Welcome to Gaia! ::

You could have gone all the way around the world and there would always be one constant thing you would always find. It wasn't suffering, it wasn't war, it wasn't even civilization.

It was towns like these.

Amidst the organized chaos that was the center of this trading outpost, not more than twenty feet away from the' auction house' sat a small booth. Well, booth wouldn't have been quite the term to give to the stall this particular human had set up. It was more like a jerry-rigged desk, no more than two crates pushed together with a large piece of wood on top to serve as a writing surface. Scattered atop the top of this desk were a variety of papers all of which were covered with a shorthand scrawl that only the writer was supposed to be able to read(at least in his own mind).

"Two falchions..." and the man dipped his pen into his vial of ink, giving it a firm shake to make sure it wouldn't drip before writing down a small note on his current sheaf of paper.

Flch. x2

And that was just one of many, as the list appeared to be quite populated, despite there being a distinct lack of people lining up to order from him. Business was slow for Raymond Ambercombe today. With a sigh he would set his pen down and gather up all those loose papers forming a crudely organized pile which he shoved under the only other adornment for his quaint little stall, a small wooden box. No wind would do him harm today, hopefully. Rubbing his palms across his eyes Raymond would slowly get to his feet, his legs needed stretching out lest they fall asleep. Up from his stool and out from his little post to check his sign, which was no more than one of his sheaves of paper with the heavily inked word Acquisitions in as bold a font he could muster. Ideally it would catch the eye of someone more interesting than the local sellswords, or else he didn't stand to make a profit from this current venture.

"Where's me pipe..." he spat out, patting himself down in quick, erratic bursts in hopes of obtaining one of 'his' most recent purchases. He had had a nice pipe, finely carved and decorated even inlaid with a bit of silver! But he had run afoul with goblins some time back on the road and had gotten it stolen from him. It was a pity, but he had finally gotten around to replacing it, albeit with a much less elaborate design.

"Ah, there we are!" he exclaimed as he pulled the pipe from the inner lining of his leather vest along with a small tin of tobacco leaves, quickly returning to his crate-seat so as to begin stuffing it up. A few leaves were all that he pushed down into the pipe with his forefinger before he struck a match along the side of his tobacco tin, lowering the small and flickering flame in whilst puffing in on the mouth end. Finally it took and he was in business as far as his bad habit was concerned, small rings puffing our from the corner of his mouth. Now all he needed was some real business!

The only thing Raymond could do was quirk a brow when what he assumed was one of the ever mysterious Drow entered his little shop area, biting down on his pipe a bit when she opened her mouth to speak. He listened as she spoke, exhaling a puff of smoke from the corner of his mouth before taking his pipe in hand and setting it down on the makeshift table. He gave her one more quizzical look before issuing forth a deep chuckle.

"Aye, well there are certainly more lethal things out there than an unbreakable habit. Most people in this town, for example." and he got a whole lot more serious after that, clasping his hands together in front of his face. He was brooding on what he might be able to gain out of this, and then it hit him. She might be exactly what he was looking for, provided she was trustworthy.

"Tell me lass, how well do ye speak your own tongue? I hope it's passable enough to converse with the rest of the Drow you may or may not have contact with. On the same note...how good is your eyesight and how well do you know the Underdark?"

Raymond wasn't looking for a bodyguard, he wasn't looking for a hand in his travels. He needed a guide to get him down to some of the major Drow cities. He needed someone to help him establish what would be a gold mine for him, and that was a semi-permanent trade arrangement with a major ruling house. To do that however he needed to get there first, and he needed someone to translate. This woman might have been his ticket to early retirement.

Now Raymond had even gone as far as to reach for his own map, which probably wouldn't have quite matched up, however she had beaten him to it. His also wasn't written in blood, which did unsettle him ever so slightly, but at this point it made little difference.

"Oh that's easy. I've gotten word of a major trading house based in the Starless Sea, which would be the logical choice considering most trade is based out of there. I don't have a deathwish or anything, so you won't have to worry about guiding a human through that spider cult's lands." he chuckled and grasped his pipe again, the tobacco still burning. He had that wry smirk on his face, as if his evil plan was coming to fruition. He had no evil plan, but he had a greedy one, and he sorely hoped that he could make this deal go through. It was rare, if ever, one saw a human merchant succeed when dealing with the drow, mostly because the drow were either not interested in dealing with "human swine" or the humans never actually made it to any particular settlement.

"So the deal is, you take me to the Starless Sea and help me arrange a meeting with this particular house. If you need to you translate for me. If everything goes well you and I start up a nice little business line between me and them and you get paid. If everything goes well you might also get a nice permanent job out of it, if it would suite your fancy." and with that he stuck the pipe back in between his teeth with a clack.

"That's it. I can leave shortly if you so prefer, however I do need to pick up a couple of sun-rods and maybe some cloth from my torch. It's up to you."

