“You have the arrogance to show yourself here after failing at your mission? You’d best not expect to get paid you piece of scum.” The ronin sneered towards the diminutive shrouded figure that had slipped past his outer guards before interrupting him during his meal. “If I’d known you’d just bungle the job I’d have assailed her with my own men to make sure the job got done! Now they’re on alert and it’s impossible to get near her!”

Though the shrouded figure spoke at a somewhat soft volume her tone was lilting and lyrical, lending it an almost inhuman quality that unnerved even these battle-hardened men. “It was not my fault that we were betrayed, it is with you that blame shall be laid, have you found out where there was a leak, or will I need to force you to speak?” Despite the way she spoke in almost musical rhymes her demeanor was one of a barely leashed predator, and she seemed to constantly be making minute adjustments to her stance.

The ronin leader stood from the pilfered throne he’d obviously stolen and laughed loudly. “So the little killer has a backbone? Do you think that I’m afraid of you? I’ve got five of my best men here and fifty more outside. You may be good, but remember that you’re an assassin; You don’t have it in you to fight a real battle. I think you should apologize and beg for forgiveness for threatening me this way.” As he spoke he approached to just outside of the assassins reach before pausing and looking expectantly to her.

For a moment her body tensed as if to spring, but she seemed to obey as she knelt onto a single knee and bent her arms at the elbow and brought her hands together in front of her. As the guards laughed at the pathetic display the assassin put forth, their attentiveness slipped for a moment…and she struck.

In a single motion she kicked off with her feet and flung both arms straight out, a poisoned dagger hurtling at the closest guards on either side; one took a dagger to the throat while the other seemed to suddenly sprout a daggers hilt from the bridge of his nose, and they both slumped down as they spasmed from the poison. Continuing the motion she twirled as the ronin leader went to draw his katana, and any identifiable parts of her seemed to vanish into her whirling cloak as if swallowed by a wave. The bandit swung at her on his draw but she deftly sidestepped, and as if in a magic trick her hands came out of the cloak wielding a kryss with a pulsating red crystal embedded in the center of it. The whorl of fabric kept the ronin leader from being able to anticipate her next move, and as he swung once more she parried his blow and slipped behind him, kryss pressed against his throat. The entire encounter had occurred in the span of a brief few seconds, and she held the kryss tight enough to draw blood as the two other guards stopped in their tracks just a few paces away.

“I think now you should no longer hold out, and tell us why we were sold out. Of course it’s still up to you… if you’re willing to accept your due.” On this last word she pressed her kryss harder and blood seeped slowly from his neck down its blade.

“It wasn’t us! There’s nothing to tell! We wanted you to succeed so we could usurp power in the Empress’ death!”

“What you say does sound true…more is the pity for you, and that through all your abuse, you no longer hold any use…” With the same songlike quality to her voice, she grinned widely and drew the sharpened kryss across the ronin leader’s throat, causing a spray of blood to gush and cascade outwards even as she seemingly danced behind the throne and drew a dagger in her offhand, holding it in a reverse grip as she crouched low to the ground. With a menacing and predatory grin she waited for the two other guards to make their move…

—————————————————————-

With a deliberate hand she finished writing the note carefully, rolling it up and sealing it with wax and her signet ring before handing it off to the messenger. “You best make sure it gets there, boyo, or you and I’ll be havin’ some words!” As the messenger ran off she turned around and headed back inside to her own small private room, making her way to the duffel on the bed with the majority of her belongings in it. She took a brief moment to look at the heavily padlocked chest, and after a few moments of indecision she pulled the key from her pocket and removed the lock. The padlock fell onto the thin bit of carpet with a soft thump as she discarded it, hefting open the cedar lid and looking inside.

