Fantasy Requiem for an Executioner: Part One

[Resting Witch Face]

The last chords of the Bard's quiet elegy rang out along the ceiling, blanketing the whole inn with a melancholy edge. Nervously, he grabbed his things and his lute and was gone from the building in a second, leaving nothing but the howl of the storm the listen to. Suddenly, the aforementioned storm picks up a couple of notches of volume as the thick wooden door swung slowly inwards and the sound of boots clicking on a hard floor could be heard.

Another entered the quiet tavern, unconcerned with the other patrons keeping to themselves. Instead, the pile of fur and cloaks made it's way to the bar and clambered up on one of the stools, taking it's hood in both hands and throwing it backwards. Underneath the thick coat lay a dainty looking woman, with fair features and a patient smile. Shivering, she placed some coins atop the bar in exchange for a drink, and was ecstatic to find that the bartender had taken the liberty of pouring her a cup of soup for free. Gingerly taking the mug in both hands, she thanked him over and over again for the kindness between sips of broth.

Her glee was replaced with a curiosity as the hefty door swung round once more, announcing to the tavern that another nomadic soul had wandered into it's warm and rustic embrace, seeking shelter from the harsh environment outside.​

 

[Goonfire]

Hackel Kron
A figure equally as bundled-up—if not more so—shambled into the tavern. His face was obscured by a liberal covering of furs and a scarf. From amidst the cast shadows, one might get the impression he had stopped to gaze upon the woman at the bar. He froze in place for a second, prior to resuming what he was doing—closing the door.

The man had a seat at the bar, as far from the lady as possible. He seemed to hang his head as he settled on the stool. “Ale... Strong ale,” came his gravelly, muffled voice as he slid the bartender several silver coins. While he shifted around to stow his coin-purse, one might have heard the faint sound of a chain rattling. With no visual confirmation of such an item on his person, it may have been simply the mind playing tricks.

Pulling down his scarf, the stranger raised the spoon to his mouth, his dry lips parting to accept its contents. With the crop yields fast drying up and some livestock barely surviving the cold, the soup followed other people’s examples, sacrificing quality for quantity. The chunks of vegetable and meat were smaller and more scarce, the broth possessing less flavor as a result. Who could complain, though? Everyone had to adapt to the hardships this bitter, cursed winter brought.

Resting Witch Face

 

[Ace Cream]

Anjou

The tavern's door was smacked open. Two people carrying a stretcher stumbled in. Both of them, and the one that was carried on the stretcher were wearing a blazing red thick mantle with a symbol that looks like a spark on it. The people wearing this kind of outfit was known as agnidea, or the fire worshipper.

"Emergency, emergency. Pops, give us one your room. Quick!" One of the fire worshipper spoke to the owner of the tavern as if they're a regular. The owner immediately grabbed a key and gave it to them. The agnideas quickly vanished into one of the room on the second floor.

Several minutes later, one of them went out of the room, undoing her hood to reveal the face of a blonde haired woman. Anjou Fuella always looks like she never sleep properly with those eyebags of hers.

"Ginger drinks for me and the two in the room. This is the payment." The woman handed the tavern owner a flask with a strange green liquid inside it, the owner looks happy when he accept it and served her drink with haste. Anjou sat on the stool next to a certain frail-looking woman.

"Wow, what a reunion. Our Ms. Anne and Mr. Hooker over there." Anjou teasingly trying to start a conversation. Of course she know about how talkative the other two...

 

[ithinkcat]

- H A N N A -​

The freezing storm that had been raging outside the inn paused for a short moment, catching its breath, as a woman covered with furs, packs, gear, and weapons, notably a spear too long to be held upright without hitting the roof, entered. As the storm resumed, the woman maneuvered closer towards the meek fire and began removing her equipment, piling it up in a corner of the room. Finally, she removed her hooded bear-fur cloak, letting the fire's dim light reflect off her long, golden hair, and sat down next to it to begin thawing herself out in its warmth. Shivering uncontrollably, she turned to call to the man working behind the bar and struggled to get out a request for him to bring her a bowl of soup. Before the woman turned back, her eyes did a double-take--noticing multiple familiar faces she had not seen in at least close to a decade sitting together on some of the bar stools. She then suppressed her shivering to pass them each a pleasant smile and an awkward wave, but not moving from her toasty real-estate.

