Secrets of the Rogues of Norrath part I

[EZ_Lord Vaghris Bloodreaver]

-Prologue-
The rain pelted them both in hard, long sheets. "You don't have a chance Vaghris," the old warrior shouted into the night. He had the rogue trapped. He could see him through the corner of his eye on occasion, though only for an instant before he disappeared once more. His sword crackled and sizzled as rain touched it's fiery blade. He had been tracking the thief for days, through Kithicor woods, the Common Lands, and through half of Freeport. All until the rogue noticed his stalker and took to hiding in the arena. "You know the Gods have granted me the right to revenge my sons that you murdered. Show yourself and your death shall be swift and merciful." Dralg bellowed into the lightning streaked night.

"Ahhh.. I remember your ssssonsss... but ssadly I only remember that I ate well that night after collecting the money owed for their deathsss!! HAR!" Vaghris retorted. Dralg glared icily at where he thought the voice was coming from. Though he was prompted proven wrong on that factoid for a dagger came speeding from his left, aimed for his lower back. He dodged, and the dagger clicked as it grazed his armor and spun off, coming to rest in the dirt somewhere. "Have you no honor?! Fight me face to face and prove that you are not the cowardice rogue that the legend beholds," Dralg spat.

Truth be told, that was a flat out lie. The Lightning Count had proven far to dangerous a person to confront the way Dralg was doing. Petyr Bealish, a local lord that lead a lavish lifestyle in his tower in High Hold Keep, also known to hire underlings and summarily kill them instead of paying them for the job they had recently completed. He had hired Lord Vaghris to dispatch his rival in the north, so his business could prosper and produce more fruitful profits. Vaghris did the job, and came back to get his pay of 750 platinum. Lord Baelish attempted to kill him as he entered his holding but the rogue simply disarmed the trap and left a note attached to the wall with a dagger with 'Valar Morghluis (all men must die)' scratched on the parchment. Soon after, in fact within a fortnight, a foul stench leaked out of Petyr's tower, and his fellow citizens grew worried. They rapped on his door...no answer... so they brought the door down with a large log used as a battering ram. It was horrid. Lord Petyr was scattered about the floor. Blood red seemed to be the dominant color of the room. A piece of parchment was left by what was thought to be Baelish's head; it was the contract that Petyr had drawn out for the killing of his rival and given to Vaghris, promising him 750 plat. If that wasn't bad enough, no one knew how he got into the stronghold. The doors were locked from the inside, same with the windows, bolted shut from inside his solar. Strange magic the rogue weaves....

Suddenly, Vaghris appeared before Dralg, a full 4inches shorter, but nonetheless, he was just as dangerous. In anger, Dralg swung his flaming sword at him, but the image of the Lord of Hell faded, a trailing cackle of maniacal laughter the only proof of his presence. Suddenly, Dralg felt a faint movement of air behind him. Then Vaghris' hand whipped out from behind Dralg, slapping across his face, covering his mouth. He tried to scream, soon finding it a futile effort against the hand clasped tightly over his mouth.

"I ate well that night. sss hehehe.... jussst asss I will after killing you." Vaghris whispered into Dralg's ear. Then Dralg felt the plate armor protecting his back buckle, and felt the prick of the poison edged, diamond shaped dirk called Ragebringer, a dagger he uses for all his murders. Dralg once again tried to scream in pain as the dagger was shoved through his spine. Dralg collapsed as he lost feeling of his lower body, and black spikes started to creep into his vision. Screaming became more of a struggle as the dagger then pierced his lungs. Vaghris loomed over Dralg, wiping the blood from his hands on a small cloth that he, soon after, washed in the rain. He then simply walked away, his image fading, step by step. Lightning struck, and The Lightning Count let loose a wild and dark laugh that filled the town of Freeport with fear and dread that night.

The life of Dralg ended promptly after, the poison etched into Vaghris' blade taking hold of his brain.

As for Lord Vaghris, he bought a hearty meal of Orc stewed in the broth of chicken (his favorite meal from his home of Neriak) with his blood money he had collected that night.

