Portalhopper
04-09-06, 06:27 AM
A Brief history of Assassination thwarted;
The original thread was somewhere around forty posts, many of which were written by a man also no longer here (Lighthawk) - all of which were lost when something happened to the boards while I was gone. I know (And accept) that I'll be penalized for summarizing out what happened back then, especially since there are a lot of names and events even I don't remember too clearly; I don't expect any of the mods to.
The reward promised was a couple hundred gold pieces and something or other miscellaneous item that can easily be replaced with something or other anything else (or nothing at all) - the main reason I'm writing here is I want the story to come to a conclusion, not for a reward.
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The Story began in Sigil, the City of doors; also called The Cage for various reasons. It's a place no-one in the Multiverse truly understands, populated by Planeswalkers from all across reality, who might live there, or might just be passing through. See, in Sigil, there's the largest concentration of naturally occurring Portals, holes in the Multiverse leading from one plane to another, or even just one spot on the same plane to another.
In Sigil, 'Hopper was being informed by an old friend, a halfing by the name of Shmee, that a deal between a powerful wizard and a particularly nasty demon named 'The Slasher of Veils' he'd been the middleman for went a bit sour. The Slasher wasn't happy at all when it learned he'd paid entirely in silver coins, a metal most fiends bear something of a weakness against, and are painful for them to hold.
The coins, it turned out, were mined from Mount Celestial an Upper Plane most Primes (denizens of the Prime Material Plane) think of as "heaven." They were under a temporary disenchantment to hide their place of origin, and when that wore off, the Celestial Silver should have been enough to fatally poison the Fiend.
No such luck; with the Slasher itself shouting his name to the ends of Sigil and beyond, 'Hopper fled through one Portal he'd known about for some time, a safe getaway to a backwater Prime called 'Althanas' - and the key to it's activation wasn't a physical object like most Gate Keys, it was a state of mind, one which the Slasher was incapable of duplicating.
The state of being in mortal terror.
Things didn't get much better for 'Hopper once he made it here, inside a Warehouse in Scara Brae where he just so happened to fall in on a meeting of disgruntled Noblemen who blamed Lord Pallotan, lord of Scara Brae at the time, for all their misfortunes. After a tense moment where a great many sharp objects were pointed at 'Hopper in a menacing manner, some smooth talking, and the flashing of his Thieving tools to prove 'Hopper was, in fact, a man of roguish persuasion who could be an asset to their Cause, 'Hopper was yet again, allowed to live.
He Promised to scout the city in search of naturally occurring portals, like the one he came through, that could help the prospective assassins’ position themselves better, or successfully flee, come time for the assassination to be carried out.
'Hopper, naturally, was lying his ass off, Scara Brae wasn't a hotbed of portals like Sigil was, and anything he found would probably lead to Pandemonium or something, where they'd probably be driven insane by howling winds or eaten by a fiend.
Free, for now, he set about to the underbelly of Scara Brae, frequenting Taverns in the seedier sections of Scara Brae, asking questions and getting answers (One of the men had let their leader's name slip during the questioning period - I don't remember what I named him anymore) in a place called the Shallow Grave.
His contact, a former servant of the former nobleman who was planning the Assassination, gave him a little history on this particularly bloodthirsty knight. On a fairly routine venture to oust a band of bandits from the Countryside, he'd led the slaughter of an entire small village he'd determined to be the source of the problem - unarmed men, women and children... The implication was given that this wasn't the first such slaughter in the name of "justice" - just the only one he'd been caught carrying out.
As it turned out, Lord Pallotan was the one who discovered his deeds, and was responsible for prosecuting him for what he did. While he should have hanged, he had enough money, power, and friends left to save his life, if nothing else. He still had a house in the city, and a number of old friends willing to return a favor, but nothing much of anything else.
More would have been said, if 'Hoppers contact hadn't fallen over on the table, deader than a Parrot in a Monty Python sketch, after taking a swig of whatever passed for a Drink at the Shallow Grave. Simultaneous with his not dying, four large, hired-thug looking men has stood up across the room, walking towards the two of them.
One crossbow bolt from 'Hopper (hidden beneath the table of course, making it unclear where the bolt came from in the first place. At least, to the rest of the Tavern), and a man falling over in pain was all it took for a general chaos to erupt in the Shallow Grave - some people trying to get out, others drawing all manner of hidden weapons, and the three men left standing trying to run towards him.
