The sound of a dull knocking awakens Alcaeus. It takes a second for him to recognize the source of the sound is someone at the door. Once he does, he drowsily saunters over and opens it. Initially, he doesn’t remember the man in front of him, the tired wrinkled face unfamiliar to him.
Only when the man begins to speak does Alcaeus realize he is the dealer from Reed’s Gambling, “Today, be at O’Malley’s tavern in one hour”.
“Is your man going to meet me there?” Alcaeus, still not fully awake, asks groggily.
“Just be there,” the dealer insists sternly, exiting Alcaeus’s inn. Once he does, Alcaeus hastily throws on some clothes, grabs his whip hanging off the chair in the corner of the room, and leaves to tell the others.
Alcaeus remembers that Xander’s inn is relatively close to his so he heads there first.
He slams on Xander’s door, yelling, “Hey, kid! Wake up!”
A fully dressed and very much awake Xander opens the door and calmly informs him, “I am awake, what is it? We aren’t supposed to meet up for a few more hours”.
“We have to get to the tavern in an hour, the informant on the Snakes will meet us there. We should get Drakthar and Kayde,” Alcaeus explains frantically.
The two of them head to different inns, Alcaeus heads to Kayde’s and Xander heads to Drakthar’s. Upon opening the front door to the inn, Alcaeus sees Lydia reaching to push the door open.
Her eyes show recognition of Alcaeus causing her to politely acknowledge him, “Oh, good morning”. She nods her head a little and scurries past him away from the inn.
Alcaeus knocks on Kayde’s door.
When he answers it Alcaeus doesn’t mention the informant, instead, asking in irritation, “How did you sleep? Must have been pretty well”.
“I have no idea why you would ask that but yes last night was quite pleasant,” Kayde lies, smirking as he starts to understand what Alcaeus is talking about.
“So why are you here? It’s early,” Kayde asks, not sure why Alcaeus has shown up at his door this early in the morning. Kayde just keeps looking at Alcaeus to say anything, but he continues to glare at Kayde annoyed that he is getting to sleep with Lydia and he isn’t.
Xander approaches Drakthar’s inn and opens the door gingerly, having observed its sorry state yesterday. He slowly closes the door behind him and goes to Drakthar’s room. He doesn’t have to go to the trouble as he notices Drakthar heading towards the exit of the inn.
“Xander, what are you doing here?” Drakthar inquires out of curiosity, not expecting to see Xander there.
“Alcaeus’s informant on the Snakes is going to be at O’Malley’s in an hour. Or I guess forty minutes now. Anyway, let’s get going,” Xander hurriedly fills him in. Drakthar nods and follows Xander.
As they walk towards the tavern Xander realizes that Kayde and Alcaeus should have met up with them by now if they were walking along the most direct route to O’Malley’s.
“I think something might have happened,” Xander notes worriedly as he stops suddenly.
“What makes you say that?” Drakthar asks, not thinking about the other two’s absence.
Xander explains his thinking, “They should have at least come this far by now… We should head to Kayde’s inn, something might have happened to them on the way here”. They follow Xander’s suggestion and turn around.
When they enter Kayde’s inn, Xander and Drakthar see an odd sight, Alcaeus standing outside of Kayde’s room staring into it.
“Hey, Alcaeus what are you doing? We have to meet up with your informant from the Snakes remember?” Xander reminds him, puzzled as to how he could be wasting time like this.
Xander’s question is not answered Alcaeus doesn’t flinch and continues to peer into the room. Drakthar and Xander get closer and see Kayde staring right back at Alcaeus.
“Kayde, what are you two doing?” Xander tries to ask him, not amused by whatever this is.
Kayde explains, in a jokingly serious manner, while not breaking eye contact, “He started staring at me, I think we are currently engaged in what is called a staring contest”.
Xander and Drakthar are so puzzled it takes them a few seconds to find words.
The two continue to stare at each other until Xander, infuriated, finally reminds them, “I don’t know what made you two start this ridiculous waste of time... but can you walk as you do it? We are going to be late to O’Malley’s. If we miss the meetup with your informant from the Snakes we might not have another chance at something like this”.
Having heard this for the first time, Kayde looks away from Alcaeus, “Oh, that’s why he came here? You should have just said so. Okay, I’m ready, let’s go”.
“You didn’t tell him that?” Xander asks Alcaeus incredulously, who is still staring at Kayde in jealously despite Kayde no longer meeting his glance.
