Closed Shadow Walker

[Shadow]

A small part of Graentun housed a group of people who were obsessed with work and discipline. Almost all wooden houses were between large trees, and it seemed that trunks of these houses were hundreds of years old. The inhabitants of this place were ordinary folk who earned their livelihood as slave laborers to the elves.

It was the type of place where people would stop over for barter, a place where assets came in and went out. It had handled herbs, alkahest, other similar things. It had never been a place associated with riches until recently.

It was fueled by rumor at first. A mention was made of a thief of a man who steals from whoever he wants and lives. Most thought of the stories as just myths to stir up some gossip. Indeed, this was was not a place associated with crime. There were very few thieves and any that were caught could be dealt with by the town guard. But such rumors turned out to be much more interesting and as weeks passed, thefts got more serious and the stories behind them turned more and more terrifying.

The thief was not an ordinary pickpocket. He was something more than a man. A merchant said that one day his products disappeared from his cart without any indication that a theft had occurred. There was an farmer who rushed home late in the evening after going to his farm land said that he saw a man walk into the shade and disappear. The very town guards themselves reported tales of the apparition of shadows that danced when there were no shadows to dance, and of empty streets.

The name of the thief began to circulate, whispered from one wary villager to the next. He was the Shadow Walker.

People did not know where he was from or what he wanted. It seemed obvious that he was an exodus mage. Some claimed that he was a ghost. Whatever the truth was, one thing was clear: this thief was not to be taken lightly.

The thief became a topic of the huge scandal when alkahest was stolen in the town. In any case, the thief was not a petty crook anymore, who stole only souvenirs and change. They were in search of strong magical components. The guard was told that they had to patrol around twice as often.

However the thief was still not caught despite the implementation of the better security measures. Every night the guards felt like they were running after a phantom. Hiding among trees of the forest, the Shadow Walker observed increasing patrols with amusement.


OOC:

New:

• It is night time and the thief readies for another spree.

Old:

 

[Kage]

Fall 16, 124

The Shadow Walker, as the Faelnir called him, was a rumor that Kage picked up with his fetches that circled around Graetun while he kept an eye on Naru. He wasn't the type to intervene with mere rumors, but he did take an interest in the funny little games that faelnir criminals liked to play.

A coworker had asked him to look into things so he'd come to Graetun personally to investigate. He wasn't putting himself in danger, but he did kill several wolves that he found in the forest to turn into treants. He sent the wolves to prowl around town and look out for danger while he sat comfortably in an inn with Fluffy and Droplet. Fluffy was busy arranging some blocks in the corner and Droplet was in another corner in timeout like a child being punished.

Kage's treant minions made their way around while he used deadsight to switch between their visions. All he really wanted to do was to witness one of the crimes so he could use divination to figure out what this criminal's gimmick was.

 

[Shadow]

It had been a long night and still nobody could find the Shadow Walker. An hour later, all the treant spies would be able to tell was that the people were anxious, the townsfolk were jumpy, but there was no sign of a thief. Nowhere in sight the magical rogue who had been terrorizing the streets for weeks now.

The Shadow Walker was just as hard to pin down as the rumors made it out to be. The scouts and guards had also not discovered anything of substance. Then, as if on a signal, the treants that Kage had deployed started get destroyed one by one.

There was no discernable indication of a fight. It was almost eerie how fast and without any noise the treants were being killed. Within the space of five minutes, the wolves-turned-treants that had been walking around the perimeter of the town were little more than splinters of wood and a few limp roots. Whatever force was bringing them down was efficient and clean, there was no hint of the attacker's presence.

To any onlookers it would have looked like the treants had been bashed over the head and as if all the life had been sucked out of them. There was only one way this could have happened, and that was if someone knew of the treants purpose.

OOC:

• ???
  

 

[Kage]

"Hmm, that's odd," Kage said with a yawn when his treants were destroyed in quick fashion. He checked, and sure enough he'd lost connection to those tethers.

"What's wrong?" Fluffy asked.

"My treants, they've perished. Which means that the enemy probably has some form of divination." He got to his feet, somewhat annoyed. He put his hands on the walls of the room and a thick layer of wood started to form on the interior of the walls. He even grew roots out from the exterior of the room into the ground so that they would touch the other roots underground.

