Year 28

Life is good.

Business is going well now thanks to your better locations. More people seem to prefer gambling in an area that smells tolerable for one thing. Madeline also had the goblins build a hidden entrance way topside so folks can now enter directly and not have to muck about through the sewers.

Your new headquarters is also much better than the one you had in the sewers

The only business you left in the sewers was the Yellow Devil Den. Seemed fairly pointless to befoul your new locations with it and it’s users. Better it should stay in the sewers.

Though Madeline actually has told you she has an idea to make a special area for that too since she can easily get the goblin crew to help again. She says she plans to help you out a lot more when she isn’t in school any longer. And graduation for her is coming soon, today in fact.

You never thought you’d ever be visiting where your father went to learn to be a doctor, but you aren’t going to miss Madeline accepting her diploma. You genuinely love her as your relationship has grown. You were a little concerned at first, but you found that while it isn’t perfect, you feel pretty comfortable with her. You even have vivid dreams about her. Almost so real that you aren’t even parted when you sleep. You’ve told her all about your life in Teckleville, and your family. She hopes one day that maybe she can meet them, especially your sister. (You still wonder about all of them from time to time)

While Madeline has talked about her past, she still hasn’t mentioned too much about her family. Not even about her father who you know she isn’t fond of, but you don’t know why exactly. She just mentions she has no contact with her father other than him paying for her education. It’s never a topic she wishes to discuss; she just wants to focus on the future with you, which is fine as far as you’re concerned.

“So how do I look?” you ask.
“Well, you wouldn’t be my type, but you do look dapper in that suit.” Vaughn says.
“I’m crushed. But good, I don’t want to look too out of place at Madeline’s graduation.”
“They grow up so fast huh?” Vaughn snorts.
“Okay, don’t even go there with the dad thing. I’m not even that much older than her. I trust you can look after things here for awhile?”
“Sure boss, no problem.”

You leave Vaughn and head to the surface. You’re not going to walk all the damn way to the university though, so you pay for a horse and buggy to take you there. As you ride, you realize you haven’t really travelled around the city as much since you took control of the Crimson Talons. You’ve mostly been stuck underground most of the time.

When you arrive at the university you don’t have too difficult of a time finding where the ceremony is taking place. The university is very clean and orderly, you briefly imagine your father walking around this place back when he was going here.

Eventually you get to a big open field area with several seats and a stage set up. Others are already seated so you find yourself a chair in the back.

While nobody is staring at you, you still feel a little out of place. You just never thought you’d be at a place of higher learning and attending someone’s graduation ceremony.

As you wait for things to get started, someone sits next to you, when you turn to see who it is, you can’t believe who it is.

“Glad to see you made it to my daughter’s graduation.” Mr. Reynolds says with a smile.
“…you… YOU?! You’re her father?!” you say.
“Yes, and shhh. Don’t make a scene. I’m not here to cause problems.”
“I can’t believe this.”
“I guess she didn’t tell you about me. She never does. (Sigh) Even after all I’ve done for her. Though I suppose if she had talked about me, you would have thought twice about being with her and that would have been a shame…because I know how much you make her happy and she’s going to need that bit of happiness to hang on to where she’s going.”
“What? Where’s she going?”

Mr. Reynolds chuckles a bit.

“She’s going back home of course. Her time here is done, well for now it is anyway.” Mr. Reynolds says.
“What do you mean? Isn’t this city her home?”
“Klyton is just her current place residence, but her real home is…well it’s very different. You might even say it’s a different realm altogether.”

The way Mr. Reynolds smiles at this point makes you completely tense up. You don’t like whatever he’s about to say.

“She’s not human m’boy. Well…not entirely human anyway. She’s a bit of a late bloomer though with her powers, but I love her all the same. Let me ask you something though, has she been appearing in your dreams recently?”
“…yes.” You answer hesitantly.
“Yeah, her mother will probably be coming for her soon.”
“Her mother? I thought her mother was dead.”
“Oh no. I just told her that her mother died in childbirth. Her mother is really a full-blooded succubus. They aren’t known to be maternal until their daughters have already grown up and shown that they’re worthy of their attention. Displayed powers and such. They never much bother with their male children at all though. I should know.”

You have no words.

“Of course most of them just eat their off spring as soon as they give birth to them, but I told that bitch, no daughter of mine was going to be a snack. I’ll admit, I wasn’t the best father probably, but I think between me or being breakfast, well I think I’ll be vindicated once Madeline finds out the truth about herself.” Mr. Reynolds says.
“You don’t think she’ll be even more pissed at you for NOT telling her and it just suddenly being sprung on her like this?” you blurt out.
“…hmmm…y’know I never considered that. Oh well. It isn’t like she’s my only child. My boy Henry starting to show a lot of promise. Can’t wait for him to take over the business someday.”

You almost feel like standing up and shouting Klyton has been infiltrated by demon spawn at this point. However, you’ve got bigger concerns.

“Does Madeline have to return? I mean can’t she resist?” you ask.
“There’s no debate m’boy. She’s going to go. I mean there probably will be an urge to resist at first, but it doesn’t take long before that infernal blood pulls them in and they return to fully embrace their demon powers “
“Always?”
“Well, a few sadly succeed. But I promised her mother long ago that if Madeline ever started to bloom that I would do everything possible to help that process along.”
“But she’s nice! And good!” you say.
“Nice? Good? Ha ha ha ha! That’s a cute. She’s with you, how good can she really be? Plus I know how she killed her old boyfriend with her little goblin influencing powers. Shit, that’s proof right there that’s she’s going to make a fine succubus. She’s already killing boyfriends. Speaking of which, you m’boy have to go.”
“What?”
“You. You have to go. I’m not having my daughter not achieve her rightful destiny by holding on to her misguided love for you. Now, you can stay to see her graduate, but then you need to leave. And I don’t mean just here. You need to leave the city and go some place far away. If you’re dreaming about her, that means she’s already starting to imprint on you. However, she’s probably not strong enough to find you if you the city. By then her mother and maybe even I will have convinced her to embrace her powers.”

You start to say something, but Mr. Reynolds stops you and also grabs your wrist tightly. So tight that it almost feels like he’s going to crush your bones.

“YOU are NOT going to stop this son. Take solace in the fact that you NEVER had a choice.” Mr. Reynolds says in a low firm voice.

Mr. Reynolds is giving off an aura that puts you completely on the edge terror. This isn’t just a normal threat. You’re seeing something new. Something less human, less mortal even. A faint scent also hits your nose, it’s brimstone.

Still despite all this, you do have real feelings for Madeline. Maybe it’s because you left Annah when she was in trouble that you don’t want to do the same thing to Madeline. At the very least, you want to be able to give HER the choice.

“Mr. Reynolds…I love your daughter. I can’t just take off and leave without at least presenting my side to her.” You say, mustering all your courage, which causes a smile from Mr. Reynolds.

“Fair enough, I can respect that, but let me ask you this…are you REALLY willing to go through hell for her son? Now I want you to think VERY carefully before answering. Because IF you are willing to go all in on proving how much you actually do love my daughter, then I need that answer now.”
> No
You realize what Mr. Reynolds is trying to do. He’s trying to talk you into some “contract.”

With some effort you manage to pull your hand free of Mr. Reynold’s grip.

“No.” you say causing a bit of a frown from Mr. Reynolds.
“Hmm, not as stupid as you appear. I can respect that too. But if your answer is no then you will be leaving after all and I don’t think I need to explain why. Madeline’s mother isn’t as nice as I am.”

This is a shitty situation. You don’t want to leave Madeline, but you also don’t want to be on the wrong end of a bunch of violent demons. You aren’t equipped to handle it even with the resources you have at your disposal and you question if any of them would be of any real help if it came down to it anyway. (Besides Vaughn maybe)

To top everything off, you now have to abandon what you got going on here!

You wish you had listened to Zalmora.

You don’t say any more and just get up to leave. As you’re doing this, you make one last glance back at the stage and there you see Madeline accepting her diploma with a big smile. She has no idea what is in store for her.

You manage to catch a buggy back to the slums of Klyton and from there you make your way back to headquarters.

The first thing you do is start opening your safes and hauling out the most precious valuables along with a good stack of gold coins.

