For those who have offended the Infernal Powers That Be keenly enough, there is only one punishment that they will accept: death. For this reason, the Infernum has seen fit to retain a legion of killers known as the The 99 Assassins of the Rising Dawn. Whenever someone is marked for death by the inscrutable whims of the Infernum, the 99 Assassins answer the call.

The current 99th Assassin is the first to take the job. If they fail, their own life is forfeit, so the assassin will make as many attempts as are needed to finish the job. In the event that they are killed or incapacitated, the contract will devolve upon the 98th Assassin, who will then carry it out under the same stipulations. The 100th Assassin, a trainee, will then step forward to take the place of the fallen.

An assassination target is usually laid low by the 99th Assassin, but given the trainee-laced nature of the hierarchy, it is not unheard of for a target to survive the first wave of assassination attempts only to be finished off by the 75th Assassin or so. Some particularly troublesome targets have been known to climb the hierarchy still further. Should the target survive all 99 Assassins, an event so rare as to be almost unprecedented, the Infernal Powers That Be will cancel the contract, for they are as impressed by diabolically good work as any.

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