Fantasy Collab part 5

“Blast these orcs and damn their souls to the furthest depths of the Abyss…” quietly muttered the soft voice in an elvish accent. Battle-worn emerald eyes looked upon the desolate battlefield that now only held the small crater caused by the half-elf spell blade with orcish bodies strewn about, stilled by the everlasting rigor mortis.

Perched on the thin upper branches of a tree, these eyes surveyed the scene for a moment longer before the lithe figure leapt nimbly through the air, flitting from tree to tree until he was far enough from the remaining orc patrols to drop down to the forest floor. His hand instinctively wandered down to his hip holster which held a small, foldable, hand-held crossbow, loaded with class tipped darts filled with a paralyzing poison. Killing an enemy or a target from afar was not Kethryn’s preference. He enjoyed watching the light fade from their eyes.

Crouching in the shadow of the tree as the light was starting to wane was more than enough coverage for the ebon-skinned elf. The enshrouded cloak that he adorned around his shoulders flickered around his body, making him partially transparent. As if he would have needed that in any case. The shadows were his domain.

He would be sure to thank Granak, the old wizard, if he saw him again. Aside from having a stealth cloak that he could use on the surface, his eyes were also spelled. As the light was dimmer, his infravision began to turn sources of heat into bright red spots in his vision. As much as he despised the imperfect vision compared to his natural ability to see perfectly in utter darkness, he did appreciate that when the sun arose, his eyes did not feel like they were going to be scorched right out of his skull. Such was the price of having the heritage of a dark elf.

It was then, the dark elf named Kethryn started off at a run, his light boots barely making a sound as trained steps gracefully stepped on the forest ground without breaking any fallen twigs and barely disturbed the leaves and other foliage. It would be a challenge for even a trained tracker to know he had even been in the forest at all. Such was the way of a Tier’dal assassin. Even with all of the weapons he had strapped to him, he barely made a sound.

Aside from the hand-held crossbow, he had a number of hidden blades slipped into his boots and a few more into concealed wrist sheaths and two larger blades on his thighs. On top of those, he had a number of lightweight throwing daggers running down the front of his leather jerkin, and his most prized possession strapped to his back. It was a weightless spear tipped pole about the size of his forearm, which thanks to gnome ingenuity, was telescopic and could extend out to a length of five feet, which was a head taller than him. At that point, it became a spear which Kethryn was known for his expertise and deadliness with. Any dark elves that had thought to jab at the fact of one of their own used a pole arm soon found themselves face down in the dirt.

Much to Kethryn’s irritation, he had been sent to the surface a little over a year ago, for a few reasons. Being the talented assassin that he was, it was all too easy to accumulate a number of enemies in the dark elf city that was hidden away in the nearby hills, far from prying eyes, deep underground. As such, his primary (and favored employer, so says his coin purse), the Matron Mother herself, sent him to the surface on a ‘mission’ that would be of small benefit to the dark elves as a whole. It would also give him time for grudges against him to be replaced by new ones. Though this didn’t stop the other families from sending him company once in a while.

That aside, the mission concerning the surface was that a clan of orcs that his people frequently used to raid human and elf civilization that they were not concerned about to do themselves had recently stopped reporting in. The Matron and the other reigning families in Traz`banith were not at all pleased and with his ‘convenient’ situation, Kethryn was the perfect candidate for this particular investigation.

“Stealth will be required,” the Matron Mother said. Much to his infinite dismay. He was trained to kill. Now he was doing reconnaissance. To add to his growing boredom and sour disposition, it appeared the orcs he was sent to watch had gone and gotten themselves killed by a couple of elves. That was certainly a surprising event, as much of his time on the surface had been filled with monotony. Unsurprisingly, however, was his desire to jump into the fray and flex his muscles for the first time in five months. It had been getting so dull, he silently had been praying one of the families would send another assassin. But after six never returned, he supposed they stopped wasting their money.


The orcs themselves seemed like they were up to something, during the time before it happened. It was the human city Maiden’s Cross and the tear in the fabric that was… the air itself and the abrupt disappearance of the city. Kethryn had been on his daily patrol of the surrounding area when it happened. With all the speed he could muster, he sprinted back to his post near the orcs when the battled commenced. He had no idea what this meant or who this enemy of humans and elves could be. Another thought that picked at his mind was if this was an enemy of the dark elves as well. It would be something he would have to find out quickly and report back to the Matron.

Too much had been going on lately. Too much. Not that the suspicious activity of the orc clan wasn’t something to clue him into something major happening. They seemed organized, as if someone else had taken command of them. As talented as he was, he could not manage to slip into their main camp to investigate.

Kethryn was close to his mark now and he slowed down, moving with utter silence, becoming like the growing shadows themselves. He deftly jumped and swung into the low branches of a tree next to him and made his way into a good vantage point above the elf that the other one called ‘Ferithar’. He reached down and slipped out his small crossbow and with expert quickness, unfolded it and had his small cartridge of paralysis darts loaded into the bottom. He took steady aim and watched the elf with interest. As the assassin pondered his next move, a small, bemused thought entered his mind. Perhaps the surface will be more exciting than I thought…