“Hey boss, I saw you come back. What’s going on?” Vaughn suddenly asks walking in you.
“Vaughn, this is your lucky day. You’re inheriting everything and it required absolutely no effort on your part other than being more competent than every other Crimson Talon here.” You reply.
“What?”
“As of right now Vaughn, you’re head of the Crimson Talons. Good luck.”
“I am? Wait. Where are you going?”
“Me? I have no idea, but I’m going far away. I won’t be coming back either.”
“Why? Is the militia on your ass? Should I be worried?”
“Hah. The militia. If only it was that simple. No, it’s a little more complicated than that, but no you shouldn’t be worried. However, if Madeline comes by tell her…tell her that I didn’t have a choice and to move on. Okay?”
“Um, okay. So this is goodbye then…(sigh) I have to say it’s starting to get pretty lonely here what with all of the old gang gone.”
“Yeah well, I’m sure you’ll get by. Bye Vaughn.”

Without any more fanfare you leave the Crimson Talon headquarters wondering where to go.

Holgard comes to mind, but there's always some sort of rebellion or power struggle going on there. You'd rather not have to deal with being in the middle of that mess. The Delantium Kingdom is at war with some other nation, so you'd rather avoid the possibility of suddenly getting press ganged or conscripted into military service.

The only other place that comes to mind is Hessla which for one thing is a whole lot closer, but it also still has a reputation of being a haven for thieves, pirates, and other criminal types. At least it’s something you’d be familiar with.

Since you need to put as much distance between you and Klyton, you catch a carriage ride out to the infamous town. The trip to Hessla is surprisingly uneventful.
You half figured you'd at least run into a few idiots trying to rob you on the road, but happily you don’t encounter any problems other than the overly talkative priest of Joachim who is traveling with you thinking that he’s going to bring the light of Joachim to Hessla all by himself.

When you finally get to Hessla, its actually a little nicer looking than you thought it was going to look. You expected it to be filled with run down homes with unsavory types located on every corner. If anything, the town has locations that are fancier looking than some of the better parts of Klyton.

After spending a few days in Hessla you also learn that this place really isn't as disorderly as it's reputation would imply. Granted it's far from being as repressive as Klyton, but there actually is a "force" that makes sure it isn't a free for all. The Hessla Headsmen report directly to the governor who apparently is an ex-pirate that controls everything in town.

If anything the crime is less than one might think mainly because most are pirates and pillaging other places rather than here. You are surprisingly finding the place a bit easy on the pick pocket and theft front, of course a lot of folks are either half drunk or plain drunk most of the time. Also most folks don't seem to own that many personal belongings. You guess with most making their living at sea, they keep essentials on their ships, spend it all on booze and whores or otherwise live a very basic life, so despite you finding the town a bit easy pickings, you aren't getting rich doing it. Shops however are very well protected by the Headsmen since you guess Governor Tolen has a slice of all the businesses here.

Fights are pretty common, though they aren't necessarily always to the death like you'd expect. Just a lot of disagreement and drinking make for a rowdy town. So far you've avoided pissing anyone off and kept a low profile. At first you aren't sure if you're actually going to stay here for long or not, but on your fifth night you have another dream of Madeline.

In the dream she’s very sad and wandering the streets of Klyton calling out and looking for you. You don’t know if that’s what she’s actually doing in real life or you’re just dreaming up the scenario, but needless to say you don’t sleep very well.

The next morning you decide you need to get even further away. Like completely off the mainland. The problem is you have no idea what really lies across the water. You know pirates are raiding something because you’ve heard the stories. Of course the problem with that is you’re not looking for some place to just stop and plunder. You’re looking for a place of relative civilization of where you can get your bearings before deciding what to do with the rest of your life as well as getting away from your demon spawn girlfriend.

You ask around and after exchanging a bit of coin, a Hessla merchant ship (They do exist contrary to popular belief) agrees to take you to Jicol. Apparently it’s a city state on a fairly large island to the west. It’s about the only place that Hessla pirates never fuck with due to the well-trained navy and the fact that Jicol has made it quite clear that any attack on their ships or city will result in total war with Hessla and it isn’t one the pirate town would win.

You spend about a week getting to this new city. The third night aboard the ship, you have faint glimpses of Madeline’s face in your dreams. At first you’re concerned that you’re never going to get far enough, but you have no more dreams for the rest of the trip.

By the time you get settled your first night in Jicol, your dreams are back to normal and you hope they stay that way.

Brand new city. Brand new life. You’ve done it before, now you’ll have to see if you can do it again.
> You time passes...
Year 30

“Okay your qweepa lost. Pay up.” You say.
“Bah, I still think you drug him with Yellow Devil.” Gil says handing over the coin.
“Pfft, I’ve seen what that shit does to people. No way I’d give it to Swifty here.” You say picking up your not so small rodent creature and petting him a couple times.
“How come you don’t enter him in the fights? He’s big enough and his teeth are larger than the average qweepa.” Trent asks.
“Because I’d rather he die of old age than him risk getting ripped to shreds. Besides I’m doing just fine racing him. Anyway, that’s it for me tonight, see you lot next week. Maybe we should play cards or dice next time, it’ll be a fairer fight.”
“Ha ha. Fuck you. Next week.” Gil says waving bye to you.

You leave the qweepa “race track” with your pet and head home.

As you’re walking home you notice that the new owner of Saltwater Supplies are still routinely closing up shop at the same time to go make their prayers to Yag. You think next time you come this way; you’re going to have to pay the store a little visit. While they’ve gone to prayer of course.

Life hasn’t been bad here in Jicol. You still participate in the occasional breaking and entering every now and then, but nowadays you mostly make a living racing your qweepa. Occasionally dice and cards too, but Swifty is a sure thing. Never thought you’d be a rodent racer, but here you are.

Still, sometimes you wonder about your family. How your mother and father are doing and if their lives in Teckleville are better, worse or the same after events that occurred so long ago.

You also wonder about your sister and if she’s still travelling or settled down. Probably not. She was always more of a wanderer at heart. Whatever she’s doing you hope she’s doing well.

You get to your humble abode and suddenly Swifty jumps off your shoulder and scurries away into a nearby crack in a wall.

“Swifty! Come here! Hey!” you shout and go to the crack, but he’s gone. You aren’t too worried since he’s run off like that before, but always comes back. He likes the Delantium cheese you give him too much to ever disappear for good.

Not wishing to spend all night fumbling around in the dark outside looking for a rodent, you head inside your small home.

No sooner have you shut the door when you smell the air. It’s like something is on fire. At first you think it’s your home, but then you realize this isn’t a normal fire smell.

It’s brimstone.

And then you see a pair of eyes in the darkness.

“SHIT!” you shout and go to get the door open, but you’re suddenly pulled back by a clawed hand and slammed to the floor hard.

You desperately go for your flintlock, but that is smacked out of your grip by a tail that whips your hand. Your next attempt is your cutlass, but a cloven hoof puts an end to that attempt by stomping on your hand and breaking it.

You then feel a body drop on your chest and putting all the weight behind it. You cough and try to catch your breath and that’s when you finally see what is attacking you.

A red skinned female demonic form complete with horns, wings, a tail and cloven hooves straddles your chest.

Madeline.

While the rest of her has changed drastically, you’d never forget her face.

“Hello, lover.” She hisses.
“Madeline…didn’t know you were coming…” you say struggling to breathe.
“I thought about visiting you in your dreams, but then I thought the personal touch would be much more satisfying.”
“I can see how you would, but I can’t say I do. Why the hell are you even here and obviously pissed at me?”
“After what you did, you have the balls to ask me that? You fucking LEFT me. Left me with my asshole father and my long lost bitch of a mother! Left me with no explanation or even support!”
“Now that’s not true. I told Vaughn to tell you to…”
“Move on with my life and how you didn’t have a choice. Fuck you. You DID have a choice. You could have stayed! We could have supported each other!”
“No! No we really couldn’t have Madeline. Your father made it quite clear that if he didn’t kill me, your mother sure as hell would have if I didn’t leave. I think it’s pretty obvious what the result would have been. I mean look at you, you’ve obviously embraced your demonic heritage within only two years and I’m NO fucking match for you.”

Madeline briefly looks down at her own body.

“Yes, look at me. I’m a daughter of hell, seducer and destroyer of men, yet I still have these pathetic feelings of love for you. I can’t move on like you suggested. I can’t deal with this separation.”

You’d probably be more scared about what’s going to come next, but the pain in your body is making fear a secondary concern and honestly you knew as soon as you didn’t escape that it was probably all over.

