Tweet
The preperation had been painstaking. Years of meticulous work, scouting out the perfect candidates. Working his way up the ranks until he could perform his work without some higher up constantly scrutinizing his every action. The plan was flawless. The problem was the kid.
The kid. Wrong place, right time. At least, that's what the priests said after they worked out what they were seeing.
It had been so...perfect, until that kid. Collecting the blood had taken years. Years of finding the right family line to target, going to each member and retrieving a sample of their blood. Some of them had been so simple. Others, less so. In the end, he had everything he needed. The ritual was in place, the sigils all drawn, and the night of the blood moon was approaching. Colibrus would have an entire familie's line of blood siphoned to him, an offering to his greatness. An exchange of blood for power. Power that would have been mine.
Then that kid shows up.
Ritual needed a living sacrifice to catalyze the whole offering. One of the members of the head household. Managed to charm one of the daughters of the head house, subdued her and had her all set up. Few more hours, once midnight hit, and more power then I'd ever seen would be mine. The hour draws near, and I hear a crash from down below. I jump up right as the door's kicked open. It's the woman's brother. Found out she was missing, found out who she was with, managed to track me down.
That's alright, I figure. Head family blood is head family blood, and he'll do just as well as the sister. He comes at me, he's fast for a kid. Desperation makes him strong. Knocks the knife from my hand, wrestles with me. I knock him away, duck down, get the knife. He runs at me again. He's wide open, too inexperienced to guard his vitals. He lunges, I brace.
The knife sinks in like he's butter. Doesn't realize he's stabbed at first, keeps trying to fight, to win. Slowly realizes what happened, but too late. He slumps to the ground. It's midnight, the life fades from his eyes. Anticipation is high. This is it. I look at the bowl, where years of effort and blood are stored. Conduit will open, sucking the life and blood from an entire family line, feeding power into me.
The minutes go by like hours. Nothing happens. I look around, everything's in place. Blood's gathered, sigil's drawn, blood moon's full, kid's dead with the sacrificial knife, woman's gone.
Woman's gone? Wait, when did she get out? Must have been during the fight, woke up and got out while my attention was on the kid. No matter, she'll be dead in a few moments. I wait a few more minutes, feels like days. Nothing's happening. Why is nothing happening?
I panic. Time's running out, only a few minutes to perform the ritual before I've missed my chance. I run downstairs, chase after the girl. More blood, that's it. I need more of their blood. She's groggy from earlier, easy to catch up. I find her, easy to overpower her, drag her back. Bring her to the sigils, kick the kid's corpse out of the way. One quick jerk of her head, one quick slash of the knife, and she's dead on the ground, her blood mixing with the kid's. Bowl start's to boil, room start's shaking. This is it, it's finally happening.
Several hours later, guards are called. Families scared, kids haven't come back. The boy's easy to track, trail's a mile long, made a lot of racket. Guards find the door open, go in, look it over. Two bodies, both kids are dead. Sigil's everywhere, blood everywhere. Contact the family, they're devastated. Call in a family friend, someone connected with the military, more resources to find out who did it.
I'm found a few hours later, messenger wants me to go to the familie's house, say's it's an emergency. I tell him I'll go immediately, soon as I"m ready. Talk with the family, tell them I'll get some men on it, talk to some people I know. We'll find the bastard, make him pay. Few more platitudes just to calm them down.
I ask a few questions. Background on the two kids. Daughter's a wild one, likes to sneak out. Acts out, but still a good kid. Sucker for a pretty face. That much I knew. The boy's protective of his big sister. Big sister complex. Studied hard, servant's liked him. Not popular with most of the branch's of the family. I ask if he got into any fights. They said a few, some of the cousin's didn't like him, since he was adopted by the head family.
He was adopted. He's not blood related. Damned kid wasn't part of the family. I thank them for the information, tell them I'll have some leads and we'll find who did it. Call in a few favor's, take the first ship out of Waterdeep. Now I know why his messenger said the sacrifice was impure. Needed family blood, family sacrifice to kick start the whole thing. Kid wasn't family, his death messed everything up, tainted the ritual. I'm going ahead with the next part of the plan, but everything's wrong now.
I was supposed to arrive at the center of power, bringing power to establish my place in our order. I was going to be important. I was going to matter. All that work, all those years for nothing. I was so close. Close only counts in horse shoe's and alchemist fire's, though.
Few days after I'm gone, priests are called in to reach me. They can't. Try to find me, they can't. They look into the ritual, one of them's smarter then priests should be. I should have cleaned up better, too angr to keep a clear head. They figure out what the ritual was, divination places me at the house that night, should have covered my tracks better. If the kid hadn't shown up, they'd all be dead.
Won't be able to duplicate the ritual, had to leave too many necessary components back there. Have to do things the other way. Hope one of the nobility of our god is like minded. Someone who understands purity of blood and the power it holds. If not, then I'll be a slave, and that's no good. Need to find a master, someone with power. Better to be a servant to power, then a cow.
