#worldbuildling

Who Are They?

The Pit Vipers are a small, discrete organization of elite assassins. They operate mostly in Scania and its neighboring land Kassja, but will travel to other places if the mission requires it. 

No one knows how many Pit Vipers there are, where they came from, or who leads them. Rumors suggest they may have been a Kassjan emperor’s personal killers, who broke off from their master; no one knows their current ranks or  goals.They pay liaisons in large cities and ports to connect them to potential clients, and they meet clients only once, to get the name of the target and collect payment. There is no second interaction, and the client never sees a face.

The Pit Vipers are said to charge exorbitant prices and in return they guarantee the kill. The identity or protection of the target doesn’t matter; they can get to anyone. Mostly they’re hired for political (sometimes military) warfare, to remove threats or opponents too powerful to be eliminated by cheaper easier means. They’re said to have killed generals, dukes, court mages, powerful bankers, foreign agents, even the occasional monarch. 

Less Known Facts (aka How Do They Work?)

The Pit Vipers recruit their members young, and train them extensively in stealth, agility, fitness, and myriad ways to kill. Most Pit Vipers have one method they prefer (e.g. throwing knife, crossbow, the garrote, poison etc.) but they can improvise in a pinch. They’re not all knight-level experts in combat, but they don’t need to be, since... 

...All their blades are poisoned with a potent, magically-enhanced poison that kills in under a minute. They rarely need it -- they prefer killing from a distance to blade fights -- but if it comes to one-on-one combat, the fight is usually done in seconds, after the first scratch of their blade. This is so very plot-relevant. 

As they’re both v skilled and have fancy murder toys, Pit Vipers usually complete the kill in one try. If for any reason they fail, they make a second attempt, then a third. If they fail thrice, their lives are forfeit: the organization purges all involved in the failure, and returns the client’s price threefold. 

...This has, so far, never happened. 

Finally, to maintain their reputation as elite high-precision killers, Pit Vipers don’t take lives they weren’t paid for: collateral, unless deemed unavoidable (e.g. the target has a giant angry bodyguard that can’t be removed alive), decreases the assassin’s pay and results in various administrative penalties. If they do it too often they’re deemed not skilled enough to be a Pit Viper, and eliminated. 

Why are they important to Knight Errant?

WELL. First, they’re relevant to Ruchi. To date, she’s the one target the Pit Vipers have failed to kill. When they discovered her magic and tried to off her, she flambed her way out, and on their later second attempt, she killed the would-be assassin with the help of the Prelate’s people. 

They’re biding their time on attempt #3. maybe they’re just scared. can you blame them 

Second, they’re also plot-relevant b/c if you’re an evil scheming villain and want to remove a pesky but super-competent spy from your path to mass murder power, throwing an infallible fancy assassin at her seems like a good plan.

Yes the High Prelate hired them to off Sarra. 

Bonus Fun Facts

My favorite thing about the Pit Vipers? They, Sarra, and Ruchi make a delightful triangle of mutual enemies. 

Thus there may be temptation from two sides of that triangle to temporarily ally against the third... 

but WHICH SIDES? 

MYSTERY. 

Ruchi is immune to their poisoned blades, since during her tenure w/ the Pit Vipers she learned the formula for the antidote. She takes it daily now, just in case. 

when the Pit Vipers come after Sarra, someone else gets in the way of their poisonous blades.  

Twice 

One of the times there’s dying.