Ch.11: Problematic

The massive Iron gate that was the entrance to Dolor slowly raised open, as if to welcome his arrival. As soon as it had lifted up enough, Lorean was almost run over by a massive horse drawn cart as well as serval fierce looking men on horseback. The cart itself was more of a huge cage, the floor littered with chains and shackles.

<Dolor certainly has seen better days>.

Lorean walked in and the enormity of the place hit him like a ton of bricks. Before him was a huge circular cobblestone courtyard. Along the edges a ramshackle of shops, buildings, and market stands where all clumped and cluttered together, some even stacked on top of one another going up 3 or even 4 stories. Bridges and walkways connected different buildings some even spanning across roads that connected to the courtyard. This was all accompanied by a cacophony of sounds and smells from a huge swarm of rough looking people of all shapes and sizes. All moving about buying and selling, trading, fighting, drinking and even stealing on occasion, all without any cause for worry. Lorean tried to focus on the task at hand but the impact of it all was making his head spin and Grimly wasn't fairing much better.

"Stay close Grimly, we don't know how people here will react to a goblin". Grimly gave a knowing nod and lifted the shield he'd been carrying over his head.

**Now we need information** Lorean Thought to himself.

**Hey Darkling can you hear my thought?**

There was a brief moment of silence as Lorean stood in the crowded market, waiting for a response from his minion.

**Should tha master wish it, if shall be done milllord. My will be your own, what is thy command milllord?**

The Darklings sharp accent bounced around I. Loreans head but it was strangely comforting in this overwhelming place.

**You said you where good at information gathering right?**

**Of course milllord, what do you wish to know?**

**I need you to go out and find any information on laboratories within the city, probably hidden, any leads are good**

**Absolutely milllord, I'll throttle tha information out of em if oi ave to**

**No No No you can't be seen**

**Ahh good thinking milllord, incognito, quite the strategist you are milllord. Should you need of meh just oller**

Lorean felt a weight lift from his shoulders as he noticed a strange dark shadow leave his shadow and then disappear.

As Lorean continued to wander he noted the many roads and paths that shot off deeper into the city with more of the same architecture following.

<Look at this riff-raff, this place has gone to the dogs.> Wards said gruffly <Sure Dolor was a deplorable place when I was alive, but it was still under the control of the Empire and a established military outpost. This, this is just a mess>.

**I wonder what happened then?** Lorean thought to himself. Now that he was here he couldn't get distracted he needed to start looking for information himself. But where? That was the question.

As he walked down one particular dusty road there was a large clearing in between several of the buildings, in this cleaning sat a huge red and black carnival tent. Out in front of this tent was a large wooden stage, a crowd had gathered around it and when Lorean made his way through to see what was going on, what he discovered made his blood boil. 5 people where lined up bound and shackled in chains, wearing nothing but simple sack-cloth clothing. On the far right was a tall, strongly built woman with light greyish-green skin, long black hair and a pair of small fangs jutting upwards from her jaw. Next to her was a short half goat half human young woman. Her short curly golden hair wrapped around 2 small curved horns that came out of the top of her head.

Tears welled up in here big blue eyes and dripped down her freckled face. Beside her was a medium height dark skinned man with a bright orange mohawk and glowing orange eyes, one of his eyes was almost swollen shut and based on the rest of his appearance Lorean suspected he had been recently beaten. Next was a medium height woman with light green hair with small pointed ears and bright yellow eyes with sharp dilated pupils. Her skin was white as snow and shimmered in the light almost as if it wasn't real skin at all. Last was a tall lizardman with light sand color scales with patches of muddy brown here and there. Short spines poked out from the back of his head and travelled down his back. He resembling that of a bearded dragon of sorts. A man on stage started shouting and listing out prices and people started shouting back offers

"1.5 for the Half-Orc!"

"2.4 for the Satyr!"

".80 for the lizardman!"

"3 for the Golemoid!"

"4.5 for the Demi-Human!"

"No! 3 for the Satyr!"