“Shit…do you really have to Madeline? I mean I know it would be difficult, but I’m willing to go back to the way things were with…” you start to say before you get a punch to your face. It feels like being hit by a piece of steel, but immediately after Madeline goes in to kiss you and even cries a bit.

“I’m…sorry…but this is the way it has to be…I loved you and you abandoned me. We can’t go back to the way things were. (Sniffle) But I do know how to make things right.”

Without another word, Madeline starts stripping off your clothing. You’re really not in any condition to stop her, though you do try to feebly get away once. (Which results in another punch) Madeline being a succubus easily manages to get you “ready” and then positions herself on top of your dick and begins to grind against you.

There really isn’t anything pleasurable about any of this, especially how hard Madeline is riding you, tightly squeezing your arms and making unnatural noises the whole time. You also feel like your dick is on fire the entire time. The only thing you can do is hope it ends quickly, which fortunately it does and you soon release.

Afterwards, Madeline then suddenly becomes “gentle” and for a brief moment lies on top of your body.

“Our baby is going to be how I remember the good times with you and I’m going to be an attentive mother no matter what.” She whispers in your ear.
“Mad…” you start to utter before she puts a talon to your lips.
“Goodbye my love.” She says sadly and then with a quick strike of her finger she rips your throat open and licks your blood as you bleed out.


Year 26

“Your school girl would go a lot faster if she was a REAL engineer and didn’t have to leave every once in awhile to go attend classes. And why are we building in two different locations again?” Zalmora asks.
“Because Madeline pointed out that it might be better if we didn’t build everything in one place. Said it would be easier to keep the support structurally sound as well if we didn’t build too big. I think it’s coming along fine so far, though the ceilings are a little low. Guess goblins aren’t used to building them high though.” You respond.
“Considering you’re spending as much money as you are for this shit, I certainly hope she’s at least a good lay.” Zal remarks.
“What? I’m not fucking her.” You say.
“Great. So you’re just wasting money for no gain whatsoever.”
“We’re getting our new locations! By the fucking gods, what the hell is your problem today?”
“My problem is we could have had a real professional do this and probably be done by now. This little school bitch doesn’t know what the fuck is doing and we got goblins running around being the obnoxious little green shits they always are.”
“Actually I haven’t had any problem with any of them.”
“Ugh, they’re fucking annoying.”
“Zal, I’m not going to argue about this anymore. Things are going just fine, you’re just finding shit to nitpick about.”
“Have it your way, but here’s one more for the road. If you REALLY aren’t fucking big tits McRed, you better have a little chat with her because I’ve seen how she acts when you speak with each other. Maybe you’re oblivious, but the girl has a serious crush on you.”
“You’re talking nonsense.” You snort.
“I’m serious. You don’t notice how chipper she is when she speaks to you? How she makes these girly giggles over shit you say which isn’t even funny half the time? How she makes every effort to be very close or even touch your arm or hand when you’re around? If the girl was anymore obvious, she’d have her legs wrapped around you.”

Now that you think about it, Zal isn’t wrong on her observations. Madeline’s personality has been a lot more positive since the first time you met her.

Though it makes you wonder…

“Okay, so say maybe she does, what I find interesting is how you’ve been studying our relationship and interaction. Are you jealous?” you say with a chortle.
“Hah! Typical male ego. You wish. But I’ll tell you who IS jealous, Camid.” Zalmora retorts.
“Camid?”
“Yeah, the repulsive guy in charge of Yellow Devil creation and distribution and stinks of Yellow Devil fumes most of the time? There are already rumors going on about you fucking schoolgirl, I can’t imagine Camid is happy about that, still being her boyfriend and all. I’ve seen this happen before and it never ends well. So if you don’t want a knife suddenly in your back, like I said, you better straighten out this misunderstanding…or at least tell a convincing lie.”
“There’s nothing going on with Madeline!”
“Hey, I’m not the one you have to convince. I’ll leave you to it boss man, I mean we all know you’re the one who runs everything here.” Zal says and leaves.

You hate it when she makes sense.

While you had better things to do today, you probably should talk to both of them and do it now just to get it out of the way.

Since you’re not exactly in the mood to breath in Yellow Devil fumes right now, you decide to go see Madeline first who as far as you know is overseeing work on the other location. You might as well check on that while you’re at it.

After an uneventful walk in the sewers, you get to the location. So far it doesn’t look much different than your future headquarters, though the rooms are bigger.

In the biggest of these rooms, you find Madeline ordering about a few goblins in their native language. It’s weird how they don’t mind taking her orders. When they see you, they move even quicker.

Madeline turns and sees you as well. She smiles and immediately walks quickly over to you.

“You’re here! I didn’t expect to see you so soon after the last time you inspected this place. I would have doubled the work time on it!” Madeline beams. You get the impression that she nearly was going to hug you, but stopped herself.
“No, that’s okay. I’d rather you take a little extra time to make sure everything is secure. So is this room going to be where we hold the fighting games?” you say.
“Yes, that was my intention. I think it might need more expansion, and of course we’re going to make it look better than it currently does, but it’s well on its way!”
“Well I can honestly say you are doing a fine job, and best of all, it isn’t costing me a lot. I gotta talk to you about something though.”
“Me too! But first I have to show you this, come with me!”
“Um, okay.”

Madeline walks ahead of you first, but when you aren’t moving fast enough, she actually pulls your hand in an effort to get you to follow faster.

You soon enter a small partially dug out room that has a single lantern lighting it. You don’t see anything out of the ordinary here.

“Madeline, what…” you start to ask, and before you know it, she’s all over you.

After about a couple of minutes of slobbering over each other, Madeline finally comes up for air.

“You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to do this…” she says and then goes in to try to kiss you again before you stop her.

“Madeline! Hold on! I…can’t…WE can’t do this. I think you’ve gotten the wrong idea!” you exclaim.
“Didn’t seem like it when you had your tongue in my mouth and your hand on my ass a few moments ago.” Madeline says.
“You…you caught me by surprise! I’m only human damn it! Look, you’re obviously a very attractive girl and maybe you’re into me because I’m being supportive in your dreams or something, but we can’t do this.”
“Why not?”
“Well for one thing, you’re Camid’s girlfriend and people are already whispering untrue rumors about us. I mean if you were just some whore, it probably wouldn’t be a big deal because…well whores are a whores and everyone is supposed to be fucking them. But you’re not a whore and you’re in a real relationship with another Crimson Talon. Stealing someone else’s girlfriend is just bad for business. It creates hard feelings and much worse.”
“I don’t understand. You’re dealing drugs, running illegal fights, and other activities but being with someone who would rather be with you is where you draw the line?”
“Well, there’s gotta be a line drawn somewhere. Otherwise this all falls apart. You know, like a support beam for the tunnels you’re building.”
“But you’re the boss, can’t you just do what you want?”
“Well it’s a little more complicated than that. The key to being in charge is also trying not to be hated. And what about Camid? I thought you and he were together.”
“Eh, he was okay at first, but now....well I find him…limited. I’d rather be with you. I like the way I feel when you’re around encouraging me. Camid doesn’t understand anything that I talk about. He just stares at my tits and wants to fuck.”
“How do you know that I’m not doing the same thing?”
“Obviously you aren’t, because if you did, we’d be fucking right now. My point is, I feel like I can at least converse with you about a variety of things. I mean maybe you don’t understand all my technical university speak, but I know you’re at least on my intellectual level.”
“…thanks? I think?”
“Plus…this isn’t just some stupid crush like you probably think it is. You’ve been so nice to me. I think…I think I’m really starting to…”
“Don’t finish that sentence!” you shout.
“Well I can’t help my feelings towards you! Oh I don’t understand why you can’t just kill Camid so we can be together!” Madeline exclaims and then hugs you tightly and trying not to cry.

And that intensified quickly.

“Madeline. (Sigh) Look. You’re experiencing a phase. You don’t seriously want any sort of long term relationship with someone like me. I mean if you think I’m any better than Camid, you’re only thinking that because I find you useful in a capacity that doesn’t involve sex. I’m NOT a nice guy. Just ask anyone. Hell, talk with Zalmora. She’ll be the first one to tell you all my shortcomings.” You say.
“It’s not a phase though…” Madeline says with a quiver in her voice.
“Well if it isn’t, you’re just going to have to get over it anyway. Because WE are not happening. I’m not looking for anyone long term and I don’t want it. It’s not who I am. Apologies.”

Madeline now starts to cry quietly.

