Milkman

Sovereign's Will: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game. [CONCLUDED]

With a couple of arrows and a mighty kick from Chounan the spectacle came to a close. It still surprised the fox how much punishment these butcher-knights endured. With his achilles tendons cut he was still standing, with his wrists cut and a sword through his chest the guy was still attacking. It was as if they did not feel any pain at all.

With the fight over Kaito swept the blood off his blade and put it back into its sheet with one swift and graceful motion. This combat was a rather sad and disheartening affair. They where forced to kill people who had been sold into slavery from a young age only to be twisted and abused till the point that they had become mindless fighters for the perverse entertainment of a group of wealthy degenerates.

With most danger gone for now the kitsune switched his attention towards Jazdia. She was their leader and the one that got slammed into a stone pillar with considerable force. ”I know you’re one hell of a tough girl so I am totally not checking up on you to see if you’re ok.” Spoke Kaito joyously as he was doing exactly the opposite thing of what he was saying.

”Do you know who that guy over there is?” Asked the fox as he pointed over his shoulder to the man near the entrance who looked rather banged up. ”He just came out of nowhere as if he was tracking us.”

Sovereign's Will: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game. [CONCLUDED]

Kaito was relieved that Jazdia seemed a bit calmer after he had talked to her. He had kind of expected to get scolded by the elf but much to his surprise she told him not to worry and called him ‘my little fox’. Much time to think or even respond to Jazdia words weren’t given as the elf turned around and kept on moving forward. Leaving the fox behind with a blush on his face.

The spectacle at the end of the tunnel was both terrifying and repulsive. It instantly answered the question on what the slaves in the other room were used for. The black Serpent Guild let them fight to the death for the entertainment of the crowds. And the last victim was turned to shreds by two tigers. Luckily Jazdia took care of those magnificent animals before they could become a threat to Kaito and his companions. However they now found themselves in a rather dangerous situation.

Kaito looked around the large arena. The walls were too high to scale and above them was a large crowd of people that had been enjoying the sight of people killing each other. Despite them being uninvited guests, the commentator just spun it in a way that they would be the next entertainers to prove their merit in the arena.

The fox took a step backwards as their opponents appeared from the other side of the room. Three buff guys with poleaxes and a bunch of midgets with nets to ensnare them. What worried Kaito the most was the fact that there was some magic at play that intervened with his powers. It felt as if he would not be able to use them at all in this arena.

For a moment the Kitsune contemplated if they should retreat. He felt nothing for participating in this kind of entertainment and the odds didn’t look in their favor. Especially with the magical barrier that intervened with their magic. However much time to strategize they didn’t get as the Wirjurgen Crews made the first move.

Two of the midgets threw their nets at Jazdia which she managed to dodge. However at the same time one of the burly men jumped forward and attacked her with his poleaxe. Sending Jazdia crashing into the pillar. They had to move now and move smart, Otherwise the situation would become very bleak.

Ignoring the man who came rushing through the door shouting something about what was going on here, Kaito made his move. Quickly he pushed his wakizashi the first inch out with his left tumb and circled the burly man that had attacked Jazdia, placing himself between the elf and the man. Quickly the fox dashed forward, holding the tsuka with his right hand. Ready to attack with a draw cut while always keeping the other enemies in his peripheral vision.

Just as the kitsune was about to enter the range of the poleaxe, Kaito leaped forward while executing his draw cut. Rather than striking at the man’s body he used his wakizashi to strike at the poleaxe, pushing it aside while continuing to move forwards. Quickly he grabbed his dagger with his left hand and duck to attempt to cut the burly man’s achilles tendon. He wasn’t sure if the move would work but at least it would create an opening for either Chounan or Yvonne to strike and buy some time for Jazdia to retreat to the back.

