-Arkson-

[Archon Torches]

A tall hooded man walked up the streets of Arkson practically unnoticed by the people buzzing around him. Most of them didn't care about anyone these days. The man found his way to a particular bar and walked inside. The room was dimly lit and smelled of stale beer and blood. The man peered around the room, then walked up to the bar and flipped a gold coin onto the counter.
”One shot of the hard stuff... Please”
The bartender glanced at him, and finished the conversation he was having with another man at the bar. He began to walk toward the hooded man and grabbed a bottle off the back wall, along with a small glass, and filled it.
”Not too many people around here say “please” anymore, so what brings you here?”
”Business, maybe you could help me. I’m looking for a certain individual who I need to collect money from for a job I did.”
”Well then, I just might be able to help you out… He leaned in toward the man and simply told him three words, ” Blood Fang Wind”
The hooded man raised his drink and nodded, then gulped it down, stood up, and walked out. He glanced around to make sure nobody was eyeing him, and went around to the back of the building. He approached the cellar door, grabbed the handles, and pulled it open. He climbed down the stairs and closed the doors behind him. There was another door at the bottom of the stairs, which he knocked on three times. There wasn’t an answer, so the man said, ”Blood Fang Wind” and from behind the door came the sound of a plank of wood rubbing against the door, which opened soon afterward. The hooded man entered and walked down a long hallway to the right. There was a fight going on in the bar, he could hear the shouts of men, and soon blood began to drip through a crack in the floorboards. The man simply smiled and continued walking. The floorboards were soon replaced by a stone ceiling as the hallway soon became more like a tunnel, as he had obviously entered the mountain. He drew closer to another door at the end of the tunnel, and as such he started hearing shouts and laughter. He reached his destination and opened the door. Much of the laughter hushed to a dull roar, and many people turned to see who came in. This was the center of the Black Thorns. The Hooded Man continued walking to the back of the large room where Markus Drebin had his “Throne”.
”Markus, it’s good to see you again. I did what you asked of me.”
”I see, and I have what I promised you.” Markus tossed a small bag of gold up to the Hooded Man and continued, ”Your sure the men you hired are up to the job?”
”Very sure, I told them they would receive a large sum of gold if they succeeded.”
”Remind me, which trade ship will they be hiding in?
”They told me that by midnight tonight they will have gone to the Drakonian Port village of Veridia and stowed away in the hull of the “Red Scar”.
”Perfect! The plan is in motion my friend, and soon we’ll have a complete lockdown on the island. Nobody get’s on, nobody get’s off.
”Markus, how exactly will that help your business at all?
”I’m glad you asked that, first off, with the seafront closed, trading will be shut down, which leaves all off-island goods only available here. Second, one of two things will happen, if your men succeed in killing every witness, our precious king will blame the Drakonians, delving them into a war and moving soldiers to battle, leaving the small villages unprotected, loosening the Kings hold on the people. If your men FAIL then it will be viewed as a terrorist threat and strict rules will be set up, upsetting enough people to possibly join a rebellion party.
”A rebellion party? There hasn’t been a rebellion party for years.
”Your not too smart, are you? You see, Isis contains many upsetting groups to the main public. For instance, the Red Council, the Vyl-Mar, and the Viscmir. The Vyl-Mar are a violent group of Drakonians, and we have sold information to them several times. The Viscmir are evil little Lesmir, that use a little creature known as an “L-Pod” which they attach to a host, as you may already know. We have supplied them with Human hosts before. In a way, we have immunity to both of their wraths. But in all truth, I’m just looking for a bit of excitement in this place.”
”In that case, I guess I can only wish you the best of luck. I’m happy to have been the first stage in your plan. Now if you excuse me, I’ll take my gold and see if that fight is still going on upstairs. There’s never a day I’ve left Arkson without spilling another man’s blood
"Before you leave, mind telling me your name? We've done business numerous times before and It would be nice to know who you are, exactly.
"Of course, my name is Karshe Vildrim, and If I need more work, I'll know where to find you.
With that, he took his leave.  

[Archon Torches]

A bar in Arkson

Karshe made his way back to the bar above. Once he opened the doors sounds of men yelling and blades clashing flooded his ears. There were several drunken men in a circle, obviously a fight had been started between only two idiots. Karshe wanted to change that. He made his way to the bar and jumped over to the other side. The bar tender was absent so he grabbed one of the bottles of the shelf and threw it into the ring of men. It smashed on someones head and he turned to look who had thrown in. Karshe pointed to one of the other men in the circle and the drunk believed him, throwing a punch of his own. It wasn't long before even more men were at eachother's throats. Karshe jumped back over the bar and drew his broadsword. He brought it down through a drunk man, spliting him in two halves. The man he was fighting almost thanked him for it, but Karshe put his hand up to the mans face and engulfed his head in a ball of flame, then wrapped a shadow barrier around it so the flame would only consume his head.