Hanna wasn't surprised to see them alive and as well as one could be, but three Executioners, well...ex-Executioners, in one place at the same time was rarely cause for comfort. Not all of them had taken the disbanding of the Executioners well. Hanna had left the order before then, but many of the others had stayed loyal all the way up to the end only to be turned loose into a world that feared and hated them. Killer guard dogs without a master or a home to guard. Worried the three of them might be up to some trouble, Hanna motioned for them to come sit by the fire with her in hopes of prying some info on why they were all there out of them through "small talk".

Ace Cream Goonfire Resting Witch Face

 

[Resting Witch Face]

Mary
As Mary looked up from her warm cup of soup she noticed that the room had begun to fill substantially, and with many familiar faces in their midst. Before she even had a chance to react to all this, her attention was brought onto the use of her middle name. "Our Ms. Anne..." she had said, and instantly it all fell into place for her.

"I have to be dreaming..." she sighed, as her days as an Executioner washed over her again. Without acknowledging Anjou more than a light wave, as if to say 'come with me', she made her way over to the fire. Taking a seat, she removed her jacket and set it aside, rubbing her hands together closer to the blaze.

"Hanna, it's been ages! I haven't seen you since... well, since we split up, back at headquarters." she winced. Knowing Hanna, she wouldn't take kindly to the reminiscing thought. But someone had to say it.​

 

[Ace Cream]

Anjou

Following Hanna's and Mary's beckoning, Anjou followed the two towards the fire, but instead of talking to the two she picked the poker rod next to the fireplace and adjusted the burning firewood. Her eyes became fixated into the dancing fire. Unconsciously, she uncapped another flask filled with the strange green liquid and poured it into the fire.

*stroke* *stroke* *burst*

The fire burst out of the fireplace. Dangerously licking the nearby wall and almost sprayed on Anjou's face, but the woman seems unfazed by it and casually shielded her face with her gloved hand without even budging her body away. Even when the tavern owner screamed at her to stop doing, she just ignored him and keep pouring her flame potion into the fireplace.

The fire was turned blue, and then green, and then purple, and then yellow... and then the mixture of those colors. Even though the roaring flame looks dangerous, but there's not a single burnt mark spotted on the wooden wall or floor. Almost like Anjou was making a show out of a fireplace. The woman herself looks like in trance while doing this, her eyes solely focused on the source of the heat.

*stroke* *stroke* *burst*

 

[Goonfire]

Hackel Kron
Seeing the spectacle, the obscured man finished his soup, then slowly made his way behind his old team’s alchemist and placed a hand on her shoulder to get her attention. “Anjou,” he scolded in a gravelly, whispery voice. He had an unmistakable sound; this was Hackel, who uttered his words so sparingly, yet used his strength liberally.

Hackel then shook his head before having a seat with the others, booze in hand. His shadowed eyes scanned the three women and former comrades, gauging their surprise and suspicion.

Resting Witch Face Ace Cream ithinkcat

 

[ithinkcat]

- H A N N A -​

Hanna gave a forced smile in response to Mary's greeting. When Hanna had left the Executioners, there was no fight or argument. She simply left without saying a word. It wasn't the first time an Executioner had left the order like that, and many had started to see the writing on the wall. The King really was mad. Hanna felt a tad guilty recalling her departure from the order, but not because she had forsaken her oath or had abandoned companions she knew to be also struggling inside, like Mary, but because she didn't regret it at all.

"It has been, Mary. You seem...well, I hope." Hanna replied.

Anjou joined them, but began acting in her infamously peculiar ways. Hanna had never really worked alongside Anjou or become much of an acquaintance, but she had seen Anjou from afar and heard plenty about the kind of Executioner Anjou had been, and hopefully no longer was. Anjou's little fireplace antics did little to convince Hanna that Anjou had changed any from her time with the order. Thankfully, Hackel also joined the fireside gathering, scolding Anjou for her behavior instead.

"It's a pleasure to see you both as well." Hanna greeted the other two in the most pleasant tone she could fake. While Hackel had been sitting on his own at the bar, the three seemed to be acting familiarly enough with each other, raising Hanna's suspicions that they had indeed been traveling together.

