"Eh. Not if I have to be looking over my shoulder every day for an assassin coming in with the latest caravan from Katapesh or Solku." Haleen replied. "Don't worry, Khayal." She told him. "One quick trip to Katapesh, and then I'm free again."
"The only thing on my mind is that Katapesh gang." Haleen responds, sitting on the stones. "For several months, maybe even a couple of years, my 'bad luck' has been running the show. Every guard mission failed. Every dice I threw came up empty, or something always interrupted me from collecting my winnings. I started owning money to the wrong people. I tried hiring myself out to them, working the debt off - and then the woman I was bodyguarding got assassinated right in front of me. Nobody was happy after that, and I had to leave Katapesh in a hurry."
Haleen leaned back. "But with Kardswann's prize money, I go back, I pay off the gang boss, maybe knock a few heads to convince them to leave me alone with the books clear, and I move on. Maybe get work as a sailor going to Absalom. But Katapesh is not the place for me. Neither is here. I'd like to find a place that doesn't have duststorms every week."
She looked back at Khayal. "I can't stay here, Khayal." she told him. "That gang in Katapesh isn't a large one, they live by the good graces of a real gang in the city, but they got their reputation by not allowing mistakes. Like a bunch of bookkeepers, always keeping 'the balance' in their favor. So I'm going to be a constant reminder of their failure on the books. That's why I need the money."
"That's why they asked me to escort. Once we get past the river, we should be safe from any wandering Kulldis tribe members. Besides," Haleen said, giving Hajar a playful punch on his shoulder, "we have the slayers of Kardswann here. Anybody seeing you together is bound to think twice."
"You mean Undrella. She comes and goes, using the third floor windows. I think she might have a hideout to the north near the falls. But her and Kardswann had an on-again, off-again relationship. Hot and cold, you might say. We were uh, collecting her potions from the second floor above. The harpy has some kind of brewery up there, and Kalyx was able to extract most of the concoctions so we could um, sell them later."
"I was, er, 'getting my back pay' while the gnolls fought." Haleen said carefully. "Kardswann was a real miser, even to the winners of his gladiatorial feats. He would rather keep people here with threats. No one could stand up to him and that greataxe," she told the others, mentioning the axe Yazi now carried, "so he never had a reason to pay us what we were worth. I never saw him offer more than 50 gold for a fight, because he knew he could win. That's what was taking me so long getting the money to pay back my loans to the Katapesh gang. So I don't think you'll find anything upstairs anymore. Gorundal said if I helped him find Kardswann's stash, we wouldn't have a reason to stay and pledge loyalty to the new pack leader. We decided to clean the place out."
"As for staying here, I do have a key to lock the doors." Haleen told them. "But everybody knows how to climb the wall outside to the third floor to get in. Kardswann even made a 'king of the hill' fight with his lieutenant against all comers once. Ugruk won, of course. It was before I arrived."
"A princess? Well, Hajar, you've come up in the world." Haleen responded. To Khayal she said "We were just trying to escape with some money. With this," she indicated the loaded-down merchants behind her, "I can pay off the gang in Katapesh before they start sending Crimson Assassins after me. But it's still a battlefield out there. Even the best can be taken down by a stray arrow, Little Khayal. Unless you've got an army with that princess."
"An unfortunate series of events left me owning a lot of money to one of the larger gangs in Katapesh." Haleen started, returning Khayal's hug, putting her rapier away. "It got so bad I had to leave the city, and that's when the gang leader decided to send bounty hunters after me. I killed two, but winded up lost in the desert. Kardswann's gnolls found me delirious from sunstroke, but after I beat three of them up they decided to take me back to Kelmarane as a 'gladiator' instead of a prisoner." The woman grimaced. "Kardswann said I could stay, and even earn some coin, but only if I fought daily in his arena. He was making me fight all the way through his tribe and collection of 'gladiators'. My last fight was with an ogre, and then we heard Kardswann had been defeated by invaders."
Haleen indicated the three other Humans with her. "This is Juluce, Kalyx, and Gorundal. We decided to...ally after we heard Kardswann had fallen and the Kulldis Tribe was determining who was going to be pack leader. They're merchants here. The last few hours have been one long battle. Everybody wants to leave and come back after the dust has settled. But Gorundal offered me half of Kardswann's hoard if I would help them get it and them out of here. We've been looting the place, staying low, which worked until that harpy found us upstairs where she brews potions."
Haleen looks the four adventurers over. "The gnolls said unstoppable fighters had bewitched Kardswann into surrendering to them. Ugruk, Kardswann's second-in-command here, was trying to get tribe leadership and force a counter-attack. He was the one with the fancy bar-and-chain. We figured that while he was fighting it out with the others, we'd make good our escape." The man holding the chest added "As long as we could make a profit on it.", grinning to show a mouth missing some teeth.
The battle-weary fighter first looks like she doesn't recognize either Hajar nor Khayal, but then her features softened. "Hajar? Little Khayal? What are you doing here?" she asked disbelievingly. "Those accursed bounty hunters aren't after you as well, are they?"
"Gorundal, run!" the female fighter shouts. The man holding the chest looks like he is about to protest, but the woman yelled again. "Run, #@-- you!" The other two Humans made no disagreement, the woman going swiftly to the double doors and unlocking them with a key.
The female fighter in her chain mail drew herself up, turning one side to the bird-woman on the stairs, and aimed her rapier level-straight at the creature's head. "If you want it, you'll have to get through me first!" the Human threatened. Intimidate:1d20 + 7 ⇒ (11) + 7 = 18
