Claudius Andino

So, what exactly can I say about my stay in the Golden Tether? Well, might as well start with this Christmas. I’ve spent my past holidays the usual ways, in the company of either my brother, my friends, lovers... I wouldn’t be getting any of that here let me tell you. But I did meet interesting people as i familiarized myself with the establishment, but i'll get to that later.

One day I was enjoying my stay in the atrium, the usual gathering place where people look for company, for conversation or to look up the slaves. When suddenly I hear a bloodcurdling scream coming from the bar. Now, i never run from danger, quite the opposite in fact, i run towards it, so on i went, immediatly removing my axe from the back charging head on to find the bar turned upside down, fallen chairs, smashed glasses and turned tables... i still wonder how exactly did this all went unnoticed by the guards. I find myself in the company of Rath, Seiv and Ryuo, the four of us started an investigation right there to find the missing barmaid named Evelyn, served me drinks a couple of times during my stay... this investigation would lead us to a series of events that would make my stay in the Tether one hell of a christmas.
We found nothing of the ordinary, there was a trail of sweets on the ground along with other types of candy but i didn't think much of it at first, it was an holiday what's to be surprised about this. My thoughts completely changed when we went to investigate the kitchen and when found ourselves fighting literal live gingerbread monsters, i was fighting living food! Normally when it comes to fights i love the feeling of adrenaline coursing through my veins but this fight only pissed me off because i was having a hard time hitting such small monsters, i felt ridiculous! Thankfully it didn't take long to finish them off, unfortunately however Evelyn was nowhere to be found, after we destroyed the monsters attacking us, others made it off with her through a backdoor and with that Evelyn was later deemed "Missing".

It didn't end there, the next day or so i'm back at the atrium, people are going about their lifes as if nothing happened and i come across Rath and Seiv yet again, this time in the company of Kanrik... bah, i don't have good things to say about the man, but that's something to talk about later. I didn't waste a beat in antagonizing the man and i would have continued to do so, if not for what happened next. Seiv felt asleep all of a sudden, followed by Kanrik, the only thing in common there? Both of them ate the same fruitcake that Kanrik held on his hands, and as we started to question ourselves what was going on, live murder toys, stuffed dolls to be precise, came right out of the Christmas tree carrying needles and chains. They started attacking us and some of them began to chain Kanrik, he was the next one to be kidnapped. Since this looked like it was all about him, i just stood in my corner and minded my own business, since when do i risk my neck for people i don't get along with unless i get paid? However that changed when they attacked Rath, why? The dragon and i had done some sparring before at the gladiator room where people can freely train their martial skills and let's not forget that we fought side by side at the bar, so he was a different story and that's where i get myself involved and start to rampage through the little fucks. The whole commotion even drew attention from patrons that were asleep in their rooms and came into the atrium to check what was making all that noise, and what was the end result of all that? Kanrik along a few more others got taken away by more of the gingerbread monsters while we we're busy fighting the damn dolls, i was really pumped up with adrenaline that i even went after them, chased them all night around the jungle in vain only to return the next day to the atrium completely exhausted... Not my finest moment. Thankfully Seiv was around, he didn't get kidnapped despite being incapacitated at the time, lucky him. He grabbed me some irish coffee, which really helped in getting me back on my feet.

This is where things start getting interesting now, after the whole mess in the atrium, calls are made into the underhall by none other then Overseer Biers, the horse is one of the first few people i've met during my first few days in the Tether, i knew there was something odd about him since the day i met him and on that day i would get a good idea how much... but i'll spoil you this one thing... i believe the man is blind to a degree, i'll get to that in a second.
Besides me and Biers, there was Siev again, along with another slave called Shears, Biers was really paranoid that day to the point he was open carrying a crossbow when we arrived, appearently the news of missing people in the Tether still managed to reach his ears despite being away for some time. That day the problem we found in our hands was that slaves were missing. Normally this wouldn't a problem to me, the Golden Tether might treat slaves in their establishment better then other places that trade on flesh but that doesn't change the fact. However given what's been happening on the last few days, i strongly suspected this was the work of the kidnappers again, i didn't knew their intentions, so since i've gotten this far, i saw no reason not to continue. We began an investigation, which of us looked around for clues... I found a trail, more candies just like in the bar, with that i already knew where this was going... except for where the trail led me.
It took me to one of the grates of the Underhall, slaves are meant to stand there on chains and the grate would drain the blood from whatever punishment they had to endure. Biers and i opened the grate together and there it was, a Golden Tether slave collar, blood and viscera all over it... What i found strange right at that moment is that i immediatly noticed the damn thing there, while Biers turned his attention elsewhere and i was pretty sure he could have easily seen it, he didn't seem to be aware of what was found until i grabbed the collar and showed it to the others, hell he only seemed to realized what was found when i stood right in front of him, handed it over to him and described him the collar, grizzly details included, see what i mean now? From here i considered the possibility that one of the slaves might have died during the kidnap, i suggested that we opened the rest of the grates, an advise that was taken and we proceeded to do just that. We didn't find anything until we opened the last one, i looked in and found a bloody gauntlet, it didn't speak anything to me so i showed to the group and asked if it ringed any bells, Shears quickly gave me an answer, it belonged to Ayla Titus, a eight feet tall wolf lady and a slave handler at that, i've seen the woman but didn't knew her all that well to realize the gauntlet belonged to her. The investigation ended right there, Shears went to ask people if they've sent Ayla that day on Biers orders, he thanked me for the help and asked me if i could warn the guards to secure the room, to which i did.