“Now if this is just too much for you, I’ll completely understand if you don’t want to work on this project anymore. I can find someone else.” You say.
“(Sniff) No. No…I’ll continue the work. I promised to see this through. I…won’t say anything to Camid either (sniff) I’ll just get over it, like you (sob) said…” Madeline says before crying again.

You haven’t felt nearly this bad since you left Annah back in Teckleville. Still, you feel this is for the best and hopefully Madeline can indeed “get over it” like she claims.

As you leave Madeline to her sadness, you move on to your next unpleasant task and that’s speaking to Camid. You’re not entirely sure how you’re going to tell him though.

After another uneventful walk through the sewers you get to the Yellow Devil Den. For obvious reasons you don’t come here that much, because the place stinks worse than the rest of the sewers and always has junkies hanging around, acting crazy or just slowly melting. Though the melting is a little less now that Camid’s made strides in cutting Yellow Devil with less lethal ingredients and still managed to maintain it’s feel good effects. Still doesn’t make you want to stick around though.

Several Crimson Talons see you and let you in immediately while pushing away any junkies attempting to get in. Doesn’t take you long to find Camid. He’s surprised to see you. Camid and you head to his own little area where the stench of Yellow Devil fumes isn’t burning your nostrils to talk.

You decide to go with a half truth and explain that you’ve been hearing the concerning rumors about you and Madeline and you’re here to dispel them, because it’s not healthy to the organization to have something like that spread around when it isn’t even true in the first place. You explain you have no interest in Madeline other than her work on the project. You even sort of imply you’re actually trying to get back with Zalmora.

Camid seems to react positively to your explanation with no hint of any underlining hostility. He either means it, or he’s subtler than you gave him credit for. Either way, it would seem the matter is closed.

You return to work and later you see Zalmora and Vaughn.

“Well? Did you take care of that business?” Zalmora asks.
“Not that it concerns you, but yes I did. Now let’s move on to other things.” You reply.

The next few days are a little tense and you stay on your guard. You half expect Camid or Madeline to do something crazy, try to kill you, or something that causes problems. None of that happens though.

Weeks pass and while Madeline occasionally gives you a longing glance she never initiates anything. You try to keep your contact short with her. Camid doesn’t act out of the ordinary either when you see him. Neither one mentions their relationship with each other so you assume they’re still together.

Then just when you think everything is settled with this situation, disaster strikes.

“He’s fucking dead?” you exclaim.
“Afraid so boss. Camid was found dead with several large holes in him. Legs, back, chest, head, arms, everywhere.” Vaughn remarks.
“Well what the hell happened?”
“Dunno. Some of the Talons just found him in his room in the den like that. No signs of anyone breaking in or anything.”

Zalmora just looks at you.

“Do I even need to say it?” she asks.
“(Sigh) No. But I’m wondering how she did it exactly. I just don’t see her as a natural killer and Camid wasn’t a push over…wait a minute. Sonofabitch. She used the little green bastards! They follow everything she says. They’re also small and sneaky enough to dig some little passage that only they could get in and then. You said Camid had large holes all over his body. Probably from pick axes.” You say.
“I’m a little lost here, who killed Camid?” Vaughn asks.
“The love of his life, school girl killed him.” Zal says.
“Wait, why?”
“Geez, Vaugh you’re really behind aren’t you? Our glorious leader here turned down her advances a few weeks ago. Surprised the hell out of me too, but messing with another man’s girlfriend isn’t one of the vices he has apparently. It appears though school girl figured out a loop hole and took matters into her own hands.” Zal explains.
“Why couldn’t she have just broke up with Camid?” Vaughn asks.
“Because that still would have caused conflict if the boss got with her. Camid isn’t likely to be the type to just accept seeing someone else with his ex especially so soon and so close. Nope, had to kill him. Only logical play.”

Zal then turns to you.

“Which now I guess means the next step is yours heartbreaker.”
> You dispose of Madeline
This isn’t the work of someone with just a crush. This is obviously an obsession and the fact she got the goblins to do it, means she’s not just crazy she’s dangerous and that’s a bad combination.

You’re not going to be able to reason with her. She’s already proven she’s beyond that. Dismissing her isn’t going to work either. Not to mention she killed one of your productive members. Sure he was an idiot when it came to picking women obviously, but he still did his job and excelled in that area.

She’s going to have to be dealt with in a more permanent manner.

“Zal, Vaughn, come on. We’re going to deal with this crazy bitch and I want you both with me in case she gets ideas to sic her goblin buddies on me.” You say.
“Wait, do we need to kill her? I mean isn’t she important?” Vaughn remarks.
“She might come from money, but her daddy isn’t on the council. At best the militia might do an investigation, but they aren’t going to find her.” You say.
“You sure we’re going to be enough? Should we bring some more guys? There are a lot more goblins than us.” Zal asks.
“We’ll grab a couple more Talons on the way out, but we’re not going to be bushwacked like Camid and I know we’re much better fighters. As soon as we kill a few of those green buggers they’ll probably start running away. We’ll be fine. Now let’s get this shit done.” You say.

You and your “hit squad” head over to the new headquarters dig site. You remember Madeline was doing her overseeing there today.

After entering and walking through several empty rooms and corridors, you find Madeline by herself, just sitting on the ground. She doesn’t get up, she just looks down at the ground. There aren’t any goblins around though, which is strange.

“Hey. I guess you figured out what happened.” Madeline says.
“Damn right I did. Did you really think you were going to get away with it? Did you really think that was going to work?”
“I guess I had hope and I had to try. Stupid I guess.”
“You got that one right too, school girl.” Zal says.
“Where’s your goblin friends?” you ask.
“I sent them away as soon as they told me you were coming. I didn’t want them to get hurt. It wasn’t their fault after all.”
“Wasn’t their fault? Some of them were the ones who killed Camid!” you exclaim and move towards Madeline, but Zal holds you back.

“Wait a minute. What do you mean you sent them away when they told you were coming? How did they even know, we haven’t seen any of them.” Zal asks.

Madeline looks up and stands.

“They didn’t just dig a tunnel into the Yellow Devil Den. They’ve dug tunnels all over the sewers. Mostly under them. Made it easier for them to get around without having to walk about in the actual sewers. They may have also dug some tunnels near your old head quarters…you know, you look very peaceful when you sleep…” Madeline says looking directly at you.

You and everyone else takes a step back. You’re actually a little creeped out now and a lot more concerned.

“Everyone, prepare for an ambush!” you say and you all form a circle expecting goblins to pop up out of secret compartments in the floor and walls.

“I told you I sent them away. They isn’t going to be some big fight. There isn’t going to be a fight at all. This is the end. I wish you could have loved me, the way I love you, but at least we’ll die together, and I guess that’s enough.”

At this point you hear an explosion outside the new headquarter’s entrance. It isn’t a big one, but it’s enough to cause a rumbling and the ceiling of starts to fall to pieces. Vaughn, Zal and the other two Talons instantly run back to the entrance only to find that’s its collapsed and soon so will the rest of this place.

“It’s interesting how with one well place bundle of explosive power can make an otherwise stable structure fall completely apart. I’ll certainly miss finishing my education.” Madeline says in almost a monotone way.

As the rest of your cohorts run around desperately trying to get out of this death trap, you do the only thing you want to do and that’s plunge your sword into Madeline. She puts up no resistance and just touches your face before falling to the ground.

As the clods of dirt and rocks begin to bury you and yours, all you can do is curse loudly to whatever gods may be listening before you are silenced forever.


Something has to be done and the best way to do it is to kill Jake. Not like you were ever friends with him.

“Look, we can’t do nothing and if you aren’t fond of diplomacy, then we need to kill Jake. So who are these independent assassins you know?” you ask.
“Really only know two and out of those two, only one is a proper assassin and I don’t know if it’s even possible with him.” Tom says.

Frustration increases…

“Okay, so tell me about the guy who isn’t a proper assassin.” you ask.
“He goes by the name Olaf. He’s actually an ex-Talon associate but after the fight pits closed down he went back to working as a leg breaker for Mr. Reynolds full time. You familiar with that man?” Tom asks.
“Vaguely. Some sort of moneylender with connections in high places so the militia doesn’t fuck with him. Actually, I think I remember my mother telling me my father’s family was in debt to him at one point.”
“They did with the inn. Actually I even worked for the man briefly before I joined the Talons, but that’s ancient history. Olaf is a big ass ogre who pretty much retired undefeated during his fighting pit days. He’s older of course now, but I don’t doubt that he couldn’t take care of Jake and scare everyone else into submission. Hell, he probably could scare Jake into submission too. He’d probably even do it for free or at the least very cheap. He really likes hurting people.”
“Sounds good, so what’s the catch?”
“Well obviously Mr. Reynolds isn’t going to just let him go wandering off so we’d probably have to pay him and that’s what isn’t going to be cheap. Plus, knowing Mr. Reynolds he’ll have some other weird stipulation. You’ll probably find out when you talk with him. Could be anything.”

