SZ05 - Atoll

u/CrackedMack - Atoll

You saw the whole thing.

There you were, sitting on the rooftop of a warehouse in the Rivers district, overlooking Tybald Lake. You came up here frequently when you were in Goldhill (at least a few days a week). Sometimes, if you closed your eyes and focused your ears eastward, you could imagine that you were up in the nest on the mizzenmast of the Crustacean. And then you'd get the shakes and have to stop imagining things.

The air was chill and dark, and it smelled like incoming rain.

You took note of the raitara first. Her small form stood out, oddly. Like a blue diadem left out on a piece of slate. It also reminded you of Whitecap in a way, though this was no gnollpup. She was eating as she walked, and seemed to be looking for something along the docks.

It seemed like an odd hour for a gnome to be out on her own along the lakefront.

Next came the shadowed figure darting from hiding spot to hiding spot. And not doing a very good job of it. It was approaching the raitara, but she seemed unconcerned. The gnome and the figure each stopped within earshot of each other. Moments passed.

And then your ears barely registered the gentle whiff of a silenced crossbow being fired from several docks down. You may have ignored it if the figure with poor stealth skills didn't stumble and collapse a second after. Followed by the scream. In the direction of the bowshot, you could catch the briefest of glimpses of a figure in black in a low canoe push away from the dock pilings and row silently away in the opposite direction and away from the shoreline to the northeast.

The gnome huddled over the figure for a few agonizing moments. A glimmer of blue light. She looks around frantically, then removes something from the body before slowly stepping away. You are frozen, watching the scene unfold, as if it were a staged play. Finally you shake your head, clearing your thoughts.

The gnome steps lightly towards light, towards the closest door (which, in this case, happens to be the doors to The Harlot's Curse). Another flash of blue, and she moves inside. The raised voices of the tavern-folk inside echo out across the water as the door opens and then closes.

The body lies on the dock, unmoving, lit from above by a lantern. There is no one else around.