Cedric looked at a rune on a rock, examining it closely. Cedric touched the marking, he felt like he was falling, as the darkness grew, wind flowing through his hair, Cedric switched masks from the beaked doctor's mask to a metal plated one. Cedric hit the ground, no light. Cedric remembered the distinct glow of dark steel, a dark grey ingot of steel that glowed a purple.

Cedric snapped his fingers and a small fireball hovered over his hand, giving a nice warm glow. An eyeless hound approached Cedric slowly, sniffing wildly as if tracking Cedric's smell. The hound pounced at Cedric, barely giving Cedric time to draw a weapon. The hound's teeth barely missing the metal plates of Cedric's mask, he set it a flame with the fire he started.

Cedric pulled out a throwing knife and hurled it into the cranium of the hound, killing it. Cedric drew his crossbow as he spotted a few drow elves that didn't look very friendly. Cedric approached with caution, trying his hardest not to make a single sound. A spider the size of a cart sent webbing down onto the drow elves below, pulling them up for dinner.

Cedric pulled the lever loading the crossbow and fired at the top of the webbing, hitting the spider. The spider jumped down, Cedric fired more bolts, 3 hitting the spider.
The spider was angered, it made a terrible noise, calling it's young to aid it. Cedric aimed his hand at the large spider, he clenches his fist, an explosion goes off, killing the spider and stunning the young. Cedric jumped down deeper into the cavern, reaching a drow marketplace.

He jumped up to a dark area, watching everything closely, no dark steel, he found however, humans up for the slave market, none of them over the age of 20. Cedric walked over to the slave market, a cart came in, with a few humans on and several bags. The humans were bound and set up on the pedestals, while the bags were cut open revealing weapons, equipment and such, possibly confiscated from the captured humans.

Cedric jumped down onto the marketplace, he came here for one thing and one thing only, dark steel. Cedric walked past the market, and that's when the drows noticed a strange masked person walking around, they surrounded Cedric. "Big mistake" Cedric muttered under his breath as he set off another explosion behind him, he drew his two rapiers and made sure the drow's blades would only touch steel, not flesh. Cedric stabbed a drow in the heart, bluish blood flooding out, Cedric used his blade to push the stabbed drow into the live drow,

Cedric slashed his blade out of the drow's body, slashing at the drow to his right. No drow that attacked him lived. Cedric quickly vanished and later reappeared outside of the market, walking back into the caverns.

"It'll be business as usual." That was what she had said to him before they departed. He had been away from Kurayo for months now, and when he was considered stable enough to leave Antikythera, the Steward said she required him to come along. It was supposed to be 'work experience' as she called it, and noted that he wouldn't have to worry about the sun where they would be going. Sylvain had thought it was an insult until they arrived at the mouth of a cave. Of all the humans he had seen, after three months of constant observation he still couldn't figure her out. Her mindset and thought process was completely foreign; things she said at certain times held double meanings and at other times they were straightforward. What he had learned was that she always meant what she said, no matter how obscure or plain it might be.

Expecting to walk down the twisting paths, the Steward began to focus her power into a shaky semblance of a portal. When that failed to give adequate results, she then grabbed the edges of the unstable spatial distortion and pulled it open. Her unconventional use of force stabilized it, and they found themselves in marketplace. It was dark, even with the luminescent glow from the lanterns. As a creature of the night this was trivial, and he soon began to feel right at home. The only issue he would have in staying was the fact the sky here was a cavern wall."Alright, let's look for what we have on the list. I don't have particularly fond memories of this place the last few times I came down here, so let's get what we need and get out." The Steward said to him. 

Walking alongside the masked Steward, Sylvain gave a nod. He was still working out the boundaries of their relationship. Were they master and servant, or employer and subordinate? A commotion drew the entire market's attention as the drow were attacking an armed person. He watched as the Steward observed the armed individual make a terribly messy show of self-defense, running back into the caverns. "…Oh great, more bloodshed. Lovely. Let's hurry up our shopping trip, shall we?" Browsing through the treasures which the earth had to offer at the stalls, he considered how he could bring up the matter to her attention. Finally, he asked. "About the fight we witnessed earlier; do you have any particular thoughts?" Picking through a pile of iron ores, she answered flatly. "No, not really. Why?" He hesitated before he replied. "I was simply curious." Moving to a different stall with quartz fragments on display, she then asked him a question. "Well, how did you feel about it?" Sylvain again hesitated, unsure of her motivation for this sudden inquiry. 

"I thought nothing of it, frankly. It was remarkably forgettable." He heard her click her tongue at his answer. "No you didn't. You thought it was dumb and pointless, am right? Sure the drow aren't the most 'welcoming' people, but as soon as they run into another band of drow trackers they're as good as a hanged man." Sylvain said nothing, as her guess was on the mark. The wording she used was more descriptive than his original intent, but the core message was the same. "Anyway, if they've got the gall to attack drow on their home turf and leave a bloody mess, they'll probably come back for who knows why." The Steward trailed off, her attention being drawn elsewhere.

Later Sylvain saw the same person appear again, walking as if that previous bloodbath had never happened. So the Steward was right after all. The vampire did not expect such a person to live long. "Quartz prisms, deep-forged steel, obsidian shards, gold ore, orichalcum." He muttered, mulling over what the items on their list were. "Looks like we're done. Our next stop is Wayfarer's Caravan. I don't know if they'll be here today, but maybe I can see if they have any news about the underground. It's been a few years since I've been down here." She said. Noticing he was looking somewhere else, she stopped walking. "Oy, where are you looking at? …Oh look, they're back. Seems my guesses are on point today. Two crescents that they get attacked by the drow's friends sooner or later."

