Bloody thorns

[bloodythorn]

A beautiful day it was today, the sun shining high in the sky as a lone man went out to hunt wolves what he did not know was he was the one hunted. A figure hidden to the naked eye was on his tail, daggers drawn waiting for the perfect moment to strike. As the man killed a wolf and went to skin it, a spell of darkness was cast over him and blood flew. Manical laughter could be heard far and wide as the man took his last breath and the spell hidding the mess disapeared leaving the bloody body of the poor man for everyone to see but no one else could be seen, the murderer was already invisible again. The lifeless corpse was being draged by someone or something unseen into the middle of the street with thorns on his forhead for all the world to see.

[bloodythorn]

Two more bodies were draged to the roads this evening by the same unseen force as the last it would seem leaving once again thorns on their forheads. One was a young woman with blond hair and the other a bearded halfling both cut up to an almost unrecognisable state.

[maecius]

The Cloakwood expedition had been fulfilling. Valerius had confirmed that there was, in fact, a portal to be found in the underground labyrinth where the minotaurs dwelt. He had heard rumors of Cloakwood's supposedly holding many such portals to different regions in Faerun and beyond, but he had not found any until today.

His elation at the discovery was short-lived, however, when he came back to the Trade Way. In the middle of the road, a number of bystanders surrounded two bodies, one of whom was his friend, the Gatewarden of Candlekeep, Maximus Angrius. Dropping his invisibility spell, Valerius approached the gathering, at first thinking the bodies victims of the gnolls.

After some examination, it became clear, however, that these murders were the work of a skilled assassin, who took both the woman and the halfling in the back, and marked their corpses with crowns of thorn.

Valerius quickly brought both the woman and the halfling back to life, utilizing a powerful artifact he possesses, a rod of divine magic. They could not remember anything about the attack, as is not unusual, so Valerius merely healed them with healing scrolls and left them in the capable escort of the Gatewarden, Maximus Angrius.

Valerius has since charged Maximus Angrius with the task of personally investigating these murders, at Sir Angrius's request; both men deciding that killings so close to Candlekeep are intolerable.

[Eternalcod]

Valer sat on the cold stones of the temple floor, shivering rocking slightly. Confusion and rage welled in his head and, even though he didn't want to admit it, fear was wrapping it's tendrils around his mind.

He had been killed, then dragged to the middle of the road near Baldurs Gate. This much his saviors had been able to tell. He brushed his forehead which had been adorned by thorns when he was found. Darkness in the middle of the day and pain was all he could remember.

Fear gave way to hot rage. Whomever did this he would hunt them down and they would know pain, and darkness. He stood up with shaking legs and headed for the temple door when hand and voice of the Triad stopped him.
"Do not let the rage cloud your judgement."
Breathing hard he allowed his rage to cool down, and then freeze into a mountain of ice in the core of his mind. He would not be blind not when there was a track to be found. And when he would finally catch up he wouldn't miss a single moment of his preys fate.

[bloodythorn]

A hooded man stood all alone beside the road waiting for who knows what, a friend perhaps? Sadly for him death found him first. As darkness surrounded him only the quick movments of a skilled assassin could be heard and one can only guess what was happening. He was dead before the light came back and the killer already hidden again living another corpse with the hood laying beside him and a crown of thorns.

[Swadow]

As Triad's hearth began failing Wanderer and Silent still spoke: "Funny to be dead but not dead isn't it Silent. Yes. I feel a bit weird..." After that voices around Triad went out. Rohidian came to the place and noticed Triad's corpse and carried it to Auriel who stood at the bridge. She was able to bring Triad back from the grave only Wanderer remembering about that female voice. "We need to find Valer" Those were Triad's last word before heading out. And after crossing the bridge he found Auriel lying on the ground, maddened from another attack. But she had survived telling that something from the shadows was attacking her. Triad left her to sleep as her exhaustion soon forced her to sleep.

[Inomed]

Kierran watched the black thorn he hold in his palm, he had just gotten it from Triad and he slightly shake his head and sighed, the man was obviously mad, no doubt about it, but was still rather good company, and he had enjoyed his talk with him, he so rarely enjoyed his talks now days. At least with strangers

Closing his hand to a fist around the thorn he started to walk toward Baldurs gate, passing peasants and other adventurers, not caring to place his hood on, sometimes, brains worked better when having some fresh air. "that was the problem with this one" he thought, "she does not bloody think".. How rude of her to come here, and start killing people at will when HIS plans were not yet complete, Kierran remembered the times when incoming assassins still had the courtesy to find out who's turf they were coming into, and would ask for a permission to act at that area.

"oh well" he mumbled, "time golden's memories i guess.." He didn't actually care for the woman who had done the killings, they just became bothersome to him!

Even though, he did admit they had certain style in them, as he took another peak at the thorn.
Who knows, perhaps he would look this woman up and have a little talk with her, perhaps she would join him and learn to do her damn job properly, he just hated killers who wanted to show off. Or then this was something else, perhaps she had a bigger goal, or she had been sent by someone other, in that case, she would probably get in his way, and he would need to act sooner or later. And on the passing times, he had learned sooner is better than later.

Then his mind wandered to the missing marshmallow box he had lost at the campfire, how damn careless of him. Cursing the lost box, he continued his walk toward people who could help him, catching some odd looks from the peasants trying to help a poor cat out from the nearby tree.

"Damn woman... Damn marshmellows...!"

[bloodythorn]

As the hiden figure mades it way to the forest it bumbed into a man on the bridge by the campfire, for once there was no one else around, perfect opurtunity to let some blood stain these roads as well. Once again darkness was cast and within a blink of an eye he was dead like all the others but unlike them no thorns were left because others surrounded the area before they could be layed on his forhead, she only had time to run back into the shadows before being seen.