Chapter 1: An Ordinary Mercenary Contract, Part 2
Death of a Noble
Excerpt from Official Report, authored by Zeldava Ellis
A contract went off without a hitch!
Basically no one got hurt too! Look at us, we’re almost professionals! This might just be the shortest godsdamn report I’ve ever written. Thank the gods.
No sense in wasting time, I suppose.
It’s not every day that you’re asked to do a contract by the magistrate of a capital city.
Of course, it’s also not every day that someone teleports into a Noble’s house and murders them.
I looked around at the company members assembled in Expeditions and cleared my throat. “Alright, this might be simultaneously the weirdest and best contract we've yet gotten. Best because we were asked for by name based on our work in Northpoint last week, and weirdest cause we're not usually in the business of checking on nobles who may or may not be dead. Our main job is to figure out what happened at the Noble's house, figure out if he's dead, and catch whoever did it. Or at least get leads on who did it. Any questions?”
“What if the noble is undead?” Taztha, officially on her first job for the Company, raised her hand and asked the first question.
“No fucking clue, Taz,” I said. “He could be, but we're being sent to handle this discretely and with minimal ties to the town guard, so no one knows anything about what happened inside the house, just that the noble has been missing for a few days, portals were opened inside the house, and there was screaming. He could be a zombie, who knows!”
In hindsight, being that excited about the possibility of a zombie was just asking for trouble, honestly.
“Is it the "best" contract because it doesn't look like we have to fight a deadly corruption?” Aesla asked.
I grinned toothily. “Sounds like a nice break, doesn’t it?”
"I would still advise caution.” Azazel said. “Last time we assumed a job was easy, we were attacked by gargoyles and such."
"Well maybe this time any easy jobs we have should still be taken with caution?" Corin said, a hint of snark in her voice.
“At this point, I don't trust any of our jobs to be truly easy,” Aesla said.
“Your skepticism is justified, Aesla,” Az added.
I nodded in agreement, slipping the portal stone I’d been given for the Noble’s house from my bag. “Aye, agreed. Any last minute questions before we depart?”
They had none, and we departed.
I knew my luck would turn eventually. We stepped out of a portal and DIDN’T immediately smell blood. Must be my lucky day.
“May… I help you fine folks?” A man’s voice pulled my attention away from the lack of blood in the air. My hand instinctively darted for my the hilt of my great sword, only to be met with the face of a man who was…
Normal. Completely normal. He had a bundle of flowers in his hand, wearing commoner’s clothes.
A gardener. I’d nearly impaled a gardener. Geezus, I have issues.
“Hail, friend,” Azazel said, nodding to the gardener, reminding me exactly why I promoted him. “We’ve been hired to find a noble. You could start by telling us what we need to know.”
“Odd,” The gardener said, confusion on his face. “I'm not sure why anyone would be hiring you to come check on the esteemed Vollte estate. My master is quite alright and has not requested any aid.”
“Aye, right,” Aesla said. “Can we see him, either way?”
“I don't trust this already,” Az muttered.
“I didn’t trust anything the moment Zeldava said this would be easy,” Aesla muttered back.
I mean, you’re not wrong Aesla, but also, words hurt, y’know? I have feelings too.
The gardener pursed his lips and stared coldly at Aesla. "I find it highly strange that a group of fine individuals like yourselves with equally fine weaponry would walk in here demanding to see my liege. I'm afraid I cannot oblige your request."
“Remind me to never use the word easy in a fucking sentence, ever again,” I sighed, rubbing my temples.
“At the very least, let one of us check on him,” Corin said.
“But do we really look that menacing?” Aesla said, a light, sarcastic smile on her face. “This one is right, at least one of us should be enough." She nodded behind her, at Corin.
“I'd agree with the mistress if I were you,” Azazel said. “We were hired for a reason.”
“What if we told you that we were receiving multiple reports of suspicious commotion coming from this estate,” Taz said, barely leaving herself time to breathe between her words, “and were thus commissioned to investigate this, with the intention of learning the cause of such ruckus, to maintain peace with the authorities?" She stared at the man, arms folded.
The gardener set his flowers neatly on the banister, placing his hands on his hips and glaring cold steel at Corin's question. "I cannot allow that, ma'am. Do you know how fast Sir Vollte would have my head if I just allowed every random stranger who walked in the front door to speak to him?" He met Taz's gaze, annoyance on his face, and added, "And I could report a strange group of thugs threatening to break into my lord's estate. I see no evidence to believe your claims, ma'am.”
Corin pushed forward, past Az, stretching her hand out to the Gardener. “I'm Lady Corin Beaufort.”
The gardener stared at her hand for what felt minutes, a flash of nervousness on his face, before he shook her hand. “I... apologize, I didn't realize I was speaking to a noblewoman. I still cannot allow you to enter the house. Surely you must understand the wishes of a noble.”
Our attempts to get past the gardener were interrupted, thank the gods. I’ll admit, I was maybe five minutes from throttling him myself when a loud crash came from the house, like the sound of breaking glass and scattering coins. I narrowed my eyes.
“Fuck! Be careful, dickhead!” The yell was muffled, but there. And… wouldn’t you know it. The gardener was suddenly very nervous, watching the goings-on in the house with wide-eyes and a cold sweat on his brow.
Fucking lying piece of shit wasting my time.
