With both eyes out for trouble, the adventurers head away from the temple and make their way through narrow alleyways and past ruined buildings. Everything looks good, the orcs seem to have left the place.
When they hear the voice ahead of them, the small group comes to a sudden halt.
“Well, well, what do we have here?”
Stepping out of a ruined doorframe a few dozen foot ahead, an elegantly dressed man with slightly tanned skin, dark hair and a mustache, wearing a rapier on his weapon belt, appears, greeting the adventurers with a slight bow.
At the same time, movements can be registered at both sides, there must be at least a dozen bandits, if not more, positioned on rooftops and behind broken walls, smashed windows, or around the corner of a house. From the sound of it, more are making their way from neighboring alleyways towards this location now.
Two come out to flank their apparant leader, one a stocky dwarf dressed in spiked full plate and armed with a morningstar, the other a woman in a long gown, who is unarmed and likely a spellcaster of some fashion.
“I should thank you, you certainly made our lives here a lot easier today. But there are certain... traditions... I'm afraid, which I cannot just overlook. One of those is, that there is a toll to be paid when passing through one's territory. A tax of sorts, I'm sure you are familiar with the procedure. I'm not a greedy man, a tithe is all I'm asking for... and I promise you, we can part like gentlemen and noone needs to come to harm.”
The fact, that the man apparantly knows about the battle with the orcs and thus must realize, that he is talking to a group of quite capable fighters, does not seem to lessen his boldness. He appears quite confident, so much for sure.