-Foretold by Riverrwind, wandering Bard of Norrath.
Specializes in telling the tales of the infamous and the dastard denizens of the world-

Death, rot, corruption and destruction rang through the air in Vaghris' small home in Neriak. He restocked his poisons; filled the pantry with foodstuffs he had purchased and then laid down for a quick nap before having to head out on his next job. He slammed into his bed and fell asleep, still in his armor and weapons strapped to his belt. He awoke several hours later to a creaking sound he heard emanating from beyond his door. He crept from his small room and opened the bedroom door to find a spear point pressed against his cheek and a pair of emerald green eyes staring at him. Vaghris' own red eyes gleamed back in a bit of rage, but he realized he was had. A meek voice erupted from the shadowy form before him, "Are you Vaghris Bloodreaver, Lord of Hell?"
" Treg'nah sssstilgredr mrati forw erudio (You look upon him as you speak)," he spat back in one of the many languages he had come to know over the years.
"Git'jrl fakora (So it seems)," the voice replied.
Vaghris was surprised; he had not yet met a man of his equal in the languages of the world.
"What do you want of me?" Vaghris said after a long moment of silence.
"I have come to end your life. How would you like the manner of your death to be?" the voice replied.
"HAR! You come to ssslay me? Theresss a laugh…." Vaghris laugh heartily.
He felt the point of the spear waver for a moment and then jabbed him in the cheek, bringing forth a bit of blood. Darkness enshrouded his face as well as that of his attacker, so if the assassin even realized that Vaghris was bleeding, he showed no sign of caring. Vaghris' rage flourished and he tried to kick the attacker but the shadowy form simply dodged the strike and shoved Vaghris back into his bedchamber, knocking him into the bed, where the attacker leapt on him and drew a dagger, pressing it against Vaghris' throat. There in the candle lit room he saw that the form of the attacker was a bit more of a surprise. A bit of dismay crossed his face as he saw that his attacker was a woman. Not only a woman, but a Dark Elf woman. She realized Vaghris' features as well, and rolled off to the side, standing up in front of the candle, outlining her features more so to Vaghris. They sat there for a long moment, Vaghris leaning up against one of the bedposts and the lady attacker still standing in front of the candle.
Finally, she spoke.
"I cannot kill one of my own. I have failed my master." She said as she fell back against the wall, then sliding to the floor where she sat with her knees against her chest.

The woman looked up to find that Vaghris had vanished. Pondering where her pray could have gone, she rose and pulled the dagger out from its sheath again. Looking about the room, she stood in confusion. Then Vaghris, who was hidden using his roguely arts, appeared right in front of her and, in a lightning strike, he had her by the throat. The dagger she had was rendered useless as he disarmed her and pressed it against her cheek. With incredible strength, he lifted her off the ground a full 4 inches. She kicked and thrashed but did not scream. All the blows were simply deflected off his armor, which he was still wearing when he fell asleep.
"Who are you? Who sssent you? Who isss you masster?" Vaghris growled at her.
"I am Kodami," was the only response she gave him.
Vaghris let her fall to the ground, releasing his grip on her throat and pulling the dagger away. She just stood there, her glimmering emerald eyes cutting deep into Vaghris' mind. He couldn't take his mind off of her eyes.
"Run home. Leave my pressenssse before my witsss return and I kill you." Vaghris said suddenly, turning away from her powerful gaze.
"May as well kill me for that is what my master will do because I have failed." Kodami said without breaking her stare.
He got right in her face at that point..."Lissten girl, I am lossssing my patience with you. If you know what.."... he drew in a breath through his nose and with it came a fragrance. The smell was not of fear, like what he smelled from others that would soon reek of it after an encounter with him, but a lovely aroma. He stopped in mid-sentence, totally losing his current train of thought.
Something in Kodami seemed to change too. Her gaze broke as she saw the anger glisten in Vaghris blood colored retina's. That anger she saw soon turned to something different, something that seemed to make Vaghris seem weak and vulnerable. She suddenly felt very warm, felt goose bumps form on her skin. "what is wrong with me?!? I was sent to kill him..." she thought, almost out loud.

