Path of the Rootless [Omega - EU]

[Dwassyith Swanra]

Entry 25

 

P L O T   S U M MA R  Y 

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The Black Hand. 

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The Rootless got pulled deep into a world of bloody intrigues, shallow, passing business relationships and prideful exchanges of tainted money. It was an old world. A world which had set its many, far reaching roots into Limsa since centuries. One of these would find its way into Dwassyith Swanra’s little group of hired killers. 

And so ‘The Rootless’ released a seed, and then they weren’t all that rootless anymore. In time it would grow and bear horrible, poisonous fruit. But The Black Hand, and the squabbles into which these mercenaries got tossed, started long before Friendly showed up with his kill list. 
It started with Vincent Aurora, a prospect buried under Nicky’s thumb, which had for decades fought to escape. In the darkness of his growing frustration and hatred for his own situation, he found business in Ul’dah. Business with no other than The Red Queen herself. His time had come. 
So, as she needed someone to flood Limsa with her product, with drugs, he needed a card up his sleeve. A card, and an insurance. So, he finally saw a way of getting Nicky’s crippled ass out of his seat, and make it free for someone more deserving. Someone like himself, for who else had balls and brains like he did?
He made the deal for 40%. A scandalous demand, but what could Miamoli do? She had no one else. And then Vincent started his long effort to bring the drugs into the city, therefor destabilizing the underworld economy and throwing shit on Nicky’s territory. Next came the ruin of his power base. There was always just one way into the pain-center of The Black Hand, and it was to go after the money. 

Intimidating union officials, assassinating business partners and winning the drug race. Someone was making huge amount of money, and it wasn’t The Hand. They looked to Nicky. Just like Vincent knew they would.(edited)
And then an establishment caught fire, killing everyone except lucky little Naelia Swanra. But no one bears witness to an act of such ruthless destruction, and is then free to tattle off to port-wherever and tell stories. This is where the roots of the rootless got stuck in the ground. 
A longtime friend of K’arhn – C’horuc, invites him and The Rootless to an evening at a restaurant. A restaurant where they are all supposed to be assassinated. C’horuc works for The Black Hand, specifically under Nicky The Cripple. He gives Nicky intel on who they are, where they have been and where they are going to be. Right before the assassination, C’horuc leaves the restaurant. 

Friendly shows up, plus six Black Hand associates, all part of a hit-squad designed to eradicate all trace of a potential testimony. It came close too, and that’s more than you can say for most people Friendly was sent to kill. Usually, there was never a question of if but rather when it would happen. 
The rootless, however – even though seared and wounded, rattled and unhinged – escaped with their lives, killing everyone set against them. Only Friendly left unscathed. Nicky, seeing the usefulness of these seemingly exceptional killers, brought them in under his wing. He promised them riches they had never seen before, and also provided C’horuc as a “gift”. A token of trust. But C’horuc had been caught selling information to other ears than Nicky’s, specifically a family named Ives, and that was the real reason behind his elimination. Dwassyith accepted the cripple’s proposal, unsure if he was sending his band of mercenaries into an early grave, or a coffin of coins. A coffin either way, of course. For someone.

And in the meantime, Vincent Aurora was having the time of his life with Nicky’s powerbase. His collectors were getting attacked, distributors murdered and his shipments either stolen or destroyed. Nicky decided there was only one sure way of finding a trail. You had to follow the money. Coin was born from blood in the gutter, something Nicky knew well. He’d planted lush crops of them himself in the very same way. 

But it all ends up somewhere and in someone’s pocket. A bloody game and two dead whores- expertly delivered by Nicky’s new toys, and he had his trail. It was a curving, thin and bolstered trail leading right down the line to Vincent Aurora. Maybe a bit obvious to anyone with half a mind, and should’ve been for Nicky. But where did a piece of shit upstart like Vincent Aurora, get the capital to flood Limsa Lominsa’s docks with product? 

