"May all the Gods damn you, hell-b###h!" shrieked Halphas. "Ye would know, would you, whore?! -- then hear, and choke on it! We four, Focalor, Procell, Salmack, and I are Assassins from Zodalinga -- Assassins, and servants of the Greatest of all Assassins, Kerioth the Toad, Grandmaster of the Assassins of Zodalinga!"He panted a little and went on, hissing in spite. "Venger has paid our Master well to betray Yarfell -- and well he has done it! Four of the council dead, you Outworld fools hated in Yarfell, Yarhaven in revolt -- and all of it laid at the feet of Dungeonmaster's brats!" He laughed, a grotesque scream in the midst of his pain. "And little enough ye knew...our Master had long since slit the throat of fat old Yodel, and sent his daughter bound -- in the back of a manure cart, none of your flying dragons! -- off to Venger! Fools!"
A gasp came from Salmack -- he had drawn his dagger and driven it, slicing into his gut. With a gasping scream he expired.
"What the--"!" exclaimed [some generic player character].
"Ay!" sneered Halphas, "The Assassins of Zodalinga, when they join the Guild, are geased. If we reveal our secrets, we die...and *I* die!"
He drew his dagger, and before anyone could think of preventing it, he drew it across his throat, and his sould fled cursing down to hell.
**************************************************
Kerioth the Toad smiled to himself. 'The fools,' he thought, 'all their gimcrack magic, and I with nothing but my own wit had played them all like penny-whistles.' He had slit old Yodel's throat, and none had known. He had strangled the Vizier and aided Venger to replce him with is monster, and none had known. Some other person had eliminated Reskya, he and his men had slaughtered Lord Droth last night (a mere five retainers! Lord Droth should not have been so stingy), and poisoned Lady Helmwigge that morning...and none suspected the Assassin of Zodalinga. And now, as Krys went into the dark house, where the great fat flies buzzed around Droth's body, he would make his master-piece.
"Help! Help!" he screamed. "Murder! Lord Droth is murdered!"
Out of the dark shadows of the square arose Aumeric and the palace guard. Had not the Princess ordered him to keep watch on Lord Droth? A pity that the Outworlders had never questioned the Captain! They would have learned that Droth and "Yodel" had had a falling-out, and that Lord Droth, a perfectly loyal Yarwellian had suspected. For that he had died.
The guard went storming into "Lord Droth's residence, Aumeric at their head to surprise the Outworld Berserker. Ah! she had cut down the good Captain. Excellent -- his job was done. The council of Yarfell was no more... "Yodel" slipped away.
He packed his gold, humming a meditative air. No, he would not trust Venger for his reward. That monster was too treacherous. But, he smiled gently, as he packed Yodel's great riches into numerous saddle packs, fingering the gold, jewel-encusted chain lovingly, weighing the silver handsomely -- that Helician sendal *ha!, it HAD sold well!*
Kerioth, having shed the disguise of the merchant, slipped into his own dull buff hood and robe, and sauntered down the street with his horse and mules, unnoticed by any. He took ship at the quay...sailed off...and faded away, never to be seen by anyone connected with Yarfell in any way shape or form ever again.
