"How did you know we plan to kill the royal family!?" Exclaims Zilo in response to Leo's bold introduction.
Fast as a whip Maldrek cracks Zilo upside the head, before looking back at a very wide eyed Leo.
"Whooooa this is bigger than I thought, never mind." Leo turns as if to leave, then spins about into an empty chair with a smile.
"I'm definitely in." May looks Leo up and down and says, "Why? Don't you live here?"
"I live here just like the a rat lives in this bar. Besides, you all seem interesting."
"Why thank you." Responds Alaroc. "I say we let him, he seems like a fine sort."
Cruxis' eyes glow for a moment and he stares daggers at Leo, "No way, your soul is tainted. It's not quite as bad as Maldrek's, but it's not clean, not by a long shot."
Leo leans back, responding, "I'm flattered, but if assassination is the plan, a dirty soul is what you need."
Maldrek looks over to Cruxis with a knowing grin and says, "If he makes you upset, he can't be all bad.... or good I suppose in this case. Either way, Leo was it? What can you bring to the table?"
Leo leans in and snaps his fingers, making a spell book appear out of thin air, this makes Maldrek smile and say, "Secluded Grimoire. I've been looking for that one, so you are a wizard then?"
Leo motions to his hip, with the silver Rhoka blade at his side. "Please! wizards go down if you so much as you insult their mother, I'm a Magus, so you know I can at least take a punch. What's more-"
Leo snaps his fingers again and 3 more of him appear as he casts Mirror Image. all three Leo's say, "My specialty is Transmutations and Illusions, so blending into a royal ball is like second nature to me."
Leo snaps and disperses his clones as Zilo gives a small clap in response. May crosses her arms and side glances Maldrek, saying, "Fine, that was impressive."
Maldrek lets out a sigh and says, "At the very least, we can't risk you knowing our plans so fine Leo, welcome to Swords and Sorcery Inc."
The Magus flips his spellbook about and stows it down into his bag, into the slot made to fit it.
"Anyway Zilo, your plan, what are you going to need?"
"Well that depends on how many of the royals will be there."
Leo chimes in with, "There are 48 members of the royal family, and if this is like their previous balls, then all of them will be in attendance."
Zilo nods to Leo, who gives him a suddenly disinterested thumbs up. Zilo follows up with, "Well then It think that I'll go with contingency 3492b, I'm gonna need some poison and a beautiful woman to act as my lover."
The whole table looks over to May who waves her hand dismissively.
"If this plan depends on me acting as his woman, then it is doomed to fail, no way."
"Don't worry, I got it." Responds Leo, who then turns to Zilo and says, "do you prefer redheads, blondes or brunettes?" Zilo looks the man up and down confused before saying, "Brunettes?"
Leo takes out is little book full of hairs and takes out a long strand of brown hair before clutching it and casting Alter Self and changing into a buxom brunette woman, the rest of the table blinks.
Female Leo smiles and says, "I can't keep in this form for more than a few minutes, is that alright?"
Zilo nods his head and says, "All I need is 30 seconds, so you'll do fine. Now all we need is poison." Maldrek raises his hand and waves, "I actually got someone for that, here he is now."
The group turns to look, but Zilo breaks the wonder when he shouts to the stranger, "Bob! How you been!?"
A man in black approaches the table and sits before tiredly responding, "Quiet." Cruxis looks at Zilo and says, "Bob? Odd name for one looking like him."
Alaroc looks the man over and says, "That's not his name, he doesn't have one, this is an assassin of Deneval." Everyone looks to Alaroc for his explanation.
"A select group of soldier who show skill and supreme loyalty to the crown are selected and trained to become faceless assassins, they are stripped of their names, faces, and answer in one word to all save for those of the Deneval court. It is to keep their motives and identities a mystery should they be captured and questioned. They will die before breaking their vows."
The hooded man motions to Alaroc and says, "Indeed"
Leo smiles and leans into the hooded man's face and says, "Oh I'm gonna have fun with this. What is that thing that tells you how hot or cold it is?"
"Temperature."
"What's a word that sounds like a sound?"
"Onomatopoeia"
"What is the cantrip that arcane users have their apprentices train with."
"Prestidigitation"
Leo leans back again and says, "Wow can't believe he got that, he even pronounced it right."Maldrek gives Leo a quick stink eye then looks back to the assassin.
"We need some poison to kill the royal family, can you lend us some?"
The man's cloak glides along the table and leaves a vial of bubbling green liquid in a vial, then he leaves the table. Zilo waves the man off and shouts, "See ya Bob, let's hang out soon!"
Zilo takes the vial then hands it off to Maldrek and continues with his plan.
"Alright so obviously the king and queen are the prime targets, so I'll need one person to get them aside and make sure that they die in particular."
May raises her hand and says, "I'll do it, its better than being your lover by far."
Zilo smiles and points to May, saying, "Feeling are hurt a bit, but nice pro-activity. You'll need these."
Zilo reaches into his bag and takes out a pair of boots. May sighs and takes them. Leo looks curious, but Maldrek shakes his head as a signal not to go into it.
"Next I need some door watchers, Alaroc, Cruxis, that'll be you two. I need you to make sure that no one leaves that ballroom when the plan kicks off."
Alaroc and Cruxis both bump fists, and Cruxis says, "Every plan needs some muscle."
"I'll drink to that." Says Alaroc before emptying off some ale
Zilo points to the vial with Maldrek.
"Last and most important, Maldrek I need you to go invisible once I give you the signal and put the poison in the punch bowl and wine pitchers, then get out of there and keep an eye out, if things go south, be ready with a back up plan."
Maldrek deposits the vial into his bag and stares at the bag for a bit before responding, "Back up plan, got it."
Zilo then motions to Leo and says, " Once Maldrek puts the poison in the punch and wine Me and Leo will get them to drink it, then we take down the servants and bugger out."
The group of 5 listeners all nod. Zilo claps together his hands.
"Right, everyone get some blue outfits that match mine tomorrow so we all look like a troupe, but not more fancy than mine, so I can keep their attention."
The night passes easily enough, and the others get their hands on some outfits to wear at the event, while Maldrek holds their combat gear in his Bag of Holding.
They waltz up to the door in their attire, with Leo assuming the form of Zilo's woman. They arrive and are stopped at the gate by some guards.
"Halt, this is a private event."
"And we are it's entertainment, Zilo the Master of Strings, at your service."
The guards chat to each other a bit then one heads inside.
"Wait here for the Planner, he'll be here in a moment then you can go set up."
After a few moment the planner arrives and guides the group up to the stage. The room itself has two huge tables along both sides with the stage set up in the south west corner and the entryway set to the south, and the way into the rest of the palace to the north.
The stage luckily enough has a hollow bottom meant for grandiose plays and shows, but for this event, it proved a helpful hiding place so that no one could see Leo changing from man to woman and vice versa.
Everything seemed to be going exactly as planned for the group of assassins. Little did they know that they way that this ball was to go couldn't have been predicted and would be considered one of SSI's biggest Failures/Successes.
No comments:
Post a Comment