That was an answer he’d die to know, which wasn’t saying much, considering he’d wanted to die for the last decade. But he’d spend maybe two months more in torture for it, that he would.
So Dwassyith and his hired band of killers got to do the dirty work. Not odd though, that was what they did for a living, after all. Infiltrating a torture racket in Vincent’s pocket, brought them face to face with the upstart himself. But once confronted, he made a deal – a convincing one which Dwassyith decided to take. 
When you can’t trust anyone, why not just go for the biggest bone? Vincent made a deal with Boulder. So instead of a head, the rock got a juicy 25% of The Red Queen’s drug trade, as well as a highway into Ul’dah’s Underworld.

Vincent settled for fifteen percent. Well, that and his life. 

Nicky got the word from Boulder, confirming Vincent’s death, and felt a rock slide off his shoulders. For a while, Limsa calmed down, and everything was fine. All manner of things was fine, until a day when they simply weren’t.

Because Nicky decided to do Dwassyith a favor, and send Friendly off on another head-chopping errand. Sent off to a mine, no less, the last job upon which he’d ever embark. When he arrived, he found a mercenary almost the size of himself. Almost. No one was quite as large as Friendly. A swift, mind-blowing battle ensued, and just as Friendly’s sword was to taste blood, a lever was pulled, sending the giant plunging down a coal chute. Rocks were poured into the hatch, then it was sealed and a cart was placed upon it.
And while the rather large group of mercenaries above was discussing their mercenary things, Friendly was ignoring his broken arm to count rocks. Holding on to a slight outcrop in the stone, he patiently counted every boulder fallen on his head. Counted them from memory. But the fun never lasted for too long, and soon he realized he had to go to work.
So, he came up, slashing and beating his way out of the narrow chute, rising to his full height like a demon out of hell, and announced the number; forty-four. Forty-four rocks. Shame there hadn’t been more, all of them probably agreed. 
An intense, blood curdling, insane fight took place. Friendly was like a storm of violence, holding two archers, two casters, one assassin, two brutes and one sword-man off at once. for what seemed like hours they fought, while in truth it lasted less than ten minutes.
But no one is invincible, and in the end, it was the assassin that got him. She, and their black magician. Friendly’s mighty life of blood and death, ended in a dark place where no one would ever find him. A burnt and smoldering corpse amidst dust and bat-shit. 
Mere hours later, Dwassyith and his murderers came for none other than Nicky The Cripple himself.
By sneaking explosive glyphs into The Passiflora, they hoped to eradicate him and his bodyguards without a fight. It almost succeeded, at least with the bodyguards. 
A master of Black Magic, a scholar of the arcane and a honed, keen mind, Nicky had for years seen to his own safety. Runes and gems, incantations and magical fail-safe systems, made him a place of invulnerability. So, when the establishment collapsed in fire and death, Nicky was kept perfectly safe within a charged, powerful barrier. He ate from the reserves of the world around him, and shook the earth with a disgusting summoning spell.

Enemies, thieves and morons, all rose from shallow graves around the brothel. An inside joke, one of which few would find amusing. But Nicky was one of these few. And just as those unwise revelers and unprepared assassins had been made to do, Nicky knew Dwassyith and his friends would one day rise from those very same graves. Rise to protect the master they had tried to murder in life.
Nicky enveloped himself in a shield, and sent his minions on the hunt. A battle ensued where the assassins attempted to break through the ranks of the undead and reach Nicky. They broke the shield, forced it to collapse, and victory was near.

