Once he was able to calm himself down and quit laughing, Sartorous gathered his things up and set off deeper into the forest. After a few hours' worth of hiking, Sartorous came upon a clearing. Since the canopy in the clearing was thinner than the rest of the forest, he was able to see the sky and sun overhead. From its position in the sky, Sartorous determined that it was about midday. He turned his head from the sky to the trees on his right. He had heard a twig snap. Something was there.
The next second a Young Owlbear came charging out of the trees on all fours straight at him. Thanks to his new powers, he was able to move quick enough to throw two throwing knives into the beast before rolling away from it. Rolling up to his feet, Sartorous turned to face the creature. It charged again with Sartorous's throwing knives sticking out of its flesh; one lodged in its left shoulder and the second a bit lower down its left leg.
Sartorous ran straight at the Young Owlbear. As the two neared each other, Sartorous slid across the ground, slipping under the raging Owlbear. In the middle of sliding underneath of it, Sartorous pulled one of his throwing knives free of its sheath and sunk it into the creature's underside. The knife left a two-inch deep gash behind it. Sartorous got to his feet, now covered in blood, and looked back at the beast. He licked the Owlbear's blood off of his lips with a cruel smile plastered to his graying features.
Despite the gash, the Young Owlbear charged again, but much slower this time. Sartorous was fast enough to dodge the charges before he injured the beast's underside, but now that it was injured, it was even easier for him to dodge. As the creature charged this time, Sartorous jumped over the charging Owlbear and landed on its back. He tightened his grip on the beast's back with his legs and pulled his sword free of its sheath and proceeded to sink the steel blade into the Young Owlbear's spine. The sword was buried up to the brass hand guard.
The beast collapsed almost immediately, sending Sartorous tumbling across the ground. Dazed, Sartorous groaned slightly as he pushed himself up to his feet slowly, looking around for the beast that just been trying to kill him. He found it rather easily. It was lying about three feet away with blood flowing freely from the point Sartorous's sword had entered. He walked over to the creature and yanked his sword out of its back. It made a sickening crunching noise as it left the Owlbear's flesh. Walking around the creature, Sartorous pulled his throwing knives free of the Owlbear's flesh as well and replaced them to the harness he wore around his chest for the purpose of holding them.
It took him a few moments to find his bearings again after gathering his weapons and start off in the direction he intended to go before being attacked. After another few hours of hiking and no further stalls, Sartorous came out of the forest onto a dirt road. There was a worn signpost a few yards up the road ahead of him. He walked over to it and read the arrows pointing off in different directions.
The one pointing in the direction of the city he had just came from read: Dromere; the arrow pointing in the opposite direction of Dromere, and straight ahead of Sartorous, read: Adean; the third arrow pointing to the right from where he stood read: Ankret; and the fourth and final arrow, which pointed off to the left from his current position read: Secum.
Upon reading the sign, Sartorous paused for a moment, thinking on where he ought to go. The person who had hired him to kill the noble back in Dromere said to meet her back in Ankret. The city of Ankret was a port town with a few supply and weapon shops. He could pick up his reward, top off his supplies, and get his gear repaired. Making up his mind, Sartorous set down the road to Ankret.
After a day of travel, Sartorous made it to a small village on the way to Ankret. He entered the town just as the sun was meeting the horizon, getting ready to lay its head down to sleep for the night. Sartorous decided to do the same and made his way to the town inn. After paying the price of ten gold coins, Sartorous made his way upstairs to his room for the night.
When he entered the room, Sartorous began hoisting his gear off of himself and setting it down on the table in the corner of the small room. After stripping his armor off, he crawled into the bed, keeping his dagger with him. Sleep came soon after he laid his head down on the feather-filled pillow.
"Hell Spawn!"
He turned around at the other children's screaming and was hit with a rock that they had thrown at him. It struck him just above his left eye. He stumbled back a few steps, feeling blood forming above his eye and running down his head already. The children advanced, led by the local Monk's son. His ice blue eyes locked with the young Tiefling's dark red ones. Even the eyes of the two children were exact opposites.
"What do you think you're doing here! I told you not to come near here again!"
"This is the way I take home every day," the young Tiefling answered, gritting his sharp teeth.
"I'll let you go today, but don't come down this road again. Understand!"