This is sounding complicated already. You almost hesitate to ask about the other one.

“Okay, so what about this other guy. The real assassin?” you ask.
“You familiar with Sotakians?” Tom asks.
“Just stories of them being lizard people that live in the swamps and fight with elves all the time.”
“Well, the old boss, Edmond actually acquired an egg and raised a Sotakian from a hatchling. Trained him to be a very literal cold-blooded assassin bodyguard. We all just called him Scales, but he never really had a proper name. He was very loyal too until he had some unknown disagreement with Edmond and just took off. Ed never told anyone to go get him either. Just said to let it go.”
“That doesn’t sound very useful if he disappeared to parts unknown.”
“Oh he didn’t go far. He actually lives in the Klyton sewers. Abandoned part granted, but he’s actually part of the reason why the militia doesn’t patrol down there that much and only in certain areas. Ol’ Scales isn’t very welcoming to intruders to his home.”
“Well how’s this lizard going to be of any help then?”
“Most of the time when Scales got a little obstinate Edmond showed him the broken egg that he hatched from. Not sure why it worked. Maybe it was a reminder that Edmond was the one who helped hatch him or something. Still have the broken egg just in case, you know? Maybe if someone approached him with the broken egg, Scales might be willing to listen to that person. Dunno, who would have the balls to go risk it though.”
“That vicious huh?”
“Let’s just say, Olaf USED to have an equally bad ass barbarian buddy by the name of Silence. Silence didn’t like it when he lost a staring contest to Scales and things got violent. Olaf and Silence were best friends and Olaf didn’t even ATTEMPT to attack Scales when he ripped out Silence’s throat in five seconds. He just left the room and I can’t be certain, but I think he might have even cried. Of course nobody was going to ask. Olaf certainly brutalized folks more than average in the fighting pits over the next few days after that though.”

So those are your choices and they both sound shitty. Honestly, you wish you could just take care of Jake yourself, but Tom is probably right about the fact that something like that isn’t really your specialty, but talking to others and trying to convince them to do what you want is apparently a newer one you’ve acquired or at least one you’ve been thrust into.
> You hire Scales
You must have lost your mind, because you can’t believe you’re actually considering this.

“Fuck it, give me that egg.” You say.
“Seriously?” Tom asks.
“Yeah, I’m serious. I know enough about Mr. Reynolds through my dad that I don’t want to have deal with him. And as you said, he’s probably going to have some sort of weird catch as part of the agreement he isn’t going to reveal until afterwards. At least with the lizard I’ll know where I stand right away.” You say.
“I guess that’s one way of looking at it. Okay kid, I’ll get that egg.”

Tom heads over to one of his safes and after unlocking it, he takes out two green pieces of an oval shaped object, which he then puts together and hands to you. The broken egg is rough to the touch and more solid than you thought it would be.

“While this isn’t as delicate as one might think, still be careful with it. You sure about this? I mean I still don’t think this thing with Jake is that serious.”
“It’s gotta be taken care of and besides, maybe I’ll just be charming enough to convince Scales to join us again.”
“You think big kid, just hope you’re right.”

Tom proceeds to tell you where he thinks Scales makes his home. It actually isn’t too far from the forgotten sewer entrance. Tom goes on to say it might be dangerous just getting to Scales, since that part of the sewers has been non-functional and abandoned for as long as he can remember.

Armed with this knowledge (And a broken egg) Tom wishes you luck before you leave.

On your way out, you’re stopped by Zalmora and Vaughn.

“What’s that? Wait, is that an egg?” Vaughn asks.
“Yeah, I’m going to use it to try to convince Scales to assassinate Jake. Tom said Ed used to do it all the time.” You reply.

Vaughn’s jaw almost drops and expresses obvious disbelief.

“Have you gone completely barmy? I wasn’t here that long while Scales was still around, but even I know damn well that the only reason why Ed even had control over that lizard is because he raised him from that egg! And you can see that didn’t work forever. You go looking for Scales and you’re going to find death!” Vaughn exclaims.
“Why do we need Scales to assassinate Jake anyway? I mean I told you that I think it’s a better idea to just let Jake continue rampaging through the woods to take the heat off of us.” Zal asks.
“Yeah, and I don’t think that it’s a good idea to just let disobedience within the organization to go unpunished like that. Besides, I also thought that given this Scale’s reputation, maybe we could get him to join again.” You say.
“Yep, completely barmy.” Vaughn remarks.
“I agree…but the idea does have some merit. If we did get Scales back, we’d be in a lot better shape, muscle wise at least.” Zal remarks.

Vaughn at this point just shakes his head.

“Okay, I can see this craziness is catching. I’m leaving before I catch it too. See you later, assuming Scales doesn’t eat you, and Zal, I would think that you’d know better than to even entertain this idea.” Vaughn remarks and walks away.

“So…are you coming with me?” you ask Zalmora.
“I didn’t say that actually. I just said your idea has some merit. It’s at least thinking in the long term. Scales could certainly track down Jake and kill him. I would imagine he’d also scare everyone else into coming back or even better a return to following the original plan of sending the spoils of their activities to us on a regular schedule.” Zal says.
“You still really think our organization split up on the outside and inside the city is the best solution?”
“Yes. I really do believe that and I gave my reasons already.”

While she hasn’t offered to go, you get the impression Zal might be more inclined to help you if support her idea, but if Zal wants to help she can come with you with you needing to ask her. You’re not going to barter with her or be some pawn just because you’re sleeping together every once in awhile.

“Well I guess I better head out.” You say.
“Oh. Right. Don’t let me keep you. Just remember, Scales has never been a friendly sort and probably the best way to handle him is to defer to him as the alpha. If he thinks you’re a threat, he’s going to react accordingly. Then again, if he thinks you’re too weak, he might just eat you, but I’m guessing not acting aggressively might help. Anyway, if you even think you’re in grave danger, just get the hell out of there. Be careful okay?” Zal says and starts to leave, but before she does she kisses you goodbye.

That sort of makes you feel more worried than you were before.

You leave the Crimson Talon headquarters and enter the sewers. You never cease hating stomping around down here, but possibly stepping in shit or worse is the least of your concerns right now.

You follow the directions Tom gave you and finally get to the abandoned part of the sewers he mentioned. Actually it doesn’t even look like the rest of the sewers at this point. The tunnel is partially collapsed or has great gaping holes leading to who the hell knows where. Beyond this first tunnel, you can only imagine that it’s going to be in even worse repair.

Using your lantern and your natural agility you continue to make your way, hopping that all this hoping and jumping around isn’t going to break the egg in your pack any more than it already is.

You go through a couple more old collapsed sewer tunnels and then you notice the man made structure is starting to disappear into a crumbling abyss. You also notice how weak the ground (or rather what’s left of it) is in general. One wrong move and you’re probably falling to your death. You cautiously move across what’s left the stone flooring.

You’re doing pretty well until you suddenly hear some noise behind you. At first you think it’s something sinister lurking down here or possibly even Scales himself, but when you hear the word “Shit!” you know the voice immediately and turn around thrusting your lantern ahead.

“Zal?!” you call out.

Your light illuminates enough that you can see a figure far behind you half hanging over the edge of the abyss. She doesn’t answer she’s just struggling to get back up.

“Zal! What the fuck are you doing here?! Wait! I’ll come help you!” you shout.
“No! You stay over there! This fucking floor is weak enough without both of us in the same area.”
“Zal, you’re gonna fall!”
“I’m almost back up, just keep going! I’ll catch up!”
> You go help Zal
She probably came back to help you, you can’t just leave her to struggle.

As quick as you can, you try to make it over to Zal, who keeps telling you to go back.

“Zal, I’m not gonna just…fuuuuuuuuu….”

It’s not a glorious or noble death falling off a collapsing walkway and into a large hole, but that’s exactly what has happened to you.

As you fall, you hear Zal’s voice echo your name in darkness until the sound dissipates leaving you only to fall in dark silence.

