A Detour to Avaren

[Naruum Sett]

Coming down off of the Mountain pass, Naruum began walking down the beaten pathway towards the nearby town he had spotted from high on the Mountain. Nearly eveloped in his crimson cloak safe for his head and feet, Naruum walked onwards until he found himself at a crossroads.

Looking down the forked path Naruum found the impressivley forboding looking Citadel off in the distance, to which he simply said " Interesting, very interesting indeed..." With all the time in the world to play with the people of Avaren, Naruum decided to take a short detour, heading down the path to the Citadel.

Walking inside the gnarled, rusted gates, passing the tombstones which had aged and eroded over many, many years Naruum could not feel anything but like he was home in this dank, horrid place.

[Naruum Sett]

Naruum spent quite some time getting himself aquainted with the perimeter of the Citadel, feeling very much like the proverbial kid in a candy store. As he made his way back to the front steps, he took one more look around his supposed temporary home and made his way to the large double-doors.

He gave a push to the doors, but they didn't give way.
"What the...?" he stated confused, then putting more force in to it, throwing his shoulder forcefully into the doors to no avail. Surely, even if the doors were barred locked, the building's apparent age suggests that they would have become rusted and brittle he figured.

"Fine, enough messing around..." Naruum said annoyed as he rubbed his sore shoulder from repeated assaults to the door. He focused his psycho-kinetic energies on the large, wooden doors tightly, his eyes narrowing at the center of the doors choosing it as the focal point of his mental strike. He called boldly as a great force came forth from his mind, blowing his hair back wildly relinquishing his onslaught on the door. He struck the door with all his might for as long as he could, buckling to his knees when his focus gave out, panting heavily "What...what sort of...door is...this...?" he asked bewildered and exausted.

[Viktor Delacro]

Viktor was returning from an expedition to his mountain shrine. He found one of the great gates of the Citadel opened, and it brought great concern to his mind.

He spurred his mount forward through the open gates and galloped through the graveyard, and drew his sword clear of its sheath.

The was a thunder and the sound of cracking wood, someone was battering the gates. He finally arrived in eyesight of the solitary figure in front of tthe gates. He looked exhausted.

Good. This would be quick.

[Naruum Sett]

As Naruum took a mandatory rest he tried to figure what was wrong with the door, it was cracked to all hell, but it still stood strong. His train of thought quickly derailed as he heard the clopping of hooves and the ringing of a sword being drawn. Naruum turned to face the man in the dark, terrifying looking armor.

Rising slowly back to his feet, he gazed up at him still now instead beginning to formulate a plan. He was tired from attacking the door for so long, and his reudamentary understanding of swordsmanship would be utterly useless. So, he waited for his breath to settle for a moment longer and said " Nice night isn't it..?"

[Viktor Delacro]

Viktor didn't bother to dismount, he reined his angered horse around. Rather than responding immediately and angrily, he watched this man for a moment. A cruel smile bit his visage.

"Indeed, a nice night to die..."

[Naruum Sett]

"Crap!"he thought, he had hoped this person would have taken more time, or at least made a more elaborate statement to say that he was going to kill him. At this point his breath would have settled down if his steadily more rapid beating heart kept him from maintaining a steady breath.

"Oh, is this your humble abode? You've got quite the eye for exterior decorating." Naruum said drawing a smile. A small glint came from his eye before he nonchalantly shut his eyes and nodded, cupping his chin between his thumb and forefinger.

[Viktor Delacro]

Viktor scowled. This man was grating of his patience, which he had little of in the first place. His muttering drivel only served to make things worse. Now he did dismount from the horse.

He rested the sword on his shoulder and walked slowly and purposefully toward the gates. His stern glare never left the fool's nervous eyes. He made his steps falls loudly in the dead of the night. Intimidation came naturally to him.

"I do not suffer fools lightly, I like to make them suffer."

[Naruum Sett]

"Suffer how? By boring them to death?" Naruum replied smugly hoping to keep him talking, his eyes remaining shut, though upon close examination his eyeballs continued shifting about as if he was looking for something. For now, he would have to rely on minor distractions from both himself and his magical abilities while he took time to recover.

