Interlude

PART 1

Osmor.

In the heavy rain, a group of people are wandering through the wet and smelly streets of the west district. The group of people consists of mostly males, with a rough-looking women mixen in. They all have used-down clothes and questionable hygiene.

“We are fucked” Said one man, complaining to the leader of the group

“Larry, that’s how it is, I mean I prefer not killing too, but we have a job and none of us want to find out what happens when he is unsatisfied with any of us, do we?” He said back

“No/nope/I am too young to die,” said the group behind him. The leader sighs. What a mess he had gotten himself into. He and his group are on their way to attack One of the warehouses of the new gang which unified the western district. For some reason, two gangs decided that it was the right time to attack that newly formed gang. Their expansion did not amuse the rippers and the builders, why they attacked at the same times both seems fishy and strange.

The builder never bothered about anything else other than their district. They were content with living their lives, cooperate and live as a community. Yes, here and there, there were some disputes and shouting matches, but they usually never killed anyone. They were like the black panthers of old California. Defending their community because the nobels don’t give a damn outside of taxes and the Tower didn’t give a fuck about them either way. If they become too problematic than their solution will be very radical and bloody.

That is well and good, but confused the leader most was their cooperation with the rippers. None in their community has any lost love for them, they are the worst of the people, worse than all of the gangs. All of the deaths from the three other districts doesn’t add up for their monthly killing. Who ends up killed is no surprise.

Most of the gang is very confused and a minority even outraged, but the leadership of the gang was not open for discussion, so there they are, coming into the territory of a gang, which whom they don’t have any problems, fights or any kind of conflicts, and attack them brutally.

A decision which nearly resulted in a civil war inside the gang.

Continuing their march, the group arrived in front of a cluster of buildings, mostly poorly made stone houses. Enough to live inside, but the modern comfort of cheap magical products are bared from them.

“Alright, we have to kill them, then burn down the building, don’t let anyone escape or spot you, we want to stay anonymous.” He said and lead the group armed with mostly cheap daggers and any kind of blunt object they can use for attacking.

Inside their objective, a middle-sized house with a garden at the back, a group of people are playing cards in the main room, All of them have something next to them, a bat, every one of them has in common, that they had something to defend themselves with next to them. They consisted of 14 people, half sleeping, while the rest were playing cards.

“Have you heard? Kathlin is now gone from the wild rose, too bad, she was my favourite girl” One said, while throwing a card onto the table.

“Her? Man you gotta some heavy taste, I prefer Lisa, She is thin, big boobs and a nice ass, what else can you expect? The best thing is that she is cheap” One boasted

“I wonder why she is cheap,” One man said, while smirking “Maybe she has some illn …”

“Shut up Greg, no one cares about your opinion.” One snapped back and throw his cards onto the table

“Bitches I win, here with da money.” He said and excitedly collected the cards.

A soft clicking sound can be heard, one of the men seem to notice it. “Hey Tord, what was that just now?” He looked around with a hint of suspicion

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Just a mouse,l nothing happens around here anyway” Tord shrugs and continue to fiddle around with his cards.

“But I am I heard something just now, here it is again,” He said. Another soft sound could be heard.

“Whatever, Grog take a look,” Said the leader annoyed, and sends one of the guys to have a look.

Annoyed, Grog walks off to have a look, not before giving the guy who gave him extra work a glare.

The guy simply shrugs, that is their jobs or not?

The activities continues, until a loud thud with a silent scream is heard.

*ARGH*

This time, all of them are very suspicious.

“Grog, how are things?” The leader shouts. After not receiving any answer, he shouts louder. “Grog, answer something, HEY”

After not receiving any answers, he said. “Everyone, wake up the rest and ready yourself”

After commanding it, he grabs his own kitchen knife, and stand next to the door.

While the sleeping gang members are being woken up, the enemies rush into the room.

“Attack,” Said the leader of the warehouse.

A chaotic battle ensures, a battle which the invaders win. Except two of the guards, the rest were butchered. The attackers made out without any casualties, they had surprised the defenders, who weren’t ready or awaiting any kind of attack.

“Boss, what to do with the two we captured?” Asked The women from the builders.

“Ask him about any valuables and any kind of other information, then kill him” It pained in his heart. Killing was never his favourite activity, but for himself, his family and his friends, he has to do what he was told. Once a gang member, always a gang member.

“No, don’t kill me, I have kids.” One of the two shouted.

“Don’t worry, we won’t go after your family” reassured the leader. Whether he was consoling the now dead guy or himself is unknown.

