This would be the third time. At this point, Klaus wasn't even trying to pretend he's doing serious work there. He was incredibly intrigued what other weird finds would a spell produce. Of course, he wouldn't dream of abandoning his actual duties for this lark, the events were already in motion for some genuine spying on the ever so elusive lady Gillespie. Given what his contacts had told him, she had successfully "disappeared" an assassin sent from Alamut. Which, well, was something very remarkable. Those fellows were exceptionally well trained, and managing to ambush one without anyone being wiser of it? A LOT of skill and secrets had to be involved. Honestly, he had no clue what actually happened to the assassin in question, the extent of his data was "ventured to case the Academy and disappeared". Which means Old Man probably didn't know much more on his Mountain. Or maybe even this much.
He himself had made a resolution to avoid any personal contacts. Lady Gillespie was proving herself to be a ruthless and cunning operator, someone possibly on his own level. Despite himself, Klaus felt some excitement about this. Spycraft was not for lily-livered nor for stupid. A proper mix of cleverness, bravery, cunning, audacity and ruthlessness was something he truly valued in his subordinates and respected in his opponents. His previous instance was misled by the guise of effete noble and paid dearly for it. Klaus rubbed his neck absentmindedly as he recalled the supremely morbid examination of his own severed head. It was not as preserved as he would have liked, prince Hiram for all his merits was not a trained inquisitor nor was he a trained undertaker and thus did not do more than just place the head into an ice chest. Which admittedly helped, but putting it under stasis would be even better. Anyway, while the finer traces have had been erased by mana dissipation and early decomposition, he was able to take a fairly decent plaster of the cut. And that plaster was very interesting. His previous instance was not beheaded with a blade, as it was surmised. Rather, if he read the cuts right, it was done with some sort of serrated pair of blades. Something like giant scissors. Or crab claw. Self-transformation? Exotic weapon? Summons?
So, he was playing the long game here. His contact at Konistan's trade house would cause some minor altercation, get Vole Konistan to step in as arbitrator. Smarmy bastard would love that, he operated on the favors owed and blackmail first and foremost. Draw the target in, get them involved, then blackmail the hell out of them. Tried and true scheme. And this time, if things go sideways, it's Konistan who's going to get beheaded.
Win-win. Today, he was doing to do something special, though. His people had managed to find a two-headed dandelion by accident. Not too important, dandelions were low-level air and light foci, and therefore not particularly sought after, but it was useful in scrying spell, and two-headed flower could produce some interesting results. He was not quite sure what exactly would happen, but he was looking forward to it.
...Well. Apparently, using two-headed dandelion produced TWO distinct objects. In essence, scrying twice for the effort of one spell. Useful data, that. He jotted down the observation and then went ahead with examining what he got back. Item number one was... deliciously smelling, actually. Klaus swallowed, his mouth suddenly filling with saliva as the smell reminded him of missed lunch. It was a loaf of bread. Regular, ordinary, freshly baked loaf. Maybe from that bakery she opened recently. Giving it a bit of a poke with diagnostic spells did not show anything out of order. It was bread. With walnuts. Walnut bread. Klaus looked left. Right. On the table again. Sighed. "Geter farshiltn es! Di mekhasheyfe iz verzwickt.1Gods damn it! The witch is twisted." - he muttered as he gave in and started stuffing his face. It went surprisingly well with a bit of wine he had left over in the alcove.
Thus fortified, he examined the second item. In a way, he was slightly glad he gave in and ate the bread first. The bloody hammer was distinctly unappetizing. Picking it up gingerly, he hit the hammer with his usual bevy of detection spells. The hammer itself was nothing special. Oak handle, forged iron head. The blood was much more interesting. According to his examination, the blood was several days old. And yet, still wet. Curious. He took a piece of rag and carefully wiped the end of the hammer. But while he was confident that he left the end clean, pulling the rag away revealed it to be just as bloody as it was, in spite of rag soaking up a good deal of it. Several bloodied rags later, Klaus had set the hammer aside and focused a much more comprehensive bevy of investigative spells on it. Ohohoh, how curious. This hammer was used to commit a senseless murder. The bloodiness is simply an expression of its inherent foulness. Klaus could not tell who was murdered with it, but he could be entirely certain that the murder was committed for the sake of murder. Very rare, that. People usually needed more reason to kill than just a desire to see a dead body.
