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Assassins' Guild

           Scott of Rivendell walked down a dark alley in Mythland, looking around for the building that he was directed to. He soon found a dingy but imposing house that rather looked like a small gothic castle, with walls of tough stone bricks and pointy dark oak roof. A stable next to it housed a skeleton horse and a lone blood sheep that bared its teeth at the elf as he walked by. A sign hung from iron chains in front of the door, proclaiming this building to be the Iron Wolf Tavern and Inn.

           Except Scott knew better. The tavern was simply a front, to hide the dark secrets within. A front for a guild of assassins to do their dirty work without other people suspecting anything. And Scott was here to join that guild. He rapped on the door and a block of wood slid open, revealing a pair of ocean blue eyes. "Oh, it's you; I was worried it was the other guy come back," The owner of the eyes said, and he opened the door, revealing himself to be King Mythical J. Sausage of Mythland, Scott's friend.

           "Other guy?" Scott asked as he entered. "Oh, I kind of banned a guy who was in here for causing an even bigger ruckus than usual but he kept coming back and well, uh, stuff happened," Sausage replied evasively. Scott nodded and looked around him. The inside of the Iron Wolf was very different from the interiors he was accustomed to in Rivendell. The walls were made of cobbled bricks and the floor of a dark, polished stone. Long tables and fancy chairs with blood red upholstery filled up most of the interior, making the large room feel quite narrow.

           Red candles, in their iron holders dangling from from the chandelier and fixed into the walls, shot bright orange light across the shady room, driving out shadows and making more. Paintings depicting wolves, horses, blood sheep, and cows seemed to brighten up the dim ambience, but Scott couldn't help but think that the eyes of the paintings were watching him. A flight of stairs lead up to another floor, and presumably to the guest rooms.

           There weren't that many people in the Iron Wolf, just a few enjoying a meal of smoked ham and pork, or sitting on the tall stools by the bartender's counter. Scott shot a double take at the counter as he suddenly realized that it was Sausage himself who acted as the bartender, holding mugs under a stream of mead erupting from spigots in some barrels, and then sliding them to eager, thirsty customers who downed their drinks instantly.

             "How did you get over there?" Scott asked, his head spinning. "Weren't you just-" "Next to you? Hah, maybe I was, maybe I wasn't," Sausage laughed cryptically. "Now, let's go into the back room and discuss important business." Quick as a flash, he was at the other end of the room and unlocking a door that Scott hadn't even noticed before; its dark coloring let it blend into the shadows cast by the stairs. The two of them walked through it to find themselves in a cozy office with dark walls and blood red decor.

           There was a single desk in the middle of the room, and a few chairs in front of it. Two of the chairs already had people sitting in them. "Lizzie? Pearl?" The empresses turned around at the sound of their names. "Oh, hi, Scott!" Pearl waved. "I see Sausage is teaching you how to be an assassin too!" Lizzie said. Scott nodded as he sat down in the seat next to her. Sausage sat at his desk and smiled at them.

           "Okay, so I haven't done this before, but welcome to the Assassins' Guild! The Assassins' Guild is a covert syndicate that not many know about. Established in Mythland by the royal family themselves, their job was to train assassins and mercenaries and spies to work for the royal family, and sometimes for money. It's customary that at least one member of the royal family joins up every generation, so that's why I'm here! And the guild needs more members every once in a while, so I invited you guys and you all agreed this was a good idea."

           "I agreed that this would be fun, not that it would be a good idea," Pearl corrected. Sausage shrugged. "Eh, okay, so I'm not really sure how to teach you guys to be assassins, but I think I should start by showing you guys an assassin's best tools!" "Ooh, weapons practice," Lizzie giggled. "Um, kind of," Sausage said, rummaging around in his drawers. He pulled out a pen, an umbrella, and a teapot that apparently had tea in it; the spout was still steaming and a few drops of brown liquid dripped onto the table.

           "Sausage, how long have you been wearing that?" Lizzie asked, and everyone else realized that Sausage had somehow changed from his kingly robes to a white and gray assassin's cloak without them noticing. "A while, but anyway, have a drink!" Sausage pulled out three teacups from somewhere and poured out some tea from the teapot for them. The three of them starting sipping. "So, weapons practice?" Lizzie asked eagerly.

           "Who said anything about weapons practice?" Sausage asked. He pointed at the pen, umbrella, and teapot that sat innocently on the table. "These are some of the best weapons an assassin could have!" "Are you serious?" Scott asked. "He's serious," Pearl said, drinking her tea. "Watch this," Sausage said. He took the pen and pressed a button. Instantly it expanded into a dozen tiny knives of various sizes, making them all jump. "Good for sneaking weapons into weird places," Sausage said as he turned it back into a pen.

           He grabbed the umbrella and opened it, but instead the umbrella shot a bullet in between Lizzie and Pearl and made a hole in the wall behind them. "A gun disguised as an umbrella!" Sausage said, showing it off. "You can also replace the bullet with tiny bombs." "And the teapot?" Scott asked, suddenly suspicious of the apparently innocent teapot. "Oh, that's an assassin's teapot," Sausage shrugged.

           "What do you mean, assassin's-" Pearl began, but suddenly she choked and froze up completely, unable to move. "Pearl-" Lizzie started, but suddenly her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she collapsed in her chair. Scott soon became aware of his vision blurring and distorting. "Assassin's teapot!" Sausage cheered. "See, this teapot has several different compartments which you can put different liquids in and pour out the different liquids depending on who you want to target. So I could've poured a drink for all of us and only poison you guys, while I get a delicious spot of tea."

           Sausage explained as he poured out a drink for himself. He started sipping it, when suddenly he made a strange face. "Uh oh, I think I poured out of the wrong compartment. Scott, help," Sausage said as he fell to the ground. "Y-you just po-poisoned yourselffff, didddn't you?" Pearl asked, trying to speak coherently despite being paralyzed. "Yes," Was all Sausage said.