“No, I didn’t,” Alcaeus finally speaks, a harshly bitter tone present in his voice. He looks away from Kayde and they head towards the tavern in a huff.
They reach O’Malley’s and find that they are the only ones there. They sit down in the middle of the empty bar.
“Good-mornin' lads. Y'all are Sarge’s friends right?” O'Malley asks them, excited to have his first customers of the day.
“More like partners,” Alcaeus corrects him, being intentionally standoffish as to not be closely associated with Sarge.
“Whatever y’all may be, do you fancy a drink?” O'Malley welcomingly asks, trying to drum up a little business while he has them here.
“I’ll take some rum,” Alcaeus orders. Xander, Drakthar, and Kayde all refuse to get drinks; they are more focused on waiting for the informant.
O’Malley pours Alcaeus his drink and watches as another man enters the bar, greeting him, “Welcome to O’Malley’s, looking to drink anything in particular sir?”
The man doesn’t respond, he walks directly up to the bar, puts a piece of paper down next to the drink O’Malley just poured, and walks back towards the exit.
“What an odd fellow,” O’Malley comments as he hands Alcaeus his rum.
O’Malley drops the recently poured drink, shocked by the sound of a shrill shrieking from outside. Rum spills onto the floor washing shards of glass underneath Alcaeus’s barstool.
"I'm sorry," O'Malley tries to apologize but Alcaeus and the others completely ignore the mess, rushing outside to find the source of the uproar.
Across the plaza, they see the man who was in the tavern skewered on a statue on the corner of a building. The body slides down the spear on the statue until it rests on the statue's shoulder. They look around to see who could have done this, but there is no one, only confused citizens staring up at the morbid display above them.
Alcaeus points out in bewilderment, “There’s no way he could have gotten up there that fast. He was just in the tavern”.
Xander realizes Alcaeus’s observation is correct, but there is one other way he could have gotten up there. Not sure what else to do, he decides to investigate it.
Xander rewinds time to before the informant ever entered the bar.
“Whatever y’all may be, do you fancy a drink?” O'Malley asks exactly the same as before.
“I’ll take some rum,” Alcaeus makes his order again. Xander, after rehearing the exchange between Alcaeus and O’Malley, rushes out of the tavern.
Drakthar notices and asks him, “Where are you going?”
“I’ll be back, don’t worry about me,” Xander hurriedly assures Drakthar as he leaves.
“That was odd,” Kayde briefly comments, watching as Xander disappears outside. The others nod in agreement with Kayde as the informant enters the tavern. Like before he drops the paper on the bar and exits.
This time when the informant exits Xander watches him closely, his eyes intently following the man’s path once he is outside.
In his peripheral he notices a spot of purple, it’s a man adorned in a purple robe standing in the corner of the square. If his suspicions are correct this man should be a member of the Cult of Chaos. He looks up at the statue on the building and sees a scarf flapping around in the wind just above it. Just then it happens.
The scarf is on the ground where the man used to be. Xander quickly tries to switch them back, but he is a second too late. The man is now lying at his feet already with a wound in his stomach where the spear of the statue pierced him.
Xander rushes over to the man on the ground try and stop the bleeding. As soon as he has pressure on the wound he looks up to see if the man in purple from the Cult of Chaos is still there... he isn’t.
Xander asks frantically as the man's blood starts to stain his hands, “Why did the Cult of Chaos target you?”
The man doesn’t hear Xander’s question, instead, he is mystified, looking up into the blue eyes of the man above him. He could almost swear Xander’s eyes turned to a shade of purple when the light hit them just right. He stares into those eyes until he closes his own.
Xander knowing the man is dead lets up on the pressure on his wound, lets out an exasperated, “Dammit!”
People in the square look at him like he is crazy before going about their day, not aware of what happened to the man like last time.
Drakthar, Kayde, and Alcaeus make their way outside and see what is going on. They see the informant dead next to Xander.
“Did you just kill him? Why would you do that you bastard!” Alcaeus starts to yell at Xander, jumping to conclusions as he sees the blood on his hands.
Xander stands up and turns around, explaining in a huff, “No, I did not, I tried to save him. It was the Cult of Chaos that killed him. Don’t go throwing around accusations and words like bastard when you don’t have any idea of what is going on!”
Xander is now gripping Alcaeus’s shirt, blood from his hands getting all over Alcaeus's collar.
