If a psychologist managed to convince an obsessive-compulsive and a schizophrenic to collaborate and design a city, the final product might look like Epic City. On the one hand, the individual buildings looked like they had been micromanaged down to the last brick, monuments to the care the builder-players took in their craft. On the other, the city itself was pure chaos, and the market it's epicenter. It seemed impossible that I could keep myself from getting lost here, let alone find Susie.
As I wandered, vendors of everything from melons to magic potions barked out their prices and asked me to buy. I ignored them until I came to a small, yellow tent. Inside, a tattooed elf was bent over a meaty barbarian's back, inscribing a power sign. Sensing that I was staring at him, he glanced up, smiling briefly when he noticed the black tendril on my left arm. I nodded and walked on.
Several blocks later, as I turned the corner into the main square, an arm grabbed me by the elbow and pulled me into a dark place between market stalls. I looked up to see a veiled face beneath the hood of a cloak.
"Sh! Darkling, take this. Read." said a female voice, and forced a small book into my hands.
"But... what?" I muttered, looking down to see the slick black material it was bound in. When I looked up, she was gone. Tucking the book into my bag, I walked back out into the flow of traffic and immediately noticed a short, curvy elf with blue hair, leaning against a statue of one of the developers by the entrance to the central plaza.