Droplet whimpered in the corner but Kage just said, "oh don't you worry. I'm just fortifying our position. It's likely whoever the attacker is can see my tethers, which means they'll know I'm here. But I doubt they would be able to get through this defense."

"Be back soon," he said before slowly melding into the wall and traveling to a tree a ways away from where he'd been. There he would look for some birds to turn into treant spies. Five would do, he thought. If he successfully made those he would let them circle around and look for more trouble. While that happened he would travel through the roots and back into his room.

 

[Shadow]

The birds which were treants now followed Kage's commands and flew away. The wooden exteriors blended in nicely with the night as they flew in a circle. From Kage's point of view everything was just fine and dandy until the first treant bird hit the ground.

Step by step, the birds started falling off. It was fast, barely noticeable at one point, but there was a rhythm. Each treant that flew was stopped. The attacker was deliberate, as if he materialized from thin air, striking a bird, either stabbing or crushing it, then disappearing. It was only a silhouette, Kage could barely see the outline of a human, but it was enough to realize that the opponent was not a ghost.

With every hit these wooden animals were destroyed mid air and splintered into pieces and scattered on the ground. The attacker seemed to glide floor as if this were all in good fun.

Kage could even see the smile that graced the face of the attacker through one of the bird's eyes. It was obvious that this was a challenge.

OOC:

• ???

 

[Kage]

Kage let out a groan of frustration. It was one thing to be played with… it was another thing entirely to be toyed with by a faelnir. It was becoming clear that his strategy was not going to work, but he saw little choices. He wasn't going to go out there and face this faelnir because the result was painfully predictable – the man was likely to put a weapon through Kage's heart.

So, Kage decided to call it quits. He would have to try again another day, when he prepared more trenants – so many that there was no way an exodii could outlast him. He would sit and meditate in the center of the fortified room and wait for the morning to come. Only after he could hear the chirping of birds outside did he create an opening for Fluffy and Droplet to go investigate if the Shadow Walker had struck again.

 

[Shadow]

The night after the treants were destroyed was very uneventful. The Shadow Walker, having seemingly gotten his way, had not pushed his luck further. It was obvious that the trick he had used to eliminate Kage's treants had left him exhausted, and he was not willing to spend more aether that evening. Despite the tension in the town, no further incident occurred. The guards kept moving around, oblivious to the havoc that had just gone down in the dark.

Later on in the morning, Droplet, and Fluffy crawled out from their nooks to see if anything had been stolen in the alley streets they were looking through. To their surprise and probably Kage's relief there was nothing missing. The Shadow Walker had not struck again.

Kage now had enough information that he could pass to his coworker. His treants had been eliminated, and while he hadn't caught the thief in the act, he knew more about the thief's capabilities. This was not some small time crook with flashy tricks. He was intelligent, calculated and had the ability to take out adversaries quickly.

The question remained: would Kage stay there to solve this problem or had he come for something else? The Shadow Walker had not made another move, and it was possible that, after such a close brush with detection, the thief would give up on Graetun altogether. Or maybe, he would consider it as a task, as a fun to keep teasing the elves that came to check on him.

Only time would tell.

 

[Kage]

When his minions came back to report, Kage was almost disappointed. He had gone up against someone who was annoying as he was persistent and they'd come to a draw. He couldn't catch the suspect and they couldn't spare the aether to pull off a theft. He didn't know what the right move was from here on out, but he did jot down his findings and send a letter to his coworker informing him of the thief's capabilities.

There were much more qualified aelves who could better deal with a teleporting thief. Perhaps he would still be asked to deal with the nuisance, in which case he would have to take some time to build up a more overwhelming retinue of treant soldiers.

In any case, he felt as thought his adventure here was done for the time being. Perhaps he would give Abraia's shop a visit while he was in the area…

700 wc

 

[Kage]

Thread Title: Shadow Walker

Thread Summary: Kage investigates a teleporting thief and gets bested by his antics

Expected Rewards: 7xp for Kage
11xp for Shadow
11xp for Abraia

Thread Link: https://antarok.net/threads/shadow-walker.407/
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[Vicissitude]

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❀ Rewards ❀

Requested rewards granted!

❀ Comments ❀

It is a wise decision on the part of the Shadow Walker to move on to new pastures; Kage's report would result in more specialized agents being placed on his tail, though Kage would be welcome to still try and catch the thief on his own should he desire to do so.

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