He'd picked up his dead friend like a man helping a drunkard home, sifting through his pockets while he made his way for the kitchen, and the back door beyond it. The last obstacle to escape was the barmaid who'd served them both the poison ale, who came running at him with a knife. 'Hopper used the already-dead man as a both a shield and weapon, and probably could've killed the vicious little snake before leaving the Tavern.
But he didn't - 'Hopper's used to women trying to kill him, and still has a soft spot for the beautiful ones.
His escape from that attempt on his life left him with a small book (which turned out to contain official documents identifying the owner as a member of a noble house) and a few coins that once belonged to his contact, and the address of that former nobleman’s house – all he needed.
‘Hopper went on the offensive that very night, sneaking into the open window on the second floor of that house, where he laid in wait in what turned out to be a bedroom. The man who eventually came in, was one he’d never seen before, but nevertheless revealed his knowledge of the assassination conspiracy after a good mix of threats and… Well… It was pretty much just the threats that did it.
He instructed that man to inform his master (leader, whatever) – that if he didn’t meet at the warehouse where ‘Hopper met up with them the next night, he’d track every last member of the conspiracy down, and eliminate them, citing his obvious ability to sneak into this house as proof of his ability to carry out his threat.
‘Hopper spent the next day planning his next moves, preparing to carry them out, and the afternoon watching the warehouse from the top of a building down the street from it, observing men he knew were his enemies come and go, searching the area for him as though they knew he’d be watching them.
Demonstrating again his complete lack of integrity when dealing with people trying to kill him, ‘Hopper snuck back down to street level, having counted six men total, only one of which was outside the warehouse (A lookout he silenced with an impromptu blackjack, I think it was a sock full of coins) – he proceeded to then douse the outside of the warehouse with oil he’d acquired during the day (Lamp oil I think it was) – and set that sumbitch on fire.
Laying in wait outside the only free exit to the warehouse (he’d made sure to set all the others on fire) – ‘Hopper brought down two more with crossbow bolts as they ran from the Warehouse, he struck for the legs, and kicked for the head, preferring lackies unconscious to dead – indeed, there was only one man he really wanted to kill, the one who ordered men to try and kill him, a man he knew would be one of the three left inside that warehouse… He crept inside, hunting.
Inside that Warehouse was a hazy memory for ‘Hopper, he’d planned to take down three men before they noticed he was upon them, and – after being trapped inside the Warehouse, and in mortal terror of burning to death, take the portal he’d come through back to Sigil. Even if one of those three men stumbled across that portal and fled through in the same state of mind, he knew they’d never last a week on the Planes…
When one of them DID stumble into the portal, ‘Hopper saw it happen, and saw what came out. The Slasher of Veils, having waited patiently beside that portal for ‘Hopper to come back through it, stepped into Scara Brae. Holding that man in one clawed hand, it flung him to the side, smashing through one wall of the Warehouse.
‘Hopper never saw that happen, he was busy running straight through roaring flames in a mad dash to put as much distance between himself and the Slasher as possible. It was only the body of a man smashing through a wall, and impacting the next building so hard he became little more than a boneless blob of jelly.
The Slasher found him, and ‘Hopper experienced just why this particular demon is called the “Slasher of Veils.” Its power is truth, shattering the illusions we set up inside our own mind, barriers to protect ourselves from the cold, harsh reality of the world. Fight against it, and you stay trapped forever inside your own mind, trying to rebuild barriers that your mind will no longer accept – give in to the Slasher’s power, and you’re inevitably overwhelmed by the reality you’ve never been brave enough to consider. All your failures taunting you, loved ones passed on that you could have saved, the stuff nightmares are made of, and worst of all, the Slasher doesn’t lie or deceive, its tortures are filled with nothing but the truth.
‘Hopper knew, intellectually, from having studied the Slasher before he tried to cheat it what seemed like so long ago, that if he gave in and accepted his failures parading through his mind like a nightmare circus, he’d eventually wake up. If he fought, he’d be catatonic until the day he died, and probably past then… He gave up.
His last sight was of the Slasher compressing down into the body of a Human, and thanking him for a shot at “The Red Blaze” – one of the Nicknames Lord Pallotan had possessed, a holy warrior any Demon would kill for a shot at killing.
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‘Hopper regained consciousness in an Inn, tended for by a strange-looking man he’d never seen before. He called himself Hawk, and came “From the East” – without elaborating further, he’d seen the burning Warehouse, and the Slasher of Veils before it changed into a man, and so rescued ‘Hopper from whatever fate he might have endured in the street.
