Sicarius

Character Name: ***Sicarius Blackwood***

Race: Human

Backstory:

*\*During your adventures, you come across an abandoned home. As you enter to scour the premises for loot and materials, you come across a ragged piece of papyrus hidden inside a dresser. You begin reading its terrifying words, written in faded black ink.\**

If you’re reading this, you have probably already found my corpse in this house. I made mistakes. Horrible mistakes. I got involved in that which I shouldn’t. They promised me wealth and riches as long as I did what they asked of me…a knife in the back here, a droplet of poison there. I had the right connections, so getting into the business wasn’t particularly difficult. While the job itself was gut wrenching and evil, they did not lie about the wealth and riches. But I was greedy. I wanted a taste of real wealth. I kept taking those contracts, letting my wealth grow larger and larger, far past what I needed to survive. Now I sit alone in my forsaken sanctum, upon piles of gold, knowing that soon it will all be for nothing. Soon, I will be gone.

He’s coming for me.

He was in the same organization as I. I don’t know much about him at all; said his name was Blackwood, and was indisputably the fastest, deadliest man I’ve ever seen. Hell, calling him a man would do him a disservice, because his abilities were just *inhuman*. I’ve seen him thrust his hand straight into someone’s chest and violently rip his heart out.

There were twenty four of us in this business. An unusual league of wizards, gunslingers, swordsmen, thieves, and all types of people who are unified in their desire to take lives for gold. We call ourselves *The Dark Whisperers.* We're collectively responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people across the entire world. However, a few months ago, one of us was given a contract to kill this woman living in one of the towns named Arianne. She was quite gorgeous, really, and it was a shame that she had to die. But, within days, I heard the stories. Arianne was Blackwood’s wife, and the only one he loved in the entire world. Blackwood tracked down the house of one of the other assassins and demanded to know who killed her. The guy swore he knew nothing, but Blackwood drew a spear and pinned him to the wall by impaling his arm. He then tied the man down and proceeded to brutally torture him while he begged for mercy. After that, he murdered him. I guess Blackwood realized that it’s impossible to know which one of us was given the contract, because he’s spent the past few months finding and killing every single one of us. As I said, there were twenty four of us. *Twenty fucking four.*Now there are two: him and I. He murdered twenty two trained killers - some of whom were extremely deadly - in quick succession without fail. I’m by far the weakest of all of us, and I know I stand no chance of survival.

For years I’ve been the hunter, but in my final moments, I finally know what it feels like to be prey. You can feel the predators gaze upon you; watching your every move, just waiting for the opportune moment to strike. You do not know how or when he will grant you death, but you do know that it is certain. I’ve heard of what happened to the others. He doesn’t give any of them a quick or painless end. A slow and painful wretchedness that will make you cry out for death to take you. That’s what he gives you. I know it would be better to end it all right now and save myself the pain, but I can’t do it. Every time I lift the rusty blade to my neck, I can feel death inching towards me and I am overcome with fear. So I sit and await my fate. Perhaps a traveler will find this note and know what happened in my final hours. But Blackwood…if you happen to find this before anyone else does, know this…

I killed Arianne.

*\*You go into the next room and in the corner you find a rotting corpse. Examining the body, you notice a gaping hole where his heart should be.\**