The market slums of Plymouth can be said to be the most vibrant public square in Plymouth. The place was still a muddy dump, but the locals have made it their own.
The square has many rickety wooden stalls chaotically spew about with shopkeepers loudly exclaiming their stock from grain to items.
One vender was selling small stones coloured with different plant dyes. This made the stones have a glistening fill that makes them look precious. But other than looking like a fancy paper weight, they are utterly worthless.
However the vender didn't look like he cared by his lack of sales.
This is due to a study stream of people coming to and from his stall. Some were mercenaries, some were street urchins, and there were even one or two big shot merchants coming to see his stall.
This is because the vendor had a not so secret, secret. His stall hid one of the entrances to the black market.
Its a question of why the black market is hidden as most entrances are known by most citizens in Plymouth.
Well the black market is the oldest force in Plymouth that has been around soon after the cities founding over 4000 years ago. Back then Plymouth was under the rule of a close aid to an imperial princess who was known to be strict on taxing goods and confiscating less than legal products.
As a result, the black market that was already busy entered a thriving state with routes in and out of the city that avoided security checks and the princesses guards.
The princess reigned over Plymouth for over 2000 years before she passed away of less than natural causes. She was already on her death bed anyway and the local physicians were from a small church that may have been feeding her poison promising it was the remedy for her ageing body.
You may think the system would have warned her, but there is no foolproof method in this world, there are countless ways to prevent the system notifications from going off.
well you can say it was unlucky or her or arrogant as this was during Catalans revolution period, as one of the major influences in the region, the church of Arsenia saw her as a threat that had to go.
During this period of revelation the black markets were upgraded and became even more secretive than they were already.
A black-black market if you will, as a second black market is hidden underneath the first black market, but thats a tale for another time.
The black market is currently controlled by a group of gangs, most being puppets of the cities three major powers, however this isn't the case for the rhino gang.
The rhino gang is named after their leader who posses an uncommon bloodline as the name suggests. Rhino has a grey rhino uncommon grade bloodline that gives him a small boost in strength and endurance aa well as the racial skill [rhino charge].
Rhino was born on the streets, orphaned at a young age he tried to play nice but he learnt there was no room for kindness after his friend starved to death.
Maybe seeing his friend who had been with him through thick and thin fall limp broke what he had left tied together, or maybe he realised the truth of Plymouths streets. He grew up to his saying that if you want something you better fight tooth and nails, and you better dominate it.
As Rhino grew up he joined a mercenary group in the black market that deals with more crueller jobs than the fancy mercenaries on the streets above.
During one of these cruel jobs he and his team were tasked with guarding a set off cargo for the city lord that he did not want to be leaked. During the mission his team was attacked and only Rhino survived protecting the cargo, gained extra rewards for it though.
Maybe it was out of vengeance for his comrades who died during that mission but he soon revolted against the mercenary organisation. After his coup he led the mercenaries onto a new path that became less mercenary and more of hired thugs and goons. They have become a menace for many of the residents throughout the slums.
One such resident is Alec Millers.
Alec was born into a baronet family in the noble district. There are very few baronet families in Plymouth as the weakest of the nobles if they don't suck up to someone then life would be difficult.
The Millers family was one such family that sucked up to the then head earl Charlotte Anderson. Even before her death the Millers worked hard to befriend Young master Richard, only to have the newly crowned earl leave Plymouth.
Facing the backlash of the other nobles it did not take long for the Millers to fall. Now Alec in his late 50s has nothing to his name but a basic painting skill that he refuses to give up on.
Painting is a popular skill that many nobles work hard to acquire, to create works of art with expensive paints that only nobles can afford is nothing more exquisite for a noble taste. Alec was 12 when his family fell.
At the time he wanted to pursue his passion for painting and gain the painter profession. When he was a noble his family was very supportive as he was born with a talent that complimented his dreams.
But after his family fell he faced the ridicule and anger of his family for pursuing an expensive profession, this effected his art work badly, making the quality of his work drop. However, as the years went by, Alec was still struggling to complete his basic advancement task; his parents gave up on him and the rest of his family moved on one by one.
But Alec still dreams to become a painter.
Now most of his family have passed away and the new generation has completely forgotten about him except for one maid, Genoa Millers. Genoa was a slave taken in at a young age and groomed to be Alecs personal maid. She was given the family surname like many slaves are to say that she is property and will never fully leave the Millers.
However the relationship between Alec and Genoa wasn't bad. They grew up together and shared everything together. If the Millers never fell she would have lived a short empty life she would tay at Alecs side until he got married, then it would depend on his wife what would have happened to her. Most of the time the wife would have the husbands personal maid expelled or even assassinated, can't risk potential illegitimate children to threaten their own.
Instead Genoa supported Alec all throughout his life, it wouldn't be wrong to say without Genoa who knows what state Alec would be in.
Genoa ended up being re-hired as a maid for the Andersons when Richard returned and supported Alecs advancement task, over the years she was seen as a hardworking maid and eventually became the head maid for the Anderson family.
Despite this the pay Genoa brought back wasn't enough to cover for both Alecs and her expenses, and Alec had recently gained some bad costly habits. It didn't take long for the two to become in debt with the local gangs.
However their biggest debt was with the aforementioned rhino gang, mostly due to some faulty numbering on rhinos side, but who's complaining.
The rhinos often trash the small mud hut that Alec uses as his studio and makes sure his hp never goes over 30.
To pay back the debt, Rhino had stated that if he makes at least a silver grade painting and donate it to him, his debts would be ignored.
This is the kind of frustration Alec now finds himself in. His studio has become littered with design ideas and failed drafts. How can Alec produce a silver grade painting when he hasn't even made a iron grade.
That is when hope came through the gossip of Genoa. Apparently she overheard about a genius noble child who is a platinum carpenter, she also claims that he's apparently also a priest to some no name deity.
If it was any other day then Alec would have called it hogwash and went back to his drawing board, soon forgetting about Genoas gossip. Alec has been friends with Genoa his whole life how could he not know that under her usual hardworking aloof attitude, she is completely addicted to gossip.
Any gossip would entertain her from the bakers scandalous wife to the conman who got owned trying to rip off the city lords wife. But nothing is more interesting than the pettiness of high society gossip.
She finds it hilarious how nobles are easily set off by common things such as kids having tantrums when their food doesn't look the same or by ladies fighting over a dress that's been worn a month before.
Her addiction to gossip got so bad, that when she was younger, and the Millers weren't as poor, she would often spend her money at info bars in the black market, to find the juiciest gossip across Plymouth.
However in the moment of Alecs desperation, he did something he has only done for Arsenia, he prayed for a miracle.