"The Jaw has not returned"
"Nor will he. The Waiting Mouth whispers that he failed. Even now he is
between her teeth."
"What would you have me do?"
"Nothing, the Mouth has spoken, she will send a sixth leg herself.
"All Praise to the Mouth that Waits!"
It had been a poor day at Pavis gates. The Lunars were edgy. The marks
vigilant. No givers. Dren rubbed his empty stomach. No success at begging or
snitching meant no food. At least the Lunar's hand-out house had started up
again, part of the new situation the guards were grumbling about. At 10
and small for his age, the Teelo people would still feed him if fate didn't.
Wait, something unusual. A lone two-horse chariot made its way through the
gate just as the watch sounded days-end. Dusty from a long journey, the
driver looked relaxed, interested, small. The quality of the horses and gear
said that she had more money then Dren would ever see. He checked with the
street spirit as he got ready for his move, the vibe: " leave be - no value."
"Hah!," Dren shot back, "No way! I go," The mark had to have something! Even if
it were only had travel rations or an old dagger. He began to lay out the
approach. A new vibe from the spirit: " Danger!". Dung! The only half-decent
mark to pass by all day and the stupid street spirit was chasing it's tail.
First it says "she's no use". Now, it's putting out Don t touch vibes like
she was a brain-fevered rubble runner eating loco weed. Dren shook his head:
she looked non-descript, harmless, well-off. Dren s eyes and the spirit were
telling him different things. But, nothing to lose, he stood to make a pass.
Usually, if the spirit was helping, no one noticed him more than three paces
away. If he could get that close maybe he could grab something off the open
back of the chariot. He looked up furtively after two steps. Ai! She was
staring right into his eyes, idly rubbing her right thumb on the handle of
leather whip coiled loosely over her shoulder. The street spirit vibed again,
so strong it made his head buzz: Run! .
It hit Dren later, as he scuttled down the alley away from the gate, that once he looked away, he could no longer picture what the mark had looked like. Or what he was riding. Or anything. The vibe was all that was left. Shivering, he promised the street an extra offering next wildday and headed for the ragged line standing at the back of the Lunar temple.
***
Lee ena was nervous. The wine quivered as she carried the flagons up from
the cellar of the Silk 'n Plume. Everybody was nervous since the chaos
invasion. Even after Flintnail and a pile of other priests had come to seal the
hole, everybody had still been nervous. But Lee ena was especially nervous
the last few days. She kept seeing glimmers of motion out of the corner of her
eye. She kept hearing sounds. But when she really looked, there was nothing
there. Or at least nothing she could remember. Maybe it was a Ghost. "No
matter what Margitta says", she thought as she carried the last flagons down
to be filled, "I'm going to the Priest tomorrow." Lee'ena was really nervous.
Especially down here in the cellar. Even with the rubbish gone, and all the
stones and mortar laid into the floor, she was still nervous in the cellar. She
pulled the last flagon full as fast as she could and then set it down on the
floor to reseal the bung. While stooped down she thought she heard it again.
"There! Feet! A pair of feet behind hers on the floor! Who... "
That instant a deft hand reached from behind to pinch her nose shut.
Reflexively she drew a quick breath; and so inhaled instead of screaming as
a burning sharp pain pressed into her ribs.
Margitta walked back to the bar to get the wine. Business had been slow at the Silk 'n Plume since that new Imperial, Deville, had moved in. Few seemed to want to do business with him coming and going. Still it wasn't all bad, at least he wasn't always trying to corner the help like the last Heartlander had. There he came now. Hopefully officer Gimgim and his guest would stay for dinner.
" That's him coming in now, the one in the magenta turban."
"Gaudy... And his companions?"
"The big one and the barbarian came with him. The other just joined them as a
bodyguard and trainer. They are all extremely effective fighters, I have full
dossiers on each of them at my office. You'll want to study them before..."
She cut him off with a minimal gesture. "Thank you, I have learned what I need
to know. "
"Ah....yes. Of course." It had been a long time since anyone had dared be so
curt with Gimgim. He didn't like it. " There, the host approaches to delay him
as I ordered, per your request."
" Good, I will go now."
Gimgim managed to contained his outrage. "This Deville is highly dangerous.
I think it advisable to..."
She cut him off again. "I will not be seen with you again. Do not impede my
work. The Hungry One will not tolerate another lapse. I go."
No one seemed to notice as the strange Jaw, the Sixth Leg, rose and left the
common room through the kitchen door.
