Starday Evening, Fireseek 1, 591 Common Year

Rain eventually ventures back to her former home in the shantytown of refugees, orphans, and escaped slaves from further south just outside the downriver gate. All her life, Rain has collected mementos in the form of pebbles and small rocks as reminders of significant events and stages of her life. She currently owns a small stone she playfully stole from her brother when she was very young (he let her keep it) and a small black pebble picked up as she was leaving her village a lifetime ago. She keeps these in a small pouch in her backpack. So Rain goes back to say goodbye to the shantytown – and to collect a pebble.

It is dangerous to come down here in the early evening, for this is the twilight period between the hours of daylight and the absolute dark of night. In this murky period of sunset, fog, and lamplight, the denizens of Westkeep make their way from backbreaking labor or desperate scavenging to the respite of the inns, taverns, gambling dens, and brothels. In the shadows lurk the cutpurses, and even cutthroats, that prey upon them – including Rain’s former gang. But Rain knows which routes to avoid, and her hope is that while the gang is at work in the city proper they will have left the shack she lived in with them deserted.

After all, she thinks, if I saw them what would I say? I’d like to tell them of my change in fortune, and maybe the opportunity will allow at some time in the future – but not now. Now it is best that they think I am gone, dead, whatever; best for me and them.  

Norebo (the god of gamblers and thieves) seems to smile on Rain, at least at first. No one is in the shack when she arrives. It is really just a small cabin with a dirt floor, a fire pit, and a thatched roof with a hole in the ceiling to let out smoke. Moldy straw is piled around the room with coarse burlap thrown over them for blankets. Some crusty old wooden bowls and utensils are piled up in a corner by the firewood, as well as a rusty tin pail for carrying water. Rain quietly says her farewells and looks about for a suitable stone keepsake. Just as she finds one and pops it in her pouch she hears footsteps approaching and the chattering of a monkey.

 It must be Dion, she thinks. Dion is one of the members of her gang, probably no older than Rain, and also rather small and scrawny. He used to be an inmate of one of Westkeep’s brothels until the Scarlet Brotherhood finally caught up with it and closed the place down when they were still occupying the city. He has the face of an angel but marred by lewdness, and bravado. He shaves his head except for a strip of raven black hair that he keeps oiled and spiky, in imitation of some Amedi tribe. His eyes are a piercing crystal blue though shadowed with sadness and now filled with cunning. Rain has seen for herself how he can play up to a mark, coming off as quite boyish and charming, even conjuring a feigned innocence. Rain has also seen a crushing despair and sadness overcome him as he silently murmured prayers to any good god or power that will hear him when he believed no one was looking. He is convinced that he will someday be cast into the Abyss for his sins, and yet knows no other way to survive, and despite himself a part of him enjoys the depraved life he has been forced into. His constant companion is a little monkey named Cyrus that was a gift from a client when he was working in the brothels. Of all her former companions, Dion is probably the one Rain least wanted to run into again.

She hears him outside, just outside the door, “Who’s there?” Dion calls.

Rain had grown a fond affection for Dion and attempted to protect him over the past couple of years, treating him as a younger brother. She will miss him when she leaves, but for now she silently moves to a dark corner of the room and draws her cloak about her as Lady Sedara taught her. Hopefully, she will be overlooked if Dion peeks in and only takes a cursory look around. Then, if he moves on, great – she will slip out when she can. Otherwise…

Dion creeps in cautiously with a dagger in his hand, though Cyrus bounds into the room chattering happily to see that Rain is back. Dion quickly scans the room and spots her easily enough. A survivor like Dion is always alert for those hiding in shadows. “Who in the Nine Hells? Rain? Is that you?” He lowers his dagger just a bit.

“Hi Dion,” Rain replies stepping out of the corner and letting her hood fall back.  

“By the gods, where have you been?!” he shouts, and then more quietly, “We thought, well, we thought you were… disappeared.” He sheathes his dagger and looks at Rain with a quivering lower lip and moist eyes, but he blinks away his tears and in a fierce tone asks again, “Where have you been? What happened to you?”

