Time to reflect...

The party agrees that travelling to Korvosa in pursuit of the Red Gull and its cargo of plague rats is the right thing to do. Malvick, returning to the city of his birth, haunted by the faces of dead comrades, took a break from his companions during most of the trip. He had a lot on his mind.

On one of the nights Malvick took Ariva out for a walk on the deck late that night. The wind cut across the deck like a razor but the meaning of a phrase like that had changed quite a bit after the ordeal with Iron Briar. He felt his chest again for scarring. Malvick was still thinking about how such a man could fall the way he had, with the position in Magnimar he held. When had it all began?

The crew had changed to the night shift on the Direption. All that could be heard were the crashing waves and blistering wind. Malvick and Ariva went and took cover by an outer wall near the bow, protecting themselves from the elements. Malvick sat down and supported his back while Ariva slumped down at his feet immediately going to sleep now that she was out of the wind. Malvick had bought a wool cloak cheap from one of the crew as settlement on a poker game. He drapped it over Ariva.

There weren't many clouds tonight. The wind didn't allow them. Malvick took out a small hunting knife and a few blocks of wood and placed them beside him. He then dug in another pocket revealing a small, smooth, cream coloured item. No one bothered them and why should they. A cloaked man in a leather witch hat with a small horse resting at his feet. Nothing would come from that after midnight, especially while the witch man carved into a block of wood with a rat skull as his model.

***

It was cold outside and pitch black. The clouds had blocked the moon entirely, but as Malvick stumbled out of the bar he felt the wind pick up and he knew it would be a clear morning. Korvosa's regular night guard was taking their day off seriously, and the hunter didn't want to disappoint his new colleagues by skipping out.

He definitely wasn't used to this though. Malvick's time in the rural areas with the family kept him from all this. He drank with his father after hunting, but not like this. An attempt to grab a railing to steady himself ultimately failed, and Malvick was suddenly feet over ass.

He sat for a moment watching the clouds, but it just looked like dark masking dark. Sitting up he thought to himself "Where is she? She always disappears on me with crowds. That's going to have to stop."

Dusting himself off Malvick started to walk back to the barracks that had been temporarily set up while the city fixed the old ones. A few fires and attacks on the militia had pushed the city to recruit and that's why Malvick was here; some experienced help that didn't cost too much.

The roads were fairly quiet until Malvick happened upon the mouth of an alley. The hunter's ears tuned by habit. "Listen, you're brother has screwed us for the last time. He got most of our money and he gives us this junk. A half wit gnome could do better! The trigger doesn't even work." A swift sound with an ending thud could have only been a boot to the ribs.

The sobbing was almost inaudible. "I've told you... *gasp* a thousand times... he won't... he won't... it doesn't matter. I can't help you..." THUD.

"Well we're going to let him know how things end up with family when he pulls this crap." Came a second, calmer voice.

The laugh coming from the victim was almost pathetic yet resolute. It seemed like the person they wanted to get to wouldn't understand the message. At least that's what Malvick gathered through the sudden, strange laughter.

Malvick tensed and slowly moved into the alley. The hunter never liked odds against what he assumed was the underdog. He was off duty but this felt wrong and he couldn't keep on his way.

Ten feet into the alley a shadow bolted behind Malvick across the opening. Whatever it was Malvick felt it, but it moved on and he kept his slow pace. Crates lined the walls and he moved along it to get as close as he could without the two assailants noticing him. One crate had been pulverized and he picked a piece of it up to use as a bat.

The small man between the two thugs wasn't moving anymore. He had taken quite the beating.

"Hey, what are you guys up to down here?" Malvick said sarcastically as he began to swing. The one thug with his back to Malvick turned around to suddenly see someone behind him. The wood almost took off his nose and ripped his lip open. As he fell to the floor the second thug gasped as Malvick whistled and pointed at him. "Get it girl!"

A galloping was heard from the mouth of the alley as two eyes and white fangs came flying. Malvick knelt as the Sheppard used his back as a spring board and the second thug was suddenly on his back after being hit by a 70 pound dog. Arms, legs, face, they all got bit, ripped, or pierced, Malvick never really found out.

"That's enough Braks! Heel!" Instantly the dog retreated and came back to Malvick.

"What the... What the... get the hell away from me! Who are you!?"

Malvick stepped forward and the thug pulled a knife while prone, his partner unconscious. "Whoa," Malvick gestured with both hands, "I wouldn't. I'm just getting whoever this is you've done a number on. Trust me, I point at you and then snap my fingers and you're dead." He motioned to the dog. "I've seen her go at a boar's throat. It takes me hours to clean her up."

Malvick lifted the small man. Now that he was closer he saw it was an elf. He could have been a teenager for all Malvick knew but elves were tricky when it came to age. For all he knew this one could have been 90. He considered taking the elf to the infirmary, but Malvick was new to the guard and didn't know the elf's backstory so in the end he went back home. He had a few days leave left so it wouldn't be strange for him to be gone. Braks was close at his heels, watching side to side as they vanished from the city.

