Enter Mercuria.
Amongst the gorgeous trees, birds and sunlight; amongst the peace and security afforded by the glorius mountainside, amongst all that is right in heaven: A disturbance.
A Cornugon with a orange distinctive glow around claws in the thick of battle. Four of MercuriaÂ’s finest Defenders surround the beast, desperately hacking away. A little distance away, an Eagle-Eye and a well-warded Archmage hurl spells and arrows.
Unbeknownst to anyone, A Gargoyle perched atop the upper face of the cliff watches with interest – blending inconspicuously into the surroundings.
The Cornugon puts up a good fight, striking down two Defenders with a flurry of swipes as well as energy blasts originating from the orange glow on its hands. Nonetheless, the Archmage’s plethora of spells is too much to handle – and the creature first is paralyzed, then blasted by the Archmage. A sitting duck – finally finished after much abuse.
A good fight. But not good enough. Ceszar watches the Defenders catch their breath, then sees everyone rush to revive their fallen companions.
The perfect opportunity.
The Archmage is nearly torn in half as the Gargoyle hands on her back, driving her flat onto the rocky ground, and then using its maw to drive her head deeper yet into the hardness. His claws wrap tightly around her neck – which now has the hardness of stone: a result of one of several magical wardings. Without too much trouble however, Ceszar’s claw finds and crushes the trachea. He knows the thrashing, facedown woman will be dead within seconds.
The Eagle Eye and Defenders are still in shock – still flatfooted. They both lunge, rather awkwardly towards the Gargoyle, but Ceszar easily sidesteps one, while the other’s skull is impaled by one of the Gargoyle’s maws that suddenly extended outwards. The Eagle Eye flees.
An archmage dead, a defender dying, and one more prone on the ground – Ceszar makes his way towards the fallen defender, still in Gargoyle form. Yes, he could easily have killed all of them by now, including the fleeing Eagle Eye- had he been in his original form – had he those deadly twin scimitars of his on hand. But what fun would that be?
A few moments later, four dead defenders, a dead Archmage, and a dead Cornugon lie under him. He quickly removes a scroll of “Raise Dead” and begins reading it – performing the necessary movements which are only known by a select few outside the community of priests and necromancers.
The Cornugon rises, slowly, spitting out green blood. Even as it coughs, the numerous wounds on its physique are rapidly being healed by its intrinsic devilish nature.
Ceszar lets out a cold chuckle and bows:
“Ahhh, Maelphaxerazz. I had expected you to take out the Archmage first.” He taunts – his voice and appearance unfamiliar to the Cornugon – nonetheless Mael has no doubt who this is.
Ceszar morphs back into his original form. After some verbal fencing, a threat is identified and a plan laid out: The Artificer must be killed. In order to kill him, his close associate Jach Sensbane will be interrogated then also killed. Of course Ceszar doesn’t inform the Cornugon what he really knows about and possesses of Jach Sensbane – Jach IS the Artificer, and Ceszar owns his soul. All that is unnecessary to the plan – and Ceszar’s Cipher intuition tells him such. He doesn’t fret about the fact that he saw Jach only a short time ago and could have killed him there and then: No. It wasn’t meant to be – no need to dwell on this, he only needed to take action. A powerful, influential mage like Jach has many allies who would help him in his search for Ceszar. Indeed – Ceszar didn’t need to find Jach, he knew Jach would come to him.
Nonetheless, he goes along and agrees to play this game, without giving it a second thought. It was meant to be.
Right as Ceszar and Mael turn to leave, the Cornugon inquires: “What of those who seek to undermine our plan?”
Ceszar draws a shiny scimitar and absentmindedly examines the reflection of the Mercurian landscape behind him on the side of the blade. He then suddenly turns and plunges the blade right into thin airÂ….or what appeared to be to Mael.
The Eagle Eye who apparently fled the scene... is now kneeling, fully visible, and lets out a muffled scream as the scimitar goes deep into her torso. A look of disbelief and horror on her beautiful face is met by that of a sweet smile on CeszarÂ’s. He allows the blade to remain impaled in her chest as he turned back to answer MaelÂ’s question:
“I will deal with them.”
With that, he removes the blade swiftly and lets the Eagle archer fall to the ground – her eyes rolling upwards, revealing the whites, as she rests eternally.
With a cordial bow and a cold chuckle, Ceszar walks away, leaving the Cornugon slightly shaken and more than slightly confident that JachÂ’s death would not be far off.
