Private Tales Blood in The Slums

[Ivo Coppercrow]

The cold swells of late autumn had swept over the Allirian strait, and the Areck’s least fortunate had become haunted. People go missing all the time in the outer city’s slums, but the past month had taken a toll on its populace. The residents of Alliria were even more terrified to go out at night than usual, and rumors of all varieties flowed through the city as liberally as gold and blood.

Some claimed the undead were responsible, and others thought demons had been summoned to wreak silent havoc upon the city.

Ivo Coppercrow first learned of these rumors upon paying a visit to an old friend, only for his prospective host to turn up missing. The Templar’s new recruit was quick to go searching the streets only to discover windows shuttered and barred. What few taverns had stayed open were awash with gossip and pale-faced fear.

The young Templar had been pursuing leads for a solid week, and he was running out of hope. When the rumor mill spat out that an old widow had been hearing odd sounds at night, he figured, hell, it was worth a shot in the dark.

Achates

 

[Achates]

“That’s all you know?” A shorter half elf woman inquired a taller human male. The man nodded his head and shrugged towards her, then quickly made an excuse to leave. It seemed the people of this town didn’t want to discuss anything that wasn’t pleasant. As the man walked away, Achates leaned against the wall of the alley they had been talking in. The quest seemed to have gotten a cold streak, only after a week.

Reaching into her small bag, she pulled a journal that she had been taking notes in from these meetings. His testimony had nothing new, he just said the same thing as the others. After reading her notes she decided it was time to pay a certain widow a visit.

Widows and strange noises never bode well. Usually the widow was the cause of all the supernatural that occurred with these types of cases. Shoving her journal away, she adjusted the leather coat she wore and headed towards the widow’s cottage that was on the edge of town.

The half elf sighed softly, “Why do the widows who hear unnatural things always living on the edge or outside of town? Why can’t they live in a brightly lit part of town?” Achates continued down the road and mentally ran through several questions she was going to ask, also offer services to help banish whatever was ailing her poor ears.

Ivo Coppercrow

 

[Ivo Coppercrow]

Ivo scratched a brief note across the vellum page of his personal notebook. His 'pen' was nothing much to speak of, merely a blunted stick with a quill's head on one end. "And you said these are coming from, ah, 'below the road', madam?" The Templar glanced away from his note, 'Rats in the walls?', looking back to the woman seated across from him.

She was old but not worn, adorned with the frail frame of one who didn't do an awful amount of work in her prime. "Please, dearie," the old maid said, placing a small saucer before Ivo upon which sat a steaming cup of tea. "Gwynethe will suffice. No need to mind your manners-- It's been an awfully long time since I've had company, I'll have you know!"

"Right," the young man responded, smile stretching into an discomforted grimace. "If that's what you'd prefer, ma'am."

The rest of their exchange went by quickly and uneasily, and Ivo finished off his tea without learning half as much as he'd hoped to. Noises coming from below the streets themselves? It was an odd claim, to say the least-- Perhaps 'Gwynethe' had merely been starting rumors to attract visitors. In any case, the Templar noted that her word mandated some level of investigation given the dry status of his other leads...

Ivo pulled his leather coat on tighter against the cold as he left the widow's squat one-story home, though the cold winds of seaside autumn managed to slice against his face and neck nonetheless. The young man nearly ran squarely into a fellow investigator as he swung the door shut behind him, thankfully stopping his momentum before he slammed headlong into the pointy-eared woman.

"Oh, pardon me--" He spoke without thinking, casting Achates a brief glance before recognition settled in. It wasn't the first time they'd run into one another, given that they'd been hunting the same few and far between leads for days on end. Ivo sniffed back his pride, giving the half-elf a short nod and a tired smile. "Good evening. Figure I'll spare you the time-- She claims there's 'skittering' beneath the paving stones, but she'll take half an hour to tell you such."