Rain approaches him slowly and says softly, “Things have changed for me, Dion. I am okay, but I need to leave the gang now and move on. I wish you and all the others well. I will miss you all. In fact, I will miss you the most. Take care of yourself. And tell the others goodbye for me.” As she says these things, Rain realizes that she really means it, but this does not at all change her resolve to leave and not look back.

Rain steps past Dion, or tries to. Dion swiftly grabs her arm as she heads for the door and shouts, “Wait! You can’t just walk out like that! How can you not wait for the others? Don’t just run out on us again. You owe it to them, to me, to us, to tell us what’s happening with you. We’re supposed to look out for each other – or who else will?” Then Dion feels the hard boiled leather vambrace on Rain’s forearm and he lets go and steps back. Then he notices that she is fully dressed in armor, for the cloak doesn’t fully cover her as she whirls back to face him.

“What is this? What have you been up to?” Dion says amazed and even a bit awed. “You’ve made some kind of connection haven’t you? And you don’t want to let us in on it? You conniving little bitch! What are you into? Tell me at least! Don’t you owe me that much at least?”

“Watch yer tongue with me Dion” Rain says sharply, then calming down she continues, “You are right. I do at least owe you an explanation. I need to get out of here, out of this city, out of this shitty rat hole. Something did happen to me and I thought I was dead, but I was saved instead. And this has brought me hope. Something I have been without for a long time Dion. And this is not something I can share. I wish I could, but I can’t. It’s personal, something I have to do on my own. This isn’t like a stack of gold I can share with you all. It is my own personal journey over which only Norebo has dominion. Please let me go and wish me well.”

Dion gets a hold of himself, and more calmly he says, “Fair enough I guess. So you’re not going to stick around to say goodbye to the rest? Leave me to do your dirty work then as usual eh? OK. But there is something you should know. Rinya’s dead. She died, shortly after you disappeared.”

Rain is shocked to hear this, Rinya was an orphan girl, a year or two shy of womanhood. Her parents were among those who were “disappeared” during the reign of the Scarlet Brotherhood. Rain had made her part of the “family.” Rinya was like a fragile bird, she had long platinum hair, sky blue eyes, and a smile like sunshine. She was also one the best cutpurses and fruit snatchers in the whole family. And she was generous to the point of starving herself at times.

“I’m sorry Rain. There was nothing we could do; we tried to save her. It was those gods damned High and Mighties! (High and Mighties: the epithet the ‘Keepers – citizens of Westkeep – use to derisively refer to the Keolanders.) They announced that they would provide healing medicines and divine healings to those afflicted by the Filth Fever and Red Ache at their chapel in the temple district. But of course they would decide who would receive healing and who would be turned away. Those cocky bastards, setting themselves up to decide which of us will live and which will die. Anyway, we were having none of it. When we realized what they were doing we rushed the priests and paladins. We knew whoever could grab hold of them would be healed. If we wanted a lottery we would go to Norebo’s temple, but Heironeous is a god of fairness right? He and his owed his healing to all of us, and if his priests and paladins wouldn’t give it we would take it.

“Anyway, Rinya was sick too, that’s why she was there. She was too weak to go herself so Cole and I carried her there. Livya and some of the others wanted to just leave Rinya in the street for the Watch to pick up – or not. That’s how afraid we all were to catch it ourselves. But Cole and I figured that it was too late for us anyway, if we were going to catch it we would, and if not, then not. So if we could get Rinya healed, maybe all of us could be saved. But as I said, when we got there – well it was bad. The clerics and paladins actually barred the gates of their chapel shut, some of the others ripped a post out of one of the ruined temples and they used it as a battering ram. Then the Guard showed up and started laying into everyone with clubs. I wasn’t going to stand for that, so I slipped behind one and gave him a taste of this.” Dion grins and whips out his knife, but then he looks abashed and puts it away, and continues on more glumly. “That’s when they drew their swords on us. Everyone panicked. It was a stampede. Rinya… gods Rain I’m so sorry… Rinya fell… I tried to grab her but… she didn’t have a chance Rain… Oh gods I’m so sorry!” At this Dion begins sobbing helplessly and collapses against Rain. 