 But they had all been deceived. For while they had been tangling with worthless, broken bodies, Nicky had been feeding on the world. And when their triumph came, it was to become his victory. Or so he thought, and can we really blame him? He blackened the world, after all. Summoned a comet which blocked out the sun, and sent it slamming into the street.
It was destruction on a catastrophic scale, and had it not been for sheer luck or for some skill in magic, they would all have been obliterated. Dragging himself from the ground, bleeding on the inside, bleeding on the outside. Joints screaming and brain whirling, Dwas fed upon his iron will, and charged the now power depleted Nicky. 
Kai awoke, the mercenary who assisted in taking down Friendly, and joined in very much the same fashion. Two pissed off, blood drunk and raging juggernauts, united as on person for one, single purpose. Nicky lifted his cane, and had he gotten a chance to slam it onto the earth, a lot of things would’ve ended differently.
But Dwassyith’s axe sunk deep into the flesh of the broken body, and Kai finished it by cutting the head off the serpent. As Nicky’s life ran out onto the life-deprived land, the assassins were found, and taken to the hospital. Along with five dozen other wounded, and fifteen body bags. Buildings had been crushed, blown away or simply decimated by the cripple’s power, and if that couldn’t give birth to a new era, then nothing could. 

Later, Dwas was inducted into The Black Hand. But as we will know by now, it won’t be where The Rootless’ tale ends. 

It will simply be the beginning of another bloody chapter....

 

[Written by Naelia Swanra]

Edited February 13, 2018 by Dwassyith Swanra

[Dwassyith Swanra]

Entry 26 - The Snake's Head 

 

A new chapter began as the Snake's Head was cut off. The scars of this battle would remain scorched into Limsan soil for years to come. While the group barely got away with their lives in the fight against Nicky the Cripple, they managed to overcome the Snake and walk away.

Yet the forces of the underworld did not sleep, the group's deeds were acknowledged by the Black Hand and just as Vincent Aurora had promised Dwas was made part of the family. After a good amount of rest and healing, their next initiative would be to familiarize themselves with the forces that ran Limsa from the shadows. One particular thorn in everyone's side was a group known as the Sanguine Eye. They were rumored to be assassins and slavers and refused to cooperate with either the Hand or the White Lily for decades. Patience with this group was running thin. While Vincent found himself indisposed, his associate Momoke Mina tasked the group with speaking to he Sanguine Eye one last time.

Upon agreeing to this the group was sent a challenge, which turned out to be two riddles and a breadcrumb trail from an arranged tomb to an underground cave. Once the riddles were solved the challenge itself was not too hard, yet not for the faint hearted. It seemed that whoever set the challenge either had a way to make the dead speak on their behalf or were an excellent trickster. All the leads pointed to a cave near Limsa, where the group was congratulated on their success in beating the challenge and invited to a meeting at the Bismark in two days time. Naturally, the anti- climatic ending had most of the group confused if not angry.

Two days later, they found themselves in the busy Bismark Inn, where at an empty table they had their first encounter with a man who called himself Azure The Watcher. He laid out why the Sanguine Eye had refused cooperation so far and made it clear that his group was not after power nor wealth, but that they would listen once another challenge was completed. Grinding their teeth, the group agreed to these terms and left. It was clear now why the Sanguine Eye was a thorn in everyone's side.

[Written by R'avi Tia]

Edited February 13, 2018 by Dwassyith Swanra

[Dwassyith Swanra]

Entry 27 - To Blind An Eye

 

The assignment given by the Sanguine Eye saw the group venturing in a sea-side location, where once upon a time there was a resort place which had gotten close due to mysterious circumstances. The reason soon became clear as the group was forced to deal with extremely strong currents, sharks and multi-tentacled marine monsters to find what they were looking for on the depths of the sea. A shells-covered crusty chest, presumably containing a precious locket.

Much to everybody's disappointment, inside the chest there was not the yearned-for locket, but a bottle containing a letter. The message was a clear refusal of the Sanguine Eye to collaborate in any way with the Black Hand, and such constituted the final and ultimate insult to be endured.

Seeing as they had been toyed around by the Sanguine Eye one last time, Dwassyith swore vengeance towards the elusive organization and headed to his superior in the chain of command, Vincent Aurora. It took only a few days to organize a big strike of retaliation, which started by divdiing into three groups who paid visit to three different targets. Said targets presumably knew about a slave warehouse, possession of the Sanguine Eye. They  got visited, interrogated and brutalized, but only one out of three yielded the wanted location. The three groups were also efficient in silencing every witness, after learning that the place they were looking for matched the 'Serpent's Tongue' hidden cave.

