This drawing is actually a few years old but I just got done writing a new Leo and Damu story based on it-
The tales of Leo Wayfarer and Damu the Kenku Assassin as told by Leo Wayfarer to his nephew Leto Colins: 9 of 33- Piss Granny and the Murdered Mistress.
There was one mission that Damu and I did, the first real dirty one that left me uncomfortable. When we took assignments that came directly from the Empire rather then from bounties that people placed legally through the Empire they sometimes had dirty business for the reasons behind it. It wasn’t all killing Hobgoblins and Pirates. We were in really good standing with army liaisons that hired mercenaries at that point and they knew we could handle difficult and bizarre jobs.
This one wasn’t that hard, in fact it was pretty easy, it was just weird and sad. I never knew the full details, though I picked up a few pieces on the way. The army liaisons always looked for me first at bar and brothels before the knocked on my door, but this was right after we did that first job for Alzeya and I was her man of the moment, so they found me drunk in her garden banging her in a fountain of little angels peeing. Those guys had a knack for timing.
I got dressed real quick and Alzeya just played in water naked splashing me. I remember still how beautiful and playful she was before what happened to her. I still feel bad and hold myself partially to blame. But that’s another story. Anyhow so I’m in this garden drunk pulling up pants to talk to a stiff assed guy in a uniform holding a contract and a two bags of gems. I quickly learned that when they offer gems and not coin its because they don’t want imperial currency connected to anything that could be tied to them.
I was told that there was a girl, a kept girl of interests that I didn’t need to acquire into, that lived in a villa in the capital city of Elaine. She was to killed as was anyone found in the villa and that we should make it look like a Pirate raid. I agreed at first not really thinking anything of it. When I sobered up I realized how fucked up the situation was.
I’ve killed women over the years, but they were mostly Witches throwing fireballs at me, you know women who stood fair chances at actually killing me. I didn’t like the idea of killing an unknown girl for unknown reasons. I knew Damu wouldn’t give a shit, so I rationalized that he would do it. That’s how I talked myself into it.
Also I didn’t want to piss off any Pirates by framing them, not any Pirates who could get back to me anyway. I asked Alzeya about Pirates I could pin it on and she recommended an obscure faction from Stiradon called Swords of the Sun who were religious fanatics that were not only in decline, but were in decline because they tried to fight with the Regentum colony of Hamon over their Paganism versus the Imperial faith. I took the tip and I guess it worked as none of the swords of the sun ever came after me.
I went to the Kenku holding to get Damu and as I walked up a group of brown hooded Kenku were throwing a dead Kenku into a gully that ran next to the old tower they squatted. I knew that Kenku had to have fucked up pretty bad because as far as I knew when a Kenku died they mounted the body in a high up place, so if they through to the ground in death, that was the biggest insult possible. They left that poor bastard bird to get eaten by rats and wild dogs in the trash covered waters that flowed by their dilapidated roost. That building always cracked me up as I knew that the Scardale Kenku were actually rich. They were after all a successful clan of Assassins. The inside of the old tower was pretty slick and decked out, plus they owned a bunch of businesses and buildings with paid off humans running them. I guess they had to play up their mystique of ruthless ghetto scavengers.
They chuckled when they saw me and said “Oh Jukka we’ll get Damu for you”, which is what they all called me. For years I thought “Jukka” met good human, or human friend, but as I learned their language over the years I found it met “pet human”, as they thought of me as Damu’s pet sword slinging human. As far as they were concerned I was just there to do all the grunt fighting for him while he was off killing the important people. I can’t say though that that wasn’t often the case.
It was hard getting a boat to Elaine with Damu in tow, and was too far to go by wagon. No one wanted to be responsible for bringing a Kenku to the city of the Emperor, even with our military contract. We waited for two weeks and ended up sailing in a shipping boat owned by Alzeya. We had two days before the boat sailed back to Scardale.
Elaine is city of cruel contradiction. While Scardale has its rich and its poor, and certainly Scardale is brooding factory slum filled with whores, sailors, criminals and the over worked it’s not supposed to be the center of Gods will on the World. Elaine is really four cities, old Elaine that was destroyed and rebuilt in the war with Nijiro, the Imperial Palace which is a small city in itself, new Elaine which was built after the war where all the rich live, and the tunnels underneath old Elaine that are the old basements and sewers from destroyed old Elaine that were built over top of that is now the persona non grata realm of the Mongrel men who live in the literal absolute bottom pits of our culture.
