Some disreputable people had murdered a man at the previous Black and White Masquerade, and though he was not directly responsible, Killian of Folkestone was held accountable (reference: http://southernwastes.com/writing/whack.htm). The sentence for his alleged crimes required that he promise to turn over all his earnings for the year to the House of Chimeron. Jarrod Marshall had arrived with those earnings, 500 gold in total, along with other members of Folkestone with every intention of making good on their promise.
Callin of Folkestone approached Panther and Rob Scarlett, "Jarrod's walking around with the money in plain site. He won't listen when I tell him to be cautious and his guards are lax. I want to hire you both to assassinate him and take the money."
"Uhm Callin, we're both members of Folkestone ourselves, as are you. Do you really think that's wise?"
"I want to test his guards." Kill him and take the money."
So Rob and I went about planning the assassination of Jarrod Marshall, Lord of Folkestone. A feat such as this had never been done before, and the fact that it was a year to the date of another noble's murder in these very halls was not lost on us, nor the fact that the money in question was here as a result of that murder. It was all so gloriously connected.
As it turns out, it wasn't hard. We were as close as brothers, all four, and the trust we had with Callin allowed us to trust him when he requested this job. That same trust made it easy for Rob to lure Jarrod and one of his guards into a dark hallway where I followed, unknown to them. In the complete darkness I stabbed the guard in the back, while Rob turned and struck Jarrod down.
OCC: At this point OOC Jared called dead and fell to the floor having followed Rob in to the hall, but never seeing his assailants or the blow that killed him. In the compete darkness OOC Jarrod heard the voices of Mike (Panther) and Rob Riley (Rob Scarlett), and to use his own words, his heart broke. Two people he trusted most in this world betrayed him, not just two characters, not just two players, but two brothers; a part of him just died inside.
So I exit the building with the money, leaving Rob with the bodies, when I remember an old thief convention that I'd forgotten. When you use one of your own to lure in a mark, you have to kill him too, otherwise he's a suspect. I go back to the door, open it up and there's Rob and the bodies, and he's actually holding his dagger toward his chest and trying to find a good way of killing himself to make up for my error. When the door opened, he looked up, and I swung my dagger across his forehead. Mission complete. Time to hide the money.
Later the three bodies had been found and raised, and the four of us reconvened again, Rob and I still assuming that our whole operation was sanctioned by Callin under the premise of testing his guards. We had killed Callin in the hall with Jarrod, but if there were other guards they were clearly lax in letting him go in there with just Callin. Our mood quickly altered when we saw Jarrod's face, he was clearly upset, no, he was devastated. We quickly told him of Callin's request to test the guards. Jarrod screamed at us, "What guards?! He's the only guard!" pointing at Callin. Callin grinned and said, "technically that's true, but you were just being so brazen with the money, not being careful at all, and frankly I was bored."
"Jarrod we had no idea, you have to believe us, he told us it was OK."
"I know and I understand, it was him not you, though I still can't shake this feeling of being betrayed. My heart it just broke, I mean, I know I didn't hear the voices when I was dead, but OOC I did, and It just killed me, killed me inside, y'know."
I just about cried my appology, though we were close, like lots of guys I don't know that we ever verbalized it. So to hear now how much damage was done, was like hearing for the first time that you had a long lost brother, but finding out he died before you met him.
Calin decided his little farce had gone on long enough, "OK, let's have the money back."
"What money?"
"The money you took."
"Oh, well, giving the money back was not part of the arrangement. Callin never said anything about us having to give the money..."
"Don't even play games I'm not in the mood." Jarrod demanded.
"I'll get it."
Later that day, the money was turned over to Queen Meg and once it became Chimeron's, we stole about half of it during the presentation. Just mentioning the incident today brings visible pain to Jarrod's face, which in turn garners defensive apologies from Panther (But Callin told us to!) Everyone went home that day with a lesson in trust, mostly don't trust Callin when he's bored.