Poor Unfortunate Souls [Closed/PM to Join]

Hama Valon, the city around the Grey Tower.
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Welcome to Hama Valon! The aptly named 'mountain guard' is the city that has grown up at the gates of the Grey Tower at the western edge of the Two Rivers. Like all cities, there are quiet quarters with pleasant inns, such as Elman's Creek, which used to be the nearest village when the Tower was young, but was absorbed as the new city grew; its Band of Brothers Inn is still a favorite relaxation spot for many of the Tower's denizens. And again, like all cities the world over, there are less pleasant places--narrow, nameless streets that house hells and other houses of ill repute. Most of the city falls somewhere in between, with hawkers crying their wares in the streets, respectable shopkeepers ready to serve you, and petty cutpurses happy to follow you.

Novices, Soldiers, and drin'far'ji must be accompanied by a chaperon when outside Tower walls or they risk being picked up as runaways and duly punished.
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Andy
"A Crown of Swords"
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Poor Unfortunate Souls [Closed/PM to Join]

Post by Andy » June 25th, 2017, 8:16 pm

Another day winding down and he found himself in Hama Valon, it was his regular routine these days. He played the part of the good Ji by day and y night he spent far too much time amongst the taverns, musicians, fighters and those of negotiable affection. He was not breaking bones and looking for his own death anymore but something within him was still hardened and bitter about his life and its lessened meaning. Its seeming lacking of purpose. He knew he was wrong about that but it was impossible for him to see it clearly as others did. Fiona, Nate, Alric, Paks. They all told him otherwise when they did see him.

Easy for them to say. So easy. I believe them, those good hearts. But I can only be me, the me of now he told himself with little passion as he trudged through the gate as the last hour of light glistened in the sky, its hues muted to him.

He was lost in his own thoughts, his mind recalling the letters he had received that morning. Missives from Arafel filled with notations of business, its successes or failures. They asked him what he wanted to do about it all. Him. They had to desperate. But then again he was the master of the estate now, what remained of it. He was not even sure he wanted it but out of respect for his name and his father he had promised that he would try.

So lost was he that he didn't see the figure coming at first and only realised when it knocked into him and sent him into the nearby wall with a series of curses. The figure kept on going as another approached him and all but grabbed him by the shoulders and shouted at him.

"Thief! Thief!"

"Quiet you fool I have stolen noth-" he began to snap back coldly.

"No, them. Stole my food. Only food and I has mouths to feed. Help me"

The matron was pleading and her voice snapped the resistance he tried to throw up against her instinctively. The inner war was short and decency won clearly. With a sigh he turned and ran after the distant figure as he saw it turn a corner. He gained some ground and as he skidded around the corner he shouted the word.

"Thief. Stop them!" he pointed but saw nothing, none.

Suddenly the evening seemed more alive and mysterious. Dangerous perhaps. It sang to him.
~
Arafel Will Rise, Kick Matty's Butt & Be Totally The Most Awesome Land Evar
~

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Andy
"A Crown of Swords"
Posts: 611
Joined: February 4th, 2017, 11:16 pm
PC: Alrim Farshera Gaidin
Location: UK

Re: Poor Unfortunate Souls [Closed/PM to Join]

Post by Andy » July 25th, 2017, 3:27 pm

Now if I were still a thief, where would I go? And how would I vanish around one corner? he wondered to himself as he rifled through his memory.

He eyed the ground with a frown as he paced slowly, there were too many tracks to be certain but the heaviest and most recent that travelled the direction the figure had been running seemed about right. They were churned slightly as if they were pivoting the balls of the feet as they ran. To try to disguise them perhaps? He didn't know, he wasn't much of a tracker of steps but he could track by habit and thought. People who stole liked quick getaways and that usually meant being close but hidden. Still he had nothing to lose and so followed the tracks in the mud until they came to a wall. He frowned and pushed against it, it didn't budge.

"So they came to a wall but didn't go through...that means...up?" he brushed his fingers across the surface and leaned in to better see in the dim light.

