Storyboards: Ssolvarain

Fun in Sthiss Tor
A single, thin candle burns slowly, shedding a small amount of light upon a pair of men. These men are far darker, and twisted than any child’s dreams that stalk him at night. These men are Grolims, the evil followers of Torak.
"So... Things go as planned?" The first man says in a rasping voice.
"Yes, they are going quite smoothly" the second responds in a quiet tone.
"Good. Our spies are in place. The Dagashi are most useful, when they deem to be," the first man rasps with a slightly amused, wholly evil smile.
"Yes, I agree there. But without them, our plans are useless..."
"Correct"
"Are the servants of our target aware of our plans yet?"
"I... Am not exactly sure.... There was a... Problem."
"WHAT?!" The first man nearly shouts, as his shadow seems to loom larger than before.
"Wait! Wait! I am sure. There was a... A... A problem. We took care of it."
"You had best have, or I will personally rip the heart from your body, and sacrifice it to our most holy Torak while it still beats"
"Yes! Yes, I am sure. Please... Just... Let me continue with our plans. I will make sure nothing stands in our way!" The second figure says in a very quiet, meek tone.
"Very well... I will be watching you most carefully... Do not disappoint me..." He said, and quickly left the room in a rush, his robes blowing the candle out, leaving his words to hang in the air.
The second Grolim stood there, shivering in fear. "I... I cannot fail..." were his words as he too left the small room to monitor the preparations.

"Yesss?" came a seductive, sensual voice from above the small row of stairs leading to the lounging area of the Eternal Salmissra.
"Greetings, My Queen. I bring news." The messenger said in a slightly uneven voice, as he bowed facedown before the steps.
"Well?" Came the voice.
"The poissonerss in your sservice, and our sspiess have located a ssmall dissturbance in the Jungless outside Sthiss Tor... We have also had ssightingss of a fairly large group of Angarakss in another sspot." The messenger said. He was obviously uncomfortable, as sweat beaded upon his bald head.
"Hmmmmm... Angaraksss... What are they doing in my landsss... Remove them. Immediately. I will not sssuffer any form of tampering at thisss time..."
"Yesss my queen." He stood and began to turn to leave.
"Did I tell you to rissse...?" She said in a deeply ominous tone?
"Uhh... No my queen..." The sweat had just gone from beads to rivulets slowly winding their way down his face.
"I will forgive you... Or perhapssss... Not. Bring me a man of fitting stature. I am in need of.... Entertainment. Now go." She said, laying a tone of complete authority on the last words.
Bowing repeatedly, the man tried to bow as many times as possible as he made his way out, and nearly knocked over a eunuch who was opening the great door behind him.
An extremely relieved Ssolvarain gave a very audible sigh of relief. "Whew!" He said, taking a small patch of cloth from inside his robe, and dabbing his face. "She was in a VERY foul mood when she heard that... I’m lucky I’m still alive!" Grinning broadly, a eunuch standing guard outside the door waved him on, as there were others who were in line to be subjected to the now extremely volatile queen. Walking through the palace corridors, headed for the slave quarters to find a toy for his queen, he began thinking of how to best remove the Angaraks from the kingdom. Could he perhaps simply let them be, and perhaps the jungle would swallow them and require no work on his part? No, he decided. Where there were Angaraks, there were grolims. Where there were grolims, you never let it go.

Muttering quietly to himself, a very plain-featured Nyissan in nondescript clothing walked through the palace halls mumbling quietly to himself. A few odd glances from passers-by were all the notice that anyone took of him. Seeing his mark turning a corner with a lithe step, he decided that there was no time like the present to get to work.

As he rounded the corner, Ssolvarain suddenly felt as though he was being watched... Or maybe followed. Perhaps. It wasn’t like it was anything new. It WAS Sthiss Tor after all, and many would love to take his position as one of the elite assassins of the queen. Feeling it was best to go with the feeling, as it had saved him countless times in the past, he slipped into a small, dark storeroom and skilfully hid himself among the shadows.
Watching as a plainly dressed man happened by the storeroom, he was struck as how completely out of place this man was, but yet he looked as though he fit in. Staying there a few moments longer before exiting the small room and scanning around briefly for the man, he continued on his course for the slave pens.

The man was now lost. His mark had completely and utterly disappeared, and now he had very little idea as to where he was. He tried turning around and tracing back the way he’d came, but somehow he managed to get even more lost. Oh how he hated this place.

