Pureblood

Entering the estate seemed off, nothing about it seemed at all normal. The first thing I noticed was the lack of windows and the humidity within the estate itself, "By the nine hells it's hot in here." Ambition stated, "I can agree to that, I know it's cold outside but the least you could do was crack open a window….if there were any." Maryanne said wiping the sweat off of her brow. Tordrid said nothing and motioned us to follow her, it seems she was rather determined to finish the job and move on. Though it looked rather small on the outside, the inside of the estate seemed pretty large with enough space to fit perhaps a few hundred people, yet it felt eerily empty and damp, the heat from the inside was nearly suffocating. It was then we all heard the sound of hissing.

Looking around we all tried to determine where that noise came from, "Y-you all heard that right?" Nalaed said, frightened, "Y-yeah...we heard." I said still looking around, Ambition gripped his swords, "It sounded pretty big...you don't think snakes get that big do you?" Tordrid let out an annoyed grunt, "will you all shut your yaps? It's probably just the grass outside, or maybe it's the wind shaking an old tree, who knows?! Now shut up and follow me up the stairs, we're almost there." We kept quiet as we followed Tordrid up the stairs to a large room with large double doors, "this is it, check if it's locked." she told me motioning towards the doors.

I walked up to them and gently and quietly tried to open it. I was met with no resistance and I opened it wide enough so everyone would be able to enter quietly and closed it as quietly as I could. I took a moment to look at our surroundings and it looked as though we were in some sort of office, a rather large office, and there standing in front of the desk looking away from us stood a man with rather fancy attire and black swept-back hair. As he turned around there were prominent scars on his cheeks, at least I think they're scars. Without looking in our general direction he spoke, "Tordrid Hammerstone, I see you have brought some friends with you to defeat me. Yet I am just one man...do you expect me to have some form of assistance?" I have met many nobles in my lifetime, never one with a sinister tone such as his, every word he spoke felt like he was sharpening a dagger to slice your throat with.

Tordrid angrily pointed her axe at the man, "I'd expect nothing less from a snake like you." He picked up a shortsword laying on the desk and looked right at us, very well then, let's hope you all die quicker than those worthless little whelps back in town." with a snap of his fingers four goons came in and surrounded us. "What in the nine hells are they?!" Ambition screamed as he looked in horror at what was now surrounding us, the lower half of their bodies was that of a snake along with their torso yet their heads were human-like and covered in reptilian scales, others looked like larger more menacing snakes with arms, "This is why my home was burned to the ground, they had known about who and what I was, so they had to die, no one else could have known." I looked at the man in the eye and asked, "What the hells even are you?!" He smiled wide, "We are pureblood Yuan-Ti. And you have become our prey." I then watched as his lower jaw unhinged as he hissed at us, it was a rather terrifying sight.

In an instant, we were thrown into the heat of an intense fight. One of the goons slithered towards Ambition. Charging full speed with a spear in hand, retrieving his shield Ambition was able to block the attack and with his free hand swung one of his swords barely managing to miss the creature. Behind this one goon, however, it was caught unaware by Nalaed slamming her mace down onto the creature's tail crushing it. It let out a loud hiss in pain, it tried to jab at her with its spear and just managed to graze her armor.

Distracted, Ambition plunged his sword into the creature's stomach. Now slumped over and barely able to lift a finger Rurik in an overwhelming bloodthirsty rage chopped off the beast's head. Without noticing the other two beasts had now come up behind them and had them coiled within their grasp. The two beasts unhinged their jaws wide to allow their prey's head to enter their mouths. I snuck behind one and Nalaed took the other, she once again slammed her mace onto the beast's tail, it was enough to distract the other one as I dug my daggers deep within the beast's flesh like a starving wolf burying its teeth into its prey.

I didn't let go or move as it writhed in pain and blood began to pool from its wounds. I then ripped the wound open with a quick motion and as it began to crawl away I pinned its hands to the floor with my daggers and as it tried to pull away and escape I drew my sword and plunged deep within the creature's chest and kept it there until it stopped moving. As I stood one of the remaining goons threw one of its axes deep into my shoulder. A surging pain rang throughout my body. Maryanne guarded me as Nalaed took the axe out and began to heal the wound, "You alright handsome?" She asked, "I'll be fine, I survived getting pegged by arrows when I was younger, I can handle an axe in the shoulder." She smiled slightly as I stood back up.

The one who threw the axe at me had another in his hand and swung it at Maryanne, she quickly sidestepped out of the swing and in quick succession landed two solid strikes against the creature causing it to stagger into a bookcase, in which case Nalaed swung her mace into the stomach of the beast causing it to double over in pain, bent over I dug my dagger into its head and sliced it in half, blood spewed out as it flopped over dead. Thinking we had an advantage I turned to face their leader, however, my attention turned to the sound of ambition screaming out in pain, we watched in horror as the last goon swung its dual-bladed scimitar with a terrifying skill practically cutting him to bits. We watched as he fell to the floor hardly moving.

Rurik ran towards the beast with an adrenaline-induced rage but was knocked into the wall by the beast's tail. Angered I threw one of my daggers, it missed, I threw the other one and it stuck right into one of its eyes. It hissed loudly in pain as it swung its weapon wildly, "Nalaed, go help Ambition, Maryanne, and I will handle the last goon." I said, Nalaed nodded and ran towards Ambition. Taking the dagger I missed with back I used it to stab the beast in the stomach while Maryanne landed several attacks knocking the beast onto the floor. I stomped my foot onto its back pinning it to the floor as I swung my sword slicing the beast's head clean off.

Ambition stood back up, partially healed, Rurik stood back up as well as we all finally focused our attention on the leader, surprisingly he didn't look so well, he looked like a complete mess, covered in sweat and blood, out of breath, and could hardly stand. "H...How?...How could you possibly beat me…? I had it all planned out...How could I lose to you disgustingly pitiful lot?! You-" before he could say another word I kicked him onto the floor and planted my foot on his chest, "You talk too much." I said. I nodded at Tordrid as she lifted her axe, "N-No! Wait!" With a loud THUNK, the body became limp as the axe cut the head clean off, we watched it roll under the desk.

"So...What now?" I asked, "...I don't know…" Torrid said, "I didn't think we'd make it this far honestly." We all stood there awkwardly silent. Then an idea popped into my head, "Well like some Ulfguardians of old, whenever a job was done, they would set the area on fire." "Well, how are we gonna do that?" Maryanne asked. "We could use those books." I pointed to the now broken bookshelves. Within a matter of minutes, we tossed all the books into a large pile and lit a match. "Now we toss the match in and leave...like...like now we gotta go now it's gonna spread pretty fast, I mean the roof already has some fire, you know what I'll stop talking let's just GO!" Somehow we were able to leave and we watched from our stakeout spot as the whole estate caught fire. "Let's get back to the inn, I think we all deserve some rest after all that." I began to walk with the others when I saw Tordrid wasn't walking with us.

Instead, she was still watching the whole place burn, "it's...sort of poetic isn't it?" she asked, "It was a fire that started it and a fire that ended it." "I...I guess it is sort of poetic." "Thank you, Crow...I mean...Thank you, Shane. This means a lot to me." She smiled. I stood with her until she decided to leave, "When we get to the Inn, I'd like to talk with you...Privately if I may." I didn't know what she had planned but I agreed nonetheless.