The armor was well kept and flawless, and she admired the way it seemed not to catch the light at all. She removed the armor from the chest and packed it into her bag, and then let her gaze rest on the final two objects inside fondly before gathering them up, attaching one to each side of her belt. Letting the lid fall closed with a hefty noise she took a breath with closed eyes and assumed a ready stance. She held her breath for some moments before drawing both kryss and cutlass simultaneously, whirling them both through a series of cuts and slashes. She swiftly ended the little performance by sheathing both blades to the satisfying herald of oiled metal against leather. Kneeling down she checked the cleaver hidden in a special holster at her boot, and after ensuring its presence pulled on her traveling cloak. Pulling it around so that it hid the sheathed blades at each hip from view, she hefted the bag over her shoulder and made her way out into the Papuan night…but not before letting her gaze linger on the Inn for a moment. It was going to be a long walk, Lauren thought to herself, as she turned and made her way towards the road

Keg and Anchor Gossip

For those of you who were at the tavern with Miss Symeria you know that there’s been unrest lately, and the nobles are squabbling. Sherry seems to have heard some of the same things as well though apparently a Lord Cauthon of Trinsic confided to Miss Symeria well, shouted and ranted really. That that miserable Lord Caleb has been accusing him of kidnapping Caleb’s son. You’ll get your chance to delve a bit deeper into what’s going on with that as one of the many paths on the static event on Tuesday.

EM Event Thursday the 9th or Friday the 10th

Aside from the static going live on the 31st, there will be another event on…either Thursday the 9th or Friday the 10th, depending which my actual schedule permit In which we’re going to have lots of death mayhem and destruction.Whichever day it is the event will start at 8:30 PM EST (I’ll post which day for certain tomorrow night on the EM Forums)

The Static Quest

The large static quest starts on Tuesday and the last two paths are going to frustrate, demoralize, and confuse. I hope you’ve either got amazing levels of ingenuity, or incredible amounts of perseverance Preferably both.

Each of the paths has their own starting point and these will be posted on the EM Forums as well HOWEVER As I mentioned that the 6th path is difficult, obnoxious, and debilitating. The sixth and final path will not have a posted ‘starting’ point. I’ll post a simple riddle/hint to where it starts and if you do the other paths, it will make sense.

More Information On The Static Quest

• Static Quest launches Tuesday Night at 9pm EST
• Starting locations will be noted in the EM Forums except for the 6th path which will only be given a hint/riddle to where it starts
• The last few, the 6th in particular are meant to be despicably difficult
• The first few paths are easily doable by most players
• There will definitely be many times where your life and sanity will be in danger
• “WHEN YOU TALK WITH A QUEST NPC, LOOK FOR POSSIBLE KEYWORDS”
• “Especially if a sentence with a Keyword has a strange usage of capitalization near a Keyword”
• If you get stuck and think it’s EM Drosselmeyers fault, please email him immediately at [email protected]
• Very likely there’s a half dozen puzzles, codes and ciphers in the second to last path alone
• The last path has 6 ciphers, three riddles, a few puzzles…so far
• The two hardest paths, the 5th and 6th will have an additional requirement of emailing or dropping off an in game book, detailing what you did to get there, how it ended, and the ‘end solution’ to each path.

• This is absolutely critical if you email the information include
  -Your Main Character Name
  -How you got to the end-Details
  -What was at the End-Details
  -The “End Solution” to each path

February Schedule of EM Events

A full February schedule will go up by next weeks Hall of Commons “HoC” Though I don’t anticipate many of you to be around As it’s Superbowl Sunday for our American colleagues and I can’t guarantee I’ll be around as it’s my birthday But we’ll see how things go!

The Kijustsu Void Public Community Gardens located in the township of Port Ethereal Keys is now open and ready to accept rental requests for Raised Garden Bed use. Renters will have access to 1 large bed or 2 depending on the rental space for 9 days (Players growing plants which produce resources will be extended.)

This service is provided free of charge by Kijustsu Anei Village to help players grow plants for house decoration, guild resources or vendors. To request a Raises Garden Bed Icq Lord Gareth at 267944224 or post a reply to the thread.

Terror in the Night – A Rat Race
EM Seppo

Records for the Fishing Hall of Fame have a new home on the website and will no longer be updated on the forums. The page will also list the previous 2011 records.

Fishing Hall of Fame (Web Page)