“Fucked. Completely fucked…” Andro Wick was shaking his head in disapproval as he and his two companions followed the thin drow through the night. The drow was not very tall, compared to Andro and So-Nobu, but had this menacing air about him nonetheless. He was dressed in much finer attire with materials that glistened in the moonlight that resembled a fine silk or velvet. Much of it draped and whisped behind him as he walked, as if tauntingly giving a wave to the three lesser fortunate behind him. You’ll never afford luxury like me. You will always be filthy street urchins and con artist rats! Charlie’s eye twitched at the thought of faux-silk garments heckling her lifestyle then focused her attention on the ndmark ahead.
It was a rge building, or at least it was once many years ago, that looked as abandoned and hopeless as a building could be. It stood on the edge of the Market District and the Outskirts, just on the opposite end of where their cart full of hats resided. Two rge wooden doors were fixed upon this decrepit, old unit and they seemed more in shape than anything else about the building. The building had a tall gss observatory (or arboretum based on the pnt populous that was escaping through the shattered gss window pieces and slithering all over the exterior walls). The sky was dark now and the moon was about a half crescent in the sky. It was just enough light for them to notice that the dipidated structure was in fact being occupied. They all looked and focused on a shifty figure in what appeared to be robes, looking through a gap in a rge window near the front doors. The window was clearly boarded up, and not exceptionally well at that, but the gap between the boards and broken gss was just enough to see two eyes shining dully in their direction. The robed figure moved away from the window and could no longer be seen.
The drow moved forward toward the structure without hesitation and even lightly hummed as he went along. This only added to Andro’s already disgruntled disposition as he was visibly (and audibly) showing signs of discomfort and rage towards this gesture. So-Nobu was the first to notice Andro’s disposition and was thereby the first to react when he saw Andro about to bark at the seemingly unaware drow elf. Just before Andro could speak out against the drow’s nonchant behaviors, So-Nobu gave a generous shoulder nudge to Andro’s shoulder. It wasn’t enough to knock him off bance or draw to much attention, but it was enough to snap Andro out of his tantrum (though not entirely as he continued to stew and mumble obscenities under his breath.
The drow didn’t turn around to face the three followers as they reached the steps leading to the doors of the building. “Wait here.” The drow vanished in a puff of bck mist which quickly dissipated much like So-Nobu had when he appeared in front of the two thieving children earlier that day. They stood there at the foot of the steps for a moment. Then two. Then longer. They were getting restless and started looking around, though they noticed nobody or nothing in particur. This building was just off to the side enough in an area that nobody really inhabited, especially in the evenings, so they were (or at least they felt) alone.
“Charlie,” Andro began to speak, but his focus was on the building. His tone was calm if not a tad empathetic. “If there is something we need to know before we go in there, I really think you should just tell us.” His gaze was still fixed on the building’s observatory (arboretum?) and Charlie turned to look at him with very questioning brows.
“Excuse me?” Charlie paused with her mouth agape, but Andro kept his face serious and his stare fixated on that observatory. Charlie continued, “If I remember correctly, I was the one staying with the cart all day while you twowent off to take care of some “business”.” Charlie’s fingers made air quotes while her eyebrows danced a fancy fmenco of emotions.
“Charlie, did anyone approach the hat cart that seemed suspicious?” So-Nobu asked.
“More suspicious than two giggling children stealing our coin? Cuz’ she didn’t see that, Nobu. She didn’t see the most obvious suspicious thing happening right in front of her, so why would she notice anything more suspicious than that?” Andro was refusing to change his dead stare at the building as he continued speaking. “All I’m saying is, if you need to say something then just say it now. You owe us that much.”
“Why do you always think that I’m responsible for things going wrong? What is your problem with me Andro?” Charlie turned completely and faced Andro now.
Andro broke his concentration from the house and turned to face Charlie now, So-Nobu standing awkwardly between them scrunching his shoulders in to try and appear smaller. He did not, in fact, seem smaller.
“I don’t think you’re responsible for everything that goes wrong Charlie,” Andro gave an arrogant smile as he spoke, “I just think you’re irresponsible.” He emphasized this word as he often did when tossing around insults.
