Design For Living - Malara's Diary - Session 3.3

Unfortunately my target still lives, at this point I feel that the only thing I can honorably do is to discard my original orders and to try and figure out how I can accomplish my kill. It has been decreed by much wiser men than I that he must die, yet the tools I have been given do not do their jobs. This is a troubling development and requires thought, it is possible that the mission would be suspended. Though why then were my orders so explicit. In any even it hardly matters now, I believe that the removal of Atikus would benefit Bloom and the cause of her family, therefore I must find a way to accomplish this.

I must remember that the response of the guards here in Feneval is remarkably efficient, if at any point I need some outsiders for use at home I really must ask Bloom where she gets her staff from, if I am lucky I may even be able to lure some away with some promise. While I am now sworn not to harm Atikus the attitude of his group, as well as his general outlook on things may prove to be useful, indeed things might be much simpler all round if I can work out some way to have someone else land the death blow. Not least the fact that Bloom has a good position here, one that might be more easily secured than the one at home, Mak’ran must still be after my blood or I do not think I would have drawn this assignment. Then again, there is a certain air of, I hesitate to say impending doom but it is worrying. More information is needed both about the target and the local climate before I make any firm decisions, but this is promising.

The Abyss, well if this is as rough as it gets then I should do rather well, I’ve seen more dangerous portal storms than this, there’s that rough patch over by G’kar for example. I must see about importing some of these rabbits actually, they may make good pets if they can be domesticated, cute things. Still on to business, we must find an item of power taken by someone named Brand. Why he has such an odd sounding name is a question best left for later I think. As far as I can gather he, and possibly some of his followers were last seen heading into the Abyss, which from its name is not generally the kind of place that is easy to return from. While the group is aware, if only in a general nature of my mission here Atikus seems to be oblivious, from the general feeling I believe that Tag and Isawa are waiting to see what happens next. Certainly Isawa is not one to cross, though I believe that my general attitude is not one that she finds disfavorable. Certainly the environment around here is hostile though. I would imagine that the natives are also willing to help out with certain problems.

Unfortunately Atikus seems to have the same attitude to stealth as an enraged Triclaw. Why he thinks it is a good idea to blanket the group in an illusion is a mystery to me, with basic precautions they will never know we are here. Then again this isn’t a group that seems to go in for subtlety, certainly they would be in for an interesting time back home, probably a very amusing one as well. To business, Atikus does not deal well with the unusual or unexpected, as I think this little incident of throwing ridiculous amounts of power around to cover a relatively small issue. Guards patrol, its what they do, unfortunately Atikus doesn’t yet seem to have realized that most of the time, patrols are regular, and because of that relatively inattentive. Now I think a psychic rabbit will probably be strange enough to cause some interesting results.

Being dangled by a rope over the Abyss isn’t one of the most pleasant of experiences, still a few facts do present themselves. First of all if Brand is powerful; and all reports are that he was, then he could probably survive in there for a while. Second, the mist seems to absorb energy, so if he did head in there he’s going to be hard to track. Third there is something in the side wall down there, and so far the only people we know of who have come this way are Brand and an unknown number of goons. Helpfully Atikus has let me go, which means that he’s picked up that false image when he tried to mind scan me. Well, now I’m back to being just a rabbit again let me see, there must be something that I can do to inconvenience him, I know that I defiantly don’t want him blundering around down there, just too risky. So at some point sometime soon I am going to need a distraction, and considering the overall goal here the more lethal that distraction is the better.

I must remember to keep on moving when casting spells from cover, or to shift into a dead looking form next time. No scratch that, it might be risky but being dead is probably safer. Anyway my blind charge off the edge of the Abyss will probably cause some confusion but I don’t think that it will be terribly easy for Atikus to explain how a mighty criminal he was hunting eluded him in the form of a rabbit. As he is “Lord Gramble” at the moment. Still while I don’t know exactly where such a being would call home, I think that it would be in a location that is suitably deadly for Atikus to enter.

Its been three days down this tunnel and there is no end in sight, I think at this point I’m going to have to desecrate the corpse. At this point its becoming fairly clear that unless I do so I’m not going to make it out of here, may her spirit find peace and forgive me what harm I might do.

Well. I’m almost ready to attempt to activate whatever it is that this necklace does, I’ve checked the immediate surroundings, rested as much as I can and I’m ready, I hope I’m doing the right thing…

Back at Feneval, which is probably the best of all the possible outcomes, I think the priority right now has to find out who made it back here, who knows if Tag or Isawa made it back here, and I might be in the position of having to tell them that I don’t think Atikus will be coming back, of course if I am in that position there is always the option of massaging the truth at little, but that of course has its own risks. I think the best course is probably to wait and see, if I keep it vague and don’t mention the exact method by which I found the cave hopefully things will work out.

Well, while Atikus is still around; much to my dismay, it would appear that Princess Blooms change of heart towards him may be soon reversed. I find it hard to believe that she appreciates large glass lined craters in the middle of her fine plaza. Still this happy news must be tempered by the fact that Tag’s hand is now very strange looking, I think this may be a sign of things to come. Still I hope that we now have a lead, certainly somebody must have been inside that tunnel at some point. We must find our way back to that tunnel and check it out properly. I don’t have the skills to do it myself but I’m confident that I can lead Tag and Isawa too that location. Or maybe, if we are very lucky, the corpse will have some clues and we will not have to venture back into that blighted place.

Excerpt from the mental diary of Malara, First Circle Assassin.

Malara

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