l ( Vdiimon and Jankman)

[Vdiimon]

Though the city remained its overcrowded, industrious, noisy self there was a tension in the air that one could cut with a blunt knife. Despite the river of colored head cloths and the barking of stall hawkers she could pick out the guards, whose numbers had increased dramatically. A breeze swept up dusting everyone in a thick coat of red-gold sand that this region was notorious for, from her vantage point Ivy watched the merchants scramble to protect their wares from the dirt. Above the crowds a bird soared through the bright aqua sky, Ivy squinted at the bird pulling her own head covering forward to shield her eyes from the blaring sun," Blasted summer...its too hot." she grumbled. Her emerald eyes scanned the crowd again as if searching for something, or someone.

She knew that eventually she'd have to move amongst the crowd and she nearly grumbled again, she'd rather avoid the attention she always garnered in these big cities with the humans, especially out here in the desert where anything non-human besides the animals were few and far between. Motion above caught her eye as the bird dove between the buildings not to far off and Ivy sighed," Time to go..."

[Jankman]

"PLAY THAT FAST ONE AGAIN" shouted the noisy drunkard as he pointed his mug in the sky, pouring all its contents to the floor.

Merrik hated when people did this. This is why he never accepted bar gigs, but he was is need. The Wask Desert was a tough place to establish any kind of firm footing. He had no family and no friends within 100 miles of him. Plus, the people here didn't appreciate the finer aspects of real music. It seemed as if this entire dirt scab of a city was ran by mostly ignorant thugs and thieves. As ruthless as this assumption was, Merrik was pretty much correct. Asperlode had fallen from a noble trade city to a corrupt home for bandits and thieves. It has recently been considered the black scar of Valderia.

The young bard hated replaying pieces. He considered bad taste to take requests during his intended set. However, Merrik felt like any conflict between him and the drunken man would result in utter chaos. "Alright, sir! Here ya go!" His fingers began to glide through the fret board and his voice carried out the ever so famous Crescent Anthem. By the end of the second verse, Merrik exclaimed "Sing along if you know the words!" The entire bar joined in (horribly out of tune) and danced to the catchy chorus. The drunken group of people had evolved into a crazed dancing party that was fueled by the workings of this one lowly bard. Just as he was about to strum the last chord, a shrill scream echoed from outside. The party was over.

Everyone quickly dropped their food and drink to peek out of the windows in hopes of determining what had just happened. Merrik softly set his lute down next to his chair and pushed through the groups of people. The air in the room was still. Upon getting the chance to look outside of a window (adjacent to a booth of sweaty sell swords), Merrik's heart dropped to his feet.

Outside was a group of men in blue cloaks. They had arranged themselves in a small semi circle. In the middle: a woman weeping on her knees.

"Please, dont do this! I'll have the money tomorrow! I promise!" The woman was in a frenzy. "I've been busy! Just give me till tomorrow!"

The men that circled her remained silent. They all adorned bright blue cloaks that seems to reflect the brightness of the sun. There faces couldn't be seen. One man that was station in the middle of the half circle wore a bright gold and red necklace. This particular man answered the woman's pleas. "The priesthood never forgets."

The man nodded towards one of the men on the right hand side. The man at the right lifted up his hand and a green light flew straight from his palm to the woman's head.

At that second everyone in the bar and various other people from the streets began to swarm the blue cloaked men. Merrik witnessed what seemed like 50 men flock in a herd to protect the woman. As the group closed in on them, each one of the of the cloaked figures dissipated into blue mist.

The woman, frozen in time.

[Vdiimon]

It had happened in a flash, there she was just walking down the street singing," Doo wah diddy diddy dum diddy doo." keeping to looking as normal as possible keeping to the hint,' Blue blue.' in mind as she scanned the crowd and then a blood curdling scream echoed down the street. Then like cockroaches when one opened the door, the crowd surged towards the direction of the scream. Just barely half of everyone else's height Ivy got knocked around quite a bit for a moment. But once she regained her balance she manuevered expertly through the throng, ducking beneath legs and squeezing between bodies as the voice,' Blue, blue' continued to shriek in her head, she thought,' That's what I get for picking a goshawk...'

Just barely, through many layers of people and movement she saw it, the barest edge of a bright blue cloak and then it was gone, leaving behind nothing but blue tinted dust. Just as she got near the front of the crowd she spotted the woman," Damn it...."

Ivy was now pretty damn obvious as she was only 3 feet 7 inches tall and now standing at the front. Though the tan cloth wrapped over her shoulders and head to protect from the sun well enough hid her identity, she was still a gnome in a town of humans. The rest of her was clad in worn leather armor, accented with dusty burgundy over an off white cotton shirt with half sleeves ( to the elbow), fingerless leather gloves and tan breeches that sort of ballooned out before tightening at the ankle, solid leather slippers adorned her feet. An outfit meant to allow her to slip unnoticed and blend in with the various degrees of the color brown of the city.

[Jankman]

From the rowled up crowd, 4 of the few Asperlode guards took control of the situation. "BACK AWAY, NOTHING TO SEE HERE!" One of the guards grabbed the frozen woman and put her over is hefty shoulder. The other three formed up behind him and proceeded back to the station.
Merrik was petrified. Everyone else seemed to have shaken off there rages and sat back down the tables. It had seemed as if these people were used to this sort of thing. He slid back to his tiny makeshift stage, making sure not to pass out. Ohmygodohmygodohmygod. He attempted to casually sit down and tune his lute for another piece. The show DOES have to go on. When he had finally gained mental control of himself, he announced "This next piece is for you couples out there!" He playfully chuckled when he realized the main contents of the tiny bar was nothing prostitutes and sell swords. He began to silently pluck out a smooth melody in D minor. Now he was himself again. The Ballad of Richard Barrok had a way of soothing his soul. As he began to do a short improvisation he began to listen to the various conversations floating around the bar.
"She was dumb to do business with the blue priests! Hell, she deserved. Dumb broad."
"I heard she was in the process of paying her husband's fines...poor woman"
"HAH! Look at the gnome wrapped in rags, my dog would use her as food!"
"Blue priests? What are they doing here? Damn clothies. I bet that poor woman was trying to reverse the aging process....Time is a force no one messes with!"
Merrik wrapped up his concert and grabbed his pay from the goblin bartender. "Thanks for the business!" The goblin turned his nose up at him and went back to his work. The young bard walked out of the small bar and cursed under his breath when the heat bore down on his shoulders. I could have easily spent 2 more hours improvising. As he turned to the direction of his small apartment, he felt a force knocking him back. As he looked around, he couldn't see anything in his path. When his eyes were cast down from the glare of the sun, he noticed a small gnome wrapped in rags at his feet.

"SORRY!"

[Vdiimon]

Ivy had nearly been knocked over by the bard, shading her eyes with a hand she looked up at him," If you can't keep your cool it'll be best if you leave this place." she narrowed her eyes and peered at the man," Drink more water...you're paler than a ghost." She grinned at him, and despite the grime and dust that coated everyone her teeth were surprisingly white. " Listen...do not mess with those men in blue, they are bad news and a plague on this world." she didn't know why but she felt like she had to warn the man, who seemed either new to the town or just naive. Above the pair the goshawk screeched and Ivy tilted her head up further and watched for a moment. She immediately frowned and turned without another word, pressing through the crowd the way she had come.