“You are such an arrogant, pompous, smooth-brained, low T, disrespectful,” Charlie was not stopping what she was saying as Andro acknowledged each word with a nod or an audible “uh-huh”. “—out of shape, undereducated, socially awkward, pig-headed, fucking…” she built up the words and took a breath. “PUDDLE SLURPER!”
Andro no longer looked amused or dismissive towards her words. Andro was locked in as soon as he heard those two words. His eyes narrowed, his brow dropped low, his fists clenched revealing the whitest of knuckles on such a dark-skinned person. “Say it again…” Andro’s teeth were clenched tighter than his fists and were becoming visible as his face contorted into anger. Charlie, however, did not waver but rather met his scowl with a scowl of her own.
“Oh yea, I said it. You’re a fucking puddle slurper. Born in a puddle, probably die in a puddle. You know what? Fuck it, you are a puddle. Just a walking, talking puddle who slurps puddles all day. And those puddles are probably filled with dirt and piss and cum and—” Charlie’s words were cut short as Andro finally gave a cry of rage and fixed his hand up next to the side of his head. His fingers took shape as if they were gripping a ball or crystal orb very tightly, but there was nothing being held. Just then, little droplets of water began to accumute and swirl around inside his shaped hand. It grew rger and more furious with it’s swirling until it nearly filled his entire grip.
“Andro, please. Find your calm. Andro?” So-Nobu sounded pleading at this moment as his position between the two was being retracted by force and volition. Andro’s other arm was moving So-Nobu to the side, and Nobu did not rally against the motion in any way. Charlie, on the other hand, did not flinch or move. Her eyes narrowed further, “Do it, puddle sipper.” She spoke through her teeth, seemingly prepared for whatever may come next. Andro’s eyes were tinted with madness and rage, as he cocked his water-summoning hand back ever so slightly. He paused only for a moment before jolting the hand towards Charlie. In an instant, the water released from his hand like a bullet. The water struck the ground by Charlie’s feet with a loud thud. Looking down, So-Nobu noticed the water was no longer a loose, liquid substance. Rather, it was a jagged block of ice jutting out of the ground. The ice looked like a giant spike with many other smaller spikes protruding from it. Enough to kill someone perhaps, if not horribly disfigure them for life. Then again, they would have to wait for it to melt if they were that lucky.
Charlie did not flinch during any of this. She stood there meeting his rage-filled eyes. “That’s what I fuckin’ thought. Puddle sippin’ bitch.” She spoke with a speech you would find amongst certain crowds in the urban side of cities. A very different tone than her normal, whimsical cutesy speech. So-Nobu finally realized he was breathing heavily and was perhaps the most concerned of the three regarding what just transpired. He attempted to calm himself, but failed as he spoke exasperatedly, “Ok. Ok everyone let’s just…calm our thoughts and minds and pretend like we are all friends. Yea? We need mental and emotional fortitude for this meeting, yes?” So-Nobu wasn’t even convinced that he was saying these things for them, but rather for himself. Charlie still stared at Andro who was puffing his shoulders up and down with his breaths. She widened her eyes, pursed her lips, leaving just the smallest opening between them and made a long, drawn out slurping sound. Her head almost vibrated while she made this gesture.
Andro closed his eyes and spoke more calmly this time, “At least I know what I am…” So-Nobu looked at Andro in this moment with subtle surprise. Charlie ceased her slurping sounds and drew back slightly. Her lips curled up in a confused, disgusted expression. Her eyebrows did no dancing. Her shoulders went limp as she slowly straightened up and faced back towards the two doors they were bound to walk through any moment. Andro turned and faced the doors as well as the two of them fell into a battle of silence. They both seemed reflective of the words the other tossed out, but neither one showed it too much.