"Here! 5 for the Demi-Human!"

**This is a Auction!? Those are people!?**

Lorean's thoughts where racing and his body felt like a inferno, he was about to start tearing the place apart from sheer rage. When the Warden intervened.

<Calm yourself Lorean though it may be distasteful slavery is a very legal practice. Disrupting a slave auction is a extremely punishable offense>.

**So your alright with this!?**

<Of course not but this is the way things are, when I was alive Dolor's main export was slaves. It seems the only thing that's changed is that the Empire is no longer running the slave industry here.>

**This isn't right, who gives these people the right to do this?!**

<Unfortunately this is the way it is. Unless you are one of the Prime Races, life as a slave is almost a guarantee>.

**Prime Races? That's sounds good extremely racist.**

<That's because it's is, Humans, Elves and Dwarves have held the positions of Prime Races for centuries. Simply because there society's are far more advanced then any of the other races>.

**Thats horrid**

<That's life>

Then from out of the crowd a booming voice called,

"15 for the Lizerdman, Demi and the Satyr". Lorean turned to see who spoke, and saw a tall Lizardman in a brown cloak, he had brown scales resembling a Komodo dragon except for a bright red dorsal fin in the middle of his head and the bright red spots under his eyes. The crowd parted as he strode up to the stage. The auctioneer began to shout,

"15 for the Lizerdman, Demi and Satyr going Ounce!..." the crowd went silent "Twice!... Sold to Ketsulk!"

The slaves where escorted off the stage by even more cloaked Lizardman that appeared seemingly nowhere.

Ketsulk walked up to the auctioneer, and unlatched a small coin pouch from his leather belt. Lorean could see that he wore brown leather armor that covered only his legs and shoulders. He placed the purse into the auctioneer's hands.

"15 gold pieces, no more no less"

"Thank you Ketsulk, please give your master my regards and tell him his business is always greatly appreciated" the auctioneer gave a toothy grin.

"I shall" Ketsulk gave a final nod, then rejoined the other Lizerdmem and disappeared down a ally.

The crowd began to murmur.

"What a idiot, he paid way to much".

"Pfff Lux is loaded, that always happens".

"Shit We needed that Satyr so bad".

"Damn lizards shouldn't be allowed to buy slaves".

"That bastard bought all the hot ones".

"What a rip off, I'll never make my quota now".

Lorean began to make his way out of the crowd as the auctioneer began rattling off prices for the remaining 2 slaves.

"What was that all about?" Lorean whispered to himself.

<Likely a master sending slaves to by more slaves for him>.

"What a scumbag, I can't wait to be rid of this place".

Several hours passed by as Lorean carried one walking down the various streets, constantly checking behind him to make sure Grimly didn't get lost and stoping only briefly to peer into various shops and stands full of weapons, armor and other nik-naks. People definitely didn't give the reaction to Grimly he thought they would. Mostly they just gave disgruntled stares and made faces, but aside from that people mostly ignored him which Lorean was perfectly fine with. As they walked Loreans thoughts began to wonder

**Hey Ward, how much is a gold piece?**

<Gods save this ignorant Dwarf, for he doesn't know what basic currency is worth>.

Lorean growled irritatedly.

<Well oh ignorant one let me enlighten you. Copper is the bassist currency, with 100 Copper coins being equal to 1 Silver and 100 Silver coins being equal 1 Gold coin>.

**hmmm so 15 Gold coins is a lot of money?**

<Yes that is a massive amount of money. But I wouldn't know what slaves go for, I have no interest in those types of things>.

Lorean was deep in thought about this so he didn't notice the man walk up behind him a slap him on the shoulder.

"Eh you!" The man shouted gruffly. He was a big man, wearing ragged leather and chain mail armor. He was bald and had a poorly trimmed handlebar mustache, a turn bandit if Lorean had ever saw one. "Y-yes can I help you" Lorean said not quite sure how to talk to him. The man walked around Lorean looking him up and down.

"I don't recognize you, and if I don't recognize you It means your new, and if your new it means you go see the big boss first. You can do your 'shopping' afterwards".