PART 2

Similar scenes are playing out everywhere in the living district. Most of the ambushes are successful, while some have time to prepare themselves, all in all, the new organization got hit hard. Not enough to crumble, but a sizeable hit.

The next morning.

Inside a four-story meeting, at the top floor, a meeting is being held between three individuals. Two of them are dressed in white and black respectively, while the last is clothed in normal, well-to-do way.

They were arguing.

“How dare they attack us, we didn’t even try to expand into their direction” Dark man said. He carried himself like an aristocrat, not completely succeeding tough.

“I don’t think they care what we did, this reeks of a conspiracy. I couldn’t believe that the builders got involved, I haven’t heard of them doing something like this in like ever.” Black mantis said.

“We can’t do anything against it now, can we. On another note, how should we defend us? Godfather is away for another couple of years, defend or counter attack?” white man said. He is similar to black mantis in temperament, calm but a lot more calculating. He added. “Defending is the better option, thanks to the help and resources, mainly some artefacts and magic scrolls, we secured a good control of the smuggling routes, that might be the reason why the rippers attacked us. The amount of scrolls we can buy from the normal shops are few and far between on normal times, now with the builders actively acting against us, the scrolls available to purchase have been halved, selling the smuggled good is also harder to get rid of.”

Smashing his hand on the table, black man raged. “Damn, it what do they want? We have to smash them”

“No, we don’t have to. Or we can’t do so. The best method is to lose some ground and after when godfather comes back, we can fight back.” White man said. Still feeling strange calling Osric Godfather. He argues that it is fine, calling a 13 or so year old kid godfather is fine. Then he gets cooled down from those thoughts by some strange effect.

Time goes on as normal. After the first wave of ambush, the organization abandoned a lot of the outer bases, focusing primarily on the triangle of their three main bases. They also stopped the bulk of their smuggling activities, focusing more on higher-quality goods, or goods which are very easy to get rid off. Even if some artisans didn’t want to buy their stuff, sometimes they are forced to do so. This situation went on for half a year.

After the first two months, the situation specialized, not caring about common goods anymore, and making up the quality with quantity, making a lot of contact with the tower. Those contacts mainly worked for Nelton. A small surprise he left behind for Osric.

Skirmishes happened frequently, but rarely anything bigger. After their first try at attacking one of the main bases, they gave up of taking control of one. This had multiple reason. The main ones being first the magic scrolls, Osric left behind hundreds of them, using them with the very effective weak artefacts which he also left behind, they easily defended against mobs. The other were their fighters. Through their constant fighting, most of the survivors proved themselves as capable soldiers. Bribing a guard instructor had been a major help in this case. Luckily, the persons from the builders were common mobs, not very good at fighting, just at brawling. The rippers were a different story, they weren’t really good fighters either, just a lot more vicious than the other parties, they used everything to win a fight, from ganging on a person to throwing sand in their eyes, everything was allowed as long as their enemy is dead.

Six months later, the situation is pretty good for both sides. The war has been spread in the city, and officials tried to look the other way for a time, but after 6 months, even they can’t completely ignore it. This led to a reduced rate of attacks. Big groups of hooligans were often spotted by guards and escorted back to their district. Unfortunately, none of them were detained. Money is useful in a lot of ways.

Another meeting

“The situation is looking good,” said black man smugly.

“And it does not merit alright” Said white main

“Here they go again” mumbled black mantis to himself and then watched the two quarrel for some time. Something that has become increasingly common in the last couple of months. The nerves of everyone are at their end. The leadership is no exception here. They get the most of it.

Thinking back, mantis still has a lot of sadness inside of him. His comrades died, His friends also got killed. In the first ambush, a good fifth of their forces were killed, later on, the war, another fifth got exterminated. On one hand, it strengthened the whole organization, it made them one and not three cooperating ones. That he made sure. He often mixed the members of the three gangs, behind the back of the other two, who are more interested in their rivalry, then properly manage their gangs. At the beginning white man was promising, but he succumbed to stress. He got more and more inefficient. That isn’t the biggest problem. Their competition led to even more deaths. With a tear in his eye, he thinks back to two months ago. It was an ambush. He and right man, his brother, got caught in the fight and to safe him, right man died. This lead to him becoming more harder on his subordinates, but also on himself. Gone was his laidback attitude and his laziness, now he put his soul and body into the organization. His commitment saved the gang from fracturing, or even getting wiped out, he just hopes that Godfather comes back before something happens even he can’t solve