You fall for quite a long time, much longer than you thought you would actually. For a brief moment you think maybe you’ve fallen down a bottomless pit.

Such things are typically just heard about in myths and stories, but given the magical world you live in, who is to say they don’t exist somewhere?

Of course that little theory soon comes to an end when you at last do hit the ground. Who knows where the hell you ended up, because you broke every bone and died on impact, but your splattered body didn’t go to waste to whatever was living so far below the ground.


You must have lost your mind, because you can’t believe you’re actually considering this.

“Fuck it, give me that egg.” You say.
“Seriously?” Tom asks.
“Yeah, I’m serious. I know enough about Mr. Reynolds through my dad that I don’t want to have deal with him. And as you said, he’s probably going to have some sort of weird catch as part of the agreement he isn’t going to reveal until afterwards. At least with the lizard I’ll know where I stand right away.” You say.
“I guess that’s one way of looking at it. Okay kid, I’ll get that egg.”

Tom heads over to one of his safes and after unlocking it, he takes out two green pieces of an oval shaped object, which he then puts together and hands to you. The broken egg is rough to the touch and more solid than you thought it would be.

“While this isn’t as delicate as one might think, still be careful with it. You sure about this? I mean I still don’t think this thing with Jake is that serious.”
“It’s gotta be taken care of and besides, maybe I’ll just be charming enough to convince Scales to join us again.”
“You think big kid, just hope you’re right.”

Tom proceeds to tell you where he thinks Scales makes his home. It actually isn’t too far from the forgotten sewer entrance. Tom goes on to say it might be dangerous just getting to Scales, since that part of the sewers has been non-functional and abandoned for as long as he can remember.

Armed with this knowledge (And a broken egg) Tom wishes you luck before you leave.

On your way out, you’re stopped by Zalmora and Vaughn.

“What’s that? Wait, is that an egg?” Vaughn asks.
“Yeah, I’m going to use it to try to convince Scales to assassinate Jake. Tom said Ed used to do it all the time.” You reply.

Vaughn’s jaw almost drops and expresses obvious disbelief.

“Have you gone completely barmy? I wasn’t here that long while Scales was still around, but even I know damn well that the only reason why Ed even had control over that lizard is because he raised him from that egg! And you can see that didn’t work forever. You go looking for Scales and you’re going to find death!” Vaughn exclaims.
“Why do we need Scales to assassinate Jake anyway? I mean I told you that I think it’s a better idea to just let Jake continue rampaging through the woods to take the heat off of us.” Zal asks.
“Yeah, and I don’t think that it’s a good idea to just let disobedience within the organization to go unpunished like that. Besides, I also thought that given this Scale’s reputation, maybe we could get him to join again.” You say.
“Yep, completely barmy.” Vaughn remarks.
“I agree…but the idea does have some merit. If we did get Scales back, we’d be in a lot better shape, muscle wise at least.” Zal remarks.

Vaughn at this point just shakes his head.

“Okay, I can see this craziness is catching. I’m leaving before I catch it too. See you later, assuming Scales doesn’t eat you, and Zal, I would think that you’d know better than to even entertain this idea.” Vaughn remarks and walks away.

“So…are you coming with me?” you ask Zalmora.
“I didn’t say that actually. I just said your idea has some merit. It’s at least thinking in the long term. Scales could certainly track down Jake and kill him. I would imagine he’d also scare everyone else into coming back or even better a return to following the original plan of sending the spoils of their activities to us on a regular schedule.” Zal says.
“You still really think our organization split up on the outside and inside the city is the best solution?”
“Yes. I really do believe that and I gave my reasons already.”

While she hasn’t offered to go, you get the impression Zal might be more inclined to help you if support her idea, but if Zal wants to help she can come with you with you needing to ask her. You’re not going to barter with her or be some pawn just because you’re sleeping together every once in awhile.

“Well I guess I better head out.” You say.
“Oh. Right. Don’t let me keep you. Just remember, Scales has never been a friendly sort and probably the best way to handle him is to defer to him as the alpha. If he thinks you’re a threat, he’s going to react accordingly. Then again, if he thinks you’re too weak, he might just eat you, but I’m guessing not acting aggressively might help. Anyway, if you even think you’re in grave danger, just get the hell out of there. Be careful okay?” Zal says and starts to leave, but before she does she kisses you goodbye.

That sort of makes you feel more worried than you were before.

You leave the Crimson Talon headquarters and enter the sewers. You never cease hating stomping around down here, but possibly stepping in shit or worse is the least of your concerns right now.

You follow the directions Tom gave you and finally get to the abandoned part of the sewers he mentioned. Actually it doesn’t even look like the rest of the sewers at this point. The tunnel is partially collapsed or has great gaping holes leading to who the hell knows where. Beyond this first tunnel, you can only imagine that it’s going to be in even worse repair.

Using your lantern and your natural agility you continue to make your way, hopping that all this hoping and jumping around isn’t going to break the egg in your pack any more than it already is.

You go through a couple more old collapsed sewer tunnels and then you notice the man made structure is starting to disappear into a crumbling abyss. You also notice how weak the ground (or rather what’s left of it) is in general. One wrong move and you’re probably falling to your death. You cautiously move across what’s left the stone flooring.

You’re doing pretty well until you suddenly hear some noise behind you. At first you think it’s something sinister lurking down here or possibly even Scales himself, but when you hear the word “Shit!” you know the voice immediately and turn around thrusting your lantern ahead.

“Zal?!” you call out.

Your light illuminates enough that you can see a figure far behind you half hanging over the edge of the abyss. She doesn’t answer she’s just struggling to get back up.

“Zal! What the fuck are you doing here?! Wait! I’ll come help you!” you shout.
“No! You stay over there! This fucking floor is weak enough without both of us in the same area.”
“Zal, you’re gonna fall!”
“I’m almost back up, just keep going! I’ll catch up!”
> You continue without her
You didn’t tell her to follow you, and you’d rather not linger on this walkway any longer than you have to, so you continue to make your way which soon isn’t as bad for the man made structure of the sewer is gone completely and you’re now heading into what looks like a natural cavern (with solid ground underneath you).

Still, you don’t want to get too far ahead. If Zal did come to help, the least you can do is wait for her.

Eventually Zal solves her own struggle with climbing back up to the walkway and makes her way to your location.

“You okay?” you ask.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” Zalmora replies.
“Now I ask again, what the hell are you doing here?
“Obviously nearly getting myself killed in order to help you because you’re too proud to ask for it.”
“I didn’t ask, because I didn’t need your help!”
“Sure, you don’t. Honestly, I can’t believe Tom let you do this at all. I always thought he liked you.”
“I risk my life every time I go out on a job.”
“True, but this is a lot different. At least on the job you have the necessary skills to pull it off. This is more like a roll of the dice. Not to mention, YOU haven’t even met Scales. If he sees you, he’s likely to just assume you’re an interloper. At least he knows me. Though I’m not sure if he liked, disliked or was indifferent to me. Never could tell what that lizard was thinking in the short time I knew him.”
“What about the egg?”
“Yeah, well let’s hope that’s enough for him not to kill us.”

You and Zal proceed into the natural cavern. After walking a bit, you make a remark that all of this might be pointless anyway and you might just head back because it wasn’t your intention on getting lost in a system of underground tunnels.

Zal doesn’t really argue, but she does ask what you’re going to do about an assassin though. Just as you’re about to answer, you hear a faint noise, which is enough to put you on edge because it’s been eerily quiet down here.

“You hear…ulp!” Zal says and then before your eyes a scaled green claw covers her mouth and another holds a dagger to her throat. You also notice a long tail wrapped around one of her legs and a pair of glinting reptilian eyes shine behind her.

“NO! WAIT! SCALES! I have something for you! Don’t kill her!” you shout and take off your pack in haste while still trying to eye on Zal who looks like she’s trying to remain as calm as she can under the circumstances.

You pull out the two large pieces of the egg and then hold them out.

Scales’ moves forward a bit with Zal still in his clutches. His eyes briefly stare at the egg and then fixate on you again. You can’t tell if he’s angry or what, all you do know is his stare doesn’t put you at ease.

Suddenly, Scales slashes Zal’s neck open and throws her body aside like a rag doll and before you can even shout out he’s grabbed your hands causing the egg pieces to fall to the ground.