Sovereign's Will: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game. [CONCLUDED]

Kaito felt relieved as Chounan’s blade stopped right before Jazdia’s neck. The kitsune could not stand to lose the elf as she was one of the few people he genuinely cared for. Just the fact that the samurai attacked his friend angered the fox beyond anything he had ever experienced. It was only after the worst of tension had cleared from the air that Kaito realized that he had pulled out his sword for two thirds out of his sheet already. Kaito hardly ever resorted to violence and the fox pulling his sword was a big thing.

It wasn’t entirely clear to Kaito what happened to Chounan. It was as if he was controlled by his own bloodlust. It could be magic, a Yokai or something far worse. Whatever it was, the fox wasn’t sure if this was only a one time event. The situation seemed resolved for now but Chounan could no longer be trusted. There was no telling if and when he would slip into that state of mind again. It could be today, tomorrow or in ten years. But when he does, it was very likely that no one would be safe.

Kaito wanted to ask if Jazdia was alright but she just stormed off. Cutting through locks and chains furiously and commanding the freed slaves to just ‘leave’. It was clear to the Kitsune that the elf was not herself at this moment. He could see the fury burn in her eyes like an endless raging inferno. She was on a warpath. A path of destruction as she frantically looked for a victim to take her anger out on. It was a path that she would later regret taking.

Kaito took one last look at the kneeling samurai and ripped a piece from his shirt and threw it towards the man.. ”Go patch your arm up. I’ll deal with you later!” Spoke Kaito harsly before storming after the Elf.

When the fox finally caught up with the elf he placed his hand gently on her shoulder. ”Jazdia, wait. You need to calm down. I know you’re angry. And you’re in your right to be. The Black Serpent Guild is a dark place, run by cruel men who deserve every punishment that is on your mind right now but you need to remember why we’re here. We need Gerald alive. We need to approach this with a level head and clarity otherwise this whole mission will become an even greater shit show then the Chounan stunt and things will end badly. For you, for me, for Yvonne and the slaves you just set free.”

Kaito paused and looked the Elf concerned in the eyes. ”Everyone here relies on you to make the decisions, the decisions that make the difference between us completing the mission and making it out alive or running to our deaths. We need you… I need you...the true you. So please calm down.”

Sovereign's Will: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game. [CONCLUDED]

Kaito was the last one to enter the room. For a moment he looked at the corpses. Samurai-san had managed to slay a few slaves who had been chained to a beam with some shuriken. To kill someone with a shuriken was honestly a rather impressive feat. Those things were far too small to actually cause lethal wounds. You had to be really lucky to hit some artery and let the victim bleed out.

However it was clear that the oriental knight had made a huge error of judgment by rushing in and attacking everything that moved. The boss elf was certainly displeased by the act as she reprimanded Chounan instantly.

However there was something wrong with the samurai. It was clear that he wasn’t himself. The empty eyes, the grin on Chounans face made the kitsune feel quite uncomfortable. It felt as if the samurai could explode in senseless violence any moment and Jazdia was the nearest potential victim.

Kaito’s facial expression changed from relaxed and friendly to very serious and laser focused. Instinctively the fox placed his left hand on the top end of the saya and slowly pushed his wakizashi the first inch out. The kitsune would not hesitate to kill the samurai right on this spot if he would lay one finger on the Elf.

However, before resorting to violence, Kaito made one attempt to influence the Samurai’s mind. Dropping his illusionary disguise, the kitsune focused all his power on his charm magic. “Chounan! Snap out of it! you’re stronger than this!” Commanded the fox with his magically infused words in an attempt to get through to Chounan.

Sovereign's Will: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game. [CONCLUDED]

Kaito looked on as Yvonne smashed someone's jaw in with her mace, while Chounan was decapitating the captain with a quick slash of his Katana. And this all happened right after Jazdia had blown a few of the thugs to pieces. It made the fox wonder if he should have killed that thug instead of making him throw away his weapons and have him run for his life.

The Kitsune looked around and noticed that they had gained control of the courtyard. The Black Serpent members that had been present outside had all been taking care off and his group did not seem to have sustained any injuries. So far the operation went well. However inside the headquarters there might be more thugs waiting for them. The explosion in their courtyard should have been heard by the ones inside.