Alcaeus tries to wiggle out of it, but he finds Xander surprisingly strong for someone of Xander's slender build.
“Cut it out, man, it was just a misunderstanding,” Kayde tries to calmly diffuse the tension, putting his hand on each of their shoulders.
Xander snaps out of it and lets go of Alcaeus. Drakthar stares at Xander, the intensity of his response making him more interesting as a potential opponent.
“Sorry. I overreacted,” Xander curtly apologizes to Alcaeus.
“You better be, you got blood all over my shirt you psycho,” Alcaeus insults him, straightening his shirt and rubbing the collar to try and get the blood off it as best he can.
“What does the paper he gave you say?” Drakthar looks to Alcaeus, trying to change the subject so the conflict doesn't persist and also curious to know what kind of message a man would be killed over.
Alcaeus reads the note and it tells of a house in the middle of the city and to be there later that day, “It’s a meeting place. We are supposed to go there in a couple of hours”.
“Don’t you think this could be a trap? I mean this guy was just killed, we would be stupid to actually go,” Kayde questions, worried because of what happened to the informant.
“I don’t think so. The people who wrote the note didn't kill him,” Alcaeus reasons, not seeing any way the ones that wanted them to have this would want their messenger killed.
“Yeah, I agree... but it will still be dangerous. We should proceed with caution and be ready to run away if it takes a turn for the worst,” Xander points out, surprising himself as he actually agrees with Alcaeus.
“I don’t care as long as I get to fight,” Drakthar declares, eager to see some action.
“If we are doing this we need to do it right. Kayde I noticed you are pretty good with that rifle, you should set up on a building opposite the one mentioned in the note. Because it’s the Snakes, Drakthar and Alcaeus should be the two meeting with them. It was like that last time so it doesn’t give them all of our identities. I’ll blend into the crowd outside and be ready to intervene if something goes wrong,” Xander quickly lays out a plan and everyone’s role in it.
"Sounds good," Drakthar agrees, knowing he will be at the center of the action if something goes down.
"What are we just going to take orders from this kid?" Alcaeus asks the other two, annoyed that they seem to be falling behind Xander's plan so easily.
"Yeah, I think it's pretty good. It's better than anything I would have come up with," Kayde openly admits, backing Xander's plan as it sounds reasonable to him.
"Fine," Alcaeus reluctantly agrees, the only part he didn't like about the plan being it came from Xander.
They arrive at the city square at the edge of which stands the house the note told them to meet at. They go over Xander’s plan one more time before heading off to take their places. Kayde heads up to a building across the way and Xander mixes into the crowd in the bustling city square.
Before Drakthar and Alcaeus can approach the house, an older man walks up to them and hands them a crumpled up piece of parchment. Alcaeus unravels it, seeing that the meeting place is now the house next door. As soon as he finishes reading the note it disappears, a bell appears in his hand in its stead.
"The fuck?" Alcaeus questions loudly as he is now holding a random bell.
Xander, the one who switched the note out of Alcaeus’s hand, reads the note so that he is clued in on what is going on. He walks towards Alcaeus himself and bumps into him once again leaving him with the note.
It takes a couple of seconds for Alcaeus to realize it was Xander who gave him the note back, scowling to himself once he finds out it was.
Alcaeus and Drakthar approach the house next to the one whose address they were given initially. They knock on the door and are ushered inside. The interior looks unassuming, a few couches at the edges of the room with a large table in the center. Standing around that table is twenty Snakes, all looking towards a bearded man at the head of it.
The man looks up at Alcaeus and Drakthar, addressing them, “You finally showed up. Heard from some mutual friends you two are looking to take down the Wolves, that interests me and my men”.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Who are you?” Drakthar asks, assuming by his choice of words that he might be the leader of the Snakes himself.
The man tells them, “I’m the leader’s right hand, but that doesn’t matter to you two. If what I heard about you is true, I would like to offer some of my men to help you with our mutual Wolf problem”.
“The gangs don’t get along? I thought all of you guys would be in cahoots or something,” Alcaeus mistakenly assumes, thinking there would be at least a little honor among thieves.
The second in command is angered by Alcaeus’s question, but elaborates, “Would you be mad if some new gang came up and started cutting into your turf? I don’t know how they do it, but they keep driving us out of our own territory. So no, we are not in cahoots with them. Now, do you want help or not?”
“Yeah,” Alcaeus quickly agrees, not wanting to lose free help.