Margitta was in a poor mood. All the help had been flighty as newtlings since IT had happened. Now today Lee'ena had gone off to see the whilvishes. First she was flighty, then strange and quiet, then, in the last hour she had suddenly disappeared, (doubtless off to see her no-good boyfriend). To top it off Margitta had had the embarrassment of setting two cups in front of that sarcastic old officer Gimgim as he sat alone in the corner. As usual, he'd said something cutting. Margitta sighed as she turned her attention to the soup for the evening meal, "I'm too young to be losing my wits, or am I?"
Trask climbed the stairs stiffly, still sore from sparring with Onslaught. The
man was a heartless maniac. You had to hand it to him though, Trask had never
seen raw recruits shape up faster. Low laughter and heavy footfalls from the
bottom of the stair. Hrothmir and Onslaught shared a revolting sense of
humor. Good thing Deville had them on orders not to make jokes in public! On
point by force of habit, Trask scanned their hallway at the top of the stairs.
Their suite was the first door on the right. Three doors led to smaller rooms
on the left. One of the scullery maids was cleaning the floor outside the
farthest door. That pig! Trask sneered at the memory of their fellow guest,
what was his name Cleevis? Beevis?. Probably sickened himself at some
debauchery last night and puked in the hall again to avoid the smell of vomit
in his own room! Trask turned to the door and gave the six knocks. Devilled
paused a pace behind while Lissus unbolted the door. A flicker of movement in
the air caught his eye, a sharp crack rent the still hallway then:
A flash of coruscating brilliance and darkness from his right,
Howls, thunder, cacophony,
Overwhelming stench,
Vertigo,
then, an instant later.
Sharp pain in his left side.
The Sixth Leg is a Jaw of Karsht. She serves the highest levels of the cult hierarchy and is little known. Gimgim took a grave risk in insisting to meet her. Her typical assassination mode is to kill a servant approximately her size, use disguise to take her (or his) place, get close to the victim and attack with a missile weapon in a private place.
She has the following Chaotic/Heroic abilities:
Her image is her own - This means that a person has to actively attempt to remember what she looks like and then overcome her POW to retain any memory of her appearance or actions.
Her intentions are not discernable - This means that she does not register on spells such as detect enemies and skills such as detect assassin. Being illuminated, she does also does not register as chaotic.
Her favored assassination weapon is Karsht Teeth. Her throw Karsht teeth skill is close to 200%.
The weapon she used on Devilled was an iron Karsht Tooth enchanted to hold a fist full of the chaos void. When it hits a target for more than 10 points of damage it releases the chaos, which then annihilates every thing within a 1 meter sphere. The effect is, of course, highly variable. I treat it as an extra 2D100 damage to the location hit by the tooth, with a like amount of damage (rolled separately) to adjacent locations and nearby persons and objects. This is a physical effect, armor and protection spell reduce the damage, protections against magic do not. Since chaos is acting directly in this attack, I ruled that the damage could not be directly undone by Divine Intervention. Successful D.I could however route the deceased to the afterlife instead of utter oblivion.
I figure Trask would not be damaged unless very unlucky (Roll POW x 5). Either Hrothmar or Onslaught might be affected, probably not both. As a side effect, the chaos explosion overwhelms the senses of everyone within 5 meters, leaving then incapacitated for a melee turn or so. I figure this is a five POW point one use enchantment.
Since she was prepared for the results of her attack, and knew how many targets to expect, she was able to throw an additional Karsht Tooth at each of the others on strike ranks 3, 8 and 10. These teeth carried a poison which acts against CON at strength 18 and also infects victims with serious Brain Fever.
She knows how to cast enhanced Speedart or the equivalent. And had cast Speedart 5 on all the teeth thrown. This gives +65% to the attack and +15 damage. It also, in my judgement, takes the missile to transonic velocity (hence the crack sound effect) and so destroys flimsy or unbalanced weapons in flight. On the first throw, at Devilled, she was aiming for the chest. Her chance to succeed was approximately 200/2 = 100 (Lower than her sleight skill, so the fact that she was trying to throw with out the motion being seen does not reduce the chance further) + 65 = 165%. She still fails on a roll over 95, and the iron tooth is certainly a weapon that you don t want to fumble!
She plans to leave the inn through the room in front of her as soon as she throws the last tooth. The occupant is either gone or, more probably, dead. She ll find out later if the attack worked, if it didn't, she will try again.
The Sixth Leg is not a very powerful fighter, certainly not in Devilled league. She specializes in stealth and Karsht cult skills. In my Glorantha she will be cornered and killed by a party of Rune-level adventurers during the siege of Whitewall, moments after successfully assassinating King Brian with a similar Iron Tooth. (Being the King, Brian could be retrieved through a Lightbringer Quest to Hell, but that s another story)
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