The Shallows were full of opportunities for anyone as avaricious as Myrra was. She had been working protection rackets in the area for a couple of months now and it was turning into one of the longer term gigs she had picked up in the last couple of years. Made a lot of sense though, Alliria was a pretty rich city so the gold must've been flowing in like honey. It was pretty lucky that she'd managed to not kill Dard among the chaos of that bar brawl when she first arrived.
Dard was one of those weasely humans that you knew not to trust. He almost always wore this wrinkled and lumpy hat which sometimes earned him the nickname "hatter" from the local ruffians. His crooked smile eroded any sort of trust you might place in him and the stench of teeth... god his breath smelled like three day old onion soup. But he was good at what he did, which was conscripting whatever roughnecks and knuckleheads he could find to shakedown various businesses in The Shallows up through the least patrolled parts of The Outer City for protection. Myrra didn't know who his employer was, Dard only ever called him 'the boss', and the savvy dark elf wasn't too keen to ask further questions.
Today's job was a bit different though. Dard had spread the word among some of his local contacts that he was hiring as many mercs as interested for, "somethin' biggar than we's eva done before." Naturally, the first person he recruited was the scrawny Sharathi girl who'd been one of his most reliable hires, at least in recent memory. What made her so good was her seemingly fragile appearance coupled with that creepy water magic she had. Dard had been with her the first time she shook down a shopkeep and had seen the merchant issue a hearty laugh when the dark skinned elf insisted he was, "behind on payments." Poor bastard had ended up paying double the original asking fee after a quick demonstration of what drowning feels like.
The meeting spot was an abandoned house lined with ragged linens, rotting barrels, and creaky floorboards. Myrra leaned against one of the wooden banisters and munched on a few blackberries as Dard addressed the newest arrival, an orc clad in leather wielding a large battle axe. “So if ya dun mind I’d prefer ta go ova the plan once more,” Dard explained to the menacing orc.
“Hng,” the orc grunted, “don’t need to cover it with me, not sure why we need some little girl though.” The green skinned mercenary nodded towards the elf.
As the drow’s red eyes gleamed at this idiotic orc Dard sidestepped the insult, “dun worry she can ‘andle herself.” The de facto leader of the trip straightened his brown coat and cleared his throat.
“But I wanna go ova it again, ya prolly already heard from whoeva recruited you’s but our mark is tha spoiled brat of some noble. Dumb kid robbed from tha boss and we gots to send a message.”
Dard looked back at the dark and then walked towards the center of the room. He stretched both arms and turned back around to face both of his recruits.
“Before you’s two start killin’ the brat and his cohort though I needs ta find out who sold tha boss’s property to,” he placed a hand on his short sword and lowered his voice. “We don’t leave loose ends, whoeva bought it musta known it was the boss’s and that’s a problem. Can’t enforce rules if peoples are jus gonna break ‘em all willy-nilly.”
”Easy,” Myrra said, ”we torture the son of this noble until he gives us a name and then we end him.”
“Tha’s me girl,” Dard said with a smile, “the kid should be here soon, thinks we’s meeting for a parle with my employa so he shouldn’t ‘ave much protection wit him.”
The Sharathi woman grinned as she opened her canteen and sucked down a glug of water. This was going to be an interesting night.
Dard was one of those weasely humans that you knew not to trust. He almost always wore this wrinkled and lumpy hat which sometimes earned him the nickname "hatter" from the local ruffians. His crooked smile eroded any sort of trust you might place in him and the stench of teeth... god his breath smelled like three day old onion soup. But he was good at what he did, which was conscripting whatever roughnecks and knuckleheads he could find to shakedown various businesses in The Shallows up through the least patrolled parts of The Outer City for protection. Myrra didn't know who his employer was, Dard only ever called him 'the boss', and the savvy dark elf wasn't too keen to ask further questions.
Today's job was a bit different though. Dard had spread the word among some of his local contacts that he was hiring as many mercs as interested for, "somethin' biggar than we's eva done before." Naturally, the first person he recruited was the scrawny Sharathi girl who'd been one of his most reliable hires, at least in recent memory. What made her so good was her seemingly fragile appearance coupled with that creepy water magic she had. Dard had been with her the first time she shook down a shopkeep and had seen the merchant issue a hearty laugh when the dark skinned elf insisted he was, "behind on payments." Poor bastard had ended up paying double the original asking fee after a quick demonstration of what drowning feels like.
The meeting spot was an abandoned house lined with ragged linens, rotting barrels, and creaky floorboards. Myrra leaned against one of the wooden banisters and munched on a few blackberries as Dard addressed the newest arrival, an orc clad in leather wielding a large battle axe. “So if ya dun mind I’d prefer ta go ova the plan once more,” Dard explained to the menacing orc.
“Hng,” the orc grunted, “don’t need to cover it with me, not sure why we need some little girl though.” The green skinned mercenary nodded towards the elf.
As the drow’s red eyes gleamed at this idiotic orc Dard sidestepped the insult, “dun worry she can ‘andle herself.” The de facto leader of the trip straightened his brown coat and cleared his throat.
“But I wanna go ova it again, ya prolly already heard from whoeva recruited you’s but our mark is tha spoiled brat of some noble. Dumb kid robbed from tha boss and we gots to send a message.”
Dard looked back at the dark and then walked towards the center of the room. He stretched both arms and turned back around to face both of his recruits.
“Before you’s two start killin’ the brat and his cohort though I needs ta find out who sold tha boss’s property to,” he placed a hand on his short sword and lowered his voice. “We don’t leave loose ends, whoeva bought it musta known it was the boss’s and that’s a problem. Can’t enforce rules if peoples are jus gonna break ‘em all willy-nilly.”
”Easy,” Myrra said, ”we torture the son of this noble until he gives us a name and then we end him.”
“Tha’s me girl,” Dard said with a smile, “the kid should be here soon, thinks we’s meeting for a parle with my employa so he shouldn’t ‘ave much protection wit him.”
The Sharathi woman grinned as she opened her canteen and sucked down a glug of water. This was going to be an interesting night.
Feel free to do whatever you want here. Maybe you are showing up for the job posting Dard issued too. Or you work protection for the mark. Maybe you're a law-abiding citizen that intervenes or a deputized guard here to put an end to it. Go wild.