Cedric stood atop a city, armed to the teeth, Cedric jumps down and lands inside a haystack, a guard notices and comes over to investigate, Cedric pulls the guard in and a slashing noise is heard, Cedric hops down and sneaks towards a doorway, Cedric slides above the stash of crates next to the door and enters, pulling the guard in. The hole led to another part of the city, Cedric used the guard to break his fall.

Cedric was in another city, no one seems to notice that he was the man that murdered several drow in self defense. Cedric removed his metal mask and switched to a plague doctor's mask. Cedric walked towards a caravan. he alerted the man in charge and said he was looking for darkened steel ingots. The man pulled out a batch and gave it to Cedric, to which he paid 200 crescents. 

He looked around for an exit, no luck. Several drow fell from the hole, armed. They asked those who were around them and then finally looked at Cedric, they charged. Cedric tied the bag of darkened steel onto his back and fled to a haystack. The drow then set the stack ablaze. "Come out, come ouuuut!" One of the drow said. "No thanks, I've got work to do." Cedric said as he cut a hole beneath the cart full of hay and he emerged below. Cedric drew his crossbow and fired. He hit one of the drow in the shoulder.

More drow came and Cedric was surrounded, he dropped his weapons and knelt on the ground with his hands up. He was sent to a slave auction. Cedric pulled a string from his sleeve and a dagger came out, cutting Cedric free. Cedric rolled down and took a random sword and armed himself with it. Guards who witnessed the escape and went after him, Cedric raised his hand swiftly and an explosion was set off, a stalactite dropped and stabbed into the ground, startling the advancing guards. Cedric collected his items and went back into the caverns.

Cedric slides down a tunnel and ends up in the large bridge, spotting two people up ahead, Cedric stands up straight and rushes towards them. "Hey there, where does this lead, exactly? Cedric asked the two people. He noticed that one of them were masked and one was pale in color. Cedric fell behind and started walking slower, for he knew that a vampire and a masked person would be trouble.

Just like she said, the masked serial killer was pursued by the friends of his victims. Leaning over to her new employee, she muttered while looking at the ensuing chaos. "…What'd I say?" She held out her hand, and with some reluctance he placed two coins into her palm. They were on their way out when she smelled blood. Shiloh bet Sylvain could smell it too, but the aura of the figure approaching was a dead giveaway. Leaning casually, she looked at the man scanning him from top to bottom. So he had a new mask. Well that was probably the most covert thing he'd done all day. "What're you in a hurry for? Kill someone on accident?" She asked dryly. This guy was way too easy to read. He still had lingering traces of blood somewhere, which wouldn't be noticeable to normal people.

"Sure, I can tell you where this tunnel leads. But why don't you sit down first? Maybe you should…I don't know, wash off all that blood reeking from your hands?" She was speaking figuratively, but really she wanted to know who this troublesome upstart was. "I wouldn't blame you for trying to get out. Rumors of a masked serial killer rampaging about cutting down random people have spread like wildfire. Seriously, it's awful business. Guards said they found several dismembered drow just lying around in the street, and there were a handful of witnesses. I mean, that can't be an assassin–right? Only a serial killer would leave a trail that messy." By now Sylvain had walked off to discuss matters with the caravan folk, which was planned. She had given her employee a mental hint to sidle out while this man was here. The beak-masked man did a poor job of hiding his unease when he looked at the lord, and she didn't want him getting any funny ideas.

Cedric wasn't  shaken at the dry comments made by the masked woman, he had grown used to it being a messy assassin, several bounties are still on his head after the show at the Virens Mansion. Cedric replied as he looked at his stained gloves and replied "I think by 'accident' you mean self defense, and some I did kill to get into the city, but I'd rather work with a bloody mess on my hands rather than run past all these people that have seen me and want to murder me because their friends weren't very welcoming."

Cedric took off his gloves and put them back into his pockets. "Maybe you've even seen this mask before" Cedric said to the woman, looking forward. Cedric pulled the string with his middle finger, withdrawing the drawn dagger under his sleeve. Cedric suddenly felt fatigued, as if the things he had done caught up with him, his legs were losing energy, he fell to his face, cracking the mask and Cedric fell unconscious. The darkened steel tore through the sack it was in, it was glowing a bright purple. Purple vines start growing on Cedric's body.

Darkened Steel is a light but durable material, it has magical properties that depend on the carrier's actions, whether good or bad. Darkened Steel is commonly used in drow prisons to know which person is an innocent and which committed a crime. It is a highly sought after metal outside the depths. Its effects on a user that has committed sacrilegious acts whether in the present or past is quite devastating, the darkened steel overcomes the user and the user has new powers at the cost of sanity. 

Cedric later woke up 5 hours later, dark purplish vines have started growing on his hands and feet. Cedric stands up and examines his hands, purple eyes peek out of the vines, he had to find the exit, Cedric rushed around, he found an exit rune next to a large drow, Cedric took his chances, he sped towards the exit rune and smashed his body into it, he fell back into Adeluna. The vines had grown larger and further up his arm. Cedric rushed to a doctor's building. They couldn't do anything about it. Cedric moved to Virens forest, accidentally spreading darkness that had grown on him.