Across the room Karshe noticed a Drakonian warrior seeming to hold his own against various drunks as well. One drunk man was about to stab the Drakonian in the back. Karshe took a small orb off his belt and threw it at the drunk. Out of reflex he slashed the ball instead of the drakonian and a fine black powder covered his entire body. In a mater of seconds it burst into flames and the man fell to the floor screaming.  

[Durban59-]

The cold mountains of Isis didn't suit Anhktem as much as he had hoped. Dressed in his usual attire never did suit him in these parts. So, he had to go through the trouble to get himself a large poncho that covered his entire body from shoulders to toes, with a hood to cover his head and horns. Even with all that, he knew he wouldn't enjoy being out in the frigid cold, so he stayed within the tavern, jsut to keep his body out of the icy atmosphere. A tobacco-filled pipe was all he wanted, waving away any offers for drinks or meals or any over 'services' that anyone in the bar would offer. All he wanted was some peace and quiet. However, that seemed to easily go away, thanks to some group of drunken miscrients desiring to show off their manliness to each other by senselessly beating themselves close to death.

However, there was a single Drakonian and a human there that seemed to hold themselves quite well amongst each other. This drew a smile across his face as he saw them do battle. "Well, this should be quite interesting." He told himself. Even more so that a HUMAN managed to be doing fine.  

[Mugentsuki]

Zyx had been wandering for some time when he came across a quiet bar in Arkson, this seemed very unusual to him, but it hardley mattered the reason, any peace and quiet would be fine, as long as it came with cold drink and warm food. As he entered the bar he noticed everybody seemed to be eyeing each other up, something was brewing and it wouldn't take long until it broke out into chaos, but that didn't matter, there would be plenty of time for him to eat and get out. He walked up to the bartender and said, "I could do with a meal, something warm and fast to make, as well as a tall glass of something cold to wash it down, water will do fine." The bartender looked up and asked, "Do you have the means to pay for that?" Zyx slid three silver coins accross the counter. The meal really would be more than payed for by one, but it seems when you pay extra, there are never any questions asked. While Zyx ate his meal the petty squabbles started to begin, you stepped on my foot, you looked at me wrong, you've been asking for it all day, that sort of thing. Shortly after a strange man walked into the bar and ordered a drink. What made this man strange was that he used a word most uncommon these days when ordering. When Zyx finished his meal he got up to walk towards the bartender, intending to ask about the strange man, he didn't know why, but he just had an odd feeling that this man was going to be important, however, he didn't get very far when a drunkard bumped into him and knocked his hood off revealing his pitch black scales. Immediately he had drunks surrounding him each one trying to get a cheap score with thier lady "friends" by using his scales as payment. After all, what drunk in his right mind wouldn't want to brag about slaying a "Vyl-Mar"? Zyx was fighting for a while, his opponents slowly falling one after another, some by his sword, others by a spell he devoloped my combining shadow and corruption to force ones body to decay, very painful, and not at all pleasent. Zyx parried a sword and slapped one man's face, causing the skin to peel away and the flesh underneath to begin eating itself. The spell was weak, so it would only leave a nasty scar and hole with bones showing through, but it wasn't fatal. Zyx prefered not to kill, but the dark hunger was beginning to build inside him and he knew that any moment he wouldn't be able to control it. Zyx knew that his enemies had him flanked and so put up a shadow barrier over his back. He parried and kicked away the two in front, spinning around to confront the one behind him just in time to see the drunkard burst into flames. A quick glance told him that it was the hooded man from earlier who caused the fire, but the scent of burning flesh combined with the sight of the fire caused Zyx to snap, his normally yellow eyes flashed red and he cut down the two who he had parrying earlier. A third approached and Zyx punched him in the face, forcing his decaying spell throught the man's entire head. Before the body hit the ground all that was left from the neck up was a skull. Most of the drunks, after seeing this, were smart enough to avoid the black drakonian. Other's died before they got the chance to attack him. Zyx's eyes shifted back from red to yellow and he looked around seeing that the chaos was pretty much finished on his end, the fools were at least smart enough to stay back from him and so he sat down and waited until the fighting was over.  