Since there were no good traces otherwise, he set the hammer aside after a while, and called in a servant. While he did not expect any gains from this lark, he would not look a gift horse in the mouth, and a minor dark artifact was a respectable gain for a spell cast to tickle one's curiosity. He'd have to think on the possible uses of this find, too. It had obvious merits as an anti-vampire tool. Any vampire who had a stake hammered in them with this will not be coming back, no matter what. For that matter, simply nailing a coffin shut with this hammer would deny it to vampire forevermore, even if he were to find living underlings to pry it open. Metaphysical junctions were interesting like this. And, of course, there were always political uses for things like these. He'd have to think about it.
Oh jeeze, now Klaus is deciding to keep and use the things he gets from his scrying. At this rate, he's going to completely freak out Alyssa when she finds him again surrounded by all these video game reference items, and even USING some of them.
summons BFG
tests BFG
next Klaus please.
*sees updoot*
*Inhales the living barnacles out of it*
Thank you, author. Also, can't wait to see Klaus' reaction to what Alyssa did.
Why would the bloody hammer be an anti-vampire weapon, and how would Klaus know that? I'm not familiar with Veil of Darkness.
A couple of typos:
in spite of rag soaking
of the rag
with this hammer would deny it to vampire forevermore,
to a vampire / to vampires
Because it is an artifact connected to the concept of senseless death. Vampires are typically hard to kill for good, but using something conceptually tied with death to facilitate it? That would do the trick.
Of course, burning also is an option. ^_^
@Cytotoxin I mean nearly all problems can be solved with enough application of fire. Almost never the BEST solution , and usually doing so creates even more problems, but technically the initial problem would be solved.
@Shadeymankey If it`s about fire, then the question is usually "how to apply it for the best results". Quite likely, followed up closely with "oh f*ck how do we contain it" and less likely but still annoyingly common "oh f*ck run".
Had to have at least one chapter where Klaus impresses
And huh, is that garbled Yiddish? After a bit of fighting with Google, something like "God help us! (or maybe God damn it!) The witch is tricksy"
Yeah.
These chapters always have the vibe of an SCP-914 addendum where it's a report of a trst and the anomalous objects resulting.
Ugh. Some things are just too ubiquitous, but still... ugh. Don`t want anything to do with SCP.
@Cytotoxin Sorry, I have a bad habit it seems of referencing other works where an author can see them, and mean it as to share cool similarities and the joy I get from that, but end up seeming rude.
@ZephaZeph I have problem with SCP, not you. Putting it bluntly, I just dislike the inherent bleak hopelessness the setting has. It pretty much posits that sooner or later, SCP will fail to contain something Keter-classed and then we`re all f*cked - and that they actively work against the attempts to change status quo out of fear that imminent end will move just a little bit closer.
His previous instance was misled by the guise of effete noble and paid dearly for it.
Previous instance?
That aside, is that hammer from her past life? Seriously, what kind of life did she live before?!
On top of that, did he just get himself a powerful weapon?
Original Klaus lived over a hundred years before. Current one is a magical clone of him, with some learning disabilities resulting from inherent flaws in cloning process. Each time Klaus gets killed, Kraut mages just decant a fresh clone and get him up to speed via previous clone`s notes and logs.
Every single thing Klaus obtains is from one of the computer games Alyssa had played in her previous life. This particular hammer? It`s from Veil of Darkness, a very good and atmospheric game featuring old-school "plucky adventurer versus terrifying vampire" adventure. It`s not a weapon at all, in game it serves a couple of plot moments and is needed as a part of a whole lot of actions you need to take to make the big bad actually possible to fight at all. (Keep in mind that this particular game was released in 1993. You can probably find it for free on the internet, but you`d need DosBox or some other virtual machine running Dos to really play it.)
she had successfully "disappeared" an assassin sent from Alamut. Which, well, was something very remarkable. Those fellows were exceptionally well trained
Well trained my ass. His tactic wouldn't work against so much as a vigilant mortal.
"Geter farshiltn es! Di mekhasheyfe iz verzwickt. (Gods damn it! The witch is twisted.)" - he muttered as he gave in and started stuffing his face.
I don't quite understand it, but it's funny.
Klaus does not have all the details. He does know that hashishins are generally competent and ruthless fellows, and having one go to take care of the mark and vanish without any trace or altercation? That does suggest certain things to him. Unpleasant things.
@Cytotoxin are they particularly stealthy?
@ThisEldritchAnomaly Ever played Assassin`s Creed series? Roughly the same deal. They can parkour and climb pretty well, are trained on how to blend in with the crowds and are pretty decent with poisons, throwing knives and other easily concealed weapons as a rule of thumb.
@Cytotoxin Heard of it. Seen a few portions of some videos. Never played it. But I suppose I get your point.