Corin snapped first, stepping forward. “You know something, say it.”
Of course, Aesla acted first. “You damned liar.” She grabbed him by his shirt and hoisted him up. I would have stopped her but, well, it was less violent than what I was going to do, so I let her have her moment.
"I know NOTHING of the sort!” The man’s voice cracked like a pre-pubescent teenager. “I will not stand for this!”
He continued blabbering as we drew our weapons and began making our way to the house, but thank the GODS Ina was here. She paralyzed him, which thankfully shut him up. Now… for our greatest challenge.
A locked door.
I watched them for a few minutes. Corin came up with a brilliant plan to cast silence on the door so we could break it down without making any noise. Ina helped her work out the magic that might be needed. Taz even scouted the place for possible points of entry. Truly wonderful ideas.
If I’m being honest, I probably let it go on too long.
“Guys,” I said. “Shouldn’t we at least see if the gardener has keys first?”
Corin groaned, Az sighed, Aesla shrugged.
“On one hand, you’re right, but on the other, this would be more amusing, no?” Aesla said.
“Amusing, yes,” I said. “But I for one would rather beat the shit out of some murderers than a door, if I had the choice.”
Ina returned a few minutes later with the keys, and then, just like that we were in. And immediately, I sighed.
There was that smell of blood I was so sure I’d gotten to avoid.
We entered the house and were immediately greeted by the smell of blood and the voices of two very stupid thieves.
The blood was stale and rotting, like it had been there for a day or more. The voices were accompanied by the sound of people rummaging through things, as they made small talk about what they were finding.
The first voice, female, had some swagger to it. “Fucking finally, we're branching out. Portals are so much more versatile than smuggling. The new girl is hot and hands on, way better than fucking Eritus.”
The second voice, also female, squeaked excitedly, the sound of metal being pulled from a container. "Yo, look at this thing! It's made of solid gold! Who the fuck buys one of these made of solid gold? He must have had a bunch of kinky mistresses to justify buying this."
I motioned to the stairs on either side of the building. "We could go up both sets of stairs at the same time, ambush them from both sides."
“I might have an idea…” Corin said softly. “Ina and I can go upstairs. I can dispel anything they're doing, Ina can paralyze them that way we can still question them. I can silence the two of us so they can't hear our footsteps.”
Aesla nodded sagely. “I no longer hate magic.”
“I second that,” Azazel said. "Does everyone agree with the plan?”
Taz nodded. “I've got vines, I can grapple a fella. Hopefully."
“If you're both willing to try that, we can,” I said, “but be careful. I'm not sure I like the idea of sending you both up there alone.”
"Perhaps... we go up... one way... and everyone else... goes up the other...” Ina said.
Az and Aesla nodded, and I had to agree, that sounded less worrying to me.
“Fine, but still be careful,” I said, feeling the need to remind people that I expected them not to die. “The Syndicate are summoners, don't forget that.”
With the plan settled, we took our positions on the stairs, snuck up them quietly and…
All hell broke loose.
I couldn’t see what happened on the opposite side of the house, but the Syndicate member on our side, her face hidden behind a mask and wearing medium armor, noticed us almost immediately, while the other one on the opposite side yelled something that seemed to imply the spells against her hadn’t worked.
All I know is one minute I was fighting a jackass with a dagger, and the next a Daedroth had dropped out of the ceiling.
I was getting really, really tired of the Syndicate summoning Daedroth.
Most of us took some wounds, but we ended up relatively well off for a fight against two Syndicate members and a Daedroth. We’d found out what happened to the noble too, since his body parts were strewn about the place like the Daedroth had decided to take up finger painting using the entrails of a dead noble.
And, we even left one alive! Look at us, we’re growing as people!
Aesla pulled our prisoner over so we could question her.
She smacked the woman awake after Ina dropped the paralysis spell, glaring at her. “Good morning.”
The woman in heavy armor flexed her arms, momentarily darting her eyes towards the door and realizing that would probably the last stupid decision she got to make in a long string of stupid decisions. She looked up at Aesla with a nervous smile. "Uh... good morning."
“Now, who sent you to kill this man?” Aesla said, pinning her to the ground with a grasp on both of her shoulders.
There are some scratched out sections of the report, with a note to talk to Valtire about Ina’s behavior.
“Damn, you do this on all first dates?” The woman said with a smirk that nearly rivaled my own. “At least buy me dinner first! You must already know who sent me with all your talk of the Syndicate. And we weren't sent to kill. The noble was just a dumbass and didn't go to his party like he was supposed to."
“I am really close to punching you in the face,” Aesla said. “Why did you chop him to bits? Was it not enough to just kill him?”
The woman never dropped her smirk. “Daedroths tend to do whatever the fuck they want.”
Clearly tired of the woman’s attitude, Aesla looked over at Ina. “Care to paralyze her again?”
I didn’t stop Ina, as I could think of no other questions. With the woman paralyzed, the noble found, and all the details of our contract wrapped up, I collected our hostage and made my way to the magistrate to make my report.
And the entire way there, I couldn’t shake the feeling the Syndicate was just getting started.
Members in Attendance and Deserving of Coin Disbursement:
Aesla Stout
Azazel of Menevia
Corin Beaufort
Ina Ensinma
Taztha Necret
Council Members in Attendance
Zeldava Ellis
