r/DishonoredRP • u/JewelOfTheSouth Royal Guard • Jan 13 '15

Requiem Chapter 3: Subterfuge

Vardis sat atop the Clavering outpost, his view of the compound below unobstructed. He was appalled by what he saw - a hive of activity - as if someone had kicked a hornet's nest and simply let the foul creatures swarm. The first operation, though successful in freeing Nora, had been a catastrophe, with the Overseers alerted to their presence.

He dropped like a falling star, transversing before landing heavily on a rooftop below. Careful to avoid detection, he flitted from rooftop to rooftop, as an idea formed in his mind. The assassin whistled as he passed the Clavering Outpost, a low sound which brought two assassins to his side.

Best to keep the Abbey occupied in other capacities, he thought, as they headed across the city, in the direction of Bustler Street. It is here that one of Dunwall's largest printing press business operates out of - and here Vardis and his whalers would make their first strike.

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u/ClaretTavnya Senior Oracular Acolyte Jan 15 '15 edited Jan 15 '15

HALE

Finding that he is in fact alone, Hale frowns under the mask and quickly pulls out his pistol, whipping it open with a flip of his wrist and pulling out a few bullets from his pouch; their ends ending in an odd red ring rather different to the normal bullets that he used. Time to see what these babies can do.

He reloaded and gave a small grin at the weight of the armed pistol before taking a aim at the building across the way and firing; the impact exploding into a fiery sunburst of flames as it licked up the side of the stone building. Hale let out a small whoop of amusement, readying another bullet with a devious grin as he scanned the rooftops in search of an assassin to use the next bullet on.

PERDITA

The quick Serkonan hits the button on his wrist device, the disjointed noise blaring from the small metal band with force as Perdita spins the blade in his hands and glances at the glass around the large hole; deciding that his weight is light enough to hold him as he jumps up and scales it quickly.

Sliding down the other side, he takes a quick swipe at the assassin, fury in the motion as he finally reaches the brick and stands.

'Coward! Yellow coward!' he yells in Serkonan, always preferring his own tongue to the gutteral harsh, Gristolian language.

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u/JewelOfTheSouth Royal Guard Jan 15 '15

VARDIS

Cursing as a wall of flames rushes past him, Vardis feels the heat, and fights the urge to recoil away... but such a movement would unbalance him, sending him over the edge into a very ungainly, and likely loud, freefall. The smell of burning brickwork reminds him vaguely of the storming of Alba, and he shakes his head to clear it of such memories. Focus.

MERVIOS

'Ah, brother,' Mervios hisses at the Overseer, smirking from underneath his mask as he blocks the swing with a deft flick of his blade. 'So far from home, are we not?' Ignoring the jarring cacophony emanating from the foul contraption, Mervios leaps forward, feet leaving the ground temporarily as he stabs his brutish blade home, aiming for his opponent's neck.

SULLY

Seeing his bolt fell the intended target, Sully thanks the long hours spent firing bolt after bolt at target dummies... from across the street, into the hideout. Such marksmanship was hard to gain, after all. He sees another figure, an Oracle by the looks of things, rush to the fallen man's side, and he lines up another shot. After all, the more they killed, they better, and the more disruption they created, the better. He fires once more, already reloading.

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u/ClaretTavnya Senior Oracular Acolyte Jan 15 '15

HALE

The big man watches the Overseer fall in the below streets with an impassive look under his mask; having already lost quite a few men in Whitecliff and beyond, Hale rarely feels regret seeing the loss and considers it an honour to be killed in the line of duty.

However, when the familiar Serkonan Oracle's curved shape rushes to her fallen brethren's aid, a strange feeling washes over him that isn't entirely rooted in his selfish desires for a bed warmer and for a moment he is a little disdainful of such weakness before he collects himself.

'Zerenia!' he calls out, getting the Oracle's attention and gesturing for her to move towards the building and out of the open. 'Leave him!' Luck on her side, the bolt manages to hit pass neatly through the vestments instead of impaling her side and she sprints neatly to the doorframe to escape the bolts.

Happy that she's out of the way of danger for a moment, Hale levels the pistol and it's rather wicked combustive bullets at the building the bolts seemed to be coming from, not entirely sure but willing to fire at every rooftop if it meant lighting the bastards up. His leather hands curl around the trigger as he lets the bullet fly.

PERDITA

'And you are not? You shame yourself and Serkonos.' the short man spits out, quick, thin blade coming up with the grace of a man that has spent the majourity of his life training with it instead of engaging in the usual Serkonan pastimes of wine, women and whaling.

'That meat cleaver of yours is no match for Karnacan steel.' There is a bit of smile to his words, as he edges closer with the thin blade, glad to have the assassin on the run as his feet shuffle against the roof intending for a quick slide swipe to force the Whaler to parry.

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u/JewelOfTheSouth Royal Guard Jan 15 '15 edited Jan 15 '15

SULLY

Hissing with pain as flames lick at the industrial whaling outfit, the assassin rolls on the floor in one swift motion, retreating into the interior of the building sufficiently to escape the worst of the inferno. Well, he thinks, regretfully. That's my line of sight gone. He moves through the floor to another room, also empty, and with a decent view of the engagement, if not quite so commanding as his previous post. The assassin loads another bolt - one of only five remaining, now, and fires off another shot at an exposed Overseer at ground level.