They talked at length, and ‘Hopper explained about the Slasher of Veils, what it was, how it was impossible for him or Hawk to kill it, how ‘Hopper planned on trying anyway, feeling personally responsible for whatever evil it might cause. Hawk remained resolute in his determination to help defeat the Demon, though he had his own reasons for why.
In the end, ‘Hopper agreed to let him help, they planned and agreed, Hawk would search for someone in the city who could create a weapon capable of destroying the Slasher, while ‘Hopper tried to warn Lord Pallotan of his impending doom.
‘Hopper, now featured in a number of Wanted Posters around Scara Brae for Murder, Arson, and copulating with animals in a most unnatural fashion (The last bit, I assure you, is nothing more than a trumped up charge), chose a disguise, that of a beggar, dressed in rags and a face so filthy even his own Mum wouldn’t have recognized him.
He made his way through the streets, to the very walls of the Castle\Manor where Lord Pallotan was said to live, he even made his way within speaking distance of the man, only to see the human body the Slasher of Veils had chosen accompanying Pallotan, speaking to him at length in a conversation ‘Hopper couldn’t quite pick up. Its power struck out again at his mind, weaker than before, either to keep it hidden from Pallotan (A Man blessed by the gods!) – or because ‘Hopper had already endured the power once… Either way, it still sent him running like a coward.
Hawk was somewhat more successful in his Mission, locating an Alchemist that knew of the Slasher of Veils, and informed him that it was the true name of the Demon they faced, but rather a Title given to it by some greater Demon Lord. The title gave it the power it had used on ‘Hopper – but it wasn’t as invincible as they’d thought, the Alchemist had books detailing how previous Slashers had been killed, and a new Demon would be elevated to take its place.
The Alchemist informed him that Silver, was indeed a weakness of the Demon, and offered to craft a Silver –plated Glove, which would enable Hawk to use his mastery of Martial Arts to effectively wound the Slasher of Veils, but only for 1,600 gold pieces, an amount FAR in excess of what either of them could afford.
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Hawk and ‘Hopper met up once again at an Inn in a district of Scara Brae populated entirely by easterners, where ‘Hopper and his wanted status wouldn’t raise any eyebrows (“All you Westerners look alike to us anyways”). They compared stories, and ‘Hopper said he could use the noble seal from the book he’d acquired from his Informant in the Shallow Grave to forge a letter of credit from a noble house, one easily worth 1,600 Gold pieces!
Before they could accomplish that, a man broke down the door to their room, flinging Daggers at the two men. Hawk dodged them easily, his years of training in Martial Arts serving him well.
‘Hopper wasn’t so skilled, one dagger caught him deeply in the right arm. As that happened, his eyes faded out, his mind shut off, and his body launched itself at the prospective Assassin, tearing into the man with an uncharacteristic bestial frenzy.
Some ghost of the Slasher’s mind remained in his head, egging him on, filling him with the strength and bloodlust of a Demon - but robbing him of his mind. The strength left as suddenly as it came, leaving him helplessly weak against the Assassin, who was quickly recovering from ‘Hoppers initial frenzy.
The Slasher’s presence told him to accept it into his mind, or he would die, ‘Hopper told it to go back to hell. The Slasher threatened and coerced, cajoled and convinced, each time receiving the same obstinate reply. He ran out of time, and felt the Assassin’s knife cut him, several times before Hawk managed to separate them, and pummel the Assassin out of his wits.
Adding insult to (grievous) injury, ‘Hopper recognized the Assassin… One of the men he’d let live at the Warehouse. Again, ‘Hopper fell unconscious.
He woke in a temple, bandaged and tended to by Eastern Monks, he was told Hawk left him there to be recover while Hawk went off to battle the Slasher of Veils alone. Despite wanting to rise up and join Hawk in battle that very moment – his wounds were too severe for him to even rise up to a sitting position.
The very last segment of the story ended with the same ghost of the Slasher’s mind speaking to ‘Hopper, telling him that it could give him the strength to move on (move on to what? Fighting against the Slasher?) – To whatever goal he held, even stopping the very being who gave him power. After receiving the same answer many, many times in a row, (“Sod Off”) – it took matters into it’s own hands, forcing ‘Hoppers body up, and out of the Temple.
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And that, Ladies and gentlemen, is where I left off… The story is almost finished, but now it gets to be written in detail, rather than summarized.