Sartorous turned his back on the children and began to walk away. After he had taken a few steps away from the group of children, another rock struck him in the back of the head.
He awoke in a cold sweat, and his left hand flew to the back of his head. Realizing he was no longer that nine-year-old child, he dropped his hand away from his head slowly and looked around the room. A soft growl of anger escaped him as he looked out of the window at the moon.
The sun was just peaking over the horizon. He deiced it was time to set off for Ankret once more. After paying for the quick meal he had in the inn, Sartorous set off on the road once again.
While on the road, he took the time to actually examine himself after becoming a vampire. He noticed his once red skin was turning grayer with each passing hour. He also noticed he was becoming stronger and faster as the curse was upon him longer. Along with the benefits though, came the growing hunger for blood the longer he didn't feed. It had only been two days since he last fed, and that was only a little bit of blood from the cloaked man, but he felt weaker than normal and his head was throbbing softly.
As the sun began to set, he was close Ankret, so he decided to travel through the night. Once the moon pierced the darkness, a new strength coursed through Sartorous; he felt stronger than he had during the day. The weakness of not feeding for so long did not leave him entirely, but crept away to the edges of his mind rather than the forefront.
As the night went on, Sartorous's strength slowly began to fade again and his hunger to grow. By the time he was a few hours away from Ankret, his head began to pound. He could feel the veins in his head pulsing, bringing waves of pain with every pulse. He bit down and grinded his teeth as the pulses of pain continued. The pain was so distracting that he barely noticed the speck of orange light ahead of him on the side of the road.
Luckily he had noticed it though, so he was able to creep a bit into the forest and skulk around just outside of the firelight. He found a Gnoll, a Human, and a Tiefling gathered around the fire. Judging from their gear and the way they were carrying themselves, Sartorous figured they were either Bandits or Mercenaries. He crouched down in the shadows and listened to what they were saying. The Human was the first to speak.
"She said he should be coming through here either tonight or within the next few nights."
"Heh heh heh. Jor finds it funny that she hired him to kill the noble, told the guards of the city he would be coming, and he still killed the noble and got away," the Gnoll - Jor - said, cackling.
With the Gnoll's comment, realization rushed over Sartorous. The woman who had hired him had been an undercover guard. She had given him a job that any Assassin would kill for… literally, and then warned the guards of Dromere that he was coming. It was all an elaborate sting operation. But, as the Gnoll had just said, Sartorous still killed the target and got away.
"Yes, we all find it amusing, but time to discuss this seriously. How do we know she isn't setting us up like she did him? Being Mercenaries is almost no different than being an Assassin like he is. Plus, being an Assassin, he obviously has stealth on his side," the Tiefling woman spoke up.
"Lorne, relax. We have our own stealth expert. Reave's out scouting right now, so if our target sneaks up on us somehow, I'm sure Reave will know. Plus, he doesn't know we're waiting for him."
At the mention of the fourth party member, Sartorous glanced around. Seeing nothing, he looked back to the group around the fire as the Tiefling responded.
"But what about the fire, Caine? He'll see it on the way down the road. Even if he doesn't know we're after him, he'll see the fire and try to avoid it. He's an Assassin, so he's going to want to avoid being seen at all costs. Assassins are usually the paranoid type."
He was so caught up in listening to what the female Tiefling was saying, that he didn't notice the Shade suddenly materialize from the shadows behind him. The Shade skulked up to Sartorous and stabbed his dagger at Sartorours's back.
A howl of pain escaped him as the dagger pierced just above his heart. He swung around to face his attacker with the dagger still sticking out of his back. He wasn't able to make out much of the Shade, because of his dark blue skin and black armor, but could see enough to make out where he was. Sartorous swung his right hand at the Shade's head.
The claws on his gauntlet sliced through the air instead of the Shade's head as he ducked and rolled away from Sartorous. Taking the opportunity, Sartorous reached back and pulled the dagger out of his shoulder.
Hearing his howl of pain from before, the Shade's party members emerged through the trees to where Sartorous and Reave were. The Gnoll charged forward wielding a great sword. He swung it straight down at Sartorous, who rolled away from the blow.