Rain’s face turns to stone, and anger boils in her eyes. “Who killed her Dion? Give me details. Was she trampled by the watch? Did one of them strike her? Give me a face. I want every detail”.

“No, it wasn’t the Guard.” Dion looks down at his feet. “It was the mob. Everyone was running and screaming. She got knocked down and trampled by the others. I could barely keep to my own feet. I… I ran. I had to. Everyone was pushing and screaming and there was nothing I could do! I swear it Rain! I went back when things had calmed down. There were a couple of other people, lying in the streets as well. That’s when I saw Rinya. The guardsmen were about to chase me away, but I begged them to let me through. I told them Rinya was my sister. I don’t know but I might be able to recognize who they were.” Dion stops for a moment to collect himself and then presses on, “Her neck had been broken. One of the clerics or perhaps paladins from the chapel was kneeling next to her. He looked at me. He told me he was sorry and that there was nothing he could do and then walked away. I heard one of the others say to him something like ‘It’s not your fault Sir Jankin.’ Jankin! That was his name. The rest I might be able to remember if I saw them. But it was his fault. It was their fault – all their fault!” Dion begins sobbing again. When he stops he looks Rain in the eye again and says, “They offered us healing, and then when we wouldn’t play by their petty rules they beat us down! Well, you may have made some deal to get out of here, but as for us we’ll make our own deals. We’ll make them pay, all of those High and Mighties. You just wait and see. Mark my words Rain.” 

Unbidden memories rise up in Rain’s tempestuous mind after hearing of Rinya’s death.

As a little girl living in a manor house overlooking the sea she used to go down to the beach with her brother to swim in the river. She remembers a young Olman woman, her father’s maid perhaps, shouting at them to not swim out far and to watch out for alligators because they would look just like logs floating in the water. She remembers the bonfires at night and the songs of the Olman and Amedi slaves at the end of the day. The former were dark and the latter were freckled and tanned with curly auburn hair and blue eyes for the most part. They spoke different languages and kept apart, but got along well enough. She remembers how cheerful they seemed to be, but beneath it she could sense a different current. They would dance and sing in the firelight, using stringed gourd instruments that were struck with a stick, tambourines, a wooden rasp, an instrument that looked like two cow bells joined together that was struck with a stick, and sometimes a small drum. As they danced they would dodge in and away from each other, strike out with their elbows, and kick out wildly. Those days were sweet, like the sugar cane treats that she and her brother would occasionally be allowed to chew on.

Then another, darker, memory comes. The first time she had ever seen nonhumans, and the last time she saw the old manor house – at least from the inside. Men in red robes came with a band of what she later learned were orcs. They told her father that the Amedi slaves were free, and that for the crime of daring to enslave pure Suloise his lands were confiscated. They were to be gone by the morning or they would have to face the wrath of the Scarlet Brotherhood of the Kingdom of Shar. Rain remembers many days of begging and sleeping outside after that. Finally they found an out of the way shack in an all but abandoned fishing village. The previous occupants of the village had been chased out, taken away, or just killed outright. Soon others came to join them, other dispossessed Holders from Westkeep or other villages. Some of them were freed Amedi slaves who declined to join the Shar legions and were told they could become tenants of the land now owned by the Shepherds (the Scarlet Brotherhood territorial governors) who were the new rulers of the land. She was maybe 10 years old at the time.