The original thread was somewhere around forty posts, many of which were written by a man also no longer here (Lighthawk) - all of which were lost when something happened to the boards while I was gone. I know (And accept) that I'll be penalized for summarizing out what happened back then, especially since there are a lot of names and events even I don't remember too clearly; I don't expect any of the mods to.
The reward promised was a couple hundred gold pieces and something or other miscellaneous item that can easily be replaced with something or other anything else (or nothing at all) - the main reason I'm writing here is I want the story to come to a conclusion, not for a reward.
--------------------------------------------------
The Story began in Sigil, the City of doors; also called The Cage for various reasons. It's a place no-one in the Multiverse truly understands, populated by Planeswalkers from all across reality, who might live there, or might just be passing through. See, in Sigil, there's the largest concentration of naturally occurring Portals, holes in the Multiverse leading from one plane to another, or even just one spot on the same plane to another.
In Sigil, 'Hopper was being informed by an old friend, a halfing by the name of Shmee, that a deal between a powerful wizard and a particularly nasty demon named 'The Slasher of Veils' he'd been the middleman for went a bit sour. The Slasher wasn't happy at all when it learned he'd paid entirely in silver coins, a metal most fiends bear something of a weakness against, and are painful for them to hold.
The coins, it turned out, were mined from Mount Celestial an Upper Plane most Primes (denizens of the Prime Material Plane) think of as "heaven." They were under a temporary disenchantment to hide their place of origin, and when that wore off, the Celestial Silver should have been enough to fatally poison the Fiend.
No such luck; with the Slasher itself shouting his name to the ends of Sigil and beyond, 'Hopper fled through one Portal he'd known about for some time, a safe getaway to a backwater Prime called 'Althanas' - and the key to it's activation wasn't a physical object like most Gate Keys, it was a state of mind, one which the Slasher was incapable of duplicating.
The state of being in mortal terror.
Things didn't get much better for 'Hopper once he made it here, inside a Warehouse in Scara Brae where he just so happened to fall in on a meeting of disgruntled Noblemen who blamed Lord Pallotan, lord of Scara Brae at the time, for all their misfortunes. After a tense moment where a great many sharp objects were pointed at 'Hopper in a menacing manner, some smooth talking, and the flashing of his Thieving tools to prove 'Hopper was, in fact, a man of roguish persuasion who could be an asset to their Cause, 'Hopper was yet again, allowed to live.
He Promised to scout the city in search of naturally occurring portals, like the one he came through, that could help the prospective assassins’ position themselves better, or successfully flee, come time for the assassination to be carried out.
'Hopper, naturally, was lying his ass off, Scara Brae wasn't a hotbed of portals like Sigil was, and anything he found would probably lead to Pandemonium or something, where they'd probably be driven insane by howling winds or eaten by a fiend.
Free, for now, he set about to the underbelly of Scara Brae, frequenting Taverns in the seedier sections of Scara Brae, asking questions and getting answers (One of the men had let their leader's name slip during the questioning period - I don't remember what I named him anymore) in a place called the Shallow Grave.
His contact, a former servant of the former nobleman who was planning the Assassination, gave him a little history on this particularly bloodthirsty knight. On a fairly routine venture to oust a band of bandits from the Countryside, he'd led the slaughter of an entire small village he'd determined to be the source of the problem - unarmed men, women and children... The implication was given that this wasn't the first such slaughter in the name of "justice" - just the only one he'd been caught carrying out.
As it turned out, Lord Pallotan was the one who discovered his deeds, and was responsible for prosecuting him for what he did. While he should have hanged, he had enough money, power, and friends left to save his life, if nothing else. He still had a house in the city, and a number of old friends willing to return a favor, but nothing much of anything else.
More would have been said, if 'Hoppers contact hadn't fallen over on the table, deader than a Parrot in a Monty Python sketch, after taking a swig of whatever passed for a Drink at the Shallow Grave. Simultaneous with his not dying, four large, hired-thug looking men has stood up across the room, walking towards the two of them.
One crossbow bolt from 'Hopper (hidden beneath the table of course, making it unclear where the bolt came from in the first place. At least, to the rest of the Tavern), and a man falling over in pain was all it took for a general chaos to erupt in the Shallow Grave - some people trying to get out, others drawing all manner of hidden weapons, and the three men left standing trying to run towards him.