She suddenly lunged for him, not to tackle him and get away, no, she wanted to be close to him. She grabbed him, pivoted on her heels and spun him into the wall where she had just been and kissed him. He resisted at first, but soon the dagger fell and was stuck in the floorboards of his bedchamber. He then proceeded to return her fire with his own. He fumbled with the straps that were holding his battle mail to his chest but her hands seemed to be more deft than his and loosened both straps on his shoulders before he could get the ones on his sides. Vaghris found himself in a very precarious situation. Her hands soon dug under his mail and tunic and kneaded and clawed the flesh there. Kodami's face pulled back from his and he moved to her neck, nuzzling and kissing it. He heard a small shudder escape her lips and, well, that was that. From that point on, it was all a blur of the mind.

The next morning (afternoon really), Vaghris awoke to a movement in his featherbed. He shifted and rolled over and found a woman's face resting next to his. With a start and a small yelp, he leapt from the bed landing promptly on the floor, finding that his balance was off due to his legs being tangled in the covers. The woman sighed slightly and then her eyes flickered open. Those emerald, bright eyes. She spied him on the floor and soon after, did the same routine; flipping onto the floor with little grace. They stared over the featherbed at each other, both pondering what had taken place in that room the previous night. Nothing seemed to register with either of them as they looked about the room and found that the whole room was utterly trashed. Empty wine skins and bottles of Eg'lih Kelish where scattered about the floor and on the window ceil. Neither of them said a word. Vaghris leaned up against a wall and felt a lance of fire run through his back. He howled in pain and ran over to his looking glass to find a flurry of wounds littering his backside. Scrapes, scratches, and gouges that were done by finger nails. Several marks were on his left shoulder and neck, apparently, bite marks. He spied several articles of his and her clothing scattered about; his and her armor, his weapon belt, her spear leaned up against the wall, all these things and more. In all his confusion, Kodami had started gathering up her effects. He did the same, putting most of the armor on, leaving the hauberk and plated boots where they lay. Vaghris walked out of the room, closing the door behind him to leave Kodami privacy. He then proceeded to slap himself a few times, trying to remember what happened and what was going on.

After a few minutes, his stomach growled in protest, so he started to break out some foodstuffs for breakfast. A loud thud emanated from the bedchamber and it grabbed his attention immediately. He rushed over to the door and threw it open. He found Kodami, once again, being held against the wall with a knife. The slightly deformed Half Elf soon said, "For your failure to follow orders given by our master, you shall die here and now." He then proceeded to bring the knife back slowly, prepping for a strike. But Vaghris was hidden and he materialized behind the killer. He grabbed the Elf's hand and whipped it back toward his chest, using his own knife against him. The killer stiffened suddenly and blood spurted onto the wall and some sprayed onto Kodami's face. Vaghris smiled as the dead man's body slumped to the ground. He wiped off his blade on the sheets of his bed and was about to continue making breakfast when the girl rushed into his arms and started to cry in terrified hysteria. He slowly put his arms around her, wondering what he could say to make her feel any better. She buried her head into his shoulder and cried, "Promise me you'll never hurt me. I'm sorry, don't hurt me please." Aghast on what she said, the only response he could muster was, "I promise." Strangely, his affliction of lisp was gone.

He heard someone walking around near his window and told Kodami to hush up a moment so he could hear. The footsteps stopped and he what he heard next made him strain to hear even more…
"Vex cha gi hyu erit ordo pratlum Vargaris"
Suddenly a force unknown to him made his muscles lock and clench so hard that he pushed Kodami away from him with all the control from his muscles he could muster and proceeded to writhe on the ground in agony. To Vaghris, it felt like a torrent of needles slamming into him in wave after wave of pain. To Kodami, it looked like a strange reddish glow surrounding him. Anguish and pain washed over him, each just a little bit more painful than the last wave.
"Wii-z-z-zard!!" he spat out finally.
Kodami rushed to her feet and grabbed a throwing dagger from his belt lying on the bed. She ran outside to see a High Elf wizard chanting and casting, deep in thought and concentration. She drew back her arm and let the dagger sail from her hand. It screamed toward the wizard and struck him just under the chin, a blow so hard and quick, it nearly decapitated him. The chanting stopped as the body burst into a swath of flame. All that was left of the wizard was a smoldering pile of dust and ashes. Kodami rushed back into the house and found that Vaghris had passed out from the tremendous amounts of pain he had suffered. She couldn't move him and she had nowhere to go, so she hefted a blanket over them both and fell asleep curled up in his arms, her head resting on his chest.


