To Plan a Murder

Varis, Please find below my report on the assassination of Rickard. Myself, Tatsuya, Mirik, and Courage were assigned to kill the bandit king called Rickard in a decapitation strike. Specifically, we were asked to terminate him without collateral damage. We made our way to the library, then through the wilderness to our target. Two days into our travel, I spotted the footprints of numerous heavily armed individuals. On the third day, we found their source; the Black Guard, part of a group of heavily armoured humans from Waterdeep. We were able to overhear their conversation by the means of Mirik, and learnt they also intended to kill Rickard. Tatsuya and Courage made themselves invisible and bypassed the group. Myself and Mirik walked by without concealment, were approached, and had a conversation with the group, where we learnt of their identity. However, both parties kept their true intentions concealed from the other. I was able to convince them I was a humble performer and that Mirik was my hired protector. They offered to pay me for Mirik’s services, and in return would escort me back to Krakenfall. I accepted, knowing I could outwit the one man they appointed as my escort, and that Mirik would be able to throw them from the destination of the bandit encampment. My plan was successful, and Mirik and I met with Tatsuya and Courage without incident two days later—with the Black Guard lost and routed. We were able to see the bandit encampment a few hours later, scouting it from a distance as we waited to meet our informant that evening. Oddly, we were also able to see another group who had taken up a secluded position opposite us.

(To Plan a Murder, Tenner’s report part two) The informant was a man called Lez, a triton who originally lived under Codos’ people. Courage, Tatsuya, and I had met him before during the election there under unfavourable conditions. As Courage had chosen to barter with him by threatening his life last time, I told her to keep watch on the bandit camp while we met with Lez, for obvious reasons. While Lez was not happy to see us, he was not hostile either; though he did tell us, if he saw Courage again, he would have shot first without chance for questions. We were able to learn more about Rickard, his men, the camp, and that there were four groups all targeting him: Ourselves, the Black Guard, the group we spotted opposite us, and a kenku assassin called Blackwing. Lez then donned another disguise and left. When we returned to Courage, she claimed to have seen the other group prepare to move, only to be slaughtered by an unseen force. That force revealed itself to her later to have been Blackwing himself, who made her promise not to interfere in his assassination plot as the others had. She promised she would not, and I had to convince her that we would only infiltrate the town to steal Rickard’s secret vault—conveniently at a time we had been informed he regularly inspected it. I devised our plan to strike Rickard in his vault at the earliest window of opportunity, to try and beat Blackwing. We able to pull it off successfully. We made our way into the vault, alleviated it of its belongings, and waited to surprise the bandit king with a sudden blow. I confirmed the kill, and we made ourselves invisible before fleeing, right as his bodyguards came to check on him. As we fled, we saw Blackwing presumably running to the encampment—he turned himself invisible en route. We then returned home without further incident. That concludes my report of this adventure. Yours, Tenner