[center]Surprise - Node 12[/center]


	A man was struck in horror. He stared up from the forest floor at a group of bandits. His wife gurgled next to him, her throat still spilling what blood remained in her throat, pushed forward by only the excess air pressure from her dead heart. His knuckles were bloody and dirty, his leg cut open and fear draining his mind. Already, the bandits took all his money. Already, they took all he cared about, and yet they still smiled at him with wicked grins. 

	Greed had shaped the men holding the swords, greed had turned them into monsters and this man was now paying the price. The forest around him didn’t care, tranquil as it was, with golden green leaves and shoots of sun threading through to a dainty Autumn road. Birds still chirped and squirrels still bickered and yet nothing lifted a finger to save his wife, save his children, to save him.

	“But now, the fun is over,” teased the lead bandit, his sword swaying in front of the man’s face. “We’ve spent all we can spend, and you no longer amuse us. You know what happens next?”

	Of course he didn’t. His mind was in a state of animalistic horror. 

	“Blood comes ne- What the hell!”

	There was a flash and the forest shook. The birds stopped, the squirrels scattered, and a red stain of gore was piled behind the lead bandit, right where his men used to stand. On the heap stood another man, one neither the victim nor the killer recognized. He stood three heads taller than both of them, and wore the pelt of a wolf king casually over his shoulders, the skull acting as a helmet. An iron sword more fit to brace a wall than cut a man was hefted over his shoulder, muttered red. Below his neck he wore a bronze breastplate, the mark of a chamomile flower on the right shoulder and a calla lily on the left.

	Two. Now two men laid on the forest floor, struck in horror. They stared up at the tower of a man.

	“Who are-”

	The sword came down, splitting the bandit’s head in half with a fruit-like squelch. The swordsman’s voice boomed.

“Run ahead to your god-king and let him know that Frederick the Sword of Benea has cleaned his roads and now approaches with words from the Northern Queendom of Nodes. I humbly request his audience.”

The man squeaked.

[hider=Summary] A strange swordsman has appeared in node 12. Notably, he has slaughtered many wolf kings and rid the streets of countless criminals in the direct east. He now is approaching the capital and has sent messengers ahead to give Xavior a heads up that he is coming, with friendly diplomatic intentions[/hider] 

[hider=might]No Gods present[/hider]