Fitz
12-17-08, 12:19 AM
Casting the dice upon the table I considered the current situation I had landed in. Six months ago I was pulling steady work back home. I may not have been top dog in the city but my name was out there, and me and Gurk were making steady coin. Then Gurk went and got himself pinched for some petty theft bullshit. My brother swears he’s being framed and I’m inclined to believe him. Now granted Gurk had been known as a bit of reckless sort when he was younger. He used to run with a crowd of hoodlums back in the day doing just this sort of crap, but he swore to me he’d put a stop to it when he started work with me as a hunter. Gurk’s family hells we’re all the family either of us got so of course I believed him, but beyond that my brother can’t lie to me if he wanted to. His ears always go flush when he tries to put on over.
Now that I think back to those days, even if I had doubted my brother it wouldn’t have been for long. Not once the blackmail started up anyhow. I can still smell that sniveling little gnome who served me the notice telling me my writ of hunting had been suspended pending investigation. Seems one of the city councilors had raised issue as to my association with criminals and whether I could be trusted to serve the best interests of the city. In fact this particular councilor had so gone so far as to accuse my business as being little more than a front for our families more nefarious endeavors. Of course the courts had to agree with him, after all who would believe the mongrel sons of gladiators. Clearly we were not fit to participate in the society which had produced us.
As you might expect when dealing with something so rotten, I did have to wait long for the maggots to rise to the surface. I was actually surprised the little toadstool had the brass to face me again, but it wasn’t long after my official hearing with the council that the little gnome showed up at my door again. Albeit in the dead of night this time, nothing like the parade he made of my public humiliation earlier in the week. It turned out that our mutual acquaintance, the concerned councilor, had felt simply awful about the predicament such fine public servants such as Gurk and me and found ourselves in. So much so that he wanted to try and make things right… of course such a favor would require an act of good faith on my part.
It seems that the councilor would love to help me and my brother, but the truth of the matter is that since the mysterious abduction of his young and beautiful wife he has found himself unable to concentrate on anything beyond her safety. This being the case I felt honored that he was able to pull himself together long enough the frame by brother and publicly destroy my reputation. The councilor expressed to me, by way of toady, that should I recover his wife and bring her back to him willingly or in chains and did all of this discretely of course. Then he would see to it that some other fool took the fall for my brother, heck maybe even the one who did it, and I would be officially cleared any wrong doings which I had never committed in the first place.
Now given the circumstances a bevy of possible responses to the compassionate councilor’s offer fluttered through my head. I remember his minute messenger squirming as if he could see some of the more graphic responses playing through my mind. To be honest, had Gurks life not been in the balance I may very well have given one such idea more than a fleeting consideration. The reality was, and still is that I have only one option. I have to find the councilor’s wife and bring her home.
Scooping up the dice from the table I rolled them around in my hand a few times and looked about for the waitress wondering about my meat pie and dark ale before tossing them back onto the table. So now I’ve been chasing shadows for the last several months trying to track down the councilor’s wife. After a couple of hopeful leads though the trail is cooling off and it looks like my lead is a no show.
Now that I think back to those days, even if I had doubted my brother it wouldn’t have been for long. Not once the blackmail started up anyhow. I can still smell that sniveling little gnome who served me the notice telling me my writ of hunting had been suspended pending investigation. Seems one of the city councilors had raised issue as to my association with criminals and whether I could be trusted to serve the best interests of the city. In fact this particular councilor had so gone so far as to accuse my business as being little more than a front for our families more nefarious endeavors. Of course the courts had to agree with him, after all who would believe the mongrel sons of gladiators. Clearly we were not fit to participate in the society which had produced us.
As you might expect when dealing with something so rotten, I did have to wait long for the maggots to rise to the surface. I was actually surprised the little toadstool had the brass to face me again, but it wasn’t long after my official hearing with the council that the little gnome showed up at my door again. Albeit in the dead of night this time, nothing like the parade he made of my public humiliation earlier in the week. It turned out that our mutual acquaintance, the concerned councilor, had felt simply awful about the predicament such fine public servants such as Gurk and me and found ourselves in. So much so that he wanted to try and make things right… of course such a favor would require an act of good faith on my part.
It seems that the councilor would love to help me and my brother, but the truth of the matter is that since the mysterious abduction of his young and beautiful wife he has found himself unable to concentrate on anything beyond her safety. This being the case I felt honored that he was able to pull himself together long enough the frame by brother and publicly destroy my reputation. The councilor expressed to me, by way of toady, that should I recover his wife and bring her back to him willingly or in chains and did all of this discretely of course. Then he would see to it that some other fool took the fall for my brother, heck maybe even the one who did it, and I would be officially cleared any wrong doings which I had never committed in the first place.
Now given the circumstances a bevy of possible responses to the compassionate councilor’s offer fluttered through my head. I remember his minute messenger squirming as if he could see some of the more graphic responses playing through my mind. To be honest, had Gurks life not been in the balance I may very well have given one such idea more than a fleeting consideration. The reality was, and still is that I have only one option. I have to find the councilor’s wife and bring her home.
Scooping up the dice from the table I rolled them around in my hand a few times and looked about for the waitress wondering about my meat pie and dark ale before tossing them back onto the table. So now I’ve been chasing shadows for the last several months trying to track down the councilor’s wife. After a couple of hopeful leads though the trail is cooling off and it looks like my lead is a no show.