His brows twitched slightly as he set out one of his afore-mentioned distractions. As if it was being whispered inside Viktor's ear, the sound of a little girl singing a playfully childish song in the token creepy inclination could be heard.
"That should buy me a few moments." he thought to himself, making it seem like the girl's song would gradually grow louder and louder with each passing moment.

[Viktor Delacro]

Viktor's thoughts filled with intense rage. Is this man taunting me!? I'll have his insolent head on a pole, spine and all. I'll feed his useless corpse to the rats in the underlevels. I'll auction his soul to demons of pain and anguish. I'll...

Something interrupted Viktor thoughts of torture and vengeance. A noise... It was faint, but it grew louder and closer. He kept a suspicious eye on the man at the gates, but gave a look to his surroundings. There was no one there. He continued his march to the gates.

Then the sound became clear, it was the voice of a little girl. He again gave an irritated look about himself, still no one to be seen. He cast his furious glare back to the man at the gate. His thoughts gain filled with rage. He readied his sword and quickened his pace.

He grabbed the man by the collar and pushed him back against the gates. He dragged the tip of his sword over the man's face slowly and deliberately.

"What should a cut off first?"

[Naruum Sett]

"That's it little fly..." he thought as he continued pulling at this Warrior's strings. His eyes remained shut and his smirk held true while he maintained the illusion now boomingly echoing inside Viktor's head. He had recovered a sufficient amount of his energy for what he was about to pull, though it would not leave him with slim to nil afterwards, so he would have to think fast.

"You should be careful with that. You might make me go all to pieces!" Naruum called in an insidious tone, a sadistic smile that seemed to encompass his entire face like that of Dr. Seuss's Grinch. Then, suddenly Naruum made it appear through another clever illusion that his body erupted into a massive sea of shrieking vampire bats, spending a little more of his energies to make Viktor's horse see such an illusion as well only to add to the effectiveness of his spell.

[Viktor Delacro]

A flush of bats exploded in Viktor's face. He swatted at the dirty beasts, keeping them away from his face. After a split second of not hitting a single fleshy body he decided a course of action. With a mighty heave he stabbed his blade into the gate.

The illuson melted away in his mind and his vision returned to reality. A reality of an illusionist with a sword plunged into a gate less then an inch from his head.

"Impressive trick, illusionist? What possesses one to illuse a lord in his own palace?"

[Naruum Sett]

One could say his focus broke when he spied the swordsman's steel come far too close for comfort. He let out a soft sigh of relief, which wah short lived as he spotted a few of his black hairs dancing downwards past his eyes. Taking a moment to calm himself down he contemplated the question posed to him
"Probably the same thing that possessed me to do it the other ten times...or was it eleven...? Granted, it wasn't always a palace, but it would serve as a place to hang my hat." Naruum replied, strumming his chin idely to correctly remember the correct figure. Ah, those wonder travels, the wonderful screams. You might say "You can't judge a person until you've walked a mile in their shoes." Well Naruum was more to walk several in their whole outfit...After it was taken in to fit him, of course.

[Viktor Delacro]

"You've impressed me, mage. That is no small feat. I'm looking people with powers. I could use someone like you."

Viktor removed the sword from the gate and sheathed it. He seemed to gauge the mage's strength with a cold gaze.

[Naruum Sett]

Rising to a full stand off of the Citadel's gate, Naruum sized up the situation. He resumed stroking his chin thinking over the proposal.

"Sounds like fun, but what do you need me for? And more importantly: what is in it for me?" he asked, very interested regardless, but he would hear him out in full before making any commitments.

[Viktor Delacro]

Viktor laughed and patted the pommel of his sword.

"What's in it for you? I'd say, your head on your shoulders, but if selfish motivation is what you need, I'm am pleased to say that is just what I deal in. Gold, power, killing...whatever your particular vice there are ways to support it within this citadel. Though, only those I deem worthy may find it comforting. The rest just die."