oocLast round of posts before I end the thread guys. The follow up will be simply in five days after, on the 30th, of summer. PM if this doesn’t fit your PC’s timescales and we’ll work something out. Also- I plan to take lil’ ol’ darick after the next round and dump him in the cold on the other side of the slums as he’s told me OOC- he’s essentially unconscious the rest of the thread. I’ll be holding him to his word on that :3 We can then have some fun with him.
Noth sighed a moment as the boy tilted over and fell heavily to the ground unconscious before he reached upwards to pour some of the water from his flask over his head to cleanse it of the foul alcoholic beverage the foolish sot had threw into his face. Part of the rogue wanted to slit the boy’s throat out of sheer exasperation for all the trouble he knew he’d cause them all in the future., while another part of him knew the boy’s ability for improvisation in the face of danger is what drew his eye in the first place down at the docks. But still, another part of him, a deeper part of him just wanted to torture him in a slow agonizing death , just for practice of course.
His mind told him to do all of these, and none of them. So he decided on Plan D.
Staying absolutely silent to the rest, Antar stalked up to the unconscious bloke as he drew his kukri blade. He didn’t deviate from what he was doing, no matter what others in the camp cried or did, instead, he slowly checked to see if the boy was actually awake, and found him truly unconscious.
That was good, he frisked the boy, efficiently finding a small pouch around his neck and with a bit of curiousity opened it. It gave a small mildew smell as he pulled out the contents to reveal them in the fires light. The liquid inside the vial was tilted blue, and bore the distinct trace of , ”Poison…” he spoke the word out loud before turning the vial in different directions to take a closer look. Clearing his throat, Noth absentmindedly cautioned the others, “And this boy says I’m an assassin when he is the one carrying this around?” He turned his head towards the Konti, “I don’t think any of its missing from the vial, but I would caution you to abstain from any beverage this boy might have touched.”
Shaking his head disdainfully at the concept of using poison, Noth secured the vial back in the bag before disarming Darik of his weaponry, and then going another step to strip him down to where only his breeches were still upon him. Gathering all the boy’s items he lay them in one stack and turned towards the others, ”Well, after that little ditty I’m not inclined to kill him though I’m not going to let him have a hold of his stuff while in camp. I’ll just return it all later after we discuss the job, but first, I have to beg your indulgence a bit...”
Sheathing his knife, he stood over the unconscious boy and cleared his throat. A few moments later, a rich tenor rang out into the camp, sung with a bit of broguish lilt as Noth began to breath in deeply and use his stomach muscles to propel his voice out into the camp’s night as he started to clap out a slight tempo.
"Roguish debonair I am,
Not an assassin. Boy!
I have good looks and a tan,
You're just a partially grown child,
Whose mother let you run wild...
‘Truth a terror to her you must have been.
But I'm sad to say, that here today,
The one who's a fool won't be me.
Feigning a bit of ire Noth began to shake a finger at the boy on the ground as he continued.
You’re a bonny thief rat, I'll give you that,
With Pluckiness tried and true.
But maybe somewhere in that thick head some sense might come to you:
You’re a rapscallion, a waggish bigliobite, a stain upon the land,
For you let your temper and knavely endeavors get far too much out of hand,
As he sung the first verse of the second stanza he stopped clapping to kneel over the boy. Taking an old coal from the ground he began drawing upon Darik’s face. Little markings like cat whiskers before donning the forehead in a bit of curly cues that bore the faintest resemblance to tufts of wind one might see in scrollwork.
You’ll find one day that you might lose it all.
So perhaps you shall reckon to heed this call,
For you to wake up and realize young pup;
That you are bound for troubled waters.
But I doubt that would happen,
Especially my friend if in the end you end up taking on a bunch of marauders;
At the term , marauders Noth drew a few stick figures with spear like objects in their hands that could have been symbolic of pitchforks if one squinted their eyes and skewed their heads slightly to the left. He followed this by a small squiggle of a stormcloud with lightning bolts coming out of it, sparking fires behind the little stick people that were marching around haphazardly to their own whims.
So Curb your tongue you stupid lout lest someone come and rip it out!
And manner up my boy or you shall find that your eyes have been blind with nary a cure in sight.
For on that day, your body might lay out amongst the waves of Baroque Bay,
A corpse, a deceased, A floater without a head or a name; for one’s actions shall make you perspire.
Just as surely as every day you continue to be a liar.
On Darik’s chin he marked a small “X” at the word of ripping one’s tongue out before translating his penmanship to the an artful spelling of the word, “THIEF” down the length of the boy’s chest in a column of vertical calligraphy that would have made any normal scholar cringe at the lettering’s skewed form.