As you feel the claws dig into your flesh and Scales give you the predatory stare, all you can think about is how Zal is dead, but you also realize if you’re going to get out of this alive, you’re going to have to continue to talk because it’s very obvious that you’re not fighting your way out of this or running.

“Scales! Please, all we wanted to do is return this egg to you. Edmond is dead. We weren’t following his orders or anything like that. We were going to ask for help, but it’s obvious that you want to be alone. I will go back and never bother you again. You have my word.”

Scales briefly looks down at the egg pieces and then back to you. His head turns a bit as if he’s studying you, then his grip on your hands releases, allowing you to slowly pull them back towards your body.

Scales then crouches down and starts inspecting the egg pieces. You take this as an opportunity to leave and you back away into the darkness, not even taking your lantern. You have no idea how the hell you’re going to safely cross back over that crumbling walkway, but that’s going to have to be another struggle for later.

You turn around and as quick as you can in the darkness put some distance between you and Scales. You don’t look back, though you soon find that you don’t need to because you hear a noise followed by a great whipping force hitting one of your legs which takes you off your feet.

You hit the ground, but you don’t stay there for long because clawed hands soon pick you up. You struggle for one of your daggers, but this is met by what you can only imagine are teeth sinking into your arm. You scream out as Scales sharp teeth not only rip your flesh, but also break bone.

You are thrown to the ground again and then Scales pounces on top of you. You can only see his eyes in this darkness, but it’s the last thing you’re ever going to see.

“Thank you warm blood, but can’t let you leave. Might bring othersss. If dead, people continue to ssstay away. Need peace.” You hear a reptilian voice hiss and then a set of jaws go to for your throat.


Year 21

“The Bloody Smiles are lead by a vicious bandit calling himself the Grinning Man. Nobody has gotten a really good look at him as most don’t survive his attacks, but based on this crude sketch, I implore anyone seeing him to run and contact Klyton militia immediately! This man and his band of cutthroats have been plaguing the roads and the surrounding area for years and hopefully now that his identity is known…”

You suddenly receive one of the many sketches a concerned citizen is handing out. You take one look at the sketch as you walk away from the crowd and shake your head.

“Doesn’t even look like that asshole.” You say and toss it in a nearby bin.

Jake’s job has really been doing the trick as far as distracting the Klyton militia, though maybe it’s been going a little too well. You suggested that Tom to pull him back from this two years ago, but predictably he never did.

Zalmora and Vaughn returned pretty quickly after this plan went into action, though in Zal’s case it seemed to be more because she wanted to get back into regular burglary again. Vaughn said he couldn’t deal with Jake anymore and was getting too crazy.

Now, he’s given himself a nickname, gone on to call his group the Bloody Smiles and doesn’t report back to Tom for months. When he does, he just sends one of the newer Talons with some goods and loot. While Tom as usual is taking a laid back approach to this figuring as long as he’s still sending shit back then everything is good, you question whether Jake is even thinking about the Talons anymore.

Meanwhile, you’ve been more or less successful in building up the Talon’s numbers. Not as much as you’d like, but since you’re the only one doing it, it is what it is. Despite all this extra help however, it’s not being utilized properly. Most of it is being sent to help Jake as his numbers get whittled down every now and then and that’s really a waste you believe.

The ones you insist on keeping around to train are fewer in number and you’re also the only one bothering to train them properly. You never thought you’d be in that sort of position. Occasionally Zal and Vaughn help out, but it’s mostly fallen on you.

Basically, it’s a case where the opportunity to expand is there, but once again Tom is failing to pull the trigger on it. You should be setting up another underground fighting pit, setting up gambling dens or even running a protection racket. Something needs to be done about Jake because the Crimson Talons can’t proceed if half of the members aren’t even Talons anymore and have declared allegiance to another leader.

“Something has to be done about Jake.” You remark.
“Like what?” Vaughn asks.
“I dunno, but Tom can’t just sit on his ass anymore about it. Jake hasn’t done it yet, but it’s only a matter of time before he splits off from the Crimson Talons altogether and takes half of our members that were assigned out there with him. Ideally we could just tell him to come home and his purpose out there is no longer necessary, but I doubt if he’ll listen.”
“So…what? You just going to go in there and tell Tom what he needs to do?” Zalmora asks.
“Someone needs to tell him something! As I remember it was me who told him to start changing shit up last time too.”
“That’s true, but doesn’t that sort of mean you’re sort of responsible of what’s going on with Jake? Pretty sure that’s what Tom will point out as well.” Vaughn says.

You’re about to tell Vaughn to shut the hell up when Zalmora interrupts.

“While you have some good ideas as usual, honestly, I’m not sure why anything needs to be done about him. I say if Jake has split from the Crimson Talons, well that’s more for us.” Zalmora remarks.
“Actually that’s LESS for us since he won’t even be sending his cut anymore.” You say.
“Maybe in the short term, but you’re not thinking long term. The militia hasn’t been as much of a problem in the city for us because they’ve been focused mainly on catching Jake and the rest. That gives us a little more freedom to expand like you said. Hell, now that Jake has foolishly started to give his group their own name, they aren’t even directly connected to the Talons anymore.”
“So? If he gets caught he could still blab his mouth about our secret hideout.”
“Jake’s a lot of things, but he ain’t no rat. Chances are they won’t even take him in alive anyway.”
“Okay, so maybe Jake’s no rat, but what about some of others with him? I mean sure, we’ve all stressed how important loyalty is to the new recruits, but if Jake’s gained their trust somehow, then they’re loyal to him not to the Talons and they aren’t going to think twice about ratting us out to save their own skin.”
“Hmm, you might have a point there.” Vaughn says.
“Look, all I’m saying is Jake not causing shit for us in the city and running around out there like a mad man is better for us. If he’s gone, then the militia is just going to refocus more of their attention on the city again. I mean maybe it might be best to make it an official break up. Let Jake know he can go his way and we go ours. Might diffuse any potential problems with Jake. Dunno if Tom will be into that though.” Zalmora says.
“That’s true too.” Vaughn remarks.

You rub your hands through your hair.

“I dunno. Maybe. Something still needs to be brought up to Tom though.” You say.
“Oh I agree with you on that. It is time to give him a little push again.” Zalmora remarks.
“Well? Aren’t either of you coming in with me?” you ask.
“Um…I hadn’t planned to. I mean it sounds like you’ve got this under control on what to discuss. I think me being there is just going to look like we’re ganging up on him.” Vaughn says.
“Yeah. And as you know, Tom has never been fond of me. So I would be more of a detriment. Just go in and talk to him, you did fine last time remember?” Zalmora says nudging into you a bit.
“(Sigh) Why do I feel like I’m the only one who cares about this organization?”
“Hey! That’s not even true! I just gave you my fucking thoughts on the situation didn’t I? You bring up whatever you want to Tom. I’m sure everything will work out fine, he likes you after all.”

And with that, Zal and Vaughn leave to let you go speak with Tom. You swear you never thought the day would come where you would be known as the “diplomat.” You guess your sister’s charm rubbed off on you just a little bit. You sometimes wonder how she’s doing. Probably better than you are at any rate.

Mentally preparing yourself, you head to Tom’s office, though when you think more about it, you don’t know why you’re mentally preparing yourself. It isn’t like Tom’s going to even threaten to kill you if he doesn’t agree with what you have to say.

At this point you’re practically his second in command anyway and you’re still baffled by this since you haven’t been here nearly as long, though you suppose with all these new folks coming in, you are starting to become a “vet” as it were.

“Hey Tom.” You say entering his office.
“Hey kid, any new blood you need me to check out and make a final decision on?”
“Uh, no not today. I wanted to speak with you about another matter…it’s about Jake.”

Tom’s head drops down briefly with a deep sigh and then he looks up.