The Tiefling ran over to where he landed from his roll and stabbed at him with her rapier. He blocked the stab with the palm of his gauntlet and got back up to his feet. As he stood up, the human fired an arrow at him from a longbow. The arrow whizzed by his right ear.
They play to each other's strengths and fight in a formation. They work together almost perfectly, Sartorous thought to himself as the Shade appeared behind him and attempted to stab him again. This time, however, Sartorous spun around to face him and caught the dagger by the blade, using his gauntlet to do so without injury. Holding tightly onto the dagger, he swung his free hand down at the Shade's wrist, slicing four gashes into the Shade's dark blue skin.
As Sartorous raised his arm to swing again, an arrow went through his armor, pinning him to the tree, which gave the Shade enough time to jump backwards away from him. The Gnoll charged again, swinging his sword in a horizontal slash at Sartorous, intending to decapitate him.
Sartorous ducked as best he could with his arm pinned to the tree. The blade of the Gnoll's sword dug into the tree, leaving a massive gash in the tree as he pulled his sword away from the tree and stabbed it down at Sartorous. Sartorous swung his free arm and hit the blade with his gauntlet. He was barely able to parry the blade of the massive sword into the ground next to him. When the blade sank into the dirt, Sartorous kicked out and hit the Gnoll in the knee. He heard a slight pop, and knew he had hyper extended the Gnoll's knee. Hopefully he would slowed a bit.
As the Gnoll howled in pain, another arrow was fired at Sartorous. It struck him in the shoulder of the arm attached to the tree. Snarling, Sartorous reached up and snapped both of the arrows in two, freeing himself from the tree. The Gnoll recovered from the pain quickly and swung his sword again, but Sartorous was able to dodge and get around the Gnoll, who sank his sword into the tree yet again.
The Tiefling charged him again, coming in low with her rapier. Sartorous drew his short sword and caught her blow. She parried his block downward and spun around him and landed a blow on the back of his right knee. He snarled from the pain as the Shade reappeared into battle, sending two throwing knives at Sartorous. He was only able to dodge one. The second knife sank into his left elbow. He could feel the blood running down his arm already.
He reached over, pulled it out of his flesh, and dropped it to the ground. More blood issued forth from the wound once the knife came out. The next moment, Sartorous found himself face down on the ground. He hadn't noticed the Gnoll charge from behind. The force from the blow sent Sartorous flying a few feet forward.
The four mercenaries surged forward, immediately surrounding him. They each had their weapons directed at him.
"Get up. Slowly," the Human Ranger demanded.
Obliging, Sartorous slowly got to his feet.
What a fine mess you've gotten yourself into now, he privately scolded himself.
"Can Jor kill him now, Caine," The Gnoll asked from his left.
"No. He's worth more alive."
The Gnoll nodded. The Human must be the leader then.
"Reave, search him and take his weapons."
Immediately, the Shade stepped forward and began to strip Sartorous of his weapons. He took his sword and dagger first, then his gauntlets, then his throwing knives, then his hand crossbow.
They don't know about my boots. I still have one weapon.
Sartorous suppressed the urge to sneer in their faces.
"That's all of them, Caine," the Shade said once he finished searching Sartorous.
Again the urge to sneer, and again the suppression.
"Alright. Jor, are you alright to hold him with your knee like that?"
"Jor is fine," the Gnoll said, nodding.
"Lorne, get the shackles and bind him."
The Tiefling woman walked over to their camp and came back a minute later, shackles in hand. She walked up to Sartorous and clamped them around his wrists.
"Good. Now let's tie him to a tree and rest. I'll take first watch, then Reave, then Lorne, and then Jor."
They each nodded at the mention of their names.
An hour later, Sartorous found himself bound to a tree next to the Mercenaries' camp. He was bound facing the tree. The Merc Leader sat on a tree stump behind him while the rest of the group slept on bed rolls around the fire. The Human sat facing Sartorous with his bow in quick reach and an arrow in his hand, prepared to shoot in an instant if Sartorous would get free somehow.
He couldn't see a way at the moment, and his head was pounding again now that he didn't have anything to distract him from the pain. Along with his head pain, came the pain from the wounds inflicted in the fight he had just lost not too long ago. He slumped against the tree, trying to think of a way out. He had the hidden daggers that popped out of the toe of his boots to us as a weapon, but he had to get out first to use them.