The day after, the Hand gathered its forces at Serpent's Tongue bay and commenced its attack by having a mercantile ship crashing on the shore. The impact of tremendous force caused the first victims in the enemy ranks, and what followed brought a wrecking destruction all over the bay. The sand got stained with red, and the Rootless fought bravely and with valiant coordination, up until when catapults located above a tower began tossing projectiles of incendiary oil on the battlefield.

Dwassyith ordered to make the catapults everybody's next priority and Xihsa'li, due to his newly acquired powers wielded through Nicky's cane, successfully managed to annihilate them by causing a portion of the above cliff to crumble down on their heads. The Black Hand ultimately came out victorious, decimated the Sanguine Eye's forces and destroyed the remaining slave stock in the bay. A dire consequence, however, hadn't been foreseen: Dwassyith was caught under the rubble of the collapsed cliff. Found teetering between life and death, the Seeker group leader was urgently brought to Limsa Lominsa hospital, along with the injured new recruit Crimson Dawn.

The Sanguine Eye was no more, but the victory had a bitter taste of concern and sacrifice from the side of those who were left behind and living.
As if that hadn't been enough, the same night Naelia learned of the grave accident that happened to her brother, and looked for explanations. As Nanami stated that she hadn't manage to be there in time for offering him healing services, Naelia unleashed an onslaught of incommensurable violence on the Auri girl, and left her bleeding on the ground with a broken face that could hardly be recognized.

Tension was in the air, and times were tough for the Rootless group, despite the achieved supremacy over the rival gang. It was then only a matter of visiting the hospital everyday, to check on their mangled companions while waiting for updates.

Edited February 13, 2018 by Dwassyith Swanra

[Dwassyith Swanra]

Entry 28 - Eastern Winds
 

After having defeated the nuisance posed by the Sanguine Eye, Dwassyith went through an intense recovery therapy, while the rest of the group spent restless days at the Inn where they were staying. The depature for Kugane stayed within plans, and as it drawed nearer by each day that passed, preparations had been made to face it properly. The Lominsan docks where Dwassyith worked had found a proper temporary replacement as dockmaster, and Chihaya even went to the extent of holding a lesson of 'hingan manners' to make the group more acquainted with Eastern tradition.

Once ready, they faced a one-week-long journey across the immense ocean expanse that divided Limsa Lominsa and Kugane. The ship was named 'The Bearded Lady', inspired precisely by its furry-faced female captain. The journey had been most uneventful, up until when the crashed relics of a garlean ship had been found. Only one survivor was left amidst the graveyard-like destruction, and hauled on the ship as peace-bringing passenger. The Garlean man seemed to be on a diplomatic mission to Kugane, or so he said, before the unforeseen accident.

Upon arriving in Kugane, the group marvelled over its splendor; the foreign architecture, colours, people and the general 'different air' got everybody charmed. The Eastern capital city was a completely new world to explore, and after a bit of jaw-dropping wandering, they had a small break in the onsen of Bokairo Inn.

After a brief stop in one of the most impressive hot springs of Kugane, the group relocated to Kinshi Iro Inn, a small and quaint establishment in Shirogane. The day after, they headed to the harbour again to witness the grandiose and opulent arrival of Lord Hashimoto, escorted by a contingent of samurai warriors. Drums accompanied his march from the ship to the land, and everybody at the harbour bowed in sign of deep reverence.

A few hours later, the group was granted an extremely formal and cerimonious meeting with the important hingan personage. Against all odds, manners had been shown in the name of tradition, and Hashimoto got a good impression over the foreigners eager to get his attention on them. Dwassyith asked for a favour and such got accepted -- however, its discussion was postponed to a later meeting.

There was potential in getting a deal sealed, if not for a couple of ominous characters such as a half-Elezen mongrel and a xenophobic general, who seemed prone to advise Hashimoto against lending an ear to the barbaric 'ijin'.

Edited February 13, 2018 by Dwassyith Swanra