“Yeah…I figured it might be getting close to dealing with that situation. Trust me, I HAVE been giving some thought to it, even though I’d rather not.” Tom says.
“Well I’m afraid something is going to have to be done about him. You can’t just have a divided organization with half of it’s members calling themselves something else and primarily pledging allegiance to another leader.” You say.
“Maybe it isn’t that bad! I mean he’s still providing a share of the loot to us right?” Tom says hopefully.
“Perhaps, but think how much longer the intervals are starting to get, not to mention how much is he actually holding back? How long before he just stops sending altogether? No, we have to do something.”
“Are you suggesting an attack? Because while I know around where he’s currently located, I’m not entirely sure of the exact area. He may have even moved since he has to do that a lot anyway. Fairly certain not only would he have the advantage, but even if we win, we’re going to suffer heavy losses which sort of defeats the purpose.”
“I was thinking more of a stealthy assassination.”
“And you’re going to do that?”
“I could try. Maybe I could take a few others with me to help.”
“No offense kid, but even if he didn’t have half our numbers with him and you had help I don’t think you could take Jake. Jake is the best fighter we have and he’s probably only gotten better since being out there. I’m not risking anyone in a foolish assassination attempt, let alone an internal conflict. Although…no…that’s not an option…” Tom says trailing off.
“What? What is it?”
“Well…if we DID go this route, and I’m not saying we are. I know a few outside folks that might be able to do it without problems. Damn, I just wish there was a less messy way of handling this.”
“(Sigh) Well I hate to bring this up, but I have thought of a diplomatic solution which might be possible.” You say.
“Oh?”

You explain to Tom about a potential split with Jake altogether and just letting him go his own way since he seems happier anyway. Tom isn’t too fond of the idea since it no longer means gaining a cut of Jake’s looting profits, but he’s not outright dismissing it. In fact out of all the options, Tom still seems to think the best plan is to do nothing.

At this point, you’re wondering why you’re bothering.
> You diplomacy
Well Zalmora was correct last time with her advice, and you have been on a roll with the whole talking thing lately. Jake would probably jump at the chance to split off from the gang at this point and make his own way.

You explain to Tom in greater detail about how this could be beneficial. Tom is still reluctant on this idea, but as Zal has mentioned several time before, Tom seems to like and trust you so he agrees to your plan.

“So, are you going to be the one to speak with Jake? Because it sure isn’t going to be me. That asshole has gone completely barmy and I’m not risking my life if he’s feeling a little blood thirsty.” Tom says.
“Yeah, but I think I should probably have Zal with me.”
“While I guess he could be more willing to listen with his fuck buddy there, but aren’t YOU her fuck buddy now? Not really a secret, and far be it from me to question your taste in women, but I’m not sure if Jake is going to be exactly pleased to see you anyway, let alone if you’re with his former squeeze.”
“I never got the impression it was serious.”
“That shit doesn’t matter with Jake, you know that. He’ll just be looking for an excuse to cut your throat. In fact, I think you’ve got the right idea sending Zal to speak with him, but I don’t think you should be there at all.”

Tom might have a point there. A really good point actually though he’s probably got the added idea that if shit goes wrong with Jake, then Zal will just be the one who suffers.

“Yeah, I guess. What if Zal refuses though?”
“She ain’t got a fucking choice. She’s going and you’re staying. Last time I remember, I was the boss around here and have the final say.” Tom says with a bit more authority than you’re used to.
“Alright, fine. I’ll inform her…I have to ask though. How come you don’t like Zal?”
“Because she’s an underhanded manipulator.”
“Why not just get rid of her then?”
“Because I don’t deny her skills as a thief and she’s very capable in that regard. The fact is, she wants more power, but for whatever reason she doesn’t want the actual position of being the boss. I assume it’s because then she’d actually have a target on her back. No, much safer to just stand in the shadows and criticize and play mini-puppeteer…sort of like what she’s doing with you.”
“Zal is not manipulating me.”
“Oh no? You don’t think that this little idea that you came up with isn’t some shit she whispered in your ear? Contrary to popular belief around here, I’m not the damn fool people seem to think I am. You don’t think she hasn’t tried her little feminine wiles on me long before you showed up and got me out that cage? So since this is probably all her idea, SHE can be the one to do it!”

You don’t think you’ve ever seen Tom quite so angry before, or at least extremely annoyed. Not wishing for this to get worse, you back away and leave Tom’s office.

You soon meet up with Zal.

“So, how did it go with Tom?” Zalmora asks.
“He says he wants you to go talk with Jake and making a formal split about there being no hard feelings and such.” You say.
“Hm. I see. And you’re not going to be there at all?”
“Tom says he wants me here. Says you’d be better for the job seeing as you have a past with Jake and how he hates me.”
“Well…I suppose I can see the logic in that. (Sigh) Very well, I suppose I can do it. I guess it was sort of my idea in the first place. Guess I better get that old bottle of absinium. Jake’s gonna want a peace offering…and probably something else. Just hope he doesn’t pass out like he always does. Ugh.”
“Zal, you shouldn’t have to go do this if you don’t want to. Why don’t I go instead or we can go together?”

Zal smiles at you and pats you on the face a couple times.

“That’s sweet dear, but if you show up there by yourself, Jake’s gonna kill you. If he see both of us there together, he’ll probably do worse than kill you. And more importantly he could even kill me, so no you’re not going. For once Tom made the right decision even if he’s hoping I probably get killed in the process.” Zal remarks.
“Tom said some pretty interesting things about you.” You say.
“I’m sure he did and I don’t care. I’m sure you can make up your own mind about me. I’m off.”
“Wait, don’t you need to know where Jake even is?”
“I know the general area of where he’s probably located and I know Jake. He’s not going to be hard to find for me. See you later maybe.”

And with those last words, Zalmora takes her leave of you presumably to go gather a few more items before heading out to seek Jake.

You have some mixed feelings about all this, but really this is probably the best way to handle all this.

With that plan in motion, it’s business as usual in the organization.

A week passes and there still isn’t any word from Zal. No word from Jake or anyone from the Bloody Smiles either.

While it isn’t certain that Zal was successful and just stayed or she was killed, what is certain is that enough time has passed that it’s pretty clear that the Bloody Smiles are no longer sending anything back to the Crimson Talons. A “clean break” or not, Jake has gone his own way.

Tom doesn’t seem to care about it anymore. He’s not exactly happy, but he seems to have an “oh well” approach and isn’t concerning himself with the situation any longer.

Almost everyone else in the organization has some thoughts on the matter and most of them aren’t good.

A lot of folks are just planning to go find Jake and follow him instead, a few have just mentioned going independent. Still others have mentioned maybe it’s time for new leadership within the Crimson Talons.

You’re more in favor of ousting Tom. After all you’ve been putting most of the major effort into this organization, while Tom doesn’t seem to give a shit at all and you don’t see why he should be running things if that’s the case.

Not to mention, he’s the one that sucks, why should you leave?

It doesn’t take long before you, Vaughn and a few others confront Tom in his office. He’s pretty surprised.

“Um, has something come up?” Tom asks.
“Yeah, you’re stepping down as head of Crimson Talons. You’re no longer fit to lead.” You say.
“Oh, is that right? And who is? You?”
“This organization could do worse.” You answer.
“Pfft, not much worse.” Tom says.
“Why are we still talking, let’s just gut this old asshole and get on with it.” Camid, one of the younger members shouts.
“Gut him? I thought we were just removing him from power.” Vaughn remarks.
“Well how the hell did you think we were going to do that Vaughn? We can’t just let this asshole walk away! That’s what HE did with Jake and the rest! And that’s why he’s a pussy leader. We do the same thing and we’re pussies too!” Camid remarks.
“Just because the man’s a pussy doesn’t mean we need to kill the guy.”
“Oh big surprise coming from someone who takes dick like a pussy.” Camid shouts.

Vaughn’s temper at this point starts to rise at Camid’s remark and now those two are nearly coming to blows.

While you’re telling them to shut the hell up and focus, you notice that Tom is getting something out of his desk. It’s probably going to be a flintlock pistol.

Wasting no time, you leap halfway across Tom’s desk in an effort to stop him from pulling out a pistol. You were correct as you manage to grab his hand in the drawer and indeed see it grabbing a pistol.

“Let it fucking go!” you say.
“Fuck you!” Tom shouts, but instead of struggling for the pistol he instead grabs a sharp quill off his desk and stabs you deep in the eye with it.

You scream in agony and roll off the desk clutching you face. Despite the pain and the screaming, you manage to pull the quill out of your destroyed eyeball, which makes a sickening squishy sound. Blood leaks out on your face.

By this time however, Tom has gained complete control over the situation and everyone else who was rebelling have stopped doing whatever they were doing and stepped back.

“You fuckers think you can take over? You assholes can’t even get along with each other! And you, I actually liked you kid, but I can see that I was severely wrong on that front. Y’know if you weren’t happy here, you could have just left. I’ve never held anyone here against their will. But no you had to try this shit, well that ain’t happening and now you have to pay. I’m the fucking boss around here and you’re the example.”

And with those last words, Tom makes you an example by shooting you in the other eye. This time the wound is fatal.