Kaito made his way back to Jazdia as it was time to start the next phase.. “That went pretty smooth so far. Can you see what awaits us inside? I can go in as the captain if needed.” Spoke Kaito as he pointed at the bodiless head of the man Chounan had just killed.

Sovereign's Will: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game. [CONCLUDED]

The moment the fatso let them in, a violent brawl broke out in the courtyard. Yvonne was macing people in the abdomen and the elf was shooting her explosive arrow right in the middle of a group of thugs. It was clear that blood would flow tonight, however that does not mean that Kaito would be the one to draw it when it wasn’t necessary.

The fox quickly assessed the situation. Three thugs were coming for Yvonne and 3 others were making their way towards Chounan. The Kitsune was confident that those two could hold their own against a bunch of thugs. They worked under Jazdia afterall.

The elf had dealt with most thugs that were armed with crossbows. Some of them looked pretty dead while others were injured. However one was left standing and trying frantically to reload. Kaito didn’t feel like getting shot at so he blew on his fingers and shouted “Get him, Fenrir!”

An illusionary grey direwolf came rushing through the door, avoiding the other combattants and charged the thug who accidently released his crossbow bolt from sheer shock and surprise to only hit the wall. The wolf quickly cornered the now terrified thug while Kaito shouted “You don’t have to die in a place like this, you know? If you throw your weapons over the wall now, my buddy Fenrir here won’t bite your face off. But if you don’t comply or try to fight, you will end up as a wolf snack. And that is a nasty way to meet your end”

The illusionary wolf showed his teeth and growled loudly as he positioned himself to attack. Quickly the thug threw away his weapons and raised his hands in the air while crying “Please don’t let that beast bite me. I surrender, I surrender!!”

“Smart choice there buddy.” Smiled Kaito as he made his way towards the thug while avoiding his comrades who seemed to be too preoccupied with fighting Chounan and Yvonne to notice him. Not to mention that there also was still an elf with a bow pointing at them.

“Good boy”Spoke Kaito softly as he patted his illusionary wolf on the back. “No nom nom unless he moves, got it?”

Kaito looked at the man in front of him who was pale and shaking from anxiety. He truly believed that there was a big, mean looking wolf in front of him that would bite him in the face when he would make a sudden move. Looking at the poor sod, Kitsune decided that he might be useful. Maybe he has some intel on how much people were actually inside or the whereabouts of Gerald. The fox infused his words with his charming magic “Honestly, I’m not much of a fan of all this violence. Why don’t we sit this one out pal? Just us living to see another day. Sounds good, right?”

Sovereign's Will: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game. [CONCLUDED]

Kaito listened quietly as Jazdia put him in his place. She was right, whatever happens he would manage. For the fox it was easy to slip away and lay low. Not many bridges to burn, maybe just one. The others had more to lose, or so he assumed.

“Alright, storming through the front door and kicking ass it is!” Spoke Kaito as the elf was done with addressing his concerns.

He watched quietly as the others retreated to get some rest. At the eve of battle the kitsune always felt a bit too restless to sleep. It was not that he necessarily felt afraid or doubted his own skills. It was more that he just didn’t like combat. The fox simply did not get any enjoyment out of the act.

Kaito ordered a bottle of hot sake, kicked the seat back a bit and placed his feet on the neatly cleaned table. In that pose he waited for the others to come back

Sovereign's Will: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game. [CONCLUDED]

Kaito listened quietly to Jazdia’s plan. It was pretty audacious to just blitz in through the front door, grab the man and get out. However if they could manage to lure away enough people, they might make it to the target and get out. However, the aftermath could become problematic. The Black Serpent’s guild would see it as a declaration of war.

