Welcome to Gaia! ::

Grayin spread the parchment before him on the table and took out a knife, a rather nice knife, but not imbued with any enchantments. It was merely the medium for which he would cast this next spell. He pricked his thumb and dropped a bead of blood from the tip onto the parchment. It splattered, and then very oddly all the spidery veins of it slipped back into the bead.

The sudden flare of power marked the theif as a mage, power uninvoked by symbols or words.

"I'm creating a map for us to use. For it, I will need a drop of your blood. Within that drop of blood will be every location you know, and it will mix with mine to form the ink."

He passed over the knife to Menarus and absent mindedly went on.

"You see, we know of the thief you speak of. He came in half mad and jibbering about a book. The problem though, is that the thief in question did not have a book with him. He in fact had been mugged and was chasing someone else. Unfortunately, we don't know what became of the book. We do have people following this thief."

Grayin took the knife and drew a small arcane symbol in the blood. It glowed for a fraction of an instant and then spiderlegs shot out at an incredible pace. The blood formed lines which formed topography as the parchment became a map with landmarks relevant to the blood's host's knowledge.

"It's standard procedure, even outside the guild, for a theif to talk to the guild representative when he comes into town. If they have any goods to sell, we give them a better price than half the fencers out there. As for the other question, this map is yours."

The blood had dried into the shape of an incredibly accurate map. Grayin slid the paper over in front of Menarus.

"The map itself will not lead you to the man you are looking for, but I will show you where he was headed. This map will also show disturbances that you may not be able to feel as you are now."
Grayin reached over and tapped the map heading towards Barton. A small town Menarus had never seen was highlighted there, presumably from Grayin's memory. It was marked as "Hennesy" and was about halfway to the outskirts between them and the capital.

"This will show you where to go. But I don't think we are done quite yet. You see... a thief wouldn't try and take this sort of thing unless he already had a buyer. I think its a fair warning. Someone else may have taken it from the thief, but there could be another party involved."

"Menarus. Keep one thing in mind."

Grayin leaned once more against the wall.

"Without your book, you don't have the same powers. You aren't going to be able to do this like you normally would."

Grayin tossed a coin marked with an X over a crest.

"Take this coin. It marks you as a debted to the guild. You need any help, and that coin will get you what you need."

The people of Drack did not pay attention to the undead man in their midst. Nor did any of the people of the other villages. Menarus travelled for an amount of time and finally reached the borders of the country of Barton. Here would be his first true hurdle since acquiring the map.

The Checkpoint.

Magic Users and the Undead may have been common in the Gambino Islands to the north, but in Barton, That was a rather different story. The Magic users in Barton were not as wild as the ones in Aekea, much less more progressive such as the technical magi of the Aekean kingdom.

The guards of the Gate started at the stranger's actions. Barton always had a garrison at the gate villages, but they were strictly supposed to keep the peace, but in the Aekea side they weren't paid enough to interfere. They still rattled their swords though, as they drew them slightly and made sure the blades would not stick in the scabbards. Even if they didn't get paid enough, much more of this would cause an open revolt centered on the stranger. They recognized him for what he was too. Undead.
Trouble in otherwords.
But if he had legitimate business and the right papers, they were duty bound to let him through..

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Within the crowd, the peasants eyed the gold piece. Most of them had to work a great deal of time to get that much. The borgeious were well off, even if they weren't rich, and adventurers often carried as much as them. The few beggars and muggers scattered in the crowd saw the coin, but they felt fear at this stranger. Nobody recognized the coin either. Nobody here at least.

"Dead... heh. What an Ironic choice of words."

A tall man limped behind Menarus, strangely silent except for the dragging of his foot. The man was massive, but there something slightly off about him. Obviously the man was a warrior, sheathed in armor and sword.

"I take it you want to do something.... Follow me in 5 minutes to the Inn. We'll talk."

The giant man waves as menarus come in.
"Over here you gray little man."

The large man sat once more and waited until Menarus had done the same. His swords were sat next to him in the booth and he himself looked oddly wedged in. Even in this light, there was something subtly wrong to the eye about the man, perhaps the way that he moved or his skin, but it was an odd little thing that never quite made its way to the surface.

"You. I saw you flashing that coin out there and the way you beaned the kid. You sure an undead should be drawing attention to himself this close to a gate?"

The Big man suddenly broke out into a booming laugh that did not subside for some time... and drew the attention of several of the patrons.

"M-My lifespan? ooooh... that's a good one. I take it you must be new to your condition, either that or never look in a mirror. Boy, I am the same as you. Rotting corpse flesh made animate. I'm a higher undead same as you."

Suddenly the big man's demeanor changed to one of slight menace.

"And if your damn fool actions start a hunt, you'll be the first to revisit their death. I don't want you bringing the peasant's down on me too, cause damned I will be if I end up the second victim."

The man shook his head as the bar wench brought them both bad ale and foul food. The giant didn't seem to mind the taste, or perhaps he couldn't taste and he swilled and gobbled with the manners of a boar.

"Now, ways I figure it, you gotta get on the other side of the gate. Well same with me, and if they find out we're undead and don't got their precious papers, we end up worm fodder. So what I'm proposin is an alliance till we get to the other side of the gate."