A few days later after the elf had healed and regained some strength Malvick found out his name was Masfaul. He was a spy and thief who usually kept to the rooftops of the city. It turned out his brother, whom he hadn't seen for weeks, was passing off gadgets that usually weren't half made for full price. The brother was named Causefaulha, a thief too which Malvick didn't think surprising after hearing the classic orphan history. The gadget making brother was more into gnomish tricks and had a bit of an affinity for contraptions and magics. It just sounded to Malvick like good brother, evil brother, but Malvick kept that to himself.

While heading back to the city with Malvick, Masfaul presented him a small smooth object that he pressed firmly into his hand. Malvick opened him palm and saw... a rat skull. He looked at it and snickered a bit. "What is this?"

Masfaul looked offended, "I owe you. I could have been dead today. If you ever need something, and I mean anything, give this back to me."

Malvick looked at the small animal skull and back at the elf. He could tell this was a serious matter although he never found out why "Okay."

That was a start of an interesting relationship. No one from the guard ever knew of Masfaul, while Malvick paid him often for information and tips throughout Korvosa. Half of the information Malvick had on anyone and everyone was Masfaul's doing.

***

Malvick was snapped back to the present by the yelling of a crew member walking by him. From the sounds of it, it seemed this man's relief had slept in. The sun was creeping over the horizon and Ariva still hadn't moved an inch, content under her cloak.

His back ached from his impromptu back rest, after sitting against it all night. Looking down at his lap littered with wood shavings he sheathed the small knife. He put the rat skull back in his pocket and inspected his three creations.

"Three down, one to go." Ariva raised her head and let out a giant yawn that molded into a bark. "Good morning girl. Did you sleep well?"

Stream of memory...

As Malvick examines these strange prints, plaster dust from above settles on his shoulder, and every instinct in his body screams at him to MOVE!

He rolls aside as the stone wall behind where his head just was is pulverized by a ropey fist.  Malvick regains his feet and looks up to see a red, rubbery faceless stalker on the stairs above winding up for another swing.  His bow is already in hand, but before he can reach back to grab an arrow, something grabs his hair from behind.  Something big.  Malvick is lifted off his feet and launched across the room.  Pain lances through his body as hits the opposite wall.  He struggles to take a breath and manages to get to one knee.  Then he sees a fist the size of a feast day ham descending and everything after that is black.

***
"Get up boy, you're going to sleep the whole day away... worthless nephew!"

The hammock swayed violently as Malvick tumbled to floor.

"What the hell!?" gasped Malvick. He attempted to drag himself up and was suddenly overcome by a terrible migraine. He dropped back down to one knee as a wave of nausea took over him.

The man in the room walked over, handing Malvick a dirty glass with dirtier water. "Here, that will take the taste out of your mouth."

"What do you mean, the taste out of..." Malvick lost control of his stomach and just barely hit the bucket under the hammock he had been thrown off of. All he could see were colours.

He sat up against the wall, feeling his balance and composure come back. His eyes started working again and he oriented himself within the room. He went to drain the water and immediately spat it out. It was some sort of whiskey. That`s all he wanted to remember of that.

"I told you it would take the taste out of your mouth, but don't waste it!"

The man walked over and grabbed the glass from Malvick's hand, promptly returning to the desk in the room. Malvick almost did a double take. "Uncle Elrick? What the hell are you..." Malvick looked around the room again. "...what the hell am I doing here?" He corrected.

Malvick's senses were finally able to scan the room. He was in what looked like a small cottage, complete with hammock, desk, two chairs, a large fireplace and a bear skin rug that covered the dirty wooden floor. Somehow Malvick had arrived at his Uncle's run down cottage on the outskirts of Korvosa. Travellers sometimes scoffed at Malvick`s attire, but his uncle was worse. All the man wore were leather pants. His bare feet and back were covered with dirt. His arms, back and chest covered by terrible scars. Elrick sat back down in his desk chair with his back to the Ranger.

Malvick stood up, approaching the hunched figure. "So somehow I show up here and you're not going to talk to me at least. I didn't get on your bad side that much last time did I?" He looked over Elrick's shoulder to see his uncle digging a blade into his forearm. Malvick doubled back in disgust. "Great Mielikki! Are you still doing this?!"

"Shut your mouth, boy," Elrick snapped back. "You and your father still don't understand."

"No, we don't. And for good reason."

Malvick's uncle Elrick was a curious man by the family's standards. Overshadowed by Malvick's father, Elrick had always looked for his own calling. Elrick believed it was fortunate for him that society, and military and politics didn't suit him. Distancing himself he had taught himself wizardry. How, the family never knew.Through some close encounters with death, partly his own experimentation and partly through getting involved with the wrong mage circles, Elrick had lost his mind and was shunned to this small run down cottage by the family. Malvick always supported his father and thought nothing of his uncle, except the few times a decade he would visit out of what he believed was courtesy. The last time he saw Elrick things hadn't ended so well and the cottage was left half standing. How had it been rebuilt exactly he wondered? The last straw for Malvick was when he discovered uncle Elrick had started experimenting with blood magic, giving up his spell book for etched glyphs and incantations cut and stored within his own flesh. Who knows where or with whom Elrick had started practicing it, but the blood stains Malvick now noticed on the floor and desk, dark reds and browns, showed the ranger that his uncle was deep into practicing his new faith, whatever that was.