“Just tell me when you are going to fight and my men will be there to join you,” the man offers, gesturing towards those standing around the room.
This sparks Alcaeus to remember that they are going down in the sewers in two days to investigate a lead on the Wolves’ gang leader.
“Yeah, in two days meet us outside of O’Malley’s Tavern. We're going after their leader,” Alcaeus smirks, glad to have them on his side.
“They will be there, now leave this place before I change my mind,” the man sternly orders. They don’t question it, heading out the front door as those around the table silently watch them leave.
Once Xander and Kayde see them exit the house, they abandon their positions to regroup.
“So what happened my guys?” Kayde asks in an overly familiar way.
“The Snakes want to help us, turns out they hate the Wolves. Some of the Snakes will be joining us when we go into the sewers in a few days,” Alcaeus repeats what the Snake told him.
“We should let Sarge know about this,” Kayde suggests, not wanting to collaborate with gang members without his blessing.
They head towards where they think they can find the city guard squad around this time of day.
As they walk towards O’Malley’s, Alcaeus casually asks the others, “Hey do any of you want to go to a brothel tonight?”
Drakthar and Xander both predictably refuse as they have before, but not Kayde.
He responds in a chipper tone, “Yeah, sure man, sounds fun”.
“Finally, these two are a couple of straight-laced prudes,” Alcaeus eagerly welcomes Kayde along.
“Don't call us straight-laced just because we don’t wish to throw away our gold on women,” Drakthar takes offense to Alcaeus’s comment.
“Sure, whatever man, you go ahead and have no fun you celibate loser,” Alcaeus quickly dismisses him, piling on more insults as he does so.
Drakthar walks right up to Alcaeus, towering over him as he tells him in a very intimidating tone, “Watch what you say to me”.
“Okay, okay... I’m just going to walk over here on the other side of Kayde from you,” Alcaeus squeaks in fear, moving away from Drakthar and doesn’t say anything until they reach O’Malley’s.
They arrive to see the entire city guard squad except for Sharn sitting down at their usual table.
Sarge notices them and asks jovially, “How has your day been lads?”
“It went well Sarge, the informant I was waiting on got us a meeting with the Snakes. We talked and some Snakes are going to join us when we go down into the sewers in a couple of days,” Kayde is all too glad to inform them.
“I don’t know about taking help from other gangs,” Sarge responds, hesitant to work with people he is supposed to catch.
“It’s gangs fighting gangs that’s good for us, plus we can use them as pawns if something goes wrong, it's win-win,” Kayde does his best convince Sarge, gesturing wildly with his hands as he does so.
"Fine, when you put it that way. It's okay," Sarge comes around to agree with Kayde’s statement and is fine with the Snakes helping them out with the Wolves.
Now that he is done explaining what they learned to Sarge, Kayde approaches Lydia.
“Hey, Kayde. I was wondering if I should come over to your place tonight?” She proposes bashfully, seeking his company once again.
“Actually my compatriot here, Alcaeus, and I are going to a brothel. Would you like to join us?” Kayde offers with a smile.
Lydia is taken aback a bit by Kayde’s question, her face turning red as she responds, “No, I don’t think I can… I mean... no thank you, that’s okay”.
“Okay, then see you tomorrow,” Kayde wishes Lydia well as he waves goodbye to her as he leaves with Alcaeus.
“Dude you just asked her to a brothel, are you insane?” Alcaeus points out once they are out of earshot, surprised and impressed he would be bold enough to do so.
“Any girl likes to have fun sometimes. You should understand that,” Kayde explains, slapping Alcaeus's shoulder.
“I would hope. But they don’t want us to think that,” Alcaeus verbally agrees with a slight grin.
Back within the tavern, Xander and Drakthar join the members of the city guard at the table.
Upon sitting down, Drakthar asks, “Where is Sharn?” Keen to know why the subject of his constant staring is missing.
“Once a week he goes off on his own. We don’t know what he does on those days,” Sarge explains, not tracking his squad members during their off time.
“What is Sharn’s deal? He is still the lowest rank you guys can have, but he is stronger than all of you,” Xander observes curiously, finding Sharn's position odd.
“That's because he keeps turning down promotions. I don’t understand either, but if he doesn’t want to leave my squad that is okay with me, I don't want to lose my best fighter,” Sarge laughs, not questioning it.
Why would Sharn refuse a promotion? Xander ponders to himself after hearing Sarge’s explanation.
