Assassination Attempt

[Animael 1500]

<A simple hastily scrawled missive was dotted upon the roads and in clear view in a handful of places where it would be seen.>

 

I had originally intended to end the foul creature that was the Princess and her uncle. Instead the Emperor himself happened across the little clearing right at that moment. Opportunities are for seizing.

 

I hope that if not dead, a little extra light might fill that blood filled head of his.

 

- Tarak'maul

[Cheese 8891]

"We.

Are.

So.

F*cked."

Gulped an elven voidstalker, on behalf of elves and mages everywhere.

[Cryptic 551]

"EMPEROR HADRIAN NOOOOOO!" Gundahar exclaimed as he tried jumping for the shot, but failed.

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Riot 743]

Dorin Starbreaker read the scrawled missive once. Then again. The forge fire popped behind him, but his anger wasn’t for the flame that had already leapt — it was for the one that nearly had.

 

He exhaled slowly through his nose.

 

“So ye meant ta kill her,” he said at last, voice low and dangerous. “Not a soldier. Not a commander standin’ ready. A wounded non-militant, laid low and under care.”

 

His jaw tightened, beard bristling.

 

“I don’t care who caught the bolt instead,” Dorin continued, iron calm settling over the words. “That shot’s already loosed. What twists me gut is what ye were aimin’ for.”

 

He folded the missive with deliberate care and set it flat upon the anvil.

 

“Ye weren’t lookin’ for battle. Ye were huntin’ the helpless. That’s not war. That’s a knife raised over a bed, hopin’ no one’s watchin’.”

 

One heavy hand came down beside the parchment — not striking it, but caging it there.

 

“Dwarves don’t measure a soul by who they hit,” Dorin growled. “We measure it by who they’re willin’ ta strike. And ye showed yer hand clear as day.”

 

He straightened, eyes hard as quarried stone.

 

“Stone remembers intent. An’ this —” a glance to the letter “— is intent stained ugly.”

 

A final, quiet vow followed.

 

“Pray ye never stand where I do when next ye go lookin’ for ‘opportunity.’”

[xo31 3984]

"So close." a wizard murmured as he stared, blended into the crowds outside of the clinic.

 

"What was that?" A nearby peasant asked the wizard, as he was blended into the crowd.

 

"Eh? I didn't say anything."

[Tide1 4535]

"I thought the fires could be forgiven. I thought that if managed correctly, they could be offered penance. But I have since come to realize that they will never be held accountable by one of their own. They must all die, Hadrian. You must kill them all, or so I shall make it the remainder of my life's ambitions," had Tiberias rescinded all hopes and mercies afforded the disgusting caste of sub-humans that burned his own home to the ground, and now, too, his own son's life. Once more, kindness had been mistaken for a lack of care. For the last time had it been so, and it had been heard by Emperor Hadrian the First.

[Javert 9628]

"I HAD NUBTHING TU DO WIFF DIS!" declared the Rex of the Horde the moment he heard of the attempt. "I SWEAR!"

[Yeetboy0206 1574]

Maddock Tam growls as he reads this. He writes out a missive to send to the Empire, hoping it will reach this coward.

 

“To fight to defend oneself and one’s people is one thing. Taking a prisoner of war is another. But attempting to murder two civilians as though they are subhuman makes you nothing more than the same kind of monster that you wound up shooting. You failed to even kill him, and now you have brought suffering and murder to every magi in the Empire with your actions. We will not condone genocide and bigotry of the kind Hadrian responded with, but you will NEVER be welcome even in the Alliance for your vile intent. There is no excuse to harm a civilian like that. NONE. Worse is that you then announced yourself and now force the consequences of YOUR selfish actions on the backs of innocent magi who are now being exterminated by the Empire. Remember that for every magi that the Empire kills, you helped cause that. I will not ask you if you think it was worth it. You aren’t worth speaking to further at all.”

- Maddock Tam, Archchancellor of Beleth