Hanna let out a soft chuckle. "It's quite the coincidence for four former Executioners to run into each other at the same place." Hanna stared at the floor still smiling, but mentally planned how she'd avoid the three and reach her spears should the worst be true. "So, what brings you three to a nowhere village like Rivenfork?" She questioned hoping to put her suspicions to rest.

Resting Witch Face Ace Cream Goonfire

 

[Ace Cream]

Anjou

Hackel was huge, that much Anjou already know, but that simple tap was powerful enough to yank Anjou out of her trance and gave her a jumpscare, she almost thought she would be crushed by a gorilla. Regaining her composure, now she properly joined the conversation by sitting next to the others. The tavern owner seemed relaxed that Anjou already came back to her sense and left them alone.

Hanna greeted them all and asked the reason of why they're in this place. Anjou pulled another flask with the strange green liquid in it. She showed a proud smile on her face.

"I have been going around trying to locate oil reservoir underground with a few Agnidea members. Not an easy job in this kind of climate, one of us even just got a frostbite. But soon, we will release a new product. I named it, the Fuella potion! An oil fuel that can make fire burn brighter, hotter and longer!" She put the flask in front of the others and changed her speaking volume down to almost whisper-level.

"I never thought my watered down flame potion would become a very valuable product. Ahhh, everyone would realize the beautiful fire the potion can produce." She seemed ecstatic about the prospect of it. Anjou's flame potion was quite well-known when the Executioner was still active. She burnt countless bodies (and a few settlements) with it. The high quality fire and the alchemist's unreasonable passion for it was what made Anjou infamous in the first place.

 

[Resting Witch Face]

Mary
...kept her mouth shut as Anjou poured chemical mixture upon chemical mixture into the now roaring flames, despite barely having enough time to pull her hands away. She took notice of Hanna's deceptively kind responses to the others, and a quiet sigh escaped her pursed lips. While she couldn't speak for the rugged Hackel or fiery Anjou, she had most certainly arrived her of her own volition, seeking only respite from the harsh winter outside.

"Is that what this town is called? I couldn't see a sign through the blizzard..."
Taking advantage of the scolding, an ironic word to use, Mary lowered her voice to a whisper

"Look, I don't like this any more than you, but sometimes that's just the hand fate deals. Clearly we're supposed to be here for a reason. How else can you explain the last four Executioners on the face of the Earth somehow meeting up in the same bar?"

Clearing her throat, she shot Anjou a cold stare before returning to face Hanna, as if she had never turned in the first place.​

 

[Goonfire]

Hackel Kron
With all the hushed banter, Hackel leaned closer to ensure he heard everything. The accounts of the Agnidea members’ misadventures caused his lips to pull to one side in an amused smirk, though it was rather short-lived, thanks to the reminiscing. He put little stock in Mary’s talk of fate. “Coincidence,” he grunted with a dismissive hand wave. Oddly, he didn’t state his reason for being there at this hour. He simply knocked back what remained of his ale, finishing it in one gulp.

 

[ithinkcat]

- H A N N A -​

Hanna gave Hackel a warm smile. "I truly hope you're correct..." She lingered in silence and gave a saddened look to no one in particular. "...t-the world has already suffered the ill-fate of our past union. I doubt it would survive a fated reunion." Hanna spoke to the three.

As Hanna finished speaking, the innkeeper brought her the soup she had ordered. Hanna eagerly paid the man a small coin for the trouble and began sipping the hot broth. The fireplace did well to reheat Hanna's extremities, but the watery soup quickly thawed the cold clinging to her core. Having finally stopped shivering, Hanna set the bowl down and stretched her sore muscles and let out a groan to indicate how pleasurable it was to finally relax. Although she was still concerned about the four of them all meeting at the same place and same time, she no longer feared that she would need to dispose of them. She hadn't even been sure she could've defended the village from two of them, much less all three of them.

Hanna returned to sipping her soup, but faced Anjou to talk between gulps. "I hope your...notorious potions can give people some comfort or hope. At least for a bit longer." Hanna took a couple more slurps and spoke again. "I have no idea where you would find oil like what you're looking but maybe you could substitute the oil from boiling animal carcasses or plant fibers, but, obviously, those are in shorter and shorter supply by the week." Once again, she took a break to consume some more soup. "Oh, and if you'd like I can look at your partner's frostbite. Maybe I can scratch up a salve to help minimize any permanent damage."

