The Shadow Fort, Day Ten

There was something unusual about the air that night. It was warm. Or, more accurately, not quite as freezing as the past week and a half. And though it was cloudy, no snow fell.

Much of the night was silent. One man hurried quickly through the fort as the dark hours before dawn approached.

Atheotes kept a cautious eye on his surroundings. He had learned things about surviving he would not have cared to learn during his time in the fort. He kept them in mind nevertheless, and kept his hand close to the hilt of his sword.

The door of the tavern was in sight when the crossbow bolts shot out of the darkness. One missed, but the other hit his stomach. Atheotes grimaced, stifled a cry of pain, and then drew his sword. In the faint torchlight he could make out the shape of a man approaching him from near the tavern.

In fear, he turned his head and saw someone coming at him from behind, much closer. Both men were well armed, with weapons out. Atheotes raised his sword and struck at his attacker. The aim was true; directly at the neck of his enemy, who still had his sword lowered, and only seemed to lazily start raising it as Atheotes’ sword approached his neck.

But then Atheotes’ sword was deflected; his attacker’s sword in place guarding his neck. Then the attacker struck back. Atheotes leaped back and dodged the blow. He raised his sword to strike again, doubly determined.

The second attacker was behind him already; he held a morningstar, and it was plain from the way he held it that he knew how to use it. Atheotes had not heard him approach. The attacker quickly struck at Atheotes with the morningstar.

It hit Atheotes in the center of the back and broke his spine. Atheotes’ resolve faltered as he tumbled forward, crying out in pain, dropping his sword in order to try to cushion his fall with his hands.

The attacker with the morningstar smiled, then looked out into the darkness to make sure no one approached, while the other bent down, sword still in hand, and turned Atheotes onto his back.

Grabbing hold of Atheotes throat, this attacker lifted him into the air with one arm. Atheotes struggled to loosen the grip around his throat, but his attacker did not mean to strangle him. Instead, he moved Atheotes and held him up against a nearby wall; extending his arm so that Atheotes’s head was a foot higher than his attacker’s.

Then he took his sword and placed it under Atheotes’ chin, who was increasingly panicked. The attacker smiled cruelly, then jerked the sword up, cutting the flesh of his neck and causing blood to pour out, down his body and running down the length of the sword. With one last gasp the life slipped from Atheotes.
But the attacker was not done. He let go of Atheotes throat, keeping him against the wall with his sword. Then he drew a dagger and impaled it through the forehead, crunching through the skull.

Only then, putting a hand against the torso of the body, did he withdraw his sword. The body fell with a dull thud into the snow, still bleeding.

The attacker stood a moment, looking at the body. Then he glanced at his sword, dripping with blood. Seemingly filled with trepidation, he raised the sword to his mouth, and licked the warm blood from the length of it. His face shuddered in ecstasy, and he looked up to the black sky with wonder in his eyes.

The other attacker smiled deeply as the first turned to look at him.

They spoke some low words that no one could hear. The expression of the man who had finished off Atheotes changed from wonder to a cruel smile. The two men walked off, disappearing into the darkness.


It was near dawn in another part of the fort. Two men crept from shadow to shadow, swords in hand. They looked behind them, and crept softly through the snow.

Their target was the ever-increasing pile of bodies near a wall of the fort. With swords out, and scanning constantly, they approached on body. It was that of Ibn-Khaldun.

His face was in the same contorted position it was when he was hung, and several nights of snow covered his body. One man reached down to push off the snow while the other kept his sword pointed at the corpse. The first man then took out a hatchet and began hacking through the neck. The flesh had frozen, and it was hard work. The corpse remained unmoving.

But the task was completed soon enough. The men were not done, though; one produced more items from a pack, and they set about doing more things to Ibn-khaldun’s corpse. With more holes in the body than when the night began, the men stepped back to consider their work.

“Well?” asked one.

The other frowned, frustrated, “I don’t think so.”

With a glance about the area, they returned to the darkness.


“A corpse was desecrated? Are you sure you speak the truth?” an incredulous Gerard asked.

“Quite sure – I skipped ahead in the report you’re reading,” replied Hans.

“And only one living man killed? Well that’s good, I suppose. Better to kill someone already dead.”

“And we don’t even have to move the body! How convenient!”

“Indeed. Well, I suppose I’ll address the crowd, or really just the last to die! Ha! I suppose the keep makes a fitting gravestone,” laughed Gerard.

“They shall find us cold men when this is over!” added Hans.

Ten men, including Gerard, had gathered in the hall. The rest kept residence near the fort walls.

“Welcome, my fellows, to the end! Look to your right, then your left. On each side you will find a killer, stained with the blood of others,” Gerard smiled broadly, “But don’t worry to much. The killers we must hang are only those who want to kill us all, not those who simply have killed most of us! All you have to do is discern the two!” He grinned madly.

“Oh, right, we have gathered some information about the dead. Beefy, Scienter and Renata were all travelers. Beefy had a violin, while Scienter was found with a maile shirt. Renata had the crumbled remains of a cake in her clothing.

“But we found a variety of weapons in the room of Reenk Roink. From what we could find, he was some sort of killer for hire. A man with blood on his hands killed by those with blood on their hands!

“How the path of murder circles around! Who here, I wonder, helped kill him? Who here will kill his killers? Is it not exciting?” the mad grin returned.

“One can’t complain about the quality of the last act, or the importance of our part, if we are to die here,” said Hans.

Gerard turned towards him and continued grinning, “Indeed! What a blessing to live these hours!”

Hans stopped smiling, and said nothing more.

It is now the day phase! This phase will last for 30 hours, until 8 pm PST Monday April 5th.


Alive:
Beskar
Jolt
Sasaki Kojiro
Joooray
TinCow
Askthepizzaguy
White_eyes:D
Yaropolk
Sigurd


Lynched:
Kagemusha D2
Secura D3
Ibn-Khaldun D4
Cultured Drizzt Fan D5
Psychonaut D6
Beefy187 D7
Captain Blackadder D8
Yaseikhaan D9


Killed:
Chaotix N2
Seamus Fermanagh N2
A Very Super Market N2
Winston Hughes N3
Centurion1 N3
Diamondeye N4
Thermal Mercury N4
pevergreen N4
Autolycus N5
Seon N5
TheFlax N5
Slashandburn N5
johnhughtom N5
Subotan N6
GeneralHankerchief N6
Myrddraal N6
Scienter N7
Reenk Roink N7
Renata N7
Methos N8
Csargo N8
ACIN N8
spL1tp3r50naL1ty N8
atheotes N9

Forced to Wander the Snow:
Double A