So-Nobu looked back and forth between them with just his eyes before saying, “I am thinking, maybe we should knock?” He gave a momentary gnce to the both of them as if asking for their permission, though he knew they would not respond. He turned and walked up the steps towards the two rge old doors. The doors had rge bck hinges on the sides, with metal framing around the edges that was warped and rusted. The doors themselves were built with rge, thick pnks of wood that stood tall and vertical upwards of about eight feet. The handles were decorated with bck, crusty rings that were securely bolted towards the midsection of the two doors. There was no knocker, unless of course you count So-Nobu’s hand in that moment. He raised a fisted hand to knock on the rge doors, but just as he was about to do this, the door on the right slipped open. It creaked slightly as it did, leaving only a sliver to see through into the dark interior of the building.
So-Nobu looked back at the two behind him with and intrigued expression. Andro and Charlie were looking at the door opening as well, though neither one looked as intrigued. So-Nobu leaned forward a bit to peek inside but could not make out much. He shrugged and pushed the door open some more. As he did this, the other two began walking up the steps to join him.
The moonlight, what little there was of it on this night, shone only a little through the broken gss observatory which stood high in vaulted ceilings. The light shone even less through the ajar door as the three of them stepped into the building. This was not their first time entering, but they weren’t sure if it would be their st. They knew that whatever “meeting” they had with the boss would be serious. They always were. What confused them most was the fact that they had not done dealings with the boss for months. They were ready to go straight and try their hand at real sales.
They happened upon selling hats for two reasons. First, it was the least expensive bulk product they could buy at the time. They wanted to purchase healing stones and tonics (herbal remedies make a killing in Amhull, most would agree), but that was far out of their price range. In order to make money, one must spend money. So spend they did. They bought up the entire lot of hats, all assortments of them. None of them were particurly useful besides shielding from the sun and the prop accessory to your daily ensemble. And even then, these hats were really just not that interesting. They weren’t well-stitched or designed. They were just…hats.
The second reason they purchased the hats was because of an insight they all agreed upon instantly. “Everybody needs hats! I mean, think about it. It’s sunny out? Hat. You got an event to go to? Hat. You’re outside for a long time? Hat.” Andro was very punchy with each time he said the word “hat”.
“You have to impress a dy? Hat. You want multiple accessories for your wardrobe to look rich? Hat.” Charlie added with enthusiasm as Andro turned and smiled emphatically to her in agreement. They both turned to So-Nobu with their cheesy, open-mouthed smiles. So-Nobu looked around with his eyes in a panic.
“Uhh..you get invited to…uhhh…a…” So-Nobu was struggling to find the right words but the enthused expressions never left the faces giving him the attention. “A…uhhh….hat party?” A moment of silence and then, “EXACTLY! Yea, you get it! Nice one, Nobu!” They both started cheering and patting Nobu on his shoulders and back with vigor as So-Nobu’s expression crept into a proud smile. The excitement wouldn’t st as it was a well-known fact that not everyone needs a hat. Especially hats that are not fashionable or practical. It was just after their first day of making one hat sale (a sale that involved excruciating amounts of pressure it almost seemed like bullying) that Andro first uttered the infamous words, “Fucked. Completely fucked…”
As they proceeded into the darkness of the interior, they noticed the walls of the building had shelves and yers. Not just had them, they were them. The walls themselves from ceiling to floor were, at one point, shelves of some kind. Had they not noticed this before when they came through to speak with the boss? They were probably too distracted by the boss’s less than animated robed employees. The ones with the robes were very quiet and only spoke in sentences of two to three words at max. Not conversationalists, but somehow, they managed to communicate just fine. They did not know what the reasoning was behind the robes. Cult maybe? Is the boss the leader of a cult? Does he work with a cult? Andro asked these questions in his head as they walked further back into the darkness.
The darkest area was just beyond reach of the moonlight, in a corner of the interior. From out of that darkness emerged a robed figure, his footsteps could not be heard. Charlie wasn’t sure the figure even took steps at all. It seemed to just float out of the darkness towards them. The figure stopped and gave an acknowledging bow of the head towards them. It turned back towards the darkness, paused a moment and then proceeded back into it. The three followed the stranger into the darkness where they could hear the sounds of tches undoing and something opening (a wooden door perhaps?). It was too dark to see any of it happening, if that was in fact what was happening.