"I let you sleep it off in my place and that's the first thing you say? Times like these I wish for a better nephew."

"Kind of like how I wish for a better Uncle"

"Don't start now boy. I think you're a little worse for wear."

"And that's because...?"

Elrick snapped around, intrigued "So you don't quite remember?! That's interesting, most remember their last moments. I've been experimenting a bit with people's dreams on the edge of... well... In any case, I'm surprised I ended up talking to you. And also surprised that you picked my cottage of all places for your own vision. Maybe I didn't quite get that last incantation right. Alas, you have nothing I need so we're almost done here."

"Done? What are you talking about?"

Elrick looked away, smiling to himself. "No, I'll leave it at that. Too much information. If you die it won't matter. But if you live I'd hate you tracking me down like your righteous father would. Either way... I wish you the best of luck."

He gave Malvick a sarcastic half bow, and with a flick of the wrist a concealed piece of flint he had in his left hand created a brilliant spark and Malvick was engulfed in white light, and then darkness again.

***

Saw the strangest thing today...

How often can you say you spoke with a dead man? I can't say I'll remember the conversation in a few years, but I will always remember the face. After surviving the horrors of the Foxglove estate the first thing we get to do is experience meeting that doomed couple a second time in their own townhouse in Magnimar. In the doorway I left figuring out what was going on to the scholar, Li, while the Ranger in me made sure everything else was clear.


It wasn't long before I heard an exclamation. I knew something was going to happen. Always waiting until the storm breaks. It worked out in the end, and the sights are something I'll never forget.


At first they were the Foxglove's, the next moment they were these... things. I had never met dopplegangers before. Li later told us what they were - some ancient creatures used for politics and treachery - a race that had lost its way, if it ever really had one in the first place. Soon we may know what they were doing here and maybe in the end it will make sense. 


I feel we must all be careful, or we will all end up like those dopplegangers. Lost, confused, and violent.


-Malvick

Maybe next time...

Malvick left the hunter's guild with Li and Yola and stopped quickly to check the job board. What was said inside was absolutely right, there was a lot of slim pickings currently in Magnimar. Hopefully that would change in the future. He would be sure to make his way back after the groups boar hunt.

He turned to Li and Yola, "Sorry for wasting everyone's time. Let's get to Aldern's."

Malvick and Yola led the way. Li had already gotten back to his story about the troll with Ariva bringing up the back of the group.

Arriving at Aldern's house

Away to Aldern's house we go

This is a post that interacts with the Iron Desk. Check it and its characters out there.

Li Kao was still talking about the Albino Troll despite the fact that Malvick, Ariva and he had been walking for almost twenty minutes. Malvick wondered when the story was going to end, but the way Li prattled on he had a feeling they may only be on chapter two of nine.

"And that's when he had my halfling friend by the ankles, swinging him from between the tree trunks. I'm quite surprised he didn't bump his head, not that it would have made any..."

"Yes, I know. You weren't fond of your fellow adventurer. I got that part when you tripped him with that immovable rod beside the creek bed and he went face first. If you don't mind I think I spotted a sign for a hunter's guild or trading post just down this roadway."

Malvick changed his pace and walked a bit quicker before Li could pick up where he left off. Ariva was hot on his heels. Besides the constant chatter Malvick liked having Li along to fill a bit of the silence. He hadn't travelled with a group for a long time before getting to Sandpoint.

Down the road the wooden sign above the door swung slowly in the wind. In faded red paint it read "The Wyvern." This looked like the hunter's guild he was after. They sometimes had posting boards for work, decent equipment or word on the latest hunting.

The door was much heavier than he anticipated and he held it for Li. Inside, a small fire barely lit the room which was musty from the pelts and trophy heads along the walls. A group of three, two men and a woman, looked to be preparing to head out, stuffing bags with supplies and packing some weapons.

One man looked up, "Ah, sorry mates, the team is full. If you're here for the boar hunt you're outta luck. We're not splitting the job more than three ways." Malvick noticed he only saw one eye, the other looked hidden behind a very old scar.

"Actually we didn't even know about that. I was coming through the area and noticed the sign. Is this the local hunter's guild?" Malvick asked. They seemed in a hurry.

"One of them at least," said the one eyed hunter. "You'll see a few in Magnimar. This one gets the most business although things have been a bit slow all around, but I'm sure you've heard of that by now. Sorry for rushing you out but we have a deadline to keep here. There's a boar around Magnimar that won't trounce itself. The bulletin board is outside so help yourself. If you need supplies you'll need to come back later. Just ask for Baoch when we're back. I'm usually around if I'm not out for the day with a party.  Now head out before I lock up."