The man gestured for him to follow. Lorean felt following this man would be a good idea, the last thing he wanted was to make a scene in this kind of place. They were silent as they walked, down dusty roads around corners, past more slave auctions and up and down large sets of stone stairs, likely part of the original architecture. Lorean had quickly become lost. Eventually they came to another massive wall with large open iron gate in the center of it. More rough looking guards where posted at either side wielding long iron spears. Through the gate was a small round courtyard similar to the one at the entrance of the city. This one had several large tents in it, men where hauling boxes and cages into them and Lauren could only what imagin horrors where in there. At the far side of the courtyard there was a huge set of stairs going up into the fortress. A man sauntered down these stairs followed by several goons. The man who had been leading Lorean about gave a quick bow and began speaking.

"Lord Thagg, this is a new bloke I seen wandering the streets. So I figured I'd bring him here to see you". The man eyed Lorean up and down.

"Good job return to your post".

With that he gave a quick bow in response and hurried off.

Lord Thagg approached Lorean slowly, eyeing every inch of him. Like a cat watching a mouse.

He was tall and wore fine leather and chainmail armor, with animal skins draped around his shoulders his arms were bare with several gold bracelets on his wrists and gold and silver rings on his fingers. A razor sharp steel axe dangled loosely from his belt on one side and a beautiful ornate gold crown hung from the other. He had long matted blond hair that hung loosely behind his back and his eyes, they were the eyes of a predator. His blue eyes shown with as if he was looking at a mountain of gold.

"Do you know who I am?" His voice was gravely, loud and authoritative.

"No" Lorean answered quickly

"HA well now you do!" He slapped a huge hand down on Loreans shoulder.

"I'm Lord Thagg and I'm big shit round these parts...." his voice became very serious as he leaned in.

"And now tell me who the fuck are you and what are you doing in my city". He pulled his hand from Lorean's shoulder and took a step back as if expecting a awnser.

"I'm Lorean Shell an.."

"HOLD ON, that's a fake name. You know we really just met and lying to me right off the get go would be a really bad start to this relationship".

"It's the truth that's my name Lorean Shell".

Lord Thagg put a hand on his chin and gave Lorean another ounce over.

"Well then let's suppose that's what you call yourself, people around here ain't gonna trust someone with a name like that, you'll go by Shell from now on. YEAH! that's it perfect. I give you the honor of being renamed by Lord Thagg himself. Your welcome. Now you still avent told me why your here, speak quickly lad before I loose my patience".

The newly named Shell thought for a moment, then held out a clenched fist and spoke menacingly.

"Retribution"

"BWAHAHAHAHA!" Lord Thaggs hearty laugh echoed across the courtyard. He slapped one of his goons on the shoulder.

"HA! did yeah hear that, he's here for revenge HAHA! Oh mercy me a man after my own heart he is. Revenge, well you've come to the right place for that sort of thing. But most importantly.."

Lord Thagg leaned in close to Shell again as if to peer into his soul.

"Revenge is a motive I can trust. Welcome to Dolor. You have yourself a grand fucking time".

He patted Shell on the back and strode off towards one of the big tents, his posse following close behind. Shell was about to leave, when Lord Thagg sun around and shouted back.

"I'm having a VIP only auction tomorrow, you should come. Might find something interesting."

Shell waved thank you and headed off. The sun was setting as Shell exited through the inner wall. He went up another set of huge stone stairs off to the left, they led up to a large balcony attached to the inside of the outer wall. Shell took a moment to enjoy the sites, the majority of the city was visible from here and Shell took in every bit of the chaotic beauty that was the city of Dolor. As if to bring him back to reality their was a familiar weight on his shoulders followed by the feeling of being watched.

"Darkling" Shell spoke coldly

"Gooday milllord" the sharply accented voice echoed from Shells shadow.

"Oi believe oi ave found what you are looking for milllord".

"Well done Darkling"

"But milllord gaining access may be problematic".

"Show me".