Normally, So-Nobu and Charlie would have little issue seeing in such darkness as their genetics allowed for them exceptional eyesight in the dark. They could normally see roughly sixty or so feet in front of them in utter darkness, much like cave-dwelling creatures would. The caveat to this was that their visuals were greyed and it often took a moment to adjust from light sources to the darkness. Andro did not have this issue because he simply could not see in the dark. Instead he often employed the help of a ntern or, if they were getting along, Charlie would summon small twinkling lights from her fingertips to illuminate the way for them. They had not needed to use such abilities in some time as they were still trying to go straight. They had a sense that this attempt was going to come to a screeching halt as they were about to meet the man (the beast) that was once their boss.
They felt along the darkness and found the opening that was made. The darkness was not a natural one, so it was no use to try and see through it, and Charlie knew better than to cast any sort of magics or illusions while in a circumstance such as this. They felt along the edges and slowly began to step down into the tunnel system that would lead them to the boss’s hideout. Each step was taken slowly and it seemed to go on for minutes until they finally started to see a glimmer of weak light in the distance. The tunnel opened up at the base of the steps and revealed a long corridor lined with a few dimly-lit nterns hanging from wooden posts along the walls. The walls themselves looked obviously sculpted by hand and not natural, and more wooden posts were squared off and staggered every six to eight feet along the corridor. The rounded tunnel joisted by the squared-off wood posts made it look like an access to a mine, but there would be no sense in doing any digging down here. Anything worth finding would have surely been scooped up by the boss himself to add to his collections.
The only other thing of note about this underground corridor was that every twelve or so feet, was a door on either side of the tunnel. Just a standard wooden door with a handle and hinges, fixed to the wall. The seal around these doors seemed air-tight, so there was no telling what was behind them without venturing through them. The three hat sellers found the robed figure as soon as they made it to the base of the steps and continued to follow it. The lights of the nterns stood still as they walked along. Their shadows would run up ahead of them, lose pace, fall behind and disappear only to reappear once again in front of them as the ntern lights cast their glow in the corridor. After a minute of walking, and less doors as they proceeded, they noticed ahead of them the rge set of ornate doors. These were much nicer and well-kept than the ones on the front of the dipidated building they had entered to get here. They approached the doors, but were stopped by the robed figure who, without turning, put up a halting sign with his hand. They all stood there in silence for a few moments. There were no sounds coming from the other side.
Charlie tried extra hard to listen but could hear nothing. Instead, she noticed something that she had not while walking down the corridor. For a moment as they were standing there, the lights on one of the nterns to her right flickered. It danced in spasms before straightening back up into its calm demeanor as the others had. Her eyes showed curiosity under her cocked, furrowed brows. Her focus was shifted when the rge doors began to open inwards. The lighting in the room beyond the doors was much more brilliant than the corridor, but far from blinding.
The room is filled with all kinds of valuable inventories such as ornate tables and decorative vases. Invaluable pieces of art and décor are zily scattered throughout the rge room, though their majesty is smudged by the ambience and disorderly appearance. Much like the tunnel, the room has been carved out of the rocky ground underneath, but instead of wooden posts, there are a few scattered stone pilrs with intricate designs at the top and base portions. The room stands easily an extra 15 feet taller than the corridor and at least 90 square foot wider around. The cacophany of mismatched and mispced trickets and statuettes offer no order to the room whatsoever. But their focus is not on the treasures scattered about. Their focus is on the rge, beastly creature in front of them.
A very rge-bellied, multi-armed creature sits in a net-like hammock. His face and body are covered in some sort of metal armor apparatus. His many eyes glow pale blue behind a metal mask that also looks as though it has a breathing apparatus attached to it as well. He is easily the size of the three of the hat sellers combined, if not the weight alone, yet he sits hovered over the ground with an almost grace about him. One of his five arms (where was the sixth?) was raised up next to his face twiddling with something between his fingers. His eyes are fixed upon the three, and through his mask, a raspy, gargled voice croaks out.
