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The world of mogria was a fairly sizeable one. It had many diverse, but distinct, factions to it. The entire west held a dense forest that not many people lived in. Some rouge elves and a couple packs of orcs and goblins, but nothing too special. The south east held a plain desert, full of houses, but Baren of any other life. The desert held many people, as it had room for them, but was too resource lacking to put anything else. This was where many of the low/mid class citizens lived, as it had room for them. The north held the main city, with large stone and wood buildings that were larger than any other building in the world! This city held many inns and taverns, but there were also many marketplaces scattered across it. The north east held the farming district, where all the food was grown and cut, then distributed by cart to the city. The north side was the 'manufacturing' district. It was where all the wood was cut, the stone was shaped, the metals were fired, and the threads were woven. Many humans worked here, but there were some elves and dwarves as well. In the center of any map, would be an enormous mountain range full of mines and dwelling places mostly for dwarves, but sometimes humans and elves were seen working alongside the dwarves. After work, all of the taverns were overcrowded by dwarves having fun after a long days work, so the city tended to empty out about then. There was a happy, mercifull king ruling at the time, and there seemed to be no discontent among the lands.

Saena had finally reached the northern city. She had been traveling for days, seeing sights and exploring ruins, all under the guise of a pale skinned elf. With her hood up, she walked the streets looking at various shops and merchant stalls along the way. She wanted to see if there was a news board inside the town, to see if she could get some work in before she continued her journey.

The horse whickered under Tarek as they approached the brigade of flickering lights. His own little lantern pole threw light along the entrance to another unknown city. An uproar of voices could be heard, even from the gate.
Tarek was hoping to maybe pick up a new mercenary job, seeing as he was running low on wares.

"This is it" Helgraf said to himself as he approached the tavern. The sun had fallen, and darkness had taken it's place. The only source of light beside the dim glow of the moon was what little light could force it's way through the shutters on the old inn that was just outside of town. As he approached he could hear people yelling, and fighting."my kind of place" helgraf muttered under his breath. Once inside the bar he ordered a small meal, and then bought a room to get some sleep before meeting with a marshal to see if he could get a bounty to get some extra silvers.

Aydr was home in his element at night. He lived in the western forest under a deep canopy where he could almost avoid the sun as he followed the winding paths through the tall trees. He found himself far away from home now though. Business took him to the northern city.

One of the older mages that Aydr had ties to sent him on an errand. The dark elf was to bring back a certain set of runes from a specific maker. But he was also supposed to keep on the lookout for anything interesting, anything of magical value. Aydr was a trader and a dealer. He had many clients, with varying interests.

The dark elf found himself staying in a small inn. He found the nights in the city to be vibrant, full of life. The sounds of the outside world would leak into the inn, calling out to Aydr's sensitive hearing.

Now he found himself sitting at a bar, having a drink. There weren't as many establishments like this in the West. Aydr was more than happy to spend some of his well earned coin on a drink or two. Besides, he had already secured the runes. Now he just had to look for something interesting enough to pawn off on the old mage.

"Another Dwarven Pale Ale, please", the dark elf said after finally catching the attention of the blonde barkeep. It was busy and he had been waiting for a few minutes. He finished off the beer in front of him and waited for the next.

Garlade was making his normal rounds in the tavern. He was serving some people their beers, and all was fine. Until the elf walked in. Garlade could only stare as he walked in, sat down, and immediately ordered a drink. 'you would show up, wouldn't you?' he thinks to himself. 'today was goin' so well, and you just had to walk in.' he didn't want to lose his job, so he poured him a beer and tried to stay away from him as much as possible. He asked for another, and garlade sent the other barkeep to him. Today was quite. Busy, so there were two at the counter. There was suddenly a scream heard, and garlade perked up a little, feeling that something fun was going to come out of this. His lips perked up a little bit, and he muttered "time for another adventure!"

As helgraf slumbered, aydr drank, and garlade poured beers, a piercing scream was heard from the heart of the bar. The sound was containedd and nobody outside could have heard it. The bar begins to empty out, leaving only the drinkers, slumberers, and barkeep to leave last or investigate the scene.

As the "elf" walked the streets under the starry night sky, she realized that she hadn't eaten all day, and her stomach was rather upset because of so. She was basically starving, so she headed towards the nearest bar, maybe they'll have some food there? As she opened the door, the scream could be heard, and she began to glance around, looking for the source.

Tarek tied the reins of his steed to a stable post. He promptly locked the windows and door of the wagon, and found someone to pay for the rent. The merchant, if he could be called that, planned on spending the night in his caravan.
He strode into the city, winding through the drunkards. He found nights in the cities were always full of interesting people, perhaps to strike up a conversation with if they were half way sober. Or not, even.
Tarek found himself stopping at the door of a small tavern. Large, calloused hands pushed the wood door open with a creak. After his boot had barely scuffed the floor, his ears were split with a sudden scream. It had come from the very core of the building, as if the person had internalized their anguish.

Helgraf was already out of the bedroom door by the time the scream had stopped. When he arrived at the main lobby he had already had his weapon drawn and was ready for combat, but he was taken back when he saw nothing there except for some of the patrons exiting the bar. When realized that the scream had not originated from the main lobby he began to search for where it came from. After a few seconds he found his way into the cellar, but he was not alone. In the center of the room there was a body of middle aged woman (most likely where the scream had come from), and in the back he could see a shadow moving behind one of the large barrels at the back of the room. Although when he went to go investigate, he found nothing but a cold stone wall where the shadow had been.

Aydr was interested, but he was not one to rush and gawk. He took a drink from his fresh beer and brought it with him as he got up and walked to investigate. He made his way towards the door, taking another drink. He could already hear a few voices talking about the scene. The dark elf pushed the door open and glanced out at the scene.

