Kennan's Clankers (4e) IC

[Albub]

Little Asha skipped happily through crowded market streets, dodging the shuffling crowds and looking for someone to play with. Normally she would be on her way home by now, her mama's workday finished, but today was special. Her mama was busy with a special job, and had given Asha a fistful of coppers to divert her attention until she was able to walk her daughter home. Asha wasn't sure what her mama did for work in the squat mud building she played outside all day, but she knew it was odd that today her mama left with a well dressed man to do some work for him at his house. Normally mama only ever left work alone, and always walked Asha home through the dangerous city streets.

She chased a grubby boy around his parents' market stall for a while, and then almost went to sit with a pretty girl until she noticed her pointed ears. Mama told her that non-humans were dangerous. Even little ones like herself had older siblings and parents, and most non-humans were criminals or involved with dangerous people in some way. She was just starting to get hungry and look for a food stall when a kitten caught her eye. It was frolicking around the base of one of the big decorative fountains that dotted the massive market square. There were people everywhere and she was afraid it would be crushed underfoot, so she hurried to scoop it up. "What is this Mr. Kitty? Do you have a love letter for me?" She babbled idly as she fished a piece of paper out from under the kitten's collar. Asha could not read, her mother had not taught her in her 4 short years, but she figured she could show the paper to her mother later and see what it said. The paper cared not that she was illiterate, and as her gaze touched its surface magical runes glowed brightly before a powerful explosion vaporized the cat, little Asha, and a dozen other unfortunate market goers.

At this signal, groups of masked men sprang into action. Reading from scrolls, they began pouring spell after devastating spell into the panicking crowds. Walls of fire scythed down milling clusters of glassy-eyed citizens, the crackle of lightning mingled with screams of pain and fear. The guardsmen on duty stared slack-jawed as the people they were sworn to protect died in droves around them before they too were slain by unfeeling masked attackers. A column of guards that had been on patrol arrived on scene and engaged one of the groups, dispatching masked attackers with ease until one pulled out a scroll and the whole melee was consumed in a bright flash, guards and assailants alike reduced to ash.

More guards were arriving, starting to take control of the situation. Casters began throwing up barriers to protect the guardsmen from the brutal magical onslaught, and many of the attackers were engaged by relief columns from a nearby guardhouse. As they were cornered, more of the attackers pulled out scrolls that vaporized them and the valiant guards they were fighting. Then, as suddenly as it had started, the commotion in the market square had stopped. The air carried only the commanding shouts of guard officers, and the moans of the hurt and dying. The attackers had been slain or destroyed themselves. A guardsman's cry rang out "Sir! We have a live one here!"




Kennan Tannerson put his head in his hands as his aide rattled off the latest casualty totals from the market attack. He hated how little anyone really knew about what had happened.

The bastards had been thorough, there were very few civilian survivors and none of them were reliable witnesses at this point. None of the guards who had been on duty at the market survived, and even among the men who had arrived after the attack started very few of them had much to say besides "Dressed in black, used scrolls to cast their spells, lousy fighters." The only man that was going to be of any use at all in this investigation was currently recovering in a solitary cell in the dungeon, 10 stories below Kennan's office. He wanted to be interrogating him right now, but the man was their only lead, and his condition was unstable at best when he was taken into custody.

"Get me the Clankers." he barked at his aide

"Are you sure they are the best-"

"Are you sure you want to question me when I'm in a mood like this?"

"...Right away sir."