Rain remembers entering Westkeep after murdering her father. At first there were still orcs and goblinoids patrolling the streets. She was eventually taken in by her new family, the children of former Amedi slaves, and former Suloise blooded landholders who for whatever reasons had been left alone because their skills were still required or because they had made a deal with the Shepherds. Others, obviously Oeridian blooded Holders like Dion, kept to the slums and the tenements that the Scarlet Brotherhood and their brutish allies had not yet cleaned out. At any time, however, they could be found by orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, or Amedi warriors patrolling the streets and dragged away for questioning. Those taken never returned. Nobody was really sure what happened to them, but occasionally a barge would be sent downriver loaded with slaves and perhaps other captives for Monmurg or beyond. The rumor was that those with Oeridian features would be sent away as slaves, while those of pure Suloise features would be sent to breeding camps overseas. Rain realized that she might very well end up in the latter group.

The year after that, Rain remembers that the orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, and many of the Amedi warriors left the city. They were being sent to Monmurg and to the western reaches of the Hold where the countryside was in arms. The revolt hadn’t reach Westkeep apparently, though many Amedi warriors and their kin deserted the service of the Scarlet Brotherhood and as far as anyone knew disappeared into the swamps. The few remaining were no match for the Keolanders when they showed up the next summer. Rain remembers how astounded everyone was that King Skotti, led by his rangers, had dared to bring an army across the all but trackless morasses of the Hool Marshes. She remembers watching from the roof of a tenement the many barges and rafts that the Keolanders had built to cross the Javan River. Catapults flung burning pitch against the walls and levees and drove away the few Amedi warriors who remained to defend the city. Within hours the Amedi warriors had abandoned the city, not prepared to fight the paladins, knights, and rangers of King Skotti of Keoland. The Scarlet Brotherhood monks led by Elder Brother Krozar, the Shepherd of Westkeep, also fled, through secret tunnels that Dion had showed her some time before. The mysteriously waterproofed tunnels led from the ruins of the Locksmith Guild (razed by the Scarlet Brotherhood many years before) to one of the manors outside the city. It is assumed that Elder Brother Krozar and his monks (male and female) either died in the marsh, or found their way to Monmurg where they may still be holed up with Elder Brother Hammandaturian.

Rain begins to calm down a little after hearing the full story and reflecting upon her own experiences. She admits to herself that as unwelcome as the paladins, rangers, knights, and other Keolanders might be to the long oppressed citizens of Westkeep, their brutality never comes close to that of the orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, Amedi warriors, and monks of the Scarlet Brotherhood. She even begins to be able to see the event from the side of the Keolanders; and is actually surprised to find that she does not blame them for the event. The rules for dispersing the medicine were most definitely wrong to cause such a riot, but it sounds like this Jankin had shown true remorse for the event. She knows she must find him and ask his accounting of the event. Rain is confused. It has only been what? A month with these High and Mighties and already I am taking the time to consider their side, she reflects. A sudden revelation occurs to her that brings both somber mirth and an empty pitch-black feeling in the pit of her stomach: she is caught in the middle, and not just from this event which killed Rinya, but maybe in terms of this whole occupation. ‘I believe you may have the talents and ability I require,’ those were Lady Sedara’s words. Is this what she meant? I need to get back, to find and speak with this Jankin.

Looking Dion in the eyes Rain says, “Dion, thanks. Thanks for telling me. I had to know. It sounds like their methods of distribution lead to the riot, but I can’t see that killing a sick girl was their intent. I am going to look into this and do what I can. I won’t let it go; but Dion, I want you to do something. You need to step up now and help lead the gang, help yourself and everyone else to survive the shit that’s come to this city. Don’t go leading everybody off to get killed, especially yourself. Please, can you do that for me?”

Dion looks up again at Rain, wiping away the tears from his eyes. He squares his shoulders and pulls himself together as Rain bids him to lead the group in her absence. “I thought you would blame me Rain. Thanks, I don’t deserve your confidence; but I promise: I will look after the others. I won’t let you down, and I won’t lose anyone else. We are still your family Rain. Please, if you find out anything. Let us know. We will see you again won’t we?”

“Count on it Dion, my path divides from yours now but you will see me again. If you have to lead the gang away from here, leave me a note where I can find you. Bury it in a can in this corner here. Give my love to everyone and explain to them what you will. I will see you all again.” She kisses Dion on the forehead and leaves, quickly making her way back to the barracks.