It appeared something had happened to a woman. Unfortunate. There wasn't anything Aydr could do to help the victim. His sensitive eyes glanced around the surroundings. But he didn't notice anything suspicious. He took another drink of the beer and glanced out into the night. The wind picked up and forced it's chilly air against the dark elf's cheek.

Garlade ran down into the cellar behind aydr, trying to mostly ignore him. Once he got there, he saw the woman and knew exactly what to do. He walked right up to the corpse, reached into her bag, and pulled out a small envelope with the regular seal on it. A bright red with a wispy, curly dragon on it. "Looks like he hasn't changed a bit" garlade said out loud to himself. He opened the envelope and read it out loud, not caring if the others heard, as this was none of their business.

"Hello, garlade. It's nice to meet you again after all these years. Today, I have quite an interesting job for you. Please meet me outside the old home with anyone brave enough to check out the scene tomorrow night. P.S. Sorry for the mess I made, hope it doesn't hinder your bussiness too much!"

Garlade chuckled a bit at that las remark, bit his face immediately went serious when he realized he would be working with an over-confident elf (garlade had seen how cockily he had walked downstairs), a fragile human (humans were never as strong as dwarves, or as dexterous as elves), a strange shadow lady (although, she did look like she could handle herself), and a creature with horns (he couldn't judge him, as he had never seen this before) he gave an exasperated sigh and said "tonight's stay is on the house". Although garlade hated working in groups, he had always trusted strothor's judgment.

Saena contuned to walk inside, and sat down at a chair. Still wondering what the noise was, she was peering down at the basement, wondering what could've happened, all the while waiting to be served.

After the initial shock, there wasn't much of a reaction in the place. A few hushed whispers were picking up, but other than that, most had returned to their drinks. One man had even fallen off his chair in fright, and his friends were now laughing at him. All except a little man scurrying toward the cellar seemed to be taking this truly seriously.
Pondering this, Tarek took a seat closest to the steps and ordered an ale. A few chairs across was an elf, wine red eyes seeming to wander across everything.
A cold breeze found its way to him then, forcing its way under his skin like frigid lace. Tarek drew his fur collar closer, rubbing his rough hands as he waited.

Helgraf was a little upset that there was no confrontation in the cellar, but would quickly begin investigating. He noticed that some of the bricks in the wall were displaced. Also he noticed that there were bloody footprints leading away from the body, but ended only a few steps from it. After looking around a little more he would approach the dwarf who had recently entered the cellar, and ask him if he knew anything about the what had happened. Also Helgraf asked if he knew a of another cellar entrance that was hidden or blocked(as he saw the dwarf behind the bar, and assumed he was the owner of the inn).

Aydr's sensitive ears listened in as the dwarf read the note. It was intriguing indeed. This was the sort of opportunity he needed. He should be able to scout for anything unique. He carried more than enough coin to make a fair trade.

Meanwhile, Aydr was not blind to the dwarf's hate. Aydr was on a level of intellect where he wouldn't judge people based on a prejudice. If the dwarf wanted to play up old world racism, he would be alone in that game.

In fact, Aydr decided he would go for sure, just to force the silly dwarf to spend more time around him.

He flashed a toothy, sarcastic smile. He walked up to the dwarf wiith his arms folded, beer in his right hand.

"Looks like we'll be adventuring, aye goodfellow?" Aydr asked, he took a long drink from his beer, finishing it in several gulps. He waited for the reaction.

Garlade felt as though aydr had made that comment just to make him mad. But seeming as he was brave enough to check a terror scream coming from a basement, he had to give him some credit. "Aye, Elf. As much as it pains me to say this, we will need to work together for this. It seems as though strothor has a tremendously important job for us. And I do know what happened here, human. Long ago, I made a dark friend, just after me home was destroyed by those damned dragons!" Garlade didn't want to mention that elves had a hand in the destruction in front of the elf, as it might cause a fight, and the last thing he needed was some unnecessary tension in his quest group. "We talked for a bit, and he gave me some work. I asked him why he was doing this, and he told me that he thinks I will be needed for a special Job soon. We stayed in touch for quite a while, before he just stopped writing me. I never forgot about his special Job and expected he Would be involving me in it soon. And of course there are no secret passageways, this is a tavern, not an underground crime ring! Now we need some sleep if we want to travel to my old home tomorrow. I hope the dragons have moved out" he said, half joking, but also on the verge of tears. He went upstairs, expecting the others to follow, and coaxed all who followed into some rooms. He went back to his job and began closing up shop, noticing that there were still 2 sober people that were still here. The rest of the tavern was full of passed out drunk. "And what seems to bring you here tonight? Did the blood-curdling scream not scare you off like the rest?" He asked, slightly impressed at their nerve.

"I was just going here to see if you had any food. I've been traveling for days, and I forgot to buy some rations for today. But as it seems, from what I could hear by the echoing from the basement, there's seems to be some unrest?" She held her stomach, it's still getting quite mad because of no nourishment.

Tarek shrugged. "It's amazing what people will do for a drink."
In all honesty, the barkeep seemed to have dealt with the scene fairly well. He had set to work immediately, and hopefully that elf was as sharp as he seemed to be. Not that it hadn't chilled him; however, from experience, he found an open field of battle to be more frightening.

As Helgraf approached the dwarf to ask him about what he knew, helgraf soon realized that he was talking to someone else, an elf by the looks of it. Helgraf was there just in time to hear the dwarf say "and yes I do know what happened here human" before the question even left his lips. After that helgraf got lost, the dwarf said something about dragons, crime rings, special jobs, and the like. after a few seconds the dwarf coaxed helgraf to his room, and he fell asleep before he could aske anything.