Ray switched his pipe from one side of his mouth and the other, taking one last look at the map before turning his head away. He did indeed worry about the things that went bump down in the depths of the Underdark, about mind-flayers and strange and exotic beasts. However he also assumed that the route to a large trade city would be somewhat secure, because nobody wanted to try and risk their life to even -get- to their intended trade destination. Most merchants were not fighters in this regard and conflict tended to foul the inner workings of business up.

"No road is ever really safe nowadays. Be it bandits or goblins or something in between, I guess we'll just have to tread lightly and be quick about our way." and he set his pipe down again so that he could organize all of that paper from before. In a very haphazard manner Raymond would shove the sheaves of parchment together into one chaotic pile, eventually making it into some sort of square so that he could shove it into one compartment of his bag. For a brief moment the journal he kept was visible to his drow associate, but it quickly vanished when he closed the flap. In went the box with the scale and in went his pen and ink. Truthfully that was all he had to pack, as everything else was already stored away.

"Oh lass don't we all wish we could afford such magical trinkets. We have our wits, that'll do." An obviously lie, but Raymond was saving his gold for something far better in his mind than some silly trinkets he would find little use for if he ever grew old. No, Raymond was cheap and relied upon whatever he could find. Any magical items he had even been traded or found he had bartered off in order to turn a profit. Once he had considered investing into enchanting his saber, but he had shot it down when he found his weapon to be of too low a quality. Once again, he would make due. Up his bag would go, fitting snugly over his back, and back his pipe would go into his mouth.

"Very well. I shall collect my final things and meet you..." he stopped to think of where he could meet his female companion. "Just outside the main gate." and with that he gave her a curt nod and exited, leaving his table-stall empty for the next merchant to use. He was in luck however, in that he had browsed some of his fellow merchant goods and already knew who sold what at what price. Sun-rods? That was the hairy gent with the gray beard, the alchemist. After a small exchange of words and the jingling of a few coins Raymond was three sun-rods heavier, oh and one thunderstone. You never knew when you might need something that helped with a quick escape. The stone would sit nicely in the pocket of his pants, the rods would be stored in the side pocket of his bag. Magical flares? Check. Magical stun rock/grenade? Check. Lighter money belt? Oh yeah, check. He was down to only a couple gold coins and some silver bits on his person and he was far far away from his stash but he wasn't worried. No, as he said if this went well then he wouldn't care if he had to eat only stale bread for a week. Regardless he was on his way towards the gate now, finally.

She moved her hand back and forth, near her lips. Her eyes were inviting, lips open slightly. She licked the overly sweet bread. Human slaves shifted behind the bars, eyes locked on the small morsel.
Yasril smirked she pretend to enjoy the smell, while really she was enjoy their looks of hunger. Oh, the joy of it all. She thought hesitating just before her mouth. Some of the foolish creatures were openly drooling, while look to be a trance. She chortled under her breath.
"Ya'll wants some don't ya?", She said and some were foolish enough to nodded. She nearly rolled her eyes, but this was just enough entertainment to hold her boredom at bay. For now, anyway. "Really? ya sure?"
She held it out toward a pair of slave, who had to be new. The other had realized her game. They had seen her before, now it was their turn to enjoy the gulible newbies. Yasril chortled again, though her lips didn't move to reveal the smirk she was fighting to keep off. Her hand reached towards the cage as if to hand over the piece and then her hand blurred as she flung the overly sweet piece of bread towards her mouth. "Sorry,it wouldn't be good for ya's character."She said while she munched on the piece.

A creak of a wheel, clang of chains, and...Yasir is teasing the slaves...again, Pharryn thought as he leaned against the store near the slave pens. His eyes were shut against the dying Sun. Which still bothered him, if he wasn't wearing a cape or shaded hat.
He sucked on his teeth and then said, "Stop teasing them. I don't want to want to have to clean up a slave riot. I might kill a few and we don't have the money to pay for their corpses."
His voice was clip, but then it almost always was.

Pharryn's mind isn't blank often, but at the moment it was busy trying to keep up with his partner.
"Wait...What do you--No I don't know. Yes, but...The others do left us." He gave up, and just let her ramble her way through her maze-like speech.

His eye were closed, but he could hear her motions, the soft swoosh of her clothes, even the soft padding of her feet. As alway she caught him, by moving her face so close he had to open his eyes.
He wasn't sure what expression he had, but before he could say anything. A cough, drew their attention to a small figure.

The figures hand was a glowing rolled up parchment. Pharryn knew what it was, a magical message. A message was written in one message shop and sent magical to a similar parchment elsewhere. This parchment would glow brighter as it neared its destination. It was hard to fool those things, if the creature the message was for had any magical ability.
Clear it was for him, for the figure in black shoved the thing at him. "I believe this is your, sir..."

Pharryn ignored the dislike and took the scroll as Yasril moved towards the
messenger. Pharryn almost felt sorry for the thing, but then his attention was on the message.
He could read and he had even taught Yasril, too. The problem was that he was a slow reader. Which meant Yasril had a longer time to play with her new toy.
"Yasril get your stuff and meet me at the gate. You got your 'change. You," He pointed at the messenger who was trying to move away from Yasril. "will take me to the message shop."