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(mysterious music plays) The Thieves Guild

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by Jake Kerr.

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Episode 47:

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A Blade in the Ash Fields.

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A second attempt to enter the old quarter from the
great bridge ended with the

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Craft Guild Blade beaten and bloodied.

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He had been tempted to kill at least one of the
men that grabbed him, but he knew that it would
have

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led to his own death.

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A beating at the hands of five men was preferable
to death at the hands of four.

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As a result, he had embraced a new plan, sneaking
into the Wretched Quarter from the

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southeast via the Ash Fields. He was actually
looking forward to the

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mission.

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Everyone in Ness had heard of the former verdant
fields that had been

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over-farmed to the point that they were nothing
more than fields of ash.

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The Blade was intrigued as to what such fields
would look like.

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One of the reasons you couldn't see the fields
from across the river was that the residents of
the

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Wretched Quarter had built a stone wall along the
great river, hiding everything on the

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other side from the view of the citizenry of Ness.

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That included the Ash Fields.

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As the Blade walked along the south bank, he
wondered if he could find a gap in the wall or a

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section that had been weakened to the point that
he could remove some stones and slip through, but

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such was not the case. The Blade would have to
climb over the wall.

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His concern over this was that those on the upper
triangle side of the river would

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easily be able to see him, and being on the
riverbank on the Wretched Quarter side of

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the river was illegal.

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Of course, the bigger concern was that by climbing
the wall, he would be more easily

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discovered by the residents of the Wretched
Quarter, and he was not keen on

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another beating. But with no choice, the Blade
climbed the

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wall, rolled across the narrow top, and then did
his best to drop to

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the other side without being seen.

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As he crouched at the base of the wall and looked
around, he was glad to see that he was

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successful. It was not surprising. He was on the
edge of the Ash Fields, and

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the legends had turned out to be true.

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There was an immense plane of light dust that
extended far to the west and

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north with no one within eyeshot. He could see
activity to the

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northwest, and in the distance to the west, he
thought he saw a tower, but it was

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difficult to make out due to the dark mountains
leaving everything in a deep

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shade.

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The Wretched Quarter was across a tributary to the
great river that he would have to cross.

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The Blade was certain that there would be some
kind of bridge and that it would most

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likely be near where he could see activity, so he
started north along the

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wall to his right. There was a small road that was
relatively well-kempt, so

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it made the trip easy. The sun was starting to set
as the Blade approached a group of

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hardworking men digging and plowing the fields.

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While the dirt appeared to be darker and richer,
it still seemed to be as dead as the

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rest of the Ash Fields.

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The men appeared to be dropping in waste, compost,
and the remains of vegetables and

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fruit. They turned the ground and moved onward.

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It was rather impressive how the men were
attempting to reclaim the fields.

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It appeared to be a lost cause, but the Blade had
to hand it to the residents of the

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Wretched Quarter. They were giving it their all.

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Three things in quick succession caught the
Blade's eye.

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The first was that while the men working the
fields were all stripped down to nothing more than

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light pants as they worked in the sun, the pants
were black. Black?

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Why not the green of the Harvest Guild?

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Black was the color of the mythical Thieves Guild.
Why would they wear black?

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Filing away the odd color as something to
investigate later, the Blade took a closer look

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at a large building directly north of him.

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It looked very familiar, although it was brown and
in deep disrepair.

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Just as he was about to give up on identifying it,
the proximity of the field

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workers and the house made the connection click in
his mind.

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"That looks exactly like Harvest House."

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The shock made the Blade take a few steps forward
as he squinted at the building.

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It did look like Harvest House, only the plants
that grew around this house were

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brown and looked like they had died or were
deathly sick.

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As he considered the house, it made sense to him.

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Someone would have had to work the Ash Fields, and
it would have been the very old

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Harvest Guild. And what was the home of the
Harvest Guild? Harvest House.

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That made the Blade wonder if there were towers
for the Merchant Guild, his own

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craft guild, or the Knight Guild in the Wretched
Quarter.

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That thought led him to turn back to the tower he
thought he had seen earlier.

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With the proper light of the setting sun, his
location perfectly situated to

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see it, and his thought of looking for a tower,
everything came together,

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and the Blade clearly saw a majestic tower off to
the southwest.

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The tower was massive, nearly double the height of
the merchant tower at the edge of Founders

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Park, and that tower was the largest in Ness as
far as he knew.

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He had no idea which tower it was, but he assumed
it was the original tower of the

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Merchant Guild, now abandoned.

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The thought of an old, massive tower abandoned to
the filth of the Wretched Quarter

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filled the Blade with disgust.

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Orion had told him his mission was to find and
assassinate the Guildmaster thief,

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but that mission had no deadline.

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He would fulfill the mission, but first, he would
investigate the unknown tower in the

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distance.

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He just had to know what secrets it held.

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(dramatic music plays)