"Well hello there Ssolvarain!" the small man behind a black wooden counter cried out. "Haven’t seen you in quite awhile!"
Wincing as the man yelled, he replied, 'Hello there Serthess. Nice to ssee your ass deaf ass ever ya daft old coot' with a friendly grin upon his face, but a slight annoyance in his tone.
"What’ss that? You’ll need to sspeak up!" the old man shouted back.
"I ssaid, 'Hello there Serthess, Nice to ssee your ass clever ass ever ya ssly old ssnake.'" he lied with a perfectly happy expression on his face.
"Aye... I am gettin’ on in my yearss when I have to take that load of horsse dung from a poissoner like you" Serthess replied, a merry expression on his face.
"Alright, letss get down to bussinessss. Ssally needss a new toy."
"Another one of those wood-thingamabobs?" He said with a slightly confused expression.
"No. A slave toy for her "urges" Ssolvarain says with a slight grin.
"Oh... aye... Sshe kill the one with the "purdy mouth" yet?"
"I imagine. Why elsse would sshe need another sslave?"
"Good point... I’ll have one ssent along in a little while..."
"Hmm... while I’m here... You wouldn’t happen to have sseen a erm...thiss will ssound a little odd...a man who sseemss to fit right in... but ssomehow sscreams out of place at the ssame time?" He said, slightly lost in thought.
"Well now... I do sseem to recall some ssorta fella like that... Kinda normal in every way? Doessn’t move quite right though?"
"Exactly"
"Oh yeah... I’ve sseen him. In fact... he wass asskin about you."
Ssolvarain swore loudly for a moment.
"Oh that’ss a new one... haven’t heard that one before." The old man said with a wide, toothless (and extremely black and rotten) grin.
"Oh for Issa'ss ssake... don’t grin like that. It’ss dissgussting! Noone wantss to ssee thosse black old rotted out gumss. I think I’m gonna be ssick..."
Cackling gleefully, knowing he finally hit on something, he just grinned all the more.
"Well... what did you tell him at leasst?"
"About you? Not a thing. About him? Sshove off before I was forced to gum on him!" the old man cried gleefully, still grinning like a fool.
"Oh... That’s it old man. Get that sslave up there. I’m getting out of here before my teeth rot out from fear I will continue to stay close to you and your nasty gums" Ssolvarain said with a slightly sick tone, and lurched out of the room.

The jungle was alive, shifting and writhing as a group of men hacked and slashed their way through the forest. Large, brutish Thulls wielding curved machetes and small axes ploughed a way through tree and vine alike, falling where they stood where they had offended a one of the deadly snakes of the jungle. Murgos came next, sweat dripping from their scarred faces onto their heavy armor, and cursing about the terrain. A small cluster of dark-robed Grolims picked their way among the corpses of the fallen, screaming threats of death to any who faltered. A pair of Grolims stood slightly apart from the rest, in the middle of the group.
"Yes. Our group is simply to wait here, in case anything goes amiss?" replied the second.
"Indeed. If anything goes wrong, hope that you are involved, for my Master will bring you torment far worse than any simple death could."
"Nothing will go wrong. I have people in place, and there are things that are in the works of being dealt with."
"Good. If something is beyond your capabilities, I wish to know immediately. Our plans to repl..." came a response, cut short by an abnormally loud shriek of a Thull.
Peering up to the front, he gasped slightly from what he saw. A lone figure with a pair of long black stilettos dripping blood in each hand, systematically wiping out the Thulls in the front, hardly hindered by their weak attempts to get away from them. Cursing loudly the Murgos brought their weapons to bear and charged. Pulling his blades from the back of a now-deceased Thull, he quickly slid them into their sheathes, and bounded away through the jungles. The Murgos attempted to give chase, but quickly came up short as the terrain hindered them greatly, and the Grolims barking commands to return to the group.
"It seems we are discovered already..." came the muttering of a Grolim. Pulling a dagger from his belt, the Grolim with the rasping voice plunged it into his heart without a word.
"Does anyone else have any stupid realizations to make?" He demanded in his rasping voice with a razor's edge to it.
Mutters of obedience came from those before him.
Peering sharply at the one he had been talking to before the appearance of this mysterious assassin he said, "You! I thought we would not be discovered?!"
"We are cutting through the jungle! Something like this is both obvious and will of course bring some kind of notice from the Nyissans." came the shaking reply.
"Things will be more difficult now, but we will not fail because of this. Things resume as planned. Let us go!"
And so he barked the orders to continue the march. As many of the Thulls fell, the Murgos were forced to take up place besides those that remained, and they resumed the march through the jungles.

Muttering quietly as he relaxed in his rooms within the palace quarters reserved for the Salmissra's other servants, he popped another berry in his mouth. It had never been his way to become so stupefied he couldn’t realize what was going on around him, and always kept something to reverse the effects at hand on all times. He had contacted an old friend of his, and paid him well to both investigate the Angaraks’ presence, and also to hinder them in any way he might. Lying here upon a great mound of cushions, he pondered what was going on. He knew that man that was following him might be one of the Dagashi who hailed from south of Nyissa. Why they might be in Sthiss Tor, and Angaraks were coming through the Jungles eluded him. There were no outstanding bickering going on among the races, besides the usual conflict between the Alorn savages and the Angarak fools. Why here, and why now...? Sighing and chewing on another berry he sat there in the dark for hours until he fell asleep.

Wind blew outside, whipping amongst the sand dunes, blowing through the open archway. Long shadows within stretched their fingers greedily to consume the light that fell through, leaving the room within dark despite the large arch that should allow light to stream through and illuminate the room.
"Why have you not completed your assignment, Murich?!" Came a sharp and deadly voice from a man dressed in dark form-fitting clothing.
"My target eluded me sir" came an even and steady reply. No Dagashi showed fear, for any reason.
"Perhaps I should send another in your place?"
"No sir. That won’t be necessary! I will go back and make sure my target is eliminated this time!" came back the spirited response.
"Very well. Your skills and intelligence are all what keeps me from slicing you open and leaving you among the dunes to be fed upon by the scavengers of the desert. Do not fail me again, or I will be forced to take matters into my own hands."
The younger man gave a "Yes sir!" And made his way out to prepare for his journey back into the jungles and to the Palace of Sthiss Tor.

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