Need to find a master.
The kid. Wrong place, right time. At least, that's what the priests said after they worked out what they were seeing.
It had been so...perfect, until that kid. Collecting the blood had taken years. Years of finding the right family line to target, going to each member and retrieving a sample of their blood. Some of them had been so simple. Others, less so. In the end, he had everything he needed. The ritual was in place, the sigils all drawn, and the night of the blood moon was approaching. Colibrus would have an entire familie's line of blood siphoned to him, an offering to his greatness. An exchange of blood for power. Power that would have been mine.
Then that kid shows up.
Ritual needed a living sacrifice to catalyze the whole offering. One of the members of the head household. Managed to charm one of the daughters of the head house, subdued her and had her all set up. Few more hours, once midnight hit, and more power then I'd ever seen would be mine. The hour draws near, and I hear a crash from down below. I jump up right as the door's kicked open. It's the woman's brother. Found out she was missing, found out who she was with, managed to track me down.
That's alright, I figure. Head family blood is head family blood, and he'll do just as well as the sister. He comes at me, he's fast for a kid. Desperation makes him strong. Knocks the knife from my hand, wrestles with me. I knock him away, duck down, get the knife. He runs at me again. He's wide open, too inexperienced to guard his vitals. He lunges, I brace.
The knife sinks in like he's butter. Doesn't realize he's stabbed at first, keeps trying to fight, to win. Slowly realizes what happened, but too late. He slumps to the ground. It's midnight, the life fades from his eyes. Anticipation is high. This is it. I look at the bowl, where years of effort and blood are stored. Conduit will open, sucking the life and blood from an entire family line, feeding power into me.
The minutes go by like hours. Nothing happens. I look around, everything's in place. Blood's gathered, sigil's drawn, blood moon's full, kid's dead with the sacrificial knife, woman's gone.
Woman's gone? Wait, when did she get out? Must have been during the fight, woke up and got out while my attention was on the kid. No matter, she'll be dead in a few moments. I wait a few more minutes, feels like days. Nothing's happening. Why is nothing happening?
I panic. Time's running out, only a few minutes to perform the ritual before I've missed my chance. I run downstairs, chase after the girl. More blood, that's it. I need more of their blood. She's groggy from earlier, easy to catch up. I find her, easy to overpower her, drag her back. Bring her to the sigils, kick the kid's corpse out of the way. One quick jerk of her head, one quick slash of the knife, and she's dead on the ground, her blood mixing with the kid's. Bowl start's to boil, room start's shaking. This is it, it's finally happening.
Several hours later, guards are called. Families scared, kids haven't come back. The boy's easy to track, trail's a mile long, made a lot of racket. Guards find the door open, go in, look it over. Two bodies, both kids are dead. Sigil's everywhere, blood everywhere. Contact the family, they're devastated. Call in a family friend, someone connected with the military, more resources to find out who did it.
I'm found a few hours later, messenger wants me to go to the familie's house, say's it's an emergency. I tell him I'll go immediately, soon as I"m ready. Talk with the family, tell them I'll get some men on it, talk to some people I know. We'll find the bastard, make him pay. Few more platitudes just to calm them down.
I ask a few questions. Background on the two kids. Daughter's a wild one, likes to sneak out. Acts out, but still a good kid. Sucker for a pretty face. That much I knew. The boy's protective of his big sister. Big sister complex. Studied hard, servant's liked him. Not popular with most of the branch's of the family. I ask if he got into any fights. They said a few, some of the cousin's didn't like him, since he was adopted by the head family.
He was adopted. He's not blood related. Damned kid wasn't part of the family. I thank them for the information, tell them I'll have some leads and we'll find who did it. Call in a few favor's, take the first ship out of Waterdeep. Now I know why his messenger said the sacrifice was impure. Needed family blood, family sacrifice to kick start the whole thing. Kid wasn't family, his death messed everything up, tainted the ritual. I'm going ahead with the next part of the plan, but everything's wrong now.
I was supposed to arrive at the center of power, bringing power to establish my place in our order. I was going to be important. I was going to matter. All that work, all those years for nothing. I was so close. Close only counts in horse shoe's and alchemist fire's, though.
Few days after I'm gone, priests are called in to reach me. They can't. Try to find me, they can't. They look into the ritual, one of them's smarter then priests should be. I should have cleaned up better, too angr to keep a clear head. They figure out what the ritual was, divination places me at the house that night, should have covered my tracks better. If the kid hadn't shown up, they'd all be dead.
Won't be able to duplicate the ritual, had to leave too many necessary components back there. Have to do things the other way. Hope one of the nobility of our god is like minded. Someone who understands purity of blood and the power it holds. If not, then I'll be a slave, and that's no good. Need to find a master, someone with power. Better to be a servant to power, then a cow.
Need to find a master.