“I want to find him,” Drakthar abruptly declares, interested to see if he can use his isolation from the squad as an opportunity to incite the fight he has been looking for.
"I have seen him around a couple of times in the North West side of town, in the district with all the temples,” Sarge recalls the few times he ran into Sharn outside of work.
“Xander, will you come with me?” Drakthar requests earnestly, knowing Xander will be useful.
Xander nods, getting up and following him out of the tavern.
“How much gold do you want?” Drakthar asks Xander once they are outside, not expecting him to help without some sort of compensation.
“I don’t want any gold from you. The way I see it… I want us to be friends, so this is something a friend would help with. So you do not need to pay me, I’ll help you out as your friend” Xander declares nervously, waiting to see if Drakthar feels the same way.
Drakthar is surprised by Xander’s words, he laughs for a second at how awkward Xander's words were before looking Xander directly in the eyes and agreeing, “Okay friend, let’s find Sharn”.
The two of them head through the busy streets in the direction of the district with the temples where Sarge said he had seen Sharn before.
Meanwhile, Alcaeus and Kayde arrive outside of the brothel that Alcaeus has been frequenting since he has arrived in Melusarej. The building isn't wooden like most in the city, instead, it is made of a mixture of minerals that makes it stand out from the buildings around it.
An older woman with faded red hair welcomes them inside; she is clearly older than a regular whore at the brothel; the makeup she has on makes her appear younger but is easy to spot even in the dim lighting.
“Good evening boys, what can I interest you in tonight?” She greets them warmly.
“I’ll have to see how things go, but for now I’ll just take a drink,” Alcaeus answers the madam nonchalantly.
“Yeah, I’d also like something to wet my whistle," Kayde slyly insinuates.
“Would you two boys like a drink that is a little more aged?” She asks seductively, subtly coming onto them, playing along with Kayde’s analogy as she looks for their attention.
"I do hear drinks get better with age,” Alcaeus tells the madam what she wants to hear and she lets them inside with a smile, directing them towards the next room.
The room is full of other patrons; most of them are drinking and joking with each other, probably waiting until whoever they came here to see become available.
A maître d' hands Alcaeus and Kayde their drinks, professionally inquiring, “Welcome, would either of you like to spend some time with one of our fine women tonight?” Alcaeus nods eagerly.
“What would you like this evening? We have women from the desert and ones from the Sacrosanct Empire?” The maître d' lays explains as if he were a waiter laying out the options on a menu.
“I’ll take one of each,” Alcaeus responds confidently, trying to come off as a big spender.
“And for you sir?” The maître d' moves on to get Kayde's order.
“I’m fine with just the drink,” Kayde responds, not having come here under normal circumstances; he came to observe Alcaeus and see if he could mess with him a bit. That being his idea of fun.
“And for you sir, what would you like to do with the girls?” The maître d' asks so he can determine the price.
“Anything I want,” Alcaeus replies with a smirk, leaning back so he sits more comfortably on the couch.
“Very good sir, that will be six hundred gold pieces,” the maître d' calmly informs him.
“Hold on, that is a bit much, maybe I’ll just take the girl from the desert,” Alcaeus almost spits out his drink, leaning forward off the couch as he realizes he doesn’t have anywhere near that amount of gold.
“Okay it will be two hundred gold for the woman from the desert,” the maître d' lets him know, suppressing a grin, having known this man, that he's seen before, can't afford it.
“Sacrosanct is double desert eh?” Kayde butts in, noting the price difference.
“Yes sir, you see they are more exotic to men in these parts, so naturally they are double the common desert woman,” the maître d' explains bluntly.
"Makes sense," Kayde notes as he takes another sip of his wine.
The maître d' tells Alcaeus which room to go up to. Once he is gone, Kayde takes the opportunity to ask, “What kind of wine is this?”
The maître d' is all too eager to answer, “It’s made by our very own company elsewhere in the desert”.
“I see, I only ask because I used to work as a merchant. I've traded all across the desert and I’ve never come across wine like this. I enjoyed this wine so much that I would like to help you spread word of it. Maybe we could come to some agreement, you give me... say one-thousand gold pieces and I will let my friends in the industry know of your wine,” Kayde propositions the maître d', looking to make some money from advertising.
The maître d' is very interested, quickly renegotiating the offer, “I see maybe we can come to an arrangement on those terms. How about this, I will hold your man upstairs as collateral until I know you have upheld your end of the deal. I’ll give you one-hundred of the gold up front”.
