Assassination, the contract killing of persons of interest, is a
profession with a long and closely guarded history. The secrets of the
Coterie of Assassins are not the subject of this book. Instead these pages
contain guidance on the methods and means by which a thief can become a
successful member of the Assassins. Thieves are uniquely positioned to
succeed in this profession, provided they deploy their skills with the
appropriate acumen. For those not skilled in theft, broad knowledge of
assassination may still be gained from the advice in these pages. All the
tactics of the thief turned assassin can be distilled down into one simple
tenet: fight on your terms, not your opponent's. Elaborating on what exactly
those terms are and how one can control them to one's advantage will be the
subject of the remainder of this book.

The Coterie of Assassins is not for everyone. To be successful within
its ranks requires cunning and the skillful use of surprise and
misdirection. This book provides early guidance for those who wish to walk
that path. Experience, however, is the best mentor. For those that show
promise in action and not just word, trust that the path will reveal itself
to you.

GEOGRAPHY

Serin is a vast land with varied terrain. Learn the intricacies of the land
and how to leverage them in unexpected ways. Unexpected is the operative
word here, darlings. Most Serins, for example, have long known to take a
fight to water to avoid a pile of dirt to the face. I invite any assassin
to extend this thinking further, especially in the context of a surprise
attack. When ambushed, most Serins will immediately attempt to flee.
Knowing this, plan an attack in terrain that restricts an opponent's ability
to run. There is no uniform rule for what terrain is or is not suitable;
instead, an attack location must be determined by looking at the tools at
your disposal, your opponent's skillset, and the geography of the proposed
battleground. For example, the Eastern Road, being mostly linear in nature,
would seem unideal as a point of attack because even a blinded foe can
easily navigate back to a city and the potential protection of the Justice
cabal. However, for thieves capable of placing tripwires, such limited
movement almost guarantees that you will flush a victim directly into
tripwires that will impede their escape. If you have magical abilities in
your repertoire, then the opportunities provided by certain geography will
be different, as they would if you rely on physical strength. Be creative,
think laterally, and use the unexpected to make terrain work in your favor.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE

To be clear, most citizens of Serin are not adept at psychological warfare.
Frankly, I fear using long words such as "psychological" might confuse many
of them. Many Serins rely on taunts that belong on the schoolyard, not the
battlefield. Regardless of their maturity or effectiveness, these insults
are designed to elicit a prescribed response: to get you to violate our
first principle and fight on their terms, not yours. Assassins do not take
such bait, they place it tantalizingly for others to take. Here I advise
you to learn your enemy and truly crawl inside their mind to do the most
damage. Identify and target their weaknesses. Is your opponent a coward at
heart? Use their fear and propensity to flee from combat to flush them into
a trap. Are they greedy? Tempt them with something rare or unique that they
covet. Are they impatient and brash when fighting? Fuel their impatience
to bait them into a poor tactical situation. Impatience is a particularly
powerful mindset to identify, as many of Serin's most prolific fighters
suffer from impatience. Often, these are the same brash creatures that hurl
schoolyard taunts at you. Take it from me darlings, if you do not react as
intended to such petty barbs, it drives them absolutely insane and increases
the chance that they will make foolhardy mistakes in combat.

RECONNAISSANCE, INTELLIGENCE, AND TREACHERY

For the thief turned assassin, I recommend observing the inventory of your
target carefully. In addition to the knowledge that can be gained from
understanding your opponent's offensive and defensive capabilities, careful
study of their wares presents opportunity for sabotage. For example, if
your target is prone to using purple potions from hobgoblins to augment
their defenses, a carefully prepared flask containing a more disastrous
concoction can be prepared and planted on their person, confounding them
during combat. The risk is high, but the rewards are delicious. The
possibilities for chaos are numerous, be creative, darlings.

THE ELEMENT OF SURPRISE

The element of surprise is the crucial factor for the thief turned assassin.
Without it, you are forced to approach combat like a warrior or berserker,
and you have neither the skills nor fortitude to succeed with such tactics.
These are the situations where a foe might try to bait you into conceding
the element of surprise. Do not fall for such tricks. It is not a matter
of bravery or honor or virtue. Instead it is a matter of effectiveness vs.
ineffectiveness and of supidity vs. intelligence. Assassins, darlings,
are not stupid.

NOTES ON UNCONSCIOUS VICTIMS

Blackjack: A target will only stay unconscious for a short period of time,
so an efficient thief-assassin will have decided how to use that time well
in advance. There is a myriad of options, all of which entail some degree
of risk. Provided below are considerations for each:

On gags: While extremely efficient against mages who require their voice to
activate their magic, use them judiciously as they disintegrate quickly. I
recommend placing them just before attacking an unconscious target.

On drugging victims: the interaction between your drugs and the bodily
make-up of your target is impossible to predict. With drugging, you always
run the risk of waking your victim or causing an unhelpful effect on their
physicality (for example, creating a twisting of the tongue in a non-mage
does nothing for you but waste your time). Overall, however, I believe the
risk is worth the reward in most scenarios.

On ambush: the timing of this skill is incredibly important to its success,
especially against an unconscious target who may wake at an inopportune
moment. This attack requires ample preparation, which may require more time
than you have before your victim awakens. In addition, the consequences for
poor timing are severe. Even the most adept and agile among us will find
ourselves off-balance and dizzy, delaying any further action and leaving us
vulnerable. However, if the timing is successful, you will find yourself in
a perfect position to follow up with another attack (I personally favor dirt
kicking) with no delay. If executed correctly, this attack is devastating,
if executed poorly, it may spell your demise. Circumstances will dictate if
the risk outweighs the reward.

On throwing knives: Different items in Serin can be fashioned into knives
with unique properties. If your contract has a weakness to ice for example,
craft knives of ice to exploit this weakness. You will have to experiment
with various materials yourselves to understand the full scope of
possibilities.

On prying: if this is the route you wish to pursue, I recommend removing
weapons rather than armor. Removal of a weapon can potentially give you
superiority in combat and foil a victims defenses, especially if, in the
heat of the moment, you are able to blind them prior to their realization
that their weapons have been removed.

On strap slashing: it has been my experience that strap slashing is not a
wise use of your time as the rewards do not merit the risk. Your precious
time is best used for other endeavors.