Completed That doesn't look good.

[Marone]

15th Fall 514 AV

Head tilted along with a few other curious onlookers, Marone stood looking at some freshly scattered bones near the mines. The other people there sounded worried from their tone as opposed to a maledictor like Marone beings more curious about the bones. What he could do with it and how he was going to take the bones back with him if he really felt that he could use it. It was when the conversation started to break away from the heated discussion of the snakes which has become common over the past few days when Marone saw his chance to sate his curiosity on the otherwise unknown and unidentifiable remains in front of him.

"Its those slimy snakes I tell you! Just wait and see. After they've had their fill of beasts they will start coming for us. All of us next!" the pot bellied rabble rouser declared before getting affirmation from the gathering.

Marone still looking while trying to make sense of the remains asked as one of the few voices not immediately predisposed against the snakes "How can we be sure that this isn't one of them?" Although he has worked with many different sorts of remains before Marone himself wouldn't know what they were unless someone told him or he was there to identify it himself. These bones? They looked like any other and the only things he could actually identify were what anyone else could like a head or a limb.

It was then the man added "are you stupid? A snake wouldn't have limbs and a human skull wouldn't be curved like this. I've butchered more than enough meat to say with confidence this is definitely an animal. Probably just another wild dog." Marone was just about to say something about the snakes but stopped himself to think a little more while other members of the gathering started to add more conjecture into the situation. None were really all that important to him since he was able to hear the same thing just about everywhere he went. The snakes were fast becoming a topic of great interest.

Looking at the bones once more Marone felt he might have been too quick in saying it was a snake because the butcher's descriptions were true. Hearing some of the squeamish people commenting about the pitiful dog being left out there for the snakes he said to himself not even loud enough to be overheard "if you feel that way then why didn't you do something about it?" before speaking out even louder "how sure are you that its even a dog? It could be something else."

There are not too many people that would like to be questioned on their professional judgement this way and the man was not one of them when he started spewing explanations of how to identify canine bones, fangs, skulls and jaws. Things that Marone would remember in case he needed to use them in the future as well as being a clue on what the tough meats he has bought a few times from the man were. However soon after the explanation ended Marone voiced out the reason he doubted it was a dog. "The dogs here are pretty vicious and some even move in packs." A fact he knew after being chased before. "How is it this one died here without any signs of a struggle even if it was alone?"

More conjecture from the gathering and an angry explanation from the man pointing out a bone "if you can see it properly, its completely smashed. If the dog was alone it would be unable to defend itself and if it was in a pack it would be abandoned because it would be too useless" before having a triumphant look on his face. There was more discussion after yet again of course but it returned to something that Marone no longer finds interesting such as what the mob would do the next time they find a snake or how they were going to protect themselves from the new threat.

Marone stayed as long as he did which was until the gathering dispersed not because he was interested but because he was waiting for his chance. He stood at the side half concealed by the shadows in his usual manner. Trying not to draw any attention to himself. Sometimes he tried going closer to the bones. Sometimes he had to go further from the bones. Most of the time he tried to keep in the shadows or at least out of sight from any passerbys until he got closer to his goal. When he finally felt he had his chance. No one was looking or no one was coming close his hands snatched out of the dark and made a grab. With how paranoid everyone was being because of the snakes there was no reason to draw unwanted attention to himself.

[Marone]

However the risk might prove to be worth it because the bones would know. His father in teaching him the art told him once:

"The bones remain until the end. They hold the legacy and when we try to give it a voice they will express the legacy some way so we'll know it ourselves but you won't have to do it for me son. Me teaching the art to you will be my legacy."

Marone himself wasn't stopped by his father's belief of passing on the art as a legacy because he tried after his family was caught by using the art on his own father's remains without much success. The lessons his father taught him remained and Marone would use them whenever he found a reason. Marone was able to skip the assembly of a proper item like a decoration or weapon because he only needed the item for one thing and he got straight into his work.

There was a danger which Marone knew was always present with the risk the item would turn out cursed not only through the nature of what he could create but because he would fall back to what he does. Maledicted items made by Marone likely ends up cursed because the result was what he intended in his weapons for better or for worse on the person that would inevitably own it.

He took a deep breath and made an inventory of the items he prepared for today. Ink and brush as opposed to the usual carving tools. The oddly shaped skull he retrieved from the remains. 'This will do' he thought to himself. Containing everything the dog would experience through its senses Marone hopes the maledicted skull when completed would show him what happened. Because the maledicted item only needed to last long enough for him to learn something using ink would allow Marone to remove the maledicted circles if the item turned out detrimental to him.

Despite the risks inherent in his work Marone felt at ease when he started. It would be short work to make a few quick strokes of the brush to make a circle but Marone wanted little room for error in the item when it was completed. With the brush moving slowly so the ink does not stray Marone lost track of time but in following his usual ritual in crafting his items it didn't feel long to him.

"A circle. A circle. A circle. Everything comes into a full circle. From start to end everything comes to a full circle. Everything will be shown to all. A circle. A circle. A circle.."

His chanting continued until the large circle was completed on the skull. Marone wiped the sweat from his forehead as he appraised his work. At a glance it seems like a proper circle although he was able to notice some parts were not as straight as he wanted. After he returned from having a brief rest and a drink, Marone got to continuing his work.

Marone looked at the empty circle trying to figure out what was he going to put in it to bring out the effect he wanted.

'Write the senses it uses? Draw the things the dog would experience? What about the broken bone to specify the event?' he started to think to himself.

Knowing what he needs for his work Marone took up his brush again and started to draw in the circle. The most important he decided was what the dog saw and drew a circle with a dot in the middle for an eye at the top. This was followed by a triangle for a dog's ear at the bottom left corner of the circle for what the dog could have heard as well as a blackened oval at the bottom right corner for the dog's nose for what it would've smelled.

Marone looked at his work with satisfaction knowing including what the dog could taste is no use and what the dog felt would increase the danger to him with the violent way it died. To increase the accuracy of the item Marone started to add specific words by the drawings including 'see', 'hear' and 'smell' before finishing off the entire piece with a drawing of a broken bone in the center with the word 'attack'.

"Now to bring life to this piece" Marone said ending off his ritual by piercing some skin and putting a drop of his blood on the malediction circle.

[Shai]

Marone Larceny 1 Stealth 1 Malediction 1 Painting 1 Lores: Snake Bones, Dog Bones.. It’ll All Work. Maledicting a Dog Skull Maledicted Item:The bearer of this dog skull find that all canines that they come in contact with are immediately aggressive towards the individual. Any contact through sight, touch, or hearing will cause the aggression to initiate..