A Town Called Spree

Roblin had walked out of prison with a half-dozen raunchy new tattoos, thirty silver coins and the clothes on his back. Yet he couldn't have counted the king of Vanheim himself as richer than him when he took a deep breath of the chilly salt-laden air.

Rather than exit at the beach below, the prison's entrance was midway up the cliff forcing Rob to make his way down the layers of switchbacks cut into the rain-slick rock. The warm lights of a town nestled along a natural harbor between cliff faces led him onwards even as the afternoon gave way to evening.

There were no gates and no walls for the town and he stepped from the rocky path to the mud of the main avenue just as the rain began to fall. He moved along until he spotted a battered wooden sign. The lettering was long since faded to obscurity, but the feminine outline was clear enough. There was a squirrelly fellow outside but he looked Rob over, grunted "No trouble now." and waved Rob inside.

The half-breed looked over the establishment, instantly familiar with its ilk. A dimly lit floor scattered with a few mismatched tables and couches roughly centered around a stage, one wall dominated by a bar. A motley variety of girls plied their trade among the tables or beneath them, even in the dim light he was able to pick out three or four humans, a pair of elves, and he even thought he picked out a dwarven woman perched on a john's lap. Most of the patrons were guards or sailors though no uniforms were in evidence.

Dropping into an unoccupied couch, his bulk elicited a groan of protest from the furniture and he waited for one of the whores to come by. Sooner than he'd expected one turned up, an elf with a shock of bright pink hair cut short and flipped to one side. She offered him a smile that was only slightly nervous and a greeting he paid little attention to.

He set five of his precious silver coins on the table before him. "I want a drink and company." He looked her over. "You'll do fine." Gulping, she nodded her head and took his order, returning with the bottle and leading him up to her room.