NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Iron Sky" data-source="post: 5163896" data-attributes="member: 60965">Session 30, Part 6 Harold wrapped an impromptu bandanna around his face to keep out the choking smoke that lay thick like black fog in the streets.  The scarred soldier and half-a-dozen others followed close around him.  He first thought they were there to watch him, a strange foreigner in a place where apparently foreigners didn't really exists, but by the way they looked out into the fog with their weapons ready, he realized they were guarding him. “Is there something out there in the city?” he finally said, shouting over the clank and chug of a massive three-chimneyed smoke-billowing building. The scarred soldier pointed at a passing wagon full of fish.  A full dozen guards stood around it, weapons ready.  “The city is dangerous.  Its over-crowded and the people are hungry.  They're also suspicious of anyone who looks unusual, like, say, you.” “So they think I'm from this Charst place?” “Or worse.” “Worse as in...?” “Did you see the ward-strips covering the walls on your way here?” the soldier said, turning down a narrow alley. Harold nodded, keeping a sharp lookout now.  “I saw them, I'm assuming they're there to keep the Fae out?” The soldier looked at him with a quizzical expression.  “You know of the Fae?” Harold nodded again.  “I've met with the Hollowed One bef-” Suddenly all his escorts had stopped, their weapons leveled at his chest.  “You have had contact with that... thing?” Harold raised his hands.  “Hold, hold! I didn't ask him for anything.  I've heard of how his promises work out.  I don't want anything to do with him... with it.” The soldiers stared at him suspiciously down the sights of their weapons for a while longer, until the scarred one lowered his and motioned for the others to lower theirs.  “The Lady said she wanted to see you and the Fae Hunters said you weren't Fae so we'll continue on.  I'd suggest not mentioning the Hollowed One again.” They continued on in silence for a while, broken only by the occasional broken cough of one of his escorts, shouting and sounds of violence down a couple streets that set his escorts on edge, the metallic clang and scrape of what his escort called “factories,” and the strange hum of the unnaturally bright white street-lights. “This is the Black City, correct?” Harold said as they passed through a wall and began slowly making their way uphill. The scarred one shook his head.  “This is Gleam, owned by the Hadral family.  Black City is further to the east.” “This isn't the Black City?” he said, his heart sinking.  “This Hadral, she has power in the Black City too?” His escorts laughed.  “The Hadral family has a Bank-granted monopoly on magic.  They own most of Gleam.  You could say the Hadral family has power.” “The Bank?” They came to a stop for a moment as he asked that, the soldiers looking at him in surprise as though he had asked what air was.  “The Bank technically owns everything, but the families of the Council hold most of it through monopolies granted by the Bank.  Supposedly the Council and the Bank are supposed to be separate, but everyone knows that that's just a story." The fog began to thin noticeably and a while later they came out of it entirely.  Ahead, crowning the top of a tall hill, was a massive, sprawling estate, gleaming with golden opulence and ringed by immaculate gardens and fountains, the vast grounds surrounded by an iron-wrought gate with cleanly-dressed heavily-armed guards every twenty feet. When they reached the elaborate, silver-wrought gates, his escort stopped.  “The 'house' of Lady Hadral.  I leave you here.  Good luck.” Harold watched the dirty, soot-blackened soldiers march back into the fog, then turned, dusted himself off, and walked towards the gate as the blue-liveried guards pulled it open for him.  Lets hope you're the ally that the Crystal Towers is looking for, Harold thought.  Because if not... Harold wouldn't let himself finish that thought.</blockquote>

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