She could feel him breathing; his chest rising and falling with every breath. She could also hear his heart beating against her ear. It beat in time with hers for a moment, changed patterns for a moment and then resumed to beat in time with hers again. She would take her ear away for a few moments and then rest it on his chest again and it would still be beating in synchronization with hers. Vaghris mumbled something and then wrapped his arms around the warm body lying next to him. She responded to this by kissing him, which after a moment he responded and his eyes slowly came open. This time, he did not jump away, he didn't become startled seeing a woman lying next to him, he just knew what was meant to be.

They sat there for a long while just talking on what had happened the previous night, what they thought had happened, what they were going to do, and then Vaghris listened intently on Kodami's life story. As her story unfolded before him, he started to piece the fragments he had tried to figure out already. She had told him who this 'Master' was. Her master was a powerful necromancer that had enslaved her and her clan living out in the desert. He had heard of Vaghris and feared a rival and sent various agents to various parts of the world to find him and dispatch him. Which he apparently thought would be an easy task.

He had also learned that she had been…deprived from looking upon or forming relations, intimate or otherwise, with any other man other than himself. This stirred a feeling in Vaghris that he had never felt before. He thought it was the feel of a challenge or perhaps even the thought of a rival. But, no, it was neither of these. It was the feeling of love and sympathy toward a woman.

Feeling that his home was no longer safe, he told Kodami to pack her effects and ready herself for travel. Vaghris packed food, weapons, armor, poisons, sharpening stones, and other personal items alone with him, which included a totem of his patron @#%$, Bristlebane. On the way out of the door he told Kodami to wait in the street for a moment. She complied and he disappeared back into the house, reappearing a moment later with a torch, tossing it inside and then prompt slamming the door. She asked what he had done and he replied, "Helping you by destroying what is left of my life here." Soon, flames could be seen emanating from the windows and he asked, "Can you hide?"
"I am a rogue like you. I would hope that I could." She replied.
He nodded and they both hid, holding hands, Vaghris leading her from the city as fast as he could without drawing more attention than needed. Many people knew him in the city, but they knew him as a hard and cold person. Though this was a poor time to think of his reputation. He asked one of his wizard friends in the Tower of the Spurned to try and teleport them somewhere safe. He complied and told them that he was heading out to the Rathe Mountains to kill giants for money and that Vaghris could tag along. Vaghris told his friend Zackrin of what had taken place the night before and Zackrin simply smiled. He told the wizard that Rathe wasn't safe and he needed just that. Zackrin thought for a moment and drew the outline of a circle in the air. He then retracted his hand, balling it into a fist which burst into flames. He threw a punch at the imaginary circle he had just drawn and the air within the circle erupted in a blue light.
"Walk through and you shall arrive to safety." Zackrin said.
"Thank you my friend," Vaghris said as he grabbed Kodami and leapt through the portal.

What they saw was beyond reality. Dimensions and worlds far away. People zinged past them with awesome speed as they continued through the portal. They stopped suddenly and they were dropped from the ethereal plane into reality once more. They entered what Vaghris found to be the Common Lands. When they both realized where they were in the world, Vaghris turned to Kodami and said, "You ok?"
The look of horror on her face made Vaghris think something was amiss.

A loud crack echoed through the lands. A monk with a wooden staff stood there smiling at Vaghris, who was on the ground, hand clamped around the right side of his face where the blow had landed. Vaghris got to his feet and grabbed his sword. He let loose a flotilla of blows upon the monk, but the monk simply dodged, parried, or riposted the angry strikes.