He'd picked up his dead friend like a man helping a drunkard home, sifting through his pockets while he made his way for the kitchen, and the back door beyond it. The last obstacle to escape was the barmaid who'd served them both the poison ale, who came running at him with a knife. 'Hopper used the already-dead man as a both a shield and weapon, and probably could've killed the vicious little snake before leaving the Tavern.
But he didn't - 'Hopper's used to women trying to kill him, and still has a soft spot for the beautiful ones.
His escape from that attempt on his life left him with a small book (which turned out to contain official documents identifying the owner as a member of a noble house) and a few coins that once belonged to his contact, and the address of that former nobleman’s house – all he needed.
‘Hopper went on the offensive that very night, sneaking into the open window on the second floor of that house, where he laid in wait in what turned out to be a bedroom. The man who eventually came in, was one he’d never seen before, but nevertheless revealed his knowledge of the assassination conspiracy after a good mix of threats and… Well… It was pretty much just the threats that did it.
He instructed that man to inform his master (leader, whatever) – that if he didn’t meet at the warehouse where ‘Hopper met up with them the next night, he’d track every last member of the conspiracy down, and eliminate them, citing his obvious ability to sneak into this house as proof of his ability to carry out his threat.
‘Hopper spent the next day planning his next moves, preparing to carry them out, and the afternoon watching the warehouse from the top of a building down the street from it, observing men he knew were his enemies come and go, searching the area for him as though they knew he’d be watching them.
Demonstrating again his complete lack of integrity when dealing with people trying to kill him, ‘Hopper snuck back down to street level, having counted six men total, only one of which was outside the warehouse (A lookout he silenced with an impromptu blackjack, I think it was a sock full of coins) – he proceeded to then douse the outside of the warehouse with oil he’d acquired during the day (Lamp oil I think it was) – and set that sumbitch on fire.
Laying in wait outside the only free exit to the warehouse (he’d made sure to set all the others on fire) – ‘Hopper brought down two more with crossbow bolts as they ran from the Warehouse, he struck for the legs, and kicked for the head, preferring lackies unconscious to dead – indeed, there was only one man he really wanted to kill, the one who ordered men to try and kill him, a man he knew would be one of the three left inside that warehouse… He crept inside, hunting.
Inside that Warehouse was a hazy memory for ‘Hopper, he’d planned to take down three men before they noticed he was upon them, and – after being trapped inside the Warehouse, and in mortal terror of burning to death, take the portal he’d come through back to Sigil. Even if one of those three men stumbled across that portal and fled through in the same state of mind, he knew they’d never last a week on the Planes…
When one of them DID stumble into the portal, ‘Hopper saw it happen, and saw what came out. The Slasher of Veils, having waited patiently beside that portal for ‘Hopper to come back through it, stepped into Scara Brae. Holding that man in one clawed hand, it flung him to the side, smashing through one wall of the Warehouse.
‘Hopper never saw that happen, he was busy running straight through roaring flames in a mad dash to put as much distance between himself and the Slasher as possible. It was only the body of a man smashing through a wall, and impacting the next building so hard he became little more than a boneless blob of jelly.
The Slasher found him, and ‘Hopper experienced just why this particular demon is called the “Slasher of Veils.” Its power is truth, shattering the illusions we set up inside our own mind, barriers to protect ourselves from the cold, harsh reality of the world. Fight against it, and you stay trapped forever inside your own mind, trying to rebuild barriers that your mind will no longer accept – give in to the Slasher’s power, and you’re inevitably overwhelmed by the reality you’ve never been brave enough to consider. All your failures taunting you, loved ones passed on that you could have saved, the stuff nightmares are made of, and worst of all, the Slasher doesn’t lie or deceive, its tortures are filled with nothing but the truth.
‘Hopper knew, intellectually, from having studied the Slasher before he tried to cheat it what seemed like so long ago, that if he gave in and accepted his failures parading through his mind like a nightmare circus, he’d eventually wake up. If he fought, he’d be catatonic until the day he died, and probably past then… He gave up.
His last sight was of the Slasher compressing down into the body of a Human, and thanking him for a shot at “The Red Blaze” – one of the Nicknames Lord Pallotan had possessed, a holy warrior any Demon would kill for a shot at killing.
--------------------------------------------------
‘Hopper regained consciousness in an Inn, tended for by a strange-looking man he’d never seen before. He called himself Hawk, and came “From the East” – without elaborating further, he’d seen the burning Warehouse, and the Slasher of Veils before it changed into a man, and so rescued ‘Hopper from whatever fate he might have endured in the street.