[Archon Torches]

Karshe took a quick step back to enjoy the view. Bodies were lying here and there, while many more were dropping. The Drakonian in the corner was doing some disturbingly awesome spells, and rampaged a little. Looking around the room once more, he saw a Lesmir hiding in the shadows of the room. Well, that's no fun He grabbed a nearby drunk man and lifted him by the neck. "Go play with that Lesmir over there, won't you?" He threw the man over to the lesmir, landing directly on the table. Now we shall see how the bug-man fights. There were three drunkards, whom seemed odly sober, who confronted Karshe for throwing thier buddy. He scoffed at the bunch of them, and brought his blade through the first one, impailing him on the broadsword. After which, he rammed the impailed man into his first friend, while the second charged at Karshe with his own blade. Unable to use the broadsword, Karshe quickly sidestepped the attack, and pushed the man onto the ground. The Man hanging on his blade was well dead, so karshe concentrated shadow energy to slice through him completelly, and freeing his sword. The one he hit the dead man with was cowering on his knees, trying to distract him while the other one was crawling up behind Karshe for a sneak attack. It didn't quite work. In fact, the whole scene was getting rather old. Karshe sent a wave of flame, circling around him, and following through with his sword. The two men he had been fighting were a mix of burnt peices while other's surrounding them were scorched by intense heat. The scene was so much quieter now, and Karshe was thirsty, so he made his way behind the bar and mixed up a a few drinks.  

[Durban59-]

Anhktem seemed to be enjoying himself at his table, what with the bar fight and what-not. However, it seemed that somebody and threw him on the table. If anything, this insulted him. The damn human thought that a drunken oaf would serve as a worthy opponent to him? No, this would not do to him at all. Taking the man simply by the collar of his shirt, He slowly rose from his seat and threw the drunken man down in his place. If he was going to fight anybody, it might as well be someone who knew what he was doing. "You seriously think that just an intoxicated idiot like himself would suffice as my opponent?" He asked him, feeling the wood under his feet creak because of his weight. He then removed his blade and stabbed it into the wood so firmly, it would take the same amount of strength to remove it once again. "However, I would love to see how you would fare in combat." He told him, giving his joints a healthy crack as he stood. " Besides, I'm sure that I would be more of a contest then those men." He noted.  

[Archon Torches]

Karshe looked on as the Lesmir tried to pose a threat. Karshe hailed down his drink and wiped his mouth off. "I only wanted you to enjoy yourself, the drunken man was a peace offering and an invitation to join in on our little tussle. As you can see, there are three men left standing in this room. You, the drakonian, and myself. I would have enjoyed seeing you destroy the man I tossed to you, but you picked the route I was expecting, and that was actually challenging someone worth a fight. Call me crazy, but I enjoy making old drunks piss themselves and beg for mercy, but in all honesty they were all too drunk to even do that." He poured himself another drink and filled two more. He motioned the drakonian over to them and put all three drinks on the counter. "So now we have a bit of a situation, we have nobody else here to challenge our strength. So I have a business proposition. I know about a little heist that's about to go down over in Manseer, the port town. Hired mercinaries are planning on raiding the port from a Drakonian ship. I'm certain we can settle our strengths there, and see who can kill the most. After all, Marcinaries are more competant than simple thugs and drunkards. What do the two of you say?" He raised his glass and waited for the other two to respond.  

[Mugentsuki]

The bar was finally silent, and only three people remained standing, including Zyx himself. The bartender was smart enough to get his a** out before the real bloodbath had begun. The strange man from before was mixing drinks behind the counter and chatting pleasently with a rather pissed off looking Lesmir. He poured three drinks and motioned for Zyx to join them. Zyx walked over and listend to the proposal. Well that's all well and good, but I dislike killing, so you will have to count me out of the contest. On the other hand, raiders ussually destroy innocent lives, which is something I cannot let happen. But before we drink to an agreement, Zyx tugged on the Lesmir's sword stuck in the ground and found it would not budge. He glanced quickly at the Lesmir, calculating his strength, then back at the sword. Instead of tugging again and embarrasing himself Zyx sent his decaying magic down the length of the blade into the floor just far enough from the blade to decay the wood and free the blade without any obvious sign of magic even having been used, drew the no longer stuck blade from the floor and offered it back to the Lesmir, and without missing a beat continued, civilized folk don't negotiate deals with weapons drawn.  

[Durban59-]

Now that it was seen that it wasn't meant for an offense towards Anhktem, he just sighed and rubbed his head. "Well, no offense, but I really don't care how you prefer to beat up pissed drunks." He told him. By now, he had begun to calm down, taking his offer into consideration. "Even though you did try to risk having that man throw up all over me, your offer does seem like a good way to earn some money. My wallet's getting a little empty anyways." He told himself, adjusting his poncho to make sure that every part of him was still covered. When the Drakonian offered him his blade back, he was a little touchy for someone to touch his weapon. But after hearing his wise words, he sighed, and offered a small smile. Maybe there were at least a few people that didn't have their minds die out from drinking and murdering. "Smart observation." He told Zyx as he took his blade back and slowly sheathed it.  