When we approached the coast from the Kaletian bay after going around Fazas and Hamon the first thing we saw was smoke rising from factory smoke stacks that lingered hazily over the coast line like a putrid veil. Then a few hours later I could see the tall, stained grey spires of the imperial palace that I hadn’t seen in years sense I was in the army. I have to say the site of the old palace always brings back an intense mix of feelings in me. Partially I know its my old army indoctrination, but I do get a bit choked up when I see it. While it also makes me a bit mad at all the wrong things about Regentum, my anger towards the things we shouldn’t be doing, or the inconsistencies of our “holy empire” but still part of me is inspired by the heights of the palace as to what we should be or what we could be if we kept at reaching for its heights. Sadly I don’t think that means killing a girl in her home, but here was the same “holy empire” paying me and a creature it would never allow as a legal citizen to do just that.
We docked and Damu disappeared so he could sneak in. Elaine has a Kenku population, like all the big coastal cities do, but still we wanted to keep a low profile. I told the city militia guys I was just a hired guard for the boat in case they got raided by Pirates and that I was just in town for two days with them while they dropped off their goods.
The first night there we scoped out the villa where the girl lived. I found out from a butcher across the street that the villa was owned by a Priest who was recently excommunicated from the church for unknown reasons and was set to be hung in a few days. Why his lady friend had to be killed I dunno. The villa had walls around it but nothing to high, however the street around it was pretty busy and very visible. The place was a large two story building with a courtyard guarded by an Ogre slave.
Damu found a Mongrel man digging in the butchers trash that night and paid him to show us around underneath. Ugly little bastard he was, about 3 and half feet tall with thick feet like a Halfling, but with a face like a Goblins ass and a weird high pitched voice. Plus he twitched a lot and smelled like a Goblins ass as well. That investment paid off, but only for Damu. He found he could get into the Villa through a sewer grate in the villas courtyard but it was too small for me.
I had to get creative and I didn’t know where to get any potions, nor did I have to track any down. Directly next to the villa was an alley way with a one story barber shop I could get onto the roof of. I had to stash my armor in Damu’s holding satchel in order to pull this off, as you’re not gonna be sneaking around roof tops quietly in platemail.
I got on the roof of the barber shop late that night while Damu hit the tunnels. I ran across the roof top and leaped over the alley, grabbed the top of the wall, and threw myself over, landing in a bush of red roses. I found the servants entrance and kicked the door in, though it was pointless as it was unlocked. It swung open loudly and I heard somebody coming. I ducked behind a kitchen table and in came in a fat old lady who was clearly some working peasant grand mother who probably cleaned and cooked for the place. I couldn’t kill her. I’m not that guy, this lady clearly never bothered anyone in her life.
I pulled a gem out of my pocket and placed it on the kitchen table. I snuck up behind her with my sword drawn and covered her mouth. The old bag pissed herself, I felt so shitty. I told her, “See that gem on the table?”, and sobbing in terror she nodded that she did. “Good”, I said, “Now take that gem and go far far away from this city so I don’t have to kill you !”. Piss Granny took the gem and ran as if the hounds of hell were at her feet!
I quickly checked the place out and found no one else was on first floor. As I approached the steps the Damu nodded to me that the target was served. I went to check her body and to leave a mark framing the swords of the sun. She was beautiful black haired girl barely out of her teens laying naked in a bed of bloody white floral print satin sheets. Damu stabbed her under the ribs and into her heart. I dipped my fingers in her blood and drew two crossed swords with a sun between them, the symbol of the Pirates I was framing. Damu went down the hall and jumped out the window he came in threw. The Ogre slave was standing below the window facing away from it and that little bastard landed on top of the Ogre, gripped the back of its hair in one hand, slit its throat, and landed on the ground in silence as the Ogre fell flopping and gurgling on its last blood gagging gasps of breath.
Even though I got away with out killing anyone it still felt bad. I figured I’d drown my remorse in liquor and more sex with Alzeya but by the time I got back I wasn’t the man of the moment. I never expected anything else from her and it seemed deserving in light of everything.