“So. How are my three best employees enjoying the fruits of their bor? Hats, isn’t it?” The expression on the face could not be seen due to the stagnant expression of the metal mask that hid it away. The raspy voice was pyful yet unnerving. He continued, “I am not much of a hat person myself. But perhaps the twins could give it a try? I’m certain it would be a nice accessory to their matching ensembles.” At this moment, two rge creatures emerged from either side of the room. They had somehow blended in with the rge trove of scattered treasures that they went unnoticed by the three. The creatures had skinny, insectoid legs and feet that pronged into two cwed toes in the front and one in the back. Their torsos were covered in a rounded shell carapace armor piece that had many long, thin spikes protruding from the back. They looked like porcupines from the waist to the neck. Their necks were long and thin and held their rge insect like heads which bulged outwards from the eyes. They too were wearing masks but these were far more revealing than anything the rge boss was wearing. They had four long skinny, but toned, arms. One pair worked in tandem to hold a long spear that appeared to have a full blown dagger at the end of it, while the other pair lie limp at their sides.
The two twins walked to either side of the rge spider-like creature and stood silently looking at the three still standing just inside the doorway which was now shut.
“I am sorry, but we don’t have any matching hats in our inventories. But we can put in a request?” Andro spoke sarcastically and showed little to no emotion on his face. The rge spider creature gave a belly-filled chuckle.
“You hear that boys? I’m afraid no hats for you. Guess we will have to come up with some other way to make you look like fucking idiots, eh?” The boss spoke to the twins but stared at the three, still fiddling with something in his fingers by his face.
“It’s been a long day, Spider. You said you needed to speak to us so let’s hear it.” Charlie piped up impatiently. Andro gave her a quick look out of the corner of his eye and then back to the Spider.
“My, my Charlie. It seems that this entrepreneurial ego has gone to your head rather quickly. Need I remind you of where you’d still be if it weren’t for my...” Spider paused a moment looking for the right word. “Benevolence?”
So-Nobu speaks, “What she means to say, Mr. Spider Sir, is that it has been a long day and we have much to do. We do not wish to waste your time or our own. Time is a precious thing, so we should use it preciously.”
“She knows what she meant to say, So-Nobu. You needn’t speak to me like an infant. Spare me your analogies and parables. Those would be a waste of your precious time after all.” Spider spoke with a mocking smile. So-Nobu fell quiet and looked down at the ground in awkward reverence.
“Very well. Let’s just get right to it. You all have a failing business venture and you need money to keep it alive. Hells, you need money to keep yourselves alive at this point. I have a small favor that I need you all to do for me.” The Spider now began to lean slightly forward towards the three.
Andro immediately spoke, “We aren’t in that business anymore. We had an agreement. No more shakedowns. No more supply runs. No more escorts. We aren’t hired muscle anymore. We just sell hats.” Andro cringed slightly after hearing himself say it, but he knew this was true and what he wanted. What they all wanted really. They wanted to go clean from the days where they would collect on lowlife suckers who needed a loan. They wanted a break from escorting “precious cargo” which was really just wagons filled with more treasures that the Spider so desperately did not need. They wanted a normal life where they didn’t have to bleed or cause bleeding. But Andro couldn’t help but cringe at the fact that a life away from that meant a life selling hats. At least for now.
The Spider chuckled again, his belly bouncing up and down as he shook. “And I intend to honor our agreement, Andro. This is a simple errand. No muscle required. Easiest pay you’ll make in some time. Unless…you all aren’t considering doing a big discount day for hats tomorrow are you? I’d hate for you to lose money on the advertisements for it.”
“Our answer is no.” Charlie spoke with conviction as she began to turn around and leave for the doors.
“Three hundred gold pieces.” Charlie froze hearing the Spider’s words. “Each…” Charlie turned around at hearing this. Her brows were exceptionally questioning.
“You all know I’m good for it. And like I said, no muscle required. Easiest coin you’ll make all year.” The Spider leaned back in his net-webbed hammock and folded two arms over his belly, fingers intersecting. The three stood silent in thought then looked at each other. So-Nobu spoke up, “What would you have us do?”