This business was far from over, but i did manage to get some days to rest, waiting for what might happen next... I found the Overseer again, this time in the atrium where we first met, he told me more slaves went missing, at this point i didn't see that as a good thing, especially after finding that collar in a grate... But we got talking for a moment and eventually the conversation went for us to speak about the ladies that i found interesting, being the fool i am i mentioned some names, which turned out to be a bad idea, don't get me wrong i'm not saying it was a bad idea because he was against such talk, Biers was down to talk about it, the mistake here was the part i mentioned a certain name and he informed that she had been kidnapped... The name of this lady? Mylaela.
She is one of the harem slaves, there was this day i rent her, and just like any other slave i treated her kindly, told her not to call me master and of course to speak her mind when talking to me. We got in a private room and once again i told her she could speak her mind freely, to which she immediatly dropped that mask of "eager slave" she was wearing, not only that but she demonstrated to have magical abilities when she levitated a plant pot and seemed ready to strike me probably thinking i was gonna hurt her for speaking out of turn, she was wrong, i just sat on a cushion and praised her for being able to show an untamed side despite having to live her life enslaved, this seemed to have surprised her, but she calmed down and lowered that pot. She didn't speak much after that, she seemed more interested in getting drunk to forget her pain, but she also poured her heart out to me that day.
So yeah, let's just say when Biers mentioned she was kidnapped, i wasn't on my best mood afterwards.

Thankfully, i didn't need to wait long to vent out my frustrations, because soon, the culprits themselves showed up at the atrium, there were two, one called Krampus and the other Certa, they chastised us for our "sins", honestly that's not something i can deny given i'm in the isle of Sin pretty much, but that's not why i had my axe out for, i was ready for a fight and demanded to know what they have done with the patrons and the slaves they kidnapped, only to be further chastised by them all the way to the end of the fight, Krampus didn't stay long he left half way through the fight, disappearing out of thin air, Certa who we fought to the end nearly blew up the room had we not strike her down, alas she too managed to escape the same way her companion did, but not without leaving a message behind, saying that they would be back tomorrow...
And they did. The moment i saw them i was ready for another go, however Rath had to stop me there and i soon discovered why. The people they had kidnapped we're all hostages right now, Krampus and Certa seemed to have this magic bag where they were keeping them inside, they kept them at knife point so if i were to do something stupid... their death would be on my hands. Knowing this i was forced to lay down my weapon, but the bizarre part in all this was their demands... We are to say nice things about the "sinful" hostages and they shall be spared... that was it, strange isn't it?
They started with Evelyn the barmaid, and after we vouched for her they actually let her go, and by let her go i mean... she kind of got fired out of the bag into the ground. They did the same with the other hostages as which one was judged, one by one. When it was Kanrik's turn i really wanted to convince them to keep him, but after previously having a conversation with Seiv, a slave that Kanrik assaulted, where he vouch for him during one of our conversations despite i knew... well, let's just say the best thing i could do was keep my mouth shut to respect his wishes.
They got everyone out of the bag, Ayla included and eventually we reached the last person that needed to be saved... Mylaela... I don't think Rath knows how grateful am i that he stopped me that day, the moment i heard her name i was ready to launch myself to them and it would have happened had Rath not grabbed hold of me and pin me down, asking me to calm down. When i did calm down i stretched my hands up and asked them to take me instead of her, which i'm sure that counted as a nice thing at least...
I can already imagine what my brother Drest and some of my friends back home would be saying if they saw this, they would think i was getting too soft or bitting into something harder then i can chew... well i don't regret my decision. Eventually Mylaela was allowed to go as well and the two monsters disappear promising to come back next year, great... just great... Mylaela was injured and in a state of shock when she got out of the bag to which i quickly picked her up and toke her to the infirmary, poor girl couldn't say a word...

And this fellow reader, is how i had one hell of christmas during my stay here in the Tether, Primes only know where this is going next. Well... i know where. Just wait until you hear the next story.