Just one more moment, I ask a boon to lay this all on the ground;
Forgive me now as I sing out this sound but hopefully this lad might know.
That in Sunberth it’s not best to let his ire grow.
Sadly I think he’ll just lay on the ground and not understand what I mean.
That within three seasons time the rain shall wash his blood clean.
He drew a small skull and crossbones on the boy’s right pectoral, and then translated down the arms a series of runes he made up on the spot. A vast series of circles within circles and arcs of blackened dust grime which met up quite well. He wasn’t sure what he was doing at this point, vaguely remembering to incorporate some of the same sigils that had been drawn on his own body with a dagger when the mage he’d fled from forced reimancy upon hijm. It seemed dark and fitting enough to scare the boy when he woke up. But just to be sure, at the area of the chest where the heart was he drew a blackened spot, which seemed to weep small drawn tears as if from an old tattoo. Though he doubted such stains would be permanent, the first rain would wash them away.
And then his sad and sordid life will be over when the hounds bay.
And people shall ask, “Didn’t you remember the time he danced that day? “
At the boy’s hands, Noth calmly Printed upon the knuckles of the right the word, “F.O.O.L” and on the left the word, “L.I.F.E”. It seemed fitting as he wasn’t really upset with the boy, just trying to teach him a lesson or two about not being a Dek when dealing with others….
On the boy’s legs he scrawled out another vertical line of text, saying “This man is an ASSASSIN????” on one, and “This man is a POISONER” on the other with extra question marks to get the point across to any who found him. In sunberth, that meant he’d have to sneak somewhere to wash up without anyone seeing him, otherwise anyone might just run him through and the daggerhands would surely hang him by the gallows if he was caught with such words on his skin. With the scrawled work done Noth straightened up and stepped back a pace or two to admire his handiwork.
Noth opened his mouth as if to sing one more line before snapping it shut. Brushing off the coal dust from his hands, he turned an amused glare at the others sitting by the fireside, ’Well I guess that’s enough of that foolish malarkey. Anyone else want to sing a tune? Paint some scrawls upon his body with a bit of an old coal like I did? Boy’s got to learn his attitude’s gonna get him killed in sunberth after all. If you guys do want to do anything to him, draw your own little letters, now’s the time. I just vote that afterwards we all ignore him and leave him lying in the dirt, how about you guys? I could use one of your help to drag him outside the camp. Figure a night in the cold might solidify the lesson of not being an arsehat a bit. “
Noth's eyes twinkled with mischief as he brought all of Darik's belongings back with him to the fireside. He stooped a moment to pick up the loaf of bread and the water flask, thrusting them in bob's direction as he sat down. If some got up to torment the unconscious boy, he would not stop them.
In his mind he had already removed the danger the boy placed to the camp by holding him at arrowpoing, dancing himself into a stupor, and then going further to disarm the lad of his weapons, his poison, and the clothes off his back.
To those knowledgeable in body language, they would see the telltale signs that the façade of the previous ‘bullying’ man had been completely washed away as if it was all an act as Antar smiled a genuine smile for the first time as he got down to business. After all he was just like an onion, composed of many layers, and he'd managed this far in life to keep people guessing about himself.
Noth took a glanced at them all, just humming slightly with a mild shrug and began with a few words about the job as if those he'd given leave of being in camp that night had never been interrupted in the first place by the thief. “The job in question I have in mind is a rather simple one. But at least this fellow won’t overhear like he is now. So I’ll be brief- A merchant is looking for people to help him with a problem: his wife apparently may be cheating on him with another man. This means profit for those who keep an eye on the wife, and those who help track down this other suitor of hers. I intend over the next few days if you all are interested: to ask that you help out. Pay is not guaranteed unless we catch the wife in the act and take the suitor’s life. The merchant who is her husband does want us to bring her back to her him in one piece for … whatever he wants to do with her. If you take the job- I will note- if we do find out the woman is cheating on him, what he does with her when we deliver her back: is none of our concern.”
He turned to look all of them in the eye at one point, nodding to each in turn as he met their gaze, “So, Any of you interested in the job? Should have some details by the Thirtieth at the latest. As is, all but that miscreant…” Noth jerked his thumb backwards towards the unconscious Darik, “is welcome to take shelter in the camp for this night. After that, if you really want to stay in the camp more permanently while in sunberth, we'll have to talk though about arrangements. However, I'm sure we’d have to see about you getting yourselves your own tents in time. So, how about it guys? Does the job sound interesting to you? In five days or so, we all might make a bit to help us out.”
oocThis means any monetary sums for the job would be done by levi upon grading of the follow up thread if your interested guys.