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LOCATION: THE LUSTY WENCH TAVERN & INN
CITY: DAWNHOLLOW, ALLOVIA
DATE: AUGUST 23, 2026 | TIME: 8:15 AM
It had been a month since Grimwatch and The Shadowed Hamlet had joined to form Dawnhollow, and the new city was bustling with adventurers from Earth and new faces from all over Allovia.
New cities came with a lot of work that needed doing. Stone battlements had to be built. The walls strengthened. Shops upgraded. There was so much construction, gathering, and other tasks that needed doing that the quest boards in both areas of the town were tripled in size, and were still overflowing with parchment rolls.
Weeks ago, along with the throng of new faces, Cormac and Silas Black had arrived seeking work. They had taken a surreptitious route from Myrrindel to make it look like they were poor villagers from the north, and their sad tale was good at discouraging others from inquiring further into their past.
The sad tale wasn't hard for them to spin convincingly. They'd grown up as orphans on the salt-stained, dirty streets of Myrrindel's slums.
They weren't actually brothers, but while they were children, their faces were covered with so much soot that the ladies at the brothel who would feed them scraps used to call them "The Brothers Black." The name stuck, and when they grew older they kept it.
Cormac was older by two years, and he was the only one who'd learned to read. The younger Silas had a different sort of talent.
His body could absorb ritual and spell energy without it affecting him. Silas could hold onto it for months and release it at will on a target. After each use of the skill, however, he would spend a week in bed, utterly drained of energy.
But between Cormac's wits (just enough to be useful but not enough to be dangerous), and Silas's special skill, the Brothers Black found stable work with The Muted Cord.
In this case, their assignment was specific and time-sensitive. Their first task was to fit in with the locals and become trusted citizens of Dawnhollow.
They performed various menial tasks on the job boards. Enough to afford a small hut on the outskirts of what used to be The Shadowed Hamlet, but to still stay under the radar.
They would hang around the taverns before and after the workday and listen to the conversations around them. One morning, they found the perfect marks and began setting their ultimate plan into motion.
On the 23rd of August, Nina Vosper and Sienna Black were planning to head to Dawnhollow for some questing and leveling. Brick was supposed to join them as usual, but he said he had other plans that night.
Not bothered, the two best friends crashed out in their Virginia Beach oceanfront home, and awoke in the new city.
They chose a job from the board that required two, and went inside The Lusty Wench. Since they'd be traveling to the mountains northwest of town, they decided to pick up some lunch boxes for later.
Tucking the rations into their satchels, they headed out the north gate and started jogging toward the mountains.
Far behind them, keeping a more leisurely pace, Cormac and Silas stayed just out of sight.
After hours of moving north along the road, Nina and Sienna broke off onto a footpath leading up into the mountains to the west.
As their hike took them higher, the air became drier, and the smells of the forests lining the road gave way to that of stone and dust.
"We've both been spending a lot of time with him lately," Sienna said. "Maybe it's time we all have a talk about it."
Nina scoffed.
"As if Brick is emotionally capable of such a mature conversation."
They both laughed.
"He'd probably just yell THREESOME at the top of his lungs and throw us onto the nearest soft surface," Sienna said.
Nina laughed again.
"You give him a lot of credit assuming he'd choose a soft surface."
They chuckled and kept chatting, until their System interface indicated they were getting close to their destination.
The two women slowed their pace and withdrew their weapons. They were careful to make every footfall as silent as possible.
They came upon a flat area with a wide cave mouth. Bones littered the ground all around the space.
The wolves who made this cave their home had been wreaking terror on the local population, and Nina and Sienna had accepted a quest to cull their numbers today.
They nodded to each other and stepped forward. Nina threw a fire ball inside the cave, setting two wolves on fire instantly.
They howled loudly, and the sound was jarring. Sienna held her bow steady and began firing arrow after arrow at the wolves who came running.
Nina hurled fireballs until the wolves closed in. A wolf was bad enough; a wolf on fire was something Sienna didn't care to test her daggers against.
Sienna slung her bow over her shoulder and drew her daggers. She began leaping, rolling and slashing as Nina engaged in her own version of close quarters combat.
Nina was a mage, but had hand-to-hand combat experience from her time in the military. She'd learned to coat her hands in kinetic force so that a punch from her could send a beast flying backward. Each hit from her fist caused far more damage due to the magical force behind it.
Twenty minutes later, both women were covered in gore and blood. Some of the blood was their own, but most was from the beasts.
Sienna tossed her second dagger to Nina, and the two began skinning the wolves. They would leave the meat there, and assumed it would all be gone by morning from the other wildlife in the area.
At least this meant people from nearby villages and from Dawnhollow would be safe from this particular menace. For now.
They had spotted a stream in the foothills below that they planned to wash up in, relax and eat their lunches, and then head back to Dawnhollow to turn in the quest.
Nina handed the dagger back to Sienna and they split the wolf skins between their bags before turning toward the path back down.
Suddenly, Nina couldn't move. Like, not a single muscle anywhere on her body. She was frozen in place. She couldn't even move her eyes from where they stared at the moment it happened.
She had turned to see two men. One had his hands up in the air, his eyes closed in concentration. The second man stood next to him, with a sword drawn.
Nina laughed in her mind at the way he clumsily held the weapon. Like a recruit holding a rifle for the first time.
This guy has no idea what he's—
"Hello, Nina," a voice inside her mind said.
"What the fuck?"
"I'll be taking over from here," the voice said. "Just go to sleep and this will go easier for you."
"Get the fuck out of my—"
Pain.
White, hot pain lanced through every cell in her body.
She would have screamed out if she had any control over her body. But she didn't.
All she could do was stand there like a fucking idiot, watching streams of black energy emanating from the awkward sword guy, through the air, and into her own body.
She saw the same black streams flowing from the smaller man, through the air and behind Nina. She assumed he was doing the same thing to Sienna.
"Ah, yes. This will do fine," the voice said. "Now go to sleep. These are your last moments. But know that I'll take good care of this body as I use it to serve my Master's will."
Nina saw the man drop the sword and drop lifeless to the ground at the same instant that her own life was snuffed out like a candle in a storm.
Sienna went through the same experience.
"Ah," the voice in her own mind said. "Your last name is Black. Perfect. So is mine."
Moments later, the ritual was complete.
Nina Vosper and Sienna Black were gone, and The Brothers Black now walked in their bodies. They headed back down the mountainside to the stream and cleaned up.
Silas kept chuckling as he got used to walking in a woman's body.
"She feels so soft, so… delicate," he would say, moving his hands up and down his new body's curves.
And Cormac would scold him. "Grow up, Silas. This is the biggest mission we've ever been entrusted with. We have to be perfect."
They passed through the gates of Dawnhollow just as the sun was setting. They would turn in the quest, have a drink or two, and see where these two exquisite women lived in the other world.
How they proceeded from there was a problem for tomorrow. Today, Silas/Sienna was exhausted from using his… their skill.
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System Broadcast
Vitalyx Recipients: 8,142,112,995
Rejuvenex Recipients: 5,421,609,477
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@NYPD: The New York Police Department has arrested two men for stealing bottles of Rejuvenex from an elderly couple inside of a bodega in Brooklyn. There's enough for everybody. Obey the law!
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