He came away with something upon his fingertips and he rolled it between thumb and fingers - mud. Scuffed slightly and not a lot of it but it suggested that the feet had hit the wall. So where did they go? He looked up and saw a window, slightly ajar and high up but certainly possible to get to with a bit of effort. Or a rope perhaps. He stared at it for a time and saw nothing, no faces come to its edge. He did hear sounds from within though they were muffled. He cast his gaze about and noted where he was for his memory before stepping away and back to the matron.

"Did you find them? Please?"

"I am sorry, I did not see them around there. But here, take this silver and you can get yourself some more. A friend of mine down there a ways makes pies and more for a living. Tell him Alrim sent you, he will help"

With that he ignored her thanks and made his way back towards the Tower, musing upon the occurrence. It was probably nothing but senses from long ago were starting to tingle and fire away once more. His gut told him there was something going on and his curiosity wanted to be sated. After the matron had left he leaned against the corner of the street in the lee of a doorway and pondered about what to do. He could hardly kick the door down without and evidence of theft and he didn't know if anyone were in the building who might try to start a fight if he even tried, or how many. What he needed, her knew, was more information.

Fortunately, he knew just how to get it. With a smile he returned to his rooms to get some sleep, he fancied that he would need it.
~
Arafel Will Rise, Kick Matty's Butt & Be Totally The Most Awesome Land Evar
~

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Andy
"A Crown of Swords"
Posts: 611
Joined: February 4th, 2017, 11:16 pm
PC: Alrim Farshera Gaidin
Location: UK

Re: Poor Unfortunate Souls [Closed/PM to Join]

Post by Andy » July 25th, 2017, 6:50 pm

It was the following afternoon that found Alrim in the same street, this time across the way and hidden behind a stack of barrels and other assorted crates. It was a warehouse as far as he had been able to discern and one which was only rarely used by the look of the dust everywhere. There were no footprints other than those he had made himself and he had used it to good effect to watch the property of the potential thief for much of the day. He had arranged for his duties to be covered and had not told anyone why.

First rule of the game, tell no one anything. Lie if needs be. Easier that way, people never do what you need unless they're in the dark. Well...in this case he told himself as he ate an apple with a knife and waited.

It was true enough. If he had mentioned anything then the guard would have been told and then they would have gone to the house all bullish and they'd never have found anything. The old expression of using a thief to catch a thief, it was very accurate. His patience was starting to wane and he was doubting himself right up until a group of three people slipped out of the door of the building opposite quietly and, looking both ways, nodded to each other before splitting up. He watched them all an recognised the movements, the way of stepping just so and the shifting of the heads under the hoods.

"If they aren't stealing then they are hiding at least. No one is fearful after just stepping out of their own door without a reason to be," he told himself as he finished the apple and tossed the core aside, "let's find out"

He waited for a good count f five hundred before slipping out from his hiding spot and towards the door they had come from, pulling a set of old friends out of the inside of his jacket as he walked. Kneeling before the lock he squinted into it and set the tools in place. Lock picking wasn't an easy thing to learn but neither was it easy to forget. Still it took a number of tries and switching of tools before he heard the click with a satisfied smile. He pushed the door open an peered in before stepping across the threshold. It was a two storey affair he soon found, the bottom the living and cooking space and the upstairs had three bunk beds - though only three were messy enough to have been used.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are" he muttered to himself in a sing-song voice as he checked the room over.

The clothing was definitely richer than he would have expected them to have, even for Hama Valon - silks and fine linens even. There was nothing under the table and he could find no loose boards for the floor. The drawers had a few assorted items of interest that seemed like they could have been stolen trinkets - rings and necklaces for the most part, good targets for finger snatchers. It was when he checked under the straw mattresses of the empty bunks that he struck gold. Literally and figuratively. Pouches of coin that numbered more than three people could ever need or own - respectably that was. A few bags and even the one he had seen as it was all but shoved into his face, though he found that there was not food in it but silverware.

The matron was lying perhaps. If not in on it then what? A rival perhaps? he wondered as he put it all back into place and made his way out.

It was time to find these three would be deceivers.
~
Arafel Will Rise, Kick Matty's Butt & Be Totally The Most Awesome Land Evar
~

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