Kayde instantly agrees and the maître d' gets Kayde’s gold from the back and gives it to him.
He orders the bouncer standing at the edge of the room, “Seize the one upstairs”.
While Kayde was negotiating below, Alcaeus made his way up to the specified room. Inside he finds a woman with black hair and hazel skin waiting for him, wearing a skimpy outfit, it’s covering of her breasts and crotch are made pointless by the fact that the material is sheer.
“Hello sir, do you like what you see?” She greets him, seductively gesturing down towards her exposed body. Alcaeus spots a bottle of wine on the table in the corner.
“Why don’t we have a drink first?” He harmlessly suggests. She seems surprised by this but agrees, most men having only one thing on their mind once they see her. Instead of just sleeping with her, Alcaeus intends to get her drunk first so he will not have to pay for her services.
Once Alcaeus notices the girl has knocked back a couple of drinks, he proposes, “How about we make a wager?”
The girl looks intrigued, smiling at him as she agrees, “Alright, I’m always interested in a fun little wager”.
Alcaeus pulls out a die before explaining the stakes, “I’ll roll it and you call odds or evens. If you guess wrong, I win and you get the best sex of your life”.
“And what do I get if I win?” The girl asks curiously, leaning in closer over the table as she does so.
“Then you get the best sex of your life,” Alcaeus smiles as swiftly brings the die into his hand and rolls it onto the table.
“Odds,” the girl calls out excitedly as the die rolls across the table. It stops just before it is about to fall onto the ground, landing on the number five. Alcaeus frowns a little knowing his plan isn’t going to work.
“It’s okay handsome, I’ll give you a discount,” the girl tells him, having enjoyed his little game and unorthodox nature. She wastes no time, sliding into bed waiting for him.
A couple of minutes later, Alcaeus starts to put his clothes back on while the girl lies on the bed, tired from a combination of alcohol and sexual activity.
Alcaeus smiles looking down at his work before going to the window, intending to escape without having to shell out a single piece of gold. To his dismay, when he pulls back the curtains he finds bars. From behind him, he hears a knock on the door.
“Who is it?” He asks unassumingly, hoping to get them to go away.
“Security, sir I am going to need you to open this door,” a voice demands.
“We aren’t done in here,” Alcaeus tells them as he starts to scramble, not knowing what to do. He doesn’t have the gold or anything worth as much as he owes for this night.
Little does Alcaeus know, Kayde made sure his troubles didn’t stop there. Suddenly, a smoke grenade goes off from outside the room. Before the bouncer had made his way upstairs Kayde slipped one with a delayed timer inside his pocket.
Smoke slowly seeps into the room from underneath the door and Alcaeus becomes more confused, deciding to just try and run. He pushes down the door, catching the bouncer off guard. He slips past him down into the lounge area where Kayde is waiting for him. Kayde drops another smoke grenade and the two of them flee.
“Now that was one hell of a night!” Alcaeus celebrates, while slightly out of breath from all the running.
“What happened to you while I was up there?” Alcaeus asks, curious to know what happened on Kayde's end.
“Tricked a guy into giving me one-hundred gold, what about you? Enjoy your time?” Kayde inquires, hiding the fact that he used Alcaeus to get that gold.
“Fucked a chick for free,” Alcaeus brags shamelessly.
“Then I’d say it was a very successful night for the both of us,” Kayde agrees as the two of them walk back to their inns, filling in the other on the smaller details of the evening.
While Kayde and Alcaeus were at the brothel, Drakthar and Xander began their search for Sharn. They split up deciding that they will cover more ground separately. While Xander is snooping around a temple, he notices a man in a purple robe exit one through the back door. Not wanting to let a possible lead on the Cult of Chaos pass by, he walks directly into the alleyway behind the temple, tailing the man.
Xander keeps his distance, creeping around corners, peering to see the next direction before continuing to follow the priest.
Eventually, Xander checks around another corner and notices the priest is gone. He enters the alleyway and finds an ajar manhole cover. He moves it out of the way and sees an old rusted ladder leading down into darkness.
Xander carefully climbs down the ladder one rung at a time, making sure to stay as quiet as possible as to not alert the priest that he is being followed. A foul smell becoming more and more prominent as he descends.
Finally, he lowers his foot to the next rung and instead finds himself standing in sewage. He slowly lowers his other foot into the water so he doesn’t make a sound. It is impossible to see where to go so despite his hesitation Xander lights a torch.
