The Sinking Cadaver (Part 2)

“The ice is cold, the night is dark

The moon and stars sink into black

A threshold of warnings for turning back,

But when the heart is cold, the mind is dark.”          

- The Poet, A Ghost in the Frost: Diaries of the Lost

            From the comfort of the Thief’s room, the Ranger sat and waited for his victim to return. Now to be fair, this was never part of his original plan. It was merely a necessary revision that he implemented because of the Thief’s reaction to his trapped chest scheme. When he saw the Thief take the Bard with him as he exited the inn, it was a clear sign that he didn’t believe the note. Otherwise he would have simply gone alone and claimed the treasure in the chest for himself. But obviously he saw the note for the trap it truly was. Thus he took the Bard with him to trigger the trap whilst allowing him to walk away with the treasure unscathed. A solid plan, except for the fact that  the chest held no such treasure. It was completely bare, containing nothing but for the trap itself. And so the Ranger concluded that after finding nothing the Thief would likely make his way back to Jazmin’s Tavern and inevitably head to his room. After all, it’s not like he really had any other places to go. The Frozen Abyss offered few amenities, especially for accommodations. And so the Ranger patiently awaited his return. The Thief would finally get his due, though he felt sorry for the Bard.

            The Thief paused for but a second before entering the tavern, not because he was so arrogant as to think himself better than the Ranger, but rather because he felt confident he held the upper hand in this particular situation. Thus he calmly opened the door and walked inside, noticing immediately that the Ranger was not seated in his normal booth seat. In fact, he was nowhere to be seen at all. And so the Thief cautiously ascended the stairs up to his room, expecting the Ranger to have either fled or to be waiting for him in his room when he arrived. Either way he would be pleased.

            Moments later the door opened and the skirmish began, twin daggers striking the metal of a Kahtoree blade while the two swordsmen danced to the beat of their rhythmic steel, neither one able to land a blow on the other. Yet upon consecutive parries both fighters lowered their weapons and halted their actions because of a noise that caused them both to freeze. It was singing, coming from the lobby below. The voice was unmistakable. The Bard had returned...