It was too shady to not want to figure it out. He reached a dead end. There was a group of older red eyed demons. "So you came. I was thinking we would have to go get you." one of them said. "You said you'd give me the all of the evidence if I gave you the money where is it?" "Oh, we have it alright. Bloody knife and all." another of the group said. He then pulled out a bloody knife covered in a rag. Dalmar reached for it, but it was kept out of his reach on purpose. The others laughed. "You better have the money we asked for." the leader, who was sitting on a pile of crates, said menacingly. Dalmar held out a bag of gold coins. "I had to steal from my workshop for this." he said with remorse. One of the thugs gave the bag to the leader. The leader held it to his ear and shook it. "Yeah. That's the sound of 125 gold pieces. Good job, snow-skin!" Dalmar glared at him and said "I gave you the money you wanted. Give me the evidence." The leader looked at the 4 thugs and said "Kill him." They then drew their weapons. Dalmar was unarmed and off guard. I drew my sword and ran in to save his life.
Doing this might have put me at risk, but he was a fellow guild member and it might be good to have him on my side. I was able to take one of them off guard. I had been on the battlefield before. These thugs were no match for me. I stabbed and hacked them to pieces. I took all 4 of the thugs out and turned to the leader. He twisted his face in rage and glared at me. "What the hell are you doing!? We're the same as you! You must love the snow-skins, don't you?" he said. He then opened his mouth and shot a fireball at me. I dodged out of the way and charged him. I was not going to let him keep firing them off at me. He had a sword of his own. That was better than the iron daggers the thugs had. I blocked his first strike and we locked blades. He was a bit surprised that he was not able to steamroll me. "You've seen combat." he said with a smirk. We fought and he was a bit stronger than I could handle. He headbutt me and made me stagger back. He was going to follow it up with a real heavy attack when Dalmar stabbed him from behind with one of the fallen daggers. Laughing, he turned to him.
Easily the worst mistake he could have made. I recovered and stabbed him through with my blade. He died from the critical damage and I kicked him off my blade hard. I looked at Dalmar and said "Go get the evidence so we can destroy it." He looked at me and said "Why are you helping me? You could have just let me die. Things would be easier for you that way." I shrugged and said "You are my guildmate. I'm not going to let you die." He just looked at me for a moment before shaking his head and picking up the bloody knife. We went back to the workshop and got to work breaking the handle off and melting the silver down. "Now that everything is gone, can you explain what happened and who were those guys?" I asked. He looked at me and sighed. "The pillaging was hard on us. My mother was one of the women taken by the soldiers. My father was killed. All the fighting age men were to be killed too, but I was spared by the master. All the guild members rushed to claim the young men. My mother was going to be killed by the soldier claiming her, so I killed him. His friends saw me."
Feeling a bit sorry for him, I pat his shoulders encouragingly. "Well, everyone is dead and the evidence is gone. I think you and your mother won't have to worry about a blackmail scheme like this ever again." I said. He brushed me off and said "I don't need your sympathy." That was understandable. "Now that I've saved your life. I will only ask 2 things of you." I said. He turned to me and crossed his arms. "What is it!? You want a turn threatening me?" he growled. I said "The first thing is that you return the money you stole from the workshop. The second is when I move on from this city, you have to come with me." He raised an eyebrow. "Of course I was going to put all of the money back!" he snapped. He then narrowed his eyes as the second request processed. "Why would I follow you when you leave!? I want all of your wine eyes friends to leave us alone! I'd stay here." I shrugged and said "Just think about it okay. I'll help you get way further than you would staying in this castle town." That was all that could be done at the moment. I was going back to the inn when he stopped me. "Thanks."
