Lewd|Haven, Ilyamen

[Kender Bard]

"Have all your questions answered, the great mysteries of the world unveiled," the man on the side of the street called out in the manner of a man hawking wares. His robes were dirty, unkempt, and ragged sporting several patches and small holes and tears. However, beneath the dirt and grim, there was a hint of the signs and colors of a Thuothian priest.

"Copper a question, all your questions answered," he continued to intone. "All your- why hello..."

He paused his calling to watch as a young woman with a particularly tight bodice walked past his view, eyes narrowing slightly. With a huff, the woman sped up her walking pace.

"You look just as good running off!" the 'priest' called at her back. "Ah, women... Questions! Get your questions answered!"

[Darastrix]

A nearby spectator began to saunter over, hands in his pockets as he eyed the priest. He was an average-looking man, with wavy brown hair that fell just below his ears, narrow brown eyes, and strong features. His clothing was common and unkempt, but not nearly to the degree that the other man's were; his were merely wrinkled, with a button or two undone. There was a guitar strapped to his back, also not unusual in a bard guild city. But while his appearance was commonplace, when he spoke, his accent made it clear that he was not from Ilyamen or her neighbors.

"I've got a question," he said. "What the hell kind of Thuothan priest ARE you?" His tone was demanding, but his expression was more confused than anything.

[Kender Bard]

"A damn fine one," the priest remarked, drawing himself up. "I know things, sir. All sorts of things. And I'm not afraid to share what I know, even the hardest questions, for a little money to get by on, hm?"

He then stuck out a hand. "That'll be one copper."

[Darastrix]

The man stared for a moment. A copper for that?

He smirked. Two could play that game. "Well, I've been around a time or two, and I'm not afraid to share advice, so here's a tip for you: Take money in advance. And as my own fee for that tidbit happens to be one copper, I think we've just come out even."

[Kender Bard]

The priest's outstretched hand promptly flipped up into a rude gesture. "It's okay son, I understand you spent your last copper on a poxy whore. Consider my sage words as a donation to your empty mind; a drop in the bucket is still better than nothing after all. Now shoo, someone with an actual thought in their head might come along and have a serious question."

[Darastrix]

The bard snorted. "They'd probably go to the temple and ask a serious-looking priest. But I'll bite; here's a real question. A few years back, dragons showed up all over and blessed people for doing certain things. Storms got lizards that they say will turn on them if they do something like practicing slavery. It makes one think something's wrong with the practice. But if that's the case, why did Morilanta get rewards, including creatures for its own Storms?"

[Kender Bard]

Bob grinned, but was almost nasty in its form. "Well, I can certainly answer that." He thrust out a hand towards the bard and wriggled his fingers. "It's a good thing I'm such a quick study, hmm?"

[Darastrix]

Yash grinned back and flipped a coin into Bob's outstretched hand. "If you weren't, I'd say you were too stupid for your answer to be any good."

[Kender Bard]

Bob smirked and let the coin dig into his palm briefly before he dropped it into the sadly empty pouch at his hip. "Well there's a number of theories on that, some ranging in the 'uncondtionally idiotic' to 'worth giving it a thought'. I won't waste your time with the first kind since you could just go into any tavern and address a group of drunks if you're that curious. The truth is, young man, unless you were on the bottom rungs of Morilantan society you probably wouldn't have noticed a great deal of change. It would seem Morilanta was rewarded for doing absolutely nothing; this is not true. The dragons that approached them knew it would be in vain to make Morilanta play nice with others. They'd tell the Elements themselves to go to the Abyss. Most of them anyway."

He gave a quiet snort to himself at that.

"In the spirit of compromise, the dragons sought to curtail a lot of the very needless death in Morilanta. There is still some, obviously. But not as much as there once was. Once it wasn't uncommon for the priests to comb the leity and select, oh... let's say one-fifteenth though it might have been even smaller... select that much of the flock for absolutely nothing more than slaughter, blood-orgy, and scapegoats. And, undoubtedly, they were all the dregs of society that found themselves under the knife. And this would go on at least once a month, sometimes more if there was something worth celebrating coming up, and for really no purpose at all. Half the times the priests didn't even bother to explain why they were executing folks other than the most superficial and transparent excuses."

Bob cleared his throat a little. "And it wasn't uncommon if a priest who was very well and heavily paid to take on someone who was standing in the way of someone else and find any number of reasons to collect payment on their heads. Back then, you see, there was enough of us they could easily get away with it. But the dragons tried reasoning with us and getting us to be a little less stabby-choppy with people and more poke-in-the-soft-spots-and-then-let-go. We agreed and got our little gifts. I think there was something else in there having to do with the Anarlinans but THAT was completely in the hands of the royals at the time and they were hush hush enough that even I don't know that."

He gave the bard a rogueish grin. "Of course you could have just gone home and asked any priest that if you paid them well enough."

[Darastrix]

Yash stared at Bob in surprise for a moment, then narrowed his eyes. "You've been gone a long time; you've got no accent to speak of," he observed. "But I'm not curious enough to waste that much of my time, money, and hide. Last I saw, everyone was making up for lost 'stabby-choppy' time. 'Home' wasn't that safe to start with, but it's worse now."

[Kender Bard]

"Perhaps someone got the bright idea that because Contrasta sank, our deal is no longer in place," Bob mused. "Well! Repercussions will come or they won't and that's all that can be said on that matter, huh? What brings you to Ilyamen? I mean, besides hoarding your head. Unless that's the only reason."

[Darastrix]

Yash shrugged. "I'm a musician and there's a guild of some sort around here. I figured if they like music enough here to set up something like that, I might be able to get better work." Or any work. "When I left, the High Priest and the Imperator were going after each other in a big way and so were their supporters. My head aside, with that going on, who the hell hires bards?"

[Kender Bard]

Bob started to open his mouth, grinned, and stuck out his hand instead. "Do you really want to know?" he asked, eyebrows waggling.

[Darastrix]

"Be a bit late if I did, now wouldn't it?" Yash said. "And that's rhetorical, so don't bother trying to milk me further. Even after things settle, I don't know that I'll be going back. There's something to be said for these other lands. Compared to home, they almost make a man feel safe."

[Kender Bard]

"It's untrue," Bob snorted. "I mean, by comparison, yes. But a knife in your back will kill you just as dead no matter who's wielding it. Some places are safer than others. This isn't one of them but it's not too bad either."