Role: Assassin Sharpshooters
Trained beasts: A fast horse and a scouting Hawk.
Weapons: Enhanced Mulberry Longbow, 2 arrow quivers with 32 flight arrows each, a flask of poison, a sword and a hatchet.
Outfit: Leather trench coat and archery gloves adapted for falconry.
Skill level: Unquestionably the best sharpshooters of Arandolia.
Affiliation: Eagle Island
Doctrine: Artemis' Way of the Huntress
Strengths: Perfect unit to assassinate VIP targets from afar.
Weaknesses: Their services are very expensive and they usually only hunt down convicted criminals.
Headhuntresses
Headhuntresses might not be the stealthiest killers, but they are very sure to get the job done. Their equipment is usually the very best and most expensive gear a sharpshooter can ever get, while their skills are honed to perfection before they even dare to start their career. If you have one of them coming after you, you better lock yourself in the deepest dungeon you can find. Otherwise, you are as good as dead within roughly a week.
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After using their remarkable tracking skills and the sharp eyes of their hawks to find their targets wherever they might be hiding, they ride to a high vantage point and climb up the tallest tree or tower of the place, observing their victims from above and patiently waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.
Playing the waiting game surely is boring as hell, as they have to remain focused for hours, or perhaps even days, till all variables are aligned for the perfect shot. However, it pays off well, because their success rate are simply astounding.
Until the very moment of the killing shot, a skilled Headhuntress usually remains completely unnoticed. They train many years to be able to remain completely still, enduring hunger, thirst and exhaustion alike until the wind is blowing just right, with their target standing out in the open within their line of sight and absolutely nothing standing in the way of the shot. They meticulously calculate all the factors influencing the tricky shot that they are about to shoot, taking every little thing into consideration. From the resistance of the wind to the parabola made by their lightweighted flight arrows and the slight variation of the power of their enhanced mulberry longbows at a given weather condition, anything can mean a hell of a miss from the breathtaking distance they shoot from. For it to work, everything must be properly aligned, so timing is utterly crucial since the perfect opportunities only last mere seconds.
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Using their overpowered custom-made longbows to shoot custom-made arrows from stupidly far distances of up to 400 meters away, they carefully aim right at either the skull or the heart of their assigned targets, flying their arrows like mighty eagles decending from the heavens to reap the life of the unfortunate soul.
The sheer momentum of the said flight arrows is usually enough to cause a fatal wound all by itself, but just to make sure, the Headhuntresses of Eagle Island also brew their own mortal poisons from snake or spider venom and drench the tip of their arrows in the deadly substance. Just a drop is already enough to kill a horse, so without an antidote the target is certain to die within minutes.
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Therefore, as soon as the arrow hits the target, the Headhuntress pack her stuff and whistles to her steadfast horse, mounting it and riding the hell out of the vicinity before anyone can ever track her position. Once the hoofprints are finally found, the killer is very likely to already be half a mile away towards her reward, ready to cash it in as soon as the news of the target's demise reach her employer.
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The services of such an effective assassin are not at all cheap, but so is their gear. Their custom-made bows and arrows need to be masterfully crafted for such a shot be even slightly possible, so most of their hefty rewards usually gets to be reinvested on their trade.
Of course, Headhuntresses are honourable and legitimate assassins who actually hunt down convicted criminals. However, really large rewards can perhaps convince them to "widen their range of possible targets" a little bit.
