Factions
They stopped at a decently built stone shop near the gates, and the Noble called out a group of servants to collect his purchases. It was only one load for the burly troll, and the well-dressed man vanished inside with one last polite nod towards Karl.
He seemed to be in a hurry to be out of sight, but that might have been because he was overdressed for this part of town, and he wasn't wearing armour.
As strange and run down as this city was, they did need some sort of trade goods to take along the road with them. They could keep just doing donations to the needy, but that was more of a church mission, and it would seem odd for a powerful merchant to go along with it.
The options in the city weren't great, and most of the vendors goods made the ramshackle stalls look like they were decent quality.