As the room illuminates, Xander spots the shadow of a weird sword impaling the man in the robe. It takes him a second to recognize the outline of the blade as Sharn’s.
“Sharn?” Xander calls out hesitantly, trying to determine if it is, in fact, the man they have been searching for.
The person with the sword turns towards Xander and begins to approach him with his sword raised. Fearing what Sharn will do to him Xander turns back time.
Xander finds himself in the alleyway with the manhole cover. Sharn killed the man before he got there so by not going down there that the future will not change, Xander concludes as he starts to walk away, trying to meet back up with Drakthar to share with him what he saw.
It takes him around ten minutes to find Drakthar checking around a temple.
He sprints over to him, frantically telling him what he saw, “Drakthar, I found Sharn, he was down in a sewer and killed someone from the Cult of Chaos, follow me now”.
Drakthar doesn’t hesitate for a second and follows Xander. They make it back to the alleyway with the manhole cover and they descend into the sewers.
Xander lights a torch at the bottom. It illuminates the hallway and they notice no one is there. They look at the walls and notice mosaics depicting the desert God, Gwyn. As they walk over to get a closer look, they both feel a shift from below them. They instinctively get down just as arrows fly above their heads.
“This place is trapped?” Xander asks then immediately concludes given the arrows.
“Appears to be,” Drakthar agrees, thinking it is also odd for a sewer below a major city like this to be dangerous.
“It’s too risky to be here by ourselves, we need to leave”. They follow Xander’s suggestion and head back up the ladder.
“Are you sure Sharn was down there?” Drakthar asks suspiciously, wanting to be certain what Xander is telling him is true.
“Yes I saw his sword, it was most likely him... unless someone else has a sword just like his. But what I’m more curious about is why he was waiting down there for the priest. I mean, he had to have already been down there so it’s not like he was following him like I was,” Xander speculates, trying to figure out how Sharn would know the priest would be there.
“Maybe he knew of a Cult of Chaos meet up point and was trying to kill as many of them as possible. His motivations are fine, I don’t think he is our enemy so his intentions matter little,” Drakthar calmly reasons, not reading anything nefarious from Sharn’s actions.
“Yeah, but you should have seen how he was approaching me before I rewound time. It looked like he was going to kill me,” Xander shudders as he recalls that moment and the intense pace at which Sharn was approaching him.
“Rewound time?” Drakthar catches him. Xander’s eyes suddenly get really large, he let slip something he shouldn’t have.
Maybe telling Drakthar is okay, he is a friend right? Xander thinks to himself as he contemplates letting Drakthar in on the entire story.
He is reluctant but ultimately decides to, “Okay, I’m only telling you this because we are friends. I can turn back time, it’s an ability I obtained during my time as a priest of the Sacrosanct Empire along with the ability to switch objects like those from the Cult of Chaos in purple robes”.
“You come here to spy on the desert?” Drakthar asks, now skeptical of his supposed friend after learning of his past.
“No, I hate the Sacrosanct Empire. They took everything from me. Let’s just say they want me dead just as much as anyone from the desert. The plan I was working on there fell apart so now I am stuck here,” Xander recounts, grimacing from his memories from when he was in the Sacrosanct Empire.
“Can all Sacrosanct priests rewind time?” Drakthar asks, not having heard of anyone having that sort of ability.
“No, it’s just me, apparently the reason I was framed and almost killed is because they claimed I stole the technology that allows one to manipulate time, but I have no clue how I got it,” Xander admits, a lot of things from his past still uncertain to even him.
“Well, one good thing is they don’t have it anymore,” Drakthar points out in consolation.
“But they might, the scientist who developed all of these things is still there. With him, they control the distribution of this sort of technology. That is the part that is confusing though, how did these Cult of Chaos guys get the Sacrosanct Empire to willingly give them their technology? I guess they might be working together, but why? It doesn’t make any sense,” Xander tries to figure it out, unable to find a reason an empire would care about gangs in Melusarej.
Drakthar tries to get him to move on, “Don’t dwell on it. You cannot discover anything that way. When we enter the sewers the day after tomorrow we’ll learn more”.
“Yeah, you could be right,” Xander half-heartedly agrees with Drakthar, knowing they probably won't learn anything.
After an eventful night, the two of them go their separate ways, hoping to finally catch some sleep.