[Archon Torches]

He glared at the Drakonian. "With an outlook such as that, I'm surprised you picked Arkson of all places to frequent, not to mention a bar in Arkson. People die here all the time. From what I saw of you earlier, you seemed to enjoy thrashign about and killing those you did. Now then, you don't have to join in on the festivities, but the Lesmir and I will enjoy seeing who is the better fighter. If I were you, bet money on him... after all, he's a Lesmir... a powerful looking one at that. For now though, let's just go there and see what comes up. Chances are there won't be many guards, so the raid might hurt more civilians than anything.. I don't care personally... I'm rather cruel at heart, but generous at mind, and mind you I will pay you both ten gold for every kill you get. I'll make it twenty for you, Drakonian. Seeing as how your not fond of killing." He gave a grin and rose his glass for a toast. "And now for a toast. For good fortune, good times, and a long future." He hailed down his drink and threw the glass off to the side. "For those who agree, drink your drink and follow me." He gave a smirk and headed for the door. He was a rather stubborn man.  

[Mugentsuki]

Zyx felt that he had been cornered with that one, but he also knew that the human would be walking away with a much lighter wallet, not because he desired to kill, but because the shadow inside him seemed to have been getting restless lately, the killings earlier seemed to sate it a little, but he could feel it anticipating the bloodshed yet to come. He downed his drink and followed the human, careful to not break the glass when he put it down. This human may be trouble, and some time may even become an enemy, but for now, he seemed to be doing a good deed, but something just didn't sit right. I have two questions for you, first is "what name do you go by", and second is "how do you know about this heist to such detail?" Zyx eyed the man coldly, waiting to hear his response. Nothing would change the fact that he was going along to stop them, but he wanted to see just how this man would respond.  

[Archon Torches]

"My name is Karshe, and that's all for now, as for how I know so much about this raid, it's only because I was hired to know these things. Again, that's all you need to know about that. Let's just say we're helping a friend of mine by killing these raiders. If we don't and they succeed in the raid, then chances are it will be blamed on the Drakonians. I say this because the raiders are hiding aboard a Drakonian ship. Though the ship is a Kal-Dra ship, most all Drakonians will be subject to racism because of the attack, and we can't have that." A rebellion seemed more interesting than a lockdown of the island. He would have much more fun in a rebellion. For now, he only gave his new friends limited intel of truth, and more leeway of persuasion. The Drakonian seemed to be more 'pure' than he had hoped. Then again, that could possibly be a cover from what he had seen in the bar. As for the Lesmir, his abilities had yet to be seen.

"I should ask of your names as well, seeing as how we'll be traveling together." Giving them a bit of respect and courtesy will also give them a feeling of equality. He would need them to trust him if they were going to be killing several men in a day or so. The ship arives in the morning so they would have to move fast. The Maltir-transit wouldn't frequent Arkson, but he did have a few centi-buggies they could use. The quick and thin Maltir were efficient in fast travel.  

[Durban59-]

After hearing of the racism directed towards the Drakonians, as well as hearing the Drakonian talk about not enjoying any sort of killing, Anhktem didn't really seem to budge. "A life is no different to me, no matter what good or evil it's done.As long as I get my fair share of the payment when this is all over and done with, I don't care who I have to kill or why." He told them as he just watched the human prepare to leave the bar. "Just be sure not to hold me back. I hate customers who can't keep up. If you want a name to call me, then Mr. Bushido will do just fine." He told them both as he made sure his poncho kept the rest of his body covered. The only thing he kept exposed was the yumi bow on his back and the quiver, both of which were strung against his strong back. "Also, you can keep your drink. I don't prefer alcohol. It clouds my senses too much for me to handle." He told Karshe.  

[Archon Torches]

"Suit yourself Bushido, I'll just take your response as an agreement to terms. We should make it to Manseer by Morning, just in time to see the ship come into port. As well I should assure you, there will be too many of them for me to get in your way. Should make for an interesting time, don't you think?" He hopped onto his own centipede-like Maltir and got ready to rush toward their destination, but he waited for the other two before he would just run off.  

[Mugentsuki]

Whenever somebody says "that's all you need to know" there is something else going on behind the scenes. More importantly was the "I was hired" part. A man who sells himself for money could either be a saint, helping others and only accepting jobs when the demands are for bettering society, not likely in this case, or a rutheless mercenary taking jobs that merely bring entertainment, entertainment based in bloodthirsty brawls, this seemed more likely seeing as how the bar fight turned out as it did. "Whatever, I'm in this to help the innocents, I couldn't care less about who gets blamed, especially if it's the Drakonians. The Kal-Dra claim to be centered around knowledge and the gathering of intelligence, but one thing considered forbidden, even if it would advance them immeasurably, and they sentence the innovator to death. Hipocritical fools like them don't deserve the title of Kal-Dra." After his rant Zyx decided to fall silent, but then realized he hadn't yet answered Karshe's question. "Oh, right, my name is Zyx, just Zyx. I have abondoned my title for certain... reasons."