You charge through the pouring rain after the cloaked figure, but their familiarity with the layout of the village allows them to maintain a comfortable lead and it takes everything you have just to keep up.

Fortune is on your side when the figure suddenly slips in the muddy street rounding a corner. The mishap provides you the opportunity to close in and quickly tackle them to the ground before they have a chance to recover.

Muddy fists fly and fingers scratch at your eyes as you grapple with the thief. Your well-honed battle reflexes kick in when a dagger suddenly emerges from beneath the cloak and you roll to one side, out of melee range. With your arms raised in a defensive posture, you brace for an incoming knife thrust, but instead see the blade inexplicably slash down across the assailant's own neck, ending the struggle.

As their lifeblood pours from the gaping wound, you get your first good look at the attacker's face. It is a woman. What madness is this, that she would kill herself rather than be taken captive? In the palm of one of her lifeless hands you find the control rod snapped in two. Before she died she managed to break it along with any chance of you using the Golem again.

As you gaze down at the body, the rest of the Free Company appears at your side and informs you that the assassins have retreated back into the night and that the Golem has gone dormant.

With the danger seemingly over for now, you look more closely at the woman's corpse in the hopes of finding a clue as to who these people are and why they attacked you.