“I think it is plausible. With the distraction and the element of surprise to actually get in and get out. No one in the Black Serpent guild is going to expect anyone storming through the front door. So far so good. But the plan hinges on if we can find evidence of their involvement and if we can persuade the royal court to make a move. If we fail on that second part we’ll have the entire guild coming for our heads. I doubt constable Delving would be very pleased to raid the Black Serpent guild for us after today, in the case he’s not involved with them himself. Who do we present the evidence to?”

Sovereign's Will: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game. [CONCLUDED]

Kaito watched how constable Delving stormed off. The situation seemed resolved for now. The Fox was pretty sure that Aaron Delving would make a fuss about it in the future but that would be a problem for later. For now it was good enough that they managed to get out without being hurt or thrown into the dungeon while still getting some information from the crime scene. However the fact that contable Delving was so unhappy with them snooping around raised suspicion with Kaito.

The Kitsune quietly followed Jazdia and the others to her restaurant. As they entered it was clear that Lucas and Jazdia’s group were the only ones in the establishment. With the thick curtains closed and no patreons around Kaito felt comfortable enough to show his true form. “Aah, it feels good to be myself once in a while.” Spoke Kaito joyously as he ended the illusions that obscured his fox ears and tail while waving at Lucas.

The fox’s eyes followed the young bartender as he poured the tea and placed the deliciously smelling spekkoek on the table. He quickly took a sip from the tea and a bite of the spekkoek. People had their opinion about the Angel’s Share but the sweets were top notch just as the service.

“How can I be of service?” Asked Lucas as he looked at the group.

“Well, I can think of a few ways.” Spoke Kaito with a smirk as he playfully wagged his tail. “but…Jaz always demands of me that I am on my utmost best behavior when I’m here so I’ll just have to settle for the chicken and fried tofu again.” Said the fox as he playfully pretended to be dissapointed. “And don’t listen to this angry lady over here, she has no idea how great your hot leaf juice tastes.”

As Jazdia gestured to sit down, but a comment from Yvonne grabbed the Kitsune’s attention. Following her eyes, Kaito noticed the calendar with a rather revealing picture of a certain elf. He could not help but to smile about it. He had always thought that Jazdia would not even be remotely interested in doing such a thing. Judging from her annoyed look on the picture she was clearly out of her comfort zone. It made the Kitsune wonder what kind of coercion the creator of the calendar used on Jazdia. Even more interesting was the fact that the calendar was still hanging in plain sight. Lucas must have some strange magical powers to be able to get away with it.

“Wow, that swimsuit looks good on you, Jazdia.” Spoke Kaito as he gave the elf a genuine compliment. “I never expected you to be into such stuff. I guess you have a wild side after all.” Spoke Kaito as he finally sat down at the table.

As usual the elf directly started to talk business and this time it was the Black Serpent guild. It was pretty clear that they were somehow involved in the assasination attempt. But how exactly and if they indeed had some connection with the royal guards wasn’t entirely clear. “Aah yes. The black Serpent guild. Friendly bunch of people, except when you want to get a share of the spice trade. Then you end up six feet under. They practically own the streets of Rascade. Most shops, traders and artisans pay them protection money. If you don’t, you will get in trouble. They walk a fine line between enforcing their rule and attracting too much attention from the guards.”

Kaito paused a bit before he continued. “I think they have around 500 members in and around Rascade. Many of them get recruited from orphanages at a young age or where homeless kids. The guild offers them protection, purpose and a family like bond. They let them start out with running small errands, pickpocketing and later on enforcing their rule on the markets. Some others were recruited at later ages because they offer specific skills. The organization is strictly hierarchical. Their top brass are called dragons. There are 3 dragons, each has their own area of responsibility.”

Kaito raised his hand and an illusionary mugshot formed above it. The illusion showed a male human with well formed facial features and well kept long gray hair. “This is Gerald Grey. He’s the current ancient dragon, highest leader of the Black Serpent Guild. He has a large tattoo of a black serpent acros his arms and back. The tail end starts at his left hand and the head of the serpent is at his right hand. He joined the black serpents around 38 years ago. He was in his early teens back then. By the time he was 21 he attained the position of Dragon. He has been the ancient dragon for 20 years now. Nobody knows where he came from, however he is an extremely powerful man.”