They talked at length, and ‘Hopper explained about the Slasher of Veils, what it was, how it was impossible for him or Hawk to kill it, how ‘Hopper planned on trying anyway, feeling personally responsible for whatever evil it might cause. Hawk remained resolute in his determination to help defeat the Demon, though he had his own reasons for why.
In the end, ‘Hopper agreed to let him help, they planned and agreed, Hawk would search for someone in the city who could create a weapon capable of destroying the Slasher, while ‘Hopper tried to warn Lord Pallotan of his impending doom.
‘Hopper, now featured in a number of Wanted Posters around Scara Brae for Murder, Arson, and copulating with animals in a most unnatural fashion (The last bit, I assure you, is nothing more than a trumped up charge), chose a disguise, that of a beggar, dressed in rags and a face so filthy even his own Mum wouldn’t have recognized him.
He made his way through the streets, to the very walls of the Castle\Manor where Lord Pallotan was said to live, he even made his way within speaking distance of the man, only to see the human body the Slasher of Veils had chosen accompanying Pallotan, speaking to him at length in a conversation ‘Hopper couldn’t quite pick up. Its power struck out again at his mind, weaker than before, either to keep it hidden from Pallotan (A Man blessed by the gods!) – or because ‘Hopper had already endured the power once… Either way, it still sent him running like a coward.
Hawk was somewhat more successful in his Mission, locating an Alchemist that knew of the Slasher of Veils, and informed him that it was the true name of the Demon they faced, but rather a Title given to it by some greater Demon Lord. The title gave it the power it had used on ‘Hopper – but it wasn’t as invincible as they’d thought, the Alchemist had books detailing how previous Slashers had been killed, and a new Demon would be elevated to take its place.
The Alchemist informed him that Silver, was indeed a weakness of the Demon, and offered to craft a Silver –plated Glove, which would enable Hawk to use his mastery of Martial Arts to effectively wound the Slasher of Veils, but only for 1,600 gold pieces, an amount FAR in excess of what either of them could afford.
--------------------------------------------------
Hawk and ‘Hopper met up once again at an Inn in a district of Scara Brae populated entirely by easterners, where ‘Hopper and his wanted status wouldn’t raise any eyebrows (“All you Westerners look alike to us anyways”). They compared stories, and ‘Hopper said he could use the noble seal from the book he’d acquired from his Informant in the Shallow Grave to forge a letter of credit from a noble house, one easily worth 1,600 Gold pieces!
Before they could accomplish that, a man broke down the door to their room, flinging Daggers at the two men. Hawk dodged them easily, his years of training in Martial Arts serving him well.
‘Hopper wasn’t so skilled, one dagger caught him deeply in the right arm. As that happened, his eyes faded out, his mind shut off, and his body launched itself at the prospective Assassin, tearing into the man with an uncharacteristic bestial frenzy.
Some ghost of the Slasher’s mind remained in his head, egging him on, filling him with the strength and bloodlust of a Demon - but robbing him of his mind. The strength left as suddenly as it came, leaving him helplessly weak against the Assassin, who was quickly recovering from ‘Hoppers initial frenzy.
The Slasher’s presence told him to accept it into his mind, or he would die, ‘Hopper told it to go back to hell. The Slasher threatened and coerced, cajoled and convinced, each time receiving the same obstinate reply. He ran out of time, and felt the Assassin’s knife cut him, several times before Hawk managed to separate them, and pummel the Assassin out of his wits.
Adding insult to (grievous) injury, ‘Hopper recognized the Assassin… One of the men he’d let live at the Warehouse. Again, ‘Hopper fell unconscious.
He woke in a temple, bandaged and tended to by Eastern Monks, he was told Hawk left him there to be recover while Hawk went off to battle the Slasher of Veils alone. Despite wanting to rise up and join Hawk in battle that very moment – his wounds were too severe for him to even rise up to a sitting position.
The very last segment of the story ended with the same ghost of the Slasher’s mind speaking to ‘Hopper, telling him that it could give him the strength to move on (move on to what? Fighting against the Slasher?) – To whatever goal he held, even stopping the very being who gave him power. After receiving the same answer many, many times in a row, (“Sod Off”) – it took matters into it’s own hands, forcing ‘Hoppers body up, and out of the Temple.
--------------------------------------------------
And that, Ladies and gentlemen, is where I left off… The story is almost finished, but now it gets to be written in detail, rather than summarized.