolf that was once Archpriest Ferdinand leaps off of the platform and runs toward Ebony. Knowing that she threw Therat, either that or the fact that she's the only one that didn't run, or the fact that she's a tiefling. The Archpriest rakes into Ebony's chest and arms with his huge claws before getting stabbed right through his midsection by one of Tzusun's blades. As the Archpriest falls, his six guards start to charge Tzusun and Ebony before Therat and the other animals begin to rush the Order members. Tzusun knocks out two guards with the hilt of his blade after some blows were exchanged, killing the other two shortly after.
Therat starts conjuring these masses of pure magic and power before slinging them out toward the Order members, replacing each orb as it is used. Therat watches as all four of the birds are cut down by two of the Order members, as the group sees this, both Therat and Ebony focus their fire upon them, killing one. The other, knocked to his feet by the bombardment of magical attacks, begins to crawl away but doesn't get far before Tzusun grabs his ankle. Tzusun flips him on his back, and takes off the Order members helmet, "D-don't kill me! I'll give you whatever you want!" The Order member says in a panic. Tzusun takes out one of his blades with a straight face as he begins to carve into the head of the Order member.
About a minute of almost non-stop screaming goes before Tzusun takes the blade from the man's forehead, "Tell your superiors, I am coming." He says as he lets go of the man's shoulder. "Run! Get out of here!" Tzusun says as he waves his sword toward the Order member. Without hesitation, he scrambles to his feet and runs off. Tzusun turns around to a horrified Ebony, "What the fuck." "What?" "Why in the fuck did you do that?" "I'm sending a message." Therat, while this conversation is happening, as if totally ignoring or not caring about the most recent events, walks over to the four dead birds. He looks at them in anguish before they magically disappear, he then goes back into Ebony's bag without a sound.
"We should probably get out of here." Ebony says with wide eyes toward Tzusun, who is currently tying up the unconscious Order members. "I'm not done with these two yet. I am not leaving without them." Tzusun says as he finishes tying up the second member. "Well we can't just leave you here!" Ebony exclaims, "I'll hide while you and the rat thing goes and grab the cart." "You're sure about this?" Ebony asks, "Yes" Tzusun replies. "Alright, we'll be back I guess." Ebony says as she begins to walk away. Tzusun drags the two unconscious Order members into a nearby alleyway.
After he hides them behind some crates, sacks, and boxes, Tzusun hears numerous footfalls as a fair amount of guards begin to approach his location. Before they arrive however, Tzusun throws his caltrops to either side of him, covering the entire alleyway, excluding his position, in caltrops. Tzusun then takes out his remaining flasks of oil over the caltrops. Tzusun waits for a few minutes staying out of sight and unfortunately, not being able to see what the guards are doing, as that would reveal his position. "I see them! They're in the alleyway! Over here!" Tzusun hears as a spike of anxiety hits him.
He immediately takes out a book that he keeps on his side and begins frantically flipping through the pages. Tzusun stops on a certain page and quietly reads the words allowed to himself, and as he finishes saying the words, a thick cloud of fog starts coming out of the book and conceals the entire alleyway in a matter of seconds. Tzusun then listens to some hushed conversations that are far too quiet to make out. He then hears a few wet steps followed by a couple heavy falls and a few screams. Tzusun takes out a bit of fleece and does some hand motions as ring within a ring within a ring appears floating above the fog, adorning a large eye in the center of its form, many eyes across the rings, and large white wings.
"Leave these men be!" Tzusun says, matching the movements of the winged creature, though it has no mouth, "Or fall beneath me!" Tzusun yells. He then does some more hand and arm movement accompanied by some yelling in an unknown language before three large semi-translucent magic spikes come from Tzusun's free hand. These bolts shoot straight above his head, just missing the creature and quickly curving towards and hitting three guards in the chest. Two of the three guards were still standing on the oil and fall over, killing one as their head slams hard into a caltrop. "We need reinforcements! Retreat!" Tzusun hears, followed by many metal footfalls that slowly fade.
Tzusun waits in anxious silence for about ten minutes, at that point the fog cloud fades away. Tzusun looks out either side of the alley, seeing nothing. He waits for another six hours or so before Ebony and Therat return with the cart in tow. Tzusun starts to drag the still unconscious men out of the alley, Ebony hops out of the cart and helps Tzusun throw the men into the back of the cart. As the two were busy throwing the bodies into the cart, Therat took the form of a dwarf with long curly hair. After the Order members are hoisted into the back of the cart, the group heads off back the way they came.
On their way out, Tzusun hops out of the cart and tries the door to the Rusted Tap. The door is locked and as he looks through a window, not a person is seen. Tzusun goes back into the back of the cart, "Let's keep going." He says as he takes out the same book and begins to write. As the group travels through the capital, they do not see a single hint of movement, from animals or people. As they exit the city, the group remembers that they have to pass the guarded gate, and as they approach, they try to come up with a plan on the spot.