[center][h3]Mardyn[/h3][/center]

So this was the town people called 'Forsaken' ?

What a weird and out-of-the-norm name considering that people tended to whitewash downsides and exaggerate the positives about the things they, for some reason, called their property. This settlement indeed appeared to be rather forsaken to Mardyn. God-forsaken to be precise, simply because god probably would never allow the existence of a place so dusty and littered with the remains of everybody's business which, of course, seemed more focused on profit and speed than on sustainability.

Or was this opinion and first impression just heavily biased towards the negative ? Maybe because the inhabitants of Forsaken so far had done very little to give Mardyn a warm welcome ? Maybe the first bunch of people that had still turned their heads long after he had passed them had rendered him a bit paranoid, but there only seemed to come more and more of them! With their greedy eyes they stopped dead in their tracks and inadvertently formed temporary, human roadblocks that required evasive action more often than not. And had he just heard someone saying 'Look! He doesn't even have a gun!' ?

The good thing was that this Mr. Garrick had to be rich, even extremely rich to be able to spend no less than 15,000 gold coins on a mere escort job. Mardyn considered the odds of this being a fraud to be low given that even a rich man might cease to sleep well if an entire bunch of mercenaries was out there waiting to release their anger against him. So... whereever the estate Mardyn was looking for was... it had to be big and eexquisite. This inevitably meant that it was way easier to find than your average building -- a big plus considering the overall situation.

Half an hour later or so, the goliath found himself in front of a pair of gold-plated gates. Weren't those excessively impractical ? Gold was soft and easy to break through so the defensive value was dubious. Also some poor soul probably had to clean them every other day in order to maintain exactly the same shiny appearance that had such great potential to burn an innocent visitor's eyes out right away if the sun came in from the right angle. The walls looked way better though, solid and well built. Just how unfathomably deep had the pockets of Mr. Garrick to be in order to afford and maintain all of this ? The idea of switching business briefly streaked across Mardyn's mental horizon like a shooting star, just long enough to be noticed before intuition kicked in and reminded him that his duties were at complete discord with this thought.

Mardyn had been standing at the golden gates for less than five minutes before the latter were opened from inside and a finely dressed man with pointy ears approached him, craning his neck to inspect the newcomer.

"Sir, maybe I ask for your appointment ?" came it out of the butler's mouth with quite blatant training in terms of politeness.

Oh, yes! Gray hands larger than plates started patting down the clothes on Mardyn's skin until they finally caused the characteristic rustle of paper. From the inner pocket of his shirt, Mardyn presented the letter he had received from Mr. Garrick. The half-elf's facial expression switched from curiosity to sincerity as he started reading, only to suffer from a brief glitch of disappointment seconds later before returning to normal. Damn, this big guy was [i]not[/i] part of the demolition team that was scheduled to finally tear down that abandoned building nearby!

"You may enter. I'll guide you to the study where the others have assembled."

The place was a palace... Never before had Mardyn seen anything that had come even close to the superb craftsmanship and artistic value so openly visible. He couldn't help but feel admiration, while at the same time he was disgusted. No mortal person could do so much work with her very own hands to earn all of this! Or, in other words and according to Mardyn's logic, many others had been given less than they had worked for. This was not exactly a bonus for his sympathy for this ominous Mr. Garrick.

The goliath entered the study using a duck-and-sideways technique for the doorframe was sufficient neither for his height nor for the broadness of his shoulders. He knew himself that this had potential for causing laughter, but saw little choice to do otherwise. Some others were already there and Mardyn dared to dart a quick glance towards everyone of them, silently nodding as a form of greeting at the same time.

The first thing to strike his mind was the presence of the large tiefling. This Mr. Garrick clearly wasn't picky in the traditional sense of most people, otherwise he might not have chosen one of the devilish kind. Mardyn did not exactly share this common prejudice, but he also wan't oblivious to its rather ubiquitous existence. The man clearly gave the impression of an able bodied fighter, just like what was to be expected.

Then there was the.... Genasi ? Mardyn had always had a little trouble with distinguishing them from some of the other races, but she just had to be a Fire Genasi he tried to reassure himself. Fragile and looking as if capable of being blown away by a gust of wind just like a mere tumbleweed, the goliath had to remind himself not to underestimate this individual to begin with. There were firearms, there was magic and there was speed. He expected not to be surprised when she'd display all three of them one day.

The Orc called Rokkit was hard to overlook. Couldn't the greenskin just have been a little more respectful to take of this massive armor before stepping in ? He certainly wouldn't need that in here, would he ? And Mr. Garrick probably wouldn't be fond of some scratches on his expensive floor caused by unnecessary heavy boots either. Needless to say that the couch looked as if nobody else could dare to sit down there as well even if there was enough room left. On the plus side the Orc's bulk underneath was hard to overlook. It would most likely need a lot more than one humble revolver shot to get this one down, except maybe for a quite exceptional marksman.

The tabaxi appeared like another bulwark of a man, but Mardyn deemed Drops of Rain to be much more unfortunate than the Orc once he spotted the prosthetic. He felt pity, but didn't express it openly at this point. If he had understood things correctly, everyone here had been more or less hand picked by their employer, so either Mr. Garrick was an ignorant fool or the individual in front of Mardyn's eyes was still capable of proving himself.

And another cat! Mardyn started to like Thunder's fur already even if, in his opinion, the number of different browns spread across Thunder's clothes didn't undo the utter mismatch of color. More bare black instead of brown and one ridiculous hat with openings for special ears less would have been better!

Just as Mardyn's view turned away in order to find a place to sit down for himself he saw something else. The subtle sight instantly cast a gentle smirk on his face which he did not hesitate to show towards the half-elf butler who still stood behind him. The goliath's right hand reached for the top of a large bookshelf and swept across it: dust! Some of the house's servants hadn't dared to take a little shortcut because this Mr. Garrick probably couldn't see this without a ladder anyway, had they ?

Then Mardyn sat down on the bare floor, not trusting any of the furniture present to suit him well.