Downtown Druid

Dantes landed as a pigeon deep in Gatemen territory at the southwest gate and walked along the cobblestone and concrete paths caked in mud from the day's travelers, and their mounts, entering the city. There was still a bit of sun in the sky, but it would be evening soon. He rolled his neck a bit and heard a few cracks as he did so. The pigeon form was still new, and sometimes the transition out of it left him feeling a bit achy. He walked openly through the middle of the street. This wasn’t his territory, but he still received a few respectful nods and heard some hushed whispers as he passed through.

It didn’t take him too long to reach Niklas’s base of operations, a massive warehouse. It didn’t have a name, it wasn’t a tavern or a brothel like most of their kind liked to work out of, though you could get booze or a whore if you were so inclined. You could find almost anything there in fact. The Gatemen’s base was more of a large open market than anything else. A chunk of the goods they’d smuggled in, or extorted, or just plain stole could be purchased there. Legal, but hard to obtain goods from inside the city. Illegal goods from outside the city. People more enmeshed in the darker side of Rendhold, which counted for most of it, had their own sources for these things, but this market was for the common man.

The market was busy, with long lines at the different Gatemen all hocking their own goods. This was where a lot of them made the majority of their money. Dantes noted that the prices on everything were higher than usual, likely due to the lower supply coming in. That would keep Niklas and his men in a tidy profit for now, but if the supply problem continued then people would likely find other black market sellers or, gods forbid, find what they needed legally.

Dantes Reached the back of the warehouse where there was a small construction of wood built against the far wall. There were a half dozen guards there who stood as he approached.

“I’m Dantes,” he said to the first one. “My man Jayk set up a meeting.”

The guards exchanged glances. One of them, a dwarf, stepped toward Dantes with a smirk. “No guards of your own? No insisting on meeting at a neutral location? You’re new at this aren’t you.”

Dantes smiled. “Not new, just not concerned.”

The dwarf opened his mouth to say something else smarmy, but was cut off by a sharp nod of a different guard positioned behind Dantes. He saw the nod because he was watching his back through the eyes of a sleepy pigeon with a nest in the rafters above.

The dwarf frowned, but went to the small building and knocked twice. The door opened and he gestured for Dantes to go inside.