|
OOC: Part 6 of Andrion's history.
Tunninni turned out to be much of the same mindset as Andrion. The first day after they had left the seaside town he stopped a simple man on the road, and when he refused to give them his money, he simply slit the man's throat.
They spent the next few weeks visiting Tunninni's old contacts. Most of them had gone out of the business, but one of them had two hig risk, high pay jobs to offer them. One of them was a quest for a dragon's egg in the northern lands, where they had come from and the other was an attack on the mansion of a noble. Andrion managed to convince Tunninni to wait with the mission with the dragon until Kergan got back and they took the job of attacking the noble's mansion.
"So Tunninni, fill me in on the details of this. I heard that your contact said it was going to get us a lot of money."
"Indeed. Lord Jeripion is rich. My contact says that we keep fifty percent of whatever we find. There is a substantial guard force yet we should be able to cope with them."
Tunninni winked at Andrion and Andrion smiled back. The first time they met he had seen that Tunninni was a ruthless thief and murderer. And he was good at doing both. Of all the members of Kergan's group Andrion had been the only one to earn Tunninni's respect. Andrion had saved Tunninni's life twice in the same evening.
A certain respect developed between the two of them and although it was not friendship they learnt the strengths and weaknesses of each other and became a well-oiled two person team. When Tunninni's discretion did not work Andrion used his spells to blast through the situation.
Lord Jeripion's mansion was fifteen miles from the closest town in the middle of a small forest. While Tunninni approached the house from the forest, Andrion walked towards the main gate. The guards at the gate never knew what hit them as Andrion's pre-prepared spell hit them before they could ask any questions.
Andrion opened the gates with the key taken from the body of the guard captain and entered the vast gardens. Around him all types of exotic plants betrayed the wealth put into the garden. Andrion however disregarded the plants and made his way straight toward a smaller building at the back of the garden, which he knew was the guards quarters. He opened the door and three fireballs later it was over. The two dozen off-duty guards were all dead.
In the meantime Tunninni had stealthily reached the back of the home of Lord Jeripion. Picking the lock on the back door posed no problem for him, neither did the small trap in the kitchen. His well-trained eyes had detected it almost instantly and it had taken him only a few seconds to disarm it. He moved towards the main salon, when he heard Andrion's fireballs taking care of the guards in their barracks. That left him to take care of those inside the house. He found two guards running towards the back exit with their weapons drawn, but his darts made short work of them. Tunninni checked all the rooms on the ground floor and found five more guards, throwing a deadly poison dart at each of them. He went to the main staircase of the home and then decided to wait for Andrion.
Andrion made his way cautiously towards the house, knowing that by now the alarm would have been given. Indeed about a dozen guards had come out of the house and were spreading through the garden looking for the cause of the commotion. It took them less than two minutes before they reached the barracks and noticed their dead comrades. But none of them made it back to the house. Skull traps, delayed blast fireballs and different power words cast from scrolls took care of all of them.
Andrion smiled from the doorway of the house as he watched his spells going off. Those scrolls were going to be a worthy investment if the house held the riches they had been promised.
Andrion joined Tunninni at the base of the stairs. Together they made their way up to the second level, where reportedly was Lord Jeripion's treasury along with his private quarters. Yet they had not been able to get a description of this level and so they needed to search all rooms. The first few rooms they looked in were guest rooms, which were followed by the private rooms of the Lord. The before last room they entered was Jeripion's private study and they found him in there.
He was hunched over a book seemingly lost in his own world. He did not even look up from the book, nor did he seem to be aware that his house was under attack, and that most of his guards were dead.
Tunninni took out a dagger and jumped at the figure. The figure did not move, even when Tunninni's dagger struck it...and then passed clean through it. A voice came suddenly from all around them.
"It is but an illusion master thief. Or should I say Tunninni? As that is what your name is isn't it? And you, mage are Andrion Wilgor. Tales of your exploits in the distant north reached me before I knew you were coming here. You did a pretty good job in taking care of my guards, yet you shall not find what you have been sent for."
Tunninni had regained his composure after having struck at the illusion and was looking around to try to find where the voice was coming from.
"I did not know you were a practicioner of magic Lord Jeripion. I'll have to ask my employer for a higher payout."
The voice laughed, coming at Andrion and Tunninni from all sides at once.
"Your employer? Has he again tried to recruit someone for that dragon quest of his also? If you ever see him, then tell him that no one he can pay for would have any chance against Feldsproth, the black. I myself have sent several groups to try to acquire his treasure, but no one ever succeeded."
Hearing the voice from behind him Tunninni whirled round, but there was only the wall behind him. The voice laughed again, but suddenly stopped laughing as it realised that Andrion's hand movements had not been totally random. The voice started casting a spell, but Andrion got his spell finished first.
For all but Andrion time came to a halt. For Tunninni it all seemed to happen in the blink of an eye, but suddenly several spells shout out from Andrion's outstretched arms. The private study became hell on earth, as three Horrid Wiltings hit it. Having thought of problems, Andrion and Tunninni had bought rings making them immune to the spell and thus the only casualty was Lord Jeripion himself.
His dead body became visible standing close to the window. A staff was clutched in his dead hand. Tunninni walked over and prying open the fingers took the staff. He smiled to Andrion.
"This is what our employer wanted. All the rest is ours."
Andrion searched the study and found hundreds of scrolls, spellbooks, tomes of ancient history and small magical items. He took out a bag of holding he had brought and started putting the items in it. Then the two of them moved on to the other rooms of the mansion.
The total value of what they took amounted to tens of thousands of gold pieces. They stashed most of the items in a secret hiding place, which only the two of them knew about and took only what they intended to sell.
They took the staff to their employer, who thanked them for a job perfectly executed and even congratulated them on having killed Lord Jeripion, as he had not been expecting that to happen.
With their newfound wealth Andrion and Tunninni parted ways agreeing to meet up a month before the time when they had agreed to meet Kergan and his brother.
|