Vaghris knelt to the ground. The monk apparently thinking he had won, lowered his staff. Vaghris touched the ground with his fingertips and put his other hand on his vambraces. He closed his eyes and began to say something inaudible. Slowly the sound grew louder and it sounded of a thousand spirits whispering chants and calling Vaghris by name. His mouth moved in sync with the voices and his voice grew in volume till it was a scream. Blue-gray tendrils of energy crept from the ground into his feet, entering his body and filling it with power. Kodami glimpsed what was going on and was very afraid of what the stranger had done to Vaghris. Vaghris rose with a defiant scream as his muscles bulged suddenly. He struck at the monk with sword and dagger with lightning speed, and with each strike, the monk would have to struggle a bit more to block the blow. Finally he slipped and with a rage-filled bloodlust, Vaghris hacked the head off the monk's body and then collapsed to the ground as the energy given forth by the earth faded. He sat there breathing heavily, muscles trembling from the amount of effort expended upon them. Kodami rushed to his side, asking if he was ok. He replied he was fine and stumbled over toward the shade of the nearest tree where he collapsed once more. He struggled to keep his eyes open. In his defiant efforts, he spied Kodami sauntering toward him. That drove him to close his eyes and try to think non-suggestive thoughts. At that he also failed. She grabbed a canteen and let a slow trickle of water drip into his mouth. He drank every bit of it with greedy swallows.
"You shouldn't do that to yourself. That might leave you is worse shape if someone else that doesn't like you happens along," Kodami said with a loving look on her face.

Vaghris didn't have an answer except, "Your probably right," but he didn't say it. It was then that it struck him that he hadn't eaten since yesterday. He brought the food out of his backpack and handed a fairly large portion of his dinner over to Kodami. A wonderful meal of salted beef and fruit washed down with a bit of wine was all he needed to regain some of his energy. He looked over at his companion, seeing her eat delicately each portion of what she was given. He suddenly realized how he must seem to her; an elf with little care for others or manners. She caught him looking smiled briefly and licked the wine from the corner of her mouth.

"You still haven't said what it is we are doing out here you know," she said after a long silence.
"We are looking for another friend. He knows the area well and can help us find your family and have a little chat with that necromancer," he said back, after chewing his meal thoughtfully. The tracker was as good a friend as anyone else he knew. "Just be careful here, the Dervish folk like to raid the people that live in the area. If you see some, just hide and you should be ok unless they have one of there shamans about, then run like seven hells," Vaghris said with a smile. War horns were the normal warning of such raids of the local area. It was common to here one blast of the horn, signifying a small group of raiders. Sometimes they would mass up a larger group to hit a baggage train or column of people traveling, such a group would have two blasts as a warning. And three blasts, well, there weren't enough Dervish folk to make up a host worth three blasts.

Both Kodami and Vaghris both went for a swim in the lake, separate of course. Vaghris found that his back hurt too much to stay in the water long, though the cool water soothed some of the aches he had throughout his body. He got out of the lake, dried and dressed in his nightly apparel and unfolded his bed roll. His silken evening tunic felt marvelously comfortable against his injured back. He was just about to slide into his roll on the ground when he thought about Kodami for a second. She hadn't packed a bed roll that he could tell. He took off his tunic and in its place put on a woolen surcoat and sprawled out on the ground, using his heavy cloak as a blanket. Kodami came back just before sleep took him. He told her, since she hadn't had other cloths with her besides her armor, that she may use his silken pants and tunic if she wished and that she was going to be using the bedroll. She put on the pants first, which were too baggy so she tried on the shirt, which fell nearly to the middle of her thighs, so she was content in only wearing that to bed. She slipped into the bedroll and was fast asleep before Vaghris could find a comfortable position in which the wool was not irritating his back. Soon he found that was a futile effort and fell asleep in the cool dirt.