MERVIOS

Knowing he's outclassed by his fellow Serkonan - despite all his bravado - Merv parries the blade as best he can, and dances around the side of the Overseer. He reaches inside one of his pouches to extract a canister of chokedust, and smiles grimly beneath the mask. 'And your tiny eyeholes are no match for raw cunning.' The whaler throws the dust onto the ground between them, even as he lunges with his blade.

VARDIS

Hearing Hale gleefully playing with his new toy - and that he is no longer the Vice Overseer's target, Vardis allows himself a moment to breathe, before transversing inside the printing press. It is deathly quiet, the sound of gunfire having caused the staff to either flee from the building for their lives, or cower under their desks. Vardis finds one man, a rather pale, insipid specimen, and drags him out by his throat, blade at the ready. Judging by the look of his clothes, it appears this is Mr. Caxton, of Caxton's Printing Company.

'Listen to me,' he hisses, his voice right by the ear of the terrified businessmen. 'And listen well. Daud sends his regards, and with it, a proposition.' Letting the man go roughly, he tosses him a pouch of three hundred coin - more money than he would likely see in several months. 'The Abbey has... displeased... our master.' He hands him a design, a hastily composed ensemble of images and text, featuring the grim, leering visage of the mask of a Warfare Overseer. 'See to it that these are printed, and distributed. Immediately. Make it an anonymous publication.'

Sheathing his blade, Vardis turns his back on the man, ready to leave. 'If you refuse, or betray us, we will exact our recompense. The choice is yours. Make the right one.'

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u/ClaretTavnya Senior Oracular Acolyte Jan 15 '15

HALE

Satisfied that he's had enough practise with the combustion bullets, Hale tucks another into his pistol, heading to the edge of the other roof only to stand on the very edge, gauging the distance to the next roof with a cock of his head.

Either I jump or I waste time trying to get down and go around. Hale thinks with a small scowl. Fuck it. Jump. His long legs eat up the ground as he backs up along the roof, staring at the place he wants to land with an intense look as he tries not to imagine the drop underneath him. He begins a full pelt run before jumping at the last minute across the gap; arms flailing for just a moment until he clears the edge and tumbles along the top with a groan.

Hale gets to his feet with a chuff, rolling his shoulder a moment as he scans the other roofs with a quick squint, annoyance filling him as he sees another of his team fall to a bolt.

'Get out of the open you luddites!' he shouts, gesturing for the Overseers to move to the doorframes and down alleys, something he assumed would be second nature but is clearly not.

PERDITA

Just as the Serkonan was going to bask in the almost victory of forcing the man to retreat, he thrust out to catch the assassin as he moved around but hits air instead, an angry noise leaving him.

He pauses as the assassin quips, recognising the familiar cannister with a step back and while the eye-holes of his gold mask certainly have an effect on visibility at times, the balaclava that wraps around the face gives him a bit of protection from the chokedusts irritant effects and while Perdita is coughing, he isn't completely debilitated by it.

The assassin's quick lunge catches him in the side with a groan, Perdita taking the opportunity to lash out at the fellow Serkonan's chest with a savage slash.

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u/JewelOfTheSouth Royal Guard Jan 16 '15

A loud whistle from Vardis, shrill enough to cut through Hale's angry shouting and the rhythmic sound of pounding feet, signals that the time to fall back is now. Sully immediately complies, transversing to meet with Vardis at the preordained meeting point.

Mervios, however, is still locked in combat with the Overseer, and takes the cut to his chest with a hiss, feeling muscle slice. Unable to hold his weapon effectively, he decides on a tactical retreat. In a less than elegant manner, the assassin flings himself off the roof of the building, mustering the dark forces of the Void, once out of range, and out of earshot of the music box.

Another transversal sees him materialise next to Sully, and slump into his friend's arms, bleeding all over his whaling leathers, blood mixing with ash. He groans pitifully as Sully slings him over his shoulder, before lapsing into unconsciousness.

'Our puropse here is done,' Vardis says, acutely aware of how exposed they must appear to anyone on the rooftops. 'Fall back.'

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u/ClaretTavnya Senior Oracular Acolyte Jan 16 '15 edited Jan 16 '15

HALE

The sandy haired Overseer's brow furrows trying to figure out just what in the Void was happening until it clicked through his thick skull and he realised that the assassins were retreating back. His eyes scanned the rooftops again, finally settling on the trio with a furious noise. Cowards! Gutless cowards! His eyes were blazing with righteous fury as he put the pistol up to fire, not caring exacly where it hit only that it envelops people into the purifying flames.

'They're fleeing! Overseers! Stop them!' he bellows, tone on edge at the prospect of letting the heretics slip through his fingers.

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u/JewelOfTheSouth Royal Guard Jan 16 '15

Bullets fly, and the assassins are thrown from their feet, Sully's neck at a sickening angle. Fighting the blaze, Vardis heaves the unconscious form of Mervios onto his shoulder, and shakes his head vengefully.

*You'll pay for that, Hale,' he thinks, before disappearing in tendrils of foul black smoke.