Character Concepts 11-14

The man did nothing but smile. Part of our reinforcements. By his garb I took him for an engineer, maybe a wizard. Told him to stick to the back and didn't pay much attention. Sent a group of my own men the monsters for an ambush, put the fear of Torm in them a bit, you know? Then I saw the wizard with them through the my telescope as the hammer fell. Ever see a minotaur scream? Bloody hell..

***

A street magician they said. Ol' Cal, they said, he's harmless, pulls a bird out his sleeve, they'd say. But I bit my tongue. Importing scrolls to this damn town cost a lot of money, and people were easily amused by the cantrips. Funny how quick they'd turn amusement into derision given the chance. Then the beasts came. Little yellow men riding on demon wolves. The guard went down.
Men with pitchforks and torches filled in, I joined them. They laughed at me. Even then, they laughed. Gonna pull out some birds, Sideshow man? They laughed and laughed as man died around them. So I pulled out some birds. I breathed fire. I used every trick under my hat. The ones they hadn't seen. The ones that killed. Abrakadabra, no more goblins. They townsfolk stopped laughing that day.

***

Sometimes you had to keep secrets from your brethren. The other archers and rangers of the north forest knew I was good, just thought my absences were for extra practice. This in mind they never asked why I went off every night with a big bundle and my bow. Nobody used my arrows but me, though. I kept a spare quiver for when friends ran out, and they chalked that, too, up to preparedness.
In the bundle was a book. Not a big one, but big enough. Nights, I spent hours with a tiny knife and my arrows, etching the symbols my father had taught me into their shafts, checking the books only occasionally, now, for correctness. My arrows always bit deep.

***

"Yo ho ho!" A worksman called as I passed. Gonnes are surprisingly loud in the big streets of this town. Half of them had never seen its ilk. No one called again, though. An infection was growing here, I the cure. Questions had to be asked, of course. Inkeepers and their ilk, people who would know. There had been disappearances lately. I trailed the rumors to a large house on the edge of town.
Down the street trailing the curious, I drew my sword and stepped into hell.