Aaaaaaahhhhhhooooooo……ahhhhooooooooo….. aaaahhhhhoooooooooooooooooo…..
The sound trailed off into the night.
Kodami awoke with a start, hearing in the distance what she thought was the sound of a war horn. Not sure, she laid back down. Aaaahooooooo…….
The sound was deafening. She woke Vaghris who, with only a mumble and a curse, rubbed the sleep from his eyes and sat up from his spot in the dirt.
Aaaaahhooooooooo…….Aaaahhooooooooo…..
"Vaghris, what is that? Hurry, get dressed," she said as she handed him his chain mail tunic.
"Bah, tis nothing my sweet, just the locals getting in a fuss over an exceptionally large Bixie sneezing in the woods. Go back to bed…" he said with a yawn.
"No no no, I heard three, I swear I heard three blasts." She said in a panic.
"I hear not a third horn, please try to get some sleep, we have along ways to…"
Aahhhoooo…..Aaaahoooooo Aahhooooooooooooo….. the sound once again trailed into the night.
Kodami looked off into the woods where the sound was echoing from, then back at Vaghris with a sly look on her face.
"Ok ok, I'm up," he said, grabbing the armor she was holding. She starting gathering up the food still left and he packed everything else into a sack. Including her own armor. She had handed him her armor in all the panic that was racing through them both. There was no time to search through the pack for it, no telling how deep it was packed in there. Vaghris was the first to hear the sound of a marching host in the wilderness. He then saw torches lighting the way for the mounted. Then he saw the mass of ogre shamans following the mounted host, each with there own staff signifying their position in the order. Kodami noticed this and asked Vaghris what they were going to do.
"The only thing we can do," he said as he looked at her, "run like seven hells away from here."
It was then that he felt a tap on his shoulder. His eye widened with surprise. Vaghris slowly turned around, half expecting to see a whole army of brigands, but no. It was Adden, his tracking buddy, and perhaps the only thing worse than a whole army of brigands.

"Who's the woman?" he said bluntly.
" Gods.. I thought it was a derv." Vaghris said to no one in particular.
Adden seemed to stare at Kodami for a long moment, noticing what she was and was not wearing.
"Hey hey hey, lay off her will you? She's a…. friend of mine that I met… in.. that bar that I used to go to in Third Gate. You remember that place?" Vaghris said, trying not to sound fake.
"Yeah… I believe you… sorta. So what are you doing way out here, and with such fine company," Adden smiled at Kodami.
"Running for our lives." Vaghris said, and with that Kodami and him both disappeared into the night, leaving Adden to find safety before the dervs were on them all. The voice of his friend faded off into the distance as they both ran for the mountain side. Though the night was pitch black, they could see outlines of trees and stumps and roots in the way of their retreat. They both reached the mountains with somewhat little trouble, Vaghris caught a root protruding from the ground and did a face plant into the rocky ground and Kodami had her arms scratched up by all the brush in the way. Besides that, they both made it to a cave near the base of the mountain. Inside the cave, they stopped next to a flat slab of rock that looked level enough to sleep on without rolling too far in any direction. Vaghris lit a fire with some twigs and a small piece of flint from his bag. With the fire soon blazing, he sat back against a rock and started to take off his boots encompassing his sore feet. He spied Kodami, trying to tend to her small scratches but couldn't hold the bandages in one place because she was shivering badly. He got up and walked over to her, trying to get her to edge closer to the fire, but when he touched her shoulder, she was ice beneath it. He hurried over to his cloak and warmed it with the fire and wrapped it around her. He then took to tending to her wounds for her. She sat there in silence, eyes closed, with the occasional grimace from a lance of pain when Vaghris touched an injured area on her arms. After he was done, she reached over and kissed him on the cheek to thank him, and then opened her eyes, gazing at him through the fire. The light of the fire caught her eyes and made them gleam even more. He felt something stirring in him, the same feeling he had the night they met.
"Excuse me," he said as he smiled and ran outside. He sat outside with his head against the wall, sometimes hitting it against the wall, trying to clear his thoughts.
"I have to think of something else, anything but what happened between us," he thought aloud. He hadn't realized how long he had been out there when suddenly he felt an arm wrap around his waist. Kodami stood next to him, with her head resting on his shoulder.

"How long are you going to sit here? It's cold and you should rest." She said after a moment.
"Its beautiful isn't it?" Vaghris said soothingly back.
"What is?" She said with wonder.
"The night sky and all she beholds," He said into her ear. "There were many a night when I would stay up late as a child and leave the city to watch the moon rise from the east. You never realize how small you are in the world unless you really think about it."
She shivered slightly, grabbing his waist tighter.
"Ok, I'm coming," he said after taking one last look into the night. He had seen the host of Dervish folk finish looting a train of people and continue to chase more into Kithicor Woods.

(since the story is too big to put in one post, the rest will be in the next thread called The Secrets of the Rogues of Norrath prt II)
Image by Vag Inc.Rogue of RoguesHell's Highwaymen"He fought bravely, he led a mighty host, but he died none the less."