Before Anjou could respond, Hanna turned back to Mary and gave her a forced smile,. "Maybe it not too late for me to make this reunion fortunate for at least someone."

Goonfire Resting Witch Face Ace Cream

 

[Resting Witch Face]

Mary
Sighing audibly, she returned to her seat at the bar to retrieve her mug of soup, hesitating when standing back up but making her way back to the group eventually. As she walked over, the foundation of the building swayed ever so slightly as a tremor made it's way through the ground. Not a very unique feeling anymore, as they had picked up in frequency the last few days.

As she sat down, the barkeeper timidly approached the four, wary but focused. He couldn't help but overhear their hushed tones, and the word Executioner was not thrown around lightly these days.


"Pardon my intrusion, but... did you say Executioners?" Unlike the nasty, degrading tone most used when speaking the term, like a horrid incantation, the Bartender spoke as if in shock and awe.
" 'Aven't seen yer kind around here for a long time, you know. Thought ye'd been all but wiped off of the map."

He took a second to compose himself, as he seemed to be shaking terribly.
"I... I know what ye did. All of us do. Some take it a little too personally, but the way I see it you were serving yer land. A righteous cause, I say."

Before he had a chance to continue, the door to the dim tavern swung open once more, and the sound of thick boots slapping against the stone floor filled the room. If one turned to look, they would see at least half a dozen men in varying stages of frostbite, all with the same grim look on their face.

"You four! We don't take too kindly to killers in this town."
"Doyle you idiot! They're heroes, not mindless murderers!'
"I told you once, Ben, and I'll say it again. Heroes don't slaughter people! You ever 'ear a tale of a grand hero killing EVERYONE in the world?!"
Ashamed, the bartender stepped back from the group, holding his head low. The leader of the pack, Doyle, seemed to have a much more angry look about him.​

 

[Ace Cream]

Anjou

Anjou was sipping her ginger drink while pondering about Hanna's suggestion. No, not the one about helping her friend with the frostbite, the alchemist didn't care about that, but the ones about using animal carcases or plant fibers for her potion. Those ingredients won't be able to replace the refined crude oil used for her flame potion but she might be able to make a different kind of flame potion. Ahh... She heard about the people from the northen tundra use whale fat and pine resin to make fire. Maybe she should go there next to learn about the method. The result would be likely inferior but the learning process itself would be worth the time.

Anjou snapped back to reality and intended to answer Hanna's suggestion, but was a bit surprised when there's a group of other people shouting at them for being ex-executioner. This wasn't uncommon for Anjou, she entered a deep thinking then lost track of the time and her surrounding.

Hearing the man's statement about heroes never kill everyone. She wanted to retort by saying that neither of them killed everyone, but just a portion of the population. Though she recalled, the last time she answered like this, she was chased out of the town. So instead she pulled a small packet of herbs out from one of her pockets and flung it into the fireplace. The herbs cracked as the fire consumed it slowly, then it exploded into burst of thick yellowish smoke that filled the entire room. Moreover, it smells like fart. Utilizing the smokescreen, Anjou dashed towards the exit without checking the other three.

 

[Goonfire]

Hackel Kron

Hackel barely turned to glance at the closed-minded mob that entered his peripheral vision. He slowly and discreetly slid his hand into his coat as the argument escalated. This wouldn’t take long, he figured. That was confirmed when Anjou threw her unpleasant herb mixture into the fire as a distraction. The smokescreen and stench prompted him to pull up his scarf with his free hand.

The smart alchemist clearly wouldn’t hold up if the angry mob chose to attack her, so to ensure a clean getaway, Hackel darted around a narrow column, emerging with the chain weapon hidden under his coat. The razor-sharp hook gleamed in the light, but that wasn’t what he used. Instead, he launched the end with the weight, whipping it around towards a man in the back of their formation. The chain wrapped around the rear man’s leg, while a sharp tug toppled him and dragged him into the others. The melting snow they had tracked in wasn’t conducive to their efforts to keep their balance. “Hurry,” Hackel advised his comrades plainly.

Resting Witch Face Ace Cream ithinkcat