“The Black Serpent guild owns many properties in Rascade and the city's outskirts. Many are warehouses for the various goods they trade in, others are used for housing members, gambling dens, taverns, brothels. You name it and they have a few of them. Their main base of operations is the old Royal Rascade Trading company building just behind the market. The ground floor acts like a lousy tavern called the Drunken Dragon. 90% of the people you see hanging around in the tavern are guild members. The other ten percent are there to do business with the guild. At the back of the tavern is a door that gives access to the backrooms and other floors. The top floor is where Gerald Grey holds office. The rest of the space is mostly office spaces, meeting halls and stuff like that. The basement is absolutely off limits for everyone except the dragons. The door that gives access to that area is sealed off with powerful magic.”

“Usually there are a few dozen members hanging around in the tavern. Those guys are the run of the mill small time crooks. The door that gives access to the rest of the building is always guarded by one or two people. The people selected for that job are competent and not easily fooled. The headquarters also holds a dozen or so staff. These people are mostly administrators as many of the guilds activities are at least pretending to be legal businesses. The offices of the dragons are always guarded by at least two guards if they are on site. However the lower dragons do much of the important deal making in the city and beyond. Their whereabouts are unknown”

“If we want to find some information that can link the involvement of the black serpent guild to the assasination attempt on the king we’ll need to get into their headquarters. There are basically two ways in. First we can walk in through the front door of the tavern for all to see and ask to do business with the dragons. We’ll be needing a serious business proposal. I heard some whispers that the Black Serpents are looking for high end slaves. You know, people with speciality skills or dashingly good looks, like an elven beauty.” Spoke Kaito as he looked at Jazdia. The fox was pretty blatantly implying that they could use their leader as a pretend bargaining chip to get in. A plan that might be good enough to get in, but getting out would be difficult.

“Or we can try to sneak in at night. There is a small window in the back alley that leads to the staircase to the basement. Slender people like us can squirm through it. Chounan will need to keep his armor home. The door at the bottom is the magically sealed door. The door at the top of the staircase only has a regular lock that I can pick. After that we can look around a bit in the office spaces. The headquarter staff will be home at night and the dragons all have mansions in the best parts of the city and are unlikely to be around either. We only have to watch out for the guards that are patrolling the place. However, if we get caught we’re toast. The dragons simply cannot allow such a transgression to go unpunished. They have a reputation to keep up. We’ll suffer a horrible slow and painful death and will never be heard from again.”

The fox paused once more as he was sharing a lot of information about a criminal organization that was supposed to be rather secretive. He was sure that his companions would certainly have questions on how he knew so much about the inner workings of the Black Serpent guild. “Any questions?”

Sovereign's Will: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game. [CONCLUDED]

The situation was escalating at a rapid pace. Constable Delving was hellbound on asserting his authority to the point that he even refused to take a look at the official documents which had the king’s seal on it. To Kaito the Constable’s behavior was rather suspicious. It almost looked like he wanted these nosy trespassers out of the scene at all cost. Could be an ego thing or something far more sinister.

This whole situation would be extremely funny if you could watch it from the sidelines. However the fox found himself on the frontline with a dozen pointy sticks facing in their direction. A rather peculiar situation he’d rather not be in. Getting turned into fox-kebab wasn’t something Kaito was looking forward to so the kitsune remained on guard all the time. Making sure he could dodge whatever the constable and his men would throw at him.

“Whoa, no need to turn violent here. There have already died more than enough good men on this sacred ground in service of his majesty in the past few days. The last thing we need is that we start fighting amongst ourselves with all the events that have transpired here recently. No need to lose your heads here. If we could all keep our calm I’m pretty sure we can work things out if you guys could read the document. Just like you royal guards, we are loyal servants of King Fredericus.” Spoke Kaito to the constable’s men in an attempt to de-escalate the situation.