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I’m glad you’ve decided to join us. You made the right choice; trust me, this little project of ours is going to make both of us very wealthy. So, the first job. Let’s get started, shall we?
Our buyer is pretty standard this time around. He’s a billionaire from China. Says he collects rare weapons. A lot of Chinese billionaires come to us when they are looking for something exotic. This is the first time we’ve had to find weapons for one, but there’s a first for everything I suppose.
The weapon of interest is a bit of an interesting one, and that’s because it’s not one weapon – it’s a set. Three arrows that were once carried by a man named Barbarika. He was gifted them by the gods. So, what makes these arrows so special? They’re able to work together to take down a large number of targets. The first arrow is able to mark targets you want to hit. The second arrow marks targets you don’t want to be hit. The third arrow, well, I think it’s pretty obvious what it does but I’ll spell it out incase you aren’t following: the third arrow hits all the targets marked by the first arrow, but not the targets marked by the second arrow.
So, a little background on the weapon. The story goes that one day Krishna wanted to test Barbarika’s strength. Now, Krishna is the eighth incarnation, or avatar, of the god Vishnu. Vishnu is pretty important as he has stopped the world from being destroyed a couple of times. As Krishna, he plays a pretty big role in the Mahabharata. You can pick up a copy if you are interested. It's not really my cup of tea, but you might like it. Anyways, Krishna asked him how many days it would take him win a war. Barbarika replied that he could finish it three days. Then, Krishna asked him how he would manage to do that with only three arrows. Barbarika then gave him the same explanation I just gave you. Krishna, not believing him, challenged Barbarika to tie all of the leaves of the tree they were sitting under together using his arrows. Barbarika accepted his challenge and readied his arrows. He lets the first arrow go and it marks all of the leaves, even one Krishna hid under his foot. He lets the third arrow go and it gathers all of the leaves. In case you didn't catch it, he didn't fire the second arrow. This little detail is important because showed Krishna that nothing can hide from the arrows.
Oh, I almost forgot, here’s a picture of the arrows:
Unfortunately, that’s the best image we could find of it. Only a handful of people have seen these things in the last few hundred years. That, however, is about to change. We got a tip from a reliable source of ours as to the whereabouts of the arrows. They said its in a vault in a museum in Virginia. The museum uses the vault to store rare artifacts. Our contact didn’t say much else, but that’s a solid place to start. I would advise you to do some independent research of the place and start coming up with a plan for how you actually want to get to the arrows.
Whatever resources you need, just let me know, I’ll get them for you. But other than that, you’re on your own. I won’t be helping you any further. Whenever you get the arrows meet me here. I’ll take the arrows and brief you on the next job. Best of luck.
Author’s Note
I didn’t change the story of Barbarika much at all. The only thing I changed was the amount of time he said he could finish the war in. One minute was the original boast, but that felt much too short. I felt that three days was a much more reasonable time amount while still being incredibly short.
Another version of the story has the arrow piecing Krishna’s leg to reach the leaf. This wound becomes a weak spot for Krishna. He is later shot by a hunter, who mistakes him for a deer, in the weak spot and is thus killed.
Some more background on Barbarika: He was originally a Yaksha, which is a sort of nature spirit, before being reborn as a man. He is a formidable fighter. However, he had promised his mother that he would only ever fight on the side that was currently losing. Krishna points out the fallacy of this. Since he is so strong, whichever side he joins would become the stronger side. Since no one would be able to defeat him, he would simply kill all other combatants until he was the only one remaining. Thus, nobody would win, and he would be left as a lone survivor.
In another story, Krishna asks for the strongest warrior’s head to be sacrificed in order to sanctify the battlefield. Krishna believes that Barbarika is the strongest and asks for his head. Barbarika agrees, but requests to be able to see the battle. Krishna agrees to his wish. Barbarika then decapitates himself, and Krishna places his head overlooking the battle.
I didn’t describe the heist much because that is where you come in. It is your job. How you complete it is up to you. I am simply here to provide you with basic details. Just enough so that you have some background information and a starting point. You have the freedom to approach and execute the job however you want. All I care about is that you get the item I am asking you to retrieve.
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