The Grand Bazaar

"I'unno, just came to me. Sounds kinda like Dire, but it could also sound a bit like the first part of Diamond. Then Strezo just sounded good with that." Skarlet thinks on why she named the Imp what she did. If someone said her name a certain way it would sound similar to 'Dire Straits'.

"Tool? Wow. He must not have held you in high regard." Skarlet felt a disliking toward Daiya's old master now. "I do not remember my old life. I feel I am a different person than I used to be. My adopted Mothers knows a lot of my former life. I know that I used to live in Gauldin, to a noble family, and when I was young I was kidnapped and trafficked. When I was about to die my brother, who has been a vampire for a long time, showed up and he saved my by giving me new life. I got to meet him not too long ago. He seems to be an alright person. He protects our dying father. According to him I have 2 other siblings still alive, everyone else had died. I don't have a wish to meet them really, I am happy with my new life here."

<exit to the Streets>

"I guess you could call me a mercenary." Silas assented, "Though it has been a long time sense I have been in a battle or owned a sword."

Strolling slowly, Silas took in the life of the market. He loved the multitude of colors and smells the emanated from each stall. Every vendor they passed sold something of necessity. Meat and vegetables; livestock; clothes; sacred items for every religion, it was all here. This place was the life force of the city and was the best place for Silas to get to know one of it's people.

Arm in arm the pair passed an array of food carts. The smell of grilled meat wafted through the air and Silas began to grow hungry. Stopping at a stall, Silas bought a piece of skewered meat. The rare steak dribbled blood as the vendor speared it onto a sharpened stick.

"Would you like anything?" Silas asked Skarlet , "My treat."

"Not very healthy?" Silas looked shocked. "I never thought about it that way. But it is hard to beat a homemade meal." After paying for the food Silas was left with a handful of moons. That along with the silver piece would suffice until he found work.

The two walk separately while eating. "You must have been on quite the adventure to get hurt like that. Have you explored much of the land?" Silas continued the conversation.

Once they had finished eating Silas thought of something that he wanted to do. Turning to Skarlet he asked, "Is there a library in this city? It has been far too long sense I have read a book."

With the Isran festival preparations in full swing, Gazuu and company would make their way over to the Grand Bazaar; the idea being that it would be crowded enough with shops and shoppers to make mischief easy, but far enough away from the guards distracted with the preparations. Upon arriving, the group would not be disappointed. The Grand Bazaar was packed densely with customers, criers, and merchants selling their wares.

Gazuu rubbed his hands together. "This is perfect! I bet there's great food in these stalls somewhere." he declared, standing on the street, just on the edge of the sea of humanity.

The gnome sniffed the air, then looked at his compatriots, "We've been walking forever! How about we get something to eat? I smell pie!-"

Just as the last word of his sentence left Gazuu's lips, he found himself sprawled out onto the cold ground. A man, perhaps in his early twenties, rushing by had plowed the little gnome over, sending him tumbling. Just as fast as he'd been knocked over, Gazuu was back on his feet, yelling as he was obviously unhappy with being bowled over by the much bigger person.

"Hey! Hey you asshole!" he shouted after the man, but the man simply kept going.

Qelci followed her fellow gnomes Gazuu and Ershadt into the bazaar. She wandered along a little way behind the two, mainly because every so often she stopped to carve "UCB ROOLZ" into any wooden surfaces she saw with her sturdy little knife. The legs of stools, exposed wooden beams, cart wheels. Seeing a man knock Gazuu over and walk off, Qelci nonchalantly stuck out her foot, and the man, again not paying any attention to the small people, faceplanted amusingly on the cobbles. Qelci also took the opportunity to slice through his belt with her knife, so that when he stood up, his trousers would fall down. "Whoopsie! I'm such a klutz!" she said, with no degree of sincerity as she smiled at the man sweetly. Then she just left him there and skipped off. "Gazuuu! You promised me food. And it looks like Ershadt's paying..." she eyed Ershadt's lifted wallet appreciatively.

"Damn bigfolk!" the little gnome cursed as he brushed himself off, looking as if he intended to follow after the human until he saw Qelci trip him.

"Serves the big lummox right!" He said, obviously still perturbed. Then, there was the mention of pie.

"Pie!" he said in response to his two comrades, obviously more hungry than concerned about his bruised ego and slightly more soiled clothing. "Its too cold not to have a hot meal. Let's find that pie!" he announced.

Gazuu sniffed the air, and began walking in the direction of the sweet smell of fresh baked fruit pie, of course having to push and dodge his way through the sea of humans. 

"Hey!" he said as he pushed through the crowd, "Hey! Get out of the way! I've got a brickbat with your knee's name written on it!-" the gnome's fierce threats caused little stir among the humans as he went.

Before long, Gazuu would clasp eyes on a stall full of wonderful baked-goods; bread rolls, puff pastries, and of course, the all-important fruit pie. Gazuu stopped for a moment, and observed the stall between the legs of a human.

"Hey Ershadt, how much did you lift off that bigfolk?" he asked, trying to figure out if they'd have to steal the baked goods, or if Ershadt's newly acquired ill-gotten would allow them to just purchase what they wanted instead.

Seeing the man put up the posters for the Chataeux des Oublies, Qelci wasted no time getting out a large charcoal pencil and beginning to change some of the letters to change the perfectly innocent words into rude ones, chuckling to herself as she started to change "Winter's Heart" into "Whooer's Arse". She would catch up with the others, not trusting them to save any pies for her. She didn't get very far however, before she heard some passers' by talking animatedly about the Yule Festival. "I hear the Empress herself is giving a speech!" said a big person lady. "And there's fireworks in the Plaza," replied her companion, another big person lady. A big person kid piped up, "But best of all, free food!" Qelci's eyes darted shiftily from side to side, and she hastily put away her pencil and began to run after Gazuu and Ershadt. "Oooi, lads!" Qelci squeaked, trampling willy nilly over big person feet with no apology, "There's some kind of party happening in the plaza and they're giving out free food!" Whether she had stopped their purchase in time or not was up for debate, but several of the other customers put away their money and trundled out of the pie shop towards the festival, deciding to save a few coppers. The pie man looked distinctly unimpressed.

"Keep your damn voice down you fool. You think I want people knowing I deal in bounties? Clueless. Step inside."

The merchant brushed a side a tent flap and gestured for Ronald to step inside, following him in and gesturing for him to sit.